MR. JAMES

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

You are on a Monday Drive. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad where there is NFL quarterback news dropping left and right today. For those who haven't been following, with Geno Smith being traded to Vegas over the weekend, Sam Darnold has signed to become the new Seattle quarterback. Justin Fields signing with the New York Jets and many are reporting the Steelers could land Aaron Rodgers today to go along with their newest receiver, DK Metcalf.

But as exciting as all of that is, we must get to the news of the weekend locally. NC State fired Kevin Keats with the news breaking early Sunday morning. His last game was a loss at Miami Saturday, which completed a season without a road win for the Wolfpack. And of course, they did not qualify for the ACC tournament that begins in Charlotte tomorrow. And when you look at how a coaching tenure ends, it's very easy to have the finish define what the overall picture was.

It's easy to do that. Because things ended poorly, that means it was mostly bad than good. You should fight that temptation to do so in this case though, because Kevin Keats did not fail at NC State. It was a success and his tenure should be celebrated, even if you think it was time to move on. Remember, stating the obvious, they won the ACC title. They made it to a Final Four.

Let's go back in the time machine to 2017. If you told NC State fans, you will win an ACC tournament over the next decade and you will make it to a Final Four. Even if they happened in the same year, State fans would accept a decade of terrible, a decade of being awful if you told them at that time, they would take that trade. That they'd win an ACC tournament title and on top of that, make it to the Final Four. And that's not even including the details of who you beat to win that ACC tournament championship and who you beat in the Elite Eight to get to that Final Four, North Carolina and Duke of course. At that point, prior to last spring, no college fan base in America had been more tortured than State fans have.

And there's a metric for this. No ACC titles or let's just limit the scope to let's broaden it to conference titles. They were the only program in America in high major Division I athletics that did not have a conference title in men's basketball, football or baseball in over 30 years, close to 35. Before last year, they had not had a football, men's basketball or baseball championship since 1991. That is tortured and no Final Four appearances since 1983 and you snap both of those droughts in the same year and you will always have that.

The news saying just like last year was, feels like 24 or feels like 83, the news saying is eternally grateful, forever grateful for Kevin Keats and that should be the sentiment. Also, eight years in college, that's a long time, especially with lesser resources in the NILH, which nobody's disputing, NC State did not have as many resources, certainly as their triangle ACC partners or many of the teams in the ACC. So the last four years of NIL, Kevin Keats has had to maneuver those new waters in college sports with lesser resources. And then in the first half of his tenure, the first four years, he was dealing with the NCAA Mark Gottfried cloud. And Kevin Keats handled this program with class.

He handled it with integrity. He represented NC State really well. And in reality, if you want to define it with NCAA tournament appearances, went to the NCAA tournament three times in eight years. And again, a Final Four appearance. That is three more NCAA tournament appearances than Sidney Lowe ever had. That's three more NCAA tournament appearances than Wake Forest has had the last eight seasons, the last nine seasons, actually.

So, ha ha, nine times. Was that Will Pelagic making an appearance? Yeah, he snuck in here somehow.

I got to get him out of here. So why the change? So why the change? Why did Kevin Keats not get another year?

The way to think about this is, and the guy who broke this story, Joe Gillio, our friend from OVUS in Gillio, made this point, saw it yesterday and thought it was a good one. This is more to do with Boo Corrigan, the AD, than it's to do with Kevin Keats. Boo Corrigan is one of the more respected ADs across America. That's how you become the chair for the college football playoff committee, which he was for a couple of years. That's why you're in consideration for maybe the best job in all of college sports, which is being the AD. Maybe the best AD job out there is being the AD at Ohio State. He was a finalist for that position recently, but didn't get it. Because part of the job of being an AD, part of the way you are graded is by the type of hires you can make. So if you have aspirations to elevate to the very top of your field as an AD, it's hard to do so if you don't have examples of you demonstrating how good of an evaluator you are, how well you hire coaches at the top level. He's been at State for six years, and he hasn't had to make a football, men's basketball, women's basketball, or baseball change.

None of them. And last year, they had Kevin Keats fired. Kevin was going to get fired if they didn't win the ACC tournament.

It looked like they might lose Tuesday in Louisville, then they go in that Miracle Run, so you couldn't do it then. So he found an opportunity now because somebody gave him a check this week that allowed for him to do so. So now he has a chance to make a hire to make his mark at NC State. It's more to do with Boo Corrigan than it is to do with Kevin Keats. Which also might be why when Kevin Keats put out a statement about it, he mentioned Debbie Yao in that statement, did not mention Boo Corrigan. So when you're looking at, in totality, what Kevin Keats' tenure was, eight years, three tournament appearances, a final four trip, an ACC title, that is not a failure at State.

That is what success looks like, and his tenure should be celebrated. On X, at WSJS Radio, if you want in on the show, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton, he's the executive producer of this show, WD. How's your big board looking for the ACC tournament draft, our third annual? It's all marked up, it's got names all over it, many different teams. Connor O'Neill and Brendan Marks will be with us to play along. That'll be at 5.30, six players adding up over the span of the entire tournament, points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals. Brendan won last year, you won year one, we'll see what happens for the tournament in Charlotte, which we'll be doing our show from Tuesday through Friday.

