This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS.
So glad to have you! On a Wednesday drive, it's WSJS, news talk sports for the triad, where if for whatever reason you don't like Cooper Flag, today might not be your favorite shell. Because, while I don't know how much we're going to talk about him, it's going to be a lot, and that's where we're going to get to right now. We'll get to the Tar Heels.
B. Dot, 6th man to Tar Heel basketball, joins us 15 minutes from now. W.D., he was at the center.
I was at Cameron. After last night's game, Cooper Flag's profile is going to take another step. It was a major step for him, because last night, that dunk that he had, poor Guillermo Diaz Graham, 7 feet tall, gets dunked on. That was the first real viral moment for Cooper. We've known for years that he's coming, and you see the clips, House of Highlights, edited together, got like a sick beat underlying the clip that you neatly edit. We saw some video of him on the court against Team USA last summer, and it's kind of amazing that he didn't really stand out, and he was 17 years old.
That's great. But last night, that was the first wow. The first play that we saw, that everybody was watching, it's on ESPN, it was reminiscent of Zion. The first year of this show, first basketball season that is, was the Zion Williamson season. And sitting there watching it, the Clemson dunk, the dunk he had against Virginia where Jay Huff fouled him, I'd never seen anything like that until last night.
Jon Shire even said it afterwards. He said that, yeah, that was a Zion-like play. ESPN's David Hale, who doesn't cover a lot of college basketball, he was there because of Cooper, told me at halftime, he said, hey, well, and I agreed with him. Still waiting for Cooper to do the thing, have the highlight that's going to play a couple thousand times between now and the NCAA tournament, and then two and a half minutes into the second half, he gets charged for his third foul, he's ticked about it, steals an entry pass, goes coast to coast, dunks on a seven-footer while being fouled.
Insane. It was something that we were wondering if he had it in him. A minute later, David Hale texted me, we were both courtside at Cameron.
That's exactly what we were waiting for. So I go to his locker after the game, and here he was describing what he had just done. I mean, yeah, he's got the steal, kind of hit a quick burst.
The first defender was still kind of coming towards their basket, kind of got around him and just pushed it out and just went and made the play. A lot of people have noticed the angry look on your face. Were you taking your anger out on the rim on that previous foul? Yeah, actually, you know, I think I was. I was kind of mad at myself for a stupid foul early and singing out late third foul.
So I mean, yeah, definitely was a little angry and took it out on the rim. How would you grade it out of one to ten? I haven't seen it quite enough. I only saw the one angle so far. Right now, I'm going to put it at, like, an 8.5.
But, you know, that might change a little bit when I see different angles. If that's an 8.5, what on earth is a nine? What is a nine and a half?
Hard to even imagine what a ten is. Don't forget, since he plays for Duke, the haters, they're going to be there. Jay Davis right again. Have you ever heard of a guy named Vince Carter?
I'm in my early thirties. I wasn't covering basketball games. I watched Vince Carter in the NBA. Don't have a lot of recollection of him towards the end of Dean Smith and with Coach Doherty or, pardon me, Coach Guthridge.
But, you know, been covering this for about a dozen years now, and up close, these are the ones that stand out. Here's my attempt to upset the producer of this show, Will Dalton. It doesn't remind me of Zion. Zion's not the best comp because Zion isn't as good as Cooper. Cooper's a more complete player. And in fact, the thing I compare it to is watching LeBron James play because it's at 18 years old that he has this effort level and he has a complete game where John said it very well last night. Shire goes that he just lets the game come to him. He doesn't chase stats whatsoever. It's not like a circus act where he's jumping in and trying to, like, wow people with his athleticism know he's just as fired up to get five assists in the second half, running the point the entire second half, that he is to do what he did to Guillermo D.S. Graham.
And that is very LeBron-esque. And you might start to hear comparisons like that over the next few months because the calendar is about to turn Cooper Flagg into a household national name. I don't think he's there yet. I think in sports, basketball circles he is. People know who Cooper Flagg is.
But I'm talking about, like, your aunt. Does she know who Cooper Flagg is? Do your parents know who Cooper Flagg is?
Do the people that don't follow basketball that closely know who Cooper Flagg is? That's what the next couple of months are going to be. Once the CFP ends, ESPN will shift more programming towards college hoops. When the Super Bowl happens, afterwards, that's when you'll have some of the talking heads like Stephen A. or whoever. They're going to start talking about college basketball. Take last year. It was the biggest story in sports when Wake Forest stormed the court after beating Duke and Kyle Filipowski got caught up in the whole brouhaha. Biggest story in sports. That's only the case because it was February. If that happened in December, it doesn't even land on Stephen A.
