Ripken The Bat Dog

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

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my face. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. Welcome to a Monday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where you couldn't script a better sports weekend for the Carolina Hurricanes, or for NC State basketball, or for the capital city of Raleigh.

You want to look at it collectively. But since there are so many Tar Heel and Wolfpack fans right here in the Triad, let's start with the hoops. In the North Carolina locker room yesterday, it was the same story we've been going through pretty much the entire month of February. We just need to be more consistent. At the end of the day, we just got to close out these games. We've got to drown out the outside noise. Hubert Davis, he will cite a Bible verse about keeping the faith in tough times.

Yesterday it might have been from Hebrews, if memory serves. But that's not really news. And frankly, it's becoming boring to beat that dead horse game after game after game. Which is why it's long past time to start giving NC State their flowers. Because it seems like they've turned the page from past decades of being irrelevant to something new. It seems like a new day for NC State basketball.

That's not overstatement. Yesterday was a big deal for them, where unlike the past decade, they didn't fold in that game. They didn't fold when it was close at the end.

They did the exact opposite of what folding is. With 10 minutes or so left to go, State was down six in the game. And at that point, I'm sitting up in the rafters where they sat us in the hockey press box watching this hoops game.

And I'm thinking, I've seen this movie a million times before. Just like what we were talking about going into the weekend. Oh, the pressure, the sphincters tightening. You're gonna feel it. And North Carolina, which needed the game more, they're gonna run away.

That's not what happened. State rattled off a 7-0 run. Then when the game was tied at 60 in the final five minutes, a lightning quick 7-0 run again. Capped with Jarkel Joiner hitting a three.

Jarkel at 29 in the game. His most memorable play was the game that put it on ice. The play that put it on ice.

Where he dunked down the alley-oop. That was another 6-0 spurt. That put the game away.

That was the final dagger. NC State was overwhelming down the stretch. That's something we have not seen in a very long time. Especially when the guys wearing light blue are on the other side of the court. And that's the thing too. It almost didn't matter that it was North Carolina.

That's the vibe I got. Usually when Carolina is at NC State, you would see Kevin Keats walking out wearing the red blazer. Even last year he did that when coaches were no longer wearing suits and ties to every game.

This game just felt a little bit more important. It wouldn't matter where North Carolina was ranked. If North Carolina lost in that building, fans were gonna storm the court. Keats didn't roll up wearing a different red blazer. He wore the same pullover he wears to every game. When State won, fans didn't charge the court.

It was a different vibe. Kevin Keats even joked about it after the game when asked about the significance of beating the folks from Chapel Hill. Let's just concentrate on wins over to everybody in the ACC. I don't stack it is because it's great wins over UNC. We did our job.

The other guys did their job. We're happy with it but I don't put, I know people don't believe this, I don't put one win over the other. It was a win we needed to have and I'm happy to have it. It's not a rivalry, right?

So why would I care? He was smiling ear to ear when he said that last piece. Handling that about as well as you can. This is a time that NC State fans have been talking about for over a decade. Will we have an opportunity to make strides, to shine in an ACC that no longer has Coach K or Roy Williams in it? And this is the first full season where that's the case.

And what happens? State beats Duke by 24, beats North Carolina for just the second time in a decade at PNC Arena. This feels different. This is the best team in the state. As I mentioned, they beat Duke by 24.

We'll see what happens when they visit Cameron next week. They beat Carolina. They beat Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.

This was great though. In the state locker room, we walked up to Taquavion Smith and right before the lights turned on for the TV cameras and we were able to ask questions, he reached back into his locker to grab the shades. And he kind of told you why in this answer here, but him being an Eastern North Carolina kid, the N-State games really mattered to him.

This is why he came back to NC State to try and win them. Here he was talking about the significance. Hey man, just another game. I mean, I beat trolling, you know. I made a lot of comments, but I just like to troll, you know. I like to get under people's skin, you know.

So that's how that went. But it feels good to win, beat North Carolina teams because we're in North Carolina. It's always like, who run North Carolina?

So I feel like we're running this year. W.D., do me a favor. Will, you're a North Carolina fan. Can we hold off on the North Carolina side of this for at least another segment?

I get it. People are upset. I'm looking at my Twitter. I see the Carolina fans.

