NSCAA15 Audio RP

The Cardinalen Correspondent Sports Wrap-Up podcast discusses the 15th edition of the NFCAA tournament. They review the hopes and dreams of eight Cardinalen teams competing for the conference championship. They discuss Alexandria University's upcoming game against the University of Royolette Lions, highlighting the strengths of both teams. They also discuss Coosbin College's game against the Université Nationale de Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer Toucans, focusing on the defensive abilities of Coosbin's frontcourt players. Finally, they mention the Costa Alto Military Academy Jets' game against Polytechnica Soria of Lysander, emphasizing the Jets' strong scoring record and Polytechnica's weak defense. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Good morning. Good time of day. Welcome to the Cardinalen Correspondent Sports Wrap-Up Podcast, episode number one. As always, this is your host, big Ronnie Ray Mack, and we are diving into the 15th edition of the NFCAA tournament today. There are eight Cardinalen teams that entered the tournament. There are eight Cardinalen teams that are still fighting for their conference championship. Today, we review their hopes and dreams. First off, we have Alexandria University. They are competing in the next round against the University of Royolette Lions. Not sure if that's how you pronounce it, but I'm a radio advertiser, so I can say it how I want to. This will be a very interesting game. The Lions are a high-scoring team who play great defense. They've got that senior center, Randy Fuller. He is hard to beat down there. He does a great job keeping his hands up. He does a great job moving laterally with his marker. This could be really difficult for Alexandria University to break down, but when we think about it, you've got your point guard, D'Angelo Fox, incredible, incredible athlete. I'm talking elite-level athleticism. What makes him even better, though, he doesn't rely on that athleticism. It doesn't make him selfish. He doesn't always slash to the basket. He's not always trying to make a flashy dunk. He plays the team game, okay? He sees his teammates open. He's going to dish it out to them. If he sees a way to get to the hoop to then kick it out to the corner so Max Zollinger, his senior shooting guard, can put away a three, well, I think that's probably what he'll do. He's that good. He's a great point guard. Not a scoring point guard, but a playmaking point guard. Speaking of Max Zollinger, the senior has become arguably the best three and D player in Cardinal and college basketball. I mean, this guy, as a senior, he is legit. He's hitting his threes at a little bit over 47%. That's impressive. He's been tasked every single night with going out there and matching up against the best player against the other team. So that'll be very interesting to see that duo play off against the strong defense of the Lions. On the other hand, the Lions, they are a good scoring team too. So this is a team that not only knows how to keep the ball out of their own net, but they also know how to put the ball into the opponent's net. And when you think about it, you need to score more points than the opponent in the game of basketball. So they might be onto something there, the university out of Ranoria. But hopefully, like I was saying, Tom Parliaments, the junior center, hopefully he can play to this high level that he's been playing the past week or, excuse me, the past couple weeks of the season. Sure, things were rough in the first half of the season. He was pretty poor, not gonna lie, but he's gotten his shit together and he really has become the defender for Alexandria University. He's very communicative down in the paint. He's directing all of his players around. He knows where to be to shut down the easy buckets. He does a great job rebounding. He's a real grit-and-grind basketball player, you know, someone that can take you to the high level, hopefully take you to the mountaintop. So the key for Alexandria University, you really gotta play strong defense here. You've got to shut down Randy Fuller, their center, and you also have to be aware of sophomore point guard, the one, the only, Laurent Dupont Lefebvre. You know, he wanted to go to Ranoria State, but he was pressured by his parents to attending the local university, that being the Royolette Lions. So maybe, you know, maybe he won't be feeling up to playing this game in the second round. Maybe he'll be feeling a little bit like, you know, what the hell am I doing here? I want to be at Ranoria State. I'm not going to try my hardest just to make a point. I doubt that happens, but hey, you know, you never know, you never know. Good luck, Alexandria University. You've got the talent. You've got the players. And you do it. Next up, we're looking at Coosbin College. Yes, Coosbin College, they are entering this game, playing against the, let's see if I can hit this, the Université Nationale de Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer Toucans. Yes, the Toucans from that one nation with the really long name. This will be interesting. Coosbin, let's start with them. Great defense. That is their calling card. Great defense. Great defense. And then, great defense. Yes, the second-seeded team, the Coosbin College Minors, obviously, like I said, it's their defense that brings them through. Really great about having a dynamic inside-out defense. Their front court is killer. You've got the freshman center, Zach McDaniels, a real athletic player