The Wild Cranberries (12-9-22)

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley.

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. We've made it to a Friday drive WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where five days ago Baker Mayfield was a Panther and the Seahawks were in Los Angeles. Fast forward a few days to last night. Baker was in Los Angeles as the Rams quarterback and in remarkable fashion led LA to a win in the final seconds.

We'll get to what Steve Wilks had to say about that earlier today in just a little bit. But first, it's his Panthers who are heading out west now. They've got those Seahawks this week. And even though Carolina hasn't won a road game all year, and Seattle, pretty tough place to play. And even though Carolina hasn't won back to back games all year, and Seattle has a winning record, I think Carolina out physicals the Seahawks and pulls off the upset. Because this is a game that's going to be one on the ground and that favors Carolina. Seattle this season is second to last in the league against the run. Meanwhile, remember when Ben McAdoo said, with the season changing, the type of ball changes? That's true. Well played.

Well, here's some truth for you. Over the last three weeks, only Dallas has more rushing yards than the Carolina Panthers do. And we learned today, Deontay Foreman, he's gonna be a go for Sunday. In fact, he wasn't even listed on the injury report. We can't say the same about former Demon Deacon, Kenneth Walker. He's likely out for Sunday's game.

Don't know if that's been ruled official yet, but he hasn't practiced all week and that's a pretty big blow to them. These two teams are headed in completely different directions. Don't be skewed by the records. Oh, Josh, it's four and eight Carolina facing a seven win Seattle team. Carolina should be on a three game winning streak right now. Facts are they won two out of three, but they had Baltimore dead to rights in Baltimore. So it feels like to me they're due getting a road win. They should have won in Atlanta and the game that DJ Moore took his helmet off. They should have won in Baltimore.

Perfect game plan for that game. Seattle should be on a three game losing streak. They've lost two of their last three. They needed a last minute touchdown in that same stadium as last night in order to beat former Demon Deacon, John Walford and the Rams.

A banged up John Walford at that. Carolina is coming off the bye. Seattle meanwhile has games, this game sandwiched between two division opponents. Last week LA, Thursday night, six days from now, it's going to be San Francisco.

Carolina pulls off the upset in Seattle 24 to 16 on Twitter at WSJS radio. If you want in Dave Pulaski going to join us at about 10 minutes, talk some high school football. We're going to keep it simple earlier than usual. Darren Vaught is going to be in studio later this hour with High Point being in action tonight. He'll be calling that game at the queue. Dave Pulaski will be joining us from Chapel Hill as we're carrying Grimsley tonight in a state championship game against New Bern. And tomorrow morning right here on SJS, it's going to be Reedsville facing East Duplin. W.D.

Will Dalton, executive producer of this show. How good did you feel for Baker Mayfield last night? It was pretty cool to see him do that because I mean, he's he's been down in the dumps. If we are rooting for Baker Mayfield last night, you don't have a heart.

You don't. I mean, because he comes into the league highly sought after, has a good start with the Browns. I thought his rookie year, I'd say winning 12 games with the Cleveland Browns in a playoff game is pretty good.

Absolutely. And against the Steelers, we talked about that yesterday and then the way he left the Browns and then came into the Panthers and we thought there might be something there. And then it wasn't. And he left again. And it was nice to see Carolina did the right thing to move off of him.

Yesterday doesn't really change that. I'm sure a lot of people in Charlotte was rooting for him. Getting back to Baker. Here was Steve Wilkes today on Baker's heroics. As I mentioned before, man, I'm very happy for Baker. I thought he did a tremendous job in a short period of time and leading those guys in a two minute drive to a victory.

So congratulations to him and wishing him all the best. If you want in on this subject, 336-777-1600, as we transition to college basketball, riding into Chapel Hill on a four game losing streak, the North Carolina Tar Heels face Georgia Tech tomorrow. And whatever version of this team, whatever the best version of this team looks like, that's what we're going to see in tomorrow's game, I think. As crazy as this sounds, this, an ACC game, your ACC home opener might be the easiest game the Tar Heels have faced so far this season.

This or Gardner Webb, which you would think there's a significant gap between the two. But if you look at the net rankings, not so much. This is the first home game in three weeks for North Carolina. After the trip out west, then go into Indiana, then go into Blacksburg, facing this four game losing streak, losing to teams that will all likely make the NCAA tournament.

This is going to be a reprieve for them. This is going to be the feeling of working out in a weighted vest and the feeling you have when you run as soon as you take that weighted vest off facing a Georgia Tech team. This has monster Armando Baycock game written all over it. Quietly, he's had at least 11 points and nine rebounds in every game North Carolina has played this year. Last season, in two games against Georgia Tech, 29 and 12 and 15 and 12. Georgia Tech, looking at its roster, you let me know if this is a problem.