's radar screen. And no one's talking, having a national conversation about that. Get ready for Cooper Flagg. Cooper Flagg is going to be the biggest attraction in American sports, baby, between the Super Bowl and the end of the NCAA tournament. He's going to become a household national name.
That's what's going to happen when the calendar shifts. And there's another piece to this that I think drives this point home. The NBA media is going to be pushing him. So it's not just the college basketball piece of this. It's the NBA piece of this. Tom Haberstroh, who was with us on the show yesterday, he was there last night.
And after the game, he was just blown away by what he saw up close. And I bet you we're going to see more of those types at Duke games over the next couple of months. You might have noticed the NBA ratings, they're down.
They're down in the tank. It's not good. They desperately need a star to promote. Bill Simmons is a big NBA guy and said they need a, air quote, Kaitlyn Clark-like figure for people to come around and to root for and to watch and to get excited about. And Cooper very well could be that guy because we haven't seen a guy like that since Zion.
You might say Victor Wabunyama, but I think a key piece of this is Cooper's American. He is. He's an American phenom. And the fact that he's at Duke is going to make him even more polarizing. And the sport is desperate for a star like that. And the fact that he's going to be the number one pick in the draft, it's going to be a bonanza. If you already think it's crazy, it's about to get even crazier after what he did last night. On X at WSJS Radio if you want in. That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch.
Will Dalton, the executive producer of the show. So that's a lot on the Duke game last night. You got anything from North Carolina SMU at the Smith Center? I mean, they didn't get upset like somebody thought they might.
That didn't happen. No. They actually kind of handled SMU and took care of it. Yeah. We'll get to how wrong I was in just a little bit.
Shifting things. Let's talk about the Tar Heels. Let's talk about the Tar Heel team everybody wants to talk about today.
And that's Bill Belichick's heels. He's in the news. There was a report from NFL Network that the Raiders are among teams. Tom Palacero said multiple teams, but the Raiders, including them, have inquired about Bill Belichick seeing if he's reconsidering coaching in college, would have interest in coaching in the NFL. There was a report that Tom Brady is trying to court him since he's a minority stake owner in the Vegas Raiders.
Listen. Bill Belichick isn't going anywhere. Not this season, at least. After the 2023, or pardon me, the 2025 season, all bets are off. But he's going to stay for one season in Chapel Hill. And Diana Rossini put out a report during the show, or right before the show started, the athletic saying Bill Belichick intends to stay in college, not considering any NFL jobs. He's not going anywhere because the demand isn't really there.
He got one interview last year and wasn't even a finalist for that Atlanta job. I'd also be skeptical of Brady being so gung ho wanting to bring Belichick in considering how things looked at the end of their relationship in New England. And then there's the buyout. Are you so coveted that teams would be willing to shell out $10 billion before you even start considering what your contract is going to be? Because that's what the buyout is before June the 1st of 2025. And that's not a small amount. But looking from the Belichick lens of things, that Seth Wickersham story that came out the week that he was hired talked about him every week looking at the jobs that might become available because he knew he was going to be coaching.
He was very meticulous about it, seemed to have his finger right on the pulse of what was happening. It's possible he just didn't like the jobs that came open. Certainly not the Jets, but there are no game changers available. Nobody with a franchise quarterback, nothing like, say, the Chargers job last year. Hey, step into a job that you already have your franchise quarterback in. Closest thing to that is the Bears, and we don't know yet, with Caleb Williams. Maybe the Jaguars with Trevor Lawrence if you're a believer in that. The Giants stayed pat.
He had ties there. Maybe the Cowboys, they haven't made a coaching change yet. And if you forecast into the future, a year from now, will Patrick Mahomes' dominance in the AFC lead some teams to be impatient and panicked that have their star quarterback? I'm looking at you, Cincinnati. I'm looking at you, Buffalo. If Buffalo doesn't perform in the playoffs next year and this year, and Cincinnati, if they sputter again, they might look at it and say, we only have a few more years with our franchise quarterback. What's bringing Belichick in here? Even though he's 73, that guy's going to win with this quarterback. He's done that.
Let's do it. But that won't happen right away because Bill seems committed for at least one year. He had the quote in his press conference.
