Big wins for these Triangle college basketball teams.

All right, let's get to our friend Brian Geisinger. Pack Pride, Devil's Den covers the entire ACC because this is what he does. He's got a problem. And we take advantage of that problem.

He joins us on the Adam Gold Show. All right, let's start with North Carolina's finish. Can I ask you first, as a lover of the sport, do you think Chris Holtman, the coach of Ohio State, is a student of the game? Because I can't fathom why he didn't guard the inbound pass with two seconds left. Yeah, it was amazing to let Hubert Davis's play call, which he went with the old Brad Stevens play that Stevens' teams have been running since his time back at Butler, even before he got to the Celtics on those old sideline out of bounds plays where you throw it long and Caleb Love would have been running off a screen if there was enough time for Nance to throw it back to him. But instead, Nance gets single coverage, so there's only time for him to catch and shoot. And all that works out because there's no ball pressure on the guy taking the ball out on the side. Well, there wasn't ball pressure on either one.

He allowed the half court pass. Yes, exactly too. I mean, this stuff happens far too often. But yeah, the fact that it happened twice in the span of two seconds there onto not great situational awareness. But Chris Holtman's a really good coach. I think that's a philosophical thing with a lot of coaches. I tend to think it's really, really important to have ball pressure out there. Ohio State's got a bunch of tall guys on the roster to put one of those guys in front of the ball and have them jump up and down. It's not an easy pass to make even when you're not guarded. So make it more difficult to make that pass because if it's not perfect, if you guard it well, that pass could be thrown out of bounds. I didn't understand it on top of the fact that they were too passive and allowed RJ Davis to catch that pass wide open. That's like the NFL secondary just dropping 30 yards down the field and a little 20 yard out.

I didn't understand that. With that said. Well, just real quickly too, Ohio State's, they just melted the entire second half of the game. A little press from UNC is all that UNC really needed to completely turn that game on its side. So it was really not a strong final 8 to 10 minutes for the Buckeyes.

Yeah, I mean Carolina was down 10 with 6.45 to go. And everybody contributed by the way in that. It wasn't just, even though Bacott, Love and Davis scored, I don't know, 75-80% of their points, 71 of their 89.

That's more than 80% of the points I think. Even though they did that, it was close to it. Leaky Black hits a big three and then Pete Nance hits the shot that ties the game and forces the overtime. And then in the overtime, I think we all assumed we knew what was going to happen because of the momentum shift. What did you see from North Carolina in the game other than a shortening of the bench? That was basically five guys and maybe one extra player off the bench combined split up really with two guys. Yeah, I mean it kind of looked like UNC's rotation late last season, right?

Where they just completely said, you know, here's who we're playing. You know, ultimately to the UNC team we saw play, you know, winning basketball down the stretch is kind of the team I think a lot of us expected to see this season. Leaky Black's development as a spot up shooter, as a clutch shooter for this team, maybe in a small sample, but is pretty important for them as well. I do think one of the big difference pieces for them, like one, when Caleb Love scores with some level of efficiency, UNC is generally pretty good.

That's no real surprise. He's their top flight shooting guard or whatever. But I think a lot of it depends on how those points come and, you know, certainly he got hot from three and that's great. He has the ability to do that every couple of games. But you saw him start to turn the corner and get downhill and force and sort of like, you know, not only like bend but actually break the Ohio State defense, force rotations, put pressure on the rim. And when he's able to do that, man, it's huge. And then just RJ Davis being steady with the basketball, but I think that's something you can usually count on. It's the rim pressure from Love is sort of, you know, less, I mean, for lack of a better term, it's like, it's less consistent. It's not something you see every game for UNC, but when it's there, it just, it makes everything else so much easier for them offensively. And, you know, look, Love has the three pointers that he can play off of to force some of those. And Hubert Davis does a really nice job designing offense and scheming stuff up to get Love going downhill. So I think it really is just like having the right mentality, the right aggression, and just sort of like trusting the process and the flow of the offense.

The looks, the looks can be there. And when Love is able to really like puncture the paint, it just does. It has huge benefits all over for UNC's offense. And I think in some ways, we also saw part of what the how Carolina did it a year ago, is that it does, Love can miss a ton of shots. When he makes one, all of a sudden, it's just like it all flows. And he is, he is that guy that it doesn't matter if he's 0 for 12.

If the 13th one goes in, he may, he might make, and I don't think he actually did this, but he might make his next five. Yeah, I mean, like he and Terquavian Smith at NC State, you want them to have that, I'm sure at times for various portions of both fan bases at State and UNC, they may question what those guys are up to offensively. But I think ultimately, you want the aggression, you want those guys chasing shots, looking for shots, because those, those three point looks, they mean their bombs, their momentum shifts, they open things up everywhere else on the floor. My biggest gripes with Love aren't even on the offensive end.

Right. Like in, you know, I have some frustrations with his inability to pressure the rim consistently. But for him, it's really the defense like that. I think that's really where he is, um, can kind of be like the most efficient.

And often that's like screen navigation, that type of stuff. But offensively, like, you know, Caleb Love, despite some of the flaws and limitations, like he's really impactful and good on that side of the court. Brian Geisinger, Pack Pride, Devil's Den, we haven't even gotten to the two schools he's actually paid to cover.

