Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Which ACC Teams Will Help Conference Regain College Basketball Respect?

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Duke Blue Devils' shocking loss to Houston in the NCAA Final Four has left fans and analysts buzzing. Did the veteran players falter under pressure, or was it a strategic misstep by Coach John Shire? This episode unpacks the pivotal moments that led to Duke's unexpected exit, spotlighting Cooper Flag's performance and the team's late-game execution.The discussion heats up as hosts Isaac Shade, Kent Gibbs, Jackson Holzer, and JJ Jackson debate whether the blame lies with the players or the coaching staff. They also explore the broader implications for the ACC conference and what this means for next season's rankings. With insights from Speaker C, the conversation offers a comprehensive look at the current state of ACC basketball.Tune in for an engaging analysis of Duke's path forward and the potential shifts in the ACC landscape. Don't miss out on these expert insights and lively debates! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Saturday night in the Final Four felt like a Duke and Cooper Flag Coronation until it wasn't. 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 ACC squad. It is officially college basketball offseason. The portal has already been open for a long time, but we keep it rocking. It is great to be joined today by our guy Kent Gibbs, half of the hosts of Locked on Wolfpack. We'll see if we can find Grayson somewhere else.

Our guy Jackson Holeser, host of Locked on Syracuse, and our guy very like good of you to show up j j jackson the host of locked on blue doubles to face the music like a boss i love it i'm proud of you uh our guy alex donno is not here this week so i'm sitting in the captain's chair i'm isaac shade the host of locked on tar heels it's great to be together this episode is brought to you by fan duel right now new customers can get $250 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins man we want to welcome in all of you every dayers with us We're so glad that you are here joining us as we carry on into what's now like baseball and lacrosse season, I guess, as we get spring football keeps rolling.

But today we're going to wrap up kind of the basketball season. We'll look ahead in the third segment to next season. We've got some odds and projections for next year's national championship. But we're going to start by tying a bow on the final four in the national championship. And so unfortunately, JJ, that means, my man, you're going to have to buy the first round and tell us how on earth the Duke Blue Devils ended up losing to Houston on Saturday night? Tell us I'm still looking for answers to that question.

I feel like time has drastically slowed down since the season came to a close. I've been replaying the second half in my head over and over and over again. I felt like every day I'd wake up and it'd be a bad dream and we would get the opportunity to play that second half once more. I can't figure out if I'm more stunned that Duke lost or more stunned in the way that. Duke lost that game down the stretch in the second half.

Truthfully, hour by hour, I go back and forth on both sides of the equation there. But for a team that was playing with its food in so many ways, toying with Houston down the stretch, having a 14-point lead there in the second half, blowing it and not playing for a championship. It's just absolutely gut-wrenching. I can't believe it happened, man. I can't believe it. You know, you talk about playing with your fool.

My mom always used to say, if you play with your food, somebody else going to eat it. And that's what happened here. That's what happened. You know, they do messed around, toyed around, mucked around long enough, and Houston happened to eat it. But I do think that this is one of those moments that we need to kind of look at the old adages of the NCAA tournament, ask ourselves, how true are they? Because for years, we're told, oh, it's the guard play in the tournament. It's the guard play that gets it done. It's the guard play. And yet, what was the defining factor in this game for Houston more so than anything else?

In my opinion, while people talk about the late over-the-back call, whether or not it was a file, while people talk about, oh, Cooper Flag and Concord. You should be able to roll the ball out and get a bucket. I think the inability to come down with a rebound at the end of the game was what did it. What did Duke in here? I believe Houston had 12 of the last 14 or something like that is the stat that keeps floating around. You have a gentleman at 7-2 on the court. He's the tallest guy on the court by six inches in terms of everybody else from Houston.

You got two six, eight guys down there, and he can't come up with a singular rebound. You know, that's just, that dog ain't going to hunt. That's never going to get it done because, again, you are in a situation where everybody else is doing enough to get you that win. The front court had to show up in a more meaningful way, and I don't think they did. the veteran players on Duke, ironically, were the ones that screwed up the most in the end. We had a whole conversation about the young guys.

