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. Darren Vought is going to join us in about 20 minutes or so. He's at the Tallahassee Regional. Um Doing coach interviews, things like that, production meetings.
He's going to join us. We'll go out of left field. We'll get a preview of that regional. Coastal Carolina, Florida State. It's going to be a good regional.
We'll get his thoughts on that. Go into the YouTube comments here. The ACC needs to paint their face. Paint your face! Uh yeah.
Talking about the ACC Basketball Conference. Opponents that were released today. And it's really fra to to Keenan's point. It's really frustrating because the takeaway today is Is you look at And you see, oh, Wake's gonna host Duke and Carolina this year. Yeah.
As a, you know, when it used to be a regularity, it used to be a thing that was, that it just happened. Like. And now it's not. You know, with expansion also comes sometimes rebranding.
So why don't we rebrand the ACC to the P ACC, the Pacific Atlantic Coast Conference, 'cause you got teams on both now. It It may as well be. Call it the pack. Yeah. The new the new pack.
Ha, Jays. I just, yeah, expansion. It's like. When you look at this It just Cool. Duke and Carolina come to the joel this year, after not last year.
But you don't play Virginia at all. You don't play Virginia. And guess what? Carolina is not going to go to NC State for the first time since 1947 because of this stuff. But hey, Cal, Stanford, SMU, love you, mean it.
Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying this because I'm an SEC hater, but they actually did something right for the first time ever, and they didn't expand. And I can't believe it. That's fair. They didn't now, did they?
Well, they kind of did. They brought in AM in Oklahoma. Oh, yeah, that's right. But that's in the southeast. Yeah.
They didn't bring in Stanford or Cal or bring in Oregon and Washington and the other two teams in LA over to the Big Ten. You didn't have the Anyway, it's very frustrating. It really is. And again, that is the theme of the day when you look at these. Games.
Is that these matchups that we know and we love, the rivalries, A lot of times you're not getting them. A lot of times you don't. And it makes us excited to know that Caroline and Duke are going to come play the Joel this year, after not last year. It's like, oh, good, finally. Like that's what we have to deal with now.
Anyway. Getting to The Carolina hurricanes. That's what we need to do here. Uh Uh The Canes are they are. locked in in such a way.
They're as locked in as any team in pro sports right now. And I don't think that's an exaggeration to say that.
So they took out the Canadiens last night for zip on. Their ice. To take a 3-1 lead in this series going back to Raleigh. I mean, that's pretty significant. Three goals in three minutes.
Just boom, boom, boom. That place was like a library last night. It was so quiet in there. Yeah, sit down. Shut up.
The canes are in town. That's what I think about it. But On a serious note, I think the reason that they have just rolled through these playoffs is because. Playoffs. I think the reason they've rolled.
You can't take me serious right now. It's the caffeine you got. The reason they've rolled through these playoffs is because of how disciplined they've been. That's the reason they swept the first two series, and now that's the reason they're handling Montreal the way they are. Outside of that first period where they got down 4-1 in game one.
It's been, Carolina has completely outmatched Montreal. They just have. They've kind of big broed them a little bit. It's fitting because The Canes are a very experienced team and Montreal is kinda where Carolina was years ago. At the start of the brother Rod Brandenore.
Tenure. back in twenty nineteen in that range. But here Rod was Last night on Having one more game and the mentality that they, even despite doing what they did last night to go up 3-1, they still have this mentality going into the next one. I mean I think it's It's just another game we have to go about our business. We know they always say that that one's the toughest to get, but um You know, they don't get a we we've done a nice job of not getting ahead of ourselves and just Focusing on, okay, we got a business to take care of, and that's what we still have to do here.
Yeah. It's like they looked great last night. But that mentality right there is why they've just done it game after game and focused on one period at a time. And that's why they are where they are. And They are confident.
But they're not overconfident. And there is a difference between that. And again, this is the experience that they have. Coming on display here. They've been here.
They've done that. They've had nothing but disappointment in the conference finals since 2006 when they won the Stanley Cup. But since then, it's been disappointment after disappointment. And they are not playing with their food here. They are all business.
Here was Rod Brendemore on not being overconfident. We know how we have to play to go about our our business and we gotta bring that again next game. And uh I don't think we're an overconfident group. I think we're a confident group in what we do and we respect every minute of of the playoffs, let me tell you. They do, and they play like it.
3-1, they lead, heading back to Raleigh tomorrow night with one more win that I think they're going to get. To go to the Stanley Cup. You can hit the horn now. Yeah. Let's talk about the Carolina Panthers.
Let's do that.
So We heard from Dave Canalis the other day it is the start of OTAs. And I'll tell you this. Bryce Young came out and set the tone. Like, again, you're coming off of last year, talking to the fans here. You come off of last year winning the division, going toe-to-toe, really should have beat the Rams in the wild card.
And you wonder. What's next? What to expect? And now you see all these moves in free agency. Pretty good draft.
And you get to OTAs, and what do you see? Bryce Young coming out and setting the tone immediately. Immediately. There's more of a sense of urgency, even more this year than the last.
So if you don't know what I'm talking about. Bryce Young. She So there was like a monsoon earlier in the week, their first day of practice. And You know, that can make the ball wet. Tough to catch it.
Your hands are wet. And You know, he That's that's to be expected, but then the rain stopped. The monsoon stopped. Completely. And Apparently, according to reports, there were still some drops happening out there for the receivers.