They don't have a player taller than 6'7 that plays. That's not a great recipe when you're going up against number five inside. And Hubert, this is what we've talked about all week. He's had time to coach them up finally. He has the chance to fix some of these problems he's seen in practice.

We'll see how responsive his team is to that coaching. Whatever the best version of North Carolina is right now, that's what we're going to see against Georgia Tech. Darren Bott's hanging out in studio with us. Queens University in their first season in Division 1 playing at the Q tonight at High Point. I can say that.

Darren can't say that. It's the Quibane Center. Seven o'clock tip.

That's what I called it, if anyone asks. But he's hanging out in studio with us now. There's been some criticism, believe it or not, of North Carolina basketball after a four game losing streak. Somebody tell Hubert Davis because Hubert is speaking right now and said, quote, I have no idea what people are saying. I assume it's from the criticism direction. There's a Jeff Borzello ESPN article where he did one of these coaches anonymous things. I eat this stuff up.

I love that hot goss. And we'll get to that shortly because that doesn't really jive with weekly positivity, where we try to lift people up. It's kind of the opposite.

It is. So stick around if you want some of the belittling and some of the hot gossip. Positive now, the fun stuff later. We raise morale in the triad with the most polarizing of segments. It's the Dickie V of radio segments. It's super positive, but somehow it's polarizing and people don't like it, but some love it. Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred.

If you want to play along, it's weekly positivity. Yeah. Wow. The Netherlands just scored. They trailed two to one.

Messi had a penalty kick and made it two to nothing. Eighty sixth minute. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. I'm supposed to give a movie line here. Which one should I do?

Which one should I do? Just pick one when there's blood on the streets by property. We still need to figure out what's the best part of the open of this segment. Best part. The guttural noises you make. I don't like the movie quote in that same voice. I'd very much figure out what movie to make. W.D.

Watch next week because we're thinking heat. He hasn't seen that with Pacino and De Niro. And that seems to be a classic.

I watched a movie for the first time last night. That was good. Juice Tupac. Yeah. Omar Epps. I saw that's free on YouTube with ads. A lot of them. I watched that last night.

You know what else is free on YouTube with ads? Whiplash. Oh, yeah.

I know you. What's that movie? I don't even know what it is. I feel I feel like I have to do the voice now. I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do it.

I'll keep my voice down. But whiplash is very good. Yes. It's a very good. It's a good. Yeah, it's good. It's good.

That might be one that we consider whiplash heat if you have a suggestion. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one six hundred. Don't we have something to bribe listeners with to call in and tell us something good? We've got some tickets to McLaurin Farms where you can meet Santa or the Grinch if you're not good. OK, if you call in and tell us something good, then we'll give you one of those vouchers. Yeah, my head's going to explode. This is what's bribe people. Yeah.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one six hundred. Go see Santa and the Grinch. That's good. I'm going to try a new bar tonight in Winston-Salem that I've never been to before.

OK. It is called Wrong Number. Great bar name.

Not even just good. That is a great bar name. It gets even better, though, why it's called the wrong number. OK. A Winston-Salem man decided that he was going to start suing telemarketer companies. And he put all the money from the settlements he got from those lawsuits into creating this bar called the Wrong Number. And when they answered the phone at the bar, he said, hi, this is the wrong number. Seventy five thousand. They got eight between eight and ten thousand dollars a settlement. And he got up to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars to open this new bar, the wrong number.

And it's going to have a lot of names of drinks and cocktails that have like wrong number type of themes to it. Do you know who has the right number? Who? Bill and High Point. Bill, sounds like you are easily bribed and want to go to McLaurin Farms, but that's just fine. Bill, tell me something good. You're killing me, Josh. You're killing me. Hey, Bill.

No, my wiggly positivity is yesterday was my lovely wife's birthday. Wow. What's her name? Angela.

And she has called you guys many a time. Wow. Happy birthday, Angela. Happy birthday.

That's good. Wish her a happy twenty ninth birthday to me for me. Well, here's the best part though, Josh. And this is for you as well.

We've been married for thirty five years. Again, happy twenty ninth birthday to Angela. Thanks, Bill. Math is good.

Debatable. Darren, tell me something good. I got something good. You know where I was before I popped over here. How could I possibly know that? Do you guys recall a former college roommate of mine that called into this show once?

No. And his name's Brandon. And when you ask, how do I know that you're not lying to me? He gave you the info that I bought two goldfish my freshman year of college and named them Kanye and Luda.

That's true. Kanye and Luda. So Brandon and I, one of those aged well, one. The Kanye, the ironic part, Kanye the fish lived forever.

