Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - ACC Basketball runs through the Duke Blue Devils

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Is Leonard Hamilton's retirement the end of an era for ACC basketball? As the Florida State Seminoles prepare for life without their legendary coach, the ACC landscape is shifting. With Duke's Blue Devils eyeing an undefeated season and Louisville's Cardinals making waves under Pat Kelsey, the stakes have never been higher.Explore the impact of recent coaching changes on ACC competitiveness. Discover how Duke's Cooper Flag and Louisville's Chucky Hepburn are reshaping their teams' fortunes. Hosts Isaac Shade, Jackson Holer, and Dalton Pence provide insider perspectives on these pivotal developments.Will Duke maintain their dominance? Can Louisville's resurgence continue? Tune in for expert analysis and spirited debate on the future of ACC basketball. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Leonard Hamilton's done after this year, and I got to know where of all the ACC coach has gone. You're talking ball with the ACC squad, sponsored by game time. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California, it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming ACC weekend. Hang on, it could get loud, it could get heated. and it will definitely be fun. Squad up, you're part of the ACC Squad.

Hey there, what's up? Welcome in to this week's episode of the ACC Squad. We got a packed house, minus our usual host, Mr. ACC, Alex Dono. He's gone, so all the rest of us are coming out to play. You know it. Miami, they suck at basketball right now. They did win their first ACC game, but Donno is nowhere to be found. Boys, it's good to be together today.

We've got Jackson Holes are locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs, Locked on Wolfpack. Grayson Boone Locked on Wolfpack. Mr. JJ Jackson from some show that I'm not, no, from Locked on Blue Devils, running the table on all of us. And Mr. Dalton Pence from Lockedon, Louisville, whose Wi-Fi is guaranteed to stay in.

Thank you all so much for joining us here on this episode of ACC Squad, man. It is great to be together. This episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the app, create an account, and use code Lockedon College for $20 off your first. purchase. All of our great shows are all part of our great network. Locked on podcast network. I'm Isaac Shade, host of Locked on Tar Heels and our man Jarvis Davis behind the scenes

producing all of this great work. So boys, the news came out on Monday and we got a lot of basketball to talk today. We're over the halfway point of the ACC schedule. Duke is still undefeated. Whose second best is it Clemson or Louisville? Well, part of that we're going to find out this weekend because Duke is visiting Little John Coliseum. That'll be great. But the big news from Monday, Leonard Hamilton, we probably knew this was coming at some point, but now it's official. After this season, Leonard Hamilton will be out the door. It is the third ACC coach just this season to call it quits. It is now seven renowned ACC coaches since the end of the 2021 season. Tony Bennett, Virginia, Jim Beheim, Syracuse, pour one out for Holzer, Mike Brayette, Notre Dame,

Leonard Hamilton now, Coach K from JJ's Blue Devils, Jimmy L from Dono's Cains, and of course, Roy Williams started this whole thing, leaving the tar heels after the 21 season. Guys, the big question I want to ask to get things going today, and we'll see who's going to buy the first round. Tony Bennett calls it quits immediately. Jim Leranaga, immediately. Leonard Hamilton says, I'm going to give it the rest of the year. Who did it right?

Oh, Hamilton. Hamilton by a mom. All of the rest of those guys left their teams in the lurch. The least that you could do, not only did he do right by his players, he did right by the program, he did right by future recruits, because there is no uncertainty. Let's look at the way that the other guys did it. Because even if you wanted to make the argument that Leonard Hamilton had done something wrong here,

let's just look at the way that the other guys did it. Fellas, Tony Bennett went to ACC Media Days, correct? He did. He did. And between ACC media days and the damn tip off of the season, he decided, oh, no, these third string point guards asking for $20,000. I'm done. I'm good.

I don't see what I need to see. You know, and then Jim Loranagan, he didn't even do it before the season. He said, hey, we're getting belted behind. I don't like this. They keep telling me, move my head. I don't know what that means. That's that young kid, lingo. I'm good here and decided to quit mid-season.

So if any of them have any type of claim that they've done it right, even if you would make the argument of, well, the lawsuits that are against him make it different and make it special, even still, he's deciding, I don't want to be a distraction. I don't want to detract from this team in this program. I'm going to bow out gracefully. And the biggest part of all this, he's a 76-year-old on the last year of his contract. This seems much more like a handshake agreement between him and Florida State. Like, hey, you're done here, but we'll let you go out on your own terms. because you left FSU basketball at a much better place than you found it.

