Frappuccino (6-1-22)

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, what you scheduled this game.

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. I do say go Tar Heel. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my city. It's time for the drive with Josh Graham.

You were on a Wednesday drive where we heard from Panthers offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo earlier today. And this guy's a bit of a mystery. You look at his hairdo he used to have back with the Giants and how that transformed with the Jaguars.

I think everybody has that stage. You go down to Florida and things get a little weird up top. And now what he's rocking here in Charlotte. That's a bit of a mystery. And also what he's going to do offensively.

A bit of a mystery too, as he was talking about just a few hours ago. But before we get to that sound, just remember, we haven't seen him with this type of personnel before. We haven't seen Ben McAdoo run things with a team that looks quite like this one. He was once the quarterback coach in Greenback. They've got things, shall I say, a little bit more figured out at the quarterback position than the Carolina Panthers currently do. Then you look at the New York Giants. At that point, Eli Manning had already won two Super Bowls.

So he was established. And in Jacksonville, they were tanking. That team wasn't trying to win. But if you look at the numbers that Gardner Minshew had his rookie year, Ben McAdoo, not a bad quarterbacks coach. The personnel is what you need to be focusing on. A good coach. He molds an offense around his personnel rather than vice versa.

Here's a size fit all offense. And I think Ben McAdoo is a good quarterbacks coach and a good offensive coordinator. How else can you explain when he took over the Giants, not as the head coach, as the offensive coordinator, they went from the 28th ranked offense in the NFL to a top 10 offense immediately.

And Eli Manning had two of his three best statistical seasons in the two seasons that McAdoo was calling plays. Here was Ben today saying how things are going to be a lot different in Charlotte versus the offenses that he's run in the past. There's a lot we're looking at right now, but the biggest thing I don't want to do is rush the judgment over what our offense is going to look like. You know, the offense that we're going to put out there is going to look far different probably than the offense that you've seen me involved with in the past. That's just because our players are different. That doesn't mean we have a bunch of new plays that we didn't have in the past. We're just going to try to do our best job to tailor it to the players we have.

Don't forget that. Again, good coaches adopt styles to personnel, not the other way around. John Calipari, one of the best coaches in college. Coach K, the last decade in the one and done. Every year you have different players and Duke and Kentucky through different offenses out there. That's what great coaches are able to do. I expect it to be a run first ball control offense, which is strange because that's not what we've seen from McAdoo run teams. Usually they run out of the gun.

Usually they're high pace. I think there was one year with the Giants, 65% of the snaps were no huddle. I don't think we're going to see that with the Carolina Panthers because none of those teams that I talked about before had Christian McCaffrey on it. The Giants best running back, the two years that McAdoo was the head coach, Shane Vereen and Wayne Gallman. That was before Saquon Barkley arrived. The Packers had James Starks at running back. And again, I think that guy was going to do some pretty good things at quarterback in greenback, the one that they had there.

So, and still had the day. Christian McCaffrey is a unique talent. So I'll be interested to see what he does with McCaffrey. You might be concerned about usage and whether or not he will be able to play only playing 10 games in the last couple of seasons, but we're not talking about any breaks or tears or surgeries with McCaffrey. When he plays, he's really good and they have a little bit more depth so that if McCaffrey is not in the game on a certain play or God forbid he gets injured, it's not able to play.

Well, you have options. That's why you pick up Deontay Freeman in free agency. That's why you draft Chuba Hubbard a year ago, going into his second year in Charlotte. You don't want to ask any of these quarterbacks to win the game for you. So I think run control, zone running scheme, offense, run first, ball control. That's what you're looking at with Ben McAdoo's offense, but it's still a mystery.

Like his hair, like his facial hair. It's a mystery what's going to happen with this Panthers offense. I don't think it's a lock either that Darnold's going to be the starting quarterback. McAdoo was high on Corral. I was told Corral was the highest quarterback on his board. Go back to 2018, right after McAdoo was fired. He was talking to the New York Post. They asked him, see, you're fired.

You don't have to use these grades that you have now. How did you grade the quarterback class? That was number one pickmaker Mayfield. Sam Darnold was a top three pick. After that, it was Josh Allen, Josh Rose, and Lamar Jackson. Apparently, McAdoo didn't have Darnold in his top two. Maybe not even his top three of memory serves, correct, but guess who he did have one and two. Josh Allen won, Lamar Jackson too. It's a pretty good evaluation, and both Darnold and Corral are learning a new offense.

