I’m not a Balloon Guy

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 Thursday Drive. It's WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we've got to talk about it. Last night at Joel Coliseum was the worst loss of the Steve Forbes era at Wake Forest. If you missed it, the Deacs led by 16 points with 9 minutes to go. And while they had a number of blown leads last year, 2-9 road record after all, the Virginia Tech game stands out, there was a game at Pittsburgh as well where they had a double digit second half lead on the road.

This was in your building. This was a place that you had lost just twice in the last two seasons. And one of those was against a top 5 Duke team just a few weeks ago. And you lose to a non-turney team. And not only that, a non-turney team that was without its best player, Jamir Watkins, who fouled out with about 5 minutes to go in the game with Wake leading still by 9. If you think calling this the worst loss of the Steve Forbes era is harsh, don't just take it from me.

Take it from Steve Forbes. Here he was after the game. That was a really, really bad loss. Probably the worst loss that I've had here in my tenure. And we have nobody to blame but ourselves. We gave up 51 points in the second half. We had no urgency to defend. With that even being said, we're up 63-54 in what, the last media timeout or 4 minutes left in the game. And they scored 18 points in 4 minutes.

Sheesh. Other losses that stand out. The ACC tournament loss in 2022 to Boston College. That was in Brooklyn. Boston College? Last year?

See, we mentioned. Wake hasn't lost at home all that often. They lost one game at home last year. Final week of the regular season.

A Tuesday night. And you lose to Damon Stoudemire's Yellow Jackets from Georgia Tech. That was pretty bad too.

This one tops that. Because not only is it a non-turning team, the final sequence was as strange as it was inexcusably bad. I've been to a number of college basketball games. And you see a lot of weird things happen night to night. It's hard to surprise me. It's hard to confuse me. I could not believe what happened in this final sequence.

And it was, in the moment, super perplexing. For those who weren't following, Wake Forest, with 28 seconds to go in this game, is up by 2. It is 70-68. Wake leading. Florida State has the ball. Neither team has a timeout left. Florida State hits a 3.

Wake comes up on the other end of the floor, where Tylar Johnson takes perhaps the worst shot you can possibly take in this situation. Down by 1. Because FSU hit the 3, down 2. Tylar decided, we're going to pull up in line with the mid-court logo.

We're going to pull up for a 3 with 13 seconds to go. Rather than passing the ball off to, I don't know, Hunter Salas, Cam Hildreth, both of whom combined for 40 points in this game. No.

It's going to be Tylar Johnson, who at that point in the game, checks notes, had 0 points for the Deacs. Yep. Going to make this one, though. He did not.

Then, things got even weirder, if you could believe that. FSU grabs the basketball. Wake does not foul. The clock operator was so sure that the foul was coming.

The clock stopped for about a half second, maybe a full second at 7.6. FSU works the ball up. They could just dribble it out. Nobody's near FSU on that end of the court.

But homeboy decides to go in and dunk it with a second or so to go. And that's still a one-possession game. Three-point game, FSU's leading. Wake inbounds to Cam Hildreth at mid-court. He gets tackled by an FSU defender, and they say he's in the motion of shooting, so he gets to go to the line for three shots. Hildreth misses the first, nuking their chances, 72-70 the final. Here was Steve Forbes breaking down what he told the team coming out of that timeout before the sequence that featured the wide open three and the ill-advised shot from Tylar Johnson. The thing we said, you cannot leave the three open. Two doesn't beat us.

It just ties us. They ran a very simple Z action with a roll and replace. Our foreman tagged the roller, which is not his responsibility. His responsibility is to go out on the shooter, and our opposite guard is the low man and pulls in, and we didn't do it. He gave him up a wide open three.

With that being said, we still had a lot of time. I don't have any time outs left, but we told him, attack the basket, get it in, go, and we pull up from 45-foot-three. How much time? I don't know.

How much? That's on me. Steve Forbes learned his lesson from last year, I think, where Cam Hildreth took that ill-advised shot at Virginia, and he said that wasn't the play that he called postgame, kind of throwing Cam under the bus. Steve, you could tell, was thinking, oh, that's Tylar Johnson.

