Here We Go

This is the DRIVE Podcast with Josh Graham.

Now you're talking my language. You can hear the DRIVE weekday afternoons 3 till 6 on WSJS. We've made it to a Friday DRIVE. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we are live at the ACC Tournament in our nation's capital in the bowels of Capital One Arena in Washington DC. And just as we all expected, two of our locals made it to the semi-finals of this tournament.

Just not the combination we thought we might be getting. This NC State run is what makes this month special. It's what makes this sport special. And what makes at the root of all that is just how illogical it is that the Wolfpack is still standing. State lost four in a row to close the regular season. They didn't have their best player to start this tournament. In that first game, facing the worst team in modern history of the ACC for at least the last five years, Kenny Payne's Louisville Cardinals, they trailed a team that was about to fire its coach less than 24 hours later by double digits in the first half. It looked like NC State was about to roll over and fire Kevin Keats. Then it scored 94 points without DJ Horn. Then it beat a team that in the regular season beat the Wolfpack not once but twice. Then it played a budding top 10 Duke team, fresh off getting beaten in Chapel Hill, so you know they were crispy, and pretty much wire-to-wire, at least in the second half, the pack controlled that game.

And in the process, it's completely transformed the conversation surrounding Kevin Keats. Just think about how quickly this all happened. He was as good as going on Tuesday. Then they won on Wednesday and fans said, okay fine, we'll bring him back.

And I saw this in real time from where I was sitting courtside here in DC. There were State fans I heard behind me, we were sitting behind the NC State bench, that were saying, how many years does Modeara have left? What?

Just think about that. In the flip of a couple of nights, it's gone from let's fire this guy. That's how bad things are too. Things are so good. Who do we got coming back? How exciting is this? Pretty darn exciting. We're still playing?

That's the magic of March. So knowing Kevin's background, Kevin Keats having come on our show so many times and talked about growing up in Lynchburg and the history of this tournament and what the ACC means to him growing up having watched it, he said it means the world to him that he finally had a moment to grasp on to having a moment as NC State's coach in this tournament. Yeah, it means everything. I grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia and I just knew ACC basketball. I mean loved it. Just my time and other than I will say this, this will be a good one, you can report this, I actually like Greensboro a lot. You know, I like it just a little bit just so everybody know that part of it.

I'm very familiar with it and it means a lot to me. You should know while he was saying I like Greensboro a lot, he did like the three goggles. If you're watching on YouTube, Twitch and X, he did that right after he was done. B-Dot's going to join us in a bit in about 10 minutes. Right after the press conference, this is a true story, Keats gets off the stage, he sees B-Dot and says come over here and he of course Dot does and Kevin puts his arm around B-Dot and says put up your wolf pack fingers and of course Dot does with a stupid face, a stupid look on his face and right after that Keats says to Dot and I'm quoting, they're gonna tear your ass up for that. Kevin's having fun man and for those who are wondering, he's had, NC State's had ice cream after every one of these games. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I don't think Kevin accounted for winning this many games consecutively when he said after every road win you get ice cream. So is NC State gonna look sluggish?

Looking at you DJ Burns, just throwing that out there, I don't know. Not counting them out tonight. Shades of NC State in D.C. in 1987, the last time they won an ACC title with Vinny Del Negro and company. There's a reason, there is no reason why they can't win tonight. The spread is two and a half points, that's all Virginia's favored by.

Think about that, what have I told you just two days ago? NC State would be facing Virginia in the semi-finals of this tournament and State would just be a two and a half point underdog. That is the magic of March in this tournament. Virginia hasn't really looked apart in the last month, barely snuck by Boston College last night in overtime. Virginia 4-4 in their last eight, perhaps we get a State Carolina ACC title game. Which leads us to the question that I have for you today and you can chime in on our YouTube chat, my replies at Josh Graham show and at WSJS radio. What is your dream ACC championship matchup for tomorrow night? What do you want to see? Is it North Carolina and NC State? Is it North Carolina, Virginia?

What would you like to see on X at WSJS radio and at WSJS radio and at Josh Graham show? Shifting things to some football news, it's Friday, usually people like lighter stuff, want to feel good going into the weekend and this story here gives you none of those feelings. Because we knew this was coming but according to sources conferences in Notre Dame have agreed to a new playoff deal that before we even play 12 teams in the playoff that expands this year for 24 and 25, they now know that it'll be 14 for 26 and beyond that. 14 teams, three for the SEC each year, three for the Big Ten, two for the ACC and the Big 12, one for the group of five and then the remaining three are at large bids.

