Hour 1: NCAA Tourney Reactions, plus Actor Josh Duhamel In-Studio

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0:24Rich Eisen:Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. Exclusions apply. See Home Depot dot com slash price match for details. so good so good so good spring styles are at nordstrom rack stores now and they're up to 60 off stock up and save on rag and bone made well vince all saints and more of your favorites how did i not know rack has adidas why do we rack for the hottest deal just so many good brands join the nordy club to unlock exclusive discounts shop new arrivals first and more plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free great brands great prices that's why you rack This is The Rich Eisen Show.

1:02Rich Eisen:Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash richeisenshow and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. Coach, what do you think went wrong? What do you mean? This is the Rich Eisen Show. Upset madness, VCU! The Rich Eisen Show. The high point Panthers, Scott, Wisconsin. We played somebody now. Feels unreal, because I know how good of a team we had, but nobody would play us.

1:46Today's guests. Actor Josh Duhamel. Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Webber.

1:53Rich Eisen:NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. And now, it's Rich Eisen. All right, everybody. Welcome to this March Madness Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Everybody right here in the Disney Plus ESPN app neighborhood, ESPN Radio. Listeners, hello to you. Sirius XM channel 80 listeners, hello to you. And the podcast listeners, I say hello to you even though you really can't do that to me right now by calling 844-204-RICH-NUMBER-ADL. That's just the people who are listening or watching us live. So we say hello to all of you out there. 844-204-RICH, as I mentioned, again, is the number to dial here on this busy Friday.

2:37Rich Eisen:One individual that we added late to our guest roster is a gentleman named Flynn Clayman, who is the head coach of High Point University's basketball program. He's going to be joining us in the middle after Hall of Famer Chris Weber, who called four games of March Madness from Oklahoma City yesterday. Many of them blowouts, unfortunately, for him and the rest of the crew. The tight games were elsewhere. He's going to be joining us in hour number two of this show. Josh Duhamel is soon to be walking into our green room. We'll bring him out. And speaking of handsome devils, Tom Pelissero and his mullet will be on the program as well.

3:15Rich Eisen:I did mean you as well, Chris Brock. I'm good to see you. You're setting me up. Mike Del Tufo now officially in his seventh decade of life. Good to see you, Mike DelTupo. I don't feel any older, Rich. No, you don't. Good to see you. TJ Jefferson, the actual candle that you now have is lit. Good to see you over there. Good to see you. I guess I'll turn that on. How are you going to see you today, man? What's up? How was the birthday, Mikey? Good? It was good. Good. It was good. Awesome. Good to see you again. Happy 60th birthday to you from yesterday. Listen, you know how I feel about us. The best thing about us here, the Rich Eisen Show, is it's about us.

3:49The best thing about us, though, is it's about us.

3:51Rich Eisen:That's the mantra of Rich Eisen Productions' unit, if you will, of our part of our operation that lets everybody know that we know what we're doing around here. You can go home now. That's right. And so, you know, I think I'm number one. We're number one. But in actuality today, we really are, as long as the royal week, I'm 9 ,766 ,907. that's one hell of a foam finger to hold up. That's what my bracket is. After getting just a little bit above 64.5 % correct yesterday. I think you and I are tied. I also had 11 right yesterday. That's quite the foam finger. Nine million.

4:41Rich Eisen:Anybody else get more than 11 in this room yesterday? Not me. I didn't either. Well, listen. I did not see high point coming. Who could? All right. Wisconsin saw him coming. You know who saw High Point coming? The people at High Point. And that was, you know, with all due respect to them, I was disrespectful. When I, before he went out the door yesterday, I'm like, hey, it's Wisconsin 5 High Point 3. That's going to be their High Point of the day. They're from High Point, North Carolina. Now I know a lot more about High Point. That I was wrong. I should be more respectful. Just because they're one of those mid-majors that wins 30 games coming in.

5:30Rich Eisen:Low seed doesn't mean that they can't bring their big-time game and bounce Wisconsin one and done. And in so doing, in so doing, serve notice on many fronts, many fronts as the coach Flynn Clayman did immediately to a microphone after it was all done talking about the way teams get seated or respected or even have to gain entry despite winning 30 games like say Miami of Ohio by trying to grab the respect of a group of people sitting in a room deciding whether they make it or not. and the way they did it as well here's a number for you 0 for 4 chase johnston who is a grad student at high point hoping for a career in the ministry oh he was 0 for 4 from the field two-point range all season long a three-point shooting artist and of all the people who has a clear fast break path to the basket for an easy layup to put high point up for good it's this kid putting high point above wisconsin for good on his only two-point make of the season you cannot make this sort of stuff up and that's why we watch march madness right there with all again due respect to wisconsin and the badger faithful this is not a any sort of well you We're the only team to beat Michigan at home this year.