How could you do that? But then he says, it's on me, which is what good leaders do. We'll give them credit for it. What does this loss mean for Wake? It now turns Saturday pretty much into a must-win at SMU. If they don't win that game, then they almost certainly will have to win at Duke, which has not happened since Tim Duncan's senior year in 1997. To Wake's credit, when they play bubble teams, such as North Carolina and Pittsburgh, they win those games. They're 2-0 thus far.

But both those games were played at the Joel. Now you're going to SMU. Can you beat former Deacon Boopie Miller and SMU in their building? That's what you need to focus on now. And if you want to right the wrong that was last night, that's where you start. You need to win that game. However, and wherever you're listening or watching, greatly appreciate that, Will Dalton.

He's the executive producer of this show, taking your calls at 336-777-1600. W.D., any highlights from your night out at Cameron, Duke? Taking down Cal—really? Really? What? What happened?

You open your microphone just to clear your throat. Yeah, I had a little bit of a voice crack there. Uh, that Cooper dunk was pretty cool.

Malawatch hit just the second three of the year. I regret going to. That's pretty good stuff there.

Sold David Glenn. That was fun. Pro tip.

Clear your microphone before turning your mic on. Well, I didn't expect my voice to crack the second I started talking. Just kind of happened there. Getting to your college basketball team, the North Carolina Tar Heels, they have an Ian Jackson problem. It's not too long ago when people would yell in the comments, Josh, Josh, how can you say Cooper flags for sure? The freshman of the year in the ACC, Ian Jackson, Captain Jacks right there.

Uh huh. Don't hear a lot of that anymore. North Carolina has an Ian Jackson problem. He's cratered over the last month. He hasn't made a field goal the last two games.

Think about this. The last 11 shots he's taken, he's missed. He hasn't hit double-figure scoring in six of his last seven. And if you juxtapose that with his first six ACC games, he averaged 20.7 points a game in that stretch. So what's going on here?

Probably something behind the scenes, something we can't see. It's alarming to see that his minutes are going down. It's not alarming to see that a freshman's struggling. It is alarming to see minutes going down, which limit the chances you have to try to get it right. He had 16 minutes at Little John Coliseum on Monday night.

Okay. That's his fewest since the first week of the season. Before that, 22 against Pitt, which was his fewest before Monday night since Maui. And we're talking about the same coach that gave Caleb Love so much leash. He's willing to do that for guys who have a lot of NBA talent, and Ian Jackson does. Roy Williams.

Hubert was on his staff. He would let players try to dig themselves out of a hole. And if Carolina is going to dig itself out of the hole of being on the bubble, they're going to need Ian Jackson. Because R.J. Davis, he can't do it alone. And Elliott Cadeau can't be your second best scoring guard. It's got to be Ian to rise the way that Caleb Love did in 2022, or maybe at a minimum, the way that Brady Manick did. That's the positive way to look at it. There's another way to say, when Hubert Davis has said multiple times, we have guys that might be trying to rush off to the NBA and have agents.

Who's he talking about exactly? And could those players, maybe like Ian Jackson, be checked out? Is it too soon to look ahead, not just to next football season, but to Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara next February? Super Bowl 59.

Just a few days ago, the Eagles beating the Chiefs. We have odds for next year's Super Bowl. Let's dig into those 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's on the other team.

This is Josh's Best Bets. So five teams have odds that are better than 10 to 1. Five teams have separated. In fact, these five teams are the only five with odds better than 15 to 1. Vegas is telling you these are your powerhouses for 2025.

These are the teams that stand out. Your betting favorite to win next year's Super Bowl is the team that won the Super Bowl on Sunday. The Eagles are at 6 to 1. Send me that cash out, fam.

You're going to be surprised to learn at 7 to 1 right behind them is the Kansas City Chiefs. Send me that cash out, fam. Even with the same odds as Kansas City at 7 to 1, the Buffalo Bills, who may beat in the AFC title game, 7 to 1 odds as well. Send me that cash out, fam. The Baltimore Ravens, they lose in round two, but here they are, 8 to 1 odds. Send me that cash out, fam. And then you got the Detroit Lions, best record in the NFC, assumedly healthier. Aiden Hutchinson, other star players on that defense back, that is 9 to 1 odds for Dan Campbell's team.

Send me that cash out, fam. Anybody else that should be added to that group, those are the five leading favorites to win the Super Bowl. The Eagles, Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Lions. There is one notable omission out of those final five.

