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The Drive with Josh Graham / Josh Graham
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January 22, 2025 6:35 pm

….Mellow Mushroom

The Drive with Josh Graham / Josh Graham

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January 22, 2025 6:35 pm

On a Wednesday Drive, Josh tells why Wake’s win over UNC was a program win for the Deacs, explains why it might be best for college football to ditch conference championship games, breaks down the crossroads that UNC currently finds themselves on in their season, and voice of Charlotte FC, Will Palaszczuk, joins the show to tell why Charlotte FC will be viewed as an even more serious soccer club this year.

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This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We're internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS.

Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. It is WSJS, new stonk sports for the Triad, where anytime you have an ACC Big Four matchup, you have multiple lens of which to view the game from. And since Wake Forest came out on top of North Carolina 67-66, and our studios are base 5 minutes from Joel Coliseum here in Winston-Salem, it would only make sense that we start with their side of the ledger. Even though it wasn't the prettiest of games, last night was a true program win for Wake Forest basketball. The Deacs beat the North Carolina Tar Heels without playing their A-game.

Think about that for a second. No assists the entire first half. Shot 29% in the first 20 minutes. 14 turnovers in the game. Hunter Salas' 20-point game streak came to an end. 2 of 15 from 3 altogether over the last 15 years. Wake would never beat that team with that kind of a performance.

Plain and simple. They would lose it every time. Even past years under Steve Forbes. Steve believes being able to win a game in the mud, as they did, is a sign of Wake Forest's character.

Here he was after the game. It says a lot about them, Josh. It says they're a very resilient, tight-knit group that didn't have their A-game. I think it says a lot about them when you don't have your fastball, but you still got something there. You know, you got a little good slider, decent change, and you figure out how to win. You know, and so I told them that after the game.

I said, I'm proud of you for this. It should be a drinking game every time Steve Forbes references baseball. Makes a baseball analogy in his press conferences. Seems like it's a nightly occurrence, but it was a Wake Forest crowd at the Joel last night. We are the longest-running daily sports talk show in the history of the Triad. It's something we're proud of. Talking about seven years that we've been on the air just a few months from now. And when we first started this show, Danny Manning was the coach, and you go to these North Carolina Wake games, and it would be 50-50 Wake and North Carolina fans.

About 50-50. And the building wouldn't be completely sold out. Last night was completely sold out. And at least 70% of the crowd was Wake Forest fans. Which, again, a far cry over where it was just a few years ago, where it would be Carolina Blue takeovers of Joel Coliseum. When Steve Forbes beat North Carolina for the first time back in 2022, three years ago, in his postgame press conference, he was talking about the students having stormed the court that night, and said, we want to get this program to a place where we're not storming the court after beating North Carolina. And when you look in the stands, there are far more people wearing black and gold merch, black and gold gear, than wearing Carolina Blue. That is what we saw last night.

That prophecy came true. Where it was 70% Wake Forest fans, the building was completely sold out, despite the fact it was a 9 o'clock tip, despite the fact it was super cold with some snow across the triad. And when Wake Forest won the game, they did flash that message on the screen about five times in the final couple of minutes, the students stayed in place and said, you know, this is what we expect to do now.

Here was Steve Forbes on that after the game. We have nothing but the highest amount of respect for the Carolina program. Okay.

It's a historical program. And so, but it is in our conference, right? And so we should expect to come in and win and act like we've done it before.

Okay. And we have. And so I was proud of our fans for that. I was proud.

I didn't see this least amount of Carolina fans I've seen in here. It's important to not lose sight of progress. We struggle with this sometimes in our culture. You have people wanting to make things better.

So it is genuine intent. So you point to the things that need to improve. But sometimes you can do that too much and people can conflate that with there not being a lot of progress. There's a show, there's a podcast I listen to that always points to, hey, do you realize that our level of health care that we receive today across the world in 2025 is so much greater than what we had in 1960?

And relations in this sense is so much better than it was. Sometimes we can lose track of progress. Don't do that. It's okay for Wake Forest basketball fans to say the expectation is to get to the NCAA tournament. And you could be disappointed if you don't get there. But even if Wake Forest doesn't.

And it is kind of stupid. It's ridiculous that Wake only climbed two spots in the net for their win last night. Three spots in the net.

The 74. It's not a guarantee that they're going to make the NCAA tournament. Even if they don't, do not lose sight of how much Steve Forbes has raised the floor of Wake Forest basketball.

Consider this. Last decade, the best team we saw in Winston-Salem was the John Collins team that made it to the first floor and got knocked out in 2017. That team won 19 games. And that wasn't even with a 20-game ACC schedule. 19 games they won. That was the best season of the 2010s. Wake basketball right now is 15-4. They're going to win 19 or more for the fourth straight year. So you want to talk about progress.

That's what it looks like. Where Wake Forest, the floor of what they are, is so much greater than it once was. And do not lose sight of that. A win against Duke on Saturday would completely transform the conversation with them.

It would, air quote, wake the nation, if you will. But a program win last night, and something you shouldn't lose sight of, the amount of progress we've seen for this program under Steve Forbes' leadership. OnX, a WSJS radio if you want in.