How are the young guys going to fare? Are they going to be too caught up in the moment of the final four? And yet, James can't inbound and Proctor can't make a free throw. Oh, I heard. Those are veteran guys. And they just couldn't get it done. I'm also, I'm more stunned in the way they lost.

Yeah. Like if they had lost to Houston, I would be surprised, but I wouldn't be shocked. I mean, I thought the game was over. They're up by double digits in the second half. They're not going to lose. They're up by six with 30 seconds to go. They're not going to lose. It's Duke.

They're running away with this thing. They're going to go to the national title game and they're going to beat the brinks off of Florida. And they're going to be celebrating another national title. and we're going to sit here and try to claim ACC pride. And then the fundamentals, inbounding the ball, making free throws, getting rebounds.

I'm stunned. And one of the storylines that has bothered me is the narrative of like Cooper flag lacking a clutch gene. This dude had a masterful basketball game. He missed a 10-footer with a shot at the National Championship game on the line. That was not what cost Duke this basketball game. It was the 10 and a half minutes before that where the Blue Devils couldn't hit a field goal outside of like the one Cooper flag three that I thought was a dagger or the technical on Jojo Tuggler that I thought was a dagger, right? It's like the inability to to make a field goal for that long a stretch outside of the Cooper three from that right wing was befuddling to me.

I just, I'm stunned. JJ, how has that narrative been around the Duke fan base? Yeah, a lot of people are wanting to talk about that for sure. Do you think about what Cooper Flagg was able to do, making that three point shot with under three minutes to play, that extended the lead to nine. The very next possession, guys, if you recall, Cooper Flag and Helpside, doing what he does, blocks it four or five rows into the seats there.

You know, and you're like, okay, yes, this is it. This is going to happen. and then it just didn't. I think to your point, everyone wants to talk about those 10 minutes where it feels like a team is finally destined to once again score over 70 against Houston with how much success Ducad offensively. But down the stretch, they weren't running their pick and roll to Common Model Watcher to the Bigfellas that had been so successful

throughout the postseason run. Con Canipal finished the game with just nine shot attempts, which was incredibly criminal. and he kind of was no factor for Duke down the stretch after really carrying them through the first half plus of this basketball game. So just to not be yourself offensively is really what's stinging this Duke team the most. We're hearing numbers about, you know, it's the first time in John Chires' career. He had been 79 and 0 when he had had a 10-point lead at 1.79 of his 89 wins to this point in his career. He had a double-digit lead, which is crazy to think about.

And in some odd way, guys, he has had to coach that frequently in these close type games. And so Duke started to take the air out of the basketball in the second half. And that was very, very, very clearly the wrong decision. Cooper flag did not choke. Yeah. Can we just get that? He didn't choke. He missed a shot.

Just like every college basketball player in the history of time. Same thing with NBA guys, even the greatest of them all have all missed shots, even in the clutch. He missed a shot. he got a 10 foot shot at the rim. It was a good look. JJ, you would have taken that shot. If I would have told you before the game,

if I would have told you before the game, they're going to be down one with like 10 seconds left. And Cooper Flagg is going to get a shot to basically win the game from 10 feet out from, what was it, the left elbow. Yeah. Would you take that? Yeah. He just missed it.

Yeah. It happens. He missed a shot. It's unfortunate. It never should. have come to that. Kenton, your face tells me you disagree. Hey, listen, I'm going to say this. The only fair criticism I've heard of do pretty much all weekend is that the bigs need to go see the wizard to go get some heart and that Cooper flag may be lacking a clutch gene. Clutchness is

not just that last shot. Clutchman 10 and a half minutes and all you can muster is one basket. What are we doing here? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is, you know, Cooper Flag is just some random 18 year old. He's an end of the bench guy. He'll be back at Duke next year hoping to crack the rotation, right? No, we're talking about the number one overall pick. We're talking about a guy that people are having arguments or conversations. Is he generational?

Is he generational? Generational don't go 10.5 minutes with one button. Not in college. Not against six, eight bigs that are going to be playing in La Liga El Balinesto next year. No. Mm-mm. Sorry. That's not what generational does.

