award winning journalists new york times bestsellers no topic out of bounds no opinions left

unsaid an institution for sports talk and information this is the sports reporters here's mike

lupica mitch alb and bob ryan i'm mich lupeka m lb dot com in the new york daily news i'm mitch alb of the

detroit free press and i am bob Album of the Detroit Free Press.

And I am Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and ESPN,

and we welcome you to the Thursday edition of the Sports Reporters podcast.

And this is a day that we've been waiting for for, well, two years, guys,

because last year something got in the way of the NCAA tournament, but the tournament

actually gets underway in the state of Indiana today with the so-called first four. And I

will put my cards on the table. I wish it were a 64 team tournament. I don't like the idea of the

first four. We know why it exists. However, we have it. And, and, and among the four matchups that

we have today is one that involves a pair of teams with 13 combined national championships

who never in their wildest imagination at the start of any season would have imagined they would

be a participant in a so-called first four game. I am speaking of Michigan State and UCLA. And that

makes it by far the most marquee game in the history of this first four business. So,

you know, that'll be interesting. I think. I'm curious about this game. Yeah, it'll be interesting not

just because of the pedigrees, but because, you know,

going into the season, okay, UCLA is not what UCLA used to be, but Michigan State is.

Yeah. And people expected Michigan State to have a very good season. And they have not.

They've, it's been a combination of injuries and COVID stuff and then playing in the Big Ten. I mean,

the Big Ten has for this year has passed Michigan State by, which is a very weird thing to say.

You wouldn't say Illinois and Ohio States and Iowa's and everything and of course Michigan

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