It is a Wednesday drive and I want to, I want to talk, spend some time on college basketball and a blue blood that might not be any good next year. Because it's funny, whenever I talk to people in the radio business about the North Carolina sports scene, hosts, producers who work in big cities driven by pro sports, they're kind of amazed. Our college teams, mainly the big four, drive conversation in a state with this many people. There are very few places you could talk about college hoops 12 months out of the year, but the Piedmont Triad is certainly one of those places. And last year, I tried to warn Tar Heel fans, eh, I don't really like what you have in the post. Not a lot of depth.
If you have an injury, things could get really bad. And then North Carolina had a slew of them and ended up missing the NCAA. tournament that ultimately didn't happen anyway. 14 and 19 record. There is a blue blood, a dominant college basketball power that I think could be in a similar spot this year. I'm talking about Kentucky. Now, Kentucky, they have this massive fan base that I've become quite familiar with.
It's better than what it actually is year to year. I think they're going to have a similar season to North Carolina in 2021. A similar season than North Carolina had this past year. First off, Olivier Saert, we got the Doem at Wake Forest. Really fine player, but the knock on him was consistency for the last two years until the final 10 to 15 games of the regular season this year. That's what earned him first team All-ACC honors. But you might see the first All-ACC honors and believe, oh, that guy's the best player on Wake Forest. It's going to be great having an ACC guy go straight to Kentucky, where he's going to be the second or third best player on the team. Anybody who followed Wake closely knows he wasn't the most essential piece on Wake Forest.
Probably not the second most essential piece. Chaunty Brown was the best player, he was just injured. And Brandon Childress carried a larger load, a larger responsibility than Saar did.
Saar, again, I don't mean this to be a knock on him, he's just not the savior. That's what Big Blue Nation is expecting, that's what it seems to be selling right now, and that's not what they're getting. It's similar to the SEC football hype machine. I watched pretty much every snap Jamie Newman took with Wake Forest the last two years. And nobody in the national media really lauded Newman as being one of the best quarterbacks even in the ACC. Like, we joked with David Hale of ESPN, hey, is this guy a Dark Horse Heisman candidate?
Can you help lead this charge? We need somebody nationally to recognize what Jamie's doing here. So, I was happy for Jamie that he got an opportunity at Georgia, playing with more talent around him, there's going to be more exposure, but with more exposure, kind of like with Big Blue Nation and Kentucky, you're going to have people hype you up in the media. The SEC football hype machine, Paul Feinbaum, on that show, I think it was Quincy Avery, the quarterback guru, the quarterback analyst, who compared Jamie, and this is true, to a mix of Cam Newton and Jalen Hurts. In addition to covering college sports, I covered the Carolina Panthers.
Been to the last handful of years home games every single season. And I watched Cam Newton. At no point in covering Jamie and Cam did I think that these two guys are similar, almost in any single way.
So, I was just amazed that they would go that far with Jamie. That's not what they're going to get. They've got a really fine quarterback, it's not Cam Newton. And while I'm spending so much time on Sar, even if you believe he's going to be the savior, if you disagree with what I'm saying on that point, I doubt he ever plays a minute for Kentucky, because there's no precedent of players getting waivers just because their coach got fired. That is Olivier's case. He wants to transfer to Kentucky, he wants to play immediately. Why? Well, we weren't winning at Wake Forest and they fired our coach.
It's not a good enough reason. Now there have been exceptions to that, things that seem to be a bit odd and convenient, but usually they happen in football. Justin Fields going from Georgia to Ohio State eligible immediately. Tate Martel going from Ohio State to Miami eligible immediately. Those are strange instances, you don't see a lot of that in college basketball.
Not because a team's bad, not because a coach got fired. So, if Sar isn't eligible to play this year, I don't think he ever even steps foot in Rupp Arena. He says he'd go pro, that's what he told Jeff Borzello.
I'm not going to sit out a year, I'm just going to go pro if I'm not eligible to play, if I don't get the waiver. Even with Sar on the team, I think this would be the least talented Kentucky roster that John Calipari's ever had. Coming in, you got two five-star players.
That's it, two five-stars. That's the fewest that Cal's had his entire time in Kentucky. He lost six players.
That's a normal deal. They reload, they lose a ton of players to the NBA. Four guys going straight to the NBA, one transferred out, and they lost another one as well. Lost six players. They return six starts from power forward Keyon Brooks, who averaged four and a half points a game.
So I don't think they have the recruiting class to replenish what was lost. Because usually you at least have somebody coming back who was a critical player, an impactful player. Last year it was quickly, it was Higgins, or Higgins, excuse me, it was Montgomery. The year before that it was P.J. Washington before he got drafted by the Hornets. I think that was the team that had Reed Travis too, the grad transfer from Stanford. Isaiah Briscoe, he was around for a year. After a ton of guys left, after the title team they had Ulyss stick around, Poitras. Even that 15 team that was known for Karl Anthony Towns being on it. Loaded team. Aaron Harrison, the Harrison Twins, they were sophomores. So this year doesn't have that guy from last year who was a key contributor returning to the team.
