Stoved Up

So glad to have you on a Wednesday drive. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, where several college basketball stars have until midnight tonight to decide whether they will keep their names in the NBA draft or withdraw and return to college hoops. Just in the last few hours, we learned Alex Caravan is going to return to UConn, shoot for a three peep with the Huskies. FAU guard John L. Davis, you might remember, his final four run with the Owls in Dusty May a year and change ago. He's going to return to college. He's going to play for John Calipari at Arkansas.

Still got to get used to Cal being there. Chase Hunter from Clemson. He's going to return to school as well, but focusing on the local. No ACC basketball team has more to be gained today than Wake Forest does.

Hunter Salas could return to Winston-Salem. He was a first team All-ACC guard this year. First team All-ACC. As of now, out of the 15 All-ACC selections, RJ Davis and Marcus Burton, the only two to have returned to their schools. Two of 15 as of now. Getting Salas back would be the biggest break of the Steve Forbes era. Now entering his fifth season as the coach?

21, 22, 23. Yeah, five years at Wake Forest. While he's been great in the portal, he's had some bad luck when it comes to retention. Whether it be trying to land Olivier Saar upon arriving during COVID, leading to our show going to war with the entire state of Kentucky, to Jake LaRavia not returning.

Turned out that was the right decision for Jake. He ended up being a first round draft pick and has been a key player for the Memphis Grizzlies. And then you had the Bobby Klintman debacle a year ago. Wake hasn't had a lot of good luck in that regard. If they bring back Hunter Salas, that would be a ginormous feather in their cap, in Steve Forbes' cap. It's surprising that he hasn't made a decision yet. It's a weak draft.

We know this. Next year will not be a weak draft, headlined by Cooper Flagg. Hunter Salas is a borderline first round pick. Some scouts told me he was going to be a first round draft pick during the season.

He had a good combine, good three-point shooter, good measurables, really smart kid. So why hasn't he kept his name in the draft, announced that he's not returning to college yet? My guess is Mitch Shaw and his large NIL commitment is probably what's making this difficult for him. It was a $5 million commitment we learned from Mitch Shaw, and Steve Forbes told us that the NIL focus for them is not going to be on landing incoming transfers because of how hard it is to get kids into Wake Forest. But once they had discovered really good players, using those NIL funds to retain guys, to keep players at Wake Forest, I think at a minimum, you're talking about a million dollars.

Probably not more than two. I think the most that we've seen of any NIL player is $2 million at Washington. But Wake's got sneaky money and sometimes not even sneaky.

I think that that's the type of coin that's being thrown around here. Not based on any info, but just what we've known with college basketball, what we know about Wake Forest, what we know about Mitch Shaw and his commitment to try to keep Wake Forest competitive. So here's how big it would be if Hunter Salas decided to return to school. Wake would be a top three team in the ACC. Other than Duke and Carolina, who would you say right now is better than Wake Forest is if Hunter Salas is in the fold for the Deacs? You're talking about a first-team-all-ACC player that returns. And you also are returning Afton Reed in the starting lineup, Cam Hildreth in the starting lineup.

Parker Frederickson you knew was a guy that would be capable of starting. And they may have upgraded after losing Andrew Carr in the way of bringing in a McDonald's All-American and an Omaha Billou, a former All-American, transferring in from Iowa State, and Treveon Spillers from Appalachian State. So the one thing that's missing is a dude like Hunter Salas.

And that would be the hardest thing to replace as well. So really, the feeling that we have about Wake basketball going into next year is going to be determined today based on what happens with Hunter Salas. If Hunter Salas returns to school, you're talking about Wake Forest potentially being a national championship contender. That's what it means if you're one of the top three teams in the ACC, potentially being able to win the ACC. If he doesn't return to school, you might not be one of the five best teams of the ACC. You might not make the NCAA tournament. You're going to be borderline tournament again, trying just to claw to get in to a place where Wake Forest hasn't been since John Collins losing in the first four in 2017.

It's been such a long time. But we'll continue to follow announcements. We still haven't seen it.

And he has until midnight to decide what he's going to do. The Western Carpets Finals, it could get interesting very fast because the T-Wolves, they only have one more road game to get if they were to win their last three. Games five and seven would be in Minnesota. And after last night, are we all that worried that Minnesota can't win in Dallas? They are six and two on the road these playoffs. Two and one against last year's champs.

Two and O against the Suns. And splitting two road games against Dallas thus far. And valuing larger sample sizes than just these four games.

Minnesota, the better team than Dallas all season long. But we get it. The playoffs. That's what everybody pays attention to. You have the casuals that pay attention only this time of year. Don't blame those people because you have stars taking off games and load management in the regular season.

