Sweep The Leg

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

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

We've made it. To a Friday drive, you are listening to WSJS News Stonksports for the Triad, where at long last, Hubert Davis has signed a transfer that matters and is going to start in Chapel Hill. With respect to Jalen Withers and Paxim Wojcik, neither of them checked those boxes. The newest Tar Heel is Notre Dame transfer Cormac Ryan, and he's going to be the go-to shooter for North Carolina.

And here's why that really matters. Cormac's going to be the first pure catch and shoot two guard Hubert's had since becoming the head coach. Caleb Love and Brady Manick, they weren't those types of players.

Brady Manick was a stretch four, as we know, six foot ten. Caleb, when he was at his best, was going downhill, using his physicality to his advantage, more of a playmaker than a pure shooter. Cormac Ryan is a jump shooter.

That's what he is. 60% of his shots last year at Notre Dame were jump shots, 55% from three point range. And this signing is going to have ripple effects. It probably means Ian Jackson, the number one player in North Carolina's number one recruiting class for next year, probably not going to reclassify and join Carolina this year. I guess there's a possibility that still could happen, but you would think with him being a shooting guard that if he was going to reclassify, Cormac Ryan probably doesn't choose to go to Chapel Hill and vice versa.

That's probably what that means. For RJ Davis, his role is going to look really similar to what Carolina did towards the end of not this past season, but the final four run where he was the primary facilitator. The offense ran through him. He's going to lead the team in assists. He's not going to be inhibited at all by Caleb Love being a black hole and taking a lot of shots, often bad shots, often inefficient shots. No more excuses for RJ Davis. This is his team. He's going to run the point. He's going to play make.

That's going to be his primary responsibility. And Carolina's hoping that RJ's shooting will probably take some of the burden off of Cormac Ryan enough where he's not attempting six threes a game like he did at Notre Dame last year. If you dive into the numbers like we have, Cormac Ryan shot 34% from three, which isn't terrible, but it's not exactly what you want to seek out.

It's not what you're aiming to do. You would like to be closer to 40%. Two years ago, this is the 2020-2021 season, he shot 34% from three, averaging about six threes a game. That is a lot of threes. This past season, six threes a game, guess what he shot?

34%, just like a few years ago. Sandwiched in between that was the 2021-22 season, where he shared a backcourt with an NBA draft pick in Blake Wesley, and he only attempted about four threes a game. Now again, this is a year after he attempted six, so we knew he was taking those shots, and Mike Bray was letting him take them, but the fact he didn't have to take as many and the burden wasn't on him to shoot as much, he probably was taking better threes. He was taking better shots, more efficient shots, and the numbers bear that out. He shot 40% on four three-pointers a game in 2021-22. So it'll be a really good sign for Carolina. If RJ Davis has impacted his shooting, the offense running through him and shots being opened up for Cormac Ryan means he's shooting closer to 40% like he did in 21-22, and it's because he's attempting between four and five threes a game, rather than having to be the lone source of three-point shooting and attempting about six threes per game. Those are some of the ripple effects of the signing North Carolina.

What now? They need to sign a wing, and they need to find a stretch four. If they don't sign a stretch four, you're going to start to hear these rumors of Jalen Washington, and Hubert has talked about his shooting a little bit, getting him out on the floor at the same time as Armando Bacot, having those two guys work together. I'm not saying it can't happen, I just don't know if that's ideal. I know it's not ideal that Jalen Withers is your starter.

That would not be ideal. A guy averaging nine points a game at Louisville for a bad team, those numbers are probably not going to go up as you level up in competition and expectations and stage. Ideally, Withers is a bench piece who's a rotational guy, but not a starter for you. So you need to find a stretch four unless you intend Jalen Washington to play at that fourth spot this year. A wing is non-negotiable.

You need to find one. It can't be Dontres, or not Dontres Stiles because he's already transferred to Georgetown. It can't be Demarco Dunn, it can't be Seth Trimble. Those guys can play for you, sure, but starting?

That's not a good sign. Matthew Cleveland's the guy that you really want. The plan B seems to be Harrison Ingram from Stanford who's already met with Hubert Davis and Ben in Chapel Hill. Seems like that's a guy who would accept if the scholarship was sent his way, and North Carolina has three more scholarships to play with. But the way that Inside Carolina framed the report from a few days ago about Cleveland, I think tells you the story.

