Wyndham Tournament Director Mark Brazil

I don't know about you, but during the pandemic, I've just been facing tasks day to day. Not trying to worry about what's on the horizon next month, just the daily challenges. It seems like every time I'm in the break room and somebody walks by and I ask how you're doing, they just say, just trying to get through the day.

I've been hearing a lot more of that over the last four months than maybe any other period of our lifetimes. But if you're a coach that's out of season right now, you can't really have the approach of just worrying about the day because you need to make sure your sport, your team, your teammates, yourself, you're all ready for the start of the season. It's a massive undertaking to get ready for a start of the year. Right now, the sports world is focused on football. It seems like college sports, their biggest priority, making sure they have a college football season that happens. And the biggest story in sports is trying to get the NFL off the ground. Even as the NBA has their bubble, the NHL gets set to go to Canada and their two hub cities, et cetera, et cetera. But as all that's happening, Coach K, he sent a warning sign to college basketball, to the college sports world earlier this week saying that all the attention right now is being paid exclusively to concerns of playing football. And some of that attention needs to go to college basketball.

This is what he said to Mark Packer on Sirius XM radio. We need to have the NCAA tournament and we need to have some contingency plans based on when the season would start. Everyone says it's gonna start on time.

We'll see. I would like for us to take a great look at contingency plans, you know, when it might also be. Can it be in April?

Can it be in May? But we need, and the NCAA needs men's NCAA tournament. If you don't have it two years in a row, the NCAA financially could go in another direction.

Before we get to contingency plans, I just want to make this point. I'm more concerned about college basketball without a vaccine than college football. Now, kind of like college football a few months ago, college basketball has the advantage of time. Hopefully we're in a place, there is a vaccine and there's a lot of good news we're seeing overseas about vaccines that are working and testing well and more people are being exposed to those vaccines.

So hopefully this is a moot point by the time we get to November. But without that vaccine, I think college basketball is in more trouble than college football is right now. Just think of the sheer numbers. In FBS football, the top level of college football, there are 130 teams. In Division 1 college basketball, there are 350. In a college football season, average team plays about a dozen games. In Division 1 basketball, you're talking about over 30 games per year. That's three times as many teams at the top level and three times as many games for those teams.

It's impossible to do a bubble, not just from a resources perspective, but that completely throws away any idea of amateurism. The NBA, it works because they have the resources, there are less squads and they're professionals. College basketball, they are still air quote, student athletes.

Let's also not ignore an obvious couple of circumstances. College basketball is played indoors, exclusively indoors, except for that one time North Carolina faced Michigan State on a boat. But aside from that, it's an indoor sport and it takes place during flu season.

Those aren't good signs. It's easier to spread indoors, the virus we've learned, and the world is anticipating a second wave of coronavirus in the winter. Meanwhile, college football, you're talking about in the Big 10's case, getting in eight to 10 games. The ACC wants to have its full schedule right now, but we'll see if that changes in the next week. The Board of Governors is voting Friday for the NCAA to see if they're going to fully support having a season, having a sanctioned season. So college football, I mean, most of the teams are outside. You can have the testing, you can have the protocol to try and get through the season somehow some way. That's why I believe there's going to be a football season this fall.

It might be delayed, it might not be 12 games, but it's going to happen. College basketball without a vaccine, indoor sport during flu season, 350 D1 teams, over 30 games played, it's a massive undertaking. So I'm glad Coach K is taking the reins yet again as an ambassador for college basketball to raise a red flag, to shoot a flare gun in the sky, and let people know we're here too and we have some issues. There are issues we need to address right now.

It's all good and well. I see pictures of Roy Williams and Garrison Brooks on the floor right now at Carolina practicing, but teams traveling all across the country, 350 of them? Multiple games a week? That's tough.

That's tough to figure out without a vaccine. The NCAA tournament, it's going to happen. As Coach K noted there, without the NCAA tournament again, there will be just massive catastrophic damage done to the NCAA financial model. It's the primary fundraiser for the NCAA. A lot of people think it's college football. For athletic departments, that's the primary fundraiser. That's what pays the bills.

But for the NCAA, they make $860 million in revenue from the March Madness NCAA tournament. So the tournament, it's going to happen. Will they push it back?

Talking about postponing it to April and May? I don't see that happening. If the season starts, let's say worst case scenario, season starts in January, kind of like what the Ivy League is trying to do, and you only play conference games, and you have the same protocol, you try to keep things safe, like what the Big Ten's talking about doing in football, then theoretically, you could still have every conference go to the NCAA tournament, and maybe if it's 64 teams, have four hub regional sites, four bubbles, if you will, and knock everything out in a week versus stretching it out over two weeks. Maybe you could do that, and then you'll have your final four teams, and you can obviously have a bubble in Indianapolis where it's set to happen to 2021. The NCAA tournament's going to happen.

