Yellow Flags

Glad to have you on this Wednesday Drive. WSJS, Deuce Talks Sports for the Triad. And oh what a difference a year and a Final Four trip can make. For Carolina Basketball, right before Thanksgiving last year, they had an underwhelming showing against a Big South team at home.

If memory serves correct, it was UNC Asheville. After the game, Brady Manick went scorched earth in a postgame press conference. He called the performance unacceptable, abysmal, scorched earth.

He went off. So we expected the same from Hubert Davis. And instead, when he walked out and sat down, it was the first time last year he called this basketball team national title worthy. He said he strongly believed this team could win a national championship. And in that spot, everybody kind of rolled their eyes at it. That's the spot that he chose to say that after they barely squeaked by UNC Asheville. Fast forward a year, North Carolina hosted the Big South's Gardner Webb last night, barely held on.

And rather than dish out sunshine and rainbows, it was a completely different vibe from Hubert Davis. It might have been the most upset I've seen him as a head coach thus far. Ten minutes of composed but pointed angst and disappointment.

Borderline rage. And this is what dawned on me as I was sitting in the front row of the presser. Last year's team needed encouragement. They needed positivity. They needed to be picked up in order to believe that they could do what they ultimately did.

Getting to the title game and probably should have won the game. Now that they've accomplished that, and many of the pieces on this team were a part of that process, it's kind of like parenting. You got to approach things a little bit differently now. When kids learn how to do something, then you can expect them to do those things again. And when they don't, with the understanding that you know they can do it in the first place, you become upset. And it's a different type of parenting that you try.

It's a different approach. This year's team needs tough love from Hubert Davis. And what we heard last night from Hubert, that was tough love.

He laid it all out there in a way I hadn't seen him do. He said the players at one point were doing the exact opposite of what he asked them to do. He even joked, man, if you just don't do what we say, that's one thing.

But it's harder to do the exact opposite of what we said than just doing the darn thing itself. He at one point insinuated that the team might be too focused on NIL deals and where they might stand in their NBA draft stock and dealing with all that nonsense. But here's the good news that he has, or at least the best news that he has. He doesn't see any red flags, but instead sees a lot of yellow flags. Now play a game with us.

W.D., find a way to market. How many yellow flags is Hubert Davis going to share with us after the game? I don't think there's a red flag in terms of our team. I think there's some yellow flags in terms of our toughness. I think there's yellow flags in terms of our sustained effort. I think there's some yellow flags in terms of our commitment to defense. I think there's some yellow flags in terms of our commitment to the scouting report and doing the things that you've been asked to do. I think there's some yellow flags in terms of getting to the offensive glass. I think there's some yellow flags in terms of sharing the basketball in terms of good to great. So I don't think there's any red flags, but there's a number of areas where there are some yellow flags. Six yellow flags. No idea what a yellow flag is. Red flag. We've got problems. White flag.

You're giving up. What is a yellow flag? Well, it could mean this is something that's very fixable. Like, again, like you said, red flag.

OK, this is this is a problem. Yellow flag is like if we put a little more effort forward and just do some certain thing. Have you ever heard anyone say yellow flag?

Maybe somewhere, but I've never heard that before. That might be what it means. It's like we can fix this. We just have to take care of a few things.

OK. I think that's accurate, but it also sounds like when Michael Jordan was creating language on the floor, the ceiling is the roof. We've got yellow flags here. That's what we're looking at. North Carolina has not fixed the rebounding problem yet. Out rebounded against Wilmington and Charleston.

Gardner Webb doesn't have anybody taller than 6'9 in their rotation. And Carolina was almost 50-50 on the glass with them. They were doubled up in paint scoring. And Hubert clearly believes the root of the problem is effort. It's not the players.

It's not the system. It's he believes the problem is an effort problem when it comes to rebounding. Let's listen to the way he reacted when I pointed out to him that R.J. Davis, the smallest player on his team, led them in rebound.

He out rebounded everybody. And it wasn't about technique because he wanted to get the ball. He wanted to take the charge.

So if we can get 18 guys that want to do that on a consistent basis, then we might have something here. My guy Gray writes in, it's a reference to NASCAR. Caution flag. OK, but who's ever referred to a caution flag as a yellow flag?

The color of it probably. And Hubert, he was a grand marshal at the Roval earlier this year. So maybe he is into racing like that.