And Bryce Young, and I don't have a clean clip here, so I'll just give you, I'll just. tell you essentially what happened. Uh He essentially said It's not bleeping raining anymore. Clean this bleep up. verbatim what he said.
But he said it with a little more fiery of a tone than what I did just there. And we don't see that side of Bryce Young very often. He doesn't like let that out very much. He's very calculated. But there's a couple of reasons why I think you're seeing that sense of urgency and you're seeing that sense of.
Setting the tone in even more leadership than in the p in the year past. The years passed. And I think One of those Is because he and the Panthers. got a taste last year. They finally got a taste of success.
And they finally got a taste of winning the division. Say whatever you want about how they won it, they won it. And They put themselves in position to win it. Then they got to the playoffs and They were in position to win a game against a Super Bowl contender. They got a taste of success.
And it's not just the fans, the players. That building got a taste of it. And they want more it's like a juicy steak. You take the first bite. Want some more?
You do. You want more.
So there's that piece of it. Then Bryce personally needs his receivers to Shape up and shape out. Because he's playing for An extension. My man's wants the bag. He wants to get paid.
He needs people to catch the ball. Like when he puts one of those beautiful passes right in the breadbasket, he needs it caught. He needs those touch he needs that yardage. He needs that. He needs to get that extension.
Also, looking at the bigger picture here, In terms of getting more success after last year, the division got a little better. Tyler Shuck. It's pesky. He had the Saints playing Pesky at the end of the year. He did.
So that's not to be taken lightly. I think the Falcons are going to be better. At least I think with Tua, they've got Bijan Robinson, they got weapons. The only team that feels like they took a step back is Tampa Bay losing Mike Evans. But they drafted Ruben Bain and That's not going to be easy to deal with coming at you if you're Bryce Young.
So. I think this division got a lot better.
So they're. There is a sense of urgency here. Even more so than years past. And I think these are all some of those reasons. Dave Canalis.
He Had this, yeah, he loved it though, by the way. He was asked about it, and here's what he had to say about Bryce. showing this side of himself a little bit. I heard him get a little bit passionate about, you know, we got a little bit of a monsoon for a second there in practice. And, you know, once the rain had passed, he was like, hey, let's lock back in.
We got to come up with these balls. And I think he said it a little more colorful language than that. But, you know, I just love it. I love the fact that he's taking ownership and the guys see that and rally around that. Yeah.
And there's just a comfort. and a confidence. That's allowing him to show this side of himself even more. Like, I remember when Adam Phelan was there and he would talk to us in a locker room, you know, back when Bryce was still. kind of struggling a little bit.
Like he would tell us that You know, he takes ownership in the locker room. They really respect him in that locker room, and they know what he's built of. It's just, it's taken some years, and it's taken some reps, and it's taken some success to finally get it out and for him to find that voice. That if you've seen the clip, you know exactly what I'm talking about. He showed that side of himself.
Bryce Young is setting the tone early. Already for the Panthers. And it's only, I mean, that was the start of OTAs earlier in the week because I think there's a sense of urgency more this year than years past. By the way, Dave Canalis? Love the way he, uh...
Opens his press conferences. Here's how it sounded when he walked to the podium for the first time the other day. All right. What a great day.
So I think from now on, whenever we talk about Dave Canalis in any way. We're just going to play this. All right. What a great day.
That's Dave in a nutshell. Like I remember After one of their really, it might have been the Rams game that they won. Like I w I was sitting kinda close towards the door closest to the Panther's locker room. where he comes in and where Bryce comes in and whoever else comes to the podium comes in. And like as soon as he walked in, like he looked at me and some others.
I think Josh Graham was sitting next to me and some others in our direction. He was like, oh, that was fun, wasn't it? As he's walking to the podium. I think that was the Rams gate. That's.
That's Dave Canalis. You gotta love that energy. It's it's infectious. Darren Vott. going to join us here.
In just a few minutes. Should take this time to tell you about Sunnyside winning. If you're wondering what that that is. WSJS.com is where you can find out more about it because we have prizes. We have things you can win.
Like machine gun Cali? With Wiz Khalifa. I wish I was going to be around. I'd like to get to that show. It's going to be in Charlotte.
And um That's going to be going on this Sunday night. The Sunday night. Also, TST, the soccer tournament, 7v7 tickets where you got Chad Ochosinko. I actually saw him. I saw a highlight of him playing in this tournament already.
He took a nice shot on goal, got blocked, but he looked like he was going to score.
So he's already getting into it. Landon Donovan's been involved. We had Brech Shea on the show last week. Then we got tickets to go see Weird Al Yankovich. Got that.
He's going to be coming to Greensboro, the first Risings Coliseum. It's going to be June 5th. And then we've got Smashing Pumpkins. Tickets. We got a little something for everybody.
That's for October 16th. at Spectrum Center. In Charlotte.
So, all you do. Should go to WSJS.com. And You just register to win. It's all you do. And if you win, you got to wait 30 days till you can re-rack.
But. Tell your friends, tell your family about it. Also, WSAS.com is where you can get all our. Programming. You can listen to this show, stream us on the go.
Also, Dan Patrick 2-4. Colin Cowherd from 4-6. Daily pulse, 9 to 10 a.m. in the mornings. We got a lot of stuff here for you.
