A Hard W (3-8-24)

This is the DRIVE Podcast with Josh Graham.

Now you're talking my language. You can hear the DRIVE weekday afternoons three till six on WSJS. We made it to a Friday DRIVE. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we've also made it to the final weekend of the college basketball regular season and we'll have you covered for tomorrow's games. W.D., Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. He'll be at Clemson Wake Forest. I'll be at Duke Carolina and Durham. There will be YouTube content that you can only get on YouTube.

So if you haven't already, make sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel searching the DRIVE with Josh Graham. Now on to the games. Forecasting round two of Duke Carolina is this simple for me. Can the Tar Heels recreate what they did in the Smith Center about a month ago when they visit Cameron tomorrow evening?

That's the key question you should ask. And when you look at the box score from round one, it's very hard to imagine that kind of performance can be replicated while Carolina's on the road. Thus, Duke's gonna win a close one. They're going to earn a season sweep.

And here's why. Armando Bacott had 25-10-6. 25-10-6 against Duke. The only other Tar Heel to ever have 25-10-5 against the Blue Devils. Long history, this rivalry. Very long time these two teams have been playing each other.

Charlie Scott, 50-plus years ago. Also, good luck trying to go for 19 assists to five turnovers again. That type of ratio when facing this Duke defense. But keeping it with Armando, he was able to do that because Kyle Filipowski picked up four fouls. Good luck having Flip get in foul trouble again with the game being at Cameron.

Plus, we've seen the late season emergence of Sean Stewart. He only played six minutes in the first meeting. He's gonna play more than that tomorrow. He can add additional rim protection to help against Bacott. The Blue Devils defense also has a good answer for RJ Davis.

We saw the strategy that was working pretty well in the first matchup. A lot of face guarding, but mostly it was Tyrese Proctor guarding RJ. Proctor held RJ Davis to four points in the first half of that game. You might not remember that because when you look at RJ's stat sheet, looks pretty good. 17 points on the game. That's a decent outing, but only four in the first half.

What changed in the second half? Well, Tyrese Proctor got in foul trouble. Again, ask yourself, Carolina going into Cameron, is Tyrese Proctor and Kyle Filipowski both going to get in foul trouble again on their home court? Probably not. Is Tyrese Proctor again, given the way that he's been playing the last few games in Caleb Foster's absence, gonna be held to two points?

Probably not. The Blue Devils have a good answer for RJ. It's unrealistic to expect the historical stat line being dropped again by Armando Bacott. And 19 assists to five turnovers.

Good luck. Don't forget, Jon Shire, after the first game, he called out Duke's effort. I don't remember Jon Shire doing that after really any game his first two seasons as Duke's coach, but he did it after that game. I don't think I've ever heard a coach in the rivalry question effort.

Here was Jon yesterday speaking to what he expects to see from his team effort-wise tomorrow. You know, in this game, you know, it needs to be played at a... you need to be a high-level competitor in this game. It has to... that's why these games have been so memorable through the years. And I didn't feel we lived up to that in the first game. And that's something for this group that wasn't the only time where we've had a meeting or talked about a moment where we didn't play the level that we we didn't play the level that we would want or I would want.

And these guys have responded. Duke wins the rematch tomorrow 81 to 76. Let's go to WD, who's a Tar Heel fan on the matter. Do you have strong conviction about this game tomorrow? Yeah, I got Carolina by seven. Oof. Oof.

Well, what did I say that you have strong disagreement with? If anything, if you think Carolina not only is going to win, but win by six, seven points, seven points. I think Armando is going to do it again. Armando.

25, 10, and six. I think he can have a game just like that again. Why not? I mean, we've seen him... Why not? Because it's only happened one other time in the history of his rivalry.

I think Armando is going to have a big day. Okay. I don't think it's that complicated. Alright.

WD. Simplifying it. The Human Highlighter. We get out of the way whenever the Human Highlighter wants in. I don't want to mischaracterize the Human Highlighter, but he seems to be a Carolina fan whenever he calls in, so I have a feeling he's probably not on board with my Duke pick either.

Am I right, Human Highlighter? You are absolutely, finally, 100 percent correct on this. However, your opening statement, you're all wrong, Josh Graham. I agree with Will Dalton.

Let me tell you something. This Carolina team is just that. We are a team. We're a team. We don't have to have one guy step up. We have it all the time.

