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Let's get on the show. The drive starts now on WSJS. It is a gorgeous day outside. You are on the drive right here on WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. It is actually a physically gorgeous day outside, looking out the window of the studio here in Winston-Salem.
However... It is a gorgeous day for Charlotte Hornet fans. And that is where we Begin. I don't want you to actually do this, DJ, because you have to produce the show, but cover your ears. Celtic fan DJ over here.
No, I, you know, and what's really odd about this is I'm okay with it. Yeah, I texted you last night, Hornets by 20. He was like, Yeah, let's go. I was like, All right. I'm okay with it.
I really am. It's like. Um I'm excited about this team and where they can possibly go. It's just, I'm like, They're hot. That is an understatement.
And they're hot. In a way. That out. People are starting to figure it out. And let me mute myself.
I was going to say, you need to turn on a TV or something. I got a new laptop today. Still figuring it out. Getting all that worked out. The Hornets.
This is no longer a cute little run. This is no longer You know, they're on a nice streak. The Hornets are genuinely a good basketball team. They're an elite basketball team with the way they've been playing.
So they beat the Boston Celtics 118-89 last night. 29 points. That's right. The last Six games. They have now won by 15 or more.
Who was the last team to do that? Hmm, glad you asked. 17, 18 Warriors.
So you're telling me they're going to the finals? I'm not telling you that. But I am telling you to take this team seriously for real, for real. Because The last couple of games Before this one last night, the Hornets had been beating inferior teams. Like they beat the.
Wizards recently by a ton. They beat the Pacers recently by a ton. But those aren't teams. Mavericks without Cooper flag, the game before the Celtic game. Nope, no uh Clay Thompson.
The Mavericks aren't trying to win right now. They're trying to get a good draft pick to pair somebody with Con Knipple. Looking at you, Caleb Wilson. A.J. DeBonsa, Darren Peterson, whoever they can get.
But last night They went to Boston TD Garden, and they punked the second best team in the East, straight up. And Jalen Brown was back. Jalen Brown was back. He had a nice dunk, though. He did have a nice dunk.
But Diabate was the recipient of that. He was. Moose caught some of his own medicine on that one. Um But Other than that, it was all Hornets. I mean, they got up on an 8-0 run.
The Celtics couldn't buy a shot, couldn't buy a vowel, couldn't do anything. But this also gives us an excuse to play Eric Collins calls, if we might, because it was a play pin last night for the Charlotte Hornets. Here was, let's get things warmed up slow. He was a nice little Brandon Miller dunk. Bye.
Let's see if Brandon can get going. Yeah. Yes, he can! Not diddly D. But that wasn't all, DJ.
Now, this is the one that everybody's seen by now. Eric Collins. Lamello Ball, take it away. Yeah. Shot clock down to three.
Lamello's gonna have to fire from Nantucket. Living La Melamoco here in Boston. Van Tocket. He he has the weirdest three-shot stance. Like he's always one knee up in the air and fading away.
He just drains it. I don't even like it makes no sense.
So I've got first things first on FS1. That's why I like to watch. In the studio here. It's what I like to keep on. And they were talking about how LaMello, because again, national voices are starting to learn and figure it out.
Lamello loves that one foot. Jumper. Like it's, and nobody else can do it. No. But maybe Steph Curry, maybe.
But he doesn't shoot that way. Lamello, this is his specialty. Like, Lamello ball plays like he's out on the the street ball. He plays like he's got AirPods in, just street ball. That's what he does.
NBA 2K My Park type stuff. If you know, you know. Don't you feel like that watching this season, and we've watched this team evolve, you know, from the opening tip this season. that for me It seems like Lamella Ball looks the most comfortable on the court than he's ever looked. Yes, absolutely.
It doesn't seem like he's under pressure, that he has to prove anything. He's just out there bawling and having fun. He's always been a free. free spirit, free will and type of energy on the basketball court. The difference is now he actually has good and disciplined and legitimate players around him to make him better.
And I think he's. He's learned from the you know From the air of his ways in different points. He's learned how to be healthy. Again, we talked about it yesterday, three months. Of Availability for Lamella Ball.
That's huge. That's knock on wood. Don't jinx it. Find some wood somewhere. There you go.
That's actual wood. I don't know what this is. The table's made up. We got real wood back there, but it's legit. It is.
Now, Again, national voices are starting to figure this out and take notice. Again, it's not just, oh, wow, you know, that's the nice little run, nice little streak there on. No, no, no. Here was Kendrick Perkins last night. On with Scott Van Pelt after the game.
Well, Scott, let me say this. I love a young team that plays a gender-free basketball. It goes to show you that they're bought in and that they're losing themselves in the team and it's not about individual goals. That's number one. Number two, this team has a culture now.
They have a guy that I believe is going to win rookie of the year and Con Ka Nippa, who has set the tone of how to play the game the right way, how to be a true professional, has an old, is young but has an old soul. This team has, they check all the boxes when you talk about what you need to build for the future. They have athleticism. They have a center. They have point guard play.
And they're well coached. They're well disciplined. And they're going to make the playoffs this year. They're going to make the playoffs this year and they're going to make a lot of noise. Mm-hmm.
Going to make some noise in the playoffs. See, I like Perkins when he isn't under the ESPN agenda because I like the real perk. He's great. He tells you like it is. He's a great personality.
All too often, you know, when he's on that ESPN thing, it's like he has to say what they want him to say. But. That's when Perk's at his best. But as I'm sitting there and watching the video highlights and everything, you're hearing the negative. Mm-hmm.
And uh, yeah, you know who that is. My grandson. Jackson goes, There's nothing sweeter. It's great. And you hear it a ton with Con Knipple and a ton with Lamella Ball.