too, way bangs low on both sides of the ball. Real long arms, you know, keeps them up, knows how to distract shots, knows how to make players think twice about shooting. Real great guy. Then you've got junior power forward Drew Christopherson. He's really surprised me this year how he's emerged preseason. He was seen really as a pure offensive player, you know, who can hit mid-range shots, can make his way to the hoop. But this year, he's really shown ability as being a defensive star, okay? He can lock and clamp down a four. He's got the height, he's 6'10", and he's about 260 pounds, he's a big body, so he can bang with the centers too if he needs to. But he's got the quickness and agility, you can realistically put him on anywhere defensively from the one, the two, the three, like I said, the four, the five, he can do it all. So we'll really need him to be able to clamp down this game. The Toucans, like I said, very good team, very, very respectable opposition. What our frontcourt, and when I say our, I mean Coosman College, of course, yes, I am a fan. How did you know? I think that they're probably one of the greater teams out there. But removing my bias from it, this defense for Coosman is going to be essential to victory because the Toucans, they have some great players, especially freshman power forward center combo, and Federique Sigruin, incredible player, 6'6", bangs down low, can stretch the floor, already the captain of the team at 18 years of age, so you know you've got to be watching out for that. On the other side, they've got the point guard, 19-year-old Megan Gluck, a phenomenal, phenomenal facilitator. I really can't say enough praise about them. They know how to run up an offense, they know how to set up open shots, they're really a point guard's point guard, and that's going to be something that has to be shut down if the Coosman Miners are going to win. On the offensive side of the ball for the Miners, senior point guard Castro Calhoun, take a bow, son. What a year he's had. He's a real solid scorer across all three levels. He can hit his threes, he can drive into paint and pull up for midrange, he can mess around the basket and get up some crazy layups, you know, he can score the ball. You do get the sense in high-pressure moments that he seems a little reluctant, a little more afraid, really, to put the team on his back and carry them in the way that they might need to be carried from time to time. Listen, it's all worked out through the number two seed, you know, obviously things are going well, but at moments like this in the Conference Championship, when you're playing for it all, are you able to rise to the level that might be needed? Are you able, it's the last couple minutes of the five-star Conference Championship, are you able to put things on your back, move forward, and get the dub? Speaking of players that you have doubts of, freshman center Zach McDaniels, look, I get it, he's had a great year so far, he's been phenomenal, really, for 26, well, he missed two games out of injury, so he's been pretty great over 24 games, but can the youngster, can the freshman deal with this pressure, playing against a high-scoring Toucan offense, Toucan, excuse me, 1,949 points scored over the course of the season, not the most, but also not the least, they clearly know how to score the ball, so will the freshman be able to hold up, will he be able to keep his nerve in the face of playing against such a high-level competition? I guess we'll just have to find out. Overall, for the Coosbin College Miners, they will win if they just play their brand of basketball. This is a team that put up 2,102 points over the course of the season, you know, they know how to win, they know how to score the ball, they've only conceded 1,832 points, so they know how to play defense too, so just play your game, inside, outside defense, the front court, killing attempts inside the arc, force them into high-percentage shots, I really think this will be a victory, but you never know, and that's the glory of the NSCAA game. Next up, we have the Costa Alto Military Academy Jets, the second seed, yet another of the second seeds for Cardinal in schools, this time we're in the Pink 14 Conference, can't say enough good things about the Pink 14 Conference, pink is my favorite number, excuse me, pink is my favorite color, 14 is a numerical multiplier of my favorite number, which would be 7, so very, very biased, very incredible number, and speaking of number 7, that is the seed of the team that the Costa Alto Military Academy Jets will be facing, going off against Polytechnica Soria of Lysander, they're a decent team, you know, let's look at their numbers. Okay, 26 games played, 12 wins, 14 losses, not great, not great for comparison, the Costa Alto Military Academy Jets won 20 games and lost 6, so they've got a little bit of a better record there, very much a better record, 1,897 points scored to 1,962 points conceded, means Polytechnica has no idea what the fuck they're doing on defense, so if we can just, we, meaning the Cardinal in school, Costa Alto Military Academy, 2,106 points scored, means that they know how to score the ball, okay, this is a team led by sophomore point guard Blake Augustino, who knows how to score the basket, are they overconfident, yes, are they inefficient, yes, do they focus more and highlight real gambling plays than hitting the nice easy open layup, absolutely yes, these are all factors that define the Costa Alto style of play, but it's worked out for them, you