Snow Day

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on Sports Hub Triad. What's colder? The snow currently dumping on the Triad right now or Duke shooting at PNC Arena last night? NC State, they played with more urgency in the game that's for certain they deserve a lot of credit for the way they played. But I've seen enough of the Blue Devils this year to have serious concerns about their NCAA tournament chances.

And let me preface that this on the front end. I don't arrive at this conclusion after just one game. It's something I've been charting and following for months and this is what I think. Historically speaking Duke teams like this one don't win in March and I don't see this team making it to a Final Four. There are three main reasons for this. Number one, three-point shooting. The stats really don't lie here. Duke on the season shoots 35%. That has them at 84th in the country from three-point range. If Duke were to win the national championship this year hypothetically and they continued to shoot the three the way they have since the first week of November, since the start of the year, they will be the worst three-point shooting team to win a national title for the Blue Devils. Dukes won five they would be the worst three-point shooting team of the bunch.

In an age analytics are pushing everything to the three-point line. Go to the 2015 team, 30th in the country from three. 2010, 27th. The 2001 team, you had Shane Battier out there draining triples.

27th in the country. The 92 team, they shot 93% or not 93 excuse me, 43% from three. How crazy would that stat be Robert? If they shot 93% from the field.

That would be a lot. No wonder they won the national title for the second consecutive year then. Just even looking at the top teams in the ACC. Louisville 11th from three.

Florida State is in the top 50. Like who is the most reliable shooter on this Duke team? Statistically it's Matthew Hurt and he's a big man. Is it Trey Jones because he was one of the few Blue Devils to play well last night? Alex O'Connell who was dead silent after being good for three straight games? It can't be Joey Baker.

So who really is that reliable three-point option? Can you win that way when you do not have the athleticism you did a year ago? One thing last year's team had that this year's team doesn't is maturity. Oh but Josh, Jack White, Trey Jones, Javon Delaurier, Alex O'Connell, all of these guys are back. What do you mean they're not as mature?

It's not just a freshman knock. Kentucky and Duke when they won the national titles and 15 and 12 those were mature teams. The way Jalil Okafor handled himself, Tyus Jones handled himself, Quinn Cook was a senior in the second leading scorer on that team as we've explored time and time again. Last year's team was filled with pros. Guys who were ready to jump into the league, who probably didn't need college basketball.

Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett. They knew what they wanted. They handled themselves well.

They were great in the media. They didn't have letdowns against teams they were supposed to beat. While juxtaposing that with this year's team they lose to Stephen F Austin, snapping a streak that was nearly 20 years long of Blue Devil teams beating non-conference opponents at home. A hundred and fifty straight games Duke won non-conference games at home until that Stephen F Austin loss. Last night was their third loss this year against an unranked team.

They struggled with Winthrop at home. Boston College, they're on the road. Coach K saying that the only adversity his team faces is with me. I've been telling them for weeks how good Boston College is and they weren't listening to me.

Coach K, he emphasized that at other points saying that his team just wasn't listening. North Carolina, they should have lost that game and that's not a good Tar Heel team. Then they lose to NC State last night by 22 points. This is according to Brian Ives, ACC Network, ESPN stats and info. The 22-point loss last night for Duke is Coach K's worst loss against an unranked opponent. Ever.

There's not anything else left in that sentence. The last time Coach K lost by 20 or 21 points to an unranked team, you have to go 30 years ago. Lost to North Carolina by 20. Then you have to go to the 21-point game 30 years ago or make it 40 years ago, Tennessee in 1980.

So we haven't seen anything like this for a long time and I think it has a lot to do with maturity. When coaches, they speak in press conferences, I do believe they're doing coaching up there. Part of the coaching job is speaking in those pressers because players, they hear what you say publicly about them.

So this really stood out to me last night sitting in that press room listening to what Coach K had to say. He used a really strange, I don't think it's an analogy at all, but just a really strange way to communicate why this game isn't something that you could just show up and expect to win in. You know this isn't an Xbox game. This is a human being game. That Xbox thing, it doesn't have human nature in it and all that. That's why a lot of people play it. This game is about human nature and human beings and sometimes when you eat too much you're not as hungry.

When you need something you're really hungry and when those two meet, a lot of times the team that needs it the most kicks the other team's butt and that's what happened tonight. We'll try to play Xbox later. Oh, I wonder what Coach K's gamer tag is. Sawyer Dillon's ears perked up the moment he heard Coach K talking about Xbox. Sawyer, he streams on Twitch and he's very good at a number of games. We're lining up a game for Sawyer to play one-on-one with Joel Berry and a few weeks from the Greensboro swarm. I'm not an expert on video games but I feel like I'm an expert on food and I disagree with Coach K's assertion that when you eat a lot you're no longer hungry. Does this check out Robert? Just because you eat a lot doesn't mean you're not hungry anymore. You should see me when I'm pounding some Lexington barbecue down the way. It might be true with like Chinese food.

I could eat a lot of Chinese food and then be super hungry like 30 minutes later. Sawyer, how do you think Coach K would be at 2k? Do you think he's ever played an Xbox? I want to say he's played it maybe once or twice but he would be the guy that's gonna run like set plays every time down the floor. He's gonna use the whole minute time out.

He's gonna do everything and make the game last way longer than it should. Yeah, but he is specifically designating that message to his players. What does that tell you?