Here's somebody that has no problem speaking his mind, regardless of what ESPN might want. Stephen A. What do you think about Con Knipple on first take earlier today? I can't believe what I'm seeing from this kid. I really, really can't.
This brother is a walking bucket. And listen, Giannis has already praised his basketball IQ. Draymond Green compared his shooter stroke to that of a Klay Thompson. And I like that analogy. I think he's right on point with that.
And I'm looking at it.
Well Cooper special, it ain't his fault. But the Dallas Mavericks Are 21 and 40, even though he's missed like the last eight games due to his foot injury. He's been out since like February 10th. Concernibu has helped the Charlotte Hornets. Be a game above 500.
They've won like six straight. I'm looking at them right now. They're in NBA best 16 and 3 since January 22nd. Yeah. Sixteen and three.
Mm-hmm. You know, when you get compared to someone like Clay Thompson, Clay Thompson used to be a baller. You know, before the injury and everything, he was a baller. Like, we forget that at one point in time, Mr. Thompson scored 37 points in one quarter.
13 for 13 shooting, 9 of 9 from 3. Khan's going to have one of those 37-point quarters one of these days. But, you know. Having those, you know, just to kind of put things into perspective, you know, that was Clay Thompson, and you're getting those kind of. Yeah, comparisons?
That's Pretty amazing. People are taking notice. Including the opposing players. Hey, Derek White, what do you think about what was the problem last night? Derek, normally in a game like this when you guys aren't shooting well you get to offensive rebounds, you turn the other team over.
did neither of those tonight. What what prevented you from doing those? Uh the Charlotte Hornets. Didn't he score like 40 last night? I don't know, did he?
I was so busy watching all the Hornet highlights. Let's see. What did Derek White end up with? 29. 29.
29. He had 29. Jalen Brown did have 20 to his credit. And there's some news about Jason Tatum. TO DAY Coming back.
20 games to go from a Celtics perspective. You got plenty of time to figure some stuff out, get readjusted. More on that story later on, but. This is no longer just a fun little streak run for the Hornets. They are genuinely an elite basketball team.
Period. The numbers the Hornet fans are scarred. I get it. You're waiting for the other shoe to drop. There is no other shoe.
This is the shoe. This is real. Good to have you in on a Thursday. Got Darren Vought. Gonna join the show at 4:30.
That's always fun. It's always a good time. Got David Glenn. The other half of the old David Glenn show back in the day. Uh gonna join us at 5.30 as we get ready.
Four. Duke Carolina. The ACC tournament next weekend. March Madness. Speaking of that Duke Carolina game.
Got an update on Caleb Wilson. We'll get into that. Plus, a couple of Panthers. Old Panthers were reunited today. We get into that as well next on the drive, right here on WSJS.
You're on a Thursday drive right here on WSJS. Darren Vought joins the proceedings from ESPN, D1 Baseball. Lottery boy. ECU basketball, everything. He's got plenty to do, but he carved out some time for us today.
That's in 15 minutes.
However, Lottery Boy's funny. Lottery Boy. Lottery Boy. It is funny. Like, if you Google Darren Vought, you'll get past.
Plenty of like headshots and pictures of him broadcasting, and then eventually you'll get to like one where he's got a mic and he's standing next to the lottery. It's just very random, but it's just good. He does good work, our buddy Darren Fott.
So Carolina Duke, Part 2. Going to be the main event this weekend. And the question that everybody wants to know. Is Caleb Wilson gonna play? You know, we we heard What was it?
On one of the g uh broadcasts last week, I think it was Louisville. But Dave O'Brien kind of said it sounded like Caleb Wilson was going to play. Uh they obviously have not confirmed that yet. We heard from both head coaches today in their pre. Duke Carolina press conference as they do.
We'll dive into them a little deeper. And bring you that on tomorrow's show, but I did want to get this information out there. Hubert Davis. was asked about Caleb Wilson. How his practices are going, what his status could be, and here's what it sounded like.
Obviously, you know, he won't Y'all's been doing it. you know, individual workouts and Since we played on Tuesday, we didn't have practice yesterday or practice today. He'll do more today. Other than that, I don't have any other additional information. No.
Not clear for five on fives yet. All right. I'm in Carolina. They played really well in his absence. I mean, again, you can't replace Caleb Wilson.
We saw that in the NC State game.
Now, granted, that was Kayla Wilson and Henry Vesar, your two best players. And that completely takes out your front court. That was just the one loss that they had. They've won the rest of the five games. One of those wins also without Vesar, but that was against Pitt.
They're not very good. Um So they've adjusted. They figured some stuff out. They figured out how to keep the ship afloat. John Shire was asked about Caleb Wilson and whether or not him playing is going to affect how Duke.
Strategizes, and here's what he said. I think ultimately, for us, you know, it can't change our game plan in terms of. what our defensive focus is. They've been look at their record. Without them, they've done a great job, they're really good.
Now that V Star is back in there, of course. But for us, it's playing due defense regardless. He's having great respect for him, but also great respect If he doesn't play, Known how good they've been, how they've won. And so it's a good challenge either way for our defense. And I really want us to play to.
our standard and who we are and what we've done. Uh regardless of these planned or not. Yeah, I would agree with that. You could say, oh, what's he supposed to say? I think that's right, because Regardless, with Veso out there, like you gotta.
You got to be prepared. Either way, you slice it.
Now, I like Duke's chances, of course. Without Uh, if Caleb Wilson doesn't play, haven't made an official prediction for the game if he does play. Maybe we'll ask David Glenn what he thinks this could look like if Caleb does not go and maybe they just hold him out for the ACC tournament or the NCAA tournament, however, they slice it. Connor O'Neill. Joined us on yesterday's show.