know, it's really worked out for them, Blake Augustino is an insane athlete, 6 foot tall, sophomore point guard, dunking, just crazy dunks, incredible athleticism, really high level of vertical ability, you know, any single time he's driving to the hoop, you have to wonder if he's going to go up and slam it down right in your center's face, so that's been really fun to see, that'll be something really special to watch play out over the course of this championship conference games, when we're looking past him, you've got your four, your power forward, Funston Jalapez Jr., man, what a stretch player, he is incredible at hitting down those knockdown shots, especially from the corner, this is a player who entered the season a little bit rough as a senior, you know, sometimes you want to see more overall quality, but he really grew into his level of play as the season grew on, eventually becoming really almost a guarantee from behind the arc, especially in clutch moments, he really turns it on, so if the going gets tough, don't be surprised to see the ball find its way to Funston Jalapez Jr. to get the game-winning buckets. Now, I want to talk about a player who has made a surprising change this year, junior center Cesaro Principe, he entered the season as really kind of a caveman style athlete, you know, just ooga booga, broad shoulders, big burly bastard, somebody who just bangs down low, puts the ball in the bucket, nothing super nice about it, but this year, I don't know if he, you know, hit his head and it opened up his third eye, but he has become a surprisingly refined post playmaker down the stretch this year, going from averaging less than one assist every game to he's averaged over five and a half assists for the course of the season, over eight per game over his last four appearances, so there's really something special that's going on there, if he can keep kicking on like this, if the Jets can keep jetting on in the way that they've been playing with their high powered offense, this could be a really bad game for their opposition, I would have to think that the Costa Alta Jets, they're going to walk away with the victory here, but I've been wrong before, and you know, maybe I'll be wrong again. The next team we're going to be looking at is the LaBlois Santora University Broncos, BSU Broncos, yes, you might be familiar with them from their NSCF, the college football tournament, might be familiar with them, led by none other than Bobby Dials and Alabaster Big Red, those faces not to be seen though, this is a basketball competition, basketball is not the same as football, so that's why BSU fans, you're not seeing Bobby Dials out there on the court, it'll make you sad, but anyway, I digress. Going up against the LaBlois Santora Broncos will be Tama Tech, who are the 8th seeded team in their conference, that being the Big 7-7, they are rolling in here after a close 67-62 victory against the 9th seeded University of Daytona, so they've got a little momentum coming into this game, they won 11 games out of the 26 over the course of the regular season, put up 1,821 points, not really that great, and they conceded 2,011 points, which is, well, that's quite shit, isn't it? So key to the victory will be the Broncos exploiting Tama Tech's awful defense, so when you look at the numbers, again, 2,011 points conceded over the course of the season, the BSU Broncos put up 2,150 points, 2,150 points, that's a difference of 149 points that they scored, more than Tama Tech's defense conceded over the course of the season, so this should be a massacre, folks, this really should be a massacre, we gotta be looking for a star player, the senior small forward, Jake Masakano, what a season he's been having, the kid is tall, he's 6'8", maybe even 6'9", real wiry, maybe 220, 230, soaking wet, but he's got that kind of fin strength that, we all know somebody like that, but he shows a lot of finesse, he's able to hit the ball across all three levels, he can hit his threes, he can pull up from midrange, and he's devastating, slashing to the hoop, he's averaged over 20.6 points per game over the course of the season, I would not be surprised to see him really just go off tonight, really make a statement win with a statement performance, also look for freshman point guard, Angus Blond-Gray Vernon, what a surprise the freshman's been, he entered the season being number two on the depth chart, but he won the starting position, obviously, he's averaged over 11 points per game and 7.7 assists over the course of the season, can he keep it up on these crucial final games, I know we bring it up all the time, freshman mentality, there's a certain level of confidence that goes with being a freshman baller, but when you reach the higher levels, there's also a certain element of nervousness, a certain element of fear that comes in being a freshman, especially in your first NSEA tournament, especially when you're the number one seed, especially when you're the LeBron Santora Broncos, overall ESU players, you play the way you've been playing all season, this should be victory number 26 and it's on to the next one, I would be shocked, I would be surprised if they lose here, but you never know, and that's the glory about this kind of college basketball, you just never know what's going to happen, but I do know what's going to happen, and let me tell you, ESU Broncos, they're going to win, Bobby Diles, Big Red, they're going to be in attendance at the game, sitting courtside, I know they're going through the pre-draft