I didn't come here to leave. He created an X page. He's pushing for game day to come to Chapel Hill. These are not things he would have done as the Patriots coach because it's unhelpful to winning football games. In college, that's actually currency. Social media and college game day coming to your school. He's in high schools, which has raised my eyebrows. And kids and coaches have raved about how attentive he's been and how much time he's had for them. He's hiring a college staff. Don't think he's going to hang these guys out in a lurch to take an NFL job right now. But after this next season, after June 1st of 2025, the buyout becomes $1 million.
That's when he could jump. And that's when you should really start having the conversation because right now, Belichick, he's not going anywhere. B-Dot reacts to that Tar Heel win from last night.
He takes me to grammar school as well next on The Drive. North Carolina should be very worried about SMU. Put the Tar Heels on upset alert because I'm calling for the Mustangs to pull off the upset. Tar Heels, they're due a loss, aren't they? Even though they're underdogs, SMU wins tonight in a close game because that's all North Carolina seems to play when they play high major teams. Give me the ponies by three. 82-67, the final. Thanks, Wes. The sixth mandatory basketball, B-Dot, is now joining us. Not my best moment.
And, you know, don't appreciate the way that you edited that together, frankly. I love that Wes Durham got to call it. Wes Durham calling it the real W.D. No, you know what happened yesterday? I was just on my phone and it popped up.
Josh talking about the Tar Heels. And it was what you all posted on YouTube yesterday. And it was that exact clip that W.D.
just added so marvelously. And I remember when I was listening to it, I found myself getting angry. But then I felt a calmness come over my spirit. I said, this is exactly what we need. We need Josh to get off of us and get back on his Duke ways, because any time you start congratulating the Tar Heels and talking about how this is the best backcourt you've ever seen, and we start to lose. But the moment you don't give us a chance in the world, I knew to put all of my money, my whole parlay on us. I knew it was going to win. If you were so adamant, there was a line drawn in the sand. There was no other way around it.
Put all your money on SMU was the Josh Graham tape. And I knew my parlay was safe, baby. That's got his Tar Heel hat on. I haven't worn this in months. I only put it on for my boy, W.D. I love it.
It makes me happy to see that. So what do you think of Cooper Flagg's dunk? First of all, I just want to say, bro, like that was the moment that we have been waiting for the folks that have been waiting for Cooper Flagg. I'm just going to be honest, like I was watching that game and I actually put in my Tar Heel chat. Did you blank blank? Just see what the blank that blank blank just did to that blank and blank and rim.
And they were like, wait, I thought we played at nine. I was like, no, I'm watching JV first. But nevertheless, the context of how it happened, though, like he got that third stupid foul. He's angry, steals the inbound, goes coast to coast and punches on a footer and then stands chest to chest with him.
Just the hand one and no tech. Oh, my God. But again, I'm just excited. I'm excited because now it's about to happen, W.D. Can't you feel it, W.D.
Pauls? I can see it's in the air. The Duke energy is about to be so high. It's about to be reminiscent of Zion.
It's about to be reminiscent of P5 and his team. Nobody can beat Duke. I've already seen it. I've looked at their record and nobody's going to beat Duke in the ACC.
I've seen it. And I want everybody to keep going with that faith, because to be honest, on paper, it's nobody in the ACC that should be able to beat Duke. Like, they are that stacked. They have a bench that comes. They got they got two starting fives, for real, for real.
Like, they got five that come off of the kids. Slim can go start anywhere else in the ACC. He comes off the bench and he's happy about it. So let me let you know, man, this Duke team is special. But once again, man, it always happens. It's going to be an underachieving, loaded Duke squad. And I just can't wait to see it happen.
Yeah, it is. I did start to think about matchups with North Carolina. I'm like, you know, they're going to Guillermo.
Guillermo Diaz-Gran was seven feet tall. I mean, Carolina would like to have some seven-footers in there. Dude, as I'm watching Duke play yesterday, I'm like, every time. And another thing about that, it's Pitt they did this too. They might be the second best team in the league.
They might be that. Not even not even stat-wise, Josh, but just the energy that Pitt is for this white boy, Cooper Flay, to go and dunk on that Pitt team like that, it's a different energy at Duke. This team is better than that P5 team. This team is better than that Zion team. They just are.
But once again, this is why we play the game. My dad told me to ask you a question. He's like, when's the next time you're talking to B-dot? I'm like, I don't know. And it turned out we're talking today. Ask B-dot the last time there was a white boy this good, coming out of college.