So maybe that's a bit of an equalizer. And when I hear people talk about comps for Corral, I hear Russell Wilson's name come up a bit because Russell Wilson, fit undersized, really quick release. You don't coach that.

You either have a quick release or you don't. Will Dalton, executive producer of The Drive. We got a lot to do today.

B Dot, he's going to be in studio with us in about 20 minutes. Shifting things along here. How about we get to the NBA? So this is something that bothers me. We have a tendency with that sport to over focus on the superstars, which is understandable. That's how the sports marketed. When they put games on TV, it's not the Celtics are playing the Warriors. No, it's Steph's playing Jason Tatum as if these other guys don't exist.

LeBron's going up against Kevin Durant or whoever it might be. That's the way the sport is marketed. You can't win without one of those guys. So I guess it's understandable. That's the way that people will talk about it. However, when you get to this point in the playoffs, the NBA finals, both teams, they have stars.

You don't get to this point if you don't have stars. So there's a good chance when you exclusively focus on them, you might miss some important keys to the series. And when I look at this series, the key match up to me that you should be keeping a really close eye on, because I think it's going to decide this series. How does golden state respond to the size of the Boston Celtics? This sounds like an old beaten down take. Golden State, how many times are people going to complain that the Warriors are small and only to have the Warriors still win?

Another thing you need to remember, this is a big concern that I have. And we've been saying this all playoffs long, even though Golden State's in the finals. This is not the team that won 73 games six years ago. This is not that team.

They're older. They're close to the end of their prime. The guys who are still around from that team. Kevin Durant isn't on this team either. It's not the 17, 18, 19 teams that we're talking about here. This is a different Golden State Warriors team. And the Warriors have caught some breaks this postseason. When it comes to matchups of size, they avoided Phoenix. You don't have to face DeAndre Ayton. They drew Dallas in the conference final.

They don't have any size either. You drew, you didn't have to face Utah and Rudy Gobert. Yes, you had Jokic, but that team was missing a ton of guys due to injuries.

Catching breaks. You got Memphis, who's physical, but not really big. They had Steven Adams, but he couldn't play in that series.

Couldn't keep them on the floor. Golden State deserves some credit for that, but they don't have a ton of dudes the way that Boston does. When I look at this Warriors roster, I see one guy who is taller than six foot six. That plays. One guy taller than six foot six.

That's Kavon Lunick. So not even one of your best players. Boston has four guys over six seven that actually play four. You look at Robert Williams. Great shot blocker.

Health going to be dependent. How good he is in the series. Daniel Tice, if you need him. Jason Tatum, six foot eight.

Smart. He's big for a point guard at six four and physical. Jalen Brown plays bigger than six foot six. So when I look at this series, I think how Golden State deals with that physicality, not being as deep as they were when they won their championships before.

And not having the size advantage, but also not even just a couple of guys who are at six eight, six nine that they could play on the floor. That's what I think is going to be key in the series. Still not feeling comfortable enough yet to think that Boston to pick Boston right now, but I'm not confident enough to pick Golden State either. It's it is very conflicting and it's going to be a great NBA final. You talk like a crazy person.

You have sexually transmitted crazy mouth. You're on the drive with Josh Graham on WSJS Sports. For those who followed such things, a jury just ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. I have not really been following this case that closely, but apparently people have been following it like it's the O.J. trial or something. Really?

Apparently so. My brother, he was at the beach all last week, and every time I called to see what he was doing, he was indoors watching the Johnny Depp trial. And another time I had something to talk to him about ahead of the bachelor party.

And he would say, no, no, I can't talk right now. Johnny Depp getting cross-examined right now or something like that. So, yeah, there you go. New Pirates of the Caribbean movie, anybody?

Let's go. This will be the sixth one. I'm with number six.

Six, six, six, six. That's me. I like the drop. You like that? Uh-huh.

Yeah, Drake might sue me, but who cares? It fits. Speaking of fits. The Charlotte Hornets still haven't identified the fit for their head coaching job. It does seem like there are three candidates at the top of the list, all with head coaching experience. Mike D'Antoni, Kenny Atkinson, and Terry Stotts.