I'm not saying that Cooper Flagg need to put on a 30, 40 point show stopping performance. But down the stretch, we have seen guys like, hey, what more do you want from? I think you can ask a lot more than one made three in the last 10.5 minutes to play. I think that's fair to ask of a number one pick, hey, a bona fide consensus number one pick to where nobody's like, oh, yeah, well, there is this other guy that we should be looking at. I'm sorry. In my opinion, you need to close the game. You need to bring the game home. When I talked about the difference between Duke and Houston, I said both teams are very good. The difference is one team has Cooper flag and one team does not. And it didn't end up mattering in this one.

He had 27 and seven and he hit a three-pointer to put Duke up nine with three minutes to go. I understand he's not perfect. Like he missed a shot at the end. You would like him to maybe do a little bit more in the end. How about why are they giving up a three-point or up six with 30 seconds to low? To go, hello, defend the three-point line? Hello? How about an inbound? Was Cooper Flagg the one doing the inbound? Did he miss the free throw or was it Tyreys Proctor?

Like other guys screwed up more than Cooper Flagg did. Cooper was the one who gave up to three. Who was the one who gave up three? Okay, and guess what? James couldn't inbound a ball and Proctor missed a free throw. Where is James going to be next year? There's more of this conversation we need to have because, there's some intimation that this is on the players.

JJ was talking about maybe taking the air out of the ball a little bit too early. So I think there's a conversation to be had here about. Is this more on John Shire and the staff or the players were messing it down the stretch of this basketball game? And then we got to ask a bigger picture question about our conference. There was already questions about the ACC and their weakness. Is Duke's loss a further referendum on the ACC? Or is this just a one-year outlier and we'll be back next year?

We're going to have those conversations and more coming up in just a second. Right after I tell you about our good friends at Fandul, the NBA playoffs are almost here, and Fandul is giving new customers an incredible way to get in on the action. Right now, when you join Fandual and place your first $5 bet, you're going to get $250 in bonus bets if your bet wins. I love how Fandul makes betting so easy, whether it's picking my favorite team or diving into player props or whatever it is, From three-pointers to steals to assists, Fandwell has so many ways to bet your favorite player props.

Plus, after the game tips off, you can even combine different live prop bets into a same game parlay for a chance to win big. I was looking ahead at the 2026 NCAA tournament championship odds. Duke leads the way right now at Fanduel at plus 1,000, Houston at plus 1,200, and then another ACC team, Louisville. How about that, tied for third with Purdue at plus 1,000, $1,400. So don't miss out. Head right now to fendule.com and claim your $250 in bonus bets today.

All right. ACC squad, we're unpacking the final four. We're tying a bow on this thing. We sat here last week, pretty sure that Duke was going to at least make the national championship, if not win it for this conference. And we sit here and unfortunately neither of those two things happen. We've had some different kind of intimations at who we lay this blame at the feet of in this game. JJ was talking just a minute ago about taking the air out of the ball a little bit too early, maybe Duke geared down out of fourth gear, fifth gear down to first or second, maybe even park a little bit. Kenton Jackson may be suggesting that this is more on the players. Which players are there disagreeing on that? But that's the conversation I want to have. Jay,

I want to go to you first because you're the Blue Devils expert. In your opinion, is this loss more on the coaching staff or the players on the floor? I think it's got to go to the coaching staff. I just feel like when you take a look at what this Duke team was able to do down the stretch in a basketball game like this to make the decision to slow things down, to keep certain players on the floor who clearly didn't have it. I mean, come on, Mala Watch was out there for way too long and was not in this basketball game for a variety of different reasons that are

out there. Malique Brown was better at times. Caleb Foster had one of his best halves of basketball for Duke in that first half and wasn't given a chance in there. And then when it comes to the end of the game, yes, there were, you know, the Seon James inbounding situation still is so painful. I never thought there'd be a world where we'd be talking about this. But draw something up to help us out a little bit here to get the basketball to somebody, maybe put Mala watch in there, who's seven to, and as Kitten alluded to a little bit earlier. It's taller than everybody shoots it at a better free throw rate than Tyrese Proctor, by the way, by over 15 points at the free throw line that is, percentage points,