If Baycard doesn't have the same kind of game, that's okay. RJ Davis. Cormac Ryan. One of the guys will step up and be huge in this game. We're playing at Cameron, so I understand what you said. I don't expect the Dukies to get in foul trouble.

Oh, Lord, no. That's not going to happen in Cameron in North Stadium, or should I say Hasbro in North Stadium. Carolina is going to go in there, and they're going to get the sweep as Carolina can do, because what? We are the better team.

Understand. People look at this. People look at individual players. Look at this season as a whole. Carolina has had multiple players step up and have a huge game.

Ingrid, Baycard, Davis, Ryan, name it. They will come through, and Carolina gets the W in Cameron once again. Highlight.

I do agree with them. Carolina. Better team. The better team all year. Duke by five. OnX at WSJS Radio if you want in.

That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. While you're a Carolina fan, WD, it's no secret which in-state team I root for. The NHL's trade deadline will hit in less than an hour, and the Carolina hurt. The Canes have already won the deck. They leveled up from a team that was already top four in the Eastern Conference. A huge, huge day for the Canes.

They added two lethal scores. Carolina strong defensively. Great on the blue line. Not top ten scoring team in the league.

Jake Gensl from Pittsburgh can fix that. He's a legit bonafide 40 goal scorer. To put that in perspective, 40 goals for those who don't follow hockey all that closely, here's the complete list of Carolina Hurricanes since the team moved from Hartford to Raleigh in 97.

Or I guess Greensboro first and then Raleigh. Here's the complete list of Carolina Hurricanes that have had 40 goals in a season. Jeff O'Neill, Eric Stahl. That's the list.

Has not happened in 15 years. Now you got Jake Gensl. You also added Evgeny Kuznetsov from Washington. Key piece on that Stanley Cup team from about five years ago. Great experience. Great goal scoring.

He could be lethal as well. More important, more importantly, this signals that this team is all in. Carolina, you knew they were pretty good and the expectations there were at the start of the season. Now, unlike last year at the deadline, Carolina is just pushing its chips to the center.

The same way they did in 2006 when they won the Cup. 2006, they added Mark Recke. They added Doug Waite.

Pushed their chips to the center of the table and this is reminiscent of that with those types of additions. Plus, if you want to talk about a huge addition around the deadline as well, just not something that you traded for, Freddie Anderson returned to the Nets last night for the first time in over four months. And how did he do? He stopped 24 of 25 shots in a 4-1 Carolina win. Here was Rod Brind'Amour afterwards on the journey for Freddie Anderson when he was unsure whether or not Freddie would come back through the blood clots he was dealing with and now that he's back you have a grade A number one goalie for the stretch run. That's probably the bigger story really is for him. I'm sure he had, well I know he had a lot of doubts about just ever even lacing him up again and you know just kind of knock that one out and feel good about whether we won or lost. Just getting back out there doing something that obviously he loves to do and so that was probably the the biggest takeaway. Pretty cool stuff watching that. Carolina already a legit contender before the deadline. Just got better.

Watch out for the canes. Darren Vaught's going on the air for Wake Forest baseball's ACC opener against Duke. So Darren I can't think of a better idea but then people listening to this show to turn on Wake Duke at six o'clock. You're correct there is not a single idea that would be better and I'll hear no dispute. I have a good idea that might be better than that idea right now. Okay. As a preview of the shows of something that we're going to do when we get to DC and we get to Charlotte the next couple of weeks for the ACC tournament and NCAA first and second round. Here's a pack of 1992 Topps baseball cards. An unopened pack that you can open up while I tell the people about what's going on at the local YMCA. Sound about good to you?

I think that tells the story. Yes so good. There's a great new program that the YMCA has with sports called the Warrior Sports. They've been doing it basketball, soccer, now basketball for a second season. It's boys and girls ages 8 to 13 who have disabilities.

Gives them a chance to learn fundamentals and other aspects important aspects of youth sports such as character building, teamwork, sportsmanship, and mindset. Space is limited. It's only at the Jerry Long location and registration is open through March or until it fills up.

To learn more about it YMCA and WNC.org. Before we answer unusual questions to give away, wait for us. Duke tickets. What did you get in your pack?

