Camp Canales

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

We're internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, where it is NFL Draft Eve. It is also Merlefest Eve around here.

We've got two pairs of Merlefest tickets we'll give away later this hour. Then we're going to welcome in, not too far down the way from Wilkes County, App State football coach Sean Clark. He'll be in studio with us along with Mountaineer AD Doug Gillen.

That's next hour. But we begin with Tar Heel basketball. We learned yesterday that Seth Trimble has removed his name from the transfer portal and will return to Chapel Hill after he initially set out to pursue greener pastures. Then Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reported RJ Davis is on board to come back for a fifth and final season two. This news should surprise you because it's as unexpected as it is puzzling that these guys are each coming back.

For RJ, he doesn't have much else to achieve in college. Full disclaimer, it's not official that he's back. Matt Norlander said there'd be a statement later this week. Brendan Marks from The Athletic has reported that you might see a declaration for the draft with college eligibility still being maintained. He'll go through the process with the understanding that he's probably still going to return to college.

But let's assume he's back. What else is there for him to do? He made it to a Final Four. He won ACC Player of the Year. His name's going up in the rafters. He was a first team All-American at North Carolina. He won a regular season title. You could say, oh, he's running it back like Hansbrough did in 09 because he wants to win a title.

He wants to hang the big banner. Who's he running it back with? Do you honestly think that Tyler Hansbrough returns to the Tar Heels in 2009 if not for knowing Ty Lawson is returning with him? If he didn't know that he had that full roster of guys? If he didn't know that Danny Green was going to be in that mix?

Probably not. Who's RJ running it back with? Armando is gone.

Armando. Cormac Ryan gone. Harrison Ingram gone.

Plus, it's a congested backcourt. Ian Jackson is the best Tar Heel recruit since Harrison Ingram, many are arguing. He's not a Cormac Ryan type of shooting guard.

He is a ball dominant shooting guard. Elliott Cadeau is going to want more on his plate going into what should be his traditional freshman season, but he reclassified last year, so this will be his sophomore campaign. So for RJ, it doesn't make a lot of sense that he's coming back. For Seth Trimble, his role has not changed.

It isn't going to change. He's not going to start, especially with RJ back. You look at the lineup, it's going to be Cadeau, Jackson, RJ, Jalen Washington, and a transfer that will round out that starting five. And Seth Trimble is going to be competing for playing time with Drake Powell. And whoever else they find in the portal is going to be fighting for minutes. So his role doesn't really change all that much. It really makes you wonder, why did he even enter the portal in the first place? He's just going to return and have the same role. In both cases, the answer to the question of why are they back is probably the same.

They didn't have anywhere better to go. The NBA feedback RJ received probably isn't good, given his size. So he would rather he's probably best suited staying in college and then doing something else rather than playing in the NBA beyond that based on the feedback he's received, maybe similar to what Armando received a year ago from NBA scouts. Seth Trimble wasn't as coveted as he thought he was. The NIL money, it's just greater in Chapel Hill for both guys.

And their losses in those regards, Carolina's game. This is good news for the Tar Heels, which is why it's still puzzling that both would return. On X at WSJS radio, that's why we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. While I'm at Merlefest tomorrow, W.D. is going to be pinch hitting for me on the show. I don't think you'll have a problem finding something to talk about, Will. No, we're going to have a good time tomorrow. Looking forward to that. NFL draft round one is tomorrow.

But that can wait a second. Staying in the NFL, though. The Carolina Panthers opened up voluntary minicamp this week. And if that doesn't sound like much fun to you, then you don't know this new regime of Dan Morgan and Dave Canales. They like to have fun around here. We have fun. At Camp Canales, fun is guaranteed, because Dave seems to view minicamp as part X's and O's seminar and part grade school summer camp. Just listen to him gush about the attendance that the Panthers got. Having pros show up for their jobs.

Dave Canales' enthusiasm with that. I think it's a give and take with the coaching staff as far as making it a good time when they're here. It's enrichment, it's entertaining, hopefully.

And then it's just really intentional. Trying to be respectful of their time, maximizing those windows. So that just is not, here we go again with this offseason program. We're trying to give them something to be excited about. And so I've really appreciated the attendance so far. Yeah, we've got to make it fun for these guys. Maybe we can do arts and crafts in between some of the meetings. Maybe we can, at the end of each day, we can gather around the campfire. Maybe tell some ghost stories and make some s'mores.

We could do that. We have fun. Yesterday was the first practice, which means it was Dave Canales' first practice as an NFL head coach. So there was a poignant, thoughtful, emotional moment of the presser where he shared how meaningful that was for him.