It has to happen. It's a financial decision. It's not a medical decision that's being made. It's not a health decision that's being made. In March, it was a health decision.

We didn't know a lot about the virus. Now we know quite a bit months later, and it's about cost risk, and there's a lot bigger cost not doing it versus the risk to the young athletes potentially participating in the tournament for it not to happen in some form. You can tweet us at SportsUpTryIt. 336-777-1600 is the phone number if you'd like to chime in that way. Mark Brazel, the tournament director of the Wyndham Championship will be here in a little over 30 minutes. No fans going to be at the Wyndham in just a few weeks. I'm interested in what effect that has on Sedgefield and the Greensboro tournament.

Really, the Greensboro community will talk to Mark at 5.30. But I want to transition things to college football because today was supposed to be the day we convene in Charlotte for ACC kickoff. Of course, there is no ACC kickoff because of coronavirus. It was at first going to be a virtual event when they decided to veer away from a gathering at the Weston Hotel in uptown Charlotte. But with the Big Ten's announcement that they were going to go to only conference, only games, the ACC wanted to wait longer before it made a decision like that. So they said they'll announce something by the end of the month. And just to prevent their coaches and John Swafford from being in a tough spot, not being able to answer obvious questions about the season coming up, they canceled the ACC kickoff. Which is a shame. I've always enjoyed getting together with the media and chatting with all the coaches, seeing all the teams in the league.

It's a very laid back setting. But I'm sure maybe the most talked about subject at kickoff if coronavirus didn't exist was going to be just how good is Mac Brown in North Carolina this year. Just how much ground has been covered by the Tar Heels trying to hawk down Clemson. Clemson is still the best team in the league.

Spoiler. Winning the conference five years in a row. But I no longer think it's Clemson and everybody else. I think North Carolina has done enough in just a short stretch of time to be seen as the second best team in the conference.

And the gap, I don't believe it's as wide as people think. North Carolina, they're going to be a lot better than they were last year. You're bringing back 11, make it 10 of the 11 starters on offense. You're bringing back your best defensive player in Chazz Surratt. You recruited your first five star player, North Carolina did, in over a dozen years. That's Tony Grimes, the corner. We thought we'd have to wait a year before we saw him on the field, but he's going to be playing for the Tar Heels this season after a reclassification.

That's a big deal. North Carolina undoubtedly going to be better. Clemson, I also think undoubtedly it's going to be worse. Now they're still going to be great. They're still going to be better and more talented than everybody else, but they're not going to be as good as they were last year without T Higgins and without Justin Ross and without John Simpson on the offensive line and without two more first round draft picks on defense at AJ Terrell and Isaiah Simmons. Like Simmons, he filled so many holes that were left by three D linemen going in the first round in 2018 or make it 2019 draft. Now he's not there and Tanner Mews, a leader on defense, not there. I don't care how good these recruits coming in are. And I love K.J.

Henry when he was playing in the triad in North Carolina, but there's going to be drop off on defense eventually. It happened to Alabama after a few years. It's going to happen to Clemson.

They're still going to be the best team. But the Tar Heels, they came a two point conversion away from beating Clemson a year ago. I don't think it was a fluke. A lot of people do. They use that as a reason why Clemson wasn't the best team in the country going into the college football playoff.

I was there. I didn't think it was a fluke because coach and quarterback, they are the two greatest equalizers. Aaron Rodgers, he could carry a Green Bay team that I don't think was very talented to the NFC Championship game last year because quarterback plays an equalizer. He could beat Dallas on the road throwing to nobody a few years ago. Quarterback plays an equalizer. Coaching. Patriots weren't as good as the Rams in that Super Bowl a few years ago.

I think there's a few times the Patriots have had talent deficits in games, but coaching matters and it can equalize. Mac Brown, he's the top five coach of college football. One of the few coaches active to one have won a national championship. We're seeing what he could do recruiting.

Sam Howe, he's one of the five best quarterbacks in college football. So while I would take Dabo and I would take Trevor over Sam and Mac, I don't think it's a huge gap. All the pressure is on Clemson and a year where everybody stressed during the pandemic. North Carolina could just go out there and play loosely and I would not be stunned if they met in Charlotte and North Carolina somehow came up on the winning end.

I would not be stunned by that. Let's go to Wayne in Greensboro real quickly. 336-777-1600. Wayne in Greensboro.