Can you tell me who it is? I was thinking the Commander should be added to that list. That is the team I was thinking of. You make it to the Final Four. You win 12 games in the regular season.

You know, with a rookie quarterback and a rookie coach and you don't lose, you're OC or DC. Yeah, Washington, they probably should be among the five best odds at the Super Bowl, considering, you know, they made it to the conference championship game. Would you believe me, Will, if I told you they didn't even have the sixth best odds? Or the seventh best odds to win the Super Bowl? Really? Those belong to the Green Bay Packers and your Cincinnati Bengals. Well, that would make sense. The Packers doesn't.

Oh, with the Commanders? That's 17. And then 17 and 18 to 1. Then you have Washington at 19 to 1.

So in terms of value, I do like that. I do like Washington at 19 to 1. But that is not the team that I placed a $10 token on today, just in advance. You know, the opportunity to make some serious coin here.

No. I put a $10 long shot on the L.A. Chargers. 28 to 1 odds to win the Super Bowl. 28 to 1. Let me count how many teams have better odds.

2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Yeah, 10 teams have better odds than they do. They have the 11th best odds at 28 to 1. They made the playoffs. They've got a great quarterback.

They've got an awesome coach who's going into his second year. I think 28 to 1 is ridiculous. This isn't me saying, oh, the Chargers are winning the Super Bowl. I'm saying they can. I'm saying they can.

The same way if you would have told me the Eagles win the Super Bowl a year ago, I'd say that's a crazier thought than the idea of the Chargers winning the Super Bowl at this time next year. That's what I'm saying in terms of value. So that and Washington I think are the best value. Picks.

Now to the part that you probably are wondering. Hey, Josh, what odds do the Carolina Panthers have at winning the Super Bowl? Would you like to take a guess what the odds are for the Carolina Panthers to win Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara?

The last time a Super Bowl was there, the Panthers overlooked in preseason because Kelvin Benjamin went down, made it to the big game going 15 and 1 and losing to the Broncos. 34 to 1. That's a good guess.

It's 130 to 1. Whoa. Send me that cash out, family.

That's right. No faith. So if you place a $10 bet on the Carolina Panthers to win the Super Bowl today, you'd make $1,300 on that bet, chief. Send me that cash out.

Send me that cash out, family. They are tied with the Jets for the fifth worst odds to win next year's Super Bowl. That's ridiculous.

Is it? Yes, with the Jets after the Panthers and how they finished the year. Get out of here. It's the Jets we're talking about. We're talking about the Super Bowl. And we're talking about the Jets. If you want to set your money on fire, bet on the Jets or the Panthers to win the Super Bowl. I feel better about the Panthers or the Jets.

That's best bets for today. You didn't like my Chargers take there. You weren't in on it. No. Give me the Bengals, though.

That's not the greatest of value, I don't think. Better odds than Washington? Come on. The drive brought to you in part by our friends at Mrs. Moravian Cookies. Watch the artists and aprons hand roll and cut each cookie to perfection before they pop them into the oven and they come out the most delicious cookies you'll ever taste. Discover unique gifts in their beautiful and quaint Valentine's Day adorned lobby. Make this Valentine's Day unforgettable. Take a drive in the country to Mrs. Moravian Cookies. Doing it right by your sweetheart, this Valentine's practically a holiday week.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, by the way, in case you didn't know. Getting to baseball. It's about that time. Darren Vaught, he's going to join us next hour. He's going to be on the call for Wake Forest Baseball this weekend on ACC Network Extra. Host of ACC Baseball, etc. The AL East is becoming a circus as pitchers and catchers are reporting all over the place. Got my O's hat on right now because the Orioles had their first spring training workout today. Here's what brings me joy and happiness during this Orioles offseason. The GM meeting with the media, Mike Elias is his name, and saying only two of our players are hurt and not going to start the season. Not going to be ready for the start of the season. That's it.

That's where I derive my happiness right now. Meanwhile, I read headlines such as the Red Sox last night giving $40 million a year to Alex Bregman. So Alex Bregman's now a Red Sox.

And just moves being made left and right. The Red Sox. They didn't just add the star Houston third baseman. They also added crochet, top of the line starter, along with Walker Bueller, who got the final out of the World Series. The Dodgers beating the Yankees in case you forgot how the World Series went last year.

