ACC Championship Game this weekend!

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. And we are stick deep in the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament. We've got three games left. 7 o'clock tonight. It will be, actually it might be earlier, right? It might be a 6.30 start or something like that. For North Carolina and Pitt followed by Virginia and NC State.

Wow. 7 o'clock. 7 o'clock for Carolina and Pitt and then 9.30. We'll make a stay up to 9.30 again.

No chance. I'll watch the state game in the morning when I wake up. I can't say this week's killing me. This week is killing me.

It is. Brian Geisinger, Pac Pride, 24-7 Sports, Buzzfeed Podcast, NBA basketball guru joins us to talk about what happened last night. So, what happened last night? To me, obviously, State played great.

So, diagnose what you saw. Yeah, I mean, I do think real quickly on Duke, just like one of the things that has flown like a little under the radar. We've talked about it, but like not a super deep bench. And Caleb Foster's been out for a couple of weeks now. Like he's an important player for them. You know, they get zero points from the bench last night. And, you know, I mean, there have been some moments where Sean Stewart looked like he was sort of like ready to get an extended run.

And he didn't have a great showing last night. He played very well at State, you know, a week and a half ago in Raleigh. But I really think what happened last night, I mean, there's lots of angles to look at it from Duke's perspective, but I really got to like give State a ton of credit.

I mean, that has to be one of the bigger wins of the Kevin Keats era, not just like this season. I mean, top 10 team, 10 point favorite. You know, all kinds of all ACC talent on the roster. Back up against the wall for State. Who knows, maybe they're playing a little loose now. They're somewhere between back against the wall and no one believed in us. We get to play loose territory right now.

Just a dangerous place to see a team in a single elimination tournament. But I just think State cocks back and has, you know, one of its best defensive performances of the season, which comes one day after they had an excellent defensive performance against Syracuse. I think it had been, I think it had been since the Virginia game in January that stated held an opponent under one point, one point per possession in the game. And they got two of them and back to back games, including one against Duke, which is, you know, one of the probably five to 10 best offenses in the country. And if you're going to go look at players, I mean, I think it was a team effort, but it really starts with Mo Diarra. What this guy's doing is just incredible. Like it's incredible. And all season long, I mean, he's been a, he's been a beast on the boards. He's been like a versatile defender. He's given them some switchability on the perimeter. He's given them some rim protection. He steps up and takes the primary assignment against Kyle.

He's been a great player. He's been a great player last night, which also means he's out there switching a ton of screens. And I thought state had a good game plan to have DJ Burns on Mark Mitchell. And then when Kyle Philpowski goes into the post against the switch, you know when he's got more cell or hoarder that, you know, DJ Burns sag off of Mitchell and then sort of almost like defacto double team, any of those sort of like high, low entry passes. I thought that was like that state's defensive game plan was good. You know, Mitchell hit some tough shots, but they didn't let that get them out of what their game plan was. At times, Duke tried to get Mitchell going to the rim as like a screen setter and a roller against Burns. And that DJ got burnt one time in the first half and for the most part was like pretty solid, pretty solid, you know, being in his like, you know, drop setting against those looks and then just Michael O'Connell at the point of attack. I mean, we could talk all we want, I guess about his the way he shot the ball in D.C., which is incredible. And, you know, they're going to need more of that if they're going to get past Virginia. But it's just his head passes in transition, the way he could stay running in his point of attack defense, the screen navigation against Syracuse and Duke was really good and back to back performances.

Ryan Geisinger is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Yeah, I do want to make sure that we give the credit to the Wolfpack. And the funny thing is that at the beginning of the year, we saw some potential to be a better defensive team. You know, their better defense is probably a more up-tempo defense and their half court is not their strength. But if Duke's got limited numbers and, you know, certainly Duke's not ideal because Mitchell doesn't pose really a perimeter threat to where Burns has to go out and get him there. He has to honor that so he can sag off and still be just there to bother anybody else coming in the lane. It makes it a little bit easier. But yeah, state definitely played a better defensive game. But for the last couple of games, John Shire has been talking about the good thing is, is that all of these issues are in our control.

So my question is, are they really in their control? Hey, it's Adam Gold and I'm in studio with my friend Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. Is it ever too soon to seek out you and your expertise? Really, there's no too soon.

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Investment advisory services offered by Capital Financial Advisory Group, a North Carolina registered investment advisor. I mean, I think he's, I think what he's saying, I think that's a little bit of like coach speak to an extent. I mean, he's remained confident all season that like Duke has all the pieces that it's needed. Right. I agree. They have the pieces.

Yeah. It's just like they, the roster is in some ways, like it is a little limited. Like, I mean, they've got, they've got like enough to go to the final four, right? Like they're super talented, but like not having a bench. I mean, I think to an extent, like having being able to play like 10 deep, there's some overrated nature to that, but being able to go confidently having like six, seven guys. And they're not like far away from that.

