Is Duke the favorite?

When we were rudely interrupted by technology, we were talking with Wes Durham, and we still are. He is the voice of the ACC. He'll be on the call tonight with Jordan Cornett on the ACC Network. And here's what I miss about you not being here yet, Wes, is I miss the fact cards that you, the fact card, the big sheet that you have with all of the facts about the ACC tournament.

The one that Mike Bray, outgoing Notre Dame head coach, actually tweeted out the other day with an incredible honor to your dad. How you doing? Yeah, I'm great. Thanks, Adam. Great to be with you.

Sorry I'm not there yet. We had a quick change in our schedule. I would have loved to have been there live, but they rerouted our games a little bit, so Jordan and I are doing two and three rather than one and two today. Yeah, it's a special week for me and my family, and my dad loved this event. It was arguably his favorite event to do, and so I have that passion for it as well. And in all honesty, I'm humbled to be included on the broadcast. I enjoy the broadcast of this event.

I think it's a terrific event no matter how it's kind of staged. He started that card, I don't know how many years ago, when they were all doing, every network was doing all the games, and so I picked up on it as I moved along at Georgia Tech in the early years, and then I converted it to computer, and that was one of the first times he said, well, that's cheating. And I kept it alive, and I have all the versions of it on a desktop, and so I update every year, and it's not as arduous a task as it was, but I always like to change it around a little bit, and this is the true story. Sunday night, I came from Clemson to Greensboro on Sunday, and I was here in the hotel, and I had had Notre Dame to Clemson, and Bray walked up and he saw me in the lobby and he said, hey, hey, hey, I gotta ask you something. So I was just talking about that card you used to have at the tournament that your dad did. How many years did your dad do that card?

And I said, well, he did it at the games 40, and I'm gonna assume pretty close to 40, some version of it. And he said, you still got that card? I said, well, I've got it actually on my phone. You got it on your phone? I said, well, I've copied it, and in fact, I'm gonna text you the card when we're done here, okay?

So you can see it and have it and put it on your laptop or whatever. But he said, we're like third winning percentage, aren't we? Aren't we third? You update that thing. Your dad had that card, aren't we like third?

And sure enough, they're third and winning percentage because they won the tournament, of course. So one thing led to another in the conversation, and he wanted a copy of the card. So I sent him that portion of the card, and he tweeted it out yesterday, and I told him, I said, Coach, you're unbelievable.

And he said, hey, anything I can do to support your dad. So that's a fun moment with Mike Bray for sure. I'll tell you what, I want to get to some other things here, but he's sort of an old school. He's a throwback guy because nowadays coaches are guarded and they're not necessarily filled of personality, and I'm not trying to slam anybody. But Mike Bray is affable and open and available and honest.

You just don't see that in coaching in any sport. Well, and I said Saturday night with Randolph, we're going to miss him. And the reason we're going to miss him is all of that. That's why we're going to miss him. Hell of a coach.

Great guy. But that part you just talked about is the reason we're going to miss it. It's the same way we miss Bobby Kremen.

It's the same way we miss Dave Odom to a degree, because Mike Bray was an assistant with K in an era when he understood this league, and people laugh about this nationally, but they laugh because they don't understand. People laugh about this league being a cocktail party, you know, but it's the best quality of this league when it's running the right way. You follow me? Yes. And it means that we can all get along and we all understand that everybody's trying to beat their brains out, the other guy's brains out. But at the same time, there's a collegiality about the event, this event in particular, but also the coaches in it. And you remember the, you know, I think you were at Maryland, but you remember the K, the Valvano, the, you know, Kremens, the, you know, Dean Smith, Terry Holland, God bless, who we just lost, of course, Lefty and all the, and then Lefty became Gary.

Right. And so it all kind of morphed. And even Gary, you know, Gary wanted to get everybody in a room and start talking about golf and, you know, not as much as team. Mike is a guy who wants to talk about, Hey, you know, when I'm done here, I'm, I'm going to Florida. I don't want to spend another winter in South bed.

And I get it. And you know, he may coach again. And if he does, then, you know, that school will be better for having Mike Bray as their coaches. Notre Dame has been, and I'd say this, it's, it's not an ominous follow. Like John Shire following Mike, she says, if you're Hubert Roy or whatever the case may be, but following Mike Bray at Notre Dame, ain't going to be damn as easy as some people think it is. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

Not at all. Look, they hadn't been all that great last few years, but man, Notre Dame's run in the mid teens was really good. They made back to back elite eights.