That is their target. That is who they're pursuing, Matthew Cleveland. And if they don't get them, I think they know they can get Harrison Ingram who played for former Roy assistant Jared Haas out in Chapel Hill. And it's not a coincidence, by the way, that all these guys who are transferring in, Hubert Davis has seen with his own two eyes, or have been coached by someone Hubert Davis has been alongside and knows pretty well. Paksim Wojcik played against Carolina this past year from Brown. Cormac Ryan playing for Notre Dame, obviously. Jalen Withers playing in the ACC. Matthew Cleveland, these are guys that Hubert Davis is familiar with.

He probably feels like there's a lesser chance that he'll strike out like on Justin McCoy or Dawson Garcia if he's seen them play with his own two eyes and evaluated and scouted against them. But this is a really good pick. This is a really good signing, I should say. Cormac Ryan, it's their go-to shooter. That's what they found.

We'll see what they find in the way of a wing sometime soon. Will Dalton is the executive producer of the show. And six days out from the draft, here's the poll question we have for today. The draft's right around the corner. Is the Kevin Costner movie draft day good?

3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. W.D. 's telling me he watched this movie in theaters. I did. 2014. When's the last time you went to a movie theater?

I couldn't tell you. It's been a long time. Speaking of movies, you watched your first Meg Ryan movie this week. I did. You'll tell us what you thought of that.

When Harry Met Sally just a little bit later on. 3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. W.D. is taking your calls. You can watch the show on WSJS radio on Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch. So if you're doing that, we appreciate that.

However and wherever you're consuming the show, we appreciate that. For those who are watching on the video stream, you will see that I've got my throwback Eric Cole hurricane sweater on right now. And as a fan of the canes, as a fan of the canes, I'd like to pin a verbal letter to Carolina as it gets set for game three in New York tonight. Dear Hurricanes, put away the series tonight.

Make it three zip. Close things out. Do not give the Islanders any life because you have New York dead to rights. You know you're better than New York and New York knows you're better than them. That's why they played the way they did on Wednesday night, resorting to playing in the sewer, resorting to cheap shots, and things of that nature. They know you're better. The regular season bared that out. 20 points better, Carolina, than New York.

If you win the night, pretty much clinches this is going to be a four, maybe a five game series. Sweep the leg. W.D., do you know what that's a reference to? Sweeping the leg. Is that a soccer reference?

We're punting. You haven't seen Karate Kid? No.

Oh boy. Writing that one down. Let me write that down real quick.

Future wrap the movies, but getting back to the letter though. Elsewhere in the northeast, the Devils, they're not to be counted on. They're not going to give you any help. They had two home games against the Rangers. They lost both of them. They're down two zip. They're not going to win that series. Nobody's looked better in the playoffs to this point than the Rangers have, because the Boston Bruins lost their game one, or excuse me, their game two against Florida the other night, and they don't want Patrice Bergeron on the trip as they go to sunrise for a series that resumes tonight. Carolina, that's your next opponent likely. The New York Rangers. Their series looks like it's going to be pretty quick, so yours better be pretty quick too if you plan to compete in that series. And last thing, they're due a butt whipping, New York is. The Canes, you are due a lay the smackdown type of game. No more of these one goal, dramatic, biting your fingernail type games. No, laying the smackdown, especially after the crap that the Islanders pulled the other night and injuring Thabo Terevinen and nearly knocking Jordan Stahl out of that game to sweep the leg, finish this goal, put the Islanders away, signed your biggest fan in the triad.

We go to the movies with the W.D. Some NFL news. Four Detroit Lions players, including former Alabama speedster wide receiver Jamison Williams, were among players suspended league wide for violating the NFL's gambling policy. None of these players apparently were gambling on the NFL.

We've come to learn. But none of them will be getting, it seems, the one year suspension that Calvin Ridley was hit with when he was with the Atlanta Falcons last year. Now that gambling has become legal in so many places, I think you're only going to see more and more of these stories. And I don't think we're at a place nationally yet where we're ready for the conversation about, well, why can't football players bet on baseball? Why can't football players bet on sports that are not affiliated with their sport? And the part that's confusing to me about this is I thought there were already rules in place that were against, you know, NFL. You can't bet on the NFL for obvious reasons, but I didn't know you couldn't bet on other things. Like, I know if you worked in college sports, you couldn't bet on college games, but nothing was stopping you betting on the NFL or the NBA. That was my understanding of the rules that existed in college. And I assume the same thing applied to the NFL.