So yes, starting tomorrow, make sure you're listening, watching, however you're consuming the show, we appreciate that. Shifting things to football, we have exclusive audio of what J.C. Horn told Carolina Panthers General Manager Dan Morgan today. Send me that cash out, fam. And he did.

We have fun. Four years, $100 million, saw another place that was $108 million, regardless of what the overall figure is, that is the largest overall cash deal in the history of the NFL for a defensive back. So the highest paid defensive back is J.C. Horn, and really, a few of the headlines that we've seen the last couple of days tells us that the Carolina Panthers priorities are in the right place. They are focusing on fixing the defense as they should, they're not going to be lured into chasing more offensive talent when the defense had been that much of a problem a year ago.

They need to help Agyro Evaro, and that's what they're setting out to do. And it's important that J.C. Horn is back. That's a cornerstone of your defense, along with Derrick Brown.

However, this is a problem, really, with how these things are talked about. Is it really the largest deal that a defensive back has ever signed because it's more overall money when he got less guaranteed money than Pat Sertan did? See, Pat Sertan, when a defensive player of the year was taking a pick after J.C., so maybe part of the negotiating was, we need, with the salary cap going up, more overall money than Sertan got. And the Panthers were willing to give that up as long as it was less guaranteed money than Sertan received. Sertan signed a four-year, $96 million deal, but $77.5 million of it was guaranteed, only $70 million of what J.C. Horn's side is guaranteed.

So really, it should be the guaranteed money that sets what the largest deal is, but that's a conversation for a different day. There are news reports that the Panthers are expected to make splashes throughout this week in free agency on the front seven. At safety, those are spots to look at, so you're probably going to see headlines all over the place regarding those positions for Carolina. Another thing, Carolina also may have tipped its hand for their approach in the draft at No.

8 will. So Saturday night, during the Duke Carolina game, the headline drops that Tommy Trimble has resigned with the Panthers, along with J.T. Sanders, who's already there, had a pretty good rookie year, you have that tight end tandem coming back. Because they re-signed Tommy Trimble, Will, could you see in any world the Panthers taking a tight end as a Top 10 pick now, taking Tyler Warren in that spot? No.

Can't see it. And because they don't need a wide receiver, and there isn't a wide receiver worth taking in the Top 10, they certainly don't need a quarterback, they don't need an offensive tackle, that means they're not going offensive player with No. 8. You can rule that out right now after the signing of Tommy Trimble. Strong defensive draft, they should have been looking at defense anyway, but it tips the approach that they're bringing Trimble back, they're not going offense at No.

8 if they are staying in that pick. It will be a defensive player, as it should be, and it tells us that the priorities are in the right place. And sometimes the moves you don't make can be very telling. For example, they didn't trade for DK Metcalf over the weekend, who's now a Pittsburgh Steeler. And this is a good thing for Carolina.

We get it. It's fun to chase receivers. You play fantasy football and that guy scores a lot of points, you're like, that's a star!

Give me that guy! But it's not worth when you are still rebuilding this roster. You're still on the rebuild, and you're giving up a second round draft pick, which Pittsburgh gave up, and having to sign a player for $30 million dollars on average per year over five years in a salary cap sport, especially when you had two rookie receivers make a mark already last year.

Xavier LeGette, who you drafted in the first round, and Jalen Coker, who really flashed, too. It's not worth what DK Metcalf was commanding in terms of his salary and what Seattle ultimately was going to get. A second round pick, not worth that for the Panthers. So the fact they didn't chase that again tells you, going back to the overall takeaway, the Panthers' priorities are in the right place.

They are focusing on defense as they should. We got locker room sound to get to, and even a social media post from Cooper Flag's mom to react to. Kelly Flag, did you see this?

Yeah, I saw it. We could talk about that in a bit, but the big news is NC State fired Kevin Keats, the Wolfpack moving on from Kevin Keats. Let's put that to the side for now, talking about whether or not he should have been fired, any of that, going over his career with the Wolfpack. What now for NC State? Who should they hire? Who are they going to hire? You'd hope that those are the same answers.

You'd have the same coach. This is who you should hire and this is who you are going to hire. Usually that's not the case, though.

It's usually not how the world works. So who should they hire versus who they are going to hire? Let's explore that.

Let's explore both questions. Tennessee assistant Justin Gainey will not be the hire at NC State, but he should be. He isn't being discussed as the top candidate currently, but he should be. What are we seeing as a trend in college basketball that's working?

Looking at guys who understand your culture and building upon, if possible, building with somebody who is one of your own. How did Kentucky replace John Calipari? Here's Mark Pope. Look what Duke is doing right now with John Shire. Hubert Davis, we get it.

