The workday is done.
Social media is heating up. Ding, ding, boys. School's in session. Welcome to Sports Talk with Personality. Woo-hoo!
Woo! You riding with us? Yes. Great. Coming to argue?
That's a given. That's a given. Even better. Let's get the show going. Got me light.
Got me light. Clock out, crank up. People got the platform, let's give them a show. The drive starts now on WSJS. Let's get this thing fired up.
Welcome into the drive right here on WSJS. I'm Will Dalton, your host. Also known as The W D to very many. Busy sports night last night. A lot of college hoops, including some...
Five minutes up the road from where I sit here in Winston-Salem. Of course, we're talking about the Joel, and of course. We're talking about Wake Forest and Clemson, and that. is where we begin. The Deeks made it three in a row last night.
Kudos to them. You know, they had Clemson coming in and. Clemson. Off of a couple of losses, Duke and Virginia Tech. We had Stan Cotton, the voice of the Deeks in to talk about this yesterday.
You know, there's no shame in losing to Duke. Or Virginia Tech for that matter, again, showcasing how much deeper the ACC is this year as opposed to last. Uh but that's what Clemson had done recently.
Meanwhile, on the other side of things, Wake, they'd beaten Georgia Tech, they'd beaten Stanford, and you know, this was a big one in front of the home crowd. And the one thing I noticed last night As I watched Wake Force just pounce on the Tigers early was Man, Steve Forbes teams, they play hard. God, they play hard because the way that they have responded to adversity here recently has been quite a thing to watch. It has. Um And you know, they just, they got out offensively early.
We all know what Jew Karris has been doing, but so many other people got involved. Here was Steve Forbes last night after the win. Um Talking about going into this game because he, you know, again, even though they lost a couple, Clemson was a team that was ranked in the top 25 for a decent chunk of time this season. And good defense. And for Wake to pounce on him offensively like that, that's something.
And Forbes, you know, said he challenged his guys going into this game. We challenged our players the last two days really in practice and it showed we we had a really high level intense practices 'cause we have So much respect for Clemson and their program, and what they're about, and their toughness, and their defense. Like they have the 15th best defensive efficiency in the country. And so I thought that it was going to be really important on offense for us to Get to 70. and make between eight and ten threes and we got Yeah.
Like how many threes do we make? I don't know. Ten and we s we scored eighty five on a a really good um outstanding defensive team. I thought we played at a really high level on offense in the first half. The ball was humming.
Um And we were just getting we were getting some shots and we were making them. They were making them. You know, I thought that was interesting. Forbes talks a lot about practice with these guys. He does.
That's not the first time he's done it. And Stan touched on it yesterday. Stan did. He did talk about that. And you might just think, okay, we're talking about practice, like you hit him with that.
But, you know, I can tell you as a former athlete that practice. How you practice is how you're going to play. And I remember. Uh I can't remember which game it was that I was at. uh at home that Wake lost, but They did not play very well.
And one of the things that Forbes hit on in the pros game was like he could tell. What might be getting ready to transpire the day prior when they practiced and Didn't look too good. Like, he was like, I could kind of see it already.
So, it's not something to downplay. And, you know, they practice really well, they practice really hard. And it's showcased again on the floor of the game last night. And he mentioned the ball movement. I mean, they just, man, it was all over the place last night.
Looked really crisp.
However Not without a little bit of drama there last night. Not without a little bit. Um I I'm I would imagine some Wake fans were nervously clenching something, waiting for the shoe to drop when you were up. Yeah. up what you were by thirteen at the half.
Then Clemson In the post specifically, went on kind of a run at the start of the second half. Cut that lead from 13 down to 5. But Luckily for the Deeks... Between Juke Harris, Between Sebastian Aikens and between Makai Mason. They shut that down.
They shut that down down the stretch of the second half, and they pulled away. Makai Mason hitting his first three actually in ACC play last night. And I bring up Makai Mason. Because He actually did not have a great game. against Stanford.
Played four minutes, or excuse me, he played 27 minutes. 27 minutes, but he only had 10 points. Not the greatest of games for him. Um And Steve Forbes actually was asked about Makai Mason's night last night and how crucial he was to. The efforts in the second half and kind of stopping that run that Clemson went on.
And, you know, You know, Forbes had some interesting comments on Makai Mason. If you remember. Um I said he didn't play well, but he'll be ready Wednesday. He didn't know that. And I told him that after the game.
That I said that. And credit to him. You know, for you.
Okay, you didn't have your best game. He didn't pout about it. He came back, practiced really well, and made some big free throws. down the stretch, you know, um It's nice to have a guy like that that you can throw it to and know he's going to make free throws. We just gotta get it in bounds.
Yeah. That's the key. Forbes is always going to throw a zinger in there at the end of his answer. He's got to get it in balance. That's right.
He's got some doozies. But no, that was a pretty cool thing about Makai Mason that he said. It's like, he'll be ready. He knows his guys, he knows his guys very well. And You know, that that shows yet again.
So. I went to the Wake Vanity game, awful game. Follow that up, the last game that I went to was Wake and Louisville. They played so good in that basketball game, and things just didn't transpire at the end. Like the last three minutes of the game is when Wake.
Like, lost the game. Right. But I saw such improvement. I saw these guys still playing hard, not giving up. And um I walked away from that game going.