The regular season's been devalued in such a great way in that sport. But as somebody who actually followed the NBA regular season, Minnesota has been one of the superior teams all year long. There are three teams at the top of the Western Conference all throughout the regular season. Teams jockeying in order to be the number one seed in the West until the final week of the year. Denver, your defending champs. The Oklahoma City Thunder, who ended up being the number one seed. And the T-Wolves. They have been the three best teams in the West all year long. They had six more wins than Dallas did in the regular season. They are deeper than the Mavericks are. The reality is, if Karl-Anthony Towns plays as he did last night, Minnesota is not losing.

But that's a pretty big if. Can Kat play the way he did last night in four straight games? Twenty-five last night, nine of thirteen shooting, four of five from three, but still had several brain dead type of fouls, mind numbing type of fouls, and fouled out of this game.

Which should reinforce the point. Even when he plays great, there's stuff that makes you want to pull your hair out. How Luca baited them at the end, fouling him out and sending Luca to the line. If Kat plays like he did last night, Minnesota is not going to lose. But can he do that consistently? Derek Lively, his injury a concern. Didn't play last night? We don't know if he's going to play in game five.

If he doesn't, that lack of rim protection, it affected Minnesota or affected Dallas last night. And that's a really big concern. This could get interesting fast. I'm not at the point where I'm saying this is a series again yet. I am at the place where I'm saying don't let Minnesota win game five. Because if they win game five, this is real.

And this is a thing that becomes serious really quick. And game six is a fascinating deal. Teams have come close from coming back from three zip down, even though a team's never done it. Last year, don't forget that Miami was the lower seeded team against the Celtics. And the Celtics fell behind three games to nothing, forced to game seven on their home floor. But Davie County stand up. Kayla Barton went nuts in order to win that game in the Boston Garden.

These Western Conference Finals going to get interesting, could get interesting very quick. My God, that's Connor O'Neill's music. Deacon Illustrated, Devils Illustrated. Great time to catch up with Connor because Duke very much in the news. Wake Forest is hell. But something we haven't talked about today yet. John Shire's first comments this off season on the new Duke basketball roster, all the turnover that we saw over the last month and a half or so. This is what he told Steve Wiseman of the Raleigh News and Observer. Talking about the players who left, he said, quote, you have to handle every conversation, every one of them, whether it's the guys returning or the guys that are leaving with total transparency and honesty.

I'm proud of each of those guys. The conversations we had in the spring and the conversations that were had throughout the course of the season, what they had to do in order to get better and to carve out a role. These are all things we discussed, but it wasn't about or it wasn't going to be promising something to somebody in order to get them to come back.

And so, again, I wish all those guys the best of luck. Translation, guys probably were asking for starting spots and John Shire wasn't willing to promise that. Yeah, that's my takeaway. Well, that's exactly what was written.

I know on my board at Devils Illustrated, I can't speak to anybody else's, but, you know, let's let's let's word it this way. A freshman who came off the bench last season wanted to be guaranteed a starting spot. Sean Stewart. Yes, and he averaged two points a game. Yes, I think it was like two point six points and three point two rebounds were his stats. The per 40 was great because he was only in there for a few minutes at a time.

He showed flashes. But if you're Duke, are you going to promise a starting spot to Sean Stewart and base? You know, you're in your success of your entire team isn't based on one potential starter, but that's going to define your ceiling to an extent.

And are you going to guarantee it and just load your chips onto that development happening? Or are you going to be a college basketball program in the 21st century in twenty twenty four and use the transfer portal to your advantage? And I give you Malik Brown from Syracuse. And I think it's more than fair to say that's an upgrade over Sean Stewart.

Yeah. And the timing, again, is all you need to know about it. Malik Brown came on his visit. I think he arrived in Durham on a Thursday and Sean Stewart's departure was announced on Friday.

Yeah, I mean, we were doing a show that day. I remember this is great to have on the record comments from John Shire. It puts it all out there. Reading the quotes from John Shire on all three transfer editions that are going to play not that kind of Camp Sheffield, but on Malik Brown, Mason Gillis and see on James. I mean, you don't need a transcript or you don't need a one or more translation here when John Shire has quotes saying like we're looking for guys that come in and compete and are about winning and do the things that it takes to win at the highest level.

This is another quote. In order to have a championship caliber team, you need to have more than five players who are capable of starting. And I feel that we have that in this year's group. Like I couldn't tell you right now who are starting lineups going to be. Well, I can tell you who three of the starters are going to be. I mean, Caleb Foster, Tyrese Proctor. And I think Cooper flags. Good to start. I think Cooper flags probably going to make it.

