Roundtable time with Josh Graham and Brian Geisinger!!

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Lavelle will talk to us about an NC Central record-breaking win, we hope. And of course, Josh Graham, who's not on camera. What's with Josh?

I got half of Josh's face on camera. There he is. Sort of.

Not really. You gotta move to your left a little bit more, Josh Graham. Let's do this. Cause I might be moving away from the microphone.

What a Mickey Mouse outfit we run here. Yeah. Alright, so I got Brian Geisiger, Josh Graham, sports hub triad. Alright, so we're gonna start with hoops and then we'll get to some other things.

Let me get to, let me ask B. Geisiger, Brian. Were we all wrong about Duke? I think it was too early to make any sort of like definitive proclamations on Duke. I think they've done some things in recent games with Mark Mitchell to sort of like countered some of the like junk defenses that we've seen teams throw at them this season. You know, playing, playing off of Mark Mitchell, putting an extra help defender in the lane. Uh, we saw a little bits of Duke also trying some different lineups going to the, the four guard look with, with much success against a good hoster team.

So I think ultimately like Duke doesn't hit its ceiling this year and less. Uh, they find something sustainable with Mitchell, right? The last couple of games, they've hit on some good stuff. They've got him doing things like attacking the space that defenders are giving him, going into dribble handoffs, using him as a screen or more. And those are some good counters against some of these coverages they're seeing. But I do think at some point they're going to need to find ways to consistently be able to get into their base offensive sets while keeping Mitchell on the court. Cause they need him defensively throughout the season.

They absolutely do. Josh, I was just going to follow on what he was saying there. Obviously they're trying to figure out a way to keep Mitchell on the floor. I just don't think the larger basketball public appreciated how important Derek Lively was to this team going into the year.

And they're trying to figure things out in the post. It's why I'm excited on this huge hoop weekend to watch those bigs of Arizona bang inside with Zach Edie and Purdue and a top five matchup. We saw that toughness that Arizona possessed that Duke didn't trying to figure things out without Derek Lively at Cameron. And that's why you you're right to be gritting your teeth thinking about that matchup at MSG next week. Because when you think of Scott Drew's calling card and Baylor's calling card, it's toughness. And Duke's been exposed in the post a little bit, not having that piece of toughness that was left by a seven footer to the NBA. First of all, nobody is excited about watching Zach Edie play.

So let's just be honest about that. I don't care if he's the reigning player of the year or if he's going to win it again. He is an unwatchable player player in college basketball.

And again, I'm not taking anything away as a wonderful player, but I just I can't do it. Are we missing the point, though, with Duke? I know with offense, Mitchell has been unfortunately a drag because he hasn't made a shot in like a month and a half.

So that's obviously a problem. And if you're going to play for out and Mitchell's part of it, then because you need him for defense, then that's that that becomes an issue because then you're playing shorthanded all the time. But I see the real problem for Duke. I see is on the defensive end. And yes, they don't have Derek Lively, but I don't think their point of attack defense. I don't think their ball pressure defense either in the half court or anything. I don't think that has been what John Shire has hoped it would be this year. And Tyrese Proctor is hurt to me.

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I see website for details. Great. Like I mean, it is the I think the defense if anything, they're still top 10 nationally and offensive efficiency. So like any concerns with the offense are probably like blown a bit out of proportion.

I sort of in, you know, even kind of calling myself out with that. Um, he just hasn't looked the process just hasn't looked good for them in some games defensively. It's just interesting because like that one, they haven't had Proctor for a couple of games now, including the vast majority of the Georgia Tech game, right? He's probably their best on-ball defender.

Although I think I was saying this on your show last week goals. Like I do think like some of like Proctor's defensive punch from a season ago probably did. He but he certainly benefited from getting to guard a lot of pick and rolls with Derek Lively. A screen defender and lively, not just the rim protection. It's also the ground coverage scheme, versatility ability to switch out like all the stuff you could do. Just like truly special special defender already in the NBA.