Psych, he said this. Just kind of walking around the gate, going out there, seeing the guys out there early with jerseys, and they're waiting for me to blow the whistle. I got to blow the whistle, by the way, so that was cool. So I don't know if I'll use it again, but I'm the guy with the whistle, so that was fun. I got the whistle, you guys.

I love him. Let's play kickball. I got the whistle. We'll play dodgeball.

Dodge, duck, nip, dive, and dodge. That's what we're going to do at Camp Canales. At Camp Canales, bad language will not be tolerated. No, I'm not talking about cursing. I'm talking about the other kind of bad terminology.

From the minute we got our staff assembled, it was like, let's build a new playbook. This is what we call the things, OK? Whatever you called it somewhere before, we got to change your language.

Here we go. Let's put the fine box in the middle of the table right here. So if you use that word again, pay the box. We don't have a fine box, but we just kind of rib each other a little bit, make it playful, and be like, there goes that term again. It's like, this is what we call it.

I'm glad he said he was kidding there, because if he didn't, I would have thought he was serious. Absolutely. 100%. Ah, ah, ah, ah.

You said, Spider 2, why banana? Put $1 in the box. Put $1 in the box. Adam Thielen, I don't care that you're 35 years old.

Put it in the box. It's completely in the realm of possibility when you talk about a guy who's teaching NFL veteran quarterback Andy Dalton how to take a snap on first day of voluntary mini camp. I was kind of bopping around. Will Herager, our QB's coach, he had them over there. It tickles me to watch him teach Andy Dalton how to get into a stance to take a ball from under center, but I love it.

Because it's just like, even Andy. Yeah, even you, and Bryce, and Baker, and Geno, and Russ. First things first, let's get a nice stance.

Feet underneath your shoulders, stagger the left foot to your instep. Now let's crouch down, get your shoulders up so you can see both sides of the field. Do other NFL coaches bop around? Absolutely not. I fully believe Dave Canales bops around.

I don't know if Bill Belichick ever bopped around during his career. I think the players like this. I don't know that. I think the players like this approach. I don't know that.

If you're a vet, you're probably thinking, holy bleep, man. I mean, hey, fundamentals. It wasn't good last year. Not good. Let me be clear. I really like Dave Canales. Oh, yeah. We love Dave Canales. This is not criticism.

It's not. I love all of this. I hope this never gets removed from him.

I hope the guy wins, and we only see more of this. But this is different. Camp Canales.

Mini Camp Canales. I'd give anything to be coached by this guy. Dan Morgan. He's even changing his tune. Guy who doesn't blink. We have fun. Spends a few months, and there he is. He's the most excited he's been in his life. His wife's looking at him differently, being like, whoa.

Something's changed in you. You're talking about fun? We have fun. That's what happens when you're around Dave Canales for an extended period of time. It's magical.

Just magical. Coming up, three bold predictions for round one of the NFL Draft and today's best bets. We're coming out firing here on a Wednesday drive. Ding, ding, boys.

School's in session. Let's go, man. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. As fun as Camp Canales sounds with Dan Morgan, Dave Canales running shop, probably not as fun as you'll have if you see Nate Bargatze in Greensboro.

Sunday, May the 12th, so it's a few weeks away. Get your tickets now. If you don't know him, check him out on Amazon Prime.

He's on Netflix too, from Tennessee, makes a lot of North Carolina centric jokes. I can't wait to see this show personally in a few weeks. More seats have been opened up because of how popular the show is, the pre-sale code for this new announced show.

Funny, Nate Bargatze, the Be Funny tour. The NFL Draft is tomorrow night. I will not be live on tomorrow's show.

It's live action, Tracy. The opposite of that, albeit Merle-fest. So right now, I'll predict some future headlines for you that also serve as predictions that you could even bet on, because there are odds that are given out on such things. These odds, courtesy of Fandle, so instead of J.C. Horn, which we'll get to in a second in Best Bets.

Send me that cash out, family. How about the draft chimes for this segment's purposes? So good.

Love this time of year. Prediction number one. Washington will take Drake May over Jayden Daniels. I don't care that the odds have Jayden Daniels minus 400 down. If Vegas really knew who it was going to, and they knew it was Jayden Daniels, these odds would be minus 2,000, minus 3,000.

They would be incredibly long odds, conversely. Drake May is better than Jayden Daniels is. Daniel Jeremiah, who I trust, former rap state football player. He has Drake May at number two. Apparently, this top golf outing has been discussed.

Have you heard of this? I saw the clip last night, actually, from Drake May. So Drake May went on a top golf outing with Washington with three other draft, quarterback draft prospects.