This is a conversation that is coming. How much gambling are we OK with for players if we acknowledge that you're not allowed to bet on the sports in which you play for obvious integrity reasons? I don't know, but it's looking like a six game suspension for Jamison Williams. A couple of the other Lions players apparently weren't even worth the headache. NCA&T alum Brad Holmes, who's the general manager of the Lions, announced that the two players were cut. Two of the players were cut that were involved in this.

Jamison Williams not one of those because Jamison Williams was a first round draft pick. Now let's go at the movies with the W.D. when Harry Met Sally edition. Unless you're talking about Star Wars. Obi-Wan has taught you well. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing. I don't get it.

You want cups of swine? But that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore. This is At the Movies with Will Dalton. When Harry Met Sally 1989. Your first Meg Ryan movie. The reason we went this path is because you said you didn't know who Meg Ryan was a week ago.

Then we learned that B. Dot didn't know who Meg Ryan was either. And he's a comedian. This isn't a comedy. It's a rom-com. It's a romantic. I guess comedy is in the word, but it's not like stand up comedy and rom-coms have the greatest amount of crossover.

So I'd just like to know. What did you like? It seems like you liked this movie. I did enjoy this movie. Let's just start at the top.

Meg Ryan is very talented. Yeah. Did this make you want to watch the two other movies that we talked about? Which were? I've already... What were they? You've Got Mail and Sleep Against Seattle. Sleep List in Seattle, which is Tom Hanks.

Both of them are Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Yeah, take a look. Yeah.

We can add it to the list. I don't know if it's going to be anytime soon on this segment, but it's something that you can watch. I think they're on Netflix or on HBO Max or one of them. I assume you're watching this on YouTube. How did you watch this movie?

I rented it on YouTube. Okay. This movie. Well, what did you like about it? Well, I liked the comedy. So I explained to you earlier that there's something about 80s comedies that the humor just hits different. See, we made you watch Caddyshack. You liked that a lot. You liked Airplane.

You've told us about that. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Those are different types of comedies, again, than this because a lot of that's potty humor, like dumb humor, Chevy Chase type humor. That's not what this is. This is a really quiet movie with no villains.

That's thoughtful. It's pretty much all dialogue. At what part of this movie is it loud? I get something that is really loud. I have an example.

What is it? Oh, well. There is that.

Because that was what I was going to get to. Is that best quote? No, it's not the best quote. There are no words said by Meg Ron. But that might be the most iconic scene in the history of rom-coms.

That was my favorite scene where she was explaining how good of actors women can be. Well, we all know. Everybody you're talking to right now, W.D., knows exactly what you're talking about. Oh, God. You don't have to describe the scene.

We all know. When you mentioned when Harry met Sally, that scene comes to mind and it's changed the lexicon. That was something that became part of the national consciousness, something that guys thought about. Just like women always thought about because of this movie, the way that they order, the way that Meg Ryan does, or the way that Billy Crystal talks about men and women, whether or not they can be friends. This movie put into the ether, put into the national consciousness, a lot of things that we just now accept to be true today.

It created a lot of these things. And of course, the cameo of Leia. That was, her name's Carrie Fisher. That's Leia.

Yes, that was the Easter egg that I was excited to see if you were going to discover. It was. Carrie Fisher, great as the friend. It really is the modern rom-com. It created the mold where you have the really supportive friend and few have done it better than Carrie Fisher.

It's the two friends that like each other more than friends that you want to get together. It created that trope. The woman always seems to be in journalism in these rom-coms. It created that too.

She works for a newspaper. Okay, so that's what you like. What didn't you like?

This is something I struggle with. I don't know what I didn't like about this movie. It's almost a perfect movie.

It's like Flame and Yawn. It's a 90 minute movie that blows right by. There's no fluff in it.

I don't know. I also found it difficult to find something I disliked about it. Maybe Meg Ryan's hair. The fashion.

Yeah, but that was a style in the 80s. I get it, but it hasn't aged well at all. You watch this movie, you might be thinking, oh no.

