UNC Basketball impresses over Michigan

This is the Adam Gold show.

You're listening to the Adam Gold show on the North Carolina Sports Network. Bush Light is now giving away bush lights to put outside in your bushes and they look like little beer cans. Little beer cans of Bush Light. Yes. Can I just say no thanks?

Yes, you absolutely can and you should. And then the Bush lights. You're winning. You're winning.

Yes, you are. You're winning something. If someone ever does this, please, you are going to win Christmas in my opinion. This Christmas card was sent to you by the people at Miller High Life.

Merry Christmas. Wow. Hi everyone, it's Adam Gold.

This is the Adam Gold show. Dennis Cox is sitting in for Victoria. That was something. That was. You could tell.

The joy was busting out of Victoria at that point. And I don't blame her. Now, Miller High Life for me. You and I have never talked about. Well, you're not a beer drinker, right? Oh yeah, I am. Oh, you are.

Why don't I think you were? I don't do wine. I'm not a coffee drinker. No, I'm not a coffee drinker. Wine is good.

No, wine allows you to pretend to be sophisticated. Yeah, I don't want to do that. You don't want to be. Just pretend. No.

I am who I am. Okay. Miller High Life rocks still. Yeah? Oh my gosh.

It's the champagne of beers. So anyway, welcome to the show. You and me today and tomorrow, right?

That's right. Oh, it's very exciting. We have some very cool things today. John Shire is going to join us in about 25 minutes or so. Let's see what else is going to happen. Rod Brindamore is going to be along in about 10, 12, however many minutes. We have Brendan Whitted, league pass layer guy. Yes.

He's going to be here, sitting over there in studio. We have a lot of things we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the Mets spending spree.

And I mean, not even going to make an editorial comment other than, wow. Yeah. You know how much they spent? Billion. Almost.

Actually, almost. Yeah, I said that as a legit answer. Not spent, but committed. Well, committed.

Right? Because it's over many, many, many years, but they committed $806.1 million in contract to nine players. And I'm just going to say it out loud. I'll bet you they're not done.

I'll bet you they're not done. The luxury tax bill is going to be 113 million, which is more than the payrolls of 12 teams. And you know who I blame for that?

Those 12 teams. Nobody else, nobody else, nobody else. So think of all the things you could buy for the 800 plus million dollars. A third baseman. He could. And a 39 year old starting pitcher. Yeah.

So yeah, that's what Steve Cohen does. Holiday shopping online, mostly online. Very nice. You can buy the canes, I think. The valuation of the Hurricanes at about, I mean, they were pretty, I think they were 28th in the NHL. A little over $600 million, according to Sportico, or Forbes. So the Forbes valuation.

You're probably not going to be surprised. What do you think the number one NHL team was in terms of value? Canadians? No. Or Leafs?

No. Rangers. Rangers.

$2.2 billion. For the Rangers. The Leafs were second.

I knew it was an original six. The Leafs were second. But yes, the Hurricanes, I think the Hurricanes were ahead of the Florida Panthers. They were ahead of Arizona. Arizona's like who?

Exactly. I'm trying to think who else. I think we could online shop and buy the Arizona Coyotes right now. Steve Cohen just signed the Arizona Coyotes to a three year deal.

They will be playing for the Mets. Alright. Leaf pitcher. We got these.

He signed three of those. Yeah. I can't wait. Wild. Alright. We got a lot of stuff to do.

Here we go. What are the holidays about, Dennis? Presents. Well, yes.

What else are the holidays about? Food. Yeah. Baking, right? Yes. By the way, before I talk about baking, whoever brings those cocoa dusted chocolate bombs. No.

No. They're amazing. Yes, they are amazing.

Don't bring them to the kingdom anymore. They're chocolate truffles. They're too good. They're fantastic. I've convinced myself that dark chocolate, good antioxidants, healthy. I've just made myself healthier. Right.

So the holidays are about baking. Can the Hurricanes make it a baker's dozen tonight in Pittsburgh? Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Here are the rest of the week. Thankfully, just until tomorrow. I'm going to guess that it will be Pyotr Kachetkov again tonight. The Penguins, the more difficult ask than the Flyers, although Flyers can beat you just like any team in the NHL can beat you. No Aho for the seventh straight game.