Fans could be critical, all these things, but the pros outweigh the cons with what Hubert's done in his tenure so far with the Tar Heels. NC State could find one of their own in Justin Gainey. This is a guy who belongs in the state of North Carolina, specifically at State. He was a team captain for the Wolfpack back in the 90s. He was a four-year player. He was on the team that was the ACC runner-up to North Carolina in Greensboro. He started his career in coaching, or at least in administration, working with the Wolfpack in the mid-2000s. But then when you get to his coaching resume, how about these ties to the state of North Carolina? He worked for, well, first off, he's from Greensboro, went to Greensboro Day, so let's just start there.

He's from the Triad, hashtag 336. But then he worked for Jason Capel at App State when Capel was the head coach at App. He worked for Herb Sendek at Santa Clara, the former Wolfpack coach. He worked for Sean Miller at Arizona because Sean Miller coached him when he was with the Wolfpack in the 90s. He was an assistant at that time. He worked for Steve Wojahowski, yes, the former Duke player and coach at Marquette. And now he's working for North Carolina Sports Hall of Famer, the pride of Hickory, North Carolina, Rick Barnes at Tennessee.

So this man has a lot of connections to the state of North Carolina. And since he's an assistant coach, you're not worried about a buyout with him. There's not a buyout associated with him, unlike, say, Ryan Odom at VCU, which would be very expensive, especially when you're competing with the Virginias, maybe the Villanovas of the world to try to land him. Remember, state, the biggest knock on them is they don't have the resources that North Carolina and Duke do.

Maybe not even that Wake Forest does. So paying $10 million to fire Kevin Keats and also to buy out Kevin Keats's staff, so it's like $8 million for Keats, close to $10 million when you consider buying out his staff as well. Now you've got to worry about buying out a coach to bring in and then signing that coach to a contract and then having the resources on top of that for NIL, it's expensive. So not having to worry about the piece here of a buyout to get him out of Tennessee and bring him back, a guy with an assistant and one of your own probably will come cheaper because nobody else is competing with you, has those ties that Gainey has, that's key when some of those resources can then be translated into some of your NIL money. That's who they should hire. Who are they going to hire?

You should expect Bucor again to bring in a guy who's a sitting head coach. Right now the front runner is McNeese State's Will Wade. You remember Will Wade when he was being considered by the Wolfpack in 2017?

Here's how it goes. Here's how you should recount that coaching search. Debbie Yow apparently had three names on her list, Will. The first name on that list was Will Wade. The second name on that list, Kevin Keats. The third name on that list, Pat Kelsey. Those were the three coaches on that list in 2017. So apparently some think it's because, oh, there were allegations of cheating and Debbie Yow has said some things like that.

What I've been told is that she was told by, at that point, and this is crazy how different times are today than 2017. Given that Will Wade is a Clemson alum and Brad Brownell had missed the tournament for a fifth or sixth straight year in 2017 and there were some whispers that there might be a change there. He said to Debbie Yow, I want to see what happens at Clemson first before I accept this job. And then Debbie Yow went to Kevin Keats, the number two choice from UNCW instead.

And the rest is history. So we'll see what happens there. Will Wade, he might be the choice. If that doesn't happen and you're looking for then sitting head coaches, it's going to be a coach that Wolfpack fans are disappointed with, but there are still a lot of good options out there. The top second tier option, a name that nobody's really talking about but should, is UAB head coach Andy Kennedy.

They call him AK. He played UAB, but his first year in college was 86-87 at NC State. And that year should be significant because prior to last year, that was the last year that NC State won an ACC tournament title with Vinny Del Negro and company. So that's a name that I'll throw out as a secondary candidate. That would be pretty good if you want to hire a sitting head coach. Justin Gainey, the Tennessee assistant, he would be the best hire.

Doesn't mean it's going to happen, but that is the hire that they should make. Okay, let's get to some locker room sound from Duke Carolina. The best Cooper flag sound all year, Will, is what we have right here. And it's not an interview with Cooper Flag. I'm in the tunnel outside the Duke locker room talking to Khan Knipple, and Cooper Flag then goes to answer like six questions in a scrum of media and then walk away. But as he was walking to that scrum, he said, Mr. Knipple, behind the scenes, and my microphone didn't catch it. And I thought, oh man, that was funny. Having Cooper Flag say, Mr. Knipple is really funny. And then I went to go talk to Seon James. And then when Cooper got done with his comments, he walked behind us and thank goodness he did it again.

I'm so glad my audio caught that. Mr. James. Who is Will Dalton's favorite NBA player, Cooper? Mr. James.

Sounded a little bit like Mark Jackson, what he called like Laker finals games. Hand down, man down. Mr. James. Mama, there goes that man.

Mr. James. Cooper Flag writes in, I appreciate all of you have supported us all season long, especially last night after my call for bail money. There were certainly, there were many willing to start a GoFundMe, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I want to apologize to anyone who was offended by language that was caught in a celebratory moment. Yeah, there was her doing the like, the hand on her head. Yeah, it was on nobody's head. Yeah, Cooper dunked on somebody, but they were pretty psyched.

Here's what she said. She was taken aback by the crudeness of UNC fans as we made our way into the arena. They continued to harass us with much worse being spewed in our direction, as well as our 18 year old son and his teammates throughout the entirety of the game. The celebration was a moment of being so proud for our kid and also a big bleep you to the entire Carolina fan base for being classless bleep holes. If you're a UNC fan that didn't like it, tough bleep.