He's bringing out Xbox, trying to relate to the guys. This isn't a very mature team. So three-point shooting, it's not there. Historically speaking, teams that shoot this bad from three aren't gonna win you a title, aren't gonna get to the final four.

Maturity, it's not there either. That's why they're losing games in historical fashion by 22 to NC State who's unranked, losing to Stephen F Austin, losing at Clemson, struggling with Winthrop, struggling with BC in North Carolina. But lastly, we hinted at this yesterday and it's why I thought NC State was going to hang in this basketball game. Duke has really had problems defending at the guard spot. Their defense at the guard spot has become a real issue. Markelle Johnson, Devin Daniels, they combined for 53 points.

Those two, Markelle was terrible at BC. He had a great bounce-back effort. Don't want to take anything away from him, but when Duke has struggled, it's guards who have gone off. Guys who have been able to get to the 10. Trey Jones gets all this credit for being a great perimeter defender.

Great at contesting, makes things difficult, shooting, but sometimes he gets beat off the dribble. It happened with Tevin Mack when Clemson won. A Stephen F Austin guard went for 26. Cole Anthony had a really good day for North Carolina and David Johnson had a field day in Cameron indoor stadium for Louisville. Last night it was Markelle and Devin Daniels who got everything they could ever want at the rim and I don't think that's an issue that's going to get fixed quickly. We're at a point in the year, it's February 20th, we're less than three weeks till the start of the ACC tournament in Greensboro. In fact, Duke's gonna be one of the top four seeds, so three weeks from today Duke's gonna be playing in the ACC tournament.

The Blue Devils, they set their goals for the NCAA tournament. All across that field in today's basketball. Dynamic guards all over the place. So this defense at the guard spot issue that has arisen the last two months or so and hasn't really been solved, that doesn't get better in March. Usually when upsets happen and we're expecting a ton of them, especially this year in college basketball, it's because a team allows a guard to get hot from three because dynamic ball handling guards tend to be issues for teams. Duke, this year specifically, has really had issues with that. Even more so than past years where they were susceptible to upset. So three-point shooting, maturity, defense at the guard spot, those are reasons statistically and historically a team like this Duke team isn't gonna win in March.

I don't see them going to the Final Four. It's not an overreaction to just last night. It's something that I've been looking at over the last few months.

I've been to a lot of Blue Devil games. We'll talk to Brendan Marks, who was at last night's game, covers the Blue Devils and North Carolina for the athletic. That's coming up in 15 minutes. But up next, a Cam Newton IG post that's worth dissecting, definitely. And an ominous new statement that was just put out by David Tepper. This is The Drive. He may not be beautiful, and we do sit around all day and talk sports. And yes, Britt McHenry, we feel great about it.

Do you feel good about your job? This is The Drive with Josh Graham. The question I've been thinking about a lot today is this one. Who was last night's game more about? NC State or Duke? I was there. I heard what Coach K had to say. Essentially saying, we just didn't show up. Credit to the Wolf Pack. They played with more urgency and it was evident that the Wolf Pack last night had the urgency. But this marks four or five games this year that the Blue Devils have played without it.

And that's a pretty concerning thing. Looking ahead over the next three weeks, three weeks from the day, Duke's gonna be opening up play in the ACC tournament in Greensboro. This is not a problem that you want a team to have, especially as a top 10 ranked team on February the 20th. Brendan Marks now joining us from the Athletic Carolinas.

Follow him on Twitter at Brendan R Marks. His story today, NC State gets its statement win, but is that enough? We'll get to NC State's NCAA tournament odds in just a bit.

But let me ask you the question I just presented a second ago. Who was last night more about in your mind, NC State or Duke? Yeah Josh, you know I think it was clearly more about NC State and I basically had that same conversation with my editors.

We were deciding whether I should spend my time in the Duke locker room or the NC State locker room and the reason we came to the decision that we did to go with NC State was because of it. Ultimately at the end of the day, Duke is still going to be, in spite of yesterday, a number two seed at worst. And with the ACC tournament, as you mentioned, in three weeks, they're gonna have the potential to play themselves on to the number one line. Regardless, they're still looking at pretty similar of a path to the NCAA Finals, to the Final Four. They're still gonna probably be going to the East and New York.

You know, nothing has really changed in that capacity. So it's one loss, it's a bad loss, yes, and now questions come up. But ultimately in the grand scheme of things, when Duke goes out and doesn't have these issues fester, then it's not so big of a concern. Whereas NC State needed yesterday. And if NC State doesn't have yesterday, then all of a sudden their bleak tournament odds suddenly looking basically impossible. But when last night, and they showed how badly they wanted it, so I mean the Wolf Pack just had way more want to steal from Ward-Williams. Now there's a chance that NC State has a legitimate NCAA tournament argument, I think, and obviously ACC Bias is gonna help them. But yeah, so I just think in the grand scheme of things, it probably moved the needle more for the Wolf Pack than it did for the Blue Devils. But let's keep it with Duke for a second.

Historically speaking, Brendan, this is not just a reaction to last night's game, this is really a season-long deal. Duke, a team like this doesn't generally win in March. They are 84th in the country and three-point shooting, all of their championship teams they've had have at least been in the top 30 in that category.

So I wonder what the biggest concern you have for the Blue Devils. Is it the three-point shooting where we still don't know today who their most reliable shooter is? Is it maturity where they might not show up for a game like last night and they get beat by 22, the most points that Coach K has been beaten by an unranked team in his Duke career?

