Good Business (2-6-23)

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, would you help schedule this game? He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

I do sing the ukulele. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my city. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. You are on a Monday Drive WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. Where in about a dozen minutes or so, we will be giving away three pairs of tickets to the Wake Forest North Carolina game tomorrow at Joel Coliseum.

Steve Forbes. He's going to be joining us later on as well. And as we know, the team he's going to be facing tomorrow is coming off a loss. And going back to Saturday, there's real value to watching sports up close. The closer you are to the action, the more you can appreciate what's actually happening. Ask a NASCAR fan whether you can appreciate the speed of the sport on television.

You can't. Over the last decade, specifically with basketball, there's been this trend in pushing the media farther and farther away from the action. Don't want anyone to feel bad for us. We get it.

When you're talking about courtside seating, for example, fans are willing to spend a lot of money on those seats. So we get that. This is not supposed to be a pity party. But at Cameron, we're still right on the floor. And I was grateful for being there. I was grateful that was the case because being that close gave me a clear appreciation for how much effort was being exerted. I don't know if this translated over television, but there's no doubt to me that game mattered more to Duke than North Carolina. And it was evident in the way the game was played. The root of playing great defensive basketball like Duke did on Saturday is effort.

The root of defense is effort. And Duke's defense was dominant. North Carolina had a season low 57 points. They attempted three free throw attempts. They had three free throw attempts.

If you want to complain about the officials today, please take that somewhere else. You had an all-star crew, two of which, two out of the three worked final fours. Roger Ayers is as good as it gets in college basketball. Burt Smith, an incredible official too. They let them play. It benefited both sides for many portions of that basketball game. In the second half, because of the way Duke defended, Duke defended a lot of that having to do with Derek Lively having eight blocks, Carolina just stayed away from the paint. Carolina stopped attacking the paint. That's why North Carolina in the second half alone had 19 three-point attempts. Armando Bacot scored two points. As a team in the second half, they had eight points in the paint. Another way you can judge effort? 50-50 balls.

Another way? Rebounding. Go back and rewatch the game as I have. Every 50-50 ball there was belonged to Duke. That's the way it felt. That's the way it felt watching it up close the first time. And then when I rewatched it, had a same idea, had the same feeling. Rebounding.

If you want to make it more empirical, more empirical and less subjective. Duke won the rebounding advantage. This was the number one offensive rebounding team in the ACC Duke facing the number one defensive rebounding team in the league, North Carolina. And Duke had 14 offensive rebounds of the game, including six in the final 11 minutes, which means Carolina never was able to run. When you think of Carolina basketball, you think of pushing the break.

RJ Davis is still one of the best guys at being able to do that. How many fast break points did North Carolina had in the game? Two. They had two the entire game. Duke thrives in games that are played in the 50s and the 60s. North Carolina does not and did not on Saturday. Now, even though I picked Duke to win the game, I was wrong about the tension.

I didn't think there would be a revenge angle to this. All the guys from Duke from last year weren't on this team, even though Paulo Bancaro was in the building. You had Jeremy Roach, who was the only guy back who played last year, essentially.

I know J1 Blake's was on that team too. North Carolina, why were they going to feel tension? They won the two biggest games.

I was wrong because what I didn't consider, the amount of venom from Cameron. The Duke fans, many of those students, remember last year very well. And I've never heard, I've been to dozens and dozens of games at Cameron. I've been to now four or five Duke Carolina games in that building. That was the loudest, that was the nastiest, and that was the drunkest Cameron Indoor Stadium's ever been.

That I've seen, that I've heard, that I've seen with my own two wives. They were throwing airplane bottles of Fireball on the court. Students had to yell at their other students, hey, stop doing that, we can get a technical foul. It was nasty, it was loud, it was drunk, and it mattered. It mattered to them that they won, it mattered to John Shire, it mattered to Jeremy Roach, who made two of the biggest plays of the game.

He had the basket that put it away, on the other end of the floor, he had the key rebound too. So after the game, I asked him what it meant to him. Personally, it means a lot. I mean, we got guys in here who came back last year, P, Mark. I mean, it just means so much to just get this win.

