We Were In Motion (1-5-22)

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 Grant. Welcome to a Thursday Drive on WSJS, Deuce Talk Sports for the Triad, where in the ACC Big Four, both the home crowds went home happy last night. But starting with the game we attended in Chapel Hill, even if you're the biggest Tar Heel fan who had every expectation your team was going to get back on track against the Deacs, you couldn't help being in the building having the sense that Wake Forest spoiled the golden opportunity. They were in the perfect position to win that game.

And due in large part to self-inflicted wounds, they didn't. Wake Forest also caught a tremendous break in the first two minutes of the game. Pete Nance left and he never came back. And when I say he never came back, with the lower back soreness we learned about halfway through the first half, I mean, he never even returned to the bench. And that's key as North Carolina gets set for an 1130 a.m. tip against Notre Dame on Saturday. This was the third straight game that Wake Forest caught a break like this. Against Duke, we learned the day of. Their two potential lottery pick freshmen, Tariq Whitehead and Derek Lively, both out due to an illness. Wake Forest won that game. Against Virginia Tech, Hunter Couture, cleared to play according to John Rothstein. But Mike Young wanted to bring him back carefully, did not play him against the Demon Deacons last Saturday. Wake Forest again won that game.

Pete Nance goes out two minutes in. You have to be thinking, pound the post, a lot of Justin McCoy minutes? That's exactly what you want if you're Wake Forest and you have all this size and you like to play a physical brand of basketball. And to be clear, this is not lucky on Wake Forest's part. I'm not saying they only won those games because they caught those breaks. But anybody who's played and anybody who's coached or been in it will tell you everybody gets breaks eventually.

You better capitalize when you get those breaks. And Wake didn't do that. Wake gave away the game with live ball turnovers. North Carolina scored how many points in the game? Final score ended up being 88-79.

Sound about right? More than a third of those points, 32 of the points in the game came off Wake's 15 turnovers. It was a layup line in the second half. It felt like every time they gave the ball away.

Or as Steve Forbes called them, atomic bomb turnovers. I thought they turned up the intensity on defense. We got way more aggressive. And I thought that rattled us. I thought we caved to the pressure of their intensity on defense. Unforced turnovers. We only had eight at halftime. We were in good shape. I think we had four atomic bombs in the second half last eight minutes. We just turned over and went down and dunked it.

Can't do that. So give North Carolina credit. They did speed up Wake Forest's guards. Like Dappleby and Damari Monsanto had a really nice game.

They sped them up. North Carolina added a lot of pressure. But Wake Forest still turned it over way more often than they usually do. A win would have put them in pristine position. Their resume, if they would have won last night, road wins at Wisconsin and at North Carolina. Home wins against Wake Forest, or excuse me, Duke and Virginia Tech. That's the resume of an NCAA tournament team.

Plain and simple. Now, they're still in a good position, but they had a chance to be in a great position last night. And they spoiled the golden opportunity. On Twitter, at WSJS Radio, if you want in, 336-777-1600 is the phone number. Will Dalton, my partner in crime, executive producer of this show. We both were there last night. And you're a Tar Heel fan. So you might be looking through this through the light blue lens. But that was the sense I got.

You sitting next to me. When Pete Nance didn't return and Wake Forest has the lead in the second half. I think they led by as many as eight or nine. You think, well, they're going to win this game as long as they don't give it away.

And that's exactly what they did. Yeah. I mean, it felt at halftime it could go down to the final minutes and be one of those back and forth type of deals, but it didn't end up being that. No. And the big part of the reason was because of Wake Forest costing Wake Forest.

A lot of points on turnovers, too. 32. That's what I'm saying. Let's go to Ed and Winston Salem.

336-777-1600. Ed, you have the word on this from a Carolina perspective. How did you feel about last night?

You're right. You're doing a wonderful analysis, like 15 turnovers, 32 points to me. That was the major breaking point in that ball game. And if Carolina wants to continue on, they've got to be more consistent. Just an example, back in the Pittsburgh game in that second half when they had a chance to win that game and up by eight or nine, they went over six minutes without a field goal.

Last night in the first half, in the first five and a half minutes, they went five and a half minutes without a field goal. In the second half, R.J. Davis caught fire and some of the other guys shipped up. And to me, they were very fortunate to win that game and to be out rebounded. Wake Forest has got some good, big people.

I was really impressed by number 11. Oh, no doubt. Andrew Carr.

And he also could shoot the ball from the outside. And I think moving forward, Wake Forest is going to surprise some people down the line. That's all I got, Josh.

Thanks, Ed. And you just reminded me of something. Your best dudes have to be your best dudes. And Wake Forest also caught a break in that Caleb Love wasn't good last night. Caleb was in single digits, didn't hit a three. He missed his first six three point attempts. He wasn't good last night. So Pete Nance essentially doesn't play. Caleb Love doesn't play well.

He scores into single digits. And you lose that basketball game? That was the story was Wake Forest missing out.