Just making sure people know. The Yankees, in case, just keeping people up to date what happened this offseason, they did not bring back Juan Soto. But they did bring in Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, did that Max Freed, you might know Braves fans. Hate that for you, really do. Why are you going at Braves fans? I didn't go Braves fans. Why did you just say, oh I hate that for you? I hate that too.

Was it very nice? They're not happy Max Freed's gone. Why are you being combative with Braves fans? That's why I said I do hate that for you.

I don't think you do. I think you're glad Max Freed plays for your team. He did look good throwing some long toss yesterday. The Toronto Blue Jays added Anthony Santander from the Orioles. They added Mad Max Scherzer.

My O's. Here's what we got. We're still young and exciting.

Yay! You lost Santander, you replaced him with a right fielder that the Red Sox didn't want. And Tyler O'Neal. Fire that up.

Yeah. Lost Corbin Burns, best pitcher in baseball and we're just good. We got Charlie Morton. Sorry Braves fans. Braves fans actually are like good, you can have them.

It's 41. You can have them. And then the Rays, everybody says the Rays are going to be terrible but here's what happens. Nobody knows any of the players on the Rays and then they just turn out to be really good and nobody can explain why.

So that's the ALEs for you. The O's, they're young and exciting and they got these great prospects who are coming into their own. The Rays, you would think a disaster but they're never that. Then the Yankees adding all these players, Red Sox, the Blue Jays. It's just circus stuff. Apparently Marcus Strohman didn't show up for workouts.

I hate that for you. But according to my good friend Aaron Boone, he said everything's good. That's what he said?

Yeah, he said he likes where he's at physically and mentally right now. Aaron or Strohman? Strohman. Apparently Strohman, he posted an Instagram story, he was out on a boat. Dude, great. Marcus Strohman.

Ding ding boys, school's in session. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. While standing on a balcony on Bourbon Street, Fox's Jay Glazer Sunday broke the news that Aaron Rodgers flew to the Jets' facilities and the conversations didn't go well. The expectation was that the Jets were going to move on from him. We got more details after the fact that said that he had to commit to not going on Pat McAfee every week, which of course he wasn't going to go for.

There were some other stipulations in there too. The Jets today are splitting with Aaron Rodgers. Aaron's about to become a free agent at 41 years old. So that happened on Thursday.

There was a news release that included statements from the Jets expressing gratitude towards Aaron. We'll start brainstorming potential places he could end up at in just a bit. But less than a month from now, we're going to be at the ACC tournament. It's going to be in Charlotte and it's going to be an ACC tournament unlike any other in history because not every team in the conference is going to be at the tournament. You have the same 15 team format Tuesday through Saturday, 18 teams in the league, which means three are not going to qualify. So if the season ended now, if the season were over and based on where the standings are at right now, we put together the bracket, here's what it would look like. The top three seeds are pretty much locked in. Not in a particular order, but Duke, Clemson, Louisville, they're going to be double by teams. And what's not being discussed right now, Will, is the possibility that Duke is not the number one seed in the bracket. So Louisville and Clemson only have two ACC losses apiece. Duke has won. So there is the possibility that Duke slips up one more time, Clemson and Louisville win out, and then you have all three tied for first place. In that instance, I don't know who gets the top seed. Louisville beat Clemson, Clemson beat Duke, Duke beat Louisville. What do you do with that?

I don't know, honestly. There is the scenario as well that it's Clemson that just wins out and Duke slips up one more time. And in that instance, Clemson would have the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Blue Devils and get the top seed. So it's not exactly figured out what order the top three seeds are going to be.

Then you get to the number four seed. And Will, you want to talk about this game meaning more because of Florida State wake last night. Wake SMU is likely going to decide who gets the final double buy at the ACC tournament. Both the Deacs and the Ponies have ten wins apiece. And that's two ahead of Stanford, who has eight wins, sixth in the ACC standings, the Cardinal. SMU and Wake have head-to-head wins against Stanford. So have that tiebreaker even though SMU is going to play Stanford one more time in Palo Alto. If Wake Forest wins this game or even if SMU wins it, we're talking about five games or so left to go in conference play?