And I mean, ultimately, I don't know, this one's just special to me, for real. Just coming out, just from that final four loss, and obviously the one at Cameron. And then for me personally, we haven't won in Cameron against UNC here, so it was definitely a big one. Were you proud of getting the basket at the end, or the last rebound? Last rebound.

Why is that? I mean, because you got to finish the possession on defense. I mean, you don't know what could have happened if I missed the layup.

Live could have got an offensive rebound, someone could have got, but the defensive rebound is key. 3-3-6-7-7-7-7-1-600 if you want it on Twitter at WSJS Radio. There's so much for us to do today.

Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. Will, are you still recovering from Saturday? Did you take it hard? Not as hard as I expected. I mean, I did not think that was going to be an unforgettable game.

Or I'm sorry, a forgettable game. I didn't think that was going to be the case. B-Dot was in the building on Saturday. Yeah, I saw that.

He told me he's still processing his thoughts. I see. Later in the week, we'll figure that out. As I mentioned, we have Wake Forest North Carolina tickets for tomorrow that we'll be giving away in about five minutes or so. However, wherever you're listening or watching, we're streaming on YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch.

We appreciate that. An hour or so after Duke Carolina wrapped up, we got wind of Jim Boeheim quotes. Jim Boeheim telling Pete Thamel of ESPN some things, accusing Miami Pit and Wake Forest of buying their teams. Steve Forbes, immediately after that, gave statements to CBS Sports saying that he was 1000% wrong. Boeheim, 1000% wrong.

It's 1000% not true. And he shared that Boeheim called him to apologize. We learned yesterday morning. Earlier today in his ACC coaches call, this was as far as Forbes would go in terms of talking about Boeheim. There's very few people that respect coach more than I do. He knows that. He knows that.

I've said it publicly. He contacted me. I was watching, I recommend watching The Recruit on Netflix. It's about CIA lawyer. I was watching that after Carolina Duke.

And then my life got interrupted there for a while. But coach reached out to me around 2.30 in the morning. Us coaches stay up late. And I'm fine with coach, man. I like him. I respect him.

I think the world of him. And Jim Boeheim would not comment on it at all saying, I'm not going to talk about conversations I had with Steve Forbes or with Jeff Caple. So that closes the book on this. But the book's almost closed on Jim Boeheim too.

And that's the part that makes me really sad as a college basketball fan. Because this is his final chapter. I know he told Pete Thamel there's a chance he could go into next year. Last year he was hinting there's a plan in place whenever he decides to retire.

It's been sad to watch his final chapter because he should be a legend that we celebrate. 47 years as the head coach of the orange. Second in career wins. A national champion.

Olympic gold medalist as an assistant coach for Coach K. But he stuck around too long. I'm going to make a movie quote that WD will actually understand. You know, live long enough to become the villain, right?

You're a hero, live long enough to become the villain from The Dark Knight. But he stuck around two years. Two is actually generous. Probably close to a decade too long. He's 78 years old. And nobody's in his corner anymore.

Not even his own fans. You're talking about this year's going to be five straight years. You're talking about this year's going to be five straight years. He hasn't exceeded 20 wins. When you look at him since joining the ACC, he's only exceeded 20 wins twice. The previous decade he did it seven times. Now he's firing off at fellow ACC coaches.

It's sad to watch. And it shouldn't be a shock that he did so because this is the same dude who fired off at his own conference and where the conference headquarters were located in Greensboro. He's taken aim at students. He's bullied them in press conferences.

So there's nobody that's in his corner. Not Syracuse fans, not the media, not the coaches. And the last decade in the ACC has been a disaster. In hindsight, the best thing he probably could have done was retire as soon as Syracuse was set to join the ACC because he never wanted Syracuse in the ACC. He often made fun of the culture of the ACC, the history of the ACC. He never really bought into that. And he hasn't finished top five in this league since 2015.

Hasn't finished in the top five. He even named his successor that year in 2015, Mike Hopkins, who was an assistant. But he stuck around too long to keep Mike Hopkins at Syracuse. If you're going to name your successor, don't stick around for more than two seasons. Because two years later, he decided he's going to be the head coach at Washington. So a lot of this is of his own doing, including what happened over the weekend.