What do you want in on college basketball or do you want in on the North Carolina Clemson debate? Well actually I called to congratulate you Josh. Thank you. It's coming up on two years I hear and that's terrific and this has been a rough time for anybody trying to do what you're doing and I appreciate the fact that you remain informative and entertaining and you resisted the temptation to turn your show into a current events thing and you know Fox Sports Radio isn't Fox Sports Corona update radio or Fox Sports reelect Trump radio. I listen to sports shows because I want to be distracted from that stuff and be entertained and you do it just about every day so I wanted to thank you for it. Thank you so much Wayne for the phone call and I have something to say about that as well. Tomorrow is our two year anniversary on the show and what Wayne says there means a lot because Robert you could tell me you could tell the listeners how many days do I come in and we're doing the show and I ask you am I doing the right thing right now?

Every stinking day. You know like when I listen to sports radio right now what I listen for as a huge sports fan I want to hear about football I want to hear conversation about the NFL and college basketball and so much of what I'm getting is what Wayne described where it's all about social issues which I'm not dismissing or downplaying but it's just not my area of expertise. I'm great at talking about you know the analytics of James Harden and the NBA I'm not an expert talking about racial inequity so I don't talk about it really on this show. That's not me ignoring it it's just not what my advertisers it's not what my boss is and I don't really think it's what you guys really want from me. In addition to that the there's the coronavirus piece of this where obviously coronavirus affects every aspect of our society and sports is not eliminated from that but I'm an optimist and I'm going to talk about these sports as if they're going to happen until I'm told they're not because I still feel that a big part of sports' role and in turn sports radio's role is trying to salvage the morale of the nation where we look forward to these games we look forward to the draft we look forward to having some sense of normalcy and if we could play some role in doing that and I've heard that feedback a number of times from people hey it just feels normal to hear you guys yucking it up and talking about sports gosh that's your influence on me I don't think I ever said yuck it up before until I met you um that's intentional so that meant a lot that's a that's a really neat thing to hear. back to the drive with josh graham on sports hub triad darren vaught from usa baseball isn't picking up his phone robert is that what you're telling me that's what I'm saying darren vaught I thought we were friends he comes on here every single week usually delivers there's baseball I see exhibition games going on right now and the season's getting set to start tomorrow how bad would it be we're looking forward to baseball so much and the opener between the nationals and the yankees rains out that would be the absolute worst thing is dr anthony fauci gets set to throw out the first pitch uh first first pitch we're now being joined by darren vaught who wasn't picking up his phone a minute ago but apparently is now I mean what do you got to say for yourself you deserve that all right so that's that's blarin with darren now let's get set to do some comparing with darren but before we do so what is the explanation out there for why charlotte can't host the toronto blue jays this year i see the stuff with the lights but now that the pittsburgh pirates said will pass it looks like it's either florida the spring training home they already turned down buffalo because of the air quote lights and charlotte was batted around a little bit but again they fall into that same triple a category what's going on here yeah they do i don't think north carolina's covet 19 numbers help the case of the charlotte nights and when it comes to the hosting and the only difference like you're going to bring up the spring training complex in florida the the only difference or the triple a complex in florida the only difference is the ease of use because it's within the blue jays system the one down in florida as opposed to charlotte it's such a long way for toronto to take team and staff and it seems bizarre to me that they would they would think florida a better option than charlotte but who knows we'll see buffalo was in the cards before the lights and then who knows all right it's time to do some comparing with darren if you don't know what this segment's about robert has come up with things for darren and i to compare where do you want to start robert i think i'll start with darren how's it going darren i'm great man how are you sorry i didn't pick up oh you're good no big deal only two calls sometimes i call people like six times and no pickup so i'm not mad at you you came in and we got to hit you with the blaring wait you call people six times straight oh i i do not care about blowing somebody up if you are scheduled to be on this program man that's not not ideal yeah you can they can be mad at me about calling them too many times but anyway um uh mookie bets signed a huge deal today i i'm sure you are no stranger to who mookie bets is i i was earlier until josh explained to me who he was but i would like you to compare mookie bets to lando calrissian from star wars and both is like the coolest characters of their respective show billy d williams knocks it out of the park not to be confused with lionel richie not to be confused with lionel richie um and and uh donald glover in the the newer i thought did a really good job as lando uh and i don't even watch go to specifically to watch star wars films but i went to see that one and i enjoyed it it was good um i i would say mookie is less conniving like less of a an underhanded character he's going to be more honest more genuine with you but i see a lot of similarities right both both extremely charming both you know uh devilishly handsome yeah both both handsome yeah who would play a young mookie if uh if childish gambino is playing young lando who is playing young mookie well i mean does it matter if we find someone better than michael b jordan no no they're gonna cast him you're right you're right josh you you were upset about the charlotte's uh soccer team darren you knew this was the