College Basketball kicks off today!

It's the start of the college basketball season, which means more opportunities. Not that we haven't had opportunities in the past, but more opportunities to talk to my friend Brian Geisinger. 24-7 sports. He is a basketball guru, junkie, savant, and he joins us to talk about ACC hoops. Mr. Geisinger, thank you so much for your time. Also, Buzzfeed Podcast, so we can talk Hornets if we absolutely have to. Alright, so let's start.

I appreciate you getting the joke there. Let's start with Duke, since they are, according to Sporting News, number one. But according to the preseason polls, other preseason polls, number two. Who do you think is their most interesting player to you? I think the most interesting player is probably Jared McCain, the freshman guard from California.

I think those are the headliners, those are the returning stars. Right now, they both project as top 20 prospects for the 2024 NBA draft. I think there are going to be some different nuances in terms of how they're used and how those guys play this year, because that's when you see their development.

But they are somewhat more known commodities. We've seen those two guys play a lot of basketball, and McCain kind of feels like he could fit in as the third or maybe fourth guy. We'll see what Mark Mitchell's role looks like and what Jeremy Roach looks like. But I just feel like we have a sense for what a lot of those dudes look like, how they fit together.

McCain's a little bit different. He's a really strong driver. He can post up a little bit from the guard room or from the guard position.

You can shoot. I just think he played. I haven't seen a ton of him, saw a little bit of him before he got to Duke watching his Nike EYBL film, saw him play at the Hoops Summit, and just have a sense for a guy who really knows how to play basketball, can get to the rim, pass, cut, shoot. I don't think he's going to be a really nice fit with his team, but he strikes me as a potential ceiling raiser for Duke this season. What is an element that Duke is missing? And we're going to get back to a player that you kind of referenced, but I want to dig down deeper on Tyrese Proctor in a second. What element is Duke missing when you look at their roster right now?

Yeah, I think it's probably an obvious one. I'm guessing if you polled 100 people, 98, 99 would give you this answer, but it's sort of like in a both the rim center. The last three seasons, we've seen it with Mark Williams and Derek Lively, guys that could catch lobs, space the floor vertically in the half court, be a pressure point on the rim in the pick and roll game. Lively was so good at that. He's doing it quite nicely as a rookie in the NBA with the Mavs right now, and he plays quite well against the Hornets last night. They don't quite have that, like how a full pass he can screen and dive and get downhill, and I feel like he's a very powerful finisher at the rim and in the paint.

Ryan Young is like a nice veteran backup center. Christian Reeves has shown flashes when we've seen him in like scrimmages and obviously he's enormous, but even he's not like the kind of like fluid athlete that like Williams and wisely. You know, I think it's a real, real weapon to have one of those guys to be at the rim of a lot of it offensively and defensively. What that, what that, what, like, what does that mean for Duke this season? The last couple of years, they've had these incredible rim protectors with Williams and lively. And if you watch Derek lively, my last season at Duke, I mean, he was like, he might be like a civilian defensively, like at the center position and he can guard the pick and roll with a million different ways. He could switch out.

He could drop, he could play up at the level. And that gave a lot of like, that gave Duke a lot of freedom and a lot of comfort in different coverages to make stuff up. And, you know, that's not going to be the same this year.

I was at the exhibition game the other night. They had two blocks in that game against UNC Pembroke. One of them came in garbage time.

The other one was a Jalen Blake's block on a 3.10 to the corner. So like they're going to have to guard, guard it differently this season because they don't have, I think like a like tree center that can play above the rim on both sides of the floor. But can you still win that way? Can you win without a rim protector? I mean, I guess it has been done before. I'm just trying to rack my brain, but can you do it? Yeah, yes, you definitely can.

And just, you know, you're going to have to problem solve differently. Like again, maybe Christian Reeves can play 15 minutes a game that can be that for them. Um, you know, it does seem like they're going to maybe try, you know, Sean Stewart as a small ball center at times, let him switch and he's athletic enough to like contest him. He's going to block a lot of shots for Duke this year too. It's just not a seven footer.

So it's not quite the same thing, but yeah, you absolutely can. Um, I just think they'll have to like mix up coverage in a little bit more, maybe dabble in some zone and they're just going to have to get great point of attack defense and perimeter defense from guys like tires, Proctor. You're McCain, Taylor Foster. Like, and I also think about like Mitchell has a huge role to play here too, because he late in the season last year. So we become along as like a, not like, um, maybe not like explosive or like, it didn't have like a ton of like block volume, but music guy that can really like on the backside of pick and roll coverages, make plays protecting the rim.

