The Drive with Josh Graham - ACC Network Launch Day

Attention, please. This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune into The Drive 3 until 6 p.m. weekdays on the Sports Hub. I love it.

It's brilliant. I know he was in Charlotte earlier today. Anyways, he's not hosting The Drive, which is usually his program. Not today, anyway.

Not tomorrow, either. Desmond Johnson, who's on the other side of the glass, is hosting tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. Right, Des?

Indeed. Well, I'm Darren Vaught, so I am the one hosting today. And it's a pleasure to do so. It's an extended session of Sharon with Darren. You guys might hear me occasionally in here with Josh, just yucking it up. When I come in for, what is it, like an hour, usually on Thursdays, sometimes we've got to switch that up. When I come in for that chunk of the show, Des, I think you appreciate this. A lot of the time I get you laughing about it.

My intent is to just throw everything off the rails completely. Josh comes in. He prepares, unlike anyone I've ever seen in this industry, for a sports radio show.

It's like a web chart sort of thing that he draws out. Believe it or not, every single segment, most of the words he says in a given program are planned. And that's the way Josh likes to prepare, that sort of thing. So he's got his segments that he likes to do, and I just come in like a wrecking ball. And a lot of the times, you know what I love doing to Josh?

I love when he's clearly established the topic for a segment, and I just interject with something and try to get everyone on a tangent. What was it yesterday? We were talking about something and then Guitar Hero, and that led to me asking, what do you think of The Police? What's The Police's best song?

Or something like that. And just get everybody worked up, especially when there's a million people here, which isn't the case today. Just me and you, Des. But I'm looking forward to it.

It's going to be fun. Given the idea that we are sharing for three hours today, we try with the segment that I do, again, normally come in with Josh, the usual host. What we try to do, and it hasn't been that successful, is actually share things. I don't feel like I share enough with you guys in the triad who might listen to The David Glenn Show. I'm the producer of that show, so this is always an adventure, jumping from one, producing from noon to three, and then hopping on this mic for three minutes. I sat down and asked Des, hey, how much time do you have?

He's like, not really any. 40 seconds. Cool. Let me open up my computer and gather my thoughts. So I apologize for this first segment. I never know what to do with it, but sharing is a good start, right? Des, correct me if I'm wrong on the number. 7771600. So if listeners want to ask me a question and have me share a little bit, you're welcome to do so as well, Des. That's the number that they can call or they can tweet. At Sports Hub Triad, I'm at Darren Vaught.

It's a weird spelling, D-A-R-O-N-V-A-U-G-H-T, but you're certainly welcome to do that. I'm an open book today for three hours, as I hope that our guests will be. Brian Geisinger of ACCSports.com and the ACC Sports Journal is going to sit down in here with us for, I think, an hour. He got an advanced screening the other night at Full Frame Theater in Durham of The Class That Saved Coach K, which is going to be part of the ACC Network's launch tonight. It airs at 9 p.m. We actually just had the executive producer of that, John Dahl, on The David Glenn Show.

Sounds like a really, really interesting film. I'm excited to see it. So, BG is going to be with us. He, of course, is a very hoops-minded, analytics-minded guy. So, some off-season basketball, but of course, with the ACC Sports Journal's annual football preview magazine on shelves now. We'll talk some gridiron with him as well. Speaking of which, the ACC Network both and college football. Roddy Jones, former Georgia Tech running back and team captain, is going to join us a little bit later this hour to talk football, the launch of the network. It's a big day for guys like him. Some of the inaugural crew that is part of the ACC Network as that thing gets started today. It's a Panthers pre-season Thursday as they are at Gillette Stadium and look to play the New England Patriots tonight, so we'll talk about that a little bit as well. I'm excited. Des, do you have, let's get the share-in started.

Is there something that you would like to ask me, just maybe personal, maybe philosophical? I feel like we don't get enough of this. For starters, I want to echo, I agree entirely with you with how you open in terms of Josh Graham is probably the most meticulous planner I've ever been around when it comes to putting together a radio show. Everything you hear in the three hours that he's in front of the steering wheel, he's planned out exactly what he's going to say from 9 that morning on until we get on the air.

So for that, that's why the show sounds how it is. He doesn't mind having the chaos, it's just he wants to be behind the steering wheel when we go off the rails over the cliff. He's like any of us. He just wants control.

It's okay if things go wrong, but you know. Every once in a while I convince him just to let go of the wheel. Just let go of the wheel.

Let's see what happens. And usually that's radio gold segments when we do something along those lines, but he needed some rest just like I did. Busy season is about to start here.

Yeah, you've been out for the week up until today too, so no, much deserved vacation. What I try to do, the proper analogy, I'm going to carry his steering wheel analogy. I just plop down in the passenger seat, maybe he's my Uber and that's like a maybe not okay thing to do, but I just jump right in and I grab the wheel and yank it to the right or the left in either direction. That's what I do when I come in here. So I am your driver today.

Des, what would you like for me to share as we get things started? Well, I think I already know what your favorite sport is. I would imagine it's baseball because I know you do a lot of extra baseball stuff outside of your producer duties.

Yeah, I would say that's correct. I work a lot with USA Baseball as the voice of USA Baseball. I actually recorded a podcast. I host the official podcast of USA Baseball covering the bases. Check it out.

Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, wherever you might find those sorts of things. I recorded an interview earlier this morning, so that's of course something that I do. A lot of baseball for ESPN3 and the ACC Network Extra. And I played baseball in undergrad. So that's for sure number one without a doubt. So that's not a lot of sharing there. I think most people knew that, right?

Yeah, I think so. Well, my question is going to be, what's your second favorite sport with football and basketball? I know you're in Raleigh, so hockey is probably out there. What's your second favorite sport to talk about or cover? Hockey is a new one for me. I didn't really grow up with it. So growing up in the mountains of southwest Virginia, I was near Virginia Tech, so I obviously was a college football fan.

Grew up for a lot of that period being specifically a Hokies fan. I played basketball, played golf. Basketball probably is the correct answer to that.

I don't know why I ever played golf or why I still do because I hate it. So yeah, basketball. We'll go with basketball there.

And I'm very much looking forward to having Brian Geisinger in here because he's a smart basketball guy, and I find that I often enjoy conversations with people who are way into basketball. So that's probably the biggest indicator, right? Yeah, I think that covers pretty much my question.