That is the best explanation that I've heard thus far. But you heard Hubert there. If we had 18 guys that attacked the glass and had the type of effort that R.J. did, then I think we're a lot better off.

We're probably not talking about a lot of problems. These players should be counting their lucky stars that it's 2022 and not 1992 when Hubert was playing because Hubert looked like he wanted to keep the players after practice and have them run gassers as if he's Herb Brooks in the movie Miracle. Again. Again. Blow the whistle. Again.

This isn't speculation, either. Listen to Hubert talk about how ready he is to practice on Thursday. There's no lack of energy, effort and toughness in anything that I do.

So I don't need to rev it up. I'm always there. I can practice tonight. I can go tonight and we have to give them a day off tomorrow.

So I'm obligated by rules to do that. But I'm ready to go tonight. And so I can't wait for practice on Thursday.

I'm very excited about it. I'm ready to go. We have to give them a day off.

That's the only reason why we are not going to be running till two o'clock in the morning. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred feet. That's going to join us to talk to our heel basketball a little later on. Six man.

What do you got? Kyle, the Amazon driver, wants to see if he can explain the yellow flag thing to us. I would really appreciate that. Hey, Kyle. Hey, Josh, what's going on, brother?

Just trying to figure out what a yellow flag is. OK, so I'm going to try to because you did the parenting thing that was basically spot on. But I'm going to relate it to something that I'm going through right now. OK, you ready? I'm ready. We've talked about bowling a lot, right?

Sure. You've talked a lot about bowling. I have not talked a lot about bowling, but you are a bowling aficionado. Don't you play that game. You've taken an interest.

That's true. I did bowl. I did bowl on Sunday. Did not roll a three hundred. It's a good time.

But here's the thing. My son is a very good bowler. He is four years old. And he has some yellow flags. OK, the yellow flags are when he lets go of the bowling ball, he has a tendency to fall out on the lane for no reason.

Right. He's four years old. He has a tendency to celebrate when he throws the ball in between two pins, trying to pick up a split and doesn't hit anything. He laughs at you when you throw a gutter ball. Those are yellow flags when they become red flags, when he gets about five, six, seven, eight, when he gets to be twenty one years old. Josh, if he's still throwing the ball and falling out on the lane, we got a problem. That is a red flag.

Bring that back. North Carolina right now. We're chilling. We got yellow flags all over the place. OK, but here in a couple of weeks, we're going to run up against it with the Indiana and the ACC play.

We're going to run into a lot of big games. And if we're still making the same mistakes, those yellow flags that we see from Gardner Webb or whoever they played the last two weeks, that's going to be the red flag, because there is no reason why with this group they should still be making those same mistakes. So right now we're chilling. We've got yellow flags. It's perking our ears a little bit.

But there's no reason for us to go in there and say, hey, you need to quit that right now. Kyle, the Amazon driver. That is understandable. I might have a bone to pick with you, by the way. One of your people, I just got a package and there was a my product was broken inside. I picked it up. Product was broken. So I have to send that back. So, yeah.

Call Amazon support and tell them you want them fired because they're the reason I got to put up with all these dadgum rules now. Sounds about right. I would say that's a yellow flag. Thank you. No, no, no. That's a that's a black flag as in DQ.

Get them out of here. DQ. There it goes. Kyle, the Amazon driver with a really good explanation.

I think I understand completely now what yellow flags are. Appreciate the help on that front. All right.

I think all the levels are set. Showtime. We're on the drive with Josh Graham. Hashtag special shout out to Duke Media, like Connor O'Neill is sitting here right now, who last night he covers the Deeks, of course, had to follow the Duke game and wait for post game quotes and things like that from the Champions Classic in Indianapolis due to a double overtime game in the front end and a college football playoff announcement show in between the two games. Duke and Kansas didn't tip off till ten thirty local time because Indianapolis is in the eastern time zone because, you know, amateur sports. School night. Hey, let's play a game.

Ten thirty local time. That's what we're going to do. Duke lost to Kansas. And to me, it's hard to take anything away from this game, from a Duke perspective, because you didn't win the game and the standard so high at Duke that you're not in the business really of silver linings.

We don't really know exactly what Kansas is going to be. And Bill Self wasn't on the bench. He's still serving a suspension to start the year. And it's hard really to look at things that positively, aside from the fact that Dereek Whitehead, he dressed out for the first time.