And I think that's going to hurt. Because we learned with Carolina last year. Just because you have a couple of five star players, in North Carolina's case it was Cole Anthony and Armando Bacot.
Things still went south. Because injuries happen across the span of a season. Kentucky is one injury away from not being an NCAA tournament team. I believe North Carolina would get there, would have gotten there, if Cole didn't miss a month. If Cole didn't miss a month, I think North Carolina is slightly above.500. There would be reasons to justify them getting in.
It's Carolina basketball, it's Roy Williams, it's Cole Anthony. They would have justified it. They would have gotten in somehow. And Kentucky might be that this year, but they might not be. 2013 they didn't make the tournament when Nerlens Noel got hurt in February. That was another team that didn't have a lot of talent on it. Had a couple lottery picks.
Nerlens Noel, Willie Colley-Stein. But having just two replace the six that are lost, it's a tall order. And the competition in the SEC, it isn't a cakewalk anymore. Auburn and South Carolina made the final four in the last few years. LSU is going to be competitive. Tennessee might have the best roster. Musselman, he's building something at Arkansas. This might be the first year we see that coming into fruition. Florida's always good. So it's not going to be easy for Kentucky.
I think they have a similar season as North Carolina had last year in 2021. You can tweet the show at sportsubtriad. If you have thoughts on the matter, 336-777-1600 is our studio line number.
Robert Walsh is the producer of this show. I want to shift things to the NFL because I'm amazed at how many Carolina Panther fans have already checked out on the idea that Teddy Bridgewater could be a franchise quarterback. Steve Smith, always speaking his mind, he told Fox Sports Radio he's a right now quarterback for the Panthers. He's duct tape.
Just here for the time being. He's not a guy you win a championship with. And I think there's evidence to the contrary. I'm not saying Teddy is going to be the long-term answer, but would it surprise me? No. I think there's evidence Bridgewater can be the Panthers franchise quarterback.
Next-gen analytics say so. This is from an athletics story that was published this week. Out of the 39 quarterbacks last year who attempted at least 150 passes, Bridgewater did in the five starts with the Saints. Teddy was fourth in on-target passes. 81% of his throws were on target. Fifth in terms of efficiency from the pocket. Sixth best facing man-to-man defense. What's crazy about that, Robert, he's better against man than he is zone.
It's usually the other way around. It speaks to how accurate of a passer he is. He has an almost identical career arc to the guy he shared a quarterback room with for two years, Drew Brees. Like it almost seems like if the Panthers had Drew Brees from 15 years ago, coming off the shoulder injury, we would be treating him the same exact way that Panther fans are treating Teddy now. A lot of it doesn't have to do with Teddy.
I feel like there are a lot of Panther fans that love Cam Newton. Certainly he had his detractors, but some of them still feel sour about Cam being let go, and they're not welcoming the idea that Teddy could be better than Cam is. Maybe not the peak of Cam's powers, Teddy as good as that, but a franchise quarterback. But look at the career arcs for Brees and Teddy. In the draft, Brees was taken with the first pick of the second round nearly 20 years ago. Teddy was taken the last pick of the first round. Injuries stalled both quarterbacks first stop. Teddy, unlike Brees, led Minnesota to the playoffs. In front of Teddy, it was a terrible offensive line.
They still found a way to get there. You might remember the Minnesota kicker missed a chip shot in the frigid cold against the Seahawks in 2015. Drew Brees, he had the shoulder injury. Teddy, he had the knee. Both were passed up in favor of younger quarterbacks. Brees, he was let go. Phillip Rivers was recently drafted by San Diego. Meanwhile, Teddy, he was on the New York Jets, expected to be the guy, but they drafted Sam Darnold, and he started the opener. They chose Darnold over Teddy.
They both went where at that point? They went to learn under Sean Payton. Brees, learning under Payton in 2006. Teddy in 2018. And when Teddy hit the field, he was pretty damn good.
They're similar players, very accurate passers, hang in the pocket. I'm not saying Teddy is gonna be Drew Brees, the all-time leading passer in NFL history, but he shouldn't be dismissed yet by Panther fans. Because Teddy's only 27 years old, and to put that in perspective, Drew was 27 when he left San Diego to join New Orleans. I don't think anybody would disagree with me either that the Panthers are a far better organization now than New Orleans was in 2006. At that time, the Saints almost moved to San Antonio. They got hit by a hurricane, Hurricane Katrina, and had never been to the Super Bowl.
They were called the Ain'ts. Few people went to their games. Nobody cared about Saints football, because they didn't give them a reason to care. Meanwhile, the Panthers, you got the richest owner in the NFL, went to the Super Bowl five years ago.
Ten years before that, you were in another Super Bowl, almost won it. And now, you're bringing in Joe Brady, who's the hottest offensive coordinator name of this cycle, to run an offense he was in with Teddy in Carolina. And Teddy's gonna have better weapons, I'd argue, than Drew's had his entire time in New Orleans. Like, who's the player that Bree's had who's better than what Christian McCaffrey is right now?
I'll wait. How about DJ Moore, complimented by Curtis Samuel and Robbie Anderson? That's an elite crop of weapons that Teddy's gonna have at his disposal. So don't discount him.