So, yeah. It's three hours of radio. I did mention, Des, that it is a Panthers pre-season Thursday.

It's not even a thing. A Panthers pre-season Thursday is not even a thing, but it's Thursday, and the Panthers are playing a pre-season game. I happen to be playing the New England Patriots. I know many of you hate the New England Patriots. What, if you had to guess, Des, would be on my list of five things Darren is watching for in tonight's pre-season week three game for the Carolina Panthers?

Do you have any guesses as to what might be on that list? Well, it seems like the Panthers are getting shortchanged by national media because no one has seen Cam Newton throw a ball past 20 yards except for those of us in the know and the beat writers and reporters that we talk to on a daily from the David Glenn show to The Drive, who have pretty much all assured us that they have seen Cam uncorking these passes in camp and that none of them seem concerned whatsoever. But I guess the first national question will be, is Cam Newton's shoulder okay? Is Cam Newton's shoulder okay? I think yes. We've been given no reason to believe that it isn't, so that's a good thing.

As you move on to maybe your second inclination, what would that be? Me, there's a lot of starters, like key skill position players that have not played a single snap for the Panthers. Luke Kuechly hasn't played. Shaq Thompson hasn't played. Christian McCaffrey hasn't played. Greg Olson. So my second one will be seeing the full first string offense and defense units out there against the Patriots, who, I mean, let's be real, I hate the Patriots, too, but they're the gold standard. I mean, they've been to the Super Bowl the past three years. Just seeing what they're going to look like against the Bill Belichick scheme, that'll make me feel a little better about where we are and give us a better indication, because we all know we're not going to see anybody next week, week four, when they come back here for Pittsburgh, I believe.

So no one's going to be out there except for the guys who are going to get cut three days later, pretty much. All right. Here's how here's how listeners will be able to tell that I've done this before, hosted a radio show, albeit in place of Josh Graham. I'm Darren Vaught.

This is the drive. Here's a tease. And if you don't know what a tease is, it's going to it's meant to keep you around through the commercial break to hear what I have to say on the other side. All right. My five things I'm looking for in the Panthers preseason game tonight, you do not want to miss this on the other side. No, I'm kidding.

I'll tell you them right now. One cam, two doesn't three get four hurt. Five preseason doesn't interest me.

It's dumb. Instead, on the other side, I am quite possibly going to slander the pet of Joshua Graham. That's next on the drive.

And now the show joke and foreign is with the host. This guy, not this guy. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM 600, AM 920. We're not dead.

They're involved in for Josh Graham. This is the drive. Happy to have you with us. I'm Sharon, by the way. That's the normal segment.

We do Sharon with Darren. You get three hours of it. So I don't care. Get personal.

Seven seven seven one six hundred. Leave a submission with days while we have guests on or wait to get on yourself. I'm an open book today, as I hope is the case with our next guest on A.C.C. Network launch day.

A.C.C. Network college football analyst and former Georgia Tech star Roddy Jones joins the program. Roddy, happy launch day, my man.

What are your feelings? First off, thanks for having me on. It's it's a it's an awesome day. It's awesome. You know, from the from the day we started talking about me being a part of the network. And, you know, before it was announced, I knew for a couple of weeks that it was going to happen. And just seeing the names roll out of people who are going to be involved in it, people that I've respected for a long time.

And then, you know, kind of seeing the development over over the course of the summer. It's pretty cool. It's it's it's really cool to see it to be here and ready to flip the switch. And luckily, I don't have to be a part of anything live tonight. So I get to sit back and watch just like everybody else and cheer on my teammates who are doing the live stuff and the heavy lifting. So it's awesome.

And it's a it's a great feeling. Well, the network gets started at seven p.m. tonight. That starts with I believe the program is called ACC Today or it's sort of the in-studio show that they're going to have on a regular basis. But they introduce you to all of that crew. Our guys, they're going to be in the studio there. Then following that is the 30 for 30, the class that saved Coach K, which I'm very interested to see. That starts at nine p.m. But, Roddy, we played audio of Mike Leach.

And I'm not sure if you have seen this or heard about this yet in the before we hit the break. Mike Leach took to Twitter a couple of nights ago and just unprovoked came to the defense of cats. He says he can't understand why why someone would hate cats. It's just like it's it's just a cat, man.

You can't have too big of a problem with it. He's indifferent. I wonder, I know you have kids now. Are you are you a pet person? Do you have pets?

I do. Yeah, we've got we've got two dogs. So I do not have cats. The one thing I'll say about cats over my experience is that cats are mean, man. Like like dogs can get a little testy if you bother them, but you just never know what a cat's thinking. You can't trust the cat. You just can't like they're sneaky and they're mean. And they they they just end up places where like they're just there to jump out and scare you.

They end up in your closet. I've met some cool cats. No, no pun intended. I met some cool cats in my day. But like even a cool cat, you're always on the verge of getting scratched by.

So so I am I'm a little weary cat. I see him because I don't really trust him. A dog you can trust. Just know he just wants his belly rubbed. He wants to, you know, a dog just just wants to be your friend the majority of the time. And if something's up, like a dog's going to let you know. A cat. I don't know what a cat wants. I think the cat just wants me dead and wants to kill me and eat my body.

That's what I feel like. They're creepy. They're creepy. I knew I was dealing with a reasonable person. Thank you, Roddy Jones, for coming to the defense of dogs.

Hate is a strong word, but I don't I don't understand how someone could prefer a cat to a dog. Secondarily out of this quote from Mike Leach is the fact that we get the college football season started this weekend. Saturday is Miami and Florida in a big rivalry game.

It's kind of a cool season opener. Yet Mike Leach is, again, unprovoked going to Twitter with stuff like this. Is there any other coach in the country that would be that could have dropped that sort of tweet days from a team's first game? You know, Wayne Kiffin is always a guy that that you never really know what he's going to do on Twitter. So Wayne Kiffin is the only other guy that I could think of that would drop something just totally off the cuff during game week because it was on his mind on Twitter, especially. There's a couple there's a couple more that in the press conferences you may get like Mike Gundy is always good for a soundbite this time of year at a press conference. But there's no way Mike Gundy is going anywhere anywhere near Twitter like that dude doesn't even know how to tweet.

