Duke is getting ready for a fun week.

Uh, we are pretty much entrenched in college basketball, so why don't we bring in somebody that I have known for 20 years?

Something like that? Chris Carwell is one of my all-time favorite people in the ACC, and he is an assistant coach under John Shire at Duke, and he joins us on the Adam Gold Show. All right, I need to ask this question. You guys, to me, play with a toughness, almost like you're a hockey team. You're right, Adam. I mean, I look at this team, man. They, uh, I get Coach Shire a lot of credit, man. You know, a lot of people look at him and, you know, he's this smooth, laid-back guy, but underneath, man, he has a competitive, sole competitive spirit, and he's done a great job with this group, and our guys are tough, man. These guys are, you know, you think about Lively, Philip Howski, Mark Mitchell, Jeremy Rose, Tyrese Procterman, these guys are competitors, man, and they go at it, and it started in the summertime. You know, these guys were really competitive, playing pickup, and then, you know, you deal with some injuries early in the preseason, but, you know, we didn't have really our whole team for most of the year, and so when we were dealt with some adversity, some trials and tribulations, our guys just kept working, and that's a certain toughness as well, and so, you know, when you get to college, to be honest with you, Adam, all the five-star rankings, McDonald's, All-American games, all that stuff goes out the window, you know, because you haven't done it at this level, but the one thing I will say with these guys, man, they are talented, but more tough than talented.

I think they got a little bit of both. Well, I mean, that's, I mean, I think both wins over North Carolina were entirely about that. Frankly, your should have been a win at Virginia was entirely about that. I mean, so much of what you guys have accomplished is about toughness, because, I mean, you know, because you're closer to it than any of us, the offense has not been pretty, so you've got, you guys have had to figure out ways to go about the business of putting up enough points on the board, so that's offensive rebounding, that's not going to that's offensive rebounding, that's hustle plays.

How much of that is instilled by the fact that John, you have gone through it, Emile have gone through it here. Yeah, well, a lot of it, a lot of it, you know, the thing that we all three of us prided ourselves on, I include coach Lucas, even though he's a new guy, you know, he comes with, he's done a heck of a job as well, but, you know, we're competitive, man, and we compete and, you know, coach Shire and Emile and Jay, they still get out there playing, and our guys feed, you know, like our coaches are competitive, and I tried, I can't compete with these younger guys that much anymore, so I do my old man workout, but, you know, we're all competitive, and so every day the tone at practice is set, like, that rough's not good enough. If you're not competing, you're going to have a tough time playing for us, and like, you're not, you know, it hasn't been perfect for us on the offensive end, we've had our day, but the one thing that's been consistent and it travels is defense, and our defense has been consistent for the entire year, to be honest with you.

All right, I want to know about your old man workout when I leave that for the end, because I do it also, so I'm curious as to what yours is. I want to ask you about Tyrese Proctor, because at the first half of the year, and you and I saw each other randomly back a couple of months ago, and we were talking about him, and you said he's getting it, it's taken him a while, he should still be in high school, but what he has done really in the last, I'd say, six weeks, really on the defensive end, where he's been completely locked down, but he's showing signs of getting it offensively. How has he progressed through the season? You know, he's been working out, he works every day, and with Tyrese, and we talked about this too, Adam, he missed the entire summer.

Yeah. But he wasn't with us for the summer, so his first time with us was in the fall, and so any young guy coming into college, you know, the summer helps you, you know, helps you get acclimated, you know, you get on the strength and conditioning program, then you get familiar with our guys, with the system, and just being here, you know, he's coming from Australia, so, you know, just being away from home, all that stuff is an adjustment that you really don't think about or take into account, and so he did struggle early on, but the thing with Tyrese, and I didn't notice, man, this dude is a competitor, man, and he's talking to you, you know, with a little, with a little accent, and talking trash, and the piece, I think it throws people off a little bit, but he works every day, him and Coach Lucas, man, and Roach, they really developed a thing where they get in the gym with Coach Lucas every day, win or lose, good or bad, they're in here working, man, and I think he saw through the work, he got better, and he just kept coming, and he already had a high basketball IQ, and so now you put the consistency in it, he's gotten stronger, and he's adjusted to the pace of play, the style of the game over here, now you see the talent, that's why we wanted him to reclass, because you see it now. He is tremendous, trash talking an Australian is just in my brain, I find that absolutely hysterical. Another guy who missed a lot of the summer, and has missed time throughout the year is Derek Whitehead. Where is he on his timeline for this year, and I mean, we know there's another level, you can't be the first or second best recruit in the country, and be where he is right now without knowing there's another level, do you think you'll see that level before this season's over?