Oh no, what's going on there? In the spirit of Carrie Fisher being in this movie, and I love Carrie Fisher, I didn't find the guy she was with all that appealing. Really?

No. Elvis Bruno, you didn't like him? Didn't do it for me. He was great. I didn't care for the mustache. Oh, the mustache was fantastic. Clearly, probably a Met fan, as Billy Crystal is.

Rooting on Keith Hernandez and it was of the time. All right, best quote. Oh my. I'll have what she's having is probably the most iconic quote. That's a good one. Do you know who said that quote?

I'll have what she's having. The old woman in there, but I don't know who that was. That was the director Rob Reiner's mom. The director of this movie's mom, Rob Reiner's mom, gave that line, which might be the most iconic line of any of his movies. When I buy a book, I read the last page first. That way, if I die, I know the ending.

That, my friend, is a dark side. Since this is a sports talk show, I feel an obligation to share this one. It's a long one, but a good one. He's lamenting to Meg Ryan about a recent date that he had if he said, quote, I asked her where she went to school and she said Michigan State, and this reminds me of Helen. Helen went to Michigan State?

No, she went to Northwestern, but they're both in the Big Ten, so I got upset and left the restaurant. That is a good one. Rotten Tomatoes score for When Harry Met Sally 1989.

Hmm. Let's give it a 90 right on the nose. I've been off the last couple of weeks on this. 89.

Almost perfect. If you have ideas to submit for WD at the movies next week, WD a week from now is going to be filling in on today's show. I am. Filling in on this show.

First time. Hosting this show a week from now. You can send those in at WSJS radio or on our YouTube chat, I assume, and other places. You can reach the show if you have submissions. We've received some during the week. Even I wrote down earlier this hour that Karate Kid might be something that's thrown into that mix. Another good quote.

Well, that symptom was bleeping my wife. Yeah. It's an excellent, excellent live while they're doing the wave at a baseball game. I think it was baseball. It was. Yeah.

That's a lot of great line. Peak. Peak. Billy Crystal.

Let's get the show going. It's The Drive with Josh Graham. Every year I find myself watching Draft Day ahead of the NFL Draft.

We are six days out from the Carolina Panthers officially being on the clock and likely to select Bryce Young with the number one pick. So last night I watched this movie and I asked this question on social media. It's our whole question of the day. Is Draft Day starring Kevin Costner a good movie? And we've got, this poll's been up for a little bit since we've been on the air, and we've got 150 votes so far on this. So it's still early on, but 58% of those voting thus far say that yes, Draft Day is a good movie.

I agree and I disagree with that. There also, I didn't do this last night because now I'm a married man with responsibilities, W.D. I was leading a church group last night, had a great time at the Graham household doing that. But there was a time, W.D., that before the draft I'd have a roommate and we'd turn on Draft Day and we'd play the Draft Day drinking game. You want to know what the Draft Day drinking game is?

I'd love it. Every time something happens that would never possibly happen in real life in the movie, you got to take a sip. It'd be great if we had that sounder available while that was happening, but it's usually good for about six or seven brewskies.

Six or seven 12-ounce brewskies you'll get through based on how unrealistic a lot of the things that happen in this movie are. Draft Day, it's so aggressively bad that it's good. That's where I arrived at because there's almost no semblance of realism aside from having the ESPN crew and Rich Eisen who was a guest on yesterday's show and others breaking things down. The TV stuff was good back when the draft was at Radio City Music Hall where they were filming this in New York City.

But let me just go through the list of some things that I found to be egregiously funny how unrealistic it was. How about trading for the first pick in the draft on Draft Day? That doesn't happen. How about the reason why they didn't draft the quarterback, quote, best quarterback since Andrew Luck, that type of quarterback. Nobody showed up to his 21st birthday party. That's why we're not taking him.

And he lied about the fact that no one showed up to his birthday party. All right, we got to dig up the dirt. That's why we're not taking this quarterback. Then the reason why they were allowed to trade back into the top ten was because the Jaguars decided we're just going to take a ton of second round picks in order to get to give the Browns the number six pick in the draft again.

