Andy & Ari On3 - Both Final Fours are going to rule | Watch out for N.C. State football in the ACC in 2024

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

This show is sponsored by Fanduel. Go to fanduel.com/Staples to sign up and receive $200 in bonus bets when you bet $5. Get signed up now and be ready for both Final Fours!Want to watch the Final Four without cable? Prime Video has you covered. Watch every game live, on your phone, on your laptop, or relax and watch at home on Prime Video, with a subscription. Prime Video gives you choices to add on channels like Paramount Plus and Max, both featuring March Madness tournament games, all in one place. It’s March, it’s Madness, stream it all on Prime Video.Learn more now…https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/ref=atv_hm_spo_c_rEmqNT_6_2?contentType=tournament&contentId=amzn1.dv.icid.64a44c0e-3ac7-4b14-ad4d-c2a438001f2c&jic=8%7CEgNhbGw%3D(0:00-18:20) Intro - Men's and Women's Final Four Preview(18:21 -20:55) Eric Musselman to USC(20:56-29:24) Dylan Raiola at the Podium(29:25-30:10) Roddy Jones from the ACC network joins(30:11-35:51) Clemson Preview(35:52-38:06) Florida State Preview(38:07-42:21) NC State Preview(42:22-44:52) Louisville Preview(44:53-49:17) Miami Preview(49:18-51:15) Conclusion with Roddy Jones(51:16-1:03:36) Final Four Preview with James Fletcher(1:03:37-1:09:29) FInal Four PICKS(1:09:30-1:10:06) Conclusion - Have a good weekend, see you Monday!It’s a packed Friday! We’ve got two Final Fours to talk about. We’ve also got some football.It’s Iowa against UConn and South Carolina against N.C. State in the women’s Final Four, and all eyes are on Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers. Clark always wanted to play for UConn, but Bueckers was the prized player the Huskies recruited in the class of 2020. Only one will lead her team to the national title game.Meanwhile, two N.C. State basketball teams are trying to shock the world. The N.C. State women play undefeated South Carolina, while the Wolfpack men will face Purdue on Saturday.We’ll also be talking N.C. State football. The Wolfpack play their spring game on Saturday, and so does Clemson. So we’re bringing in the great Roddy Jones of the ACC Network to discuss the biggest storylines in the league. And Roddy is very intrigued by new N.C. State quarterback Grayson McCall.Also, Nebraska’s quarterbacks met the media Thursday, which meant we got to see freshman Dylan Raiola’s first interview as a Cornhusker. Andy breaks it down.Next, On3’s James Fletcher III joins to discuss the men’s Final Four. Can UConn keep covering every spread, or can Alabama challenge the Huskies in a shootout? How will the matchup of N.C. State’s D.J. Burns Jr. and Purdue’s Zach Edey play out?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube, join us live 8-9 am et, M-F! https://youtube.com/live/ITX5sT0MGJkMust be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas StarCasino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 firstdeposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visitccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP inLouisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope ishere. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or textHOPENY in New York

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Friday. Happy final fours weekend. Couple of final fours that are huge. Absolutely huge. Both of them involving UConn and NC State. UConn and NC State are going to come up a lot in this show. NC State especially.

Because we're also going to talk a bunch of football in this episode. And the Clemson and NC State spring games are this weekend. We're talking to Roddy Jones from the ACC Network. We talk a lot about the Wolfpack in football as well. But as I mentioned, they've got two teams in the Final Four. UConn's got two teams in the Final Four. Right now, everything revolves around Raleigh. But in both cases, in the basketball situation, we've got some underdogs. Because NC State's women, they've got to play south carolina on friday night all we're talking about is caitlin clark page beckers in that in that yukon iowa game but remember south carolina is trying to go undefeated south carolina is trying to be one of the most dominant teams

in the history of the sport and it's interesting that the gamecocks have kind of been able to fly under the radar there. Meanwhile, UConn's men doing the same thing. And Dan Hurley has been making fun all week of everybody not paying any attention to them. And I think in both cases, for Dan Hurley's team and for Dawn Staley's team, they just beat the living snot out of people so much that we stopped thinking about them. We stopped talking about them. It kind of like Georgia football was like that for a couple of years where in the regular season, you'd be watching and you say, oh, Georgia's playing so and so. And you turn it on and it's 24 to three in the first quarter. You're like, eh, nevermind. Now, South Carolina's women have had a little bit of challenge in this tournament,

but not really. And UConn's men have had no challenge. They've covered every single spread, every single one in this tournament and in last year's tournament. So it's interesting that we were probably paying more attention to the other two semifinals, but the two semifinals and the women's side and the men's side where the national champion favorite is playing, we're just like, yeah, okay. Because obviously the Caitlin Clark, Paige Becker's thing is huge. I told you with Iowa and LSU, the reason it did such a big number, we love storylines.

We loved the storyline of LSU's the team that beat Iowa for the national title last year. And you've got Angel Reese coming back and you've got Caitlin Clark coming back and you've got Kim Mulkey, who's just a perfect kind of cartoon caricature. We love that. We get that story again, Friday night, another storyline. Caitlin Clark always wanted to play for UConn, but the same year she came out of high school, Paige Beckers came out of high school. She was the star recruit. She was the one that Gina Auriemma signed.

I mean, it's a fantastic storyline. South Carolina, meanwhile, just rolling over people. Now, if LSU were in this thing and there was a possible South Carolina-LSU matchup, then we got a story. Because the last time those two teams played, it ended in a fight. But now it's just watching Camila Cardozo, Malaysia Fulwiley. They are the best team in the country this year until someone proves otherwise. NC State's going to try to do that on Friday night, but the Gamecocks are loose. So Dawn Staley gets

to her press conference at the final four. And you're supposed to ask her questions, but she started with a question. Coach, if you could give us a brief opening statement, and then we'll move to questions for our student athletes. I have a brief question because you guys are writers, right? I just posted a tweet, and we had a long discussion in our coaches' meeting. So our players were in the locker room lying or laying down. Lying. Lying? Laying place, lying or lying? You sure? Yeah. lying you sure so i i well i i told our coaches someone taught me you lie to get laid right

sorry so excited to be here. Yeah, Don Staley's ready. If that's what they're talking about the coaches meeting, I think they probably feel pretty ready. It is lying, by the way. Lying. Ryan in the chat, people are diminishing the men's final four in order to promote the women's game why can't both be both are awesome both are awesome we're not diminishing either one the fact of the matter is we're talking about the women's final four because people are interested like 12.3 million people watched Iowa and LSU play the other night. And then the UConn semi or the UConn elite eight game against USC got 6.7 million. Those are great numbers. Those are great numbers in football. So those are, those are numbers that tell us like the casual fan is watching. It is something everybody's interested. The men's tournament is still doing great numbers too. Everybody's very interested in that.

