The Adult 4

The question is, are you ready? This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. Welcome to a Tuesday Drive, where as of right this minute, Wake Forest basketball is 12-1 on the season and 2-0 in the ACC standings. That's due to Boston College being unable to travel to Winston-Salem we learned today due to COVID issues. Which, according to current ACC rules, is officially a forfeit. ACC leaders are expected to meet tomorrow and discuss this issue and when they do, they should reverse this. They should reverse this forfeit because there are right ways to win and there are wrong ways.

Punishing BC here seems wrong. It reminds me of my first job in sports. I officiated youth soccer games when I was in high school. It was good money, especially when you're 16-17 years old and I was pretty good at it. So good at it that they would put me on these championship matches for the oldest groups out there. And one year, there was an instance a coach went so far over the line protesting calls, I was told by my superiors to disqualify them from the match.

So I did. They had to forfeit the championship game. But during the trophy ceremony, something strange happened. The other team didn't want the trophy or the medals. Their coach told me, and I'll never forget it, we don't want to win the game that way. And that's how I imagine Steve Forbes feels today, because Boston College likely did exactly what it was supposed to do.

And they're being punished for it. Remember, a year ago, Boston College was one of the leaders in the ACC in handling COVID. During the entire year, from August all the way to December, they didn't have any COVID positives. To remain safe, even though they were bowl eligible in Jeff Halfley's first year, they opted out of going to a bowl game.

They wanted to spend time with their family, but they didn't want to bring the virus home with them when they did. Boston College has often boasted on social media about how vaccinated they are. They're one of the highest vaccinated schools in the entire Atlantic Coast Conference. So punishing them because they're dealing with some breakthrough cases here, which in all likelihood, that's what this is, doesn't seem right.

That doesn't seem like was the spirit of the rule. I think the forfeit policy that was set before the year was to incentivize teams to get the vaccine. I think many teams followed suit when they saw NC State baseball. How much of a competitive disadvantage it might be if you have unvaccinated players. Remember, Vanderbilt's entire team was vaccinated, so they weren't subjected to tests that NC State was. So they, of course, were dismissed from the College World Series two wins away from a national championship. So all the incentives were there, and it seems that those incentives have worked. But then the world's changed so much in the last few months.

The virus has changed to the point where I think the policy has become outdated. Now, this is where it gets tricky, though. What do you call it if you don't call it a forfeit? You can't just postpone these games, because if you've looked at the schedules like I have, there aren't places to make these games up. The ACC scheduled a 20-game schedule and an ACC tournament in Brooklyn that they've scheduled years out that they can't move, because Brooklyn has another team that plays there that they specifically had on the road that week so the ACC could have its tournament there. So there doesn't seem to be any place to put Boston College Wake Forest at any point. Just call it a cancellation.

Call it a no contest. And do what you did last year, which was adjust the standings based on win percentage rather than overall wins and losses. There's less flexibility there. I don't see a scenario where the ACC decides we're going to pull it out of Barclays, which isn't going to push things back for the ACC, and we all know that, and bring it to Greensboro like they did last year just so they have flexibility. I just don't see them doing that. Instead, I think they're just going to call this a no contest. They're just going to call this a cancellation. Or at least that's what they should do, unless this is because of unvaccinated players, which I don't think is the case with BC.

I have no... I hope, I really do hope that tomorrow there is a decision to reverse what happened today. They announced this at around noon, maybe earlier than that today. There's no reason why you can't reverse this. I know there are some people out there saying, well, rules are rules, you set the rules, and since you haven't changed the rules, you've got to follow through, or else it's unfair to wake for us. Listen, these rules were only rules a couple of months ago. They're new rules that have become outdated.

They're subject to change. Like a year ago, when they set an arbitrary number of games that a Big Ten school would have to play in in order to qualify for the Big Ten championship game. I think it was six games and Ohio State had five. Well, right before that came, Ohio State had not lost. They were clearly the best team. They weren't going to have enough to play in the championship game. Guess what the Big Ten did?

They changed the rules, as they should. Ohio State was the best team. They were deserving of playing in the championship game.

Do what's right. And what's right here is not punishing Boston College, likely with a ton of vaccinated players, for having positive cases. I'd love to see Wake Forest start 2-0. I'd love to see them start 12-1. I think they probably would have won that game tomorrow if they played it.

But not like this. Wake Forest BC should not be a forfeit, plain and simple. On Twitter, at WSJS Sports, if you want it on today's show, 336-777-1600, the number. Elsewhere in the Triad, UNCG Hoops, currently dealing with COVID as well in its program.

So its game with Johnson and Wales tonight has been called off. Right down the highway to Chapel Hill, though. North Carolina will be in action against Appalachian State tonight in a game that I think quickly could become a dogfight.

I saw Dustin Kern's team last week in Durham. And I'm confident that that team is capable of winning this game if the Tar Heels don't come ready to play. They pushed Duke in Cameron.