There's some good stuff in here. I saw on the back Todd Van Poppel which is just an excellent baseball name from that era the early 90s. I got a Bernie Williams here and he's running the base pads. He's got like the the Dahmer glasses on. You remember when he wore those on the field like that he was wearing like the serial killer specs.

Those are outstanding. Yeah that's a great photo of Bernie Williams. We got a Pat Borders World Series MVP Pat Borders. John Crook formerly of ESPN.

John Crook is how I believe that's pronounced. The Philadelphia Phillies. I mean maybe.

I don't know. Here's Al Osuna. I wonder if he's related to North Carolina.

I'd love to hear John Crook do a Richard Nixon impression and say I am not a crock. Huh I'm gonna look into this. Okay so there's a guy Al Osuna for the Astros here. He looks to be a pitcher. I wonder if he's related possibly to North Carolina's designated here Alberto Osuna but we're gonna look into that. I think the Bernie Williams is my favorite.

That's solid. Wake Forest Baseball ticket giveaways courtesy of our friends at Jason's Deli in Winston-Salem right off of Haines Mall Boulevard. Pay them a visit if you want tickets to go see Wake Duke on Sunday.

336-777-1600. All you have to do is call us and ask us an unusual question. It could be sports related. That's usually more fun when it's not. Let's answer unusual questions now though. Last week guys everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham. I'm not the only one bringing props into the studio.

Darren Bhatt is too. That's an interesting contraption that's sitting next to you. It's carrying my water.

What is your unusual question today? So this is this was a promotional item from the Jack's Classic which I called for D1Baseball.com. It's a great like water bottle. It's an ice shaker is the brand and it's got the Jack's Classic logo on it. I've been using it to you know hydrate throughout the day. Here you go if you want to show it to the good people who are watching. Ice shaker.

So ice shaker. Why have I heard of that? As seen on Shark Tank one of the Gronkowski's came up with the idea and it is a family venture of the Gronkowski's. Now they are not the reason why I have this and I didn't purchase it but it brings up the question what's the most ridiculous celebrity endorsed thing you've ever purchased? Most ridiculous um I'll start so like my example is maybe not the most ridiculous but it's like the one it's the celebrity endorsement and I can't say I'm swayed on that sort of thing very often but it's the one that actually got me to purchase something I otherwise would not have.

Which is? I was 20 years old and Steve-O was the front man for these like skater shoes. It was a brand called snow shoes s-n-e-a-u-x. I think it quickly went defunct okay and I didn't skate but I was into skater culture so I wore skate shoes like vans and things like that. I bought a pair of these snow shoes as endorsed by Steve-O and there's zero like I probably wore them a dozen times never really wore them in got rid of them was not just you know it I otherwise would not have purchased them that's my most maybe my most shameful celebrity endorsement sway.