J.J. McCarthy, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix. There was somebody else. Apparently, Jayden Daniels did not love it very much. Drake May loved it. I just got a feeling that he's going to be the guy. So if you were to bet, Drake May goes number two. Right now, the odds are at Drake May plus 450, which means if you bet 10 bucks on it, you make $45.

Give me that. Drake May taken over Jayden Daniels, number two pick by the Washington commanders. Next up, J.J. McCarthy is this year's Will Levis.

What does that mean tangibly? That means he's not going to be a top 10 draft pick. Teams, they're trying to sell him hard.

Here's how you know you're being lied to. If J.J. McCarthy's not being talked about as being one of the top quarterbacks in January, odds are he's not one of the top quarterbacks. Like Will Levis. Remember last year, there was that scare? Oh, the Panthers are taking Will Levis. Watch out, the Panthers.

And then the odds freaked out as a result. That's J.J. McCarthy here. Teams are lying to us, telling us how much they love this guy, thinking we don't have, you know, eyes.

So he's going to fall. I was listening to a podcast today that will remain nameless and a draft expert saying, I don't understand why the Vikings who have been telling us for months they won a quarterback hasn't traded up yet. Well, maybe because the Patriots want one of the top three quarterbacks and they're not going to trade back. And maybe the Vikings don't want J.J. McCarthy. Don't want to give up all of this stuff to take J.J. McCarthy.

Perhaps that's it. So you watch when people's heads explode, when J.J. McCarthy falls outside the top 10 and he probably gets taken by Minnesota at 11 or the Raiders at 13. That's probably what's going to happen.

And even then, it's probably still a reach. Here's what you could actually bet on. Again, these odds courtesy of fan-building. Under four and a half quarterbacks taken in round one of the draft. That means even if J.J. McCarthy isn't Will Levis and doesn't fall outside the first round, this is saying that nobody after McCarthy is taken. This means Michael Pennix Jr. doesn't get taken in round one. Yep, give me the under on that. And lastly, last prediction for the NFL draft round one tomorrow, because I'll be back on Friday.

Six receivers will go in round one, maybe even seven. I don't know if you know this, but I'm a Blitnikov voter. I was aware. Hmm, just got to make sure that people know.

Pretty cool. Pay close attention to wide receivers. There are the four obvious ones. Marvin Harrison Jr., Roman Dunzier, and Malik Nabors.

You also have, or the four obvious ones. You have Brian Thomas Jr. who's going to be a top 20 pick. Xavier Worthy's going in round one. He's probably going to be taken over A.D. Mitchell too, even though I think A.D. Mitchell's a better receiver. Teams go nuts over crazy 40 times. Remember when John Ross was taken in the top 10 a few years ago?

Oh, John Ross ran 4-2-4. We got to take him in the top 10. Somebody's going to look at Xavier Worthy and say 4-2-1, 40-yard dash, sign us up for it in the 20s. It might even be the Kansas City Chiefs who say, yep, is this our next Tyreek kill? Let's just do that.

Just sign us up for that. Xavier Worthy, first rounder, minus 170 odds. That is the bet we like. I think Lad McConkie might even get picked as that seventh receiver before A.D. Mitchell does, which would be a huge win for the Panthers if they just want to take a receiver at 33 and have it be A.D. Mitchell. So those are my round one predictions, three of them for tomorrow. Drake May over Jayden Daniels at two.

J.J. McCarthy falling outside the top 10 and six receivers going in round one, one of them being Xavier Worthy from Texas. ["The Now let's get to what we do every single day, looking at tonight's slate, placing some bets in Best Bets. I'm not a betting duck.

Care to make it interesting? You know you do. You're on. Call me in on this. Best bets. But my money's on the other team.

This is Josh's Best Bets." Let's revisit last night. It was a mixed bag, W.D.

Some good, some bad. What did we say would happen in the NBA? That two of the three series would be tied.

The road teams would win, two out of the three. Yep. We were wrong that on the one we felt best about was Phoenix beating Minnesota, but then the Pacers won in Milwaukee and the Dallas Mavericks tied up the series with the LA Clippers. So a mixed bag.

In that regard, sure. Baseball, we had ECU covering the one and a half runs against NC States. My favorite prop from yesterday hit Anthony Edwards under two and a half threes, but we were wrong about Phoenix. KD struggled in the game.

Grayson Rodriguez, that was a bad beat with my Orioles and his strikeouts. Prop, but we're undeterred. W.D., let's look at tonight's slate. Only two in the NBA tonight. Miami-Boston, pass. You can have that game.