that is. So, yeah, I just, it's hard for me to go there in terms of putting the full blame on the players. I understand the coaches aren't the ones out there missing the shots and doing these things, but I think John Shire would be the first to tell you this is one that's going to haunt him for the rest of his life. And no wise, Ney, Evans, he didn't get much of a chance there. Patrick Ngongba didn't get much of a chance. That was interesting to me as well. I was like, if we're not hitting, let Isaiah go chuck a couple from Deere and see if we can knock a couple of those bad boys in. Go ahead, Kent Jackson. I'm sorry, I cut you guys off. You're good. And the collapse like this, there's blame to go around for everybody. And folks are going to say,

oh, that's the cop-out answer. But let's be honest here. This is one of the most massive collapses we have ever seen. Like, this is not something where we're just like, yeah, this is completely founded. This is a situation that happens all the time. No, historically speaking, there are tons of data points that make this loss in outlier. So yes, there absolutely needs to be blamed on Josh Shire for saying, all right, we're up. Let's kind of coast to the finish line. You cannot let the final clock beat other teams. I am telling you as an alum and as a fan of a team coached by Dave Doran. I have watched him try it time and time again to ill effects. I am telling you right now trusting the clock to beat your opponent is a terrible idea.

Hopefully Shire gets the idea now. But again, we cannot talk about most loaded team in the country. Oh, they're the biggest team in the country. Oh, they've got three lottery picks, including the number one pick. And they completely say, well, guys, it's all on the coaches. It's the coaches far. They didn't draw up anything. At the end of the day, at some point in time, if your big seven two behind can't grab me

one rebound. I can't blame John Chiron for that. If my number one pick goes five of 15 inside the arc, you heard that correct. 33% 5 of 15 inside the arc. What am I supposed to do with that?

How much can I truly say? Oh yeah, it's on your head coach there. And Karen Knapple, not getting enough shots? Yes, that is on the coach. Yes, draw more sets for your shooters. Absolutely. sure. But again, to know who to get the ball to, they got to do that. And that's what I mean. There is blame to go all around here. Why was Proctor even having a ball in his hands in that moment?

It's like you said, he's worth and shooting free throws than some of our kids. Get his tail out the game. Cooper and Conner opening. He didn't pass the ball to him. Yeah. I look at this. It's like a big piece of pie here. And it's like, who's to blame? I don't know. Why don't we just start cutting out slices and just everything. I'm hungry. Let's eat. Everyone gets a slice of pie. You know, like here's your pie as you're flying home from the final four. Like, here you go. Like everyone deserves blame here. The coaches like, hello, you have a sick point late with 30 seconds left. You mean better instruction as to what you're supposed to do down the stretch. You know what's funny about Duke is they lost four games this year and all of them came in pretty similar way. Now you're not like blowing it like this, but all of them are late in close situations. That's how they lost each and every one of those games. How? How? It hurts. All the time. It's the players. Who was it that said that it was because of the ACC or whatever that Duke wasn't battle tested? No, Duke got battle tested at times this season.

And every time they got battle tested down the stretch, they folded. Look, I disagree with that. Their four losses were all close like that. They had games that were close that they won. that they, you know, ultimately, there were games where Duke did what they needed to do. But you know what I know. I recall a Jalen Withers Lane violation in the ACC tournament that helps squeeze out. Yes.

But you know. But we won that team too. But we won that one. But you know what I do know about this Duke team for a fact. You cannot be touted as the biggest, as the most talented team. and we completely absolved the players of that play. You just can't do that. At some point in time, yes, the coaches can coach you up.

Yes, they can tell you how to execute certain things. If you are 18 years old, that means you've been playing basketball for quite some time to be playing to do. If you don't know how to box up at that point in time, what are we doing here? And again, I wholeheartedly believe the over-the-back was super tiki-tack, especially for how physical the game had been allowed to be up to that point. I'm not a proponent and swallow your whistle in the last minute. I'm a proponent of let the last minute play out the way that you have the other 39. If you had a loose whistle, let the loose whistle rock.