That's what it's going to look like and there's slotted money each year for each conference gets as well that you can read into. We won't get into all the details of that but from an ACC perspective almost everything about the 14 team playoff is frustrating because Jim Phillips has a really difficult decision to make here and have a great day and go ACC. He has to admit that he's a second-tier conference, that they're running a second-tier conference and that might be okay from a football perspective when you look at the SEC even though the ACC had a better season than the SEC did have last year. You picked the metric, the ACC was better than the SEC was a year ago but the SEC invests more, the SEC has performed better. Okay, you deserve one more playoff team than we get and you deserve more money because you are better at the biggest sport than we are fine.

But the Big Ten, the ACC has outperformed the Big Ten regularly and you're going to concede that the Big Ten's better just because they have larger alumni bases with their schools while the ACC has more private schools. That's what that is, that's essentially what this is becoming but you have to take it if you're Jim Phillips because number one what's the alternative and number two the ACC has not really deserved all but one year the last five or six, two bids to the college football playoffs. So jump at getting to especially given the team that should have been in last year is suing to try to get out of the conference right now. So to protect your league in case you lose Florida State having those two bids is something you're going to want to have. Another reason why it's frustrating, Notre Dame's going to get protections based on this report from Pete Bammell and Heather Dennidge. There's no school ACC fan should hate more than Notre Dame. Some say that it's Duke but Notre Dame is going to make according to this report one million less from the distribution of the college football playoff 14-team playoff than every ACC school. Doing so without being in a conference essentially make what the Big 12 conference is making. The ACC rescued Notre Dame in 2020.

The classic case of you can have your cake and eat it too. The fact that they would not have played a football season in 2020 which turned out to be their best season in recent memory going to the playoff and then Notre Dame just continues to do things that are fundamentally worse for the ACC. They're never going to join this conference and they have no reason to because they're catered to in a way that is puzzling to many people. Notre Dame they're the reason Cal and Stanford are joining the ACC in addition to Randy Woodson flipping his vote at NC State but that's another story for another day.

Outgoing president Randy Woodson. The bubble could burst on college football. People said that wasn't going to happen for NASCAR and given how much that grew that grew to thousands and then we saw things dissipate when they went too far away from their roots. College basketball too. One of the common refrains I hear is I watch college basketball when the NBA is right there. College basketball has just become a worse version of the NBA.

Nothing really feels special and different about it other than the month of March. That's why you see this growth in the women's game because it feels like what you used to know from the men's game of college basketball. Could that happen with college football?

Could that happen with how much change we've seen in a short period of time? It's a different sport. Two of the playoff coaches aren't in college football anymore. Nick Saban the legend and Jim Harbaugh to the NFL.

They're going to 14 before going to 12. Why? Greed. Just like everybody loves.

Pure old greed. Something that will lift everybody up on this Friday. In reality we do need a pick-me-up after that and that's why we call on the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball B. Dot who's going to be hanging out with us for an hour starting next on the drive.

This is it. You ready? All right hold on. All right do it do it. All right listen up. This is the drive with Josh Graham. Back in D.C. sixth man of Tar Heel basketball B. Dot having joined our set. What's happening?

I'll tell you something that's happening. Lawyer sports at the YMCA. This is for boys and girls ages 8 to 13 that have disabilities. Gives them a chance to learn fundamentals other important aspects of youth sports such as character building teamwork sportsmanship and mindset. They are doing basketball for a second season done soccer as well. YMCA NWNC.org is where you can sign up.

Registration is open through March or until it fills up. WD has a surprise for you. Do you WD? Are you aware of Russell Wilson's Denver Broncos mantra? Yeah that's right.

Broncos nation. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Before that it was him in bed with Seattle announcing a contract extension saying hey Seattle which might have been the most interesting thing he ever said as the quarterback of the Seahawks.

Especially saying that Sierra had a child like nine months later. Good point. Now he's a Pittsburgh Steel quarterback. What's it going to be? We might have our answer now. What's up Steeler Nation? Just sign baby.

Fire it up to wear the black and gold. Here we go. Here we go. That's the new Let's Ride.

I love Here We Go for a few different reasons because I think however you look at it it kind of is that emotion. You're either really excited here we go or oh we just signed Russell Wilson. Here we go.

That's honestly what that sounded like for Russell. It's Jarod Carmichael is a Winston-Salem guy. Yeah. Comedian. He once had the great joke about DiGiorno's. What's DiGiorno's tagline?

I don't remember. It's not pizza. Oh it's DiGiorno's. It's DiGiorno's. He says the way that should be delivered is it's not pizza.

Pause. Here we go. It's DiGiorno's man.

I don't know what to tell you. It's not pizza but it's DiGiorno's. Like this is what we got. Okay like that might be that might be the way to take Russell Wilson. Here we go.

