It's Like A History Story

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, you know what you know now what you scheduled his game. He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey and he's taken on Big Blue Nation.

He's just completely taking the wind out of my safety. It's time for the Drive with Josh Graham. You are on a Thursday Drive WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad where there's quite a bit going on today. It's round one of the West Coast US Open out at LA Country Club. It's underway and we will have regular updates throughout today's show.

A little bit further inland the Denver Nuggets Victory Parade is happening as we speak and my Baltimore Orioles are locked into a matinee rubber match so apologies if the host of this show is a tad bit distracted at points. Meanwhile, as the Carolina Panthers closed up shop on offseason workouts and now they're leaving for a six-week vacation before training camp starts at the end of next month, it's become clear that there's a new alpha in that locker room. A voice that's stronger than any other voice on the roster and that voice belongs to Brian Burns. He's now waited his turn and he's the leader of this football team. When he arrived it was Cam's team, it was Luke Kuechly's team, it was Greg Olsen's team, he was the rookie and drafted by Ron Rivera his last season as Panthers coach. Then during the Matt Rule era it was Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore's team. Neither of those guys are on the roster anymore.

His voice is loudest. It's Brian Burns' team because he's the one guy on this team we know is an all-pro caliber player. Top five, top six at his position. Is there another player on this team that can say that? We hope one day that Bryce Young is that. We hope that maybe Icky Iquanu is the same way or J.C. Horn. Maybe he can, if healthy, be a top corner. But not yet.

They're not there yet. Brian Burns is at that point. Listen to the way Frank Reich talked about Brian Burns out at mandatory minicamp. I don't know every time I, you know, I know he hasn't even taken a snap out here. Every time I see him walk out in the field I said, man, I'm glad he's on our team. He's big and long and strong. I mean, I got to see him play more.

Just kind of see who he reminds me of. But he's got a presence about him physically and mentally that expect continued big things from him. He's stepping into a new number and a new role.

Obviously, there's the leadership piece of that role. He's gonna be more vocal, I would imagine. But from a football X's and O's standpoint, he's gonna be more of an outside linebacker in the Giro and Evaro's defense. It's a new defensive formation. It's a new voice commanding that defense. It means he's probably gonna have his hand in the dirt a lot less.

In fact, he even said that earlier this week. So new defense, new role, new number. Here he was on the New Jersey number, number zero, after spending four years wearing number 53. Nah, coming in, coming in the league, I wanted 99. But at the time, KK got it. So if it wasn't 99, I didn't really care for nothing else. But the thought of being the first Panther with zero was kind of like, why not?

That was kind of dope. So I was like, why not? Did J.C. try to fight you for it? Nah, J.C., J.C., he played with the idea, but he stayed with eight.

I ain't putting no number in the high card or nothing like that. Send me that cash out, family. That was a great follow-up question. Shout out to Skylar Callahan, who called the triad home for a while. Might still call the triad home. J.C. Horn didn't put in for the number. He considered that. I don't know if that's the case.

Send me that cash out, family. That might be what, you know, J.C. Horn or Brian Burns might be saying to J.C. if he ultimately wanted the number that he was going for. But it is Brian Burns wearing number zero, and the next step is going to be hammering out a long-term deal this offseason.

This really is a no-brainer. He plays a premium position. In today's NFL, we know how important quarterback is, which is why left tackle is such an important position to make sure you're shored up at. But after that, edge rusher is probably the next most important because you need somebody who can make all these quarterbacks uncomfortable. And that's why Scott Fitterer, while he was trading away DJ Moore earlier this year and trading away Christian McCaffrey last year, reportedly turned down multiple first-round picks in order to keep Brian Burns on the team. He's a premium position guy.

You turn down multiple ones to keep them. He's one of the best in the league at a premium position. And because you moved on DJ Moore and Christian McCaffrey and you have a rookie quarterback for the next five years, which is not all that expensive relative to quarterback, you're second in salary cap space.

Yes, you absolutely get the stun. The only thing that might hold it up is if Brian Burns has any issue being in Charlotte long-term, but Brian was asked about his contract. It says, I want to be a Carolina Panther.

I don't have a timeline, so I don't know. I know I want to be a Panther. That's all I can tell you. I want to be a Panther. And like I said, I can't preach this anymore. Like, I'm truly blessed to be in this position, you know what I mean? Like, it's just like a dream come true just to have these kind of talks, you know what I'm saying?

