Sean Farnham, ESPN college basketball analyst.

Farnham.

Thanks so much for the time.

Thanks for hanging out with us this morning.

You know, when you went to U.

C l A.

So are you just branded top to bottom in all things?

U C L A gear like, do you still get as a U.

C l A legend?

You get tons of swag.

I'm just being honest.

I've been very limited on my amount of swag in recent years.

However, with the new Jordan brand deal, I'll be all over the swag for the girls.

I already let my people know that the first jay's that come out in U C l A colors.

I need to have them on my feet.

See, this is why we like having guests on here because they help us with these things.

All right, We're gonna play a game with you, Farnham.

And that the that game is contender Pretender.

So we'll lay out a team for you, and you tell us whether you think they're a contender for the national championship or a pretender.

Are you ready to go here?

I'm nervous, but somehow some way.

I think we're going to navigate our way through this.

All right, let's start with the number three team in all the land.

Villanova.

They played their first game in 27 days, barely beat Seton Hall, but that's a long gap.

So what do you got here?

Contender?

Pretender.

They are definitely a contender.

I think when you look at this team that long of a gap, they played Seton Hall.

Seton Hall's been playing some of its best basketball this season.

UH, J writes Team is loaded.

This this roster looks like similar rosters that have won national championships for Villanova.

When you think about Colin Gillespie, Jeremiah Robinson, Earl, who's probably one of the more versatile scores in an offensive threats that we have in the college game, they have everything you need to be able to compete at a high level.

The problem is, it's almost like it's two seasons because they got their season started up in Bubble Ville.

They played all those games, and then they had that 27 day layoff that you just talked about.

There's a lot of restarting the engine getting re engaged in.

In particular, I saw some flaws at the defensive end floor against Seton Hall.

They'll have to fix, but they're capable of doing this.

Stick there for a second before we move on.

You mentioned that the gap and getting re engaged from a player's standpoint.

What's the toughest part of getting back into rhythm when you had a long break?

The mental edge.

I mean, it's It's not the physical aspect, because even with the starting and stopping, you're still getting shots up.

You're still doing a lot of those things, but the mental aspect of the game being dialed in, and I think that's where it shows up a defense, because if you're not locked in for the full shot clock, the full possession, you're not fighting through screens.

You're not communicating with your teammates.

You could get disjointed at the defensive end and start chasing.

And once the offense has you chasing, that's when things go go bad.

All right, Next up, I number four Iowa, and I'm going to use a phrase that you yourself used before the show started.

They did have their ass is handed to them by Indiana on Thursday.

So what do you think?

Contender or pretender.

All right, look, I responded to this email at two o'clock on Thursday.

You know, I could have gone without the loss to Indiana.

I'm gonna go still, contender.

Here's why Jordan Bohannon was atrocious in that game.

I mean, he didn't hit a shot.

Luka Garza was outstanding.

And as long as you have Luka Garza on the floor and you have an offense, it's capable of scoring over 90 points, which Iowa does, then they are still a contender.

The light as faras.

How much we're turning it on and off for Contender dims a little bit, obviously with loss against Indiana.

But this team And when you have a player that you can literally at any point in time, you're going okay, we're struggling offensively.

Where do we go?

We go toe Luka Garza underneath and we play through him because not only is he a great score down low on the block and he could get create position close to the rim, they do have great shooters on the outside.

They just did not shoot the ball well against Indiana and, conversely, that impacted their defense.

Alright, so next up on the Contender pretender game just because I like saying Shaka Smart.

Let's talk about Texas, a team that actually plays a little bit of defense.

What do you got?

Contender.

Pretender.

Definitely a contender.

I love Shaka Smart's team because Shaka Smart to me, they have the great ability to score the basketball defensively.

They are a dangerous team.

They have one of the best defensive efficiencies in all of college basketball.

Great length, out on the wings.

They can really stretch you.

Now.

The concern comes at the guard position.

They have struggled at times in important moments with guard play.

The best story in all of college basketball simply is Andrew Jones, his battle through cancer.

He is a survivor and then to not only see him survive but to conquer college basketball.

This year, he is their leading scorer.

Hit the game when he shot at West Virginia.

Love everything about Shaka Smart's team and Andrew Jones.

And I'm rooting for him in particular because he's not just a survivor of cancer, but he has proven that he has gotten back to where he was beforehand, which is where we thought he would be a potential pro prospect.

Love Shaka Smart but do not love his hair this year.

It's what's very odd.

Come on, you don't even have hair.

How can Christine called anybody out on hairs to go outside and talk to Seth and Fonds and usually bald?

And I feel like we had a thing going and then he decided to grow the throw.

But somebody from Texas did Did, um, tag me in something this week cause I was trolling shock a little bit and he said, Fear the froze.

So I was like, OK, I don't know.

I like the time that I, like, grow the throw like I feel like I e mean you're either liberation or rhyme.

Okay, so I feel like I'm the one that's talking about top 10 teams that have taken Els.

But Tennessee was playing pretty well before they lost to Florida on Tuesday.

So what do you think?

Contender or pretender?

Pretender?

Uh, defensively, they are contender Offensively, they are a pretender, and I think that's the big problem for this thing.

