ACC Tournament time starts tomorrow!

Trying to think of this, as reporters or hosts of radio shows, people have always asked who I root for.

And the answer is always I root for the show. Whatever the best result is for us, whatever makes it most interesting for us to, so it doesn't bother me. It was more interesting for us. Again, I don't really root for outcomes as much as I root for stuff to talk about. Either way, last year there was going to be a conversation about what happened at the, in the Duke Carolina game at Cameron that ended Mike Krzyzewski's home career. There was going to be something that happened at the Final Four. I mean, in both cases, Carolina won those games and there was a lot to talk about. But if you cover both teams, you're thinking about angles on both sides. And I'm not really sure what the story was coming out of that game other than this. Like Duke swept the season series, they moved into the top four in the league.

Okay. For Duke, that's not necessarily a big deal. In today's 15-team ACC, finishing in the top four is not as easy as it used to be. And the truth of the matter is that it's a product of the schedule a lot. But for the Blue Devils, they complete the season sweep, they're playing really well. But the real story for me coming out of the game is that North Carolina failed in another opportunity to win a big game when they had an opportunity to do so. They had to lead late and just couldn't hang on to it.

Brendan Marks from the Athletic, at Brendan R. Marks on Twitter. So sir, tell me what, what was the storyline coming out? Is it about UNC's failure or is it Duke's defense?

I think it's both. You know, I think obviously if you're a North Carolina fan, you were going into Saturday knowing that, you know, we've been talking about most win games it feels like for a couple of weeks now, this one really was. You know, this was North Carolina's last opportunity to sort of get that resume in better tournament shape and didn't happen.

And, you know, for a team that has all the experience it does, and I know we've talked about this time and time again, to not be able to come through in a situation where everybody understands the gravity of it. I think that's something that obviously stood out to me, but also on the flip side, there's a reason that Duke is ranked again. And the Blue Devils have won six games in a row. You know, they have a top 20 defense since February started and they're looking like a team that could potentially go on a little bit of a run. I would not be wanting to play Duke in the ACC tournament right now. And, you know, they're probably going to end up as a six or seven seed in the NCAA's.

And that is for how much talent John Shire has at his disposal, the way they're playing now, that's a tough draw for whoever gets them. I don't think there's any question that Duke is going to be a tough out, mostly because they are a mentally tough team. I mean physically obviously as well, but I think the mental toughness of this team is what really shows through. And I go to having a seven-point lead, watching the Tar Heels, erase that in about 90 seconds, maybe a little bit more than 90 seconds and then falling behind. You know, it was kind of a back and forth game at that point, but they fell behind by a couple of possessions. But they never changed the way they looked.

It never looked like any different than when they had the seven-point lead. And I don't know where that comes from. I will talk to Chris Carroll about that in about an hour, maybe a little bit less than an hour. But they have an uncommon toughness about them.

Absolutely they do. And especially for a team that is so new. And again, these are things we've talked about all year, but like, you're down, think about it if you're Duke, in that situation. North Carolina has just gone on a 13-2 run. You're down four. All of a sudden, all the momentum's on their side.

The Dean Dome is ear-splittingly loud. And Mark Mitchell, who is probably one of the least appreciated guys on this roster, goes and gets a layup. Shire calls timeout. Duke comes out, gets a stop, scores on the other end with a lively lob. Boom. Everything's tied back up.

You killed the momentum. So that is something where I can imagine Duke having done that for the past 10 years with Coach K, him calming it down. They're mentally tough, figuring it out.

It was the exact same situation to me. And I don't think that's something this team could have done maybe even a month ago. I think in that situation on the road, given the gravity of everything going on, I think they could have gotten rattled. And they're just not that team anymore.

They are stealing beyond their years. And yeah, I think that's why you see them as one of the favorites this week in Greensboro. And again, I think they're capable of going on a little bit of a run here in March. For whatever it's worth, the Ken Palm probability has Duke being the most likely ACC tournament winner. Now, they're not... It's like 20%, but that's how just absolutely weird the ACC is this year.

You really don't know. They have North Carolina as the fourth choice. So in the spirit of a back and forth game back to North Carolina, what's the spirit like in that room? And I guess we'll start with Armando Bacott, who wears his feelings on his sleeve at all times.

What are they going through right now? I mean, here's the thing that was interesting. And I was obviously more focused on the Duke side of things on Saturday after the fact.

But Armando Bacott, after North Carolina lost to Miami a couple of weeks ago, really sort of bled a vein open. He said, I'm scared as hell that we're going to miss the tournament. I'm nervous as hell.

That tells you that they are very aware of this. And even a couple of weeks ago, we're very nervous that this possibility could come to be. And sort of like a train crash, we've seen this coming and nothing happened to avoid it. And so now I think the sense of desperation that has been there for several weeks and them understanding the reality of their situation, it has to be difficult to be in that locker room and not have the desperation turned to apathy at this point. Because you had these opportunities, you knew how crucial they were, you knew what you had to do, and you didn't do it.

And so now you understand how difficult your path is. I don't see a way that North Carolina gets in if they don't at least make it to the ACC championship game. They might not have to win it, but they at least have to get to Saturday.

And that's not something they've been able to do all season, nonetheless of late. And so I don't know if it's desperation so much anymore. It's disappointment. You know, I feel for Armando Baycock and Leaky Black and Caleb Love and RJ Davis for those guys to have come back and for it to have gone so wrong. You know what else I really feel for and who I think probably a lot of people aren't thinking about now?