He would not die. He's a goldfish that I named the other three because Brandon got so quite literally he did it. Yeah. Yeah.

The other three because Brandon got to also were dead within like a month. Yeah. He's the one that lived forever. He was at my parents home until, you know, I was like a full on adult. Anyways, did it make you sad when Kanye died? No. Oh, I was rid of him for quite some time before that.

Kanye the fish is what I'm talking about. What's that? What's the good news? I had lunch with Brandon and despite the fact that we talked sort of indirectly through your show. The one day was the first time I'd seen him in 10 years. Pretty cool. Did it feel like you just were able to lead off where you left off? Maybe not where we left off.

I mean, you know, he's got three kids now. Things are different, but it was cool. It was cool. It was cool. I'd say it was good. It was good.

Anything to add WD? No, I say we keep the ship sailing. That's the part where if you have nothing to say, you just say it's Friday and that's good. It's Friday and that's great. But for WD, it's not because he's got to produce high school football tonight and tomorrow morning. And he's got Duke basketball. Yeah, that's good. That's been weekly.

OK, let's flip things. Jeff Borzello, ESPN college basketball writer, has this story out there about North Carolina. Where he talked to a bunch of coaches, people that have scouted Carolina opposing coaches in the ACC, presumably.

And it seems like the common thread and all the quotes that I've read, or at least the ones that stand out to me. Have something to do with Caleb Love. Caleb Love has become the most polarizing dude that I've covered in the ACC. In terms of there's no player I've seen that the basketball community is more split on than Caleb Love is. I'm not just talking about ACC media and coaches and even some players.

I'm talking NBA scouts that I've talked to. They have no idea what to make of Caleb Love. Fans, some love him, some can't stand him.

So let's just read some of these quotes and you let me know which of these you enjoy the most. Talking about Caleb Love trying to snap out of the slump. This is what was written, quote, the shots Love took in the Alabama game, he might as well just drop kick the ball at the rim and said bleep it.

Teams that aren't great shooting teams shouldn't hunt those shots early in the clock, but they shoot it like they're the freaking Splash Brothers. So, okay, these are anonymous coaches, right? Coaches quotes? That's a coach. That is an opposing coach. Drop kick the ball at the rim and say bleep it.

They shoot it like they're the Splash Brothers is great. This is great work by Jeff Borzello talking to coaches because, you know, he handpicked the ones that are just going to drop casual colloquialisms that are going to make these hilarious. Yeah. And also and also I handpicked some of the best ones in this.

These are probably like a third of the quotes. Right. Next one.

Four out of five possessions. Love takes a shot or Davis dribbles around. Then Bacot gets a touch. It seems like they're just taking turns. They don't go to Bacot enough. They expect him to get garbage stuff.

He doesn't post hard because he knows they're not looking at him. They don't seem to be playing with the same level of care for whatever reason. That's pretty good. What else do we got? It's obvious there's turmoil and strife. There's a lot of chemistry issues. Not a lot of X's and O's. That's the first one that I don't know that I can necessarily like sign off on and agree with.

Then the last one here. Once you lose the second in a row, it's easier to lose a third time and a fourth time. They need to get guys doing what they do well, not shooting bad shots, not over dribbling, not being a D word. They can do whatever they want if they just decided to do it.

A lot of it's ego. It might be harder to reconnect as that team now has their issues that have been exposed. Is love willing to shoot 12 times a game? Can they get Bacot 15 post touches?

Are they willing to play to their strength or just keep doing what they want? That's aggressive. D word by D word. You mean the man part.

I almost randomly said a word that I realize is a slur that I never ever say, but I watched Juice last night. That's the first. Be careful. Yeah, but be careful. That rhymes with the D word.

It rhymes with Mick as in Mick Mixon. Yeah, yeah. That's aggressive. Although, again, I tend to agree with a lot of this evaluation.

I'm going to quote Roy Williams. It looks a lot better when the shots go down. I think some of the shots are going to go down against Georgia Tech tomorrow.

The Big Four brought to you by budget blinds of North Winston, Salem and Mount Airy serving northern Forsyth, Stokes and Surrey counties online at budgetblinds.com. Oh, my gosh. The Netherlands and the one hundred and first minute with ten minutes added just scored on a free kick to tie the game. And we got Sarinda Cobras all over guitar wearing striped Argentine jerseys. Incredible.

Argentina, a lot like another light blue team in a championship setting earlier this week, was up two to nothing late in the match. Oh, what a beautifully actually beautifully executed. I can't talk beautifully executed set piece. Oh, my gosh.

He passed it rather than shot and they knocked it through the back of the net. Oh, my goodness. If you thought what happened to Brazil was the most shocking thing today.