And it'll be, I can, I can fill in four and five for you. I think are Malik Brown and Malik unless they want to go smaller. That's what is James's role. Like Mason Gillis seems like a perfect guy.

You want to have off, come off the bench. You just added the six man of the big and the big 10 to be your sixth man. That's a really good ad in that role. What do you see James's role as like who, who, for those who don't know who Sion James is about? I see James as playing some two. I don't think he'll play much of the initiator role. I think that'll be Proctor, Foster, and then flag will run some point forward. I would see flag going to the four and see on James playing the three a little bit.

He's big and bulky. I don't think he's going to be playing any four and five like Tulane. If you look at Tulane and what they did with him, they moved him all over the place. And a lot of times in the AAC, he was wound up guarding big guys and holding his own in the post and low post defense and that kind of thing. I see kind of an off ball role, wing roll, maybe off ball guard in some spots. Connor O'Neill, he's hanging out with us.

Deacon Illustrated, Devils Illustrated. DJ is a Duke fan here with us. Duke, what's your level of excitement when you look at this Duke roster?

How many Cooper flag clips have you watched? Too many, too many, but I think he's going to be a handful. I think he's going to be a handful. He's got a sweet jump shot.

I mean, for a big man, he can flat out shoot the ball and defensively, he's pretty good too. That's going to be a fun one. Getting to Wake Forest, baseball. This is the hottest take I had today.

See, I'm not a hot take artist. I know that's, I guess what you have to do when you're giving out opinions on a show such as this, but I think Wake Forest is better off going on the road to Greenville than they would have been hosting. Because if you host, you're almost guaranteed to have an SEC team as the two seed. Well, if you're an SEC team, you're a hundred percent guaranteed.

That's what I'm saying. Like five regionals, SEC teams. And the way that I look at it, the fact that you're in North Carolina, if you win your first game, then you have Chase Burns playing a mid-major school or school from a mid-major conference that there's no way they've seen anything like Chase Burns. Like even the schools that, I mean, ECU's played Carolina Duke and them, but they're not playing their ace. I understand, but you can't, you can't call ECU baseball a mid-major. I'm an ECU guy. I said they came from a mid-major conference. That's language.

The American is enough. Gonzaga comes from a mid-major conference in basketball. They're not a mid major, right?

Like there's, there's limit. There's the, there's the exemptions from some of these leads. That's why I'm trying to be careful because again, ECU is not a mid-major, but they come from a mid-major conference, which is important to say in this context, because while they do play Duke, they have played Carolina. They have played state and beaten many of those teams. They're often playing them in the midweek.

They're not getting their aces. And that's the point I'm making where like, there's no chance that ECU has seen anything remotely like Chase Burns. And I think that's a greater advantage than if you play an SEC team on Saturday night.

Yeah, I'll give you that. I also would say, I don't think teams in the ACC saw anybody like Chase Burns other than Chase Burns. I mean, there's, there's a reason that there are two college pitchers being talked about going in the top 10 and he's one of them and the other one is from Arkansas. It's like nobody else that I saw in the ACC throws a hundred on his 103rd pitch of the night, that kind of thing, and has a devastating slider and a change up to make people look silly. And you know, it is, this stuff is unreal.

It's electric. The one main, the one main takeaway from, from his start against Carolina was you just knew that you were going to see something special. I was telling people on like Wednesday night after their game against whoever they beat in the first game out there.

I was on a boat. I don't know. They beat Pitt on Wednesday in Charlotte and it was just like, I think we're going to see something special from Chase Burns because he's that type of competitor. So put him in a Friday night or a Saturday night of a regional or Saturday during the day would not be quite the cache and they're fighting to save their season, but you would at least wake is hoping that it doesn't get to that point. Theoretically, if you put him on a Saturday night in Greenville against ECU, like that's must see TV.

I like the idea of when Connor delivers a zinger, like I don't think anyone in the ACC seen anyone like Chase Burns having his music, like right there is DJ delivered it. That's it's pretty strong stuff. It's strong production work here. Are you going to be in Greenville America? I'm credentialed. I don't know if I'll be able to get down there. Okay.

Let me know if you need barbecue racks, even though I think you've held your own a number of times in Greenville over the years to fill in. Yeah, he might go to the best. Yeah. I mean, I need a teleportation device is what I need. It's the five hour, five and a half hour round trip that really is pretty intimidating right now. What is the most difficult pitching decision Tom Walter has to make this week?

I think it's already probably been made. They're going to start David Falco Jr. against VCU on Friday night. And that'll be Falco plus the entire weight of the bullpen.

Bullpen game, then you got Burn Saturday, and then with a chance to close Josh Hartle in the best case. Right. And, and look, Josh Hartle's numbers aren't good, but that guy is also a competitor. And that guy, he's been let down by his defense a bit here. He's not going to back down from this stage.