That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton, he's the executive producer of this show. You were with me last night. It was great seeing a ton of viewers, a ton of listeners stop by, say hello. A couple just wanted to tell you what their favorite drops on the show were. You know, that does seem to be a common theme when people meet me for the first time. They're like, hey, send me that cash out, family.

Why would you say it yourself when you have the buttons? Shout out to Mike and Elkin, who says he loves send me that cash out, family. And he's also a fan of fried chicken. Oh, he loves the fried chicken.

Aren't we all fans of fried chicken? So shout out to Mike and Elkin and all the folks who came by to say hello. Moving things along. You might have missed this, but ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is wanting to explore changes to the ACC championship game. To fully incentivize teams wanting to participate in that game, one of the ideas expected to be proposed this offseason in spring meetings is the top regular season team in the standings being automatically put through into the CFP. So SMU would not have played in the conference championship.

They would have been exempt from that. And then having the next two teams, teams two and three, compete for a second spot in the CFP. This year that would have been Clemson facing Miami.

Implementing this no doubt would bring unintended consequences, of course, and all of this might be moot with the expansion to 14 feeling all but inevitable beyond 2026. But really, if we're going to make this broad and talking about the entire sport, what would be best for college football? All around is ditching conference championship games altogether because with an expanded playoff, they've become outdated and they've almost completely lost their value. Neither team that played in Monday night's national championship game played in a conference championship game.

Neither Ohio State and obviously Notre Dame did not. A team like SMU, to Jim Phillips' point, they had more to lose than there was to gain. Here's the real benefit in the current 12 team model for wanting to play in a conference championship. The top four conference champions get byes in the playoff.

Don't have to play the first week, you get a bye. But after the first playing of the playoff, it seems the thing that most college football leaders are dead set on trying to change, maybe as early as next year, is allowing teams like Arizona State and Boise State to get that bye. So you might eliminate that incentive that comes along with conference championships.

And even with that incentive, you don't get a home game the way that you would if you were ranked fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth. In a sport that has so much history, so much tradition, there isn't all that much of either when it relates to conference championships. Did you know that the first Big Ten championship game wasn't until 2011? That the ACC didn't have a conference championship game until 2005? And none of these championship games predate the 90s. So if you were to get rid of it in a sport that is over 150 years old, would it be that big of a deal?

Would we miss it all that much? Now, from an administrator perspective, we know what funds the sport is television dollars. The larger concern, and the reason why Jim Phillips is working not to get rid of a conference championship game, but to try to reinvent it, reimagine it, is to try to preserve the television and revenue associated with conference championship games. Because, in theory, those are some of the biggest properties that these conferences have to sell.

But would that be more productive, better for the sport, than just eliminating them altogether? Because here's another piece of it. We don't have the ratings just yet for Monday night's championship game, but between the inauguration and the holiday going on, my guess is, if it's in line with what we saw with the semifinals, the ratings aren't going to be as great as you think. And the reality is, kind of like what we saw with LeBron winning his last title, but it being in the bubble where nobody's expecting to watch NBA basketball in October, every minute, every hour, every day after January 1st, fans are caring less about college football. Because that's not when you're supposed to be watching college football. We have our seasons, we have our sports, we have our cycles of when we're supposed to be caring about things. And college football feels like it should end January 1st with the Rose Bowl.

Preferably with the Rose Bowl. So figure out a way to end the season on New Year's. In a way that you can do this, you need to get rid of at least two weeks. You need to end things at least two weeks sooner.

And here's a good suggestion. Move week one to week zero. So now week zero is week one. So that moves everything up a week. And get rid of conference championship weekend. Have Army-Navy that weekend so you could start the playoff rather than the weekend before Christmas.

You could start at the second week of December. And hopefully wrap this thing up around New Year's. Better ratings for the networks. One less game for these teams that are playing way too many games, which used to be a concern just a few years ago. It's time to ditch conference championships and college football. That is what is best for the sport moving forward. Mel Kuiper just released his first mock draft since the end of the regular season in the NFL. That just dropped today. And believe it or not, I disagree with Mel's selection for the Carolina Panthers at number eight.

And I'll tell you why next. Mel Kuiper has his latest mock draft out, which presents us the perfect opportunity for our weekly Panthers mock draft segment. Something we've been doing every week since about week three, week four of the Panthers regular season.

Only about three more months to go. It's Mel Kuiper's first mock draft since the regular season ended. So let's dig into it, why don't we? Before we get to the Panthers side of this, first off, give me those sweet draft chimes.

Yes. Hits you and nothing feels better. It's just a dopamine hit. Cam Ward, number one to the Tennessee Titans. They just introduced their new GM, who was an assistant GM in Kansas City today. Travis Hunter from Colorado, the number two pick to the Cleveland Browns. Shadore Sanders, the number three pick to the New York Giants. Ward and Sanders, the only two quarterbacks that Mel has going in round one. Ashton Gente, the running back from Boise State projected to go in the 20s.

James Pierce Jr., all season long, his stock has taken hits, it feels like. The Tennessee Edgerusher from Charlotte. Mel has James falling all the way to number 28 to the Detroit Lions. And Triad native, ECU corner, Siobhan Ravel Jr. goes to the Baltimore Ravens at number 27. But what about the Carolina Panthers at number eight? The pick is in from Mel Kuiper Jr. According to Mel, with the number eight pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Carolina Panthers select Georgia Edgerusher Jalen Walker.