You can have that series. We're focused on OKC New Orleans. Game two tonight. Oklahoma City, New Orleans.

Here's my best bet of the night. C.J. McCollum under three and a half threes. It's been a rough go for him the last few weeks. During the play in, he was in single digits scoring. He was two of nine from three in game one and that was a game that the Pelicans actually played well in, nearly one. This seems like a clap back game for OKC. New Orleans missing its shot in game one.

So, C.J. McCollum under three and a half threes. That's our first bet for tonight. Send me that cash out, fam. The second one we like from this game, Jonas Valanciunas is under 13 and a half points.

Send me that cash out, fam. His numbers are overinflated. See, he's had a couple of big games, a lot of rebounds. But I think New Orleans is starting to realize and OKC with some of the matchup stuff, too, that they are better off when Larry Nance is on the floor and going smaller than with Valanciunas inside. So, I think Larry Nance is gonna get more minutes than you think tonight and it's going to affect Valanciunas' scoring numbers. So, under 13 and a half points.

Send me that cash out, fam. Sorry about my throat there, by the way. And, you know, the Orioles, they play in about 40 minutes. Yeah, they do.

It's live action, Tracy. Anthony Santantier, two total bases. No runs in the first inning, or actually both teams remaining tied after one. The Orioles on the money line.

Harlay that together, have some fun. But the best bet I like, I really like both these bets similarly now that I think about it. C.J.

McCollum under three and a half threes and Jonas Valanciunas under 13 and a half points. That's what we got for Best Bets this evening. This is it. Ready? All right, hold on. All right, do it, do it. All right, listen up.

This is The Drive with Josh Graham. Oh, play me some mountain music like Grandma and Grandpa used to play. Then I'll float on down the river to Cajun Hideaway. Sean Clark, Doug Gillen in studio with us, App State football coach, App State AD.

But you guys probably already know that already because you guys are regulars on the show. You were already in Greensboro today. You're going to be at Fiddle and Fish in Winston-Salem in just a little bit. I'm told that people can still buy tickets to that, but knowing how Fiddle and Fish is and knowing how App State football is around here and App State athletics in general, that's going to be a great atmosphere. You guys will be there for a few hours, 5.30 to 8 o'clock around that roughly, Doug?

Yes, exactly. Why is Winston-Salem specifically such a hub for App State athletics? Yeah, and I mean, I don't know that it's, because we were in Raleigh last night, a great crowd in Raleigh, and then you're in Greensboro.

It's always been in Winston-Salem. We have amazing grads that come up the mountain that come back here and work. And we grow great, and we do great crowds here. But I really think it's, you look at the whole western part of the state, but then going into Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston, they're all big for App State. Sean, who are some of the players that come to mind when you think of recruiting just the greater triad, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, as somebody who knows the area as well as you do? Well, there's so many great players in the area. And again, there's a lot of App State alum that are coaches in the area as well. So the football has gotten, has improved tremendously over the last 15 years in this area.

And this is gonna be our stomping grounds first. We're always gonna start in-state recruiting, and then work our way out. And there are seven Division I schools in our state, so there's always a battle for in-state kids. We'd love to have more on our roster. Right now we have 41 on our roster. Hopefully here in the next few days, we'll be 45 on the roster as the recruiting process goes forward.

But it's always great to be down here, a great group of alumni in this area who are very proud to wear the black and gold. I'm interested in why you think the talent level has improved in the last 15 years. Mac Brown was once talking with us and said, it's just because North Carolina has grown. And I saw a statistic today that says, while North Carolina I think was the ninth largest state or 10th largest state in the most recent census, they're expecting in the next decade, and this is according to the governor, that we might be the seventh largest state in America in the next 10 years.

That's all the same thing while I was waiting to come on your show. And that's good for the state of North Carolina. But I think the reason they improved, the coaching has gotten better, more people are moving into the state. And when you watch spring practice now, you can just tell that they're really coaching at a high level and it shows when their kids go off to college. Have you noticed an interest in football changing? Because this state has always been known as an air quote basketball state with the success that we see of many of our schools. But have you noticed a football literacy, a football IQ at the grassroots level and in terms of fans and how much interest there is in the sport grow? It is growing. We started out at 40 all the way east and that's Tobacco Road.

So I'm not sure how it compares to basketball. I know there's a great group of young players here in this area who play football at a high level. We'd love to have them at App State. Sean Clark, he's with us.

Doug Gillen as well. Let's walk through the college sports off season. How often are you talking about NIL? How often are you talking about collectives nowadays? Well, it changes every single day. I mean, I talk to Doug at least once or twice a week and we like to meet him in person, but one week it's this and next week it's this. Then the rules are changing and we have to be involved. We understand that, but we want to make sure we're relevant. And there's going to be a time that we have to be in the right place at the right time. And the brand of Appalachian State is very high right now.