When's the last time you were like, this guy's white, and you're like, man, he's going to be a problem. I ain't going to cap, man. Dalton Connect was up there. He got a clip and he's tough. But it's the attitude from Cooper and the fact that Cooper's 17, bro. He's phenomenal. I got a chance to see him play in the Peach Jam.
He was just a junior then. And just watching him then, just knowing that he was better than everybody, I was excited to see yesterday. As big a Carolina fan as I am, everybody knows that. I was excited to see him get that dunk.
And then, don't get it twisted. Two possessions later, he comes down at the top of the key, hits it with a bink, bink, cuts to the lane, and punches two hands and holds for me. It's a different attitude at Duke right now, and that's what scares me. But I like the way this Carolina team is coming together, Josh Graham. I do not like Jalen Washington with no points and only three rebounds. But I do like us only being out-rebounded by one rebound. I do like us having seven blocks. I do like R.J. finding the bottom of the basket at this point. I thought that my boy Captain Jack was going to give me my 24-and-a-half over for my parlay, but he didn't.
Only gave me 17. However, Drake Powell is starting to step up and come in his own. They are saying on the chats, Josh Graham, that Drake Powell might be the best Drake that ever played at Carolina. Huh. Any sport. Ooh. Ooh.
Wow. What I'm doing right now I can't believe I'm doing. I'm going through the list of number one picks in the draft. And I'm trying to find how many white guys have been picked number one. Oh, no. Are we counting? I need a ruling on Blake Griffin.
Nah, he banged. He don't count. You know the one-drop rule.
Go back to the 1800s. One drop and it's over for you. Ben Simmons is kind of in that camp too, I think, a little bit. No, one-drop rule. One-drop rule, we claim him.
No. Okay, got it. So we probably have to go back to 2005 and 2006, Andrew Bogut and Andrea Bargiani back-to-back years. But they're foreign, both of them. I'm about to say Andrew Bogut don't count. Well, he's Australian.
Exactly, mate. So I'm being truthful when I say I'm in the early 80s right now and now in the 70s. I think it's truthful that the last time there was a white guy taking number one in the draft, you'd have to go back. I don't know who Joe Barry Carroll is in 1980.
You got to go back to him before we come back. Kent Benson's white. Kent Benson's white from the Milwaukee Bucks in 77. Before that, it's Bill Walton. Like, it's been a while since there's been this guy. It was like right after they started letting us play with him. I mean, Kevin Love wasn't the number one pick.
I'm saying like the sure thing, like number one pick, it's kind of nuts. Just hit me with the Gary Hahn drop so we can adequately move along from that. Let's go to the sidelines. Tony Haines.
All right. Let's get to grammar school for today. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking. 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. And I just realized that I still got my Christmas tree box down here.
I got to take that upstairs. The caustic question is, who is Kent Benson? No, I got to put that aside for now.
Heritage Hardwood Floors sponsors Grammar School. I was going to ask you. Actually, you know, I will. I thought this was too easy, but I'm just going to ask you. Not the Kent Benson question you just asked. Well, no, I just referenced him five minutes ago that he was a white guy taken in the draft in the 70s. Who's Chris Stapleton? Oh, Chris Stapleton now. I'm very familiar with Chris Stapleton. Can you tell me anything like Chris Stapleton is? White.
Finish the sentence. Like, who is Chris Stapleton? Chris Stapleton is white. He's a white man. He is. He is that. What does Chris Stapleton do? He's a musician. Oh, OK.
There it goes. I was trying to set this up so Dot would say, Chris Stapleton plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Chris Stapleton is a pitcher for the Orioles. Yeah, we got Chris Stapleton tickets that we're going to be giving away later on in the week.
Not this segment, though. We have one more pair of tickets, right? For Wake Forest and Stanford next week at Joel Coliseum. Stanford, not terrible. They're not bad.
And Wake Forest, pretty good. So you can watch them next week. All you have to do is help me out with a Grammar School question. What do we have, Dot? First, Josh Graham, what is glazing? Oh, boy.
Yeah, what's glazing? Is this like being a fan of the is this like being in the Nikki Glaser fan club? Because I've seen her three times.
She was great on the Golden Globes on Sunday, I thought. Did you watch any of that? Not at all.
But I am recently in the Joy Taylor fan club. Hello. Oh, yeah. Glazing, huh? 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600. W.D.
is not making eye contact with me. Do you know what this is? I do know what this is.
All right, let's just get off on the right foot. It's what you did for Zion. It's what you've done today for Cooper Flag. It's it's being very complimentary of somebody and being like an uber fan. Yes.