I disagree with this. He cites the Panthers lack of a pass rusher, the need of an edge for taking Jalen Walker in a deep edge draft. Abdul Carter already off the board. Walker's Georgia teammate, Mikel Williams, goes a pick before Walker at number seven. So he'd be the third outside linebacker slash Edgerusher to be taken in the draft. My problem with this will is with the number nine pick. That's where Mel has the Saints taking Michigan corner Will Johnson nine time for anybody who watches college football and the NFL. It's pretty clear that there are three, four, maybe five guys in this draft that are better than everybody else. In terms of pure talent, I think the big three Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter and Will Johnson from Michigan. And if it's not Will Johnson, then it's probably Mason Graham, who also plays on that defense on the D line. And if you want to include a quarterback, it's Cam Ward from Miami. The reason Mel doesn't have the Panthers taking Johnson is because of this need for an Edgerusher. I disagree with that. I think Carolina is in need of awesome defensive players and just because they have Derek Brown at the tackle, just because they have J.C. Hornett corner that that doesn't mean they couldn't use another big guy inside on the D line.

It doesn't mean they can't use a second corner across. I agree that the Panthers need to go defensive player no matter what. But I believe you draft the best defensive player on the board.

I don't think you pick for need. I don't think the Panthers are in a place as an organization. They should be picking for need because they won five games. Pick the best defensive player on the board. I do not think that's Jalen Walker in this projection.

I think that is Michigan corner. Will Johnson or maybe even the safety from Georgia. Malachi Starks, who Mel has going in the teens. It seems a lot of these picks are driven off need, not going off who the best players are. Because in Mel's mind, a corner or safety probably of less value than getting one of these edges at the top of the draft. And yes, surely enough, the Miami Dolphins taking Malachi Starks number 13. So I disagree with Jalen Walker going eight to the Panthers in Mel's projection. If the draft were to fall out the first seven picks the way that Mel describes, I think the Panthers should go do what they did last time. They had the number eight pick in the draft and take the top corner. I still assume Travis Hunter to be a wide receiver slash corner, but true corner in Michigan's Will Johnson.

That's Panthers mock draft for this week. Let's check in on our local pro teams, Will. The Charlotte Hornets, they look to make it five of six tonight. They are in Memphis. By the way, swarm head coach DJ Baker, he'll be our guest in about 20 minutes or so to John Salon.

He's in Greensboro right now because of how healthy Charlotte is with the big club. You also have KJ Simpson. Are you smiling because my wedding ring hit the microphone? Yeah, you did what I usually do.

Yeah, punch the mic. I'm tired. I'm sorry. KJ Simpson had 34 the other night, the second-round draft pick out of Colorado. So we'll chat with the swarm coach.

We'll give away some swarm tickets later this hour. The Carolina Hurricanes, they won both games of their back-to-back. A lot of milestones on Monday night in the come-from-behind win against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Canes played a better team last night. Dallas had 29 wins. Carolina had 28.

Carolina 2-1 winners against the Dallas Stars on the road. Charlotte FC, they just made a massive signing today. Big-time international edition that they bring in that we'll talk about with Will Pelagic. See, when they make big additions, and I also see that one of their best scorers the last couple of years, Swiderski's not going to return to the team.

That gives us an opportunity to bring Will Pelagic back on the show. And he'll join us around 5.30 today. So it is a busy schedule that we have in terms of ACC basketball. No ACC Big Four teams because NC State and Duke have the midweek off before being in action this weekend. Of course, North Carolina and Wake Forest met last night. You got Syracuse at Littlejohn Coliseum to play Clemson.

Okay. Not sure how intriguing the game is. Miami's at Stanford. 11 o'clock tip tonight. 9 o'clock tip for Cal Florida State.

Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech. Woof, woof, woof, woof. All these games, just disgusting.

It really is. And after a late night last night, it's like ugh. Oh, do you think I'm not going to watch Miami at Stanford? 4-14 Miami at Stanford tonight? I don't think you are. Mmm.

I don't think you will. Umm. You've already watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, right? Yes, I have. Okay, so you'll review that on tomorrow's show. I rewatched that over the weekend as well. I don't know.

More of a thinking man. We'll find out together if I will in fact be up late tonight watching Miami play Stanford. Any other good games tonight?

Top 25 teams? I guess there's always top 25 teams playing in the SEC. A&M's at Ole Miss tonight. Xavier at St. Joe's is a pretty fun game too.

Or, pardon me, St. John's. Rick Pitino facing the Musketeers. That could be good fun. Those are the games of note that we have this evening. So we covered the Wake Forest side of last night's game. As for North Carolina, it would appear that their season has arrived at a crossroads. And that's next on The Drive.

The Drive with Josh Graham, only on WSJS. A lot of NFL news today. We'll dig into the latest on the NFL coaching carousel in moments. And then welcome in a coach, DJ Baker, Greensboro Swarm head coach, 15 minutes from now. But back to last night's action at Joel Coliseum. After North Carolina's loss, the Tar Heel basketball season has arrived at a crossroads. That is to say, from here on out, things are either going to get better and better soon. Because there isn't as much time in the season as you think. Or conversely, things will get worse and maybe get ugly fast.