So to me, Leonard Hamilton, Byron. He's the oldest out of all of them. That's what's, you know, if you want to play the age card with everything changing, Leonard Hamilton, 76, you've got Leronegis, 75, and of course Tony Bennett still had a lot of life left into him. So it's crazy that the older statesmen still currently in the ACC going into the season

is the one that's holding on the longest and is going to go throughout the rest of the year. It's also the fact that Tony Bennett and Jimmy L, as Isaac called him, they cited NIL was the reason why they decided to leave and that they were tired of the NIL. And so I don't buy it. And the reason why I don't buy it is because, well, what changed? If you were tired of the NIL, then why didn't you just leave at the end of the last season? Why does Tony Bennett decide to call it quits right before the regular season starts? I got news for Tony Bennett. Nothing changes between weeks before the season starts and when the

actual season starts. As far as the Miami coach, yeah, like what changes during the season? Nothing changes during the season, except that you found out that your team is not very good. So what's the letter of Lernick's last name? That's what started changing for Miami basketball. Amen. I'm going to get going. It was a little bit spineless. It's really not even about the sport at that point is can you see through to the end of the year and not quit something right in the middle of it? I mean, And that might be the same case with Tony Bennett as well to an extent. It's like, yeah, I realize that my team's not that good. I'm going to go ahead and pull out now.

It's coward work, fellas. It's being a coward, especially Jim's situation. That's even worse to me than the other two. At least, and I say this at least like a silver lining, at least Tony Bennett gave Ron Sanchez the decency to give him a couple weeks. Jim did it in the middle of the season. Yeah. I mean, that's just coward words me.

I don't care. I don't care what you say if it's not a health. issue, then there's no rationale that you can make that I'm going to respect. That's how it is. And it's not like this NIL thing just suddenly appeared. July of 2021 is when this really became a thing. So when you look back at Roy Williams or Mike Chashefsky, Jim Beheim, even, they had more of a runway where they said, this is coming, I'm getting older,

I don't want to do this, now's the time to go. Whereas these other coaches are wanting to state NIL is the big reason for, you've been doing this for a couple of years now. There hasn't been any major differences from when it was first introduced in college basketball to where it's at now, more to kind of Dalton's point. You're taking the cowards way out. Your team's not good. I'm out of here.

Yep. And love them hate them indifferent. Oh, go ahead. No, you're good. Okay, well, love them, hate them indifferent. The way that you, all the coaches you just talked about, Beheim and Syracuse, all the oddities that went into that, retiring, firing, whatever that was, all. of the fanfare that went in the coach k's farewell tour roy williams and kissing the court

before he walked up all of those guys did it at the end of the season it was declared it was definitive declarative it was no interpretation of oh yeah we're going to be back next year everybody knew it was oh yeah uh coach k's having a farewell toward every player from the brotherhood is here together like there's no coach k is going to be back next year jim behaam again Even with everything that went into that, it was still not a hot, cold, yes, no, maybe. It was, hey, he's probably not coming back. That's what everybody's feeling like here, and that's what happened. So, again, that kind of, oh, we're going to wait up until the last minute,

and then we're going to pull out and say, oh, NIL just got us. The NIL bandit strikes again. It's like the meme of the guy from Detroit saying, we're all trying to figure out who's responsible for this. That is how I'm looking at these coaches. And you said pull out, man, that's not always the recipe. It doesn't always work. I know plenty of people got kids from trying to do it. Man, that's not always your best option. Here's the thing, fellas. Mike Bray did the same thing as what Leonard Hamilton's doing here, right? Like said, I'm going to be done at the end of this year. And so we'll let that keep rolling and see how we go with that as well. And let's keep in mind also, Leonard Hamilton is being sued by a bunch of his former players right now, right? So that's a real thing that we're reckoning. with two. Here's where I want to take this conversation next, guys. Our longest tenured head coaches right now, anybody know who the next two longest tenured are? Brad Brownell is number one.