That was a missed opportunity for them, in my opinion. Getting to football. A year after Sam Mills got into Canton, the Carolina Panthers will not induct Hall of Famers in consecutive years because for the second straight year, Steve Smith left off the finalists list. But listen to me, Panther fans. I want to get that worked up about this because you're going to get another Hall of Famer in next year. And it's not Steve Smith. Julius Peppers is going to be eligible for 2024 and Pep, he's the definition of a first ballot guy. But real quickly, let's circle back to 89 before we get to 90. Steve Smith wasn't a finalist because of how big of a logjam there is at that position.

It's not right. Steve Smith, he probably has a better resume than the guys in front of him. I'd put his resume ahead of Tory Holtz. I'd put Steve Smith's resume ahead of Devin Hester, certainly, even though I know Hester is there for special teams purposes.

I put Steve Smith ahead of even Andre Johnson, maybe even Reggie Wayne. But those guys have been waiting longer. And thus, here the voters been hearing from all those fan bases and you hear those cases a lot longer than you've heard Steve's.

That's just how the process works. When one receiver gets votes, another doesn't. And Smitty, this is just his second crack at it. Julius Peppers, he's going to be a first ballot guy, though. That man is fourth all time in career sacks. Julius Peppers was on the all decade NFL teams for the 2000s and the 2010s. There's one other guy who can say that. His name is Tom Brady.

So if Peppers isn't a first ballot guy, I don't know who is. And he is one of us in so many ways. Went to North Carolina, played basketball for the Tar Heels in addition to football. And he's, I think, went to Northern Nash High School, grew up in the country.

I played some soccer games there when I was in high school. So he's like us in many ways, but he's also not like us in almost every other way. He's North Carolina's Paul Bunyan, where it feels like right before social media took hold. Peppers is in college, Peppers is coming into the league, and you just hear stories. You hear people talking, I saw him jump over a dude during a game and do this, and you believe it. It's like Bo Jackson to a degree. Oh yeah, well, Peppers did this, and you just believe it's true because the guy was a superhero. So he's going to get in, and 89's going to get in eventually, too.

He's just got to wait his turn. The numbers are Hall of Fame worthy. Just look at what he did in the 2005 postseason alone. Three touchdown catches, a touchdown run, and he had a punt return for a touchdown. The game he had against the Chicago Bears in the divisional round of 2005 is the single most impactful performance I've ever seen from a wide receiver in NFL history. And you've got to consider, he's putting up Hall of Fame numbers with all due respect, Jake Delone throwing him the football, which is a lot different than Peyton Manning throwing the ball to Reggie Wayne his entire career. Or Tory Holt having Kurt Warner for a lot of those seasons.

A little bit different than that. So, 89, he's beloved. He's got a good case. He's got great numbers. He's going to get in eventually. It's just going to take some time, but two out of three getting Hall of Famers in, that's not bad.

Sam Mills last year and Julius Peppers next year. That's something you have to look forward to. This had to be something WD was looking forward to. He watched the Dark Knight for the first time this week.

WD, write this down. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become the villain. At the Movies is next.

Nope, not getting sidetracked today. When Ben McAdoo speaks, we listen in 15 minutes. Maybe the last time we'll hear from Ben McAdoo.

Don't want to make people sad on this Thursday, but that is a real possibility. Some breaking news in college basketball to pass along before we get to the movies. Chris Beard has been officially fired at Texas. This is huge news because with Beard as the coach, Texas looked like a legit national title contender this year, but hard to really keep him around or feel sorry for Chris Beard at all when you look at what he was accused of doing, the allegations of what he did to his fiance. And there were some statements, I think the fiance put out a statement in the last couple of days saying that she never intended for Beard to be arrested or for any of this to happen. Remember early in the morning neighbors heard the disturbance and police came over there to see what happened and arrested Chris Beard rightfully. Even as she put out the statement, she never said that Chris Beard was innocent in this. So Texas was rightful in doing this. Texas also doesn't have to pay a buyout as well. This certainly falls underneath firing someone for calls and termination practices.

But this is just my general feeling on things. Given how good of a coach he's been, this speaks to where we are in college basketball and really in revenue generating sports like college hoops or football. He's going to get another opportunity, especially since it seems the fiance is standing by him and there's a way from a PR perspective and with the passing of time it's going to be justified. Right or wrong, probably wrong if I'm thinking about it, that Beard's going to get another opportunity.

That's just how these things work. But it won't be at Texas. Chris Beard fired in his second season. W.D. watched The Dark Knight for the first time this week. Let's talk about it at the movies. Unless you're talking about Star Wars. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing.

But that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore. 15 years old. The Dark Knight came out in the summer of 2008, directed by Christopher Nolan, starring, of course, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman. The second of three Batman movies that Nolan directed in the trilogy.

What did you like the most about The Dark Knight? Well, for starters, I mean, the big broad answer is Heath Ledger's performance as the joke. That's the right answer.

That is the correct answer. I think most people would probably say that. This movie almost doesn't work without Heath Ledger. People talk about this as being the best superhero movie of all time, and I agree with that. But it's Ledger that makes this movie what it is.

And here's how I know that. Remember when I said it was a trilogy and there was Batman Begins and then Batman Rising after that? I didn't think either of those movies were that great. See, I feel like I should watch the others.

You can. They're not bad movies. It's Christopher Nolan. He doesn't make bad movies, but none of those movies are particularly memorable.