No, no. And pitching for wake forest on this stage is what he came to college to do. He could have been a first three or four round pick out of Reagan high school. And he spent the last three seasons at wake forest for a reason. Do you see a top tier in college baseball that wake is not a part of last year? It was wake in LSU and it seemed they separated.

Is there any separation of anybody at the top? I honestly, I haven't paid that much attention to the sec this year, but based on hearing at any point in the season that any one of like four or five teams was the best team in the sec. I would say no, I've gone into this tournament thinking that it's kind of wide open. You can see some crazy stuff. Like we'll probably see a three or a four seed or a couple of those get through regionals this weekend.

Um, I just think, you know, maybe I'm a little prisoner of the moment. Maybe it's the, still the Omaha draw of it from last year, but I go into it sinking. Nobody in college baseball this year is as good as LSU or wake forest were last year. And I don't almost throw Florida in there too with Jack Kegley and own and Wyatt Langford and what they had last year in the final series against LSU. Your attention, please.

This is the drive with Josh Cray. Ladies continued for the Carolina Panthers today, by the way, weekly positivity 15 minutes from now your chance to win some baseball tickets. Then for the second year in a row, the New York jets are going to be visiting Spartanburg during training camp.

That means just like last year, we'll get to see Aaron Rogers for two or three days down here. There is no word whether the Panthers will have multiple joint practices. We are seeing, and we've discussed it in recent years, more of a lean towards joint practices than preseason games to get a lot of work done.

It's a more controlled environment and you can run less vanilla stuff, put guys in specific situations to test them. But you might be wondering, why would the jets do this consecutive years? It's not like the Panthers have the same head coach they had even just last year.

And usually this is done with coaching relationships. Well, Dave Canales Panthers coach was asked about it after his OTA practice earlier today. And here's what he had to say about this joint practice and his relationship with Jets head coach Robert Sala. Robert Sala and I were quality control coaches together with the Seahawks. We were together for a Super Bowl 48 and then he left shortly after that. So we have about a 13 or 14 year relationship and we were able to practice with them last year in Tampa.

And so we just kind of talked about doing that again. It's a great advantage for us because we play so much five man front type of defense. And so he's more the traditional four three defense.

We need that work. Yeah. The Jets defense is really good, too. You got Quinnen Williams and a lot of people who can test you on that D line didn't know that they were quality control coaches together, though.

At one point, that's kind of interesting. According to the actual OTAs, there was a bit of a scare. No, Xavier Leagut out there, the Panthers first round draft pick.

Why was that, Dave Canales? Yeah, just a precaution. You know, I think he's been what happens a lot with rookies is they come out here. It's a different level of work. And it's not that they haven't practiced this long, but everyone's fast. Everyone's going, you know, and of course, they're there with their wheels turning. There's a strain on the brain. There's also a strain on the body. And so for him, he just kind of looked a little bit stoved up yesterday.

And we just, as a precaution, said we need to pull back a little bit and just make sure we're smart with this at this point, you know, in our program and what we're doing, you know, with our sights on training camp and all that. Never heard stoved up before. DJ, have you ever heard that expression? I assume that means that things got really hot, that you're stoved up.

That's a first for me. Let me see if we know that Dave Canales can be pretty hip to things. Right.

Might know some of the. He might be good at grammar school. I was going to say, would this be a grammar school candidate being stoved up? Apparently, this is something that the Merriam Webster dictionary has defined. You ready for this?

I'm ready. Being stoved up means suffering physical discomfort caused by injury, illness, exercise or overwork. Look at that. Seems like it's aptly used by Dave Canales. Learn something today. Very impressive.

Let's hope that things go really well in the show today, that by the end of the show, that we're not stoved up by any means whatsoever. You're a fan of Dave Canales. I am. I'm digging it. Yeah.

I great personality. Great. Great for us. Just like Xavier League. It is. We do need a ruling on Xavier League.

This is this fight's not over. Like the Webster Merriam Webster dictionary has not figured this one out yet, where South Carolina's game notes when he was there for years said it was pronounced Xavier Legate. And then Roger Goodell says Xavier League it. And everybody mocks him and laughs at him, given his track record of mispronouncing guys. Then we bring it up to Xavier and Xavier says, Yeah, that's it.

Help people hold the extra e there. Uh huh. So we we will need some clarification on that before the season starts. Whether or not it's League it or like it.

I like like it better, but not my name. So we'll see where that ends up and whether or not Xavier League it or LeGette or whatever we're calling him gets back out to practice later on in the week. Before we get to weekly positivity, this might be the hottest take I have.