High level shooters like Michael Amundsy, who I think had 17 points in the first half of that game. They have legit shooters on this team. They won their conference last year. They had their first winning season after eight consecutive losing seasons. They went to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 21 years.

Dustin Kern's a promising coach who learned so much as an assistant for Mike Young at Wofford. They know they have a shot at what would be the greatest win in their program's history later on tonight because they smell blood in the water. How couldn't you when you watch North Carolina lose by 29 points to Kentucky the other day?

This is my big concern with the Heels, that they feel sorry for themselves. Before Kentucky, the two worst games of the year that North Carolina played were after losses. When they came up just short against Purdue and the next day faced Tennessee. And then again on short prep, two days after that, they played UNC Asheville. And even though they won the game, that's when Brady Manick had the postgame press conference where he went all scorched earth. Those were the two worst games they played this season. And I don't know if it's a coincidence that they both came after losses.

Maybe it's a situation where you listen to some of the outside noise and you don't like what you hear. And maybe you start to believe it a little bit and you feel sorry for yourselves, especially after losing by 29 points. If that happens even a little bit, it's going to be a problem for North Carolina.

The holiday is just a few days away. You might think, it's just App State. We're at home. Oh, Duke, when you look at the final score, they hammered App State. If North Carolina overlooks App State, if North Carolina feels sorry for themselves, they're going to get beat tonight.

But I don't think that's going to happen. I was really impressed with the way the Tar Heels played a week ago against Furman. It showed me that they learned their lesson from UNC Asheville of looking ahead to the Michigan game, to looking ahead to something else.

In this case, it would be looking ahead to the holiday or looking ahead to the ACC slate that starts with Virginia Tech next week. I think North Carolina has learned its lesson. I think they're going to put up a ton of points tonight. App State's defense, not so great.

Take the over. That's probably what I would look at if you're looking at it from a betting perspective. I think we're going to see a team that's ticked off after what happened Saturday. Kind of like what we saw from Kentucky in that game. Kentucky played with their hair on fire after losing to Notre Dame, losing to a team that was under 500. I don't think if it was Ohio State or North Carolina, it would have mattered who Kentucky played.

They were going to win on that day. And that's what I think we're going to see with North Carolina tonight. Our guy Wes Durham going to be on the call for it with Dan Bonner later on tonight.

It's North Carolina and Appalachian State. Robert Walsh, the producer of this show. We've got intern Nick in the house as well. Hayes Permar going to be in studio with us in about 20 minutes. A big show, however, and wherever you're listening to it, really do appreciate that. Although his mind is still as sharp as ever, he occasionally has trouble seeing small print and needs the assistance of a handheld ferret to read letters. This is The Drive with Josh Graham on WSJS Sports.

Hayes Permar just walked into the studio from Sports Channel 8. And the first thing he said to me was, I got your Christmas card, which reminds me, we didn't have time to talk about this extensively at the end of yesterday's show. Robert says you have to be in a particular stage of your life to send Christmas cards. Am I misrepresenting you at all? No, I just feel like people that don't have girlfriends that are going to make them send Christmas cards, send Christmas cards. Like I have a girlfriend, not like a fiancé like you do, but I would assume that the Christmas card thing was not any of your doing at all. I took the pictures and we had the... You took the pictures, you're in the pictures. Here's the question, here's the question.

We had the addresses already for the wedding. Did you send Christmas cards yourself before this? No. I rest my case. Alright.

The defense rests. No, I'm the same way. Do you send out Christmas cards? As a single person, no, I never did. As a married person, yes, I have now two times sent out a Christmas card. You should be receiving mine soon. Although I just sent mine to the return. I'm a totally transactional Christmas carter.

I get yours, okay, you get mine. If you don't send me one, you're not getting one from me. I'm going to review your Christmas card. Dang, I need your address and I'm going to send you like a homemade one just because I want to see your big dogs. My big dog is on my Christmas card.

I know, I want to see my big dog. So if you send me a Christmas card, if you're listening, you can track down my address, send me a Christmas card, I'll send you one. Where do you get the address from? Does Moose have it? It's on Twitter at Josh Graham Radio and I'll send you Hayes' address.

Or anybody else's wedding I've been to. Let's get out of this topic real quickly and to what I believe is going to be my favorite edition of Skips or Plays with Hayes. Hayes Permar is somewhat of a renaissance man, an expert in the finer things, but he hangs his hat on music.

Love says God and he's no friend of Satan. He was like oh six, getting busy with his sticks, been watching big Mike and Lil Trinket trip. I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on. Today Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows. It's time for Skips or Plays with Hayes. Alright Hayes, so I'm not usually in the business of telling people when I lied to them, but I lied to you last week when I told you we would do Christmas music. Yeah, I thought about that. And you would be able to insert some of your own Christmas music into it.