He's 27, not 37. He can be the franchise quarterback of the Panthers, and there's evidence, again, that points to that. So the big news in college sports right now centers on the Ivy League. We've been talking about this the last few days. They were expected to vote on whether or not fall sports would go on his schedule, and all signs kind of pointed to them canceling things or postponing them. It was first put out, I think, by John Rothstein saying that Ivy League programs have been informed that fall sports have been canceled. The conference, according to John, won't entertain any sports being played until after January 1st, which is expected to have an effect on college basketball. Pay games, I know Duke, for example, played Brown last year, played Yale a couple years ago, Princeton probably involved in this as well. Winter sports will have an update in mid-July on their respective practice schedules. They're looking at potentially playing football in the spring, and I'm conflicted on this because, yes, the Ivy League, they were ahead of the game and saw the writing on the wall in March.
A day before Rudy Gobert tested positive, they canceled their men's and women's basketball tournaments. But I think what Scott Doctorman from The Athletic said a few minutes ago on Twitter kind of says the other side of the coin, expresses it pretty well, that the Ivy League's eight schools in football generated about $30.1 million. The eight teams combined, $30 million. The Big Ten's 14 schools generated $1.02 billion in football. So how much stock will Power Five conferences really put into what the Ivy League decides here?
I use that as a segue to welcome in Chris Pitola of ESPN, who's kind enough to be here with us. Chris, your reaction to what the Ivy League did today in relation to what that might mean for big time college football is what? Well, I think, I mean, you're talking the money there, and obviously that's going to be, I think, ultimately what people assume is the calculation. I think what you have to understand, and it's the same reason that, you know, everybody followed suit after the Ivy League made the decision to cancel its basketball tournament. It wasn't at the time, it was not an economic consideration. It was a public health consideration.
So in theory, what is motivating the Ivy League here should be motivating all of these Power Five conferences, which is it is a public health consideration. Now, none of us are naive. I mean, obviously the economics have changed.
Obviously, you know, I've used this comparison a lot. You go back to when these decisions were made in March. We had a massive health crisis on hand, and we didn't really, we weren't having an economic crisis. We could foresee one, but we weren't in the midst of one.
We are now in the midst of one. And so that economic calculation has become maybe not on par as the Ivy League showed us today, but it has become close to on par with the health consideration. So, I mean, that's where the money that you're talking about will certainly be a factor. It is comparing apples and oranges to say that the Power Five is under the same calculation that the Ivy League is. But I think ultimately what the pressure that the Ivy League is now putting on the Power Five is the public health component to this. Are the Power Fives going to go on business as usual when the Ivy League is in theory making a public health calculation?
I think that's ultimately what these other schools are confronting. What do you think this means for college basketball, if anything? Because, I mean, the Ivy League wasn't really considered to be a two-bid league by any means. So the conference champion, the conference tournament champion would get into the NCAA tournament from the Ivy League. I guess they might be looking at a shortened season. They're talking about not having games until January 1st. So there's obviously probably going to be moving around even by ACC teams, maybe even a Duke that likes to schedule Ivy League schools each year to try and fill schedules, right? Yeah. Look, I think from a macro level, Josh, I think we all have to wrap our heads around the fact that college athletics in the coming year is going to look nothing like we're used to.
That's football and basketball. And until we wrap our heads around that, what we're trying to do right now, Josh, is we are trying to fight these little fires, these brush fires, these little skirmishes. You know, I'm a military guy. I'll use the military analogy. We are trying to fight these little battles to try to make college athletics look like we want it to look, like it has always looked. And what we need to understand is we are fighting a war here, and the goal needs to be winning the war.
It cannot be winning these little battles. So for example, and right now, college athletics is fighting a two-front war. We're fighting college football and we're fighting college basketball, and we need to see those things as two separate entities. So to your point about college basketball, college basketball's most valuable property is the NCAA tournament, and the NCAA makes all of its money off of college basketball's NCAA tournament. So the question becomes, the calculus for college basketball needs to be, how do we win the war? And that ultimately is preserving the NCAA tournament. Now, how we arrive at that point, whether, now I'm not a doctor, so I don't know what this thing is going to look like in January, but if that means that we have to figure out a schedule where we start the season in January so that we can preserve the NCAA tournament in some form or fashion, and again, it may not look, my assumption is it's not going to look like we're used to, but we have to preserve that property, and how we get there needs to start being the calculation.
And I think right now we are so stuck on trying to preserve things as we know them, and we have to realize this is not going to look like we're used to. Chris Spitola with us, ESPN college basketball analyst, he's on Twitter, at Chris underscore Spitola. Is that also where you're at on TikTok? I don't think I've ever introduced a guest TikTok page until I saw some of your inspirational videos. It is, Josh. You know, that's an alter ego. They call that in the biz. So that is my alter ego. I am a fitness influencer, which God knows the world needs more influencers. So we are using the alter ego there, Josh, to make a comment on the influencing business. We're also using it to entertain ourselves in this Spitola household. So I appreciate you asking about it.