Here we go. It's like he wanted to say it's like he wanted to have the Let's Ride thing but it didn't go so well last time he did that but he wanted to have something. The sad part is I hope they didn't put a lot of thought into it.

Like I hope it just and sadly I feel like the night before he says all right what am I gonna say on the video? Yeah. Yeah like there may be multiple takes. I want to see the other takes that didn't make because that's the final edit that they released.

I want to see what the original take was. There are some NFL trades to speak about that we'll do in about 10-15 minutes. DJ. Aaron Donald. Yeah. Retired today. Is Derek Brown now the best defensive tackle in the NFL?

Nope. DJ Reader baby. Where's he from? He's from North Carolina.

I had kids. DJ Reader. Dexter Lawrence. North Carolina guy as well.

One of the best defensive tackles of the sport but Derek Brown led he broke the record for defensive tackle tackles last season for the Carolina Panthers. Let's go DJ. Let's get to North Carolina Pittsburgh. This to me trying to read tonight's game seems like it's going to be a fist fight. Seems like that's what that's what the season the regular season meeting was like and North Carolina got more punches in and it was their toughness and defense that allowed for them to close that game out at the Oakland Zoo but the Panthers they need a win to get into the tournament if they win tonight they're in full stop.

Yeah no doubt about it. If they lose tonight they're probably not getting in after what we saw from last night Providence beating Creighton. They're going to get into the tournament in all likelihood. The bubble doesn't seem to be helping the ACC teams is the point that I'm making here. The Panthers need to win tonight to get in and if they you know they're going to be inspired and they're not going to be afraid of the Tar Heels. You could say that the Tar Heels are better and I think I will agree with you but the Pitt Panthers they're not going to be afraid with Jason Capel and Jeff Capel given the fact that prior to this year they won three straight against the Tar Heels in five of six.

That's fair. No they've been owning us and I just saw Jason Capel. What'd you say to him? We just stared at each other and then he took his headphones off and then I walked over to him we adapt and embrace like we normally do and then he said um I said you ready he said yeah we're ready let's get it I said let's get it you know and then he walked this way and I walked mine.

It was interesting though because I've been looking to see Jason and I saw Jeff yesterday spoke with him briefly but I don't have the same relationship with Jeff that I got with Jason. So just to see him as I was just walking being a tourist around this beautiful part of Washington DC that I never really got to explore like that just to see him just in a real off the court element walking out of the same hotel we're staying in he was right there at the front threw his headphones on it went for a walk I guess to sort of get ready for tonight's beat down. Tonight's beat down? I mean I'm just that's just from the fan side of me you know what I'm saying like listen that pit team and I I remember being in the Smith Center and Jason Capel screaming obscenities to me screaming they soft they soft and I really would like to know if they still feel like that because I don't think after the first meeting no they don't see that's what I'm saying this Carolina team has shown that they they take that softness conversation and they turn it around and they punch you in the face first and I hope we do that tonight even though my parlays are shot. Hold one sec hold one sec let's do this correct. WD's got Tar Heel music for you.

