Lawsuits and Universities, plus looking ahead to the Super Bowl

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Grainger. For the ones who get it done. A Hall of Fame college basketball writer, my friend Mike DeCorcy of the Sporting News is joining us now on the Adam Gold Show. Let me get to North Carolina last night, and I've been selling this notion. To me, they're a defensive team first this year, and I thought their defense was fine last night. Their offense was not, and that's really what cost them, including a bad call or bad non-call at the end against Georgia Tech. What do you see when you watch the Tar Heels this year?

I think you have them very well pegged there. I mean, they are an outstanding defensive team, which really took a lot of heat because they scored a lot of points, and that's not how modern basketball was played in the 21st century and all that stuff. But they won three championships, so I'm not saying they weren't really good defensively, but it was an offensive first program. And I think probably that's the ideal for most programs at Carolina's level anyway. But there are years when you get certain personnel, you don't get to select them in a draft.

You don't get stuck with them like in high school. You get the best players you can assemble, and sometimes those players are better defensively than they are offensively. And that's certainly the case with this group, although they're not poor offensively.

They weren't good last night, as you mentioned, but they win their games on defense first, and they probably went into this game thinking it wasn't going to be overly challenging and knowing what was ahead of them. And what they needed to remember is you can't do that on the road. If Tech was coming into the Dean Dome, whatever, it's not going to be a problem. These five, six, seven guys are not losing to Georgia Tech at home.

But on the road, anything can happen. And you saw at the end, it's interesting because there were three calls in the last week at the end of games that were all fouls, and two of them were on the road and not called, and one of them was a home player with the ball and was called. And because Duke is Duke, it becomes Duke gets all the calls. But I think Duke was at home, and we saw that last night.

The heels are the heels. They've won more championships in this century than Duke has, and that's a statement because Dukes won a couple. But it didn't help them.

Even against the team, they're the bottom of the league. So I think it's more a home road thing, and they got the wrong end of that last night. There's no question they did. Spoke with an official about it. Spoke with Jay Williams about it. It was on the call for ESPN, and he mentioned it on the game. He goes, why wasn't that a call? You've got to give Georgia Tech credit for playing well, because they did. But I texted with him after the game. That's a call.

That's 100 times in a row. That's a call. And my friend, who's a former official, said the same thing. He's like, that's a call. You can't make that call at that time.

No. If it's a call, it's a call. Because you're deciding the game as an official if you decide to not call it.

And you have inserted yourself, whether you're afraid to make the call or not. You have to call the foul a foul. Duke has won 11 of 12, and I was unaware that they had won 11 of 12 and four consecutive road games, because in my mind, they're struggling.

But we should all struggle like that. I believe that they're not playing to their full capabilities yet, but they have won 11 of 12. They're seventh in the country. But I still feel like there's something that they have to deal with defensively, especially going into the Smith Center on Saturday night. I don't know how you look at Duke, but I was stunned when they put that graphic up right before, I guess, before the Virginia Tech game was over that they had won 10 of 11.

It just blows me away. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that they are they are limited in certain ways defensively. They, they aren't, uh, they, they have a group of younger players on the perimeter, so that's not ideal defensively other than Jeremy Roach, um, who has been absent for a fair amount of right, a recent stretch.

And that doesn't help either because he does a nice job positionally. And he certainly understands how to play defense at the highest level, but they don't have the ability to block your shot. Here's the number.

You'll love this one, Adam. You may not have been aware they've won 11 or 12 or whatever. But are you aware there are 342nd in the country in block percentage? Yeah, they don't. They don't block shots. They don't block your shot.

So teams can take the ball to the rim on them. And that's that's hard to deal with when you can't when you can't discourage that. And teams know they can do that.

It's hard to deal with, especially if you don't have like a Houston style perimeter where their guys are so old and they know how to get in your way and they're really physical and tough. It's hard to manufacture a significant defense, and that's that's going to be what makes it hard for Duke, and they have to overcome that with an elite offense. And right now they just have a very, very, very good one.

They've not gotten gotten over the hurdle to elite. I think some of that Jeremy's in and out circumstance with the injury because I really like him as an office player, and I think not having him has kept them from establishing a rhythm offensively. And they've got plenty of time. They've got a whole month.

So to get that rhythm back, I think they certainly can do that. And it can it can be they can be a challenge in March. I don't think they can win it with this team because of what I talked about. But I think they could be I think they could be in Phoenix if they got the right draw and play to their best. Yeah, I think Carolina is an absolute national championship contender.