He did not board the plane to go to Pittsburgh, so we will not see Sebastian Aho play tonight. And one of the things that has been the hallmark of the Hurricanes the last really this entire stretch has been how spread out the production has been. I mean, really spread out. The production has been nobody in this 12 game stretch has more than nine points. That includes, like the leading, the nature says, and the special cops who are about a point a game, right? Nobody in this stretch has more than nine points. And that's actually Brent Burns who has nine points in this stretch, but really what this has been about more than anything else. Goal prevention, not scoring. The Hurricanes are one of the best teams in the entire league when it comes to keeping the puck out of their own net eight of the last 12 games. They have allowed two or fewer goals. You know what Carolina's record is when they allow two or fewer goals. Pretty good.

15 0 and one. That's pretty good. Yep. That is pretty good. So that's what the Hurricanes are aiming to do.

All right, moving on. We'll talk to Rod Brind'Amour, by the way, in about eight minutes or so. North Carolina leaned on their best players last night. That's what they needed. They beat Michigan. I think it was 80 to 76 with the final score. The 76 was sort of fraudulent because there were just, there was a late three basically at the buzzer.

North Carolina was the better team. It wasn't always easy. It was easy eventually.

Easy is probably not the right word. They earned a 26 points for Armando Bacott. Hubert Davis talked about his big man. I think Armando's been really, really good. I think he's been really good since the Georgia Tech game. I think he's been at his best. Prior to the last four games, that second half against College of Charleston, I thought he was really special. I'm not really thinking about player of the year, but the way that he's playing, he's playing with a hunger and thirst. It's not only is he scoring, he's really working hard to get the ball in the right position and he's been really special, not just offensively, but on the defensive end as well. He took an elbow last night too. Took a little bit of an elbow there. Look, Armando's a great player.

A great player. And what I think Hubert has not realized, but is emphasizing at this point, is making sure that they run their offense through number five. When we came back from our road trips and we had a little bit of time to practice and I said, you know, we were going to look at things and tweak and alter and pivot some things. And one of the things that we tweaked was, is like we have to feed him the ball.

Like it has to go inside out as opposed to outside in. And that's just really energized him. And when we come down the floor, like our first, second, third option is to throw the ball down low to him.

And I think at the beginning of the year, it may not have been the first option or we gave him one look and then we went away. Now we're giving him multiple looks and he's, he's, he's playing extremely well. Yes, he is absolutely playing extremely well. RJ Davis played well last night.

19 points. I think he had six rebounds, five assists, four of eight from three point range. Caleb Love. I know the shooting numbers weren't necessarily awesome, but here's what I liked about Caleb Love. When he becomes a driver, because he is powerful, I think he becomes a better player.

And look, the shots are going to be there. He is a big shot maker, but I love it when Caleb Love becomes a driver. I didn't realize, by the way, Joey Baker had transferred to Michigan. I knew he transferred. I didn't know he went to Michigan. Joey Baker got some time in the second half and actually hit, hit a few with three of six and three point range.

Although the last one was the garbage one at the end, but he kept them in it, kept them viable. Joey Buckets? Yes, Joey Buckets.

Exactly. All right, one more thing before we get to Rod Brind'Amour. Week 16 kicks off tonight in the NHL. We actually have two things to talk about as it pertains to National Football League stuff. Jaguars and Jets tonight. For the second straight week, I kid you not, for the second straight week, a game out of nowhere becomes important. Remember, last week it was, wait a second, when did the Lions and the Jets become a big game? Yeah. Right? When did that become important? When did that become a deal?

Well, it was. The Lions could very well make the playoffs. The Jets, who lost and have now lost three in a row, can still make the playoffs.

The Jaguars have everything on their racket. They've won two in a row, right? Think they've won two in a row? Sure.

Or something like that. They've won four of six. Okay. They scored a bunch of points and won an overtime over the Cowboys last week. And they have a very, this game is very meaningful because if the Jaguars win out, the Jaguars are in the playoffs.

I mean, if they win out, they are in the playoffs. And Ryan Tannehill looks like he's going to be out for the season for the Titans. Right. That is, I think that's a bad thing for the Titans. Yeah.

I'm not 100% sure. I think that's a bad thing for the Titans. But here's the thing. This game actually means something to both teams. The Jets don't control their own playoff fate, but what the Jets do, they can pass Miami.

Then they become beholden to what New England does. There are three teams, four teams now because Miami's in the mix. There are four teams fighting for the final playoff spot in the, or maybe the final two playoff spots in the AFC. The Chargers, Dolphins, Patriots, and Jets. And right now the odds on favorite would be the Chargers and the Dolphins getting it, but Jets still have a chance and the Patriots still have a chance. So we'll see what happens tonight.