And He thinks if Caleb doesn't play, And he agreed that that is the big question. It could kind of look like the first game. Between Duke and Carolina last year, the one in Cameron, where it was just a bloodbath. I'd like to think it's not going to be that dire. If Caleb doesn't play, because that was just a total mismatch last year.
But I still like Duke for, you know, to have the edge, of course. without Caleb Wilson. But you have to admit. This Duke team. is way different.
than when they first met. Oh, yeah. I mean, the last seven games, this is a totally different Duke team. And Just when I think You know, they've peaked, you know, yeah, they're all good, right? They just keep impressing me.
But the defense, the defense has been key. The defense has been massive for them. Uh and that to me is the biggest Difference from when they met because we knew Cam Boozer was going to be. National Player of the Year caliber.
Now, I don't think we expected his numbers to be better than Cooper Flags. Right. That's something. Uh Isaiah Evans, I think we knew what to expect from him offensively. Took him a A little bit of time to get it more consistent, but he did do that.
Caleb Foster has been very impressive. Closer Caleb Foster, as Conr O'Neill calls him, when he's really showing up. Uh but the defense, that is the piece that it feels like They had to clean up. You will recall all the way back to the preseason, Duke would struggle. Or it would be a ball game in the first half of games with teams that it did not belong being a ball game with.
Looking at you, Lipscumb. And then eventually they would turn it on in the second half and run away with it, usually. But again, we've mentioned it several times, Georgia Tech, Florida State, SMU for a bit. It was a legit ballgame. I mean, Georgia Tech and Florida State went down to the wire.
Georgia Tech's not going to make the tournament, the ACC tournament.
So The defensive part is something they needed to clean up. And now they're regarded as one of the best defensive teams in the country. I think Jay Billis had an interesting point. He's like. What we're seeing from Cam Boozer is something that we haven't seen ever.
And when I say that, it's and this is J. Billis. He had one bad game. Fifteen points, thirteen boards. Yeah.
And he's like. Really? This is what we're saying. That's the bad game. He had an off game, 15 and 13.
It's insane, dude. It's insane. That's when you know you're a stud. It's like, hey, just a measly 15 and 13, double-double, no big deal. I wasn't feeling it tonight.
Now I'll tell you what's funny. is uh The fact that both Carolina and Duke, I believe, are the only Teams in the country who went undefeated at home this year. or who are undefeated still at home this year. Carolina could do the funniest thing ever. They really could.
Uh Yeah, that's gonna be a fun time. And, you know, now that Carolina has officially gotten a double buy for the ACC tournament next week. Duke and Carolina could meet for a third time. We love it when we get a Duke Carolina part three. And we very well could get that.
Uh on semifinal night. Carolina and Duke will both Start ACC tournament play in the night session on Thursday night next week. Carolina gets the first game, Duke gets a 9:30 tip. Yeah. Yeah, that's the consensus there.
Congratulations. We're the number one seed and we get the worst game time. Yeah, that's kind of the consensus of all the media there. It's like, oh, geez, 9:30. Very quickly, before we get to Darren Vought, though.
Major trade. Went down or it's going to go down. The league year officially starts next week. But DJ Moore. Getting traded to the Buffalo Bills.
Couple of former Carolina Panthers being reunited. Of course we know DJ Moore was, but who's the head coach of the Bills now? Joe Brady. Former offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers under Matt Ruhl, there for a little while.
So. That's the Panthers connection in all this. It wasn't a great year for DJ Moore. His receptions were down a little bit.
Now, according to the numbers here, Yeah, he he was fourth in total yardage. Um You know, he played in All 17 games. 79 yards. One touchdown. And Or, excuse me, that's the rushing.
He was the second best passing. I was looking at the wrong box. Loveland was the lead receiver with 713 total yards. DJ Moore had 682. I knew those numbers sounded off when I said them.
But it was a little bit of a drop from where he's used to being. I don't know the ins and outs of it, what the reason behind that is. I had heard reports that maybe him and Caleb Wilson or Caleb Williams didn't jive very well. I always take that with a grain of salt. You don't know what's going on in that locker room, even if you are a reporter sometimes.
But anyway, that's a trade that went down today. Pretty significant there for Josh Allen. All right, coming up next. Darren Vott. of D1 baseball.
A VSPN? Gonna join us. He's got ECU basketball to call tonight. I believe it's their last home game. But he was nice enough to pop in here and uh We will do just that.
Have a little out-of-left field with Darren Vought 2. Don't go anywhere. You're on the drive on WSJS. The Triad's only live sports talk show, The Dryad. This is what rush hour sounds like when nobody holds back.
Ah! We welcome in one of our favorites now here on a Thursday drive. Darren Vought. ACC network, of course, D1 baseball. He does the lottery.
He does ECU basketball. He has a lot going on, not much free time, which is why it's very nice of him to drop by today. Darren, how are you? All is well. All is well.
Will we're doing well. Final home game of the season for ECU basketball tonight. A lot of baseball going on. I'm at Clemson tomorrow for their series opener.
So, yeah, busy time, but it's all good. All good stuff.
Well, let's start with the first of those things you mentioned: ECU basketball. You're calling them tonight. 7 o'clock, they're taking on a pretty solid, what it looks like, Tulsa team.
Meanwhile, ECU 11 and 18 on the year.
So, give us a little bit of a preview, maybe some interesting nuggets about this game, and what is ECU's outlook? Currently, looking like as we head towards the American Athletic Conference tournament. Yes. So in the American, they made the change this year that only ten teams qualify for the conference tournament. Pirates currently on the outside looking in, so they need some help and Likely to win both of their two remaining games.
