I'm Ready To Go, Tonight

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

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taken the wind out of my safety. It's time for The Drive with Josh Grant.

We've made it to a Friday drive. WSJS news talk sports for the Triad, where this weekend we've got two ACC football games being played in our own backyard and two that are quite a ways away in Pittsburgh and in Louisville. But let's start with the team that's ranked number 13 in the country. And word to the Tar Heels, can you please beat somebody without being dramatic about it?

Because they've been like the high school teenager all season long. Here's what I'm picturing WD. I'm picturing the Plastics and Mean Girls. Since you watched the Rachel McAdams Wedding Crashers movie a couple days back, that might be next on your list. I take it you haven't seen Mean Girls before?

I have not. Okay, noted. Gonna write that down. Maybe we can introduce you to Regina George sometime soon.

WD is the executive producer of this show. And sure, getting back to Carolina, the Tar Heels, they've done what's asked of them. But there's always a yeah, but.

There's always something that comes with it. It's never easy. This season, Carolina has played games. They've won nine games this year. So they've played 10 overall.

And only one of them has come easy. That was Virginia Tech, which is the worst team in the entire league. Oh, but Josh, they won handily against Florida A&M. They beat FAMU bad. They took care of business against Pittsburgh. There was no drama in those games, right?

Wrong. I was at the FAMU opener. And I seem to remember with about 10 seconds left to go in the first half, it was only a one touchdown game. And Carolina had to play 60.

Pittsburgh, WD was there. They led by, what, 10 points in the second half before Carolina went on that run and made it look a lot better than what it was? If North Carolina is legitimately one of the dozen or so best teams in America, you've got to take care of your business when you play teams like Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech, especially without their quarterback, Jeff Sims. Without Jeff Sims in the lineup, Carolina should win this game and they should be able to pick a number.

Hey, we're going to win by this many points. With Jeff Sims in the lineup, Georgia Tech's a 500 team. They're one of the 10 best teams in the league, I think, when he's healthy.

They're three and three in games that he has started and finished. Without them, the only team I think that's worse is Virginia Tech. Without them, they get beat last weekend by Miami by 21 points? By three touchdowns? That terrible Miami team beat Georgia Tech by three touchdowns. Good teams win, great teams cover, and the line is fittingly 21 points for tomorrow night's game. Here are my expectations. North Carolina is going to start slow because you're still feeling the remnants of a celebration winning the Coastal Division and everybody's telling you you're awesome and looking ahead to NC State and looking ahead to Clemson, there's some look ahead factor, but the Tar Heels are going to end up winning this game by three scores.

Will they cover? We'll see. North Carolina 38, Georgia Tech 21. As for Wake Forest, they should beat Syracuse tomorrow. Whether or not they will is a completely different matter because they likely should have beaten Carolina last week and State the week before that and certainly Louisville the week before that. The ACC Network studio show The Huddle will be broadcasting live from Winston Salem all day tomorrow and ESPN's Jen Latta who's been working on a Sam Hartman feature for the last couple of months. She's going to join the show in a little bit less than 10 minutes.

Right across the parking lot from Truis Field, the Carolina Thunderbirds will be at home this weekend. Wait, what is this? What could that mean? It's not even March. What? No. Is this the March Madness music? But we have action specifically right now. Oh boy. Wake Forest, they're down in Jamaica, but they're not on vacation.

No, no, no, no, no, no. They are playing right now. They are playing in the Jamaica Classic. They just came out of the half and the Deacs, they lead it by a point right now. Andrew Carr leads scoring for the Deacs right now with 10. Who are they playing? LaSalle. I forgot to mention that. The Explorers. Yeah.

LaSalle, okay. Ty Appleby's got five points. Davey Williamson's got two. How many points does Ty Appleby have?

Hope one minute. I got to cut my music. You got to be ready. You got to be ready, W.D. I got five. If you're going to interrupt me with Ty Appleby having five points, you got to tell us what he's got.

I got five. Okay. So I guess we're doing that today. Wake Forest by one.