It's going to play out one of those two ways. They missed a golden opportunity last night. Wake, admittedly, Steve Forbes said it after the game, wasn't our A game. Hunter Salas entered the game with six straight 20-point nights. He didn't have one last night. From three-point range, he couldn't hit anything. Air balled two, and then there was a three that barely struck the backboard.

It was rough. Fourteen turnovers, an ugly, ugly game. But Wake, it seemed pretty obvious, wanted to win this game more in the second half. They were willing to get down and win every loose ball. Carolina, it was uninspiring, the effort from them after losing it home at the buzzer to a former Blue Devil, Jalen Blake's, losing to Stanford over the weekend.

You would have expected to see much more fire out of that group. You did not see it. That's the alarming thing. Carolina fans pointing at officiating, saying, Josh, how's it possible that North Carolina didn't attempt a free throw in the second half? It's a conspiracy.

Actually, it isn't. This goes back to effort and North Carolina's roster reconstruction. They don't have a lot of effective bigs if they have an effective big at all. But one way to mitigate even the effectiveness of less effective players is to get them in foul trouble. There were 27 fouls whistled in the first half combined.

Twenty-seven. That should be a felony when done in nine o'clock games, a felony to hand out that many fouls. And included among those fouls, two on Jalen Washington, two on Vin Allen Lubin, two on Ty Claude.

Your top three options at center. So that'll make you play more careful in the post. You can't afford losing those guys in the second half.

So that's a piece of it. Not having as much effectiveness in the post, that's going to limit your attempts from the free throw strike. And North Carolina's sheer reliance on the three-point line. They weren't hitting threes, but that didn't stop them from chucking them. Eighteen of North Carolina's second half attempts. Eighteen of the thirty-four shots North Carolina attempted in the second half from three-point range. That, those two things coupled together, especially on the road, is how you net no free throw attempts in the second half.

And part of that's an effort thing. Are you pushing to get to the rim? Are you out-physicaling the other side?

Get into the loose ball so that you're getting called, fouls called on the other team. North Carolina was not doing that. So what now? They'll either go like 2022 did or 2023 for the Tar Heels. The reality is that North Carolina's on the bubble. And they were on the bubble both of those seasons.

2022 turned out pretty well. Went to the Final Four. Extinguished Coach K not once, but twice. And the turning point in that season was a loss at Wake Forest.

Wake lost. It was the last game that Dawson Garcia ever wore a Tar Heel uniform. And they had a quick Saturday to Monday turnaround where Brady Manick had a bigger role for the team.

He had a good game and a low-scoring game against Virginia Tech on that Monday night. And in New Orleans, I remember talking to the guys during the media day prior to the Final Four game with Duke. And they pointed to that Wake Forest game.

That was the turning point for us when we really looked around and said, we need to start getting it going. And they did. And Brady Manick carried them.

2023 was a different story. This is the team that was preseason number one that didn't make the tournament. They lose in Winston-Salem. And then for 45 minutes, the players are holed up in the locker room while we're all out in the tunnel wondering what the heck's happening. And they had a players-only meeting that did not work.

R.J. Davis was on both of those teams. And he's the leader of this team now. I talked to him after the game. Here's what he said about the lessons he took from 2022 and 2023 that he hopes to impart on the younger players on this roster. Not lose faith. I mean, taking one game at a time, I think that's all you can do at this point, right? I don't know how many games left, maybe eight or nine in the ACC regular season. So just take it one game at a time.

Don't look too far ahead. Don't look at if we're on the bubble or not, because I feel like that could just get in the way of what we're actually trying to accomplish. And I think that that's what we did the year we went to the Final Four. Obviously, we've heard the noise of we're on the bubble, we're not going to make the tournament.

But we didn't let that steer our path and what we wanted to accomplish. So that's going to be my message to the team. Twelve games left for North Carolina in the regular season. But really, we're going to know which way this is heading over the next five games. Obviously, you can't lose at home to Boston College.

Dear goodness. Boston College. BC got drilled last night by Virginia. It's Virginia that BC lost to. And Virginia isn't all that good. It's Virginia. Can't lose that game to Boston College Saturday at the Smith Center. Boston College? But then you're at Pitt, at Duke, home against Pitt, Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Okay. Can you go three and two in this stretch? BC at Pitt, at Duke, home Pitt, at Clemson.

Can you go three and two? That would be a big win for this group. It's a crossroads for North Carolina. And the season's either going to break one way or the other. If you haven't already, make sure you're subscribed to our podcast. Search The Drive with Josh Graham, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor. The best hour of what we do available on demand for you in the audience. It's also good if you miss some of our great guests that we have throughout the show the next few hours.

Make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel as well. Just search The Drive with Josh Graham. Past midnight this morning, I'm on the court at the Joel and recording this thing.

Borderline delirious. Just trying to cover as many of the notes I took in my notepad as I could get to. And you can find that. Support our work.

And that's also where you can watch our show in addition to listening to it on the fleet of radio stations that make up WSJS. To that NFL coaching news, the coach at Carousel continues to spin today. While Lions OC Ben Johnson was being introduced as the new Chicago Bears head coach, Lions DC Aaron Glenn, the new head coach of the New York Jets. Tough break for the New Orleans Saints who apparently wanted Aaron Glenn, but an interview was canceled yesterday because of the snow that's blown through New Orleans. Big snowstorm.