So, that's how I look at it. Brian Burns. He's become the alpha in the Carolina Panthers locker room.

Lock him up. I suspect Carolina is going to before training camp begins. We're on Twitter at WSJS radio, which is also where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. WD, you want to remind the people who our big guest of the day is today? This guy by the name of Roy Cooper, yeah, he's, I believe he's the governor. The gov. The gov. Dot gov is coming.

Dot gov, I guess today. 535, you can listen to that on SJS or on our various channels. You can already find that conversation. He gave us 20 minutes earlier today.

YouTube and on our podcast channels as well. There is a lot of chatter about the New Orleans Pelicans having a great amount of interest in moving up from number 14 to the Charlotte Hornets pick at number two. And the piece they may be willing to part with in order to make a trade like that happen is Zion Williamson.

Here was ESPN insider Brian Winters on Get Up. One team that has emerged that really would like to move up from their spot at 14 of the New Orleans Pelicans potentially hunting a star player caliber maybe like a guy like Scoot Henderson. The Pelicans have had some cursory discussions from what I've been told.

There haven't been any offers made necessarily yet but it makes you really not take too far of a leap to wonder if the and the league is certainly wondering if the Pelicans are gonna make for the first time truly Zion Williamson available ahead of next week's draft to get up to that level in the in the top five. You'd have to consider a player of this caliber. WD hoes me down. Listen up. Listen up.

Yeah. I have not sold any of my Zion stock. None of it. Not amid the adult film star stuff last week. Not amid the injury Nope.

I've sold none of it. He's my favorite college player that I got to cover in person. The Charlotte Hornets should absolutely pursue a trade for Zion even if it means passing up on the chance to draft Scoot Henderson. I can already hear your retort to this though. What about the health Josh?

We'll get to the health in a second. While that is certainly a question mark his game isn't. Everybody acted like he missed the entire season this year. He played in more than a third of the games I believe. 29? 29 games. You know how he did in those 29 games? 26 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists on average.

Oh but Josh that's a small sample. Okay his second year in the league he was 27 points a game across 61 games. He was an all-star. When the guy plays there are not 10 or 11 players in the league better than him.

He is a legit MVP candidate. When's the last time Charlotte was able to say hey we got a legit MVP candidate on our hands? Never!

Did Kimba Walker ever make a run? Never. Never once? Never. Not like that. Not like MVP of the league type stuff.

Never. With respect to Scoot Henderson he might be a perennial law star. I'm a huge fan of his work but if he turns out to be an MVP candidate at any point Charlotte hit the lottery.

That is a huge unknown with Scoot. In a way it's not with Zion when he's out on the court. But getting to the health piece we do have precedent for a big guy who was drafted early in the draft having difficulty getting out on the floor early in his career. If you're the person that says it is out of the question you can't trade for this guy because of how often he's been missing.

Missing in action. Consider Joel Embiid. Joel Embiid had back problems while he was at Kansas. Still drafted third overall. Upon being drafted we learned he had a stress fracture in his foot that was gonna force him out for not one but two seasons with Philadelphia and in year three he only played in 32 games. So going into him being 23 years old after three seasons in the league technically Joel Embiid had played in 33 games. Zion Williamson has played in three seasons 114 games.

114. Yes he's had injuries those are concerning but something you got to deal with the sports fans injuries are always gonna happen. Bryce Young's probably gonna get hurt.