And so there are a few others. You know, Jimbo Fisher will sometimes give you something. Nick Saban, this is the time of year where he gets a little testy and he may give you something at a press conference. But again, usually those guys' Twitters are pretty buttoned up. Twitter accounts are pretty buttoned up. And so I think Wayne Kiffin and Mike Leach would have been my two leaders in the clubhouse and college football to just go on something off the cuff. I don't think there's any doubt about it. They might be the only two that would deliver something like that that Mike Leach did.

Going to Twitter unprovoked to to defend the cats and against people that hate cats. Well, let's talk some football. Roddy Jones of the ACC Network is with us. You came out of the Georgia Tech program. They no longer have Paul Johnson at the helm, presumably are going to move to another offense from that triple option under Jeff Collins.

I don't think we can assume it might be pretty early. But what are your long term impressions of what Jeff Collins is building there and then moving on from this this triple option, which you played in and presumably love? Yeah, you know, I've got some affection for the triple option.

Look, I like it. I in my class, we were I was the last class of Jane Gailey. So so I committed to play for Coach Gailey. I was recruited by Coach Gailey and I loved what Coach Gailey stood for as a man and what his coaching staff stood for. And it was a transition when we had to go from a very pro style system. And I don't mean that in today's pro style. I mean, traditional pro style.

You know, with a tight end under center, a fullback, a lot of traditional principles from from a pro style system to a triple option, where things in large part were based on on trying to get numbers on the perimeter or trying to isolate defenders and take advantage of things there. Coach Johnson had the most successful 11 year stretch in Georgia Tech history. And that includes at least since Bobby Dodd. And that includes the Bobby Ross years when he won a national championship in 1990.

He leaves soon after that. And Georgia Tech kind of goes goes into the tank. So the stretch that he had, the stretch of success, where he had two double digit win seasons, won nine games, three times. It was incredibly successful. But a lot of Georgia Tech fans were while fans of the success were a little were a little ready to move on. And I think Coach Johnson was ready for a new challenge as well. So it was a great time for him to step away.

And it's a great time for Jeff Collins to be coming in. This is a guy who has completely embraced what it means to be a head coach at a program in 2019. He has embraced social media. He's done a great job of engaging the fan base.

He's done a great job of helping to brand the program as Atlanta's football team. And as we all know, these kids nowadays, which are recruits nowadays, live on social media. A lot of how they perceive your your school is not what happens on Saturdays. A lot of it is how they perceive it from social media with Saturdays and wins and losses almost being secondary.

If if you can sell a dream on social media, then these guys will buy it. And at Georgia Tech is legitimate. You know, you have the opportunity to play at a place in a major city, the biggest city in the conference, the hub of the southeast, really a hub of college football, having hosted all the different major events in college sports and the Super Bowl.

So it's a great city. And Jeff Collins has really tapped into it. He's taken the guys to an Atlanta United game, Braves game, a Falcons preseason game.

He's taken them to Six Flags Whitewater, which is a which is a big water park down here all during camp, because you're allowed to take guys within a 30 mile radius. And if you go 30 miles from Georgia Tech's campus, that gives you access to the entire city of Atlanta and all the things it has to offer. So I think tech fans are really excited about that part of it because the recruits will come. I mean, this is one of the best cities in the country where I live here in Atlanta in producing recruits. So if you can convince those guys to stay home and go to Georgia Tech, then I think the long term prognosis is very good.

It's very exciting. Now, short term, they're going to struggle this year and that's OK. But but but I think Jeff Collins has done a great job early in his tenure.

Roddy Jones of the ACC Network. I kept you too long talking about cats versus dogs. But again, I appreciate your sentiments on that matter. I do need to go to a break. So again, happy launch day and thanks so much for the time on the drive here. And I appreciate just one final thing for anybody who's cable provider is not yet covering or carrying ACC Network. It's a great time to try one of these cord cutting options that give you seven day free trial. So I am advocating for you to go out, get your seven day free trial to catch the program. And you kind of get a sneak peek of all the different shows in that seven seven p.m. hour.

Also, the first 10 minutes of that are going to be showed across all the ESPN network. So appreciate you having me on there, man. Always great to catch up. Yeah, absolutely.

And more than welcome to to incorporate the plug. That's Roddy Jones of the ACC Network. As he mentioned, if you do not currently have a cable provider or otherwise that gives you access to the ACC Network, a lot of those places have free trials.

I believe YouTube TV is one of those that has that. So you can check those out and get the the preview at least for a week or so of the ACC Network. On the other side, Joe Weil, the play by play voice of the Winston-Salem Dash joins us. You're listening to the drive.

This is the sports hub at AM 600 AM 920. Serious talk, talk, talk, talk. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Welcome back in there and bought in for Josh today on this afternoon edition of the drive. Appreciate Roddy Jones of the ACC Network popping in to defend dogs in the ever important dogs versus cat debate.

Mainly many talked a little bit of college football with us. Happy launch day to him as the ACC Network gets kicked off a little bit later this evening. Joining us now, the voice of the Winston-Salem Dash, Joe Weil, as he usually does. Joe, how are you, my friend? I'm doing great, Dan. How are you doing? I am excellent.

I've got before we get into some movie quotes for you to incorporate into your broadcasts. I got to check in on a couple of my guys. You know, I work with USA Baseball and do play by play for their collegiate national team. So I've got a couple of guys dear to my heart in Winston-Salem, at least the latest that I saw they were there. Andrew Vaughn and Steel Walker both still in town or no? Those guys are still in town and actually from that same team we still have Connor Pilkington as well. And earlier this year, I'm sure you remember, we had Nick Madrigal. So it's pretty cool that all those guys have had a chance to stop here and it's been a thrill to have each one of those players. All good people and obviously pretty good at baseball too. Well, the game that I went to with Josh Graham included Steel Walker in the lineup.

A, he might be my favorite collegiate national team guy ever because it's just the best baseball name ever. He's a great dude. Well, it happened. I was shocked to see him in the lineup.

I hadn't been paying that much attention. So I was delighted when I saw that he was in the lineup. And it turned out that night the dash got the win. He hit a couple of doubles, I believe was the player of the game whom you interviewed afterward. And it was his birthday.

Like he turned 23 or something like that on that day. So I guess they're all doing pretty well. They're all doing really well and actually Steel today was just named a year-end Carolina League All-Star. So not only was he playing well for us and we noticed it, everybody around the league noticed it as well. He is definitely the cream of the crop prospect in this league this year.

