Panthers get No. 1 pick; UNC opts out of the NIT

State hung on. We have brackets. We have brackets. State hung on to an 11 seed. They will take on Creighton. That's what happens when you drop three of your last five including twice to a one seed in the NIT.

And neither of those games in competitive fashion. That's what happens. Like, a couple of weeks ago after they beat Carolina, we're thinking they could end up in a home uniform in the NCAA tournament. You just got the feeling that they were playing their way onto the bubble. Like, that's where we feel like we belong.

So let's just go there. Didn't like the way they ended the season. Didn't like the way that they didn't defend. Yes, they defended against Virginia Tech in their game. They played Virginia Tech in the first round of their first ACC tournament game, right? And Virginia Tech is more than a capable team and NC State blew their doors off.

Tech's in the NIT. But, boy, that was missing. They played Virginia Tech, right? On Thursday night. But, boy, that was missing. Wednesday night.

On Thursday against Clemson. Totally missing. They capitulated and I thought they kind of gave up in the game. And that bothered me in and of itself. That bothered me. They gave up in the game.

I don't want to spend too much time on this. We are going to get back to all of that. Duke won the ACC tournament. On one hand, I'm told that beating the fifth, first, and second overall seeds in the ACC tournament is an epic establishment mere mortals can only hope to dream of. That's true.

Right? That's what I was told. On the other hand, it's no more impressive than winning a second grade YMCA league. I was told both.

I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle there. Fourth grade YMCA. Maybe. Duke was gifted. I don't know. Earned a five seed. Do they feel under seeded to you, Dennis? No. If you want to say they're a four, fine. Okay.

I don't know. Seeding at the end doesn't matter. It matters a little, but I don't think it matters greatly.

Certainly the difference between a four and a five is not awesome. You're going to play them. If you beat a team that theoretically you should beat, although I believe Oral Roberts will be a problem for Duke because I believe that anybody that they play can be a problem for Duke. Remember, what happens to their offense at times doesn't show.

We've all seen it. So as long as they can play with the same offensive execution, which for the most part was good at the ACC tournament, they should be fine against Oral Roberts, but we all know what's out there. Anyway, there are people who think that Duke is under seeded and there are people who believe that Duke is over seeded and both could be true. I don't know. We'll find out.

We'll talk more about this in a little bit. The ACC received five bids. Pitt goes to the first four.

They'll play tomorrow night. Virginia and Miami also in the field. Virginia four, Miami a five seed.

Right? So the ACC got a four, a five, a five, an eleven, and then an eleven in the play. Yeah, that's where the ACC is. Second straight year, the league got just five bids. Last year, they placed two teams in the final four, one in the elite eight.

That was Miami. And they get no respect for what they did last year. I'm not sure you should, but then again, the ACC's PR wing doesn't do a good enough job of hammering into everybody's brain that every game in the ACC is a gauntlet. You take your life into your hands every time you play an ACC basketball game. Do we not automatically know this about the Southeastern Conference? Every football game that they play doesn't make a difference.

Oh my gosh, you could get beat by 70. No matter who you play, no matter who you are, every SEC game is like playing the NFC Championship game. Everyone.

Because that's what we are conditioned to believe. So we need to start this earlier. Ignore, ignore losses, ignore data.

Every ACC game is the toughest basketball game you've ever seen. If we start this early enough, I believe we can make it headway in that. Alright, let's get to the biggest bombshell that dropped on Friday.

The Panthers swung a deal with the Bears to grab the first overall pick in the draft, which just happens to be, wait, I want to check this officially because we have a draft countdown clock. Dennis, do we have the technology to put this on the television screen yet? Not yet, but we can maybe make it happen. Can we get Video Joe to do this? I think we could.

Does he do that? Who's in charge of that? I think Video Joe is the one to do it. Alright, so let's do this. We are 45 days. I'm trying to do the math here. 9 hours? No, 8, 7 hours. 45 days, 7 hours, and 51 minutes away from the NFL Draft. 45 days, 7 hours, and 51 minutes less now. Minutes away from the NFL Draft. That's how long we have until the Panthers are officially on the clock.

So we'll keep updating this throughout the day because it will be funny. They are already on the clock. Well, not officially on the clock.

They are figuratively on the clock. Hey, they could still trade that pick. There you go.

Right? Didn't you hear that? They could still trade that pick. No! They didn't just do this to trade the pick. Are you nuts? Okay, so stop with the silliness.

So here's what they did. Number 9. Number 61, which is the second round pick they received from the 49ers in the Christian McCaffrey trade. Next year's number 1. And the following year's number 2.

And DJ Moore. They go to the Bears. All of that goes to the Bears in exchange for the first pick in this draft. So it's a 1. Next year's number 1. Two 2's. And more. Dennis, you have I think a more accurate breakdown of what the Panthers have actually given up for the first pick in this year's draft.

What is it? You're talking about just in terms of what they've given up for a quarterback? For a quarterback, yes. Okay, so we're going all the way back to the Sam Darnold move.