They might surprise some people. As the year comes to an end, watch out for this Wake Forest team. And now they've rattled off three in a row, five players and double figures last night.
Well, I mean, it's what we said after, what was it, the Georgia Tech win. Right now, with where they're at in their season, they just got to win games. Whoever's in front of them, don't worry about where you are in the standings. Don't worry about what might happen later down the road in the tournament and all of that. Just beat who's in front of you, just stack wins.
And they've done that. And Steve Forbes has preached that. Um And to your point. Uh What were you saying about um Oh, late game execution. Right.
That's been a piece that they've struggled with. And that's why that run, I think, that they stopped Clemson from going on or. last night in the second half, that was very impressive by them.
So They're getting a little bit of a momentum build up. And They found themselves in a tough situation this year, but now they're starting to stack wins and they're starting to focus on that. And with Nate Calmese likely coming back by the end of the month, you would think, ish around that time, This is the time. This is the time for them to be playing like this. And, you know, they've got.
Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia, which that'll be a tough one on the road.
Well, Virginia Tech is no pushovers. There are no pushovers.
So, you know, Tech, Virginia, I wouldn't sleep on Cal either when they come into the Joel to finish up the regular season March 7th. But they've. You know, they've got a schedule there where if they do things right and Cal Mes comes back and they're clicking at the right time like this, they can make some stuff happen. And here was Forbes on. That topic of stacking wins and the margins of victory and how things play out over the course of a season last night.
In my thirty-seven years of coaching, Every season. There's about a 10-point difference from five wins or five losses. In other words, if you could have 23 wins or 18. wins or you can have eighteen wins or thirteen wins. It's a matter of about ten points.
Okay, now Fortunately, in my career, I've been on the good side of that a lot. And we've won some close games this year, too, but we've lost some that really hurt. And so what do you do? You know, I heard Painter talk about it last night. You just...
You learn from it, you teach it to them, and you keep moving on, and you hope that at some point it sinks in. I think it's starting to sink in. You know with our players.
Now, you know, we still got a lot of A lot of seasonal level. We got a lot to play for still. But it's just one at a time and What's that that old does that say old Bull Durham? One at a time. Yeah.
Uh wake, making it three in a row last night against Clemson. DJ Turner on the ones and twos over here. Got Connor O'Neill going to join us at 5:30. Always love it when Connor's here. Oh, it's always a great time.
He'll come in studio. We'll talk a little more about last night. We'll. Preview this massive Duke, Michigan game that's taking place on Saturday in DC. Yeah, so we got a lot to do on today's show.
Oh, buddy, what is this? Is that Santana? I'm jamming to it, I know that. That can only mean one thing. Yes, we're looking for the first caller to get in right now.
For your chance to see Santana and the Deobie Brothers coming to Treliad Amphitheater in Charlotte on. July the eighth for the Oneness Tour. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. But first caller, 336-777-1600, you are a winner and heading to see Santana and the Doobie Brothers.
So call now and win. Give us a call. Get you some tickets. Also, call us if you have thoughts on the game last night. I want to know about that too.
But 336-777-1600 is the number to call if you'd like to win those tickets. Very quickly, though. Um I wanted to hit on what's been going on with Henry Vesar. In his situation. Because it is a little strange.
Um So as we know He From what we know, he got hurt, this lower extremity issue, and that's what they're calling it. There isn't like an actual label on this injury other than lower extremity. Why hide it? Just you know, just tell the people what's going on with Henry. I mean, seriously.
Well, that's part of what makes this a very fascinating situation because There is so much unknown. Like he, that was sustained in the Miami game, it would seem. Then, after that, is when he had the flu, which, if you listen to the way Hubert Davis described it in his ACC coaches call on Monday, before he had seen Henry that day. That was a big reason why he missed pit, more so than the lower extremity. It was the flu thing.
Okay.
Well, um The word And that's the word from a UNC spokesperson also that that was a big reason why he didn't play against Pittsburgh. Then on Hubert Davis' radio show later that night, he was saying that he made a quote. Big jump. On both of these matters, the flu and the lower extremity issue, okay. But then Tuesday night.
Two hours before the game against NC State, the injury report comes out and he's ruled out.
So it's like clearly maybe there wasn't as much progress as you thought. Uh and there is Just a lot of um There's a lot of secrecy and there's a lot of unknown about the specifics to this thing. And I'm just thinking about this in terms of the timetable for both him and Caleb Wilson because we saw what it looked like. Against a pretty solid, like, okay, Pitt's not having a great season. NC State's a good team.
They are. And we saw what that looked like. That's not going to be pretty against Louisville, assuming Henry does not play. We know you won't have Caleb Wilson back. But if you could just get one of the duo back over the last stretch of these games here.
But it is. A question mark. And with it being a question mark, you have to take everything into account. You have to sit here and wonder, all right. Could you be without Kayla Wilson and Henry Vesar?
All the way up until the Duke game that finishes the regular season. And then the ACC tournament. And so, if that were the case, hypothetically, you're getting both of these guys back right ahead of a situation where you might play four games in four days. That's a lot to ask. That's a tall task.
So do you think their thinking right now is If we are able to win a couple of games before the Duke game, We'll bring these guys back for the ACC tournament. Or if we are in meltdown mode, we bring these guys back earlier and risk further injury. See, I think that's exactly it. I think they're looking to avoid risking further injury. And I I think with the Henry Vesar piece specifically, I think they're probably looking further into the injury, making sure everything's Either as okay as they think it could be, or maybe as not okay as they think it could be.