Those are the top three. But there was some news last night that had me thinking, even though we're just a few weeks away from the draft and it would be good to have your coach by the time the draft gets here, maybe you could pump the brakes just a little bit longer. You're already this far. Why not just pump the brakes a little longer? Apparently, Quinn Schneider, his future is uncertain with the Utah Jazz. They don't know if they're going to bring Quinn Schneider back. And if the Utah Jazz don't bring Quinn Schneider back, I would jump on that if I was Mitch Kupchak. Would you? Oh, yeah.

Why? That guy wins a lot of basketball games, like a lot of basketball games. And they've been winning a lot of basketball games for a long time.

And he has ties to the state. Once upon a time, he played at Duke. Come to think of it, I don't know if Michael Jordan's going to hire a Duke guy.

That would be interesting. Hey, Mitch Kupchak and Michael Jordan here. Yeah, we'll bring you in, but do you mind hanging out with us at Duke Carolina games and not wearing the dark color blue? You mind doing that?

That's a significant part of the process. Buzz Peterson's in that room too, Fred Whitfield. Entire rooms, just all tar heels. So listen, I'd like to picture Quinn Schneider sitting in that room, and all five of them are wearing Carolina's shirt. Hey, how comfortable do you think you'd be working here? Yeah, how bad do you want this job, Quinn?

Yeah, buddy. We got a contract and a shirt here for you, Quinn. You have to sign and the shirt. You got to. That's right. And you have to take a selfie with all of us afterwards.

Those are the terms of the contract. Quinn Schneider is the guy who always looks like the villain in a movie. That's who he is. No, he looks like. No, look at that guy. He's a villain.

Every movie. He's the villain in the Spider-Man movie. That's him. He looks like he's straight out of the movie American Psycho.

A villain. He also looks like Wolf of Wall Street, all the characters in that movie. Like all the faces they make. Yeah, like he's got the eyebrows of this, the cheek motions of this. This guy's he looks like a wolf of Wall Street.

No. While we do that, I've seen Wolf of Wall Street. Have you seen Wolf of Wall Street? Well, I sure have, Josh.

That's why. That's why he needs to see a few good men the night I heard. I watched that last night.

Did you do it? Yeah, that movie's I saw it was on Amazon Prime. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I just remember the emotional attachment I had to it when I did see it. One of the most rewatchable movies ever since we got Dot here. Hmm.

Might as well take care of some business. Play grammar school. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking in high school.

He didn't play sports, but he did wear a helmet. And just when you think it can't get any worse, my English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high. Thanks a lot. Next semester, I'll be thirty five. Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm from the old school. I got street knowledge. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? It's time for B Dot's grammar school. Why?

Yes, it is. It is time for grammar school. And how are you, Josh?

Welcome back from your bachelor weekend. Did you enjoy yourself? I did. I was on a plane listening to you and George the British Tar Heel do this last Friday. Yeah.

But you were trying to figure out some of the things in the UK. I'd probably go 0 for 3 right now. You guys didn't know battered. Come on. I didn't. Is that drunk?

Is that the drunk one? Yes. I had no clue. It made total sense once he said it. But then I was like, when he asked, I had no clue. Great segment. Just like this one here. Absolutely, man. What I have is three words or phrases for Josh Graham.

And he has just he has he has to let me know. What do they mean? What are they saying? But first, oh, I forgot my caustic word in season two. Yeah.

And if you want to be a helper for me. Yeah. A lifelong. Yeah. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. Again, three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred.

You say that number so fast that it's hard to even write about it. Yeah. So I got an assist here from Will W.D. That's not how you say it. W.D.! You can't sing it every time. So when you just say it in conversation, it's W.D.

I haven't said it today yet, so I felt like we needed to. OK. What's a frappuccino? It's a drink at Starbucks. What's in it? Drink. What type of drink is it? It's a drink that you get at Starbucks. You can get like a grande or a tall.

Yeah, you can do that. Oh, you could get like a tall one or like. Could you imagine if you asked me what is a what is Mountain Dew? And I said, oh, that's a drink you could just get a food line. What makes it a frappuccino? They're big. They're big bottles. They're little bottles.

What makes it a frappuccino? And am I a lifeline for B. Dot here? Heck yeah! Heck yeah! Heck yeah! Heck yeah! Heck yeah!