Like we're going to have to take a rain check, maybe in July we could get back to it. But in radio things just happen. People sell things, people buy things, you get things to give away. And this week we've got some Avent Brother tickets to give away. I've got, I don't want to say unlimited numbers, we're going to have to give so many away.

I don't want to tell you how many I have. I've got some Avent Brother tickets I want to hook somebody up with. Unlimited.

Unlimited. This makes me feel so bad because... Come by the window and they're just throwing tickets out. I already made plans for New Years in Baltimore.

The Avent Brothers and Coldplay are the two bands I ride with more than anybody else. So the idea that we might have tickets that I do not have to pay for maybe, that I can go and use in Greensboro to see my favorite band, that just hurts. Well honestly, the whole contingent on this was when they were talking about it, I was like, look, I'll do whatever kind of giveaway you guys want to do, but we cannot give any free pair to Josh. Well, you don't have to worry about that. That makes me feel better actually. Well that's good, that's good.

Now we both are, it's a lot easier to get this done now. Okay, so you got three Avent Brothers songs here. I do. I do have three Avent Brothers. I know very little about the Avent Brothers. Same. I like them, but I don't go deep with them. Maybe it's because Josh likes them so much.

I think that's what it is. You know when your friends are like, oh, you got to watch Justified, you got to watch the show, and they beat you over the head with it so much that you're like, I'm not going to watch it. That's what happened to Robert with Bull Durham. Same, yep, not going to watch it. I tried to get Tom Verducci last week to tell Robert, hey, if anyone hasn't seen Bull Durham, you need to go see Bull Durham. And I wouldn't listen to that guy either. You do have to see Bull Durham, but anyway.

Only Hayes says so. I'll give you a warning. I'm worried about how this is going to go, but I come to it with an open mind, and I do love North Carolina's Avent Brothers. What is the first song we have here? The first song is called Laundry Room. We do need to find a way to give these tickets away, too. So, like, do they need to remember what Hayes passes on?

Did Hayes skip Laundry Room or play it? Are we going to give these away right now? Uh, we can. We can do that if you want to. We can do it however you want to.

It's going to be a little bit harder for me to manage this if I'm also doing the phone stuff. Okay, well then I'll talk about this song a little bit. Let's do caller number two. Caller number two.

777-1600 if you want Avent Brothers tickets. Talk about this song. Laundry Room, is that what it's called? Yes, it's from the I and Love and You album. When I was in college, this was the album I would listen to all the time, circa 2010, just walking down College Hill, going to class. And this is also great because there's this little medley at the end of the song that's awesome live.

And that's one thing I like about a band, and I'm not sure about criteria for you, the ability to perform live, if you get something more out of it by seeing someone live, that's a plus for me. Alright, your story was very fitting for this song because just like the song, it put me to sleep. It was you talking about walking down the street in Greenville, calling it a college, bit of a stretch there. Oh wow. But I'll give you that, but no, here's the thing, it's not a Christmas song, and therefore it's a skip. Get it out of here.

Wow. It's December, what are we, December 20th? Are we in the 20s? 21st. But it's December the 21st? Come on, that's in the introduction to White Christmas.

Get it out of here, it's not a Christmas song. Skip. Give me the next one. Robert, that is a skip for Haze Permar.

That's right. Alright, the next song here, Robert just sent this to me. We're doing Swept Away. Oh, Swept Away.

I'll point this out. This was the one Amy Brothers song I considered to be a first dance song. I was going to try and play Guess the Josh Graham Story with this. My second college girlfriend sophomore year. This was both our first date and the song that we broke up to.

That was my Josh Graham prediction for that story. A listener actually sent in that this was their first dance song. Much like your current selection, you can't dance to this. What? Get it out of here. You can dance to anything.

I'm sorry, it's not a Christmas song and it's December the 21st. With all apologies to my good friends, the Ava Brothers. That is a skip. Get it out of here. God, that's another skip for Haze.

It means it's 0 for 2, Robert. And I think we have a theme here that if the third one here. I mean, I'm open to the Ava Brothers possibly having a Christmas song. But if it's not a Christmas song, I don't like its chances on December the 21st of getting a play. And he skipped this one too?

Yeah, he skipped that. Are you getting a ton of people calling in wanting tickets to this show? Because I saw them sell out Red Rocks for a few days in Colorado.

You saw them in Red Rocks? I had no idea. Matt Bowen writes, raving reviews, this song sucks. See, and that's why, just because it's a giveaway, Haze, doesn't mean that you have to say like, oh, this is a great song. I want you to lie to yourself. I'm being unfair. These guys are great musicians, very cool, and very cool to see perform.

But I am a little, I'm not gonna lie. Have you ever seen them before? No, I've seen videos, I've seen the documentary about them. Oh yeah, the one that Judd Apatow did.

Yeah. All right, let's get to the last one here. Much like Josh as picking these songs, this song is called Head Full of Doubt. Even more Full of Doubt once Haze skips this song. You might have heard this song before because this has been played on a ton of different commercials, I've noticed. The same way that the Postal Service song always gets played. I do feel like the Avid Brothers don't write good songs to do song parodies to change the lyrics to the song. But their style is such that you could write a stereotypical Avid Brothers song and it could be kind of funny, you know what I mean?