Netherlands, what a. Don't want to curse to two at the end of regulation. Incredible.

That was unreal. Hold that thought, because I've got more on the World Cup coming up here in the big four. How about we just make this number four? This is no more.

This is you by the budget, budget blinds, budget blinds. We love you and how you sponsor this reset where we'll allow an opportunity to tell you about what's happening in the World Cup. Darren Botts and Studio as well. What else can you tell me about the World Cup to continue with number four earlier today? Brazil knocked off by Croatia and they were the favorite, right? Yeah, they were not a favorite. Croatia did play in the final four years ago.

So there I mean, you know, nothing to scoff at. Regulation ended with one all. So they had to go to P.K. 's and it was Croatia. Well, extra time ended at one all or one zero at the end of regulation and P.K.

's four to two. Croatia takes out Brazil and the winner of this match here, the Netherlands and Argentina, which regulation just ended now to two. And there's some pushing and shoving. We'll decide who plays Croatia.

Now somebody just got into the mix in this. There's now like a brouhaha forming at midfield right now. Craziness in the World Cup.

What is number three? Panthers injury report. For the most part, they look pretty good, although there were four players listed as questionable. Matt Ioannidis, Miles Hartsfield, Corey Littleton and Xavier Woods. Although I believe all those guys were participants in practice. You also have Deontay Foreman, Brian Burns and Iki Iquanu are listed as good to go. Deontay Foreman did miss a little practice earlier in the week, but as Steve Wilkes said earlier, he felt like it was going to be good to go. Steve Wilkes had guessed on the show earlier this week, if you missed that him talking about his high school football state championship memories in App State.

You can find that on our podcast channel. The Panthers had Baker Mayfield on their team earlier in the week. It's there are some Panther fans who are already reacting as if saying, why did we let go of this guy? And to that I say they should have no regrets about that, considering he was one in six in the seven games he started. And the reason he was probably that good was because that Rams team.

Many of those guys won the Super Bowl last year and they might have the best coach in all of the NFL and Sean McVay. Those are not small things. I got nothing on that, but Paul Giamatti is doing Verizon ads now. You've got this game up on your eye. He's screwed. That seems, I mean, cool. And I'm sure he's getting a paycheck, but I don't know.

Does that not seem a little like beneath them? That's a little cash grabby. I don't know. What's your favorite Giamatti role?

What's the first role that comes to mind? Let's say it at the same time. Let's say it at the same time. One, two, three, straight out of Compton. What's the one where he turns blue? That's all I can think of right now. What's the Frankie Muniz movie where he's blue?

W.D. I'm sure knows. Who's Frankie Muniz? I don't even know who you're talking about.

Paul Giamatti? Not a clue. Okay. There it is. Hold on. I'm going to find the name. Big Fat Liar.

Big Fat Liar. Yeah. That's great. Okay. Man on the Moon would be maybe the best.

I actually think the best is when he is the jerk radio manager in private parts with Howard Stern. Yes. I have seen that movie.

What's number two? It is championship weekend for the NC State playoffs, high school football, and it's going to be on WSJS, the 4A and the 2A titles. I just pictured the NC State playoffs being, can you imagine, the wolf pack, all the crazy things that might happen in the NC State playoffs. What are intramurals like on campus in Raleigh? The North Carolina high school state playoffs though. Tonight, it's going to be New Bern and Grimsley, that's going to be coverage starting at 6.30 here on WSJS. Let's go Whirlies.

7 o'clock kick, and then tomorrow, or in the morning I should say, 10.30 coverage starts for Reedsville and East Duplin. That is the 2A state title. What's Reedsville's mascot? I don't know that one.

I knew Whirlies. The Rams. The Rams.

Let's go Rams. Nobody's won more state titles in the state of North Carolina than them. So Reedsville's going to win that game tomorrow. Not comp, Tarboro's probably going to beat Mount Airy. Tonight's a toss up, really, really good game tonight, Grimsley and New Bern. That's going to be a good listen with Dave Pulaski and company and Chapel Hill. Here's a good combo. Get Darren Vaught on the TV on ESPN Plus, High Point Queens University tonight.

Put on the radio or whatever your streaming audio device is, Dave Pulaski on SJS. That's a pro move. What's number one on the big four brought to you by Budget Blinds? Twitter erupted the other day when a large scale power outage happened in Florida. Florida outage, if you will. The question is why? So it would seem that an iguana got into some type of train station there and got entangled in some of the equipment, starting an entire power outage for this whole substation. Let me say this.

Pangled, underrated Disney movie. People don't know it. People retire to Florida and there are people who idealize the state of Florida. And what I hear, it might as well be like the pits, the swamps of Australia.