I think part of the men's tournament thing is, is the feeling that it's the Yukon Invitational. And if say Alabama can challenge them on Saturday night, I think that that changes things a bit. Although I will say, I think if it winds up being a Yukon Purdue national title game on the men's side, that's when we're going to be really excited. I mean, the whole Donovan Klingon against Zach Eadie, but Zach Eadie and Purdue have to get past NC State. Those are the darlings of the, I would venture to say that the NC State men's team, the darlings of both tournaments, DJ Burns Jr., probably the breakout star of this year's set of tournaments. On the women's side, Kaitlyn Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Beckers, they were

already stars. Everybody already knew who they were. DJ Burns entered the national consciousness really during the ACC tournament this year. You know, if you watched a lot of ACC basketball, you knew who he was because you've known him since last year. But it was during the ACC tournament, during that run that everybody's like, oh my God, this guy's amazing. So I think that's where DJ Burns,

his star rose. As far as big star power, Zach Eadie is probably the other big name. We, we just known these folks on the women's side longer. And then, you know, you add in the coaching star power,

especially Gina REM and Don Staley on the women's side. It's, it's pretty, although I will say Dan Hurley, I, I love Dan Hurley. I hope he stays at UConn forever. I hope he keeps doing what he's doing at UConn

because they are so much fun to watch. And he's so much fun. Like hearing him talk about the plane. So if you don't know, UConn's plane got delayed. They had a mechanical issue. They're supposed to fly to Phoenix on Wednesday night. They're supposed to leave at like 6.30 Eastern time. It's 6.30 PM Eastern time.

They ended up leaving about 1.45 AM Eastern time on Thursday morning. And Hurley's talking about, oh, they went back home. He's trying to do all these breathing exercises because his schedule's all off. His wife took a picture of him just kind of head and hands. Then he talked about how therapeutic it was to watch them de-ice the plane. But you could tell it drove him insane. He is hysterical. He talks about making up quotes that people said about the Huskies, allegedly, to piss his players off.

He's talked all week about how they've been ignored in the national landscape and how they're using that to fuel themselves. Again, I don't think they've been ignored. I think they just steamroll everyone. So people are running out of things to say about them. But it's going to be so much fun. Both of these tournaments have delivered. Both of them delivered incredible final four matchups. So let's hear from

Gina Auriemma about Paige Beckers versus Kaitlyn Clark. Because Gina Auriemma, I mean, this is one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of coaching, period. What I love about Geno is he kind of cuts through the stuff because he knows what everybody's saying, that this isn't Caitlin versus Paige. He's like, yeah, it still might end up being Caitlin versus Paige. A lot of players might get caught up in a one-on-one showdown on national TV.

What is it about Paige that will not allow her to get caught up in that? Who says it won't? I mean, you know, kids are competitive. They want to win. They know what's going on out there. They know who's who. They know what's going on out there. They know who's who. They know what's what. And Kaitlin comes down and makes a huge three.

Don't think that Paige is going to pass the next one up and pass it to somebody. So I think there will be a little bit of that, but it won't be five score more points than Kaitlyn Connecticut's going to win. It won't be that at all. And it won't be I have to match everything that she does. That's what I was saying. Paige's personality is such that she'd rather score 10 points and us win than get 50 and us lose.

So I think it's going to be about winning the game more than anything else. Now, Kaitlyn Clark did get asked about this too. And remember, Kaitlyn Clark's dream school was UConn. They did not recruit her. She looked at Notre Dame. She looked at Iowa. She briefly was going to Notre Dame and then decided, no, no, I'm staying home in Iowa. But they played as well. Remember,

Kaitlyn Clark and Paige Beckers played their freshman seasons in that bubble tournament in the Sweet 16 and UConn won the game. Let's hear Kaitlyn talk about that matchup. What are your memories of playing against her and how different do you think this moment's going to be? I know your coach doesn't want it to be about Paige against Kaitlyn, but this moment is so big. What do you think it's going to be like? Thanks. Yeah, honestly, that game is super blurry. It feels like forever ago. And I was looking back and I saw like just some old footage of that game and we both look really, really young. So it's cool to see kind of how our careers have evolved and a lot of different players on both teams.

But I don't know. I mean, like Coach said, like it's not Paige versus Kaitlyn and, you know, it takes the entire team to win a basketball game. And, you know, both of us are going to do everything we can. But I think the coolest thing about Paige is how resilient she is. Obviously, she's kind of been dealt a tough hand. And that girl only has positive things

to say about her teammates. And the way she carries herself on and off the court, the way she works hard, and none of that has changed since I've known her since she was in middle school. She's always worked that same way. She's always had that fire. She's always been a great leader. And I really honestly couldn't be happier for her in the school. She's always worked that same way. She's always had that fire. She's always been a great leader. And, you know, I really honestly couldn't be happier for her in the year that she's had.

And, you know, the way she's led this team back to the Final Four when they've kind of been dealt a tough hand as a program and they never made excuses. And to me, I think that's something, you know, you just really admire as a competitor more than anything. So I think it's really cool. So she's talking about the injuries that UConn's dealt with. Now Paige missed last year's tournament

because she had a torn ACL. And this is going to be a great matchup. Remember, Paige Beckers was the star of that recruiting class. She was the one on the cover of Slam Magazine. She was the one who was supposed to be the next superstar in the women's game. Kaitlyn Clark was known as a good player, but was not thought to be this budding supernova of a talent, which is what she wound up being.

And so this is going to be fun to watch. It really is to see. And I'm telling you right now, Kaitlyn Clark can say all she wants about it doesn't matter that it's UConn. I don't need to prove anybody wrong. You know, you've watched her play. You've watched her play. Does this seem to you like a person who does not take that personally that Gina Mariemma did not sign her, did not recruit her? You know she takes that personally.

I know it's unfair to make MJ comparisons, but I'm just talking about the attitude. And we saw Michael Jordan in the last dance. And I took that personally. I think Caitlin Clark takes this personally too. So this will be a night where I imagine she tries to fill it up to show, hey, this was your choice, buddy. Now we'll see. Paige Beckers has a good team around her. Kaitlyn Clark has a good team around her. As Lisa Bluter, the Iowa coach said, it is not Kaitlin versus Paige completely. And if you go back to that Iowa LSU game, it certainly wasn't Kaitlin versus Angel Reese completely. The supporting cast made a big, big difference,

including Haley Von Lith having to guard Kaitlin one-on-one for most of the game, which more of a Kim Mulkey problem than a Haley Von Lith problem. But Haley Von Lith in the transfer portal as of Thursday, according to our Pete Nacos. So this has layers to it. Andrew in the chat, if Oregon had won the 2020 women's tournament instead of it being canceled due to COVID, where do you think that would put Sabrina Ionescu in the all-time pantheon of players?