So what? Peyton Manning had neck problems before he arrived in Denver and threw for broke the touchdown pass record and then won a Super Bowl against the Panthers right Tom Brady tore his ACL. Aaron Rodgers has had a ton of injuries. These things happen in sports. Joel Embiid if you ask the Sixers knowing what they know now hey would you have signed up on what you have now with Joel Embiid after those three seasons where he only played 33 games in three years they would sign up for every single time. Yes there's some risk but if you're the Hornets and you ever want to win anything you have to risk things at times you have to take some risks you're not the Lakers you're not the Heat take a swing and figure it out even if you have to attach a player to it if you got to attach the rights the bridges or I don't even know if you have the rights to bridges right now but even like Terry Rozier if you had to do that I don't care as long as it's not lamello ball attach whatever player you want to to get this trade done and to bring an MVP candidate into Charlotte this is where it's okay to talk about fit I don't want to hear about fit when you're picking at the top of the draft you're talking about 18 19 year olds Zion Williamson you know what he is when he plays he's an excellent player and you can't create in a lab a better fit for lamello ball to be paired with than that dude rim running with Zion and lamell the lamello throwing the lobs are you kidding me if miles bridges is on this team too goodness it might be the most fun watch in the NBA so absolutely positively you should pursue this if it's on the table in any kind of way yesterday Armando Baycott waiting for you no he offered us $10,000 to stop playing that sound that's true it happened on air our response to that offer is next on the drive do it do it all right listen up it's the drive with Josh Graham go yeah Modi up in an ahi go yeah Maury Jaffee Oh this is the Italian song that was made popular by the rom-com about time which by the way is one of my personal favorites WD have you seen it not a chance and four years ago home attack so four years ago we turned that Oh mom though into the drop that we used every time Armando Baycott's name we thought he'd just be a one-and-done yet here we are four years later a couple years back NIL became legal we thought our way to contribute to that news was to get Baycott to record a cameo of him doing what you've heard now for the last two years and at ACC Media Day last year he said on air kind of jokingly yeah you know I got more coins than I did a year ago more than a couple to rub together yeah let me know if there's something we can offer you to get you to stop playing that sound and then B dot yesterday rolled up into Chapel Hill and broached the subject again and this is what transpired he still uses it he says that y'all can talk about terms to financially buy it but he doesn't want that I think I gotta buy it out I'm so embarrassed why don't you just do oh no I got 10 it's here what okay we wipe it out just do it different Armando 10 I'm not wiping it up he said give you 10 K 10 and we retired why don't you just say Armando so Armando Baycott Armando after offered us $10,000 to stop playing this drop posting the video and here's what I've got to say to five here's what I got to say to you Armando Armando we will accept your offer on two conditions two conditions condition number one the money does not go to me instead it goes to a nonprofit slash charity of our choosing that you can send that to we're not gonna benefit and make a sin off of it you know what since it's not coming to us let's bump that up a little bit to 15 K how about that cash me outside how about that JC horn tell them what's up 15 K let's see if we can bump it up to that we'll settle for the 10 but I'm challenging you 15 K and it's not going to me we will stop the video we'll stop the drop will kill it now and we're going to send it to a nonprofit or a charity we're challenging you now we're putting the ball in your court which leads us to the second condition that video will be gone that drop of you that B dot and yourself call embarrassing will be gone but we can still find somebody not named Armando bake hot or more do can give us a new drop that we can then use on the show moving forward it won't be you it won't be that we still this bits been going on for four years and it's because we we love following fake hot we've loved getting to know Armando we love it something to replace it with so if you're okay with those two terms that it goes to a nonprofit of our choosing and that we can find somebody else maybe it's another tar heel great to replace that sound then sign us up it's a deal get back at us but if he turns it down all of next year for the next year you're going to hear this drop Armando a lot of it it does feel like it's tongue in cheek like he is laughing about it it's not like he's super mad about this yeah it's it's all in good fun is so there you go this started in November of 2019 I went back and checked this bit and we thought it would be a one and done Robert I remember rolled his eyes when we learned that he would be back for a second season and then nearly went nuclear mad when it was year three that he was returning for and here we are we've got an exciting programming announcement just like we have for the first four years of this show being on air we will be broadcasting live from the National Sports Media Association's awards weekend Monday June 26 ahead of the awards banquet we will be live from 3 to 6 in uptown downtown Winston-Salem got my cities mixed up uptown and downtown and to help us with this announcement it's our good friend Dave Gorin who's now joining the show the executive director of the National Sports Media Association and this is a good opportunity to encourage people to watch the