And they don't want, because unlike Caleb. Because Caleb's, he's going to be a top draft pick. Like, he doesn't have to practice or work out for any NBA teams. Henry Vesar is going to have to go and train and work out for a lot of these teams. That's just kind of where he's at with, you know, with.
His evaluation of things. And then, so then it's like his camp has to make decisions and. I don't know. It's a question mark. It's a fascinating situation.
And. It It spells trouble for Carolina is what I'm trying to spell out for you. That's what I'm getting at here. It always concerns me with these big guys, the ones that are like 6'10, 6'11, 7 feet. when they start talking about, yeah, he has a calf injury.
We learned the hard way during the Kevin Durant situation. Oh, yeah. Oh, he's got a calf injury. No, we were dealing with the Achilles, and that's my concern for Vesar right now. Um Is this something they're trying to Protect, you know, but these big guys, it happens, it happens too often.
And if they do come back too soon, They blow it, and it's not good. And that's what I think they're trying to avoid.
So. It's a fascinating situation. We'll continue to follow it. But coming up next though. And if you have thoughts on that matter, Wakes win last night, 336-777-1600 is the number to call, or get in our YouTube comments as well.
The Charlotte Hornets are back in action tonight. But not before a little off-court drama. That's Next on the Drive. You're listening to WSJS. Another segment, another bad take you'll argue about all night.
You're on the triad's longest-running live sports talk show, The Drive. Back at it on the drive right here on WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. If you haven't checked out our website out, What the heck's wrong with ya? WSJS.com. Get over there.
It's where you can listen. To all of our programming, you could be listening to this show right now over there if you're about to leave the car or something like that and you want to keep. Keep it plugged in, keep it dialed in here. You can also check out our winner-wonder land of winning options and learn all about. Everything that's happening.
Let's just tell them what they can win. I mean, on the Wind or Wonderland of winning, this is what's up for grabs. Tickets for Chris Stapleton at Bank of America Stadium. Heck yeah. Riley Green, who's coming to Trillion Amphitheater Charlotte.
Tickets to see the oneness. No, that's the other show. No, this is what is it? One night, one evening, something. But anyway, it's Toto, Christopher Cross, and the Romantics.
What? Big time show there. And tickets to see Wake Forest and Syracuse at the LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem a week from Saturday. Heck yeah. All you have to do is go to WSJS.com, click on the logo, sign up, sign up every week, and you have a chance to win a pair of those tickets.
The Red Hot Demon Deacons. You could go see them. Yes, sir. You know who else is red hot? Charlotte Hornets.
Yeah. And they're back in action tonight. There's a real buzz going on. Oh, yeah. Oh, DJ.
Oh, me.
So they're back in action. But first, there is a story. That has occurred, occurred yesterday, uh, afternoon involving Lamello Ball. Did you see this? Yeah, and and sadly it's not the first time.
His driving skills are in question. He doesn't drive a car like he drives through the hoop, I can tell you that. No. Like somebody, uh, showed a montage of some Some footage of his pulling out into traffic and gunning it. Yeah.
I mean, we were... Back when Josh was the host of the show, Josh Graham, we were on with Darren Gant. And Darren was sitting at the light. And he just looks up the street there, and who is it but Lamello Ball in a bird scooter just rolling off the sidewalk through traffic?
So, yeah, that.
Okay.
He had a go kart on the roof one time. He likes to have fun. But sometimes having fun could mean uh a little reckless at times and uh If you haven't seen the footage, I urge you to go do that. I don't have the clip for you here. But essentially, what happens is there's this car coming, you know, where it should be, one way, and then.
As this car is coming through the intersection, Lamello in this decked out Hummer, I believe it is. It is. kind of pulls out like Well, he pulls out into Way too far into the lane where the car is coming from. And so it's just too far to the outside. And he, you know, they bump corners.
Uh of their car. His tire comes off the Hummer. A tire that says one of one. Yeah. So anyway, but luckily.
Um Nobody was seriously injured. Lamello wasn't hurt at all. The other person was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
So that's what we know on that story. What I found interesting about the story was Lamello was seen getting into a car and leaving the scene afterwards, just leaving the vehicle there. You know as well as I do, uh if that's our car. We're stuck there. We're waiting, like, can I catch a ride with the tow truck?
Not the case for Lamello.
Well, y'all handle it. Yeah, well, I think. I wonder if he probably had people on site, I guess, to handle it for him. Maybe. I mean, was it like immediately after?
It wasn't long after the way the story read. It was like, oh, he was seeing, you know, leaving and blah, blah, blah. In a Lambo, I believe. I think it was. Yeah, he has a funky-colored Lambo, doesn't he?
I think I saw him get into a gold Lambo. It's a gold, it's shiny, yeah. And. What's it's not funny, but I bel I believe i if this footage is from last night, I believe said uh Gold Lambeau. He almost pulled that out in front of a car as he was attempting to leave.
Like, there was a car coming, and he like inched out and stopped.
So it's like, geez, Labello, come on. I know you're a baller out there. You maybe don't have to drive as much, but come on. Wow. Yes.
So maybe he had people on site. I don't know. It It's not a great look. But Anyway. He will be available tonight, and that's all that matters.