And the reason why the quarterback is still available at that point is because picture this in real life, W.D. The Browns doing something stupid has rattled the league. The Browns must know something. The Browns, we can't pick this guy who's being compared to Andrew Luck, a quarterback, because the Browns might know something. Think about that. In real life, it'd be like, the Browns didn't take him. What an idiot. Let's take him.

Immediately. Let's do this. I think there was one point that went, oh, the Broncos are going to pass because they got a star quarterback. Then why didn't the Broncos trade the pick? Why? Hey, somebody's going to give us multiple first round picks.

Jaguars, why aren't you talking to other teams? So let's start there. Actually, the most, the craziest, most egregious thing in this movie, the most unrealistic thing, was at the start of the draft. When you hear those chimes and the draft is starting. Roger Goodell got cheered. I'm out. In the movie, Roger Goodell got your drink. Roger Goodell being cheered. I think that calls for a shotgun.

Taking a running back in the top ten of the draft, that would not happen anymore. But here's the thing. It's so aggressively bad that I like it.

I do. It's a comedy now. That's what it is. If you read quotes from Kevin Costner, he believes this is Bull Durham 2.0. He thinks this is a classic.

He thinks this should be put up there with Citizen Kane and be put up there with The Godfather, among the best movies ever made. You look at the way that Kevin Costner talks about this movie. But the non-football storylines are ridiculous. The pregnancy storyline with a salary cap girl, Jennifer Garner, whose role of the movie is essentially just to say, girls can like football too.

That's great. The stuff about Costner's dad, don't really know why we need that. There's an actual scene in this movie where the owner of the team, on draft day, before they trade for the number one pick, on draft day, takes Kevin Costner to a water park to make the point. We need to make a splash. We need to make a splash, Sonny.

That's something that happened in the movie. In case you're just really down in the head and you need something that's not so subtle. Hey, get it? Make a splash? We're at a water park. Make a splash. That's what we're going to do. It's so aggressively bad that it's actually good. That's where I arrive at on draft day.

336-777-1600, if you want it on the show. Get into the basketball last night. There are Kings fans, because the Kings haven't been to the playoffs in 17 years, there are Kings fans out there, like Marcel Louis-Jacques, who covers the Dolphins, I believe, who used to be a Panthers beat writer, huge Sacramento Kings fan. They have passionate fans out that way.

We see it when they light the beam and all that. What they go to when they talk about playoffs is the officiating incident against the Lakers in the 2002 Conference Finals, when they feel like they should have gone to the Finals and they got screwed out of a Game 7 win. That's what they go to.

That's their go-to. Oh, we're riddled with bad things happening to us. We go back to 2002. If Sacramento loses this series against Golden State, last night's going to be the loss that's going to be remembered. It's going to be the new 2002 loss to the Lakers, because Golden State's the defending champs. They're down two games to zip. First time in the Steve Kerr era, they're down two games to zip in a series. They're missing Draymond Green last night, and they're not just missing Draymond Green. They're also missing Gary Payton II, too.

We learned that as soon as we got off the air. He's sick. He can't play. Those are two of their best defensive players. Sacramento lighting it up through the first two-game shooting game. How did they do last night?

Didn't break 100, 38 percent from the field. Sheesh. They got roasted. And now, Game 4, Sunday night, extra day for travel, or not even for travel. They're already there.

Extra day just because? They're going to have Draymond back, so the energy is going to be insane in that building, Chase Center. They're going to have Gary Payton II back, too. No chance Sacramento wins that game. This series is going to be tied at two games apiece because they missed that opportunity last night.

It was in front of them, and they didn't capitalize on that. And that's tough. But with all that said, do not write off Sacramento. Golden State still needs to win on the road.

They do. They're the lower seed here. They need to steal one in Sac-Town, and they also did fall behind two games to zip. And 92 percent of the teams in NBA history that fall behind two games to zip and a best-of-seven series do go on to win the series.

92 percent. We've said it since Game 1. This looks like one of the best first-round series we've ever seen. At least one of the best first-round series of recent memory. This has seven-game series written all over it, but it could have been over last night. It was in Sacramento's grasp. And they have a clunker.

They have a clunker. 38 percent shooting. Couldn't hit any threes. No Gary Payton II. No Draymond Green. They make Kavon Looney look like Dennis freaking Rodman crossed with, I don't know, Shaq, the way that he plays defensively.