I mean they also lost to Stephen F. Austin at home to snap that 150-game home non-conference winning streak that they had in November. And then of course the defense at the guard spot's been an issue too. When Duke gets beat, it's guys like Markelle Johnson and Devin Daniels combining for 50-plus points at a game.

What is your biggest concern? Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing and we saw some of it last night, you know, you can talk about the three-point shooting and that is a concern and, you know, a guy like Cassius Stanley has sort of lost his three-point shot. It's imperative that that comes back or else Duke's championship odds are really gonna take a hit. But to me, it's the not wanting to win.

It's the not showing up. It's completely rolling over like Duke did last night because, you know, as much of a leader as Trey Jones is, Duke and Coach K made the conscious decision this year that they were gonna live and die with Trey Jones. And I think that Trey Jones is probably one of the upper echelon point guards in the country this year, but that doesn't mean he's perfect. He's still prone to stretches like yesterday in the first half. I believe he went one for seven. He was forcing things. He was rushed. He was turning the ball over. You know, the Stephen F. Austin loss he brought up during that game.

He had eight turnovers, a career high, so he's an incredibly, incredibly talented point guard. I still think he's probably gonna be a first-round pick come NBA draft time, but there are times when Duke can't just have him. They can't just have him wanting to win. And so I think the fact that there are still these games where they come out flat and they get these 10-0, 10-2, 12-2, 14-3 holes, that's a huge concern for me.

And I'm not suggesting that someone like Cassius Stanley or Vernon Carey or Matt Hurd or Wendell Moore. Those guys want to win. Jack White wants to win, but they're not able to consistently turn it into physical effort. They can't always manifest it. So that's my biggest concern for them.

Brenden Marks with us on Twitter at Brenden R. Marks. Again, your story was about NC State's tournament chances now. So they beat a top 10 ranked team. They beat Duke. They have Florida State coming in on Saturday and have one more game against the Blue Devils as well in Durham before the regular season is up.

Do you see, I was in touch with Joe Linardi earlier today, ESPN's bracketologist, he's going to be with us next week. He has NC State as the last team in his field right now in bracketology. Do you see NC State as an NCAA tournament team without another win against Florida State or Duke? I think that it's possible so long as they don't cough up one of their other games. You know, they can't lose to North Carolina next week.

They can't. They can't lose to Pitt. They can't lose to Wake Forest. In the ACC tournament, they probably need to win at least one game. You know, for them to beat Florida State or to beat Duke again, that would sort of be gravy on top of the argument. But I think that what they've shown, the overall body of work, especially getting a win like that when they got it, not getting it on a fluke back in November or so, in theory that shows they're getting better. It shows that they're getting to be a fuller, more complete team now. So I think as long as they don't screw up and lose one of those games, as long as they make it to the tournament, the ACC tournament, and win a game there, I think that even without another mark, you win.

NC State probably deserves to be in the tournament. I'm right there with you, man. Robert Walsh just broke the news to me seconds ago that the snow that we see outside our studio is in fact sticking. So be safe, my friend. Brynden, it's good to hear from you. You as well. Thank you.

I'll talk to you. That's Brynden Marks from the Athletic Carolinas. Do we have sound of Daniel Jeremiah on NFL Network talking about Joe Burrow? Apparently there's, much like there's smoke surrounding the Panthers regarding Cam Newton and David Tepper, some stuff going on there, there seems to be smoke where Joe Burrow is awkwardly holding a Bengals helmet with Boomer Esiason. You got Joe Burrow not wanting to play in the Senior Bowl where he could work with Bengals coaches, he's saying the word process a lot when he's talking about the idea of being drafted by the Bengals. Carson Palmer is cryptically talking to the media in Miami during the Super Bowl week saying that he wished he wasn't drafted by the Bengals or made his stance known about the Bengals sooner in his career. Carson Palmer's brother's working with Jordan Palmer, you got media members suggesting that, and he might pull an Eli, he might pull an Elway, which of course with the Panthers picking seven and Joe Brady being the offensive coordinator, there are dots being connected you guys.

This is Daniel Jeremiah from last night. Well I think there's three teams, we just saw the draft order there, teams picking five, six, and seven. You look at Miami, you look at the Chargers, and you look at the Carolina Panthers, all teams in the quarterback market, all teams who before all this story started to circulate and you saw the conversation with Joe Burrow the other day where he didn't flat out say yes I want to be a Cincinnati Bengal. Those teams keeping an eye on this situation because maybe there is an opportunity if this takes place behind closed doors and he doesn't want to go to Cincinnati, maybe there is a trade-up opportunity for those three teams. And obviously team number seven with Joe Brady as the offensive coordinator, his former offensive coordinator to LSU, now with the Carolina Panthers, you better believe they're tracking this situation to see how this thing unfolds.

I bet they are tracking it and I have no issue with you listening what kind of offers might be there, but my stance hasn't changed. Trading up in the draft for Burrow would be a mistake. The Panthers have too many needs. Linebacker with Kuechly retiring. Defensive line, we've already known about that for a while now. Offensive line, wide receiver beyond DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel. Quarterback, yeah that seems to be a pretty big issue of course. Also I like Tua more than I like Burrow.

I got a larger sample with Tua. I like his personality a little bit more. 87 touchdowns, 11 picks.

There's nothing flukey about that. Coaching staff, it turns over Alabama over his three seasons there and the sample is national championship level ball all the way through. You can't say that about Burrow. Tua's younger than Burrow. Granted he's dealing with an injury and I acknowledge there's some severity to that, but it seems everything's checked out with the hip.