Well, it's all that matters to Hornet fans. You know, because he's been a listen, the Hornets. Hornet fans, you don't have to go through withdrawals anymore, all right? And I'm one of you. I'm excited.
And hopefully he'll Uber there. Yes. Hopefully. Or just walk. He's probably got a penthouse nearby.
I just walked up there. Um. Yeah, they've got Houston tonight. And Just four games ago. Hornets got a nice win at the Rockets by 10 points.
And that was a big one, you know, going up against Kevin Durant. That's a good Rockets team, stacked Rockets team.
So. When the calendar flipped to 2026, that's when everything kind of started to blossom. That's when everything started to change for the Hornets. And listen. It's not hyperbole to say they've been one of the best teams in the NBA over that stretch.
Like they actually have. It's not just, oh, yeah, the Hornets, man, they're hot. No, actually, like, statistically, in a lot of categories, they've been one of and the best in a lot of categories in efficiency.
So they got the Hornets tonight. The Hornets. They got the Rockets tonight. Good grief. We can talk on a radio show.
And then they got a back-to-back. They got Cleveland coming in tomorrow.
So, of course, the buzz that's really starting to build momentum is. People saying conkinipple. Is the leading candidate for rookie of the year, not Cooper Flag? It's pretty much like Cooper scoring all of these points on a terrible team and not going anywhere. Khan is playing great basketball, and he's on a team that's vying for a playoff spot.
Well, that's the argument. That's the argument, and it's. It's something that is pretty cool for us because it's a top NBA Trending story, and it just happens to be right here in our backyard. I think Hornet fans are still getting used to being talked about in that way. But it is.
It's going to be an ongoing thing. Cooper Flag versus Con Knipple. I mean, the guys were roommates at Duke a year ago. I mean, it's just and they were together this weekend over there at Cameron. It's a cool story, but I'm with you.
I think the fact that Because I expect, knocking on wood, I expect the Hornets to continue what they've been doing. I really do, because I think it's legitimate. And I think Con Knipple is going to Make a real push because he's on a team that's actually playing something they're trying to win, and the Mavs are not.
Now, Bridges and Diabante, Diabante. They got three more games. I was going to say, they're not available tonight or tomorrow night, are they? No. They got three more.
And Cavs are good with Harden now. That's a back-to-back, and that's back-to-back really good teams.
So Uh Another good couple of tests for the Hornets right out of the all-star. Break. We're going to be doing one thing and one thing only. We make your commute worth it. Welcome to the drive.
Back at it on the drive, right here on WSJS. Listen to that beat. Hits good, doesn't it? I'm shaking here in the control studio. I love it.
I love it. So, we're going to bring back a special segment here in just a little bit. Might make it a regular now, given who's the host of this show now. Um But I wanted to talk Major League Baseball because there's a. Story?
that entered the news cycle a couple days ago. And uh we just haven't had a chance to hit on it. you know, busy college basketball time. Hoop state that is. But uh Tony Clark The executive director of the MOB Players Association resigned the other day.
Now to you that May not. matter very much. But if you're a baseball fan, as I think a lot of us are around here, it should, because... While So The MLB, it's a great time. I would say the MLB is probably the second most popular sport to the NFL now, not the NBA, because of the strides that they've made, the pitch clock, a lot of these changes.
Uh the star power that you're seeing. It's a great time for baseball, which It's why this is um This is something here because the reason.
So, the reason, to give you the backstory, the reason he stepped down was, and this is Jeff Passon of ESPN's been all over this. There was an internal investigation that revealed an inappropriate relationship that he was having with his sister-in-law. Yikes. And she was apparently hired by the Players' Union in 2023. Uh And um there was an internal inquiry going on and There was also the reason that got revealed in the first place was because, additionally, There has been some type of federal investigation going on into the uh MLBPA's finances and other alleged uh things going on Nepotism, all of that stuff.
And of course, this relationship came to light. Nepotism, huh? Boy. Really, you have surprised me twice this week. What, with words?
Yes. Good SAT words, right? Yeah. Two words. Two words.
There was adjudicated. Adjudicated. And nepotism. Nepotism. I don't think nepotism's that much.
But maybe for me it is. I don't know. Nepotism is not an everyday word. No. Well, sometimes it'll be.
But good job. Thank you so much. But that's a lot of words to say this guy had a bit of a messy background. here lately. Yeah, with brothers like that, who needs enemies?
Wow. Um And this comes at a time and why this is such a big deal. If you're a baseball fan, Is because this is a big year for the Major League Baseball because The Uh Collective bargaining agreement expires. in December, December 1st to be specific. And You know, they're negotiating salary cap and all of these things.
And. The CBA, the collective bargaining agreement, that's going to be the story of the year in Major League Baseball because this is what's going to determine. If baseball is played in 2027 or if there is a lockout. Because The owners, I believe, want a salary cap. And the players don't.
And the owners are prepared to lock the players out come December 1st. Should they not reach a New Deal? And you know, this This salary cap stuff. It has turned a lot of fans away in this context because that is why the Dodgers because we don't have one. It's why the Dodgers is able to sign.
Shoheio Tani, and you know, Yamamoto, and Mookie Betts. God, if they want. I mean, they could get everybody. They could get everybody, you know? They can make it happen.