Yes, he is. Anybody know who number two is? Number two. Kevin Keats is now number two. Brad Brownell since the 2010-11 season. Kevin Keats since 2017-18. After that, every current ACC coach has been at their school since only the 1920 season or more recent. We are in a brand new era of ACC in the same moment as we're trying to keep up and compete with the SECs and big 12s and big tens. What is the immediate and future for our league? The immediate has to be making the right hires. And I made a point on this on Locked on Louisville is a rising tide raises all ships. And there's, we're some global fans that I kind of talked within a discord and they're like,

we need them to make the wrong hires. I said, the hell we do. we need them to make the right hires because what's happening to the ACC, same side on football. It's getting completely put off to the side. We'll be lost to Georgia Tech and drop two spots in the bracketology. SEC team loses. They might jump a spot. Of course I say that jokingly, but all good jokes contain true sentiments.

So it's a matter of you have to, if you make the right hires and there could be up to about six openings at the end of the year, no lie. we need the ACC to make good hires here. You're absolutely right because there used to be a saying that it was harder to win the Big East regular season title than the actual NCAA tournament. There used to be a world where that existed. So you're absolutely right. You've got to make it so that every team is really, really good. Or most teams are really, really good so that when you do lose a game,

it doesn't completely kill you in the net rankings and it doesn't kill you in the bracketologies. Which is why I think so much recently on these high. that have been made. And I'm the Duke guy. I know this, Mr. Elite over here. But when you look at the kind of transition period that Duke had, I don't think it's, there's a reason they're at the top, right? There's a reason that they had this year-long transition period announcing that John Shire would take over for Mike Shoshchewski. It's the other schools. Y'all had the blueprint. I don't know why these other schools didn't the doctor. Well, Syracuse tried the blueprint. It didn't work.

First thing, no. I would like to say, I would like to say, I would like to say, I would like to say nobody called JJ Mitherele but himself. So let's not have any misgivings about that. Now, moving forward from there, I mean, I had a thousand percent agree, but I had a thousand percent disagree all at once. Let me tell you why, JJ. I think the problem is that all of the ACC gene pools are too incestuous in terms of the coaches.

Get out of your damn coach entry to find your replacement. Stop trying to replace you with baby you. The game is different. If the game passed you by, why would you then say, hmm, I know what this university needs to stay relevant, a watered down less good version of me? No, go get somebody that is ready and ripe and prime for this era of doing things. We all, all of our schools, except for NC State,

because we haven't hired a new coach since the NIL thing is coming to place, I've had a chance to say, we're going to go get a guy that is really good in this, in this environment, really good in the portal, really good with all that goes into it now. But everybody said, hmm, I know what I'll do. Hey, we got this Hubert guy on staff. Hey, you know, and Louisville saw it the worst in terms of not even a guy that was on staff, but just like, oh, he's a former player here. This should work out break for us. No, expand your gene pool. go get somebody that thinks different, does it different.

And look at how well it's working out for damn Louisville. In one year, they're about to get their worst of first story, even though they're not quite first because there's a guy named Cooper Flag. But if it wasn't for him being born, they'd have their worst of first story. Just work for Duke. That's all I'm saying. There you go. Look, that is a great point, JJ.

It has worked for Duke in that regard. But Pat Kelsey coming in from Charleston, man, what a thing. And it also, I'll make this point and then we'll move on, does away with all of the I need a couple years to get my guys in and get my stuff going in the portal era in the NIL era. You can flip this in one year. Pat Kelsey is living proof of that right now. Speaking of JJ, the elitist, we got to talk about Duke who is currently running the table. Can they continue to do so? And who's just behind the Blue Devils?

Is it Clemson? Is it Louisville? That's the conversation we'll have coming up in just a second. Right after I'll tell you about our good friends at game time. Hey, are you looking for tickets to your next big event? well, whether it's a concert, a comedy show, sporting event, whatever, you can find the right ticket at the right price, right price, and it doesn't have to be a headache any longer because with game time picks, it's never been easier. Let me tell you how it works. With game time picks, the app, man, it does all the work for you. Curates the best deals. You don't have to then spend time wasting away searching through endless ticket listings. I've been using game time picks for a while now and it's so, so helpful. Maybe you want to find some tickets for an upcoming game, the highlight of the ACC, slate this upcoming weekend. Duke at Clemson Little John Coliseum Saturday at 6 p.m. It's a little hefty to get in the door, but you can do so for just $213. And guess what?