I don't classify myself as a hot take artist, as a, you know, someone who owns a masters in the art of of hot takery. But getting to college baseball, this Tom Walter would never admit this. I don't think he even agrees with me on this.

It's fine. But I believe this down to my soul. That Wake Forest Baseball is better off going to ECU, playing on the road and going to ECU. Then they would have been hosting in the first round or in the first weekend of the NCAA baseball tournament. Hear me out. If they would have hosted if we had for the second year in a row, regionals in Winston Salem, they would have been pitted almost certainly with an SEC team as a two seed.

How could I say that? Well, there are five ACC hosts, five in the NCAA baseball tournament. You know what they all have in common? SEC teams as the number two seed in every single one of those five brackets.

Why? Because these are the two best conferences. The ACC and the SEC are head and shoulders above every other conference at college baseball. And you don't want to if you can control it, put conference teams in the same regional. You don't want to send an ACC team to an ACC schools regional.

You don't want that. And the same thing is true with the SEC. So you have all these SEC hosts that have ACC teams there. You have all these ACC hosts with SEC schools there. All five regional hosts have an SEC school that are the number two seed.

So it makes sense that that's the case. So would you prefer to have an SEC school as your two seed in your region and host or be the number two seed and not go to an SEC school instead go in state to East Carolina where you're in a region with three schools from mid-major conferences? I'd take the latter with respect to my alma mater, East Carolina. They've struggled this month. They had a five game losing streak earlier this month. They didn't get in Clearwater, Florida to the American athletic conference championship game, let alone win it.

Send me there. Great environment. Like tickets are going for 800, 900 bucks to get into a college baseball regional.

They love their baseball over there. The atmosphere is going to be fantastic in the jungle, but we know Wake last year almost got into the championship series in Omaha, was in that top tier with LSU all throughout the season a year ago. We know preseason number one, we know that their talent level is superior to the Pirates, to VCU, and to certainly of Evansville in this regional.

And this is an important piece. They get to play in the state of North Carolina. Duke can't say that. Duke's not hosting. Where are they? Siberia. No way. They went to Oklahoma.

Same difference. Norman, Oklahoma. What Duke baseball fan saying, yes, sign me up. I'm going to Norman.

None of them. So this is not as hot of a take, but still a take nonetheless. If Wake wins game one against VCU on Friday night, they're winning this region. They're getting to the supers, probably to face Tennessee. But if they win Friday, they're likely winning this region because Chase Burns is going to be saved for Saturday night. And here's what I know. ECU, they've done a great job of scheduling state, Carolina, Duke in the regular season, great schools, but often they play them in the midweek.

You know what that means? You're not ever facing their ace. Chase Burns is the best pitcher in college baseball. ECU has not seen anything like Chase Burns this entire year. And the same could be said about VCU and Evansville.

All due respect. That's another reason why facing those three schools, even if it means you going on the road, is a greater advantage than facing an SEC school who has seen pitching like that. Chase Burns against any of these schools. Wake is probably going to win the game.

And if they win game one, then you're in a situation where you only have to win one more and don't lose two in a row or three in a row, I should say. So they are the clear favorites in my mind to get out of the Greenville America Regional that starts on Friday. I was under a rock for a little while. Who won the ACC tournament in baseball? Your school. Really?

That's what I'm saying. See, I've been under a rock lately. See, I was the one on a boat. You were on a boat. I was on a boat and it was on in the airport when I was coming back from Florida and Duke took out Florida State to win the ACC baseball championship.

Still don't, still didn't get the host. That's something we'll talk about with Connor O'Neill who will join us. Deacon's Illustrated, Devil's Illustrated. Shout out to the Blue Devils. To lift morale across the Piedmont and give away baseball tickets.

We'll play weekly positivity next week. We got baseball tickets to give away. All you have to do is give us a call and tell us something.

Good. 336-777-1600. We have not one, but two pairs of tickets to the Dash's Sunday afternoon game. Go out to the ballpark. Couple pairs of tickets.

336-777-1600. All you have to do is give us a call and tell us something good. And weekly positivity. You know what? Let's just get to that right now. Oh, yeah.

You know the difference between you and me? I make them look good. WD's movie this week has been in black, so he will enjoy that. That'll be good.

He'll review that when he returns to the show tomorrow. Weekly positivity presented to you by our friends at Biscuit King. Biscuits. High Point, Lexington.

That's where you can go to get some biscuits. Make it tomorrow morning and tell them that we sent you. 336-777-1600.

If you would like to play along. Hi, DJ. Hello. I got another one. Oh, let's try this again.

Just go to the phones. Yeah. I'll just tell the people something good with me while you do so. I got back on the Peloton today. And it was one of those things that I was super excited. This might've been my greatest disappointment going on the cruise last week. Where they said on the website for the boat that I went on, Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, that there was a Peloton on board. So I packed my shoes.

And if you've been on a cruise, you know how precious every piece of space in your cargo is. And then I get there and they say, oh no, we don't have the Peloton anymore. We got rid of the Peloton two or three weeks ago.

Devastating. So instead I played pickleball two or three times a day, almost every day while I was on the boat. That's what I did for exercise. But I was excited to get back on the Peloton. And this is just part one of the good news that I have. There were 26 people in my Peloton class today. I finished second out of the 26, burning some rubber. The other piece of good news, DJ, I only gained a pound and a half, maybe two pounds from being on this cruise last week.

Get out. Really? That's pretty good. Yes. I guess it might be because of the pickleball and such that, and I didn't, I still tried to only eat two meals a day. I gained eight.

Yeah. And also I didn't have the drinks package. I just had the soda package, which is key because that also gets you like lattes and like water bottles, which is important. Remember that the drinks package though, if I had that, I would not been able to restrain myself. I had the drinks package. So how much are we drinking a day?

If you have the drinks package and you don't have to go anywhere. Well, we figured it all out. We had the strategy, had to at least put down five a day. Five a day.

Yeah. When does the first one go down? Nine 30.

Nine 30. That's what we're talking about. That's when we start.

Got to have three by lunch. My man. Here we go. Should we go to Serica? Yes, let's go.

Okay. Serica is the other one. Let's go to... No, go ahead. Oh, Serica, are you with us?

Yes, sir. Where are you calling from, Serica? Greensboro, North Carolina. Shout out to, they call it the tray four.

I mean, shout out to the folks in Greensboro. I was, that was probably the most caustic that anyone's ever said that before. Serica, what, what, tell me something good with you. Something good with me. Yeah. Well, I'm currently at work.

I deliver for Amazon and something good with me. I have a hat on that dispenses water so I'm cool all the time. Whoa. So it's, is it like a bucket hat? What does this hat look like? It's kind of like a sombrero and you can have like, like a little fat pack, like a little fanny pack that goes to it. And it has two straws and you put them in your mouth or it goes connect under your ears.

And you also have a little fan on it that blows out mist and everything. It's like high-tech. Where can I get one of these? Don't say Amazon.

My girlfriend actually ordered it off of Amazon. There you go. Gotta stay on brand. That's really cool. So I like the picture of these things. You said it has fans on it. I've seen the ones that have mist as well. When I go to Panthers training camp, there's some of them that have like mist that disperses out of these things too.

It kind of blows in the back because you can't have it in the front, but it kind of blows in the back to keep your neck all nice and cool. I'm not burning up out here. I'll tell you what. I like to hear that, Charika. That is good. Enjoy the baseball as well. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Hang on with me. Okay.

Stay on the line so DJ can get your information. Is there another call that we're going to? Yes. I'm not sure. I forget what his name is.

Let's figure it out together. Hey, caller. What's up? Hey, what's good, Josh?

Who is this? This is Jew from Westin. Oh, it's Jew.

Hi, Jew. I thought you were going to say Kyle the Amazon driver and we'd have like dueling banjos of Amazon drivers, which would be fun. I used to work for Amazon, but now I'm Jew the postman. One day we're all going to work for Amazon. We're all going to be slaves to Bezos.

That's probably what's going to happen. All right, Jew. Tell me something good.

I got a couple of things for you, Josh. Well, me and my wife, we scheduled our second cruise last week. Yes. Who'd you schedule with? Carnival. We're more partiers. We like to party a little bit harder.

They party hard with Carnival. Let's go. Yes, sir. This will be her second and this will be my fourth cruise. This will be your fourth. Okay.

And where are you going? Great question. That is a great question. I can't remember.

I didn't know the answer to that either last week. I said two weeks ago, I said Jamaica. My wife's like, we're not going to Jamaica. Okay. Wherever the boat takes us. Hey, I think it's a Caribbean cruise. Let's go. Let's go. All right.

What type are you? Have you explored the packages? We were just talking about strategies.

Like how do you strategize since this is your fourth cruise? Well, we're checking out the 15 or 14 and 16 year old son. So everybody's going to get the regular drink package, but I'm going to get the adult drink back package as well. All right. So are we, DJ says he was putting down five drinks a day with the drink package over under. I will top that.

Oh, you're going to top that. Okay. I just said that was the minimum. No, that's the minimum. That was the minimum. I just said that was the minimum.

So that was just the, in order to beat the buffet line, we have to get to five and whatever happens after that's good. Okay. Got it. All right, Ju. When's this cruise?