I don't know that it appeals to me to go there or live there. Florida's great. See, I feel the same way about Florida that I do California in this sense. Politically speaking, depending on what side of the aisle you're on, there are people that will say California is not a place to go to whatsoever. And then on the other side, people say Florida isn't. Both those states are great.

Both of them. I promise you. If you're going to go to, there are not three states, four states better than Florida and California. Now, again, the way that they're painted, the extremes, hey, if you go to California, you're going to get mugged. Hey, if you go to Florida, an alligator is going to eat your face, right? The extremes.

No, no, no. But the iguana literally caused a power outage. It happens, man. The wildlife is there in control.

The people there are in a direction where they're not in control. We're here in Kernersville, where one time we had an outage that was caused by a squirrel. It happened. We were off the air because of a squirrel. Three years ago, that happened.

One of the worst days I've ever had. Oh, I remember that. I was so mad. I do.

Yeah. I got a great show. It was after like a Panthers Thursday night game. I think it was after like Cam Newton got knocked out in 2018.

Day after, I'm like jacked up, ready to do the show. Power's out because of squirrel. We had to power out. It's not too long ago. Yeah. That was due to weather, though. Mother nature doing her thing. Yep.

It didn't happen that often. That's it. What's the character, the little caveman- Tasmanian devil?

No, no, no, no. It's from a Nickelodeon show that I'm not familiar with, but I see it referenced all the time. It's the kid. He goes wild cranberries or something.

What's the show? It's going to be a drop, what Darren just did a second ago. Thanks, Darren, for that.

He's doing my job for me. I want to hear that on the way back because there are two topics that are right up Darren Bot's alley, baseball and high point hoops. And we'll hit on both of them next.

Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Darren Bot's in studio with us. And this segment is right up Darren's alley. Two topics that he thrives on. High point basketball, which he's going to be calling in less than three hours facing Queens University. And baseball on a pretty important week.

A lot of things happening in that sport. But we must start with Darren trying to allude to a 2000s Nickelodeon show that he called the wild cranberries. Sarah Bradford, my wife, my wife texted in.

Can you ever say that without doing the Borat? You mean the wild thornberries? Thornberries. Darren, to try and jog our memory of what show he was intending to talk about, created this sound, which is apparently from a character on that show. He's a little like kid and he's like, it's almost like he follows, you know, animal from the Muppets. You mentioned Tasmanian devil. He doesn't actually speak in words and he does like this wild man thing where he goes. Is that a good impression?

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. I don't know for sure, because I didn't watch that show. I was more of a Hey Arnold guy. I was a Cartoon Network kid. So Travis, Travis, Randy, OK, baseball. We have unusual questions at about 15 minutes. The most significant transaction or signing this week was.

I have two. It's a cop out. But one is a player staying put. Aaron Judge. I mean, it's the biggest news of the week. That's easily the most noteworthy. Is it the most important signing that's happened? No, I think that is Trey Turner to the Philadelphia Phillies. Reuniting him with his former Nationals teammate, Bryce Harper, and giving the Phillies yet another bat. That set the tone like Steve Cohen is the owner of the Mets. He's the richest owner in baseball.

He has touted that he's going to spend money like no one else. And he's sort of stood pat. They lost to Graham and replaced him with Justin Verlander.

So that's like a one to one replacement. The Phillies are making noise and they brought. They took Trey Turner in to be their shortstop. And he's an MVP candidate every year in the NL, no matter what. And now they've got a lineup that's half full of those guys that could win an MVP. Nick Castellanos is going to have a bounce back year, I think. Fly ball to left.

It just depends on how awful people are in his proximity. But Taiwan Walker also a starting pitcher that the Phillies signed from the Mets. They took from the Mets well and added to their incredible depth already. The Phillies have become a super team. And that's not to overlook the San Diego Padres bringing in another superstar.

That's what I wanted to talk about. As well as Zandra Bogarts to play shortstop. They brought Zandra Bogarts in. These are the two teams that played for the NLCS. And you had the Phillies make a big move.

Then the Padres responded in kind. No idea how they're going to make that infield work when you bring in Zandra Bogarts and you already have two other shortstops, it seems like, on the roster. Well, Fernando Tatis Jr. They're going to throw him in right because you already got your center fielder anyway. So they have this great prospect Grissom that's in the center field.

Trent Grissom. Tatis was always going to be moved to the outfield. And Manny Machado is at third base.

If you potentially lose him, maybe you can move one of these guys to third. It's just an interesting, you can't, San Diego is pushing their chips into the center of the table. And since they no longer have the Chargers in that town, that's still a really great fan base. And they almost sell out on a nightly basis out there at Petco Park.