7:14Rich Eisen:So I'm bitter. I am not. As a matter of fact, I do root for the Big Ten in the NCAA tournament because I want certainly Michigan's accomplishment to look better because these teams are tough. And Wisconsin's a tough team. They just ran into a tougher one on Thursday. And then the coach was just all sorts of brass knuckles after the game on live TV. and then echoed exactly what he said on live TV after the game, saying that they're trying to change a system, not just advance to the round of 32 and beyond. In the summer, when we get those shot tracker numbers back, and there's 63 schools in the country to have it, and we're number one every week in shots taken, they could talk about whatever we have, but we're working.

8:03We're selfless, and it's pretty obvious to me that something needs to be done about this non-conference scheduling. High Point and Miami, Ohio are 2-0 in quad one games. We couldn't get games. They couldn't get games. Akron couldn't get games. UNCW couldn't get games. Belmont couldn't get games. We won 22 of our last 23 games, and we didn't move up one spot in the metrics. Not one. We won 22 of our 23. We've won 25 games by double digits. That team right there is a fantastic team that beat five top ten teams. If we can get games like this on neutral courts and some home games, I think we'd know who's really the best teams.

8:41I'm proud of these dudes. And we're not just here to win one game. We're here to get to the sweet 16.

8:48I just get a new favorite head coach.

8:50Rich Eisen:Come to Syracuse, bro. I'll be honest with you. I saw that. And that is why I picked up my phone and reached out to our booking staff and said, I'd like the coach, please. And he's joining us in our number two of this show. And next up for them is Arkansas. Darius Acuff. And they've been on point versus high point. They just absolutely dismantled Hawaii. And there was no 13 seed Cinderella. And every single year, there's a 12 seed that bounces a five seed in the first round. And high point was it this year with Wisconsin. We'll see what happens the rest of the way here on this Friday. at one point as well on Thursday, I thought Siena was going to bounce Duke.

9:40Rich Eisen:They were up by 11 at half, and then they were in this game with six minutes to go. And it was with six minutes to go. Your guy, Jerry McNamara, the head coach of Siena, until hopefully you hear the news that he's going to be the next head coach at Syracuse. Fingers crossed. That's what you're hoping for there. You're not the only Syracuse fan that I know of that's thinking that way. that we were beginning to realize in this game, as it was unfolding, that Coach McNamara was treating his starters like Coach Dale did in Hoosiers, which is like, those are my guys on the floor. That's it. And sure enough, until 30 seconds to go, until 30 seconds to go when coach McNamara put someone from his bench on the floor I guess to take fouls because Duke had finally gotten to the point where Siena was desperate and time was running out that they needed more possessions in a game where they would hope that the clock would run as fast as it could uh Siena had not made a single substitution so you Chris will have to just rely on previous games as hoping McNamara is the next head coach at Syracuse that he does have substitution plans that can be implemented during a game to keep his troops fresh.

11:11Rich Eisen:But it did seem like... Like Tibbs was coaching this team? That was it. Well, after the game, you know, after Duke survived for just a six-point victory over the 16-seeded um you know davids from sienna this is what mcnamara said about his his plan i thought we needed riley and francis on the court at all times because of their size um you know i said it yesterday about boozees i thought we did a good job on him what he finished with like it's a stud The way we looked, the way it felt to me, I went with the group that I thought could give us the best chance. I thought Zay Henderson changed the Fairfield game in Atlantic City for us.

12:01Christian Jones has won us multiple games. I just thought with the size of their guards today, it was the best lineup to give us the chance. Doesn't mean those guys aren't great players. They are, and they've helped us a lot this year. It was just I felt like with the rhythm of the game that we had, it was the right and I asked them not that they would tell me the truth when I say are you good, they tell me I would tell my coach the same thing I'm fine, regardless

12:31Rich Eisen:Man, almost had another 16 seed take care of business against not just any one seed the number one overall seed in this tournament our friends at ESPN Insights telling Duke Blue Double fans that after they wiped their brows guess what they're just the eighth one seed in NCAA tournament history to win by six or fewer points against the 16 seed three of the previous seven lost their next game only one of them went on to reach the final four that was Illinois back in 1989 when my school took care of business against them to win the whole shooting match against del tufo's alma mater sorry to bring that up Mike but 89 is the year and next up for Duke is TCU which survived and advanced against Ohio State.