So, wsjs.com is the place to go. You will not hear us. If you go there tomorrow. We're gonna gonna take it take a day off, both Morgan and I. Just cause.
Just feel like it. What are you doing tomorrow? I'm uh I'm gonna go to a museum in Raleigh. The Natural Research Center and the Natural Exploration Center. They got a cool exhibit on some insects and bugs.
Bugs. Bugs. Dinosaurs. They got an 8,000-gallon aquarium. It's a lot of water.
Yeah. I can't swim, so I'll be staying away, but uh. Jeez. But they have a prehistoric exhibit about what North Carolina looked like and the prehistoric era and some of the animals that roamed and or monsters, depending on how you look at prehistoric animals. That's pretty cool, actually.
And it's free. That's even better. We love free around here. You just can't beat free. Freemium.
I like that freebie. Freemium. Yeah. That made that up. We're going to be doing one thing and one thing only.
We make your commute worth it. Welcome to the drive. Uh oh. Back at it on the drive. Right here on WSJS where.
Darren Vought has been doing everything. He's been doing it all. He's had a very busy day, but he still had to squeeze us in here as he's down at the Tallahassee Regional getting ready to call it. Darren, congratulations on that and how we doing? Yeah.
I appreciate it, Will. I'm doing well, man. I'm trying to drive through Tallahassee in this rental car. I picked up dinner. I'm trying to head back to my hotel, but there's a little bit of traffic, which is fine.
I'm over the moon. We just got done meeting with coaches and players for all four teams in the regional, and I just can't believe I get to do this. It's going to be a blast. We've got some really good stories, too. From the lower seeds, we got St.
John's and Northern Illinois here, both champions in their conferences that are hungry teams and they're not really slouches.
So I think they're going to put up a good fight against Florida State and Coastal Carolina.
So you did mention that.
So you've got Coastal, Northern Illinois, St. John's, Florida State. Give us a little bit of a sneak preview of what to expect in this regional based on some of the things you know.
Well, I mean, look, if it goes chalk, Florida State and Coastal Carolina a couple of times over to determine the regional champion, that's what we call good for television, right? I don't root for teams. I root for the show, and that would for sure be a good viewership game or two to be played. I think the really interesting thing to keep an eye on with both of those teams is that these are two of the top. pictures.
In the entire field, and Cam Fluke for Coastal Carolina, and then the ACC pitcher of the year, Wes Mendez of Florida State.
Now, they're going to pitch off in both cases. Anticipating a Saturday winner's bracket matchup between the two teams. And if we get that, holy smokes, that is a great, great matchup on the mound. Otherwise, look, like Northern Illinois, this is their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1972. They hadn't even made the MAC tournament, which they won.
since 2019. It's a team that's capable, they're hungry, and you know what I love about a team like this, Will, is the Huskies have shown up with a why not us attitude. Like they're playing with house money, and they're not afraid. Neither is St. John's.
This is a very good team out of the big East as well. St. John's is throwing its ace. Tomorrow against Florida State. And like, that's no guarantee for the Seminoles to win and advance in the winner's bracket.
It's the best part. about this time of year is that either way we get a great story, right? If the favorites win, we get an incredible matchup on the mound between two star pitchers on Saturday. And if another one wins, then we get this fun underdog story to run with. It's like every game is going to have something for everyone.
It should be awesome. Tomorrow, St. John's, Florida State, 3 o'clock on ACC Network. Going to be our guy, Darren Vought and Devin Travis on the call.
So switching gears here to hockey, because I know You know, being in Raleigh for as long as you were with the David Glenn show, and me, I was your intern there for a long time. And so I got to see up close, you know, how big of a caniac you became during that time. Just how fired up and excited are you about this Keynes run? It's funny. I'm here with an assignment that I'm really, really focused on for college baseball.
But I made it a point last night. I was like, I have to be at a TV at eight o'clock. We got to make this happen because. The Canes are a couple of wins away from a Stanley Cup final. And I mean, look, man, as soon as I'm done here at this regional, I'm going to be back home.
And if the Canes are playing in a cup final, I'm going to find a way to at least one of those games.
So I have a I'm very invested in it. I'm stoked for it. hopefully we can just finish it off against the Canadiens and then I can get to a cup game or two in Raleigh. But I'm fired up for it.
So dude, it's especially the way they won last night, man. That was incredible, the three goals in not even three minutes of play. And now, let's get to a speed round of Out of Left Field. From minds that wander off a beaten path. Here we go.
Unexpected, unscripted, unbelievable. I like it. It's simple to the point. It's the curveball of your day. Bring the bare necessities of life.
Out of Left Field with Darren Vought. And I'm actually going to let my producer Morgan go first today. What do you have for out of left field? If you could remove an article or a pair of. Like fashion items or clothing items?
What would you remove? I'm removing socks and flip-flops or socks and sandals. Where are you going with this? Like socks and sandals.
Okay, so so like you get home, it's been a long day. What are you like? Are you kicking shoes?
Okay, I get where you're going with this. No, like, what are you, like, not allowing people to wear like a combo that's unacceptable? Uh Like a socks and sandals. No go for socks and sandals. Does it have to be a combo?
Because I'll go bow tie here. I mean, actually, you know what? The combo that I require is: if you're going to wear a bow tie, you need to wear a big squeaky red nose and giant red shoes as well. Oh, that's why I don't wear a bow tie. I'm not a clown.