If you had a tight whistle, keep calling it tight, be consistent. But what I saw in this game was, again, a team that decided, hey, we've got this in the bag, players that look too relaxed, and a Houston team that looked hungry. Every loose ball, every rebound, every time that ball was not in some somebody's possession. Houston Cougars were fighting, scrapping, and clawing. And it seemed like Duke didn't have any interest in getting in that fight. So, you know how I mentioned how a lot of people deserve a piece of the blame pie? Yeah, we're not giving it. The rest don't get any of the pie.

Like, I don't want to hear about the refs. The refs this, the rep this, the over the back this, the over the back, that guess what? You got a six point lead with 30 seconds left. You had a nine point lead with three minutes left. I don't care if the referees were wearing Houston gear saying, go Houston Cougars. We're all Houston Alums and we're going to keep giving NIL money for eternity to make us win this game. That would have been something. That would have been something.

You still got to find a way to close the game. Like I don't care about an over-the-back call. Like, I really don't. So the rest of me, they don't get any blame pie. And there were also the two blown out-of-bounce calls that were clearly off there was the one, was it off of Kinples' foot? That was clear that went back to Duke. And there was another one off of somebody's fingertips.

off of Duke players' fingertips that went back to Duke as well. So it's like, we're going to find those. And anyway, it's just unfortunate that that over the back was in such a critical moment. And then the Houston fans are complaining about a goal 10 that happened in the first half of the national title game. Hey, if we counted that thing, all of a sudden, you know, everything would point out the exact same way. So really, we tie. I just wanted to add one stat for context here. But I just, I've been going to over and over and over again this week.

and Duke's the only team to have an NCAA tournament game with a higher field goal percentage, more free throw attempts, more assists, fewer turnovers, more steals than their opponent, and yet still lose. Teams have been 335 and 0 prior to that. Painful. 335 and 1. That's a pretty good win percentage, but not zero anymore. Well, JJ, we applaud you for coming and dealing with all the smoke here.

know that's not easy to do as you unpack this historic season that ended in an way. Do what? We'll be back. We will. I saw Nick Bird from San Diego State say that and transfer two days later. So we'll see what happens with that. All right, boys, we got to look at what this means for the ACC. Is all of this a referendum on our conference and how are things going to look this year?

I think we're off to a better start in the transfer portal, but man, we got to go out and do it on the floor. That's the conversation we're going to have as we come back. Stick with us. All right, fellas, the ACC took arrows from every direction all season long. I think we can recognize that and admit it. We were a Carolina barely sliding into the NCAA tournament away from tying for the fewest ACC teams in the field since back in the early 2000s. We got just Duke as a one seed. we had Clemson and we had Louisville and then we had North Carolina. That's it.

That were the only four teams that represented our fair conference and only Duke made it to the second weekend. That is a factual statement about how things went. Now, let's be fair also. We have done much better than that in recent years, having multiple teams into the second weekend and beyond. But in a year where the ACC was already looked at poorly as the worst of the Power 5 conference, conferences, it's just unfortunate that we had a chance to win the national championship, maybe recoup some of that goodwill, and we weren't able to get it done. What does this now say about the entirety of the 24-25 season and the ACCC conference?

You almost maybe lose the clean rating there, because this conversation in the way that it's framed is always upsetting for me. What did the ACC lose by this? What did the ACC lose by your best team being eliminated in the final four and everybody being shocked by it? Nothing. Nothing. Let's be honest. Jackson has said all year this is a historically down year for the ACC.

And Jackson's not wrong. The numbers bear out that this was a historically down year. But why is this year a referendum for the ACC? And yet when we see down years from other conferences, everybody's not hitting the panic, but say, oh, what's going on with the Big 12? Kansas isn't good. Houston got eliminated a little earlier than we thought, oh, they must be terrible.

Huggy ain't coming back and Press Virginia ain't walking through that door. The Big 12 is terrible now. It's only us that get this. When the SEC was irrelevant at basketball for damn near a decade, nobody said, oh, look at how bad the SEC is, all those teams and how many things it is. Because it was expected. But that's, but that to me is not fair. It's not fair to judge by these different metrics of, oh, well, we expect you to be good.

Therefore, when you perform like everybody else performs, you're, you're the bad guys. Nah, I don't like it. I really and truly cannot stand it. And again, if you're going to take this on a year by year basis, I'm fine with that, but do that for every team and every sport. So next year, when bowl season, the playoff season comes around, let's make sure. sure we keep as close to an eye to say, well, wait a minute now. The SEC or the ACC only finished at a 56% win percentage in the tournament.

How lowly of a conference they are. Okay, sure. But let's make sure we do that for everybody else. Because if we did that for the SEC in the playoffs last year, Tennessee suffered one of the worst blowouts in all of the playoff last year, if I do remember correctly. How many games did Georgia win last year in the playoff if anybody has the numbers on that? Oh, so in the national championship, I'm sure there had to be two SEC teams, correct?

There had to be, right? No. Well, it seems like there's one. Actually, it was that new school. One is a national title game that wasn't in a conference. Oh, okay. All right. And the other was an SEC newcomer, by the way.

So, again, I think it's very interesting how, again, only we get this, only we get this look up. Oh, you had a terrible year. you're a terrible conference now. You'll be terrible for the rest of a turn. Knock it all. Every year is different. Every year is year by year. I have been saying all year,

I've been pretty consistent that Duke is an outlier to what is a terrible ACC in 2025. That doesn't mean the ACC is going to stink next year. In fact, look, it could always be worse, but like, is it really going to be as bad next year in the ACC?

I mean, have we looked at what? Louisville's doing in the transfer portal. I mean, Louisville's like crushing it right now. Yes. Year 2 in Pat Kelsey. Like that team might be preseason top five. Like that you might have two ACC teams in the top seven in the country heading

into next year. You know that Duke is going to be there, right? And Louisville and we'll see what Carolina does. But Carolina always manages to look good in the preseason. We'll see how they actually do in the actual season. But they're never going to completely fall off. Notre Dame has a good recruiting class coming in. Marcus Burton is back.

Virginia's got a new coach. I don't know. I think the ACC could be pretty good next year. I wouldn't be surprised if they get six to seven teams in the NCAA tournament again. I mean, it was a bad year. It was one bad year. It does not mean that the conference is going to stink for the rest of eternity. Well, to that point, let's look at John Rothstein has put out his way too early Rothstein 45,

where he preseason ranks 45s. and let's be honest, that this is a completely futile effort at this point in the season when everything's completely in flux. But guess what? It gives us content to talk about it. So talk about it. We must, boys. Here we go.

There are one, two, three, four, five ACC teams in this top 45. Duke comes in at number three behind Houston and Purdue. Louisville sitting at 19, North Carolina at 24, Notre Dame at 41, and SMU at 43. you, how about the Mustangs, baby, coming in and doing it in football and basketball a little bit, crazy stuff. Look, the ACC, if we're going to be the ACC in the top 45 of the nation, needs to have 7, 8, 9, 10 team. Like, that's where we need to get to. And I don't, whatever's going to happen on the courts, what's going to happen on the court.

But the rosters need to be such that the predictions ahead of the season would be like, Those are solid teams and we've got to have them in our top 45. Preseason expectations matter. They matter over the course of an entire season. I'm not saying it should matter, but they do. But they do because if you are perceived to be really good, you got to prove to people why you're actually not good and people will make every excuse in the world to say,

hey, they're still good, right? but when you're not projected to be good, you got to do so much more to prove that you belong. That's good, yeah. Like that, it's just the way humans work. I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong. In fact, it probably is wrong, but that's just how humans work.

So you got to beef up these Ross. I mean, I also like what Miami's doing in the transfer portal. That's what they're getting some studs too. They also got a new coach. Yep. I'm not going to be in the ACC next year. I can assure that. That's right.