Like with The Voice a little bit, and it being kind of somber or whatever. I think I could pull off a good one. Hold on a sec, this is the good part here.

The end. All right, was there anything? I didn't hear Santa, I didn't hear snow, I didn't hear presents, I didn't hear toys. I think I heard a reference to Jesus, does that count? Looks like Avid Brothers have an I'll be home for Christmas out there, maybe a silent night, even in a way in the manger. But this is not a Christmas song, so therefore, once again, with apologies to fellow North Carolinians, the Avid Brothers, on December 21st, we are skipping, that is a triple skip, Bring Me Christmas Music.

Yeah, give Josh what he wants. The same guy who said this song sucks just wrote in again and said, This one's better. That's funny, I literally thought they sounded the exact same starting. Like head full of doubt, and swept away.

Oh no, that laundry room. Maybe not, maybe they just all sound kind of folky, you know? That's the thing with the Avid Brothers too. The fact that, I don't know how to classify them. Would you classify them as a folk band, a country band, a bluegrass group, a rock group, what would you do? Because they do a lot of it.

Folk Americana is the term that people use. That's probably the one that closest hits home. I love that.

Anytime we've had a Skips or Plays that involved something Josh loved, it has been a triple skip. I thought I was going to make you mad. I figured you liked the Avid Brothers too. No, it's not that I don't like them, I've just never listened to their music. From here on in, I'm only Christmas tunes. If you're not playing Christmas tunes, get out of here. And people say Christmas music stinks, you've got the wrong Christmas songs. There's good Christmas music out there, so go find it. What's your favorite non-traditional Christmas song?

There's so many. Joni Mitchell's The River is just a great song. That's a Christmas song, right? My Favorite Things by John Coltrane. Very Christmassy feel, right? I'm going to take it out on Robert, the fact that he's presented it this way.

Trim Your Tree by Jimmy Butler. I think you need to bump with that. The third caller right now, I'm going to put Robert to work, will get Avid Brothers tickets for next week.

336-777-1600. If you want to go see the Avid Brothers, caller three goes to the Colosseum. I wish I could be there, because I've seen them a handful of times and it's the best act I've ever seen live. You know that honestly, oh sorry, go ahead, get us out of here. They might play worse, since you're not going to be there. They know you're not going to be there, so they won't put on the best show.

Good point. He tries to be funny. Obnoxious.

He really is obnoxious. You're on the drive with Josh Graham on WSJS Sports. As if things can't get worse for the Carolina Panthers, they've just made official A.J. Boyer, the corner put on the injured reserve list.

The same place that J.C. Horn's been since early on in the season and Dante Jackson was placed on in the last two weeks. We'll get to more Panther football topics in a bit. Right now though, we welcome in Brendan Marks, covers North Carolina and Duke for the athletic. And the Tar Heels, they're in action tonight against the App State Mountaineers, who we'll talk about in just a little bit. But on Saturday, a lot of things went wrong for the Tar Heels. And Brendan, who you can follow on Twitter at Brendan R. Marks, tried to watch, rewatch Kentucky North Carolina. And on his Twitter page said that he could only get to about the under 12 timeout of the second half before he had to stop watching.

I'm impressed he made it that far. Brendan, upon further review, what do you believe to be the biggest problem with Tar Heel basketball currently? Yeah, I think it's hard to look at what has happened in the team's three losses, especially against Kentucky over the weekend. And not say it's the defense, just from a basketball perspective. I mean, UNC is one of the worst teams in the nation in terms of forcing turnovers and forcing steals defensively.

And then you add in the fact that they are still playing these off coverages sometimes. The fact that they are sagging off guys, are jogging around the court, not necessarily getting to the spots they need to be in. It's just not good.

It's just not good enough. ACC play is about to start here. And we can talk about how much the ACC is down and say Duke's the only ranked team in the ACC. ACC teams are going to come at North Carolina with the first year head coach and if Tar Heel is going to get it together soon, this season could go sideways in a little bit here. It won't just be ACC teams that give their best shot to the Tar Heels. Appalachian State tonight, you and I, we saw it in Durham last week and there were stretches of that game where things got squirrelly between the Blue Devils and the Mountaineers. What did you see from App State watching on that might lead you to believe North Carolina could have some issues?

For full disclosure, I'm expecting UNC to take care of business tonight. But if Appalachian State were to cause problems, it would be because the Mountaineers have some dudes. They've got some shot makers. They've got guys who challenge you. Justin Forrest is old, is experienced, has played a whole bunch of games at App State and he's not afraid to back down from anybody against Duke.