None of them, I would say, are great movies by any means. And it's because they're dark, they're gritty, they're grimy, and there's not much to offset. Christian Bale's darkness is Batman.

The way he speaks, I'm gonna fight you in the street. The Joker offset that, and the performance, it doesn't age at all. If you watch Jack Nicholson and the late 80s Batman or Cesar Romero, you just watch it now and you think, ah, you wouldn't play it that way in 2022. It ages poorly to a degree. When you watch this, even though it's 15 years old now, you do that in 2022, it'd still be amazing.

Yeah, you would never know it was 15 years ago. I'd even go as far as to say it's the greatest villain performance ever. When you think about it, there aren't a lot of great movie villains, but the Joker is, and this is the best depiction of the Joker. Also, the bank robbery scene at the beginning was really good. It gave me kind of the town, inside man vibes a little bit. It was paying homage to Heat, which we need you to watch. Oh, was it?

Okay, I didn't know that. Well, I know you didn't because you haven't seen Heat. Also, I just love Batman's gadgets. I'm more of a Marvel guy, specifically Spider-Man, Iron Man, but this movie kind of made me want to explore Batman a little more because I like Iron Man for his gadgets and stuff like that. Batman and Spider-Man were my two superheroes.

So yeah, I might have to dig into this a little bit more. What didn't you like about The Dark Knight? I had trouble nitpicking something on this movie. It's too long.

It's two and a half hours. You think it's too long? Maybe this is me being old because that was my objection to the movie we did last week, but we didn't need the character trying to reveal Batman's identity on TV. We didn't need to explore that side, what's his name, Reese or something. We didn't need to explore that too much. We really didn't even need the entire diatribe with the Chinese accountant going to Hong Kong.

It was a little kind of awful. And honestly, I love Morgan Freeman, but Alfred can't do everything that we need Lucius Fox to do in this movie. There seems to be some overlap with characters there.

I was thinking about that. But the response to all three of those things could simply be, Ah, well, it's Christopher Nolan. Would you ever go to someone's house who makes tremendous food and say, Oh, you've made too much of the tremendous food. I'm sorry, it's too much of this. Here's Batman jumping off the Sears Tower and then trying to land back in a plane that has already taken off. Or here's, you know, Morgan Freeman, stirring it up and cooking a bit. Do you really dislike these things?

No, but I don't know if we necessarily needed them. And that's how you get a two and a half hour movie that probably should be two hours long. I will tell you the one thing that I do dislike, if anything, because I had trouble nitpicking something about the movie itself. It's the fact that Heath Ledger never got the opportunity to see just how his Joker was received right before it came out. Correct. And, you know, I've read things about like how he prepared to play this character. Like he practically went he basically went insane for a brief period to get himself into character. It bums me out that they did not kill off the Joker at the end of this.

Right. Which makes you think, given the popularity of it, we probably get another Heath Ledger Joker performance. But part of me thinks that might actually be for the best because it's hard to top what he actually did. Best quote really should just be best Joker quote. Well, take your pick.

Why so serious? So I'm actually going to kill the music to give you my favorite little snippet from him. OK, because there are so many to choose from. Oh, yeah. I thought my jokes were bad. It's just that that entire sequence is probably the answer, because you have the self-awareness of the purposefully hokey laugh. You have I can make this pencil disappear. I really enjoyed that scene, too.

I know why you guys are doing this in broad daylight. The awareness of it. I really appreciated.

If you're good at doing something, never do it for free. A lot of great lines in that, too. I didn't want I didn't want to go basic and give the line that you started the segment off. You see yourself become the villain.

You know how I got these scars? Rotten Tomatoes score. Oh, I'm just going to say ninety eight.

Ninety four. Also the same score among critics, too, which speaks to how universally beloved this movie is. That's been at the movies. In the last minute, Sam Hartman has made it official on Twitter. He writes on word hashtag go Irish with pictures of him for the first time in a Notre Dame uniform. He will be transferring from Wake Forest to Notre Dame, presumably. That's what we expected a few weeks ago. Great destination for him.

A lot of familiarity. On the schedule, you've got Clemson, Louisville, NC State, Wake Forest, of course, that's going to be in late October. That wake goes to Notre Dame. Familiar opponents Duke on the schedule, too. He enters South Bend already with more passing yards and more touchdowns than any quarterback in the history of Notre Dame football. And that's quite a list of quarterbacks that have been there. Pretty exciting stuff for Sam Hartman. Hopefully Notre Dame can find a wide receiver for him to throw the ball to, because as crazy as it sounds, I venture to say, Wake's wide receivers the last couple of years are going to be better than the wide receivers that he throws to at Notre Dame this year.

So that's been made official. We spent time on the Wake Forest angle to the game in Chapel Hill last night. Now let's get to the Tar Heels, where in the second half of the game, it was a one point game. And there was a lengthy delay as a fan fell out in the stands, apparently fainted.

And the delay was so long they had to have a two minute warm up before restarting play. It wasn't hard for people to leap to imagining what happened with Damar Hamlin and having sympathy for the woman at the Smith Center. There were some was some information given to media on site that she was active. She was OK. She was alert.