I'm not going to mention anything because I'm a Yankee fan. We'll leave them out of this for other reasons. I have my own reasons for that. Don't want to talk about it. But then you have the smaller market teams, they can't spend as much.
So that is ultimately in a nutshell, in a very simple way of putting it, why a salary cap is being talked about, why it probably should happen. But the players, obviously, they don't want to lose their money. But Does Major League Baseball and the owners not recall the last time we had a work stoppage, what it did to the game? When was that? Because I don't remember.
It's been a while. But it didn't fare well for baseball. It took years to recover. Last MLB lockout began December 2nd, 2021, and ended in March of the next year.
So that didn't really affect things. One prior to that, which was 20 years ago maybe. Yeah, I think uh I think there might have been one in 94, 95. Right. That hurt baseball tremendously, and it took them years.
to get people back into the seats. And watching baseball again. You just you don't want to chance that. You just don't. No, you don't.
So, anyway, I wanted to pass that along. That's a I mean, it's a pretty significant thing. That we'll be monitoring because we love baseball. We want to keep it. And 336-777-1600 is the number to call.
Coming up next though... We're bringing a segment back. But I did want to mention one of our One of our sponsors here. Atlantic Coast Sports. They're the place to be right now.
So they're up in Mount Airy. And um They They had this incredible setup. They got batting cages and all of this stuff. And they have so many teams represented of just merch and gear that you can buy. They've got everything apparel for college teams, pro teams.
They also have a lot of high school sports team gear up there. It's a pretty cool thing. Check them out, AtlanticCoastSports.com, or find them on Facebook to see the full lineup. Joey from Thomasville wants to chime in on baseball. Joey, Dodger fan Joey, how are we doing?
Yeah. Listen, I know I have a bias, okay? I do. I think the Dodgers organization is the best run sports organization in all of sports. But Let me tell you this.
I'm I get so sick and tired of hearing like, oh, the Dodgers spin this, we can't do this, we can't Every owner, every single owner of a team in Major League Baseball are billionaires. Mark that with a B. Mark that with a B. They're billionaires. They can spend what they want.
If you look at And I did this. I looked at Uh I did a Our Google search or whatever. There you go. If you look at what teams spend. versus what their revenue was.
The Dodgers were like eighth or ninth or tenth on that.
So they spent the money. But they didn't bring in the revenue as a lot of the other teams that just suck their fans dry, they spend. no money and they take the money from them.
So have you have you have you priced tickets for the Dodgers? I did because I'm heading out to California in March. And it's three times the amount of money to go see San Diego. It's ridiculous. I mean, $400 for nosebleeds?
Poof. County.
Alright, so But I'm saying The amount of money that the doctor spent. versus the revenue they break in bring in. is eight ninth or tenth in all of baseball.
So other teams are spending less and bringing in more revenue. These teams had the same opportunity They're owned by billionaires, they could spend it, they just don't want to. That's why they want the cap. That's why they want the cat suit.
So they don't have to spend the money. I mean if It's ridiculous. I mean, again, I have a Dodger bias And you know what? In like back in the eighties or whatever, I hated Yankees. Hey you know Because they went out and they got all the best players, they signed all the best free agents and all that, and now we're in that position.
Mm-hmm.
So I tell all of baseball Fuck it. Yeah, yeah, fuck it. Joey and Thomasville. Thanks for the call, man. I appreciate it.
And now. Very quickly. We bring back a very special segment. I'm interested in upgrading my 28.8 kilobatt internet connection to a 1.5 megabit fiber optic T1 line. If esports is the future, will you be able to provide an IP router that's compatible with my token ring Ethernet LAN configuration?
We're getting in early. I'm here to earn, everybody! Not to make out with you! This is Nerd Corner. Oh, yeah.
It is time for nerd corner. You heard that right. It felt right. That given who's the host of this show now This becomes a more regular thing because I am a nerd. I'm a Star Wars guy.
I'm a video game guy. And, you know, that's what we're here to talk about today. Because there's two. Video game stories. That I wanted to hit on.
One came out yesterday. Maybe you've seen it. But it involves NBA 2K26. And essentially what it is. is that now you can play With college teams in NBA 2K26.
So About a year or so ago. There was an announcement that EA was going to be making its own college basketball game.
Well, I think that got halted or put on pause or something. And then 2K announced they were going to do their own type of college basketball game. Only. I don't think it's going to be a game. I think they were going to come up with like a mode for this.
And it's something. That they are Further working on in terms of like a bit more of a standalone thing down the road, but this is a way to bring it to the game right away. And I think though... What you have to do To do this, to play this mode, is you have to be in my team. NBA My Team?
And they have like real players. From college, like you can play with Cam Boozer, Caleb Wilson's in the game, Luca Bogovatz is in the game, like I saw Isaiah Evans is in the game. And I think this officially drops today. I think that's right. But they've got like a hand like it's it's not the full Slate of schools, unfortunately.
It's only like your top ones: like, okay, Carolina, Duke. Louisville's on there, Michigan, Yukon, Arizona, Texas. Like, it's like about 16 teams, I think, you could play with. But. It was something pretty cool that I thought.
Was not too shabby.
Now, a fan reaction to this has been very interesting because, you know, they want like a real full-on standalone game. But the thing I've noticed about video game players, especially with 2K and Madden. They just love to complain about the game every year. It's like, oh, the graphics aren't good enough. Oh, just fix my team.