Michael Almonosy, I'm probably mispronouncing his name so sorry, but he was great. Had 17 points in I think the first 10 minutes or so. If UNC doesn't come out with that aggressive attacking defense that it had during the team's five game win streak, there are opportunities there for App State to make baskets. And as we have seen, any team that can score on UNC has a chance to keep things close for the duration of the game.

Brendan Marks with us from The Athletic. Covers Carolina, covers Duke. We'll get to the Blue Devils in a second. But when it comes to the Tar Heels, this is something we were talking with Greg Barnes about from inside Carolina. And he wanted to make the point, and I agree with him, that this is probably going to take some time for a first year coach to try and build this thing up. It's going to take some time and we're not seeing a lot of patience when you look on Twitter, even though Twitter isn't the best place I think to gauge patience of a fan base.

I hope that's not representative of the majority, certainly. But I'm concerned when I look on the horizon and see who we know is not going to be there next year. Leaky Black and Brady Manick, for example, and in all likelihood, guys like Caleb Love, Armando Bacot, those are guys that probably might be playing their last year for the Tar Heels.

Dawson Garcia is another one that could probably be on the fence, depending on how you view him. That's a lot of turnover that could happen after this season. And that's not even talking about, Brendan, how little playing time these freshmen are getting, which is something I'm concerned about, too. How worried are you about some of the impending roster turnover that could come after this season ends? Yeah, I'm not as worried about it, I don't think, Josh.

And the reason I say that is because the transfer portal goes both ways. So if UNC ends up losing some of these freshmen who have come in, you know, DiMarco Dunn has gotten a few more minutes in Dontre Styles, but neither of them have had any sort of tangible impact on the rotation. If these guys ultimately decide at the end of the day that they don't want to be there, guess what? As we found out this offseason, there are plenty of dudes who do still want to play at North Carolina. And I have no doubt that Huber Davis is going to continue to utilize the transfer portal as a means for securing talent. I think he's going to continue to use it as a means for securing starters. You know, I think that a lot was made about the one-time passage of the transfer rule and the fact that guys could abandon a situation very quickly if things weren't going their way.

It also rewards guys who have had success and are looking for an opportunity to showcase that on a greater stage. And as we've seen with Dawson Garcia and Brady Mannock this year, those guys can come in and make a difference from day one. So I am not as worried about the transfer portal aspect of the roster turnover.

I'm more interested in some of those other guys you mentioned, some of those on the fence guys. You know, because to me and Armando Bacott and Dawson Garcia, I'm not so sure that the NBA is going to be there calling for those guys at the end of the season. And this might sound crazy, but I don't think it's out of the question that those guys are back next year. I think you look at the minutes and the opportunity they would have and it's hard to say that they're going to have a better opportunity to showcase themselves anywhere but UNC. So I am not as worried about it, but no, I am in agreement with you generally, Josh. I think this is going to take a few years for Hubert Davis to get back to the level that he wants and the level that UNC fans want.

Well, and oh yeah, I forgot about that. And if North Carolina, you know, wants some optimism, don't look too far down the road. But right here in the Triad with what Steve Forbes did in his second year, bringing in all this talent at Wake Forest and guys who are having unbelievable starts to the season. Alondis Williams might have had the best first month of the season among any ACC player out there. The only other guy I think that's in that conversation is Wendell Moore Jr. And both guys happen to be terrific stories where Alondis was averaging, I think, six points a game at Oklahoma and now has scored more points than anybody in college basketball through a month and change. Wendell Moore Jr. was the fourth leading scorer on a Duke team that was two games over.500 and now with maybe three lottery picks on this team has been the best player on this Duke team that's top three ranked in the nation currently. Centering in on Wendell, what's been the most impressive part about this leap that we've seen from him?

Yeah, to me it's two things really. I think number one is the confidence. And you can see that he is playing at just a different level of self-assuredness than he's had the last two seasons. You know, I remember when he was a freshman and he broke his hand against Miami and was out for a couple of games and you could tell that, not that that rattled him, but that it definitely threw him off his rhythm as it would anyone else. And he had had an up and down freshman year to that point, but he never really got back in the swing of things the end of his freshman year and then obviously last year he really didn't have any help and I think was probably being asked to do a little bit too much too early. But now he has complementary pieces and I think that he just finally believes in his work. He's more athletic, he grew an inch over the summer, changed the way he runs, put on some muscles, able to hang in the air, deal with contact better.

He believes in himself. You can see that. And then I think just in terms of a strict basketball perspective, it's how efficient he's been. I don't know if you realize this because I certainly didn't until we were about to hop on the call and I looked it up, Josh, but Wendell is shooting almost 70% on two-pointers this year. It's unbelievable.

It's insane. He's the number 54 percentage-wise player at two-pointers in the country right now. And the only other person on Duke's roster who's close is Mark Williams who is 7-1 and doesn't have to jump to put the ball in the basket. So I think Wendell has just been a lot smarter about the shots he takes.