And you'd be one ahead of your competition to jump you and you have the tiebreaker with that team? That seems, making up a couple of games over a five-game stretch, that just seems too much to overcome. So it's not a stretch at all to say that Wake SMU in Dallas is going to decide who gets the final double buy in Charlotte. Do you know where the Pitt Panthers are in the standings?

They've fallen. 10th? Because FSU beat Wake last night, Pitt is now tied for 11th.

And here's the thing. So they're five and eight. That's crazy. They are 11th in the team standings. Teams 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 all have five wins. So that means Pitt is right there. There is a chance that the Pitt Panthers could be the last-seeded team in this tournament. Despite the fact, according to the metrics, they are one of the five best teams in the ACC right now.

That's crazy. One of the five or six best teams, depending on what metric site you want to look at. Remember, the top four teams get double buys. Teams five through nine get a first round buy. Pitt right now would be playing on Tuesday. So if you're wondering who the popular, could this team go on an NC State-like run from last year, who that team is going to be nominated this year, it might be the Pitt Panthers who are playing on Tuesday. And Will, the reason we're talking about this today, looking at ACC tournament possibilities, I think it's a wrap on who's missing the tournament.

I think that's a done deal already. Because, as mentioned, teams 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 all have five wins. The bottom three teams in the league all have two wins. So they're three back. And they only have two wins. So the teams that are going to miss out on going to Charlotte, all tied for last place in the league, the Miami Hurricanes, who are on a bit of a roll right now. They've won two games in their last four.

Pretty crazy stuff. Oh yeah. They're going to miss out. Boston College, they lost in double OT last night to Notre Dame. And yes, your 2024 ACC tournament champs, fresh off a Final Four appearance, the NC State Wolf Pack.

Man. Nine straight losses for the Pack. They got blasted at home by Louisville last night.

Nine. They are 2-11 in ACC play. Did you see that crowd at Tip? Not great. They're great.

There was nobody there. I know somebody who was. It's crazy. NC State, Miami, and Boston College, those are the teams that are going to miss. Boston College. For the ACC tournament. So there's your look-in on the ACC tournament bracket if the season were over today.

Have a great day and go ACC. Will Dalton, I feel the urge to continue reminding the fellas that Valentine's Day is tomorrow. It comes once a year. You might be looking at it saying, oh, that's just when Wake Forest baseball opening day is. And now we got a doubleheader. That's great. Fire it up.

No, no, no. It's Valentine's Day too, guys. And you can make it special with Mrs. Haynes cookies and their heart-shaped Moravian cookies that come in that red tin with the special Valentine's Day label.

Just take the drive out to Clemens, visit the Haynes family bakery that's nestled onto their original farm, and get yourself some of the heart-shaped Moravian cookies at Mrs. Haynes Moravian cookies today. Let's start talking about possibilities for Aaron Rodgers. Couple teams stand out. There's also a report out there that the Pittsburgh Steelers are interested in Trevor Lawrence. Interested in what that might require and what Liam Cohen thinks, the new Jags coach, about Trevor Lawrence. Makes you think, what teams needing quarterbacks would pursue Aaron Rodgers?

Which ones will not? Here's my criteria for the team that would bring in Aaron Rodgers at 41 years old. You obviously are the head coach of a team that's not very good because you don't know who your quarterback is.

That's usually the sign of your team not being very good. You're not at one of the most respected organizations, let's say. Not at the most stable organizations in order to want to bring in Aaron Rodgers at 41 and all the things that entails.

And I think there are enough boxes checked here to say this can be criteria. You are a head coach that needs to win this year. Your job is at stake this season. And that leaves a couple of teams, Will. I'm looking at the Tennessee Titans. And I'm looking at the New York Giants. Those are the two teams I have circled.

Aaron's already spent time in New York. They feasibly could draft a quarterback both those places and not have to play him immediately. Or if you're the Titans and want to just take the best player on the board and you don't think that's Chidor Sanders or Miami's Cam Ward. You go Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter and you bring Aaron Rodgers in for a year to try to save Callahan's job, the head coach. And the same for Brian Dabel with the Giants. What about the Colts?

That's an interesting one too. Are they completely out on Anthony Richardson? I don't know. Maybe not completely.

I would include them. But the Steelers wouldn't do it. Because that's the Pittsburgh Steelers. They're not going to deal with that headache.