Heck yeah! He's a lifeline. He only has one question.

He has to get a lifeline. And he gave the question. So all I didn't know is, is it soda? No, it's not soda. Tea? Is it coffee? Is it tea? Is it coffee? Is it milk? No, it's not tea or coffee. It's a frappuccino. No, it's coffee.

It's coffee. Wait. Stop nodding at him. I'm not looking at him.

I swear to God. I didn't even look at him. I didn't even look at him. OK. A frappuccino is a coffee with milk in it. No milk. Take the milk out.

Or you could put milk in as your creamer and your frappuccino. That's all I got. Are we giving it to him? That was exhausting. It's.

Whoo. That's it. Frappuccino is a coffee. You can put milk in it and you can get it at Starbucks. Is there milk in a frappuccino? You can't put it.

There is, but there's a specific way it's made that makes it a frappuccino. It's a specific way. Is that what you all were asking? You all didn't say that.

You all said what's in it. You didn't say what's the specific way. Yeah, that's right. What is the specific way?

What is the specific way? Are you asking me now? So now you're asking me two questions.

No, no, no, no. The first one. The first one I told you what was in the frappuccino. Now you're asking me.

So can I use a lifeline now? Because I had to get a second question. It's blended coffee. That's what I meant. Blended coffee. It's like a slushie. We'll give it to him.

Why not? Thank you. Yeah.

It's blended. Six man. For you, Josh Graham. What's fronting? Oh, fronting. Spell it. F R O N T I N apostrophe. Don't you dare forget that apostrophe, Josh Graham.

Yeah, that was a good job. Never would. What's fronting? That's when you're lying.

Like you talk a bigger game than what you are. You're fronting or you're just lying to somebody. If I said that my shoes were red, I'm fronting.

I'm lying. If you said your shoes were red, that's capping. That's just capping because they're clearly Duke blue, white and black. But if you said that your shoes cost $600 and they cost $300, you're fronting. That's fronting. But I still give you that.

Congratulations. I give you that. It is fronting. I see the difference. You see the difference? It's capping, but it's capping on a grand scale. Like you're fronting. That's right.

It really didn't do that. Up next. Slick.

Oh, this is a review word. Slick. Slick.

Now this is Memphis slang. Slick. Did we do slick before?

I've heard this before. Slick. Slick. 336-777-1600. That's a sign that Josh needs assistance. If you know what slick means. 336-777-1600.

And he can use a will as a lifeline as well. Is it a noun? It's listed as a descript. Do you hear me talking over my retainer?

Can you hear it? No, I can't. It's listed as a descriptor adjective. So it's an adjective. A descriptor adjective?

Yeah, that's what it says. That seems a bit redundant. What are adjectives? Things to describe something. Right. We got the, what are the non-descriptor adjectives?

I'd love to hear about them. Well, that, well, listen, I don't have any of those listed. Is this urban dictionary.gov? Of course it's urban dictionary. It is an adjective.

A descriptor adjective. I take it. I don't have any lifelines. People wanting to help. I'm going to go to will. Will. So is this like, as in somebody thinks they're slick? No. No.

Like you think you slick. No. No. Okay. I know that. I would hope so.

Then I don't think I'm going to be able to help with this. Gosh. I just wasted a lifeline. It's still acting. Hey, you know, it's Hey, you're, you're slick. This is like a 40s.

This is a 40s film war movie. Listen here. Slick. No, I'm going to say slick is somebody that is. Oh wait. Is Will on the phone?

No. Somebody who is sketchy or somebody that's unreliable. Slick. It's not really a person. It's a way for example. All right. So listen, well, no, it's like, it's a type. It's like an adjective, right?

But it means like or sorta or a little bit, but it could also mean very much or really let me use it in a sentence. Okay. Hey, let's go to Jimmy John.

And I would say I slick hate Jimmy John. Oh yeah. I for real. Yeah. Or you know what I'm saying?

It can mean I really like, I really, or a little bit like I'm dead wrong. Yeah. We all are super wrong. Like I'm slick. I'm slick wrong. There we go. There we go.

I'm slick wrong as hell on this one. I deserve the X. Okay.

Did I hear them? There we go. Last one. It's sort of a phrase for the win. This is, um, they, um, it's an infix, you know, like what?