And I'm sure you got this sense when you covered him for the collegiate national team. But he's just so much fun to watch because he is sort of the antithesis to the old-time baseball, you know, put your head down and play the game the right way. He still plays the game the right way, but he has a lot of fun with it.

He's more that Tim Anderson mold. And he actually really appreciates what Tim Anderson is doing with the White Sox and for Major League Baseball, trying to add a little bit of flair to it because he certainly has that from a personality side. And then that showcase on the field, you'll see him skip around first base to be at the home run. And you'll see him go out in center field and make it look easy out there. And it's just kind of part of his game just to have fun with the game and really enjoy it as if he was a kid. And it made it really enjoyable to watch him and see him play and see that joy being exuded on the field because I still think that baseball needs more people like that. And Steele is a guy, if he gets to Chicago, the fans are really going to enjoy his style of play because it's a lot of fun to watch. It is.

He plays with a big chip on his shoulder, a lot of edge to his style of play. So I encourage people in the Triad, of course, go check out the Winston-Salem dash while Steele Walker is in town, no doubt about it. All right. So, Joe, I haven't left a ton of time. I'm filling in for Josh, so I'm admittedly terrible at this clock management stuff.

What we normally do is give you movie quotes, and I admire and respect your ability to weave them seamlessly into the flow of your broadcasts there for the dash. Des, do you have one of the examples that we played prior to the break just so we can get everybody on the same page with what we're doing here? Still a ton of fans here tonight all around the lower bowl and hanging out in their seats or heading off to the Clark and Addison grill or some of the other great places you can eat here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at TicketReturn.com Field. The 2-1. Outside, count it, 3-1. A couple of days ago I had a chance to eat a burger from this facility.

And that is a tasty burger. The 3-1. The 3-1. I love that one. God, that one's so good, Joe. All right. So we normally give you movie lines. You sent me nine lines earlier today. They're all short.

But Drago in Rocky IV only has nine lines in the entire film. What were you saying you wanted me to do with these? Because they are, quote, you will lose. I cannot be defeated. I defeat all men. Soon I defeat real champion. If he dies, he dies. I must break you.

Maybe the best. He's not a human. He's like a piece of iron. I fight to win for me, for me, and until the end.

What were your plans with those nine lines? So C.J. Johnson, our team president, he actually was in his car a couple months ago. I don't know if he knew that I was doing this with Josh. And he was listening in to the Sports Hub Triad and The Drive and Josh's show. He heard my lines and he said, that's so funny that you do that.

I love to get involved. So he pitched these lines. I think he wanted to just get one of them in. So if you want to pick one, you can. I can pick one. I could tell you which one's my favorite. I think it's the, he's not a human.

He's like a piece of iron is the one that stood out to me. I like that one. Yeah. No, then by all means, we're going to use that one. I don't like, I don't see a ton of audience participation on this today. So I think we'll use that in place of what we've gotten from listeners. He's not a human.

He's like a piece of iron. That's your first. Dez, what do you have for Joe for this week? We'll give you a total of three. So I'm going back to the old standby, which is 2007 Superbad, because there's so many lines in there that I think that you could use. I think we've only gotten you to do like one or two of them out of that movie for the entire season. And I'm trying to figure out one that you can say without getting fired or arrested for saying it on the air. No, but push the envelope, Dez.

We're going to challenge Joe. I'm looking for like, do you have one right now that you're wanting to give him? Because I'm still kind of scrolling through.

Yeah, I've got one. I'm leaning back on, I do a lot of TV shows I find with this segment. So they're not movies, but it's pop culture references.

I think I've given you Michael Scott like two or three times from The Office already, Joe. We're going to go with, and you can feel free to editorialize to lead into this, but there's such a thing as good grief, just ask Charlie Brown. And it's part of a longer description where he's saying that grief isn't always bad. But the quote is, there's such a thing as good grief, just ask Charlie Brown. Say that one more time?

There's such a thing as good grief, just ask Charlie Brown. Don't I get a dinger for that, Dez? Come on. Gotta give it up for that one. All right, that's two of your three.

Two of your three, Joe. Dez, what do you have for Joe Weil to work into his broadcast? All right, so I left super bad because there's nothing in there that you can say at this point that wouldn't probably get you fired or in trouble with the FCC.

So I decided to leave that alone and to go off towards something else. I want to kind of cut you a little bit of a break and give you something that's short and on paper it sounds easy, but it might be hard to stick it to a game. I want you to do the Matthew McConaughey dazed and confused, all right, all right, all right.

Yes, I'm absolutely in favor. But give us your best McConaughey when you do that, all right, Joe? All right, all right, all right. There you go. That's it. Man.

I like it. All right, Joe, those are your quotes. Man, what a motley crew.

Drago from Rocky IV, Michael Scott and Matthew McConaughey. Channel all three of them in your next call, Joe. We look forward to hearing it. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

All right, that's Joe Weil, play-by-play voice of the Winston-Salem Dash. And that's about as – Des, how would you like to play in a golf foursome? I'm giving you a golf hypothetical while saying also earlier that I hate golf. I do still play, but how – man. I think everybody that plays golf hates it. Or just go get a beer with – I mean, it's a fictional character in the case of Drago, but – Michael Scott, also a fictional character, but maybe you could get Steve Carell to show up in his stead and play the character.

You could do that. And then McConaughey, I mean, he's one of the most interesting dudes around. He's turned it around. He used to be chick flick exclusive guy. Romantic comedy is my preferred terminology, exclusive guy. And he's done some really complicated roles since then. He would be a riot to talk to for sure.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. McConaughey would be great to go out with and just have a fun Friday night. You are listening to Sports Hub Triad, 93.7 in Greensboro, 101.5 in Winston-Salem, 104.9 in High Point, and 104.5 in Burlington. I'm not Josh Graham. Darren Vaught happily filling in in JG's stead.

JG, did people call him that? That's the first time I've ever done it. I don't like it. No, yeah, I don't know if that – It doesn't flow. It doesn't flow. All right, well, if you recognize my voice, it's probably because you have listened to this very station between noon and three and David Glenn, host of the David Glenn Show. It took a couple seconds to catch his breath at some point, and so I got a word or two in.

That's probably what happened. I regularly produce that program occasionally. Hop on here in Josh's place and once per week, share with him, as we call it, sharing with Darren. That's still on the table, by the way.