I'm sorry okay. You got a message the Tar Heels are watching this right now. My fault Carolina nation you already know what it is first of all it's like home court advantage nothing but a sea of blue in there you dig what I'm saying you scream tar everybody seems heels it's amazing but the boys gonna do what they do tonight again even though my parlay is already shot thanks to Tennessee I still think that my boy RJ's gonna get off tonight more than three threes I still think Cormac's gonna hit more than two and a half threes Mondo's gonna have more than nine and a half points Harrison Ingram's gonna have more than nine and a half rebounds it's going down tonight it is a w okay we are cutting down nets. Josh Graham last time Carolina cut down the ACC tournament nets were 2016 my gosh that was eight years ago you did what I'm saying in this building in this building so why not bring back that magic huh let's get a dub let go boys I would scream tar but we're sharing the room right now and I don't want to be heels thank you right there WD or Bill or Dalton had to get I'm WD I don't know who I am thanks for that laugh after yesterday where Dot found every reason William to insert himself into certain circumstances like the awareness to say I'm not going to be rude today we're not going to be loud I appreciate that you know it's you know it's a learning curve you understand like these are certain spaces that I don't frequent often so sometimes I may have to be manicured in the correct way to handle myself but I'm always the consummate professional manicured I like that thank you hornet's sons that's tonight what happens in that game boo this man please somebody that's what happens they gonna smack the hornets tonight man lost to the Celtics last night BTA yeah I know that one yeah understand it that's what's happening tonight I like uh North Carolina to win tonight and I like to cover the spread seven and a half points best bets is in 20 minutes we'll get to best bets ruin parlays in a bit oh my gosh I even got somebody to pay for my prize picks and and and Dalton blew it for me Dalton connect he blew it oh I was making sure we were talking about that Dalton had to got to make sure the other Dalton Dalton connect not Dalton that's Dalton because West Durham William William uh-huh at least the hurricanes won last night the canes oh blew out the Florida Panthers blew them off the ice now they got Toronto on Saturday and four to one koozie got a goal because nets off the newest hurricane you'll love to see that you've still never been to a canes game nah you'd enjoy that I think I would I know you would it's it's a place where I can scream and just but they would have to of course do something to make me scream and then I hope they have a fight out there then I can really scream if you want to see fights you go to Carolina Thunderbirds games you'll see more fights there oh I have a North Carolina pit exclusive note an insider's note you ready for this Ted Valentine's gonna be on the whistle tonight who cares I think people care who's officiating tonight's game Ted Valentine TV that's the guy but you know that's what I'm saying that doesn't matter but more importantly more importantly that means he's not going to officiate the championship game because if you officiate semifinals you can't do the final that's a rule uh they don't like having somebody officiate a team back-to-back days so if you officiate the semifinal one of the team's gonna be playing in the finals does it upset you that TV Teddy won't be officiating the championship game not at all that there are four officials that stand among the pack in the ACC who I think actually has the best roster of officials despite the fact how much people complain about refs uh Burt Jones Roger Ayers Ron Groover and Ted Valentine are going to be the combinations we're going to see those guys tonight and tomorrow how much validity is in it and not to interview you on your show please but I see this on Twitter a lot we got 30 seconds say complain about the referees how much validity is in that with the officiating from the ACC is horrible is that a thing or is that just it's not a thing it happens in every conference people complain about the refs just like everybody wherever you're at complains about bad drivers nah DC got some bad drivers like I'm talking they just be cutting you off they don't give a damn about you up here man there are a lot of so-called sports talk guys who don't do anything but flap their gums yeah exactly but not Josh Graham he doesn't even like gum or flapping for that matter he's so talented you're on the drive with josh graham back at capital one arena Washington DC less than three hours from tip-off at the semi-finals at the ACC tournament six man guitar heel basketball b.dot with us and he answered a question that I think moments later we learned to be true saying yes josh can be long-winded which is the purpose of the segment keep it simple which we'll do in 15 minutes evidence of that is we did the big four brought to you by WD budget blinds and we left one out you did number one on the big four is a California highway got backed up for about a mile why because a big truck that carries toilet paper fell over and boxes and boxes of toilet paper fell all busted open onto the highway covering the entire highway with toilet paper this would have been a lot bigger story in 2020 if that happened yeah remember that's true because nobody could get any it's short story so it actually kind of works out for these purposes but I mean toilet paper covering the entire highway backing up traffic throwing toilet paper on houses and on trees roll the quad wake for us when they roll the quad that's right so maybe this is a wake for his demon deacon along was like you know what I'm about to roll the highway did you ever roll the quad at wake yeah I thought about going I've never been I thought about going after the duke win a few weeks ago but didn't end up doing so I went one year like round two early 2000s when Kristin got a big dub we went over there and it was it was a quite a festive time b.dot has washington dc stories he wants to share this is the part where me this is something that me and dot are aligned on something that me and b.dot have in common that we are busybodies it's always on to the next task we're task-oriented people and for example I was at acc hospitality last night and dot just disappeared and dot just disappeared I don't know where dot is I've learned where dot was in the last few hours or so and apparently in between us getting back from college park today grabbing some lunch out on Maryland's campus first time I've been there very nice and me getting here to acc the acc tournament