Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ALERT: Duke's Cooper Flagg INJURED in ACC Tournament | Will Blue Devils' TITLE HOPES Survive?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Boy, the Duke Blue Devil suffered a scare in the ACC tournament. You never want to see something like that happening to Cooper Flag. What happens next? You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team, every day. Shout out to the Everydayers, and thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:00:36 We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by TurboTax. Ready for Stress Free Taxes and the most money back guaranteed. Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your expert. On this episode, we'll talk about a warning that Paul Feinbaum has issued to the ACC and also a reasonable explanation as to why the ACC would settle with Florida State and Clemson, the way that. that they just did.

Starting point is 00:01:06 We'll talk about what I feel, maybe Kenton disagrees, but what I feel to be a pretty brilliant proposal for future formatting of ACC basketball. But Kenton, let's start with the Duke Blue Devils. And regardless of not having Cooper Flagg available for the majority of the game, including the entire second half, they were still able to beat Georgia Tech because Duke, of course, it's a really good roster outside of their future number one overall draft pick

Starting point is 00:01:33 in Cooper Flag, but boy, everybody holding their breath. Cooper Flag goes up for that rebound. His legs, his ankles are literally about five, six feet off the ground. And he comes down on the side of his foot, the outside, with the left ankle completely turned inward. I'll admit, Kent, when I saw, like in live time, the impact that I'm watching the replay, I thought he might have a broken ankle. Like that was my reaction.

Starting point is 00:02:04 And then to add to the drama, flag is taken off the court in a wheelchair. He's taken for x-rays. But then in the second half, we see him back out on the bench with his teammates. Didn't play again, of course, but no boot on. He's standing up cheering for his teammate. So you feel like disaster was averted today. But every Duke Blue Devil fan in America in the world was holding their breath for a little bit there. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That was a very concerning moment. And the irony of us talking about on the squad yesterday, like, oh, nobody rest their players during conference tournaments and then we see this happen. But in all seriousness, you know, we're glad that he's okay. And me and Donald disagree here slightly because I don't think it was drama to put him in a wheelchair. I think it was a precaution. And I would rather have you not putting pressure on something that could be bad than being like, hey,

Starting point is 00:03:02 put pressure on it and we'll figure out on the back end if it's broken or if it's a tear or if it's a high-grade sprain or if it's a low-grade. I'd much rather say, hey, we're going to wear you out, no big deal. If it's nothing, it's nothing. We're all right. Then to have you out here, you know, gamping and walking on something that you've just made worse than a few steps that you could have potentially been a guy that was going to lead us to a national championship later on down the road.

Starting point is 00:03:27 So, you know, we're glad that Cooper Flag is okay because like we have said, multiple times this year. Duke is, appears to be our best shot at winning a nap. That's just what they appear to be. So, you know, we're glad that he's okay. I'd be surprised if I saw him play again in the ACC third to be quite. Yeah, I agree. I mean, and by the way, I have to share this because the internet, the internet remains undefeated as you see this ex post from Richie Gordon. Cooper flagged when Duke matches up against UNC again. It's the old, I'm an old school pro wrestling fan. You got Kevin Nash in the real chair. Looks like he's got his leg in a cast and then boom, he's up. He's up. That'll be Cooper Flagg, the next opportunity to take on, to take on UNC, if they get that.

Starting point is 00:04:16 We're watching the UNC game, by the way, is on for us live while we're recording this. They're up for against Wake Forest in the late stages. But yeah, I mean, well, on what we know about Flag's ankle, by the way, John Shire confirmed after the win against. Georgia Tech, that there's no structural damage that the x-rays came back negative. But like you said, there's really no reason to risk him the rest of the ACC tournament. Let Flag get rested up for the Big Dance. Duke regardless is likely secured. And listen, they could still win the ACC tournament without him.

Starting point is 00:04:54 They're not winning the NCAA tournament without him. They could still win the ACC tournament without Cooper Flagg. Duke is that good. but get him rested and ready to go for the NCAA tourney because absolutely KG, if we're looking at the ACC to possibly win a national title this year, Duke is by far the best chance to do that. You know, they're likely to be a second overall seed only behind Auburn. And, you know, if Duke got the opportunity to play Auburn in the tournament, I wouldn't

Starting point is 00:05:22 mind Duke's chances one bit because they have the horses to do it. So do not risk flag the rest of the way. And you got to think about it like this. you could potentially play him in the way that the bracket is shaping up. You're not playing any bad teams from here on now. I think that all of the bad teams are at home now. So what does that mean going forward? What you're looking at here is, okay, so if Duke is going forward in the tournament,

Starting point is 00:05:51 which they are, you're going to play better teams and better teams, and you can potentially play your rival UNC. Why would you want his ankle exposed to that as a point? opposed to, we're going to rest you. And your get right game, your get back game where you need to get back in rhythm, we're going to put you up against the 16 seat. We're going to put you up against the team that, you know, in the old days, they might not even be here.

Starting point is 00:06:14 Go ahead and get right against them. And then from there, we'll figure it out, go the rest of the way, and do all the things. But you don't want that as opposed to he goes up and Victor Locken lands on his leg in the ACC championship. or something along those lines, you just don't want to see that. Yeah, I know. Well, well said. You know, we've talked a lot this season about why, you know, the ACC,

Starting point is 00:06:41 why they can't get more respect. Like, hopefully the ACC gets four teams into the NCAA tournament. They might only get three in. It's been dwindling in recent years. The head coach of Stanford made what I think is kind of a brilliant proposal about how the ACC can improve their strength of scale. moving forward and hopefully put more teams consistently into the NCAA tournament. We'll talk about that and more.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Kenton Gibbs of Lockdown Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono from Lockdown Caines. We keep going here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of LockdowneCC. Keep it locked. And I already know, my friends, that you're keeping it locked to Monarch money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? We've all been there.