Like, it's like, to just complain. Gamers are so entitled these days. Just play it and shut up. Anyway, uh, lastly. Backyard baseball apparently is coming back.
So it's one of the OG games, like back on the PlayStation 2. Xbox. I don't know if it was on GameCube or not. I think it might have been. But.
There was an official trailer that confirmed Backyard Baseball is going to return. It's set to release in summer 2026. And according to Official backyard sports announcement. They're making its come back after years. of Dormancy.
Pretty cool stuff. That's been Nerd Corner. Yeah. The Triad's only live sports talk show, The Drive. This is what rush hour sounds like when nobody holds back.
The suspense is killing me here. Waiting on Connor O'Neill to arrive. Publisher of Deacons and Devils Illustrated. will be joining us here momentarily. All hell, Connor O'Donnell.
I bet he can hear me right now. I know he likes to tune in usually when he's on his way to the studio.
So. Hi, Connor. Hurry it up. Here's your cue. Ha ha ha ha.
Where are you? Where are Connor? Where's Connor? That's like. It's our version of the bat signal for Kyra O'Neal.
Yeah, one more time for good measure. Why not? All right.
So we're going to talk to Connor about the. The game he was at last night. And the game he's I don't know if he's going to DC or not. I guess we'll find out in real time for Duke Michigan. But he was at the Joel last night.
Duke or Wake Forest getting their third straight win and You know, this is a Steve Forbes team that they play hard. They really do. And that's not. I know you might hear that and be like, Oh, okay, what do you expect? Yeah.
Intensity matters. Not all college teams, pro teams were created equal, you know. And not all teams can rise to the occasion and try to pull themselves out of the gutter. I think Wake Forest has done a great job. They have.
They were in a tough spot. in their season and You know, they Beat Georgia Tech, they beat Stanford, and now they've beaten Clemson. And, you know, Steve Forbes, he had some thoughts. You know, he had some thoughts on, you know, how things can unfold throughout a season. Here he was.
In my thirty-seven years coaching, Every season. There's about a 10-point difference from a five wins or five losses. In other words, if you could have 23 wins or 18. wins or you can have eighteen wins or thirteen wins. It's a matter of about ten points.
Okay now. Fortunately, in my career, I've been on the good side of that a lot. And we've won some close games this year, too, but we've lost some that really hurt. And so what do you do? You know, I heard Painter talk about it last night.
You just. You learn from it, you teach it to them, and you keep moving on, and you hope that at some point it sinks in. I think it's starting to sink in. You know. With our players.
Now, you know, we still got a lot of. A lot of season level. We got a lot to play for still. But it's just one at a time and What's that that old does that say old Bull Durham? Have a ton.
Connor O'Neill has joined us. We got really. I'm glad you cut it there because we really sidetracked in that presser. I know. Let's see if we can get Connor mic'd up here.
How about that?
Now we're cooking. There he is. Am I here now? Yeah, you're here. Run that by me one more time.
Oh, me? Yeah, what you just said. We got carried away in that presser. Steve got carried away in that presser. I think there was a mention of garter belts because he is a big Bull Durham fan.
And I don't know if Bull Durham got checked off the list for you in the. First movie we did. First movie we did. See?
So Yeah, that was uh that was Last night had some good Steve Forbes press conference tidbits. They always do. Like, there's usually some good. Like, he'll. But there's not always someone there to ask him for one word to summarize the ACC, and he.
uses a word that can also be referred to as a female dog. Oh Wow. Yeah. He knows how to bookend an answer very well. Put the punctuation on that.
So. Uh getting to the game itself. I didn't just bring you here to talk Steve Forbes or, you know, give this an excuse to talk Game of Thrones. Didn't do that. Uh,.
Wake Forest. They've won three straight. Yeah. What seems to be going right right now for the Deeks? I tell you what, more than anything I've been impressed with the fact that that's that's a team that Not that you expect a team to quit when they're 2-8 in the league, but They had some things going wrong.
Like they lost two.
Okay, you go up to Pitt. Pitt is pretty bad. You're playing in a mausoleum, basically. They have very little fan support up there. And 10 minutes into the game, when your point guard's having a really good game, he turns his ankle and he's out for the game.
And you lose an OT because Drew Harris is in foul trouble basically the whole night. He misses three shots in the last minute or minute and a half. That he needed to make to win the game. You lose two more after that, and it's just like, man, this could really spiral into like disaster zone. You know, three and 15 finish in the ACC and not even making it to Charlotte.
Mm-hmm.
And then you look at, you know, they've basically picked off a team from each echelon of the ACC right now, where. They went at Jordan Detect. Jordan Detect's another team, kind of like Pitt, where they're circling the drain. It's an expected win. I feel like I would put that DJ.
Then you beat Stanford at home. That's another one where, okay, yeah, you know. Good feelings. You're down. You close the game.
I think it was a 17-5 run. That shows some toughness and some resilience that this team. hadn't shown in abundance in January. And then last night, Clemson's near the top of the league. They're playing for a top four seed in Charlotte.
They are an NCA tournament lock unless they just completely fold down the stretch. It's three straight losses for them. It's three straight.
So maybe that's happening. But. At this point, you've beaten a team that's in the top five in the ACC. And you've got things going well. And Look, we're we're not We're not having serious discussions about, you know, are they on the bubble?