at capital one arena dot's been sightseeing dot's been exploring so I'll just pass the steering wheel to you really yeah what what exactly uh can you tell us about what you've learned in our nation's capital a good friend of mine markey mart he does radio here nights and he came to pick me up last night and we were just riding around sightseeing and I saw um howard university which is dead smack in the middle of the hood and it made me think like all of the hbcus I know about are dead smack in the middle of the hood north carolina central north carolina ant went to san jose university there is a theme there it was very interesting to me then seeing the streets like the streets are letters like it's a a street b street c street f street you did what I'm saying then their numbers one two three four I was on the corner at the intersection of f12 I was on the court right there f12 then there are state streets like north carolina georgia avenue philadelphia pennsylvania avenue I mean it's great but the big thing around here is the cherry blossoms there's a whole thing about this that I was not aware of they bloom between the end of march and the beginning of april like right now is peak cherry blossom and it's a national thing 1.5 million people 1.5 million people all come to washington dc just to see these cherry blossoms boom you can google it like I am really really shocked by this like they said how busy is it 1.5 million people it is the washington dc cherry blossoms it's a festival did you know this I knew nothing about any of this I didn't know maybe you didn't either that's podcast and that's what I'm out here doing some work for while I'm out here working with josh as well but march 20th through april 14th we're dead smack in the middle that is cherry blossom festival season show the people on youtube twitch and x some of the photo sessions you've done joe gilio we need to get you on the show ah photo ops let yes get him in the back seat of our car here we need to get joe gilio just hop in the back seat of the coop to view my guy all right so what am I showing his photo the photo shoots that dot does when he's in cities are great and all I could think when I see some of this how funny it would be if I tried to recreate some of the poses I was I was standing at intersection with my wife twitch and I was like you're seeing he's scrolling through some pictures this is beautiful like that's great because like the buildings aren't that tall but it's a huge city and then I was out there just getting some swag for you know just for myself you know what I mean yeah just imagine me standing there and that you know just uh-huh then watch this like I'm just taking pictures but I have I'm by myself so I have to put the phone up somewhere and then put it on a timer so all right yeah yeah you know just flicking away just wait for it flicking away some clemson fan just walked right into the middle of the photo sir excuse me clemson's not here anymore why are you freaking ridiculous clemson hasn't been here for a couple days now sir but I've been having a good time man just walking around me this is the first time I've actually got to walk around like that it's dope also dope crossroads ford of kernersville they're offering the largest rebates they've had in years crossroad ford super low interest rates right now for up to 72 months visit them online visit inventory apply for financing and if you need service you can set up an appointment online see john and the gang the brand new fords out on the lot now is the time to buy a new ford tons of inventory great rebates low interest rates crossroads ford right off i-40 on highway 66. I just got a text message for my boy t.o.m and he said cherry blossom festival is major in dc i had no clue okay my boy's in the back seat what's happening sitting back there joe jillio you got i crashed your show yesterday you can crash ours now here we go um and the whip party and it's uh there he is yeah so joe ovious joe jillio they have their youtube channel ovious and jillio that they be cussing on there too they be saying cussing words yeah i didn't do that you have to remind me that we have fcc rules you're in the back seat of our car here yeah just like uh well actually you were sitting shotgun earlier today when we rode the college park how would you describe that experience today go with the it was a great experience but famous last words when you were like if tennessee loses i might as well just for more yeah the balls they were on every one of my sheets but you know what though everyone i think it happened because you knew subconsciously you wanted tennessee to lose so that the heels can be the number one seat so you did it it was your karma yeah joe jillio percentage chance north carolina if they get a one that arizona is in their region uh 100. thank you 100. now as a as somebody who doesn't have a dog in the fight do you want to see that game uh i i think it would be good for college basketball i think it would be good for the t for the tv product if you don't have a dog in the fight yeah absolutely but tarheel fans i don't know why you would ever want to see that yeah no i don't want to see it at all i don't know why i would like to see it wd wants to see it but do you think arizona's gonna beat them though really i don't i don't think i don't you know who do you know who arizona is actually who because they have their assistant coach as well yes gonzaga they have a lot of they're highly skilled on offense they're going to camera to beating duke i'm about to say what you don't understand has beaten duke they've just never played at cameron there's an x factor though but also gonzaga dies in the tournament every year so there's a reason they die in the tournament every year because they're very skilled and soft it's a good point didn't they lose the 215 last year they did because they're skilled and soft that's why they lose there's a chip on the shoulder of caleb love that you all cannot account for though oh wait let's hold one second you said last year talking about unc and pit that north carolina was soft remember they were called out by pit and they didn't swing yeah what's a commonality between carolina last year and arizona basketball like we're talking about right now what's the commonality that maybe that caleb love so all right see and it's those type conversations man it's those type that type rhetoric is what's going to fuel caleb love and not just him but his teammates and don't forget we got unc favor on the coaching staff over there at arizona as well i just hope it's a close game if they play yes man i hope i hope arizona is up by one and they put armando baycott and drop coverage top of the top of the key it's