If Foster was healthy, they basically be right there. But like, that's the thing. Like, he's not healthy. They don't have, you know, a six more guards that can get downhill and as important as a driver and a passer. And there's like a pretty good spot up shooter for Duke as well.

Like they do miss him. Um, and then like they've been trying all year to like solve. Um, like the way teams have defended Mitchell and it seemed like for a big stretches of the year after sort of like bumps earlier on. They kind of got to like a like a place where they could handle that.

But, you know, if they can't really like get to their, um, you know, get to some of their go to stuff, you know, like driving lanes for Proctor or high low entry stuff for for Kyle's opacity. That's just getting clogged up because teams are able to like play off of Mitchell. Then they their ceiling is like a little bit lower in terms of the half court offense, which is still really good. Like I just is is sort of like limited in this one way that teams are going to guard him. I mean, they've done a nice job countering that at times.

I think Duke staff has put him in some good positions as well, but it's just the reality, you know, right? And like they just don't have really have other than I guess time to TJ power. They don't really have like a stretch shooting option in the front court, you know, to like come in and play next to full power and keep the defense humming. They just they don't they don't have that. They don't have that piece.

Again, I think China is right when he says they've got they've got everything they need in house to get it done. I mean, you could see the talent, but the lack of depth, the lack of like stretching the front court. Um, and you can see it like when they, you know, when they if they put so up house key or McCain or both those guys on the bench at the same time, those are lineups that just like can't survive and like, right?

I mean, it's all past the other bench at the same time. I get fouls, but just like it can't they can't survive it right now. And they're going to have to be, I think, be a little bit more careful about that as they get into the NCAA tournament.

Yeah, I just think that they're they're bigger issue and John has talked about the competitive aspect of it. And I think that's what he's talking about about controlling games, you know, 5050 balls against UNC weren't 5050 balls. They were, you know, 9010 balls and they didn't defend as aggressively and is consistently well against NC State. And a lot of that is NC State playing really well and really smart and really efficiently. And they didn't live at the three point line. They only shot 16 threes. They made seven and three, three of the nine misses were Mo Diarra and I highlighted him because he's one of my favorite players that they've got.

I think Diarra is a dynamite player and has gotten so much better as the as the year has gone on. So let me just kick it forward. And, you know, Duke's not there anymore. So let's talk about teams that are Pitt, North Carolina last night or coming up tonight. Carolina did what they did and it was all based on defense.

And I love every element of that Pittsburgh. Now, they're probably and they should be in a mindset of we have to win this game because I'm not sure that they don't take in order to get an at-large bid because they didn't really accomplish anything outside the league. Not that that really matters to other teams, but it matters to Pitt, apparently. How do you see that? Because Pitt doesn't have nearly as much depth and Carolina is going to make everything difficult.

Yeah, I mean gold. I think we've talked about it for a couple of months now, but just like Carolina's defense. It is it's just better than the sum of its parts like they had and they have like obviously they've got really, really good players. But just the way all the perimeter guys have have bought in to guarding that guy rewatched the Duke UNC game this week. And I mean it to see like what what Cormac Ryan said, Trimble like what those guys are doing away from the ball. You know, lock it, you know, really being super duper like Virginia Clemson style physical with guys off the ball and you're trying to deny handoffs and down screens.

And then when they have to navigate on the ball being super physical getting over those strains and then, you know, Armando Bicotte or Jalen Washington are waiting in the paint. And so I'm going to be fascinated to see what Pittsburgh has cooked up to go at UNC scheme. This drop defense because Pitt has two really, really good point guards, right? They're both freshmen though.

Jalen Lowe and Bob Carrington, right? And like I think, you know, UNC plays a scheme with this drop coverage where like Carrington's going to have pull-up looks Lowe's going to have you can you love to get that to that little lefty floater and runner like those looks are going to be there. It's just like they're going to also going to be contested from behind by by the you know, the guard, you know, RJ Davis or Elliot Cadello or Cormac Ryan, the guys that are navigating screens. And sometimes those shots they can look open, but they're they're still like tough off dribble looks like you and even told here has been basically trying to like stuff guards into phone booth coming off those screens and then make them take contested pull-up twos.

And like it's really it's worked very, very well. Like, yeah, looking at Ken bomb, you would see only 40% of the field goals against them this season have been assisted to top 10 rate top seven rate nationally. So they want they're trying to encourage you to take off triple twos and take away the paint with Baycott, you know, dropping at the at the rim. The only thing too is like Bob Carrington, you know, there's a some percent chance that that guy is just on a heater tonight.