Just like you've been a super fan of Joy Taylor. It sounds like the last few days. That's right. There we go. It's meet right.
Exactly what you're doing right now. Cooper flag. Congratulations. There we go. All right. What's the second one?
All right. There's this rapper out now, man. His name is Trap Dickey. Oh, I don't trap Dickey. You know, Trap Dickey.
Oh, I want to say that last name a little faster next time. OK, Trap Dickey. Nevertheless, what are Dickey's? Love to get some barbecue from Dickey's.
Would you? Yeah, it's really it's really good. Like, I think it's Texas based. Wait. So Trap Dickey's. No.
Well, yes. His name is Trap Dickey. However, I'm asking you, what are Dickey's? I'm going to say Dickey's. I think you're you're pulling one of these tricks on me where it's like a brand that I don't know about. I'm going to say Dickey's or shoes. I'm going to say Dickey's are a type of shoe. Is that your final answer? Yes.
100 percent incorrect. It is a brand, but I don't think it's definitely a clothing brand. This is me playing the game well, but sometimes the shots don't fall when you said shoe. I just I grimaced on the inside. Oh, man.
Definitely a clothing brand. Sorry. I hate it. I see you thought you were pulling a fast one on me and I telegraphed it. But I know I was upset. I was like, gosh, he got it. And then you said shoes. I'm like, OK, what's the last one? It comes down to this.
All right. Trap Dickey has a song called Blue Devil. Oh, I listen to that. Blue Devils. I was riding into Cameron last night. That's what I was listening to.
Absolutely. What are Blue Devils? If you use your context clues, Josh, over the past five years, I promise you can get this. Oh, three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. Hey, what's great is he dipped his head and shook it. I just got the perfect angle of his.
I couldn't see that head at all. I just saw the Tar Heel and disappointed a bit. All right. Does anybody want to go watch Wake Basketball next week? Blue Devils. Well, W.D., when in doubt. Yep. You know the rule.
It helped you last week. What's the rule, W.D.? Drugs or guns? I must say guns in this instance. Are you saying the Blue Devils are guns? Is that your final answer?
Yes, that is incorrect. Don't tell me. Don't say it. Don't say it.
Not OK. It's money. Blue faces. Blue Devils. See, he threw me off when he said, oh, go buy your training in the last handful of years.
I'm like, well, my instincts tell me. No, I was saying that because we've done blue faces. Anything blue is dealing with hundred dollar bills usually. Yeah.
Blue Devils. Yeah. That's I was that was a bad performance. That was. You know, it was very entertaining. It's a bad.
And the one that you the one that you got correct is the one that you should know the most because you've been glazing all day today. And it's been pretty annoying. I've been able to pick myself in every night and hear different segments. And it's been pretty annoying. I was trying to make a Jason Whitlock joke and decided not to. Love you, bro. Just hit me with the Gary Hahn one more time.
Let's go to the sidelines. Tony. There used to be a show called Deezus and Mero that I used to watch all the time. And they describe Jason Whitlock. He appeared on screen one time.
He's like, man, Jason Whitlock's head looks like the tastiest caramel, like just like a caramel. Hey, get me out of here. Yeah.
I'm sorry. I'm a little winded. This is The Drive with Josh Graham. If you'd like to see Wake Forest face Stanford next week.
Here's an easy way to do so. Call us now. Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. And tell us something good. Something good that's going on with you. Because it's hump day. It's the middle of the week. It is so cold outside. We do not like that very much. There is snow coming in the forecast.
You might think that's good. I do not, because I've lived in a place where there's a lot of snow. W.D.
is not cultured. So he's nodding, saying, oh, that's very exciting. Snow. That's fantastic.
Not thinking about how what that's going to do to all the milk and all the bread at grocery stores and what that's going to do to people who aren't used to driving on snowy roads. This is not a positive start to weekly positivity. So give us a call. Tell us something good.
Unlike what I just said. Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred and voila. You'll be going to Wake Stanford next week because it is time for weekly positivity. Oh, yeah.
I get paid to be suspicious when I've got nothing to be suspicious about. No, you've been watching a loop of Wilford Brimley quotes on YouTube during commercial breaks. Diabetes. Diabetes. Heartbreak Mitch. Heartache Mitch. Red book magazine. Love making of the intimate kind intimate acts weekly positivity brought to you by Biscuit King. Biscuit.
Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. Well, let's start with you. Tell me something good. So this weekend did a little shopping and went out to a friendly center in Greensboro. Busy part of town. It is. Are you familiar with the store five below? Yes.