I'll get personal, philosophical. Hit Des up with a question, 777-1600. That one can be saved for later as now in studio. I have Brian Geisinger, my guy BG. See, it works with his name, BG, and I've called him that many, many times, of the ACC Sports Journal and accsports.com, Sports Channel 8, which just rolled out last week. Yep. Their very own weekday show.

Made it a week. In the Triangle, 10 to noon. If you're ever in that part of the state, 99.9 the fan, they precede the David Glenn Show. So, it's cool to have you guys as new neighbors in that part of the David Glenn Show's listening audience.

Very fun. Cool to have you here sitting down to talk a little off-season hoops. I know we've got a couple of things that we want to get to a little bit later, ACC football and otherwise, but tonight is the launch of the ACC Network.

Network kicks off at 7, and then at 9 p.m. is the ESPN production, the 30 for 30, the class that saved Coach K. And actually, we had on with DG earlier, John Dahl, who is the executive producer, the main filmmaker that worked on it, aside, Jay Billis, who contributed in a lot of ways past his on-air or on-screen contributions, answering questions and things like that. And I was fascinated by some of the things he said about just how it's funny now in 2019 to look back at it and think that Coach K needed saving, right? You got the advanced screening experience at Full Frame Theater in Durham. What were your impressions without maybe, maybe without giving too much away, but quite frankly, I'm interested in whatever you have to say about it. Yeah, well first off, if you ever get a chance to see a film over at Full Frame in Durham, go do it. Pretty cool experience in the middle of an American tobacco campus there. Just a neat, neat setting to see the film. I actually saw, you know the documentary on the former New Orleans Saint with ALS Steve Gleason. They did a documentary on him just entitled Gleason, and it was at, it was one of the Full Frame Festival films.

And I saw that there. Really cool experience because that whole festival is really, really awesome. It's awesome, and it's just in a neat setting in what is a cool city in downtown Durham. I really enjoyed the film. I mean, I didn't think the documentary was necessarily anything groundbreaking.

I mean, this is a story that's four decades old now, right? Spoiler alert, the class does in fact save Coach K, and he goes on to have large amounts of success. But, you know, I thought they took a pretty sort of like, they took this sort of linear path through the, it's the class of 86. As probably a lot of listeners know, but it's sort of looking as Johnny Dawkins, J. Billis, Mark Allery, as they are in their senior year of high school, going into their freshman year at Duke. All the lows that come, you know, losing record, they get thrashed by UNC, they get destroyed by Michael Jordan, they get pummeled in the ACC tournament. It's funny to see highlights of Wake Forest running up and down and by Duke in an actual basketball game.

It's been a while since I'd seen that. Winston-Salem product. And this is cool too because, you know, this stuff, as much as I love the ACC and I grew up, you know, going to Wake Forest basketball games and football games and now covering the league, this is stuff that predates me. It's before I was born.

And I've heard it comes from, it's in a time period which is around when my family first moved to Winston-Salem, so older people in my family have memories and they've told me about this. But it was pretty neat to go beyond, you know, reading an excerpt in a book or a magazine or hearing a secondhand story and to actually see the footage, see the film, see the pictures, you know, see the clips of the old newspaper columns, you know, calling for Coach K's head on a platter or whatever. And I thought it was really neat. I thought there were good bits of humor in it, as one would expect with K and Billis.

I mean, you're going to have some self-deprecation in there, which I'm a fan of, so I like that too. And while it does primarily center on the class of 86 at Duke, it does also loop in players that came into play with them as well. Younger players, so Tommy Amaker, Quinn Snyder. You're seeing all these amazing basketball minds 30 years later getting to sit around a table with some wine and some food and share stories and rap. It's just A, to watch them reminisce is cool, but also B, it's just impressive to see like, dude, Quinn Snyder is one of the five best basketball coaches in the world right now. And there he is with Tommy Amaker, who's the head coach at Harvard, and there's Coach K there. And obviously Jay Billis is a great basketball mind too.

And so even that, you wish you could see all the footage of them hanging out and talking hoops and stuff like that. But well worth it. It got me in the mood for basketball season, like I'm ready to go now. And definitely give it a glance if you have the chance.

I'm excited to watch it. I begrudgingly did not get an invite to the advanced screening, and I'm still trying to chase down whoever's responsible for that. That's unfortunate.

I know of at least one unused ticket too that you could have used. Man, Fiji! Sorry about that.

Breaking my heart. So John Dahl, who I mentioned was one of the main filmmakers on it, has worked on a lot of other ESPN productions, including the Academy Award-winning OJ Made in America. And he talked with Fiji a little bit earlier today about Jay Billis' role and his contributions, because other than the on-screen interactions, Billis played a major part in contributing. He talked about letters that Coach K had sent him while he was being recruited, and just the idea that... Because Billis is a West Coast guy. And in a world where Mike Krzyzewski isn't Team USA's basketball coach, isn't a multi-time national champion, isn't Coach K, he's Mike Krzyzewski, what good reason does a Jay Billis out in California have to know who he is?

So that's a part of the story that really intrigued me, especially as you and I and others incorporated with the David Glenn show and here at The Drive have gotten to know Jay and his love and passion for his time at Duke on that basketball program. For better or for worse, recruiting is totally different now than it was back then. I mean, the game is the game, right?

It's the same. You're looking for the good players and you're doing what it takes to land it. Put the ball in the hoop, yeah. Again, the game is the game, but you and I can go on YouTube and queue up any prospects, highlights we want.

Games are broadcast on television, national TV, ESPN now. I mean, you've got a million different websites dedicated to covering this stuff, including the ACC Sports Journal as well. And yeah, this was just a different time and it's funny to see Coach K sending letters and telegrams and stuff like that.

At a certain point, you're having to take a leap of faith with both coach to player and player to coach. And there's even a sort of a, I won't spoil it, but there's a funny anecdote that Billis tells about meeting Johnny Dawkins for the first time. He'd never seen Johnny Dawkins before. He just knows this guy's one of the best guards in the class.

He's going to be my teammate. And when he's in the D.C. area, he goes to his house to meet him. And when Dawkins answers the door, he's basically surprised with the appearance of Johnny Dawkins. I think he was expecting someone more striking, perhaps.