Like we're seeing that translate. Um, and then the rest of the guards, like I really like Jared McCain game offensively really moves without the ball. He can shoot it. It's got a nice pull-up game.

He moves it. He's actually a pretty good defensive rebound or two, but he struggled containing guides in space. He struggled on closeouts this season. Jimmy Roach is fine, but like he's a smaller defender at the point of attack and I think Caleb Foster has shown some stuff defensively, but by no means is he like, you know, an ace defensive prospect. So yeah, they're playing this ball pressure defense and they've got like the athletes and the speed I think to try something like that. But when you have flip guarding those ball screens 25 20 feet from the hoop because he's up at the level of the screen. There's very little size on the backside unless they're playing Mark Mitchell. Like that's one of the reasons why Mitchell has to be like viable for them because they need him to be the health defender to snuff out, you know, four on threes and to rotate and be a presence at the rim.

He had the point of attack defense has been I think like just okay so far this season too. All right, let me let me move on to Carolina for you Josh. The Tar Heels have certainly I know they somehow lost to Villanova who's kind of Lou get their season is going a little sideways at this point.

Don't know how that happened. But do the Tar Heels look as good to you as they do to me because I look at a team that seems to be, you know, top 10 at least nationally. Compared to what they've been since the Cam Johnson, Kobe white, the seer little team.

Yeah, they look a lot better than what we've seen aside from that one month in 2022. This is the most talented team they've had since that team that had multiple draft picks and multiple lottery picks on it. And we saw that with the way they were able to score against Tennessee. The problem is they haven't been able to defend all that much and I don't know if you remember this game, but six seven years ago, they played Kentucky and it was that 103-100 game for Malik Monk had the three at the end.

That that might be what tomorrow is given how up and down both. These teams are both ranked top 25 and offense right now and scoring offense. And then they're all they're both ranked in the 200s defensively.

Like you're talking about 90. I feel pretty confident is what you're going to have to hit to have a chance to win this game and I'm not ruling out that regulation 100 possibility considering but even when you look at the game, they played against Tennessee drop in a hundred. The ball still had a guy go for 37 adult and connect that night and North Carolina's defense was a concern particularly rebounding defensive rebounding against Yukon. The last time we saw them at MSG Kentucky has some dudes in the post as well. So that game looks like a track meet and when you look at what's been the best day of the college basketball season to this point and non-conference unbelievable games across the slate. Yeah, Carolina, Kentucky might be the most entertaining game of the bunch. Yeah, and you're going to waste part of your day watching Arizona Purdue a gold gold real quickly. Can we make sure everyone if you're playing at home cross up on your bingo card? UNC Kentucky is going to be a track mate said by don't worry good and cross off that one on the old board.

I should say it'll get it. This is a team that's absolutely going to get lost even though it was Roy Williams last team and they did lose in the first round the NCAA tournament the 2020-2021 UNC team had multiple guys that end up being multiple first-round picks on that roster, which actually don't think it's going to be the case with this year's team. It's just that all Roy wanted to have Walker Kessler and De'Ron Sharp come off the bench behind Garrison Brooks and Arvondo Baycott.

So there was that that is worth pointing out for historical context. Gotcha. But your thoughts on the tutorials. I actually think it's kind of weird. First of all, I think Harrison Ingram is their best player and I think the most critical piece to them being really good. I think is Elliot Cadeau in terms of giving RJ Davis the freedom to freelance a little bit more and not have the pressure of always handling the ball and running the offense.

How far off is that? No, I think that's true. I mean like Ingram is a here has been a great player since he got to college at Stanford, you know, two three years ago. I've been a fan of his since you 19 fever tournament in 2021. And he too also helps like from like a playmaking standpoint. You'll see you would be like let's isolate them in the mid post and they you know, Hubert Davis is a nice job syncing up.

