Coach K is back in the building!

Speaking of surprises, I was surprised that Duke only beat Notre Dame by four. Was that a one-point game late? Brett Friedlander, Saturday Roads ACC columnist, was that a one-point game in the closing minutes against a terrible Notre Dame team?

It was in fact a one-point game until Mark Mitchell knocked down a three from the corner in front of the Duke bench. And you know, while Notre Dame's record is terrible, I'm still scratching my head as to why that team is so terrible. Because they've got some talent. Leshinsky's a really good player.

Cormac Ryan and Dane Goodman, he scored 17 straight points at one point last night. And they're all fifth-year seniors. And they're coached by Mike Brace, so I have no idea why they're so bad. But they gave Duke a tussle last night.

There is no doubt about that. I think I was probably more, or I would have been more concerned about Duke's offense to only score what, 68 points on Notre Dame. And maybe, I don't know, maybe sometimes you look at the opponent and the opponent doesn't scare you and you're not on top of your game as a result. Would that be fair?

Yes. I got the feeling that when Duke got up by like 12 points with maybe about 10 minutes to go, they kind of took their foot off the accelerator. It was like, okay, we got this done and let's just go on to the next. And you know, it's interesting because Coach K was there last night for the first time since his retirement.

And you would think that they would have been really jacked up to put on a show. But, and give Notre Dame credit too, because they locked down a little bit on defense and Duke did not have its best shooting night. But hey, listen, they don't, it's like a golf scorecard. It doesn't include pictures. The one lost record just has numbers and this one goes into the win column.

Well, let's be happy that it didn't include pictures last night. Now, I don't know this, but I guess that Coach K was there because of Mike Bray. I mean, that's a pretty fair, educated guess. I mean, I know he hasn't been there for games, but he's obviously been in involved, at least as an advisor to John Shire, no? Yes. And John actually made reference to that in his post game yesterday that he's been a guy that he could lean on and get some counsel from.

I assume that they talk all the time on the phone, if not in person. But yes, Mike Bray was the reason he was there. You know, Krzyzewski made a point when he retired that he wasn't going to be sitting right over Shire's shoulder and kind of have that specter looming the way Dean Smith didn't after he retired with Guthridge.

Obviously, Roy has done it a completely different way, but I would not be shocked to see K there again from time to time. I think that John Shire kind of really enjoyed it. The fans really enjoyed it. I think K really enjoyed it. My favorite thing about last night with K was how Mickey was kind of pointing out things to him that they do during the time out, like with the devils surfing, because he never saw any of that because he was busy in huddles. And she was kind of Mickey-splaining everything to him as it was going along.

It was very kind of cute. Fred Friedlander, Saturday Roads' ACC columnist is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. Look, they got a win. I think it was a quad four win, which there are too many quad four wins. I'm going to ask you to put your, because you are the ACC columnist, we've got too many quad four games in this league.

What are your thoughts on how that impacts the league as a whole? This week on RVER, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. I'm sorry. I can't operate on that vehicle. But, Doctor, you took an oath. It's not an RV. It's my son's RV. Oh, Doctor, isn't there anything you can do?

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To learn more, go to sleepnumber.com. Let's put it this way. As long as you win those games, you're okay. You don't want to lose them, and Clemson's got a couple of those losses, so that's really working against them.

But listen, there are as many quad one opportunities as there are quad four. I mean, look at UNC. They still have three left. They've got one Sunday against NC State at PNC. They've got Virginia, and they've got Duke left.

So, you know, there are opportunities. You just don't want to, you do want to take advantage of the quad ones. You just don't want to fall in those quad three and four games, because those are going to really bite you. Especially if you're on the bubble and, boy, the Tar Heels are squarely on it now. Yeah, Tar Heels, I don't think State's on it, but, you know, you still have to win a couple of, you know, two or three of these games coming up. Right now, Duke isn't a quad one game. It's a quad two game, because right now there are only, Miami got to number 30, so there are two home court quad one opportunities in the entire league, and I feel for Virginia. You can't play a quad one game at home, Virginia.

Sorry. There's only Miami. Especially with the remaining schedule that they have, because they've got Louisville twice. They've got Notre Dame and Boston College remaining on their schedule. Well, I think the cake is already baked for Virginia in terms of where they profile nationally, so the other part of this, Brett, is that when you've got all of these, and there's some historically bad teams here. I can't remember the last time I saw a three and 22 as an overall record in the league.