Do you know what I mean? Bigger. He's kind of a lanky guy.

He's like, yeah, where's your brother? But before Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett showed up at Duke this past year, just for example, or Cam Reddish and Zion Williamson, how many times have those guys played together, been on international teams, Nike, EYBL teams, played against one another, been at camps, all that sort of stuff. And yeah, that was not the case 35 years ago. It's funny, the Johnny Dawkins bit, because how easy is it to have an image just emblazoned into your mind now, just because of scrolling through Twitter?

Something as simple as someone's Twitter avatar photo, that's your impression of them in a lot of ways, especially if you've never met them in person. There was no equivalent to that with Johnny Dawkins back then, so you had no reason to know what he looked like. And even if you had only watched him play from afar, it's a different movement.

You're not standing face to face with him. It could easily be mistaken. Just a quick note to this as well, it is interesting because Billis ended up playing for Kay and then he became an assistant, so this is a guy that helped on the recruiting trail with Coach Kay, presumably when he's working for him as he's in law school, as a graduate assistant or whatever. But Billis was also, again, I don't know the exact timeline of when guys committed, and I don't know the sequential order with that, but the way the documentary presents it is that Mark Allery, J. Billis helped recruit him, and Dawkins came after that as well. And you can see, even before these guys got to Durham, that while the way these relationships were formed were totally different and far more limited, back then Billis, even as an 18-year senior in high school, was a de facto recruiter for Kay, helping solidify and form the class. It reminds me just the copious amount of letters that you would have to write as a college basketball coach at that time.

It had to be cumbersome. And it reminds me of, if you go to the Dean Smith Center, there's the North Carolina Basketball Museum portion of the facility there. It's really cool. Duke has one of these at Cameron, too. Yeah, and so in Carolina's version... But NC State has one at Reynolds now. Yeah, absolutely.

So they're all really cool, and if you're around the Triangle area, certainly go check them out. At UNC, there is a letter that's posted up, and it's from Coach K to Michael Jordan, when I think it's following Jordan informing Krzyzewski that he was going to commit to Carolina. And he was going to go play at North Carolina, and it's just a cool thing because it's not a necessary letter. And you think about all the work that goes into correspondence back then, and Krzyzewski still took the time to write a note just to say, All right, that's fine.

Best of luck. You're a really good player. K even mentions this with regards to one of the letters he writes to Billis, too. These weren't boilerplate.

These were my own thoughts, and I typed them out, and this wasn't... No, I'm sure to some extent you've got to have... There's no way everything could be its own unique letter or whatever, but K does make a mention of that. And actually, there's even a pretty interesting... Again, I won't spoil too much here, but those guys are coming in the fall of 82, the class of 86, that is. And they go over to Wolin Gym on UNC's campus because that's where I'm sure a lot of people, just now undergrads, play pickup there. But at the time, this is where local college players would also go to play pickup. And so Jordan, Sam Perkins are in there. This is obviously somewhat of a golden era of UNC basketball as they're fresh off a national title. And the Duke freshmen are there watching the UNC guys sort of in between games, and Billis tells a story, or maybe it's Mark Allery, of Jordan going up during a stoppage to dunk the basketball and also hitting his head on the side of the backboard as he went to do it. And Billis and Allery sort of looking at one another thinking like, oh wow, what did we sign up for here? Now we've got to compete against guys like this. And I mean, my head immediately went to covering a Duke game this year at Cameron. I mean, he was playing defense in a game, but I literally saw Zion Williamson hit his head on the backboard trying to block a shot against Princeton. So again, the game is the game. Players are different, but the methods which they connect and interact are different too.

But it's interesting to see how some of the stuff has, there are still transcendent players, you know what I mean, now as there were then too. He's Brian Geisinger of the ACC Sports Journal and accsports.com, as well as Sports Channel 8. He's hanging out for an extensive period during this edition of The Drive.

We've got Aaron Vaught filling in for Josh Graham on the other side. We're going to talk a little more hoops with BG. That's next. By my very exact clock, it's five o'clock and 18 seconds, 19 seconds, 20. That means it's time for the five things at five, right?

Five. Oh, whoops. Hold on. Sorry.

I've been gone for a couple of days. I was just going to go with it. I was just going to go with it. I thought there was more than that.

There's supposed to be a little bit more to that there. Thanks, thanks lady with a weird echo for reinforcing what time it is. It's time for the five things at five. Here are the top five stories trending now.

All right. What do I start here? Number one or number five? Well, you're supposed to start at number five and I'm having to do a little moving around to make sure I can get you to the right number. Should I just read five? No, I got you. Away we go. Five. That's what I like to hear. All right.

Not to complicate your life anymore, Des, but we've got some audio associated with this one. Former NBA player Royce White says NBA teams are blackballing superstar Carmelo Anthony. This is the guy that, once a member of the Houston Rockets, really had to cut his career short because he was deathly afraid of getting on an airplane and it just wasn't going to work out. He's been most recently seen playing in Ice Cube's Big Three League. So you got Royce White for us?

Melo's absolutely being blackballed. He's one of the realest in it. He's one of those dudes that, you know, he ain't like me.

He don't talk like brash and straightforward like that, but he has those morals and principles, you know? And he's given too much to the game for them not to allow him to play or for them to, you know, kind of culturally just make a decision or an agreement that he's not good enough anymore. All of us here that play the game at the highest level know how good Melo is and we know that there's no way that the Lakers would go out and sign Jared Dudley and not sign Carmelo Anthony. And another question is, while a guy like LeBron is walking around here like he's the face and voice of the players, how is he letting his banana boat brother hang out there in the wings and they go sign Jared Dudley and not Carmelo? If anybody watching this thinks that Jared Dudley can hold Carmelo's jockstrap, I'll slap him. The disrespect to Jared Dudley. Why are you going to come at my guy Jared Dudley like that? What did he do?

Oh my God. Jared Dudley's a good basketball player by the way. That's right. That's what I'm saying. He's like a perfect fit around LeBron because he can guard a couple positions and shoot threes. At the end of the day, this isn't like, maybe look, maybe Carmelo can beat Jared Dudley one on one. The thing is, if that's the case, that's not the point.

There are so many other variables. You don't need this guy to win a one on one matchup. You need him to stand in the corner and make wide open threes, which Jared Dudley, yes, does better than Carmelo Anthony. And as far as, look, I like Carmelo. He seems to be a pretty good guy and someone that does a lot for the community. He's from Baltimore. He certainly gives back. He seems to be a pretty hands-on dad.