Better luck next time, GoDuke. Okay. I don't deny that Carolina fans were ugly to Kelly Flag and Cooper Flag. I don't deny that. Do we have any proof of that, though? Yeah, every time Duke goes up to Chapel Hill, do I need to play the bleep Coach K chant as the students were as Coach K was walking out to the floor for the first time?

Do I need to revisit that? Speaking of Seon James, a lot of people on social media didn't expect Seon James's voice to sound the way that it does because of how physical he is and how strong he looks. Yes, but like, Seon, here he was talking about playing at the Smith Center for the first time. Man, it was crazy. I loved it.

That was fun. You guys got to understand, like, this is why you come to Duke for games like this when their crowd is rolling. They have a really good team over there. It's a good game. The fans are into it. Dean Dome is a special place. It was awesome. We had a great time. I hear it.

Here's the question. I hear it. He's like a big hulking guy, like so strong. And he sounds like the guy who's like a computer science major with like, he looks like me. He sounds like how you would expect me to sound. He doesn't look like an idiot.

That guy. Just it's a little bit of a nerdy voice. That's the best way to describe it. It does.

But but again. He doesn't look like an idiot. Very strong. Like, he sounds like he's trying to sell you a computer at Best Buy.

Correct. So he's smart and strong. He might be my favorite person to talk to on this team. He is good. I love talking to Seon James. And it sounds like we're going to be talking to him quite a bit. ACC tournament this week and then probably in Raleigh for first round, second round of the NCAA. We must talk.

Go ahead. Talk back to the drive with Josh Graham. So glad to have you on this Monday drive WSJS new stock sports for the triad where quarterback news dropping left and right today. If you haven't been following with Geno Smith becoming a new Vegas Raider being traded over the weekend, Sam Darnold is the guy filling that void as the new Seattle quarterback, Justin Fields.

He signed with the New York Jets, and many are reporting the Steelers could soon land Aaron Rodgers today to go along with their new receiver, DK Metcalf. But as exciting as all that is, we must get to the news of the weekend here in the state of North Carolina. NC State fired Kevin Keats with the news breaking early Sunday morning. His last game was a loss at Miami Saturday, completing a season without a road win for the back and, of course, not qualifying for the ACC tournament that begins in Charlotte tomorrow. And when you look at how any coaching tenure ends, most of them, unless the coach is a legend that's retiring at the very top of his industry. It's very easy to have the finish, the lasting note define what the larger picture was.

You should fight that temptation to do so in this case, though, don't let the last thing you saw be the most powerful image or the defining image. Because Kevin Keats did not fail at NC State, and his tenure should be celebrated. Stating the obvious, they won the ACC championship, and they made the Final Four. When Kevin Keats was hired in 2017, after the 2017 season, if you gave NC State fans the hypothetical, you're going to be bad more than you're good, but you're going to win the ACC tournament over the next 10 years and you're going to make it to a Final Four.

Would you sign up for that? Most state fans would say, yes, yes, yes, please. And I know my dad is a state fan.

I grew up outside of Raleigh. I know that fan base very well. At that point, no college fan base had been tortured more than state fans had. Remember, they had the longest droughts in the three major men's sports of any D1 program, Power Five program across the country, Power Five school. No ACC titles in men's basketball, football, or baseball since 1991. Conference titles, not talking about national titles. ACC title in men's basketball, football, baseball. State didn't have one of those since 1991. And they hadn't won in men's basketball since 87. They hadn't made the Final Four since 83. And he erased all of that with the run that they had last year. And that deserves to be celebrated.

It does. A lot of state fans have used the expression, eternally grateful or forever grateful for Kevin Keats. And you should look at it that way. You should also look at eight years as a very long time in college. It reminds me when David Cutcliffe departed at Duke or even Dave Claussen departing from Wake after this past season. You could look at the last couple of years and say, well, it wasn't very good.

Don't lose sight of the big picture, though. They were there for a very long time at those schools that are very hard to win and won. They did. And Kevin Keats, eight times is a very long time or eight years is a very long time, especially when you have lesser resources in the new NILH, which has been the reality the last four years, and you're dealing with the first half of your tenure, the first four years, the NCAA Gottfried Cloud. That was hanging over the program for four years.

And amid all that, Kevin Keats, he handled this program with class, he handled it with integrity. The reality is he made the tournament three times in eight years. That's three more times that Sidney Lowe did. That's three more times that Wake Forest has the last nine seasons. And again, in one of those appearances, you made it to the final four. You won an ACC championship. You won the ACC title against your rivals from Chapel Hill.

You won your final, you made it to the final four by beating Duke in the Elite Eight. You couldn't script it any better. So why the change now? Why didn't Kevin Keats get more time, a year removed from that title? Because Boo Corrigan fired Kevin Keats a year ago.