I like the Jaguars tonight, by the way, Jalen Hurts is out versus Dallas. Is that official? Uh, yes, they, they, they declared him out. Look, no offense.

Oh, here you go. No offense to the Dallas Cowboys, but other than just trying to step on Dallas's neck here. This game doesn't really mean anything to Philadelphia, right?

The Eagles, as long as they win, I think they just have to win one more game and they're going to clinch the, the number one seed in the NFC. I mean, it's, it's, they pretty much got it on lock, right? So no need, no need to do that with, uh, with Jalen Hurts. Dennis Cox, are you a YouTube TV guy? Absolutely. All right. Well, I'm going to get into this at halftime entertainment.

Are you exactly where you're going with this? Well, YouTube TV, people won't remember that we talked about it. YouTube TV will be the home of direct NFL Sunday ticket starting next year. Uh, I was a direct TV customer. I had access if I wanted to purchase it to direct TV to the Sunday ticket, I was not interested, but I am that guy, right? I don't have an out of town rooting interest. And because we sit here and we talk about the Panthers, I had the Panthers on all the time.

And when the four o'clock national game became, uh, you know, when watch that, that's the best game of the week in general. I had that and I had Sunday night and I had money. So I did not need direct TV Sunday ticket, but if you are a fan of the bears and you want to watch the bears every week, well, there you go. You don't have to get direct TV, YouTube TV. I don't know what this is going to do to normal YouTube TV prices. It might go up a little bit, but this is a separate service anyway.

Right? It's a separate service anyway. I guess it's just going to be an added on add on package. I mean, look, they've used every excuse to ratchet up the prices anyway, right?

They've used every opportunity to ratchet up the prices. So, um, I don't, I don't anticipate them being shy about that. Uh, but what will go away is I know there are two red zones. There's an NFL network red zone, and there is a direct TV red zone. Why there have been two, I do not know, but the direct TV red zone for next year will go away.

And since NFL network is already on YouTube TV, it's a, uh, it should be fine. So Rob, Brendan Moore is going to join us in a minute. Anyway. Um, are you a red zone person? No, I've never been a fan of the red zone. Here's why I'm not a red zone.

And I understand why people like it. If you're a fantasy football player, like touchdowns, touchdowns, touchdowns, touchdowns. I am a context person when it comes to watching sports, right?

I need the context. I mean, there are highlights. Those are different. And then there is experiencing the games as they happen and you get no context at all from red zone. I would rather watch whatever game I'm watching then go to red zone. Here's the other thing is that in general, you see the highlights anyway.

I mean, you may not see every touchdown, but you have access to it. Anybody who has, uh, who has internet has access to it and you can go get them, right? You can go get the touchdowns, but that's a, uh, that's direct TV Sunday ticket will go away. It will be YouTube TV Sunday ticket. Actually, I guess YouTube TV is owned by Google.

I didn't even really wasn't aware of that. YouTube owns Google. Do they?

That's why you need a Gmail account to have a YouTube account. Google owns YouTube? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. They're one in the same. Oh, that's right.

You do need a Gmail account. I had to make one. So, uh, when we switched to YouTube TV, isn't that, uh, isn't that great? John Shire is going to join us in a little bit. Also today, Brennan Whitted will be in studio with us and, um, who else has come? Elliot Johnson on the Mets free agent spending and, um, CL Brown on North Carolina's win over Michigan last night. I thought that I thought the Tar Heels were a, the clearly better team last night, and they probably still got a little bit, uh, to, uh, loose with the ball a little bit, but I liked the way they played as great atmosphere in Charlotte. And Roy Williams has a pretty snazzy sweater. Rod, Brenda Moore is the head coach of the Carolina hurricanes.

And let me ask you this, sir, and I appreciate your time. Um, so another road game where you're not doing a morning skate, is this superstition or is this, it just hasn't worked out. The guys need a little extra rest.

Uh, it was not superstition. It's definitely guys just, you know, we've played just a boatload of games here and we got another one tomorrow. So, um, you know, it just didn't make a lot of sense for me to go out there. Morning skates are kind of, I don't know how much you get out of them anyway. It's more about the meetings that you have in the mornings and getting prepared at night. And, um, you know, I think, uh, it's on the road, especially, uh, getting back to hotel a little bit later after morning skates.

I don't know. None of the guys like them anyway, unless you're really, we're, we're accomplishing them, you know, getting prepared to play with our meetings and we knocked those out in the hotel. Uh, you know, normally morning skate, probably not necessarily needed this 12 game stretch in which you have gotten points out of every game. Uh, to me, it's, it has not been about goal scoring as much as it's been about goal prevention. What have you liked about the way your team has played?