Tulsa is very good. And has been all year. They actually debuted in the net rankings as the top. team in the American. They since have dropped down.
South Florida is having a a great season. You may have seen Jordan Riley of ECU make Sports Center's top 10 plays. He was number two the other day after their win against Memphis on Sunday. He had this. Incredible poster dunk.
He's been the story. He averages 24 points per game. It's closer to 25 in change per game and conference play. Uh Riley has been one of, if not the best player in the conference for a team that frankly needs him to be that on a night in, night out basis.
So he's been really fun to watch. And I know the game's on ESPNU tonight.
So You know, you guys might have a chance to catch him on national TV doing some special stuff again. Darren Voughtwith is here on WSJS of ESPN D1 Baseball. In terms of the latter of those two, I saw the other day you guys put out your latest ACC weekend recap, capping up week three and talking about things that we know as we're heading towards conference play. Darren, what are some of the things in a nutshell that people should know at this point in the college baseball, the ACC specific baseball season? Yeah, well, Bradley Smart of V1 and I did another episode previewing the weekend to come that dropped literally a couple hours ago.
So I think sort of the premise of that episode is we don't know a ton yet. conference play starts for for most teams in the league this weekend. We have some teams that we know are good. Georgia Tech scores a lot of runs. North Carolina is a very complete team with one of the best pitching staffs in the country.
NC State, tied to the same. Clemson rolls on like usual and is a good team. There's a ton of talent on Wake Forest's team. There's a lot of talent on Florida State's team. There's there's just we We await the the road to get rough.
For all of these teams, so that we can maybe start to distinguish between them, but. No, so far, so good, man. ACC is really, really solid for the first, you know, eight, nine, maybe even 10 teams, you could say. Yeah, that's several teams right there at the top at 12 and 1, 11 and 1, 11 and 2. ACC, I mean, we always talk about it's a basketball league, but it's a base.
We call it the hardball state. around here. ACC baseball. That's That's what I'm talking about. Darren Vought with us here on WSJS.
Now, Speaking of a guy that was a stud at Carolina. Vance Honeycutt. Who's now with the Baltimore Orioles. And I saw the other day The dude just bawled out. He had.
Four home runs in Grapefruit League play four for four with four bombs in a game. What has impressed you most? About Vance Honeycott, and how quickly do you expect him to start making an impact at the major league level? The second part of that's a really interesting question. The Orioles have plenty of outfielders at the big league level, so I don't know that necessarily they need the help, they need to push him through the miners.
So quickly. Look, the home runs are nice, and the fourth of those that you were talking about went 471 feet. Let us not forget. This dude has the most career home runs in North Carolina history.
So Obviously that was going to be a part of his game that translated. But he's a great athlete. He's lightning fast. He's a great. It lie.
level defender in the outfield. And frankly, because he's not. quite the the the big guy, the strong guy, I think the power was one of the question marks headed into his pro career. And behind, of course, the number one concern was cutting down on swing and miss.
So It's nice again. It's cool that he can hit home runs. We've seen him do that. If the swing and miss can be eliminated at a rapid rate this year, Then, you know, then maybe we are talking about a guy who gets a late call-up this season, or if not. you know, is it is it big leaguer next year or or late next year by the time that starts.
Yeah, again, it's all positive signs. It's just kind of hard to tell. And, you know, a lot of it depends on the organization, what exactly they're trying to prioritize. and whether or not they are contenders, which we know with the Orioles is kind of hit or miss right now because two years ago, they were a very good team and last year they had something of a hangover. What about easing him in as a DH?
I mean, that's a possibility if they would want to do that. I think. He likely would nudge someone else out of the outfield because he's so good defensively. Because I think if you're going to anticipate. If you're going to anticipate at all some growing pains at the big league level, you can anticipate it on the offensive end for somebody like Vance Honeycott.
Whereas the defense is going to play, I don't think I don't think there would be a learning curve defensively. For Vance.
So, yeah, maybe that's the benefit to pulling him up, and you can get him in the lineup that way. The World Baseball Classic officially underway. We saw. Uh Australia. Last night, beating or shutting out Chinese.
Is it Taipei? Is that what it is? Taipei? Is that how you say that? Correct.
Chinese Taipei. Just want to make sure I got that right. You know, words, they matter. You got to make sure. You got to make sure.
You got to get it right. Australia winning the first of that action. Korea beating Chekia 11-4 in poll C play earlier today. Then you got Australia taking on Checkia at 10 o'clock tonight. We don't see the USA till tomorrow against Brazil.
And that's when a lot of these teams are going to be in action. We were talking about this yesterday, Darren, about how. This Team USA, it's like, okay. Anything, I feel that anything other than gold would be viewed as a failure given how loaded they are. With the bats, with the pitching staff.
Who is the biggest threat to Team USA? Is it Japan or is it somebody else? It's definitely Japan, but I'm with you in that it's gold or bust. And I think. Mark DeRosa, their manager, feels the same way.
I think that was his intent when building this roster.
So, if they came a pitch away, A few years ago at the last WBC, and the pitching staff. Was not near what this one is. There was no Tarek Schugel, there was no Paul Skeens, or whatever the equivalence of the time. would have been It was a good pitching staff, but it did not include the best pitchers. in the country.
Uh the lineup I'm sure you've seen the graphics top to bottom. It's tough to imagine having to throw to that lineup. They're loaded. They are loaded.
So yeah, I think. It has to be gold or bust. For this team USA squad. And again, Japan's. Japan's really good too, and they've kind of upgraded since a few years ago too, in that.
a lot of the stars for their international team Since that last World Baseball Classic, have become MLB stars as well.
So, they're going to be a little bit more accustomed to facing the guys that are going to be out there for Team USA. And they are now playing in. the best league in the world.