Folks should go check that out. In an effort to try and entertain this audience as well, I'm going to ask you to remove your concerned American hat for the coronavirus and put on your college basketball analyst hat, as we're all hopeful there's going to be a season. And we just watched a North Carolina basketball season that went to hell with injuries. But going into the year, I remember getting just dumped on by Carolina fans by just pointing out, okay, maybe is Leaky Black being asked to do a little bit too much?
And is this team deep enough after losing everything they lost from 2019? Are they asking a freshman and Cole Anthony to do a little bit too much? I'm seeing a lot of those same concerns I had with North Carolina and this Kentucky basketball team for 2020, 2021, losing a ton of players. And for the first time under Cal, only having two five-star players coming in to try and replenish some of the losses there.
Also, we got a chance to know Olivier Saar at Wake Forest, of course. I don't know if there's much precedent for a guy whose argument to try and get a waiver is, my team was bad, we didn't make the tournament, and my coach got fired. So if he doesn't hit the floor, what exactly is it looking like, this Kentucky team? Yeah, so much is put on, and just to go back to Carolina for a second last year, so much of these teams and how they turn over is dependent on what these freshmen look like. So in the case of Carolina, I think people were dumping on you because there was an expectation that Cole Anthony and Armando Bacott would be better than they... Well, in the case of Bacott, better they ended up being, and in the case of Cole Anthony, he obviously got hurt and changed, I think, the calculus for that team. In the case of Kentucky, they don't turn a whole lot over because in most cases, as we know, if a guy has had a good enough year at Kentucky, they're going to end up leaving. They're just not going to stay through to another year.
I don't know a whole lot. I've watched a little bit of tape on the two new freshmen who are coming in. They're outstanding players, but it'll be an interesting year because I think the years where we have seen Kentucky struggle at times, Josh, is in those turnovers from year to year where they haven't had as many of those young players come in. In some cases, those players haven't turned out to be as good as people thought, or they're not doing it in bulk, which is to say they're bringing a whole bunch of them. The dynamic will be different. Some of those guys that they have coming back had good years, didn't have great years.
Again, if they had had great years or even really, really good years, they probably wouldn't have come back. It'll be interesting. That SEC, I don't think will be... It wasn't all that strong this year, as we know. I still think it's going to be a bit of an uphill battle this year in that league. Where they end up finishing will have a lot to do with what these other teams do. I think it'll be a very different year. I don't know if it'll be...
It definitely won't be as bad as Carolina was this year, but it'll be a different year, I think, than Kentucky fans are used to. I want to get your thoughts on the 10-year anniversary of the decision being today, because I remember you were telling us not too long ago a story after Kobe Bryant passed, where you were doing work with USA Basketball. It was around the 08 Beijing team, and it just went into the folklore of Kobe Bryant.
Some of the rumors, are they true, are they not? But the birth of this super team, LeBron, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, was from the 08 Olympics. And even before that, these guys, in 2006 even, looking at each other and saying, hey, let's all be free agents together, and potentially we could get together and create a dominant NBA team. And they were.
Take me back to 2010. How surprised were you to see LeBron going to Miami? How shocking was that in the moment? It was shocking. I tell people all the time, we only really saw those guys in the hotel or on the practice floor during the Olympics, so it wasn't like we saw those guys cohorting on the court during practice about going to Miami. So I think even for those of us who were associated with that team, it came as a surprise. It did. First and foremost, LeBron was Ohio.
He was accurate. He had become Cleveland. So the fact that he would leave his hometown, a hometown that he certainly has so much pride in, I think that was first and foremost a bit of a surprise. The fact that it just hadn't been done to that point. We had seen the Celtics kind of do their thing and get together, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Garnett. But part of that had been done through trades, and those guys were at a different point in their career.
I mean, LeBron was ascending. We hadn't really seen that done before. So it was a big surprise.
It really was. He was a different guy. I can't tell you how much, even just from when we first started the Olympics, Josh, to when we finished, when LeBron had played his last game with the Olympic team, how much he had changed.
And understandably so. I mean, you're talking about a guy who was super young. He had grown up in the spotlight. I mean, he had matured so much. And I could tell you stories for days of things that would make you cringe, just how immature he was and how narcissistic he could be and how rude he could be at times, because he just was this young guy who had had a lot handed to him, just in terms of his popularity and whatnot. So I think the decision was a manifest of who he was at the time.
Very narcissistic. He was ill-advised. The people around him were also very young and weren't real schooled in the ways of the world. So he's a different man now, certainly. He's changed. He's grown up. He's matured. He's learned from moments like that. And it's crazy, I think, what that Miami experience, I mean, obviously he gave him two titles, but what that experience then did ultimately when he got back to Cleveland. He was a completely different guy. So, you know, the story of LeBron is not just going to be the winning and the numbers and ultimately it's going to be the maturation.
And I think for those folks, you know, I was fortunate to be just a very small part of that Olympic experience. The evolution of LeBron, I think, coincides with the maturation of LeBron. And I think ultimately how he became just a grown up, you know, in front of all of our eyes. What's the craziest thing you saw any member of that 2008 Beijing team do athletically?
Because you had access to what we didn't see on television. Yeah, I mean, you know, it was a testament. God, I mean, they all did just incredible things. I mean, Dwyane Wade, I think about Dwyane Wade in 08. I mean, it was right before he had his best career year in 2009.
He was bouncy that entire 08. I mean, it was one of the craziest things I ever saw. I mean, you got the 92 dream team.
I'm a little too young for that. But the 2008 team, I mean, it was one of the craziest displays of basketball I ever seen. Well, you know, I tell the story all the time and, you know, to hear Coach K tell it, this was the most pressure packed moment, probably the most pressure packed moment Coach K has ever had.
And you go back to that gold medal game against Spain. There were about four minutes left and it was a tie game. And, you know, to Coach K's credit, he was incredibly calm and, you know, sort of, OK, here's what we need to do. But I think the way he tells it, those pros were also very calm, very, very like, OK, here's what needs to be done.
Like they were very in the moment and there was nobody was panicking and anything like that. And God rest his soul, you know, there are moments where the moment is never bigger or too big for the best players. And God rest his soul, Kobe Bryant in those last four minutes, he was Kobe Bryant. I mean, he took and made a number of big time shots.
He ended up getting fouled on a three, you know, the iconic shot of him shushing the crowd there in Beijing. That was probably the moment that stood out for me when, you know, that was the that was it. I mean, if if if they end up losing that that game, you know, obviously things are very different for Coach K and and and his legacy. But probably the legacy of all those guys, you know, as it relates to the Olympics and and, you know, they were so calm, they were so in the moment. And then Kobe Bryant, you know, again, God rest his soul, he took over in that moment. I'll never forget. I think people don't realize, like they just kind of expected that team to win. And I don't think people remember or realize how close it was and how that group needed a superhero.
And they got it in Kobe Bryant. Chris, it's good to hear from you. And it was good to hear for a few couple of seconds as well.
The alter ego as well. Follow him on Twitter at Chris Underscore Spatola. I hope good news is on the horizon and that I'll be seeing you very soon, buddy. Thanks for doing this. No doubt, brother. Be good.
Got it. That is Chris Spatola. What are you talking about?
What are you talking about? I'm talking about the one and only Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. We saw some of this in our state with East Carolina and Appalachian State cutting some programs, but Stanford today announces they are eliminating 11 varsity sports at the conclusion of the 2020-2021 academic year. Men's and women's fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men's rowing, coed and women's sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men's volleyball and wrestling.
So you feel like that there are probably more of these to come as well, unfortunately. If that's not bad enough, the Ivy League, which remember, were first on the basketball front to cancel things. The men's and women's basketball tournament two days before Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus, effectively ending live sports for a few months in this country. Brett McMurphy is reporting that it's likely the vote today is going to come down to push fall sports to the spring, which means Ivy League football will be held in the spring. And it's going to be interesting to see how FBS and the NCAA responds to that.
Luke DeCock, award-winning columnist from the Raleigh News and Observer, kind enough to spend time here with us. And I'm just interested in what you make of the Ivy League stuff here. How much weight do you think this decision holds in terms of how it might affect what the NCAA does next?
I don't think directly it has a lot of impact, but like it did in the spring, indirectly it certainly sets a precedent and offers some political cover. The thing you have to remember is the NCAA, other than championships, the NCAA is not going to actually make any decisions. It's going to be the conferences and the schools. And the Ivy League gives cover to conferences that may decide that moving fall sports to the spring or suspending them entirely is the way to go. And I don't know that that was the case in the spring. I think a lot of athletics people sort of mocked the Ivy League, and I sort of looked at it as what I personally believe to be the Ivy League's unbelievable innate ability to self-sabotage athletics.
Because I think they acted a hair too quickly in the spring. But there's no question that what we're dealing with now is a different situation. In some ways we know more, in some ways we know less. And I do think that like Lafayette, which has already said it's not going to play football until I believe November at the earliest, and other schools, the Ivy League is going to set a bit of a precedent here and just sort of open the door for other schools to make decisions that, quite frankly, in some cases need to be made if you're not going to have students on campus. And that's going to be the case at a lot of Ivy League schools where attendance is going to be optional, learning is going to be remote.
It's very tough to argue that it's safe for your athletes and not safe for your students. And I think Duke is going to be in that same position where it's going to be very difficult for Duke to argue in September that it's okay for its fall athletes to be on campus when it's basically told everyone else, you don't have to be here, it's your choice. And the Ivy League is one of the first dominoes to fall, it's not the first. The Cal State University system at the Division II level already moved to postpone fall sports. Morehouse College already did.
There have been some ripples in the water. The Ivy League will be a big one though because people watch what the Ivy League does. He's on Twitter at Luke DeCock, read his stuff, NewsObserver.com. This is the first week, Luke, that I felt probably less than 50% confident there would be college football this fall. I'm interested in where you are on that. You know, my perspective hasn't changed in the sense that I don't think there's going to be a way to get this to work. But I'm also pessimistic that the reality is going to allow that to happen. I think there's a good chance, and I think the NWSL has shown, that if you do this right, you can have pro sports, that you can get your teams into a bubble of some kind.