That's a really fun team. And let's not forget, at the trade deadline during the season, they picked up maybe the best closer in baseball and Josh Hader and Juan Soto. So I mean, just like that, they have added Juan Soto, Xander Bogarts, to a lineup that already included Manny Machado, who might be pound for pound the best player in baseball. Manny Machado?

And Fernando Tatis Jr. Oh, stop. I don't want to hear that. That hurts. Hurts my soul for you to say that sentence. Makes me want to fight, and I don't agree with it.

And I want to move on because it makes me so mad just the thought of what you just said. There are two teams we have not mentioned, which means easily, if you're talking about the losers of this week, has to be these teams because they're related to the stories. The rivalry of the Dodgers and the Giants. The Giants neither got Arson Judge or Aaron Judge. That's tough. And the Dodgers, okay, you're seen to be the best thing since sliced bread and you don't get it done, and now these teams that beat you just got better. The two teams that you're most going to have to contend with when the post season gets here. Yeah.

There is... The Padres are still sort of on the same field as the Dodgers. We're going to have to see it play out. They're not going to have Tatis for the first 20 games of the season, the ED suspension. And again, they're adding depth to compete with a team that's losing depth, but the team that lost depth was maybe the deepest in MLB history. It was just such an embarrassment of riches for the Dodgers.

They were never going to be able to pay everyone. Listen, I'm not writing them off. This has been a great week for them. And we do this thing where we overreact this time of year, Allah, Bryce Harper's no longer a national. We just write them off and then they win the World Series the year after that. Or who was it that had the injury with the Atlanta Braves that they ended up winning a World Series anyway? They didn't have a Cunha junior.

So not writing off the Dodgers by any means, but if you had to pinpoint somebody who didn't have a great week, they did not considering the teams around them that acted. Tonight, you got a high point and Queens University, Queens University in Charlotte, now a player in D1 basketball? Yeah, they're a member of the Atlantic Sun. It's quarter Gulf Coast is in that conference.

Correct. And Queens, I mean, don't look now, they're seven and one. They are off to a really good start. High Point is off to the best start in its Division 1 history. And they, don't forget, with Scott Cherry coaching, won the Big South regular season three consecutive times, not in the two distant past.

So shout out to Gigi, Gigi Smith, son of Tubby Smith in his first full season at the reigns, getting it done. This is a team that is playing with much more tempo. They're a top 30 tempo team in college basketball, according to Ken Palm. They scored the eighth most points in all of Division 1 basketball, eight in the country and scoring. How many is that? 80 something a game?

86.2. So entered the week number one with 93 points a game, and then UVA held them to 50. Yeah. UVA is really good. UVA is really good. So speaking of UVA, if Alabama, if Houston beats Alabama tomorrow, and this game apparently is in Houston, if Houston wins that game, it's going to be one and two. One and two next week. Yeah. In Charlottesville. That's fun.

Yeah, that's pretty exciting. Seven o'clock, ESPN Plus. You can watch Darren Vaught on the call. We're pretty distracted here in the studio watching Argentina approach a free kick. I will say this, back post nearly scored. If he would have scored, this is how I probably would have reacted to that.

That is how I reacted when Netherlands tied it at the 100 minute. Your mic just wasn't on. Wild cranberries. Wild cranberries. I'd watch that show. And then halfway through the season, Leo DiCaprio would make an appearance and say, cranberry juice. You want a cranberry juice?

Sounds like a Fred Armiston project if it's about the band. What's in your head? What type of questions are in your head?

In your head, yes. To make the show a lot smarter, we welcome in Brian Geisinger. Regular, hoop nerd, resident hoop nerd that we bring on Twitter at bgeis underscore bird.

You can shoot him a follow. Great stuff that he's been writing for 24 seven. Think earlier today I was reading something at pack pride.com talking about the impact of an injury earlier this week on NC State moving forward. But BG, I want to start with the very top of the ACC. This is something Connor O'Neill and I were discussing when he was in studio earlier in the week before we get to out precise the guys. Virginia is viewed to be the best team in the ACC.

You and I have been on that for a while. Virginia Tech and Duke, you can make an argument for them at number two or number three. Maybe I'm wrong and one of those two teams is the best in the ACC.

So you tell me, rank the teams in order. Virginia, Virginia Tech and Duke based on what you've seen. I would say, well, this is provided that Reece Beekman is healthy and good to go long term for Virginia. But I would say UVA, Duke, Virginia Tech.