A lot of credit goes to Doug. We're recruiting at a national level and we got to play in Dallas, Texas or wherever it may be. They know they recognize the A. They're not saying, where are you from? Army or Akron. It's Appalachian State and that's nationwide.

After a great win, so you go to A&M and college station and all the great wins we've had here in our program. And on the same token, we're playing a lot of games on national TV. We play on ABC in our bowl game. I'm not sure the exact number, but it was 1.2 million viewers.

1.95. 1.95 million viewers. And that's big for our program. That's big for our university. And we'll continue to play those kinds of games and put our program on a national stage.

1.95 million. To put that in perspective, how many people watching that game, that's more than any non Duke Carolina regular season college basketball game that's watching your bowl game. Yeah, put on top of that, we're playing in a monsoon.

Tropical storm in Orlando, Florida. That was a great bowl game. But again, you're talking about playing on ABC for the first time in the history of our program.

And that is huge. And a lot of credit goes to our administration and Doug for making sure we're relevant and our brain is big right now. How do you, Doug, work with Sean on the NIL and collective front, managing it, determining how much kids can make, and also taking some of it off of Sean's plate so he could just worry about football? Yeah, I think that's really important. And I think, because we really want Sean concentrating on his coaching football. He's overseeing over 110 student athletes and his staff.

So whatever we can take off his plate within the rules. Because there is some different rules about how much impact we can have on NIL. You're seeing a different state law that just happened in the state of Virginia that gives them a little more flexibility. I think you'll probably see that across the board now.

I think a couple other states have followed since. But direct impact with NIL, right now we can go to an organization, say, hey, would you be interested in a name, image, and likeness with a certain student athlete? Then we got to connect them. I think in the future we'll be able to do a little bit more of that. But I try to take as much of that off Sean's plate as I can.

And certainly collectives are completely different because we're not really involved in them on a personal level. It seems to me, Sean, that the portal opening again in the spring creates more problems than it solves. What issues, if any, do you have just broadly with the college football schedule, the calendar? Well, it's just hard on college coaches because we talk about roster management. And we're looking at our roster every single day. And today is April the 24th, and I'm not sure who's going to be on my roster come August 1st.

And that's kind of unheard of. Why is the portal open again? What is the reasoning, benefit? It's after spring practice for all the schools. And if they're not in the position they want to be in, they can transfer. And I'm all for the giving the student athletes every opportunity to be successful. And again, both academically and athletically, but you're sitting there trying to hold a roster together and you're not sure who is going to be on your roster come August the 1st. And we've been very fortunate so far. We've met with myself and Coach Speer, met with 98 of our players last week.

It was Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. trying to get our roster. The good thing is no one's entered the portal yet. The bad thing is we have five more days left. So, but again, our players don't want to leave. I think that with our culture, our winning tradition, you look at the best, it's one of the best college atmospheres for a football game in all of college sports. You're talking about the third straight year, we're going to sell our season tickets. And that's impressive. When you get kids on campus to see that kind of atmosphere, the passion that our fans have, there's no better place in college football than the middle of Carolina on a Saturday at one o'clock.

And I hear all that and I agree with a lot of all of that. But when you talk about quarterback especially, there's a lot of money that gets thrown at different positions and you got a really good one. And I just wonder, is there an extra uneasiness, specifically with how important that position is, when you have a quarterback that's as talented as yours is when this time of year rolls around? Yeah, you always worry about that.

There's five more days of the portal. But I go back to December when, after our bowl game, we met with our players, and Joey specifically. And I wasn't sure what was going to happen after we had a record-breaking year. And to his credit, to his family's credit, they love Boonwell Care, they love Appalachian State, how the fans treated his family, how the fans treated him.

And he made the comment to me, Coach, why would I want to leave Appalachian State? And I knew we had something special in that because people go off and play for money and it is what it is, is pay for play. But I think we have something special in Boon right now. And we'll continue to do that. And we bring kids in from the portal and they recognize how special that place is because we're going to be who we are.

We're not going to be a used car salesman. We're going to be who we are and still our program, what we have to offer. And if that's good enough, great.

If not, they move on. So I like where we are. Great things are happening right now in Boon. You talk about we're adding on the east side of our stadium. We're going to start an indoor practice facility here shortly.

So we're continuing to grow. And that's not always the case in college sports right now. Indoor practice facility seems like an important thing at a place like Boon, North Carolina, Doug.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. When, you know, we could go back in history with some games that we played that we had to kind of do offense and defense. Now we need 140 yard indoor and we're working hard to get that. Doug Gillen, transitioning to basketball.