You can maintain that bubble. You may have players acting like idiots, as was the case at the Orlando Pride before they got into the bubble and lost their chance to play. And certainly some MLS teams appear to be having that issue. But you can get pro athletes into a bubble. And let's not forget, part of that is pro athletes have a union.
They have some speaking for them. They are part of the process. They don't have it imposed upon them the way college athletes do. I don't think in the case of college football, trying to maintain 100-something separate leaky bubbles is going to work, especially when college students, like the LSU football players who went to a bar, are going to do college student things. The schools that are going to be able to play football are going to have athletes who play by the rules, as Notre Dame apparently so far has done.
They're going to be in places where the coronavirus is more under control because then the athletes are less likely to get it through their daily interactions. And I think our best case scenario is probably a football season where there is partial participation, where some schools can make it work and others can't. And part of that is the complete lack of leadership from the NCAA on the national level. There is none right now as to best practices, what the standards should be, how we're going to make this work. The NCAA has left us completely up to the schools and the conferences.
We've got a hodgepodge of plans and bubbles and whatnot. And it's just yet another weakness of the national organization, which is far more concerned with keeping money out of players' hands than it is keeping them safe. I wanted your thoughts on what's going on with the Carolina Hurricanes, specifically with John Forslund, the voice of the Canes, who a little over a week ago became effectively unemployed, or I should probably say just without a contract because it expired at the end of June. And this is something a lot of Canes fans are upset about, and I'm interested how you feel this might be different than some of the other instances where Tom Dundon has done things a bit unconventionally. You had the offer sheet situation with Sebastian Ajo, but ultimately Ajo, still a Cane, Dom Waddell, he wasn't under contract for a week or so, a few weeks, maybe even a month last year, if memory serves correct, and ultimately he was brought back because that was the right thing to do. And you read things like, hey, there's national games that John does that conflicts with some Canes dates, hey, does a broadcaster really affect your bottom line?
Remember, he axed Chuck Caton a few years ago because there wasn't much listenership on the radio end for the Hurricanes, and he had just had a great enough broadcaster to simulcast. This seems like it would be a damaging blow if Forslund were to walk. How likely do you think that is? Well, there's a couple different answers in there. I think it's likely at this point, the fact that they weren't able to get anything done by July 1st is not a good sign.
So let's unpack a couple of those things. One, Dundon has made it clear, whether you or I or anyone else likes it or not, he's going to spend money where he thinks it improves the team on the ice, and he's going to cut corners or pinch pennies or however you want to say it, where he doesn't think it improves the team on the ice. And I think their position to a certain extent is, you know, we put the games on TV and people are going to watch whether it's Forslund and Tripp or you and me in the booth, and they may complain and they may kick and scream, but it's not going to change viewership. Now, I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't necessarily think it's the best business practice, but that's their perspective. And what people misunderstand is the same thing the Montreal Canadiens misunderstood with the Ajo sheet.
They say, oh, this guy's cheap. And in some ways, absolutely he is. When it comes to players, he is not. And that's what Montreal was too dense to understand. And they presented an absolutely ludicrous offer sheet that there was absolutely zero chance the Hurricanes wouldn't match. In part, one, because it wasn't very threatening, and two, because it relied entirely on the predicate that Dundon would not pay a signing bonus, which is, you know, it didn't reflect reality.
Now, that doesn't mean what he's done isn't open to criticism. And I think John Forslund is beloved by the fan base in a way that Chuck Caton, no offense to Chuck, was not. When Chuck left, I should clarify that. I mean, more people watch the games on TV than they do the radio. And a lot of people talked about how much they love Chuck, but they never actually listen to the games on the radio. They just like the idea of having Chuck around, which is fine. But it also made him expendable, especially when you could simulcast John and Tripp.
You know, this is different this time. There is no John Forslund to step into that void. And you're talking about someone who's nationally recognized as one of the best hockey play-by-play announcers in the game. But it's also a franchise under Dundon that's going to look at each and every line item and say, do they contribute to us winning games?
And if the answer is no, then they are going to nickel and dime their way through this. That happened with Waddell. It happened during the original GM search, where Waddell ended up getting the job. A lot of guys said, I'm not taking the job unless I get a million dollars because that's what an NHL GM gets paid.
And Dundon said, no. I don't think just because everyone else does it, we're going to do it. Now, again, I'm not saying whether that's right or wrong. I think there were some pretty good candidates who they kind of let walk, and Waddell obviously has done a good job.
But if you want to understand why these things are happening, that's what you have to understand. In John's case, here's a guy who's accomplished. He's been with the franchise for decades, 30 or more years.
He's been here since the team got here. I really don't believe his national commitments were at all a factor in this. It was money. And they wanted John, as I wrote, to take a contract that substantially reduced his guaranteed pay.
It was going to be very incentive-laden based on things that he had nothing to do with, like how many people were in the building and overall revenue. And a guy of John's stature, at his point in his career, basically said, I'm not going to do that. And there hasn't been any opportunity for them to find common ground. I know Forslund has talked to Dundon, he's talked to Waddell, his agent has talked to Dundon, his agent has talked to Waddell.