It's just sad to follow because he should be treated as an all-time great. And now he's being remembered as the old guy yelling at clouds and yelling at kids to get off his lawn. Here's how we're going to give away tickets for Wake Forest in North Carolina. In honor of it being Super Bowl week and Rihanna performing the halftime show, you're going to have to call us up, Rihanna karaoke. If you get in and you get on the air to sing Rihanna, the tickets are yours. 336-777-1600. Shut up and listen to The Drive. Super Bowl week, Rihanna performing halftime of Super Bowl 57. And if you want tickets to see Wake Forest play North Carolina tomorrow, you're going to have to work, work, work, work, work.

336-777-1600. Sing a little bit of Rihanna for us and the tickets are yours. Pretty simple.

WD, you're already going to get in the building. I don't care. I just want to sing Rihanna. Yeah, she has a ton of hits. People know Rihanna. So usually when we give away these tickets, the phone lines just flood with people.

But whenever you have to earn them, it's a lot less steady of a flow of calls. So we'll stick our flag down here. We'll plant our flag. This is how you earn the tickets. Probably the biggest game of the year in terms of attendance when North Carolina comes to town. By the way, Reese Builders sponsoring our Wake Ticket Giveaways.

Reese Builders been in the triad for a very long time. They're celebrating Wake Forest basketball by giving you an opportunity to get in the city to go to these games. So we got three pairs of tickets. I want three singers. We'll start with Julius and Winston Salem. Julius, go right ahead. Hi, you know what's up? Just give me.

Yeah, that's right. When I call on you, all I want to hear is Rihanna. Nothing else.

I got you. Fire off. Work, work, work, work, work. He said he be hot. Work, work, work, work.

He said, do me dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt. So put me in. Work, work, work, work. We are God. Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. Me.

Me who see y'all. Hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt. Excellent. Wow. Salacious. Sexy.

That's it. Just dripping wet here in the studio. The level of hotness coming from Julius in Winston Salem. Julius, you're going to Wake Forest, North Carolina tomorrow. How's that sound?

That sound real good. All right. Stay on the line and WD will get your information as we're listening to John in Lexington. Beld it out. John, go right ahead. John, let's go. John? I think he got overwhelmed with emotion and passion from Julius's performance there.

33-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. I'll let WD give WD some time to collect some more of these calls. In the meantime, speaking of music, the Grammys were last night. And usually you get the takes from 30, 40 year old types, maybe even older than that, commenting that they don't know any of the acts that are out there.

It's become this trope that you see every year on the Grammys. Oh, I don't know any of the artists. I have my kids telling me who these artists are. And sure, there are some of those.

But last night, they were just heavy hitters across the board. And this isn't like, oh, the music that came out in the last two years is so good. These artists are so great. You should know who they are. No, Adele's been around for a dozen years now. Taylor Swift for close to 15. They're the ones that are putting out music. You're talking about Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, DJ Cop. Popular music's in a good place right now. Pop music's in a really good place.

And that was my thought from last night. Let's go to Josh in Raleigh. Josh, go right ahead.

Give me some Rihanna. All right, here we go. Because when the sun shines, we shine together. Told you I'll be here forever. Said I'll always be here, friend. Toca knows I'll stick it out to the end. Now that it's raining more than ever.

Big finish. You know that we'll still have each other. You can stand under my umbrella.

You can stand under my umbrella. That's all I got, man. Yeah! There we go, Josh. Josh, you're going to North Carolina Wake tomorrow. That's pretty good, right?

Yeah, it's awesome. Except I'm an NC State student. So I'll be as soon as I pull for Wake.

Oh, wow! We got an NC State student. Yeah, root for Wake Forest. Why not?

Okay. They're the home team. When in doubt, root for the home team. Stay on the line.