Should they be, no, should they be removed from, you know, one of the bracketologists put out there that they're already dead. Like they have no chance. Like, I think that's premature when there's a conference tournament that anybody can win. We just watched two years ago, NC State got on a run.
So what? They don't even have Cal Meese back yet. No, and based on what Steve said on Monday in the teleconference, he's not on the verge of returning. Like, he just came out of the boot. I think if he comes back, it would be maybe in the last week of the season or in Charlotte.
And then that brings into the question of like, well. How do you mesh him back into the fold? I'm sure he's not going to go out there in his first game. He's going to play 35 minutes. I would doubt that.
Yeah. Um you just you're introducing a lot of things into that equation. But right now, it's just basically: we'll keep the vibes rolling and see how far it can go. Like, Virginia Tech is. Not any great shakes of on a roll here.
Like they've lost two straight after they got a huge win at Clemson.
So That's a winnable game on Saturday. And it's kind of like, I didn't watch one battle after another, but I understand based on the title, it's kind of like, well, you win one and you go to the next one. You win one and you go to the next one. We'll throw in a Star Wars reference here. It's like Rogue One.
Let's go. Win one and keep going. Yeah, and then until the lives are spent. Yeah. And boy, they got spent, didn't they?
All right, Connor O'Neill with us here on WSJS. Uh So Juke Harris. The year he's had it, it's just been incredible. Like, I think I was reading yesterday, he's had. 20 plus and 13 of their 14.
And now it's 14. Yeah, now it's 14 from given last night. But Who do you put in the most improved ACC player. discussion with him. people didn't Come at me with vitriol because I genuinely wanted to know.
I put a question out late last night from the Joel Media Room: who else belongs in that conversation? And Paul McNeil has a legitimate case. Yeah. I didn't even think about that. And I'm a little jaded because I think it was the only game I saw of Paul McNeil last year, or one of the two times I saw him last year, he had like 24 against Wake, and he looked great.
And so, based on my limited experience watching him last year, he was really good last year. He just didn't get that much run, which. You can kind of say the same for Duke. He just had different guys in front of him on the death chart with Cam Hildreth and Hunter Salas. But.
I think Paul McNeill belongs in that conversation. Isaiah Evans kind of has the same case. He's been remarkably consistent in ACC games. Not to just make this a conversation about tobacco road only, but those are the first three that come to mind, really. Does Kadir Copeland belong in this conversation?
And that's where we get into the interesting part of this: do we. discuss transfers in this. I I think, yes. I think the way the landscape of college basketball is right now, I think they should be discussed with, with, most improved. But That's really hard because, you know, I'm I'm looking at Kadir Copeland numbers at McNee State.
I'm not sure. And it's different competition, I guess. And that's the other part, is like. how do you judge, say, what Quittier Copeland you know, how much did he improve from McNeese to NC State compared to a guy like the first time this really came up in discussion for me at least was Hunter Salas. Like Hunter Salas had a great case for most improved player of the year in 23-24.
Okay.
Being basically two years of riding the pine at Gonzaga and playing a, you know. spot minutes to being a first E-Mall ACC player. But he didn't win most improved because he wasn't in the ACC. He was in the WCC. Like, yeah.
It's an interesting conversation. I think they should be involved in the discussion. Um, Granted, I don't have a vote, so I can just sit here and say everybody should just talk about them. DJ Grunt and everything you don't think so? No.
Yeah. It's a limited pool if you're just picking guys that were on ACC rosters last year. Especially nowadays. Yeah. You just don't know where they're coming from.
Connor O'Neill with us here, the publisher of Deacons and Devils Illustrated. Let's get to the second part of that title. Uh Duke has a big one on Saturday. Are you going to DC? I am.
Okay.
Didn't want to promote that and you aren't actually going. I mean, Elliott Cadeau, he's already taken shots at Cameron. I forget what arena. I think he said something about Michigan louder than Cameron or something. He said Mackie, where they played Purdue and ran through Purdue just like they've run through almost everybody this year.
Yeah, taking shots at Duke, Tarheel for life already. I mean, it's just, it's going to be exciting. It's one versus three. What are some interesting nuggets we should know going into this game?
So one on Elliott Cadeau, the first matchup that I want to watch, because I'm assuming Michigan wins the tip because they have an alien playing center is. I'm thinking Dame Sarr will be on Cadeau, even though Duke has smaller guards. You would think that's not the case. Duke is kind of in the last two or three games, they've been putting Dame not on the other team's best perimeter player. They've been putting him on their initiator or their lead guard or their point guard, like whatever term you want to use for it.
And he picks up 94 feet. Like he picks up in the backcourt and makes it really difficult for you and throws you. It's just a little bit of a wrench into the other team's offensive system. That really helps to disrupt things. And you're either having your point guard bring the ball up against pressure, and it's pressure from a 6'8 guy with.
big extender arms. or you're giving it to somebody else who's not as conditioned to run your offense.
Now, maybe Michigan is well equipped enough to handle that because they can put Yaxel on the ball and he can be a point forward. They can throw Trey McKinney in there, they can throw LJ Kaysen in there. They go nine deep. They're Their roster is immaculate. It's perfectly built.
Um You know, we're I saw this mentioned, and that's something that was rattling around in my head before, but. These are probably four of the top seven players in college basketball. Between Cam Boozer, Pat Gongba. And then Yaxel Lindeborg and Maurice Johnson Jr. And that's not to mention Ade Mara, who is just a eraser on the inside.