I think she's up there anyway. Sabrina, great taste, by the way, married an offensive was a, there's a clip Nike brought Sabrina to see the Iowa players at the final four. If you watch the way they reacted, her Sabrina's place in the Pantheon is secure because there were a lot of the, you know, because those players that play for Iowa now were in high school watching her play and they were saying that's who I want to be so I I think she's very secure it sucks that we didn't get to see her you know that that would have been the the Sabrina and Obi Toppin tournaments basically Obi Toppin was at Dayton at the time and and on the men's side and the tournaments got wiped out and we didn't get to see

it, but it is going to be amazing. In the chat, Burley, DJ Burns is a football linebacker. Burley, there has never been a linebacker that weighed that much. LeVon Kirkland for the Steelers was in the 290s. DJ Burns is an offensive tackle. He's not a linebacker. This set of Final Fours, though, will be so much fun. So if you want to watch the men's Final Four and you don't have cable, don't worry. You just need to sign up for Amazon Prime Video right now. Watch

every game live on your phone, on your laptop, on your TV. You just sign up for Prime Video. You add the subscription to Max, which is going to make your life easier anyway, because one of the things about the streaming area that is so frustrating is having to switch between apps, having to remember passwords when you're trying to go on a new device. Well, Prime Video makes this really easy because you can add on all the subscriptions you want within Prime Video, and you can do it with one password, one app. It's much more seamless. It's so easy to navigate. Plus, you get Ricky Snicky. Have you seen this? Zac Efron, John Cena. I've got a pin in that one to watch

when all the basketball stuff's over, but Prime Video is killing it right now, and they've got the tournament. All you do, you subscribe to Prime, use the link in the show description here. You add on a subscription to Max, which will give you TBS, which will give you the tournament and a whole bunch of movies, a whole bunch of shows, and you're off and running. So the link in the show description, if you're watching on YouTube,

also if you're listening on podcasts, there's a link in the show description there. You click it, you get signed up, you are good to go. All right, we got a little bit of news to cover before we talk to Roddy Jones about some ACC football. Remember the Clemson spring games this weekend, the NC State spring games this weekend. I told you the Wolfpack are going to make lots of appearances on this show. We're also going to talk a little Florida State, a little Miami. But a couple things have happened.

Remember the other day, we talked about the video that Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Urchak made regarding Eric Musselman. Actually, Eric Musselman co-started in it, the basketball coach at Arkansas. He'd been the subject of multiple rumors when SMU was open, when Louisville was open. And this video was released on Hunter Urchak's Twitter last week. Buckle up! Wait a minute, you're still here? No, he's not still here.

Nope. Eric Musselman, the new head coach at USC. Yeah, you don't put out that video until you're sure all the jobs have been filled. And so Musselman was rumored in connection with the SMU job, but Andy Enfield, the USC coach, got the SMU job and must decamps to USC.

Now Chris Beard, the Ole Miss coach, the name that everybody's connecting to the Arkansas job. He's only been an Ole Miss a year. So it is. It's just wild in SEC country and basketball. Eric Musselman, now a Big Ten legend. That's right, because USC's in the Big Ten next year. The question now is what happens to Bronny James? Because Bronny James played for USC this year. There were rumors he might go in the transfer portal. Had not seen any sort of confirmation on that. He also may go to the draft although nothing about this season suggested that he's ready for that

but remember he also had the cardiac issue before the season started so he didn't really get a full pre-season didn't really get a chance to show exactly what he could do this season so we'll see what happens with Bronny James but Eric Musselman headed to the Trojans. And it was that USC puts out the edit where they photoshopped a USC polo onto him. Why don't you just grab a shirtless pic? There's so many shirtless pictures of Eric Bustleman that you don't have to photoshop anything. Or maybe you can just photoshop like a painted SC logo on it. But he's gone. And that was just a strange situation with Hunter Juracek saying, no, no, he's still here. But not signing him to a new contract, which should have been the red flag there. Also, on Thursday, Donovan Raiola is the father of Dylan Raiola.

You see what I did there? I meant to say Dylan Raiola. I said Don Dylan Raiola. You see what I did there? I meant to say Dylan Raiola. I said Donovan Raiola. Donovan Raiola is his dad, former Nebraska center. Dylan Raiola is the quarterback who is a freshman at Nebraska right now, who is the guy, the recruit, the biggest recruit Nebraska has signed in decades and probably the most important recruit of the Matt Rule era so far. So all the quarterbacks at Nebraska talked yesterday. Dylan Raiola was one of them. Here's a little taste of that.

Honestly, I think it's kind of surreal, and I have a lot of gratitude to be in this university. I think it really hit the last match, Joe. We had it. It was at night in the stadium. And I just remember running out. And it was just awesome to be in Memorial Stadium. You know, being a recruit, watching a game,

isn't really the same as actually being in the stadium yourself. So, it's been surreal. I'm very grateful to be where I'm at and, uh, surrounded by a great group of guys and coaches. So that's, uh,

that's still a rail of talking about what it's like to actually be in Nebraska corn Husker, because his recruiting experience was, was wild. He was committed to Ohio state at one point, he was committed to Georgia, but obviously he was always a legacy at Nebraska. There was always a, you know, the, and I said Donovan Ryle,

Donovan Ryle is his uncle. Dominic Ryle is his dad. There's a lot of Ryle's and they all, all their names start with a D, but because he is a legacy there, he's been going to these games his whole life. You know, there's always that possibility in that poll, even when he was committed elsewhere that he might wind up at Nebraska.

And there's a lot of pressure here. There's a lot of pressure on Dylan Raiola. There's a lot of pressure on Matt rule because you've got Heinrich Harburg who's who played last year. He was, he wound up being the starting quarterback last year. They brought in Jeff Sims. It didn't work out.

They had Chubba Purdy. But Harburg was probably the steadiest of the quarterbacks last year. He's a Nebraska guy. But with Dylan Raiola coming in, I think the expectation is Dylan Raiola is supposed to win the job. And right now, Nebraska's got a quarterback competition. They've got to figure out what they want to do, how that offense is going to look. Now, the defense is very, very good at Nebraska. So whoever wins the job, however they decide to handle the quarterback situation, that person does not have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be great. It has to be adequate and you have to protect the ball. That's really the most important

part of all this. And for Dylan Raiola, I think the expectation was he's going to come in and start. Now, remember they had Kyle McCord looking at Nebraska as a possible transfer destination from Ohio State around the same time that we heard the rumors that Dylan Raiola might flip from Georgia. McCord decides not to go to Nebraska, goes to Syracuse. And I think that the thought is that, you know, Dylan Raiola, if you sign him, the expectation is he's the guy. Now, Daniel Kalin, another Nebraska guy, also a member of this freshman class, he's there right now too. So we will see what happens. But there's a lot of pressure on Dylan Raiola and on Matt Rule to make this work, to get this right, because he is the recruit that they were all waiting for. Is he as good as advertised?

We're going to find out. But he's definitely got the size, the speed, the arm, everything he needs. The question is, will he be ready to do that as a true freshman in the Big Ten? We talked about Nebraska's schedule with Sean Callahan a few weeks ago. It's not the most daunting schedule in the world. Of the new Big Ten schedules, I'd say that Nebraska got one of the better draws. But that second game, that Colorado game, that's the one everybody's got circled. I think Nebraska should be better than Colorado this year.