But I know he watches the entire league. Before we get to State and Duke, I am curious your thoughts on this. I think there are five teams that I believe are good in the ACC. I'm not ranking them, not putting them in order.

And I think there's varying degrees of good. Miami, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke and North Carolina. Is that, is that accurate? And is there or are there teams I've left out?

No, I mean, I think that's right. Like, those are definitely the five best teams. I think, you know, it's like if State, you know, if State can pull it out on the win, it's tough because it's like if they win at Miami, you know, they probably get factored into this conversation maybe a little bit more. And that's tough because that game, you know, they control a lot of it and then just sort of, you know, I mean, you could see Miami, you know, they were like the monster at the end of the scary movie chasing them down.

You can see it coming. So I think those are the five that have certainly like set themselves up to be, you know, the most likely teams that could, you know, I guess, A, maybe win the league and also B, maybe get to the second weekend of the tournament. I think there are some other teams in the league that have the ability to play with any of those teams.

You know, I don't think anyone's a juggernaut in the league and maybe have the ability to sort of like reach a certain level on both sides of the floor or elite status on one side of the floor to jump up to that level states maybe one of those teams. Notre Dame feels like a piece or two short. Syracuse, I just don't totally trust the offense quite yet with them, although, you know, Judah Mintz is having a nice freshman season for them. And then unfortunately, they're just some like really bad teams in the league right now too. But no, I would say those five have separated themselves, though I think a team like State has the ability to maybe get up to that level at some point this season.

I said this about NC State. When I saw them play against Kansas, that I think they can be the best of the middle of the pack. And I think they have enough talent in Smith and Joyner who can get their own shots. And DJ Burns is, he's a factor. And and we'll see what the new kid coming in can offer them when he becomes, you know, part of the rotation. But they have the opportunity, I think, to be the best of that next group. And if they can pick off a couple against the top teams, they might have a chance to play their way into NCAA tournament conversations.

All right. So let's talk about the Wolfpack who they were not efficient. Joyner and Smith were not efficient in the win over Vanderbilt.

And Vanderbilt's not great. But Burns was really good. And Burns kind of triggered that 7-2 run to close the game and saw that game out.

Yeah. And just real quickly, should mention very, very briefly, I think Clemson probably deserves some consideration for that other like best team in the middle of the league too. Like they've had some dumb losses this year, but Brad Brunel is a good coach. They shoot a bunch of threes.

They pass the ball well offensively. PJ Hall's one of the better offensive players in the league, et cetera. But yeah, like Burns in the game against Vanderbilt. I mean, I think ultimately that game was, was so good for him from a variety of reasons.

One, because he did the stuff that state brought him in to do, which was like, he can be a pressure relief valve for the offense when the pick and roll with Terquavion. And he had a tough night shooting when the pick and roll with Terquavion Smith isn't working and Jarkel Joiner's getting blitzed or double teamed out of the pick and roll. Well, you can just throw the ball to, to Burns on the block.

Right. And you can, you can, he can either score if it's single coverage, or if you send help, he can pick out a cutter or he can hit the skip pass. Like he did the Jack Clark for a big three in the second half of that game. So, and then the second thing with Burns that I thought was so impressive that night, it looked like there was a period of time in the second half after state went on their sort of like initial, a second half run where it looked like maybe they were maybe running out of gas a little bit.

And you're sort of wondering, how many minutes can you get out of Burns? You know, there's no more Dusan Mihorčić at the moment who again, state continues to really, really miss that guy on both sides of the court. I thought that was really apparent against Vanderbilt, but Burns just sort of like, man, he found another, he found another source of energy and closed out the game for them in a way that was absolutely necessary. Because, you know, Evie Diwana gives them some defense, but he's, he's a, you know, he's kind of a liability offensively. And Ernest Ross has a lot of potential, but he's still trying to figure out, you know, what position he plays, what his role looks like. Like, he's kind of having some stuff get moved around with him right now, especially without Mihorčić.

And he's one of the guys that's being asked to do different stuff and do more of certain things. So for Burns to step up and play like that, and to be a presence, and to like be in the right spots defensively, and give them a hub of like mid post and low post offense, I thought was huge. I still think with Burns, like, I do like it a little bit more when State is intentional about carving him out some space and then throwing it to him in the post, like they set a cross screen for him, or they set another screen for him in the middle of the lane, and then he can duck in and seal, as opposed to when they just say, hey, everyone space it out, let's throw it to DJ. I like when he gets a little bit deeper post position and then starts to, then starts to go to work. But I mean, he got it done every which way against Vanderbilt.

I thought he was, I thought he was really huge. And obviously Joyner made some just, you know, massive shots for them, as did Casey Morsell, who really, really, really played well for State. He and Jack Clark and LJ Thomas, those three guys do a really nice job moving without the ball, and Burns looks for them when he's trying to pick out cutters from the post. I thought Kevin Keats took a lot of heat last year for some of the, the players that they brought in just not being good enough. It might've just taken Casey Morsell a year, because it looks like now it hasn't been there every night, but I mean, there aren't a lot of guys who were there every night, no matter how good you are.