No, you're not, Darren. You are not a clown. I'm trying to think what my answer to this was.
So, you say socks and sandals.
Socks and sandals don't go together. It is funny because I do believe that our guy, Josh Graham, did do that some years back when he went to the beach, Darren. I think that's a thing that happened. Yeah, I um I'm a big socks I I wear Birken stocks, so they don't have the the thong in between the toes. I I don't mind socks and socks.
Which is fun to say 'cause it rhymes, but also like it's kind of a comfy look. Um so I yeah, I'm not on board with that as as As a rule, Morgan. I think my answer to this is combination. Or just an item? An item, okay.
Um a hula shirt. I think they're so tacky. A hula shirt or like a Hawaiian shirt? Hawaiian print? A Hawaiian shirt.
Yeah, that's. Yeah, okay. I just, I, you know, it's funny. I used to love Hawaiian shirts. I had a go-to Hawaiian shirt that I'd throw on anytime I was going to the beach.
I felt so cool wearing it there, and I really did. But I just, now that I've gotten a little older and I feel like I. have a an idea of of fashion, at least for me personally. It's f it just a little tacky, it's a little too loud, it's a little too much. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Where I go. I don't like to hate on other people's stuff. You're like, you know what I mean? People, I might not, something might not be my style. But it's totally okay that other people wear them.
Sure. With the bow tie being the exception, I just loathe a bow tie.
So. It's personal. Actually, that's my only answer to the question, I think. Uh, what do you have for out of left field Darren? I d listen.
I got nothing. I've been running around like crazy.
So, you need a speed run? Absolutely, my guy. You got it because we're skipping to you.
Okay. Um. What I have is What's uh what's a food? That you're just simply not willing to try? Like, what's a food that you just have no interest in trying?
Like, and what I mean is: like, I've never had potato salad. And I live in the South. And I got some grief, um I got some grief from somebody about that a couple of weeks ago. They were talking about potato salad. That's kind of crazy.
They were talking about potato salad, and I was like, yeah, I don't really like it. And they were like, Wave you had. No, I just have no interest in trying it. I don't.
So, what's a food that you just don't have an interest to try it? Maybe it's how it looks. Maybe it's a texture thing. What is that, if there is one? I don't have one.
I tell people this. There's nothing. There's nothing I won't eat. I don't think. Anyway, you know what I mean?
Like I I. People ask, well, what's the food you don't like? I can't think of one. There are things I prefer. to others, but No, there's not really one I I don't like, so I'm a I'm a bad I'm a bad person to ask this question.
What do you think, Morgan? Oysters. You won't eat oysters? Nah. It's too super bad.
I mean, but that's a normal one. You know what I mean? It's tough to hate for that. Poseto's salad is bananas. Like, that's.
Well, you gotta at least have a spoonful of potato salad. Like,.
So I mean I listen. I could be persuaded to try potato salad. A couple of items that I don't have any interest, and I just won't. Collared greens is one. I don't want collard greens.
It looks like soggy grass. Um I also have no interest in having peas. I don't want peas. Don't want it. That's probably my two, I would have to say, but mainly color greens.
Like, get the grass out of here. It looks like something that you just pulled up out of the yard after you mowed and it rained. That's right. That's uh That's what I think about that. That's uh that's been our speed round.
of out of left field. By the way, Darren. I know you're a big Otani fan. And last night watching him. Attempt a no-no.
Like, just how spec he does it with the Batman, but he does it on the mound, too. Like, just how special is it to watch Otani do it on both sides? I mean, we've never had anything like it. I I think I saw I I think it was Steve Phillips on maybe uh an MLB network radio segment. Say something along the lines of Every time he plays, like every night, some record is in jeopardy of being broken.
And it's Yes, you can joke about like the ESPN stats and info. posts that are like these obscure Records with several different qualifiers combined in a situation, like. I I get it, but at the same time they It might not even just be a record as much as it is, just like he's gonna do something spectacular, or he is liable to do something spectacular. Every time he takes the field. And it's special.
Like it's special. We gotta. We got that. understand what we're seeing in real time because they're going to be talking about Shoheio Tani. for like a for a long time after he's done playing baseball.
Darren, you're going to do spectacular on the call tomorrow. St. John's, Florida State, 3 o'clock tomorrow. Be watching, everybody. Darren, good luck on the call.
Thank you. Appreciate you guys. Talk soon. We must talk. Go ahead.
Talk. Turning your ride home into appointment listening. Welcome to the drive. Okay. Will Pelagic is going to join the show here in about 10 minutes.
Charlotte FC did get the win over New England last week.
So they're on a, we call that a win streak. They've won back-to-back games and they got a little bit of a break now until July 22nd. World Cup. Uh, is on its way, and so uh, there'll be a little bit of a hiatus for Charlotte FC.
So, we'll talk some World Cup with Willie P here in just a second, but. We got to get to these picks from last night. Had some good ones, had one not so good one, and we got a place three. for tonight's matchup between the Thunder and the Spurs. Stack it up.
Stack the stack, gotta stack it up. Get the money, get the money. It's time to cash in. Welcome to Dalton's Dollars. Yeah.
Show me the money.
So we placed... A money line bet on The Kanes against the Canadians straight up last night. Obviously, that cashed. Strolling the light!