In fact, such a big snowstorm that the Pelicans game today has been postponed due to that snowstorm in New Orleans. So a bad break for the Saints there. Glenn is a former Jets draft pick. The Lions, they lose their two coordinators and their D-line coach who accepted the DC gig with Mike Rabel in New England.

It's about to be tough for Dan Campbell. That's a big time brain drain with the Detroit Lions. But if you want to talk about an organization that's in a really bad spot right now, that would be the Jacksonville Jaguars. So the Jags really wanted Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson decided, I'd rather coach Caleb Williams than coach Trevor Lawrence.

So they didn't get their top guy. Then they centered their focus on another young offensive coordinator, Bucks OC Liam Cohen, who today announced, I'm going to stay in Tampa. I'm going to pull my consideration for the Jags job.

I'm going to be in Tampa. The Jags just announced in the last hour that their GM Trent Bocky has been fired, or they're parting ways with him. So kind of back to square one, it seems that they struck out on these two guys that they wanted, and now they're looking for a new GM.

That's not great. For Tampa, it's great that they keep Liam Cohen, because if they didn't, it would have been four offensive coordinators and four years for the Bucks. Because, remember, they had an OC a few years ago, and then it was Dave Canales last year, and then Liam Cohen this year.

And if Liam Cohen left, they would have had to hire somebody else. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in Jacksonville. You would think if they go offensive-minded guy, Kellen Moore and Joe Brady would be considerations. But we know that Dallas and New Orleans are kind of in the mix for both those guys too. The Raiders just hired Tampa's assistant GM to be their full-time GM. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with those remaining head coaching jobs.

There are four of them. Again, the Jags, the Cowboys, the Saints, and the Raiders, the remaining coaching jobs. College football news that we need to get to. We have the ratings for Monday night's national championship game. As I've been saying, every day after New Year's Day, fewer and fewer people care about college football.

And the ratings suggest that. You would think a game that actually came down to the fourth quarter between Ohio State and Notre Dame, the two biggest brands in college football, you could argue, would net record ratings. And the ratings dropped from last year's national championship game between Michigan and Washington. And that wasn't a close game.

Michigan rolled over Washington. The ratings dropped from last year. So television runs the sport.

They need to figure out a way to get closer to January 1st. And speaking of college football television, the ACC has announced in the last hour when the new ACC football schedule will drop. The answer, on ESPN2 and the ACC Network on Monday, the full schedule is going to be released.

But they're going to leak stuff out between now and then. Tomorrow, we will learn the Week 0 and Week 1 games, many of which we already know. Then on Friday, the ACC openers for all 17 teams will be announced.

The full schedule on Monday, ESPN2 and the ACC Network. Sara Bradford and I, we're already thinking we need to get to Charlottesville, take baby Daniel to a football game next year, and we'll know those dates in the next week. Thank you for that. Now let's get to some bets that you're probably going to hate in today's 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. Your best bet. But my money from the other team. This is Josh's Best Bets.

Actually, let's try to accomplish a number of things here, Will. First, getting to last night. Two props we handed out for North Carolina Wake Forest. Trevon Spillers, over 11 and a half points. Gotti.

Send me that cash out, fam. With a free throw in the final two minutes of that game, Ian Jackson did not get over 17 and a half points, though. Tough break for the Wake fans who had Wake minus one and a half when R.J. Davis follows a Hunter Sowis-missed front end with a half-court heave that goes and makes it a one-point Wake Forest win. So that was last night. Let's get to tonight's action. Will, are you following how things are going for John Calipari at Arkansas? 0-5 in the SEC.

They are. Tonight, they host Georgia. And I'm going to say he's going to get his first SEC win with the Hogs tonight. Send me that cash out, fam. Plus one point.

Screw it. We'll go money line. Arkansas is going to get their first conference win tonight against Georgia.

That's not the pick you're going to hate the most, though, Will. What did Stanford do the last time we saw them? Beat Carolina. In Chapel Hill.

Wow. That's right. And what happened to Miami the last time we saw them? I don't remember. Miami got obliterated by SMU over the weekend.

West Durham was on the call, unfortunately, and that happened on their home floor. Tonight, at 11 p.m., Will, we got Miami at Stanford. Give me the Canes plus ten and a half points.

Send me that cash out, fam. Can I explain it? No. Do I have to? Absolutely not. Give me the Canes plus ten and a half points at Stanford.

Send me that cash out, fam. So if you're wondering if I'm going to stay up for 11 o'clock games, Will, tonight. Absolutely.

I am now. Okay, so that's one order of business to take care of. Just some picks that are gross that you're going to hate. Let's look ahead to Conference Championship Weekend in the NFL.

W.D. is great, and this is part of the entertainment. He thinks he's really good at guessing these point spreads, and he's actually really bad at it. So we let him try to guess what these lines are going to be or what they are currently. Eagles hosting the Commander's NFC East matchup for the NFC Conference Championship. What's the line?

This is so tough. I'm going to say Eagles three and a half point favorites. The Eagles are six point favorites. If you're not within two points, it's not impressive at all, by the way. If I had a line that said Eagles minus three and a half, I'd bet my house on it. Okay, I probably wouldn't do that. I think commanders win that game.