terrible name the whole time i mean i knew what it was i knew what the crest looked like yeah god you could have let us in on it dude anyway we were really mad did you see their list no matter what it was going to be fc that's josh's hang on whoa whoa whoa i'm just saying that if you're gonna do the full 18 layout and tell people hey here are a lot of creative names we're looking at don't choose the most unimaginative one of them all charlotte fc like robert gave the example earlier and it's a good one it's like saying to like kids hey do you want a ps5 do you want to have the newest xbox look at these toys here's a train set that's that's what this was essentially anyway they're not necessarily better they're just different i don't i'm i'm with you maybe don't roll it out the way that they did but i think they chose the correct name either way josh i would like you to compare charlotte's brand new soccer team to uh drake misusing arabic in his new single pop star well uh i have issue i thought you were about to speak arabic there i have issue with some of the misuses of words in both instances the fact that charlotte fc is using the same colors as the panthers and they're playing in a football stadium it it's kind of funny that you're going to call yourself charlotte football club when we have a sport called football and they have the same colors that your team has and they're playing in the same place that's almost as funny that idea as drake deciding to go the arabic route and then messing it up is there a single culture that he has not appropriated into his rap i mean the dude is a chameleon literally yeah no chance well not literally i think he might be a lizard josh anyway uh you guys are both very championship teams he's just he's just somehow crept into the fan bases of all religions and ethnicities you guys are on fire today so darren i'm gonna throw you a little curveball here uh while everyone else is binging unsolved mysteries i have been binging supermarket sweep i used to watch it on my hands and knees and my grandma's living room i would like you to compare that fantastic television show to booker t and stone cold having a brawl in a grocery store that one time and it was great yeah okay let me tell you sometimes supermarket sweep gets that heated it does i'm serious in in households let me tell you about the mid-90s in households i'm a funny young guy watching my father who i'm i've been convinced for 30 years could have run the table on that show he could have he knew all the prices he knew them like the back of his hand and better yet unlike unsolved mysteries the evidence changes over time right old gary vaught man today he owes the prices to those items if it was still a current show he would fight people he would win he would be ruthless and he would dominate those planners cost 238 and not a cent more uh josh i would like you to compare uh the nba nba bubble to the truman show oh wow there's the obvious where you have a bubble but the differences are the players can leave the bubble in the nba but there will be punishment as a result oh you will be quarantined kind of like that guy on the kings was by the way did you see what he ended up getting as takeout no what was it oh it was like lemon pepper wings he was getting takeout we learned that today from rishan holmes that's that's the problem because truman in that movie had no idea that there was an outside world outside of the bubble these guys already know too much there's no keeping them inside of it that's right so that is an issue but a similarity jim carrey would have no issue going to a pool party by himself at 10 30 11 o'clock at night the same way dwight howard did and apparently the best part of the story that malika andrews did the best part was apparently the dj on the microphone said i want to thank dwight howard for coming out you're a real one the only one that showed up to this this pool party all right i got one more for each of you in the truman show in the truman show bubble there would have been like planted people to be at that point oh for sure that point that dwight starts to get suspicious that his life is a made for tv movie all right darren all right who's next i got one for both of you left all right let's do rapid fire we're running out of time all right giants hiring their first women on field coach to woman the woman what what i don't even know what i said who cares you know what i meant though i want you to compare that to the bride and kill bill killing unlimited henchmen all right well they both happened long ago because technically they hired alissa a long time ago okay and at least it's been like close to a year um so we're finally seeing it we'll call that the pre-production got that up until yesterday when she was coaching at first base or maybe it was the day before whatever it happened i know obviously that's what's the topical reason that we're talking about her um we'll call it pre-production and you know what similarly to uma thurman she's late yep that's what i was going for they both had a lot of obstacles in their way but they cut them in half uh and finally no i've got no this is my last one this has to be the last one i would like you to compare kevin garnett uh putting in a bid for the timber wolves to the lock nest monster from south park i mean there's an obvious thing that puts these two together i don't want i don't know if saying this is offensive but it's gonna cost kevin garnett about tree fitty that's all i cared about that's all i cared about you win that's that's correct that's uh that's the only thing oh dang it kevin garnett's back he's like man i need about three fifty million dollars to buy about uh darren thanks for being here man that was a good uh comparing sash i agree i agree i'll talk to you guys later there you go from the usa baseball podcast covering the bases and high point play-by-play man darren vaught on twitter at darren vaught coming up why i'm more concerned about college basketball without a vaccine than college football keep it here on the drive as the producer of this show robert loves messy talk like robert likes it when he hears coaches talking smack anonymously and really he's just all about that hot goss you you hit it right on the head with messy i am very i love all the mess we'll get the mark brazil tournament director of the windham in about 15 minutes also the athletic put out a survey among duke fans asking them who the most valuable player for