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Last minute tickets, lowest prices, guaranteed. All right, we are over halfway through the ACC slate now. Most teams have played 11 games. And right now, the Duke Blue Devils, number two in the nation, are number one in the ACCC unblemished. And in their remaining nine ACC games per Ken Palm, they are favored to win seven of those by 90, 90% favorability.

And only two games in which it's less than 90% is the regular season finale at Carolina, where they're favored by 80%. And Saturday's matchup at Clemson, where it's 69%. I'm going to make somebody else other than JJ start this conversation. Will the Duke Blue Devils be 20 and O heading into the ACC tournament? Well, I just find this really funny. I mean, we're airing this on Thursday. You know, Duke has a game on Wednesday in case you all don't know that.

So, you know, something ridiculous could happen in theory. Is it going to happen? No. I can't if you keep a straight face. They're probably going to run the table, but if they're going to lose a game, I think it would be at Clemson. Yeah, this will be the day that the bug defeats the windshield, Jackson.

It'll happen. You know, we've been rooting for that mighty bug all along. You saw the beat movie like I did. We all rooted for Jerry Seinfeld. Absolutely not. I think that this team runs the table. You know, a couple weeks ago, I said that they were going to have a slip up. They were going to have a moment.

But the way that they put belt to behind on UNC, oh, man, I had to call Liza during the game. I said, hey, how's the Jerry Curl? How are you kids? Is everything okay? I hope you've been taking shelter. You know, unless just any shade and dark blue coming around you, I know you might have PTSD. Because I'll tell you what, that moment at the end of the first half, Cooper Flagg goes up court. he picks up his dribble looking for a pass and then just hits that little fade away.

I said, hey, that boy too good. Yeah, that's some witchcraft right there. That's some of that Chief's Devil Magic that he got on his hands. Or maybe it's just Blue Devil Magic, but that boy has been cooking. And I'll tell you what, that team from top to bottom, every time I think like, oh, they're prying for a letdown. They just prove themselves to be better and better and better and more locked in each game, it seems like.

So, you know, I have a hard time seeing any team beat them. But I will say this, Clemson is a good enough shooting team to where if they get hot, and Duke struggles to get them out, even in their two-three zone, Duke struggles to cause enough problems for their shooters to where they're still shooting off. Clemson could do it, but I think they're the only team that's got a shot. With all due respect. You and Grayson had a 15-point lead in the first half, man. What about to sell, JJ? That's too new.

Okay. And then Malwatch puked everywhere and then there is a lot. And you know what? You may call yourself Mr. Elite, but last time I checked, the defendant ACC C.C. Chester in Raleigh, the last final four in Raleigh, okay? So worry about yourself, JJ. You what you do? All right. Jay, Jay, let's give you the floor to answer the question. Yes or no. Will Duke run the floor? Yes, they will run the floor, but will they run the table? Yeah, they run it quite well. I think so at this point in the year, just given what you laid out.

I think, I mean, that's what I'm looking at all the time is kind of Kim Pomm and these metrics and the fact that it is. is so overwhelmingly a favorite for Duke to do this, to go 20 and O. But that just doesn't seem plausible in my head that a 20-game season, you're going to win all of them. But when I look at this Duke roster, a lot of people are talking about Cooper Flagg and rightfully so. He is absolutely ascending. But everyone else on the roster is doing that as well.

Concanipal has not talked about enough with what he's been able to do over the last few weeks. Tyrese Proctor is really finding his footing as of late. Common Mollowatch, I apologize that he got sick against the Wolfpack. He was having flashbacks from recruiting visits when NC State's knocking them out of the final four and whatnot from years prior. But he continues to get better each and every game. This team, beyond Cooper Flag, continues to prove and find different ways to win. And Lee Brown's back and healthy. Yes.

And adding that to your defense is crazy. Yeah, sorry, Jack. That was the one that got away. It doesn't matter what kind of game you throw at them. It's high scoring, they can beat you in a shootout. Low scoring, they can beat you in a rock fight. If it's on the road, they can take you on the road. At home, it's going to be difficult to beat them in Cameron.