Our phone lines are going off. Can it wait five minutes? Can we talk about NC State for at least five to ten minutes before we make this about Hubert Davis and what we, and making this about the Tar Heels? I'll hold it. Okay.

We'll get to Carolina in just a few minutes. I do see all of you though. I see you. I think I was Jack Clark. Might have been DJ Burns.

It happened right behind my head. That's the vibe of NC State. If you want to know what the vibe of NC State is right now, it's this. Really, that's the vibe of the entire city of Raleigh after this weekend. Because transitioning things to the Canes, in the two hours leading up to the outdoor game on Saturday night, fully expected you to interrupt me not with the Canes horn but instead Jack Clark or whoever that was behind me.

Getting to the point. Leading up to the game. Two hours before.

Three hours before. It had the feel of the Paul McCartney concert in Winston-Salem last year. Absolute gridlock. Trying to park cars. Chaos. A lot of disorganization.

Endless lines trying to enter the building less than an hour before the event was set to start. But a lot like Sir Paul, once he got into the stadium, it's hard to overstate how special of a night it was. Because this is something that one of the most tenured television photographers walked up to me and said he might have had the line of the night when I walked up to him in the press box on Saturday.

His name's Charlie Mickens. He said, Josh this is not a game. This is an event. And there's a difference between the two. And here's what made it so different.

What made it so special. Usually the event is Beyonce's in town. Or Paul McCartney.

And that's the appeal. This celebrity is gracing our stadium, our city, with their presence. Or it's a big playoff game.

The city wasn't sought out just because of the rules of the sport. This is where the playoff game is going to happen. The Panthers hosting an NFC Championship game. The Hurricanes hosting a Stanley Cup. No, Raleigh was the destination. North Carolina was the destination. The team itself earned that. It was a showcase of North Carolina's hockey scene on Saturday.

That's what hit me. Outside the stadium I saw a lot of Carolina Thunderbirdsters. Like the entire state as a hockey state was on display for all to see on Saturday.

And the presentation of it was perfect. I sat next to the national meteorologist that they brought in to work for the NHL. You have those. They're important for the outdoor game. And he was updating me hour by hour almost minute by minute leading up to Puck Drop what the weather was. And he said I've been to about a dozen of these outdoor games.

And usually there's something. Oh there's a chance of rain. There's some cloud cover.

We're worried about this. He said this is probably the most perfect forecast that we've seen for an outdoor game in the south. At Puck Drop it was 43 degrees.

Had the feeling of my wedding. Week of my wedding last week or last year every day was in the 80s like it was and one day was in the 90s in June and there was some rain the night before but the day of my wedding it was mid 60s. And there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Saturday night all throughout last week it was warm. It was 60 degrees for much of the week. There's terrible storms on Friday. Not a cloud in the sky on Saturday.

Not a problem at all. At Puck Drop it was 43 degrees. Perfect hockey weather.

The presentation was perfect. The NC State band. They were awesome. A perfect touch.

A masterstroke. They're playing rock you like a hurricane as the teams are coming out onto the ice. The uniforms were great. The golf outfits. Really enjoyed that.

The old school golf outfits that Jordan Martinuk told me was kind of in a tribute to Payne Stewart after the game. The storm surge was great and the team they took care of their business on the ice. Here was Rob Brindamore speaking to the entire night as somebody who's become a bit of a hurricane's lifer after raising the cup as a player and now coaching this team to being one of the best in the NHL. It's won nine of the last ten or ten of the last eleven I should say and got this great event off off the floor off the ground and into the win column. To be honest with you, before the game started I'm on the bench and you know the whole thing went on before the game and I'm like what I mean I don't know what I deserve to get this because this is real special. I did it as a player and that was awesome to win but these are just things that just keep kind of adding to it and I'm I'm really grateful for it and yes obviously there's one more thing that would put it over the top but I've been real lucky.

Hmm I wonder what that thing is. They jumped out three minutes into the game in front about as dominant of a second period as you're going to see. It was a picture-perfect night, a picture-perfect game and something that we're not going to forget having experienced it. A bit of Panthers news. Adam Shafter just reported in the last couple minutes. The longest tenured Carolina Panther, JJ Jansen, the long snapper, has agreed to a one-year deal today. He will return under a new coaching staff. So that means he started with John Fox. He was also under Ron Rivera, Matt Ruhl and Frank Reich. That's pretty cool. Four different coaching staffs JJ Jansen has been the long snapper for. Wanted to pass that along.