No. I don't think that would happen. But that's a good third one to add. Indy in addition to the Giants and the Titans. All with head coaches that need to prove something this year, some desperation, and willing to get a little messy. Because that's what you need to be okay with by bringing in Aaron Rodgers. Like life, conversations with Darren Vaught can be like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're going to get. Darren Vaught one week might be calling Greensboro Swarm or High Point Basketball in the Dryad. Or with college baseball starting tomorrow, and he being the host of ACC Baseball, etc., the podcast. He might be on the call for Wake's opening series of games this weekend, which is now a doubleheader tomorrow.

2.30 start to the LIU game, then Marist at 6 o'clock, out at the couch. And we'll answer unusual questions in just a bit with Darren joining us now. In the spirit of doing something unusual, let's actually right now give away tickets where people have an interesting option of two events. You can either attend tomorrow's Wake Baseball doubleheader, or you can go watch Kid's Bop in Greensboro in June. 3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600.

Can't think of a great way to put those together. I don't think Daniel's going to be old enough then to go to Kid's Bop in Greensboro. But 3-3-6-7-7-7-7-1-600.

Yes, I have a child. Your choice to go see Darren Vaught and watch Wake Baseball doubleheader tomorrow, or go to Kid's Bop in Greensboro caller number three. Just randomly thinking of a number.

3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600. Darren Vaught is finding all of this very amusing. I love this. I love that we're giving away Kid's Bop tickets. You've got to choose, though. You don't get both. You either get the Kid's Bop or you get the baseball. You've got to make a really difficult decision.

That's what we're asking you to do, caller number three. Getting to baseball. We've discussed the ACC preseason poll. Virginia, the preseason number two team in the country, and the D1 poll.

So everybody kind of thinks that they're at the top. You and I are in alignment that Clemson is a contender to win the ACC this year. But narrowing our scope to the state of North Carolina, Duke's good, State's good, Wake's good, of course. North Carolina might be the best of the bunch. You tell me, who do you think is the best team in the state of North Carolina going into the baseball season that starts tomorrow?

I have, on paper, it would make total sense. North Carolina is, I think, the most complete team. I have total conviction about both Clemson and Duke, though.

I like both of those. We did our season preview episode of ACC Baseball, et cetera, earlier this week. And I put both of them into Omaha. I think for Duke, it's time.

They've been knocking on the door. I love what Chris Pollard's done with the program. For Clemson, it is sort of the same thing, but in a shorter span of time with Eric Bakich as their head coach. They've got potentially the best player in the conference, positionally, in their center fielder Cam Canarella. And they've got potentially the best pitcher in the conference in Aidan Canock, who was outstanding as a freshman last year.

And any time you can combine those two with just a really consistent, solid lineup and pitching staff top to bottom, you're going to put yourself in really good positioning. But I like Duke. Again, North Carolina makes the most sense is the answer to this question. I like Duke a lot.

It's a tough choice, man. Wake Forest arguably has as deep a pitching staff as they've had in recent years. Again, they don't have the Chase Burns, Rhett Lowder type at the top of the rotation for this bunch.

Maybe not yet anyways, but they're good. NC State's got the best bullpen in the country. And that is a huge foundational piece of a nice run for a college baseball team.

It's going to be so much fun, so much fun. Pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training across Major League Baseball got the news late last night. Alex Bregman is now a Boston Red Sox. Unbiased question. What's your read on the A.L.

East? I mean, the Yankees are going to be there again. Yeah, the Red Sox are really interesting. They've they've just like gone for it on a couple of occasions now, including with this recent Bregman move. And oh, yeah, if they're in contention midway through the year, Baseball America.

OK, some context here. Baseball America has been ranking farm systems since 1983, I believe, is the first year they did that. Never until this very moment have the Boston Red Sox had the number one farm system in the league, according to Baseball America. If we deem them as interesting now, possibly a contender by mid-season, that means they've got trade capital. And they could make some splashes mid-year to push themselves over the edge and over a threshold that would make them heavy contenders in the A.L.

East. I just think they're they're fascinating. Yeah, it's so cool to see them add a starting top of the line pitcher in Garrett Crochet and to add now Alex Bregman. That's super cool. And to see the Yankees adding Max Freed. It's awesome. And the Orioles, they ought to see the Blue Jays adding a beloved Oriole and Anthony Santander and Max Scherzer. Terrific.