NC State made you think they had a shot for about 25 minutes. Then that went out the door. You'd be hard pressed to find a more complete team than Duke right now. And that's even before you get into all the Cooper Flagg Talk. Just, he's outstanding. outstanding. I've never seen a more complete player at Duke. And there's a long list of players that you'd have to go through to find the number one guy. Cooper flag is unbelievable. And this team, it seems like they're only still getting better. They have not even reached their peak yet.

And we're nearly at the end of the regular season. I have Duke winning the ACC, regular season title, because I just don't see anyone challenging them for it. I'm just begging the selection committee to have Duke and Auburn on opposite sides of the bracket. There's no guarantees. obviously, but I would love that rematch on a neutral court. They are far and away the best two teams in the nation right now. I mean, it's pretty crazy stuff. The best, by the way, regular season finished we've ever had in the 20-game ACCC era is 17 and 3 set last year by North Carolina.

Seems like you'd find a way to bring that up. I knew you find a way to bring that up to say one of those teams that beat North Carolina last year just so happened to be Syracuse. That's right. But I bring it up to say that's, That's getting shattered this year, JJ. So there you go. Okay, now the other thing is last year in college basketball,

the talk was Zach Edy is the runaway front runner for national player of the year. So who, if Zach Edy wasn't in college basketball, who would win the award? And it's the same question right now for us in the ACC. If Duke wasn't part of this, who would win the ACC? And right now that's a conversation between Louisville, our guy DP down here and the Clemson Tigers. So I'll tell you what, that's the conversation we're going to have coming up here in just a second. courts in session, Dalton Pence is going to make his case. Right after I'd tell you about our good friends at prize picks,

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Louisville Cardinal, who have had a crazy turnaround from the past two years where they won a grand total of how many games, Dalton, 12? 12 games in the Kenny Payne era. They have blown past that number this year. And now they are challenging along with Clemson for the second best team, that second seed in the ACC. It's hard to believe, especially given injuries to guys like Kaysson Pryor, but here we are. Dalton Pence, make the case for why Louisville is the second best team in the ACC. I mean, yeah, you know, I'll start out by saying that I really like this Clemson team. I think that they have a really good shooting, you know, set of personnel. One thing is that I will say is that we've seen who won the game between these two teams.

Little bit clumson by 10 points probably could have been a little bit more if it wasn't for some garbage time buckets. But the Louisville won the only matchup of the season. And if you ask me if I'm taking Chase Hunter or Chuckie Hepburn, I'm going to be biased and keep my red tinted glasses on. I'm going to tell you Chuckie Hepburn, who I believe is right now the best point guard, a true point guard in the ACC with the way that he's been playing and shouldering that load. But, I mean, they just came off of a 10-game winning streak. I'll be it losing to Georgia Tech. I mean, they were due for a loss eventually. A 10-game winning streak isn't really a small sample size.

You're talking about a third of the season in which eight, or I'm sorry, seven of the eight wins in January were by double digits. 25 points at SMU, almost all of the teams in the top half of the ACC, they beat in January. So, I mean, you're talking about a team that once they dealt with these injuries, right after all those injury news came out, they had Duke sort of in a good spot, same way that NC State did, but they kept a respect. Well, I will say this, though, Isaac, I am looking at this game this weekend, because if Clemson does beat Duke, then I think you, I mean, it's really hard to argue. you against Clemson in that regard? I wouldn't really disagree either way, but where I sit to see

what Louis was doing against the top part of the ACC with a tougher schedule thus far than Clemson, I'm going to give the nod to the Cardinals. Dawton is much too kind for me. I'll tell you what, I would have talked to every bit of trash. You would have thought I was cutting a wrestler promo the way I said, when we play head to head, what happened? When we got on the court and we lined up against each other, what happened in that game? The provost is not needed, man. I just point to the score and say score more above. And I was just about to say I thought I would disagree with everything you said that particularly if Clemson can pull off the upset and beat Duke, that absolutely puts you in rarefied air because this Duke team is looking like a buzzsaw that has the Mario star power onto it too.

Like this thing, they are just picking teams apart bit by bit. However you want it is however they'll give it to you. however you so do need, however you so do please. Duke is going to take care of you by the end of that game. And so if Clemson can come up with a way to beat Duke, I absolutely would say that they're the second best. But right now, I got to give it to my man, Dawton and Covenant. It's not just because he's here.