WD will get your information. And we have one more pair of tickets to give away. What direction are we headed in? Before we get to this Carolina Panthers news that dropped yesterday. That's a pretty big deal. Some pretty big Carolina Panthers news to get to. By the way, shout out to Josh, an NC State student. NC State, big day for Pack fans considering they're ranked in the top 25 right now. They're ranked 22nd. Duke and North Carolina are not ranked. The last time that happened, State being ranked in neither Duke nor North Carolina being ranked. You have to go back to the 82-83 season. That is 40 years ago and something noteworthy happened that year.

NC State won its last national title. So you're telling me there's a chance. Last pair of tickets for Wake Forest North Carolina tomorrow. I wish this was for Rihanna tickets. Is she touring?

I don't think she is. We know Beyonce is going to be. Usually after you perform a halftime show at the Super Bowl, they're going to announce a tour and we're going to want to see you.

That's a big thing that people do. Let's go to Adam in Monksville. Adam, belt away my friend. All right. Shine bright like a diamond, I choose to be happy, you and I, you and I. You're like diamonds in the sky, you're a shooting star, I see a vision of history. When you hold me, I'm alive, you're like diamonds in the sky.

Excellent. Great song selection. I'm on the verge of tears being moved by the beautiful lyricism and the diction that you went with there, Adam. Enjoy the game tomorrow. Stay on the line, okay? Thank you.

There you go. Really am impressed with the song selections. Sia originally wrote that song, Diamonds in the Sky, Umbrella, I'll put that song up against any song that's been put out in the 21st century. I think that's the best song that's been written, Umbrella, Rihanna, and Jay-Z. I didn't realize this until I looked it up, that Rihanna is the second highest growing female artist of all time, higher than Beyonce, the Navy, you don't want to mess with that fan base, as Stephen A. Smith learned a few weeks ago. Rihanna only trails Madonna in terms of record sales.

Of record sales, she is second among female performers. Now back to The Drive with Josh Graham. Full disclosure, W.D., we do not condone violence on this show. No. But I would not take great issue with Jim Boeheim getting the Will Smith treatment. If somebody walked up to Jim Boeheim, slapped him in the face, and said, keep the triad's name out your mother bleeping mouth.

Yeah. I'd have no problem with that. Don't know if it was a closed fist, I'd take issue with it. If it was an open-ham slap, no problem with that.

No issue. Jim Boeheim needs to keep the triad out of his mouth. A few years ago, it was Greensboro. Today, we're talking about him alleging that Wake Forest bought its roster.

This is what I found most funny about it, though, W.D. He accused Wake Forest of buying a roster, and when Forbes responded, that's 1000% not true, Forbes was right, and the reason we know he's right, they don't have the facilities yet. They don't have the ability yet to do what Miami did, even if they wanted to. So when Forbes responded the way that he did, it wasn't exactly out of morality. Hey, I would never pay players with NIL. It probably was Forbes saying, I can't even do that if I wanted to. I can't even do that if I wanted to.

I wish I could do that, baby. I wish I could pay players to come to Wake Forest. Now, joking a little bit, because Forbes did say on his conference call today he's in favor of NIL, the way that it was intended to be used on guys like Armando Vacot, let's say, who's been on campus for three years, to try and incentivize guys like that to return. People who have earned an opportunity to benefit off their name, and the reason why their name is of value is because of what they've done at that school to warrant the celebrity. That's a lot different than offering kids money to come to your school as a recruiting tool.

You see the difference between the two? Jim Boeheim. It's funny to hear him talking about the value of things, the value of going to Pittsburgh, getting paid to do so. Had to apologize to Jeff Caple, and he apologized to Steve Forbes. Don't think he apologized to Jim Laronega, who plays tonight against Duke, because yeah, they did get Nigel packed by paying, and they had to pay to keep Isaiah Wong.

That is pay for play. That is what Jim Boeheim's having an issue with. Here's some sound of Jim Boeheim today talking about some of the issues he has. I'm starting to think that sound wasn't from today. I don't know.

I'm starting to think that might not be from today. Talking about the value of going to Syracuse. You know, it's just business, Jim. It's good business. It's good business.

You can't fault that, right? Why would you go to Syracuse? There's no value at Syracuse.