process for the Cardinalwood Football League, you know, shout out to them, hope that goes well, and hope that they get to sit courtside and see their college team pull off the victory. From one number one seed, it's on to the next of the Cardinalwood number one seeds, Nico Strato, Naval Academy, the number one seed in the Flying Jock Conference, they're going up against the eighth seeded Macubona University Cougars, who are coming in off a 74-56 victory against Penn State College, listen, the Cougars, they scored the ball pretty well, decently well, 1,973 points scored, you got to watch out for their point guard, Omar Maro, this guy, he can ball, he does it all for the Cougars, he is their number one shot taker, their number one shot maker, number one assister, number three rebounder, number one defender when you look at the metrics, number one defender when you look at the advanced metrics, he's crazy good, this is somebody, we're talking first-round talent, no matter what league you're drafting for, seriously, potentially be one of the best players in the world, maybe, I don't know, but just what I've seen off his level of play, this kid is good, so shutting him down, that's going to be really, really important, probably going to fall to senior power for Tom McDonald, really, to keep Omar Maro from shooting, from scoring, Omar loves driving through the paint, he loves bringing it up close, and either working his way to the coop, fading out, looking at the little fadeaway jumper, so if our point guard, junior Dwayne Chen, if he can kind of do a good job of funneling Omar into Tom McDonald, and let McDonald really just clamp down, he's got those huge hands, long arms, there's no way a small point guard is going to be able to get away from him, it's going to be like, you know, trying to, you know, out-wrestle your big brother, never going to happen, on offense for the Naval Academy, Dwayne Chen, you're going to have to really do it, he plays with a really unique style, really shifty, really agile, loves hesitating, loves aero step-in, really loves doing things unconventionally, very creative player, so if he can keep this up, if he can keep being the puppet master, I would expect a victory here, should be a real straightforward win for the number one seeded Nicos Trato Naval Academy, like I said, if you shut down Omar Morrow on the Cougars, you know, that's going to be a victory pretty much guaranteed there, you do have to watch out for small forward, number 57, Jose, off the bench, this kid can hit his threes, he can hit his threes, and then he can hit his threes, do not let him be open, I imagine if they go down by a couple points, by a couple scores, they're going to bring Jose in, just to hit some quick threes, so be prepared for that, but this should be a fairly simple win for Nicos Trato Naval Academy. Next up, we have two teams that, I'll be honest, folks, I'm not sure what exactly the situation is here, I'm talking about New Cardonia State competing in the New Linz Conference, third seed, very respectable, and I'm also talking about Sagara Technical Institute, yes, the STI penetrators in the United Conference, both teams competing in Lysander, great country, great nation, I've heard great things about them, do not have the travel budget to make it out there to see it, but you know, from the pictures, looks like a lovely spot, sports-loving, very highly developed nation, been disappointing people in the sense that when we think about what the next step is, we haven't seen a lot of information, you know, we haven't seen any conference postings, we haven't seen the matchups, just kind of wondering what's going on over there, are we moving forward, you know, presumably New Cardonia State, being the third-ranked team, would definitely have received an invitation to the conference championship, same with Sagara, you know, eighth seeded, but we haven't seen any information be posted just yet, so not really quite sure what to say about that. New Cardonia State, you know, we'll just kind of review them, they're a great basketball team, okay, maybe not the greatest, maybe not the worst, but they're pretty okay, 1,994 points scored over 18 wins, 1,868 points conceded over their eight losses, well, over all 26 games, but you get what I'm saying, yeah, not the best scoring team out there, but we already knew that going into this, okay, this is a team that really relies on two things, number one, strong three-point shooting, especially senior point guard Anthony Webb, senior small forward Aaron Dixon, excuse me, A.A. Ron Dixon, these are great three-point shooters, and the second aspect that they rely on is freshman shooting guard Deacon St. John, yes, the football player extraordinaire, wide receiver for the New Cardonia State Thunderhawks football team, he is an insane athlete, he just jumps out of the gym, he leads the fast break every time, I mean, he's a freak, call it what it is, he's a freak, but he plays basketball damn well, slashes in the basket every play, gotten better about taking the ball out to three-point shooters, good rebounding from power forward Romelu Donald and sophomore center Jerome Crawford, okay, they know that they're not the glamorous members of the team, they take care of their business, they carry the water, they don't complain, what more do you need than that? I would be, you know, who knows, I don't know who they're playing, that information hasn't been made public to me just yet, so who's really to say, but I can say with a high degree of certainty