And who needs championships when you can look at birds? At least the Orioles got the right fielder that the Red Sox were perfectly fine letting go and Tyler O'Neill. At least that's what we got.

It's cool. And we let Corden Burns go. Who do we replace him with?

Charlie Morton and an old Japanese pitcher from the Tokyo Giants and Sugano. Don't sleep on Sugano. Do not sleep on him. I'm sleeping on him, Darren. I am asleep. I'm asleep. I am. No, I'm not asleep. I'm awake and I'm angry. I'm upset. I'm like Daniel when he wakes up from his naps and he's yelling. I'm him right before suppertime, right before it's about to go down and he's yelling, doing tummy time. He doesn't like it.

That's me right now as an Oriole fan. I'm not happy. Not happy when I see everybody doing something and then we don't.

We don't. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Unbiased. Unbiased.

Unbiased. May I just say, their moves are being made in large part based on projection of young talent. Yeah.

It's kind of the way they operate as an organization. People, you're right. People have said to me, Josh, you want to make a splashy move, that's fine. But smart baseball people keep saying, your team's going to be as good as how much better Adlai, Rutchman, Gunnar, Henderson, Jackson, Holiday, and Jordan Westberg play.

If those guys play better, you're going to be a better baseball team regardless of what free agents you have. But it still makes me mad when I, it's FOMO. That's what it is.

It's everybody else's. They seem to be having fun in this cool free agent pool and we're hanging out in the kiddie area with Tyler O'Neill. That's how it feels. Imagine how literally everyone else in the National League feels. Like you're talking about what the Dodgers are doing and how everybody in the NL feels. Yeah.

And I sat and listened to this Dodger presser thing they had yesterday where they sounded like it was like a solemn tome where they're like, we don't think Shohei's going to be ready until May to pitch. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

All right. That was very self-indulgent. Now let's do something that's totally not self-indulgent. People are like, listen, why are you talking about ACC basketball?

Carolina is looking at having a new arena rather than the Smith Center. What are you doing? I'll tell you what we're doing. With Darren Vaught, we're answering unusual questions. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's OK. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Gray. No basketball. There's Roy Williams right there. How close are we to that being two coaches ago? That's a good question. I appreciate Darren.

We need basketball takes. There's Darren right there. Right there. We haven't heard from W.D. in this segment. So I'll let W.D. get us started. He's now done fielding phone callers, wanting either Kidz Bop or Wake Baseball tickets.

What do you got, W.D.? So I saw yesterday where apparently Bill Belichick offered LeGarrette Blount Jr. Oh boy. And it kind of made me feel a little old. Yeah. I remember LeGarrette Blount smoking a blunt in college and getting in trouble at Oregon and punching a dude in the face. I remember him taking swings at Boise State with his helmet, like literally trying to hit people with his helmet. Yeah.

LeGarrette Blount walked so Myles Carrick could run. And it made me feel kind of old. So my question is, what is an athlete, it could be in any sport, that's come and do the league and it just made you feel like, damn, that guy's son or like what what's a player that made you feel old that you witnessed? We have far more of these. Well, I have far more of these.

I feel like even with just a handful of years on you guys. Yeah, let me think of a good one. What's that?

What's the best one? Brawny for sure. Brawny's up there. Well, because you get to contextualize Brawny with I was like in middle school, high school-ish. I'm trying to remember the exact year when LeBron was in high school and playing at Mount St. Mary's. And like he had the televised high school game where it was the big deal when he pulled he pulled out the NBA logo headband. It was a huge deal because no one knew if he was going to go to college or go pro at that point. And it was like, OK, this is his signal to the world.

Right. And at the time, he's like 16, 17 years old. So the fact that like he's got a kid and he's already like manipulated things so that the kid could play with him for the L.A. Lakers.

Like time is just like wild. I'll go back to the Orioles and say that I was a big fan of watching Matt Holliday when he played for the Rockies sliding headfirst into home plate in a playoff game and watched him play when he was with the Cardinals. Now that I'm doing a talk show where I'm like ranting about wanting his son Jackson Holliday to be a key player this year. That's a that's a strange one.

That's still that's a recent one that's made me feel a certain kind of way. Matt Holliday, great Yankee, too, by the way. Do you guys remember Matt Clement?