So that was my takeaway from the NBA last night. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. WSJS. You can listen to Charlotte FC Soccer right here on WSJS tomorrow. It's the Columbus crew that Charlotte FC will be facing. The voice of Charlotte FC joins us now. I had said that Will Pelagic and I, the voice of Charlotte FC, have had beef. We have beef.

And if you're watching on YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter, I don't need to explain why there is beef currently. But for those who are listening in their cars or listening on SJS, I'm wearing a Carolina Hurricanes Eric Cole jersey. It's a throwback. Will Pelagic is wearing a New York Islanders jersey ahead of game three tonight in New York. You were at the game wearing Islanders garb at PNC Arena the other night. Will Pelagic, has it been uncomfortable at all being an Islanders fan rooting against the team in the state that you currently reside? It's only made uncomfortable by my coworkers who parachute in and watch hockey for like two months out of the year.

That's really the only part of it that makes me somewhat uncomfortable. I will say this. I pull for the Hurricanes against every other team in the National Hockey League, against the 30 other teams that play in the National Hockey League. The Islanders fandom of mine, I honestly feel like, Josh, it is the most non-threatening fandom of anything that I've ever grown up rooting for. The only two teams that I have kept from my childhood are basically two of the teams that have found the most interesting and incredible ways to lose the New York Islanders and the New York Mets.

Part of the reason I kept those is because I never really had to get rid of them as an adult. I got rid of my NFL fandom once I got into this business because honestly, trying to cover an NFL team and root for another is incredibly hard to do. I think from the NBA standpoint, I wasn't the biggest NBA fan growing up anyway. Yeah, I like the Knicks, but the Knicks sucked for most of my childhood other than the 90s.

From that perspective, that wasn't hard to reconcile. I don't really root for an NBA team other than the Hornets. I don't root for an NFL team other than the Carolina Panthers. You obviously know my affiliation with Charlotte FC.

The things that I have for leisure are the things that I don't really attach an affiliation to in this market. I'm not going to try to pretend to be a North Carolina fan. I like my Mizzou stuff still. I'm not going to try to pretend to be a Carolina Hurricanes fan. I like the New York Islanders, and we don't really have a baseball team here other than the plurality of people who love the Atlanta Braves, and I grew up to hate the Atlanta Braves. From that perspective, I feel like you can't hate on me that much for it, especially because I literally grew up, what's a good reference point?

I grew up from basically the distance of the Bank of America building to Bank of America stadium away from Nassau Coliseum. So from that perspective, you can't fault me that much, can you? No, I can't. I get it. I'm a Baltimore Orioles fan.

You want to talk about non-threatening. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. It's the Orioles and it's the Carolina Hurricanes. Those are the two teams that I root for emotionally that I'm emotionally attached to. College-wise, ECU, baseball a little bit, football, I guess. I get a little bit excited about when they're good. The guys in the morning show were like, oh, you've got to pick.

You've got to pick Duke or North Carolina or NC State. I'm like, that would be so disingenuous of me to do. I'm sorry. I couldn't do that.

I don't pick either or any of them either, and I grew up here. Do you still have hope that the Islanders are going to come back from two-zip down? It all depends on what happens tonight. If they win tonight, there's hope.

If not, there is none. I mean, the one thing that is their saving grace, they're playing in their building, which is the first time they've played a home playoff game at UBS Arena, which is going to be brand new. It's going to be loud. So from that perspective, and I think they did some things in game two that I think gave Hurricane fans some concern. I think the terrifying loss is obviously something to look at and say. Maybe it could be a feather in the Islanders' cap. They could get their defenseman Alex Romanoff tonight back from injury, which certainly shores up their back line, which I think from the Islanders' perspective is certainly something that has been lacking with Samuel Balduck, who looked very overmatched in games one and two. But the thing is, they're going to score more if you're the Islanders, and I think that's the part of it that I think would concern you on that side of it, is that, hey, from the Hurricanes' perspective, they've done everything they possibly could to get these first two games, and I think if they steal one of these two on the road, then I think the series is over.

Will Pelagic with us here. Listen to him tomorrow with Jessica Charm and the company for Charlotte FC's match against Columbus. Charlotte, they're getting results like last week against Colorado, but haven't gotten in the win column since that one win they had on March the 18th. How frustrating has that been within the building for Cristiano Todzio and company? I think it's frustrating because it'd be one thing if these guys were just scoring worldies.

It'd be one thing if these guys, like, for example, the first result that Charlotte FC played in in its home building was a one-nil loss to L.A. Galaxy, and that goal was probably one of the most impressive goals that I've seen in person scored by L.A. Galaxy on a guy who just literally took a strike from 37 yards out that ended up in the back of the net. This goal that they gave up was incredibly, it was a conceded goal. It was conceded because there was a switch of possession from the near side to the far side that George Marks had every ability to come up and catch, and he had the ball misplayed.

He misplayed the ball, and he went through his hands, and the guy went behind him and scored from behind. So that's one where you feel like that's an individual error. That's not a team error. That's not something that's based off of luck. That's an individual error, and unfortunately, Charlotte FC have had too many goals this season created by their own defensive individual errors, and I think it's honestly borne out. Somebody referenced this stat on Sirius XM today because Jess actually did a whole hour with the United States of Soccer with Jason Davis, which if you are a Sirius XM subscriber, go and check that out. It was absolutely fantastic, but he referenced the expected goals metric. Charlotte FC have given up four more goals than what the expected goal metric says they should have given up, and I think that to use the hockey term, it's a lack of puck luck, and there is no soccer equivalent term to that, but the problem is that Charlotte FC have been unfortunately undone by some poor fortune, but a lot of that also is unfortunately self-created. We're six days out from the NFL draft where the Carolina Panthers are going to take Bryce Young with the number one pick, and there are still fans who don't get it with Bryce.

They see the size, and that's enough of a concern for them, and I've gotten this question a number of times. What is most special about Bryce from a football perspective, and what I boiled it down to is it's similar to what all the teams are looking to find in Pat Mahomes or Josh Allen. At the root of their games is creativity and the ability to improvise when plays break down and make more plays than you make mistakes and always keeping your eyes downfield when you make plays, the perfect example of that being the LSU game where he got out of the pocket and found his guys downfield for a touchdown in that game. That's what I boil it down to, his creativity, and it's really fun to imagine that creativity coupled with this coaching staff, this offensive staff that Carolina has put together, but what do you think is most special about Bryce?

I think you're onto something, Josh, and the way that I would describe it is the propensity for the spectacular. I think that's the real trait of Bryce Young that you look at and you say is absolutely, positively head and shoulders above anybody else. C.J. Stroud could, and again, I think the situation with C.J. Stroud, it will determine which environment he ends up in.

If he ends up in Houston, I think it's a lot harder for him, but if Houston is really not enamored with him and he ends up somewhere else, C.J. Stroud could end up being an incredible NFL quarterback, and the same could be the case if he does end up in Houston, but the fact of the matter is there are a lot of great NFL quarterbacks that don't do anything at the next level that you just have good stats. You could be Matt Ryan, for example.

You can get to a Super Bowl and maybe not win it or maybe even get there once and not have it happen, et cetera, and so on. You could be that guy, or you could be a guy, like you said, a Patrick Mahomes who has the ability to create on the run. The processing stuff I think is a real, real indicator of the fact that this is probably one of the smartest guys we've seen come out and play the quarterback position.

The size thing is definitely a factor when you think about the durability concerns, but would you rather take the chance on somebody who processes at the 98th percentile, which is a very, very great thing, rather than somebody who, again, I don't know the exact score, but the words and the verbiage that's come out from what the people who said that they tested C.J. Stroud is that the processing numbers are significantly lower than where they were for Bryce Young and, for that matter, the other quarterbacks who are part of this discussion, like Levis and Richardson. So my whole thing is that he has the arm. He has the ability to find throwing lanes. He has the ability to escape the pocket, and he also has the ability to be a leader.

And I think all those traits, combined with the propensity for the spectacular, are the reason why he's going to be the first name called on Thursday night. So we knew this was going to be a reality. While we're talking football, there's some news that came out today that the NCAA has approved for Division I, Division II, not Division III, strangely enough, that there will be, in an effort to improve pace of play in college football, no more clock stoppages on first down, aside from the final two minutes of each half. You can't call back-to-back timeouts, which mirrors the NFL. There's no final play of a quarter because of penalty anymore. They're just going to carry that over, unless it's the end of half or end of game. But the big one is the clock stoppages now.

I love this. I love this because baseball got a little long. The pitch clock rectified some of that, and I think that's a good thing. And I think that's going to improve the TV product. But from a health and safety standpoint, whether this is intended or not, this does impact it. They put out in the report that they think there are going to be 21 fewer snaps on average per game because of this rule change. And when the schedule now expands because of the 12-team playoff, if you extrapolate 21 plays across 15, 16 games, that's impactful. And that's going to be positive for the people who are looking for reasons to make the game safer or ways to make the game safer. So I think in two counts, from an entertainment standpoint, consuming the sport, it's good.

And also from a health standpoint, what do you think? Well, I found it interesting. And this is from somebody who didn't really grow up as a college football fan. I remember my first varsity football game. They stopped the clock to move the chains, and it was the most foreign thing for me because of somebody who just watched the NFL as much as I did. And that was my entryway into the football world.

I obviously became more, I guess, comfortable with the college game after going to college at a place that had football. So from that perspective, I watched more of it, and I understood kind of the reasons behind it. But I never really understood the reason for the variance in the rules, at least from my perspective. So I do feel like it does kind of synchronize things from that perspective. We'll see what it does for the pace of play and the actual time of games. I do feel like there is probably going to be still some lag in those type of things because I do feel like you are going to get these situations at the end of games and the commercials and things of that nature where it might not always be equal. But I think it's a good thing.

And like you said, in the name and face of player safety, I think we always want to do everything we can to try to protect the player in that aspect. Okay, last thing we got for you. We need your opinion on this because we have a poll out. There's two quick things that we need you to hit on before we let you go.

Will Pelagic joining us, listen to him on Charlotte FC tomorrow night against Columbus. Is draft day a good movie? Yes or no? I've never seen it. I've never seen it.

Probably need to check that out in the next week or so before the draft. I've heard mixed reviews from people. I know people who love it and I know people who are just vociferously against it that they think it's an abomination in the scourge of humanity. It's so egregiously bad that it's really good. Like that's it.

You will enjoy it. Kind of like Super Troopers. Exactly. It's like Super Troopers if it was a sports movie. That's it. It's football Super Troopers. That's what it is. So you need to check that out.

Then you got this here. Well, Dalton hasn't seen Rounders, Jerry Maguire or the original Karate Kid. I assume he hasn't seen the newer Karate Kid either. If you had to choose one of those three movies for him to watch over the last week or over the next week, which one would you choose? See, I'm in between. I mean, the Karate Kid is a classic.

So I do feel like you will enjoy the Karate Kid. And by the way, we learned he hadn't seen it because earlier in the show I said the hurricanes needed to sweep the leg tonight and he had no idea what that meant. Trust me, I run into the same issue a lot of times with Josh Marlowe. I'll throw a quote out there and he'll look at me like I have three heads. Rounders is my choice. I think Rounders needs to be the one. And the reason why Rounders is even something we talked about is because we were in a meeting a few days ago and we brought up Jerry Maguire because the draft's coming up and W.D. 's reaction was pay that man his money. Thinking that was the Rod Tidwell quote from who he described to be Cuban.

Show me the money. He said, yeah, who he described to be Cuban Gooding Jr. in the last segment. This is what we got. Right. So he didn't know what Rounders was, but knew the John Malkovich quote thinking it was from some guy named Cuban Gooding Jr. and Jerry Maguire.

That's what I would say. Jerry Maguire is like Jerry Maguire. You watch that on a date that that's you know, I feel like that's more enjoyable with a significant other partner of that nature.

So from that perspective, I think that's you look at that from that perspective. Rounders is great any time. It's an excellent movie. Noted. Will Pelagic. All three of those movies are great movies.

You can't go wrong with any of them. That's what I'm saying. We're trying to do a service for our guy W.D. Will Pelagic. We'll talk to you next week. Have a great call tomorrow.

And I wish your hockey team no luck. Let's see how it is. I can't wait to see you at the at the game in a couple of weeks. Two weeks, two weeks from the day. Two weeks or tomorrow, two weeks from tomorrow, two weeks from tomorrow. Counting it down. Will Pelagic. We'll talk soon, buddy. Thanks, pal.