13:19So keep this in your mind's eye

13:21Rich Eisen:unless Duke does just survive and advance and then keep advancing. But one ACC team from Tobacco Road did not advance yesterday despite having a 19-point lead with 13 minutes and change to go over VCU, and that's North Carolina. Got bounced to complete our first day roundup of glass slippers fitting. and pumpkins turning into carriages. Virginia Commonwealth University behind Phil Martelli's kid. Came back from 19 points down. That is the largest comeback in the tournament since 2019. And North Carolina, man, had an 18-point lead with 13 minutes to go, a 13-point lead with 7 minutes to go, with 7-11 remaining.

14:14Rich Eisen:North Carolina had 70 points and finished this game through overtime with 78. That's it. Just eight points in the final 7-11 of regulation and the five minutes of overtime. That's all she wrote there. And Hubert Davis is getting roasted, roasted by the Carolina Blue faithful. That championship is the only thing, I guess, that is the flotation device right now. And this is what he had to say when asked, what went wrong? Hit it. Coach, generally, what do you think went wrong?

15:01What do you mean? Why you couldn't score in the last four or five minutes of the game. Well, I mean, to go back to what Seth said, just because you miss a shot doesn't mean something's wrong. We had open looks. We had shots at the basket. We had executed plays. And we missed eight free throws. and

15:42Rich Eisen:sometimes the ball doesn't go in sometimes the ball doesn't go in sometimes it also doesn't hit the rim when you have to on a free throw you're purposely trying to miss that was the ultimate gut punch was the attempt of the free throw at the end was just slammed against the backboard leaving the analysts and play-by-play man on CBS and Ian Eagle and Grant Hill and Bill Raftery to say this is something that needs to be practiced which does not bode well on the coach and VCU advances and had they not I would have been far worse than nine million seven hundred and change because that was one of the few I nailed.

16:32Rich Eisen:Ooh, you picked these for you. I did. Good job, Rich. Nice. I did. So that's helped me get to$9.7 million and change in our bracket challenge in the ESPN pool. Attaboy. But that is basic. I mean, everything else was kind of chalky. There were some tight games, but those were the three headlines from Thursday that I wanted to start the show with. and again, High Point's head coach, Flynn Clayman is going to be joining us in our number two after Chris Weber, Hall of Famer, joins us. We'll talk about my alma mater looking like it was going down the path of Duke against our own 16th seed until the second half hit.

17:15Rich Eisen:You were a little stressed first half. I will recount my taking in of that game on this program. my take of the Lakers are on a big fat run that's going to take them deep into the spring if not summer that that take got a lot less warm it's not a hot take it's not a cold take I think it's right down the middle and Luke is 60 last night with LeBron playing and and Austin Reeves playing on back-to-back nights. What a week the Lakers have had. We'll talk about them later on on this program. Tom Pelissero, hour number three, but let's take a break because he's too handsome to not put on television.

18:03Rich Eisen:The first second I can. The actor Josh Duhamel, he's brought his brackets. We do hear who he says is going to cut down the nets in Indy. That's coming up.

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18:52Rich Eisen:You can make your home work for you while you're away. Not as a full-time thing, not as some big production, just something that fits into trips you're already taking. You can use the money for that dream vacation or put that money towards that outdoor kitchen you always wanted. Hosting on Airbnb just feels smart. Your home may be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host o'reilly auto parts can help take the guesswork out of your check engine abs or maintenance light with o'reilly veriscan the service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ase certified master technicians o'reilly veriscan can identify the most likely problem with just one scan if you need help o'reilly auto parts can recommend a shop for you don't ignore a check engine abs or maintenance light ask for o'reilly veriscan today a free service exclusively at o'reilly auto parts the rich eisen show podcast josh dumel is here on the rich eisen show our radio audience just returned we just saw a clip of preschool available now on digital third film you've directed you're acting in it as well um two dads in london trying to get their kids into a preschool with only one spot remaining and the hijinks begin.

