Drugs or Guns (1-3-25)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

We're internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. We've made it to a Friday drive.

It is WSJS, new stonk sports for the Triad. But more than that, we've made it to 2025. We've made it to the end of the NFL regular season. We'll get to the Panthers finale in just a little bit, but any time the calendar flips into a new year, ACC basketball goes up a notch around here, which presents the perfect opportunity to address something up top. To anybody who is trying to place Hubert Davis on the hot seat at North Carolina, please stop.

We see you. In some cases, we hear you. It's ridiculous. And we're politely asking you to stop because Hubert is nowhere close to a hot seat right now.

Nowhere close. But that has not stopped some from beginning to foment pressure at the surface. Not within that building, but on the outside. And if it were just fans, that would be one thing, and that would be easy to dismiss. This isn't just social media discussion. One of the leading voices of college basketball, Jeff Goodman, or as we call him, Jeff hashtag to bid ACC Goodman.

He's one of the leading voices of the sport for the field of 68 nationally. And after North Carolina's loss to Louisville, he said this. Listen, there's a bigger picture conversation to have here. And it is the future of North Carolina basketball and whether Hubert Davis is a part of it. I know people maybe don't want to have that conversation yet, but I think it may be time here. Oh, it may be time. Again, supposed to be one of the leading voices of the sport saying it's almost time. It might be time for us to have the conversation about Hubert and the future of the Carolina basketball program because they lost to Louisville the other night and they're eight and six so far this season.

It's not just him. You see some of the blogs that are out there. They're UNC fans, fan blogs. Have you noticed a lot more talk about Wes Miller of late? Carolina fans saying, hey, you see Cincinnati's ten and two. You see Cincinnati's number 16 in the poll. Revisionist history going back to Wes versus Hubert Davis.

Back when the hiring process happened. Again, stop with it. Here's what needs to be said. It is very important that this is said.

Anybody manufacturing this type of pressure right now lacks perspective and lacks self-awareness. In his first season, Hubert Davis won perhaps the most important non-national championship win in the history of Carolina basketball, beating Duke in the Final Four after extinguishing Coach K in his last game at Cameron as well. A Final Four trip in year one. Give me the list of coaches that get to the Final Four in their first year. Give me that list.

It's not long. And then, yeah, bad year two years ago. Missed the tournament. Last season, he won the ACC regular season, earned a number one national seed, and made the Sweet 16. We're in year four. Think about how bonkers insane your expectations are that a coach in his first three years as the coach can have a number one national seed Sweet 16 appearance and make a Final Four come a couple of plays for winning a national championship and doing so in his first three seasons.

And you're in the position where you're thinking, well, we don't know if this guy is the right guy. It's ludicrous. And anybody across the country can look at that and laugh, saying, huh, yeah, we'd sign up for that. And let's not forget the financial realities of this.

If you're in the position that Hubert, his roster, wasn't greatly improved because they couldn't afford players like Amaruie, like what Alabama got, or other players in the portal, what makes you think that North Carolina is going to better be able to afford such players after devoting close to $100 million in investment towards football, hiring Bill Belichick, and on top of that, paying your basketball coach to go away in this hypothetical, in addition to having to pay a new guy to come in and take the job. That probably isn't the best strategy cotton, bold strategy cotton. This is important to remember, too. It is January the 3rd. According to Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm, today is the last day it's OK to say Happy New Year to somebody. First three days you can say so.

Got it. Carolina is still likely to be fine this year. It's the most talented backcourt in Chapel Hill we've seen in six years.

In fact, let me put it to you, W.D., because you're a Carolina fan. What backcourt would you take, Elliott Cadeau, R.J. Davis, do you consider Seth Trimble a guard or a wing? I'd consider him a guard. OK. Seth Trimble and Ian Jackson, or Kobe White, Cam Johnson, Kenny Williams?

I think I'm going to take the first one. Probably. Kobe White is really good. So then you go back probably to 2016. This is the year that they lost at the buzzer in Houston. And that was Joel Berry, Justin Jackson, Marcus Page. That backcourt probably better than this one, but it's not all that close. So why is this Carolina team in the position they're in? Well, it's the smallest frontcourt we've seen since pre-Dean Smith.

Don't forget, the ACC is bad as it's ever been. So their win total is going to be inflated. They're going to have that brand. They're going to have R.J. Davis. They have all that talent at guard. So they're going to be fine. They have a couple good out-of-conference wins, Dayton and UCLA.

They tested themselves, so their metrics are never going to be bad. And even if, for whatever reason, this team misses the tournament, Hubert Davis has earned the right to try to fix the problems. And he has demonstrated he is capable of doing that.