I feel reasonably confident about that. Duke certainly has some upside here on its side, though, because if Drake Whitehead can get to the level that he was at before his injury, both in terms of confidence in his body and certainly like operating at 100 percent, then Duke has another gear to get to. Right now, the most talented guy on the roster is not quite himself. But I'll go UVA, Duke, Virginia Tech. This is the part that is astounding to me about Duke. You would think with the team full of freshmen that you're not going to have it's you usually have a high ceiling, low floor type of proposition where you can win big games because of all that talent, but the floor is low because they haven't played a lot of college basketball together. When I watch Duke, it's amazing.

Usually you associate glue guys with being juniors and seniors. When I look at Mark Mitchell, that's a guy that I think every team every team would like to have a guy like Mark Mitchell on it. And then you add Grandison and you add Ryan Young to the mix.

And it just seems like to me and I wonder if you have this read as well. Yes, the ceiling's high for Duke, but the floor also seems to be high with the style of play they that John Shires implemented. And on top of that, the type of players they have. Yeah, I mean, Mitchell's been really solid this season. Like he is kind of the ultimate do your job guy on that roster. His role can fluctuate offensively at times, like some games he's called upon more, but his ability to slash, put the ball in the deck and score, you know, going downhill, he's not much of a pull up shooter. He really needs a lot of space and time to get that jumper off off the catch, but his ability to get all the way to the rim or again to move without the ball and to cut. And I don't think he's like an A1 lockdown defender.

I think he has some issues in terms of screen navigation. He does have a tendency to go for shot fakes and ball fakes, although I think he's improved at that over the first month of the season, being caught off guard a little less with that. But yeah, he just he's nice because you can play you can play big or small with Mitchell and he doesn't need the basketball to have an impact and he helps you out deep with defense and in terms of rebounding and deflections. So he just is kind of a guy that can check a bunch of boxes for Duke at the same time in terms of lineup and scheme versatility and two way impact. And yeah, just Grandison and Young were two really nice additions in the transfer portal by Duke because those guys, they're part of the rotation, like they're legit role players and Grandison gives them some shooting and Young can really pass out of the post and can rebound as well.

Can even occasionally jump up and block a shot if it's not being taken from too far off the ground. But I think Shire brought those guys in also to get this team talking and to get the communication factor, the communication levels up and I think they've managed to do that. I also think a guy that you we didn't touch on yet, but Derek Lively was another guy who Josh you've been you've seen this team up close, watched all the games on TV. I'm sure as if when they haven't been in Durham, but Lively I know has been limited offensively and much has been made of Duke needs to find different ways to get him and the guards need to play better to make better decisions to get in the ball more. I think they're starting to find some stuff offensively for him, especially in that Boston College game with the empty side pick and roll. But also he talks to like he is a constant communicator defensively for that team.

So I think all of those guys being willing to play a role and to defend has does help raise the overall floor of the roster. Yeah. W.D. who did they play last Saturday? Boston College. Yeah.

You had that queued up right there. Brian Geissiger is with us here and you're right. Eric Lively, one of those guys that when you see him up close, it gives you a different perspective of just how talented and how big the guy can be.

Getting to North Carolina, Brian Geissiger with us here. What's the number one thing you think Hubert Davis can adjust between the four game losing streak and tomorrow against Georgia Tech to start producing positive results? I mean, you know, getting Armando Baycott healthy is a would be a good place to start. Obviously, he was compromised in the in in the Indiana game and he didn't play against Virginia Tech. So you want him to be you want him to be feeling good, feeling right, because he's really playing all the hits today.

But he's really important. You know, I do think it's I think in terms of what Davis can determine, I think there are some stuff they can go to in terms of the half court offense to help with the fit of Nance and Baycott, which I like, I feel pretty optimistic about the fit between those two guys. But as we've discussed previously, it's not quite as maybe as clean and as seamless as the Manic Baycott fit was a season ago with Manic's shooting movement, shooting capabilities. Nance is a guy that, you know, wants to operate with the ball a little bit more and is a guy that can will frequent the post in the mid post more than than maybe someone like Manic would, you know, Brady wasn't all all catch and shoot threes. But I think there's some stuff like I would look into more empty corner pick and roll. I'd look into more continuity ball screen sets.

I would try to get a little bit more movement going half court and trying to find some ways you can unlock both Nance and Baycott as rollers and get then also tap into the high low game. But I will say like I do think I've seen a lot of people on the timeline, UNC fans criticizing Hubert Davis for just saying like UNC just rolling the ball out there. They're not doing that.

No, I just like that. That should be abundantly clear. But this team is not freelancing. They call sets as much as maybe any team not named Virginia Tech in the ACC. So they're running stuff. And I think Hubert's actually a pretty good and clever creator in schema in terms of offense.