He and RJ Davis together and some of those actions to get them going. But yeah, Cadeau is like, I mean, he's an interesting player because he's you know, then doesn't really shoot that much like he's sort of like up and down in terms of like actual play finishing, but he's an awesome passer like like a pretty special like in terms of like court vision and touch on his passes and that allows RJ Davis to get off the ball and like he's an awesome spot-up shooter. So yeah, I think like the strength of this UNC team is that they do have multiple guys that can initiate office and they've got different lineups. They can get to where they can take, you know, Jalen Withers off the court play Ingram at the four and then get even more offense with Cormac Ryan, Elliot Cadeau and RJ Davis at the one two three. Yeah, I mean, I just they have been I think very enjoyable to watch.

I like I like Cadeau. I've heard some, you know, is he Kendall Marshall? No, but I think he's going to provide a lot of again. Some maybe some cover and some freedom for RJ Davis who has been I think is becoming maybe already has been just an awesome college basketball player.

So let me let me get to NC State. I haven't seen them against a quality opponent yet. Because why you? Yeah, right.

No, but I I haven't seen them. That's all. Okay, right.

They have played quality opponents. Are you going to stay up at 10 o'clock tomorrow night is the call? Of course. Okay, of course. I'm going to stay up at 10 o'clock tomorrow night. He says emphatically hoping people will buy it.

But I do have I do have the ability to record on YouTube TV. But is tomorrow night against Tennessee going to be the lesson? We're not the lesson the the litmus test that we need to say, you know what? I think they have a lot of nice pieces. But because I think they have a lot of nice pieces. Josh you go Josh you go. Well, the I just think it's going to be a strong indicator of what this NC State team is as we head into ACC play beginning and it does seem like the ACC is going to get more respect than it has in the last couple of years.

Why I can tell you. Well, I mean you have better non-conference wins. You look at Clemson winning at Alabama, for example, if you want to be in that position where people give you the benefit of the doubt in March, Clemson sitting nice and happy and they have a big game tomorrow. By the way at FedEx Forum in Memphis to that should be a fun one to watch NC State has that opportunity here. There are some ACC teams that don't have the luxury of having a huge non-conference win. That's going to hold up when March rolls around wait for us, for examples, hoping that Florida looks pretty good. They're top 30 in Kim Palm right now.

But what are they going to be by the time March arrives? Plus that was in Winston-Salem keeping it within NC State though. They do have a lot of nice pieces. Kevin Keats did a great job in the portal. It's important to remember there aren't a lot of guys who are ACC head coaches that have background in JUCO and Kevin Keats is one of the few that does so this level of roster turnover. It's something that BG you and myself talked about for years like being comfortable with rosters being fluid. Kevin Keats is clearly comfortable with that and the way that he added Jarkel last year and an important year, I think showed that as well. I'm just going to be fascinated to see how all those parts fit together against what I believe is a little bit more polished of a team in Tennessee tomorrow night. I actually think that the win at Boston College matters. I think that's I think you can learn something from a conference win on the road. Sure. So in amongst your thoughts on the Wolfpack and what they are, if Kevin Keats is daring enough, is Cam Woods somebody that can help?

I mean, it just depends. Like they have like a lot of good guards right now in the backcourt. Gold, we've talked about this a few times. I really like a lot of the pieces there. I think Jane Taylor's had an awesome season has been like a you know, a rector for them defensively at the point of attack. And so I really like a lot of the pieces. I think LJ Thomas is a guy that could get playing time and a lot of places and he's sort of like, you know, really kicked the back end of the guard rotation, right?

They're just missing. I think like again, as I've mentioned this before like the real like go to like, you know, a level type playmaker like the pull-up shooter three-point range who can also pick apart a, you know, various pick-and-roll coverages. They have that last season with Jarkel and took me to be on Smith in years past that's been, you know, a Markelle Johnson or a Devin Daniels type or Daryon Seabron for that matter, too. Although maybe not as much as the pull-up shooting with with Seabron. So I mean, I don't I've seen a couple of of Kimwood games.