20:11Rich Eisen:I think anybody with kids will relate to this. Well, I was about to say - Especially if you live out here or in New York. Exactly. What I'm saying is that, well, anywhere in the country where you're just trying to get your kid into a school because you know that this is a major opportunity and things like that. Right. It is. I mean, we'll do anything to give our kids a leg up in life. It's kind of like Breaking Bad for school without the drugs, pretty much. Exactly. You never know what you're going to do for your family. And maybe this movie gives a little bit of perspective on how crazy we can get his parents at times.

20:40Because I'm fully guilty of it, too. I mean, we just went through it, like I said, with my two-year-old. And it is a full-on competition. You really got to jump through all the hoops to get your kid in.

20:50Rich Eisen:Now, the awkwardness potentially about this, because I'll ask you what I asked Larry David when he was here a couple times ago. about when he had that episode of Curb where it wasn't his golf club on TV, but it might have been his golf club in real life about the swan and all that stuff about getting on the golf course. And he's making a little bit of fun of the management of the golf club. That's not really his. And I'm like, did you run into anything with the people running into the golf club saying, are you making fun of us? Are you making fun of us? Yeah. Is that what's potentially at stake here with the actual preschool that your children are in right now?

21:32I hope they don't take offense to that because it would be a shame if our kid couldn't get into school going forward because I made this stupid movie about preschool. But, you know, it is very competitive. You cannot be held responsible.

21:42Rich Eisen:This is art. Or maybe it'll help me. I don't know. It could. We'll see. It could. Just treat you right. Treat your family. Treat your kid right. Otherwise, you can make a movie. Yeah. Put out on digital and come on this show, promote it, and then look out. You let my kid in, I'll make another one. not bad now they're in it just suddenly they're in a harvard what the hell okay very good so congrats on that thank you sir thanks for having me of course you got it let's talk march madness oh let's talk about the fun stuff okay well this movie is fun as well um so let's uh let's talk about it we have your um your final four um are you ready to get here this is josh dumell's final four we got duke michigan okay vanderbilt and purdue yeah with purdue taking on duke in the championship game and then going back to west lafayette indiana with the nets cut down wow yeah yeah is that where is that where the the championship is they're in indianapolis right so it's in the state of indiana final four is in is in indiana in indiana i didn't even know that when I picked Purdue, that could be good.

22:49You didn't even know that they – I didn't know that. It's a drive.

22:52Rich Eisen:It would be a drive for people to go see them in the final four. And honestly, when I picked these teams, I wasn't doing this to beat Michigan because I knew I was coming here. If I was really trying to placate Rich, I would have picked Michigan over Purdue, but it didn't even cross my mind. Honestly, I saw Purdue play in the Big Ten tournament, and they look really good. They did. They beat Michigan. Yeah, they look really good. They played four games in four days, which they're not going to have to do here. You get a day off and then a week off if you keep advancing. But Michigan's good. So that's it?

23:24Rich Eisen:So you watched the Big Ten championship game, and you're like, when you're sitting down, you're like, okay, they're on a roll, I'm going to take them. Yeah, I haven't watched a lot of college basketball. I usually watch most of my college basketball. Not many people do. This is a dart throw, just for most people. So it's like, you know, I just pick. I just go by pure instinct. Okay. Who do I think is going to win this game? And I happened to see Purdue play and they looked really good. I was like, oh, I'm going to go with them. Where did Vanderbilt come from? I just like that university. I'd love my kid to go there someday.

23:57It's not bad. And they better get in.

23:59Rich Eisen:Otherwise, you'll make a movie. That's right. That's the next movie. Put Vandy on notice right now. But no, I felt like, you know, I can't just put ones and twos in there. I wanted to throw a little wrench into it. And Vanderbilt, for whatever reason, stuck out. And I'm going with Vandy. okay duke is duke is really i know duke and purdue are duke and michigan are really good right that's probably who's going to end up in the championship so at one point yesterday sienna was i know ready to turn your bracket into the shredder i think it would have turned a lot of brackets into the shredder don't you think yeah i mean i'm guessing a lot of people have duke right it was the most popular champion pick on it was the espn bracket duke is yeah 23 i think of all brackets over 30 million had Duke winning do you have Duke winning TJ I do well because you're a Duke fan yes were you sweating it out not really you knew they were gonna come back yeah I mean you kind of just yeah there was a point though you're right like halftime Josh we were here watching the game Rich is going crazy we had to we had to game on the big screen over there so Rich is making it seem like it was a wrap then they went up by like what 9 11 and I was like Is this really good?