So both both sides have upgraded a fair degree. And you guys remember how it finished last time, that dramatic game. Like I think that bodes well for what we can expect to see. All right, now to the fun stuff. We get to.
Out of left field with Darren Vought. From minds that wander off a beaten path. Here we go. Unexpected, unscripted, unbelievable. I like it.
Simple to the point. It's the curveball of your day. Bring the bare necessities of life. Out of left field with Darren Vought. Oh, yeah.
I love that. Great work, DJ. We started to workshop this a little bit last week. Could be anything. Random topics, random questions, off the beaten path.
I'll get us going.
So I'm not well traveled. This is well known around here. But I but I Yeah, it's something I've gotten a lot of grief for on this very show. But I saw Mina Comes talking about something. On Kylie Kelsey's podcast, not gonna lie with Kylie Kel Kylie Kelsty.
Talking about people who recline back. In their seats on flights, and how inconsiderate it is. Whether it's people trying to work or people trying to eat, and then you have somebody's head leaning back all up on you like that. Should we just do away with reclinable seats on flights? How do we go about this?
Do I think so. I think. Of all the I guess airport air travel banter that kind of typically gets used up in this way. Um This is the one I actually experience the least of. Like, I don't think that.
great a number of people. Recline their seats. Like, I think we're mostly all in the same camp.
Now, I say that. And then we'll potentially run into a problematic scenario where somebody in front of me reclines their seat next time I fly. But if it does happen, it's not going to happen that often.
So I I don't know. Uh what we do about it, practically speaking. But I do think it's a fair point that maybe they just shouldn't recline at all. I don't. I don't understand why they do have that functionality.
Well, here, okay, here's a suggestion. You tell me what you think of this. What if, much like a smoking and a non-smoking section at a restaurant or hotel rooms, what if there's just a reclinable section and a non-reclinable section? I think there kind of is, Will. It's called first class.
First class. Right. You pay extra for that kind of stuff. Like, I think that's fair. And I think that maybe should be the line of demarcation, actually, now that you mention it.
Uh and here's your son. What? I think I think maybe that's maybe that's the distinction. Any seat in coach just can't. Can't recline.
They should make planes that way. This is where WD shows how untraveled he is. That's what that was. Darren, what do you have to bring us out of left field?
Well, it's. I don't want to do another airplane, but I middle seat the other day. Oh no.
So, yeah, okay. Maybe this is just in response to what you're talking about. In the middle seat, okay? I it there's this big lumbering dude. Almost like a baby dinosaur kind of.
to Deep's guy to my left in the aisle. There's a petite woman. in the window, which is great because she's kind of like Huddled up toward the window, and there's plenty of air space on that side, right? But it just it It brought up the the old question of How do you divvy up the armrest? When that happens.
There's like The one guy's got the aisle, and he's big. He needs it, right?
So his legs hanging out in the aisle. That's great. Good for him. If I had a similar person to the other side, which again, thankfully I didn't. It's like, okay, I'm shoulder to shoulder with them just out of, like, without anybody trying.
So who gets armrests? I found it to be very uncomfortable this time around because of the gentleman that was to my left. Because he was just, he's broad. He was just a big, broad dude. And whether he liked it or not, he was taking the armrest to my left.
DJ, your world traveled. Do you have an answer to this? Do you have an answer to the conundrum here? I allow it for a few minutes, and then it's like I'm entitled to a few minutes of this armrest.
So I just kind of like nudge my way on in there, kind of like jockeying for a rebound. Yeah, we're just gonna have to share.
So We'll share time. Talk about it with the person. I always feel so bad, so awkward doing it. Because, like, I don't want to play this psychological game for an entire flight. Even if it's, you know, it was just a quick.
A quick trip. I don't want to do this back and forth psychological thing and you never make eye contact or anything. It's just. I hate it. No, no, no, no, no.
You don't have a discussion. You just jockey. You don't just communicate? You know, like, hey, listen, just jockey for the position, man. See, I'm nice.
Like, I want to communicate with people. I'd be like, you know what?
Well, how do you want to do this? Like, do you want it for a little while? Like, I try to communicate. I think that's noble in intent, Will. But again, it just kind of shows your naivete when it comes to such things.
Yeah. It really I would like to be the same way. I travel a ton. But I can't say that I've ever had the conversation with a stranger like... Hey, do you mind if I get some of this arm ranch?
Like, it's never happened. And you don't know if you're going to be sitting against the side of a jerk or someone who's actually really nice. That's the thing. You don't want to run the risk. And it's like, okay.
Do I not risk it? And remain slightly inconvenient for an hour and a half. until the plain land. Because I don't want to bother. You know what I mean?
Like, I it's. It's difficult. It's tough. Middle seat's the worst, man. It's terrible.
It's awful. It's so horrible. It is.
It's horrible. I think I need to take a trip. Yeah, videotape. Where would you go? Let us see.
Uh Where would you go? You know what? I'd like to go to Egypt.
Okay.
Okay.
I've always wanted to go to Egypt. I don't know if it's a great time for that, but I was thinking something domestic. Maybe that's a starter trip. You know what I mean? We're going to lead you into this.
Uh maybe I would take a trip to LA, Los Angeles, or no, no, no. I know what I want to do. I want to go down to Tampa. We're gonna Tampa.
Now I'm gonna watch some spring training baseball. That's what I want to do. That's the perfect, the perfect starter trip. Easy flight. Yeah.
Did you say that was boring, DJ? Yes, that's awful. Get at now. I will say that in three weeks, I'm pretty excited about this. I get to go see my first Padres game.