Not to put any ideas in your head or anything. Flagging that. Kansas City facing Buffalo. AFC Championship. Buffalo. Five and a half point favorites.

Whose favorite? Buffalo. Kansas City is a one and a half point favorite at home. Do you know what the public would do if they were getting five and a half points at home with the two-time defending Super Bowl champs? I mean, listen, I haven't been very impressed with the troops this year. Ninety percent of the football, like, casinos would close if Kansas City covered that, given how many people would bet on Kansas City. So there it is.

It's the height of entertainment. W.D. setting these lines up. You know, I have been good at this in the past. I'm just salivating at.

One week you were pretty good. Yeah. All right. I actually have, you know, every time a national championship is played, you have the stories that pop up way too soon. Rankings for next year. Did you know that you could actually bet on who next year's college football national champion will be?

I did. Ohio State is the betting favorite, plus four twenty five. Texas mushroom. Calipari snuck in here. Oh, sorry. Just let me know if you dig up things. OG listeners of the show remember when he was in Greensboro and I'm asking him about getting pizza and Raleigh and he revealed he went to mellow mushroom.

That's great. Texas plus five fifty. Georgia plus six hundred. Oregon plus seven fifty. Do you know who the smart bet is to win the national championship if you're going to bet on anybody to win it all? Chapel Bill. One hundred to one is Carolina.

I looked that up. The smart bet actually is Texas. And you know why?

Really? Among that group? Because I know who Texas's quarterback is going to be. I don't know who Ohio State, Georgia or I guess I do know who Georgia's quarterback is going to be.

So that makes sense. Gunnar Stockton slung it in that Sugar Bowl. But I don't know who Oregon or Ohio State's quarterback is. I know Texas has Arch Manning. And I know that's going to be an upgrade over Quinn Ewers and they made the final four this year.

So, plus five fifty. That would be the best bet to win next year's national championship. Anywho, that was a productive edition of Best Bets today. I'll say. Arkansas.

John Calipari. You're my hope. You're my only hope. Mellow Mushroom. Miami. Yeah. Tonight. That's it.

What could go wrong? Mellow Mushroom. The Drive with Josh Graham, only on WSJS. Before we get to Will Pelagic, voice of Charlotte FC. We're about a month away from the start of the MLS season. I've got a rant about something really quick. It's long past due to talk about the nerds. More specifically, those who back the net rankings.

It's long past due for us to lambast the net. We haven't done it for the first two and a half months of the season because the ACC really hasn't given us a reason to do so. They had perhaps the worst non-conference we've ever seen them have. But now is the time to start having that conversation because Wake Forest beat North Carolina last night. And going into last night, North Carolina's ranking in the net was 38th. Wake Forest's was 77th. After the game last night, North Carolina's net ranking stays at 38. Wake Forest bumps up three spots to 74. Wake is 15 and 4. North Carolina is 12 and 8. A four loss difference in the loss column and you're talking about a 36 point difference when it comes to the net.

So why is this? What is Wake Forest's unforgivable sin for having the metrics that they currently have? Well, it's not that they have bad losses.

We've seen that before. Like Clemson got left out of the tournament a couple years ago because they had a hold your nose, P.U., terrible loss on their resume. And it's not that Wake Forest didn't play anybody out of conference either.

Michigan could be a contender in the Big Ten. Wake Forest beat them on a neutral court. Wake does not have a bad loss on its resume. They're 10 and 0 on their home floor. The unforgivable sin that Wake has is that, God forbid, they played USC Upstate close. They played Detroit Mercy close. And so the metrics, just like the Big 12 gamed the system last year by playing Quad 4 games and killing these teams to make their efficiency numbers off the charts, because Wake Forest played bad teams and didn't crush them, their efficiency numbers went down. In other words, they didn't win games by enough points.

What message does that send? Seriously. Do you never want to see a walk? Why would you ever play a walk-on in today's college basketball? All it could do is hurt you because you're not winning by enough points now.

On what planet is it good to encourage people to crush your opponent rather than just prioritize winning the game? That's what's happening with Wake. And the other issue here is it's inconsistent.

It's inconsistent. I look elsewhere in these rankings, Louisville's ranked in the top 25. They're ranked 25th. They won their ninth straight game last night. They crushed SMU. Do you know where Louisville's ranked in the top 25, W.D.?

Or, excuse me, in the net ranking. In the net, they're 22. They're ranked 22 in the net.

Now let me tell you why that's a problem. Because Louisville's record is pretty good. Like, they're on a run. They're 15-5. Wake Forest played one fewer game, has one fewer loss than Louisville does. The problem is, do you know what Louisville did in its non-conference? They played bad Quad 4 games and actually played some of those games close. So, why is Louisville literally 52 spots ahead of Wake Forest in the net when, in their non-conference, they're playing Eastern Kentucky close?

Somebody make it make sense. They beat Eastern Kentucky by three points in their non-conference. They played UTEP. You want to know the score of the UTEP game was? 77-74. Again, it's inconsistent.

