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The Show! Sports Talk with The Host · The Host

The Show Episode 538

April 5, 2026·51 min·4 clips
UConn and Michigan face off in the NCAA championship after two blowout Final Four games.
Episode 538 opens by swerving around the Masters. The host says the Masters show with the guest is still coming, but he is not going to fake a golf mood today. Basketball takes the chair. The men's tournament gets treated like a hard funnel from 68 to 4 to 2, with UConn and Michigan left after comfortable wins. Illinois gets handled with very little patience. The early 22-21 lead gets acknowledged, then buried under out-coached, out-played, too-many-threes frustration. The dome complaint gets time too, less as settled science than as the kind of tournament gripe the host can work over while talking about backboard and rim depth. Then the women's side grabs the room. Geno's postgame complaint about waiting at half court becomes proof, in the host's telling, that the UConn coach hated losing this way. Right? That is the cadence: make the charge, repeat it, sharpen it, and toss it back for agreement. The rant keeps going. Geno's undefeated dream, South Carolina beating UConn, and UCLA's 79-51 blast of South Carolina all get folded into one loud theory. Either Geno is furious he missed UCLA, or he is quietly glad Don Staley got hit that hard. No middle lane. The episode is messy, loud, repetitive on purpose, and more interested in pride than bracket polish. The close turns into housekeeping: 440 downloads, loyal listeners, platform reminders, and a music handoff from Steve Harris' British Lion to George Harris and The Raven Age.

As heard by us

Bracket talk, a sharp Gino-UCLA-South Carolina stretch, and a quick late football note.

Episode 538 starts with the NCAA tournament field's 68-to-4-to-2 stretch and settles into familiar bracket talk, with UConn drawing praise for outcoaching Illinois after a tight first half.

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Why you'd press play

You want a loud bracket update that starts basketball-heavy and ends wherever it feels like.

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