But neither side has moved to a point where the other side is interested in talking. So at this point, I do think it's pretty unlikely that John Forslund will be back with the Hurricanes. I'd never say never, because I would never have thought that the Hurricanes would find themselves in this position. And Tripp Tracy was pretty open when he took the offer, which was similarly structured, that he felt like he was making a sacrifice for the team. And my guess is that Tripp probably expects to be repaid when business is better.
Johnny, at this point in his career, isn't interested in making gambles or things like that. And he's got a family, he's got kids in college, he's got a bigger bar to clear financially. And someone who's put in the years and put in the time, put in the work unquestionably, feels that he deserves to be compensated in a way that befits his tenure and his experience and his expertise.
So that's how we ended up where we are. I guess there is a job open in Tampa, there's potentially a job open in Seattle. There's always his work with NBC, and that will continue and maybe in an expanded role. And he can continue to put himself in a position to take over for Doc Emmert if that day comes.
Although I'm sure NBC will look very long at Kenny Albert, it's hard to tell really who the era parent is there. That's how you get to a position with this, with someone who is, I would say, universally beloved to the way John is. He's on Twitter, at Luke DeCock, award-winning columnist from the Raleigh News and Observer. Read his stuff, newsobserver.com. Really appreciate you coming on, sharing your insight from the beach.
I hope that the rain stays away and the sun stays out. We'll catch up sometime soon. Thanks for doing this. Alright, thanks Josh. You got it.
That is Luke DeCock on Twitter again, at Luke DeCock. Hey Darren Vaught! You ready to do some sharing? So ready.
I was born ready. It's time for some sharing with Darren Vaught. And there are five blue bloods in college basketball. Duke, Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA. I'll rank them in terms of how good their rosters are for 2020-2021 when we begin sharing with Darren.
Next. Your one stop shop for sports talk. This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad.
There's a lot going on. UNC Athletics just announced that they've conducted 429 COVID tests. Carolina student athletes, coaches, and staff. A total of 37 have tested positive, which is less than 10%.
Roughly around 8% testing positive there. That's from North Carolina Athletics releasing that in the last 30 minutes. The Ivy League says that they're going to cancel fall sports for the fall and try to push everything to the spring.
Dana O'Neill reporting that they're hopeful that they're going to have things in the spring. And the Ivy League plays by a different set of rules than the rest of the FBS. They're not even a part of the FBS, I should say. So I don't know how much weight their decision carries, but when you look at the Ivy League being first in canceling tournaments, men's and women's basketball in March, and then a few days later everybody followed suit. It's something that's certainly worth welcoming. Now, if you're expecting for the next 10 minutes for me to dissect how plausible it is for there to be a fall football season.
You are sorely mistaken because we have the return of the movie game, which is just built in fun and competition. Darren Bott, he's in studio with us here. Who's the most recent guest you had on the USA Baseball Covering the Bases podcast? Spencer Torkelson, the number one overall pick in the MLB draft. And then next week, Troy Tulowitzki is our guest. Troy is going to be a guest with Darren. It's exciting stuff.
And he's also Darren, one of the leading broadcasters for High Point Athletics as well. Let's dive right into the movie game. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. It's time for some kind of movie game. All right, all right, all right. With Josh Graham and Darren Bott.
Show me the money. Fellas, fellas, fellas. Is this the first head to head movie game we've ever had? I think me and Darren did this on the phone one time. We did it. Well, we were swapped.
I was in studio hosting for Josh and we brought him in by phone. Well, none of that matters. I mean, you're right. Today is the first face to face between two juggernauts of the movie game. In one corner you have Josh Graham, the guy I hate to see win, and in the other corner you have Darren Bott, a guy I just love to see. And with the Karen Act being proposed in San Francisco, I thought I would pick a theme that reflected that being movies that feature a Karen.
You guys feel pretty confident about that? Did you see North Karenlina last night? I did not. Is that the lady in the Costco with the mask? Although, no, no.
There was one going up to a couple people of color saying that she knows everybody that lives in this neighborhood and you guys don't live here. The worst. Anyway, back to something fun. The movie game! You guys have played but the audience might not have heard. This is the Rotten Tomatoes movie game. These guys are going to try to guess the audience score of these movies from Rotten Tomatoes. The closer they get, the better their score is.
The farther away, the farther they get from victory. If you hit the score on the dot, it will be a five point deduction. Everybody clear on the rules. You guys understand how to play the game.
Josh is going to start us off. And our first movie in the Karen themed movie game is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the Karen being Nurse Ratched. I've never seen One Flies Under the Cuckoo's Nest. Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Same. Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Neither of you have seen this?
Neither. I haven't seen Deer Hunter either from the 70's. There are a couple 70's classics I haven't watched before. I've never seen Patton. I would love to watch these movies.
I just haven't. Yeah, Jack Nicholson, great in this. You get another cast of characters. He is in a mental asylum and not really an asylum but I mean for lack of a better term.
And he's trying to get through each day and figure out how to transition to the outside world. Alright, I got a score written down. Same. You guys are both ready.
Josh, we're starting with you. 91%. 91%.