She's going to be fine for those who were wondering there. But B. Dot last night or on the show yesterday, he challenged me to work some grammar school words into interviews. But before we get to how I did so, we learned Armando Bacot. Armando. He took Hubert Davis to grammar school and he did so specifically during that stretch in the second half.

Apparently. That's what happened. This was Hubert on that delay. And the break was for so long that we just started having conversations. I mean, we had a conversation of R.J. and Caleb's high school and where he went to high school. Armando taught me a new word. And so we were talking about that.

And then and so I was just I was trying to keep them loose and to get them to laugh a little bit. So Mr. Bacot taught him a new word. Apparently, the word he taught him was motion.

Here's more from Hubert. So Armando said that a couple of days ago and he kept saying it. And I was like, I don't know what that means. And I said, what does motion mean? He says, you have everything. You know, you've got you know, you've you've got a nice car.

You've got good friends. You've got your life is in motion. And so in the huddle, I said, look, guys, let's get into motion. They all looked at me. Did I say it the right way?

Did I say it the wrong way? And we all just started laughing. I was like, Armando, talk me the word.

They were surprised a 52 year old knew that. And so the new word is motion. Okay. So in the second half, we were in motion. We were in motion. B Dot writes in.

In the second half, we had motion would be the best way to say that. Do you have the definition of motion in front of you, W.D.? I know you pulled it up last night on Urban Dictionary. I do. I do.

So it means to be accomplishing things at a good speed, most likely to have your own apartment, your own car, your career is going in a good direction to be accomplishing good things. Motion. Interesting.

It is. After the game ended last night, Hubert was done with this postgame press conference. I told him about the concept of grammar school because Hubert was already enamored with the not verbatim concept that B Dot had worked in. So going into the locker room, the word that I was giving was good bump.

Those were the words I was given. Good bump. And speaking of Armando Baycott, Armando. I talked to him about good bump and he had some respect for the Demon Deacons. I think people would say there was some good bump tonight. The way you guys played with. Said it was some good bump tonight between you guys level jumping up in ACC play. Yeah, I mean, it's always going to be a good bump playing way for us. A great program, but just the ACC in general, you see today, I mean, it's big time teams going down.

So, I mean, you've got to come ready to play every day. They agree. Some good bump. That's quite a compliment from Armando.

Armando. It's always good bump when you play Wake Forest. They're going to play hard. That's pretty shining praise. I was struggling to hold it together in the postgame last night.

You were shooting the video here. Same question for RJ Davis about the intensity going up. I think people would say there was some good bump tonight. The way you guys played with ACC play here.

Have you noticed a level up in intensity? Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a great bump every game. ACC is full of, you know, highly competitive and, you know, talented team. So each game is going to be kind of a dogfight and we're going to have to pull it out.

But, you know, I feel like with the talent we have, the great coaching staff that we have, you know, will be in those games and hopefully remain positive and keep it going. Now remember, RJ at media day played grammar school with us. We had Brooklyn slang that I had to try and figure out. So since then, RJ and I have gone back and forth on these things. With the laughing in between the questions, it seems like he figured out pretty quickly what we were trying to do. See if you could figure out just how in on it RJ was when Let the Chopper Ring rang into the equation. Seemed like you let the chopper ring in the second half. Some of the shots you put up, what were you feeling as you really took over that game? I just felt like I was in that zone. I always hear B.Dot, he always goes, you know, you RJ Davis. I just kept hearing that and I kept replaying that in my mind.

So just for me to have confidence in myself and believe in me to make those, you know, shots that I've been working on. Something like the chopper is always going to ring, as he says. The chopper is always going to ring, W.D. He gets it. Yeah. He loves it. That guy's a pro. Yeah, he is. He's already.

He's a vet. On the floor, I want to see exactly what he shot because I brought up the example on the show. Hey, what if RJ was 10 of 13? He let the chopper ring. I have his stats in front of me here. 9 of 14.

Like, we brought up the scenario. Hey, what if RJ goes off? He lets the chopper ring last night in the second half. He had five in the first and then drops 22 in the second half. And got his thousand points last night.

He did. North Carolina with more 1000 point scorers than any program in college basketball. So this is where I put the ball in your court. And in the audience's court. How did I do? In terms of execution. Dot says my execution on the good bump question to RJ was not so great.

He thought I could have been better with my execution. It'll be something that smooths out as we go. That's for sure. I mean, you and I are going to be at Carolina Notre Dame on Saturday.

I don't know if you got anything in mind for that. 1130 a.m. tip. Yeah. Brunch. We'll recap the college basketball from last night in just a little bit. North Carolina a winner on the eighth anniversary of Stuart Scott's passing. A nice touch by our guy B Dot, the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball. Doing a collective booyah at the Smith Center.

NC State not storming the floor after beating Duke and beating Duke down by 24. We've been doing top cats for nearly three months now. Trying to figure out since Matt rule was fired who the next coach of the Panthers is going to be. I feel like it's one of three men at this point.

And that's what we explore right now. Odds are the Panthers next head coach is coaching right now. So who's it going to be?

Here are this week's top cats. If I'm David Tepper, my list is three names long. Because you know how good of an option you have in Steve Wilks who is going to take the job. So you shouldn't look at other candidates unless you feel that those candidates are better options.

