Duke vs NC State men’s basketball tonight!

Whether it's professional sports or college sports, which are really the same thing, we get into the subject of greed.

You know, we at the beginning of the show we talked about week 18 in the NFL, meaning every team is playing 17 games and there was really no need for it, other than we need more money. It's the reason why the Big Ten added UCLA and USC. They don't need UCLA and USC, but if we get them, we make more money.

They don't need those two schools. But either way, so that is a huge part of all of the sports and games that we watch. Money.

The search and desire to get more of it, even if you have enough of it. And I guess, in a way, that's the American dream. Well, the same is true for college basketball that just might be expanding the men's basketball tournament, and actually the women's basketball tournament, too, to 90 teams. 90 teams! So with that as a backdrop, earlier today, we caught up with Jeff Goodman of Watch Stadium. All right, Jeff Goodman, Field of 68 on Twitter sounds, I mean, it's great.

You guys have a tremendous network of podcasts and you're talking hoops basically every night. Will you have to change the name to Field of 90? Hopefully not. Hopefully not. Now, we also have Field of 12 that worked out. It looked like for a while that it was not going to, you know, we were worried. Field of 12 has worked out.

Field of 68, we probably need to get the Field of 90 name just in case Greg Sankey wins out here and screws the whole thing up. What are they doing? They just want more money. Sankey and these other guys just want more bids and more money for the big boys, not understanding that it's gonna kill what makes the tournament great because what gets the casual fan? You know this. Yeah.

What gets it more than that? That's Cinderella, the first-round upset. Like, right, Lehigh beating Duke is the ultimate for the casual fan because it's improbable, almost unfathomable.

And St. Peters beats Kentucky last year and it's the greatest thing ever because nobody thinks in a million years that can happen, but it does. So I just think he better not screw this thing up. It's got to get through a couple hoops here, right? It's got to go through board of directors next week, which is, you know, filled of a bunch of presidents. So it could, like, those people have no idea, you know, what makes the tournament so great. And then it's got to get through the men's basketball committee, which is a bunch of, you know, guys that know what the hell they're Martin Newton, Greg Byrne, A.D. at Alabama, you know, Barry Collier, former coach at Butler now, and A.D. at Butler.

So hopefully those guys are smart enough, and they are, that they won't let that happen. At Goodman Hoops on Twitter, Jeff Goodman from Stadium. I was almost there today. I was almost in your, like, we could have done this in person today, but here was my dilemma. I'm in Charleston for, like, a month because I'm smart.

I'm not staying my whole winter in Boston anymore that I only have one kid and she's at school. So we were smart. We drove down about 10 days ago. Of course, what did we do on our drive? We caught a Canes game.

Sure. It was the, it was the 6-5 game. Oh, I guess the, the Flyers with the third period gong show. Yeah, like it was, it actually got very interesting. Yeah. Not for my daughter.

She was a little bit nervous there, but I bet. But yeah, you know, so we got that game and then we're in Charleston now, and I was going to make the drive back tonight. If I could have done both the Duke NC state, and then the Carolina game, if I could have done both, I would have made the trip. But I did not see Duke play four times in person. I've seen Carolina play three times in person already. So it's not like, you know, I haven't, but I would have liked to see wake and NC state tonight, but you can't do both of those games.

It's a four hour drive each way. All right, here's my question about the game. I kind of think Duke's got their hands full tonight. I think state sets up very, very well against the Blue Devils because they're so quick in the backcourt and old and old. Yeah, that's the other part, right?

Like they're old, they're at home. We know that crowd, you know, I, I assume it'll still be pretty good today. Yeah, absolutely.

For Duke. Yeah. Yeah.

Even with them, you know, students on break, that's always the hard part of these couple weeks. Right. It's like, you know, like UConn plays Providence tonight at Providence and Providence is student section.

I'm telling you is, is elite level. A lot of those students are gone. You said you wanted to go to the dunk tonight. Oh my God. Well, they are as inebriated as any student section. I'm telling you like, and then they do this one bit where they'll, they'll play, uh, Taylor Swift, some, whatever, whatever, I forget what song it's called, but they play it and they go banana. Like everybody is singing it in the student section. Providence is only like, I think there's like five, 4,000 students total on the school. Like, I'm telling you like 75% of their student population is there and they're all singing Taylor Swift.

Uh, it's, it's awesome. So yeah, I agree with you though. I think it's a dangerous game produced, um, on the road, young, still trying to figure themselves out, right? Like this, this Duke team, you know, to me, um, they're a work in progress and I'm not sure you're going to get there, you know, because again, the one thing that I still don't know if they have is that dude, you can just give the ball to and just say, Hey, go make a play.

Philip has been awesome. We know that for the most part, he'll probably hit a freshmen wall at some point. Um, and then does I, Derek Whitehead come forward? Does he, does he make the jump to where he's the guy in February that you just give him the ball and say, Hey, go make a play. Yeah.

It's funny. Jeff Goodman is with us from stadium. The, I read a bit about Whitehead that he had essentially a, uh, a stern talking to, we'll just say that with his parents, like his parents did this. Wasn't John Shire. Wasn't Chris Carroll. Well, it was his parents basically said, Hey, what do you want to do?