Like I said, he's a 7.3 Spanish alien. I happened to be watching their game against Ohio State the other day. And he made two threes in the first half. They were the first threes he made all year.
Okay, great. It's like. That's kind of unfair. I mean, college basketball is deep this year. I mean, you heard what Jay Williams said the other day.
He thinks the product's better in college right now than the NBA. And I think he was talking about the product, not the talent, obviously. I understand what he meant. I think he meant competition and. Yeah.
Just juice of the games, probably. I mean, the state of college basketball is fantastic. It's terrific. And that's why, like, I understand the people that say uh they they Have never been more out as a fan of college basketball because they can't keep track of the roster movement and all that stuff. And I'm like, I get that argument in October, November, and into December.
But once it gets to January, February, I've been watching games every night. Yeah. It's something it is. If I'm not covering one, I'm watching either Darius Aikoff or Keaton Waggler. This freshman class is unbelievable.
DePonza last night? Yes. Darren Peterson. What's your take on the Darren Peterson situation? Because we were talking about that.
I'm curious what you think. I mean, he subbed himself out of a game. I wouldn't take him number one. The only player I've seen sub himself out of a game was Dennis Smith Jr. down the street.
It was at the Joel, and they were beating Mark Gottfried's Wolfpack by about 30. And he just subbed himself out with like four and a half, five minutes left. The difference was, like, they were getting blown out. Yeah. Darren Peterson did it last night, what, two or three minutes into the game.
He had a three. He had a three and some did it. Yeah. Yeah, it's very interesting. A few more things for you before we let you go.
How much fun has it been becoming a Hornets fan this year? I love it. I need to get some Hornets gear. I need to buy a hat. I'm not a jersey guy, but I'll need to get myself a hat or.
Lord knows I'm wearing a pullover right now. I have so many pullovers/slash quarter zips, but what's one more? I mean, listen, they're uh they're we talked about it earlier. They're uh Con Knipple's impact and just the discipline he brings, I feel like you can see it throughout. The whole team.
Yeah, it's a little contagious. I mean, he's, I think it was the Rising Stars where he was diving on the floor for a loose ball. It's like Con who cares?
So, where do you stand on the debate? Con Knipple or Cooper Flag for the year? That's See I would lean towards the 18-year-old who they're asking to play point guard. Or he he turned he turned nineteen in December, but I'm going with Shire's answer. Just give it to them both.
Well, I do yeah, I do wish that some things could be split. Like, I wish the AL rookie of the year, or not, uh, the AL MVP, could have been split last year. Kyle Rowley or Aaron Judge. Yeah. Yeah, somebody had to take that one home, and I guess I had to be your judge.
Okay, last thing for you: no spoilers here. But how have you been enjoying Night of the Seven Kingdoms, Game of Thrones fan? As I am Connor O'Neill, this is fun. You know, we talked to movies when Josh is here. It's my time.
This is Game of Thrones time, Star Wars time. I really. Did not like the first episode. It's a little slow, right? It was really slow.
That's all I've watched so far. But I know it's gotten. Bonkers have a lot of money.
Okay.
I understand why you're saying no spoilers, 'cause I assume if somebody listening probably has seen it, so. First episode was slow. It picked up. It it it got. Really good, really quick.
I enjoy the lightheartedness of it. Yeah, I enjoy that the episodes aren't an hour to an hour and 30 minutes, like they're very digestible. And it's just, it's kind of, it's kind of refreshing to watch that show and not have like, oh, this is going to decide the realm. And like, the stakes aren't nearly as high. It's kind of like off to the side a little bit, right?
Yeah. Like, that's fine. That, you know, it's a little side quest. You know, that. Indoor is one of my favorite shows ever, and that was a bunch of side quests.
See?
I love it. Man, where's the snoring sound effect when you need it? Get out of here, DJ. Get out of here. And Game of Thrones is winning right now.
Like, the House of the Dragon trailer just dropped today. Oh, I didn't see it. I need to watch it. Take a peek at that. No, Landman is what's happening.
What's that? I'm so far behind. Landman? Yeah. Do you know what this is?
I've heard of Prime? I've only heard of it. Who's in it? Come on. Who's in it?
Sam Elliott is in it this year. This season. See, my hot take is: I want to. I want a show that's on cable because I actually like having the scheduled: okay, I need to be in front of my TV at 10:04 p.m. And I'm just going to block off 35 minutes.
If it's on streaming, then I can say, oh, I'll catch it later. I actually enjoy the appointment viewing of television. I get that. Feels a little more exclusive. I get that.
You got to watch it or you're behind. That's right. I don't want to be behind. Nobody does. Connor O'Neill.
Veacons Devils Illustrated. It's good to have you in the studio, man. Thanks for having me. I'm I.
Sorry, I missed a minute or so. I was turning on to, is it North Point Boulevard that you guys are off of? Yeah. We put the bat signal out. I was.
Had the left-hand turn signal, and I was waiting for that. I was really hoping it was going to be a green arrow and not have to wait for like eight cars. Nope, gave me the yellow. No, I got the green arrow. I was good, but I was just sitting there waiting for it to turn.
Uh, and when the bat signal was gone, I was like, Oh, come on, come on. He would do it.