After the season two years ago, difficult conversations had to be had with Caleb Love, forcing him to move on. And then you bring in Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan, two guys who had not been on an NCAA tournament team. You add them to the roster.

They're great fits. You fix the team. They're number one national seed. Like Hubert has done enough to earn that.

So if you want to, you won't be faulted if you want to say, if they miss the tournament, then you can have the conversation during next year. Maybe he's on the hot seat. But having that today, because Wes Miller's off to a good start, and North Carolina is looking like a bubble team, absurd, lacking self-awareness, lacking perspective, and Hubert Davis should not be anywhere close to a hot seat at the moment.

On X, at WSJS Radio, if you want in, it's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch, WD, you aren't one of those loons, right? Wanting to have the Hubert conversation? I'm not. You did ask me yesterday, you think Hubert's on the hot seat? Yeah. Because, well, I was curious your opinion on it. But there's my opinion. Yeah. And because I also am starting to hear that talk ramp up a little bit. I see you, Carolina Blogs. Yeah.

Wes Miller. Look at the season he's having. I know what you're doing. And listen, if they don't make the tournament this year, next year he's got some things to... But that's key.

Dot, dot, dot. Right. But next year. Right. Next year he would be on the hot seat. Yeah.

Not now. If you missed the tournament consecutive years at Carolina, that's one thing. But people who are overreacting, this is the worst team we've seen, as if 8-20 didn't happen under Dougherty or the Ware Twins in 2010, that's not what this is.

This seems even better than one of Roy's last teams, the Cole Anthony team, which was a disaster in 19-20. Shifting things to another team that you like. Another one of your teams. The Carolina Panthers, they're not going to win their regular season finale in Atlanta Sunday. They're just too hurt. J.C. Horne, Pro Bowler.

Send me that cash out, family. Ruled out again. Josie Jewell ruled out. DJ Johnson apparently last night got into a non-life-threatening car accident and he's ruled out at outside backer, that's another thin position in addition to you playing your fifth and sixth stringers preseason at middle linebacker. But this season isn't really about wins and losses. When you have a new coach, new GM, and you're coming off a year where you had the worst record in the sport, it's less about wins and losses and more about Bryce Young. And when it comes to Bryce, you should expect him to finish the season strong even if it doesn't lead to a Panther win.

The Falcons, they're just better, they're healthier, they have something on the line, they're at home, they need to win and for Tampa to lose to New Orleans, Tampa's not going to lose that game by the way, but the games are going on at the same time, so Atlanta's not going to know that as it's happening. And don't forget Atlanta, they won in Charlotte 38-20 earlier this year, Carolina, they're wanting to have better draft position if we're being honest about it, so even though Bryce didn't play in that game against Atlanta, that was an Andy Dalton start, Andy threw a key pick in the fourth quarter of that game, the Panthers aren't going to win, but Bryce Young has been playing with a ton of confidence. He has accounted for five touchdowns, 437 yards, and no turnovers in his last two games. If you go, since he was reinserted into the starting lineup in Denver, 15 touchdowns he's accounted for, six picks, and a nine game stretch.

That's pretty darn good. This is exactly what you wanted to see this season. You wanted to know whether or not he could be your starting quarterback in 2025, if you have a franchise guy, if you have somebody that you still see ascending that could potentially be the answer, he has done enough to solidify himself as that, and to put the cherry on top of that statement, Bryce, he is ripe to have a big day against the Falcons. Atlanta, 19th in the NFL in pass D, 15th in team interceptions, 28th in team sacks, they don't get a lot of pressure, so expect Carolina to score.

Carolina will score 20 points in this game, but the defense will not hold Atlanta to fewer than 30, so you're looking at, okay, it won't be 38, 20 like the last time, maybe Atlanta 31, Carolina 20, with Bryce having a couple of touchdown passes in the game. This is actually a significant streak that Bryce is on. Bryce has gone nine straight games, nine times in a row, he's gone out and thrown a touchdown pass. It's one of the longer streaks in the NFL that we've seen in that category. It's been a weird week, started in 2024, then you had the new year, and now we're in 2025. You might have forgotten that the week started with Leonard Hamilton being sued over NIL payments at Florida State, another lawsuit at FSU during the holidays, goodness.

What legal precedent could this set in college sports? We'll ask David Glenn to put his law degree to work when he opens up the show by joining us next. 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. David Glenn with us, NC Sports Network, DG. There's a topic. Well, there are two topics that kind of have been lost, ACC basketball related because of the timing of which the news dropping. Jim Larranaga last week deciding to step down immediately at Miami, given the press conference and saying a lot of the same things that Tony Bennett and Dave Klassen had said in recent months. And then this fiasco to start the week at Florida State, how about that? Another holiday where we're talking about lawsuits at Florida State, this one of a different variety with Leonard Hamilton at the center of it, starting with the Canes.

How about that? The center of ACC headlines, the state of Florida. Given the fact that we've seen nearly two months of a Miami hurricane season so far, did your view of Larranaga's decision to step down differ from the way that you felt about Tony's timing stepping down? Yeah, Josh, great to be with you again.

Happy New Year to you and WD and all your listeners. I view the Dave Klassen and Tony Bennett decisions as infinitely more symbolic of where we are in college athletics. I happen to be near their age, mid fifties, right? Those guys had a lot of years left to coach if they wanted. I put a little less weight on the decisions of Roy Williams or Mike Krzyzewski or 75 year old Jim Larranaga at Miami or these other septuagenarians, because even if they didn't like some things about modern college athletics, portal, name image, likeness, chaos, roster turnover, et cetera, they were in their seventies, right?

Like they were going to retire soon, whether they loved college athletics or not. So Tony and Dave to me are just kind of on that Mount Rushmore of what we're dealing with in this crazy time in college sports history with Jim Larranaga. And as much as I love and respect the guy, and you know that to be the case, I do find it a little bit odd when the same coach, Jim Larranaga, who used incoming transfers to get to the final four and put together the greatest season in the history of Miami basketball. And I'm not suggesting we should put an asterisk on it just because some Miami collective paid Nigel Pack a lot of money to be the hurricane's point guard, paid Norchat O'Mear and all ACC big man to be their star post player.

I don't need an asterisk. I want to give Jim Larranaga all the credit in the world. When he was handed a great team, he took it to places that truly the hurricanes had never been in the sport of men's basketball, right?

He's also taken them to an ACC title, more power to them. But man, does it sound hollow when the same guy who benefited from the new system complained on his way out the door. I couldn't believe that eight guys from my final four team came to me and said they might transfer. Well, come on coach, you can't have it both ways.

You are either benefiting from the process and admitting it's necessary to live in that world or you don't want to be a part of it. But man, to take the new way to the mountaintop and then complain about the new way, I just thought it was not the best way for him to go out the door on an otherwise very admirable career. That's very well said, because I remember during that final four run, Larranaga would go on all the national shows and he'd be the darling talking about this new age of college sports as a positive, how he put together the roster. And I had more than a couple coaches tell me during that off season after they made the final four that Miami set a template, set a template for how to succeed.

So for that coach to then say the things that he said, it's a great, well taken point by you. Let me put your legal expertise to work. What is your reaction when you hear about lawsuits now? See UNLV's quarterback decided he was going to go into the portal because he didn't get what he was promised and he wanted to maintain his eligibility and he was upset about some NIL disagreements there might have been with his head coach Barry Odom, but no lawsuits were filed as far as I saw.

In this case, you're talking about former players who were threatening to boycott a game against Duke last year and you're talking about another coach that's in his seventies in Leonard Hamilton. How do you look at this strictly from a legal perspective? Yeah, that's a great question because from the legal perspective, it's very hard for those young men to prove that they have a winning case. You know, you don't have to be an attorney to have heard or said the phrase, get it in writing, right?

Like you don't need a law degree to understand that principle. It's not that all agreements must be in writing in all cases, but when push comes to shove and one party is not agreeing to the same set of facts as another party, what is the ultimate thing that you'd hope to show to a judge or jury, a contract, right? And in this world of name image likeness, there can be a whole lot of, you know, coach Graham says, Hey, WD come be my point guard and we'll figure out a way for you to make fill in the blank $250,000. Well that's, that's not a legally binding agreement and there's problems with the lack of it being in writing. There's problems in that Florida state case as to whether Leonard Hamilton even had the capacity to make that kind of an offer because remember under the existing rules, schools don't provide name image like this money.

It's third parties, it's collectives. So in theory, the coach is not representing that collective. So he's, he's saying things that he can't even legally back up. These coaches are not allowed to reach into their own pockets and pay players. They're not allowed to bind their own youth athletic department to a certain amount of money. When the rules at the time didn't allow their athletes, they at this second, your athletic department is still not allowed to directly pay players.

Again, it's these third parties. So how can any coach at any school automatically bind the collective to pay a certain player a certain amount of money? They have a hard case to win legally, even if many of us would agree that if a coach is going to stick his neck out and make promises, the coach, you know, in a fair world should live up to those promises. But I guarantee you both sides tried to work something out behind the curtain before it came all the way to a public lawsuit.

It doesn't get to the point of a public lawsuit unless both sides eventually said, we're just not going to be able to resolve this amicably. David Glenn with us here. I spoke my piece on Jeff Goodman saying that it's time to start having a conversation about Hubert Davis being on the hot seat at North Carolina, a lot more West Miller talk. I'm not going to sabotage David Glenn into agreeing into my take. Bruce is right again here on the YouTube chat. Ask David Glenn if Coach Davis is on the hot seat now, not just if he should be. So yeah, I'll just frame it that way and get out of the way.

He's not on the hot seat as we speak. I used to use a phrase on my statewide show for a long time, let the song play before you decide whether you like it or hate it. Don't jump in halfway or 10 seconds in, let the song play.

And then if you don't like it, okay, you don't like it. But at the University of North Carolina, I can guarantee you they're going to let this 2024-25 season, song if you will, play all the way out before they draw any conclusions about Hubert Davis. And the reality right now is that they are a poorly constructed team, right? No quality big men, which you never see ever in the University of North Carolina's modern basketball history. You can't resolve a poorly constructed roster. You can tweak it, and they're going to continue to tweak it, and that's what coaching is all about, right?

Given whatever material you have on hand, maximizing that material. There is no Armando Bacot body double walking through that door. So how do you win when you have no big guy on defense to protect the rim, no big guy on offense to draw the attention away from the perimeter shooters, etc.?

It's not easy. And of course, one of the reasons three-point shooting percentages are down at Carolina is that defenses don't have to worry about Armando Bacot scoring 25 points in the post. There's nobody like that on this year's Carolina team.

It's crazy to see where things are at in that regard, but I guess maybe the different way to frame it would be, could you see a scenario where things got so bad this year that he did arrive on the hot seat in 2025? Yeah, I don't think you can count anything out, but let's not forget, Hubert Davis has a win over UCLA, which is one of the best teams in this country. Hubert Davis has a win over Dayton, and I mean this season, which is I think a top 25 caliber team. So if you put together a good ACC resume, you're going to make the NCAA tournament. Most ACC teams, fans don't pay close attention to this in most cases, the majority of ACC teams have zero quality non-conference wins. A few have one quality non-conference win, like a wake over Michigan. Only four, maybe five ACC teams have multiple wins over quality non-conference teams. UCLA and Dayton absolutely positively qualify as non-conference opponents that will serve you well because you have wins over them on Selection Sunday if you need that benefit of the doubt. Now, if the Tar Heels go 8 and 12 in the ACC, anything can happen.

And I mean this year, next year, however you want to frame it. I think there's still one of the half a dozen best teams in the ACC, maybe I'll be wrong about that, but I think if you go 13 and 7 in the ACC and you have those two wins, you're not going to be sweating it out. Those two non-conference wins, I mean, you're not going to be sweating it out on Selection Sunday. D.G., it's good to see you. It's good to talk college basketball.

2025, everyone says, well, that's the NFL playoffs heating up, and yes, we do like the NFL playoffs and the newly constructed CFP, but conference basketball season. Seeing that full slate tomorrow, I'll be at Wake Forest, NC State, and then you've got a national network game for North Carolina playing at Notre Dame the same time at noon. Yeah, that's the good stuff, and I know you have it covered, ncsportsnetwork.com, and of course the YouTube channel is great. D.G., thank you so much for making the time for us as always each week. Thank you, Josh. Always good to see you, my friend.

Keep up the good work. On with the show. Showtime. Back to The Drive with Josh Graham. WD, five and one on the college football playoff quarterfinals. See, we had the four picks on sides and totals. Notre Dame, Georgia.

We could not have been more on the nose. First one, the 20 wins this game under 45 and a half points. We threw in there Riley Leonard's over on rushing yards, which was 42 and a half. I think he got close to 70 in the game, the former Duke transfer. And we like Notre Dame plus a very small number.

They ended up closing his favorites. So that's 3-0 just on that game. The one pick we got wrong was Oregon plus the points, but the over was perfect in that.

We had the tees that we hit between Penn State's, their win, and Texas' win against Arizona State's. So that's pretty good. Here's where that puts our record for the season, Will. We are now 70-59-1. That is 11 games over for the season.

So to all the haters, to all the doubters, when we told you to trust the process when things were bleak, those who did were rewarded. 70-59-1. That's where we're at for the season.

Now we're not going to be content. The postseason's right around the corner, and we got the final week of the NFL regular season, and three picks to hand out in that weekend. So we do that right now 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. You're Best Bets. But my money's on the other team.

This is Josh's Best Bets. WD, who am I? Who are you? I'm usually a guy who likes to bet underdogs. You are. You are. However.

They're eating the dogs. I care more about winning than I care about betting underdogs. And sadly, all three of the picks I have this weekend, I'm betting favorites.

You gotta do what you gotta do. I don't think that's happened this entire season. It hasn't. So if it goes poorly, guess what's never happening again? All favorites. So here we go. My brother took the Atlanta Falcons against the Carolina Panthers as his survivor pool pick. It's the final week of the season. WD, we've done pretty well tailing a lot of my brother's picks. The Falcons are eight and a half point favorites. Is that what we're gonna do though?

No it isn't. WD, I have a concern. My concern is that Atlanta is gonna look sideways at halftime and see that Tampa's blowing out New Orleans. I'm gonna lay a touchdown favorite and think, ah, this second half doesn't matter, and Carolina covers a big number. See, we don't like laying a lot of points. We don't want to lay more than a touchdown.

So how do you fix that? I think Atlanta plays really hard in the first half when they don't know what that score is in Tampa, New Orleans. When they are playing for their season, trying to win the NFC South, and I'm gonna lay four and a half first half with Atlanta. I say Carolina or Atlanta's gonna be leading by more than four at halftime of this game. Also in the one o'clock window, this one's gross, Buffalo minus two and a half at the New England Patriots. I thought about just going first half for this too because I don't know if Josh Allen's gonna play the whole game.

Josh Allen's gonna start it because he wants to keep his start streak intact, and also you just, it's minus a half point, so you just have to be winning at halftime. But WD, I see Dawson Knox is trying to make an extra 200K. This is the time of year where you look at contract incentives. If he has eight catches in the game, he'll make an extra 200K. I got a feeling he's gonna want that. And I got a feeling that the New England Patriots are not gonna want to win this football game.

Why? Because they have the number one pick. So if you want to have a transformative draft where you make a Caleb Williams-like trade because you already have your quarterback, and get more first round picks, just listen to the way that High Point native and ESPN draft guru Jordan Reed this week was on with Kevin Clark of the Ringer, talking about, or I think Kevin Clark works at ESPN now, talking about the 2027 class, saying this is one of the best draft classes he's seen looking ahead.

All right? You want to make sure you have some more draft picks in that class, so the Patriots are gonna want to lose this football game. Buffalo has guys with incentives. Josh Allen is starting the game. I think Mitch Trubisky is serviceable enough that he's gonna still find a way to win. I'm laying less than a field goal with a team that's better even with its backups than the team they're going against, and the team they're going against has no incentive to want to win. In fact, they have a lot of incentive to lose.

So yes, Bills minus two and a half. This might be my favorite pick. Cardinals minus four against the San Francisco 49ers. I think the Niners are done. I think they just want this season to end, McCaffrey's hurt, Brock Purdie's hurt, everybody's getting hurt. They played Monday night, so it's a short week for them.

They're going to Arizona. Meanwhile, the Cardinals played on Saturday night, so they get an extra day of prep while San Francisco gets one fewer day, and W.D., I'm gonna do it again, contract incentives. Zaven Collins, if he gets a sack, 300K, Kyler Murray, if he runs for 50 yards and has a touchdown run, he makes an additional $750,000. That's close to a million extra on your contract if he does that in this game.

So you got him that's motivated. The Cardinals, they're better than San Francisco anyway. They're at home. I'm laying less than a touchdown here. The Niners aren't gonna care.

Additional prep time for Arizona. Yeah, I'm gonna lay the four, just four, with Arizona against the San Francisco 49ers. So in review, we like the Falcons first half minus four and a half against the Panthers. We like the Bills minus two and a half against the Patriots. I'm gonna kick myself so much if New England covers this number or if Buffalo's leading at halftime because I'm so conflicted wanting just to go with the first half number, but I'm gonna go full game. And lastly, the Cardinals minus four against San Francisco.

What do you think? I like where your head's at on the Cardinals because I think the Niners are ready for this season to be over. I think the Bills can cover two and a half. I don't love that Falcons pick. Are you really wanting to bet on the Carolina Panthers? Is that what you're really wanting to do? Okay.

It's the season finale. What do you want to put on the line? What do you want to put on the line?

What's it gonna be? I haven't won coffee here the last couple of times. Is it coffee? Is it putters?

What are you doing? Let's do putters. Panthers? It's the first half, four and a half, W.D. Yeah, we'll go putters.

It's the season finale. Panthers aren't gonna lay down. They're gonna go for it here. There you go. W.D.

and I will be intently watching the first half of Panthers Falcons. I can assure you that. W.D., I don't know if you know this, but I have a child.

I thought you were gonna go Balitnikov there. Is that right? Daniel is about two months old now. And this morning... You didn't have a good night, did you? This was when people talk about some of the chaotic episodes that might happen overnight.

I think it's stories like this one that they're talking about. So I told the story yesterday about New Year's where me and Daniel had a nice moment because Daniel woke up at 11.45 as he has been doing with his new schedule that we have him on. And then I put him right back to sleep just to see if he's hungry or if he just wanted like his pacifier adjusted or to be held or whatever. And usually he'd just wake up 10 minutes later.

Just like he did on New Year's. 11.45, put him back down. He wakes up 10 minutes later so I know that he's hungry, change a diaper, do all that.

Okay. Last night, just like clockwork, 11.45. He wakes up. So I put him back down and I just wait.

Got on my phone, sort of watched a couple of YouTube videos, just hanging out. Just waiting for Daniel to wake back up, tell me that he's hungry because that's what he always does. Three hours later, he had not gotten back up.

And then he does, 3.15 in the morning. And it just so happens to be a day that we're trying out a new swaddle that I did not know about until this moment. So I'm like dumb dad who doesn't know how to work this new swaddle. Like, oh, this is, I don't, and it's just dark. And then just nuclear level crying at this point, change a diaper.

Like I'm like making a bottle like near the changing station. It's chaos. Enough that it wakes up my wife who I was thinking, oh, she'd be sleeping a lot longer than usual. Well, guess what? She's up. And the moment she walks in, Daniel, as if it's a movie, just like projectile spits up all over my chest. And at this point I just hand her over, complete or hand him over completely defeated to my wife saying, can I just go to bed now?

She's like, yeah. That was my morning. Thank goodness it's Friday. I didn't know it was Friday until I started the day. Oh, the weekends here. I could maybe sleep in a little bit more. And then I saw the tip time for Wake Forest NC State tomorrow.

It's a nooner. Oof. Yeah.

Tough. So that's my day. Feeling musical.

What the heck is that? What are we doing right now? What are we doing? Let me introduce you. It's the sixth man of Tario Basketball, B.Dot, who's here, apparently got issues with Irreplaceable by Beyonce. Why would you bring me up to that, man? It's a bop. I thought you was going to bring me up to something rat shit like you normally do. You bring me up to freaking Beyonce.

Yeah. It's a bop. We're talking Cowboy Friday, we'll take it to the house in just a bit. But on that note, speaking of Rhinestone Cowboys and Beyonce, what was your thought on Country Beyonce, Cowgirl Beyonce, Cowboy Carter doing the halftime show in Houston during Christmas? I'm really not a fan of Cowboy Carter, like the whole country thing that she's done. Like I'm just not a fan of, I'm not a fan of many of the songs, however, the Beyonce role was in full effect. I felt like she is a superstar amongst superstar, like she's a star amongst stars. And she commanded the field, the choreography was amazing, even songs I did like the Jolene, Jolene. I was like, okay, she's beautiful, she's a great performer, top tier of our time, no doubt about it.

But if it wouldn't have happened, I wouldn't have missed it. Country, it's about as mainstream as I ever remember it being, probably since the 90s. But it's now like conceivable that you might have a Super Bowl halftime that is a country act.

Like I always would make fun of people who suggest, oh, get Florida Georgia Line or someone at halftime. Now I could probably see a Morgan Wallen or a Beyonce doing a country set or maybe a Post Malone who's gone that path as well. Possibly Post Malone, I could see Post Malone, but a full country set, I don't see it. I still don't think Country moves the needle enough to have an entire halftime performance for it.

Like halftime at the Super Bowl is like one of the largest markets and largest stages that you can broadcast and platform or broadcast your skill set. And it has to be like, I don't know, generational type music. And not saying that Country music isn't, but I just don't know what artists could bring. Maybe a Taylor Swift, maybe?

If she gets back to those roots, then certainly. B-Dot, six-mandatorial basketball, let's talk about it. Now that we have a decent sample size of this team, what do you think about it?

They're a bit disappointing. I'm seeing a lot of conversation about is this the worst team in Carolina history? Like the 8-20 team didn't exist. And then I hear, I see a lot of people talking about 8-20.

Or 20, or 2010, or 2010 with the Ware Twins or a few years. This team ain't that. No, this team is nowhere near that. This team has a lot of talent. And I really think you're going to see that sadly in the draft when we lose too.

But nevertheless, I just, I don't know exactly what it is. You know, I see Coach H.D. putting pieces in motion, like starting Captain Jack.

That's very important. Starting, I just feel more comfortable. I said this at the beginning of the season. I feel comfortable when Captain Jack and Drake Powell are in the game at the same time. Good things happen when those two freshmen are in the game. I think Elliott should maybe come off the bench and Seth Trimble should start once he's healthy. R.J., I'm just hoping that he can just find his bag and find his rhythm. Like it's very awkward seeing him not be the same elite scorer that he was last year.

I understand it's different defenses. I understand he doesn't have Armando. But I just saw my prize pick staff have from last year and who I bet on the most last year. And R.J. Davis won me a lot of money, won me a lot of money last year. So I know that he can put the ball in the basket.

I'm just hoping he finds it. But the big problem, the elephant in the room, the big. I've wanted to have faith in Jalen Washington, Josh, but it's just so difficult to see him getting dunked on and falling on his ass. And then, you know, like we're in a situation where I don't expect our bigs to win games. But the Louisville game is a game where the bigs actually lost us the game, like Van Lubin, I believe. He comes down, he shoots an air ball, he gets a foul, he has a turnover all in the span of 32 seconds. Like things like that cannot happen, man. The turnovers from Elliott is like he just regressed a bit in that department from last year.

There's just some things that really need to be ironed out, man. I'm still enjoying watching my team play up until the end of the game because usually we lose. Yeah. I don't think it's the worst team that we've seen Carolina have. I think that's a ridiculous sentiment. But it is not a ridiculous sentiment to say that this is the smallest front line.

Like that's actually objective, not subjective. It's the smallest front line Carolina's had pre-Dean Smith. Like not a joke. You go back to the 1950s to find the last time you had lineups as small as this lineup that North Carolina's bringing out on the floor when you consider W.D. Was it you that told me that Drake Powell was the biggest player in the starting five on Sunday?

I did. Yeah. When you got when you got when you got R.J. Davis and Elliot Cadeau starting in your back court, it's tough.

And then like I just be wanting you got to show you got to have some heart, man. Like and I get tired of revisiting this conversation every year or every other year with the Tar Heels. But like Jaylen Withers, this should have been a game for him when he wanted to go for a double double and dunk on everybody and talk junk and add down. He wasn't. He was a shell of himself. And I've seen Jaylen Withers play a lot better than what he's producing.

He got on the floor. And it's just it's just sad to see a lot of for the Tar Heels is between the ears. It's in their own head, man.

They got to get out of their own head to just be able to play basketball. But it's definitely tough to watch these days. And I'm definitely afraid of the broomage that may come out when we see Duke this year, because those dudes are rolling. National TV time slot for North Carolina tomorrow. York TV, CBS, noon, North Carolina at Notre Dame. I'll be on the CW at the same time.

It's NC State facing Wake Forest, where I'll be at Joel Coliseum. Let's get to grammar school. Why don't we? Josh Graham has his own way of speaking a lot of love, a lot of love, a lot of love.

And just when you think it can't get any worse. Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm going to 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. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. I have nothing to bribe listeners with, so I'll have to do this by myself.

Maybe I'll have WD as a lifeline. But Grammar School, okay. I have a caustic question for you to get us started. A complete unknown. Have you seen the trailers for this? This movie's in theaters. Do you know what this movie is? That's not the question, by the way. The complete unknown?

A complete unknown. Never heard of it. So this is a Bob Dylan biopic. Bob Dylan. Timothy Chalamet is Bob Dylan. He does the singing.

He does the guitar playing. Not a fraud like Austin Butler in the Elvis movie. Oh, shut up. Don't even do that. That Elvis movie was great.

Wouldn't it though? You shut your mouth, Josh Graham. Well, Timothy actually does the singing. Austin Butler did not in that movie. Who gives a damn?

Nobody cares but you. That's like if you're gonna act, then do the singing as well. Just because you can act does not mean you can sing well, bro.

But when you do, it's more impressive. And Timothy Chalamet more impressive because he does the singing. So Bob Dylan biopic.

It's drawing a lot of attention. Can you give me the title of one Bob Dylan song? One. Hell no. No. No. Come on.

Don't be proud of your ignorance. Whatever. Bob Dylan. Is that rock and roll? Rock and roll.

He created like folk music. I know I'm familiar with the name. Bob Ross. I know Bob Ross.

Do you not? I know Bob Ross. Do you know blowing in the wind?

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. Knocking on heaven's door, Mr. Tambourine man. I have heard blowing in the wind and knocking on heaven's door.

It was like I was watching like white sitcoms and heard him in like the back. The times are a changing like a Rolling Stone hurricane. Like anyway, that Bob Dylan. No, that makes me never heard of Bob Dylan.

Not familiar with his music enough to give you names. Makes me sad. Okay.

What do you got? What's a bama? Bama?

Yeah. B-A-M-A. Roll Tide? Roll Tide. Roll Tide. I don't care about nothing.

Paul! I don't care nothing about the Tide. That guy had a big 20-24. That boy had a huge 20-24.

See what 20-25 is like. I don't care about anything but the Tide. Yeah. Paul!

Paul! Bama. So this is an acronym. Yeah. No, no, it's not an acronym. It's not an acronym. It's a noun. Can you use it in a sentence at least? Yeah, that guy's a bama.

Okay. W.D., do you know what this is? I think it's somebody who is uncool, unsophisticated, not very stylish. Like Saban. I actually... Is Nick Saban a bama? No, I dug the Indiana Jones hat.

I dug it. Alabama Jones. Alabama Jones. Yeah, I'll go with that. Sure. This person's a bama.

That means he's like maybe a little unstylish. You're a bama. That is 100% correct. Good job. Thank you. Okay.

Yeah. If somebody's a bama, they're just not very cool. They don't got no swag. They're country. It's usually a derogatory term used by people up north. So if somebody up north would be like, look at this bama, man, get this bama out of here. Oh, someone has like overalls on. You're like, this person's a bama. This guy's a redneck. They might not even have overalls.

It might just be unswag for the space they're in. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, oh, you dressed like a bama, y'all. Like, yeah. Okay. What's next? What are PACS? P-A-C-K-S. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS.

PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS.

PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS.

PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS. PACS.

PACS. I just don't know which one I can actually be the new version of this game Like rather than just play grammar school is it drugs or guns? Whoa like we do horse or rock band drugs or guns Yeah, all right well, this is what it comes down to last one all right, man. What's the switch? I Don't switch outside that you get from your parents to get a beat no no no a switch Do I need to go back to the game If it's drugs or guns it's not gonna be drugs back-to-back times I don't think this is really the drugs and guns edition of grammar school all those Oh, I'll say it's guns Is that your final answer?

Yeah sure why not? That is correct Good job, what's funny is big shout to all the people watching right now cuz you thought Josh turn as red Cuz if I was wrong I'm gonna get called racist That's what's gonna happen. It's like well Josh It's gonna happen, but no I'm just trying to win a game. It's all I'm trying to do here Huh See that was do you did you know that did you know what a switch was no I I thought a switch Was like somebody who can like switch personalities and be like different like a chameleon a little bit That's what I what I thought is what what is a switch dot. It's actually a switch a piece that you could put on a gun So but they so you'll say somebody I got my switch in the club with me because they just put the name switch to just Gun period so I got my switch with me He got a switch in the whip switch like that's when somebody mentions the switch They definitely mentioned they got a gun on deck and the gun shoots like a machine gun. That was so funny man I wish you would have said oh the guns but I wish you would have said drugs again and got it wrong, all would have been hilarious.

See that's a that's a passing grade. I think that's just very well very well executed version of grammar school where it worked out Well, how many calendar years have we been playing grammar school now? It's insane Josh like I promise you like my wife was like y'all still playing it.

I was like Carla I don't even understand and we use three words every freaking time we've been playing it for four years. No, we've been playing it. I think it was like November of 2019 so it's been five More than five years. Well, I mean November Oh yeah, fair. That's insane, that's insane.

And it still works like it still delivers. It's like the Simpsons It's like alright well this it has its beats Josh is not gonna know the answer to this It's funny when Josh gets it wrong and when Josh gets it right we feel like we're on for the ride We're along for the ride and we get there Absolutely, I can't believe I still can find words that you don't know. I honestly don't know.

I mean the caustic questions You don't know who Bob Dylan is. WD still hasn't seen a lot of great movies like yesterday We learned he hadn't seen Longest Yard or Ghostbusters like we're What he had to watch the Pelican Brief or yeah Well, Darren Vaught nuked it. Darren said there's only one option It has to be chef and if you choose chef, I will show up in person to review it So I'm like, alright if you said you're gonna be here to review the movie Yeah Then we're gonna do it and it is a good movie if you haven't seen it It came out last decade. I've never even heard of the movie. Chef. It stars Jon Favreau I think Quannazamo is in the movie too. A great Actor as well. It's it's a really good movie.

I think you would really like it chef B. Dot, love you, bro. Have a great weekend. Love you too, man. Let's have a great 2025 guys.