Oh. San Diego out there is very nice. Yep. And in there, we've got this little dual thing where we're flying into Colorado, hanging out there for about four days, and then on to San Diego before we come back and taking in all the sights and sounds of San Diego. And we're definitely going to go watch Fernando Tatis and his Padres.
Love it. Nice. Nice. I've never been to that park, but I hear it's great, among the best.
So, and that's been Out of Left Field with Darren Vought. Darren, good luck on the call tonight. ECU basketball taking on Tulsa and, uh, We'll visit with you next time.
Sounds good, gents. Appreciate the time as always. If your favorite player's soft, we're gonna say it. Find somebody that knows somebody that told somebody about somebody who wrestling every day. They're talking about me.
This is The Drive, the Triads-only live sports talk show.
Now you can talk. Oh. DJ bully today. I'm sitting in you guys couldn't see me 'cause I hadn't taken the drive logo off the screen yet on YouTube and X. I'm sitting here trying to come back like saying, Haul, listen to this.
You didn't hear anything, you know why? 'Cause DJ wouldn't turn my mic on. Motley Crew. He wanted to listen to Motley Crew instead of me. Yep.
Yeah. That's not nice. He's on one today. I mean, I get the Hornets lacked the Celtics last night, but good grief. All right.
Speaking of that game last night, We made a little money last night. Let's find out how much in Dalton's dollars. Stack it up, stack, stack, gotta stack it up. Get the money. Get the money on the floor.
It's time to cash in. Welcome to Dalton's Dollars. Come in the money! Show me the money. Breaking down the board and building the bankroll.
All right. Yeah. After going one and two, Two nights ago, We uh we were not deterred. We stuck to the process. And we made it happen.
We stayed focused. Just like Carolina's done without Caleb Wilson. You gotta stay focused. But do that. Yeah.
I don't know why I wanted to throw the Carolina reference in there, but I'm how you are. That's how you roll, man. That's how I roll. All right. I had the Hornets money line against the Celtics.
That hit. STROPE DIVE! Didn't want to mess with the spread. Although I should have sprinkled a little on that too. Oh me, Horn is just blowing out teams.
Left and right. Yeah, I liked Hornets to win that straight up last night. On a back-to-back, mind you. I haven't even mentioned that part. Like, that was a back-to-back on the road.
It's the second-best team in the East. Not bad. Not bad. Also had. The under?
For Thunder Knicks, 222.5 points. A couple of good defenses. That hit. Yeah, buddy. Uh Nixon.
Coming up just short of that. Thunder winning that one in MSG. Did you see what Shea Gilgis Alexander was wearing? I did not. Look it up when you get a chance.
I'd like to get your reaction to that. Like, he. Are we talking shoes? No, no, no. I'm talking like the whole outfit.
Like he looks like he's in a teddy bear outfit. Like a mascot. But with without the teddy bear head? It's, yeah, it's a real thing. You ought to have a look at that if you can.
So that hit. Also The Hawks? Plus one at the Bucs. It wasn't even 131 to 113. Hawks took care of business.
Drove vegan life! The Hawks had won four straight, I think it was, coming into the game last night. I like their chances. They're continuing to move up the board in the Eastern Conference, and so they're. They're on one.
Meanwhile, Giannis on a minute's restriction just came back two games ago.
So I liked Atlanta in that spot. What in the world? You see it? It looks like a Teddy mascot, right? I don't even know what to say.
I don't know what it is. He looks like he's supposed to be a stuffed teddy bear. That's what I'm saying. It's like he's dressed up as Ted. That's what he is.
Um NBA fashion. I'm for it. I appreciate it. A lot of you are like, why would you wear that? Like, I appreciate the creativity in a lot of these outfits.
But that one just made me chuckle. It really did. Let's see here. All right, let's get into tonight's bets. Why don't we?
Lakers Nuggets. This is gonna be a prime video game. This is the 10 o'clocker. on Prime Video. I'm looking forward to this one.
Luca, LeBron, Austin Reeves, all three of these guys playing pretty well. They're healthy right now. Um Yeah.
However, I don't think I'm gonna mess with any. I'm not gonna mess with the spread in this. I don't think I want to do that. Right now. Let's see here.
Denver's favored by four and a half. I'm gonna leave that alone. I'm just gonna keep it simple. I'm going to go on the over 240 and a half. I get that at minus 110 odds.
Show me the money! I like that. Lakers? Just a game, or just a half a game, behind the Nuggets and the standings there. Uh The Lakers ranking far worse in the net rating at 17th, though.
The Lakers have 1-3 straight, but the opponents during that streak haven't been very terrific. Steph, Curry-less, Warriors, Kings, Pelicans. Yeah, so I. Couple of good offenses, I think this could be a bit of a shootout. The next one on the board here.
I think I'm gonna take The Mavericks plus seven and a half. Stroving the money against the magic.
Okay.
I get this at minus 106 odds. I'm a little nervous about this. The only reason I'm even doing it is because Cooper flag returns tonight. I think that that could send a little spark. to the Dallas Line up.
And um I don't know. I mean crazy things happen in this league all the time. It does.
So Plus seven and a half. I think Orlando wins the game outright. But I think I like Dallas to hang in that seven and a half range. Drop me the money! I think that's all I'm gonna do tonight.
I think that's all. Had a good night last night, not gonna get too crazy, not gonna stretch the board. Those are my two picks in Dalton's dollars. There's that again. Done!
Yeah. Just cut it off. Just get it over with. Coming up next, David Glenn. of the NC Sports Network.
Joins the show. Ahead of Duke Carolina on Saturday, ahead of the ACC tournament, March Madness, right on the cusp of getting started. We talk to David Glenn about all of this stuff next on the drive, right here on WSJS. You've got to take, prove it, call WD. He's the one.