Are upgrades over Wilks, which is already an appealing option. So it should be a more narrow scope than it even was a few years ago when they hired Matt rule. And the list has to start with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

Now, if you haven't been paying attention the last half hour or so. Michigan football put out a tweet with the caption Michigan man through and through. That had a statement attached to it from Jim Harbaugh.

This is what it said. I am aware of the rumors and speculation over the past few days. College and NFL teams have great interest in all of our personnel from players to coaches to staff. And I truly believe that is a testament to the strength of our University of Michigan football program.

As I stated in December, while no one knows the future and what it holds. I expect that I will be enthusiastically coaching Michigan in twenty twenty three. I've spoken with President Santo Ono and athletic director Ward manual and appreciate their support of me and our program. Our mission is Wolverines continue and we are preparing for the twenty twenty three season with great passion and enthusiasm.

As our legendary coach Bo Shimbek or said, those who stay and this is in all caps, those who stay will be champion. All anybody is focusing on is him saying, I expect that rather than firmly saying I will be the head coach of Michigan in twenty twenty three. I just think Jim Harbaugh is a weird dude. He's weird. He's quirky in the way that he handles himself. He often does not like doing what the media says that he should do or doing things the way that you're supposed to do it.

I bet you that's what this is to a degree. It doesn't really make sense to leave Michigan right now, in my opinion, because you've got J.J. McCarthy back at quarterback. You know, you can win a national title if TCU is in the game right now. You have the talent.

You are your biggest hurdles. Ohio State and they have to go to Ann Arbor after losing to you back to back years. And they're not going to have C.J. Stroud while you have your quarterback returning. Plus, USC and UCLA, they don't join until two thousand and twenty four. It doesn't make sense right now. The NFL is going to be there for Jim Harbaugh if he leaves now or leaves a year from now.

I think, as I said yesterday, is my bold prediction of twenty twenty three for twenty twenty three. Harbaugh and Sean Payton stay. But that doesn't mean if you're David Tepper, you don't talk to Harbaugh, who won 70 percent of his games as an NFL coach and developed the number of quarterbacks. Second name Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen.

Don't want to hear about the other assistants. Tell him Moore, who's making a ton in Dallas and has been around there for a while, doing a nice job with that offense. Steichen is the best offensive name that sticks out because, again, he's done it at multiple places now.

Tell him Moore can't say that. Shane Steichen, he was the one to get Justin Herbert's career off of the ground. His one season working with Herbert as the OC in L.A. When Anthony Lin got fired, Nick Sirianni picked up a gem in Steichen. And even though Jalen Hurts wasn't all that impressive in his first season, is it a coincidence that he jumps into being into an MVP candidate quarterback in years two and three? The moment that he's acquainted with Shane Steichen?

I don't think so. In addition to that, a lot of passing in the offense in L.A. that fits to your personnel or fit to their personnel. The Eagles have been running the football so well this year. So that tells me you have a coach that's versatile, that can dictate a style to the personnel versus the other way around. That's a great sign of coaching.

I love the idea of getting a young quarterback paired with an offensive minded coach. Steichen is the only one that I think is an upgrade over our final candidate, Steve Wilks. I think Steve Wilks is going to get the job.

That's what I believe. Because Harbaugh is going to stay. Steichen is going to be the hottest name on the market and I don't think Carolina is the best job available. And Steve Wilks really wants it. And I think he's deserved it. I think he probably needs to win against the Saints this weekend.

I think he can do that. What does New Orleans have to play for after all? But that feels like the list to me. Harbaugh, Steichen, Steve Wilks. Those are the guys. The best offensive minded assistant. The guy who's proven it as a head coach, who's the flashy name. And the person that the fans want the most, one of their guys who's already started to change the culture in Charlotte. If it's not one of those three people, you have legitimate reasons to be upset if you're a Panther fan. If they're hiring Ben Johnson, the Lions OC, or even Kelly Moore or Dan Quinn, you have real reason to ask, why didn't you just hire Steve Wilks? If you're going to hire one of those guys.

That's been Top Cats. Did you see the video out there of Derrick Brown kind of talking about how it would be nice to have some stability in the locker room there? And that's why he and a lot of the Panthers players are behind Steve Wilks? Sure. I've heard that from a ton of different players.

Sure. They said the same thing. They wanted to keep Matt Ruhl around. Players never want to see the current coaches go. You can't really put that much stock into what the players want. It sounds bad, but that's not what owners are generally thinking about because you could always find these are professionals. So if you find another coach, well, they're going to play hard because they know their livelihood is at stake for it. And there are financial reasons to buy into that. So it's a little bit different of a dynamic than what you would see in college. But those are the three names that I'm narrowing the scope on right now. Narrowing the scope to.

And I'm predicting that Wilks is going to end up getting the job. I went to a movie theater earlier this week. We were off on Monday. That's when our company was observing New Year's and I went to go see the movie Babylon, which is. Three hour movie, three hours and nine minutes, when's the earliest you've ever gone to a marquee? Because that was an eleven fifteen a.m. showing. Oh, I want to say the earliest I've ever gone to a movie was maybe like one o'clock, AMC in Winston-Salem. So I asked that question on social media and I've been flooded with people saying, oh, I've been to nine forty five movies, ten kids movies that show early in the morning that you can watch. Not early in the morning, I guess, but in the morning, I guess.