Remember, they lost that game to Colorado last year when there were a bunch of turnovers at the end of the first half. Jeff Sims did not play very well in that game. Colorado kind of took over and just blew it open after those turnovers. If you let that Nebraska defense cook and you take care of the ball, look at that schedule. They're going to be in most of those games. And so it could be week two against Coach Prime, a fairly low scoring affair. And we will see maybe Dylan Raiola is there on the side. Cause if you have coach prime and Dylan Raiola,

so Dylan Raiola against Shadur Sanders, that's going to be a very, very must see TV event. But Dylan Raiola said all the right things yesterday, talked about getting acclimated, certainly didn't act like he's come in to be the starter. Although I think that is again, the expectation, but we'll see what he has, what he does. He's got the rest of spring practice to go.

I don't foresee them naming a starter at the end of spring practice. I don't really need to. I don't think these guys are a threat to transfer. If they don't name a starter at the end of spring practice. I don't really need to. I don't think these guys are a threat to transfer if they don't name a starter. They can let this thing go into the preseason camp and then get it figured out. But again, lots of pressure on Dylan Raiola and on Matt Rule. Before we talk a little ACC spring football with Roddy Jones, let's talk about FanDuel. Obviously, the Final Fours are going on. We talked about them. FanDuel's got the lines on those.

Do you think UConn can cover again, again, again on the men's side? All they do is cover. Every game in the last year's tournament, every game so far in this year's tournament, they were an 11.5 point in the last year's tournament, every game so far in this year's tournament, they were at 11 and a half point for everybody against Alabama. Can they cover? It's an incredible question. They're a machine.

But you got to think at some point that stops. Is this the time it stops? FanDuel.com slash Staples. You sign up, you bet five, you get $200 in bonus bets. So bet $5, $200 in bonus bets. And also they've got college football stuff right now, the preseason stuff, the win totals, the national championship futures, that sort of thing. So Jesse Simonson and I use these FanDuel win totals to come up

with a question the other day. And it was, well, I'm giving myself credit and I shouldn't. It was all Jesse. It's a great question. And we actually put out a poll on Twitter about it. So the question Jesse asked was, I'm going to give you four teams, Georgia, Texas, Ohio state, and Oregon. And it's not a coincidence. Those four teams have the highest win total on FanDuel this preseason. All of them have a 10 and a half win total. That's teams have the highest win total on FanDuel this preseason. All of them have a 10.5 win total. That's tied for the highest in the country. So basically, he's going to give you those four in one hand. In the other hand, he's got the field. Which hand's winning the national championship? One of those four teams or the field?

And we put it out as a poll on Twitter and over 1,700 of you voted and it was really close. So 53% said it's going to come from that group of four teams, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Oregon. 47% said the field. I thought it was as close as it should have been because it's a very tough question. Like if you're putting Alabama in the, if you're putting Alabama in the field, if you're putting Michigan in the field, Clemson in the field, LSU in the field, the field's got a chance. So go to fanduel.com slash staples. You can check out all those win totals.

We'll be talking about them throughout the rest of the spring. You know, there are a lot of teams we haven't gotten to yet, but they are fascinating. I'm telling you right now. And you may want to check out NC State after we talk to Roddy Jones, because again, this is a team that I don't know that a lot of people are talking about right now, but probably should be talking about right now. So let's talk ACC football with Roddy Jones, Clemson spring game, NC State spring game,

Florida State, Louisville, Miami. Let's go. Honored to be joined by Roddy Jones of the ACC Network. And Roddy, I feel like when we talk about the ACC lately, it's either DJ Burns and NC State, who is a force of nature, or schools in the ACC suing the ACC and the ACC suing them back. I would like to talk about actual football on the field in the ACC. So, hopefully, you can help me with that because we got a Clemson spring game, NC State spring game this week. We got Florida State in spring

practice, Miami. This feels like a very interesting year coming up in the ACC not to mention adding SMU and Stanford and and Cal but I Roddy I let's can we start with the Tigers like Davos got the spring game coming they've got a super talented roster but can they break back into the club this year i think they can the question is will they and and the thing andy is like nationally we've sort of we've downgraded clemson and i and i think rightfully so like if they were a bond they were the highest rated bond possible for so many years then in alabama they've taken a step back from that some from that. So their hesitance to jump i portal. Some of it's just luck ran out. Some of it'

luck ran out. But this is roster. The thing is thei is just a lot smaller. An and watch the games last that they had came at crucial times. I mean, in the Duke game, first game of the year, they fumbled inside the red zone twice, two times that they likely would have scored,

at least gotten points, and they end up losing that game against Florida State. They're up seven and driving when Cade Klobnick gets sacked. Kalen Deloach scoops and scores. It's a 14-point swing there. So there's a lot of games where you could point to and say Clemson was right there. My question to Dabo Sweeney would be, what have you done this offseason to make sure that those mistakes don't put you on the wrong side of that margin for error?

Because they are close. They're extremely talented. They'll be probably the most talented roster in the league again, if not top two. So we have Cade Klovenick takes a step in development, if that receiver room as a whole takes a step in development, if Phil Moffa can fill the shoes of both he and Will Shipley last year, then I think they've got a real shot. They've got some big names to replace on defense, but that defense is always good. It's always super talented. And they've got some great players up front. So I think they can.

They just got to eliminate the major mistakes. Well, Peter Woods is a guy that I'm surprised isn't a household name yet, but I think he will be. I mean, he sort of follows that long line of Grady Jarrett, Christian Wilkins, Brian Bersia. Now, I realize these are all very different kinds of defensive tackles, but they're all Dexter Lawrence, all really good dominant interior d-line and so clemson still has that but i i go back to like k club nick talking at the beginning of

spring practice about have they had times last year where they'd have receivers where they're running this particular route in a game for the first time like where they didn't rep it in practice but but somebody got hurt and can they finally get back to the the kind of receiver depth that they used to have that's i guess that's my question because like i think back to you know whether it was was t higgins and amari rogers or uh mike williams and hunter renfro and arteva scott like they they just have not had multiple guys that scare you. The answer is no, they're not going to get back to that.

The attrition has been too high. That's been the position the most where I think their hesitance to go into the transfer portal has hurt them because they've had guys, the inputs have been the same, Andy, you know, T Higgins was a four star guy. Mike Williams was a four or five star guy. You know, they've been getting four and five stars, Bowen, Dakari Collins, five star or four star players. EJ Williams, a four or five star guy. You know, they've been getting four and five stars. Bowen Dakari Collins, five star or four star players. E.J. Williams, a four star player. The inputs have been the same.

The outputs, what's changed. And then the nutrition as well. Guys playing for three years or sitting for three years and then transferring out. Those guys don't develop like a Cornell Powell who took really until his fourth and fifth year to become a really good receiver for him. So they're not going to build that kind of depth. My question is, can they get the top end talent again? And every single year for it seems like forever, we've heard about a freshman receiver, whether it was, you know, Frank Ladson and Joseph Ngata or the Dakari Collins, Bo Collins, DJ. We've heard about him.