Everybody knew it was going to happen. They probably had already secured the funds to do so, and then they couldn't when they went on the run that they did. You need to look at it this way. This is more about the AD than it is the basketball coach. This is more to do with Boo Corrigan than it does Kevin Keats.

Boo Corrigan has been at State for six years and he has not hired a football coach, a men's basketball coach, a women's basketball coach or a baseball coach. When you are an AD, the best way you make your mark is with the hires you have to make, the hires that you do make. Now, sometimes you don't want to make a splash if you don't have to.

And again, six years without doing it, Boo Corrigan, he's been a pretty patient guy by and large. He had the money to make this move. He decided to make it. And now he gets a chance to make his mark on the basketball program. ADs, this is how they advance.

This is how they're graded often. How do you make these hires? And Boo Corrigan was one of the more respected ADs across college sports. Hired Jeff Munkin at Army, for example, before going to NC State. He was the committee chair for the College Football Playoff Committee for a couple of years. They don't just give that to ADs. He was up for maybe the best AD job in college sports, being the AD at Ohio State, and he was a finalist.

Didn't get it, probably because one of the things you grade an AD for, who are the hires that you made? And they didn't make any hires. He hadn't had to. So now he does. And we'll see what type of coach he brings in. But that's not, that's not to diminish what Kevin Keats did.

And it shouldn't. He didn't fail at State. His tenure should be celebrated.

Eight years is a very long time. And we wish Kevin Keats the very best. On X at WSJS radio and at Josh Graham Show, whatever problems with X that have gone down today apparently seem to be fixed. Well, Dalton, he's the executive producer of the show. You got your big board ready to go. ACC Tournament Draft with Brendan Marks and Connor O'Neill coming up at five thirty. Oh, it's ready to go. And we're going to be doing our show from Spectrum Center in Charlotte the entire week starting tomorrow when ACC Tournament play begins. We can't wait to be out that way.

We were both at Duke North Carolina over the weekend. And one of the big takeaways from this weekend, a blueprint starting to develop, a blueprint starting to be created for this Duke team. How do you play them? How do you stop them?

How do you begin to try doing so? And the key seems to be playing with physicality and with ball pressure. It nearly worked for the Tar Heels on Saturday. They got Cooper Flagg into foul trouble, something he hasn't really been in in the first half of the game this year.

Duke had 14 turnovers in the game. They looked shell-shocked down six in the second half before putting the clamps down defensively on the Tar Heels. When I asked Hubert Davis about that approach after the game, here's what he had to say about physicality being an emphasis. Well, it was definitely an emphasis of pressure on the ball, and I thought we did a really good job of that. Whomever had the ball, I felt like we were in their space and making it tough on them to connect the dots in regards to how they're trying to execute on the offensive end. And as I said before, I think that helped us, resulting in turning them over 14 times today. And so I thought that was good.

That was something that we talked about. And it was an emphasis going into this game. This strategy actually started with Wake Forest at the Joel. You might think, again, just 1,000-foot view looking at this, if a team is exclusively 6'5 or bigger their entire rotation and their deep as Duke is, you might think the last thing you want to do is get in a fistfight with them, get in a rock fight, try to muck it up. But that's what Wake Forest tried.

Hey, let's try to shake these guys around a little bit. And Duke got frustrated. Duke turned it over. Duke didn't score a ton. It was their lowest scoring output of the season with 63 points.

The problem for Wake is the Deacs were held to 56. And you could call it like a Rick Barnes style of basketball. Hey, we're going to foul you almost every trip up the floor, but they're not going to call it every single time.

So how are you going to handle that? Duke did not handle it well in John Shire's first NCAA tournament appearance, losing to Tennessee in the round of 32. So what happens when you get a better team than North Carolina or Wake deploying that same strategy in the month of March against this team?

There is a window where Duke gets frustrated, self-combust, and loses. And it's going to take a very specific type of team that can do that because there are two variables at play here. Yes, you need a team capable of doing what we're describing defensively, holding the Blue Devils, let's say, to about 70, 75 points.

Clemson, for example, held Duke at Little John Coliseum to 71. OK. Clemson's top 25 in Kim Palm's offensive and defensive metric. So let's look at the teams that are both top 25 in those categories. You need a team not just to hold you down, but also to score enough, more than 70, in order to beat you.

So you need to have a good enough offense to score on this Duke D and a good enough defense to execute this game plan. Five teams stand out, top 25 offensive and defensive metrics from Kim Palm. Houston, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Clemson. That's the list. And given how good Alabama's offense and rebounding is, I'll add them to the list.

St. John's, how physical and old they are, I'll add them too. If it's one if it's not one of those seven teams, I don't think Duke's losing. Something to consider when you're filling out your bracket. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, WSJS. It's that time of year, ACC Tournament Week. I'm going to be there all five days starting tomorrow. That chuckle you hear from the studio belongs to Connor O'Neill. Both the teams he covers got double byes, so we won't see him till Thursday.

Brendan Marks, I'd imagine for the athletic, since he works for a national organization. Claire, probably not going to be there till later in the week, too. When can we expect to see you in Charlotte? Also Thursday, reporting for duty that full day.