So yeah, that tells you everything that you need to know. But the Carolina Panthers have given up a 20-21 6th, a 20-22 2nd, a 20-22 4th, another 20-22 4th, a 20-23 3rd, a 20-24 5th. And then the picks that you just mentioned. The swapping the first this year, a second later on this year, a first next year, and a second in 2025 in DJ Moore. So 10 total picks and a wide receiver.

A starting wide receiver for one position. And they gave up some of that. They got Baker Mayfield in that. They gave up something to get him, right? Yeah, that was included in all that too. So that's for Darnold, Mayfield, drafting Matt Corral, and then now this.

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Capital One and a member FDIC. So four quarterbacks. Yep. For that. Yeah.

10 picks and DJ Moore for four guys who? Yeah. That's what they've given up so far. So far. We're not done yet. All right. So that's, that's brilliant by the way.

I'm going to write that down next time. I don't think on its face, this is an awful trade. I don't, I think this is fine. Other than giving away your only credible wide receiver. Yeah. And knowing that you're going to draft a quarterback and now you have no credible wide receivers on the roster. Other than that, and you don't have a tight end, nor do you have a pass catching back. Excuse me.

I'm going through twitches now. Not sure who the new quarterback's throwing to. Yeah.

That person's not in the building. So other than giving away your only credible wide receiver, I don't think they gave away too much. Really don't. For the, to move up from nine to one, this is not like when the bears moved up from three to two. What did the bears give up for Mitch Trubisky?

Three number ones, right? To move up one spot. What did the 49ers give up to move up to number three, where they drafted Trey Lance, who might never play for them. So I don't think the Panthers gave up too much. It was probably a fair deal. I don't think they had to overpay for this, but now what?

Yeah, we get to the, but now what? You got to guess right. And I wish you luck guessing right.

There is no can't miss prospect in this quarterback quarterback class. None of them. Like they might all hit to be honest.

I don't know. They might all be good enough. And none of them might be good enough. That possibility exists. So you drafted, you traded up from nine to one. Now you have to guess right.

All right. So we will, we will get back to this topic of conversation real quick, but I think Bryce Young is probably the best passer, best decision maker, best quarterback talent. I'm not talking about biggest arm, biggest body, best runner. I'm talking about a guy who can throw the football, read defenses, all of that. The quarterback talents here.

But he's small and will likely break in half in the NFL. That's my fear. We'll get back to that. Speaking of, by the way, the biggest winner here are the Panthers fans. How about Panthers fans actually winning here for a change their organization, this owner decided don't care.

We're going to take the risk all the chips into the middle of the table right here. Good. Good for them. Good for the fans because there's some hope in Panthers fan nation for a change. Although I think there's also a great deal of skepticism.

Oh yeah, that's fair too. Uh, and speaking of chips, the North Carolina Senate has a sports gambling bill on the floor. Yes, it's about time. It is about time. Let the debating begin. Now, uh, one more thing before we get to our main topic, Carolina hurricanes are scored just one goal in the last three games combined.

That's it. One goal, last three games combined. Second straight shutout loss. The, uh, devils and hurricanes tied atop the Metro at 94 points. Canes have a game in hand. Last goal of any kind, 177 minutes, 51 seconds ago. That was Andrei Svechnikov on the power play versus Philadelphia. Canes won that game, won nothing. Last five on five goal, 183 minutes and 38 seconds ago.

Jesper Faust game tying goal in the third period in Montreal, a game that Carolina wanted to shoot at. That's where we are. That's where we are right now. All right, now to, I think the number one story today.

And we are here for phone calls a little in a little bit about this because I want, I want people to weigh in on this. North Carolina, as expected, did not receive an NCAA at large bid. They did not get it. Very few people thought they would get it once the ACC tournament, the end of the regular season and the ACC tournament played out the way it did. Had they beaten Duke at the end of the regular season? Maybe. Had they beaten Virginia for the second time in two weeks at the ACC tournament? Maybe.

Maybe not. But they lost to Virginia at the ACC tournament. They lost to Duke the week before. Then they declined a bid to the NIT, which is also not really a surprise. We were told by several people who cover the team that that's the way they were leaning.

I knew going into the weekend that that's the way they were leaning. And I will just say shame. Shame on them for doing that. That's a terrible, terrible decision for a lot of reasons. But before we get to the reasons why it's a bad, bad decision and it's it, I think, reflects poorly on the basketball program. Let me say this. Off the hop. I 100 percent understand how disappointing this season had to have been for every single person in that locker room. I am like.

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See Capital One dot com slash bank for details. Capital One and a member of the IC who are trying hard and competing and trying to find something that works as a team. You know that like I am not I am not the the person who denigrates the effort of the player at all. This is not about that. They gave everything they could as best they could this season. It didn't work out.

It did not work out for them as a team. I understand and feel for them. I feel for Armando Bacon, who wore his emotions on his sleeve all year long.

All year. I feel for him. He was the most visible representative of that team.

Leaky Black probably right behind him, right? So I feel terrible that the season unravel. I feel bad for all of them. But those two guys were like the public faces of this of the players.

So I feel bad for them. Preseason number one. Even though they should never have been preseason number one. As I said all year long, I get why they were. But if you really thought that this was the same team, that's a you problem.