We are streaming video on YouTube, Twitch and on Twitter. WD and I both wearing poof ball hats today. Yeah I must have turned you on to the idea. Not well. Wanted to get some gear from the stadium series. Got myself this hat here. You got yourself a tumbler? I do. I got some coffee in it right now. Yeah great. So I figured got you something and got myself a little bit of something here too.

We're fearing, we're feeling very festive in here. Now 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. Time for Graham's Grades. Let's grade the weekend A through F. A lot to get into and we start with the very good.

A. The NC State Marching Band was an A. It's not an exaggeration when I say that might have been the best part of the presentation at the outdoor game. It's a lot like the rug and the Big Lebowski. It just tied the whole thing together. It made it feel like a college football atmosphere.

The players absolutely loved it. I'm sure WD even knows. I'm sure you don't even know what Big Lebowski is. It's a movie. Well under the context of the question I'm sure you can assume it's a movie but do you know anything else?

Can you tell me anything about that movie? I know the guy who I think is Big Lebowski is an Iron Man. I think.

The first Iron Man. Jeff Bridges? Yeah.

I think I might check out. Yeah. Okay. The villain? Yeah.

Question asked, question answered. The Marching Band was fantastic and it really added something. It made the event feel like something that should be at that stadium. It regionalized things. It localized it and I give that an A.

B. Across the parking lot, Jarkel Joyner against North Carolina. He didn't have the best shooting day yesterday. That's why this is a B but he scored 29 points and the 1-3 that he hit happened to cap the 7-0 run to make it 67-60 and blow the lid off of PNC Arena. Easily the loudest it's been this year and Kevin Keats said it might have been the loudest he's ever heard that building in his tenure at NC State but you talk about the plays that he made down the stretch. Baby T didn't have the best day because Leaky Black did a great job defending him.

What we mentioned going into the weekend. I didn't know Jarkel Joyner was capable of going for 29 in this game and that's exactly what was needed. In addition to NC State having one turnover and NC State hitting pretty much all of its shots in the final five minutes or so of the game, Jarkel deserves the credit specifically. C. Wake Forest's loss to Miami. It's a C because the Deacs scored 87 points in the game. They hit 15 threes. They shot 55% from the field. They had six players go for at least a dozen and another that went for eight. They had their guns loaded. Still lost by nine.

Why? Because 19 turnovers turned to 34 points off of the turnovers. More than a third of Miami's points came off of Wake Forest's turnovers. It reminded me a lot of the game in Chapel Hill back in January that Wake Forest had control of and they scored well enough to win but just kept giving the ball away. D. The finish at Daytona.

It's not enough because the system worked the way that it was supposed to work but that doesn't mean it was fun to watch on TV. It was brutal to see the race in that way. You watch that for hours and hours and hours and then it ends with the crew chiefs and all of us, Mike Joy and others in the booth, trying to figure out who NASCAR says won the race. And after further review, it's Ricky Sticastin House Jr. Went on TV.

It looked like it was Joey Logano. Now, they got it right on the replay and such but that's just not the way you want to see the great American race in and that's a bit of a bummer. F. Clemson basketball. You lost to Louisville.

Louisville. Then again, are we allowed to say that Louisville's playing decent basketball right now? Well, I was about to say they came up just three short. They almost beat Virginia but then again, Virginia missed all those free throws to make that a competitive game. Yeah, and only beat Notre Dame by two. Tonight they play at Duke. Nolan Smith's return but Joe and Artie doesn't even have them in consideration right now which is amazing because as of right now, they'd be a double-by team in the ACC tournament. How crazy would that be? Congrats on your double-by into the ACC tournament. You're still not good enough to get into the NCAA tournament.

What a slap in the face that would be but that's where things stand right now. It's crazy. And that's been Graham's Grades for this week. WD, you didn't have any games to go to this weekend. Did you catch any movies like you said you might? I didn't watch an entire movie.

Predictably. Yeah but I actually this is see when I tell you I watch bits and pieces of a movie this is what it looks like. I know but that's not a thing. Scrolling YouTube and I see that there's a clip of like a statue of Batman it's the third Batman movie. But why do you waste your time scrolling YouTube for clips of movies rather than just flipping one on? It's not that I waste my time.