What players have they produced at Syracuse? There's no value, Jim. These players, just doing good business. If you're going to say it's a business, let's treat it like a business, Jim.

Had this thought today that made me smile. Syracuse isn't very good this year. They're not going to be an at-large bid team for the NCAA tournament. So if this is in fact it, if Jim Boeheim decides to retire after this year, after this year, his last game could be in the conference tournament. And where is the conference tournament? Greensboro, America.

Greensboro in March. That is quite a thought. It's getting me excited.

It's like a drug. Let's go to Ed in Winston-Salem, who wants in on Duke Carolina from over the weekend. And Jim Boeheim's comments as well.

Ed, where do you want to start? Okay, we'll start with Carolina. Duke was a better team that night. Really some uncharacteristic things that really bothered me in the Carolina game. It's given up 20 plus fast break points. Fast break points, they were taking way too many long jumpers. Did it bother you more that Duke had 20 plus fast break points or that North Carolina only had two? North Carolina only had two.

But also, Duke, you know, you already expanded on this. But the 50-50 balls, that was another issue too. They got all the 50-50 balls and then that North Carolina only shot three free throws. And a lot of people are trying to blame the referees.

That's not true. North Carolina shot too many outside shots. They didn't go to the basket and try to draw fouls like Duke did. 19 shots, 19 threes in the second half to follow up on what you're saying. 19 threes in the second half and a lot of it had to do with lively impacting shots. So I'm with you, Hubert Davis making this about the officials by constantly going back to that number.

And you correct me if I'm wrong, Ed. I was sitting court side so I didn't have the TV broadcast. Everybody was telling me that Hubert and his halftime interview was kind of harping on it too?

Yeah, yeah, that's true. But Lively had the game of his life. He only scored four points, but he got two key offensive rebounds. And that's more or less done Carolina in the last minute and a half to go in that game. It was only what, a one or two point ball game? That's right. And then Carolina took some bad shots.

Duke got some offensive rebounds, stuck them back in, and then they hit their free throws. So I'm done on that. So now on Boeheim, you more or less covered two things about the other three schools that he's accusing. And I agree about the Miami.

The Wake and Pitt is totally ridiculous. And I like to run these two items. Throw them at me.

What do you got? Okay. There's a rich reporter, there's a rich Syracuse booster who tried to get Carolina's two recruits, Elliott Cadell and also Ian Jackson, to pay these guys $1 million each to come to Carolina. Yep, same guy who's bringing Jalen Hurts, Quartzide, Giannis and all these others to join him Quartzide at Syracuse basketball games who otherwise would never be caught dead at a Syracuse basketball game. Yeah, they have a big donor.

Right. And then the final thing is, Josh, would you think this would solve anything or it's a bad idea? Do you believe that on the NIL money, if they went to some type of system where a five star, you know, maximum amount, say $50,000, $100,000, whatever it is, and then a four star so much?

Or if you've got the grad transfers coming in, if you're all conference, a certain amount of money, and if you're not, you know, get whatever you can. I think there are a lot of different ways you can... There are plenty of different ways to skin the cat. It's hard to regulate. But in terms of what you're talking about, it's... It's kind of a bummer to talk about, but it just seems like that the solution is Congress. And when you're relying on Congress, which has a lot of other things on its plate to fix your issues when the Supreme Court ruled so strongly against the NCAA just a few years ago to allow for NIL to exist in the first place, it's hard to expect that any significant changes happen. But I will say this, for those who want to agree with what Boeheim said, aside from the stuff where he's implicating schools he shouldn't be, it is fair to criticize some of the areas there might be blindsides or unintended consequences from NIL, the things we talked about it being used as a recruiting tool. There are ways that you can fine-tune it to make it better as we move forward.

I believe in the open market, and that the open market's eventually going to fix itself. But while you're doing that, acknowledge the good things that are coming from NIL as well. Like Armando Bacott and all these guys returning for Carolina. Like KJ Henry from Clemson, being able to use NIL opportunities to get his dad a transplant for his liver, I believe it was. It wasn't his liver, I apologize.