I mean, we might go back to, like, early Wake Forest teams, like Bob Stack or Bob Wade. Oh, God. I covered that team, too, by the way. It was brutal.

You and I both. Look, it brings down, it drags down the overall, all of these rating numbers, because every time you play that game, you could win it and drop in the rankings, because there's so many bad teams. We have basically three teams, really five teams that are rated 190th and lower. That has to be bad. Yeah, it is bad.

And you know what's really bad? What makes it even worse is that one of the teams that is that bad is a brand name is, I mean, Louisville has been a blue blood. And to see what is happening with that program is really sad. I mean, for the ACC, but just for the program, I mean, for the fans, I mean, yeah, Chris Mack did a really bad job there.

Their administration really, really threw that program into the dumpster. But Kenny Payne is, listen, he may end up being a great choice. He may end up being a good coach in the long run, but he was the absolute wrong guy at the wrong time for that program. They didn't need a first year coach learning on the job there.

They needed somebody to come in there and clean up that mess. And I don't know if Kenny's the guy to do it, and I kind of feel bad for him because it's a situation that's way over his head. Yeah, and I'll even go down to one of his best assistants, Nolan Smith, who is going to where his dad was a star. And you know that Nolan, I mean, loves that program. I hope it works out for him.

I hope they give them a chance to fight their way out of it. I don't know, but I agree. The fact that Kenny is a legacy, I think, is going to help.

Because if he was somebody from the outside, they may have a shorter leash. There's no question about it. All right, give me your, you are wearing a hat, so good.

I just looked up at the screen and there's Brett Friedlander wearing a hat from Saturday Road. It's a big game on Sunday at PNC Arena between the Wolfpack and the Tar Heels. I think it's a big game for both based on perception, based on positioning. Carolina might need it a little bit more than State does, but I think State needs it a lot.

How do you see this? Yes, because listen, State has got 20 wins, all right, and they've got 10 ACC wins. But just remember, Wake Forest last year had 23.

It didn't get into the tournament. So yeah, the Wolfpack really does need to finish strong. Listen, here's what I want to see. I want to see from UNC. I want to see the Tar Heels from the Clemson game as opposed to the Miami game. But for NC State, I want to see a focused, level-headed team that isn't getting carried away by either the rivalry or what happened in Chapel Hill, because it's going to be a really, really nasty atmosphere.

There's going to be a lot of venom in that arena. And I want to see the team put that out of its mind. I want to see them kind of let that stay in the stands because, you know, you can get too torqued up and you can just play yourself right into a bad game. So let's see what Kevin Keats does in keeping that team on an even keel and being ready and playing the game that they play. If they can get into an up and down game and cause turnovers and get in transition, I think they can do to Carolina what they did to Duke. We'll see. The big thing is, can you contain Baycott because they couldn't the last time.

No, they couldn't. They hope maybe they'll have more, I don't know, more options defensively against him. To me, it's about denying the ball to him more than anything else. Because if he gets it, he's going to score. So I think you deny the ball by pressuring the perimeter.

Let's see if they do that. If they get back to playing the half court defense they were playing, you know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, then I think NC State will be fine in the game and going forward. And I love their backcourt. I think they can really impose a lot of problems on UNC with the three-headed monster of Joyner, who they wasted a triple double last night, you know, Terquavian Smith and Casey Morsell.

The one for nine shooting, no bueno, but I have no problem with Morsell shooting that much. He's a good player. Can you see State finishing in the top four in the league? Oh, absolutely. I mean, they're only one game out of the top four right now.

Here's something to think about, though. I would not be shocked if Keats decides to double team Baycott. Because if you remember the Pitt game, they did it to him a lot. He panicked and he turned the ball over, especially in a big situation.

Clemson did it to a certain extent. But I think that double teaming him and taking your chances with Love and Davis, you know, not making threes, I think may be a way that they go, at least maybe at times. Yeah, this is the kind of a game, though, where Caleb Love shows up. The brighter the lights, he has he has proven to be a better player. And this is a bright lights game.

This is a bright lights game for UNC. I appreciate your time, Brett Friedlander from Saturday Road ACC columnist. Sir, I will talk to you again soon. Appreciate it. At Progressive, we know there's nothing like the feeling of riding a motorcycle with your crew on the open road. It's a primal, wild freedom, a feeling that would be impossible to recreate on the radio until now. Hit it, sound effects guy.

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