While the rest of you are out having fancy dinners Thursday night, I will still be grinding. So we got a draft to do to recap the rules. We each draft six players and we add up their points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals. And whoever accumulates over the week the most points, steals, or points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, wins our tournament draft. We did the draft order on Friday.

It was randomized. QUD had a very sophisticated draft lottery with ping pong balls and the whole thing that was very sophisticated. Brendan Marks got the number one pick after winning the whole deal last year. The number two pick belongs to Connor O'Neill. The three pick belongs to Will Dalton. And I got the last pick, but it's a snake draft, so I get two picks in a row and so on and so forth. By the way, that is the reverse order of how, or actually that's the exact order of how things ended last year, the tournament draft.

Yes, those are the ping pong balls that we used. The winner gets a Rooster's gift card. We're 50 bucks here that I have in hand, so Brendan doesn't have to wait until football season in order to get his winnings like last year. Okay, let's get this thing started. If you can't see me, I'm doing Bobby Portis eyes on that one. I just I just don't see Brendan a lot, you know, got to add to see him to give him his prize. Okay, let's get this thing started. Brendan Marks told us that he was considering Ben Middlebrooks with this pick if NC State made it to the tournament.

He did not. So big time suspense. The pick is in with the number one pick in the ACC tournament draft. Brendan Mark selects our war room. Our organization is very glad to welcome Cooper flag to our team. Can't believe it. Big upset. I know. Shocking. So Cooper flag is off the board after one pick the Charlotte Hornets hope that the ping pong balls favor them. And they potentially could take Cooper as well. Yeah, there's the ping pong balls again. Okay, Connor, where are you headed?

This is the question I've been asking already. This is where the draft hinges, doesn't it? I will take Chucky Hepburn. That was the number two player on my big board as well from Louisville, which brings us to Will Dalton. Let me do Maxine Raynaud.

Let me let me do that Maxine Raynaud from Stanford about that is off the board. Okay, so WD has got Maxine Raynaud, which means I get two picks. And since I feel very comfortable that Duke is going to play three games in this field, I'm just going to take not one but two Blue Devils. I'm going to take Konka Nipple and Tyrese Proctor off of the board, just so I have my Blue Devils locked up and if they win the ACC Championship or get there, I get three games of guys who could put up a lot of numbers. So is that sounder going to play once or twice for two picks?

We'll go with once. We've got three Blue Devil starters off the board in the first five picks, Chucky Hepburn off the board and Maxine Raynaud from Stanford, WD, you are up again. I'm going to have faith in RJ Davis that they're going to make a run. RJ Davis, North Carolina. That's it. See, Will, he's taken the approach and he won the first year of taking guys on Wednesday and hoping that they could maybe make a run, maybe get to Saturday, but that would require them to beat Duke. That would.

Friday night. That's a good pick, WD. Thank you.

That is a good pick. I appreciate it. There you go. It is. It is. He was on my board.

Yep. I think that was going to be my pick. Connor, who are you going with then?

I'm going to pivot a little bit. It's always good to take a guy who's not even on your little cheat sheet here with your second round pick. I will take Seon James. I like that pick. I was hoping you guys would overlook him and I could get three Blue Devils on my team. The guy who's the only player in Division 1 averaging 8-4-3 and shooting 50% or something crazy like that. Yeah.

You did your homework. Got your big board pretty clearly. Brendan, you have two picks now. Was Seon James going to be one of those? He was certainly in consideration, but I'm pretty shocked that the top two guys on my board are both still there and I'll gladly scoop up a pair of Clemson Tigers. Let's go ahead and welcome Ian Shefflin and Chase Hunter to the squad. That would be a scary lineup. Cooper, Ian Shefflin and Chase Hunter. The chef.

That's real life nightmares. I can't do the thing. Okay. So now we're in round three. We're flying here. Second pick in round three for Connor O'Neill is ACC legend Matt Cross.

One of those frauds over in Spoo. I refuse. I don't mind that pick. I don't mind that pick.

He was on my list. My big board. I refuse to put any on my big board. You said you had one team that was in the top five. Yeah, I know. They're number six. I know they're not.

There was another team at the top five that might rhyme with Shmorsh, Marilena. Okay. Okay.

I didn't want any part of. Okay. Just saying.

All right. So that means WD is up. You've got, we'll update the rosters in just a second. And who do you have, because we're about halfway through. I'm going to add my first blue devil and come on Malawatch. Come on Malawatch for WD. So the entire Duke starting five goes before we even get through round three.

What a great surprise that is. Yeah. Okay.

I'll make sure. Okay. I was going to say, if you just make one, then we're halfway through. Okay.

Let me just make one to start things off then. I'm going to take from Louisville, Terrence Edwards, Jr. Get that locked in. So right now we're halfway through three players a piece. I have Con Canipple, Tyrese Proctor, Terrence Edwards, Jr. WD has RJ Davis, Maxime Rayno, and come on Malawatch, Connor O'Neill to Chucky Hepburn, Seon James. And who am I forgetting? Matt Cross. And Matt Cross from Smith. That's a cool line up there.