Yeah. What I was trying to say, though, the Carolina Thunderbirds are going to be at home this weekend. We've got two chances for you to win tickets on the show. When you hear the queue, it's your you call in this hour and later on in the show as well.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one six hundred. Save the phone number. You will have multiple chances to win tickets to tomorrow night's game at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex. Speaking of ACC basketball, I was going to get there.

Our show is going to be shortened today, 30 minutes due to Duke basketball pregame. But the marquee game tonight is Virginia and Baylor. Of course, our hearts are still with the folks in Charlottesville. Virginia wasn't. Virginia didn't play their home game Monday night against Northern Iowa the day after the tragic events transpired over there. But this is a valuable data point that we have tonight because this really is a top 10 matchup. Virginia is ranked 16th, but there are not 10 teams in the country better than this Virginia team. And Baylor's ranked fifth and they are rightfully ranked there.

There are adults playing on both of these teams. You don't see that across college basketball. It's a bunch of young teams trying to figure it out and hopefully you're peaking when it matters most in March, not with Virginia and Baylor.

A lot of guys who have been around and thus this is a really important game and it's a telling game being played in Vegas. The ACC really could use a win. It's been a bad week PR wise for the ACC. Florida State's 0-3, Louisville's 0-3, Duke lost in the Champions Classic to Kansas. A win in Vegas for Virginia could go a long way knowing that you have a legit title contender in North Carolina and another down there in Charlottesville.

That isn't to say there aren't landmines tonight though. Don't really think Duke has a problem with Delaware, the Blue Hens coming in, but FSU might start 0-4. They're at home tonight, but you got Florida coming in.

So that's far from a gimme. Bellarmine, who's going to be in Cameron on Monday night. A week after it took down an ACC team in Louisville, they're at the Clemson Tigers. That's another winnable game for Bellarmine. Boston College, they are facing George Mason in the Bahamas tonight. Boston College. There it is.

And as W.D. mentioned, the second half just getting underway. Wake Forest up 4 on LaSalle. ESPN's top features reporter, Jen Latta, I believe she's in Bozeman, Montana, where College Game Day is going to be tomorrow. She will tell us about Sam Hartman's side of the story just from a few months ago. The story that she's been working on for a few months now that's going to air tomorrow on the ACC network when Jen joins us next on The Drive.

Check this out. We're on it. The perfect blend of sports and pop culture happens this evening at six with the Rich Eisen Show.

OK, let's get this show rolling. Now back to The Drive with Josh Graham. Starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow, the huddle on ACC Network, Eric Matplain, Jordan Cornett and the guys will be broadcasting from Winston-Salem at Truist Field leading up to the eight o'clock Wake Forest Syracuse game, where you could argue the greatest quarterback in Wake's history going to be playing his final game in Winston-Salem and Sam Hartman. And tomorrow on the huddle show in the morning, Jen Latta will have a story that I've been waiting for somebody to tell for the last few months or so ever since we learned about what Sam was going through back in August and some of the uncertainty that was in the air, whether or not he would play this season, whether he'd be able to play it all again. Jen Latta now joins us from ESPN.

Again, you can watch that on ACC Network tomorrow morning. Jen, I remember the day we learned about it. Dave Claussen met with us in the media and he said numerous times, this is a great story to tell and you're all going to learn it whenever the story is told. It seems like you have that story. So I'll ask you what makes it such a great story?

Oh, there's so many things. And first of all, thanks for having me on guys to talk about this story. I think you're right. You know, Sam Hartman is by all accounts the heartbeat of that Wake Forest team. He has been for so many years. We're seeing a lot of athletes now who have stuck with their program. Even though we're in this age of the transfer portal and guys making the jump to the pros, that COVID year, it feels like is letting us know some of these guys better than we ever would.

Some of these guys who are sticking around for a sixth year because of that COVID year and just to love what college football offers and just the environment of college football. And I think I say all of those things as a preface to that's who Sam Hartman is. You know, we were introduced to Sam, if you're a football fan, years and years and years ago, when he was on the show QB1, Beyond the Lights, you know, one of those like Netflix type shows, and you're getting to know these young kids who might be the future faces of programs. And Sam has always been a football guy. He has, he breathes the sport. He eats, sleeps and breathes the sport.

And I'm not telling you guys anything you don't know. So when he got the news that his football career may be over because of this medical situation he found himself in, I mean, you can imagine he was devastated. His family was very upset.

You know, we always talk about your health is first and foremost, the priority, mental health and extension of that, of course. But like the thing that Sam told us, and we will reveal tomorrow on the ACC Network, what in fact it was that Sam was dealing with and all of the symmetry that came together to make this story just really remarkable. But he sat there in that hospital room and he recharted his life, guys. I mean, he told us how he's a fisherman. He's always loved fishing.

It has given him peace. And so there were, there were some hours a day or so in there where he had recharted his whole plan. He was going to, you know, move down to where his parents are. He was going to buy a fishing boat.

He had the name of the fishing boat all picked out. And he was going to, you know, spend the next few years of his life living on a fishing boat. And that would be his existence because he couldn't imagine staying at Wake Forest, continuing to watch the football team go on without him. And so ultimately, you know, his, his, his journey took a great turn where he was able to get back on the field and kind of this really heroic fashion.

But we're talking about somebody who was told at one point that he may be done playing the game that he loves that has defined him for so long. And so you can imagine that that was a really difficult and challenging moment for Sam Hartman. Take me back to that day in August, though, I believe it was a Tuesday evening when it happened that we didn't learn about it until the following morning. But when I started to visit with coaches off the record and folks were over there about what exactly happened, they wouldn't ever get into specifics, of course. But the thing that they kept going back to was there were a few hours there on that Tuesday where they had no idea what was going to happen. And there was real concern in that Wake Forest facilities, in those facilities.

What exactly were you told about that night? Yeah, so the great news is, you know, in college game day and in this space, and I'm sure you're the same way, like you build relationships with these people. And as you mentioned on Twitter this morning, we had sat down with Sam Hartman last year to tell the story of his brother dying by suicide. And these are heavy stories that we tell full of a lot of emotion. You have to build a trust with these athletes and with their families.

And we were fortunate enough to have done that with him last year. So when this went down, I immediately reached out to Sam, not as a journalist, but as somebody who had developed a relationship with him and his family to say, hey man, whatever you're going through, like we're praying for you. You know, you got a fan in us for life for what he has been through and what he and his family have overcome. And it was just like, if you ever want to talk about it, you just let us know. And at the time he did keep it very close to the vest. And I'm sure it was because there was a lot of uncertainty about what his future held. And so the good news is that then, you know, we did reach out to him a little bit later as things started to make a turn.

And that's when he was like, this is going to be one hell of a story when I get the chance to tell it. It was very clear that they still wanted to clear some hurdles to get him back out on the field. But what I can tell you is the doctors that we spoke to about what Sam was facing, they all say his recovery and his rehab was remarkable. Like for what he was dealing with, they tell people like three months recovery time minimum, you know, and so you expected that like he would have missed the rest of this college football season, but they gave him a glimmer of hope. And with Sam Hartman, that's all he needs, right?

He just needs that one little story or iota of, well, there was this one person who recovered from this in three weeks or four weeks. And that's all that Sam needed was that carrot to be dangled in front of him to say, well, if that guy did it, I can do it as well. And then pushed himself through the rehab process to get back out there on the field with his guys. Because, Josh, that's most important to Sam Hartman. He loves spending time with his teammates. He loves the camaraderie. He loves the relationships that he has developed and has with those other athletes.

