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The Marty Smith Podcast: It’s March Madness Time With Jimmy Dykes

It’s a new week, and that means a new episode of The Marty Smith Podcast here at Outsider. March Madness is officially upon us, folks. With the conference tournaments behind us, the only thing left for college basketball this season is to dance. And dance they must in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. With the tournament kicking off this week, who better for Marty to bring on than ESPN color analyst and former college basketball coach Jimmy Dykes?

Jimmy joins the program with Marty his co-host Wes Blankenship and the guys have to begin with the SEC Tournament. Marty and Jimmy worked the tournament together over the weekend, with the duo on the call for the Tennessee Volunteers’ 2022 SEC championship victory. However, two things still trouble Marty after Selection Sunday: Texas A&M missing the tournament and Tennessee remaining a No. 3 seed.

Jimmy Dykes on Aggies Missing NCAA Tournament on The Marty Smith Podcast

This was strange to Dykes, too. Buzz Williams’ Aggies went on an unbelievable run in the SEC Tournament. They beat Florida, Auburn, and Arkansas to reach Sunday’s title game date with the Volunteers. Although the Vols took care of business, even getting up 14-0 early as Marty points out, the Aggies showed enough to be tournament worthy. Dykes agreed, and he could not understand why they were left out. Part of his thinking is that it’s hard to make up a lot of ground in the Committee’s eyes over the weekend. For the most part, brackets are set that Friday. That means that the Aggies going into the tournament had to win the whole thing to change the Committee’s mind it looks like.

For Tennessee, Dykes could not be more impressed along with Marty. The two thought they were more deserving than Duke to get a No. 2 seed. Dykes points out even the analytics liked the Vols more than the Blue Devils. To add salt to the wounds for Tennessee fans, the Vols defeated Kentucky on Saturday and won the season series against the ‘Cats. The Wildcats still wound up with a No. 2 seed. Dykes suggested that the tournament needed to be moved up a day to make those Sunday championship games matter more for teams like Tennessee who did everything they were supposed to do.

Georgia Hires Mike White

Co-host Wes had to ask Dykes about new Georgia Bulldogs basketball coach Mike White. Dykes had nothing but positives to say about the former Florida coach. He likes the hire for the Bulldogs and feels for White having to replace Billy Donovan at Florida. It was a tough deal for him. Still, there are reasons for optimism in Athens with White at the helm at Georgia.

The guys also talk about Marty’s travels. Wes seems to think Marty spends the most time in Florida, as Marty revealed he walked the course in Jacksonville with some PGA stars over the weekend. Marty talks about the value in just spending time with the folks he covers without needing anything from them.

You can listen to The Marty Smith Podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.