So I had never gone in five below. That seems like the type of place you would like. So I go into frequent Goodwills. Well, and it's like just is that where you texted me a picture of like an Oriole shirt that said. What did the shirt say? Something about. I don't know. It was just the yard.
Boys love the yard or something. Yeah. It was an Oriole shirt. I sent him a video of an Oriole shirt and I threw it on the ground. Nice. I sent that video to you. Maybe I wasn't at the five below, though.
No. So I went to the five below and they just they have all this cool, trendy stuff in there. Like like they have like cool graphic T-shirts like Star Wars T-shirts. They just like any like Harry Potter T-shirts. It's really trendy stuff. That's rad.
It is red. And it's only everything is five bucks. And that hence the name. I know.
But like that's how they get you because you see all this cool stuff. Oh, wow. That's only five dollars. Let me get that. Oh, that's only five dollars.
Let me get. So I got, you know, like little phone handles, a little thing you can put on the back of your phone. Yeah. So I found a ring pop. So I got I got a ring pop for my phone. Did you bring that to the Smith Center last night? No, I hadn't put it on yet.
That's probably for the best. It's a it's a ring pop, though. Like, who has that? It was so cool.
I bought it. Let me tell you about this store called the Dollar Store. You're going to be amazed by that concept.
Seven minute abs. Step step into my office. Those who know know. Let's go to Gary, who's in Clemens. Hi, Gary. Hey, guys, how are you doing today? I can't speak for W.D., but I'm doing good.
Well, I'm glad to hear that. What my little positivity thing here is, we're one day closer. Starting tomorrow, I got five days of football, college and pros. And on a local note is Wake Forest. I'm starting to feel good again. Coaches bringing in all kinds of players. You got this transfer from Colorado State. That's pretty good.
Okay, so you're right. Tomorrow is the start of five straight days of football. You have the Orange Bowl tomorrow. You have the Cotton Bowl Friday. Two NFL playoff games Saturday, three on Sunday. And then, weather permitting, we'll see if it's still in Los Angeles, the Rams, because of the fires, the Rams hosting the Vikings. Which of those games is Gary and Clemens most excited to watch? Well, I got to see the Penn State UCLA game in person this year, so I'm excited about tomorrow night. I think it's going to be a fun game to watch.
That's the Orange Bowl in Miami, no doubt. Well, enjoy Wake basketball next week. Thank you so much for the call.
Absolutely. Take care, guys. Gary and Clemens, make sure you stay on the line so W.D. can get your information. 336-777-1600.
Got a couple more pairs of tickets to go see Wake available. Just saw a couple callers drop. I don't know.
Did they feel I was being too rough of an interviewer there by asking people? I don't know. I don't know. Let me tell you what's good with me. My nursery rhyme game is strong. Oh, is it? Oh, yeah.
I got all these songs in my head. And W.D., just like he is on air, same person off the air, too, is like, why are you listening to nursery rhymes? I'm like, W.D., I'm a dad. I have a two-month-old.
That's what I got. And I'm surprised. See, I'm not as good at it as my wife is. My wife knows every word to every one of these nursery rhymes. She's crushing it. She is.
She's a wonderful mom. And she, yeah, great at making animal noises that Willow likes as well, which is great. But I'm amazed at how these have been ingrained in my head, because I don't remember the point in my childhood, because I was obviously super, super young, when those nursery rhymes were being sang to me. But clearly they got through into my thick noggin, because I now sing these songs without a... Like, do you know the Muffin Man, Will? The one that lives on Drury Lane?
Yeah, absolutely. And the second verse, the Ice Cream Man? I'd never heard that verse. Humpty Dumpty falling from his wall? Oh, yeah. I've heard Old MacDonald Has a Farm about 12 times last night. It's a banger.
It really is. And a ba-ba here and a ba-ba there. Ba-ba everywhere. Let's go to Sean in Winston-Salem. Sean, hi.
Hi. Tell me something good. I will tell you as a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan that I am happy about two things. One, that our season is over and I can rest. And two, that apparently we will play the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte in perpetuity for as long as I live. This is the third year in a row that I will get a chance to go watch my team play in Charlotte and beat the Carolina Panthers.
It can be a yearly tradition, so I am very thankful for that. You guys always win when you guys play in Charlotte, or at least the last two years you guys have come into Charlotte and won. Panthers o-line not having a lot of answers for Michael Parsons, it doesn't seem like. Not at all.