They've got another one, highly touted freshman receiver coming in who's lighting it up in spring practice. Can he turn into that guy? I'm skeptical at this point. I'm skeptical. But if they can sort of have depth by committee, like if they can not have a drop-off from Troy Stilato, for example, to the next guy, then I think you can sort of find a happy medium

between what they were and what they've been. Yeah. And Brian, Brian Wesco, the receiver you're talking about, the freshman that, you know, and you wonder like, will they have another one blood, but I'm with you on that, that the portal piece of it. And I said this after the four state game last year and Clemson fans got mad at me. So I said, said you know if Keon Coleman transfers to Clemson instead of Florida State and obviously Clemson wasn't in the mix for him that you know he he was looking at particular schools but let's say they had been like hey come here they win the game like that's the difference I don't feel like they're that far off but it's this this unwillingness to bring in somebody new.

It baffles me. Keon Coleman's a great example because that one was right in front of him, but there's so many. Look at what A.D. Mitchell did at Texas. He was at Georgia. If you just go down the road to Athens and start to recruit that guy, then maybe get him in. The thing that alarms me about Clemson now, Andy,

is they've started to dip into it in terms of recruiting guys, particularly on the offensive line. I mean, they haven't been good at it. So the speed gating of the transfer portal, Clemson hasn't adjusted to. They went after reportedly like five offensive linemen. None of them chose Clemson. It's developmental relationship type recruiting that they're very good at, and they're very good at it at the high school level.

But it feels like the speed gating of of the portal they haven't quite adjusted to yeah it it is tough and meanwhile you've got florida state which mastered it like florida state's gonna be a very different looking team this year and i'm curious to get your thoughts on this because it feels like there's been a little like before this, there was the developmental piece of it where Mike Norvell taking what he inherited and building that up, but also adding these pieces in. And maybe it was Jamie Robinson or Jaheim Bell, who they got from South Carolina. Keon Coleman, we mentioned this year, it seems like they went very specifically dudes at Alabama and Georgia who may or may not have been able to win starting jobs in the spring and that uncertainty is what led them into the portal it feels like the pipeline of Georgia defensive linemen that's

going to be a rotational piece to Florida State is strong after Jermaine Johnson Jermaine Johnson sitting out sitting behind like three first rounders. He comes in, he's the first rounder at Florida State. Now Marvin Jones Jr., Florida State legacy, chose to go to Georgia, goes to Florida State, and they're going to look to sort of microwave that same sort of success. Florida State has done such a good job of, as you said, there were two pieces to it. On the offensive line, they brought in transfer portal guys

from lower level schools and developed. And in a lot of positions, they sort of took that, uh, took, took that, that, that approach. Look at Fabian Lovett on the defensive line. It was a multi-year contributor. I don't even think of him as a transfer. Cause he was there for like four years. Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of those offensive linemen that we saw play last year were, were like three year guys, guys that had transferred from lower schools like three years ago and were developmental pieces. So now they're at the point where they've got the depth, they've got the foundation, and you're just looking for high-level guys

that can impact you immediately. They've had so much success, there's no reason to think it won't continue this year. It is going to look significantly different, though, Andy, and that kind of leads me to like I don't know exactly what their ceiling is, and we probably won't know for the first couple of games honestly yeah that's I we had DJ you on the show and and I thought man this guy fits in here great you know you talk to people around the program and they're so happy with him but you have no idea what that's gonna look like like it's it we know what the Jordan Travis version of Florida State looks like

because we've seen it for so long. But yeah, speaking of new quarterback, new face, new place. So NC State has their spring game this weekend. Grayson McCall, longtime Coastal Carolina quarterback, steps in with the Wolf Pack. No Peyton Wilson on the other side of the ball anymore. But I don't know about you. I feel like there's's a little arrested development.

There's always money in the banana stand on their defense. It is going to be good. And then can the offense come around? The offense was what held them back last year, the quarterback position in particular. And I think Grayson McCall going to NC State is one of the least talked about giant transfers in the country. I mean, this is a guy that was an absolute baller at Coastal Carolina, multi-time player of the year in that conference.

I mean, he captured our hearts and minds. That team did a few years ago in 2020. And I don't want to be hyperbolic here, but it feels like he's got a shot to be the best quarterback they've had at NC State since Russell Wilson. I mean, and they've had some good ones. Ben Finley was good. Jacoby Brissett was good. Devin Leary gave them some good years. But, like, Grayson McCall's a dude.

So you pair him with Casey Concepcion, who was basically that offense last year. Jordan Waters, who's a really good running back from Duke, transfers over as well. And as you said, like, there's always money on that defense. They have gone through multiple iterations of turning over that defense since they got really good in 2019-2020. And so now that defense has to sort of enter a new era, Peyton Wilson-less era.

But over the course of the last five years, they've had to play multiple chunks of seasons without Peyton Wilson and still been excellent. So Tony Gibson's one of the absolute best. The fact that they still have him at NC State, I think, is not a minor miracle, but it's a great job by NC State of supporting him. So if you're going to take a flyer, I mean, it's April, and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself,

but if you're going to take a flyer on a team, NC State's not a bad one. It's the year of the Wolfpack, too. They've got two teams in the Final Four. They've broken the curse. Exactly. Well, and I think that Tennessee-N game in charlotte is really intriguing at the for both teams the beginning of season because you you don't know what tennessee is going to be like with nico at quarterback and that's their their first real challenge and then you get to see

grayson mccall against maybe the best d-line they're going to face which is saying something but that's how good tennessee's D-line is this year. But the Casey Concepcion thing is crazy to me because you're right. When you say he was their offense, as a freshman, 71 catches. The next highest number of receptions on the team, 28. Yeah. This was a team that struck. And look, the MJ Morris thing was, it was all weird.

All of it was weird because they recruited over him, brought somebody in from the transfer portal, and then he plays the four games. He's like, wait a second, if you're going to recruit over me, I'm going to go find my own thing. And now he's at Maryland. I think that all of the mismanagement of the quarterback situation last year is what killed them.

Yeah, if Grayson McCall is that dude from the get-go, you quarterback situation last year is what killed them. Yeah, if Grayson McCall is that dude from the get-go, you're talking about a pretty good team here. You're talking about a really good team. I do think if you're looking for the silver lining behind the quarterback situation that they had, I thought the culture of that team, that program really shined during that time. It's really easy for a team when you have a guy that you believed in, an M.J. Morris, who gets recruited over by Brandon Armstrong. Brandon Armstrong doesn't play well.

They are struggling on offense. You go to M.J. Morris, and then he steps back and says, hey, look, I want to actually redshirt so that I can go do my thing. Then Brandon Armstrong comes back in. I thought through all of that, the culture of NC state, and the fact that that team stayed together and had a chance, a chance to win its 10th game in a bowl game against Kansas state. I thought that was a testament to Dave Doran.