Well, yes, I agree with you. It always is really, um, you know, it's trying to limit the other team's opportunities the other night. We didn't do as good a job as I'd like, but that's where the, you know, your goalie gave us a chance to win that game. And, uh, we were, we were opportunistic, you know, we capitalize, but in that overall stretch, I think we played really well. Especially, like I said, we keep talking about the guys we don't have in our lineup. You know, you have to play that way.

You really have no chance. So give the guys a lot of credit. You know, we got another tough one tonight, um, obviously, but, uh, you know, in the slow stretch, we definitely worked really hard. Third time in 23 days for you guys to play the Pittsburgh Penguins and the fourth one and final one is coming up two weeks after new year. Um, I mean, in a way that's kind of fun because you kind of build a little bit of animosity. I'm not asking you if it's got a playoff feel to it because it obviously doesn't. But, um, do you like playing the content, basically the entire season series in a span of about a month and a half?

It kind of depends. I mean, I guess I would say if they were all banged up, then I would say, yeah, let's play them. You know, it's, it's Crosby and Malcolm are out of line. I would say let's play them four times right away. So I don't think that's the case. You know, they're, they're, they got a pretty much a full group there. So, you know, that's a little more dangerous, but you got to play them during the 82 games.

So other than that part of it, it really doesn't matter. I want to talk to you. You mentioned your goaltender gave you a chance to win. Piotr has been great. First of all, is he going to go tonight? Uh, we're not going to play him tonight, uh, the back to back.

Uh, so obviously looked up in the mall, but, uh, not tonight. All right. There also was a moment.

So it'll be a Rata cause Freddie Anderson's not ready to go yet. Correct. Right.

Okay. Uh, there was a moment in the end toward the end of the second period on Tuesday where he was a little slow getting up. Was there a concern from your end as well? Well, that's going a little bit into the decision for tonight too. So, uh, you know, we're again, we've got some guys on the shelf that, you know, we're not, that can probably play if we had to, but you know, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to do that. So we're, we're always right now, erring on the caution side of things with guys when it comes to whether they play or not.

All right. I know, uh, Sebastian Ajo skated, he practiced yesterday, but he didn't make the trip to Pittsburgh. Um, can we expect him tomorrow night or probably going to hang, hold him at another one? Yeah, that'll be, we'll make that decision probably tonight or, you know, obviously tomorrow morning.

Uh, he's definitely close. So it's whether he comes in or we wait a few more days, that'll be the decision we'll have to make, but he's definitely right around the corner. And the fact that you have another three days off certainly wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened to Sebastian Ajo, but back to spreading it around. Uh, nobody on the team has had more than nine points in this 12 games and that's Brent Burns. Um, you, obviously you would like, you know, one of these guys, Fechnikoff, Terravine and Natures to be at 14 points in this stretch, but what do you like about the way the group has played really team hockey? Well, that's how you have to play, you know, you just, especially when you're missing these guys and, you know, I would, I would have expected that to be the case when you take out Ajo out of your lineup, he's a guy creating the offense for everyone.

So, you know, uh, you're not probably going to see a guy get 14 points unless you got, got top got to play with. Right. So, um, you know, I think that we've done it the way if we had to write it down with all these injuries, that's probably the way I would have, you know, hope that would happen.

Cause that's pretty much the only way it happened. We need contributions from everyone. And you know, that doesn't change when they're in the lineup, but it's, it's, it obviously changes a little bit because ice times are different and there's just a different flow to the whole system. But, um, you know, I think, like I said, we've managed to put a nice little streak together. Final thing for you, Rod, Brenda Moore, Jacob Slavin, his game Tuesday night against the Devils.

Was it as good as I think it was? Well, he played pretty well. I mean, we were in our end way more than I wanted to. Right. So we had to defend a lot more. And so our defenders that play well, obviously had a better chance to stand out. And he probably won the best in the league.

Right. So he made a couple key plays. We just actually looked at one when we were looking at our penalty. We blocked the one that was sure goal. So he, uh, you know, you know, we talked about all the time, whether he's on the score sheet or not, it's really not where his impact is.

He the other way. And you know, he, he was, he was great. The bench interview.

I know you don't watch the bench interviews. That was almost as good as Peter Mrazek the night you guys clinched the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. It was a close second. It was just a joy to watch. The kid is fun.

Piotr is a lot of fun. I appreciate your time. We'll talk to you tomorrow. You got it. Thank you. This is the Adam Gold show.