next year's team is going to be i have some issue with who they chose we'll get to that in five minutes but sam facini who does a really good job for the athletic talking about the draft he pulled a number of coaches asking about cole anthony at north carolina and it's become clear that cole is the most polarizing player in this draft and that's saying something because there's a ball brother set to go in the lottery just reading some of these reviews and he is getting crushed i'll just go over some cliff uh cliff's nose coach one i think he's always going to be an inconsistent three-point shooter i think he's going to spend a lot of time on it but he has this whole weird side side body mechanics the cuffed wrist forearm follow through the whole thing structurally it's not where you want it to be i don't think he's a very good defensive player his live dribble passing isn't very good to me i think he his career plays out where he plays on a lot of bad teams and scores more points than people expect and honestly don't tell anybody this this didn't come from me i think i saw him at chick fil a with a girl that was not his girlfriend what is that supposed to mean i thought we were doing messy talk i thought we were talking messy oh sawyer actually did do something like that like sawyer said he he has friends who are in chapel hill like when he got injured and there was a question whether or not he was going to come back he comes in one day really bummed out saying oh man i don't think cole's coming back i'm like really why he's like i know this girl who slept with cole who said he was going to be out of here in a little bit no i think he meant you're going to be out of here in a little bit get out of my room that's what he meant the sawyer really liked the messy talk too i don't really value it that much i'm pretty sure this coach that described him is jim christian i think this coach is boston college coach jim christian i really do just based on the things i know about cole's season remember he got hurt how many teams really saw him blow a game potentially how many teams actually saw that with north carolina being as bad as they were where they can say this i like him what he does on the court it's dynamic as there is but when we played them you could make a case he lost a game for them he said he was going to be the man but he didn't recognize coverage and was selfish he should have passed it around but bleep straight line or in transition you know how good he is he's ridiculous i think being an mba player some will help him at the next level i think they'll embrace him and help him a little bit more whereas if you were joe blow really good player and you had the same kind of lack of decision making i think people would be like bleep this dude i don't want to play with him but because he's greg anthony's son i think they'll want to help cole that's just my personal opinion being in the mba with elite guys will help him he's got an ego as he should be he's a really good player but because of his dad and the way he goes about his business he'll listen to those guys maybe more than he'll listen to roy williams he could not stop it's messy he was like oh he's like oh here's a compliment and here's the back of my hand there's a compliment and oh back of my hand again real quick this is the worst one of them all though no there's worse than that well the reason i think it's jim christian let me explain that he had a ton of shots against boston college they should have won that game they lost it and i don't see danny manning nor jim bayheim dropping a ton of f-bombs in to a reporter from the athletic jim christian knows he should have been fired he's just sitting there thinking man i'll talk i'll talk to every reporter anonymously and say curse word okay so get to the rest of the tea allegedly allegedly yeah here's coach five wasn't a fan i'll be honest with you i don't think he's that good i don't think he's that good he makes bad decisions not a great shooter he could shoot it from deep because roy williams let him do anything he wanted but i wasn't impressed he didn't have a burst like i thought if you gave him two or three step if you gave him a two or three step approach i'm not sure if i could say this sentence oh you have to now if you gave him a two or three step approach he can put his on the rim but other than that i just don't think he's a good point guard i don't god i think that's a pretty necessary skill to be able to put your blank on the the rim as a point guard yeah jumping out the gym and know what they say kind of slouch it did this dude see the guy in the locker room and he was like upset about it here's what's frustrating it almost seems like coal is being punished for playing for a bad team deciding to return to a team that he knew had to have known wasn't that great he could have gotten off the ship at the the sinking titanic if he wanted to the way james wiseman bailed but i like the fact he wanted to compete and get back in there there weren't a lot of playmakers around him this wasn't a team ready to play oh roy williams would let him do anything he wanted yeah because he didn't have other guys to give the ball to he didn't have other guys who could make plays because everybody else was hurt anthony harris brandon robinson getting into a car accident armando bacon garrison brooks's eye i mean you name it that's what was happening here i'm scared to continue reading no josh come on that's that's the degree of it those those are the best examples i can give shifting thing shifting things to duke basketball though brendan marks he did a fan survey for tarheel fans and we covered that but he also did one for the blue devils too and the question was who's going to be duke's mvp for 2020 2021 and 45 percent of the fans that responded and you're talking about hundreds of fans here most of them said windell moore jr who last year we didn't really get to see the full complement of what he could do because he was injured he had the game-winning shot at the buzzer against north carolina and chapel hill that's what he's going to be remembered for regardless of what he does next season or if he plays longer than that but windell moore is not the most valuable player on duke because there's still question he might be the starter for duke this year now if i had to guess i'd say he is going to start but they still have to figure out and it's a good problem to have point guard shooting guard who starts between jeremy roach top 25 point guard five star player jordan goldwire and windell moore goldwire he's a better defensive defensive player than windell is they have to replace trey jones who was a defensive player of the year goldwire he was my favorite player on that team last year most improved i think he's going to take another step too if he gets a jumper he's going to be a really good player older than windell moore so for one i think that makes you probably not the most valuable player also he isn't the primary ball handler that would be roach at point guard he isn't going to be the go-to scorer that's soon to be one and done freshman jaylen johnson and he isn't a strong post presence type that's going to be matthew hurt who i think is being undervalued by many he very well could be the most important player but my answer to this question would be jaylen johnson like when's the last time duke their go-to option their most important player wasn't a one and done freshman you can easily say trey jones was that guy a year ago because he won the most outstanding player in the acc he was the player of the year in the acc but i think vernon carrey was more important to duke's success than trey was there's a difference between being the most talented player and being the most valuable we've learned this all throughout sports i don't think there's any way windell moore could be the most valuable player but jaylen johnson he can be i think he's he has an incredible scoring ability and the last time duke had an mvp who wasn't a freshman in my mind you probably have to go back to seth curry or mason plumley because i thought carrey was more valuable than trey jones was a year ago see how robert immediately checks out when i start talking hoops versus the messy talk no they can't see that they couldn't see that at all yeah are you watching more exhibition hoops over there i'm on the nugs in a wizard game now what's the score it's in commercial i don't have it in front of me but i'll get it for you i'm seeing on my twitter feed it's great that the nba is back on our screen i'm seeing that bowl bowl had a big block dude the three the three he not three blocks but he blocked a3 it's it's he's gonna be fun to watch bowl bowl how much damage does a fanless pga tour event at sedgefield due to the windham championship we'll discuss with the tournament director of the windham mark brazell when he joins us next what the hell is this the drive this is kind of a great thing and i'll tell you why get caught up with all things sports that's awesome well that's not totally true he talks about the bachelorette too yes the drive with josh graham on sports hub triad i'm not gonna lie to you i was a little bummed out earlier today this morning when my calendar reminded me that acc kickoff was supposed to be today and tomorrow in charlotte that's always what turns our sights to college football season and makes it feel like it's near at first they changed it to virtual and then they just outright cancelled it after the big tens announcement that they were going to play only conference games the acc buying itself some time before they make a decision like that they said they're going to announce something by the end of july so sometime next week we expect something from john swafford but you know it was always an event we looked forward to and i even see this week media day for the windham championship usually something we look forward to as well that's supposed to that's a get together at sedgefield it's now something that's done mostly virtual and somebody actually hit me on twitter today saying they were bummed out because this is the week that the open championship was supposed to happen and it got cancelled the windham is still on and it's set for august 13th a few weeks away but it will be no fans in attendance so you're going to have to watch on golf channel or cbs now being joined by the tournament director of the windham our good friend mark brazell on sports hub triad i want to just speaking from sheer effect to the tournament and to greensboro how damaging of a blow is it to not have fans at the event well first off i say hello josh and tell you thanks for having me um you know it's definitely it's definitely a blow i mean any time you take a big event away from greensboro and the triad it certainly hurts hotels and restaurants and rental cars and you know the airport a little bit and just all the different ways that that we create common kind of economic impact it certainly hurts but the biggest part of economic impact that we produce with our golf tournament is really through the pj tour and through the golf channel and cbs not only in the united states or north america but also all around the world with about you know we reach about 1.4 billion households around the world and um that's the biggest impact we have so that that we're still on tv is still a big deal and and um but it is a little bit heartbreaking not to be able to have fans out of the tournament and sponsors about a month ago me and robert we were in the studio when we learned that brooks kepka and web simpson they were pulling out of the travelers in connecticut and there was a press conference set to happen i think at two o'clock that day and we were fearing the worst saying oh no this reminds us of where we were in march when they they suspended play for essentially all of sports but then the commissioner speaks and says rather than suspending play we're just gonna make sure our protocols are better than they than they were at that time as caddies were testing positive you had a few players testing positive too and it seems it's produced results you had tiger last week on the pga tour and that drew some ratings and they seem to have gotten better as they've gone on do you have any clue mark what kinds of adjustments were made what types of areas were sharpened you know i think they just got they just created a tighter bubble and what i mean by bubble is that there's four to four to five hundred people each week they get tested the nasal swab test that basically they get a result in about an hour hour and a half and then once they are clear or they have a negative result then they're basically allowed to go out to the golf course or to their hotel and those are the two places they can go to basically and they need to figure out their meals they can eat in or they can they can actually go out and grab some food and then bring it back to the hotel but