Now The one did di- that did not hit Bryce Elder. For the Braves, I had him going under two and a half ERA against the Red Sox. The Red Sox won a zip.
So obviously that did not go very well. Bryce gave up five of those runs. Um And then the third of the picks from last night, Garrett Cole. Took him over five and a half strikeouts against the Royals, and buddy, he had 10 of them. You'll be delighted!
A 14th straight win for the Yankees over the Royals. Just a dominant performance that they had.
So we went 2-1 last night, which brings our summertime record to 16-13. We're still in the green. We still haven't dipped. Out of that. We haven't been 500 or below it.
We've stayed above 500, which is a good place to be.
So I have three. Picks for tonight. Spurs, thunder. It's the game I'm focused on. This is very difficult.
So I think This game is going to be an absolute thriller. I do like the Spurs to win it though. I think Wimby is going to have to have a big night. There's a lot of questions about whether or not he's tired just because of. The usage rate that they're having to call on him for.
But I think he's going to show up and show out tonight because I think he plays with a chip on his shoulder and he knows. He knows what's expected of him. He didn't speak to the media after game five. I think he's going to respond in game six tonight.
However, this is gonna get really dicey. It's going to go down to the wire, and I'm going to just take a chance here. It is gambling after all. And I'm going to take the Thunder to cover as three and a half point dogs. Strong vegan!
That Eeeeee. That makes me nervous, but we'll see what happens. I think Wimby's going to be a big factor. The factor for the Spurs. As I just mentioned, I think he goes over 27 and a half points.
Strophy divided! And with both of these teams just going at it. I think the total goes over 218 and a half. Show me divided!
So In review. Three picks. between the Spurs and the Thunder. Thundercover is three and a half point dogs. Wimmy goes over 27.5 points.
And this game total goes over 218.5. points. If that made you mad, good. Call Will Dalton. Oh man, you can't touch me.
You're on the drive, the triad's longest-running live sports talk show. My break here on WSJS where we're having our Weekly meeting with Willie P a day early. Gonna have an off day, Morgan and I, tomorrow. But we had to get Willie P in here. Willie P, what's happening?
I'm happy that you could move around your very busy schedule and all your other dignitaries to squeeze me in on a Thursday. I wish I could tell you that my schedule is very busy at the moment. As you may or may not know, with Charlotte FC not playing and And everybody at WFNZ having not taken vacation yet. I have become incredibly bored.
So There's that.
Well, let's get into some of the stuff that's going to be happening in the meantime. Sure. So. The World Cup obviously is coming up, but... You're going to have at the bank of at the bank, Bank of America's State, you're going to have the U.S.
men's national team. Over there this weekend on Sunday, taking on Senegal. What can you tell us about that, Willie P?
Well, it's an interesting tilt. And I know that there are a lot of people who kind of wonder: hey, you know, Charlotte has kind of taken on the soccer scene here over the last couple of years. Why do they get this game and not say World Cup group stage games.
Well, the bidding for these games started all the way back in about 2017 2018. Jerry Richardson still owned the Panthers at that time, and Charlotte F.C. was not even a twinkle in the eye of people here locally. And so, and as has been chronicled by many people who even precede me. The way that the stadium was used under Jerry Richardson pales in comparison to the way that it's used in David Tepper's.
Reign of the Panthers. And by the time that the bids for those games was being legislated, uh Charlotte FC had not been really in use. The stadium was not really thought of as top of mind. There was a little bit of a talk after there were some venues out there that maybe had some questions about them.
SoFi Stadium was one of them that maybe Charlotte could kind of come in on the back end. I will tell you that David Tepper and Gianni Infantito, the FIFA president, have a very, very good relationship. It's part of the reason why Charlotte FCA got Copa America games. It's part of the reason why we got the Club World Cup in Charlotte as well with some prominent matches. And also why Charlotte could be a very big leading candidate for the Women's World Cup here in a couple of years as the United States continues to try and make a bid to host that.
So that could be something as part of Bank of America Stadium's near future. But I almost look at this as being something that's even better than the group stage games that some of these other cities will get because. I've heard a lot of the horror stories, whether it's Boston, Atlanta, Kansas City, some of these other places, who have had to incur a lot of expense to have these venues fitted to FIFA specifications, transit, security. Ancillary events, et cetera, and so on. Whereas Charlotte basically is like, you know what?
We get the U.S. men's national team and the full U.S. men's national team for the first time in the building in a World Cup year, which I think is really, really cool. And it gives you your first opportunity to see the roster as currently constituted by Mauricio Puccitino. You very may well get to see Tim Reem play in his home building as well as a center back for the U.S.
men's national team, which is a really, really intriguing part of it. And also, it finally gives us a window into what Mauricio Puccitino was thinking because he has approached this. Pre-World Cup period of time in a more experimental fashion than I think any manager of recent memory has done so with the U.S. men's national team. He has tinkered and tweaked and made different lineup changes.
He's had to deal with some intermittling injuries in terms of some people who he would have liked to have, but has not been able to use, like Sirginio Dest, Jedi Robinson has been in and out as well.
So there's a lot of these things that have kind of been interspersed throughout the last year to a year and a half that he's been in charge. But I say all that to say. That it's going to be very, very interesting these next two contests that lead up to the World Cup. They'll play against Senegal on Sunday. Senegal is a very, very tough team.