And I think Duke. Yeah, I think you're right, given the right draw. And I actually think that the one thing, if Kyle Filipowski has his perimeter game down, if he's not he doesn't have to make what he made like for two games in a row is like six of seven or something silly like that. But if Kyle's, you know, two out of four, two out of five, three out of five from three point range, I think he's unguardable if he's knocking down threes. There just aren't many players who can stay with him. And he's been good defensively. I don't think he's great defensively, but I think he's been good. But that's where I think Duke can take the next step. But it's I don't anticipate Kyle Filipowski being a forty five percent.

He's not Christian later is I guess what I'm trying to say. Well, no, but but he can he can shoot very he can shoot with the best big guys. And I and I think we saw a year ago what he was capable of at times from the standpoint of his three point accuracy this year. He's not, you know, he's been more consistent, but he hasn't had the big games that he had last year. I saw you know, I don't have a problem with him going out and shooting 37.5% from three point range.

I think he's I think I think that number is a good number. I think what what they're what they really need to do is they need to get more players that are that are as dangerous as he and they've got the guys to do that. They've got perimeter young play young players on the perimeter that can be really. I mean, we saw it in in Chicago and Tyrese Proctor had his excuse not tired Caleb Foster had his big night in Chicago. We got to see more of that from him. It doesn't have to be every night because it's not the nature of his role on this team. But I think that he can he can be that guy more often. His shot is so compact. He really should be that guy more often.

Jared McCain is, you know, he had the tough night in Chicago when I saw this guy's in person and but he's been much better lately, but I still think he's capable. You know, the numbers they're shooting are fine, but they have to be get they have to be confident enough to to get into position to take more shots. I mean, when you look at guys, they're they're shooting the number of shots that they are at the percentages. They're taking them.

That's not high volume. Foster's only shot 50 all year. Uh, McCain a little bit more. He's got 100 107 attempts. Proctor's only got 78. He's he's well over 40%.

He's he's only taken 78. So I you know, I think that I think those guys can be more active and more dynamic than they've been. And I think that would elevate that would make it easier for Philip House.

And I think it would elevate Duke's operation. First of all, I think McCain is ultimately their best three point shooter. McCain and Roach are their two best three point shooters. But if Proctor is play is shooting it at a high percentage there, that's a tough guard because they're gonna have three shooters on the court minimum at all times. So it's going to be a two point shooter as he becomes four and and Mitchell's not a 10% three point shooter. He doesn't. He's barely taken him now, but he's gonna make a couple. When that that are going to hurt teams.

I'll make that prediction. Now, remember, when he hits two in the second round of the NCAA tournament, you'll you'll think of me, Mike DeCourcy. basketball writer for the Sporting News, a Hall of Famer when it comes to covering the sport of college basketball. Let me ask you about college sports real quick. We have attorneys general in Tennessee and Virginia suing the NCAA.

So, if one of my, I don't know if I'm missing anything, I think I know the answer to this. I really want your thoughts on the NCAA is begging the, and the NCAA is made up by the schools. All the schools are the NCAA. NCAA is begging Capitol Hill to put up guard rails and restrictions on name, image, and likeness. And now the attorneys generals are coming at them, coming at the NCAA saying, yeah, that's an antitrust violation and you're running afoul of the law. Why don't we just get rid of the stuff that we can't police anyway?

I don't understand that part of it. I saw that one of the comments I just saw on Twitter that suggested that they just said, well, let's just see if we're going concern here. And I'm like, that's not how businesses operate, man. You know, there are people at the NCAA whose job it is is enforcement. And so, until someone tells them not to do their jobs or to do their jobs to police specific things, let's just say academic fraud would be one that they could police, you know, or whatever there might be still out there in the rule book. Or let's say, you know, paying people to go to football stadiums and film the other sideline. That would be something that they could police. Those kinds of things, I think they still can police. But why they're doing this, I don't know.