they just got tighter with that bubble i think they kind of doubled down a little bit and and and they they had a come to jesus meeting with the players and just said look guys we got to take this way more seriously than you're taking it now and and i think the players um the players stepped up and and uh listen to them follow mark on twitter at windham td it's mark brazell the tournament director of the windham championship with your tournament being the week after the pga championship and with everything swirling how do you feel about player turnout or have you even gotten that far yeah you know we're starting to think about that on a daily basis now i check our field every day and um i'll be honest with you josh it's getting good i like i like um and i say that you know kind of apprehensively because it's i'm usually talking about this so that the fans would get excited and now it's just have to be that you can watch them on tv at the at said you know and watch them play sedgefield and but anyway the field's going to be strong the i think the windham rewards top 10 is going to make a major impact this year even more than last year um i was just looking at like the top 30 players and i would not be surprised if we didn't have 15 to 17 of those top 30 players at our tournament wow that's that's that would be something are you holding your breath that would be like best ever i mean 15 i think 15 to 17 of the top 30 on the what they call the fedex cup or the windham rewards top 10 rankings it's um i i think that that's i think that's a gettable number you're still holding your breath for tiger always um i think tiger's uh got a decision to make about playing next week or not he'll he'll like he'll let people know that on friday um obviously i think our chances might improve a little bit if he doesn't go play memphis um but you know we'll just have to see what happens with with with his schedule what is interesting uh interested you most watching tournaments week to week i know you got the shout out from web simpson when he wins in south carolina and you got a chance to see how things look uh driving to that tournament what interested you most seeing what the fields or what the tournaments looked like versus what we've all watched on television well you know when you normally when you go to a pj tour event especially like a you know rbc down hilton had the heritage on a wednesday that's when i showed up on wednesday normally you have a bunch of people out there watching the pro and just kind of having a party and it was just like it looked like a ghost town it was just the players and the caddies and that was about it you know and some some guys and some in the tartan jackets that that i knew and they're the guys that run the tournament along with the steve will want his staff and so um that was just it you know just kind of like ouch you know and i've never i've never seen that um at a pj tour event on wednesday or thursday or friday so that's all those three days and you know tough deal but um and then again i'm just you you got to look at this you know the glass half full um we're able to play pj tour pros are playing on tv those are all those are all very positive things in a during a pandemic are you more stressed or less stressed for the start of this windham championship knowing that it's a different type of undertaking with no fans being in attendance it's a different um it's a different type of stress i'll be honest with you um you know normally we're we've got so many things moving and working with trying to sell tickets and selling last minute sponsorships and and doing things for windham and and making sure truest is happy and and and they're such a great partner they and windham that you know you just you're just you you never stop you know and our interns are working hard the staff's working hard he's working hard this one is a little different in that since we've never done it we've i've got you know i've got the best operations director in the world and bobby powell and you just you basically say here you go bobby here's the playbook you know you tell us what the playbook is and and he's done a heck of a job for us but um it's just a different type of stress i mean i'm in the world i'll be very honest i'm nervous i'm nervous about you know one of us testing positive or the players testing positive you don't want that at your own tournament you know chances are that somebody's going to test positive and and you just you just try to make try to we try to make good decisions these next three four weeks and we just you know hope and pray that that we have a really uneventful but successful tournament out of reflex have you told anybody over the last week and a half just in passing we hope to see you at the windham championship even though there's no fans allowed you mean did i mistakenly say that yeah yes i've done that um but i've also i've also sent a lot of text out to agents and and players in in that regard but but i have yeah i've definitely talked about you know i've kind of slipped on oh i can't wait till and then i have to stop and go nevermind you know well it's just 19 years of it well you and i we've we've talked about this the last few years i think with the acc tournament not coming to greensboro so often anymore the windham especially with the windham rewards top 10 recently has now it's become the crown jewel of our sports market in the triad so if there's ever anything you need from us and ways to pass along information feel free to use our platform in doing so and we look forward to chatting with you the week of the tournament mark good luck in the in the preparation of it again the windham championship still a few weeks away from the tournament starting it's on you're going to have to watch on cbs and on golf channel because you can't attend in person but play is going to begin on august 13th thanks so much appreciate it buddy there he goes that's mark brazil tournament director of the window follow him on twitter at windham td you know i've noticed this there are times i take forever to say bye when in reality i have relationships with these people i don't need to do the long goodbye like they're probably just trying to get off the phone and i'm doing the long build up that's probably an example of where just saying thanks it'll work sometimes you do two things that irk me and i don't really want to get into them today please let me know what they are so i know can you so you could continue to do them no no no no tell me tell me what irks you because this is how we grow like tony cornheiser is the best because if you ever watch pti he ends an interview by saying the person's name rory mcelroy thanks that's it that's the degree of it there's no there's no nothing it's rory mcelroy thank you i was saving this for the two year anniversary tomorrow but i guess i can get into it now there are two things you do at the end of interviews that irk me i don't know why one is when you say you are the absolute best but you have said that to multiple multiple people how many absolute bests can there be i i actually do that to a lot of people i talk to in public too i mean not it's not just interviews it's it's who i am like it makes people feel good yeah i appreciate them coming on okay i mean i i can see that i'm not going to dog you so much about that any out of state guest josh will always say i'll save you a plate a plate of barbecue last time i did that i i don't know when's the last out of take out of state guess we have i mean we had an out-of-state guest i mean we had out-of-state guests all the time i don't say i'll save you a plate i used to do that i stopped with i'll save you a plate of barbecue i'm glad you did that because it's not like people in nashville are like next time you get here we're getting some nashville hot chicken come to maryland we're gonna get you a crab cake they might actually i i don't think they do that but if you stop doing it maybe that's why i haven't noticed it in a while you know what now you're kind of ruining i was in a good mood and now you're kind of ruining it a bit you know what i need i need some positivity let's uh let's let's do our weekly positivity uh yeah if you want to call in and tell us what's good a couple of good things happening to you in your life whatever it is sports business you just got that big promotion 336-777-1600 is the phone number hey robert robert yeah yeah what's up hey hey how's it going you want to know what's good sure white zombie beer is it an ipa or where'd you know where'd you try that out it's catalba brewing it's probably my favorite go-to beer it was so good that for the first time in a very long time i just had a few by myself and i was watching 30 for 30 documentaries and you're cool with that i was cool with it okay that's all that matters what's something good happening to you uh i think i have a girlfriend now wow robert's got a girlfriend oh yeah great somebody cares about me i don't know man because like at first she was just kind of this girl i hung out with and would invite her over late at night but it just slowly grew on me that she during a pandemic that doesn't seem safe i mean we were doing it before the pandemic too inviting her over that is um and i don't know she got a job down in tampa and then i kind of missed her and so now i've got a girlfriend i think she's going to move in with me how does she do that if she lives in tampa she's uh getting a job in winston now well that's cool yeah pretty cool so you just started dating and she's moving in yeah i know we're skipping a couple steps there we've i mean we've been seeing each other for about two years she went to my high school i'm just kind of concerned about meeting her dad he's like this big biker guy i fully expect him to crush my skull the first time i meet him hey you've been you've been seeing my daughter and never met me thanks a lot for that so yeah i mean i guess that's good not good i don't know that is pretty good i'm happy for you buddy appreciate it hey robert what's that i'm right here baseball starts tomorrow oh yeah dr anthony fauci's throwing out the first pitch and i'll tell you something that isn't good do we need to stop the music actually you know what let's not get negative let's stay with the positive okay cool there seem to be concerns that there might be a rain out tomorrow no the weather reports are now starting to look good well that's great let me check that real quick washington dc weather good who are the gnats playing they're playing the new york yankees oh fun i might check that out yeah there's still a chance for thunderstorms and rain you know that's not good we're gonna will it into existence it is going to be a beautiful day tomorrow and we are going to have a great stretch of baseball games yeah and nothing's going to go wrong we got dr fauci there dude he'll kick corona's ass if they show its face 60 chance of rain tomorrow night it's okay it's good scattered thunderstorms and gusty winds that's not good but baseball back is good yeah that's and we got basketball back hockey's coming back next week right next saturday next saturday hockey basketball baseball oh it's so good before you know we're having monster truck rallies and demolition derbies again we don't have those already are they i guess they're not doing them i mean monster trucks who would they be crushing who would gravedigger be out here digging on if if there are no fans you think gravedigger just drives that truck around every day probably not have you ever been to a demolition derby before they're very redneck i would assume that that's out of your wheelhouse why would you assume that i i just don't think that you would enjoy watching people drive little jalopies around and crush each other and potentially hurt people that didn't seem like your bag you seemed like a drink white zombie beer and watch 30 for 30s by yourself kind of guy that's right and i've never been to a demolition derby you gotta go man they're a lot of fun i like to people watch there because some people will walk out of their houses wearing the free t-shirts that they've gathered across their whole life and not care who sees them in those free t-shirts do you have anything else good to add uh no my life's pretty bleak besides getting a girlfriend and i'm not even sold on that yet so yeah and that's been weekly positivity robert what do you got and take it to the house today finally a lemonade stand that i would actually get a cup from i got a feeling this is going to lead to an argument you know that feeling robert you're going to feel this being in a relationship you just know that there's an argument coming just try not to bring a feeling i got a feeling wait what was that you just try not to breathe too hard try not to take them off that's right i got a feeling an argument's about to happen between me and robert with this subject when we take it to the house next