I think he will, I think he's been definitely the toughest in terms of blows, you know, in terms of like, okay, his first practice, he just turned 18 years old, he breaks his foot. I mean, come on, yeah, and then when he finally started to get it, the Virginia Tech game, he had a good first half, and then he hurts his calf, and so he misses another two weeks, and so what happens is, you know, what goals you're conditioning, and so when you deal with two lower leg injuries, and a span on a few months, your conditioning goes, and so the talent is there, but you know, you have to deal with like, man, you know, you don't have the same explosives, or you're afraid of landing, and, you know, so it's a mental game that you play with yourself as well, and at only 18, man, that's tough, but he has another level to go to, and we've seen glimpses of it, the Syracuse, he comes in and boom, boom, boom, you know, he's had the moment, and moving forward, the ACC tournament, and then the NCAA tournament, we're gonna need him to play and play that high level, and it's in him, I mean, he has the talent, man, he has the talent, it just, it's been unfortunate in terms of the injuries for him, to be honest with you, but the game is there. Chris Carowell, Duke assistant coach, is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. The Blue Devils done messed up, and played all the way into the top four.

You guys deprived us of Duke, Carolina, State, and Wake, all entering the field on Wednesday. I know you guys could use the rest, because it's been a hectic end of the season, and I know you hope there's a lot of basketball to be played. Jeremy Roach, in sort of in the role of Quinn Cook going back to 2015, as the really the veteran presence in the backcourt, how has it been for him, because he's basically ceded a lot of the playmaking duty to Tyrese Proctor, how has it been for Jeremy, but I do know that at the end of games, it seems to be in number three's hands a lot. Yeah, he's adjusted to that role well, and you know, part of it is, what does Jeremy do, you know, what is this, what are his strengths, what does he do best, and he's naturally a guy who can get buckets, right? He can go get you a bucket, and so you saw that at the end of the year last year, especially in the NCAA tournament, where he was, he played at a high level, and so it's a different day now.

You know, it's not the day where guys are setting up guys, you know, they all really guard, and so Jeremy, we just, hey man, go, go, go be you, go be you, and then make the read. With him, it's just making the right read, and he's been able to do that. Once he settled in, kind of, you know, took the pressure with Tyrese handling the ball, kind of setting up the offense, and kind of having Jeremy being a finisher, but also making plays. I mean, he's had a game where he had a career high in assists, with 10 assists, so he's starting to get it, and you know, when you got a Jeremy Roach, he was doing both. That's why we're going on kind of the winning streak that we've gone on. Yeah, he gave RJ Davis a hard time defensively.

I mean, you guys are very, I mean, super good defensively. All right, before I let you go, Chris Carwell, what is an old man workout? I'm curious. See if I'm following the plan.

Yeah, Adam, you know, you just get in, man. You get a little bit depressed. You know, you do some curls, maybe some tricep push downs.

You know, you do like some light squats. Nothing, nothing too serious, you know. You don't want to hurt yourself, but then you come out here, you know, Adam, my old age, I get on.

I go for 30. I go for walks now, right? Listening to podcasts and, you know, that's where my guys are doing their thing. I'm taking walks and, you know, looking, really appreciating nature. And, you know, I'm a kid from inner city, St. Louis. So like going on a walk and looking at the trees and the sun and speaking to people is just, that's my life now, you know, alongside watching a lot of, a lot of hoops, you know, breaking down film with Carolina and all these teams, you know, that's, that's an old man workout, man. That's what it consists of.

See, I had in my head, I had you walking on a treadmill in a sweatshirt with, with a headband on and a towel kind of tucked into the crew neck of your sweatshirt. Oh, I like that. I like that. I'll say that for the old school coach. That's a coach K workout right there. Oh my gosh.

I can't believe that. What, what, what podcast are you listening to? You know, I love JJ Reddick's podcast. I think it's the old man in the three. And then Matt Barnes and Steve, Steve and Jackson, they have a good one. I can't remember the name of him right now, but you know, just JJ is, you know, the support, but he really like really is a basketball junkie. I just love hearing his different takes.

Yeah. So he's great. If you ever get into hockey, check out the canes corner podcast, but I'm not telling you have to Chris Cara. Well, you are the best man. I appreciate your time. I'm sure I'll see you out in Greensboro at some point this week, but good luck on Thursday. Take care of my man. Thanks for having me. You got it.

Chris is the best man. I got an old school, old man workout. I like how he clarified that there's levels.

There are levels. I can't believe he shouted out, called out coach K. It's just, he did to make confident in his job right there. Not that coach K has the power, but you never know. I wouldn't, I wouldn't poke that bear.