They played in the African Cup of Nations final and had a very, very controversial final because of the fact that there was basically a ride at the end of the game and they had their title taken away from them. There's also the intrigue involving the fact that their national team manager, his contract ran out in February. He's managing without a contract and he's threatened to not leave for the United States. Without a new contract.
So there's that all involved with them, and also just the fact that they had their African Cup of Nations title taken away from them during the winter.
So. All that to say, a lot of intrigue for this game on Sunday and a lot of intrigue for the later friendly that comes in Chicago against Germany before the first World Cup game takes place here a couple of weeks from now against Paraguay.
Now you mentioned Tim Ream, who has officially made the World Cup roster representing Charlotte FC. He is the second player. In Charlotte FC History to represent on the roster there. And I believe he's logged about 80 games with the U.S. men's national team.
What makes him so special? Exactly, 80.
So, right on. What makes him so special as a player? I think it's Obviously, when you play as many games as Tim Ream has had, you're going to get some people who look at you and say, you know, your age can be an asset, your age can be a detriment. And it's one of those things that he spoke very colorfully about a week ago, actually, at this time. I was sitting at a press conference at Bank of America Stadium, and I heard Tim drop a little bit of an expletive to a question about someone who said, you know, do you care about some of the outside criticism that comes your way?
I understand there are folks in the U.S. men's national team echelon who look at Tim Ream and maybe say that he's particularly beyond his years. But one of the things that he's very, very good at is. Upfront defending, like 1v1 defending. He doesn't get shook very, very often.
He's got a big body, which allows him to, you know, thwart things off at the pass. And also, he's very, very good with his feet. In terms of tracking back, that's the one period of why maybe you don't necessarily look at him and say that he is as strong as because his backtracking ability is not something that is his strong suit at this point of his career. And I think that's part of the reason why you see the United States use more of a three-back set because you want that experience and ingenuity from Tim Rima on the pitch, but you also want two other guys who can track back as well, whether that's a Mark McKenzie, whether that's a Chris Richards, whether that's somebody else in the U.S. center back trio.
That's part of the reason why the U.S. has put 10 defenders on their roster, not just a potential three-center back system, but also a chance to potentially use some wing backs. They could go to a four-back and only have two center backs as well. That's something Mauricio has experimented with. And again, we're really not sure exactly how he's going to implement that.
I don't know if Tim is at the point where he could play all three games of a group stage as quickly as they come in succession, but I definitely think he's in there in the first game. I definitely think he's in there for the third game. And I think that the the Ross Pool is deep enough to be able to support that. But I think also he just has guys who gravitate toward him. And I talked to Chris Richards, who, you know, he plays for Crystal Palace.
He's he's no slouch, right? And played in the, you know, for a team that won the UEFA Conference League yesterday. And something that he said to me that was very, very pointed is that, you know, He has kind of been there at the beginning of the journey where a lot of these guys are on this team for. There's nobody who played, who was named to this roster, who has played beyond that 2022 campaign. And the 2022 campaign was the first World Cup in Qatar for a lot of these guys.
So they all kind of feel like they were a little snake bit by the last experience. And I think there's that particular factor that can factor in with these guys as well. There's also some guys like Gio Reyna who and Ricardo Peppi who feel like they have a bit of a redemptive nature for different reasons as well. It's a very intriguing squad. And I think people just gravitate toward Tim in that fashion.
Chris did tell me, though, by the way, his age does get chirped on by the team as well because they do call him Grandpa Tim sometimes.
Sometimes they call him Grandpa Tim or Uncle Tim. They do have a little bit of fun at Tim for his expense. But I'm very, very excited to see what he can do in a U.S. men's national team shirt. Will Pelagic, the voice of Shell NFC, with us here on WSJS.
Now, A name that we've grown very accustomed to around here is Wilfred Zaha. And his loan agreement is going to be up June 30th. We won't see Charlotte FC again until July 22nd.
So and he's going to be parting ways with the team when that happens. How big of a hole is that going to leave for Charlotte FC, not having Zaha around? It's a big hole. There's no denying that part, Will. But I think part of the reason, and again, I'm only doing this from a speculative aspect.
We've asked to talk to Zaran Kineta, Charlotte FC Sporting Director on record, and we've been told he's in Europe.
So that gives you and tells you a little bit of a sense of how much they've been preparing for this. And the fact that the announcement came. Right at the time the World Cup break began, tells me that. Whether it was Charlotte FC's vision for Wilfred Zaha, or Wilfred Zaha's vision for his time either at Charlotte FC or the rest of his career. Those two did not intersect and/or were miles apart.
And I can't tell you if that was a dollars and cents thing or a year's thing, whether the club wanted more or less, or the player wanted more or less. I think, you know, there's. A lot of room to speculate on all those things, but It would be worthless for me to try to do that because I just don't have the facts at hand available to me there without hearing from either side. But. What I can tell you is that One of the things that they have at least made very, very clear is they want to get younger at that position and they want to get younger at the DP position and they want to get more in-prime players.
Charlotte's roster, as it's currently constituted, has got a lot of youth on it. It's also got a lot of veteran leadership on it, but there's not a lot of guys who are in the middle.
Now, one of those guys is Pat BL, and he is playing about as well as anybody has played in a Cheryl L DFC uniform in 29 years old and going into his 30th year. He's got more gold contributions in his first 50 contests than any player in Cheryl LFC's history has through that period of time.