Yeah, this one can't miss. Nicholson in some sort of mental institution. Like 88. The score is 88.
88. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes in at 96. Yeah, yeah. See I was being a little bit more cautious. Probably second to Chinatown if we're talking Nicholson movies.
I like being three up. Josh, looking pretty going into the second movie which is Mean Girls and the Karen being Regina George. Yeah, of course. This had to come out.
I've asked this question before. It's one of the greatest questions of 2000s cinema. What is Rachel McAdams best performance of the three movies she did consecutively in order? Mean Girls, The Notebook, Wedding Crashers.
Best performance changes that too. I favor Wedding Crashers but that's overall. Which character do you like more? Regina George, the lovable brunette that Owen Wilson was smitten with that was dating the douche Brad Cooper character. Bradley Cooper. I don't know why I called him Brad.
You guys are tight. That's the male counterpoint to Karen. That's Brad.
Are you sure it's not Chad? I think the more important, not that she's not great in all the others, but we know Regina George and understand and compare things to Regina George. I love Claire though.
And make universal references to Regina George. I don't even remember the character's name in Notebook. No, me neither. I just like the bearded Gosling. Even though I'm more partial to clean-shaven Gosling that's climbing the Ferris wheel. He's climbing the Ferris wheel, incredibly dangerous. I don't know how he got down.
I like the scrawny Gosling that's the corner back in Remember the Titans, dancing to the hokey stuff in the room with his black roommate. He's overrated though, a liability. Alright, what do we got? I don't know, you tell me. Oh, 82 percent.
82 percent for Josh Darin. You guys were just going on. I know, for Mean Girls. We were riffing there.
I was gonna let you gush. I had 80 percent written down for Mean Girls. 80 percent. Our instincts are similar.
Mean Girls comes in at 66. Wow. So Darin gained some ground there. Gained two points, which means I'm up one point going into what could be the final move. Correct, the score currently Darin at 22, Josh at 21. And I hope it's our final move because I hate doing math and this spreadsheet does not do it for me. Fortunately it's a really close game. Fortunately for me. And it's only two people.
You're right, it can't be that hard. The next movie, Emperor's New Groove with the Karen being Yzma. Oh wow. Oh wow. You know, you said Karen's in these movies and I wasn't sure if you were going for actual Karens, like if we were gonna see Goodfellas come up.
But you've done well with this category. Is this Karen with Darin in a different way? See, we did Karen with Darin last week and it bombed. We did. We bombed. We were like, get it?
Karing slash Karen. I was trying to give them a chance to defend themselves. I was like, these women can't all be bad.
And then we reviewed like three situations. That sounds like a terrible radio segment. Ah, I wish you were here for it. Then you could put it in your folder of terrible radio segments. I do have a folder. You have a folder for that? Let me look at this. Yeah, we put our best of show in it every day. Yeah, subscribe. iTunes, Apple Podcast.
Just search The Drive with Josh Graham. Wow. Okay. I got a score here on this one.
I do too. You guys are both ready. Let's see it. Josh, what you got? Go big or go home.
I'm going 27%. Wow. Emperor's new group. Okay. See, I think this one has seen...
Thank you, but I appreciate it. This one's seen some recent resurgence as far as its likability. It's sort of regarded as a classic by super young people now. Not great, but 72. 72.
Wow. There's going to be some math having to be done by Robert. Because it's probably right down the middle. Because I got a feel like it's right in between these two.
There is no math to be done. It's over 72? Emperor's new group comes in at 83. Yes. You've got to be kidding me.
And I do not have the moment of zen music because it will not load for whatever reason. So you get Amy Winehouse. What? What? Why? Back to black. Did you have this readily available? No.
What else do you have readily available in front of you? I have... Give Darren a choice of what song you can play. You can also have the comparing music. Is that it?
Maybe you would enjoy Jay-Z, Who You Whitsky. Yeah, yup. Alright, what do you got Darren?
I was, again, woefully ill-prepared to win as I usually am for this. So we're going to shout out the podcast one more time and I'm just going to use this as a shameless plug. Covering the Bases, the official podcast of USA Baseball hosted by yours truly.
Recent guest Spencer Torkelson is up live. Troy Tulewitzki, shortstop legend with the Colorado Rockies had it not been for injuries. Dare I say, on his way to Cooperstown. Troy Tulewitzki, now an assistant coach at Texas, by the way. Retired early because of injuries.
We got to get back to coaching at the college level where he was a star at Long Beach State. Do you guys want to know the... Find it. Spotify, Google, Apple. Get it. Sorry I stepped on your plug. Do you guys want to know what the golden movie was? What was the golden movie? Matilda with Agatha Trunchbull being the Karen. Never saw that movie.
There's a loose... Yeah, no, there's a loose connection there. Did you guys read the book, though? No, I saw the movie.
Never read the book. Subscribe to our podcast. Subscribe to Darren's podcast. His podcast is not a folder of bad segments. Darren, thanks for being here, buddy. You got it, guys. He's on Twitter, at Darren Vaught. Coming up, why Kentucky could miss the NCAA tournament next year. Keep it on the drive.
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