We learned that a few weeks ago. So I like Tua more than Burrow and he would be easier to draft, easier to move up and grab it seems. Also it rarely ever pans out trading up for a quarterback who's gonna be the top guy in the draft.

You have to give up so much to get there. So I'm not talking about just trading up in general. There is past history of that working.

Recent history. Pat Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, they come to mind. You trade up, you grab those guys because they're dropping in the draft. Getting up to the top of the draft to take a quarterback, when has that worked? Jared Goff, the best example? Mitchell Trubisky, how's that going for the Chicago Bears?

Granted they only moved up one spot, but still that didn't work out well. How about Jeff George, that worked out well? I'd probably say no. The Panthers have too many needs to try and give away draft capital in order to bring in Burrow. But there are two scenarios I'd have less issue with it.

Two scenarios. Number one, the Bengals draft Burrow and then it becomes an Eli Elway situation. Remember the Baltimore Colts drafted Elway and then he told him I'm not gonna play for you. And Ernie of course he had to make the move to try and figure out what they were gonna do and it turned out to be a lot less than they would have gotten before the draft from the Denver Broncos. Eli Manning, it was after the Chargers drafted him that a deal was struck with Philip Rivers and the Giants in order to make that happen. So if the value is driven down after the fact, after the picks already made, and they're in a desperate strait to try and get something done because they have Burrow and he's saying he's not gonna play for them, that's one thing.

Completely different than where we're at right now. Secondly, I'd have less issue with it if Cam Newton was a part of the trade. Tell me who says no here, Robert. I'm gonna throw this trade out here.

The number seven pick, two second-rounders, so this year and next year, and Cam Newton in exchange for the number one pick. Who says no? I would say no to that.

Why? You're gonna have to send me two first-rounders because Cam's gonna play for my team for one year. I think Cam Newton would sign with anybody who would give him a long-term deal today.

You don't think? There's franchise tag options in there as well? I want Cam for one year if you're sending him to me to be a stopgap.

I don't want to have to deal with him long term. That's a big headache. I'd want more picks than just two second-rounders. Right. Okay, so that's the other scenario. If Cam's a part of the trade, then maybe they could strike something up.

Maybe they'll become a little bit more interesting there. B. Dot tweets the show, your car is totally in theme with the weather. You're the reason for the snow. Yeah, it's a Christmas wonderland outside. Yeah, you laugh at my car like many people at PNC Arena were doing last night. Who's laughing now? Because my car looks like it's in season.

Your car is just basic. I'm all in on the new NFL playoff proposal and I'll tell you why everybody involved should be too. Next. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves to take herbal body baths to keep his skin supple and youthful looking. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. Some first-hand observations of NC State Duke last night from PNC Arena in a moment. I learned something about NC State fans I didn't know before and I've lived in the state of North Carolina all but two years of my life.

It's pretty clear NC State they care so much more about North Carolina than Duke. It was so obvious last night. Before we get to that though there's something that's completely distracting. It's not just my voice.

I hope it doesn't sound terrible in the air but it feels terrible. Lack of sleep does that and you know it was a late night at PNC Arena you don't really care. I'm gonna blame the snow like Roberts been blaming for him being distracted and him being semi-depressed.

What was that called again? Seasonal Affective Disorder. You and Sawyer are just unbelievable. You two are just trying to get out of the studio. Sawyer's asked me three times to go home just to let him go home so he could play in the snow so he could get home safely because it's snowing outside in the triad. I said all show today was my goal that we weren't gonna talk about the bleeping snow.

We just weren't gonna do it and here we are Robert bugging me saying how about I just how about we just go outside and have a snowball fight. I'm like we have a radio show that we're trying to do right now and I'm trying to stay focused on it. We could take a break. We have Duke Georgia Tech tickets or excuse me not Duke Georgia Tech Duke Wake Forest tickets that we're gonna be giving away in about ten minutes. Ten minutes we're gonna be giving away. Wake Forest Duke tickets.

Pretty big game. Duke coming to the triad and all you're thinking about is snow so okay this is what we're gonna do. If I let you play in the snow will you shut up the rest of this show?

Yes! Alright this is what we're gonna do now. I don't know how you're gonna create content out of this. Sprint out the doors here of Sports Hub Triad. Call in to Sawyer who's gonna run the board now. Oh cool. Sorry are you are you able to do this?

Yeah we'll make it work. I'm sorry you don't get to play in the snow. Robert just sprint outside and create content while I talk about NC State and Duke from last night. I love that he didn't turn the microphones off. He just he just keeps everything on. He literally just sprinted out the door and he left all the microphones on. Good for him.

Yeah he did not take any precaution there before he sprinted out. NC State cares so much more about North Carolina than Duke because there's no bad blood between the Wolf Pack and Duke. There's no similarities really between those two.

Right? Like you got private school versus public school. Small versus big.

You got lawyers versus engineers. You have North Carolina citizens. People that grew up in this state versus out-of-staters who go and become very wealthy going to Duke at the private school and I'm not even sure you know they care too much about football in Durham but they're not even in the same football division despite the fact they're so close in the triangle. There's not really much beef between Coach K and Kevin Keats as well so I think that's where it starts and in the building last night it's so much different for Duke than it is North Carolina.

When North Carolina is in town it's it's a pressure cooker. It's packed it's intense and the pressure seeps through to the players. Duke has lost five of the last seven games at PNC Arena because I don't think the pressure is on the players to win that game as much.