All that stuff is great. But let's also remember Media Day two years ago with Oklahoma City Thunder when some intrepid reporter asked him if he would be open to coming off the bench. And he literally just scoffed and started openly laughing. So it's not like this guy's been exactly receptive to a role that didn't include, hey, I'm starting and I get to post a 25% usage rate or whatever. I have to deal with Hornets fans asking me this on occasion too. Why have they not signed Carmelo? Why haven't the Hornets signed Carmelo Anthony?

And like, I have to say it, but like, this changed a couple of years ago. Carmelo Anthony is just not, he just is not a winning NBA basketball player. There's no number out there that you can point to and say this guy helps you win basketball games.

It just doesn't happen. He gets played off the court defensively and he's not an efficient offensive player. So, yeah, I mean, Jared Dudley is.

He is both of those things and that's why he is on this roster, granted at a minimum salary. And Carmelo Anthony is, you know, not in the NBA anymore. Go to China, go score 60 points a game in China. Like, yeah, you can totally do that. It'd be awesome.

I'd watch it. But like, as far as winning basketball games, this doesn't, this guy doesn't do anything to move the needle in the right direction. All right, Des, what number are we on? Four.

Four! You know where Carmelo, besides Syracuse, it's the only place he has won basketball games. And it's wearing USA across his chest. That's right.

Kemba Walker, the star of Team USA. Yep. And the guys in the red, white and blue, the good guys, defeated Australia this morning in front of a record crowd of 51,000 plus. It looked insane in Melbourne, baby. In Melbourne. It looked wild.

They got to cheer on their heroes. Joe Ingalls. Andrew Brogan. Matthew Delevidova, who has like a signature shoe over there. You've also got Aaron Baynes. Couple NBA guys. Aaron Baynes. He's on that roster. Patty Mills, too. Patty Mills, of course, a long embrace with Coach Popovich, Greg Popovich, this first coach. Pretty cool. So they spent a long time together in San Antonio. Kemba Walker's the only dude on this Team USA roster with multiple All-Star appearances. Yep.

How bad is it? It's like, I mean, this team is still awesome, right? Like, that's the scale is. That's just it. This team is still amazing. They went in and they beat a good, it's just an exhibition game.

And we'll see how they play come tournament time. There are some real questions with this roster. But like, what they lack in sort of like defined star power in terms of all NBA selections and All-Star rosters. Yeah, Kemba's the only guy, but like Donovan Mitchell's a really good young player. So is Jason Tatum. I mean, Chris Milton made an All-Star roster this season. He's on the team. Brooke Lopez is like redefining the center position. Miles Turner's an All-NBA defensive level center.

Like, they have really, really good players. But yeah, Kemba's the sort of the real one efficient, like long range shot creator that they have. And he did. He took 22 shots at this game. He scored 23 points. Kemba had it cooking.

It looked like, it looked like a Thursday night in uptown Charlotte in February with Kemba taking 20 shots off the pick and roll. Man, I am not impressed with this team. To me, they are straight dumpster juice. Like, think of all the USA teams we've had since they allowed pros.

Comparatively. If they played against this team, all of those teams would beat this team by 15 plus. Even the 0-4 team.

Like, it's just all of them. I don't even want to watch them. I think part of it is, and look, the time slots are not friendly. And they play again, I think, like Friday night at midnight too.

The time slots are not... Not staying up for that. They're not friendly. But a part of this too is it's like A-1, this one generation of players that sort of like grew up with, that grew along with Coach Cade being the coach starting in 2005 and going into the 2006 World Cup. Like, those guys are old now.

Right? Like LeBron, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony. Like, those dudes don't play, you know, they have to take, they have to really like dial it back in the summers. Yeah, they don't play more than they have to. So they can play 70 games next NBA season.

Plus, living too. You've got to remember. Even guys like Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, they got hurt at the end of the season here.

And then, I'm sure you guys talked about this on the drive, Des. Like, think about how much money changed hands, how many players changed teams this offseason. Really, none of those guys who did that are playing on this roster.

Right? Guys that signed big deals or moved teams. Like, those guys, you know, including Ben Simmons who would have been on the Australian team but agreed to a big extension that won't kick in until the following season. But like, a lot of those guys, Chris Middleton, granted, he signed a big deal and he's with Team USA as did Brook Lopez. But like, a lot of those guys, because two-fifths of the league changed teams, you know, just certain guys were essentially off limits almost this year.

Yeah, you put pen to paper and the risk becomes even greater at a time when not a lot of guys are looking to risk that anyway. But I realize, like, I'm like in too deep with NBA hipsterness because I'm like, wow, Derek White should have played more than two and a half minutes last night and I'm guessing you guys don't care at all about Derek White of the San Antonio Spurs. But I thought he should have played more than three minutes last night. I love it. For this morning. Des, numero? Three. There we go. Three. Trace.

Alright, see, if the voice lady was a sentient being, she would have said Trace because I said numero. Either way, we're talking more basketball with this headline. BG, did you see the street art in Indianapolis depicting Larry Bird covered in tattoos? Amazing.

Yes, I do. A street artist, Jules Muck, after receiving some indigestion, we'll call it, from Bird's party about the idea that he is a tattoo guy and doesn't want to be one, said she would remove all the tattoos from Larry Bird's mural in Fountain Square, except for the script Indiana on his left forearm in accordance with the basketball legend's request. This is another human being that is obviously not liking it, she told the Indy Star.

If he was happy and thought it was funny, that's a different story. Brian, I don't get Larry Bird stifling someone's artistic freedom here. Well, first off, nothing says street like Larry Bird. You know what I mean? Really, when I think hard, I think street, I think Larry legend, I think the hick from French Lick, but no, you should not, it's unfortunate that an artist is having to go back to their creation and change the workings of it. This is something that you should just appreciate, it should stand alone and be cool. I'm not saying you've got to be honored by it, I know I would be if I were Larry Bird personally, but as someone that loves art almost as much as I love basketball, let it be, let it breathe. This should be cool and fun, we should just enjoy this. I can't believe this is a thing that's had to be altered. I agree.