And that was the thing he would have missed the most had football been taken away from him. Jen Latta is with us here from ESPN and you've the story tomorrow you can watch on ACC Network on the huddle show in the morning and you you're right building relationships is such an important thing and you had that story on his brother Dimitri last year at Elon and you told that story so well. I know for college game day our friend Andrea Adelson is in Charlottesville working on some stuff and I can't imagine trying to explore that space and try to tell player stories when that program's hurting so much. But when you are a reporter and you're trying to build relationships but also tell a story, how do you go about earning the trust of Sam Hartman and his family and ensuring them that the story that you're going to tell is a fair one and a true one? I think Josh it goes back to personal integrity and that's not me saying like oh I'm so great it just means that that's something I take very seriously. I have said for years they're not my stories to tell so it doesn't matter how I want to you know dramatize these moments it's being respectful and honoring the stories of these people who have actually gone through it and I think you know you do gain some equity and you gain some momentum when you do a good job on one story and then you do a good job on another story and you know I can't even tell you the number of people who when I set foot in their living room they mentioned to me that they saw another story that we had done or when they heard that I was assigned their story they googled my name and then watched some of the pieces that we have done on college game day and we have an exceptional reputation. One we have some of the most talented people in the college football space on that show but two everybody holds themselves to a really high standard and nobody wants to be the weak link try saying that twice weak link in the chain and so I think we're really lucky you know to to you have the support support of the ESPN brand you have the support of the college game day brand you have a reputation that you have cultivated now I've been on the show for seven years of telling you know not just powerful stories but authentic and honest stories and and look listen I'm gonna just I'm gonna break some a little bit of news here I was assigned the story in Charlottesville on Monday obviously Monday was a chaotic day and you know we're trying our best to figure out how to cover that again with integrity how not to stick cameras in the faces of people who are grieving who have these fresh wounds as they go through tragedy and trauma and I got on the plane to go down there on Tuesday morning and I have been recently have gone through tragedy in my own life when my dad passed away one month ago and it was a moment of clarity for me Josh where I said you know what from a mental health standpoint from a protecting my teeth standpoint I actually cannot I am incapable right now of going into that space going to Charlottesville and experiencing what I perceive to be just a deluge of collective grief that that community is currently going through and so I had to call my bosses and say given what I have been through recently given kind of the way that I have powered through week after week after the death of my own father I don't think it's in my best interest to be the person in that space I think I would be spending most of my energy Josh trying to compartmentalize to suppress some of the emotions that I was experiencing personally and to your point before I don't think that would have been fair to people who were going through their own tragedy and their own trauma this week thank you so much for sharing that and in addition admired your work for a very long time and when I heard a month ago got word that you were in town and we're talking to folks I knew the story was in really good hands and I've been waiting to see this story for about a month now and I can't wait to watch it on the huddle tomorrow thank you for spending the time and I hope to see you face to face sometime soon Jen thanks Josh appreciate you letting us you know tell people about the story promote the story I am a huge fan of Sam Hartman for everything he has done obviously on the field and for the program and the recognizability of the Wake Forest football team but also just for the person that he is I think he's one of those guys who's easy to root for and our goal every week on college game day and all of our other storytelling platforms is to get you to root for somebody who you don't know who you have no reason to root for they aren't in your conference they aren't in your in your they're you know they're a peripheral player who you may have heard of but you don't know anything about and here's why you should be rooting for them going forward so I think we're gonna continue to do that for Sam tomorrow morning follow her on twitter at Jen Latta watch it tomorrow on the huddle thanks again and best of luck to you thanks Josh you're on the air wake up with Jeffrey Griffin and Triad today weekday mornings at seven now back to the drive with Josh Graham let's talk some college football before we get to Dave Pulaski voice of our high school football game of the week because this stat I find pretty interesting the narrative a word I say in jest because of how annoyed people use that word how annoying it is to me that people use that word so casually it almost seems like people use that word to sound intelligent it means I don't really like using it but in this case it's exactly what the word means the narrative about North Carolina