It is. And Brendan has a couple of Klimps and Taggers, a little Klimp. Did Dabo Swinney have nicknames for either of those guys? Oh, The Chef. The Chef. That was Schafflin.

Yeah. The Hunter Bros. The Hunter Bros. We'll see if the Zack Attack or the Lock Tin Monster gets taken later.

And oh yeah, Cooper Flag's on Brendan's team. This is going to be a difficult call for my fourth pick here. I'm going to, assuming that one of you guys take this guy on a flyer, nah, I'm not going to play around with it. I'm going to go Javon Hadley from Louisville as well. Give me a couple of Louisville Cardinals. Betting big on the cards. I am.

Since you took both those Klimps and Taggers, I'll go Terrence Edwards, Jr., Javon Hadley to go along with my Tyrese Proctor and Con Canipple. That game's going to be a biggie. That potential semifinal matchup could decide this whole thing. Unless there were upsets. Who knows? There were upsets.

The ACC's had a lot of those this year. Oh, that must be the pick is in for Will. My pick is in, man. So I'm going to assume that Ian Jackson is going to channel his 20 point per game mode he went in in the middle part of the season here.

That's a big assumption. And I'm going to add him to my roster. Ian Jackson.

There you go. So he's got a couple of card heels. Will is the ultimate wild card. I do not like picking after him.

Did you have Ian Jackson on your board too? No. You just never know.

It's boom or bust. You guys never know. I like being able in drafts to anticipate.

I have no way to anticipate who Will is taking. Hey. No chance. There's a method to the madness. Maybe not. I don't know.

What do you think? I will bring our first Deke off the board and I will take Hunter Salas. Deke down!

It's going down to Deke down! I mean, get me two games. Just get me two games.

Could you beat Carolina or maybe a team making a run? I don't know. That's nice. Brendan, you got two.

I do have two. For my first pick, I'm going to triple down on Clemp. Oh my God. Zack Attack!

I'm dialing in on the locked in monster. Oh! Victor Laskin! As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Brad Bownell's team. However, I am going to hedge my bet a little bit and I am going to go on the other side of the bracket. This might be a wild card. Maybe I'm taking this guy way too early, but I'm praying for points.

Marcus Burton, welcome to the team. There you go. There you go.

I was worried. Yeah. That's a good pick too.

That is a good pick. If he plays in two games. He wasn't making it back to the last pick in the draft. No. No.

Was he the last pick in the draft last year? I'm just saying that's what I've got. That's my pick. Oh my gosh. We're flying. Leading score. Okay. So that's right. We only have two more picks apiece and Vernon has one more.

Some people covering this league believe that Marcus Burton should be an automatic first team All-ACC player just because he leads the league in scoring. Looking at you, Corey Alexander. Where you at?

Where you at? What do you got, Connor? Give me the Zack Attack. Damn! Jayden Zachary.

Boston College. No! That is who Dabo means when he says Zack Attack, right?

That is exactly who he means. I would hope that Jayden Zachary is the Zack Attack. Okay.

Four Klemt Tigers off the board now. If Will... There's a player I really badly want to take if Will Dalton does not take him here. Badly.

Like I'm salivating wanting to jump at this. Give me Malik Brown. Wow.

That is not the player. I'm not sure if that's going to work out or not in terms of points because he's more of a defensive... Connor, can you believe it? Hey, blocks. Maybe get some steals. Yeah.

Some rebounding. I need some defense on my team. Maybe you get Malawatch in foul trouble. Oh, wait.

You have Malawatch too. I do. It's not a category to stay in front of a guard and make him take a contested 20-footer. But hey.

He banged a couple threes the other day. That's true. That's true.

That was not his player. That's true. I'm racing to the podium. I'm going to get weird now, you guys.

Becomes a cow player. Those are your last two picks. I know. And I'm ready to deliver.

Florida State's Jameer Watkins. Yeah. Okay. Yep. And?

Pittsburgh's Jalen Lowe. Yes. Okay. If I got a B in Charlotte on Tuesday. You better get something out of it. I've got to watch these games with some interest. Jalen Lowe and Jameer Watkins get buckets, fellas. Man. Man. W.D. You just whipped Malik Brown.

Where on earth are you going next? Ben Middlebrooks. No. I can't do that. I can't do that.

You actually can't. I don't think we would let you. Don't take Donald Hand either. Lin Kidd. I'm a little conflicted on this pick. Let me just do it and go Cam Hildreth. Okay. He might get some points.

Yep. He'll get a shot up. I almost went Mason Gillis. Unless he has to play Duke, in which case he ain't getting any shots up. He didn't have a point last game, did he? None. None.

Monday night last week. Okay, Connor. You have one more pick. He just took Mason Gillis?

No. He took Cam Hildreth. Okay.

Okay. He took Cam Hildreth. I know that with two picks left, this is not the way we should be doing these things. I want to make a rule change and say all of us have to have a player playing on Tuesday.

Do you have anybody playing on Tuesday? No. He just took a bunch of Carolina. Okay.

vaccine right now. Carolina Duke. I do. I've got someone on Tuesday. Scott Burton. Okay.