video stream on YouTube on Twitch on Twitter WD if people are looking at that stream right now what might they be seeing with Dave joining the show so this is that Bond villain portrait that you and Sarah Bradford and willow took no I actually think that's from the NSMA last year I think that's what that is is I don't see willow in that you can't see willow in it but this is that oh okay the top half of it yeah good stuff Dave how creative welcome you're welcome thank you thanks for having me I appreciate it I was a great photo and I figured what better background to put on them see there that are you and Charles Barkley yes speaking of that this is the best sales pitch I have to anybody who wants to go to the NSMA if you're listening to my voice right now odds are you might like sports and if you go to the National Sports Media Association's awards weekend whether it be legacy night on Sunday night the 25th or the 26th going to the awards banquet you will run into people that are of note like I remember I was hanging out with Ernie Johnson right after Sarah Bradford and I got married last year and he was telling giving me advice on Peloton and telling me about different places I need to go on my honeymoon and then it was Scott Van Pelt really hitting it off with the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball B dot and then yes and then Charles Barkley this is at the hotel barn at the Marriott in downtown Winston he called me over me and my bride he had something to tell me this is right after we got married and Charles Barkley's calling me over to the bar and when that happens you need to come over to hear what Chuck has to say and this is what Chuck had to say so if you're a sports fan and you'd like to hang out with the likes of Lee Corsa or you want to hang out with the likes of Bill Plaske and hear what these people have to say and you know meet Ian Eagle at the they're accessible they're they're available to you and it's right here in the Piedmont Triad it's right here in Winston sale and that's the best way I could pitch it and you still have tables available for the dinner on June 26 right that is correct we have a deadline for tomorrow to buy your tickets and there are no physical tickets your name goes on a list we have your name badge for you like just like like that and that's your credential so you can feel like a big-time media person when you walk in and it's it's fun we'll have 300 plus there by the time we kick things off a week from Monday the 26th that Benton Convention Center so downtown Winston Salem like what do you how often do people tell you wow I just didn't even realize we had something like this in Winston all the time it's kind of the the blessing and curse I've been doing this now for I guess as we say in sports I'm in my 14th season and there are people in our industry who don't know we exist so it's a it's a challenge and I also I tell people when I call all of our winners the first week of January we had 116 state winners three national and two living Hall of Famers so that's 100 never very good at math 121 phone calls plus families of the two deceased and I tell them if you've never been I cannot I can talk till I'm blue in the face and tell you how cool it is for somebody who's in our business to be there at the awards banquet on Monday night never mind the rest of the awards weekend but you really won't get it until you experience it and then you'll say oh my god I can't believe I I've never been or I you know I want to come back even if I don't win that kind of thing so there are there are people who reach out to me all the time had somebody I was on the phone with just earlier today who says I have this cousin or I have this son or I have this family member that is interested in sports broadcasting and how do I break into that and you guys I mean obviously the networking of getting to know not just the people on air but the people behind the scenes is invaluable in Winston but in addition to that you guys also have seminars to our guy Darren Vaught it's gonna help you know facilitate some of those rooms moderate some of those rooms but just how extensive is that piece of it for people who might have an interest in the industry or might just want to investigate whether or not they have a real interest in it well I always say where was this when I was in college for college students and young professionals I don't know that you can beat it you know we will have a hundred plus elite sports media from all over the country those who are doing these seminars and critique room volunteer there to their winners who pay a registration fee to come and then they and then we put them to work and they gladly do it excuse me but we have all kinds of different subjects that they will deal with we even have someone someone from the concussion Legacy Foundation will talk about concussion so not necessarily media specific but something that we as media people can use if we're covering events but you know play-by-play prep for radio play-by-play prep for TV the business is changing how do we change with it how do you you know come up with story ideas writing columns if you are a writer all kinds of different things we have a couple ask the pros seminars one with iron eagle who is doing kind of what Ernie Johnson did last year and to have the ability to not only hear them present but then have the opportunity to ask them questions and maybe even get to talk to them one-on-one how great is that and then if you are a say a play-by-play person or you're you want to do a sports talk show and you've done it in college we have this critique room that I referred to we will have that staffed by a lot of our winners they'll listen to your demo reel for some of it and then tell you maybe what you can improve upon how valuable is that so you know that we do a half day on Sunday