Back to the Triad's only live sports talk show, The Drive. Can't think of a better time to have this guy. Right on the cusp of Duke Carolina Part II, right on the cusp of the ACC tournament and March Madness kicking off. It is one of our favorites. David Glenn of the NC Sports Network.
DG, how are you? I'm great, Will. Always good to be with you, my friend. Good to be with you as well. I want to start with the ACC Coach of the Year conversation.
Because I believe it's right that Duke has not had a coach win that award since, what, 2000? I think that's how long Coach K went without not winning that award. Is that right? I'd have to double check that, but I'll give you a crazy fun fact related to that. Coach Kaye, the all-time wins leader.
Won more National Coach of the Year honors than he won ACC Coach of the Year honors. Six national. Five ACC. That is a crazy fun fact that I do know off the top of my head. But yes, we know how it works, man.
I've been around since the Dean Smith days. And he didn't win ACC Coach of the Year extremely often either, given his accomplishments. It's the way the voters are always looking for the guy who had a team that was picked low. and finished high. And this has been a drum I've been beating for decades, man.
Sometimes the guy who has the most talent also does the best job.
Well, that leads me into the question of why and why I even brought it up. You look at the job that John Shire has done this year, and it's been incredible. I mean, his team just every year, it seems like something about the month of January, they just go up, they go up the hill. And now, even though. You have some great candidates like the job that Jay Lucas has done off of Shire staff in your one at Miami, a three seed at the ACC tournament next week.
That's a great story. Of course, we know what Ryan Odom's done at Virginia, although Duke handled their business against the Cavs on Saturday. Is this just as simple as just give the award to John Shire, or does it have to be, you know, the team that was not expected to be as good or very good, and then now they are? For me, it's very simple. Give it to John Shire.
Now, I am not going to tell anybody they're crazy if they are running up the flagpole that Jay Lucas did a phenomenal job at Miami or that Ryan Odom did a great job at Virginia. This happens to be one of those years in an 18-team league now. Where the three best coaching jobs were done by the three teams that finished in first, second, and third place.
Now, it's not always that way. I love celebrating the overachiever, the coach that squeezed every last drop out of a middle-of-the-pack roster and finished really high. I love those stories. And we'll toss bouquets in their direction every year, and sometimes they'll be the best candidate for ACC coach of the year. If all John Shire did was finish first in the ACC, He would not automatically be the ACC coach of the year because he does have an incredibly talented roster, the most talented in the ACC.
But he didn't only finish first in the league. He also has the number one team in the entire country in the national ranking. He also has one of only three teams. That are top 10 offensive efficiency and top 10 defensive efficiency. But wait, there's more.
His team was not great defensively two months ago, Will. You go watch the trip to Tallahassee where the Devils barely beat the Seminoles. I did. That is two months ago, right? Two months ago is roughly halftime of a college season, right?
You have November and December. That game, I believe, in Tallahassee might have been early January.
So now we're two months beyond that. At halftime, he had some challenges on defense. What have they done since then? Like, they have smothered teams like a Python. And held many of them to 50-some points or 60-some points.
In fact, the only team that has run its offense functionally. For at least a month and a half against the Blue Devils, is the Tar Heels in that win over the Devils in Chapel Hill, which is the only loss Duke has in that two-plus-month period.
So. It's not just about finishing first in the ACC. There are stats that Duke has the second highest scoring rate coming out of a timeout.
Now, part of that is because you have Cameron Boozer. I get it. Part of that is because you have Isaiah Evans. Like, I'm not blind to the talent factor. But to say that there's, you know, coaching's not a huge part of that stat, that's a specialty stat.
But man, I think it just underlines what John Shire is doing this year. And oh, by the way, whereas Pat Kelsey deservedly was the ACC Coach of the Year a year ago, Louisville's coach, John Shire, you know, there's a lot of organizations that give a National Coach of the Year award. John Shire won two of them last year for National Coach of the Year. And he might win more. I'm pretty sure he will win more National Coach of the Year awards this year.
So for two years in a row, him to not be ACC Coach of the Year, but be several somebody's National Coach of the Year. I think would be crazy again. Adding the asterisk, more power to Ryan Odom and Jay Lucas. They did great jobs too. David Glenn with us here of the NC Sports Network, right on WSJS.
So getting to The other half of that Duke Carolina game we're going to see on Saturday. Man, the job that Hubert Davis has done in Caleb Wilson's absence, five and one, you had the stinker against NC State. We know that. But they've looked incredible. I mean, they beat Louisville at home, Clint, like they've had to beat a couple of probably NCAA tournament teams in this stretch.
How incredible, like, where would you put this run? Like, I don't put it obviously when he won the or went to the national championship, but this has to be one of the better coaching jobs that Hubert Davis has done, right? I agree. I mean, obviously, his rookie year ending in the national title game after so much chaos at midseason, that's going to be part of his resume forever, as it should be. We also have to give him credit for that regular season title two years ago.
There's only two active ACC head coaches who have won regular season ACC titles, and they're young John Shire at Duke and young Hubert Davis, you know, relatively speaking, young at UNC.
So you got to give them credit for that. That was a heck of a regular season, and they made it to the Sweet 16 that year. This run, if we made coach of the year rankings, Hubert Davis might finish fourth. behind the three guys that we just talked about. And that is an accomplishment.
Anybody that loses its best player. And then goes five and one in the fashion that you just described, and not against middling teams.
Some of them were really good teams, you deserve a lot of credit. We know they're not a great defensive team. We know they have mediocre, at best, point guard play on most nights. Because the freshman Derek Dixon isn't quite there yet, and the veteran Kyan Evans just has been up and down. It is hard to finish in that double buy situation the way the Tar Heels just did.