I really don't. Like there were a lot of Duke fans in the stands and there were a lot of open seats at PNC. When North Carolina is in town it doesn't matter what night of the week it is. Like it was a Monday night game this year it doesn't matter. State fans they show up and they show up in force and that game really is significant to them. For Duke well 9 o'clock oh it's a Wednesday I don't know if I'm gonna be able to make it and it wasn't really a tremendous crowd. You had the court storm which is my first court storm I was a part of but yeah it really wasn't a intense home court advantage for NC State. Robert the producer of this show is sprinted outside into the parking lot he's playing in the snow.

Robert create content. Hey what's up dude it's so cold out here. Did you not wear a jacket? I'm wearing a jacket it's still pretty cold it's not really sticking to the ground but it's it's piling up like perfectly on the car so you can make a little snowball if I made some if you want to come out here and play if not I'll just throw them at your window. How's my car look out there?

I wrote a message on the back of it for you Merry Christmas. It's pretty covered all the cars are covered not so much the ground but I've tried eating this snow and I know what they say about eating the first snow of the year is not good but didn't we have like a little snow last week or two weeks ago? No I don't think we did have much snow. So I should not be eating this snow. Are you eating the snow right now? I am eating it.

It's not that good though. Also I want to do a Christmas story that thing where you can put your tongue to the pole and see if it sticks. Did you just make Christmas story a verb? Yes okay it's not sticking it didn't stick all right I'm headed back up.

All right thank you Robert that's excellent content. See if you turn it to other radio stations they probably have weather reports people breaking things down telling you about cold fronts and what's coming and you need that stuff in order to say stay safe. What we have is Robert in a parking lot riding Merry Christmas on my rearview mirror or my rearview window because it has Christmas decorations all over it. We do need to bring up that during the commercial break he made a snowball on the patio and chucked it at his own car and just just barely missed it. Almost hit it. It was a good throw. Yeah we're in the third level here and in our Kernersville studio and Robert he chucked it quite a bit.

I think it probably was about 35 40 yards reasonably. Please don't curse the microphones are on. So Robert's now back in here and there's a couple things I need to talk about. Speaking of my car and you writing messages on it. Somebody last night when I'm walking out of PNC arena and this is the image I want to paint for you. My car was parked about 50 yards in front of PNC arena. Like right outside the front doors of PNC arena was my Christmas decorated car. I was mortified. I didn't know where we were parking. Got deer antlers, got a Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer nose on the front.

Got elf legs on the back and light decals across the entire thing. Mortified. And when I'm pulling in in order to get that close to the arena you have to go buy a bunch of traffic workers. All of them Robert. All of them had big smiles on their faces. Just pointing and laughing. Turns out my car was parked right in front of where the students got loaded onto a bus like a shuttle to go back to campus. So when I'm walking back out to my car and getting into my car I see a bunch of the students pointing and laughing as well. Just embarrassing. Someone actually left a message on my car. What was it? Someone said nice decorations.

See I'm telling you man you're bringing joy. Or specifically they said I like the lights. That's what they wrote. Are the lights reflective? Because I didn't really know what they looked like. Have you seen your car?

They are reflective. Nice. That's even better. Has anybody honked at you like as you've been driving or anything? First day.

First day two people honked on the drive home. Just don't do that. It's scary. Like I'm a person. Like I get jarred easily. Like if you see my car on I-40 on my drive home. Honk. Do not honk at me. Honk at that guy.

Like it it's kind of scary when that happens. This is what I'm telling you. On my drive home on the drive with Josh Graham. Do not honk at me. How much money would it take for you to have your car decorated like that year-round except for December? I wouldn't accept any. No amount. Oh come on. No.

Come on I'm over here ready to take $25 an hour to be somebody's armpit blower and you can't accept. This is my worst nightmare. It's terrible. I spent a lot of time in my car.

Like a lot of time. I drive to so many games and it is just terrifying. I'm not looking forward to going to Duke on Saturday. It'll be fine.

You'll make those people happy too. Speaking of Duke we have tickets to give away for Wake Forest hosting Duke. Yeah that's next week.

336-777-1600. If you want to win those tickets in five minutes we will give them away. NFL news just keeps pouring in. The Washington Redskins say that Jordan Reed is healthy and now they've released him. That's official.