and a full day on Monday leading up to the awards banquet today and a half you pay the hundred twenty nine dollars you get lunch both days a box lunch and and that I think it's a unique opportunity to be able to talk and network with people who are at the top level of their profession in a pretty relaxed setting yes and I can vouch for that and you guys are also I think people need to know a nonprofit organization right we are a 501 c3 as defined by them I'm blocking blocking your face there Josh yeah we're a 501 c 3 nonprofit which is defined by the IRS as a charity so it's good for people we don't we don't sell things it's good for people to know that and then the dinner you have seats available where could people go if they want to have either be part of the seminars that you're describing those two days or also get one of those tables and you know rub elbows with the likes of I an eagle leecor so Bill Plaski and company national sports media dot org and right there on the front page is a link to all the events that go on during the weekend you can buy them a la carte by the night the day and then the that set of the summit the sports media convergence summit is is separate as well and you know if you come to that whole weekend you will leave wanting to know when the next one is going to be is like is it going to be starting Tuesday but it won't so yeah it's it's a tremendous opportunity I hate that I'm usually running around like a headless chicken on on those days especially on Monday getting ready for the banquet and you know we have another banquet on Sunday night a welcome dinner and reception on Saturday night and I'm so busy on Monday I don't get to sit in on those seminars and that kills me but I get to watch them back on video later so a triad this is Rich Eisen catch me this evening at six for the Rich Eisen show now back to the drive with Josh Graham the Denver Nuggets had their victory parade today as an athlete this must be the coolest part of winning a championship when you get done with the series you're emotional you're probably tired if you've played you're exhausted and it's probably a late night it's probably not the most comfortable of evenings everybody and their mother is trying to reach out to you it's sounds fantastic don't get me wrong but I think the victory parade it's a few days removed and the entire day is devoted to just celebrating debauchery is okay cursing on live television is okay it happens yes it's chaos and this is the first time the Denver Nuggets have ever won a title so you had a lot of people turn up Nikola Jokic he's hanging out with his daughter he's saying he's happy at the parade and doesn't want it to stop he's even cursing into a microphone Michael Malone he probably had a few somebody was charting KCP's alcohol intake want to take a guess how many beers for cotavious Caldwell Pope but this reporter tracked I'm gonna guess maybe like 10 9 beers and a Bloody Mary all Bloody Mary it's good stuff he did the full Stone Cold Steve Austin slam the cans together and Chuck I don't know how much alcohol you're actually consuming when that happens he saw a fan holding out a beer and he decided the chug one with said fan which then brings us to our guy Isaiah who was the MVP of the victory parade the day apparently moments before this television interview Christian Brown who is spelled Braun B r-a-u-n Carolina fans remember in the live-action national championship game he was on the Kansas team that beat North Carolina a year ago apparently Christian Brown saw this fan and decided he'd share and a brewski with him a beverage with him throw it his way and this fan decided to chug it on the spot and then go on local television and say this oh yeah no dude as soon as he tossed me that brewski I already had to knew what I had to do man I opened up that straight bear claw on him and I was like yeah baby you know that's right yeah and as soon as I seen it I was like I know what I got to do looked at my voice that this is for us bang bang you know what I'm saying so you made eye contact with him and they threw a beer yeah no literally yeah like cuz like I was hyping up the crowd and he engaged it and then he just like looked right at me and I was like dude I'm the one bro come on send it my way as soon as he did he launched it I caught it and it's just it's just a history story after that you know what I mean there's plenty of history being made right now and I guess I'm part two of it I don't know what's the best part of this clip because there is so much that you can pick I said this is for us I look at my boys I say this is for us bang bang he launched it I caught it you just like it when you get the bleep things out I do listen to curse words over and over it's funny so many drops like I'm the one bro pretty good I said to Christian Brown I'm the one bro I was literally writing down things as he said it it was a history story after that I bear clawed it there's plenty of history being made right now no right before that it's a it was a history story playing out bro and it's just it's just a history story after that you know what I mean I know what you mean yeah do you want to hear more from this guy because I do and how did that beer from Christian Brown taste and say it without cursing this child probably one of the best beers I've ever had in my life I understand what they mean out when Coors is brewed in the Rockies cuz that went down super smooth you know and all I gotta say shout out to him and I really appreciate it and let's just say one of the best days of my life let's go nuggets we're gonna get it next year sounds good thank you brother shout out to this guy no thank you shout out to you Isaiah how does that not become a Coors ad him talking about I now know what they mean when they say it's cold like the Rockies don't be surprised make it happen