That's great WD? I the one that registers you get a few of these I bet you get a you get a few of these. Well see the one that registers the most for me is like when I was a baseball player like I would get athletic gear that was endorsed by certain players I'd like so I would buy like Barry Bonds grip tape because I wanted my wood bat to look like Barry Bonds bat. I did when I played soccer with Cristiano Ronaldo's mercurial vapors that I wore once like the shoes my brother's a soccer player and was like a total gear head those were good those were good good boots. I did remember watching Tyler Hansbrough's Subaru commercial back in the day wow maybe want to get a Subaru I don't remember that they only gave him one live wow wow I really wish that as an adult you were just rocking a subi because of Tyler Hansbrough specifically that commercial he swayed me wow what's your unusual question WD? um is it bad that I forgot it yes yeah that's horrible we do it every week you're a professional you're a professional broadcaster I had it in my head Josh you go while I remember it I'm dressed in a cotton candy I'm Knuff hoodie right now yeah you're still wearing that thing huh the Oscars are on Sunday we're celebrating this I'm reminded of cotton candy ice cream when I look at myself on this video stream what's your favorite kind of ice cream when you say cotton candy you mean like the Superman tub yeah those things are great is that cotton candy flavored is that what that is or when you go to one of these places like Mayberry and Winston or one of these others you can get cotton candy flavor ice cream those are usually a great specialty yeah see this reminds me of like the big tub of of they call it Superman it's like a it's a pure there are purer colors right right it's it's blue red and yellow not that that's my favorite but that's what that reminds me of um I think it's Mayfield that put out a flavor blueberry cream pie oh and it's like a blueberry cheesecake like you know if you go to cookout and you get the blueberry cheesecake yeah uh shake it's like that in ice cream form and just like a pint side that's that's my favorite ice cream flavor wd birthday cake there you go I love birthday cake ice cream 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600 if you want in I'll probably just go basic answer and say cookies and cream sure I like a mean cookies and cream but I was talking with my wife actually about this last night about ice cream flavors and she says her favorite type of ice cream flavor is oreo and I'm like wait a minute that's cookies and cream is or no no no no it's got to be oreo brand is what she says we got ore ore hear me out you could just get oreos and vanilla ice cream because that's what that who are we going to we got Beth and Greensboro Beth and Greensboro what's your unusual question hi Josh hi hi everybody hi Beth um you guys are probably too young to know about this type it's called bubble gum and they used to have like literally pieces of bubble gum oh are you okay it's so good it was so cold it was delicious though and it was like blue and pink and it that was one of my favorites but I love lemon ice cream that's my um two cents lemon see you and Pete Nance both Pete Nance had the lemon flavor oreos that he was all in on lemon flavored ice cream I could see it lemon lemon oreos is a good flavor good I get that good stuff so hold on the back the bubble gum ice cream she said it had actual pieces of bubble like I hope Beth wasn't like swallow ingesting that yeah yeah they're not supposed to forever to digest you're not supposed to swallow the bubble gum yeah do you remember your unusual question I do I'm glad um good save but it's true uh do you have a strategy when it comes to parking like for me like I have no problem walking and getting exercise so I like to park away from other cars from the riffraff yeah from the clown show that is closest to the doors yeah I always try to find a spot that I can pulls just head on into like if I'm like in a big parking lot I'm I want to park like all the way through so like go through a spot and then be facing out already so I don't have to back up reverse back in her is what you're you are correct yeah I which I will accept far before the people who needlessly back back in and take up time and show off it's for everybody like we get it you've got the camera back there exactly what it is I still don't trust my camera and I've had the camera for a year and a half I get it you're not driving a 2010 Corolla that's got 250,000 miles on it sweet like are you driving a 2010 Corolla with 250,000 miles quite not quite we're almost there all right you get the point you get the point no I uh I don't know I just I don't think about it right that's right people think too much about stuff like that if there's an open space you act you turn you pull into the space you get where you're going people will like yeah circle a lot trying to find the closest spot and in turn you you lost five minutes does Steph Curry think about what shot he's going to hit during the game no that's it catch and shoot he's always open what is the defense giving you you got to take it I guess that's fair I just like to be away from getting dinged up I think we can all agree with that and that's been unusual question who wants to get dinged up get away from nobody nobody coming up an elite pitching matchup to open up ACC play and it's about time we start paying attention to the mid majors in our state here on a Friday drive a couple finals at the ACC women's basketball tournament in Greensboro it looked like Notre Dame was going to beat Louisville in a walk a matchup between two ranked teams but Louisville makes it competitive Notre Dame winning by 9 77 68 and this one just about in the books it's now in the books Virginia Tech 55 Miami 47 no Elizabeth Kittley in the lineup the three-time ACC player of the year not wearing any brace or boot or anything like that but watching on not playing today number 11 Virginia Tech beats Miami again by eight points but nothing from the Summerfield native of