Not at all. I'm looking forward to getting to see my Cowboys beat the Panthers again this year. And, you know, it'll be a little tougher, but it'll still feel good. That'll be maybe the one or two wins we get this year. Well, you enjoy that game in the future and you enjoy Wake basketball next week, Sean, as the Deacs face Stanford. We have another Cowboy fan that'll be joining the show. That's the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball.
B-dot? I was about to say, I wasn't done here. That's been Weekly Positivity. Now I'm done. Oh, good grief. Tar Heel fans.
W.D. 's a Tar Heel fan and he roots for the Lakers. I don't root for the Lakers. Yeah, you do.
No, I don't. I like to see LeBron play. Who's he play for? The Lakers, but that doesn't mean I'm a Laker fan. I said you root for the Laker. Did you? That's exactly what I said.
Verbatim. Oh. And Dot roots for the Cowboys, these national brands, you guys.
I did see a tweet last night, somebody quote-tweeted the Cooper flag dunk and said, every Yankee fan is going to have this on their wall. Now. You can't speak. You can't make that joke.
Dot can't either when he's a Cowboy fan. And you can't make that joke because you're, I'm a LeBron fan. Can't make that joke. A lot of jokes you can make. Can't make that one.
I'm sorry that I have to break that to you this way. Let's get the show going. It's The Drive with Josh Graham.
ACC PM on the ACC network opened up with some clips from my X page in the Duke locker room. They asked for permission. So we were happy to give it to them.
That played before we were able to even play it on our show today. And then I think we're done. I feel like we're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. We're done. Let's play it on our show today.
Looking at our watches. It's 4 18 in the afternoon. Could check my phone. I texted Connor O'Neil earlier. Saying, hey, can you come on at 4 15 today?
He said, no. I'm driving to Maryland. And I'm looking up on my TV screen right now.
ACC PM. And what do I see? I see Connor O'Neil. Does it look like he's in a car, W.D.? No, that looks like he's in... Looks like he's in some sort of home.
It's what it looks like that he's in right now. I got issues. Yeah, you should. I don't like that. We got trouble in River City.
Rivalry between Connor O'Neill and I right now. So let's get to that sound from the Duke locker room. Here was my mission, and some of you realized what I was doing because it was the most obvious thing ever.
Yeah, I know. Cooper Flag gets a big dunk. I walk into the locker room and in a 15 minute span asked everybody I could stick my phone in front of what they thought of that dunk.
That's what I did. And John Shire was asked about it too, and he said what everybody thought in the moment when the dunk happened. You know, look, it reminded me of like a Zion kind of play. That's what it reminded me of because of how it sparked Hayward, you know, just not me myself, you know, but we've had a few guys through the years to make a couple plays that just spark everybody in the building, and that was one of those moments tonight. Is it better than the Zion 360 dunk against Clemson?
You know, I toyed with this as I was in the Smith Center because I saw somebody comment on one of your posts about it. It was like, oh, Zion didn't have a dunk like that. Actually he did. He had the 360. Not a defender in his face.
No. The better comparison is a lesser talked about dunk. It's a dunk that Zion had against Virginia because the book on Zion was force him left, make him go to his right hand, and Zion steals a ball, goes coast to coast, and with his right hand stuffs it on Jay Huff and the foul. That dunk reminded me a lot of the dunk we saw last night.
That's Jon Shire's press conference. In the locker room, Tyrese Proctor, he's in his third year at Duke, he's seen a lot, had incredibly high praise for what Cooper did on the floor. What'd you think of that dunk? Oh, it was ridiculous. That was probably the best dunk I've ever seen. I mean, for sure in person, but yeah, it was crazy. He's not doing that at practice regularly? I mean, he's had a couple, but nothing like that.
Yeah, that shit was wild. My buddy Rod Baxley was standing right next to me and laughing when Tyrese said that, and Rod has this expression, it's one of my favorite things that he says all the time. He says, when there's a big dunk, he's like, that's a dunk that makes you cuss. I can see him saying that. Tyrese said, you know, wild stuff, but he didn't say stuff.
No he didn't. Dunks that make you cuss. He's had a couple, but nothing like that. Yeah, that shit was wild. Let's get to fellow freshman Kamon Malawatch, who had similar praise. Oh, I mean, me personally, I've never seen a dunk like that while I'm on the court, playing with the same guy, he dunked on that guy, like, I don't know how to say it, but I can't explain it.