That is, that is some seriously lofty stuff. They won the title here in 15. Duke won the national championship that year. So I think Duke, I think the ACC might've had three teams in the elite eight that season as well. Western, the voice of the ACC will be on games two and three with Jordan Cornette today. We're going to talk to Jordan coming up in a little bit.

How do you see this? I mean, it's wide open. It's so cliche to say it's wide open. I know what the betting favorite is. That's Duke. Are they the favorite here? Is Duke the favorite here? I think that, well, unfortunately I think we're going to see it in a semi before we see it in a final. Cause I think Duke, Miami, and then if we get Duke, Miami, that means hopefully we've also had Pitt and Duke, right?

Because if we can get Pitt and Duke in a five, four game, and then Duke Miami in a four, one game, you will have seen two, I think pretty high level basketball games from teams that only played each other once in the regular season. I have said for, and you've heard me say this to you, I think I have said for six, eight weeks that from tomorrow at noon on, it's going to be a street fight. Everyone loves TV Dad. On the next TV Dad presented by Progressive, TV Dad explains becoming a man.

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Capital One and A member FDIC. And I believe that because I think if hypothetically a Boston College and Virginia Tech advance today, those two teams will fit the personalities of the remaining teams. Now, Quentin Post is going to be a game time decision tonight for Earl Grant, the big kid. And I think if BC and Virginia Tech advance and whether Georgia Tech or Florida State advances, I don't think either one of those teams beats Pitt. But I do believe that everybody else will have a sluggers chance to get to Friday night. And if you have a little Cinderella mixed in with, you know, three hammers that are already in the field, Duke, Virginia, Miami, hypothetically, it'd be really interesting to see what it turns out looking like for sure. This could be a good tournament for NC State.

It could be. It's going to have to some of the dynamic of NC State's going to have to change. And I think the eight days off, nine days off may help Kevin hit a little bit. I think it's it's going to be really interesting to watch them play. And you and I've had this discussion at this event before where the team that has that bye. And I remember one year it was Wake Forest and they came out third stone cold and gone. Right.

Yeah. I think NC State has to be careful. They have to be disciplined and deliberate early in the game tomorrow because I think that's going to be critical to ultimately playing well. And I'd like to see to Quavion Smith maybe, you know, catch a flyer here. I think it's the you know, the long, slow fade at the end of the regular season was something that I don't think he was expecting or the Wolfpack was expecting. Now, D.J.

Burns, Casey Morsell, they played well in in kind of his decline. But if they can get Smith and Joyner rolling together, NC State could go a long way in Greensboro. Yeah, I love their I love their backcourt and funny. We were talking.

We'll have to let you go here in a minute. Western. I actually thought that Jarkel Joyner was a good kind of a sneaky pick for ACC Player of the Year. I was watching bald men on campus a couple of weeks ago with Seth Greenberg, Jay Billis and Lofonso Ellis and their pick for ACC Player of the Year was to Quavion Smith. And I texted Seth and I said, Jordan is the best player on their team.

Yeah. And this is not a slight to not a slight to Smith. I think just Joyner has been the best player on that team all year long.

They both got placed on the ACC's second team, which is fair. I mean, it's a crazy league this year. But I think Joyner is the key. But if they want to win this, they need to Quavion Smith to be a star.

I totally agree with you. I think he can be a star. I think D.J. Burns can be a major player in this. Although, as you know, sometimes these games get bogged down at the block and it's hard for Biggs to really be a factor in them. But I don't disagree with that. I think he's got a heck of a chance to if Smith catches fire, he could do.

And I'm not going to say Randolph Childress type things, but he could he could get in that neighborhood. Let's put it that way. Well, that would be that would be a lot of fun.

It'd be fun to to see you a little bit later on. Everyone loves TV Dad. On the next TV Dad presented by Progressive. TV Dad explains becoming a man.

Son, it's time we had to talk. OK, TV Dad. You know, drivers who switch and save with Progressive could save hundreds. Oh, is that why my voice is changing? That's a question for your health teacher.

Listen to your TV Dad. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive could save hundreds. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary.