A storm is brewing in Toronto, and it's set to hit the New York Rangers tomorrow afternoon. Rod Brindamore revived the Canes from the ashes last year, and even made calling someone a jerk cool again. North Carolina and hockey go together like Oreos in a deep fryer, deliciously. And the Rangers are about to be like the 2020 Dixie Classic Fair, canceled. Hey New York, the last time your hockey team won a Stanley Cup, the Hurricanes were in your neck of the woods in Hartford.
The Panthers didn't exist, and the Charlotte Hornets were good. Rangers coach David Quinn has the jawline of a corrupt district attorney who can only help this one time. A jawline waiting to get punched. Jawline, be Andrei Svechtikov.
Okay, maybe not you, Svech. We have southern expressions for guys like Coach Quinn. He's worthless as gum on a boot heel.
He's slicker and ow, s***. Like a grandpa at the K&W Buffet, when the Hurricanes make the playoffs, they do damage. Six all-time postseason appearances, four trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, two Stanley Cup appearances, and one World Championship. Coach Brindamore, he's still here for journey number seven.
Justin Williams' old s*** somehow is, too. The last time the Canes were in Toronto, you should be reminded they won with the 42-year-old Zamboni driver in net. And the Cup finale is going to be held in Edmonton. Coincidence?
I think not. It's the Carolina Hurricanes' time. It's our time. So take warning. Game one for Hurricanes-Rangers, and the entire NHL's restart is set for noon tomorrow.
And Robert, here's to hoping the Canes don't disappoint me more than the Pelicans did last night. Sheesh. Even as a self-proclaimed Zion homer, today is the first time I'm feeling concerned about his health. Because I've always been taught actions speak louder than words. I'm not sure if your mom taught you the same way, but she told me people could say anything. Pay attention to their actions, and you'll know all you need to know. The Pelicans, they threw away an incredibly meaningful game with Zion sitting the final three minutes.
That should tell you everything you need to know. Actions speak louder than words. They said, oh, Zion, don't worry about the cramping that Shoms reported when he left the bubble. He's completely healthy. He's 100%. In fact, look at these sick photos of Zion lifting. He's in the best shape of his life.
No need to look at this. They even said to Chris Haynes of Turner, it's not a minutes restriction he's on. It's about quick burst for him. But they seem pretty ironclad on that 15 minutes.
Actions speak louder than words, 15 minutes. Not playing the final three, even though he was six of eight from the field. So then Zion's left to answer the questions. And here's what he had to say when he was asked whether or not yesterday was a medical setback. Um, no, I mean, not even just conditioning, it's just, you know, getting my flow to the game back. Uh, you know, this is the NBA, this is the best players in the world and you want to feel comfortable.
You know, I don't want to hurt my team more than I helped them in a sense. And here's where I feel for him. These questions have now followed Zion for over a year, ever since his shoe imploded inside Cameron. Recent questions have been risen about his weight, his long-term availability, his conditioning. We saw that in summer league when he played for a short stretch, we saw it with the surgery. And then when he was kept out for a long period of time for precautionary reasons, now we're seeing it again. His weight, his long-term availability, I don't know if all of it's fair, but then again, when he's not, when they have eight games left, Robert, when they have eight games remaining and they're three and a half back of Memphis at the eighth playoff spot and they're given the prime TNT slot, the first game of the restart after four months of the league being sidelined when he's not out there and it's a winnable game and they have it slip away and he's supposed to be one of their two or three best players right now. How can you not be concerned?
How can you not raise a red flag? Now don't confuse concern with doubt. I'm not doubting Zion. Anybody who's made a habit out of doing that has looked foolish over the last two years. When Zion was such a big deal in high school, Drake's wearing his jersey as a junior. When Zion jumps from the foul line in Canada before the start of his freshman year, when he breaks the high jump record at Duke constantly, oh, the Seer Little, he shut him down in AAU one time and he's going to do that when they play head to head in college, sure, got that. His way, oh no, he's not going to be able to hold it up over an entire college season. He's not going to dominate college sports. He's crushing white kids in Spartanburg, South Carolina. What is he going to do when he's facing Roy Williams? As it turns out, he did quite a bit. The only ACC player in the last decade to win National Player of the Year.
I'm pretty sure it was consensus too. Doubting freak athletes is a mistake. I'm not going to play doctor, just like I'm not going to play epidemiologist in the middle of a pandemic like many radio shows are choosing to do.
That's not what we're about. I know a lot about sports. I've only seen a few freak athletes that you could even compare to Zion and I've learned not to apply the same rules to normal athletes, the normal rules to freaks. They don't apply to guys like Zion.
So don't confuse concern with doubt. I am concerned because he wasn't his normal self last night. I covered his entire career at Duke.
That sounds like a really long time. It was one year and it was home games. He didn't have any rebounds in the game.
That's a significant deal. I saw him floating around the three-point line. He wasn't being aggressive. He wasn't crashing the boards. That's such a big part of his game. The second jump, getting to the basket, bodying people out, rising over people. He made rebounding cool. But no rebounds at a game? This is his 20th NBA contest. That's the first time that's happened. No rebounds. He played 33 games at Duke. It only happened one time.
You want to guess what time that was? Cameron Indoor, the game his shoe imploded, he played 34 seconds in the game. That's the only other time Zion over the last two years hasn't grabbed a rebound at a game. He had no blocks.
He had no steals. He guessed wrong on defense. He usually has great instincts. The offensive instincts were there. When he sees somebody trying to front-guard him on the post, he immediately calls for a lob. He gets it and then he dunks it home, six of eight from the field, 13 points in 15 minutes. The offensive stuff was mostly there, the behind-the-back dish for a basket. But defensively, he wasn't himself.
On the boards, he wasn't himself. So I'm a little bit concerned. Robert Walsh, producer of Today Show, is taking your calls at 336-777-1600. We're on Twitter, at Sports Hub Triad. I didn't realize it until yesterday how much I've missed just some of the voices we've grown so accustomed to in sports. I don't know about you, but just having, even though it looked like a Death Star-like table, just having Ernie with Chuck, Kenny, and Shaq together talking hoops or talking about whatever they talk about, it was almost soothing.
I've missed that so much. Do you feel the same way? Not really. I kind of just listen to it with music on the background. So what's the difference between baseball announcers and basketball announcers?
Then you just like their personality more? There aren't as many great national baseball voices. You got Joe Buck, John Smoltz, Tim McCarter hasn't done it for a while now. There are a lot of great national voices that are beloved. I mean, Kevin Harlan, we've had him on his show during the pandemic and it's great to hear his voice over the phone. It's even better to hear it calling a game. John Forslund, look forward to hearing him.
Call action tomorrow. Doc Emmerich, Hall of Famer, one of the best out there. In fact, we have broadcasting breaking news of the day. It appears, according to Jim Miller, who wrote the book on ESPN, a deep dive on ESPN, the new Monday night football team has been announced. It's going to be Steve Levy on the play by play, who seems like he's been at ESPN forever. And he's going to be joined by Brian Griese, who he's been working college football with, and also Lewis Riddick.
At face, I like the team by the way. I think Griese and Levy, they do a great job on college football. They'll be great on the NFL too. I think they had the second Monday night game the last few years because ESPN does that doubleheader this year. They're going to put the college football team on the first Monday night doing the second game. So it's going to be Fowler and Herb Street.
I like the team, but it does feel very temporary. It seems like to me, ESPN's waiting for Peyton Manning to be ready. And whenever that moment is, they're going to make room in the booth for him.
Now, when that happens, I don't know if that means it's going to be a complete overhaul. I think Lou Riddick is just that good. You're not going to see criticism of the Monday night football color commentator like we've seen the last few years this fall, if there is a consistent football schedule. Like Booger McFarland had his fair share of flaws.
Jason Witten, I'm not even going to knock the guy. It's really difficult when your first job in broadcasting is to step in on Monday night football with millions and millions of people watching and you representing a property that cost ESPN about $100 million per game, per show. Lou Riddick, he's grizzled. He's a veteran in broadcasting. He has so many great contacts. He's incredibly insightful on all things draft, so he's familiar with the college football side of things and NFL, I think he's going to be great and I could see him being in that booth for a very long time, even if some of the other parts move around. Brian Geisinger going to join us from accsports.com, NBA league pass layer at the bottom of the hour. Since we spent some time on Zion Williamson and some confuse that or conflate that with that being Duke love, I feel like I should scratch the backs of North Carolina fans right now because Roy Williams is celebrating his 70th birthday tomorrow. So in honor of that, I'll list off Roy's five best wins against Duke next on the drive. DJ Thunderbird, he's going to withdraw his name from the NBA draft and return to the Wolfpack for his senior season, averaged over 12 points a game. And I really think NC State in terms of starting front courts, one of the better front courts on paper, you're going to see in the Atlantic coast conference with Mandy Bates and DJ Thunderbird, Robert belovedly calls him Thunderbird. So you get to do a lot more of that next season.
Congrats to you, Robert Walsh. We're now being joined by Brian Geisinger of accsports.com, who I think it was normal, I think in past years to be trapped in a bunker, just watching television or it's abnormal to do that. And you did it to watch all the NBA games that have ever been played, but now the NBA is back and it is normal to be in a bunker and to be quarantined. So I wonder your general feelings, starting with the Zion Pelicans opener from yesterday, how concerned are you about him and given the precautions of him still having his minutes restrained to the Pelicans chances at getting the eighth seed? Yeah, I mean, they're going to seriously contend, you know, try to get to that eight, nine line and the Leafs get in, you know, likely a play in game scenario. See look, the Pelicans roster is a lot of talent, but they need Zion. Like he's, he's the most talented player, at least just in terms of raw talent on the roster. I mean, he's up there with Giannis as far as like the, the most dominant and efficient, like interior paint scores in the NBA. I know we've only seen that over 20 career games.
But yeah, the minutes restriction is, is a little, a little disconcerting. I think defensively, he was still short of showing some of the same issues that he's had all season, just not moving super well, you know, guys being able to sort of drive right by him, the lapses, the attention to the tail off the basketball in terms of his team defense. And look at Duke, he certainly ran around and gambled a lot and Coach K and his staff gave him, you know, sort of like carte blanche to do that, understandably so because it turned up into Duke's transition offense and let the blue devil get rocking and rolling with Trey Jones and RJ Barrett and those guys. But um, you know, he was still a great defender. I mean, I think he was the best defensive player in the ECC last season. I would have even pegged him over DeAndre Hunter and you know, he's just not a very good defensive player right now and nor has he been at any point of his NBA career. And I think some of that is, you know, is like the mental aspects of the game.
And then I think there's a physical element that I do find a little concerning. Last night, the Pelicans were minus 16 with Zion on the court. That's just the fifth time in his NBA career the Pelicans have been a negative with him on the court. So it's minus 16 in 15 minutes last night.
That's the worst plus minus individual game of his entire career. The other ones came against other playoff teams like the Bucks and Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder. But the Pelicans also played super slow last night too. I think this may have actually in terms of tempo, right about just 90 possessions per 48 minutes, which is super slow for when Zion's in there because he usually is the guy that sort of gets them, you know, similarly turns them up and gets them moving. And yeah, it wasn't there last night.
It's a little I'm a little concerned, but I'm not I'm not like panicking or anything just yet. Gosh, there's a lot of crazy numbers. I brought up this one on Twitter and earlier in the show that that he had zero rebounds last night in 15 minutes. It's the only time in 20 NBA games that happened and the only time it happened at 33 games at Duke was the 30 plus seconds he played in Cameron when his shoe imploded. But minus 16 in 15 minutes. That's that's kind of a crazy deal.