We're being joined by Sean Clark, Doug Gillen, in studio with us here. You signed an extension with Dustin Kearns recently with that basketball. How much of that was being proactive in seeing how much national attention he was getting securing your coach? Yeah, I mean, I think first and foremost, you want to continue to have great coaches at our university. And if you have an opportunity to go ahead and extend a coach like Dustin Kearns, then you want to go do that proactively. We have great, great coaches that are doing great work. So keeping him here was really important to us.

And we were able to do that. Tell us about your new women's basketball coach. Oh, we're super excited by Laura Sharp. She's going to do great things. You know, Angel Elderkin did a great job with our program for 10 years.

And then, Laura, I hated making that call to Dean Nichols down at Presbyterian because it kind of seems, you know, we've got one men's and one women's coach from them recently. But we're really excited about Laura. We think she brings a lot to the table. I like, you know, pretend like I know a lot about basketball.

When she was talking about matchup zones, I got excited because it sounded like different, like something that you got to do a little bit entrepreneurial on the court. So I was excited about that. You should know that we're very excited that you guys are here. And that already makes this hour a busy hour for us, but also the Baltimore Orioles are playing as well in the studio. So, you know, distractedness a little bit. Don't mind if I take a look to the left and check the 0-0 score between the O's and Angels.

Oh, that's a rope. Come on now. Kids from Greensboro, by the way. Are you guys baseball fans at all? I am. I'm a big Cincinnati Reds fan.

Let's go. I grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. That was only about an hour and probably 50 minutes from my home. I went back to the Big Red Machine back in the day with Dave Concepcion and Ron Oster and Johnny Bench. They used to come to Charleston all the time to a car dealership there, and I have autographs from the Big Red Machine. So again, that's my team. And we've been doing very well here lately, but again, that's my team in baseball.

Doug Gillen? Yeah, I grew up a New York Mets fan, and unfortunately I live in a house full of Atlanta Braves fans. Oh boy. So it's been rough. It's been rough. My son's at that age where he's excited about baseball and he loves it when the Braves beat the Mets, and that happens pretty regularly now. Will Dalton's a Yankee fan?

Yeah, right here across the glass. All right. Yeah, we're both in, you know, last year wasn't a very good year.

No, we're not. Introducing the world's greatest entertainer, the hottest working man in show business. Ladies and gentlemen, the star of the show. Now back to The Drive with Josh Flann. The sixth man at Tar Heel Basketball, B-Dot, is here. Matt Norlander, CBS Sports, reporting that R.J. Davis is expected to return to North Carolina.

An announcement could be coming today, maybe tomorrow. You also have the news that Seth Trimble has taken his name out of the portal. He's gonna return to Chapel Hill as well.

Dot, this is where my brain went first. Number one, you were right that R.J. was gonna return. I'm wrong.

That happens sometimes. My second thought was this might be, with Ian Jackson being the highest rated recruit that North Carolina's had since Harrison Barnes, and you got R.J. Davis in that backcourt too, and you got Elliott Cadeau after a season, a reclassified freshman season where he was starting to come on, and Seth Trimble coming off the bench. This is the best Carolina backcourt I can remember since maybe the 09 team with Danny Green, Ty Lawson, and Wayne Ellington. Would you go that far? Yep. Yeah, I'll give you that, and I like it. I like it a lot. I think it's a lot of buckets. It's a lot of fast, up-tempo offense for HD to have fun with.

Just need a little bit of experience. Definitely, of course, the elephant in the room. We need a solid five. We need some size, but other than that, I love the guard action.

Like, there's gonna be a bunch of buckets, a bunch of buckets. Ian Jackson, have you had a chance to watch him? Yeah, Captain Jack. Captain Jack like that, man. Captain Jack talk a lot of trash. Captain Jack very confident, but Captain Jack is very smart, too. Like, when you hear him talk, like, he knows his stuff, but he's an assassin on that floor.

He's a dog. Love him. Drake Powell, love Drake. Drake gonna be, I really like what Drake is gonna bring, defensively, I feel like, as well as offensively, his size-wise and length.

I really like Drake Powell as well. B. Dot, we gotta talk about the NBA. We'll do that a little bit later on. Let's just knock out grammar school right now, though.

Let's do it. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking. A-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

And just when you think it can't get any worse, rah-rah-rah. Josh is going to attempt to learn B. Dot's vernacular.

I'm gonna put one in the air. It's time for B. Dot's grammar school. Nobody better than B. Dot.