So that's something you look at and say, is a real feather in your cap.
Now the other two DEP spots have been hard for Charlotte F. C to fill from a consistency standpoint and from a longevity standpoint. The other DEP spot that's currently held after Wilfred Zaha's departure is Lie Labattas. It's my understanding, and again, I don't know this for a fact, but I feel like it's pretty conventional wisdom to say that Leo Labatt has probably played his last game with Charlotte FC, even with Wilfred Zaha departing, because his productivity has gone down, because his match minutes have gone down, and because there's a significant amount of interest for him, particularly with a couple of teams in the EFL Championship, a little right below the English Premier League.
So if Charlotte FC, in fact, does have two designated player uncapped spots to fill in a window that Zaran Carneta has been on record as saying is the most important and potentially most transformative window in the history of Major League Soccer, why in the world would you not want to posit yourself in a position to grab some of those spoils?
Now, what do those spoils look like? Who knows? Is there a guarantee that the person you bring in is going to be as productive as Zaha? No, but. When you think about his last season, he had 10 goals and 10 assists, and that's including the secondary assists.
Sites don't always include the secondary assists, MLS does, but he only had seven combined goal contributions, goals, and assists through 14-15 games in the earlier part of this season. He had as many goal contributions as he had yellow cards. And that was something that, at least in my opinion, was a bit of a concern. His availability on the pitch had become a little bit of a concern. And I also think, just too, he got lost in more games this season to me than he was impactful.
So when you're looking at the salary number, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.5 million, is what he was being paid at Gallatas Array. Charlotte FC was only covering about $2,2 million of that, maybe $2.75 million when the guaranteed compensation was all said and done. Obviously, Cheryl would probably have to have an increase on that. And pay the full freight, obviously. Do you really think you can justify $4 or $5 million for somebody who is not at the MLS all-star level and somebody who is making more than Pet BL and a lesser productivity than Pet BL?
It seemed to me that it was one of those things that they like Wilf, Wilf likes them, but at the stage of where they are in their build and at the stage at Wilfred Zaha is in his career, those things just did not intersect. And you think about the fact that Wilf turns 34 in November. This is his last contract, his last big money move. He wants to try and get something where he can stay forever. I don't know if Charlotte FC wants to keep a player on a DP contract at that age and have to basically survive the eventual dip in productivity.
And many people believe that they thought that that dip in productivity had started.
So I say all that to say in that. I think Charlotte FC will use this window to get two in-prime players, regardless of position. I think you have to go get another left wing. And then, what you do with that second position, if Liella bottles apart. Maybe you go out and you get a box-to-box midfielder.
Maybe you go out and get the heir apparent to Ashley Westwood. Maybe you go out and get somebody a different position. Maybe a striker who can be somebody who pushes Edon Tokamati and Archie Goodwin. I think the thing that Zarnka that I was looking for going into this window was optionality. And unfortunately, that means parting ways of Wilfred Zaha, who's somebody who.
I think it was popular amongst a lot of fans, but I also think that his popularity was very divergent with a lot of people as well. There were some people who didn't necessarily cry when Wilfred Zaha leaves this club.
So I say all that to say it's a lot of pressure on the sporting department. I know Zoar Caneta has his detractors. I am not one of them. And I certainly believe that they're going to get something in here. And even as Dean Smith told me personally on Thursday last week, he said, we need him in early because the window opens the 13th.
They play on the 22nd. The window goes until September. But as he said, To me, expressly, we need them in here early because we need to maximize their productivity. Because you have 19 games, which is more games than anybody has ever had in a secondary transfer window in the history of this league to be able to have an effect on a team. And I think more and more teams are going to be finding those players earlier and often because of what is ahead in the second half of the MLS season.
Are you a Nick fan? I grew up one. I mean, I grew up a Nick fan. I mean, if I point the camera over to the left, you can see Jon Starks dunking over. Ducking over Michael Jordan, an autographed picture.
I got an autographed picture of Patrick Ewing on the wall, too, as well. Again, I grew up a Knick fan. It would not be fair to say that I root for them currently. My position with the Hornets, obviously, is at a point where it would not behoove me to be rooting for the Knicks against the Hornets in that fashion. Are you going to say, am I happy with what they're doing?
Absolutely. I'm happy with what they're doing. Will I be soul-crushed if they don't win the NBA Finals? Not necessarily. Again, I wouldn't say that I get an emotional jolt out of watching them play other than the fact that I grew up watching them in the 90s and was heartbroken when they lost all those series to MJ.
And I still can't stand Reggie Miller, which chaps my wife, who was from Indiana, and And we have had a lot of arguments about that. There may have been a night or two where I've had to sleep on the sofa because I said something bad about Indiana or the Pacers or Reggie or Hiliburton or one of those guys, just because I have a bit of scar tissue from Reggie Miller when I was a kid. I actually told Reggie personally when he was covering the Final Four one year when I was in Houston, I said, you made me cry more than any girl ever has. And then he's, and then in typical Reggie fashion, he looked back at me. He said, Who have you been dating?
And I'm like, it's a very good Reggie Miller, I hope it's a very good Reggie Miller.