I almost lost my mind when I was out there. So he said that's the best dunk that he's seen while he's out on the floor. Don't forget, Kamon Malawatch started for South Sudan in the Olympics.
He faced the U.S. Olympic team twice. It's so crazy. And he said, that dunk, by Cooper Flagg, crazier than anything he's seen on the floor. My favorite reaction, both in the locker room, but also on television, on the floor in the moment, was transfer Seon James. Seon James put both his hands on his head and was reacting like all of us did. You could see me in my seat at the top of the screen when Cooper dunked, and my instinctive reaction was to just grab Brett Freelander's shoulder right next to me, like it happened, and I just instinctively grabbed his shoulder.
That's how great that dunk was. Here was Seon James on what Cooper did. I just relaxed, man. I had to get me going again. It was ridiculous. I was telling the others, Coop does special stuff all the time, right? We've come to expect it, but that showed us something that he can still surprise us.
There's still more that he can do. That was unreal. It got the whole gym going.
It was awesome. How often did you see on the replay that you were having your hands on your head with your mouth open or whatever? When he got past half court, did you think he was going to try to go all the way to the rim with it? I knew he was going to try to dunk it, but then once I saw, I forget who it was, step up, I was like, oh, of course he's going to lay it up now, because that's what any same person would do.
But I forgot this Cooper flag we're talking about. I love that guy. Great personality.
So bubbly. That I was wondering if you caught that. At the beginning, just he sounds like a Disney character. His level of excitement.
Talk about Cooper's, like, sounds like something from a Goofy movie, ha, ha, ha, hooey. Willy P. Gonna get jealous if we continue. Get into the North Carolina locker room where you were last night. I was. You were standing next to Ian Jackson.
Ian Jackson, just a ho-hum 18-point night, another day in the office. The Tar Heels beat SMU, and he had a bit of a boo-boo with this exchange. First chance at a rivalry game coming up on Saturday.
You looking forward to that? NC State. NC State, your first rivalry game here at UNC. That's not a rivalry? No, NC State is a great team. Every team at NC State is a great team. It's a hard conference, but we just want to go out there and play our game. We're not looking into it as a rivalry. We just want to go out there and win another game accomplished, but they're a great team. So you're saying it's a rivalry?
Whatever you guys want to describe it. So North Carolina has one of the best PR people in the business. Everybody admires this guy, Steve Kirschner. Kirschnuggets, the whole deal. When Marty Smith's at the Bill Belichick press conference on television on the McAfee show, he's like, Kirsch, Kirsch, is this true? We lean on this guy. And I assume he plays a role in training some of these guys to give certain answers and how to handle the media. You can hear Ian Jackson keeping it real at the beginning of this clip, getting messy, and then hear the moment like an angel on his other shoulder where the media training clicks in. See if you can hear the moment where Ian Jackson realizes, oh, that probably wasn't the best answer. This is what Kirsch probably told me not to do. Let's try to salvage this. UNC. That's not right, man?
No, no, no. Start it from the beginning. I want to hear the beginning of it. First chance at a rivalry game coming up on Saturday. You looking forward to that? NC State. Your first rivalry game here at UNC.
That's not right, man? No. No, NC State is a great team. He heard the reaction to, oh, is it a rivalry? He's like, oh, NC State is a great team. No, NC State is a great team. And they're a really good team, yeah. We have the utmost respect for them and their program. Ian Jackson, he had been committed for a while, so he last year certainly saw what happened in DC.
What are we doing here, Ian Jackson? No, NC State is a great team. That's going to be played ad nauseam for the next four or five days. Do I think Carolina's going to win the game?
Yes. But would it be more plausible or less plausible that NC State wins on their home floor against this Carolina team Saturday versus what we saw them do in the ACC Championship in DC? No, NC State is a great team. By the way, it's already started, so I tweeted this out. The picture, I tweeted it out, and NC State and UNC fans are already duking it out in the comments. The Pac Barstool and UNC Barstool already quote-tweeting at each other about it. It's already started.
Not the smartest thing. Captain Jack. For Ian Jackson to say in that spot, but here's the thing.
Maybe this is progress. At least Bubba's not making him apologize for it. Oh, yeah. Drake May.
Yeah, that was ridiculous. Sorry. Courtney Bangheart. Sorry. Sorry. I don't know. Is that going to happen tomorrow? It is a rivalry, and I'm so sorry. It better not. Don't think you're going to. Hope that's the case, at least.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-08 20:37:11 / 2025-01-08 20:58:10 / 21