From Field Yates a minute ago. Apparently this new NFL playoff proposal has been approved by the owners side of things. It wasn't unanimous. It wasn't unanimous approval by the owners. Now it's up to the NFL PA to sign up for this as well. In the statement that was put out by the NFL just a short while ago it says the following quote following more of ten months more than ten months of intensive and thorough negotiations the NFL players and clubs have jointly developed a comprehensive set of new and revised terms that will transform the future of the game provide for players past to present and future both on and off the field and ensure that the NFL second century is even better and more exciting for the fans the membership voted today to accept the negotiated terms and principles elements of a new collective bargaining agreement the Players Association also would need to vote to approval the same terms for there to be a new agreement since the clubs and players need to have a system in place and know the rules that they operate under the next week or by next week the membership also approved moving forward under the final year of the 2011 CBA if the players decide not to approve the negotiated terms out of respect to the process and out of partners and our partners at the NFL PA we will have no further comment at this time three three six seven seven seven one six hundred if you want to win the Wake Forest Duke tickets for next week answer a trivia question that isn't much of a trivia question at all but it's fun seven seven seven one six hundred if you want to win we're making you a winner next on the drive he also loves to wear itchy clothes so he has an excuse to scratch himself you're on the drive with Josh Graham the one subject that's undefeated in sports talk radio or at least on this show is agitating the host so that last little rejoin there I think fits that mold and I think it only works or maybe it doesn't work best when I don't crack it only works great when I do and right now I'm just bothered I'm bothered by everybody who's around me NC State Duke we're gonna get to in a second it's snowing outside it was a late night at PNC arena Duke NC State we'll get to the game in a second but Robert and Sawyer they are responsible for trying to assist me when it comes to grabbing audio when it comes to helping create topics land guests you name it these are guys that I turn to and they're in my corner allegedly but it seems like they've been brainwashed by people with the top by people in production who put together rejoins such as the one you just heard to try and agitate me because they understand that that is something that's always unbeaten never lost for the audience that's what the audience enjoys more than anything else so Robert I walk into the studio I walk into the control room I should say during that last commercial break and I thought you'd be working on something like the best of podcast that we put out each and every day you can find that SoundCloud iTunes Apple podcast Google Play you have a lot of things to do in that studio I walk in Sawyer says I got the funniest thing that you need to hear then I hear what it is that they've been working on and the thing they claim is the funniest thing and it's this five or six of three on the game it's I'm sorry I know it's your show it's your show and I apologize but just listen to what this noise is five or six of three on the game it's I do hours of radio a day hours my throat's not feeling good it's snowing outside what's the name of this on the game what's the name of this disorder that you're talking about I'm sure that's affecting me seasonal affective disorder yes seasonal affective disorder I'm looking outside it's snowing you're writing Christmas messages on my car and you know distractions are everywhere you look and this and this is what the people closest to me are busy doing five or six of three on the game it's it's unbelievable like I say whittle instead of instead of little one time speaking for 20 hours a week on the radio and man it becomes a segment it becomes content and this is what you guys pick out and then this right here just me being lost in a train of thought trying to go from one place to the other and now this is content like I'm being sniped at by the people closest to me five or six of three on the game bleeping Julius Caesars here I'm sorry I halfway heard it saw your full-on heard it and he was unconsolably well I don't know why I just said Caesar I mean Judas weird yeah we're uh who's that it wouldn't Judas it stabs no no he stabbed Jesus yeah who who stabbed Nazareth it was uh some just it just some guy it was let me think about it yeah see if you can even on the 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600 on Twitter at sports I'm trying what was the other thing you had dug up are you doing your old Tommy radio hey this right here hey Colin of a file column fives how about you win these tickets just be calling number five yeah and on and oh yeah well you get you just call in and you're the winner yeah that is the hokey radio voice just hokey you know fake like it's amazing how many people who get paid in broadcasting do not talk like a person like they just they do that that's what they do as a profession when really the entire goal is to try and sound like you know people be freaking relatable you know not this hey Colin of a fire yeah that's exactly it NC State Duke last night I think the obvious way to break this down the most simple way to explain it is this NC State played its best game of the year Duke played its absolute worst now that isn't to say Duke didn't play hard they did NC State played with purpose though and there's a difference the pack they understood what was at stake and see double-a tournament appearance and you saw every loose ball in the first half NC State was winning it they were getting to the rim time and time again NC State they are now in the tournament field according to Joe Linardi they're the last team in and it's because of the effort that they dispense Duke didn't show any of that here are three stats that speak to how badly Duke played in the game number one they missed 12 free throws at one point they were two of 11 from the line this is probably the craziest step from the game in the first half Duke had only one assist one assist on 13 buckets in the first half and that one assist belonged to a guy who played seven minutes forward Javon Delaurier if Javon Delaurier has your only assist in a half things aren't going well and then it was their worst loss by margin to an unranked team under Mike Krzyzewski I mean Krzyzewski has been there for 40 years and they lost by 22 points that's one point more than the loss they had to Tennessee in 1980 and two points more than the loss they had the North Carolina in 1990 that's 30 and 40 years ago so Duke played poorly NC State meanwhile had three players that played their best games of their careers not just of the season of their careers Devin Daniels 25 points in 36 minutes DJ Thunderberg Manny Bates fouls out with 11 minutes left to go Kevin Keats even conceded after the game yeah I threw that guy out there I knew he was gonna have problems with Vernon Carey and I just told him hey do the best you can if you foul out we got DJ and DJ is gonna take it from there and he did 25 points for Daniels and Thunderberg had 21 and 9 three steals Markel Johnson it's great as he's been at points this was his best game 28 points it's a career high five or six from three-point range for the third time he hit a half-court shot at the buzzer just just a tremendous game so if I'm breaking it down as simple as I can NC State played the best game it's played all year