What do you want to be this year? And he came back with a little bit of a refreshed attitude. We'll see what we see on the court tonight. He came back from the injury injury. Wasn't the problem anymore.

He got sick right before, uh, I guess the, uh, the holiday break. So, uh, we'll see what Derek, Derek Whitehead is. Let me ask you about Carolina, because this was an issue. I, I watched the clip of Terrence Oglesby, former Clemson player, just ripping Hubert Davis, uh, for the way Carolina was playing regardless of whether I agree with it or not. Uh, there was a lot of truth to the fact that Carolina just was not playing with any intensity that kind of resurfaced in the second half at Pitt. What do you, what's your thought?

What are your thoughts on what we see from North Carolina? And I mean, it's, they're probably not the same team in terms of how good they were at the end of last season. Uh, but I certainly think they're better than the team that we saw for most of last season and some of this season. Exactly. And that's what I think, even though I had them preseason number one, I think you had to put them at number one preseason, but, but was I a complete believer that this team was going to, that, that, that had been mediocre for the better part of, uh, three and a half months last year, um, was going to come out of a gate the same way they finished.

I know I was, I was, honestly, I didn't feel confident about that at all. And then watching them. And then the other part is all these kids are getting NIL now. And I do think it's a distraction.

I do think it's a distraction whether not to all of them, not to all, but I think for, for a lot of them, especially in the off season, when it was completely new to a lot of these guys and they were traveling all over the place instead of maybe working out quite as much. And I don't blame them. I mean, they're making more money than you and me. So, you know, have fun me for sure. Yeah, me too. Me for sure. Trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me.

That's making more money than I am this year. Um, and determinedly so. Yeah, exactly. Love, love them.

Love them to death. I love Mondo because he can take criticism. Like that's what I, I love about Mondo is like, he's pretty honest.

Yeah. And that was my issue with like Caleb love last year during the tournament. Cause like Mondo pretty much admitted, Hey, you know what? We were soft earlier in the year. We were, and Caleb couldn't do that. And I still think Caleb can't really, um, do that completely and, you know, change kind of, uh, his game a little bit, although, you know, against Pitt, he only shot nine times. And I think the beauty of this team should be that they're balanced, right? They got four dudes that can all score, move the ball, play the bench a little bit more if you're Hubert, um, which you start to try to do.

Um, but I would be given such tremble, you know, 15 minutes, every single game, understanding that, you know, come February, you're going to be a much better team, uh, when you need to be. But I think the problem is, and I've said this for a while, like Caleb love can shoot you in and shoot you out of a game. Yeah.

And that's the beauty of them, right? He can win the game like he did, you know, in, in, in the sweet 16 and the national semifinals, you know, he basically won both of those games and then he can shoot you out of games too. And I just, I would love to see a little more consistency out of them. So I think he's got it in him, but I also feel like that's Hubert's to blame for a lot of that too, giving him the long leash. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's, there's good and bad.

Cause I think that happens even within the same game. Uh, he shoots you out, but then all of a sudden shoots you back in. I think the, I think the w the biggest nightmare, if you're rooting against, uh, North Carolina, the biggest nightmare is he goes over 11 and then he makes the 12th.

And now you go, Oh, okay. Because the next five are going and I don't care where he is. As soon as he crosses. Oh, he's a tough shot maker. He is a tough shot maker. I like it when he doesn't settle for the jump shot though. Cause I think when he's a driver, I think he's a much better player. Let me, we have to, uh, we have to say goodbye, but let me ask you one, one more thing real quick. We saw it last night and we saw it Saturday against Carolina is picked.

Like I'm like, good. Start a journey, not a fad kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton bike, bike plus or tread packages. Choose the package that will take your training to the next level with accessories like our cycling shoes, heart rate, band, non slip, grip, dumbbells, and more join now. And you'll see why 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active. A year later, all access membership separate offer in January 8th, 2023 excludes bike, bike plus, and tread basics.

See additional terms at one Peloton.com. Well, yeah, I mean, listen, Cape will give him credit. Like he just revamped through the portal, not that he had a choice, right?

Like he did. And you got Blake Henson who didn't play, you know, at Iowa state has been a godsend for him and Nellie Cummings, um, has been really good. And yeah, like Johnny, he was going to be their best player this year. He didn't even play.

He's been hurt most of the year. So you can, you can, for better or worse, you can completely flip your team every single year with a portal. And it gives you a chance if you're on the hot seat, uh, like Jeff cable is getting right now. We thank Jeff Goodman at Goodman hoops on Twitter.

And I do hope they don't have to change it to field of 90, the podcast series. Here's my question. And Jeff's not the right guy to answer this question anyway. Is, is it worth the added payouts? Are you go is, are the extra games really going to add up to enough money to make sure that everybody makes more money? It shouldn't even come down to that, but I know it does.

I'm not stupid. Start a journey, not a fad. Kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton bike, bike plus or tread packages. Choose the package that will take your training to the next level with accessories like our cycling shoes, heart rate band, non-slip grip, dumbbells, and more. Join now and you'll see why 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active. A year later, all access membership separate offer in January 8th, 2023 excludes bike, bike plus and tread basics. See additional terms at one Peloton.com.