When you have sub-par point guard play and you've been missing your best player for a while, and oh, by the way, he lost Seth Trimble, his third best player for a bunch of games earlier this year. That was what, seven or eight games, or nine, maybe. And To get through all of that and to have his players rebound from both that injury adversity, two key players at different times, but also that West Coast abomination trip. You know, where they go 0-2 against middle-of-the-road Stanford and Cal, that's a lot of room for a season to go sideways for any one of those reasons. Instead, his guys didn't point fingers, it's not a fractured locker room, they didn't doubt the coach's messaging, right?
They stayed together, they got better, and they're a better team here in early March than they were one or two months ago. And that always is a tribute to a coaching staff as well as the guys who've been working hard to get better through those adverse situations.
Now, a 5-0-1 record is great. Be that as it may, Duke is a different animal and Cameron especially a different animal. And we don't know yet if Caleb Wilson's gonna go. I think some people think it could happen, but we don't know. Hubert said he is not doing five-on-fives yet.
John Shire spoke on it today. They're not worried. I mean, they're just going to prepare anyhow. What does this look like? Let's just pretend Caleb Wilson can't go, hypothetically.
What do you think that looks like on Saturday? If Caleb Wilson can't go, Duke is going to win by double digits. Mm-hmm. I mean, Duke might win anyway. They're that good.
They're on their home court. They want revenge on the Tar Heels for what happened in Chapel Hill. But if Caleb Wilson plays, at least the Tar Heels would have a chance, assuming that he is functional with. you know, whatever he may wear on his fractured hand, et cetera. But two hard things, right?
Number one, you have to start well. If the Tar Heels are going to somehow sweep the Blue Devils in the regular season, and oh, by the way, we've seen the bracket for Charlotte, there's a chance they meet a third time in the ACC tournament semifinals. They both have to win to get there, obviously. But the two keys in Cameron will be survive the opening. The Cameron crazies are always loud.
I've been there, you've been there. It's hard to think. If you and I are sitting next to each other, it's hard to communicate. Imagine trying to win a basketball game when you're not right next to all of your teammates as you're making second-to-second decisions. It's hard to win there for anybody, but having a good start is key.
And then, if you remember, the game in Chapel Hill. Against that brilliant best in America Duke defense of the last two months. Carolina had seven turnovers. That is an incredibly low number against that Duke team. Can you go to Cameron and stay in single-digit turnovers when your point guards aren't all that confident and you're asking Seth Trimble to carry some heavy weight on the perimeter?
That's a hard task. I'll be surprised if the Heels pull off that combination. I'll be surprised if the Heels win that game, but wouldn't it be fun? To see a one-and-done guy like Caleb Wilson at least get to experience that Cameron indoor stadium crowd and that rivalry atmosphere one more time after he was one of the stars of Carolina's victory over the Devils in Chapel Hill. David Glenn with us here on WSJS.
I wanted to get to this very quickly. Obviously, ACC tournament coming up next week. Let's take the big four out of the equation. Who is a team or multiple teams that you have circled that you're very fascinated to follow next week in Charlotte? And you mean the big four, meaning the top four in the standings, not the way we used to mean the big four.
Well, no, no, I do mean the big four, like as there are locals. Like, who are you?
Okay, New State Carolina Wake.
Okay, I got you. Yeah, I would have to start with Virginia and Miami. For different reasons, you know. The Miami Hurricanes have two of the 10 best players in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And that is incredible for a first-year coach.
Right. If we're assessing John Shire's roster, he's got Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans and Pat Gongba and others. If we're assessing Hubert Davis' team went healthy, he's got Caleb Wilson and Henry Vessar and Seth Trimble and others. There aren't a lot of teams in the ACC where you look at the first, second, and third player and you go, wow.
Well, Trey Donaldson of the Kanes is one of the best point guards in this league, period. Malik Renu of the Kanes is one of the best forwards in this league, period. And Shelton Henderson, the freshman, the big muscular dude, is one of the best first-year guys in the league, period.
So I think Miami is dangerous. They're well coached under Jay Lucas, and I think Virginia is dangerous too. I mean, their best player is a 23-year-old guy from Belgium named Tess Deritter. That's experience for you, right? A former pro.
Their starter is a 20-year-old or so German center named Johan Grinlow, who's been one of the best shot blockers in the league. You know, we'll see. It could end up being Duke or Carolina, or maybe NC State gets hot after their slow streak lately. But yeah, the Cavaliers and the Hurricanes would be the other two favorites in my eyes. Last thing for you, I know you've been covering more than just the ACC.
You've been covering sports in this state for. Decades now. And I know you probably haven't followed it as closely as maybe you once did. But considering all the years that you've spent. covering and or watching the Charlotte Hornets.
How impressive to you has this recent run that they've been on been over the last couple of months? Fantastic. Because to give you some perspective, and my time in the state goes all the way back to 1987.
So I've got a lot of archives to dig into. The Hornets have not been relevant to this level. since about the mid-1990s.
So that is 30 years ago. There was a time when they had drafted Larry Johnson and they had drafted Alonzo Morning, and they were making the playoffs, and they made great use of those high draft picks. And they were a phenomenal. Just a fun to watch and well-coached team, but that was 30 years ago.
So, what they're doing now is a lot of fun as well. And it looks like they're going to at least make that pseudo portion of the playoffs. We'll see if they can do anything from there, but they're one of the hottest teams in the NBA as we speak. And that makes it more fun for every basketball fan in our state.
Okay.
DG, appreciate the time as always. Looking forward to seeing you in Charlotte next week. And. We'll chat with you then. Thank you, my friend.
Keep up the good work.