Yeah. Like, you know, you have prefixes and suffixes. This is an infix.

Never heard of an infix, but what's the word? A whole nother. What?

Yeah. A whole nother. How do you spell that? A hyphen, whole, W H O L E hyphen, nother, N O T H E R. Infix. Can you say it in a sentence? Can I say what in a sentence?

A whole nother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if I did that, then you would know exactly what it means. So I can't give it to you in a sentence. All I can tell you as opposed to a prefix or a suffix. Again, it's an infix. I can give you another example of an infix. I would appreciate that. Redamdiculous. Oh, I like these.

I like these. A whole, I'm going to say like, like, so am I trying to finish the sentence? Nope. You're just telling me what a whole nother means or what it refers to. I would say like, you're, you're, you're annoyed. A whole, that's like a whole nother deal now.

That's like a whole nother. See what are you saying? That's it. You're saying that. Describe what you're saying. Somebody.

You need this point to advance. Yes, I know, I know. It's a different problem. Like that is a different headache, a different problem. That's a whole nother.

Like, you know, Boston just got past Miami, but golden state's a whole nother. Give my man a bell. Give my man a bell.

It says it refers to a subject that is vastly or categorically set apart from the previous subject. Very well done, Josh Graham. Way to fight through on that. You did good today, Josh Graham. You did good. And you learned what an infix was.

Grammar school. We got a whole nother segment coming your way. There we go.

Keep using infixes. Like I'm, I'm slick being honest. Great segment coming up. Or maybe I'm fronting. Next.

Anyone not on medication? No. Nope. With Josh Graham on WSJS Sports. Will Dalton. The WD.

The WD. You and I are about to have a lot in common. I got a feeling. Yeah. In this segment.

B dot. Tell the people why. All right, man. So I saw this journey says how many black movies have you seen? One point for every movie. And there are 50 movies. And as soon as I saw it, I was like, I gotta ask Josh, how many of these has he seen? If he's seen 25 of them, I would say that's damn good for Josh Graham saying that I got 47. Well, let's go through all 50 real quickly.

We can't spend time on each one. We just got to do it. All right, let's do it.

Number one, boys in the hood. Haven't seen it. This is going to hurt. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.

I'm sorry. Boys in the hood. No. Set it off. Yes.

New Jack City. Yes. Friday. Yes.

Are you writing down how many you're getting? Yeah. Okay. Friday. Yes.

Men in society. No. Juice. Yes.

Above the rim. No. Paid in full. No. Do the right thing. Yes. Poetic justice. No.

Dead presidents. No. Hustle and flow. Yes. House party. No. Waste. Yes.

House party. Yes. Okay.

Waste deep. No. A T L. No.

Love don't cost a thing with Nick Cannon. No. Johnson's family vacation. No. The wood. No. Jason's lyric. No.

I haven't seen Johnson's family vacation either. Moving to the second round. Crooklyn. Don't know what that is.

How high. Yes. Belly. No. Soul plane. Yes. The best man. No.

Drumline. Yes. Mo' money. No. Gotta see that.

White chicks. Absolutely. Moonlight. Yes. I've never seen Moonlight.

I have too. No. No.

No. I've seen Moonlight. I have not seen Moonlight. That was one of mine.

La La Land should have won but Moonlight did. Stomp the yard. No. This Christmas. No.

That's the one with Chris Brown. Yeah. Yeah. This baby boy. No.

Dope. Yes. School days. No. Girls trip. No. Great one.

Love and basketball. Yes. Just another girl on the IRT. No.

I've never seen that one either. That was my third one. Last list. Waiting to exhale. No.

Love Jones. No. Get out. Yes. Players club. No. Baps. No.

Boomerang. No. Harlem.

Harlem Knights. No. Why did I get married. No. A low down dirty shame. Uh uh. Life. Yes.

Coming to America. Yes. Brown sugar. No. A thin line between love and hate. No.

Two can play that game. No. That's it.

What did you get? Ten. Seventeen. Seventeen's decent actually but I am disappointed. There are some that you haven't seen that's very very like. Okay what's most glaring.

Like Boomerang. Boyz n the Hood's probably most glaring. Boyz n the Hood, Boomerang, and New Jack City. Now here's my excuse for not seeing Boyz n the Hood though.