Free game, during game, post game. Brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling.

At Heritage Hardwood Floors. B. Dot, I'm off tomorrow. First time I'm taking night one of the draft off.

The Panthers aren't picking, so. Usually corresponding with the draft is Merlefest, which I get excited about. So tomorrow I'm going for my mom, my grandma, my dad. And all you gotta tell me, Dot, is where is Merlefest held? I feel like you ask me this every year. No, last year I asked you, I went back and checked.

I asked you to name one Bluegrass artist and you couldn't. Can you tell me where Merlefest is held? It's a place that starts with a W. That's correct.

Keep it coming. Think racetrack, maybe? It's right next to Boone, Wilkesboro, baby. Wilkesboro, man. Wilkes Community College. That's where Doc Watson is from.

The legendary Bluegrass player. You, that was close, man. I like that you retained a letter.

You retained one letter. It made me smile. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.

It made me smile. W.D., remind me of this as well. At the end of the conversation, we need to see what Doc thinks about Camp Canales.

Oh yeah. I think Doc's gonna be a fan of Camp Canales. I don't know if he's gonna be a fan of him or not.

He's a Cowboy fan, so he might not like Camp Canales. I'm the guy with the whistle, so that was fun. We just absolutely positively need to spend some time on that too, but that requires us getting through grammar school at a quicker pace than we normally would around here. I think we lost Dot for a second, but if you talk about the line between being fun and being hokey, Dave Canales walks that line very tightly. Dot, we'll save that for you at the end here.

What's your first grammar school question? All right, today is my uncle Tyrone, my favorite uncle. It's his heavenly birthday, Josh Brown.

We lost him in 2019, but today is his birthday. He's from St. Louis. So I'm gonna give you some St. Louis.

My first question is some St. Louis trivia for you, Joshua Graham. Nelly has a song where he talks about grills. In this song, he says, the whole top is diamond. Josh, what's the bottom row? The bottom, wait, say it again. In a very, in one of Nelly's biggest songs, Grills, he describes a set of grills.

And in the grills, he says, the whole top is bop. No, the whole, the whole top is diamond. What is the bottom row? Darn it, because we're talking about teeth. The bottom row, I'm gonna say gold. You're gonna be 100% correct. Yes.

The whole top diamonds and the bottom rows gold. Let's go, from the loop. Yup, yup. All right, now here is some grammar news. W.D. puts his face in his hands when I said from the loop.

He should just stop while he's ahead. Jason Tatum and I, Caleb Love, let's go, from the loop. From the loop, and I'm proud, nevertheless. All right, this is grammar news, Josh Graham.

Are you ready? Yeah. Grammar news, there's been a lot of dissing going on in the urban community.

I'm not sure if you've been seeing this. We've been waiting on a disc from one particular person because there was a group of three gentlemen that named themselves The Big Three. Josh Graham, who are those three gentlemen? Do you want the gentleman or the guy we're waiting to hear from? All three gentlemen from The Big Three.

I know two. I think we're waiting to hear from Kendrick. Drake, of course, is at the center of this. The third, Pusha? Now, two will get you half of a point for today, Josh Graham.

First time we've ever implemented the half a point system. But is that your final answer? Yeah.

Drake, Kendrick, and Pusha T. That's what I'm going with. That is 100% incorrect. No, 100%? Not even like 33%? 33% incorrect, but it's still 100% because totality, no.

Okay, got it. The third one is J. Cole. Oh, J. Cole's in this? Yeah, J. Cole. J. Cole, Kendrick, and who am I missing?

Drake, those are The Big Three. Did you miss Taylor Swift's disc record from last week? Yeah, we're still waiting on a Kendrick disc. Drake has dropped two disc records and we're still waiting on a Kendrick disc. J. Cole dropped a disc record to Kendrick, but then he apologized at Dreamville. The Taylor Swift disc record of Kim Kardashian was something last week. Kim Kardashian lost 100,000 followers. Yeah, ooh, don't mess with Taylor Swift.

Josh Graham. Chris Brown also dissed a member of the Migos. For a full point, can you name the three members of the Migos? For a half a point, name two out of the three members. I only know Quavo, man.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. Somebody name the members of Migos. I mean, who are the three Migos?

Is that how they came up with the name? The three Migos. He's watching The Bodyguard. Everybody loves The Bodyguard. The App State folks were here earlier, like, oh, Bodyguard's a good movie now. Great movie.

Dot was the deciding vote in that. Yesterday, all right, I don't know it, but I'm using WD as my lifeline. What do we got? So, do you know both of them?