Tennessee volunteer team is too often is the case.

They rely so much on their defense that it wears down over the course of a contest and We've seen them multiple times now this season, Uh, struggle, whether it was with Florida this week or whether it was with Alabama, and they're one matchup against Alabama that they'll have all season long.

Alabama lit him up.

Now, Granted, Alabama's been lighting everybody up.

They dropped 23 3 pointers against L s U earlier this week, but this Tennessee team, the inconsistencies at the offensive end, the lack of a go to scorer when you need a bucket that concerns me as far as their ability to compete and win a national championship.

All right, it is early in the history of this show, but so far I could tell you that we spent a lot of time last week praising Michigan.

This week they lost.

All right, so maybe we're the curse.

I don't know.

Farnham, Michigan contender, Pretender.

They are a contender.

I love what Juwan Howard's team is all about.

They've got great balance.

They're one of only two teams in college basketball to rank inside the top 10 in offense and defense of efficiency.

The other team, the team that we want swag from failure.

So I mean, that's pretty good company to be part you just put yourself in our swag battle.

Well, look, I've heard that your co host get swag and you don't.

At least that's what you told me.

Never mind that Hunter Dickinson is outstanding.

Great size.

They can play through him.

He's one of the most dominant freshman that we have in the game.

And, like Texas, they have great length on the week.

Question mark comes from consistency at the guard play, but I don't think there's much of a question there.

This team defends.

They share the ball.

They're tough, they rebound.

I love what Jawan Howard is building at Michigan.

All right, let's give some love to the A A C Houston on a five game winning streak there.

12 and one overall.

What do you think?

Contender?

Pretender.

Defensively, they are a contender offensively.

Uh, not so much like I love Marcus Sasser, and when he's going, he is fantastic.

He's a good as really any player in the American Conference this year.

Which is crazy because Caleb Mills, who transferred out, was the preseason picked to be conference player of the year.

I love this team's defense.

I love their ability to rebound.

That's good enough to win him a couple of games in the tournament.

But eventually you're going to have to score the ball at an elite level.

They are not consistent enough.

This team is very similar to me as Tennessee.

That makes him a top 10 team, an elite eight caliber team.

I just don't see them as a Final Four national champion.

Well, it's not necessarily a great year to be a college basketball blue blood, but let's take a look.

One of them next.

Number nine Kansas.

Remember, they're gonna be taken on Oklahoma at noon Eastern today on ESPN.

So do you see him as a title contender or pretender?

Fitzy.

We're talking about the Jayhawks coming off of back to back losses inside conference play.

That doesn't happen very often, but I'm still buying them.

I'm still saying Contender, and here's why.

I'm telling you, not so fast, my friend.

I feel like I'm course so all of a sudden game date everything.

It's awesome.

Alright, but hey, this is why I'm still buying them.

You can fix the problems that they had.

They were down, 18 were playing horrible in Oklahoma State, rallied to take the lead in that game toe.

Fumble it away.

Disappointing, but yet fixable.

You look at the game against Baylor.

They held everybody in check except for Jared Butler.

Jared Butler killed him, and from the outside there were five uncontested wide open three point shots that he had.

That's a breakdown in communication and coverages.

You can fix that.

Yes, they don't have joke as a bookie underneath this year.

That's a problem.

You can't protect the rim, I get it.

But this team is still talented enough to make a great run in the tournament.

They rely a lot more on their youth than they have in recent years, and they have to shoot the ball consistently.

And that's where you look at Christian Brown and just how much he's impacted this team this year, as well as Jalen Wilson, who for the first four weeks of the season was one of the breakout stars of college basketball, their fourth in the Big 12 this season.

But I'll be one to tell you that the Big 12 is one of the best.

Best Conferences took her 10 and took 11 minutes to get Big 12 praise carpets to playing.

All right, well, the last team number 10.

Wisconsin.

There are 12 and three after winning two in a row after getting blown out by Michigan.

So what do you think, Contender or pretender?

Why are you focusing on the negative here?

I mean, you're talking about Iowa losing Indiana.

I'm a half full kind of guy.

Like what are we doing here?

Like, you know what contender?

They got blown out against Michigan.

It was a wiping on the floor in that game.

There's no doubt about it, But that's not who Greg Guards team is.

Greg Guards team controls the tempo every single game except for the Michigan game.

Didn't control much that night at all, but they can play inside out.

They got great versatility with their front court.

It's one of the best front courts in all of college basketball.

Demetrick Price has become a very consistent score from them on the outside, and I think his offensive emergence makes me believe that, especially in the tournament, where teams aren't as familiar with your style of play, not as familiar with your sets as we see in conference play, I think this is a team that's going to cause a lot of problems when we get to the N C double A tournament.

All right, so in the spirit of trying to get more swag, let's talk more about Baylor.

They got the big matchup.

We mentioned it earlier today.

Number two Baylor taking on Oklahoma State and, uh, Kate Cunningham, obviously a big part of the story.

So what do you expect from the game today for?

Um, Look, I I think that this is not gonna be an upset in the making, on the reason why it's not gonna be upset in the making is exactly what we're talking about.