He's been a lot more aggressive getting the spots he wants and like you said, a kid with a great story, you couldn't be happier to see him having this sort of breakout season. Brendan, appreciate you spending the time with us. I'll see you I'm sure sometime soon.

I'm sure you're probably on your way to Chapel Hill in just a little bit. Enjoy the basketball tonight and a Merry Christmas to you, buddy. I appreciate you and hope you're staying safe.

Hope everyone's staying safe and happy holidays to everybody. Right on. On Twitter, at Brendan R. Marks. Covers North Carolina and Duke for the athletics. It's time for an unusual question where if you're new to the proceedings. I've been accused by multiple ACC coaches of asking unusual questions, or I guess one of the coaches that accused me of that.

No longer an ACC coach anymore but Roy Williams, Steve Forbes, probably leaving some coaches out have objected, not objected but commented on the line of questioning at times that I'll have on the show. So we have this segment that allows for you to ask an unusual question if you have it, it might be sports related it might not. Everything's fair game right now. Let's get into the game. Last week guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham. And I'll get us started with the question I teased. When you're at a dinner party a cocktail party a Christmas party and you're around strangers. What's your go to conversation starter, is there a genre is there a topic that you usually think hits well with strangers.

Where do you go generally. I don't mean this any type of way, I never think about what I'm gonna say, or like what I'm going to talk to somebody about, like in those scenarios I kind of just show up introduce myself talk drink until like a conversation shows itself. I agree with that. I don't think about a specific topic that I'm going to talk about with strangers.

What are you going to roll a deck full of them or something. I often go to. I often go to sports I find, and I was thinking about this because there's a former Congress person I was talking to last week, and I thought I was going to be in there by bringing up something sports related but he hit me with the.

Oh, I didn't grow up watching sports at all. So, immediately had to call a hot route, and I wasn't as prepared for that hot route because usually something sports related leads us to a conversation of something I can talk about. Yeah, go with your conversation starter. How do you, how do you start them. Yeah, who do you vote for.

Yeah, that's a good idea. No, someone actually did this one time, something politically related. This is probably not the best conversation started somebody asked. Hey, what's your favorite. Who's your favorite president. I'd say they thought that would be a great conversation starter, not as great as you might think it is probably not.

Robert, you, you throw an unusual question my way actually Sarah Bradford just wrote in that she reads the book on a given situation, never asked about your job, but ask where people are from. Usually what she said Teddy Roosevelt's my favorite president. Oh, is that right. Yeah, green boys can't be mad about that. I was the best gift you guys ever got for Christmas.

Nick. I think mine would have to be, we were all, we go to California a lot for Christmas and we're actually going this year. I think each of us got like a pair of tickets to a Warriors game and a Niners game while we were out there. So that was really cool.

We got to see Steph, like in a triple double. And then a couple of days later it was hardballs last game. Oh man, that's killer.

And he ended up with a win. So that was really cool. I think that's probably my favorite Christmas gift. What's it for you, Robert? Anything come to mind? Uh, yeah, it's probably, uh, the guy who got me into wrestling, uh, when I was like maybe 11 or 12, he used to cut my hair and he would always be like, Oh, we're having these wrestling shows in Burlington. We're having these wrestling shows in Burlington. And I was like, uh, I don't know.

I don't know how I feel about that. Like I just like WWE. Uh, and in the, the gift, he had me three tickets to go see their, their event of the year battlecade. I had an action figure and then like a couple of different DVDs of like events that they showed. And if I would have never went to that show, I would have never met half of my best friends. I would have never done anything in professional wrestling.

I would have never, uh, done a lot of the stuff that I've done. So that was a pretty good gift. Zach writes in, I typically start going back to the original question I asked, asking sports questions, assuming said person is a fan of whatever hat they're wearing, forgetting that sometimes it's just color matching and it's not really them being a fan of the team. I'm glad Robert is normal and walks around thinking about what they're rather than someone who walks around thinking about what they're going to say at a dinner party. What a weirdo. Well, this is unusual questions.

Like it's kind of whatever, uh, Christmas gift. I think one year when we got a ping pong table, that was pretty cool. I love playing ping pong. And I think I'm pretty good at it.

I think I could beat everybody on this show at ping pong. I feel pretty confident in that. Nick, throw an unusual question our way.

Oh, and if you want in on the proceedings, 336-777-1600 is the number. Um, why are there two different way ways to write the number four? Cause there's the, there's the four that meets up at the top, like a triangle, right? Yeah. Why is that?

Why isn't that like that with any other number or, you know, I always found that weird. Wow. Yeah.

Who knows? It's how do you write it? I write it open up at the top. Oh, really? You don't do the adult four. I call that the kid four that you caught. That's the kid four. Yeah. The kid four looks like goalposts. Yeah, exactly. That's what Nick says.

He does the open one. That's the kid four. That's like if you're like writing four plus four on like a chalkboard, that's the four you would use. Interesting. I didn't know that. Do you start from the bottom or do you start from the top when you're writing the adult four top, basically go dink, dink down and then bring your other thing.