So, oh, yeah. But I say all that to say, I'm happy for the Knicks and happy for those who have stuck it out. Again, My father's a big Knicks fan, so he's always got the Knicks on whenever they're playing. He hasn't gravitated to the Hornets yet, even though they moved down here. But I definitely would be pulling for them in a proverbial NBA Finals matchup against either San Antonio or Oklahoma City.
Will Pelagic, the voice of Charlotte FC. We appreciate the time as always. Enjoy all this time that. You don't have to call games. I don't know what you're going to do or how you're going to spend it, but enjoy it, man.
I'm going to go see my in-laws next week, and then I'm going to go to Italy for a couple of days, toil around there, buy some wine, buy some pizza, buy some pasta, and hopefully not get too fat. And hopefully by July, I'll be chomping at the bit. I'm already chomping at the bit, personally, but I'll be really chomping at the bit. And also, I'll get a chance to see Anna Whitty. I haven't seen Anna, you know, for a month.
So hopefully Anna will be back with us come July 22nd and we can get it going here against Atlanta as well. Willie P., thank you so much for the time, and we'll do it again next week. Thank you, Will. Appreciate you. Your one-stop shop for sports talk sports.
Because somebody has to say what you're thinking.
Now, back to the drive. Back at it on the drive, right here on WSJS. I think. I think We're going to be joined by Darren Vought in hour number two. I will say that's tentative though, because He's in Tallahassee for the Florida State Regional.
And he's got production calls and coach meetings today. Throughout the afternoon.
So that's tentative. I think we're going to be joined by Darren Vought, but we'll see what happens. A lot happening in the world of baseball with regionals getting underway tomorrow. But. very quickly getting to the NBA.
Adam Silver. Was on with Pat McAfee last night. It was a very interesting program. that Pat McAfee put on with a lot of different commissioners and things. But the one with Adam Silver was very interesting, and there was a couple of points.
That He hit on. The first one which is very timely to the news that just dropped this hour. is the tanking problem that was pretty significant this year, more maybe more than ever. It's always been an issue, but maybe more than ever this year because of how good this college class is. Here was Adam Silver on that.
Clearly where we've ended up right now, I think you obviously don't see it in the playoffs and the competition has been spectacular. But in the regular season, you saw some teams that frankly their incentive was not to put their best foot forward. And I think to the extent that a draft is intended and ultimately to reward the worst performing teams with the top picks. If teams are manipulating rosters, playing time, et cetera, it's not even clear who the worst team is and who is so-called most deserving.
So I think you just need to add a more random element to our draft, and that's what we're in the process of doing.
So Just about an hour or two ago. We got some breaking news that. The NBA is going to be Trying to crack down on tanking by putting out what they're calling the 3-2-1 lottery. It's going to be implemented starting this coming year. And it's going to run through the next three years, almost like in a trial period, to see how it goes.
And according to Shams. This is how they're going to try to go about. D incentivizing losing on purpose and taking.
So The 3-2-1, it's. It's named to represent the number of lottery balls per team. The teams with the bottom three record, who in the past have had the highest chance of getting the number one overall pick, they're calling this the relegation area. They're only going to have two. Two lottery balls.
The teams that do not qualify for the playoffs or play in tournament in spots 4 through 10 receive three lottery balls.
So, in other words, teams 4 through 10 have a better chance at getting the number one pick than the lowest three teams in the league.
So in other words, they're trying to randomize this a little bit more. I don't know if this is going to work or not. And then apparently the number nine and ten play-in seeds in each conference are going to receive two lottery balls each. The losers of the seven, eight play-in games receive one lottery ball each. All 16 teams will, yeah, in the drawing there.
So that is how the 3-2-1 lottery system is going to work. We'll have more on this a little later on, I'm sure. Um But he also, Adam Silver, touched on the tanking, or not tanking, of the flopping. issue. That is very prevalent.
Much like tanking, more so than ever right now. Thank you, Thunder. Thank you, SGA. Or what do you call him, Morgan? Shay Floppius Alexander.
That's right. Here was Adam Silver on that last night. I would only say that there's a difference between selling a call exaggeration and a true flop, which is where you're actually fooling the referees. I think sometimes even as I sit in the stands at games, players may be falling down, players may be reacting to a call, but then to me, if they're not fooling the referees, it's like, okay, that's like the players are taught to sell calls these days. I mean, can officiating get bad?
Can officiating get better? Of course. We're always working on that. Can officials get fooled occasionally? We're always looking at that as well.
But the officiating is incredible. That last part's debatable. Survey says. Yeah. I think this is the issue they really need to be tackling.
Maybe even more so than tanking. Because does anybody really care about tanking once we get to the playoffs? Does anybody care about it? But what do we care about in the playoffs? flopping that could impact who goes to the finals.
Yeah, I mean he's not gonna come out and say that his league needs to address it 'cause it's making it an issue 'cause that's gonna obviously admit that your league's been diluted a little bit. Yeah. But or the quality of play has. But I I agree that it does partly lie on the officials. And I agree with what he said in the first half, where the officials have to be stronger in their play as well.
They do.
So that's going to be the key here. And that you could. absolutely penalize flopping. You could do it. Apparently flopping actually originates from soccer.
Apparently, that's true. And what do they do in soccer? They penalize it, yellow cards, things like that.
Well, you could do that in the NBA. And the question then becomes: well, how do you judge that? The same as any other call. Was there contact? Maybe the other team gets free throws if they call it against them.
There's a way to crack down on that too, and I think they should take a look at it.