It's not just because he's helping out my part. By the way, by the way, by the way, by the way, by the time. Whether or not his Bifference is going to go out, three and a half more. I took the under because I got faith in your dog. I got faith in it. But in all seriousness, yeah, this game this weekend will go a long way in that. And also keeping it respectable against Duke is another thing, right? Like, I know that we don't reward points for losses,

but if we're having a very subjective conversation about which team we think is better or worse, obviously the head-to-head matters, similar opponents matter, and keeping it respectable against a very respectable opponent matters a ton in that conversation. I like Louisville. Go ahead, JJ. I do like Louisville as the second best team. This is obviously before this Clemson game has played out. looking at the ACC schedule for Duke and looking at the tear that the Cardinals were on prior to that Georgia Tech game.

I was fortunate that Duke got that Louisville game out of the way in early December with the weird ACC schedule there because Dalton, as you know, Duke goes on the road. Louisville kind of has them on the ropes a little bit, but then late in the second half, Malik Brown again, kind of made some impact plays. Right on a gas. Cooper flag came over and made some big time plays there. But what I've seen from Louisville, the shot make ability that they have. And again, the fact that you've got one of your key players who tears his ACL before you really even get into ACC play and you're still able to play as well as they have. That means something. I'm really impressed with what Pat Kelsey's been able to do in his first year.

It's not only been him. I mean, Corin Johnson was a projected starter. He played two games and hasn't played since, won't play for the rest of the year. A key rotational guy, Bubakar Treyore. He went down the second game of the year and came back at the end of December. So, I mean, you couple everything together with what we've talked about. Pat Kelsey, he might not necessarily have the team that these other guys do. And I know that a lot of coaches, like the National Coach of the Year Awards,

goes to usually one of the better coaches on the best teams. But nobody had to take over what he did. He needs to be getting like top three at the very least national coach of the year consideration. I can absolutely get behind that, yeah. I think he should be a coach of the year. I don't think who else who else people will say pearl and shire just because oh come on well they get I agree being good on a team that was supposed to be good for shire yeah you cannot you can't ding a coach for being good at putting a roster

what I'm trying to tell you is not usually that criteria for coach of the year is we're talking about exceeding expectations you know look at all the coaches that one coach to the year. And I'm like, well, that guy had a top five team. That got also had top. It's crazy because sitting here, you would think that it's exceeding expectations, but you look at the way that the voting has turned out. And it really just hasn't echoed that sentiment. And I'm like, well, damn, if this is the, if this is the criteria, there's really only about five to six coaches that you can just look at the top of the eight people for that. But I don't think it's, I don't think that it's, we're looking at a situation that's kind of

unprecedented. We haven't seen a coach walk into a power for program that was as dilapidated, as run down, that's just in the damn hits as Louisville was. Out of basketball school. Out of basketball school, might you have. Absolutely terrible. The Kenny Payne error was something tough to recover from. Most coaches, if you broke 500 after that, we would say, hey, we need to throw you a parade, okay. Need to be going down Main Street in Louisville. Hey, all right.

We're doing the thing. But to see the way that he has them playing as not only one of the best teams in the ACC, let's just be honest. Does anybody think that they're not going to top 20-ish teams in the nation? I don't think anybody would say they're outside of that. After what we saw the past few years, you know, Kelsey absolutely needs consideration for Coach of the Year. Yeah, when I'm looking at Coach of the Year.

Not in the recent AP Top 25. When I'm looking at Coach of the Year, I'm looking at which coach has done the best job of coaching. And yes, Pearl at Auburn, he's done a great job, but he has fantastic players. He's had fantastic players. Pat Kelsey coming into a bad situation in just one year and potentially challenging for the top spot in the ACC, that is the best job of coaching. For me, that should be the coach of the year. He also had to take a roster. Everyone's brand new. Exactly. And he had to get them to gel together. So it's not just about Louisville has all this talent now. It's also, well, they have all these new players. And,