My god. I got it confused with Straight Outta Compton which just came out. So when people talked about Boyz n the Hood I thought they were talking about Straight Outta Compton.

So. Straight Outta Compton came out recently Joe. I know and that one came out in the 90s.

Right I get it but I'm just telling you that was my rationale. The Wood is dope because one of the characters yeah one of the characters he's from Winston-Silem so he go out there to California and they talking to him he's like where you from North Carolina from Winston Silem and that's just like a line it's like oh Winston-Silem got some love in a movie like that is a huge huge deal. I can't believe you haven't seen Dead Presidents. I know that's another one.

My god that's a great movie. Oh Hayden Poole. At least I recognize before we went into this you stopped me as I started looking at the list initially and the first two that I looked at that was like oh my god I haven't seen these two. Dead Presidents and uh you just said it.

Dead Presidents and. Not Poetic. Hayden Poole. Hayden Poole. Yeah you've never seen Poetic Justice.

Hayden Poole's a good song though. I almost slapped your glasses off. I've seen Poetic Justice. You've seen Poetic Justice W.D.? I have.

Wow. I'm a big Pac fan. Dude two Pacs in there and Jayden. You watch Juice then I hope.

I don't know if I've seen Juice. I'm a big Pac fan he says. How you don't know about Bishop? How you don't know about Bishop if you claim you a big Pac fan man? Don't get on here and just spew ignorance W.D. Yeah. Why was it Shazam on this list?

Shazam because that ain't a black movie. We don't we do not claim that foolishness. Your face when I said Kirkland though that's what's hilarious. Geez. It's a great list.

It is a really good list. 17. I think I think I did okay. I think that's strong man.

I bet you you would have the highest in the building. I would agree with that. Did you find newfound respect for what we do on this show when you got a chance to host it yourself a week ago? Absolutely.

Absolutely man. Just going three hours talking non-stop is what it feels like and having you know six man was here you know but having to have direction in that but you know it was awesome because the audience helped me through it. I have some great folks to call up and you blessed me with some tickets to Chris Rock so that was fun getting people to call up and play for those. Yeah we're going tonight in Greensboro it's gonna be great. Absolutely and then you know I had some of my friends that I could tap into like hey make me look good and Harry Giles was one of those people and my man the British Tar Heel and we got to play grammar school. That was one of the main things though.

Actually when I was listening back to it hearing how excited I got when I got one right I totally understood why you get so excited during grammar school dude. There's no doubt. That was fun though man I had a great time and um I look forward to you getting married so I can come back. That's right I get married this month.

It's OD when you think about it. That's right. Like 17 days away Judge Graham. Yeah I remember when it was a year out. And here we are watching a crazy soccer game here in studio. That's what's weird you got a tv in here what did this happen has this always been in here? Apparently it's always been here there's a guy with a mask that thinks he scored and then there's a bunch of white people yelling and cheering they're happy they're Scottish. They're Scottish yes the Scottish crowd is that Ukraine? I don't think it's Ukraine. Is it Ukraine?