It will be next year, next, during the summertime. Love it. Love it. Well, Ju, that is good.

And so is baseball. Enjoy the baseball. Thanks for the call.

Yes, sir. There goes Ju and Winston-Salem. On the way out, DJ, tell me something and stay on the line so DJ can get your information in a bit when we're finished. DJ, tell me something good with you. The Boston Celtics swept Indiana.

That's good. That's been weekly positivity for this week. Got to limit DJ's time talking about the Boston Celtics.

What else is going on? Oh, hockey. So for the conference series that are going on in the NBA, where you had one that wrapped up in four games, as you mentioned, the Celtics sweeping, the Florida Panthers, or pardon me, the Western Conference Finals. Team went up three games to zip. Minnesota wins last night. Game five going to be tomorrow night. We don't have any basketball tonight. It is the first time since the playoffs began. And I think probably since the second to last day of the play-in tournament that we do not have an NBA basketball game to watch tonight. So what will you watch later on tonight?

My idea? How about some hockey? Because while the NBA series have not been all that great, the hockey series have. You had three straight overtime games in the Rangers Panthers series. The Rangers winning games two and three in OT and last night the Florida Panthers winning in OT to knot up the series at two games apiece. Then in the Western Conference series, every game's been close and the Oilers are a home win tonight away from knotting up the Dallas Stars two games apiece. The first game went to double OT before Connor McDavid won it.

And then games two and three really close and empty netters made them two goal deficits. So you got hockey that you can pay attention tonight on the Western front. There is breaking news in the sport of golf to share. Shortly after we had the video drop where an officer is not identifying himself as police and telling Scottie Scheffler to get out of his car and hitting Scottie Scheffler, the charges have been dropped. Charges have been dropped over his Louisville arrest from last week.

Scottie Scheffler's attorney was pretty staunch in saying we're not gonna settle. This is either going to court or they're gonna drop the charges and the Louisville Police Department dropped the charges. This shouldn't be all that surprising considering that the Louisville Police Department punished the officer involved with this right on the onset. So not great on the Louisville Police Department, but Scottie Scheffler name cleared with the charges being dropped.

That news just dropped. There is Major League Baseball going on. You have four games that are currently underway.

A couple more make it three more that are about to start in the next half hour. And then at 6 35, the Baltimore Orioles with Corbin Burns on the mound facing the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees. I watched them late blow a lead in the eighth against the Angels filled my heart with joy. I'm sure. Yeah, especially with the Orioles losing. Like if you need something to salvage the night and the Yankees losing salvages things does and you don't feel that bad if you're a Yankee fan of the Orioles lose as well, except they lose to the Red Sox.

So yeah, it's not the greatest thing. On the phone with us. The voice of Charlotte FC will pelagic two hours from now. Charlotte FC will be kicking it off in the midweek against the New York Red Bulls.

Seven o'clock airtime with Willy P and Jess Charman right here on WSJS. Willy P know you're getting ready for a game really do appreciate you spending the time as you do each week. How big when you look at the last four matches of this month to outright wins two nil-nil draws. How big is the last month been for Charlotte FC? It's been huge Josh especially when you think about the fact that this is a team that I think was struggling to find its identity at the gate and had some issues in terms of trying to get chance creation and while those things have definitely been magnified with two nil-nil draws. The one thing you have to think about is the fact that there are now five consecutive contests where they have not allowed a goal and that's just something that just does not happen only happened two other times in the history of this league. We have a group that comes in with the kind of run that Charlotte FC has been on.

So honestly, I think it's definitely a testament to the kind of work that Dean Smith has done with this unit. Obviously they feel like the goals will come but you have to be just absolutely over the moon with the way that they've looked especially defensively. You were on social media today putting your picks out for the MLS All-Star game. Charlotte FC, who's the closest thing they have to an All-Star?

Paulina, definitely. The starting goalkeeper. I think he's somebody who when you think about the amount of goals that have been let in or at least the lack of goals that have been let in. Usually the attention always turns to the goalkeeper and while I think honestly the first three games of this run very much probably more due to the defense around him and the type of team that Charlotte FC has been over the course of that stretch, the last two games had belonged to him. Especially the game against LA Galaxy where he had to make two very key saves at the end of the match to try and secure that nil-nil draw.

He played one big one against Philadelphia but he's definitely a much different goalkeeper in this season than he has been in his first two. 7 o'clock Airtime, 7.30 kick between Charlotte FC and New York City Red Bulls tonight. New York Red Bulls or New York City Red Bulls and also I don't know if they call them the Red Bulls or just Red Bulls. New York Red Bulls. New York City is the pigeons, the blue ones.