course you have Duke NC State five o'clock tip 10th ranked NC State facing the Blue Devils Kara Lawson's team Lawson's team that won last night Syracuse facing Florida State is the nightcap in Greensboro Darren Votts in studio with us Darren before we get to the game that you're going to be calling in a couple of hours it's time to pay attention to our state's mid-majors High Point Big South tournament their action starts tonight they're the top seed in the Big South tournament it's being hosted in their building at the Q High Point one of two in-state programs to never make an NCAA tournament joining Elon as the d1 program your Elon Phoenix your High Point Panthers since you call a lot of High Point in addition to ECU basketball that's where we need to begin when talking about it's not just the big boys to be paying attention to this weekend you got to keep an eye on the Panthers because that's a great story yeah and and they got Radford earlier today with a victory oh that that's already done it's in the books oh I knew that they started on Friday I didn't know a tip time so they tipped congratulations to High Point for a win today their next in action tomorrow so it it was a little hairy Radford got off to an 18 to 4 start the Highlanders so uh you know that was a 14 point deficit relatively early I think that was the first media timeout High Point ended up winning by like 13 they brought it to a two-point deficit at halftime High Point had I think one assist in the first half and still only trailed by a bucket like they just when they need iso buckets they they got dudes who can get iso buckets their freshman seven-footer Justlyn Boto Boto tied the Big South tournament single game record for rebounds he got his 19th with about 30 seconds to go in that game like they just got they got dudes so yeah no I mean they they're they're a dangerous team I was at the Holmes Center in Boone when App State wrapped up their undefeated home schedule and their regular season Sunbelt Championship too really impressed with them so tomorrow App State will open up in Pensacola they're lobbying and Dustin Kearns is with us last week they're lobbying for two-bid Sunbelt and in order for that to happen given how the metrics are looking right now even though App State's beaten JMU twice already it would be best for the conference they'd be best set up if App State rather than JMU were the conference champs yeah JMU can just say well we've lost to a couple of teams this year and the teams that we lost to one of them we lost three times to App State and they're in the tournament for a reason they're in consideration according to Joe Leonardi's most recent racquetology today so App State Sunbelt action to Pensacola tomorrow two others I'll throw out there Charlotte and UNCW both are top three in the standings in their respective conferences Charlotte and the American you got a chance to see them calling ECU basketball UNCW in the CAA watch out for the Seahawks yeah and Charlotte plays at ECU tomorrow so I'll be in Greenville for that it's senior night for ECU interested to see like they ever since they extended is it Ray Fern what is his name Fern the head coach who was the interim and got the interim tag taken off yeah interim tag is taken off they've not played as well I think that's mostly coincidence because they've just run into some some good teams I like South Florida a lot speaking of they've only lost one conference game this year yeah I like South Florida a lot Florida did you go to USF this year no they play that's a fun building they played at men geez but we did not go there this year Florida Atlantic is you know came in as one of the favorites I think they're good Memphis has has come in as one of the favorites fallen off the face of the earth and now is on this absolute heater and I I have a hard time not imagining they're gonna win the conference tournament but just because they've played so well as of late there there are a lot of interesting storylines in the American so we'll see ECU's pretty much a lock to be in the 8-9 match up likely gonna play Tulsa who they beat in the the one matchup with them this year so we'll see how the Pirates do but it I mean it's it's gonna be an interesting week in in Fort Worth six o'clock start wake baseball facing Duke ESPN plus you can watch Darren Vaught then he's got the ACC network polo on right now for those who could see doing a job here on YouTube twitch and on X tell me about this pitching matchup what excites you so much about what we see tonight I mean it's two probable top 10 picks in Duke's Jonathan Santucci and Wake Forest's Josh Hartle they're successful in completely different ways Santucci is a fastball slider guy and his game is wiping you out with that and getting strikeouts Josh Hartle is like your quintessential five pitch mix he's he projects so easily to be a major league starting pitcher and he's going to be all over the zone he's just really tough to hit hard so they do it two completely different ways it's two of the guys who do it better than than anyone in the country a couple of really good left-handers and obviously the teams outside of their starting pitchers are are really good too this this is the series of the week in college baseball what does that mean are there going to be a lot of people scouts a lot of people I was told earlier this week by multiple people from Wake Forest that the scouting credentials requests were even higher than usual than they've been and I mean you know if you've paid any attention to Wake Forest baseball over the past two years you know the place is crawling with scouts basically every weekend so I was told scouting credentials were even higher in in even higher demand than usual so I mean it's going to be buzzy I know half the d1 baseball crew is going to be there tonight for that game so it's going to be it's going to feel big time it's going to be fun so I just hope it lives up to the hype yeah I hope our mid-majors going back to them they live up to the hype because I'm starting to do the math in my head and we'll talk about