is they haven't played anybody that's right that's why they're ranked 13th in the college football playoff rankings this stat was just put out there by Danny Cannell the opponent's collective records are is following TCU's combined opponent record 52 and 48 that's the combined record of the teams that have played TCU Ohio State 49 and 52 so combined they have losing records same thing with usc 46 and 54 Michigan it's even worse 45 and 57 North Carolina's the opponents for North Carolina's collective record this year is 53 and 41 now there's a lot of context that's needed in that but a place that you could start a conversation when considering how good this North Carolina team really is let's go to James in Clemons who wants in on the Tar Heels James looking at North Carolina where things stand right now how do you feel about them I feel good because you know it's the beginning of the season but I guess I just always wonder why do we judge like you just said Wake Forest all you have to do is win but when it comes to Carolina if they just win they and they don't win convincingly what sport are we talking about Carolina basketball okay we're talking about basketball now okay well the answer is because Wake Forest doesn't have a number next to its name North Carolina has the number one next to their name so expectations are different I'll accept that and do you think by chance that the volunteers are going to get into the playoffs okay even if LSU that's interesting wins out see you're worried about LSU I am not thank you for the call by the way that would not be my chief concern for Tennessee because LSU lost by a lot at home to Tennessee and they have multiple losses those are two notches against LSU that are in Tennessee's favor so you shouldn't worry if you're a Tennessee fan about LSU the only team you should be worried about that could come from behind and potentially take that number four spot from you is Clemson that's it listen to the back end of the CFP rankings the committee's telling you what they want to happen or what would happen if Clemson wins out based on who is on the back is on the back end of those rankings NC State staying ranked at 24 matters because Clemson has a win against them FSU's ranking Notre Dame's ranking those those things matter so that's the team I wouldn't write off if I'm Tennessee I'm focused on the orange team down in Clemson because that's the only team I could see coming from behind and taking that number four spot from Tennessee if it were to come down to that elsewhere in college football this weekend is ripe for shake up in the top 10 it almost seems like this weekend's being written off college game day they're in Bozeman there's not a big game they're in Bozeman Montana last weekend was pretty quiet too you know almost too quiet where nothing really changed in the top four or five of the college football playoff rankings it almost seems like we're all just looking ahead to when Ohio State plays Michigan when Notre Dame faces USC and if I've learned anything in following college football as long as I have when you least expect carnage in college football that's when carnage appears USC is the first team that's bound to lose notice James I didn't bring up USC as being a team that you should be worried about they played one ranked team this year they lost to that ranked team they are the most overrated team in college football either North Carolina should be five spots higher than where they're at or USC should be five spots lower because they pretty much have the same resume UCLA dropped 60 on USC last year and is coming off a loss themselves so you know they're going to be juiced up they're on their home field and USC's offense they're going to be without Tyshawn Dye which is a huge deal for them if you've watched USC play he was carded off last week so that's where I start with USC in the top 10 potentially going down and also I think TCU is going to lose this weekend too they're doing well they've really gone against it they've rallied from behind in so many games they've battled in close games they played so many good teams and Baylor's another one and the game's in Waco which is not an easy place to win so those are two that I have circled USC and TCU and that would shake up a lot of things Ohio State and Michigan should both be careful Ohio State going to College Park Michigan facing Illinois maybe even LSU after this gauntlet schedule they face playing an underrated UAB team in Death Valley even though that's a night game so I think LSU should be able to survive it's right for shake up this weekend that's what I see high school football state playoffs into round three tonight ding ding ding round three and Dave Pulaski is on the call each and every week for us since we have Duke basketball on our airwaves WSJS tonight go to wsjs.com exclusively to listen to Grimsley independence tonight Dave appreciate the time as always can high school football in this region feel much bigger than Grimsley facing independence no question I mean this is a tremendous matchup two big market schools two schools with so much history 15 combined state championships between them I mean this is worthy of a regional final and we're only halfway through the playoffs yeah it's it looks like a game that could be state championship caliber later on tonight how does this Grimsley team compare to the other title contenders we've seen in recent years you know that's a great question because on on paper you would think that with you know guys like Alonzo Barnett at quarterback and Travis Shaw at defensive end and then Jamal Jarrett in the middle on the