I do. R.I.P. Takeoff. Oh, Takeoff. And then you got Offset. Oh, Offset's the one that dated Cardi B, right? Or still does? Actually married, married Cardi B. Congratulations to them.

But that is correct. Two and a half points for Josh Graham today. Makes him successful. Love it. Okay, Dot, we got to play some sound for you.

All right. Dave Canales, he had his first practice as the Panthers head coach yesterday, so he was emotional. He was thoughtful.

He was stoic. It was very, here he was reflecting on his first practice as Panthers coach, what it meant to him, what stands out. Just kind of walking around the gate, going out there, seeing the guys out there early with jerseys and that kind of thing. Going out there, seeing the guys out there early with jerseys and they're waiting for me to blow the whistle. I got to blow the whistle, by the way. So that was cool. So I don't know if I'll use it again, but I got, I'm the guy with the whistle.

So that was fun. He's the guy with the whistle. How old is coach? He's like what, 39 or something? He's like 43.

See, he's a young guy. He sounded eight. He sounded eight.

He sounded like my daughter. If Ryan was at Panthers practice and she said, daddy, I was walking around and saw the guys with the jerseys and I got the whistle, daddy, I got to blow the whistle. I got the whistle, so that was fun. We got kickball and it gets better. You know, at summer camp, you know, hey, or at the house, you say a swear word, you got to put something in the swear jar.

They have a similar policy with the Panthers, just not for curse words. From the minute we got our staff assembled, it was like, let's build a new playbook. This is what we call the things, Kay. Whatever you called it somewhere before, we got to change your language. You know, here we go.

Let's put the find box in the middle of the table right here. So if you use that word again, pay the box. We don't have to find a box, but you know, we just kind of, you know, rib each other a little bit, make it playful and be like, there goes that term again. It's like, this is what we call it. Gotta have fun around here, Dot.

Mini camp, Camp Canales. And good luck to the Panthers, man. I love it.

I love it. And good luck to the Panthers, man. I mean, you dealt with Mike McCarthy for years and we got, we got Dave Canales and you know, he's not, he's, he's, he might be.

Very hot seat. Yeah, but I mean, you, you dealt, you had to listen to Mike McCarthy for years, man. Like this, this guy's at least fun.

He's interesting. I forget if Dot was on board for the Mike McCarthy, like let's let the coach go campaign. I think he was. He wanted to let go of Mike McCarthy? I think he did.

I think he wanted McCarthy out of there, as he should. I mean, they never win in the playoffs. No, I mean, they didn't win in the playoffs before McCarthy either.

No, they didn't. I'm just, I'm just saying on that. Getting to the NBA really quickly on the way out, are you having second thoughts about the Nuggets after the first two games as Finals favorites? Nah, man, I'm just very impressed with LeBron, man. And he's showing that he is father time when it comes to basketball, he's taking Jamal Murray dunks out of the rim. Like he's just hitting half court shots at the buzzer for like at halftime, like he is balling and the Lakers are playing as good as they can, but this Denver Nuggets team finds a way to win.

And that's what they're gonna have to do. But I don't think there is a team, especially in the West, that can keep up with that size and that skill. The Nuggets can beat you with so many different variables. They're just interested in the Washington play, Josh. Is Chris Paul, are Chris Paul and LeBron James locked in to return next year, you think? I don't know, man.

That's a very interesting question. I haven't had any conversations with Pizzle about last season forward conversations, but I don't know, man. The way this season ended the same, if Chris did call it quits, I will completely understand. If he came back, I hope he comes back with a team that isn't the Golden State Warriors. Yeah.

I hope the best for Chris too. I think I'd go as far to say, not even recency bias, maybe the greatest athlete to come from Winston-Salem? I don't even know who else is in that category, but he's Winston-Salem. I mean, when you talk about born and raised, bro, because of course, Earl Monroe came from Winston-Salem State and stuff like that.

When you talk about people that were born in Winston-Salem, it will be hard to argue that. Of course, names come like Josh Howard. J-Ho is a phenomenal athlete. Rayshaun Terry, of course, another great athlete. But you talk about Chris Paul and the things that he's done in the Olympics.

As long as he's played in the NBA, the difference he's made in organizations where he's been to, yeah, Chris Paul will definitely be the top athlete for Winston, for sure. Thanks for putting up with our internet. We appreciate it. No, I appreciate it, man.

Hey, they trying to hate on us. But nothing can come between this bond, baby. Me, JG, WD, we family, baby. Does that mean you want to come to Murrell Fest with me? Absolutely not. I got work this weekend, so I'll see you when you get back to hear all about Murrell now.

Murrell and them, that's right. All right, love you, man. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it, man.