And they won't have that this year. Like they won't have that distraction, the quarterback position, you're going to get the ultimate leader, the ultimate competitor and Grayson McCall. And they've got some playmakers. They've got some talent on the offensive line. So, you know, I'm having a hard time not getting excited about that. Well, so the other team that I've been kind of excited about,

and I've had people say, hey, cool your jets on this team. So I need you as an arbiter here. I look at what Louisville did last year, which we said going into the season, their schedule was favorable, and they had a chance to do some things. But I think Jeff Braum, with another year to build the roster up, and look, he did a really good job. You look at the way Isaac Garindo is testing in the combine in pro day. He found some good players. But I'm looking at Tyler Shuck

as he comes to Louisville. And it feels like at Oregon, at Texas Tech, it wasn't like Tyler Shuck was ever bad. It was he was good and then he was hurt. And I keep saying, and I realize this is probably an unfair comparison, but Michael Penix Jr. in Indiana, where he was either good or he was hurt. And then when you finally saw him be healthy for a while, he was awesome. Now he's, you know, you got Tyler Shook with a quarterback whisperer in Jeff Brom. Could he stay healthy? Could he be good for a whole season? Like that, that intrigues me a lot.

It intrigues me too because the flashes of Tyler Shuck that we've seen give him a higher ceiling than what Jack Plummer gave them. And towards the end of the year, that offense was so up and down. It seemed like early in the year if they couldn't create big plays, they weren't scoring. And then late in the year when it sort of dried up and Isaac Arendo took over until they hit Florida State, they were able to just sort of manage to manage the game, hold the ball.

But I think Tyler Shuck gives them a higher ceiling than what Jack Plummer did a year ago. The questions to me are that offense was able to congeal pretty quickly. Jack Plummer had played in the offense. Again, they got the big plays from Jawar Jordan early on and Jamari Thrash. Can it congeal as quickly jack plumber had played in the offense again they got the big plays from jowar jordan uh early on and jamari thrash can it congeal as quickly this season and i think that's sort of the question that we always have with the transfer portal as you said jack brahms had success with all of his quarterbacks it feels like his the most success that he has comes with older quarterbacks aiden o'connell in his last couple seasons obviously jack plumber was an older guy tyler shucks what 25 so so you're going to have an older quarterback that's going to take what Jeff

Braum designs, isn't going to get tired with completions, which is all you need. Because that defense is going to be really good. That defense was really good last year, and it should be really good again this year. Yeah, that one, I don't think they're going to surprise anybody this year, though. Everybody's going to come in expecting Louisville to be good so that they don't have that element anymore. But one other ACC team I wanted to ask you about this one. We just I feel like I can never accurately predict Miami. I don't know what Miami is like. I suspect they're more talented this year. I suspect that offensive line is taking they're more talented this year i suspect that offensive

line is taking a step forward again this year uh feels like they brought in some some really good players on the d-line but we don't know how long it'll take them to develop but then things like the georgia tech game happen and it's like can can they ever get over the hump? If they can figure out the operational stuff, the communication on the coaching staff to make sure that the fatal flaw, the massive mistake doesn't happen. The Georgia Tech game is a big one, but there's also, I can't remember what game it was now because it all blends together, but there's multiple games where they go into the locker room with three timeouts

at the end of the first halfouts at the end of the first half or at the end of the game you're like what are we doing we could use one of those timeouts at some point to try and extend the game to try and get our defense set so so they can figure that stuff out then they'll get out of the way of showing how much that roster has improved from a talent standpoint in particular on the two places that you mentioned the offensive and defensive lines. If you go back and you watch that Florida State game, for most of the first half, that offensive line did a really, really good job against Florida State's defensive line,

and it was really young and inexperienced at spots, particularly to tackle spots. But if they're able to replace Matt Lee, the excellent job they've done recruiting on the offensive line should be able to show Mark Fletcher's back at running back. And then you've got Cam Ward at quarterback, a guy that was asked to play hero ball at Washington State. He should have more support around him in terms of a run game and an offensive line than he did at Washington State. And then you expect the defense to take a step forward because, as you said on that defensive line, they both have Reuben Bain, who is an absolute monster. He should be one of the best, if not the best, players in the league. But the depth that they've developed or the depth that they've recruited

and brought in on the transfer portal around him should improve them. So I think Miami should be really good. I really do. And I'll go out on the land and say, hey, look, Miami should be a team that's flirting with double-digit wins because you've got the quarterback, you've recruited all the offensive and defensive lines. I think their offensive skills should be good enough. I think their defensive skills should be good enough. The question is, can you put it all together?

And that's been the question for the last, what, two decades with Miami? Yeah, exactly. And the Cam Ward thing is interesting to me because, like like you mentioned a little bit of hero ball at Washington state he's going to be surrounded by more talent here so he shouldn't have to do everything himself and also Shannon Dawson their OC runs an offense very similar to what he's accustomed to like they speak the same language it should be fairly easy for cam ward to come in and adjust to this i i do wonder how much of it is you know for miami just having the right guy at quarterback because it felt like tyler van dyke might be and then the coaching change happened and then it

didn't it didn't work out for him he's at wisconsin now uh but could it be cam ward or even emory williams at some point down the road? Yeah, I think the quarterback position is a big part of it because I mentioned that Florida State game. Eventually, Florida State found out that not only could Miami not throw the ball, they weren't even really going to try to throw the ball. And once they made that adjustment, it was game over for them moving the ball consistently offensively. It created a couple of big plays later on. But I think that the quarterback position is a huge one because let's not forget tyler van dyke also had that really weird injury where the skin was separating from the fat

underneath like his leg and it was causing him extreme pain i can't remember what it was called but it sounded like it hurt really really bad it's yeah he's dealing with stuff as well so um cam ward is a is a better, more talented option for them at quarterback. As you mentioned the system, you know, going from a carnate word to Washington state, Shannon Dawson coming from that air raid tree. You said it, they speak the same language. I do think the offense will be structured much differently from a philosophical standpoint than it was at either of those two. They're going to want to run the ball. They're going to want to run the ball downhill. gonna want to run the ball downhill and i think that can really help cam more yeah because he doesn't have to

be the guy holding up the offense on every single play he he can he can have one or two where the line in the backs take over and do their thing so roddy i i'm really excited now and uh folks the the nc state stuff put a pin in that because i we we've met we we had a deep dive into tennessee a couple weeks ago roddy and we talked a lot about that nc state game and i think you know you look at the wolf pack schedule you look at at what they have coming in that might be your dark horse for the acc title game. And I'm very interested because you wonder, like, how long can Dave Dorn and company consistently be good before they do finally break through?

Because they've been kind of right there. They've been right there. I'm also – I know we're talking ACC. I am sneaky excited about Tennessee, so I'm glad we brought them up a couple times. Yes. I think you mentioned the defensive line. But with Nico at quarterback quarterback, like you're going to get better than Joe Milton. I don't know if he'll be hitting hooker. He probably won't dynamic on the topic. I'm excited about Tennessee. I'm really fascinated with that game. But, but as you mentioned, Mike,

with NC state, the defense is going to be there. The offense certainly has to take a step forward in terms of consistency. So that's a week one game to really circle. All right, Roddy Jones, thank you so much. Appreciate it, Andy. Always good to catch up. The great Roddy Jones. And, you know, NC State people's weekend was already pretty good because you got the women and the men in the final four.