It's UKR what else could it mean? Oh that is yeah and they're wearing yellow I don't know if that's a goal might be. See I need to get beat out into some other sports. Yeah man like I was talking I was talking to Tom a second ago and I was explaining to him that even though I saw the canes get their asses kicked I really didn't understand why everybody was saying and the fact that they got beaten on penalty points and one the fact that I don't know I didn't know Tom hit me a second ago he's like when a guy gets into a penalty and no power plays that's gonna be a power play when you go into the little you have to go sit down by yourself and time out in the box you have one man up and then you got like five on four out there and but he was explaining to me that like huh for two minutes yeah for two minutes and he was explaining to me that you know usually all season right the canes had done well in those scenarios like one of the best not in the play not in the playoffs not in the regular season maybe that's right and then they get here in the playoffs and they look like trash yeah they did on the power plays not good yeah so I would like to learn more about um hockey moving forward and I hear that my Tar Heels are doing great got a 10c in baseball and we just host NC State so I should definitely be involved more with the baseball well then go this weekend it's in Chapel Hill they have what they're hosting the NCAA tournament they'll play Friday Saturday Sunday and oh no I might make Friday for real Saturday I have an engagement well we know they're playing Friday and Saturday in Chapel Hill yeah all of it's in chapel yeah yeah the way it works is you get three teams from there are 16 teams in the country that host a regional and you get three other teams that come in and only one can move on to the next out of the four and then it's a best two out of three out of two teams that play each other in the next weekend to go to Omaha final eight who they have Friday so because I'm interested in Carolina plays on my Carolina family out there that love the baseball they love talking about going to catch and get you a baseball fan yeah I played I was a player you did play baseball I'm tripping so I bet you do like to throw are you going Friday what time's the game we'll see we should go I'm gonna see if we can get some tickets um they play Hofstra at two o'clock on Friday no I can't make that no you can't work no maybe the six man Saturday yeah six man Mike can make it on Friday and then maybe WD can go on Saturday then we can team up and go on Sunday you know what Hofstra's well you're hoping yeah see it's a it's a double elimination tournament we ain't getting eliminated it's a double elimination so you're guaranteed playing Friday Saturday if you're playing Sunday there's a chance you could win the entire thing then if Carolina wins its first two games then really do you know do you know who Hofstra's mascot is no they are the pride really the Hofstra pride and his pride month whoa we've got that home the other two teams advantage the other two teams that are in town Georgia and VCU are they any good in baseball he's having a nice year I don't know Georgia wait you're ECU VCU oh my pirates are hosting Sarah Bradford's Virginia Cavaliers and a couple others I thought about going to Greenville America this weekend but they are one of the top eight seeds which means if they win this weekend they're guaranteed to host next weekend too but we'll see I don't know ECU's good like that in baseball they are they're like that but they're historically snake bitten in this sense no team has ever been to more NCAA tournaments in baseball without getting to the college world series being one of the final eight teams it's the final four essentially for college baseball then east Carolina they've been to over 30 35 tournaments and never have gotten to the college world series ouch maybe this is the year who knows dot appreciate you being here buddy thanks for having me it's an exciting week for north carolina baseball I'm an east carolina graduate I'm sure things are going to get rowdy in Greenville America this weekend north carolina is hosting and here in the triad specifically we talked with Billy Godwin yesterday uncg in the tournament for the first time in a while and wake forest baseball is going to college park to face UConn to start things off Friday at one o'clock and here to join us and talk about his team is the 13th year head coach of the wake forest demon deacons Tom Walter now Tom Larry Sorenson was with us the other day and covering your team all year long he said this team reminds him a lot of the one that won a regional five years ago in 2017 even though you're not hosting this year and you don't have Gavin Sheets on the roster last I checked do you like that comparison I think it's a fair comparison you know you look at our team we hit a lot of home runs we score runs you know that's what probably what we do best you know I think that the defense on this team is a little better than the defense was in 2017 you know we didn't in 2017 we had Parker Dunshee at the front of our rotation so certainly you can draw good comparisons between he and Rhett Louder you know as far as you know having a guy at the front of your rotation so I can certainly see how there would be some some comparisons there but to your point you know that on that 2017 team we had Stu Fairchild and Gavin Sheets in the middle of the order and you know this team we've got Michael Ciccone, Brock Wilkin, Nick Kurtz, Brendan Tinsman so I think this team might be a little deeper one through nine but you know remains to be seen whether we have the star power of those two guys in the middle like we did in 2017. I know I've talked with Cliff Godwin out east and his approach has always or at least some years depending on the team and depending on the matchup to pitch your ace on Saturday pitch maybe your second guy depending on the matchup on Friday and also I'm always intrigued by bullpen management this time of year what's your approach to the starters in bullpen management? Well we're going to throw our number one guy on Friday we're throwing him against UConn you know that's as you as you said you know when we talked for a second before I mean that's a really good baseball team you know they've got 44 wins they're battle-tested they've been in the NCAA tournament you know I think the last four years in a row veteran coaching staff so and they've got a good number one pitcher in Peterson so we are not going to throw our number one on on Saturday you know had we been the host and and had a one-four matchup that might be something we consider but we're going to go right after with our number one guy. Jim Penders great coach at UConn and Maryland has a really good program too Wake Forest heading down we're over to College Park Maryland for this regional one o'clock first pitch against UConn in a couple of days the big story in the ACC this week is that NC State was left out first team left out you had comments earlier this week saying that it surprised you in hindsight coach how important do you believe those three games that you won at Doke Field in Raleigh at the end of the regular season considering how things shook out?