racketology when Mike DeCorcy joins us but how many in-state teams are going to make the tournament you have Duke and Carolina let's assume the top seeds take care of business High Point and App State as four and then you look at it can Wake Forest get hot and get into the tournament can either Charlotte or UNCW win as three seats like I think there's a chance you can get to five NCAA tournament teams from the state of North Carolina this year yeah I could see it again the American's been wild man like Charlotte's certainly got a chance I like UNCW too I mean they they played at men geez earlier in the season and you hit that w hard I always do you have to you have to man I that's what that's what this coming in lazy thing UNCW and then you come in with double you you have to dude when I was doing college radio this used to be a thing that like like radio execs would interview and ask you like how do you say the letter w yeah and people want to get jobs because of that letter 10 into my brain that I was doing games not on w e h c I don't say w no no no I'm just saying that's how it was that's how it was it was there's a range here Darren there is there's a spectrum that we're on I'm just at the w far end here and you're somewhere in the middle in a normal place I just it's not okay to say hard r it is okay to say a hard w okay let's start there the hard w is acceptable but it's noticeable and it's aggressive you aren't ready for the hard w were you have a hard w if we're being honest see like all right say wd say it wd wd that's how iron eagle said it too wd yeah do we have that drop because iron eagle does strike me as someone who will say a hard w when talking because the guy's a pro like I said I'm doing a job here let's hear it I don't have it it's wd needs to watch a thinking man's picture we'll get to that in the big four thanks for being here Darren of course see you guys the perfect guest for today is the sporting news hall of fame sports writer mike de corse the man does bracketology just today he was writing about the acc and the net check my twitter or tsm mike on twitter to find that quickly and ahead of the oscars sunday he's a big movie nerd as am i mike joins us now mike you're speaking largely to an acc audience that is fearing four possibly three bids for the ncaa tournament amid all the complaints about the net that you've heard from coaches and from fans that you wrote about in your column would a number that small be justified to you it could be justified it's it's it depends on what transpires in the acc and elsewhere over the next 12 days or not 12 days nine days i should say it depends on on what happens relative to virginia relative to wake forest relative to pit and relative to a dozen or more other teams out there that are in similar circumstances it it there's there's no magic number there's no magic victory everybody wants there to be okay how many games do we need to win in the acc tournament to get in well if you're in that situation then the best answer to that question is all of them is that carolina's not asking how many games they need to win to get in so if you're asking that question there is no definitive answer other than all however many games are required for you to win the acc tournament i agree with i agree with you i think that's very well put in the context of wake forest for example after it loses at home against george tech because now it doesn't seem there isn't any path short of winning the acc tournament that you're going to feel comfortable on selection sunday but the one that i will push back on a little bit is virginia because i believe if they win at home against george attack and that should happen then they should be good because that is a team that you should want to reward for playing an out-of-conference schedule the way that they did in beating florida and anm by double digits and scheduling teams that are good some will relate it to clemson and wake forest the last couple of years but what those two had in common were were they didn't play anybody out of conference and in clemson's case they lost to a bad lilliola chicago team a year ago virginia yes they've been blown out but they've been blown out by good teams largely so i i think virginia should be solidly in if they win on saturday what say you i personally don't believe in rewarding teams for playing good out of conference schedules i believe in rewarding teams for winning uh that's uh that's and if we want to reward teams for playing great out of conference schedules michigan man they're 8 and 23 but they played the number one schedule in the country there there's there's schedule strength in every metric we look at whether it's the predictive metrics ken palm net bpi or the the results metrics kpi strength the record there's schedule strength in all of them so how did you do against the schedule whether you look at it just in terms of the results on the paper you beat you lost to memphis by a hundred uh and you beat uh florida uh or you look at the numbers that encapsulate all those things it all adds up to what did you achieve and i'm not saying that virginia can't be in or or won't be in great shape but they're one of my last teams in uh right now and georgia tech doesn't change the math on that georgia tech just keeps you from if you beat them it just keeps you from getting eliminated or damaged by not not beating georgia tech uh so i don't think there's any security in that it i their resume has some terrific marks and it has some bad marks and i i if you look at the consensus i'm not alone in putting virginia in that grouping i don't think there's any more enthusiasm in the broader listen to me the broader bracket community than i express uh so i i think that virginia would do very well for itself to take out georgia tech and then at least one or two of whoever's placed in front of them when they get to dc tony bennett is very polished usually has a good answer to everything last week at cameron the question i asked him was you're going to likely be a you're going to likely be a three seed in the acc team