Yeah, you're using the kid four might need to upgrade that a little bit. Nick, Dave and Clemens. What's your unusual question, Dave? Josh, I don't have an unusual question.

So this is going to get a little unusual. But what I wanted to call and talk about is thank you guys. Thank this show for such an awesome sports show in the Triad. Merry Christmas to all of you guys.

I had some COVID related stuff going on with work this year. And it's just so nice to have a great sports talk show in the Triad. Take my mind off between three and six every single day. I can't thank you guys enough for what you guys do.

And I'm sure everybody else in the Triad feels the same way. Let's keep doing it in 2022. Thank you so much and Merry Christmas to you, Dave.

That's really nice. And I'm glad you're well enough to call us to tell us that. And Robert, the only thing I'll say in response to that is last year, you know, you kind of think about it a little bit with COVID what the role of the sports talk show is. If you're getting your medical advice and medical information and COVID information from Josh Graham and Robert Walsh, odds are you got bigger fish to fry.

You got some problems. So we just kind of viewed this show is even when there weren't any live sports last year and even at points this year as a vessel to have some fun. And as he mentioned, there be a distraction from things. And a lot of the responses we've gotten about the way we've done the show as a result have been very positive and mere what you say there. So it means a lot. That's why we do it. Robert got another unusual question for me. Yeah. Why do people like Dave lie on radio and say that they love our show?

No, I'm just kidding. My dad, I'm glad Nick dug that checks in the mail. What sports moment made you guys cry? Oh, see, I don't have a positive cry. Like, I can't believe this happened. I'm going to cry.

Oh, I didn't want to know that. I want to know what made you sad. Yeah.

I remember one time I don't know who the Panthers played, but when I was a kid, the Panthers lost on a game winning field goal. I went outside and cried behind a tree. Thank you.

Yeah. I just went out to the yard and had a nice cry. I don't think I cried when Billy Cundiff missed that kick.

But I do think that I got bust. I yelled at for being too upset and that made me cry. Like, I think I was throwing something and then my stepdad came down and was like, you need to stop talking all that crap about a game. I don't know why my stepdad was at Orgeron, but that really is how he sounds. Nick.

I don't think I have. I think maybe the 2012 Super Bowl when the Niners lost to the Ravens, I was on the verge of tears. That was pretty bad.

Can't think of maybe 2016 NLDS with the Giants and the Cubs. That was pretty rough. Other than that, I can't think of like my brother's more of the crier when we were little kids in sports. He was a more emotional guy than I was for me.

It's probably I guess the only time I've really cried like I've never cried about like the Ravens never cry because I wasn't super into sports until like later in high school. But I do remember bawling my eyes out at Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair in Ric Flair's last match and Shawn's like in the corner and he's about to tune up the band for the Sweet Chin music. And he like goes to lift his leg up and he doesn't want to do it and Ric gets up with like both his hands up like come on and give it to me. He super kicks him right in the jaw. He's like, I'm sorry.

I love you that I watch that right now and cry. Yeah, that's a moving stuff there. I have another unusual question if we have the time to do this here. Something that I just feel I don't know. I feel like this is a question that could serve a lot of people a lot of good. The holiday is a few days away and you've got also New Year's that's around the corner as well. Here's the question.

How many people are too many people sharing a living space? I watched Christmas Vacation from over the weekend. Obviously that's absurd and I still don't quite know how they made that all work. But it's a comedy. You're not supposed to think about it too much.

But I'm talking about in real life Robert. Like let's say normal house. You got a couple bedrooms and a living room with a couch. How many people could stay at that place?

What if you didn't really have a choice and you like you wanted everybody over there? Then I think you could fit as many people as you had floor for air mattresses or blankets or whatnot. Like when I was little we used to have like no lie in my grandpa's house, which has two bedrooms and a basement. We probably used to have 30 people staying in that house only because they all wanted to be there on Christmas Day. So like you'd have youngins sleeping downstairs on like air mattresses. Like my uncle would be sleeping on a couch.

So I don't know. To me that number is like much higher because I get along with pretty much all my family members as weird as it is. Probably where it's high is who gets the beds.

The older people. Okay so it's just all the way down the line. Yeah I mean if you're a kid, when I was a kid probably hell right now, I could sleep on the floor. It would bother me zero to sleep on the floor. So like obviously we're gonna give like the older people like the older aunts and uncles and stuff the beds and the air mattresses or whatnot. I remember we had, so he had a trailer that he had outfitted to pick up like furniture and stuff in and he threw so many blankets and pillows into it. And I think, so me, my two brothers, my three cousins that are girls and six more kid guys I think. I think it was six and we all slept in this trailer. Like nodding, just in the basement, just pillows and blankets on it but we all stayed on that trailer.

Uh huh. And if there's one bed and it's up to kids, like you have the kids who are up for it, how do you figure out that tiebreaker? Probably all gonna stay in the bed or whoever gets tired first.