That is a waste of time. I scroll YouTube any because I like to watch YouTube clips and so I saw them like wait does Batman die in this because it was a statue I'm like. Your attention span is that small. No I just I'm on YouTube a lot so I looked at it. That's what I'm saying like I don't want to spend the time watching a movie so I just want to watch YouTube clips that are three and a half five minutes long. That's what I want to do with my time. I mean I was laying in the bed when I did it last. I watched three movies this weekend.

In addition to going to those two games. Friday night it's a movie I'd never heard anybody have a conversation about. I just knew the title and thought I hadn't seen this.

Let's watch it. Knew nothing about the movie whatsoever. Mr. Holland's Opus from 95 turned that on starring Richard Dreyfuss was not prepared for the final 20 minutes of that movie.

It got dusty. Boogie Nights threw that on but it was on in the background. That's a perfect movie. Yeah you've told me about that movie. It's a perfect movie. It's like three hours long but it's on in the background while I'm completing some work and I had never seen Serpico so I watched Serpico because I'm a big Al Pacino fan. So gave that a look. Maybe I'm not a big Al Pacino fan because how can you be a big Al Pacino fan and not have seen Serpico but I like Al Pacino's work enough to try and explore movies that he's in that I hadn't seen before.

Even if that movie's as weird as Cruising was 40 years ago or if it's Serpico. So there you go. Right this second at Carter Finley Stadium Rod Brind'Amour and other Carolina Hurricanes legends are participating in the Canes alumni game. It's underway Rod Brind'Amour won the opening face-off because of course he did.

Mike Maniscalco our friend from Valley Sports he's doing the play-by-play over the PA system. What a weekend it was over there. A great atmosphere. It's hard to script it being any better than what it was. So let me spell all that out first before we get into some of the nitpicks we've got here for the outdoor game. These are nitpicks. This isn't me saying the event was bad. It was one of the greatest things that I've covered. I grew up a Carolina Hurricanes fan so it was a special night for yours truly. I just want to say that on the front end.

Now let's start with the nitpicks. If you're gonna go all-in on an NC State theme mainly looking at you ESPN there might be some more modern options to utilize. In other words I was sitting in the press box and saw the opening pregame package appear on ABC and a few of us chuckled out loud when Jim Valvano appeared on the screen. As if to say with him and Derek Wittenberg and David Thompson is that really what NC State has at this point? Do they got anything else they can showcase?

That's the sad reality of it. Forty years ago we've got Jim Valvano. That's what we've got. So outdoor game at NC State. What are we gonna showcase from NC State? Let's go back to the Jim Valvano well. Let's go to David Thompson and Derek Wittenberg.

Come on! You're at the NC State football stadium. We're gonna do something with Russell Wilson? Philip Rivers. We couldn't do anything with Dave Doran except have him chugging beers with Marty Smith? None of that.

You're in the football stadium. So that's a nitpick. The NHL could have selected maybe some more regional musical acts?

That's an idea. Jake Owen is fine. Hey, they're in the south. Let's find a country act. You don't think Scotty McCreary would have said no? You don't think Scotty McCreary would have done it?

I get it if you get a top-flight country act to be in this spot. I don't think Scotty McCreary falls in that category. But is Jake Owen that much better? Like I get it if you can't get Luke Combs. Understand that. But Jake Owen when you could have gone Scotty McCreary he's right there. Lovely the band has a one-hit wonder that plays to a track I learned?

Got there. You know it's a bad sign. You know you're probably a bad band if you hear the bass of a song but you don't see a bass player on stage. That's probably a bad sign. So Lovely the band's got one hit.

Why not at that point just contact Daughtry who's from Raleigh? See what they're up to. They only have one or two hits. They haven't been doing anything in a while.

I doubt they would have turned that down. Come on NHL! And speaking of criticism for the NHL they vastly underestimated the North Carolina sports fans. The North Carolina hockey scene. Because they did not do much staffing of traffic outside of this event. It reminded me of a U2 show I went to in Raleigh circa 2009.

It reminded me of the Paul McCartney show and Winston-Salem last year. Just gridlock. Traffic everywhere. People not really knowing what they're doing.