defensive line that the you know that the talent level would be a little bit different in favor of those older Grimsley teams but this unit just plays so well together and that's one of the reasons why they're 12-0 this season they've only had you know a couple of close calls they had the game against Reagan in week two in which they rallied to win they had to hold on against Page near the end of the regular season but I mean this is such a strong team and they had what coach Joe Brown calls their best performance of the season taking down Charlotte Catholic last week 42 to 30 an impressive performance all around against a tough Cougar squad. Dave Pulaski with us here shoot him a follow on twitter you can find him at Dave Pulaski he's got independence in Grimsley tonight you can listen to the game right here on WSJS we talking about a seven o'clock kick again uh seven thirty seven thirty so seven o'clock pregame you could listen to that on WSJS what's the setup tonight with uh temperatures starting to approach freezing when things get dark yeah right now I'm walking without the winter coat on because I'm trying to tough it out at least until the sun goes down but uh I'm gonna be bundled up I got the winter hat with me I got the gloves with me I'm all ready to go for that uh once it starts to chill out and once we get to work kickoff time but for now it's actually pretty comfortable it's about 50 there's not a cloud in the sky as I'm walking around Jamison Stadium right now it's beautiful it's perfect for uh playoff football are we outside no we're inside okay I'm just I'm walking around outside right now I'm just kind of taking it in you know putting up our putting up our WSJS banners uh near the stadium entrance so everybody can see uh who's broadcasting the game when when they all arrive and should be a huge crowd tonight so uh you know I'm just kind of enjoying the moment here that that moment of solitude before everything gets crazy got a nugget to share with me on the way out how about the fact that independence missed the playoffs in five of the previous six years before this season you know you're so used to them being that dominant uh state title winner and and you know the dynasty from the early and mid-2000s but they went through some really tough times uh during the last several years but they got DJ McFadden as their head coach who was the quarterback for independence during those last two state title teams in 05 and 06 so now all of a sudden within two years he's turned that program around and with his vision they're back to being state title contenders once again Dave have a great call tonight thanks for making the time and we will talk to you next week appreciate it as always josh we'll recap the week in the most efficient way possible in a segment we call keep it simple momentarily before we get to that though last night on wsjs the tennessee titans went into lambo and beat the green bay packers green bay is now four and seven on the season and it sure feels like they are toast they're not going to bounce back from this they are not going to be a playoff team that's what i mean when i say that they're toast and the nfc is not as good as the afc is this year we followed that close enough just with the way that the nfc south has performed it's pretty obvious that the afc is the superior superior conference but even in the nfc green bay at four and seven is going to be in all likelihood two games back of a wild card spot with five or six weeks left to go after this sunday if washington wins against houston who only has one win so far this year that's a team that has a tiebreaker over you that your two games back up so trying to erase that type of deficit this late in the year when you haven't shown much of anything that's unrealistic at this point and in the six games they have remaining half of them are against teams that have at least seven wins that's what's crazy to me there are five teams in the league that have seven wins or more and green bay is going to face three of them in their final six games next week they're going to be at the philadelphia eagles they've got to play the minnesota vikings they've got to face a lot of they have the new york giants i still think left to go they have a lot of really good teams that are left on the schedule or they have to go to the miami dolphins it's not going to be easy it's a really difficult schedule and it's hard not to think that some of this falls on coaching matt leflore you've inherited this quarterback and what have you done with it how many playoff wins have you got you didn't even make it to the super bowl one time and you might miss the playoffs now that's tough when you have the quarterback then you can win super bowls you need the quarterback to do that but when you have the quarterback and you don't make the playoffs you fall in danger of potentially losing your job as crazy as that sounds a green bay this year the floor it feels like has underperformed in the last few years this green bay team's not going to be a playoff team and that is crazy considering how bad the nfc looks right now let's get to a week recap an end of week recap that we call it uh keep it simple five words or less it's simple man that's all josh gets to tell you where your favorite teams are at it's as marvelous and as simple as that let's keep it simple okay we're keeping it simple we're keeping it simple recapping the week on this friday it's time at 435 eastern standard to get our dance on to get into the dancing club to get our dancing shoes on for a dance break it's me when i was in college what hubert davis just said right