don't be surprised if you see this guy on a Coors tick-tock be a history story after that see me from ECU you can probably really appreciate this I can yeah not from my own experience but I I've I've witnessed oh I was a witness of you've seen people do this behavior such as this do a good old Google of what mug night is out in Greenville every Monday night yeah shout out to those folks I love it I still haven't ever been to a victory parade never have been it's one of my great sports regrets that when the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006 I was 12 or 13 years old this is what 17 years ago now 17 years ago this week the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers and my family took me on a vacation like a family vacation to the beach forget what beach they didn't care much about hockey so I'm sitting there watching the canes win the cup and we're the only light on in the in the hotel room is the TV screen and I don't want to wake everybody else up so I just extend both arms in the air but yeah the canes man earlier that day my mom gave me a championship t-shirt mom the game 7 is tonight and it was a conference finals t-shirt she didn't know the difference so I have a conference finals t-shirt from that 2006 season not a Stanley Cup championship t-shirt but we were on that trip long enough that we missed the parade so that was the one time one of my teams won that I would have had a chance to attend a victory parade one day I suppose the great Larry Sorenson is currently standing by in Omaha and might even be inside Charles Schwab Stadium right now in Omaha I guess we'll find out together if that's the case we'll preview the Deac's matchup with Stanford when Larry joins us next good afternoon my wsjs family rich eyes in here from the rich eyes and show stick around after the drive with Josh Graham for the very best in the world of sports and entertainment with me your humble host rich eyes and here comes the best part the rich eyes and show gets underway at 6 on news talk sports for the triad when you want the job done right you go to the best wsj s there are several ways that you can watch or listen to Wake Forest baseball of course on ESPN you can catch the Deac's face Stanford two o'clock first pitch on Saturday you can listen to our next guest Larry Sorenson on the call with our guy Stan cotton on the Wake Forest app the Wake Forest athletics app you can find them or right here on wsjs we have the Westwood one broadcast of Wake Forest College World Series games too so there are plenty of ways you can listen to the Deac's or watch the Deac's it's such an exciting time as Wake Forest has advanced to the College World Series for the first time since 1955 Larry Sorenson joining us now from Omaha and Larry for those who don't know you used to broadcast the College World Series for ESPN once upon a time where does this assignment getting to broadcast in that place for this particular event rank among the cool things that you've been lucky enough to do in your post playing career but to me it had been such a goal to get here as a player that when I finally got to come as a broadcaster for ESPN back in 1991 and 92 and was able to be the analyst this is the best sporting event I've ever been to I've been to World Series I've been to playoff games I've been to all-star games pitched in an all-star game thank you very much for that little little note down there and Omaha and the games out here the College World Series is the most enjoyable the most exciting you know it takes all those little league tournaments that you went to and takes it to the ultimate level so it really is a tremendous event and I think Stan's finding that out he's having a blast yeah we were watching the outlaw Josie Wales at his house earlier this week and he was telling us how excited he was to go to Omaha for the first time what's something about Omaha and this event that people like Stan or WDM myself or listeners who have never been there for it before might not be able to appreciate unless they're there I think one of the things that's really neat is that they have these different service clubs that adopt the different teams and so it becomes a situation where every team has their own cheering section from the people of Omaha so the the casual bystander that just goes out to the games because the Exchange Club of Omaha is the Wake Forest team service member they're going out to brunch with them tomorrow and they'll hang around and if they need to be to have anything done the Exchange Club is there to help them work their way around Omaha and so it becomes a real family-oriented intimate type event for a pretty good sized city and it makes it a lot of fun the stadium holds twenty four thousand five hundred people and it'll be jammed during the course of the days the players have been loving that we went out and watched batting practice and infield and then went to Tom Walter Brock Wilkin and and Rhett Louder's press conference and then it's 88 degrees here today and you know how our main job in life is to protect the voice of the dekes so we had to get him back into climate control and wrap some foam rubber around him to get him back to the hotel and take care because it's gonna be a lot of baseball in a few days and and we want to be ready and prepared and set to go two o'clock first pitch for Wake Forest and Stanford on Saturday the tournament beginning tomorrow Virginia gonna be in the nightcap Larry Sorenson's joining us from Omaha so you guys arrived yesterday what is Wake Forest been doing since arriving in Omaha got out very quickly and got batting practice in at the University of Nebraska at Omaha yesterday they were going out tonight for an opening ceremony after touring the stadium a little bit getting into the locker room getting out onto the field getting used to the grass and