so good that you don't play tuesday and wednesday in this conference and yet there are some saying you shouldn't make the tournament despite the fact you're the third best team in this conference by standings 13 and 7 who you beat and then some out of conference wins that makes my head explode but i know you'll tell me the historical perspective outside the acc of this is it happens just ask the big 10 in 2018 probably exactly that that was exactly where i was going hey there you go 2018 the the big 10 gets four teams in and i will i will tell you the scenario uh on like february 1st whatever the sunday was like right at the beginning of february i'm on big 10 basketball and beyond and we are discussing nebraska's chances and they put the schedule up in a full screen graphic and i'm like uh-oh it doesn't look like there's enough wins out there there's win enough wins out there but there's enough good wins in the league for nebraska to build a resume they're gonna have to go to the conference tournament and do something and they wound up in a four or five game against michigan which was the five had to win the prior day and they played michigan on on a quarterfinal friday and it was a fabulous game but michigan won and i walked into nebraska's locker room and i am telling you it was so quiet in that room it was as if the noise was being vacuumed out i've never been in a quieter locker room in 40 years in the business they knew that they needed that game and they didn't get it and you know i i hope virginia doesn't wind up in that spot i hope pit doesn't line up in that spot um because it's a terrible spot to be but the reason they're in that spot or potentially in that spot is that they've played the way they have to this point in the season and they've done it in a conference that is not achieving at the level that historically it has who intrigued mike de cource he's with us here sporting news read his story on the acc the net going into the last weekend of the regular season on the sporting news's website of course mike and myself's social media page from the day on twitter who most intrigues you more heading into the postseason duke or carolina well i think i think carolina does because if i look at those two teams i think that they're both terrific i think that each of them has the goods to get to the final four but i think carolina is the one of the two that has the goods to win the national championship if duke does it and i'm not saying it's impossible because they have a lot of the components you need very good point guard play pro level talent some some really good wings they've got their defense tightened up but they don't protect the rim it's something that i noticed early on against arkansas that it was and statistically it's not a surprise but i noticed early on against arkansas i saw it come back again against pit they can't protect the rim they don't have that player they don't have their players in the nba yeah derek lively yeah exactly uh and so if they had that guy or someone like that they're a great national championship contender because they've got the point guard the wings the nba talent can shoot the heck out of it they got everything they need except that and so hold you up do you have a criteria like when you're saying this is what an ncaa tournament contender is checking boxes rim protectors how high up on that list how many things are on this list it's not super high um but it's on the list and you won't find many champions that don't have okay nba talent first round picks haven't had one since 87 haven't had that that that and when i say nba talent i'm not just talking about guys who can make the league and be on a team i'm talking about guys who are going to get picked in the first round well you say you say first round since 87 obviously it's a lot bigger first round now today than it was in 87 if you want to find the last time a player won a team had uh didn't have a player picked in the first 30 picks let's call it you'll have to go back to the 40s to find the last time that happened so yeah i think that's a pretty big requirement but let me ask you this question let me ask you this question in that regard who do you see on this carolina team that would be a first round draft pick a cadet will be a first round draft this year it doesn't have to be this oh sure sure okay but he will be uh that that's the player that will be that player um and that's why they have the chance because then you add in okay you've got you've got point guard play you got leadership uh you've got wings uh on that team maybe not at your you know obviously rj isn't the prototypical wing but you've got uh an oversized point guard yeah um and you you have to have the rim protection i talked about uh you have to be top 20 in offensive defense that's why kentucky i mean like i was i was talking on a someone else's uh uh show on on a betting site and and i'm like and kentucky's like 35 to 1 and i said you can make a lot of money on them just don't bet a lot because you could because it there's a very good chance it doesn't cash because no one has ever made has never ever wanted with the defense at their level not during the ken palm era last 20-25 years no one's wanted with that defense but duke has gotten the defense up to where it can contend just that last little thing about the the uh the lack of shot blocking worries me um i see it i i i look at duke and like i said if you gave me a derek lively or someone half as good as derek lively who would be worthy of minutes on this team i think that you would have a great contender well i'll have you watch somebody very closely tomorrow amid all the college basketball that i'm sure you're going to be watching mike decorsy here sean stewart nearly gets a double double monday and what it reminds me of if duke's going to make the run that you're talking about it's so aptly the way you put it they need this and this guy maybe has that potential to do it it is very reminiscent of 2010 where john shire you know makes the run but brian zubek was not a key guy until february and 2015 