So like it has to be by committee. Um, he has to do a better job keeping the ball out of the paint too. I'm just, I just thought about it in, in 2001, Duke won a national championship and their leading shot blocker was Shane Batty. And now Batty, it was just an elite defender. I mean, he averaged more than two blocks a game.

So, uh, those couldn't have all been on the perimeter. Carlos Boozer, uh, their best big man was at point, you know, basically one block per game. So maybe Duke can, uh, can play good defense without it real quick about Tyrese Proctor. Um, how good do you think he can be? I mean, he's awesome.

Like I, I'm, I am being Proctor. Um, I, again, another guy that I liked the film, I saw him even before he got to Duke and the goal of you and I spoke a couple of times early last season when he was having some like shooting troubles. And I remember saying like, he shot there to start falling. Like he's shooting well from the line. He's taking good shots.

The shot looks good. He's not going to shoot 25% on three for the whole season. And he really picked it up down the stretch. Um, he can shoot off movement. You can shoot coming off screens, but late in the season, he got so good at hitting like tough shots. You know, the shot making had, he had in that Tennessee game.

I mean, that, that game was like a rugby contest outside of like Tyrese Proctor, just wiggling around the court and throwing in a couple of crazy shots in that game. So special talent, like you've got great sides of the position. He's got great vision. He doesn't get a ton of skills defensively, but he's got good size. He's pretty good navigating screens, getting around ball strings at the point of attack. The thing for him that I'll be curious to see this year, because he is not like a crazy, like, you know, first step, quick burst guard. Um, you know, he's not a guy that like lives at the rim in the house. So what did he do to sort of compensate for that? Like, can you continue to win in the mid range hitting some of those tough shots?

Where does the pull up three? What does that look like this season? And does he have like added flexibility, added wiggle, added tricks to sort of like get around guys, get into the paint? Um, there's going to be times where he will be able to use his length and size to play over the top and score in that way.

But I'll just be curious. He only had one dunk last season. Um, and he didn't have a ton of like efficiency or volume at the rim. So like, will that that's going to always be the case for him?

Or does he have a few more? So something to keep an eye on with Proctor, but he's an awesome player, and a really, really solid to a player who looks like thoroughly, but if you watch the scrimmage, the exhibition game, I mean, it does look like he's maybe made a little bit of a leap. But obviously, we need to see, see him play more few more games before making that determination. All right, a couple of more quick minutes with Brian Geisinger, who is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show 24 seven sports. Give me the the player from North for North Carolina that intrigues you that can take them to a higher level. Yeah, I feel like the answer to this for a lot of people is Elliot Cadeau at the point guard spot, but I'm actually going to, I'm going to be just to be different. I'm going to say Harrison Ingram, who is a forward transferred in Stanford. I'd like to Ingram since summer 2021.

I watched him play for Team USA in the fever you 19 World Cup, along with Chet Holmgren and Jayne Ivy on the team that beat Victor women Yama to win the in France to win the gold medal that year, but like he's not an amazing athlete. He's had issues with his jump shot, but six seven strong can post up can initiate from the post to run, pick and roll, come off screens and shoot just like a really, really versatile offensive player that I think can give them another ball handler can space the floor at times. And I don't know, I just see him being like kind of a swing piece for UNC I think Godot is going to be awesome and it's gonna really open things up for them with his passing, but Ingram just feels like a guy because of his additional versatility and the playmaking on like the on the wing that I think is someone that I'm really going to be paying attention to for you and see this season. All right, final thing we had about 60 seconds with Brian Geisinger at be guys underscore bird on Twitter. We know DJ burns, we know what he is, we know what Casey more sellers, who is the guy that is going to make NC State better than people think.

I don't know right now. It could be, it could be a lot of different guys, perhaps it's Muhammad Jarrah, the transfer came in from Missouri, like, you know, the four or five position visibility to protect the ran play above the rim, and occasionally step out mid shot, like I like saying that on film at Missouri last season he didn't play all that much. Um, maybe I would have answered this question a couple months ago with MJ rice but right, we'll see about that. Dennis Parker, the freshman from the area at the at the forward with the wing spot difference maker but like to me I think the answer is, just remember steps up to be the lead ball handler, like, remember that player is because they're missing charcoal joiner Smith, both those guys are gone. This is a high volume pick and roll office. They need someone that can like Ben defenses, hit shot, get in the lane, they just they need someone to step up and lead ball handler, and like right now. I don't quite know who that is, so be cute to see who is able to step into that position. Remember that is. They're the ones that like, I think, you know, are the are like the biggest difference maker for state outside of probably DJ burns. We will talk again extensively throughout the basketball season my friend appreciate your time. Absolutely. Thanks, guys.