that New Cardonia State will win, that they will, in fact, well, I guess they have a bye round coming up, but post that, in their first game of the championship, they will find their way to victory, which brings us to our final team, the Sargara Technical Institute Penetrators, yes, what an interesting season they've had, from taking second at the Venetian Orange Sky Classic Tournament, winning a lot of money, impressing a lot of folks, to just really shitting the bed over the regular season play, this is a team that was all the way down in 13th, not too recently, but they were able to claw their way up to 8th, very impressive rise from the death there, and they put themselves in a strong position moving into the conference championship, senior center Dragonstoichev, he's looking more and more like that point center that he was billed entering the season, somebody who plays the game at his own tempo, who maybe looks a little goofy out there, looks a little uncoordinated, then hits you with a smooth shuffle, makes his way to the basket, embarrasses you, behind the back passes, it's like he's got freaking eyes on the back of his head, okay, we're talking about a player here, really one of a kind, and his ability to maneuver the offense, to run the game from the center position, and the fact that the rest of the team really buys into that, it's pretty incredible, did not work to start the season, is working quite well now, especially, let's give freshman point guard Nisarono Garopoulos his flowers, okay, this is a kid who's playing great, real unselfish basketball, he helps facilitate the offense, he passes, he moves, he stays open, he makes the runs just to open up the space, this is a very high IQ player who is comfortable and content sacrificing his scoring, so then he can help facilitate the play, he started becoming more confident recently driving to the hoop, that opens up way more options for his teammates, and their ability to score the ball, and their ability to get to the hoop, so I wouldn't be surprised to see and to say that we haven't even seen the best of the STI penetrators yet this season, which is a good thing, you know, there's a whole nother level of play there that could potentially be unlocked, but that's also not good because you have one game of basketball left, so better find that level real quick, so this was a review of our teams who are entering into the first round of their conference championships, there are seven of those teams ranked all the way up from two first seeds to a pair of number two seeds, we've got the third new cardonia state, then the one cardinal team, excuse me, we've got alexandria university at number five, and then the one cardinal team that wasn't even the top half, the sargar technical institute penetrators at number eight, so good luck everybody, good luck to them, oh it turns out we do have a score result, we do have a score result, and that's right, who could forget about the cascade tradesmen, yes, renoria's favorite team, it turns out they actually just finished their quarterfinal clash against hendrick state university in the evermore conference, 86-72, that is quite the game, quite the game from a team who plays very basic basketball, okay, these really aren't even basketball players, i'm pretty sure point guard, junior point guard, john franklin, bona ventura, i'm pretty sure he's an electrician, pretty sure junior slashing shooting guard, mateo atkinson, very explosive, very dynamic player, i'm pretty sure he's a brick layer, so these are not legitimate basketball players, but they are finding a way to get it done, okay, they have a real grit and grind team, they're back to basket, they back up with those big beefy butts and leave bruises on the defenders, not a fun team to play against, they're not a great basketball team, but they are not a fun team to play against, and we saw that over the course of the regular season, okay, this is a team that despite that deficiency made their way to the fourth seed, won 17 games, put up nearly 2,000 points, they found a way to ball, so yeah, they just beat hendrick state university, huge victory, and it's on to the semifinals now against the drop corp university, the number one seed from the woodlands conference, man, that's going to be a tough game, no way around it, that's going to be a really tough game, you know, i love the tradesmen, i really do, i think they're a fun group of individuals, i think they're very unique, especially in this modern climate of college basketball that we have, i love that they're so popular with renoria, our colleague juicy jimmy butler did a great bit about that, be sure to check it out if you haven't, but yeah, i find it hard to see cascade tradesmen winning this game, i really do, yeah, drop corp university, that's a team that knows how to play fucking basketball, so i would not be surprised to see them put the tradesmen out of their misery once and for all, but hopefully not, hopefully tradesmen find a way to victory, so thank you all, thank you everybody for listening in, i went a little bit over time, talked a little bit more than i meant to, but that's just what i do, we don't have any editing staff, so any mistakes, any inaccuracies, any errors, that is not my fault, it is my fault, but it's not my fault, but i thank you all for listening, hope you gleaned something from this, and this was the cardinal and correspondence insights into the nscaa conference championships, this is your host big ronnie ray mack signing off, have a great day everyone