rashid suleiman gets dismissed off the team and also in indianapolis that that opens the door for grayson allen who has the moment against wisconsin and we don't know what would happen in 2020 but the admiral's son justin robinson not a key guy in january but in february big big month and he was great against north carolina and what turned out to be the final game of duke's season at cameron on senior night so it for duke to reach its ceiling i guess they kind of need that from that guy yes late in the season yeah i watched them i can't yeah i've watched so many games nc state on monday night yeah it was nc state yeah he was fabulous and that's what they are going to need and it's not like you said it's not unprecedented for someone to come in and make a difference in march that hasn't been a major contributor through the year they have to have the ability and the opportunity and i do think that for duke to win it all they're probably going to need to create the opportunity for sean in to get him enough minutes that he can be there on those days when someone like jaylen lowe uh of pit was getting to the rim almost at will uh earlier in february uh someone to get back there and say no you're not and and he i i was really impressed uh in the nc state game by by his defense and i could certainly see him maybe making that a non-issue mike corsey with us here getting to the movies remind me did you watch all the best picture noms do you rank these yes as a matter of fact every year on facebook i do a post ranking them from one to whatever i have seen all all the best picture nominees every year for the last 40 years going back to 1985 i believe it is the last 40 oscars i love it what was your what was your top two this year let's call about going through the top list yes it was barbinheimer uh it was oppenheimer number one and barbie number two let's go oppenheimer was i i will say yeah i mean i'm not i i do read a lot about world war two history but i'd never read read a book about uh the uh the making of the bomb or any of that um and so there was lots of the oppenheimer story i had no idea happened somewhat and so much was accurate too pretty much all of it yeah i haven't heard any historical complaints about it but i did not know about chapter two so to speak uh and i thought they they handled that all really well obviously killing murphy was phenomenal robert downey jr was terrific the cast was great and then number two barbie you know i i thought that it would i didn't think i'd ever see a movie as inventive as everything everywhere all at once which one a year ago deservedly uh barbie was really close not an original screenplay nom which is stupid they say oh well it's adapted because barbie boxes i don't know that's what it is it's an adapted screenplay why i don't know i know it's i don't know i know it's unbelievable but uh at least it's at least it got nominated for that it didn't get nominated for best director when it's a it's all you know it's not entirely a director's picture but there's so much vision uh from greta gerwig there and then uh margot robbie's unbelievable performance just perfect it wouldn't have worked without that so you think it's a margot robbie movie before a ryan gosling movie a hundred percent i was i knew coming out of the theater when i'd heard so much about gosling and so little about how perfectly she performed i kind of had a feeling that something like this was going to happen relative to her uh but it's a shame that it did because she certainly warranted a nomination her performance was pitch perfect this might sound this might sound like a top two but it was a great year josh the best year of this century for movies in my estimation better than oh seven with no country and there will be blood yes wow absolutely that's that's quite a comment because you go down to the 10 and i on my post i pointed out i didn't like at all i didn't like maestro i thought it was really self-indulgent same and i didn't like uh four things four things i watched that last night yeah those two were not worthy of oscar nominations but i mean i'm down to six or seven eight uh i'm down to seven i think and i'm thinking this could win in a lot of years this picture what uh poor uh past lives was just a wonderful story that's the one that everyone's been telling me about that i have not seen out of the four that i have left three or four i have left that i most want to see i might see it by sunday night story that i can remember seeing it goes overly quiet at times like almost to make a point uh and and that bothered me a teeny bit but it's such a fresh story and beautifully acted and beautifully written uh i really loved it i loved anatomy of a fall uh if you haven't seen that yet i think you can you can get it on uh on some of the some of the streaming services zone of interest or anatomy of a fall which one's the one about living amongst nazis uh that is that is the one that's called zone of interest the zone of interest yeah uh yeah and i i really i i really appreciated the idea behind it i thought that it really just the story wasn't uh extensive enough i heard there wasn't a story at all just kind of like builds tension that's kind of that that's kind of what kind of the way i felt about it was that there needed to be a little bit more of that but the ideas that they had were phenomenal um anatomy of fall is about uh it's it's a it's sort of a murder mystery um and it's a courtroom drama and a portrait of a falling apart marriage all at the same time and it's it's really well done it it's a movie interestingly i thought it was entirely uh a foreign language film there's a lot of english so you're gonna have to spend about half your time reading subtitles but there's a lot of english so it's not a it's not a two and a half hour subtitle reading movie uh not that i'm against that but uh it does lighten the load for you a little mike de courcy we'll enjoy the basketball and then we'll enjoy the oscars on sunday night thanks for making the time for us as always happy march to you my pleasure josh any time for you