He shoots it. Okay, like I'm but I'm not sure if he's he's the just like total take the top off the defense kind of guy, like give him a ball screen and and let him go to work. So I really like this roster a lot though. Like there's the I think positionally there's like a lot of versatility. There's a ton of defensive upside length athleticism. And I think the Boston College game was like emblematic of that like using mojarra to be the primary defender on Quinton Post and with some of the screening off ball that state did in that game to sort of like cut down on some of the backside advantages was was really impressive. Like I think state staff has done a pretty good job of managing some of these games as well. And they almost beat BYU earlier this year. And then they will was basically like a home game for the Cougars and BYU is a top 10 Ken Palm team right now. They've got Jackson Robinson playing out of his mind is one of the best shooters in the country.

So like I think the state team is solid. I just wish they had one more guy that could really do damage as a pull-up shooter and a creator. I think they'll like that's something they're going to really miss against Tennessee this weekend volunteers and drop coverage like those pull-up shots are there. It just can DJ horn Jayden Taylor like in those guys to one of those guys get hot because they can't just have the offense run through Burns in the post and clamp that on I think.

Oh my goodness. Yeah, and you know Burns is we don't all know limited on the defensive end. Anyway, they were this team reminds me of the way that way it's made up. It reminds me of the Kevin Keats teams that played at UNC Wilmington. I think they're built in many ways like that are like that really like that a lot. I mean that that's what we thought we were going to get right when he came from Wilmington.

It was like interchangeable pieces and they would come and they would just try to like beat you with athleticism. I think this is the first team that he has at state that looks like he has enough pieces to maybe do something like that is final final thing for both Josh Graham and Brian Geisinger. It's Clemson the best team in the league. Yeah, I I I still think you know, I'm going to say yes Clemson I think is the best team in the league because I selling your car to Carvana is as easy as easy as pie.

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That's Chumba casino.com feel like I can trust a lot more things. I know more about what they are more than I know who Duke and North Carolina is. I think those two teams have higher ceilings than Clemson does right now. But if they were to play on the basketball court right now, I think Clemson over anybody in the league by the way, really like that analogy. You just made thinking about it.

Like there's a guy on the Lakers named Davante Kacok who reminds me a lot of of burns. Now that I think about it. They really Brian is Clemson the best team in the league. Uh, yeah, sure.

Why not? We'll take that right now. Like they're tough defensively in PJ all the guy that like as soon as you put them on the court, like he can be a matchup buster and any coverage throughout them because like he can pass, he can shoot, he can handle, he posts up against switches, like kind of does everything. I'm just curious to sort of see like where their ceiling is offensively.

Like how much help? Like I don't think Joe Gerard's going to shoot 45% on threes for, uh, for the, for the entire season though. It is exciting seeing him play in a more like, um, I would say like better coordinated offense structured.

Yes. A structured offense as opposed to what they did. Yeah, the last few years. Um, but I do think like within the ACC, I still think like Duke, UNC, Miami, Virginia all have like higher ceilings than Clemson is like, will they actually get to them?

Um, you know, we'll see. I do think also like it helps that Clemson so far this season, they're shooting over 39% on threes and their opponents are shooting 32% on threes. Um, that will probably like come down to earth and their opponents will probably shoot a little bit better and like that could flip some of these close games, but like they're awesome.

Brunel's a great coach and PJ Hall's been like one of the absolute, like five 10 best players in the country probably so far this season. Just cost them tomorrow. They're going to lose at Memphis after all of this. It's probably true.

But here's the the end result from all of this is this. If Clemson is the best team in the ACC Josh, your statement the ACC is going to get more respect nationally is gone because Clemson can't be the best team in the league and the and I'm not knocking Clemson at all, but this is the perception of people. If Clemson is the best team in the league, the ACC must be down. That's the way it's going to be spun Josh Graham Brian Geisinger, as always thanks to both of you for hanging out.

Appreciate your time. Can't wait for Alabama to get the number one seed over Clemson then because of that because oh, yes, exactly. They won't even make the tournament now. They just go from a one seed.

Somebody will stub a toe and they'll be out of the tournament all together. That's the way it works. Josh Graham at Sports Hub at Josh Graham radio sports. I've tried Brian Geisinger at be guys underscore bird all over 24-7 sports because he's a basketball savant. Hello. It is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com.

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