I know that every team it gets new players. I understand that. But Louisville, name me how many teams in the country had to completely remake the roster. No, no, no, I'm not talking about losing five or six. I'm talking about losing your entire team. Okay, well, let me answer you then, Jackson. If you go about an hour east on I-64, Mark Pope's going to get a whole bunch of votes for the exact same reasons. In that case, I've had way too many arguments with Kentucky fans over this. I'll keep it short, but I keep pointing back to, okay, what did Kentucky do, year. They were a three seed and they and they choked the year before that's sort of the same thing. Louisville hasn't made the tournaments since 2019. I was a, I was a senior in college. I've been

out of college for five years now. That's actually kind of sad, but five years now. And we haven't even sniffed the tournament. We've even won a tournament game since 2017. Donovan Mitchell was on the court the last time Louisville won a tournament game. Also, also, I would like to point out one thing. Louisville, think that was as big of a choke job as people would give him for losing to Oakland. Oakland was a terribly underseated team. And I said that going into the tournament last year, hey, that's a game to watch out for it because Oakland is better than everybody believes.

And lo and behold, I mean, they showed up and showed out. But I'm just saying, I know that people don't think about their horizon conference down here. I just make that point to say that they, when you talk about Pat Kelson, you try to diminish what he's done by,

number one, claiming the ACC's down. Number two, claiming that they're not a top 10 team in the country. I say, well, like Jackson said, find me a situation that was worse that someone stepped into and exceeded this way. And we all win when Kentucky gets upset in the NCAA tournament. Absolutely. Jay is missed early. I'll take it back. That's great.

Well, same thing as Louisville and Duke playing early. I would like to see a rematch a Louisville Kentucky rematch today because I think that would be a very different ball game than it was back in December. Can we just see more teams in the NCAA tournament, though, that, you know, circle it here with the coaches coming in and that sort of thing. That's got to be a foe because everybody downing ACC basketball hurts the soul, guys. Like, basketball is our dread and butter. But every year is allegedly a down year for the ACC until the tournament happened. No, no, no.

No, no. This is a down year. You're right, Jay. And we have been like this. I'm not missing. But remember, Jackson was last year not an especially down year for the ACC. I agree with you and the statistics back it up. I'm just telling you, I don't think it's been worse than what it is right now.

I mean, we're talking about Duke is head and shoulders above everyone else. We got Clemson and Louisville are pretty good relative to the NCAA tournament field. And then who else after that? My brother that we're talking about here. My brother in flying spaghetti monster, do you not realize that when people were talking about the ACC last year going into the tournament, all the talk was you let some punchy kid from Raleigh. some budget kid and some four-time transfer from Raleigh winning ACC championship. What is this?

Ew. Why can't R.J. Davis and Armando Maycott do anything? They've been there for forever. Ew. What's going on at Duke? How did those losers not get it done? Ew. All of your blue bloods are down right now.

That was the talk of the ACC going into the NCAA tournament last year. And then all of a sudden, we saw all of these ACC teams. Well, I'll be there. They keep winning. Well, I'll be there. They keep winning. So I'm fine with this idea and this narrative that being pushed that the ACC is so terrible. I'm not saying they're having a great deal.

Not going to lie and say that. But what I will say is when you lace them up with the ACC, strange things didn't happen. It's your team. The other issue is that we did the ACC SEC SEC challenge. We really don't want to go back to that right now. Let's not talk about how that went. stupid. Well, that's going to be every year. And so we just buckle up and we got to get going with that. All right, boys, we got to get out of here. As Jackson said earlier, we are recording this before Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

ACCC action happens. So if anything, bonkers went down. You know it. We don't. And we'll talk about it next week. Saturday coming up, we do have a decent slate. But clearly the game of the weekend is number two Duke at Clemson, 6 p.m. on ESPN. going to be on the call. Really excited that he's making his return. And that is a good word, JJ. Yes, we're all excited for Dickie Vee to be on the call for that one. Inside Little John Ken Palm favors the Blue Devils by five. For Jackson a Holzer from Locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs of Lockedon Wolfpack, Grayson Boone, Locked on Wolfpack, JJ Jackson of Locked on Blue Devils, DP back in the house. The internet held the whole time from Lockdown, Louis. You love to see it.

Happy, we're our guy behind the scene. James Jarvis Davis, and I'm Isaac Shade host of Lockton, Ontario. It's been great to be together. Make sure you hop in with us every week on ACC squad, where we put to shame all the rest of those squad shows. Until next week, peace.