So if I'm nitpicking it a bit those are the places that I will begin. Also Ripken the Batdog's overrated. What?

Oh please why? Whoa whoa whoa. So he's this high-level dog athlete right? Darn right he is.

Picks up the tees at NC State games. He you know he's the Batdog at the Durham Bulls. I mean if you're gonna be on a big stage Ripken the Batdog you better deliver.

He dropped the puck twice before he was supposed to and then you got the viral video of him dapping up players the day before Jordan Stahl went to dap him up after the hand after the puck drop and he wanted none of it. Ripken the Batdog. And I think people in the stands recognized it because at the next media timeout first media timeout of the game they brought out the Washington Capitals cute pup. They brought out I don't know his name I think it might be Biscuits. They brought out the Batdog again. They brought out Tuffy the new Tuffy the NC State mascot and Hamilton the Pig. Hamilton the Pig got the biggest cheer. Biggest cheer at that spot and it's because Ripken the Batdog didn't bring it. And that happens.

High-level athletes sometimes they don't perform on the biggest stage. Ripken the Batdog deserved to be in that moment. It's had great opportunity but not a great night for Ripken the Batdog.

He didn't bring it. Just got to be honest about it. Let's go to Colby in Greensboro who wants in on State Carolina. Hey Colby. What do you got for us Colby? Oh yeah I was gonna pop in and just talk about the NC State game but man you're flaming Ripken the Batdog? Yeah I'm ripping Ripken the Batdog. He had a rough night. I mean you have one job is to drop the puck and he dropped the puck two or three times before he was supposed to.

Okay fair fair but I was calling in I mean I just wanted to disclose this. UNC took three L's to NC State this weekend. They took the L's in women's basketball Thursday night. They took the L Friday night in wrestling and then they took the L on Sunday in men's basketball. Like if I'm a UNC fan I'm I'm probably pretty depressed and that's just as a state fan I'm so happy today. I love heckling at UNC fans and it's a lot to heckle right now. And it should be noted thank you for the call Colby that after the Carolina Hurricanes alumni game you've got NC State Carolina club hockey that's gonna be playing on the stadium series ice. I know state's club hockey team has a big following and they're pretty darn good.

Saw them in Winston-Salem a week or so ago with the ACCHL which my understanding is they had another big weekend out at the fairgrounds annex. I like it these state's chances of completing that sweep you're right not a great time for Carolina fans when it comes to this as they would call it non rivalry with NC State. Can we retire that now? I think that jokes been made enough how ridiculous it is the suggestion that maybe we could stop doing that.

Really quickly Kyle the Amazon driver got about a minute and a half Kyle what do you have? So I just wanted to talk about the All-Star weekend. I think one of the biggest issues we have right now with NBA All-Star weekend is the fact that specifically the dunk contest we know for a fact that NBA players are no longer the greatest dunkers in the world we now have professional dunkers. Oh wow right.

So that just kind of takes away the steam from it right? It's why LeBron doesn't want to do it because he knows that he's probably gonna get outperformed by some dude on the modern-day version of an and one mixtape. Look I'll put it to you like this back in the day when we had a McDonald's All-American game and LeBron James was in the dunk contest give me that LeBron James versus Mac McClung two days ago who's winning? Yeah. You remember that dunk contest?

Yeah. Also I want to talk to Colby. Colby, love to death appreciate you calling our show we all love this show we took a lot of L's but we are not depressed because guess who won the Daytona 500? Yeah Mr. Stenhouse Jr. Yeah who's this car owner Josh?

Brad Daugherty. We're causing Tar Heel. That's a win that's a win for Carolina so I was struggling to find one you did. We're not going down that quiet baby you going to come a whole lot harder than that we out here doing great things. There goes Kyle the Amazon driver finding a win a W for Carolina fans.