Shoot BG a follow on Twitter at bgeiss underscore bird read his stuff at accsports.com. Who did you leave last night's Lakers Clippers game feeling better about the Lakers who ended up winning or the Clippers who despite 20 turnovers and not having Trez Harold or Lou Williams came within a shot of winning it? I think both can actually come away with at least some positive play. You know, the Lakers battled back through what I thought was a pretty ferocious defensive effort by the Clippers and it made enough big plays like Anthony Davis was awesome last night. I'd be a little concerned though because LeBron certainly he struggled just 6 of 19 5 turnovers and man. He was really having trouble just like driving on the Clippers and you know how how ferocious their wing defenders and their health defenders are with Kawhi and to hold you up real quick. I'm interested in that one point you're making right there LeBron struggling against the Clippers he on the season averages 26 points a game 50% shooting last night 16.6 of 19 and when you look at the other matchups, they play with LA 18 points on 7 of 19 23 on 9 of 24 who specifically is giving LeBron the most issues. I think amazing. It's a collective effort and we saw look we saw a lot of Kawhi on him last night, but the clipper in Paul George as well too, but the Clippers just have so many I mean, they've got a more guys and you can imagine to throw at guys like LeBron and Giannis because they have Kawhi they have Paul George they have Marcus Morris. They have to Michael Green, you know Montrezl Harold is a guy that can switch defendant in check a couple positions as well too when he comes back. So yeah, they just have that's why I've liked this Clippers team to actually win the title since since October's because like they have they can play the most styles and they have the like sort of like the biggest allotment of giant strong wing or front court defenders in the entire NBA like they just have more of those guys than anybody else.
I will say this too. If I were the Clippers, I'd be feeling okay about last night because 20 turnovers it looked a little sloppy at times and no Montrezl Harold so they couldn't put pressure on the rim with the pick and roll game that they usually do with Lou Williams Montrezl Harold like that was off the table. I think the inability for them to get north south and pressure the rim sort of made their offense more side to side more handoffs and stuff like that too. So yeah, if I were the Clippers I'd be feeling even with the loss I'd actually be feeling okay after what happened last night.
Yeah Brian Geisiger with us here accsports.com. I was thinking in honor of Roy Williams 70th birthday. What is his best win against Duke? Last segment I listed off the five best wins he's had. It's hard to get better than the comeback in 2005 on senior night. That was the first time Roy beat Coach K since returning to Chapel Hill. Which one comes at the top of your head right now in terms of Roy wins against the Blue Devils? Oh boy, I think I would say the 2018 game in the Dean Dome is sort of like the first one that you know the UNC team that was sort of like you know reshuffling the deck after winning the title year before that the Duke team with Marvin Bagley and Wendell Carter and Theo Pinson was phenomenal in that game and he sort of sealed it with a transition dunk late in the game.
So I'd go with that one but obviously there's there's you know several to choose from here with for Roy. Hey it's good to hear from you. I know you're thrilled that the NBA is back. We're going to be knocking on your door quite a bit as the playoffs go as the playoffs begin and then go on. Keep up the great work and we'll continue to read it at accsports.com BG. Appreciate it. Happy birthday Daggum to Roy too. There you go. Happy 70th to Roy Williams from BG tomorrow. So it's an early happy birthday from BG. Now I'm not usually a fan of giving love to other competitors radio stations and whatnot.
We just kind of focus on our own deal here at Sports Up Try It. But you gotta tip your hat in this industry to the career that Mike Gulick had as his career with ESPN radio wrapped up this morning 22 years he was on the air. I think most of those years it was with Mike and Mike the last few. I think the show was called Gulick and Wingo and I don't think people realize Robert how much Gulick changed our industry. Sports radio it's not it's not that it's still pretty new like it's been around for a little over 30 years and Mike Gulick when he came in in the late 1990s doing national talk radio he was the first athlete put on a national show to host it.
Not as a guest not being put in a booth or a television studio to do what we do each day. Back then it was Mike and the mad dog and it was okay people that didn't play the game who were given the opinions on the radio. Gulick changed that and he made execs feel comfortable hiring ex-players in this space.
That's a big deal. It's the same battle that women are fighting in sports media right now. Well they come they've covered a lot of ground in the last five years but getting national radio shows getting play-by-play opportunities it's a similar battle. He did the job just so well and without being a diva. When you give opinions and you're kind of you have your name on a show and you're in entertainment it's easy to get jaded it's easy to get it's easy to develop an ego and be tough to work with and be a diva. Mike Gulick was never that and I think you see that and the outpouring of love and support that people have given him all throughout the day in the industry and outside of it. I just can't imagine how cool of a deal it must be to close things out when you're doing a show with your son and your entire family's there and you get to share that moment and share even the space with people that you love so much.
And I could be wrong on this but this is still my feeling. Mike & Mike I think is still the mold for most sports talk radio shows right now. It's the most successful national sports radio show that we've ever seen but the mold of light-hearted not heavy fun not serious it's sports people were just waking up they're not wanting to get hit over the head at this point they're just starting their day. Mike & Mike was the best at that they were the best information-based they did it as well as anybody so I tip my hat to Mike Gulick one of the best to do what we do in our industry sports radio Hall of Famer. Coming up the best news for any Panthers fan out there this is a Friday Drive. I just now realized we haven't done this segment during the entire pandemic it is pucks and tweets with Sarah Sivian who's an excellent follow on Twitter I've had numerous people say because of this segment they've gone to Sarah's Twitter who don't give a rip about hockey at all I'm sure Sarah is very happy to know that she is a Carolina Hurricanes beat reporter the canes back in action tomorrow to open up the NHL's restart in Toronto at noon best of five series before we get to the hockey on Twitter at Sarah Sivian quote I got stressed out and now I'm minutes away from rescuing a death retriever help yeah I didn't do it I didn't go through with it but I second the way I mean I know I can give it it's the life that it deserves it's a shame that I don't have a backyard but I've been wanting a dog so bad during this pandemic it's so sad that I can't get one but I gotta do the right thing what is the situations right now for Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesci heading into the playoffs from an injury perspective yeah that's the question isn't it well Hamilton skated today with a tinted visor after practice there's only so much I can know not being in Toronto in the bubble but that's a good sign my sources my sources told me that after he got injured that it wasn't the same injury as a broken leg that I let him last season and that it's a matter of weeks not months so I wouldn't bank on him returning during the playing series with the Rangers here but I would say it's pretty likely that he'd be back for round one but and I also wouldn't totally rule out him returning to play in but we'll see on Twitter at Sarah civilian you said this in response to something that Andrew Kogliano had to say no man looks good in jeans oh god well you know what and then somebody responded the picture of Bruce Springsteen I was like all right one man looks good in jeans um I just don't I don't like the look I like picture a man with jeans and sandals I don't know people were pretty mad about that um got called a sexist which I don't know about that I just think men look better in other pants but I I don't know they just don't do it for me let's let's address this then do women look good in jeans yes because they're tight-fitting for women and for men usually it's like loose and they look like they're I don't know just that maybe I just like a man with a tight tight pants on go find pictures of Tim Duncan in jeans I'm sure if you find it on Twitter it's worth your time Tim Duncan jeans if you want to find the baggiest jeans that have ever been worn the Hurricanes they're 0 and 4 against the Rangers in the regular season even though the canes have more points why do the Rangers seem like such a tough matchup for Carolina um sometimes things are random and it just happens to come out a certain way and you know what like I'm sick of all the questions during our little zoom calls about kind of like what do you think about the matchup like oh you lost every get like let's think about the first game at PNC arena like Lundqvist was playing out of his mind that's certainly not sustainable um I do think the Rangers tend to give the Hurricanes trouble because they have such strong goaltending and they have so many goaltenders that can play against their game but and that's an issue that they're going to have to just squash really early in the series they're going to have to like mentally get some dominance early on to see like just for their own brains but I do think it's overblown that they lost every game against the Rangers I don't know I mean maybe I'll be wrong but it's just like you look at the circumstances and when the games were and what was what else was going on and the canes had good effort and all those but it was just the way the cookie crumbled it's tweets and pucks with Sarah on sports hub triad at Sarah civilian just trying to finish my article minding my own business my boyfriend eating at Chipotle quote look at all this guacamole I can't believe they gave us all this guacamole I am beside myself how did they make this rice so good it's just rice yeah we've been recently um quarantining together he's very um let's just say I think he can focus more than I can just every it interrupts me a lot to um be very excited about things which I love but it's a little bit of a struggle sometimes how much better Sarah do you feel about the Hurricanes goaltending this year versus the goaltending we saw in last year's run I don't think I think that sounded like a question that I'd try to ask rod or something I don't know but I can honestly say I don't um I just it's because it's so uncertain I don't feel either way about it but I