So eleven fifteen, apparently not all that early, I guess, but Babylon. That is it's an interesting movie. What is it about? It's about Hollywood in the 20s as movies are shifting from not having sound and just being silent movies to having sound. And it stars Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie. Toby Maguire's in this movie and the first 20 minutes of the movie. I'm not going to spoil anything here, an absolute fever dream, not for kids, but you watch it, you're just like, whoa, what the heck is this movie going to be? First 20 minutes, the last 20 minutes are just as staggering.

But the net it's the it's the inverse. I can't believe this movie is still going. Why won't they just end the movie? This has three or four endings you could have picked.

And this is the one that you pick. And it went to absurd lengths to keep continuing as a movie. It's a classic example. We talked about it to a degree with Dark Knight. I don't think Dark Knight was cheapened by being two and a half hours versus two hours. But nowadays, if you're a director that that carries weight, there aren't as many that can make movies and put them out there that are dramas or anything other than superhero movies. They generally have the power to put out movies that are three hours or three and a half hours long just because they can.

And that's their vision of it. There are fewer people to tell these major directors, no, hey, this has to be shortened and more defined. So now you have these movies that are just a million years long. And I think hurts the quality of the movie. I think Babylon could have been a great movie. It's only a good movie now because of the last 20 minutes because Sam Mendes didn't know how to edit that thing down. Or excuse me, Damien Chazelle didn't know how to edit that thing down. It aspired to be a combination of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and La La Land. And I think it achieved that in many ways.

But then the last 20 minutes made me want to get into with this fight. Darren Bhatt joins us now. You know him as the voice of High Point Basketball.

In addition to that, see, he's the voice of USA Baseball calling games all over the place. And now you're a professor, too? Yeah, I mean, yes, is the short answer that I mean, technically, the title is adjunct instructor. So I'm not 100 percent sure how I feel about professor seems a little more formal than instructor. I don't know their feelings on it in academia.

Like, I don't know if there is there supposed to be a difference. I don't know. Take me through the course description of what you're teaching at UNCW. So I've had some people ask and funny enough, it's it's not broadcast related as much or sports related as much. But it is foundations of interactive media. We will begin with a bunch of theory and then move into basically creating media for the Web. So there's some HTML, CSS. We eventually work our way into JavaScript, which is one that I'm less familiar with. But I got to I got to retool myself with that sort of thing so that I can teach it.

So, oh, my God, a lot of coding. If you and I were in Darren's class. Oh, boy. Also, I'm sure Darren's a handsome guy.

He's often been described as a better looking version of Josh Graham, which you could see on YouTube, Twitch and Twitter. There are going to be some college girls that have super crushes on Darren. One hundred percent.

Oh, one hundred percent. They're going to be hitting on the professor. Darren's going to be tempted. But no, Darren is. He is. Come on.

Come on. He is principled. You know, how many times have we texted him to give us the lottery numbers and he won't do it because he doesn't have those numbers ahead of time. But he is Lottery Boy. He does everything. There are few people on this planet I admire more than Darren. But earlier this week, scary, terrifying.

Use whatever adjective you care to use. Adjacent to that scene in Cincinnati with DeMar Hamlin. And the good news is that he seems to have turned a corner where he's neurologically intact. He reportedly, according to Fox, is right. He got a question.

Who won the game to the doctor? And seems to be in a good position relative to where he was just even a few days ago, which is great. Bills players and Sean McDermott speaking today, talking about getting ready for a game on Sunday. What impact? See, the NFL is such a leader, Darren, in sports.

It's such a behemoth. And it seems to me the ways that the NFL acts are instructive for all of sports. And there tends to be followers, whether it's what they do with their TV deals, what they do with how they run their sport altogether, you name it. What impact might Monday night, considering it was in primetime and everybody saw it and it was a big game in all and happened in that sport specifically. What impact might that have on sports moving forward, the way that we consume these things?

Yeah, it's an interesting question when you allow yourself to get past the human element. Obviously, first and foremost, none of whatever we could say about Monday night is more important than DeMar Hamlin. Of course, his health and his being able to neurologically have his ability to function going forward. Right. And obviously it goes without saying, we want him to live. We're all human.

We want that for him. But it does get interesting when you start to think about it. I read sort of skimmed, I can't remember exactly who it was with the league, the NFL. Whoever it was, they were at that European soccer match where the player had experienced cardiac arrest.

What was it like a year or maybe two years ago? And from that experience, they learned to add sort of a point person in the event of a cardiac arrest at every NFL game. So when they do their meeting an hour before game time, it's the people who are on site, the safety team. I don't know who all that includes, but it was added just this year that in that meeting they designate, hey, you are the person. Like if someone experiences cardiac arrest, you are the person that is going to be in charge.

You will go get the defibrillator. And that's so it struck me as, wow, OK. I mean, that that might have saved DeMar Hamlin's life. And if your idea that this league employee was at this European soccer match. And if you're the ACC, for example, to localize it, you might be thinking, well, we should have a point person at every one of our games. One hundred percent.