just so many there's just so many storylines that feed a horrible narrative if you are a carolina fan i have to ask this though because you are you are a tarheel right how in the world yeah can caleb love yeah transfer yeah okay go play for arizona have an amazing year no a transfer to michigan first not get admitted and then go to everything how does your filthy mouth how does he put on his shoes tarheel for life like you know what that means right literally but see the reality is he didn't oh i take it too literal literal okay it's like the rock and roll hall of fame see caleb got in that there are carolina fans that still support and love caleb love that's fair the shots that he hit the games although one shot he dude like he could do what he wants as far as i'm concerned too if you count ucla i mean he's just he's a dagger in that and and the fact that that's why i'm just so happy that he was able to go to arizona and still thrive have the success that he's having exactly yeah you know it wasn't a situation of if he would have went to arizona and fell off it would have been out that's exactly why we let you go but nobody can say that now you know what i mean you got a minute here jill okay yeah we have a clock and it's radio nc state virginia any read whatsoever any real i don't kevin kevin's teams traditionally play well against virginia there's a little bit of oil and water there um i love the karma of the tournament of all those virginia fans who were rooting for state last night suddenly in the first half of this game going uh-oh what do we get ourselves into i do love a little bit of that that's what the tournament used to be that's where and that all belongs here uh but that being said you know it can state continue to play with the urgency and desperation that they have played with in the last two games that will be the big key thank you for being here joe absolutely that's joking about they be cussing on that show they're very professional no we still do that check those guys out they're my guys man bring the marks joining us our buddy from the athletic there he is i'm glad that moment was immortalized it really it really is the gift that keeps on giving it is so for those who don't know myself will dalton our guest here in dc brendan marks from the athletic and connor o'neill deacon illustrated devils illustrated we put together a acc tournament pool acc tournament draft that we've been following points rebounds assists steals blocks add them up for six players a six player pool and we have the most updated standings that we're going to put up here will dalton trying to defend his title but unfortunately sadly wd has kind of fallen behind but he is the only one that has multiple players left standing if memory serves that plays for a north carolina school we'll see how it shakes out the standings right now brendan marks leads the way with 254 points all you have left is armando baycott our guy nobody else i would rather have with my draft on the line connor o'neill trails by 21 he's got two pit panthers in carlton carrington blake kenson and he has re-speak ben as well trying to track you down there's me with 177 i've got rj davis left if i want to make a last charge probably not going to happen when i had two clemson tigers get eliminated on wednesday night and wd has cormack ryan and harrison ingram i forgot about the cormack ryan pick 172 points but here's the thing if carolina gets to tomorrow night he's got to my guy oh oh wd wants to correct too he's the only guy who has three players left that's true he also has dj horn from nc state i sure do we mock that pick i might uh come from you took a hurt player ha ha ha who's laughing now right on friday night not me i'm not laughing at him brendan not laughing i i love where i'm at i admittedly um bet big on the duke blue devils and was not rewarded for that faith however i appreciate the efforts that kyle philipowski and mark mitchell gave me i had the two duke blue devils who seemed to care yesterday um and i'm very glad that i still have mr bakat on my side when you are a beat rider you have to deal so much in right now that you don't have a lot of time to forecast what's ahead when you do talk as we do you have a chance to forecast what's coming and i have the sense with duke losing to nc state the conversation is almost here where similar to the questions that were asked about hubert davis a year ago they're going to start to be asked if duke doesn't get past the first weekend of the nc double a tournament this season and you have that monster coming in with cooper flag isaiah evans i forget the name of the top five recruit that they landed i believe from the synagogue come on mow walk seven footer that you're bringing in that's as good of a recruiting class as you're going to have it seems like zion rj cam reddish 2.0 in terms of hype that's going to be surrounding duke and following what we saw last night it might make blue devil fans a little bit nervous in terms of talking about expectations and following in coach k's footsteps how do you see it yeah you know well first of all the fact that we're already talking about next year's duke blue doubles i think tells you a lot about everybody's confidence level in this year's team and like listen i i was listening to the joes earlier today and i heard them say something to the effect of duke has all these ingredients it has all this talent this is the argument we've said all year duke has all the pieces you could conceivably want except for the one piece that we've been talking about since july and that's a legitimate big man rim protector there was a reason that duke was flirting with those guys in the portal over the summer the fact that they did not take one has been a lingering question but that's the basketball question about the real question about duke is about toughness and it's about want to and it's about the fact that we're 32 games into duke season and we're still talking about kyle philpowski saying we can't be entitled we can't expect to win we are not letting the feeling of these losses sit with us that is a failure on both the players obviously they're the ones who are performing but it's also to some extent it's a failure on the coaching staff the failure on john shire you could read connor's or connor's stuff you can illustrate devils illustrated brendan mark stuff in the athletic getting you guys mixed up now we look so much alike i mean it's but what's great you could read his stuff at the athletic uh recapping a lot of stuff here from the tournament but you were telling me i was one of the more interesting duke locker rooms that we've seen all year what was the highlight of it it was and i you know i i've always found