and Duke played it's worse 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600 is the phone number who do we got here Marty and Archdale what does he want in on Marty go right ahead Marty go ahead what was that get him out of here Thank You Marty I'm telling you everybody around me has knives and they're just pointing them straight at me can we play sound that's actually productive please here's what Kevin Keats had to say about playing with purpose playing knowing that this game had NCAA tournament significance but deciding what to communicate to his guys so that they could handle it I don't really talk about that with those guys we just talked about the next game because I'm not sure that they can handle that I think if I put pressure on them and say we have to win this game for you NCAA hopes I'm not sure we respond the same way tonight as we did and they responded tremendously man they they were awesome in this game Duke wasn't to put it as succinctly as possible and the Blue Devils have Virginia Tech coming into Cameron indoor stadium Saturday while the Wolfpack which is now on the right side of the bubble at the moment they have Florida State coming in and that's gonna be a massive game four o'clock tip inside PNC arena as for Duke it's an eight o'clock tip in that game against the Virginia Tech okay all right in this state when it comes to handshakes when it comes to Instagram posts when it comes to cryptic press releases that are put out only for PSL owners to see by David Tepper we like to read into things maybe over analyze a bit we're going to do some conspiracy over analyzing for all of those things next on the drive stand by as we continue our dig for the truth and the toy at the bottom of the cereal box something I used to be really bad about is over analyzing things like I was the guy who would receive a text message like when I was dating in college I get a text message from somebody and I'd be like what does that mean why didn't they use an explanation point where are the emojis at what's this all about and looking back in hindsight I realize that is just maddening to do and we could do this in sports as well like I'm seeing a lot of this today on social media with Cam Newton's Instagram post last night David Tepper putting out an email that was sent a letter I should say that was sent to PSL owners saying that in order to get to where they have to go there's gonna be some tearing down of the roster people are reading into that that the Panthers are trying to move off of Cam Newton cam is like quoting the Joker but I don't know which Joker heck it might even be Steve Miller I don't know for sure so that's pretty cryptic then you have ACC basketball fans seeing coach K and Kevin Keats shake hands very quickly last night and think there might be some beef there because of how coach K blew right by Keats as he was trying to tell him something in fact Andre Dawkins former Blue Devil said that clearly K was not cool with what happened there so let's explore all of that by just steering into the skit and if you're somebody who's driving in the snow right now that's a bit of pro advice that if you start skidding steer into the skit don't try to steer out of it there you go and the way we're doing that on the radio is by over analyzing a little bit here a couple of these headlines so that's what we're gonna do and we're gonna start with the Cam Newton Instagram post if you haven't seen it it's cam shirtless man if I was looking that way I'd probably be posting a bunch of IG posts shirtless as well so I'm not dogging that part but the caption is in that weird font sometimes you just have to play the role of the fool to fool the fool who thinks they are fooling you the Joker hashtag the only way is through hashtag shine through the shade hashtag not for likes just for life if you're posting a picture of you shirtless odds are you're looking for the likes I don't care if you're Cam Newton or Cameron Johnson or whoever I just don't care who you are yes I did oh wow you're just gonna go to the microphone he's gonna get you first thing you do get on the microphone is come on oh wait if you guys are gonna crucify me when I slip up three hours of broadcasting like just me in a moment of thought you go into the microphone for two seconds not even and you start coughing into it yeah I'm gonna criticize you right back it's a three on the game it's what I'm gonna say no way I don't think Kim Newton's posting shirtless for the likes you think I don't think that I just don't think that's him all right here's my takeaway from this Cam Newton just now watched the Joker with Joaquin Phoenix and he drew inspiration from it all right I could get down with that but I also feel like Cam Newton posted that for the likes because he's trying to fool the fool which is the NFL into thinking that he's not good anymore yes further his new career as a model pretty good here's a thought full actually is an acronym that stands for fight off ogling lions sorry Matt Patricia saw here what do you think that's a great question I'm trying to think of one that oh I'm prepared for the second let's move on completely from Sawyer he's not ready for it that's great coach K the Kevin Keats handshake a lot of people reacting to this even though I got the answer to the question from coach K himself people were forgetting about this because they don't pay attention to what actually happens when these coach speaks you know they're just gonna overanalyze and not listen to the presser I asked coach gay what happened there what was Keats pointing at and this is what K said he was just saying that they were gonna storm the court just to be careful no he was they were good yeah they were great they were all great I wish we were we had come to the dance a little bit better ah but that's not fun coach K how about this Kevin Keats said to coach K hey over there that's where the exit is you should take it all right I think I really broke it though and this is kind of scary some lip reading I think I really broke it see you thought you talked to coach K but you didn't I didn't you talk to coach K's clone right now right now coach K his real body is getting ready to be the new commissioner of the NCAA for basketball and this is a clone and that's why he's acting so non human like because Kevin Keats shook the hand of clone coach K Sawyer isn't ready for this one either he just gave me the nah don't go to me sign cuz Sawyer's amazing too he spends all this time making fun of me and just unprepared for the radio show fundamentally talking about wanting to play in the snow constantly instead of preparing something that's good here how about this one for coach K hey you heard about that one-time transfer you can one-time transfer out of my arena moving it on the David Tepper letter if you didn't see this it was sent to PSL owners the highlight of this letter if you can even call it that it says I am laser focused on building a championship organization on and off the field it takes time to build things up the right way and sometimes you have to do a little tearing down before moving forward end quote that's cool and all David Tepper but this is what I took away from it PSL owner while we have this cruddy stadium you're also gonna have a cruddy team sorry all right that's what you took from it this is what I took from this feels like we're sitting around the campfire like telling scary stories like the The X-Files music it is the scariest theme music it gives me like for TV shows it gives me the willies every time I hear it like I get goosebumps it's scary speaking of goosebumps goosebumps actually has a scary TV theme to die that stuff really good no joke it was 90s night at the NC