I think you have to. That's a practical way to think about it. Also, I don't think this might be the cynic in me. I don't think if this even happens 10 years ago, that game gets canceled. I think they still figure out a way to play the game because of where we were at even 10 years ago when it comes to mental health. And I feel like that's been the new horizon in sports that we've seen the last five, 10 years. Our greater understanding of what the players are going through, mental health, how they're impacted.

Like we're not that far removed from people saying rub some dirt on it when it comes to head injuries and things of that nature. So I think this is a sign what we saw Monday of progress that. We were able, even as big of a game as it was in the context of the league, we were able to put that aside and prioritize what mattered most, which is DeMar Hamlin. And I wonder what that does moving forward now that we've actually crossed that bridge of, oh, we're not going to play this game because that's not as important. Like, where is that line between it's OK to play again versus what we saw on Monday? Take the Tua instance from a couple of months ago in the same field.

Those guys ultimately decided to play again. I don't know what the I don't know where that line is, but it's a line that the NFL might say we're just going to figure out on a case by case basis. But figuring out where that's established is an interesting thing to me. Yeah.

And it's hard it's hard to establish that line when you're talking about things that to a certain degree you've never experienced before. Yeah. Right.

And that's why that's why I got crushed. I'd say, hey, show some grace to the NFL. Like, I'd like to think we'd all bat 1000 in situations that we've never seen before. But folks who are like, why don't I know what whether this game's canceled or not?

Chill out. It seems like the coaches and players were plugged in. They weren't left in the dark and they're unpacking bags on the sideline. I don't really give a rip if the folks on Twitter or Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are left in the dark for 30 minutes. I'm fine with that. And you mentioned that, you know, one of the the priority in the first and foremost priority in this this instance, when they're making this these decisions is, of course, Hamlin, who at the time you feared might not live through it. But there's a there's a close secondary consideration.

I mean, did you see the faces of the guys around him, his teammates, Allen Diggs? Yes. I mean, like there's no possible way those guys could have continued. So, I mean, yeah. To your point, I don't know what would have happened had this occurred 10 years ago.

Maybe they they play the remainder of the game the next day as sort of like an in-between. I don't even know about that, man. Yeah. Like if you go back and see the way we used to like, we're not that far from mood from having a jacked up segment on Monday Night Football, where we celebrated the hits that would would suspend people now. Yeah. Again, 10 years ago is probably about about the time that we started to to to wise up to some of these things. So it would have been tricky then.

But you don't you don't know what you're getting into. And I say this is not to make it about me or anybody else other than DeMar Hamlin. But a couple of summers ago, I called a Durham Bulls baseball game where the pitcher got hit in the head with a line drive and was unconscious afterward. And I left the ballpark that evening after we suspended it in the fifth inning, thinking that he was dead. And thankfully, he's he's come back and even pitched some last season in a miraculous return to the game that they didn't even think he was going to be able to do much less in less than a year. So I hope Hamlin has the same sort of good signs recovering and it seems like he's he's well on his way.

So hopefully that continues. But, you know, we didn't we didn't there was there's no playbook on it in either instance. And it's it's hard to say where where the line is going to be because you don't know what the you don't we don't know what all is on the spectrum. Right. We're Christopher Columbus floating across the earth thinking we're going to one place.

But there's a big chunk of land in between where we think we're going and where we are. Darren Botts with us here. Now let's answer unusual questions. Last week, guys, I made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference. That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question. And it's OK.

It's time for unusual questions with Josh Gray. I keep thinking that clip is super old because it happened in 2021, two years ago. But North Carolina basketball's only lost two home games since then. Against Duke and Pittsburgh last year. Yeah. No, I think it's the B-Dot effect because every home game after that point, B-Dot was. You're right. You're 100 percent right. B-Dots changed things in a great way.

All right. I wanted to ask you a nerdy broadcast question in the light of Corey Alexander and Randolph Childress calling the game last night, essentially having two analysts without a play by play guy. What example in sports would you like to see that?

No play by play guy, but two analysts together on a broadcast. But rather than ask you that nerdy question, can I answer that? Please do.

And then you get to the fire off. Who do you want? Give me Dick Vitale and Bill Walton on the same call.

Oh, boy. No play by play. Duke Carolina. Hey, we got Bill Walton. You would watch. Don't lie. You would watch. We gave away tickets to go see the Eagles, who are performing with Vince Gill later this year in Greensboro. And we gave away those tickets before you even had a chance to buy them.

Tomorrow morning, you'll have that chance again with Jeffrey Griffin on Triad Today. So I just had the thought, what band name involving an animal do you think is the best or would you most like to see in concert? And I know that's kind of a question to put you guys on the spot. So how about I roll off a list here of notable band names? And I'm sure you could come up with a million more. But the Pussycat Dolls, the Chicks, White Snake, Imagine Dragons, the Monkeys, the Arctic Monkeys, the Animals, the Scorpions, Blue Oyster Cult, the Turtles, Hootie and the Blowfish, Def Leppard.

Any of those intrigue you, Darren? I like the monkey. Any of them that fit that description are no longer a thing. The Arctic Monkeys are a thing. The Arctic Monkeys. Imagine Dragons.