You can listen to Duke Louisville in about 90 minutes right here on WSJS. Brian Geissiger is on his way inside Cameron indoor stadium and he joins us now we'll play out precise the guys in a moment but let's start with North Carolina the place that they're in right now BG because I'd like to know what the film tells you when it comes to them and where you draw the line between responsibility a coach has for the team he puts out on the floor versus you know the blame that players deserve for lack of execution freelancing etc etc who or what do you believe is primarily responsible for where North Carolina is right now? Yeah it's tough I mean I think it's a complicated answer with a lot of stuff that that goes into it I mean I think to an extent I'm sure you've talked about this on your show like I do think the way they finished the season last year probably like over inflated what expectations should have been with some people seeing them as you know clear-cut the top team coming into the you know coming into the college basketball landscape this summer or this offseason but uh I think the thing that you have to remember is like one they lost they lost Brady Manick who was the perfect complement for someone like Armando Bacot they brought in Pete Nance who is the talent upgrade at the four over Manick but doesn't quite fit that like inside out four or five combo quite as well as Manick's movement shooting did last season I would I was in on the Nance edition because Pete Nance is a guy that could be on an NBA roster right now and so I sort of thought they would just figure out the talent well pairing between those two it hasn't happened Caleb Love is what he has been basically since his freshman year you know he is not I don't think like made the strides that maybe you'd like to see from a guy who has his usage rate is shot selection um and ultimately for them you need to blend like they don't have the one guy that can just that can just completely detonate on a defense like kind of Bacot but even then like he's got people need to be able to give him the ball right and I just think you needed all five parts and that starting lineup running and moving together and that was what was going to give UNC you know the kind of offensive top ten type offense in the country that would carry them to being a team that would you know contend in the ACC and maybe make the final four but it just it hasn't you know it hasn't happened and the defense of course no real surprise the defense hasn't been great this year either but really I think it's been the offense like the cohesion just those five guys playing together and it doesn't look like the pieces at any point in time this season have fit seamlessly. You hit on the piece that makes it complicated for me because Caleb Love has been an inefficient player for most of his career and these problems that we're seeing with some of the guys in the back court they're problems that go back to Roy Williams and we know he's a really good coach Hubert I think proved in the final four run X's and O's wise that he could be a pretty darn good coach as well but then you bring up the transfers and where Brady Manick was such a big hit for Carolina Dawson Garcia wasn't and Pete Nance hasn't really fit in so much either and this is something that I think we lose when you talk about what Steve Forbes has done at Wake Forest and some others have done a great job in college basketball with it too not just identifying talent Brian Geisinger myself Will Dalton maybe a trained monkey can probably identify a talented player if you showed them enough clips of them but figuring out who good chemistry pieces might be and how to integrate that talent onto a roster is not a very easy thing to do sometimes so I do think he deserves some blame for that what what have you seen that has concerned you about really some of the decisions Caroline has made with roster construction whether it be playing more of a bench or what we've seen with Nance yeah I mean I think I think you know as far as like the overall talent like this roster is pretty good I mean they maybe not like super high-end and I think that's gonna change as Hubert starts to get more and more recruiting classes in I mean you know Pete Nance might be the only surefire like you know NBA guy on this team and right now like he's kind of a sore spot for them offensively because they just have not figured out the best way to sort of like blend he and Baycott together and there are times do well you know when when Armando sits and Pete plays exactly Pete's the truth Pete's the true five out there and all of a sudden UNC goes to these five out looks things start to look like you know kind of the way Northwestern would orient its offense around Pete Nance with a lot of like you know him initiating in the middle third of the floor and it's awesome that UNC can can do that stuff but then it's when I'm when Armando is out there it's like the best ways to use Pete Nance are going by the wayside so that they couldn't find a better way to pair those two guys together to me means they were never gonna hit their ceiling as I mean again there's a lot of issues that go into this but I think part of part of it is like they have two good guards that can create but Caleb love you know he kind of is better when the defense is tilted and then he gets to attack RJ Davis is really good but you know he's undersized and he had like an outlier bad game Sunday at NC State right I mean two of thirteen like come on he's a dude's like maybe not quite a sniper but he's a really good shooter and with in with leaky you have a guy that like has developed and improved as an offensive player but you know it's still like kind of teams are still willing to leave him open and play off of him and you could just see yesterday like when they were trying to pound the ball into bake hot I mean remember was playing for for NC State's gonna sack