It doesn't make sense. And it's punishing Wake, even though they don't have any bad losses, none. Their losses are on the road or to top 10 ranked Florida on a neutral court. And they beat North Carolina. They beat Michigan. And they're ranked 74. That means they're just one spot better than qualifying as a Quad 1 game if you beat them on the road, which is insanity.

It's insanity, and it doesn't make sense, and that needs to be said. To cheer me up, and maybe lighten things up around here altogether, we welcome Will Pelagic to the show. Charlotte FC. Willie P. I'm fired up here, Dan. I'm fired up because I think Wake Forest is good, and I don't get it.

I don't understand. I watched that game last night, and I have to tell you, when I saw that post of yours about the net and them being all the way down there, that's perplexing. And unfortunately, I think college basketball has this perception problem right now where they want to glorify the SEC and some of these other leagues that have been traditionally good. And for whatever reason, the ACC just keeps getting left out the drive for whatever reason. And I don't know what happened when it came to the ACC having this big perception problem nationally. Yeah, I understand the non-conference did not go well, but you can't overlook the success they've had the last couple of marches with a team that always ends up finding itself there in the mix. So apparently they don't get credit for NC State. They don't get credit for North Carolina and Duke a couple of years ago as well, making their runs that they did.

Make it make sense? I'm kind of with you right now. Yeah, again, there are circumstances where I would look at a team and say, I don't know, Florida State, for example. They don't have a great win that stands out. But Michigan's legit good, and you don't have any bad losses.

You haven't lost a home game, and you're beating good teams. For this reason, I just hope they beat Duke on Saturday. I don't usually have rooting interests, but I do, just so the metrics people won't know what to do. How far can you have a team jump when you beat the number one or two team in the net and you have the team ranked 74th? How far does the team – that's my reasoning for wanting to see Wake win, because I've got friends on both Wake and Duke's staffs.

I just want to see the metrics people, the nerds' heads, explode at the idea of it happening. You know what that's worth your way? Another ACC tumbler from your friend Jim Phillips. Absolutely. Jim Phillips, make it happen. Send me a tumbler.

I would appreciate that. Another one. Will Pelagic is with us here. There's a reason you're here, because Charlotte FC's season, it's getting close, which means weekly visits with Willie P. right around the bend, also corresponding with baseball season, which means Juan Soto will be mentioned on a regular basis, much to the grin of W.D. Charlotte acquired Wilfried Zaha today. I'm sure I've nailed the pronunciation.

You're close enough. This is all over my feed, man. I follow a lot of soccer folks. This is all over my feed.

Why is this such a big deal? Let me put it to you in social media terms. Charlotte FC's highest visibility guy prior to today's signing, from an Instagram standpoint, was Liel Abada. He had about 141,000 followers on Instagram. Wilfried Zaha's got 2.2 million followers.

That would make him the most followed Charlotte athlete short of La Melo ball. I'm not saying that Instagram followers automatically means that you're a good soccer player, but it tells you the kind of renown that Wilfried Zaha has made. He made a very big name for himself when he was at Crystal Palace in the English Premier League, scored 68 Premier League goals across 10 seasons in south London, was a guy who played for his international country, the Ivory Coast, went to a club in Turkey and then a club in France, and didn't really get the same kind of success for some mitigating circumstances that had nothing really to do with him or his play, because when he was on the field, he actually played well, but ended up falling out of favor because of other players Galatasaray brought in and found himself wanting to get another change of scenery. He comes to Charlotte, his 32-year-old, wanting to reclaim some of that same form that he had at the end of the run at Crystal Palace.

He's a proven goalscorer, a proven form guy. When you think about what Dean Smith wants out of his opposite winger from the guy that they have on the other side of Leo Labada, he is somebody who will bring in a lot of brute strength, a lot of technical ability, but most importantly, he's coming in to score goals, and I think that's the one thing you look for when you try to bring in a DP is somebody who can be a game changer. And unfortunately, for lack of a better term, other than Carlos Federsky, Charlotte FC has not really had a big hit on the DP circuit, so this is the one guy who they feel like is on that level, and he also brings them a little bit of a swagger and a confidence that I don't think we've seen from a Charlotte FC player brought in here to this level. So I'm very excited.

There's a reason you're seeing it all over your thread. They finally now have a player of international repute that they brought in here that everybody can look at Charlotte FC and say, wow, this is a serious football club. Zaha in, Sverdersky is departing, but, you know, I just think about the upward trajectory for things. It's still a pretty new franchise, and in year two, you qualify for the postseason. Then you advance a step further last year in Dean Smith's first season as the manager, and I guess the next step is, while advancing further in the playoffs, and how do you do that, bring in a guy of this type of repute, you follow the offseason a lot closer than I have. We're about a month away from the start of the season. Like, what is that next step for Charlotte based on what you've seen them do?

Well, they put two very big things out there in the ether when it came to things they wanted to get done. They wanted to be better at progressing the ball in the midfield. They brought in a guy from inside the league, an Eric Williamson, who comes over from Portland Timbers. He's projected to potentially start in the midfield and potentially playing in that, you know, six-and-a-half to eight role that plays just behind where the attacking midfield is. They brought back Pep BL on a very team-friendly deal.