He's not going to be available Friday, according to John Shire, after the game, but could be available as early next week. We don't quite know what it's going to look like until he's out on the floor. So it is a total shrug your shoulders. We have no idea what these teams are going to be or what Duke specifically is going to be as the season progresses, which makes assessing last night hard. Do you agree? No, I think there is 100% a silver lining for Duke. I think they matured a ton between the start of the game in the area that, you know, the ball is going to be in Jeremy Roach's hands. Kyle Filipowski knows how physical he can play and can grind it out against a decent like Kansas's front court. Duke is going to play better ones, but Kansas's front court is certainly a lot better than USC Upstate and Jacksonville, all due respect. I thought Mark Mitchell grew up a lot last night, a little bit of a rough start to the game for him. Tyrese Proctor had been a non-factor almost offensively for the first five halves of Duke's season and all of a sudden hits elbow jumper and three pointer and it's like, oh, so that's why people are talking about this guy being a one and done.

Wow. I just, I think the only negative to that game last night for Duke, other than the loss, is they're not going to have a surefire bonafide Q1 win on their resume come selection Sunday in four months. I think that... Unless you get to the proper games in the Phil Knight.

Yeah, it's just one more, like it's one less Q1 win. Absolutely. Just, you know, that was a growing experience for Ryan Young. He looked pretty bad. That doesn't mean he's going to look bad all year. Like he can elevate his game.

He's still going to have spots where he can be effective. Derek Lively is still getting into the flow of things coming off the calf injury. Mitchell came on in the second half. Derek Lively said after the game against USC Upstate that he was still a step or two behind in his conditioning.

And that doesn't get ironed out in the four days between USC Upstate and playing Kansas. He's still coming on. He's still getting back. It's going to be the same case for Durek Whitehead. And Durek Whitehead missed a lot more of the preseason than Lively did.

So yeah, you lost. I always, not always, I've covered Duke for one plus season, but last year there was a learning curve that came with losing at Ohio State. The learning curve comes earlier this year. Like this gives you a chance to ramp the experience level that kind of gelling that comes after your first loss. And it can only come after you lose a game.

That comes quicker now. Here was Jon Shire after the loss against Kansas. I thought just the emotions for our young guys, you know, first game goes double overtime. So you're, we went on there three times to warm up and just, there's, you know, first time playing a game outside of camera.

It's all, there's, there's a lot of different emotions you feel. And, you know, I think for our guys right now, it's, they know we can be a lot better. Duke will be back in action on Friday night.

Connor O'Neill is in studio with us here, moving the conversation over to the Jon Shire piece of it. It was really for me the first time I noticed it was noticeable. Coach K wasn't on the bench. And maybe that's because you played an opponent that could beat you, number one. Number two, I talked about officiating. Coach K got calls the same way Michael Jordan got calls the same way other noteworthy figures in that sport got calls. It's not really a conspiracy when it comes to really good officials like Roger Ayers who might be the best in college basketball last night. No, Jon Shire will learn how to ride refs.

And the more gains he wins, the more respect you'll get. That's kind of how that thing works. The reaction to it, how big the game felt, those are things that stood out to me.

Did anything stand out to you? I couldn't help but looking at, okay, Kansas is up three. There's 48, 55 seconds, something like that left. And Kansas has possession and Duke has three fouls. Even if Duke wanted to foul and get into the bonus, they're going to burn a bunch of time with fouls to give. And then when Duke actually went to foul, you saw Jalen Blake should have been called for a flagrant.

He basically body checked somebody. It was boarding if the hockey board was there. But under Coach K, they would never have had just three fouls in that spot.

No, and it's kind of funny. You're talking about Jon Shire would have been able to work the refs. And here we're talking about Duke has only been called for three second half fouls, 19 and a half minutes into the second half. Is a flopping technical being called on Duke if Roger Ayers has to bring that foul over to Coach K's bench? No, and especially, I mean, I did not see that play, but I was listening on the radio and David Shoemate and Jon Roth had it pegged perfectly that not only was it not a flop, it was a shooting foul. Like if Tyrese Proctor was hit on the arm and he gets called for a flop, there's, I mean, the jacket's coming off, if they're still wearing jackets, some shades of face are changing.

You know, there's, there's some pointing going on. I just got really sad in a moment when I said the jacket's coming off because that's something that we're not going to have anymore. We don't have, we don't have the jackets. I guess you could pull the pullover off.

You could do that. You can't really take the jacket off anymore. Ode to Jim Boeheim. Wake football this Saturday. What is still left to play for for the Dukes?

I know Dave Clawson says the deal. Oh, there's still so much here. Is there? The thing I'm most interested in, I don't know that they think of it this way. I think they probably don't.

The thing I'm most interested in is how the senior class or whoever chooses to be in the senior class versus the guys that could come back for their extra year writes their final chapter. Like this, this kind of feels like we've come to the end of an energy cycle, you know? Yeah. The, the shot at winning the Atlantic and getting back to Charlotte has been gone for a few weeks now.

It probably really was gone on September 24th, around four thirty in the afternoon or something like that. But now you're six and four, you're up against it. You've lost three straight games. Are you just gonna fold? Are you gonna go through the motions like you have during the start of games for most of the season? Or are you going to pick yourself up? Are you going to write one glowing piece you know, we're, we're only going to get the first third of the chapter this weekend.

We'll get the second third when they go to Duke and we'll get the third third in the final game. But how are you going to end your careers is what I want to see. Is this going to end like the COVID season in 2020 where it just kind of ended with a thud? Or is it going to end like when you went on that run with Jamie Newman and company and made something good at the end of the season? Get your morning off to a great start with Jeffrey Griffin on Triad today.

Weekday mornings at seven. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. W.D.? We tried to warn them. Colgate takes down Syracuse last night. Appalachian State. Hashtag take the stairs. Took those stairs up to the Yum Center.

Survived in a thriller. Needed a review to take a basket off the board. They win at Louisville. App State coach Dustin Kern is going to be our guest in about a dozen minutes from now. And Duke fell against Kansas last night. It was a scary night for the ACC after they went 0 for 2 on Monday night with Boston College losing to Maine and Florida State. Boston College falling to 0 and 3.

That's why if you're a winner, even if it's ugly, you probably shouldn't be that all that upset today. Wake Forest fans looking at you. Carolina basketball fans looking at you to a degree.

But this is a positive you should take from last night if you are wearing the lighter shade of blue. It became clear who's basketball team this really is. R.J. Davis is the guy. As the kids say, R.J. Davis is him. That's what we saw. Double double, 10 points, 10 rebounds.

Making defensive plays to get it done. Whenever anyone talks about North Carolina, it feels like Caleb Love gets a lot of the attention. And yes, he's more flashy. He's the one that hit the iconic shots against UCLA and against Duke. That's what's going to be immortalized in that title run. Armando Bacot is such a beloved player. He put up the gaudy numbers and he falls into the lineage of North Carolina centers.

Going to break a ton of records. Those guys are good and all. But R.J. Davis is the guy who makes this team go.

But don't just take it from me. Hubert Davis said this was the case when I asked him about it last night. R.J. is the heart of this team.

Plain and simple, period. When he goes well, we go well. And he's exactly, he's the perfect example of a Carolina basketball player that does it at a high level, not only on the court, but in the community and in the classroom. For him, it was the second double double that he's had. The first one was in a national championship game.

I told him this was the first one with a win. R.J. Davis is the heart and soul of this basketball team. Offensively, he's become a solid point guard. When both R.J. and Caleb arrived, the book on both of them was not really great shooters, not really true point guards, really good playmakers though that can get you a bucket if you need a bucket.

And since their first year, Caleb's game has not changed all that much. He's still going to pull some shots that he probably shouldn't and probably knock down some of those shots. He's a pretty decent bad shot maker. R.J. though, his games evolved and gotten better year to year, which tells me a lot about his work ethic, tells me a lot about his 1-2 and how much he cares, what he's added to his game. Towards the end of last year, it's not a coincidence that Carolina's fortunes changed when R.J. became the point guard, when the offense ran through him. When Carolina won at Duke in Coach K's last game at Cameron, R.J. was the best player on the floor. When North Carolina survived Baylor in what was their most difficult game up until the national title game, R.J. was the best player on the floor that night.

And that's not a coincidence. Offensively, he's become a semi-reliable shooter, he's a solid point guard, I can't say that about Caleb Love right now, and he's reminding everybody just how much he cares by how he hits the glass. He is the smallest guy in the North Carolina lineup, and he led the team in rebounds.

He had more rebounds than Mr. Baycott, more rebounds than Pete Nance, more rebounds than Leaky Black, he had more rebounds than anybody. And some might view that as being a red flag for North Carolina, I view that as being a really good sign about the type of player you have in R.J. Davis. And he's taken defense seriously. That's an area you could knock him.

He's a guy you kind of have to hide defensively, but he's gotten better in that area. Again, going back to that work ethic. He's focused on that. Leadership, it's a word that gets thrown around a lot.

What does it look like? For R.J., it's been leading by example, but also speaking more, being more verbal about it. These are all things, rebounding, defense, leadership, these are things we talked about after the game and here's how it sounded. He out-rebounded everybody.

Caught up with R.J. Davis after the game. Is that an area of your game you feel like you might not get enough credit for, attacking the board? Yeah, I mean I've always been a good rebounder since my younger days, high school, even as a kid. But it's an underrated part of my game that I don't think gets a lot of notice. But I just keep my head down and just continue to do what I got to do. How about the defensive side of your game, more specifically that outside charge that you took with you? Yeah, I mean that's been a big uplift for my game this year.

It's been one of my goals is to get better on defense. Kind of that charge that you kind of just joke with my coaches over there. Because they say I never take charges, so I'll definitely have that for them. Who's the coach that says you don't take charges? Coach Sully and Coach Lebo.

They get on me by not taking charges, so I'm definitely going to show that clip to them. What was the message from Coach Davis? Just being ready for Thursday's practice and James Madison coming up. I appreciate the team. You've got to find the joy in the game and the practices. I think our main thing is we're just trying to be perfect right now.

That's not how, you know, it's a long season. You said that? Yeah. Is that something you've been trying to pick up more of, being the vocal leader? Yeah, being the vocal leader, just being the uplift energy guy. Coming to practice, coming to the game, shooting rounds, whatever it is, just the uplift of energy. Kind of just bringing happiness and smiles throughout the whole team.

And that's been like my main thing, just being that vocal leader and just being the person who I am. It's good to catch up with RJ after the game and that charge that he took at the end of the game. That was the biggest defensive play of the game. It was in a two possession game. Gardner Webb gets a basket there.

Things could get really hairy. And who knows, maybe we're talking about a Tar Heel loss today if RJ doesn't make that play. But this has become RJ Davis's team.

That was made clear last night. It's about that time. The sixth man of Tar Heel basketball, Bidat, is joining us from the great state of Connecticut for some reason.

We've got video now as part of this. And we're going to play grammar school in just a little bit. But Bidat, why are you in Connecticut?

How are you doing, my friend? I can hear you just as long as we turn down some of the Gucci Mane in here. We're new at this. Why was Gucci Mane playing? I'm new at the video thing, Dot.

Yeah, I'm new at this. We were playing Gucci Mane really loudly as if it was circa 2011. Tell your producer to tighten up, man. Just jamming. See, it used to be that I used to really rock to some Gucci Mane.

Really? What was his nickname? Little Guwop? Is that right? Yeah, Guwop. That's right.

Big fan. See, my hip hop knowledge does not need a grammar school. It doesn't. Like talking about the naked man, D'Angelo, and speaking about, you know. You're the only one that calls him the naked man, Josh Brown.

That's not true. Thing me and Bomani Jones talked about a handful of times. A little bit of a name drop there.

Why are you in Connecticut? Chris Paul, a good friend of mine, is having an HBCU tip off here in Connecticut. That's a name drop. What did you say? That was what? That's a name drop, too. It's pretty good.

It wasn't a name drop. That's why I'm here. You're asking me while I'm here. Chris Paul is having this HBCU tip off and I'm the host for the event. So we had two games on yesterday and two games today.

I'm talking about if you listen, you can still hear the band playing like I'm in the back dressing room right now. I just ran off the court. I just gave the union their trophies. I just gave the MVP their trophies and then I hauled tail to get back here so that I can make my five-thirty obligations to the Josh Graham show. Is Chris Paul able to be a part of it at all? Because I know Phoenix is playing Golden State tonight.

Absolutely. So he sent video messages. On Monday we had a banquet and he sent a video message there to everyone. Then he had video messages during the games for the fans.

It was the exact same video that was just played five or six or seven times. But that's not to hear no death. He's not here, unfortunately. But it is awesome, Joe, to be here at the Mohegan Sun. This is where the Connecticut Suns, WNBA team, this is where they play as a 10,000-seat spot here in the casino. Dude, I didn't even realize you were at Mohegan Sun. I spent a week out at Mohegan Sun, man, I'll tell you what. This place is gorgeous. It's easy to find stuff to do between walking from your hotel room to the floor.

It takes about five minutes. Dude, we were at town last night eating. I want to try Michael Jordan Steakhouse tonight. Yes, Michael Jordan Steakhouse is in there, yeah. Dude, this is crazy. They've got a convenience store here. It's titled Everything Under the Sun.

I've been putting them to the test. They've got Everything Under the Sun in that place. They better because, man, around this time, I remember it was a Thanksgiving tournament. I was out that way, and I looked outside, and it looked like the day after tomorrow. So they better have everything inside.

You stayed here. So did you see that across the street, that big house up the hill? Oh, yeah. Dude, I want to know who lives there. That house is as big as Four Seasons Mall. Yeah.

A lot of rich, happy people live in the state of Connecticut. B. Dot, did you get a chance to listen to Hubert Davis's press conference yesterday? Only the 61-second clip that you sent me when he was pointing out the yellow flags. When I get to my room, I want to hear the entire press conference, and I want to hear from the players as well. It was the most upset I've heard Hubert Davis in a press conference the last year and change, and I don't think it's because he was legitimately more upset than he was at times last year. I think the way that he's handling the team is different. It's like, last year, they needed the encouragement. So when they got beat by Miami and Wake Forest by 20-plus points in back-to-back games, and the team's expected to run gassers at practice the next day, and instead, they have Hubert picking up the team and encouraging them, that's what that team needed to get to the Final Four. This year's team, now that they know and Hubert knows that this team is capable of it, and the players know that they're capable of doing it, it seems like the expectation, the standard in which he expects night in and night out that these guys should play better is different. So it seems like now Hubert's approach, and this is what I took away from him speaking last night, and even in the one-minute clip that you saw, maybe there's some not verbatim that we can do amongst that, it seems to me Hubert's approach is more tough love with this year's team versus the pick-me-up guy from what we saw a year ago. Well, absolutely, and I appreciate that. It's like parenting, right?

When you're parenting, Josh, you'll learn this in the next couple of years or so, God willing, but you have to parent different at different ages and different stages of your children's life. You know, there are times where you have to give them more support, but once you know that they do know right from wrong, once you do know and they have displayed that they can participate in life on a certain level, there's certain things that you just expect from them, and you expect more energy, you expect more effort, you expect more toughness from this Carolina team, and it's a lot of that that you're not seeing in certain points. I've been very disappointed in things that I've heard Armando say when he comes out and says that, you know, I didn't come out with the right energy. Yeah, he needs to keep that sound bite until he turns into the Armando that we expected to see this year was the National Player of the Year. Armando's our leader, man. Even when our team wasn't very good, Armando was the one that we could always count on that will bring 100% heart. He was the one who always will bring it every game.

So for him to say things like, I didn't bring it at the beginning of the game, and that's why I have one point and one rebound at halftime, and then you come out and score 27 points, it's like, that doesn't impress me, Armando, because we're expecting you to do that, set the tone up top. The women's team just beat the wheels off South Carolina State like 93 to 25. We're not expecting to beat teams to that magnitude, but we are expecting to be able to impose our will and be more dominant against teams like Gardner Webb, you know, and I appreciate HD from the way he's coaching this team this season, and you know, I hope that we can continue to stack wins, which is very important, but also we can learn from these very, very close wins. If they play that way on Sunday, they're going to lose to James Madison. James Madison's the best team that they've played so far this year, and that's Sunday. James Madison is averaging 102 points a game. Watch out for them on Sunday.

They got to play better for that game. BDOT's joining us, six man of Tar Heel basketball, hanging out with us from Connecticut before we get to grammar school. You said that Armando is the leader of this team? Man, I think it's RJ, man.

I do. I think it is, and he's talking about how he wants to do it vocally, and he's starting to do that more. He took a charge last night where it was a really important one towards the end of the game. He had a double-double. He led the team in rebounds, man, and he's just the type of guy you could see with his work ethic that he's adding things to his game every single week feels like, or every single year, I should say. He's adding stuff to his game, and that's just a sign that he's a really hard worker. I think this is RJ Davis's basketball team.

I really do. I love the decision-making that RJ, and I think that he is our premier guard. Because he is the premier guard, in my opinion, his decision-making is going to have to be top-notch, which it has been in most cases. Because he has the ball a lot more, he'll control the tempo, but this team's heartbeat is Armando.

That's no doubt about it, and it's been that way for a year. Armando. Again, he's the guy who recruits players, basketball players and football players.

He's just that guy. He's the energy, and this team goes as he goes motor-wise, and he hasn't been the Armando that we expected. Now, again, I was very vocal in saying that I did not think that Armando would have the season that he had last year, and people were upset with me.

And it was almost to the same reason why I didn't think Garrison Brooks would have the secondary great season that he had when he had all the preseason acknowledgement. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. And Charlotte, I thought I said that. Hey, man, don't think he's going to be player of the year, and this is why.

And you got upset with me, as if I was a hater. No way. Because here's my thing, and we can check the tape, Josh, but I've been very vocal in saying that last year was a freaking year where he was better than Tim Duncan. You think nobody's been better than Tim Duncan since Tim Duncan. You think Armando's going to be better than Tim Duncan? No, no, no. See, okay, good.

Me and you and I are on the same page. I don't think he's going to put up those types of numbers, Tim Duncan numbers, not because he can't do it. He's not capable of doing it. He doesn't need to.

There it is. He doesn't need to do that. If he is putting up those types of numbers, then this team's more limited, or just as limited as they were a year ago.

Right. He was playing 40 minutes a game last season. He's not going to have to do that this season.

So it's going to look like a falloff, but it's really not. But again, I think that Armando is our heartbeat. And that doesn't mean that he's going to play the best. He's going to play the best every game. But if he comes out flat, nine times out of 10, the team's going to come out flat. But one thing before we get to grammar school, I just want to say to RJ, because he's having a very tough week.

I mean, the idea that he just lost one of his good friends, Jiggy. And, you know, him having his second career double double last night, the first one he ever had was in the national championship last year. I do agree with you that I think he's the one who's gotten the best from year to year. I think he's gotten better from year to year, but more than anyone else. And I do think that he's going to be very integral to us making a run for Natty B Dot is hanging out with us.

Always love catching up with him. It's about time that we get to grammar school. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking in high school.

He didn't play sports, but he did wear a helmet. And just when you think it can't get any worse. My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high.

Thanks a lot. Next semester I'll be 35. Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm from the old school. I got street knowledge. You know what I mean?

You know what I'm saying? It's time for B Dot's grammar school. And it's sponsored, Dot. It's sponsored.

Let them know who our sponsor is, JG. Heritage hardwood floors. You want to talk about superior craftsmanship? They got that taken care of.

I do not have superior wordmanship, especially when it comes to words of the urban vernacular. But heritage hardwood floors, they have, they do fantastic work on homes and businesses and churches and heck, even at the Gain Center. Absolutely. My alma mater, Winston-Salem State University just did the floor over there and it is BA-utiful. Check it out. And fellas, ask your lady. Every woman loves hardwood.

More info you can find online at heritagehardwoodfloors.ws. No better reading the business. I'm sorry. Pretty good. Pretty good at this.

All right. So this is grammar school. I have three words or phrases of the urban vernacular for Joshua Graham, but this is season two. We kick off season three, January 1st. Season two, Joshua Graham likes to throw out a caustic word for me.

What is the word Joshua Graham? You're in what state again? Connecticut, Yukon, home of the Huskies.

Oh yeah. Yukon plays in a place called the XL Center, which used to be the Hartford Civic Center. And there used to be a major professional sports franchise that called that building home. It's an NHL team that is now the Carolina Hurricanes. A team left Hartford to North Carolina to become the Carolina Hurricanes. What was the name of that Hartford franchise? The Hartford Canucks. The Hartford Whalers is what we were looking for. Whaler Nation. See if we can find the Hartford Whaler theme song.

I'm sure B-dot might enjoy that if we can dig that later on. So the Carolina Hurricanes started out in Hartford, Connecticut. That's right. That's crazy. Learn something new every day. If you didn't know. Now you know. Okay. Alright. What does it mean, Josh Graham, to be heavy?

H-E-A-V-Y. Heavy. I'm going to give you a sentence to help you out. Not like Lizzo heavy?

That's disrespectful and it is not funny. Heavy. This is your sentence. If I said that someone was heavy in the streets. Heavy.

What does heavy mean? I took that expression from you, by the way. You would describe me. You would always say that I sweat Lizzo heavy. So you are always the one to say that. That's because you do. And I'm glad I got the video now, man, so people can see.

I see you've been very particular in your wardrobe selections now that y'all been on the cameras, too. Yeah. Shout out to the folks in Charlottesville. Still thinking about those folks. For real.

All right. Heavy in the streets. I'm going to say. Active present. That's what it means. That's what it means to be heavy in the streets. Like if somebody is heavy in the streets, they are always in the streets.

There are always around. That's what it means to be heavy in the streets now. Gosh, you know what? Right when I was about to tell you, no, you're wrong.

You just started adding on and adding on to it where I think you might be right. Heavy in the streets is just very well known in this. Yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to say. For real. Dead ass. But what if you're not around like you might be heavy in sports radio, but that doesn't mean you're you're all around everywhere, but you just have people know your name. I'm going to go to my producer, W.D.

Josh Graham. The point for that. See, the example I was going to give was me being heavy in the A.C.C.

basketball streets where I'm I'm always at games. That's the example I was going to get. Dot, we'll give him a good start. We'll give it to him. All right. Fine. Fine. Point. Correct. First point.

Heavy in the streets. All right. Your second word, Josh Graham.

This comes from the producer, so you cannot use him as a lifeline. Yeah, I'm out to the point where I didn't even know what this word was. Joshua Graham.

So good freakin luck. Choochie. Choochie. Choochie. Choochie. Choochie.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. Are we sure this is Afro centric? It can be.

Well, wait a minute. First of all, it has nothing to do with being Afro centric. Those are that's not grammar school. Grammar school is urban vernacular.

There are a lot of white urbanites, so it's not anything about Afro nothing. That's right. Sorry. Choochie. Yeah. I like watching you squirm Josh Graham Paul. Three, three, six. And the urban vernacular with his beanie.

Got his hornets beanie on. I'm about it. We are streaming online at WSJS radio on Twitter, the YouTube channel, the drive with Josh Graham.

Nobody is. Oh, we're live. Live action. Live action Josh. I don't know what Choochie is.

Yeah, just take your L. Nobody wants to call and help you today, huh? Or they just don't know what this is because it sounds like a made up word by WD. It is not made up. What is it? It's not. I have to Google it. I Googled it and I pulled it up in urban dictionary.

Yeah, really? A phase. What is it? Let them know what it is.

WD. Essentially what it is is something that used to be trendy. That is not anymore.

Or, yeah, it's like something that you did or war back in middle school or high school that you still as an adult try and do. And it ain't cool. No mo.

Is this segment? Don't say no mo. Like platinum fubu. Don't wear no platinum fubu. Okay.

With the little cartoons and stuff on it. This segment isn't Choochie, right? Just checking. Correct. Okay.

What is the last word? Got me bent. What does it mean if I say you got me bent?

Okay. I know what been the block means where you would circle the block a few times. Actually, I spin the block and Drake and 21 Savage have a song about it. You said curved the block.

It was just said three different things. Bend the block or spin the block. Never curved the block. We've never curved the block. The block has never been curved.

That's a cul de sac. We're talking about spending the block and bending the block. Not curving it. Not curving it.

Heritage hardwood floors by Jenny from the block. Shut up. Stop.

Stop. What? I said, what about Jenny from the block? It's been the block is what I was thinking from a Nicki Minaj song. That's what I was thinking of. Got me bent.

Yeah. You got me bent. I'm going to say you've you've got me annoyed.

You've pushed me over the top. You've got me bent, man. I'm annoyed. I'm bothered.

Got me bent is when technically it's meaning I have been misunderstood and now I'm very upset about it. Josh, that is 100% correct. Out of three in grammar school today. That's now an ancient reference.

It's almost 15 years old now. All right. We got to go. It's good to see you.

Get back out there. Hey, you're going to be at the game Sunday. WD will see you Sunday. WD later. I should be at the football game on Saturday though. There goes B dot six man of Carolina basketball.