whether it's duke unc nfl any locker room usually you find more illuminating things in a losing locker room than you do a winning one because it kind of forces guys to sit and actually look in the mirror and i think the most interesting thing was jared mccain was asked how do you change a team's mentality this late in the season and he said you have to have humility you have to bring your egos down and i think it's a fascinating thing because he he went on to say and he's right duke's players should have egos they're very good basketball players you only get to that point by having an ego coach k said when he was coaching team usa the most important thing that he had to do was get everyone to bring their egos but he had to manage those egos he never once said kobe bryant don't have an ego because that's impossible so you want to have those however those egos cannot come they cannot supplant reality and that i think is the thing that seemed to come out yesterday from the duke locker room i was pretty surprised to hear guys say that they did not think that they were humble enough that they did not think that they had come in with urgency 32 games into the year north carolina pit nc state virginia i know at times you could be a basketball sicko so to speak big time what game intrigues you more today um you know i i think it's actually the first game um mostly because you know my eyes are already like they're they're already preemptively hurting anticipating the second game i think that for for starters obviously tennessee lost today and so north carolina is now in prime pole position for the last number one seed i think north carolina might still get that number one seed even if it loses tonight however pittsburgh is mounting a charge to make it to the ncaa tournament if they win they should be in right i don't know if you beat uh number one seed that non-conference schedule is really really bad they have a quad three loss they're right on the cusp they need this one if they do not get this win tonight i don't think there's any chance i agree um i would have said the same thing about wake forest that wake forest won i think that you still would have you still would have needed another one um i don't i don't think the demon deacons would have been in even with the win yesterday however there's just so many good teams and there are bubble themes we're seeing it in the a-10 right now dayton lost and that's that's now going to be a two-bid league as providence beat crayton exactly so you know i don't think providence is going to be ucon but crazier things have happened my point is i think that first game has a lot more implications doesn't providence play marquette tonight i think st john's plays ucon yeah but ucon is going to win that game yeah they are but hey but what i'm saying is providence if they beat marquette they're for sure starts yes yes so the more of these bid thieves keep coming up and so i think the implications are greater in the first game than the second one i am intrigued by the second one sheerly from the fact because i want to see how much gas is left in the tank for nc state i'm not convinced that they're done no i think they're winning tonight and i don't feel confident about that at all i think anybody who pretends to have a read on this game's lying what's the line do we know it yes what is it you want to take a guess if i had to guess i'd say virginia three and a half virginia minus two and a half oh that's vegas telling you they have no idea either i'm taking that cash out family i'm taking nc state all day in that situation we can talk about that now we can but i i saw a poll amongst the state of north carolina see somebody who's been all over this story got to give credit to um brian murphy of wrel murph has owned this he really has from start to finish there's a statewide poll how often do north carolina residents plan to legally bet on sports how often do you plan to do that 53 say never 22 say occasionally 18 rarely seven percent say frequently i'm surprised at that i kind of figured that it would be like 25 saying never and 25 saying i've sent seven live lines at halftime yeah well i you know i figured it would be bell curvy yeah but i mean it's still like it doesn't surprise me if it's like close to fifth because the others still say you're betting so close to 50 percent of people doing something that's her i it's why you have it see everybody wants to talk about you know with an election cycle and politics and things of that nature at the core politics is about people having their elected officials do the things that you want and guys like brian murphy have been polling people for decades and it's something that's north carolinians want in high numbers and it's a win for democracy in a sense that the thing that more people in this state wanted than not happened yeah i mean and and you know i will say this if you are actually betting and you're in north carolina and you're betting on the nc state virginia game go touch grass you you probably hate yourself i have uh i may or may not have fired off on wake baseball against uh uva and drove 20 minutes to college park to pick up 20 minutes to college park today because you can't do mobile sports betting and blush it in dc touch grass you're touch grass touch grass my friend wd can you tell me how wake baseball is doing right now uh yeah that that might i will say it'd be great in real time if it comes back with virginia six wake nothing i will say in my defense and i think this is something that i hope other people in relationships with partners who are not sports inclined can relate to my wife is not a sports fan in any way she could not tell you 10 college basketball players despite the fact that it is quite literally my livelihood it is what pays our bills i don't think my wife could either 10 no definitely not maybe five maybe five my point is i told her do me a favor place one bet and watch the game and see if you care more and she did it last night and she placed two more bets today i'm gonna try it it's a way because game that she bet on she bet on the uh duke nc state game she took state she bet on the duke nc state game she was like she was like i she's a north carolina graduate okay that should be the preface but i think it is an interesting and intriguing way fellows and ladies out there if your significant other is not interested in sports and you are trying to push them give gambling a try that could work you know it's just crazy enough to work north carolina so let's get into north carolina pittsburgh the game itself if pitt wins the game what does this game look like if pitt wins the game uh tonight it's going to take another herculean effort from blake hinson so