Okay, that's pretty good stuff there. You can't be giving a bed to some kid who's like, oh give it to Charlie and then Charlie stays up later than everybody else. Like no, give it to the kid who's gonna tap out I guess. Anything else? Last call for unusual questions. Nick, did you have something? Robert, do you want to throw one more out there before we move on? I think I'm good. We're good to go, you've been questioned out. Glad, glad to hear it.

Gotta make sure everybody is served here. What did you get Sarah Bradford for, hang on let me read this right. What did you get Sarah Bradford for Christmas?

I just got this text, I don't have the number saved. Oh, yeah. What did I get Sarah Bradford for Christmas? See, we're actually, she's working on Christmas, so we're doing our Christmas in about, I think not this weekend but next weekend.

We're not gonna do it during the week, so when she's off work, we're gonna do our Christmas together. I got another text that said, no one cares about that, what did you get me for Christmas? Gosh, I just can't remember, put it on the spot.

That's the worst. Yeah, when you put it on the spot. I got you a present, but for the life of me I can't remember where I put it. Can't remember what it won. Have you finished all your Christmas shopping?

Oh yeah, done-zo. I shopped at all local stores this Christmas. I hit up the Mass General store and did a lot of damage Robert, a lot of damage. Just top floor, bottom floor, hitting up the Mass General store, the candy part of the store, that's where I did the majority of my Christmas shopping damage. Did you buy anybody one of those barrels?

You know, I've always wanted to do that. Dude, every time I see them, I'm like, that would be a great gift for somebody, but mostly I just want the barrel. But then it's $17, I do want the barrel. It's $17 for the Field Junior barrel.

You can get the Papa barrel for like 30 bucks. Give me the unusual questions, music, really quickly. There's one more thing. Last week, guys, everybody made it up, but I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference. I have one more. I thought it was an unusual question, and it's okay.

It's time for Unusual Questions with Josh Graham. Rather than talking about the best gift you've received, what's the gift that you've always wanted that no one ever gives you and you just don't think to ask? See, when people ask, what do you want for Christmas, I never tell them things that I want because I don't think about things I want until times arrive, like right now, where you have a realization, a moment where you're like, yeah, that would be a great Christmas gift. The barrel is a great example. The barrel at Mass General, how great of a gift would that be, Robert, if someone just got you the barrel from Mass General Store?

I would be pumped. For me, it's probably a bidet, though. I've been asking for a bidet, and I've asked for it. I've asked for a bidet for a long time, and no one will get it for me. My girlfriend thinks that I'm going to have it rigged up to just squirt all the time. Like, anytime she goes to sit down, it's going to get her wet, which isn't the deal. I just want a cleaner hiney.

I just want to be able to go in there and feel what it's like to be a clean European person. And every time I ask for a bidet, they're always like, oh, yeah, I'll be sure to get that for you. I'm like, yes, please be sure to get that for me. For me, it's a hot sauce bar.

Like, I've seen people get this before. Have you seen this? That has about, like I'm talking firehouse subs, Robert, where you see the 12 sauces there that you can pick between.

I want one of those in my house. I want 12 sauces. Like today, you know what? I'm feeling I'm feeling kind of ambitious. I want to grab one of the hotter sauces today. You know what? Today, I just want to take it slow.

Today, I'm feeling a little bit mild. I'm going to go. I would love one of those hot sauce bars. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've seen it before. Like if at the place that like Myrtle Beach, like Pepper Palace or whatever, where they have all the different hot sauces and stuff. That'd be cool if they made one that was like a like a lazy Susan.

But you know what I'm talking about where you spin it? It's the thing. Yes, you make one of those.

But for hot sauces, that would be great. I don't even know if that exists. You got something like that last year, though, right, Nick? Yeah, I did. It was really cool. It was different. I think it was like 12 different hot sauces from different states around the country. Oh, that's so there was like one from California. There was the North Carolina one was the hottest one. Texas Pete? No, it wasn't Texas Pete. It was I can't remember what it was called, but that was the hottest one.

I specifically remember that. But that's a great gift. I like those. Johnny writes, and I've been asking for a bonsai tree kit to trim for years. Really?

Dang, I would have hooked you up if you would have said something maybe a week ago, but they are cool, though. I do like that, like with the whole bonsai kits, like you're not really like just trimming the tree to look like that. You have to tie certain weights to the tree to make it physically been that way.

And then it'll grow up and you'll put a weight lower. That's a good gift. That's a good gift. I think socks are underrated, too, if it's cool.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just getting somebody like the industrial pack of long white socks. No, like if you get a pair of cool socks, that's a good gift. Yeah, like socks that Robert Griffin III would wear, because that used to be his thing. Yeah. At the ACC Championship, I asked him what kind of socks he had on, and he pulled up his pant leg a bit.

He had Nightmare Before Christmas socks on. Nice. Cool move. Cool guy.