No pitch pitched for the Red Sox. He had the the goatee. It's it. But it was more than a goatee. Was it the whole chin? Was it a spezio? No, this I'm talking about.

You can pull it. Do you have Google handy? Matt Clement for the pitch for the Marlins, the Red Sox he had. He's actually a Nickelback. This is got to hit the sounder. This is just a total.

Wow. It's like it's Eric. It's Eric Gagne.

Eric Gagne ask. Very close to it. It's not like the full bearded goatee, right? Like there's it was this was like a chin beard chia pet.

It does on the end of on the bottom of Matt Clements face. Anyways, his son is playing for Virginia Tech. So I'm going to cover him in the ACC this season. That's another one that kind of makes me feel.

And he's actually supposed to be a breakout candidate to have a really, really good year for them. There you go. OK, here's my unusual question. This could this could qualify as a Valentine's Day question.

It also could be for birthdays. I'm going to make it as broad as possible. I'm going to ask the question and I'm just going to get out of the way. Where do you stand on balloons? This reminds me I'm I'm doing a like I rotate through certain shows for background noise. Right. I think everyone can relate to this.

I'm doing it. A Brooklyn nine nine circulation currently and Captain Raymond Holt, I contend, is maybe the best TV character ever. He's got this bit where one of one of the people on their their team is getting married and it's like this big impromptu thing. But they still want it to be classy. And he gets the directive that it needs to be classy.

And he goes, great. I'll go to the balloon store. Balloon art. It's like I know class balloon art. That's that's classy.

So anyways, that's what that brought to my mind. Balloons are fine. I don't know. I feel largely indifferent about them. Yeah, I like balloons.

OK. Of course you do. Do you get people balloons? I don't get people balloons.

But in terms of like if I was throwing a party and I wanted to have some pizzazz, like you put the big however old you are, balloons on the wall or whatever. Balloons give me anxiety just because I'm fearful that one of the balloons is going to get loose. And then there you have I have high ceilings at my house. Yeah.

And I get it. You just that was my greatest fear as a kid when I would get a balloon from Harris Teeter. And then when they pop, it's just so unreasonably loud. I'm not a balloon guy.

You sound like such an old guy. Yeah. We don't like the popping. That's the popping is not good. Although, like if it goes up to your high ceiling, eventually it's going to come down.

They could be there. And what's your unusual question? I think I've asked a version of this before, but not in this specific way. So I started watching the Umbrella Academy, the Netflix series.

Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, was the creator of the comic books, by the way, with my girlfriend, who has read the first edition of the comic. That was my way of like getting her interested enough to watch the series. And as we're watching like the first couple of episodes, she keeps pointing out all the difference.

Right. So I'm quickly realizing this might have been a mistake because there are a lot of differences. Is there a movie show that has been adapted from the written word or adapted in some other way? This could be maybe like an old movie into a TV show where the differences were just too much for you to handle. Yeah. Every example of that happening. From movie to TV show.

Respect. I'm just out. The League of their own one was bad. I gave that a chance. The one where they tried to make the Fresh Prince of Bel Air like gritty. Not about that.

Oh, Bel Air. I see it comes on after WWE programming now. So I will catch like the first minute of that once a week.

I've tried it sometimes. I'm out every single time. I'm out every single time.

Cobra Kai. I've got another one. I'm out. This is not an indictment of Zoe Kravitz, but they butchered High Fidelity, trying to turn it into a Hulu exclusive. I didn't even watch it. It would have hurt my feelings. All right.

W.D., do you have an answer to this? Yeah. They saw a big Scream fan. I like that franchise.

And they in the last couple of years. I thought you meant you just like screams. You love balloons, but you love screams even more.

Yeah, he misses blaring with Darren. I do. I go to the theme park just so I can hear people screaming.

They tried to do some type of like scream show a couple of years ago, and it just looks stupid. Notice he didn't mention Star Wars. He would never. I would. There's some Star Wars shows that show.

Have you even read the books, Will? Come on. And that's been Unusual Questions with Darren Bhatt.

That was particularly unusual. Darren, you have yourself fun calling a doubleheader tomorrow out at the couch. ESPN Plus, we can find you. ACCNX, technically. Got it. So.

ACC Network X. All right, Darren Bhatt, we'll talk to you next week. Appreciate you guys. See you.