Pete Nance. I mean, the guy has been at Northwestern grinding for years, joins the preseason number one, and he leaves at Northwestern. He's gonna make the tournament in North Carolina, probably isn't. So it's just a brutal turn of events, but the Tar Heels have done this to themselves. And you know, whatever they do these next, you know, couple of days, I find it hard to believe that they're going to do enough to get in. But of course, you know, I've been wrong before and I could be wrong again.

All right, I'm going to get back to North Carolina before we let you go. Brendan Marks from the Athletic at Brendan R Marks on Twitter. Tyrese Proctor's development, really not as an offensive player. He certainly wasn't bad as an offensive player.

He was not great. Duke's offense is not. If they have to rely on offense to win a game, it ain't going to happen. I'm offense to win a game. It ain't going to happen. They could lose.

They could beat maybe anybody, but they can also lose to anybody the way I look at it. But Proctor's defense. So in back to back games, he put to Quavion Smith in his back pocket. And then he kind of did the same thing to Caleb Love in the game. He forced Caleb Love into a lot of bad shots, which I realize it's not that hard to do at times. Caleb Love will do that to himself. But I think Proctor's defense is bothersome.

And I think he's been doing that for a long time. I haven't heard any mention of him. And I'm not saying he should be, but it's pretty open. And most people don't recognize defensive players of the year candidates unless it's about blocked shots or steals. Where does he rate among the guys you've seen this year? Yeah.

You know, I think and let's not forget, I would add one more. He also put Hunter Couture in a bind. Yeah. You know, he absolutely locked down the best ACC three point shooter.

You know, I think that's one of two games this year that Couture hasn't had a three. So yeah, Proctor, absolutely. Again, I think, you know, when you're talking about those awards, you consider the whole season in context. And, you know, I voted for my all ACC, you know, defensive team.

And I will tell you now, I have multiple Duke guys on there. Proctor just is, it's a twofold thing with him because individually, yes, you're 100% right. He has gotten much better as a defender. You know, Duke is not necessarily trying to create the turnovers and jump lanes like they have in the past. But what he does is he's just really solid at keeping his guy in front of even on closeouts.

He doesn't lunge, he's very contained, absolutely goes around screens, blows up DHOs. But the other benefit of him developing as a defender is that it shifts everybody else down, you know, so now, where Mark Mitchell was previously taking the best you know, perimeter guy. Now Mitchell's a little bit more of a chess piece for you. You know, Jeremy Roach becomes he slides down a tier and doesn't have to take on as tough a defensive assignment.

Derek Lively is allowed to be more of a center fielder and sort of a Swiss Army knife for John Shire. So, you know, I think by locking Proctor into that role, it has sort of unlocked some other defensive versatility for Duke. And, you know, as we saw on Saturday against Carolina, and as we've seen all season, that has been the key to their success. So his development in that way, again, he's gotten better on offense too, I think over the last 13 games, he's hitting, you know, almost 39% of his threes.

But defensively is where he has really, really turned it up into another gear. And, you know, I think that's why you're seeing Duke continually to be ranked and is one of the favorites to win the ACC tournament. Final thing for Brendan R. Marks, and I said we were going on Twitter at Brendan R. Marks, I said we were going to go back to North Carolina and you and I went back and forth of this on Twitter. And I know it's cart before the horse type of thing. But assuming that it doesn't go well enough in Greensboro, and North Carolina doesn't see their name on Sunday. Is there a chance they I don't even know if you can, you might not even be able to decline an NIT bid.

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See capitalone.com slash bank for details Capital One and a member FDIC. I would be incredibly incredible. Again, assuming that North Carolina doesn't do enough this week to make it into the big dance. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that this is a team that's going to play in the NIL. And you know, there have been stories in the past how, you know, basically Roy when he was the coach used to put it up for a vote. And you know, players one year, I think voted, hey, we don't want to go.

And Roy was like, guess what, I'm coach, we're going. Of course, we could see a similar situation play out with Huber Davis. But if you're Leaky Black, if you're Armando Baikal, if you're guys who were 20 minutes away from winning the National title last year, the idea of now playing in the NIT and maybe not even hosting an IT games, but playing in it and maybe even having to go on the road for it. I just don't know that in terms of like the human factor of, you know, the embarrassment that that might elicit of the name calling, you know, of the criticism that would come their way. I just don't really see Hubert wanting to make the guy susceptible to that.

Now, obviously, it's a different story. If it's, hey, we're going to play in the NIT. And we're going to play Seth Trimble and DeMarco Dunn and Stiles and Nickel and Washington. We're going to play these guys a ton of minutes and sort of see what we have for the future. But that again, that hasn't been the case all season.

So I find it hard to believe. And so yeah, I would be really surprised if North Carolina does not get it done in Greensboro this week. I think that's the last that we're going to see of North Carolina for the season. And I think that it's, you know, to some extent going to be the last that we see of this era of North Carolina players, because clearly there's some change coming this offseason to what extent we just got to wait and see. Well, we don't know what Armando Bacott's plans are. Caleb Love can make the same same decision to come back.

I don't know what's going to make those decisions. But man, this year has not gone according to Hoyle, Brendan Marks from the Athletic at Brendan Marks on Twitter. As always, man, thank you so much for seeing Greensboro. Absolutely. See you there. Safe travels. You got it.

You too. Brendan Marks on the Adam Gold Show. Everyone loves TV Dad. On the next TV Dad presented by Progressive, TV Dad explains becoming a man.

Son, it's time we had the talk. Okay, TV Dad. You know, drivers who switch and save with Progressive could save hundreds. Oh, is that why my voice is changing? That's a question for your health teacher.

Listen to your TV Dad. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive could save hundreds. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary.