What's That Bear Doing?

Stand by as we continue our dig for the truth and the toy at the bottom of the cereal box.

Oh, got it. You're on the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. Today's been a monster day in the world of college sports. Big 10 presidents voted to start playing football in a month.

They're looking at an eight game schedule, no buys, mandatory daily testing. Then you got the NCAA Division 1 council expected to vote when the college basketball season should start. They're still meeting. We haven't seen any of the news headlines or any of the votes come out just yet.

And if there is anything to pass along, we'll certainly do that. But based on all the headlines I've read, Coach K at Duke, he doesn't seem to want non-conference games this year. When I looked at all the statements that coaches put out, time slips away for me. It wasn't last week that they voted for an all-inclusive NCAA tournament. When all those statements came out, Coach K, he had the one that carried the most weight.

He was the one that spearheaded the all-inclusive tournament. And in it, he highlighted health and safety of the players, incentive that there will be games, all of which that lead to the NCAA tournament, and that they have to be unified as a sport. All 357 Division 1 teams are competing in the game that they love. That seems to be Coach K's way of incentivizing lesser schools to play because they'll get a cut from the NCAA tournament. But nowhere does it say that Duke's going to pay by games to allow for the non-conference schools to play in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

That's the difference between what Coach K has been recommending and say what Coach Calipari at Kentucky has been advocating for. Cal, he dismissed the all-inclusive NCAA tournament. He believes you need non-conference games or else many of these schools won't be allowed to survive.

They don't see the incentives of playing. They really get a lot of their budgets or they get a lot of their revenue from playing at Kentucky at Rupp or playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Chapel Hill, etc, etc. If you're looking within the ACC, the all-inclusive tournament, it satisfies the lesser teams in the league who might be concerned, hey, if we're going to play more ACC games, this is going to make our record look really bad.

If we don't have non-conference games to beef up our out-of-conference or our overall record, I don't know if we want to do this. I'm thinking about Steve Forbes at Wake Forest and he kind of acknowledged it, Robert, when he joined us a few weeks ago. This clip he kind of just said as a joke but he was talking about all the coaches together on the conference call and listen to what Coach Forbes said, Coach K was suggesting, and what his response to the suggestion was.

Didn't make Coach K laugh about three weeks ago on one of those calls. He was talking about just playing conference games, you know, maybe 20, 26 college games. I said, well, Coach, if we do that, we'll take that team back to the seniors and we'll go, so come on, we'll see you in a year or two. And he thought that was kind of funny. I wasn't really kidding, but I think he thought I was. But anyway, I had a little fun with Coach there.

Listen to that. Coach K suggesting 26 conference games. And if you're Wake Forest, where are you going to find the wins in year one if you're Steve Forbes? Yeah, I'll just go back to the Southern Conference if we're only going to play ACC games. But if everybody makes it to the NCAA tournament, Robert, you're incentivized to play and you get a cut of the NCAA tournament money and you'll also potentially get a bonus for making the tournament because that's what your contract says.

I think that's a really telling comment from Coach Forbes a few weeks ago. Plus remember, Duke does not play true road games at a conference. This has been a joke when it comes to Duke. They don't agree to go to places that often. So they usually have their non-conference games at home, which requires them to buy out teams or buy teams, have them come in and play. Home games are expensive and let's not forget, they're not guarantees either. For Duke, most of the time they win, but what about last year? Stephen F. Austin went into Cameron and got a win. So you got to get them to come in and play it.

You got to pay them to do so. If Coach K had his way, I believe this is how the schedule would look. Duke would have the ACC Big Ten challenge where at times they'd have to play on the road and they would play 20 or 22 ACC games and aside from that you'd have the MSG Showcase or play in Chicago for the Champions Classic, something of that sort. That would be Coach K's ideal schedule. Now, while I want to stand up for the little guy a little bit, UNC Greensboro, want to stand up for the Southern Conference, want to stand up for schools that aren't as big as Duke and the ACC schools, I want to stand up for the Southern Conference, the ACC schools. I wouldn't hate an expanded ACC schedule, Robert. The coaches probably wouldn't like it. Coach Williams last year, Roy said, not a fan of the 20-game schedule.

He did not like opening up against Notre Dame. But for us, for the viewer, for people who love college basketball, more ACC games, more games that matter, more urgency early on in the year, I'd be all for that. So this is not me saying Coach K is wrong, that I disagree with Coach K and what he's pushing here. I'm just saying I understand it, I get it, but I don't think most of the college basketball family, and it's a smaller industry than you would think, would sign off on what Coach K has proposed. According to Forbes in that clip, based on the statement I'm seeing from Coach K, which does not include non-conference games, there's nothing about that, it seems we could be getting more ACC games and less games against the little guys. All right, in less than 10 minutes, we're going to be joined by Charlotte head football coach Will Healy, who's just an incredibly entertaining coach. You don't really find guys in the coaching profession that are really entertaining.

He is that, if you haven't heard him before, you will enjoy that. His team's getting set to play North Carolina this weekend. But I want to shift things to some really sad news, Robert, as today might be the day that local newspapers died for me. And the reason that is, I follow things very closely in a sports context, and here in the Triad, we've got two long-standing newspapers of record.

You got the Winston-Salem Journal and you got the Greensboro News and Record. We learned today that the sports staff was just gouged, including Connor O'Neill, Wake Forest beat reporter, who replaced Dan Collins. And that's just an impossible task to ask anyone to do. And he did it professionally. He did it gracefully. He is a consummate professional.

I'm lucky enough to call a friend. He is the beat writer. He is the beat writer's beat writer. So respected by coaches, even when he's asking difficult questions of Dave Clausen or Danny Manning. He was very respected by his peers, by the coaches. He's so fair. He's so honest.

You always knew where he stood. His loss, it makes no sense. The paper letting him go, I don't understand how you can say you care about your readership. You care about your community as somebody who runs the newspaper. And cut the beat writer for your city's ACC team.

That doesn't make sense to me. And then, longtime friend of this show, somebody I admire so much, Ed Harden, the longtime columnist of the Greensboro News and Record, was also among the cuts at the News and Record. He is a North Carolina media institution. Each and every year, he's right there winning the awards for North Carolina Sports Writer of the Year. He's the best writer I know.

I know a lot of them. He's the best one. And I love reading Ed's stories on social media every time one is published.

I always tag, hashtag always read Ed. Because if you're from here and you read his stuff, you connect with it. You understand it because he's one of us. And he has such great pride in the state of North Carolina and such great pride in the triad. And he's done so much for my career. He's done so much for this show. He's done so much for this area.

So today just sucks. I'm going to be honest. All throughout the day, Robert, it's just been front and center of what I've been thinking about because these people are the ones that we work alongside. Sports media, kind of like what we were talking about with coaching. It's a small industry.

It's a tight-knit fraternity. And this year's been rough when it comes to Bob Sutton and Burlington being laid off. And now Ed and Connor O'Neill. And there were some other really good writers who I just didn't know as well laid off as well.

I'm not minimalizing them. I'm just speaking to the ones that I know personally. And this just really stings. The quality of the entire sports media depends on good journalism.

The stories we react to and give opinions on are based in knowing what the truth is and knowing what the facts are. And it's guys like Connor O'Neill that dig that stuff up for us locally, that national people just don't have the time, resources, or passion to want to do on their own. So I'm thinking about those guys today and thinking about their colleagues too. What's it like to line up against Mac Brown? Or to golf with Panthers OC Joe Brady?

Well, I couldn't tell you. But Charlotte 49ers coach Will Healy golfed with Joe recently. And on top of that, he's getting set to face the Tar Heels on Saturday.

And guess what? He'll be on this show next on the drive. All right, I need to stand up for my guy, Sir Purr. Panthers mascot who's facing some heat today because there are some people out there who think he's a bear. Specifically, Robbie Anderson, the new guy. During the game on Sunday, Panthers, he had a touchdown, he had a buck 15 in the game, new wide receiver, as B.

Dot points out. He was mic'd up and this clip went viral. What's that bear doing? Panther. That's Sir Purr, bro. Who? Sir Purr.

Who? Sir Purr. How you say that? Sir Purr. Sir Purr. Oh, Sir Purr.

Wow. You call him that? Yeah, that's his name. So you be like, what's up, Sir Purr? You call him that?

Why did he read it? To Robbie's defense. I love him, man. To Robbie's defense, he is new. This is why you need preseason games, man. Yeah. If you're looking for the value of preseason games, you get to know the damn mascot is if you have the multiple preseason games.

But really there is no excuse. Your team's called the Panthers. It's a black cat. And on top of that, Sir Purr was around at FanFest. He was the only one there waving a flag while you guys were practicing. You should know who Sir Purr is, Robbie Anderson. Well, I mean, also in the defense of a fellow Robbie, there's no bears playing in this game.

At all, man. It's the Vegas Raiders, dude. Where would a bear be? He's wearing a Panthers jersey.

I guess this is the defense I have for Robbie, though. Bears stand up. Panthers. When have you ever seen a Panther standing on its back legs?

You never do. I mean, if they're climbing a tree. Right. So your initial reaction, I'd like the picture. This is right after the touchdown. Coach is going in there saying, good job, Robbie. Hey, wait, wait to get out of that tackle and whatnot.

And then you're sitting there, you're high five. And the other voices you heard were D.J. Moore and Curtis Samuel. Then that's the point that his attention shifts to. Is that a bear? And he figures out who the Panthers mascot is in an organic way. Again, I didn't get a chance to watch the game. I told you I was on my way back from Charleston, but the way I was watching it via social media, there didn't seem like there was a time during the game where they could sit on the bench, the three of them, and have such a very candid conversation about Sir Purr. Like it was like a back and forth type game.

There was never like a two score lead for the Panthers where they were just sitting back looking around in the crowd and then say, hey, what the hell is that bear doing? But let me tell you something. Those commercial breaks are longer than you think when you're in the actual stadium. You might be right. Excuse me.

Those of us who aren't in the actual stadium a lot might not recognize the length of a timeout. You might not know what's going on. He gets on my damn nerves.

Who are you talking to? Gosh, it's always a pen contest with Josh. Nevertheless, I love Robbie Anderson, man. I'm telling you, I didn't know much about dude before this before this audio. I just knew he came from the Jets. I don't know who wears my favorite number, but now I'm a Robbie Anderson fan. Jack, see, the first time I saw Robbie Anderson, it was like his profile picture on Madden where his hair looks like one of the Wayans brothers from Scary Movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is this dude doing?

Like you got a pacifier hanging from one of those things. He's the man and Sir Purr is the man respects Sir Purr. He's definitely top five man. Robert, how do you not remember Robbie Anderson taking out the Pirates when they were ranked in 2014? Because I was drunk. That's right.

It was the day after Halloween. Speak your truth, Robert. There you go. But I'm a big Sir Purr fan. Dude, don't even, man. Like he's too good.

You're out on Sir Purr? He's too good of a mascot to be considered. Like it's like mascots need to be a little goofy.

They need to be a little like a caricature of something. He is just a panther. I defy you to name five NFL mascots. Well, I'm glad you brought that up, Josh, because I have five mascots that I know way.

All right, you're going to fly at number five. I have Pittsburgh's mascot, Steely McBeam. Steely McBeam. Who the hell is the Pittsburgh Steelers mascot? I'm telling you, look, I don't know. I've seen pictures of a supposed mascot.

I don't know if this thing's still around. He's wearing a hard hat and he carries away a steel beam, man. Go ahead. What is he doing next?

Number four. We got we got the 49ers. They have sourdough Sam. It looks like he's straight out of a gold mine. He's rooting, tooting and looking for nuggets. He could have found some last night if he was looking sourdough.

Sam actually is a great mascot name and a good mascot. He's got the hat and he's got the handkerchief. He looks like a crazy old coot. If you would think of if you would think of someone who is looking for gold in the in the late 40s, I think this guy fits the bill. Yeah, for sure. He's got a bigger head.

He probably would have got shot, but either way. Number three. Next, I've got Dallas to talk about the Cowboys. Wait a minute. The cowboy mascot is weak. OK, look at him in the face. He looks like a Keebler elf that said he was tired of that tree stuff and he was going to be a mascot. His face is fixed in that grinning position. He's also thick. He I'm telling you, he's thick.

And when he's standing behind old Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, where he's just clapping and you just have that giddy looking smile, Cowboys are in at number three. If you took that, too. OK, sorry about that.

No, go ahead. If you took that hat off of him, he definitely looked like a character in a scary movie. I give you that. Number two, New Orleans, Sir Saint. His chin is a shovel. His chin has seen more work than Cardi B's has. I thought the Saint's mascot was a Saint Benard. Don't think it's a Saint. All I know is this big cleft chin looking.

You got you got the Saint Benard right here. I ain't talking about him. I'm talking about Sir Saint with the cleft and the boy chin wonder.

The one beside the dog. That dude's chin that he should be on defense for the Saints. That that that chin looks like a sack.

But I'm going to say that. And then what I think is the perfect mascot in the NFL. Number one, Casey Wolf for the Kansas City Chiefs.

I'm familiar with that one. He's got he's got my favorite attribute on a mascot, the belly, where they can pick the belly up and do the circular motion. That's the number one mascot dance. Why do you prefer the Casey Wolf's circular hip action versus, say, the Indianapolis Colt that's always behind the goalpost and make sure to be really aggressive about it on made field goal? Because I watched the mascot game and I saw that Colts mascot stiff arm a kid into oblivion. And when I saw that as a kid, I was like, man, bleep that horse, dude.

I don't want nothing to do with that horse. But the best thing about the wolf, in my opinion, he's got googly eyes. I love his eyes. So at random times in pictures, he could be cross-eyed. He could be looking like he's looking over here. I love his eyes.

He looks like one of Patrick Mahomes receivers trying to figure out who's going to get the ball, whether he's going to sidearm it, no look it. He don't know. And the guy inside the wolf costume don't know either. But Sir Purr has the belly you talk about. Sir Purr was up there dancing with the belly. I feel like Sir Purr is like the Superman of mascots. Like he's got the heat vision. He can fly.

Oh, and by the way, he's got a circular belly, too. Get out of here. I don't want no Panthers mascot talk in my house. I've never heard someone hate a mascot because they're great. Thus ends the mascot portion of the discussion, because I promised we'd a lot more time for bashing the Los Angeles Clippers. So the Clippers lose last night in Game 7. And if I had to sum up the story of the 2020 Los Angeles Clippers to just two words, you know how you used to see like those shows they did for each Panther football team or NFL teams, they would have like a slogan or something that defines the year. For the Clippers, it's unearned arrogance. All throughout the year, these guys acted like they were champs. They acted like it like, oh, this is like we've won back to back. We're going to win three in a row.

That was the vibe that they gave off. When really the only champions in that building are Doc Rivers and Kawhi Leonard. And it's been a while for Doc. Kawhi, he's a champ. He has the right to act that way.

Do you know who doesn't? Marcus Morris, Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Paul George. And I say that even acknowledging that he pushed Miami more than anybody else in the Eastern Conference those years when he was with the Indiana Pacers. So that, I think, sticks out to be more than anything else. This is an organization that just completed its 50th season, has never been to the conference final, which is an amazing thing. And when you look at major professional sports teams, they had the graphic that showed that that appeared last night. The team that second, NBA, NFL, I think also with the National Hockey League, longest drought of not even being in the conference final, the Charlotte Hornets. 30 years.

Yeah, I believe that. I disagree with your unearned arrogance, though. I don't feel like the Clippers had an unearned arrogance. I didn't even take them as arrogant.

I took them really as trying to really figure it out, being that this is their first year altogether. I think the arrogance was added on from the, one, the LeBron haters, and two, the Clipper fans, if you can say there are such a thing. Like, I think they propelled them to a championship status more so than the Clippers players did. Now, I know that Pat Beverley joking and laughing at Dame, Dolla's, and the- If they really wanted to make it work, though, Dot, you're talking about Kawhi.

Oh, this is what the priority is. At the end of the year, they only played 19 games together the entire season. And it could have been a handful of games more if Kawhi didn't do the entire load management deal. It seems load management is something you do when you know you're good enough to win later on in the year.

You don't need to have that chemistry and stuff gel. I think he went load management in anticipation of a legit regular season. When the season went to hell, and they sat out three months before actually coming back and doing basketball, like Doc Rivers and everybody was saying last night, they were shot last night. The Clippers were tired as hell. When they came, when Paul George and Kawhi came out the game with like two minutes left and they sat down, you could see the fatigue on them.

Now, that's not an out because, again, y'all told me Kawhi was the best player in the league, so he should have been able to go in the back, take a shot in the butt, do whatever they got to do to get up for the game. But the reality is, I don't think that they were an arrogant team as much as they just don't have it together yet. It reminded me of the 2011 Heat.

That's what it reminded me of, where they didn't have the chemistry. That's why they didn't win that first year. But then year two, they were scary good. And that's what I think is going to happen with the Clippers. But the Heat lost in the finals. I hate when people keep comparing this team to that Heat 2011 team. That Heat team beat everybody in the East, and okay, we can go East versus West, but they beat everybody in the East and then got to the West and then, I mean, got to the finals and couldn't figure it out. These guys were up 3-1 against the Denver Nuggets.

They needed one. They are good. I'm not knocking that. Last four series, they've had to go seven games. It sounded like you were knocking them. I mean, I'm knocking the fact that this Clippers team was supposed to be in at least, at least the Western Conference Finals.

But Don, it's the bubble. It's different. Like, can you agree in the regular season they earned having that seventh game at home? They earned it? Yes.

Don't you think that would make a difference? Yes. Yeah. So I'm saying that these are unprecedented times. Yes.

I'm fine adding asterisk to things. It doesn't devalue anything in my mind. But when you're talking about knocking people, I think perspective is important. And when it comes to the Clippers, I mean, you hear Paul George, how much of an impact, even when he was dropping 30 on people, this isn't after losses, saying that it's been really tough being in the bubble, man. And they were one of the teams that wanted out after the after the after Kenosha. That stuff, I think, is a significant deal.

This is a really exhausting, psychological and physical test that they've had the last two months. Lakers wanted out, too. You see them in the Western Conference Finals. And I agree, we got to keep it in perspective. Perspective is you've got to get one win to go to the Western Conference Finals for the organization's history.

And you give me one May basket in the second half of a closeout. Oh, you're absolutely right on that. You're right on it.

But what I'm saying is, when you're saying you can't compare this to the 2011 Finals, I'm saying you can, because these times it lifts things, it makes things more difficult for the favored teams, because what you earned isn't being given to you in any kind of way, like all the teams we've seen in the past. That's all I'm saying. It's time for B-Dots Grammar School, though.

Damn it, I did that thing again where I lied. B-Dots Grammar School is next on the drive. Josh Graham loves to talk sports. He also loves the way his new jeans highlight his man curves. Ooh, hot. Oh, yeah, that's hot.

You're on the drive with Josh Graham. It's time for B-Dots Grammar School, a segment that a lot of you look forward to. For me, it's educational. For me, it's trying not to trip on landmines in the very politicized, politically correct age that we live in at points. I still suspect this is going to be the segment that eventually does us all in.

I can only hope so. Right, that the ship is going to go down because of something that happens in this segment. I feel it, but we're still going to embrace it anyway, because that's kind of what we're about around here.

For those who don't know, B-Dot comes up with five different expressions. I think of the urban vernacular. I don't know a better way to say that. That's the best word.

That might be part of the problem here. I don't want to make it black and white because, again, Robert knows all of these, and most of the people in the audience listening knows him. I just don't, because I'm not a cool person. That's not true, Josh. That's not 100% true, Josh. You are a person. You are a person, Josh.

Don't ever think that. So there you go. It's time for B-Dot to take me to grammar school. Josh is going to attempt to learn B-Dot's vernacular. I'm from the old school.

I got all the street knowledge. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying?

It's time for B-Dot's grammar school. Today might get a little difficult for you, Josh. I'm wearing my Denver Nugget shirt today, by the way. You were wearing it last time or two weeks ago, and you know what Dot said then? He didn't care. I didn't. Now you care because they're taking on the Lakers. I don't care.

That's a little non-hater shirt. I don't know who's going to guard Jamal Murray. Is it going to be Casey P? It's going to be Brian. It's going to be Brian.

And if you think Joker's going to do anything with A.D. out there, you've lost your mind. Listen, but we're not about to talk about that. It is time for grammar school. I got five words and phrases here. Josh has to get three correct in order to advance in today's episode. Are you ready, Josh? Yes. We're going to take this one back. This is some 90s slang right here.

This is some 90s urban slang, straight from New York. STEEZ. S-T-E-E-Z. STEEZ. You know my STEEZ. If anybody would like to help, Josh, there is a phone number.

336-777-1600. You my STEEZ? Yeah. I love him saying stuff he doesn't know.

He's like a baby deer walking out in this fresh meadow. STEEZ. You know my STEEZ? Yes, STEEZ. And I can help you if you would like some help, Josh. I'm going to take a stab at this. O.J. style. Going back to the 90s. Look at you.

Yeah, this segment is going to get canned. Maybe it's like bestie, but it's like STEEZ. So it's like your best friend. That's what I think it is. Can you hit that like two times?

Thank you very much. STEEZ is just your style, bro. It's your style.

And you do it with ease. So it's your STEEZ, man. Like this is my STEEZ. You see my STEEZ. Swag. You see what's going on.

Just some shorts, a hoodie, some slides. You see my STEEZ. Style, but it's with ease though. I was a little bit off. You were a whole lot of bits off. All right, second word is four letters, Josh. It's an acronym. Oh, no. Oh, yeah.

That's what I like to hear. It's an acronym for you, Josh. And it is a question. I'll give you a hint.

It's a question. H-Y-D-T. H-Y-D-T. How you do that? Yeah, you go right there, Josh. Look at my guy. There you go right there, Josh.

I'm giving you hella bills. He got that quick. He did.

I thought he was about to be like, how are you doing today? Legit. I'll give you some props. He came up with that.

Look at you, my dude. He's growing up. I helped him when I told him it was a question. Because with the H, he was like, okay, how? It has to be how. You've asked me that question many times.

You have this opinion how you do that. This one was a new one to me. I saw it and I was like, that can't, she's using it with such confidence, but that can't be a real word. And I went to my always faithful site, Urban Dictionary.

And I'd be damned if it wasn't there. A manicorn. A manicorn. M-A-N-I-C-O-R-N. Maybe that should be something else we do.

Have Josh spell some of these words. It's like a spelling bee. Oh, manicorn seems pretty easy. It's like manicorn.

It's like what? Manicorn. What is manicorn? M-A-N-I-C-O-R-N-E. No, no E at the end. No E at the end, yes.

Yeah, manicorn. Okay, you can spell it after I just spelt it. But what does it mean, Basil? But what does it all mean, Basil? Listen, if this segment is the one that takes us down, I'm going to be like the band on the Titanic.

I'm going to be there playing. I think this means like the perfect man. He doesn't exist. It's a manicorn.

Give Josh a damn bell. Yeah! That is exactly what it means. I'm a manicorn. It's a mythical, successful, faithful, caring man, because they don't exist. Oh, it's like every man can't have all five of these. Exactly.

A manicorn. Wow, Josh. Look at Josh flexing today. That's right. That's right. Throw him some home dingers now, man.

Now he's getting too cocky. What's a sin law? Oh, it's a cruddy in-law. Like an in-law that you hate. Somebody who's the worst, a sin law.

No. Close, Josh, but I cannot give you credit for that. It's the parents of your live-in boyfriend or girlfriend, because we're in the Bible Belt. They say you're living in sin, so you have sin laws. Let me tell you something.

I'm scared to death of my sin law, then. Really? Her dad is scary. Really?

He's a biker. Really? If you're not married, it's your significant other's parent. Correct. When they live with you. Correct, if y'all are living together. If y'all are shacking. Yeah, they have to live with them. Okay, so Robert has sin laws.

I don't. So where we at, Tutu? Her mama, though.

Her mama's fine. My sin law, sorry. Too right, too wrong. Take this out in post, Robert.

For the win right here, Josh Graham. What does it mean when someone says, say less? I know what it means when people say, do less.

Say less. Robert, I'm going to use you as a hint. Oh, man. And he saved, and he waited for that one perfectly. Good job, Josh.

I did. I'm playing the game the way it was designed to be played. I'm just, I'm shooting free throws, Robert.

What do you want? It's the end of the game. Say less. Say less is when someone gives you something and it is understood.

Like, someone's like, hey, we're about to go here and do this. Say less. Okay, cool. I understand.

It is understood. So couldn't you just define this radio show as say less? Did you really need the three to four hours to tell me that the Clippers blew it? Say less. Is that your answer? Well, no, I'm going with what Rob said. Dang it, Rob. Shut up. Why did you say no, Rob?

No, he would have jumped out there with that. No, I wasn't going to jump on that. I'm of course going to trust my partner in crime, Robert Ross. Now I'm his partner in crime. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Weeks and weeks ago, I never help him, and I never want him to succeed. I'll remember this. Say less is 100% what Robbie said. Correct. It is fully understood.

It does not have to be explained. If we're going to go out to eat later. Yo, where we going?

We're going to meet me at eight o'clock at Ruth Chris. Say less. Say less means literally you don't have to say anything else.

I'm there. As I mentioned, I think I should just say less when it comes to the Clippers last night. It's just understood. We get it.

So you're taking it too literal with like, literally, like I'm going to say less about the Clippers, but it's not saying less about the Clippers. It's just... Didn't Austin Rivers date a Kardashian? I don't know.

That sin law situation might be rough then in the Rivers household. Probably. This is bad. I doubt he's a Manicorn.

Okay, he might be. I mean, you make this impossible for me to do. Like, I bet people look at this and say, how you do that?

Yeah, they do say that. And I tell them, man, that's just how I do. It's my Steve. That's my Steve. Let's go finish strong.

Yeah, I'm going to give the Clippers a pass and I'll tell you why next. One of our favorites from Fox Sports. Adam Amin now joining us. He's going to be on the televised call of Panthers Buccaneers Sunday afternoon. Tom Brady's first home game, Matt Ruhl's first road game, and it's a one o'clock kickoff. Also on that crew, you got Mark Schleroff, Lindsey Zarniak.

They were in Seattle or in Atlanta for Seattle, Atlanta over the weekend. So excited to watch these guys on Sunday. Obviously trying to keep an eye on the Panthers as well. And Adam, you've got a chance to cover Matt Ruhl's teams when he was coaching in college ball, even just last year at Baylor.

So I'm interested. What fascinates you about him being the Panthers' choice and given a seven-year contract where ownership is essentially saying however much time you need, however way you want to rebuild it, we're giving you the keys to do so? I think it is a little surprising to me in professional sports that you're given that much leeway these days. I'm surprised in sports in general, anybody gets that much leeway. And listen, I get that there are buyouts and things of that nature involved. But it's just interesting to me that that's how it works.

And that's not a criticism by any means of individual organizations or individual people. That's just an observation about how sports in this country have kind of advanced in terms of timing. So to see a long-term deal right out of the gate has some weight to it for the reasons that you said. You know, like we're giving you as much time as possible.

Somebody like Matt deserves that. I think he's at his best when you give him room to work and implement the things that he wants to implement. He's an easy guy to root for and he's an easy guy to get behind. And again, that's at least in my personal dealings with him, which took place in conference rooms and in his office and on the field before games and things like that. I'm not pretending that we're super close friends or anything like that. It's not about that. It's the impression that I've gathered from multiple interactions with him has led me to believe that he's somebody that is easy to get behind and buy into.

So how do these guys buy into that? It's adjustments. Like what we saw in week one, there were some ugly moments in week one.

I'm glad they made a comeback and I'm glad they made it interesting at the end. And granted there was some drama and some play call issues, but there were some things to clean up and every NFL team has to make adjustments. But especially if you're a brand new team, a brand new coach, new quarterback, et cetera, you've got to learn how to make adjustments.

So there's plenty to adjust. And if we see in week two against Tampa Bay that some of these things have been cleaned up, that's an easy way to kind of gauge in a very, very small data sample as to what type of coach Matt Ruhl can be in the National Football League. So again, it's not the end all be all when we get to Sunday, but it's certainly an interesting gauge more than anything else. Adam Amin with us here.

Shoot him a follow on Twitter at Adam Amin if you haven't already. Prepping for Tom Brady, I'm sure there are so many different stats and figures that you can point out that are just astounding. I remember I was broadcasting, I think a game that you might have been doing when you were doing women's basketball, UConn, and they have these stat sheets and you could just dig out things that are just crazy when you look at them. One that I look at, a stat that I brought up earlier, Tom Brady does not have a losing record against any NFL team. Other than New England, though, there are three teams that he doesn't have a winning record against. Arizona, who he's played twice, Seattle, who he's faced four times, and yes, the Carolina Panthers, who he has a 3-3 record with. I find that to be interesting, but whether it's a stat or something we just take for granted with Tom at this point, what's the craziest thing to you about Tom's resume?

Man, that's a great question. I'm thinking, actually, I think I may have called one of those games against the Panthers if I'm not mistaken, it was a Graham Genno game-winning field goal. 2017, that's right.

That's right. So, yeah, a few years back, I remember Bill Polian and myself were calling that game on radio together. Okay, so there are a lot of numbers, and I've looked at some of my Patriots notes from the last couple of years to look back at what I've seen from Tom Brady, and the most relevant thing that popped up, especially for this week, because he's coming off a lot of these stuff, a loss in his Tampa Bay debut, what was his record in New England after a loss? And again, you have to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt, because as most things are going to be framed for Tom Brady in his career, it's going to be a Belichick-Brady stat. And again, it's not the end-all be-all, because together those guys had won something like 75 or 76% of all of their games following a loss up until 2019, where they had some tough moments.

So that number, to me, is fascinating. Again, we just talked with Matt on the subject of Matt Rule and adjusting, right? Same deal with Belichick and Brady. They were great at adjusting. They were great at coming back with a better game plan, et cetera, et cetera, and they'd win three out of every four games following a loss. So what does that look like in Tampa Bay now?

Is it, again, not a full-on gauge. It's not, oh, he loses this game, and then it's clearly a Belichick thing, not a Brady thing. You can't necessarily make that conclusion. But it is interesting to note that Brady has always been part of a group or part of a system that has allowed him to make adjustments and come back better the next week. So will that be the case this week, and what is it going to be like under Bruce Arians, who, by the way, I think had a four-game losing streak last year, and then they lost back-to-back games to close the year last year as well? Adam Amin with us here. Listen and watch his call Sunday afternoon, as I know you will. Panthers, Buccaneers, 1 o'clock on Fox. Let's transition things to the NBA. You do pretty much every sport on the planet.

One of those, you're the television voice of the Chicago Bulls. Because it's the bubble and 2020, I tend to give the LA Clippers a pass, even though they blew the three games to one lead last night to the Denver Nuggets. I know it looked ugly at points, but for you, do you give them a pass, or do you think substantial changes have to be made to retool this roster for 2021? No, I don't think substantial changes need to be made.

Need to be made. I think this is honestly more about Denver, more about their resilience, and their growth to get to this point, rather than a Clipper failure. We have a tendency, and this is what's great about sports, and this is what's great in particular about playoffs, and in playoffs that feature series, so baseball, basketball, hockey.

We can kind of disregard the NFL with this. What's great about these sports, in series in particular, is more often than not, more often than not, the better team typically wins, at least en route to the final series. In a conference, the better teams typically win, and I think you have to look at Denver as a team that was working towards this. Remember, they played four seven-game series in the last two years. I was there for the one loss in Denver last year in the second round of Portland, but they had won against San Antonio last year in seven games. They had gotten tested and felt what it was like to blow a seventh game last year against Portland. They had a lead in the second half that they gave up. They faced it again in a classic series against Utah, and now they have the team that everybody has built up to be the best in, or one of the best in the conference, or certainly the biggest threat, or the deepest team.

And by the way, those things were still very true. They may have been, the Clippers may have been, the biggest threat to the Lakers, and I think they're a bigger threat than the Nuggets are. That doesn't mean the Nuggets aren't a threat. We have a tendency in the NBA and in sports that feature playoff series to forget that the playoffs still have to be worked through, and we kind of eliminate a lot of teams from our mindset in terms of thinking about championships fairly early in the year, and I think that's what happened with Denver. I think we had a tendency to kind of disregard what this organization had been working towards and what Mike Malone and what Jokic means to this team and what Jamal Murray was turning into. So I would think this is more a situation about celebrating Denver than it is to feel like you have to blow up the Clippers roster, because the Clippers roster is still pretty darn good. I agree with you, Josh. I think you have to understand that in a situation like this, the bubble, all of it, it's a little strange. If this series were played on a home floor, which it has been every year that we've known it, then it might have been a lot different.

This is still a neutral court thing, and we do have to keep that in mind. Adam Amin, it's good to hear from you. I look forward to watching you on Sunday. And one of these times, now that you're doing work with Fox, hope to get you in the state of North Carolina doing a Panthers game sometime down the line.

Looking forward to that, my friend. I appreciate you. Yes. And that is Adam Amin. There he goes. Fox Sports joining us.

He will be with Mark Schlerif and Lindsey Zarniak Sunday afternoon from Tampa. I've got breaking news right now. Breaking news in college basketball. This is college basketball country. So you should circle the date November 25th, because that's when the 2020-2021 college basketball season is expected to begin. The NCAA Division 1 Council met today. And Dan Gabbett, I think he was on record last week from the NCAA, he said 76% of all D1 schools, they will have either finished their fall semester or completely released their general student body from in-person instruction by November 25th.

So we talked to Steve Forbes about this. John Calipari has been public about this, all saying they prefer Thanksgiving as the best time. And Robert, it makes the most sense when you consider you have a month and a half to play games when there are no students on campus. Most campuses, as I just said there, 76% of the D1 campuses, they are not going to have students on campus by the time the season starts on November 25th. So you have a month and a half to try and get these games in and view it like a locomotive. You know, once it gets started, it's difficult to stop or it's more difficult to stop versus, you know, dealing with the problems on the front end and it never gets going. So that's what college basketball is trying to do. Get the season started, get a handful of games in. And if we're not in a great place by January 1, okay, we could look at some of those models for a bubble and try to make it work.

November 25th, that's the date of the circle. Had a chance to catch up with Panthers coach Matt Ruhl earlier today. And a couple of things I wanted to talk to him about. Dante Jackson, he's a full participant at practice, but Rasul Douglas, less than a week after being picked up, had a lot of playing time and even impressed some on Sunday afternoon against the Raiders. And also Matt Ruhl, he coached at Temple, as did Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians. So I was interested to see if there was a tie there.

And as this exchange begins, it turns out there was. Is there a built-in relationship with you and Coach Arians considering the Temple connection? Yeah, Coach Arians was the head coach obviously at Temple before I was there. And the night that we beat Penn State, I remember we went back to my house, my family, and the whole staff came over, it was a huge party. And that was the one phone call I took that night was from Coach Arians. And I remember I took the job he called me in, but when we beat Penn State, he called me in. And there's a lot of Penn State guys, excuse me, Temple guys on his staff, Todd Bowles and I'm sure Nick Rapone is still there and many more, Coach Armstrong.

So Coach Arians is fiercely loyal. He's a wonderful man. And a couple of years ago when I was out in Arizona for something, I actually went out and visited him and hung out for a day of OTAs, watched them practice, had lunch with him.

So he's always been really good to me. So I look forward to seeing him. Given how little time Rasul Douglas had to pick things up, did he exceed your expectations on Sunday? And what can we expect to see from him against Tampa? Well, I think the biggest thing with Rasul is how much he loved being out there. He wanted to compete. He was over there telling the coaches, don't baby me, don't put me in man to man, I don't care. I mean, he's a guy who's played a lot of football. He's a competitor.

Sometimes you're around guys, they compete when they know that, hey, it's going to work out. I love the guys like Rasul who they want to go compete no matter what, no matter what the circumstances are. And he's a tough guy, gritty, physical. And so a lot of credit has to be given to him, to Evan Cooper, to Jason Simmons, to get him ready.

And again, he showed up on Wednesday and played the whole game on Sunday. So a lot of credit I think has to be given to him for picking up the system so quickly. But I was pleased. I really was. I thought what he did was something that we can really build off of. That is Panthers head coach Matt Ruhl, who spent some time with us earlier today. Big show today. Will Healy was really good. If you missed that, that interview is already up on social media and on our podcast channel. Just search The Drive with Josh Graham, wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure you subscribe to that. And we had B.

Dot in studio, a pretty strong grammar school segment, I'd say. Yeah, you won. You would say that. It was very strong on your part.

3367771600. Am I going to the phones or no? Okay. We got Take It to the House to do. Appreciate Adam a means time as well.