But you got Roddy pumping you up for football season. And his take on how Grayson McCall can change their football fortunes is very interesting. And if you go back and look at last year, yeah, you put a much more functional offense with that defense. And all of a sudden you are dealing with a team that can win the conference. So we'll watch that as it develops. They've got their spring game on Saturday, but the NC State men's basketball team also playing Saturday night against Purdue. We bring in James Fletcher III on three's resident bracketologist. And James, this is what I've been wondering.

So we're looking at Purdue and NC State, and we're talking Zach Eadie and DJ Burns. But how do you think NC State will attack Zach Eadie? Because they've got three guys that kind of rotate through in the post. Who's going to be trying to deal with Zach Eady most of the time yeah you run into an interesting discussion there because obviously DJ Burns has the strength advantage uh where he can hopefully be able to push Zach Eady around a little bit if you're in the state keep him out of the lane a little bit more than anyone

else in college basketball has been able to uh using his ability to just clear space will be valuable for them. But is the height difference at 6'9 just too much for him to overcome when he's trying to guard Zach Eaddy, who can just rise right over the top of him? So do you go to a Diara in that situation who maybe can use a little bit of his athleticism and a little bit of height advantage that he has there to create a more favorable matchup? What you run into there, I think the danger of having Diara is that he will likely be using, like I said, his athleticism, which means more jumping, which then creates more opportunities for Zach Eadie to create fouls. Yes, that's exactly right. Zach Eadie is one of the best in college basketball, one of the best that we've seen in quite a while at drawing those fouls down low

and keeping his balance to be able to make the shot. And and ones are what you really have to avoid if you're in C-State here. So it'll be an interesting discussion. I think I would probably go Burns and then start with a spy where you've got, you're not double teaming him, but you're ready to blitz if he turns towards the basket and take away some of that space that he has. Well, and, and Edie, I try to think,

has Edie played anybody who weighs as much as him this season? Cause Edie, Edie is over 300 pounds yeah and so i don't you we had because because i know you know it's a football show uh but we had jim naggy from the senior bowl in and i had him put the scout's eye on dj burns yeah and and jim naggy says if he didn't work as a as a professional football scout he would be the guy who guesses your height and weight in the circus. So DJ Burns to a professional NFL scout is 6'7", slightly over 300 pounds. So that's a load inside, but Zach Eaddy is over 300 pounds as well. Right.

And so it comes down to, like it comes down to in football, you know, low center of gravity, who's going to win pushing each other around down there in the paint. And that's where I think that DJ Burns does provide them the best opportunity to slow down Zach Eady that we have seen, at least in the NCAA tournament. We know in the big 10, there are some big bodies there, uh, some guys who are able to push you around. I don't know if there's anyone who's in that 300-pound conversation who has that strength ratio that we've seen from DJ Burns. But yeah, he is one of the most interesting matchups against Zach Eaddy just because you have to wonder, has Zach Eaddy been pushed around

the way that DJ Burns is going to do to him in that game on both ends of the floor, really, because Zach Eady has pretty much been able to get around the rim, grab rebounds whenever he wants on the other end of the floor. And Burns is going to make that a struggle. He's going to make him work with those box outs. We had a question on Dear Andy yesterday about how Zach Eady gets officiated. And one thing that stands out to me, the lack of fouls called on him, like he leaves his feet so rarely. And I was trying to explain that like the way they train officials is they're watching. If you leave your feet, if you, if you're not straight up and down,

if you extend over the top or if you're, if you're reaching in that sort of thing. So if you are straight up and down with your feet on the floor, you're probably not getting called for a foul. And that, more than anything, feels like Zach Eaddy's superpower in college basketball. Yeah, that's a common misconception in basketball is that contact equals a foul. It does not.

The defensive player has every right to the space that the offensive player has. You cannot restrict the offensive player's movement. So when Zach Eadie steps in there and he is stationary in front of the rim, like you said, getting up and down is where a lot of guys get in trouble because it's so hard to jump, especially off of both feet and not move forward, backward, or side to side, which as we know is not legal guarding position if you are moving from point A to point B. And then you get the arms, which have to be straight up, which Zach Eady, more so than

any other player in college basketball, has no reason to bring his arms down towards the offensive player. And sometimes, even if he does, they are not tall enough to create contact using his arms. And so what he's able to do is just stand in the way, which he has every right to that space. And so when you see contact, these players run into Zach Eadie, as long as he is sliding within his area and does not leave the floor and go from point A to point B, it is not a foul. It can be contact. And yes, sometimes the opposing player hits the floor harder than we're used to seeing because Edie is such a big body guy, but it's not illegal.

It is not illegal to stand in that space and take on contact. It is illegal to create the contact. And so when you don't have to reach in and you don't have to jump, you're not going to get called for very many fouls because that's just the way that basketball is officiated. And so I think it's hard for fans to kind of soak it in because it does look like what we see on the other end. But those are the little intricate details that these officials are looking for, like you said.

Well, let's move from one giant to another. You've got Donovan Klingin from UConn, 7'2", against Alabama. And this is a game where if Alabama's shooting well, we are talking about... We could see both teams in the hundreds if Alabama is shooting really well, because both these teams want to play a kind of elegant flowing style on offense. Yeah, it's going to be a fun matchup. I was looking at that over under there on the screen, and I'm not sure if that's going to stick because both of these teams have incredible offensive firepower. We know that UConn is the number one offense in the

country. Alabama, as Nate Oates pointed out earlier this week in his press conference, was number one for a large portion of the season until Latrell Reitzel went out with an injury. Well, looks like he's going to be back this weekend. And so Alabama, according to their staff, is back to what they were when they were the number one offense in the country. So we're going to see an offensive matchup here, but I think where UConn can create some separation is on the defensive end of the floor. What Donovan Klingin has been able to do, taking the offensive efficiency that he gives you around the rim and then bringing to the defensive end just an absolute rim protection that not many people have been able to provide at the college level in quite

some time has made this UConn team what it is and able to slow down what was the number two offense in Illinois just behind UConn in the last round. we saw how that went with a 30-0 run. What's a little 30-0 run between friends? Yeah, Klingin at 7'2". We talk about him and Edie, and maybe we'll get to see them play each other on Monday night. But he is a much twitchier player, much twitchier athlete than Zach Edie. This is a guy, he's in NBA. Edie's going to play in the NBA too,

but we never asked the question about is Donovan Klingin an NBA guy? He is. And he just changes so much of the game when he's on the floor. Yeah, where he has raised his NBA draft stock and his ability to impact the NCAA tournament the most, I think, is conditioning. His ability to go out there, and he still doesn't play a ton of minutes.