So does Josh. I got two. I got two.

Utah. I want to like, I think it should be a rule that we have to have somebody playing on Tuesday. Well took Malik Brown and I really think that's a bad pick.

No offense to Will. We'll give you a second shot at it. You do not want Malik Brown. Okay. You find a player on Tuesday to take. Find a Tuesday player.

You like, I'm telling you, well, he is, he is a fantastic player. Let's help you out. It's not going to help me in the points category. Wow. This must be a really bad pick. Jesus guys.

What is this? It's a horrific pick. I'm a little surprised at this. There are a lot of options on Tuesday. So think about it. And you'll have the nominee. You'll have the last pick after Brenda. I'll get the charity. We'll give you a sec. Yeah. We'll give you a charity pick.

Okay. I like the idea. You have to pick a guy on Tuesday. Have to pick a Tuesday player.

I like that idea. Yeah. My Tuesday player will be. There's two other that were on my board. There's one game that I'm looking at.

Are you looking? I'm trying to think of that Virginia Tech cow game. Is that what you're going to do? That's the game I'm looking at. Why does that game need to be played? That's true. The other two I'm interested in that one.

I'm not. Do it. Do it. Do it.

You want to do it. Malik Ewan. Oh, that guy was on my board.

I love watching Malik Ewan. Yeah. It was on my board.

A hundred percent. Brendan Marks, you have one more pick. You already got your Tuesday player. Who are you taking? There is one team that has not been selected yet that I had a couple of guys on my board for.

Interested to see if that's where you go here. Also, there's another Duke player that I'm surprised that no one took a swing on, including WD. Well, I can tell you, I'm not taking that Duke player. Is that Duke player rhymes with Schmevens? He does. He does.

I find it hard to say. Kind of a hometown game. He's from Fayetteville.

Oh, I thought he was from Mac. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go in, maybe this is a bad pick, but I'm hoping I get two games out of it.

Maybe three games out of it. I'll go ahead and take Seth Trimble from North Carolina. Oh. See?

I was expecting somebody to take Bay and Nongo or to take Nathan George. Maybe WD can right here. No, we can't. Tuesday.

Yeah. You either stick with Malik Brown or go Tuesday. You do not want to stick with Malik Brown.

We are helping you here. I'm not going with Malik Brown. It's a shame I missed out on Isaiah Evans. There is another player that puts up similar numbers to Jalen Lowe that has not been selected from that team.

Does he? There is. Yep. You're probably thinking about who I'm thinking about. I thought about Stojacovic. I thought about it. Okay. Give me Ishmael Liguette.

That's a good pick. Sorry, Malik. And look, let's also throw this in. If we calculate it up and Will has finished second by like three points or whatever, and Malik Brown would have pushed him over the edge instead of whoever he took, he wins.

You know, we'll play it like golf, like closest ball. So if Malik Brown outperforms whoever it took Tuesday, Ishmael Liguette. Yeah. Yeah. If Malik Brown has more numbers than Ish Liguette, then he wins. We'll give him Malik Brown. Yeah.

That's fine. Like, watch. Maybe, maybe that'll help WD finish second instead of finishing third. We're all going to be there on Thursday or Friday, and it's going to be Malik Brown going for 28. And we're like, whoa! It is a crazy, like the thing, I can't wrap my head around, he had 26 against Duke last year. His season high for Duke is eight. It is something to keep in mind this off season with transfers.

Jaden Zachary had his best career game at Boston College in the tournament against Clemson. So like guys who transfer to other places when you see them up close, if they have career nights, keep that in mind. We have our boards real quickly. Let's recap them. Brenda Marks, you had the first pick, your team. Let's rattle off your team in whole. I've got Cooper Flag, Ian Sheflin, Chase Hunter, Victor Lockin, Marcus Burton, and Seth Trimble. Feel incredibly, incredibly good about that team. And if it was a real team, it would be an absolute juggernaut.

Because of the guy who was the first pick. All right, Connor. My team is Chucky Hepburn, Seon James, Matt Cross, Hunter Salas, Jaden Zachary, and Malik Ewan. And I feel like I would match up pretty well with Brendan, except Matt Cross would get turned inside out by Cooper Flag.

Yeah, that's the thing. W.D. Maxine Raynaud, R.J. Davis, Kamon Malawach, Ian Jackson, Malik Brown turned into Ishmael LeGette, and Cam Hildreth. I got five of the top 11 on my board. Tyrese Proctor, Konkin Dippel, Terrence Edwards Jr., Javon Hadley, Jameer Watkins, and Jalen Lowe. That's my squad. Your team would get used because you have no height or size. Hey, I'm just trying to win this.

I'm just trying to win the game. W.D. 's all bigs and guards. No wings on that team. Connor was thinking, or W.D.

was thinking about defense, you know, like I admired that. Okay, fellas, the Roosters gift card in my hands here will be given to the winner on Saturday unless it's decided Friday. Good luck. Thank you for being here. Godspeed, gentlemen. Thank you all, a very, very unfortunate tournament.