So it's just running their stuff better. And ultimately, I think what they're doing defensively is okay. Like they're guarding ball screens, I think in like the right way. I sit on the side, drop in the middle, use unlock leaky as like a, you know, really good point of attack defender, which they've had him a lot on a lot of like opposing top initiators, including Virginia Tech, including Indiana. So I would say tighten up on the margins there, try to see if they can force more turnovers defensively. And then yeah, I would I would really lean into empty corner pick and roll and continuity ball screen looks with Nance and Baycott transitioning from college basketball to the NBA. It's time for me to look ridiculous when stacked up against that type of hoop knowledge with Brian Geisinger in a game we call out precise the guys Brian Geisinger is a basketball genius.

I forgot how big of an OutKast fan BG is, so this is just chef's kiss. Okay. What do we got, W.D.? We're going to start in Portland, where Jamal Murray hit a three pointer to win the game last night for the Nuggets.

Nice little dagger. Saw that. Really exciting games out west the last couple of days. So he was hurt last season, but you would say probably the year before was his best season so far. 2021. The bubble season.

Correct. His three point percentage was forty point eight that year. What is his three point percentage currently this year? Let's go thirty five and a half for Jamal Murray. I've got thirty nine point seven. Very specific.

It is thirty five point seven. Here we go. All right. Well, BG is back with a vengeance, by the way, that game was awesome last. It was like it looked like Dame hit the knockout punch and then a little Murray flurry late for the win. It's good to see him playing better. Jamal Murray is awesome. It sounds like that's something that should come out of Ian Eagle's mouth on a Thursday night.

Oh, a little Murray flurry. Love it. Yeah.

All right. What's next? Anthony Davis. This last little week long stretch he's been on, he's kind of been looking like his old AD self, especially in the first part of this last week. So over the last four games, how many points per game does he have?

Oh, let's see. I just heard Zach Lowe talking about this on his podcast. I'll say thirty eight points per game. See this is this is just going to be I have twenty seven and I thought that was way too high.

Thirty seven point eight. Yeah. Again, I'm just I I have not been like completely glued into the 80, but I am like aware of him playing really well. And again, everyone in NBA media is talking about it right now. I will say shout out to Darvin Ham and the Lakers for granted. They're still like 11th or 12th in the West.

So I do think it's funny that everyone's freaking out when they start to play pretty well. But Davis committing to being like a full time center, that's really helping here in Westbrook, leaning into his six man energy guy off the bench role. That's worked out against a pretty easy schedule the last couple of weeks for the Lakers.

Yeah. No longer in that conversation that the Hornets are in right now. And plus, you know, the Lakers aren't trying to tank because they don't have a pick next year. So 0 for 2 for me, 2 and 0 for BG, depending on how you want to look at it.

Now that college football is over, I might actually start paying as close attention, maybe not as close as BG, but certainly more attention to the NBA. The specifics. See, I see the things like Jamal Murray and AAD is playing, but you know, 38 a game. That's crazy. Okay. What's the last one? Speaking of those Charlotte Hornets, let's get to them. Former Duke star Mason Plumlee. He leads the team currently in rebounding. How many rebounds per game does he have? Okay.

Yeah. How many? How many rebounds per game?

It would be interesting to see this number if LaMelo had played this season, because I think LaMelo Sneaky would have been like a candidate to lead the team in rebounding potentially. But I will say 8 boards per game for the Plum dog. I got it. I got 9.

It's 9.2. Hey! Got some pride back. Yeah. Finished strong there. On the way out, BG, someone had to win last night between the Spurs and Houston. And the Spurs won that game, which means Orlando is the only team with six wins. Four others have seven. Those are the only teams that are in double digit wins.

Charlotte at seven in that group. How pleased are you with where the Hornets are at right now as they get set to play tonight and hopefully lose? I mean, it's definitely not what you want.

It's like them angling for a bottom, a top three pick. I'm enjoying this. I don't know about you.

I'm enjoying it. I mean, ideally you'd like for them to be just good and not have to be doing what they're doing right now. But given where they are, I mean, it's okay.

It just depends. I think ultimately when are the Hornets going to fully commit to where we're doing this and we're going to actually move like one or two of these bets because right now, Steve Clifford played Kelly Oubre and Terry Rozier over 40 minutes earlier this week. So at some point, they're going to have to start losing a few more of these games to compete, compete in air quotes with the teams that are really going for it and just to see if they can get anything in return in terms of the trade department with some of the veterans on the roster. But until then, I just think you're going to be in this weird precarious position where you're very, very bad, but you still may win like one to too many two games this season. So we'll, I don't know, we'll know more in a month. Charlotte has lost 10 of its last 11 road games.

They've lost four of their last five. They have the Knicks tonight at seven o'clock. BG, always appreciate the time, buddy. We'll see you. We'll talk to you sometime soon. Yep.