Oh that's right, got to make sure I get that right. This is the New York team that as Dean Smith so appropriately said plays in New Jersey which again doesn't really make sense for anybody other than anybody up there. Let's talk about a team that plays in New Jersey but calls themselves a New York team. The New York Jets for the second consecutive year will be going to Spartanburg.

Aaron Rodgers and company will be having joint practices. Well no, they're actually coming to Charlotte. They're not going to Spartanburg. Ooh, must have I guess maybe it was a misspoken comment by Robert Sullivan. He said he was going down to South Carolina. Huh, how about that?

Doesn't even know where he's headed. So it's going to be in Charlotte, the Panthers and the joint practices. I think he said they're coming to the Carolinas is what he said.

Okay, understood. How crazy were those days last year and what exactly do you imagine training camp in the Queen City to look like? They were pretty crazy.

I can only imagine it being magnified. This is not to take away any of the attention that so is dutifully put on Spartanburg, but I think the one thing that I have found with those Panther fans who I've surveyed is that a lot of people didn't really have the opportunity to go down to Spartanburg. I know that there were a lot of people in South Carolina who were upset that training camp is no longer going to be in South Carolina and they have a long lineage down there, but I think there's honestly a lot of people who honestly welcome the opportunity to see the Panthers up close and personal in a scenario where they don't have to make the hour and 15 minute drive and bear the shoots of I-85 and beyond the probably worst road that's ever been known to man on the way down there. Trust me, my partner Jessica Charman is an expert in that as she drives it every week to come up to do these games. So from that aspect, I almost feel like it's something where it might even be crazier up in Charlotte, particularly when you think about the fact that there are people who probably weren't there a year ago that will at least flick their tops to try and see it happen again this year.

There's a popular internet meme where you have the British guy saying, I don't think you had the facilities for that young man or old man. And I just wonder how much differently is training camp going to look versus what we see during OTAs right now and the bubble, the way that the Panthers have done things in the past when it just comes to practicing. Well, it is a little bit different. I mean, it kind of looks like the way that we're used to seeing OTAs run and many camp run where they have the couple of fields that they have and instead of having the bubble covering half the one field, you just have it kind of sitting there and that's the proposed area where they're going to try and put some sort of indoor facility that actually is a hundred yards, which I think will be a welcome addition to the Panthers arsenal in terms of their practice facility. We almost feel like these practice facilities almost feel like what we call college facilities almost now.

They're almost an attraction piece when you think about that fact. So I do feel like it's something that is very much in flux. It's a work in progress, but I think when it's all said and done, it'll be something the Panthers can definitely use to their advantage.

Well, Pelagic with us here. Anything about OTAs that interests you? I mean, there was an unfortunate flare up today with Xavier Leaghette not practicing today with a slight hamstring injury. The team is not overly concerned about it. Kind of soft tissue injuries happen at this point of the year.

It's not going to completely alarm people. But one thing that I keep hearing is that Bryce is throwing the ball well and they really liked what they've seen. And the thing that I keep pulling back to Josh, and it's something that I think I've echoed in every time we've talked about Dave Canales is that the difference between him and the previous regime that was in here is that Dave literally sat there and said, I want to build this offense about what Bryce does and what Bryce does well, as opposed to trying to fit him into a box like the previous regime was trying to do and trying to mold the player as opposed to mold the system. I think the system is going to very much affect Bryce in a positive way. They need to get to run the football well. They need to get to protect him a lot better than they did a year ago.

And they finally had the past catchers to try and at least represent him in a better way than he did during his rookie year. The Dave Canales comment that was just him flexing. He's great at the media stuff is saying not that he was Xavier LeGette was injured, not that he was, you know, in a precarious position or anything of that sort. He said he was stoved up.

That's what he said. And I thought this was going to be a slang definition that I find, like an urban dictionary or something like that, because he has that propensity as well. He can pull out terms that the Utes use. But this is a Merriam-Webster definition that it means to suffer physical discomfort caused by injury, illness, exercise or overwork.

So Xavier LeGette, stoved up, man. It's OK. I've been having to get a secondary tutorial on the Queen's English anytime we talk with Dean Smith. Oh, yeah. Give me an example of Dean Smith, Charlotte FC coach, some of the things that are manager, some of the things that he's taught you of the English lexicon that, say, Jessica Charman is not.

Unfortunately, the best one is probably not air appropriate, but it basically look up Poets Day and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Well, that's what I'm doing right now. Oh, OK. Understood.

Will Pelagic. We'll talk to you next week. Have a good call.

Have a good call later tonight. Are you happy? Are you happy I used restraint there? Yes, I think I am. I think I am. Willy P, thanks for doing this, buddy. Thank you, pal.