He's not going to be a guy who's on the floor for 38, 40 minutes in the game, unless maybe we go to overtime. But he's a guy who for 20 to 30 minutes is going to come in there, and instead of the center who trails the play, he is now running with the transition offense or the transition defense. And that ability to be at the rim on either end of the center who trails the play. He is now running with the transition offense or the transition defense and that ability to be at the rim on either end of the floor for the majority of the possession rather than arriving after the offense gets initiated has taken this UConn team to a whole other level from its ability to move at that pace and efficiently move at that pace. And even though that their pace is not one of the

top in the country, what a lot of that comes down to is the sets that they run. Once they pull the back ball back, they want to get out and run. And then if the opportunity is not there, then they get into their offensive sets, which maybe take a little bit further into the play clock to develop than some other teams. So I had not thought about this until Dan Hurley brought it up yesterday. He was answering a question from Dan Wolkin from USA Today about Nate Oates. And I imagine that Dan Hurley sees a lot of Bob Hurley Sr. in Nate Oates because Nate Oates 10 years ago was a high school coach in Michigan. So let's hear Dan Hurley talking about Nate Oates. Yeah, it's like he was running a college program in high school, just like my dad. If you went and watched the St. Anthony, just the way the program functioned from the pregame meal that my dad was literally cooking on his own to game day

shoot-arounds to film sessions. Like the quality of what my dad was doing at the high school level was the quality of what the top programs in college were doing, you know, obviously based on the resources available, right? So that was the thing I noticed about Nate when we recruited EC was, like, this guy's wired different, number one. He has a different level of energy about him, just the way he shows up when you meet him. And then just the way he ran his program.

I went and watched them before a state tournament game, have one of the most detailed video scouts that you'll see. And in the back, they had spaghetti cooking on the stove. You know, it was, you could see he was a high-level guy that just happened to be coaching in college. That is crazy to think about. Ten years ago, Nato's a high school coach, Romulus, Michigan. He gets hired by Danny White to be the coach at Buffalo and that takes off. But James, are we watching a matchup Saturday night of the two best coaches in college basketball

right now? We very well could be. And if not, probably the two coaches who are on the cusp of entering this conversation that we had at the start of the NCAA tournament as those coaches who are the faces of college basketball, the next era, once we get past some of the hall of famers who are still in the game, I think it's these two. These are the next guys that you're looking at who can put together a resume that enters them in that conversation where year in and year out, we know no matter where they are, no matter who they're coaching, no matter what the roster looks like, we expect greatness from their programs because

of the way that they structure things. He hit on it there. The way you run the program on a day-to-day basis, you see both of these guys are doing that in a way that it breeds an environment that creates success for the assistant coaches who then go on to other opportunities and for the players who go on to success either at the college level or in some cases up to the next level as professional athletes as well. All right, James, let us put you and me on the spot here. We'll start with the game we've been talking about, Alabama and UConn. UConn is an 11 and a half point favorite. UConn has covered every spread in last year's tournament and this year's tournament. You've already given out one pick, which I like a lot. So the total on this game is 161.5. So you are talking about like an 82 to 81 game.

Or 82 to 80. 81 to 79. I feel like it overfeels real good on that one, the way these two teams play offense. But let's talk the spread. Can Alabama get close enough to cover this thing or possibly even beat UConn? It feels like they can stick around.

I think that the offense gives them that opportunity. As we know, the three-point shot is going to determine whether this is an opportunity for an upset or if UConn is going to play the way and create the margin that they have against every other team in the country. And that's no slight to Alabama at all because UConn is doing this to, like way and create the margin that they have against every other team in the country. And that's no slight to Alabama at all, because UConn is doing this to, like I said, the number two offense in the country behind only theirs last round. So I think that it's a dangerous thing to bet against this UConn team right now, what they've shown us not only this year, but last year as well, the margin of victory that they have, I would not be picking against them to cover if I was in that situation.

All right. You know what? I'm going to take Alabama to cover. All streaks have to end eventually. UConn's NCAA tournament covering streak is at 10 right now. 10. I just, it has to end at some point. I can't, I can't imagine it. Maybe they'd make it 12 and win consecutive national titles covering all the way, but you're giving me 11 and a half points. It's a lot. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take Alabama to cover. I'm not, I'm not predicting a straight up Alabama victory. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take Alabama to cover. I'm not predicting a straight up Alabama victory. I'm not crazy, but I will take them to cover. Let us move to the other game, NC State and Purdue. Purdue's a nine and a half point favorite. NC State, the highest seeded team remaining in either the men's or the women's final four. The NC State women are in the final

four as well. They're a three seed. They're in a very different situation, although they're the team. They're playing South Carolina, which is kind of the equivalent to the UConn men. But DJ Burns, DJ Horn, Diara, Middlebrooks, can they hang with Edie if Braden Smith is hitting shots like can NC State hang? You know, I I told you earlier this week I did not want to pick this game at all. I had no interest in picking against NC State after what they've been able to do over the course of the last month. But here we are and I'm on the spot. So I think I just have to go with Purdue. I know it's not the fun pick,

but this Purdue team all season long, they have shown it and they're on this revenge tour of sorts. I think they take one step closer to that. I think that Zach Eady is able to overcome whatever that, that big man combination at NC State is able to throw at him and use Braden Smith to help lead them there. I'm not sure about that number. It feels really close to what this one's going to look like.

So if I had to, I guess I'll hedge and I'll go NC State to cover since I got to make a decision here and NC State just keeps burning me. You know what? This has been the nc state episode it wasn't intended to be that way but both both their teams in the final four roddy jones telling me their football team is going to be the dark horse in the acc this year like i i just feel like there's so much wolfpack momentum. So give me NC State to win the damn thing. To straight up win the damn thing. All right. If you're going to give me nine and a half points, I'm taking them.

Give me NC State. I just, this is not a Cinderella thing. And I keep trying to compare them to the Kimball Walker UConn team that did the same thing in the Big East tournament that they did in the ACC tournament. And I realized this is different situations because mostly because of the competition on the other side, like that UConn team did not have to go through as difficult a path as this NC State team will have had to do if they get to the national title game. But I don't know. There's

something magical about this bunch. Yeah, there definitely is. And that's like I said, that's why I'm so hesitant to go against them, not only because it's the fun pick to make, but also because they keep burning me. This is the team that over and over has I've picked against and they keep on advancing to the next round, whether it was the conference tournament or now they they've got it figured out. And you, you, you're right. You cannot treat them like a Cinderella anymore because this is what they have been for over a month now. So this is the NC state team that we are watching.

And you've got to treat them like a real contender. The NC state money line on this game is plus 340. So if you feel like it's Wolfpack weekend and you're right, you can do pretty well for yourself. So fanduel.com slash staples, get yourself signed up. First $5 bet gets you $200 in bonus bets. There's a lot to chew on with this final four. James, I cannot wait to watch and then we'll see you on Monday to preview a national championship game. It'll be a lot of fun. All right. Thank you,

James Fletcher III. Thank you for watching all week. There's a lot of sports to watch this weekend. We got women's final four Friday night semifinals. We got men's final four semifinals on Saturday. Women's National Championship, Men's National Championship coming up on Monday.

We got spring games. Guys, there's no off-season. We don't do off-seasons around here. We will talk to you on Monday.