Larry is such a ubiquitous icon in the state of Indiana. I think he should be used to this sort of thing and be honored by it. It's also like, what if Jules Muck, the street artist, had depicted him, not with tattoos, but wearing his cap askew and baggy pants, would he have the same issue? Because that's what worries me. Yeah, there's some potentially problematic elements to this, right?

There are. I'm not happy that all of the tattoos are going to be removed. If I was him though, the fornicating bunny rabbits on his right forearm, like maybe, yeah, I get it, I get it.

All the other stuff, you got a cardinal on your face, you got a neck tat that says Hoosier across your throat. Yeah. Whatever, that's fine. That is art. All I'm saying is just let it breathe. I agree.

Dez. Two. I have to say that because I don't have to say that.

He could just hit the number, but I just am awful at the format of this show. What do I have for number two here? Oh, we talked about this earlier. Coach Ron Rivera of the Carolina Panthers has stated that Cam Newton will start at quarterback tonight in New England against the Patriots in their third pre-season game. You know, this is the one where starters participate. But once Cam's done whatever they need to see him do, who knows what that is? You know what? Kyle Allen's going to come in. Decade in, Cam Newton needs to prove himself in a pre-season game, all right?

It blows my mind. BG, you're a, are you a lifelong Panthers fan? Actually, yeah, I am. All right.

I thought that was the case. Yeah. You still root for the team. I know sometimes your responsibilities can kind of pull you away from tuning in for a lot of NFL. I'm the same way. I still make time for most Panthers games.

Yeah. Kyle Allen, as a Panthers fan, I'm only sort of half of a fan. I root for them because I produce a show that's statewide in North Carolina and I root for the show.

It's good for us when they win. Are you comfortable with Kyle Allen as your backup quarterback? Who is that? No. I don't know who any of these people are. I'm not happy with any of them. You got Taylor Heineken and Kyle Allen.

I don't know. Yeah, exactly. But who are these people? And Will Greer, I mean, maybe he ends up being good.

No, I'm not comfortable with any of these guys. And once again, it's going to come down to like, you know, a patchwork offensive line trying to protect the undervalued and underappreciated Cameron Newton for the Panthers. Like, he's got to stay healthy here. Dez, I have no idea what number we're on, but I hear that the music is over. So I feel like I need to squeeze in two more things to complete our five things at five.

Can you do these things for me, Dez? One. Oh, you were at number one. Yeah, you got one more.

Was I at one? All right. Well, just do me this. Play Mike Leach talking about cats and then react to that as Doc Rivers.

That can be number one. Perfect. You want the whole Mike Leach?

Play the whole Mike Leach. I want to hear him talking about cats, and I want to hear Doc Rivers' thoughts. How did the tweet last night about cats?

Somebody, I can't remember, somebody said that in passing. You know, one of the guys hates cats. You know, somebody really hates cats.

And I've never figured that one out. I've never figured, I mean, in credit to cats, the ability to generate that much animosity, you know. And I'm not sure how close of a relationship some of these people are planning to have with a cat or why they would value the opinion of a cat or their perceived opinion of a cat.

I'm indifferent about cats, but I've never understood how a cat can accelerate that much animosity. I mean, to me, it's just a cat. It's just a squirrel. It's just a dove. It's just a robin. I mean, what do I care, you know?

So, anyway. Doc, what do you think? Hello? Hey! My pager went off and said I needed to call, and I picked up the phone and no one was there. And all of a sudden, you're there. I don't know. So, what's going on?

Doc, Doc, I got to know. This is Darren Vaught. I'm filling in for Josh Graham. Oh, okay.

You're on the drive on the Sports Hub Triad. BG is here as well. His name's Brian Geisinger. You can just call him BG. He's a cool cat. I get it.

BG, huh? Okay. All right.

That sounds good. Doc, do you like cats? Do you hate cats? Well, I'll tell you like this. Everybody likes each other until things get tough. Then you'll find out what kind of team you have, Darren.

That's the way to go. Hey, hold on a second. Hey!

Why? What are you doing? Playing hopscotch or whatever? You're supposed to be playing defensive drills!

Farmless! I'm sorry, guys. I don't get it. They came over here with defensive acumen and they haven't played a lick of defense this entire time. They've been over there playing hopscotch. I've seen them playing dice in the corner. I don't get it.

I don't understand it. These young guys, they're not Blake. I'll tell you that right now. They're not Blake. Because like with Blake, everyone would blame Blake for everything and it's not all Blake. It's not just Blake.

You can't blame him for everything. Does Blake like cats? Blake has five cats. He has five cats and he has a, what is it called?

A bino tiger with like green eyes. He keeps it in the backyard. But he won't keep it in a cage. He just keeps it on a rope so nobody ever wants to go over there. It's crazy.

Might be why I got traded. I don't know. I got to ask Chris Ball or somebody.

I don't know. That's Desmond Johnson. But it's also Doc Rivers, in a way. That made my day.

I'm glad we could make that happen for you, BG. It's never Blake's fault. Or it's never all Blake's fault. Never Blake's fault. Never Blake's fault. Write that down on a card and put it in your wallet so that during the day you can pull it out and realize that it's never Blake's fault.

It's not his fault. Chris has got to step up. DeAndre's got to step up. That's why we brought you back. I'm wondering, Dez, do you have a just coach to game, Doc Rivers, that's just like a hair raspier? Guys, I'll tell you, I love the NBA playoffs. It's a great mental test for my team. You know, when it's real close, usually one team pulls together and the other team comes apart. Unfortunately, usually that team that comes apart is my team, unless it's the Celtics. We never lost a series with all five of my guys.

Without all five of them, we didn't lose. Chris Paul, here's your Perkins. They look at Blake and they're like, what are you doing? He's like, what are you doing?

So I don't know. I'm about to make him run laps or play some defense or something. I have successfully taken this totally off the rails as fill-in host for Josh Graham.

We missed a break, so we probably should go ahead and do that. Those were the five things. Those were the five at 5 17 p.m. Those were the five things at five. You're welcome, sports listening audience of the greater Triad area. I'm Darren Vaught filling in for Josh Graham. My thanks to BG for stopping in for a little over an hour. You held out an hour for the Doc Rivers impersonation. Well worth it. Well worth it. We're going to hit a break and then try to finish up some sports radio for the day here on The Drive.

I'm Darren Vaught filling in for Josh Graham. Aha! Aha! Ha! Ha!