Because what they're alleging at Tennessee... Without the ones like you who work tirelessly to keep things running, everything would suddenly stop. Hospitals, factories, schools, and power plants, they all depend on you. No matter the weather, emergency, or time of day, you're the ones who get it done. At Grainger, we're here for you with professional-grade industrial supplies. Count on real-time product availability and fast delivery.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. It seems to be, and I think you would agree with this assessment, pretty much standard operating procedures in high-major athletics now. And so why they're choosing to go after Tennessee for this, I don't understand. And why they would put themselves in that circumstance. But I just don't understand why you don't stand back and say, look, we can't police this as it is now because this is what it's become, and it's become this because of state laws, and there is no federal law. And so because of that, they really are powerless in this, but it seems like they want to continue. The enforcement division wants to continue to assert some level of power, authority, control, whatever you want to call it, in this venue. And it doesn't make sense because they don't have any. They can't because of the state laws and no federal oversight, and they can't because, like, they're putting a lot at stake for this.

Like, if we're right, and I think we are because I think we could gather 50 people in a room, follow college athletics and say, is this right or wrong? And I think every single one of the 50 would say that that statement is correct, that the way that what Tennessee is being charged with here is basically standard operating procedure now. So why they feel like that is worthy of this, another couple lawsuits. They've been sued so many times.

Why is this worth it? You're not, like, even if you got Tennessee, even if Tennessee, you know, if their AG stood down and you got Tennessee, what's the change? You still have 80 to 100 major conference schools still doing the same or similar things. If the person who makes the decision to go after, at the NCAA level, the person who makes the decision to go after the Tennesseys, the Miamis, the Florida States of the world, who have all been in NIL jail, if you will, and who has made the decision to go after, you know, to all the lawsuits that the NCAA, you know, files or whatever, whoever makes those decisions is like the John McKay of coaching when McKay was with the Buccaneers. Like, you never win.

You're, the NCAA never wins a lawsuit. They have to stop. They just, they should, somebody should say, you know what? This hasn't worked for us before. Maybe we should not do this. But, you know, one of the interesting things about this is the NCAA has multiple, you know, people are trying to push the NCAA out of business, at least rhetorically, and have been for a while.

Yeah. And the NCAA has a lot of reasons to exist. The NCAA tournament doesn't exist without the NCAA. I mean, that's one really good reason. So, but the biggest reason that it exists right now, at least economically, is like if everybody left and formed their own organization, it would be all that, you know, it'd be all the same people. And they apparently would want all the same.

They do the same things, yeah. And so, but here's the thing, you don't get to sue the NCAA anymore. Now they're suing your organization and you're not capitalized at their level and you don't have the experience, but it should be a shield. It's a shield that you would want to have protecting you. But just like the burglar alarm that you have on your house, you don't want to be tripped. You don't want somebody tripping it every 15 minutes. You just want it there in case one person tripped it. Instead, the NCAA puts the burglar alarm up there and then keeps giving people reasons to barge in the door. Mike, DeCorsi, who's winning the Super Bowl?

Uh, you know, San Francisco's a better team, but I think that KC can follow the Detroit roadmap and do a lot of the same things and get that lead. And I think that if they did, they wouldn't mishandle it in the way that Detroit did. There was, malpractice is a strong word, but within the confines of those 60 minutes, I think it fits. Or not even those 50 minutes. And it's the final 21 or 22 minutes.

Because the first 35 or so were wonderful. But the final 22 minutes, this is what we do is not a reason to do something. That's not how you coach. You coach according to what the circumstance is that's provided to you. And you don't pretend like the NFC championship game is the same as week five against the Panthers.

I personally think they lost the game because they made more physical mistakes than coaching errors. But that's another matter altogether. But you went a long way to say Kansas City has Patrick Mahomes.

Because that might be enough. Yeah, well, you know, Patrick needs help. And he got it from the most amazing, like the fact that they won the Buffalo game and the, clinched the Buffalo and Baltimore game on long passes to Valdez Scanlon after we all saw him drop multiple passes that were game deciders. I mean, let's be honest, like that guy, he deserves like the whole Super Bowl week type thing. Tell his story because guys don't drop those balls in big game, big regular season games, and then come back and catch them in the conference championship or the playoff game. That doesn't happen in NFL. Like usually that guy's never seen again. And in his case, he was seen on the brightest stage starring. Unbelievable.

Mike Ticorcy of The Sporting News, the reason I'm a Liverpool fan, we'll have to get by next year without Jurgen Klopp. We'll talk about that another time. Yeah, I know. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. But we need three points today first.

So let's get him versus Chelsea. Sounds great. Thanks, Mike. Mike Ticorcy of The Sporting News right here on the Adam Gold Show.