He's not going to be a designated player like he was last year, and that gives Charlotte FC some roster flexibility there. And the other part of this, too, is they returned the best defense in the league. They were best in not allowing goals, I should say, of anybody in the Eastern Conference. They have the Goalkeeper of the Year in Christian Kalina. And you've got, honestly, a starting 11 that really doesn't have a lot of holes in it. You have three guys up front in Zaha, Patrick Adjumon, and Liel Abada, who are all proving that they can score goals. You've got Pep BL as a proven creator. You've got Ashley Westwood stirring the drink in terms of the middle as well, and you've got the fact four that really can keep things all organized. And you've also got depth to burn now as well when you think about Kerwin Vargas off the bench.

You think about Yuri Tavares, who's been very big off the bench as well. And a word on Swoderski, because I know a lot of Charlotte FC fans have kind of looked at this and maybe raised an eyebrow towards it. I think when it came down to Carroll, they really want to see what Patrick Adjumon can do as the unquestioned out-and-out striker of this football club. And it just got to a point where they couldn't deal with the ambiguity of will Carroll stay, will Carroll not stay. I know that they don't have a 100% true agreement yet with Panathinaikos, but it looks like it's headed that way.

Dean Smith said earlier today that they've given Carroll permission to seek the deal with that club, and we'll see if it ends up going through. But I don't want his departure to be something that is a negatively tinged thing. He was a great, great servant of this football club, 32 goals. Our first DP, somebody who I feel like you can look on the career and say, he did everything he was asked of him. He sometimes played out of position when he was asked to.

I know that there was always this kind of feeling like he weren't necessarily wondering whether he was bought in fully. But I have to tell you, he loved his time here, and I wish him the best if in fact he's played his last game for Charlotte Football Club, particularly because I think of that playoff goal he scored last year. In a more just type of game, that would have been a signature moment for Charlotte FC and for Carroll Sverdersky himself.

Unfortunately, the referees at the end didn't think so, but that's, as we like to say, another story. Viewer's choice, Hornets or Panthers? Give me the Hornets. What's the excitement level?

Four out of five, looking for five in a row because I'm getting anxious. I was excited about Cooper Flag projections a week ago, and those are now starting to get ruined because they got healthy and Big Mark Williams is doing things. You know they're only five out of the playoff spot now, Josh. That's the part that scares me because you better not mess around and give your draft pick to San Antonio because do you know what won't be fun? Victor and Cooper Flag becoming the NBA Dodgers. Here's the thing I will say about the Hornets. I think it's possible to live in both existences. You could live in the existence that this year probably is not going to give you anything other than a lottery pick, but also get these little win moments throughout the year where it all starts to cohesively come together because if they, let's say, were abjectly awful and didn't win more than 20 games this season, you'd be looking at this whole thing and saying, is this ever really going to work?

I think you need to find some proof of concept with LaMelo, with Mark Williams. I know you probably aren't going to have it with Brandon Miller for the rest of this year because of the injury, but you have to kind of find some building blocks that are worth keeping around to actually make this thing look like a turnaround. I understand that it might maybe seem in kind of the same vein like the Panthers turnaround is, although I think that there may be a year behind where the Panther turnaround was currently.

So I do think that it is okay to see these types of things happen. I'm not going to sit here and say it's 100 percent a blip on the radar because I do think the depth will catch up to them at some point, and I also think that there are more moves on the way when it comes to Jeff Peterson talking about asset management and trying to accumulate more draft picks. However, finding the ability to get this looking somewhat more aesthetically pleasing than it looked over, say, the last two months, I think is a great victory for Charles Lee and his coaching staff, and I think also it allows fans to get a little bit excited about what the future holds. Obviously, there's still a lot of building that needs to happen.

I don't think it necessarily portends anything crazy going on in the next couple of weeks. For those watching on YouTube, Twitch, and X, sweet quarter zip that Willie P. is rocking. It really is. Thank my wife for that. She got this.

This was, I think, a Christmas present, I believe. It's pretty good. I at first thought I wanted a Charlotte FC jersey, but then I realized I think I've graduated from wearing jerseys all the time, so quarter zip might be the move. Soccer jersey is actually a very nice fashion piece. I will say that. I don't think my wife would agree. I don't think she would.

Quarter zip would be sweet. We need to get your wife on board with a jersey scenario. We need to get her to a game. We need to make that happen.

Yes! Sarah Bradford, what up? Let's get you to a game.

I actually have not met your wife yet, and I'm rather sad about that. Perfect opportunities here. We're going to try to make that happen.

And baby Daniel. Will Pelagic. We can get you in my wife's section in the club level. We'll make it happen. Mmm. Now we're talking.

We're cooking with gas now. Willie P., we're going to be seeing a lot more of you very soon. Thanks for the update on Charlotte FC.

We'll talk soon. W.D., how many homers for Juan Soto this year? 40, 45, 50?

What do you think? I hope he hits 20, 25. None! Who's that? Wait, who's Juan Soto? Who's that?

You know, the controls. Giving him the Pedro Martinez. Who is Kareem Christian? I don't know who that is.

I'm very surprised you haven't cut his mic. Is he new? Did you just draft him?

Who is that? Get him. He's dead to him. Will Pelagic.

Yeah, we might get him on. Get out of here. There he goes. There goes Willie P.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-22 21:02:33 / 2025-01-22 21:24:53 / 22

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