It's not a them problem. I've always said about this team. The biggest problem was the assumption of this team. That just because you return 80% of your starting lineup from a team that had a 15 point lead in the national championship game at halftime. Just because of that doesn't mean it's the same team.

Even when you return all five starters, it's not the same team. Are we new? You can't be new here. By the way, I love the music bed here, Dennis.

You're a big fan of the music bed here. So I get they were preseason number one. They shouldn't have been. They couldn't get over the hump all year long.

We found out. Look, they almost beat Alabama. They needed four overtimes to lose that game, right? They were they were this close. If you win that game, heck, you're probably in the field if you win that game. Right. They beat Alabama.

End of end of discussion. They were lucky to beat Ohio State. They were gifted that win over Ohio State. At the time, that was their best win.

Their only good one. They were gifted that by Ohio State. Doesn't matter.

Nobody cares. They won it. Right. Had to run a great out of bounds play sideline out of bounds play just to just to win that game. So that was the feather in their cap. But ultimately, Ohio State wasn't an NCAA tournament team. I'm not even sure they made the postseason. So they couldn't get over the hump. And the national media who picked them number one overall to begin with, used them as a pin cushion all year long.

It was as though the national media reveled in North Carolina's disappointment. I mean, just the way I look at it. Right. It's the everybody's like camping preseason number one.

Be the first preseason number one to miss. Like, yeah, I get it. I get it. They did not name themselves preseason number one. Just I think it's fair to point out. And last year was, as I said from the beginning of this season, a product of the Brady Manning, Brady, Brady Manning, Brady Manick. Boy, that would be great if I got this right. We'll start that over.

Edit this out, Dennis. Last year was, as I said from the beginning, a product of the Brady Manick experience. Brady Manick's emergence as not only their best shooter, but their best competitor, the pulse of that team and the reason they beat Duke at Cameron and the reason they went to the Final Four, because Manick became a killer.

They got some bursts from Caleb Love and Armando Bacot continued to play at an incredibly high level. But the reason why the Tar Heels became great was because Brady Manick became great. And everybody that watched the team understood it. And a lot of those same people thought that way when they just replaced Brady Manick with Pete Nance, that it would be more of the same.

And that was unfair to Pete Nance too, by the way. Manick was great. But the team was always more about the first four months than the last four weeks.

Always. The Manick experience made them different. And when Brady Manick left, the team that played the first four months is the team that played this year. I don't know how we get around that. It was the same team that played the first four months that we weren't sure would make the NCAA tournament. We thought they'd be in, but they just kind of squeak in.

As it was, they were an eight seed anyway. And now they're above the NIT. How else do we process it? How else do we look at what they decided to do and say that, We're North Carolina.

We don't have to go to your NIT. Okay. That's a choice that was made. I think it's the wrong choice. And I wanted more leadership out of that program. I'm told it was a collaborative decision between the coaches and the players. And I am here to say it ain't a collaborative decision.

It's the decision of the program, which is led by the head coach. And my disappointment is Hubert Davis allowing the players who don't want to play. And I get it. I get it. I don't blame Armando Baycott and RJ Davis and Leaky Black and Caleb Love for being lost in their fields because of the way the season went and not want to play.

I understand it. But it ain't their decision because it's not their program. It's the University of North Carolina program. And last I checked, there are seven other players who could play. Johnson, Demarco Dunn, Jalen Washington, Tyler Nichols, Seth Trimble, Justin McCoy, Dontress Stiles. They could all play. I know they didn't this year for the most part. We had very few bench minutes, which is a failure, honestly, of the program this year.

You know, Hubert Davis makes that decision. Who plays? And I'm not in practice, so maybe all these guys stunk. I have no idea.

I don't think that's the case. Because the people we talked to on a regular basis were like, why isn't this guy playing? Why isn't this guy playing? And then when certain guys play, they're like, anyway, he played pretty well.

Where was that? Wouldn't be the first time we criticized the coach for not playing players. It's funny because Roy Williams used to operate under the assumption that, oh, do you have a scholarship here?

You're going to play. Remember, on a 2009 national championship team, we carved out four minutes a game for Tyler Zeller. There was no reason for Tyler Zeller to play behind all the front court players that Victorials had at the time. No reason, but scholarship, he's a prospect. We're going to give him four minutes a game.

Give him two minutes and a half. We didn't really get that. Not on a regular basis, not on a consistent basis for player. But wouldn't the NIT be a perfect place for those guys to get playing time? Yeah.

So my disappointment is in the lack of leadership, I think, that is being shown right now. And this is not a player decision. I respect, I would respect the hell out of Baycott's decision if he said, look, these guys want to play.

That's fine. I don't want to. Opt out. Opt out. But these guys should have the option of, not the option, they should have, they have the responsibility to play. And Huber, it's not a team, it's not four guys or five guys, it's a program. And your program should be in the NIT.

That is my disappointment. With one of the best savings rates in America, banking with Capital One is the easiest decision in the history of decisions. Even easier than choosing Slash to be in your band.

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