there can we play that again me getting ready to go out and my fellas are like are we ready to go are we gonna we're gonna hit the club tonight here's here's my mindset i'm ready to go tonight okay i'm very excited about it i'm ready to go it's me ready to go and we're ready to go in this segment okay what do you have for unc locking up the coastal we've been all over it last year we got pit right we were the only folks to pick pit in the preseason only 18 media members picked north carolina this year we were one of those 18 and we were all over the santa the the drake may heisman case drake may for heisman on the first of october while we were sitting at the carolina classic fair we've been all over it with the star hill football team we'll do clown suits and otherwise whenever we're wrong and we'll own that when we get things wrong but when we're right we're gonna spike the football and this is one of those instances where we can spike the football the tragedy in uva i'm glad they're not playing at least for this weekend i saw that on the acc network tomorrow at 3 30 they're going to air the funeral service for the sean perry devin chandler and lavelle davis jr also just retweeted this on my twitter page virginia basketball plays tonight in vegas against a top five ranked baler team and uva is going to have warm-up shirts that have the numbers of those three players on it and they're going to have some other warm-ups that have another t-shirt that has their names on it chandler davis and perry or that's going to be on the back of their warm-up shirt that says uva strong on it with those numbers and those numbers will also appear on their jersey as well right above the nike logo on the shoulder selfishly i'd like to see them play again but if they don't want to i don't want them to play period but i'm glad that they're not i'm glad that they're not playing this weekend at least sam hartman finally making himself available to the media it was now or never if if you're not going to speak before your senior day when you're the greatest quarterback in wake history arguably well i guess we're just not going to hear from you again he might man he's been here so long he's probably just become sick with us that's possible he doesn't like doing the media stuff that's fine but the frustrating thing is he's so good at it and when he does speak it's so interesting so we want to speak to the guy more and also when every other school has a standard that they make their quarterbacks available and i mean every other school we kind of expect that maybe we'll catch up with the guy more than once once every three and a half weeks but it was good to hear from him duke kansas coach k's absence was noticed for a few games didn't really notice it it took duke losing for me to notice the difference not as much vitriol not as much did duke win last night ha ha ha no type of jokes none of that the game was officiated differently it felt like by roger airs and company and the champions classic that's when it was noticeable for the first time that oh coach k is not there anymore and it's john shire carolina basketball through their first three games something's up beneath the surface something's happening listen to hubert davis's 10 minutes after the gardener web game who's he talking to when he's talking about the jb team's not worried about nil deals and playing time and their nba draft status and dealing with who's he talking to who's he talking about and when he's talking about effort who's effort everybody's effort not rj davis's effort whose effort are you speaking about something's happening beneath the surface lamello ball getting hurt again listen to the basketball gods please michael jordan please mitch kubchak please steve glifford look at the writing of the wall and understand this season is not going to go your way i think mitch kubchak's a really good gm i think he's competent michael jordan needs to assure him listen if you go and tank where you're going to have a job waiting for you because it feels like that's the only thing holding charlotte back from fully embracing things and chipping off parts like pj washington or kelly oubre or gordon hayward or terry rosier and making this team bad enough to make this team bad enough to that it can get the number one pick in victor webin yama or at worst the number two pick at scoot henderson that's what charlotte needs to do and this is just another example charlotte having its star player come back for just two games before he steps on the foot of a fan courtside and he's out again and last one ben mackadoo's press conference this week what did we learn there mackadoo almost said something i can't say on the radio back mackadoo loves the winter season yeah he does he does who knows might be some snow in baltimore i love it oh we're gonna call plays differently we love to run the ball i like it when it gets cold big fellas i like it when it gets cold run the ball i like it when it gets cold big fan of mackadoo's work and that's been keep it simple for this week one more dance break that's true well played pays berm are hot rock hot rock i like it when it cools down a little bit you know i just like the christmas in the air they're gonna get it regardless david i'm just excited erroneous erroneous hey mom the meatloaf just living the dream where'd you get that girl i'm just excited oh i'm hanging out honey take a good picture i'm dead seems like you liked wedding crashers just a little bit is that the number one among movies that we've made you watch so far of comedies what's the number one not comedy godfather hands down okay yeah good answer