But he needed a transplant. And because of NIL, he has the chance to help his dad in a way that he wouldn't have been allowed to per se, dad in a way that he wouldn't have been allowed to per NCAA rules just a few years ago. So there are plenty of good things to come out of it.

The bad stuff seems to get most of the attention though. We got Graham's grades to do. We're going to be grading the weekend in ACC basketball next on The Drive.

Graham's grades in just a moment. I want to take a moment and say a prayer for the rivalry is over folks from Saturday. The Carolina fans who were telling me all offseason and all week, it wasn't going to bother them even if they lost to Duke because the rivalry was over. Why are you so mad of the officials? Why are you so mad at Pete Nance today? Why are you so mad at Hubert Davis' rotations?

Why are you so mad? The rivalry is over after all is what I've been told. The future of the rivalry is going to be good. It's in a bright place, the future of the rivalry, because that was the last the future of the rivalry, because that was the loudest, nastiest and drunkest I've heard Cameron ever.

And I've been to a lot of games there. It's not something I say lightly, WD, because and I have a theory on why it was louder. There weren't as many celebrities there last night. It wasn't as much of a spectacle. There weren't dozens of former players.

So there were more people who were hardcore Duke fans in that building that made it a more intense environment. Both Hubert and Shire, they've now had moments in this rivalry, which is good for the rivalry. Hubert did what he did against Coach K last year in Cameron and in the Final Four. Shire, his first opportunity against Carolina, gets him right back with many of those same players still on Carolina's roster. I think Shire's done a really nice job this year.

You've got to factor in it's his first year and all the expectations and the fact that I already know they're not, oh, you have all these five stars. Oh, anybody can coach them. Well, not when they're banged up and they're on different timelines, like Dereek Whitehead, who didn't play Saturday and is not going to play tonight.

Like Derek Lively, who even just a couple of weeks ago wasn't playing more than 15-16 minutes a game. The way Shire's handled it, he's done a really nice job. And the one other thing I'll mention on this, the rivalry is not over because there's always a counter in the rivalry. If you go back just the last 30 years, WD, the last 30 years, if you're old enough, you might remember when Coach K won back-to-back in 91 and 92, there was this thought, there was this sentiment. Oh, well, this is the new king of the state of North Carolina. Dean, he's passed his prime. The game's passed him by. Coach K has more national titles than Dean Smith does.

And he's only been at it for a decade while Dean's been at it for three decades. What happens the year after Duke's back-to-back? Carolina wins the national championship.

Then Coach K has his back stuff. Duke has some bad seasons. Carolina goes to the final four as an eight seed in 2000.

They do it with Bill Guthridge. At that point, people were thinking, well, no, it's Carolina now. Carolina is now the top dog. Duke, the year after Carolina went to the final four, wins the national title in 2001.

How does Carolina respond? National championships in 2005 and 2009. The year after the 2009 championship, what does Duke do?

Wins the title. Then you have all the AFVAM stuff, and Duke wins another title in 2015. Oh, North Carolina's fallen behind Duke.

Look at the way they're recruiting the one and done. The year after Duke wins the national championship, Carolina goes to the final four. The year after that, they go back to the final four and win it all. So don't tell me, oh, the rivalry's over because of what happened last year.

Last I checked WD. Even if you want to use the logic of it can't get bigger than winning in the final four, that's actually not true. There is one game they can play that is even bigger than that, right? Winning a national championship in a head-to-head. We can all aspire to that. Get ready for every bracket in the future now of college basketball to have Carolina and Duke on different sides of the bracket so that the only way they can meet is in a national championship. Get ready for that to happen.

Let's make it happen. I'm being long-winded. Let's get to Graham's grades. Every week is a test for your favorite sports teams. Who passed the test? If one of y'all says some silly ass name. Who dropped the ball? I don't know. Josh Graham has the answers.

I think you're very condescending and a know-it-all. A through F grading what happened in the ACC from over the weekend starting with... A. Virginia Tech. They are right back in NCAA tournament contention. You wouldn't think that when they lose what their first seven ACC games but now they're on a bit of a heater. Almost beat Miami last week but they do have the wins of note prior to that. Including against Duke a couple of weeks ago. And they beat Virginia. You get the rivalry win.

You take care of the Hoos or rank top 10 in the country. Joe Linardi has them in consideration for the tournament currently right in the same area that Wake Forest currently lives on the outside looking in. But unlike Wake they have a really good out of conference resume. Virginia Tech does. So don't rule out the Hokies based on that huge win they got in the castle.

B. Duke. Great win for John Shire. Great win for the rivalry.

Great win for Jeremy Roach. Great for Duke University. But Carolina didn't play its best ball and they still nearly won that game at the end. We'll talk more about Duke Carolina in about 10 minutes. C. NC State. You beat Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is a horrifically bad basketball team. They lost to Louisville. Louisville by the way almost beat Florida State on Saturday. I don't know why Jay Williams is spending his time calling that game but he was. Georgia Tech made it a lot closer than NC State wanted it to be Saturday afternoon. It was too close for comfort. NC State played with its food a bit but they still won the game nonetheless and they're ranked at the top 25.

So for the bad there's some good. It's a C. D. Clemson. Huge missed opportunity. It's not an F because Miami's a really good basketball team that you lost to but you were at home you were higher ranked than the Canes and you weren't able to pull it off. That's going to be a costly loss for them because now they kind of need to get one of these road wins the rest of the way and there are some difficult ones to get. They're at North Carolina this week. Don't need to get into Clemson's history at North Carolina.

Those who know know. Virginia, NC State. They got some work to do because they're at a conference unlike Virginia Tech is not good. They have legitimately bad losses to Loyola, Chicago and to South Carolina.

Clemson they're gonna learn to regret not taking care of Miami on their home floor. Jim Boeheim. Not even a team. Just Jim Boeheim. Syracuse won but Jim Boeheim he's our pick for being an F. He deserves his own letter. Calling out two coaches and the part that frustrates me about that is Jeff Caple has dealt with allegations of not recruiting the right way when he was at Duke. There was the Zion Williamson stuff. He had to repair his reputation from how things ended at Oklahoma for him. Steve Forbes had his own situation with Tennessee like 10 years ago and Bruce Pearl. It's firing off at your fellow coaches.

It goes against the code. You rarely ever see coaches firing off against each other and firing off at programs like this and that's why Jim Boeheim's way in the wrong. The way that Nick Saban was in the wrong. The way that he criticized Jimbo Fisher in football and you saw how quick the backpedal happened.

It just was not wise by Boeheim. A team that we didn't mention. Wake Forest.

They get the win against Notre Dame. Started 2 of 11 from the field. We're down 12 points and ended up leading at halftime because they shot the basketball a crazy percentage the rest of the way. They actually dropped 54 in the second half.

Did so pretty casually. Demari Monsanto. He's having an insane season. You tell me WD. Which of these two stats blows you away more?

But I'll throw them both at you right now. Demari Monsanto has taken 22 more three-point attempts than Caleb Love and has made 30 more than Caleb. That's a pretty crazy stat.

Yeah. The fact that he's attempted more and has made 30 more threes than Caleb has. That's pretty nuts.

Then you go into some of the advanced analytics. This is from Brian Geisinger. Demari Monsanto's three-point shooting is at a hilarious level right now. 19 three-point attempts per 100 processions. And he's shooting 41.5% or excuse me, 41.5 three-point percentage. So over 40%. Going back to the 2007-2008 year, so the last 15 seasons, only three players in D1 basketball have had 18 plus three-point attempts per 100 and shooting over 40%. Steph Curry at Davidson and Troy Daniels. That's the list. As impressive as that second stat is, I didn't think it was possible for somebody to take more attempts than Caleb Love.

And let alone make more? Yeah. His percentage is really good. Caleb's bam-bam.

It's amazing. Carolina fans would have rejected this on its face a few months ago, but now this is objectively true. Demari Monsanto is a better player than Caleb Love is.

There really is no objecting to that. The numbers are just so damning. Yes, he doesn't have the final four shot, but Wake Forest also doesn't have Armando Bacon. Wake, North Carolina, tomorrow at seven o'clock.