They're not missing the ACC tournament. No, they're not missing this year. Boston College, yeah, they're probably still going to stink. But, you know, who was the other team that missed it? The fighting. Hey, worry about to self. They're not going to be bad either. I actually didn't remember.

I actually didn't remember at the top of my head. But they're going to be better, too. Let me tell you something. You talk about the roster being better, Isaac Shade. How about the fourth best high school recruit? in the history of NC State just committing. How about going in the portal and feeling some multiple, you feeling multiple must have, must fill gaps on the team

that objectively, when Coach Keats left, or when Coach Keats was fired, rather, let me not say left. When Coach Keith was fired, a lot of players left, that turnover, that's what you expect. Sure, but there, you talk about rosters getting better and all this preseason expectation and all that. The one thing that I will say, I love about college basketball, and I'm jealous of that college football does not have.

For as much as people hate the Ken Palm rankings, at least they have some semblance of, well, everybody doesn't play everybody, but this is the closest we could get with the information we have. I remember there was a year, not too many years ago, where the, I believe it was the Sunbelt Conference, beat multiple teams in the Big 12. They beat a team that played in a Big 12 championship, a middle of the row of big 12 team, and a bottom feeder. But all three of those teams were mirror images in the Sunbelt. One of the teams that won was in the Sunbelt championship in the Louisiana

or Razor Cages, one of them was middle of the row, one of them's terrible. And so there's at least a reference to say, well, wait a minute. Are we overestimating how good we think these teams will be? I don't give a rats behind what the preseason expectations are. oh we think that the ACC is going to be bad we think they're going to be this we think they're going to be that well thank god that you're thinking and your thoughts aren't how the games are decided if it was cooper flagging company would have been raising it cooper flagging company would have been raising the banner and holding the trophy and doing all that and they'd be having to parade

down Broad Street and Durham if that's what mattered unfortunately it's not you got to line it up and you've got to play those ball games you've got to actually decide what's quad one, five, two, five, three, quad, four. You've got to decide those things. So let everybody talk to talk about the Aceship. I have a thousand percent confidence. This conference will be better next year and we will see it statistically bore out. That's a good word and I feel like, JJ, I feel like you're about to say something. So I want to give you a word here and then we'll get out. I was just, I'm excited about what Duke's going to be able to do. I mean, I know that we've

been talking about them a whole lot today with the final four exit there. But I mean, when you've got yet again, the nation's top drink recruiting class coming in. We're going to be talking a lot about the boozer twins next year. Still remains to be seen what returnees Duke will have to this roster with several heading off to the NBA. And look, Duke had some home run transfer portal additions this past year, despite some of their shortcomings there in the tournament. I'd expect that to be the case once again.

Breaking news, everyone. Duke is going to be good again next year. Breaking news. It's crazy. Tell the whole world. You're in such a. They're in a great run right now, Duke. They really are.

I mean, it's only been how many years, like 40 years of being good. I mean, that's not really that long of a time if you think about it. No, it's not very, we need some more longevity with that. Also, as we get out, I was laughing earlier about talking about, I forget what game it was, but when we're talking about Duke taking the air out of the ball and slowing things down, I was thinking about myself and our guy Jarvis behind the scenes who were on the wrong end of that in a certain football game several years ago.

on the guy on the winning side of that is now the head coach of the team that I cover, the North Carolina Tar Hills and Bill Belichick. 28 to 3. It hurts. It hurts anytime I think about it. Okay. We got to get out of here before I get our clean rating in the wrong side of things as well. All right.

You all, thanks so much for joining us on this week's ACC squad for Kent Gibbs, co-host of Locked on Wolfpack and, of course, locked on ACC. For our guy, Jackson Holzer, host of Locked on Syracuse. J.J. Jackson, host of Locked on Blue Devils, and, of course, our guy, Jarvis, I almost said on the ones and twos like you're a DJ back there. I love that. That should be absolutely your new title. I'm Isaac Shade. We'll be back next week. Hopefully our guy Alex Dono will be here to wrangle us all in and we'll make it happen. Hope you all have a great week. Until next time, peace.