still high scoring i think it has to be i think it has to be you know and i think north carolina's defense has been this core right um good offense still beats good defense north carolina's defense is really good it's really physical our nba draft guy john hollinger was here for the florida state game and he leaned over to me about midway through the second half and he said i did not realize how tough north carolina was this is his first time seeing them live this season biggest difference between carolina last year carolina now i think is some element of that where they went to pittsburgh close game under four they went by double digits they go to clemson the next game i believe i know those games were back-to-back forget which order they were at 58 55 5 to go win 65 55 don't allow them to score the rest of the way people are going to want to talk about rj player of the year and you know those types of things but that defense they hadn't had that since the 2019 team i don't think since the syracuse loss north carolina's last loss since then north carolina has the fifth best defense in the country and it has the top 25 offense too it's the number three team in the country i believe only behind uconn arizona over that stretch b dot he was very excited that brenda marks was going to be dropping by the set did you want to sit in the back seat real quick to close this out it's also a rhinestone cowboy friday i didn't know how that was going to work in a bunker where there's other shows so we'll see if you don't know robert walsh we love him back in the day he started a tradition where on fridays we sang the chorus of rhinestone cowboy why because it makes people laugh and smile and i don't know how that's going to work in a little bit but we're going to find out wd is smiling i can see uh v dot is too he's amazing what do you have i'm here you have my sour skittles gum these are gas oh my god they're amazing what is that game changer is that the sour skittles yes the gummies i just had the starburst gummies for the first time the other day don't recommend don't worry i don't know these are gas though and the nerd clusters i love the nerd clusters oh my god but these right here they rival the see now the fomo is picking up yeah yeah now the fomo is really picking up yeah he wasn't feeling it watching bc virginia last night no i am i really am now this is upsetting b dots in the passenger seat i'm driving here beat uh we got friend of mars actually are you a good driver brendan never had a ticket never been pulled over good driver that's a good driver was a great driver i can't even count the time i've been pulled over state of virginia can get you just be careful right on your on your travels home uh b dot he can attest i'm a pretty good driver yeah yeah yeah is he he's very um aggressive not what i would have pegged for him me either i thought he'd be right lane right 50 miles he'll cut you off but he'll apologize after yeah right get out sorry about that bumper sticker guy josh you you pegged me as a bumper sticker no bumper sticker really he's not on my car they put antlers on his car one year for christmas he was so upset beat out nothing tracks more than that nothing could possibly track he was angry though be he was mad like they were i lost the bet he had to keep it on for like a month they did it in february in february oh my god so wait in february yeah so they put it all in my car in february i lost i said that carolina was going to win the trey jones game and trey jones so that did not happen and antlers antlers on the car with like these weird lights on it it was really bad so i just remember driving vividly driving the pnc arena for a game were you married at this point no for the best thank god for the best i remember driving to pnc arena and every worker that was waving me and just dying laughing while looking at my car it was so bad i hate christmas time he deserves it that's why he should never bet for carolina every time he does it he jinxes us every single time it's a known thing whenever josh graham puts his allegiance behind the carolina faithful whoa buddy however tar heels win tonight anytime anytime he's wrong i do i do like the clown meme we get to bring that one out that's right that's one of his better ones get it get it prepped wd maybe i should start having this like on the stream like the brendan marks meme i need the clown did you find the uh wake forest baseball score that wasn't a joke i thought you said it no i don't know i thought you were gonna come in and say it was like six to nothing virginia i thought you actually were saying that's the luck that we might have because here's here's what we gave out officially you remember this dot yep got nc central minus five against delaware state lavelle moten he is a machine in the uh in the tournament that's a lot and then we got pittsburgh's team total under 70 and a half that's what i have oh that's what i have see i just got carolina covering the spread seven and a half points on that and then i have wake baseball minus one and a half runs against uva but that's happening right now so the craziest thing that i've heard on somebody betting since it became legal is i have a buddy who started betting on madden football simulations we've gone too far that that brendan we've gone too far we've strayed too far from god's light we have what do you want me to say about that uh wd should we uh steer out of this conversation is there a way that we could steer out of this yeah we should the right way oh yeah i know how to do this there's only one way we could transition out of this awkward conversation let's go to the sidelines tony hey that's the way to go okay brendan marks tonight you like virginia and north carolina i like nc state and north carolina i don't believe virginia can score but i don't believe virginia can score 60 points in back-to-back games wd who do you like tonight carolina nc state carolina nc state b dot who do you like tonight i like nc state because i want coach keats to win but i was just out there and i'm talking about without even thinking acc network asked me who's winning tonight i said carolina virginia okay like i just feel like it's so much home court advantage for virginia that makes me feel actually better if all three of us sat here and said that nc state was going to win the night right all four of us well now pitt's gonna win so brendan marks best of luck with the remainder of the acc tournament uh draft if you win a hundred dollar gift certificate when i win tell them brendan when i win that's bj's brew house and restaurant because i know you're in winston-salem quite a bit you can capitalize on that thanks for being here my friend thank you for having us