Well I still think two would have gotten us in um you know would have changed our seating in the conference tournament of course and and we would have different matchups and you know had we go in had we gone into the conference tournament thinking we needed to win the first two you know we probably pitched that differently so it's impossible to say what would have happened in the tournament had we had we not swept NC State but but we again we certainly needed two that weekend for sure to feel good about our tournament chances and with two and our RPI I think we would have been fine you know I was surprised that NC State didn't make it but again you know as we were watching games on Saturday and Sunday you just saw that rubble you know start to shrink more and more each day and and we knew it was going to be tight you know it was one of those times it comes down to your conference and you know whether or not they're going to put the same number of teams you know I went into believing in my heart that they probably would not award the ACC more teams than they awarded the ACC I felt like the committee would look at those two conferences you know pretty evenly and put the same number of teams so had they added another ACC team then we would have had more than the ACC and not sure that was something they were ready to do. Wake baseball coach Tom Walter who's with us here I've been wanting to ask you about this the next time that we got you on you went to school at Georgetown in the early 90s were you going to a ton of games that Alonzo Mourning was playing in? Oh so absolutely I went to my first year at Georgetown we had Mourning and Matumbo well actually my first year at Georgetown I played against Matumbo in the intramural league because he was I don't know if you remember back in the day Prop 48 Matumbo was a Prop 48 so he wasn't eligible as a freshman so just because he hadn't played a whole lot of basketball they put him in the intramural league just to get some experience so we got to face off against him in the championship game but yeah I saw my work study job one of my work study jobs was to was to work the arena for game days and so I got to see I got to sit at the scores table for some for some Georgetown basketball games I was right next to Mary Phemlin the academic coordinator at the scores table I was doing the personal foul and team foul flags that you hold up to the to the fans so I had a lot of first-hand knowledge at Georgetown basketball. I've got a little size to you Tom but how did that go Tom Walter in the paint versus one Matumbo?

Well I like to brag all the time that I held him to 47 you know it wasn't it wasn't real their offensive strategy wasn't real complicated it was just lobbing up to Matumbo and you weren't thankfully you weren't allowed to dunk in their mural so he would just drop it in but it was a it wasn't an easy match up front. No it's not I don't think it is hey we've been asking this question are you much of a golfer do you golf at all Tom? I do I love to play. Okay okay so it's weird with the match going on today they usually have and the concept was you got two pros Tiger and Phil going up against two non-pros in that sport but in another like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning today they have four quarterbacks going at it it's Tom and Aaron Rodgers going up against Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes that had us thinking in our question of the day we're asking everybody if you had a dream foursome you could you could get three people that are alive today to play with you are you getting somebody in the sports realm of things Tom or do you have interest elsewhere where you're thinking yeah yeah yeah I want to get somebody in comedy or somebody in a movie or somebody in music? I would mix it up I would certainly get one person in the sports arena for sure and then I think probably get somebody from from politics and then somebody from entertainment I think I'd go I think I try to get eclectic with it and and pull in a couple different personalities you know how it is for a round of golf you don't you don't want anybody in that foursome that's going to take themselves too seriously I think is the most important thing so I think getting some some good personalities in there uh would be would be where I my head would be. I don't need three names I just need the first one that came to the top of your mind who you grabbing? Man it'd be hard for me not to say Derek Jeter I mean that would be he would be kind of at the top of my list the captain I would just love to pick his brain about those championship teams and and then the mentality he brought to the ballpark every single day so he would he would certainly be on my list Michael Jordan of course um would be on my short list especially being an avid golfer um you know the way he is and then again from the entertainment field I mean you'd have to pick up a personality I mean somebody like Bill Murray or or maybe even go somebody like John Daly um you know somebody like that would just be super fun to play with Tom Walter and see it see how far he can hit it. Tom Walter yeah I'd be interested to see what that's the case I guess we got a tease of that in Space Jam and look at you going North Carolina-centric and you're going North Carolina-centric answers to a degree with MJ and also former Greensboro Hornet great Derek Jeter. Tom Walter best of luck in a couple of days thanks for joining us and playing along with us it's appreciated. I appreciate your time and thanks for all you do.