the dirt and feeling their way getting some of the nerves out of the way initially taking care of media obligations that will get shut down a little bit later on tomorrow they'll go out and they'll have batting practice again after a brunch with the Exchange Club as I mentioned and and then just start getting prepping for Saturday's game some of the guys will probably wander over the stadium we're kind of a probably stand cotton one iron away from the from the stadium right now so the players will wander over and take a look at at some of the games that are going on tomorrow and just soak in all the atmosphere watch the excitement build there's a fan fest area there is a baseball village area with food and and different games and so on and so forth so there's a lot going around around the around the ballpark getting to the actual baseball the matter though it seems like Rhett louder is gonna be the guy on Saturday don't know if that's been confirmed but it seems like that's gonna be the case with that being the case do you think that was a difficult decision for Tom Walter at all yeah I think Tom reacted and Cory mascara reacted like they do to everything let's look at every single possible angle of this discuss it every way we possibly can figure out the odds on everything and then say well the guys 15 and oh why don't we just go ahead and throw him you know so yeah it's gonna be louder on Saturday and it'll be Josh Hartle on Monday they'll have Keeter and Sullivan in the in the bullpen and after that then you start playing out who's got how much rest how many pitches did they throw and everything else but they're so deep with with starters that are capable and the bullpen is very very deep they've got guys they didn't even get to in the super regionals so their pitching staff is set exactly the way that they want given that when you broadcasted games there it was at old Rosenblatt Stadium which didn't have the biggest dimensions NC State baseball fans still a meant how big those those outfields those that outfield can seem at times I think it was Trey Turner who slammed one right to the wall that gave him that nearly sent NC State to the championship series back in 2013 or 2014 I'd have been 2012 anyway with Wake Forest having such a great staff as you're describing does that give them a greater advantage given the dimensions of that outfield well first of all everybody's saying that the ball is carrying better than they're used to seeing they've lowered the seams on the baseball and everybody was saying today that the ball seems to be carrying better than they expected Tom said that Brock said that and I talked to some of the hitters as they were coming out of the cage and they all said going better than we thought it would from what we'd heard the actual dimensions are 330 down the lines 335 I think down the lines 370 the gaps 408 straightaway center field and I think Nick Kurtz had the best line he said if you hit it good you get rewarded if you miss it a little bit you still hit it off the wall or one hop the wall but you still the ball still carries better than everybody thought that it would so that'll be a good thing and then you know it's interesting because we hear this a lot the reason Wake Forest offense is so good is because they play in the small ballpark well that means their pitching is exceptional because they're leading the nation by eight tenths of a run an ERA and as I walk as I run through the statistics of the other teams they keep up in several areas but they don't have the overall depth that Wake Forest does you know if they're pitching staffs closer they don't hit it as well if they're if their offense hits as many home runs they don't pitch it as well you know so there's all different kinds of variations but I think Wake Forest has the most balance in every single statistic and category Dave Gorin joined us earlier and he told us we needed to ask you this question he's usually the guy on the road that helps pick meals where you guys go he told us to ask you what was recommended and what you ended up eating in Omaha last night well we found a fabulous prime rib sandwich when we first got in and it was late when we got in so we ate about 3 30 so we were kind of halfway in between so Stan and I went out for a salad later on in the evening at the old mattress factory but drovers I'll bet is where Dave's leading because it's the most expensive place and that's what he usually gets me to pick up the tab so I'm sure drovers was heavily on his mind and I think we're saving that my wife comes in tomorrow night because the buck it was one of my wife's bucket list items was to go to Omaha for the College World Series so she'll be our statistician and scorekeeper in the booth and fill us with statistics and different things and then run down stands different drinks that he needs to keep going so I was I was debating going we were debating it at the station but I've said for years when East Carolina goes for the first time I'll be there that's there you go well put it on your list man it's it's really truly Josh's is unbelievable it's the pirates are gonna get there I'm gonna be there yeah when the pirates get there I'm gonna be there well they've got a great program and I'm surprised that they haven't been in your lifetime but you know walking down the street and seeing people with different shirts and different logos and everybody's stopping to find out about your team and then you get to pick their brain about their team and these are just people on the streets you know these are just bands that came up and and everybody's willing to share and very friendly tremendous atmosphere it's it's a lot of fun have a lot of fun Larry it's I'm glad you're back in a place that you know semi well and we look forward to listening to you as well in the wake for us app thank you so much for out