know that it's gonna be in a five-game play-in series it's gonna be like the most important thing for sure Morozec's gotta get I don't know if he's gonna start or if Reimer's gonna start because Reimer was really good in the exhibition game and he's been he's shown the Kings no reason not to trust him even though despite his reputation I don't know I think the Kings are known for not caring about reputation so maybe that'll work we saw that with Curtis McElhinney maybe that'll work for Reimer too but I that's the biggest question mark for me during this whole thing so we'll see last thing for Sarah Sivian on Twitter at Sarah Sivian my favorite barista just called me babe things are heating up oh my god you wouldn't believe how mean people are being to workers in those type of industries during all this I just say hi how are you they're like okay this coffee's on me like I I'm floored that general decency is hard to come by during times like this like I be nice you don't know what people are going through especially now you can assume they're going through something bad so all I have to say about that babe though I've got a little excited I can I can attest to exactly what you're saying I've told the story on air there is a I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad side but there's a fast food restaurant right down the street that now follows me on Twitter this specific restaurant because there's this there's this at the drive-thru her name is Sarah she's recognized my voice and knows exactly what my order is simple and I asked her one time why is that the case why do you remember my order it was because you you start by saying hey Sarah just saying somebody's name and thank you or you're the best it makes so much of a difference that they might even remember your name or I might be a fat pig it's one or the other I don't know Sarah it's good to have you back on the show we'll have to do this more often with the canes being in the postseason hopefully it's a deep playoff run thanks so much I hope you're doing well anytime I hope you're well too be good bye there you go on Twitter at Sarah civilian that is pucks and tweets with Sarah she gets a lot of crazies on Twitter man a lot of people hitting up Sarah quite often but an entertaining follow nonetheless we're excited about canes hockey tomorrow at noon and it's just gonna be good to hear John Forslund's voice again I don't know if he's gonna be calling the canes game specifically but I imagine he will like if you're NBC you're NBC it's the first game back John is the voice of the Carolina Hurricanes who is no longer the voice of the canes because he's not employed by them anymore wouldn't you want to have John broadcast in the game because of his knowledge of one side that's playing for those who don't know John's actually in Toronto in the bubble like they have a full team in Toronto in the bubble NBC Sports has another team that's broadcasting from an NBC studio all the action in Edmonton Doc Emmerich is somebody drove 400 miles Robert to Doc's house to install what and essentially his basement install what he's going to be broadcasting in like he's going to be broadcasting from his house and I read all the monitors that he has you're talking about like a half dozen eight monitors where you just have different areas on the ice you got an all 22 look you've got you you have or I guess it would be an all 12 look don't know why I did the all 22 different sport but you have a camera on Eddie Olcheck who's going to be in a studio at the NBC office so Doc can see his partner from his house you got all the different stuff from the bench you have a lot of different stuff that you would hope to have when you're in person I'm just interested to see how this is going to go and whether or not you can tell the difference whether or not you could tell the difference on the air I can say this I enjoyed the NBA broadcast last night because I and Eagles there Kevin Harlan's there that really matters I haven't really I haven't really enjoyed the baseball broadcast where people are broadcasting from their home like it just encourages me to turn on the music because okay well what are these guys seeing that I can't what kind of insight can they bring that I can't bring myself you know what I'll pull up a statute and broadcast the game myself that's what I'm gonna do so I'm interested to see how it's all going to sound but I didn't realize how much I miss these voices until I heard him again haven't heard Kevin Harlan's voice on a broadcast in a while we heard him on the show a few times during the pandemic Jon Voorsel in the same way I can't wait to hear his voice maybe I'll be a little bit emotional because I wish he would be broadcasting the game for Fox Sports Carolina's but we wish the best for Mike Maniscalco and Trip Tracy as they push forward tomorrow in a very difficult circumstance hockey has to be the most difficult sport to broadcast when you're not in the building right can you imagine doing that you get the you get the criticism oh yeah hockey's so tough to follow on television the puck now imagine trying to broadcast that to millions without being in the arena just seems like an impossible task there even being Zion's biggest fan even I'm a little concerned right now just a little concerned right now I'll explain why next on the drive