off Pete Nance they're gonna help off leaky black and they just made some of those like automatic post entries or what should be automatic more difficult because they're just able to load up from the post and load up on the backside so look it's a lot of different things you can't just pinpoint one thing I will say though I think there's been a lot of frustration from from Carolina fans that pointed at Hubert from the offense Hubert Davis I know I've just said like a fair amount of negatives but that guy's like he knows how to coach offense like it maybe hasn't hit perfectly this season but he's got a pretty creative mind and it does a nice job scheming stuff up and when you find something that works they'll spam it I just think they what's gonna you know going forward they need to get a little bit more shooting in the front court if they could get one more guy in the on the wing that could create a shop in themselves too would be a big deal going forward but ultimately UNC is gonna be fine this season's just been you know obviously a pretty sizable disappointment Brian Geisinger with us here he's on twitter at be guys underscore bird now let's get into our one of our favorite games to play we haven't played it in a while but it is time for out precise the guys Brian Geisinger is a basketball genius Josh Graham is not I'm smart you're dumb I'm big you're little I'm right you're wrong listen as Brian launches half-court shots and Josh well double dribbles all over himself and there's nothing you can do about get off the bench and try to out precise the guys for those who are uninitiated wd has dug up some NBA questions Brian Geisinger is one of our state's greatest hoop nerds and great hoop mines so he's probably gonna dunk all over me as if he's Mack McClung or something and yeah we're not gonna get into the dunk contest I hope let's uh let's see what what BG has in store for us or what WD has in store for BG and I we're not getting into the dunk contest I'm glad yeah thank you I don't I can't even name the other guys he competed against and it happened two days ago I can't either Russell Westbrook he's gonna be signing with the LA Clippers move on down the corridor from one locker room to the other yeah how many trip you know he cuz he used to be mr. triple double back in the day how many triple doubles does he have this year this year this year that's a great question yeah yeah it is man I will take I'll take three this season for Russell Westbrook triple doubles I went high seven it's four I just figured there were some numbers this year off the bench for the Lakers that's what I was thinking like it's like the Kevin Love Minnesota situation where somebody's got to score those points grab those rebounds and pick up those assists and I figured there might be more times with a bad Laker team that that happened so anyway what's the next one we'll hold that thought because we're moving to Kevin Love hey cuz he reached a buyout with the Cavs over the weekend he's gonna be joining the heat on a one-year deal him and Jimmy Butler I'm sure we'll get along well I'll totally uh how many points per game is he averaging this year oh this is a trick question yeah it's interesting I'm I'll be honest I'm kind of surprised the way things unraveled with with Cleveland and Kevin Love he was like a big piece for them a year ago um I will say I'll say nine points per game for Kevin Love I got six point six I don't know why I did decimals but I did it was eight they should have gone with seven great split so BG's already got me he's at Cameron getting set for Duke Louisville tonight we got one more question to ask and now bringing it to the all-star game Jason Tatum got all-star MVP set a record for the all-star game with 55 points how many times this season not counting last night has he gone 40 plus but say I don't think he's done 55 what a player Jason Tatum is turned into you said 40 point games this season yeah yeah 40 plus let's go let's go ten I got four it's eight season I was against the Hornets by the way 51 I just got worked yeah you did Jarkel Jarkel joiner Bee Gees like Jarkel joiner from the 10 minute mark on yesterday speaking of Duke and NC State on the way out who excites you more as a potential dark horse NCAA tournament team between NC State and Duke I think state because of the because of the backcourt in just like the style of play this season like it was it's fun when they when they get up and down and when they are pushed to the half court the pick-and-roll you know dynamics of joiner and to play beyond Smith and then the low post game of DJ Burns and kind of the underrated 3&D play of case more so so I would say I would say state because I think there's um I mean do probably top to bottom as a better roster but I just think state style of play has the ability to maybe you know really spring an upset or two if they're able to get off that eight nine line okay what are you using your voucher on tonight at Cameron though I got to know important stuff on the way okay so so trying to eat better so I'm not using the media voucher for dinner tonight but I did get I did get a coffee at cocoa cinnamon which I'm drinking outside of Cameron on the phone with you guys right now pretty good I'm glad you're not in the media room badgering everybody with with my answering our questions I'm glad Brian Geissiger among the most self-aware in the media and also aware of his figure too how about that I wish I was better about that I'd be getting the big large pizza and the sour patch kids and all that I thought you got in pretty good shape the last year so since the wedding right yeah since the wedding it's been a little bit downhill I may have picked up like four or five pounds but the Peloton is key Peloton gets you back in a routine so BG you're out you're the man I'll see you at a Duke game sometime soon and I appreciate you spending the time yeah you guys be good talk soon