State game oh yeah they had some stuff for goosebumps on the yeah yeah yeah because they also had a lot of stuff with Rugrats it was really strange because all the students that were there were on the scoreboard doing things and I started thinking about it if you are a student in college today don't think about you're probably born in 19 don't do it in 99 2000 2000 or 2001 we're old as hell right so it doesn't make sense for them to do 90s things like they're talking about rocket power and Rugrats like they don't know the first thing about Tommy pickles don't even come here you kids don't even know who deal is all right here's a okay with all those words I listened for buzzwords when people talk and David temper I heard a few buzz words laser build tear down David Tepper is a cyborg and he is gonna rebuild this team in his image with other cyborgs or it might just be all these words to say to cam listen buddy you're not gonna want to be here anymore actually if you take the first letter of every word he said in that press cut yeah it says get the hell out of your cam oh that's crazy it is I'm winner believe it sports I've dry at three three six seven seven seven one six hundred if you want to chime in on our conspiracy theories here so are you prepared for this one as he drinks out of his cup to make sure he doesn't cough into the microphone with the first noise he makes actually one popped out to me this one that I kind of took away from this entire message so Tepper talks about you know tearing down and building stuff off the field and he talks about how Matt rule is working pretty hard and he's a master developer and builder I think Matt rules been contracted to build the next indoor Panthers and MLS Charlotte facility Wow construction job on the side for Matt rule he does look like a construction work he does do you think he would cat call he would look great in the Hat what would kill would Matt rules cat calls to free agents sound like hey come here trust the process hey I got a bib for you come here it gets a little messy I don't know if it's specific specifically a bib I think it's what a smock hey I got a smock for you what are you a smock yeah then there's people talking about the court storm how are we still doing this I don't know but people like to read into the court storms too you know they say that students should it storm the court if it's a win that they're supposed to have people are all ways being critical of these things NC State they're at the point now they've beaten Duke five of the last seven times they've been inside PNC arena the reason they stormed the court is not because they didn't think they could beat Duke they stormed the court because they're superstitious they think that if they don't storm the court the next time they play they're not gonna beat them all right we can move on from this now are you sure I got one more do you on what I heard that the state fans storm the court just to get to the exits quicker okay we got to cut that all right yeah it's um it's scaring me dad it is uh let's hear from coach K last night he had a really strange way of putting what happened into terms like how does Duke not show up the play this is just a strange way to put it we can acknowledge you know this isn't an Xbox game this is a human being game human because that Xbox thing it doesn't have human nature in it and all that that's why a lot of people play it this game is about human nature and human beings and sometimes when you eat too much you're not as hungry when you need something you're really hungry and when those two meet a lot of times the team that needs it the most kicks the other team's butt and that's what happened tonight I don't know we'll try to play Xbox later what game do you think you could take coach K and sorry you you stream or you have a twitch account and you get you make some money on the side playing video games and people watching you do so so what game would you volunteer playing coach K and I wouldn't mind playing him in the last NCAA March Madness that came out probably like what 2014 or yeah yeah I actually think there is isn't there an old 90s college basketball game named after coach K like I think it's like coach K's college basketball or something like I think Jeff Capel was on Duke at the time yes the name of the game is called coach K college basketball yeah coach K college basketball do you think he could you know you know the coach K is good on the sticks he'd take you out and coach K college basketball you know what I'd really like to see them square off I bet coach K would beat you so bad in solitaire it would not even be a competition saw your he would be finished and those cards would be cascading off of that screen while you were still working on your threes buddy just a really strange thing to say also I I contest that people who eat a lot aren't hungry nah I think people who eat a lot are more hungry than you are that's what I would say like there's a guy at Virginia Tech last night in triple overtime who has like the student who has a full 26 thing of wings and he's just pounding them right that guy's hungry and he's eating a lot so I push against that we have more from coach K somebody tell me how this is different than Roy Williams saying that his team is not so gifted we're not that good you know we we don't have we're good and we've accomplished very good and so you know we don't we don't have the consistency of really good with every player Robert wasn't ready for the beginning of that clone K is going crazy man playing Xbox talking about we ain't good just the first part of this just hammering you with it we're not that good they've lost four games this year four games coach K and you arrive at this conclusion this is the conclusion you arrive at coach K we're not that good yeah so people won't get mad about that but they'll get mad at North Carolina and Roy Williams for saying that his team is the least gifted team he's had now that's different than saying his team's not that good they're not that consistent I think what coach K is really trying to say there is that his team's overachieved like they haven't been consistent and they've achieved great things that's what he said and they're not that good not good enough to just walk in and expect the win which is similar to the message Roy Williams was trying to communicate to hey we're the least this is the least gifted team I have there's no excuse for you to go in here and expect to win games just on the merits of you playing it North Carolina and having this much talent so that's an interesting thing okay and in terms of just how good they are I mean you can't have it both ways you can't say you love your team this is something that K does quite a bit he says I love my team and then he'll say we're not that good doesn't seem to fit together well like if you have one of those puzzle pieces you ever do one of those massive puzzles these pieces just don't fit I don't think on Twitter at sports up triad three three six seven seven seven one six hundred is the phone number we're gonna be sharing with Darren Vaught tomorrow however and wherever you're listening we certainly appreciate that listen to the best of podcasts with SoundCloud iTunes Apple podcast Google Play you can find all of those things maybe one more conspiracy theory on the way out please what if this isn't actually a radio show oh no but just a podcast that finds itself on the air I want to jump outside and start a snow fight snowball fight that's what I want to do but we're not done yet today we're not Robert what do you got and take it to the house as far as marketing is concerned real isn't always better really we take it to the house next on the drive