I don't love that. As we established that they're the Nickelback of the 2010s. They're just a little, I'm sure they put on a fine show. It's a little radio rock for me. Scorpions. Blue Oyster Cult actually performed a couple of years ago in Greenville.

Are they still a thing? Because that would be great. Actually, that might be my answer. Blue Oyster Cult's very good. W.D., what's your answer and why is it Imagine Dragons?

I like Imagine Dragons. I know you do. If I could make up a name. I didn't know that, but I guessed.

Well, good guess. If I could make up one. It makes sense.

It makes sense to me. Make up one? I'm going to make up one. What? Well, what's the name? A wiener dog with a side of mustard.

That's pretty terrible. Modest Mouse and Counting Crows come to mind, too. I've seen Counting Crows. Bloodhound Gang. Oh, Bloodhound Gang. Snoop Dogg.

Snoop counts. That's true. Rainbow Kitten Surprise. They're very good. They are. They're really good. Band of Horses.

There are just so many that, you know, just pick your flavor. How about you ask an unusual question, W.D., to make up for that horrific contribution you made a second ago that we're going to sidestep. So I got upset that I thought of this after the segment last week. So I want to bring Darren into our conversation about Altoids. So Josh doesn't think that Altoids or, to be more broad, mints are considered candy.

I don't. He doesn't think chocolate is candy. It's just chocolate or it's treats. That's a little bit more broad, but let's just hammer in on the Altoids and mints. Yeah, so chocolate generally could be a baked good. Then it's not candy anyways.

Continue. Is Altoids or mints of some kind, is that candy? I mean, nutritionally, by the book, it sort of is.

But I don't. That's like soup. That's like soup being like being an entree. That's what it is. I guess technically it can be that. But come on. Yeah. But I don't know.

I don't I don't consider mints to be. Did you get some crackers, Jerry? Darren, what's your unusual question? Did you guys ever or do you currently I don't know the answer to this. That's why I'm asking. Have you ever owned a pair of Crocs? No. Oh, yes. I've owned a couple pair of Crocs.

I don't get it. There's no fashion trend that I understand less than Crocs just because they aren't comfortable. Yes, they are.

They aren't. They you can't wear them with bare feet. And they're celebrated as like a like a glorified sandal. No, sandals are a lot more comfortable than Crocs that chafe your feet. It's not a comfortable sensation wearing socks with bare feet.

I only had the Tar Heel Crocs, so they were blue and they had a little Tar Heel logo on the strap. No, B Dot's got his own like custom pair. He has not. Oh, he's going to make that happen, though. Yeah. He said he would.

He'll deliver. This comes up because there's a trend and this is not shaming resolutioners at the gym because I've been seeing this for months. OK, so don't mistake it for that. People on treadmills. In Crocs, people doing cardio in Crocs. And I'm like, look, dude, you are on you are on a bowed treadmill made for sprinting, like at least wrap the heel strap back there and secure yourself.

Not to mention that's terrible for your arches. Yeah, no, it's I mean, to Josh's point, it's not a good shoe. Thank you.

It's not. I feel like making the executive decision of making W.D. watch Heat.

He doesn't have the rotation. It's either Heat or The Departed. And I feel like Heat, given how much we've talked about this movie. Yes. I just need to be the dictator and say you're you're watching Heat.

It's kind of like the social network. That one was in the can. But you liked it. I loved it.

I've watched it again. What is your favorite movie that you've seen so far? So, better than Dark Knight, better than Godfather.

Yeah. Have any of these like become your one of your favorite movies? Because I don't even know that you had favorite movies. You have the Star Wars movies.

It's not you're not going to bump out any of those. I don't. I really did like The Godfather.

So if if any. I'm glad to hear that movie. If any of them became a favorite movie of mine, it probably would be The Godfather. I'm shocked. Have you done Goodfellas yet?

Yeah, we haven't made him watch Goodfellas yet. No. OK. Is that? Are we going to bump out?

That's a podium for me all the time. Are we going to make this? Is Heat going to become Matt Damon on Kimmel's show? With apologies to Matt Damon. We're just going to keep throwing Heat out there.

And then, oh, you know, speaking of De Niro, let's let's do Goodfellas. Did you hold it? There's a sports angle here. Did you see was it the Celtics game that Damon was at last night?

No. And they they pointed him out like they do with celebrities at games on the scoreboard. But they played. They played the music from entourage and his cameo in entourage, as if the dude had never had a bigger role than a cameo on entourage. That's always my move. When I interview actors, as rare as that happens, I always say best known from and I pick an obscure movie.

That's my move. So it'd be like, you know, if I interviewed Ed Norton, best known from Death to Smoochie. Exactly. Like if I interviewed Will Ferrell, I would just like pinpoint. I'd be like Will Ferrell, who's best known for pick. That's probably a bad example because all his movies are great. We actually interviewed John Heater once.

And it was, you know, best known for the bench warmers, not even mentioning Napoleon Dynamite. Wait, that's you. That's the same guy. So you would do that to be funny.

I would do that because I genuinely thought I just picked the movie they were in. Thought it was good. Darren, we got to go talk to you later. Do your thing. I'll see you guys. That's Professor Vaught joining us on this Thursday. I said that just to make him uncomfortable.