Like all of a sudden like this, he gets his pull-ups and dissolves. Does that make UNC scheme? You know, not this as powerful as it has been for the vast majority of the season. You know, I as good as Carrington is as good as low are I kind of think that's going to be tough for them. And so then it turns to like Blake Henson, like what's the how do you want to guard him coming off screens? Are you going to switch against him?

Who are the matchups? Can can Jalen Withers and Seth Trimble get help off the bench? What is Harrison Ingram's role look like in Pittsburgh? Can they take advantage of that drop coverage with Henson? Maybe not him like, you know, dribbling off pick and roll, but you get him coming off of pin downs that are being set by Pittsburgh centers. You know, Federico Federico or Diaz Graham, you let him curl off those looks. And if there's no and if it's against Baycott, well, he's going to be dropped into the paint.

So it's not going to be a switch. So he might be able to curl off and get into space. And so just like can pit can they screen well for Henson off the ball and maybe try to get him to like weirdly attack the excuse me to weirdly kind of like attack the drop coverage, but to not do it by using ball screens to use it by, you know, pin down that type of stuff. So we'll see how creative Jeff Capel can get and how the freshman guards perform.

Brian Geisinger is joining us here. We talked to Jeff Capel the other day is fascinating discussion, I thought. And we talked about Blake Henson and you always say that he has a rational confidence. And Jeff, not Jeff, we could talk to Jason and Jason said he has unreasonable confidence. So I just I just thought that that was absolutely hysterical.

That he basically feels the same way about Blake Henson as you do one of my favorite players to watch. All right. So state of Virginia have played twice, right? They split them, right? Yep Wolfpack one in Raleigh, Virginia one up in Charlottesville.

How does this one work out? Yeah, I'm fascinated. I mean, I think it's going to be a game that's going to get, you know, Virginia, they tend to drag games into the mud. That's where they want to play.

They hate fun a few times this year. I haven't seen them get into the mud was when they got blown out by Duke at Cameron a couple of a couple of weeks ago. But given how state defense has looked the last couple of games like playing better and not super chicken, not a high powered offense. Like this does feel like it's just going to be like a grimy low scoring game, low possession game. And I think what state can do defensively with how they want to switch using Diarra, like they can take away some of Virginia's off ball motion, all the blocker mover and inside motion triangle steps they run where they try to get Isaac McNeilly and Jake Rose. They're two really good shooters coming off of downscreens.

I think a lot of it depends on can you keep re speaking out of the paint? It's hard to do. He's so clever. He's such a high field player. He's playing really well. The guys I mean, I think he's ready to like step onto an NBA roster and be a contributor next season. He's just making play after play for Virginia.

Really, really special. And then defensively, you know, they're going to probably put Beekman on horn when he comes into the game. Right. Like, you know, he's now the microwave guy off the bench for state. How do you how does how does he handle that?

That's tough. Beekman is a really tough guy to attack. One of the post ups look like for D.J.

Burns. You know, can Jordan Minor guard him one on one? I know UVA is known as like a post automatic post trap post double team.

But uh, but they're doing that less now. And certainly you want to stay out of rotation against Burns. We've seen all kinds of teams have to deal with this throughout the year, including UVA. And Minor was able to guard quick post one on one in the post late last night against Boston College at some big stops. So maybe they'll try that.

How does Burns respond? And can they get a little bit more movement off the ball even when he does get into some of those post ups? Because they need they still need Horn and Burns to drive the offense. But I do think if they continue to get this kind of like secondary shooting.

Yeah, that's it. Taylor and O'Connell, like it's huge because, you know, Burns and Horn are going to deliver. It's just like they create open looks for other guys. Can those guys just capitalize when they get the wide open, you know, spot up three? And wouldn't it be appropriate if Casey Morsell delivered?

Yeah. Against his former club. Now, he had a big game on Tuesday night, right? Casey at 25. In D.C. is where he's from. Washington, D.C. too.

There's a lot of there's a lot. This is a homecoming game, sort of like in multiple ways for Casey. No question about that. Brian Geisinger, I am picking it all North Carolina ACC tournament final. I would love to see Pitt do something crazy tonight because I want them in the tournament, but I don't think they're beating UNC.

Yeah. I mean, I just think North Carolina is is heads and shoulders better than everybody in this field. UNC is really good.

They're really, really, really good. But it'd be fun to see. I mean, Pitt has some of the tools to do it. It's just like, I don't love the it's just hard.

It's really hard. UNC makes it super, super, duper tough and forced them out for Wake Forest too. Really enjoyed watching them this season. But yeah, it feels like this is a third straight year. They're going to just sort of like narrowly miss the NCAA tournament. Go win the NIT like Dave Odom used to do every other year. Legacy day. Brian Geisinger, our college basketball guru, 24-7 sports, Buzzbeat podcast.

I can't speak suddenly. At big guys underscore bird. My man, I'll talk to you soon. You guys enjoy the games tonight. Thanks, man. You too.