But I think Morsell has been really, I think a positive sign for them. And they've got, I think they have enough if they can get enough, like my fear about DJ Burns is more, what is his stamina? You know, can he, can he play a lot of minutes in a high level game? Is he going to be a defensive liability?

Because I see it all the time. He has a hard time getting back to getting back down the court defensively. He just does.

I mean, that's just the reality of what DJ Burns is. So it's going to be hard for them to play the kind of, they almost need somebody else with size on the court that can protect the rim a little bit. How long do we have to wait for Isaiah Miranda A to be eligible and B to be ready?

Yeah, honestly, man, I'm not entirely sure. Certainly talent wise and size wise, like he makes a lot of sense for, for what they're looking for. I still do think with young centers, you know, it does take some time to sort of figure out pick and roll defense, which I really do think like, that's the area of concern. If I was to circle what they're missing without Mihorczyk, that and the rebounding, his ability to, to be a threat on the role in the half court for state's offense.

I think we talked something, some about this after, after he was hurt gold. But so, I mean, if Miranda can, you know, obviously he'll be able to give them some rim protection, give them some offense, but just how solid can he be guarding ball screens? Because when DJ has the stamina, like he's, he's, he's like, honestly, he's a big dude, but like he moves, he's got good feet.

He moves his feet. It's just when he gets tired and he can't make it up and down the corner, he starts reaching a little bit or whatever. I do think overall Burns pick and roll defense. Like I wouldn't say it's been good or a positive this season. I think it's been like acceptable for the most part, except when he gets put in tough spots and sometimes team do, do a good opponents do a good job of like emptying out the corner and then having them running pick and roll.

And there's no sort of like natural help because the, the action's not coming in the middle of the court. And so I think state gets into trouble sometimes there from a positioning standpoint, but that's not even always burns his fault. Like sometimes the guy guarding the basketball, like, I mean, it doesn't do a good job staying attached to either, but you just real quickly about Morsell, like his development from year one at Virginia, like gold, I'm sure you saw him when he played at UVA.

I watched probably all but one or two games. He played those first two seasons at UVA. I've seen every game he's played at state and his development from a guy that just like, couldn't find his way in Tony Bennett's blocker mover offense to what he is now. Like, he's just as like this awesome catch and shoot, catch and go player guy that gets loose and transition. Like he would be first off, he would be an awesome fit in Virginia's offense. He's a guy that couldn't, that guy doesn't need the ball and comes off screens. He can really shoot. But I just, a guy that was so reliant on tough off dribble mid range twos and has turned into just like one of the premier catch and shoot snipers in the ACC is really impressive. Casey gets a ton of credit for that. And I think state staff probably does too.

Cause it did take them four years, you know? I think we saw signs of it last year and certainly like what he does defensively, he guards a bunch of positions. He's good at the point of attack. Like he's just a really well-rounded two-way guard because he doesn't need the basketball all that often. Cause he can spot up and shoot a perfect fit, which Arkel Joyner and Tequavion Smith who want the ball. No question.

All right. We've got about 60 seconds left and we waited too long to get to it. Duke is at Wake tomorrow. Tell me what you think about the game and what you've seen from the Blue Devils. It looks like Wake's going to struggle. But I mean, it's hard to hit, to hit, to roll sevens on every single transfer you get.

They put two guys in the NBA out of the transfer portal last year. So what do you think about this game coming up tomorrow night? Yeah. I mean, for one, Wake needs to be better against pressure. I mean, if you saw the watch the Rutgers game, look Rutgers is one of the best defensive teams in the country, but like they heated things up and Wake just melted. It was a beating, you know, like what, 30 turnovers or somewhere in that neighborhood way too much. Rutgers turns a lot, turns a lot of teams over, but that was their highest in terms of turnover rate percentage wise highest game this season. Duke does mix in a press.

They mix in a half court, three quarters court trap. I mean, I guess I'm sure we'll see that against Wake tomorrow night. I think for Duke is just trying to get healthy. You're just trying to get Dereek Whitehead worked into the offense. It does feel like he's played better three out of the last four games. And I do think he's kind of like the last piece, but just making sure that like, he's healthy.

He's good to go. Jeremy Roach, who missed the last game before the break, making sure that he's healthy and good to go and just like keep figuring out ways to get Dereek Lively rolling downhill, the pick and roll, and just getting Kyle Philipaski the ball. You know, and then I guess for Wake Forest, look, it's making sure that Tyree Appleby is healthy. He played against Rutgers and played pretty well in that game, but like, they're so reliant on his creation offensively that even for a team that has good guards and is like, well coached and well orchestrated offensively, they really need the rim pressure from Appleby.

So my guess would be Duke tries to limit him, especially if he's compromised physically and also tries to heat things up and force turnovers in that game. At big guys underscore bird on Twitter. As long as we still have Twitter. Pac Pride, Devil's Den, Brian Geisinger, my friend. If I don't speak to you, I'm sure I will. But if I don't, Merry Christmas to you and yours. And I'll talk to you soon. Find your favorite at Wingstop where flavor gets its wings.