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Starting point is 00:09:34 Thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first listen and your first watch today. For your next listen, make sure you check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone do a really good job on Lockedon Wolfpack, covering all things NC State. I host Lockedon Cains covering all things Miami. You know, for Miami, I think I'll have another episode later tonight

Starting point is 00:09:52 because it looks like Miami's getting a new recruiting commit. And for you guys, Kenton on Locked on ACC or Locked on Wolfpack, how are things going on the Will Wade front? Is that looking more likely? Is there progress being made there for your next basketball coach? I cannot say anything. I don't know anything, but I will say, Wolfpack Nation, let's rhyme.

Starting point is 00:10:17 That's what I'll say. I'll say there should be some excitement building here. And the last thing I will say is this. the fact of the matter in this coach and search, Wolfpack Nation will either go into the depths of despair that I have never seen in my life, or literally you will be able to hear I'm walking on sunshine all the way up from Roanoke, Virginia, the way they're going to be blasted now to speak as in route. Oh, man, phenomenal.

Starting point is 00:10:45 How do you like this idea, Kenton? And, you know, when they, I'm actually, I'm really glad that Stanford is in the ACC, because you got some smart folks over there in, in northern California, including Stanford head basketball coach, Kyle Smith, who offered a plan to improve the ACC's net ranking for future years, something he has mentioned, he said, to Commissioner Jim Phillips. So he has proposed this idea to the commission. So Kyle Smith has proposed for ACC basketball, two divisions, but it's not, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:20 we're not bringing back the coastal and the Atlantic. he's proposing two divisions where there's a top tier and a second tier based on a rolling five-year average. Top-tier teams would play each other twice a year, helping their net. Second-tier teams would play each other twice a year, helping them build. He said, I've talked to Jim about relegation. So this might be my moment trying to go two divisions. So you'd have a top play atop. They'll probably be mad.

Starting point is 00:11:50 And I mentioned that. but I do think that would give you more opportunities if you played everyone twice in the top division, champions and Premier League. I've been working on this, he says. So based on you would have two divisions and at the end of the year you'd relegate someone, but that top division would play each other twice. So you'd get more quad ones and it would be pretty neat. So maybe it's because I'm a lifelong soccer fan where I think this sounds like a pretty brilliant idea. but how do you feel, Kenton?

Starting point is 00:12:21 Are there drawbacks or are you on board with Kyle Smith? Oh, I'm wholly on board with it. I think that this is beyond intelligent, especially because this is a little different from football. If you did this in football, you would be, again, working even harder to make the quote unquote lesser teams lesser with an already uneven distribution than the TV money. However, basketball TV money doesn't factor in in the same way.

Starting point is 00:12:46 Nobody's basketball TV deal is that massive to where. It's like, oh, based on your basketball viewership, you're going to get less or more money. So I absolutely agree with the potential system of relegation. And here's the biggest part about it. Here's the only part that would be difficult. As being a former college football player, I know how much goes into the operations side of the deal, right?

Starting point is 00:13:08 By operations, I mean the people who plan out the hotels, the people who plan out the plane travel, all that type of stuff. Now, why am I saying what goes into it from that end? you would have to potentially adjust your scheduling if you are on that bubble of relegation. That's not something to scoff at. But even with that, these people are making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Starting point is 00:13:32 Like these are still jobs that like, you know, and I'm sorry to any operations person if you're not making $100,000 or more. I'm sorry, apologies, but you're making money to do a big kid job. So like, it's more work on you. No denying. that, but do your job. I mean, so that's the only drawback I can think of, but all in all,

Starting point is 00:13:53 I love this plan. I absolutely love this plan. So our top teams no longer have to worry about, well, what if the teams that we played out of conference are bad now? It doesn't matter. You still get to play the top teams in the conference, period, and that should help you out. I think, and I hear what you're saying about operations. I want to understand that a little bit more, because the schedules don't come out that far in advance anyway in terms of exactly when you're playing where. So I feel like there's a word. I may be wrong. You know what?

Starting point is 00:14:25 And you know what? You're right. You're right. Not out think about it. You're right. You're very correct in that regard. So even if you know, even if you know who you're playing, you don't know exactly when you have to travel there. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:36 Exactly. You don't know when you have to travel and where. So actually, not I think about it, I really can't think of a serious drawback to this. Again, it's not, I can understand if we're talking football where the ratings matter to a degree where it's like, hey, if you get cut out of that tier where you don't get Florida State, you don't get Clemson, you don't get UNC, you don't get any, Miami, you don't get Georgia Tech, you don't get any big viewers. It, the fact, though, like, puts you behind the eight ball or if one of those teams and put those teams end up in relegation, you know, it's like, oh, well, guess what? All these teams down low just got an instant bump. I get that. And I get that you don't want that much of a mercurial situation in terms of the metrics that matter to your chosen institution getting tens of millions of dollars.

Starting point is 00:15:26 But with basketball, it's different. I can't see a drawback to it. And also, I think that's a fun story lump, right? Like, oh, who's facing relegation? And like, if you win the conference championship, even if you were slated to get relegated, you instantly get bumped up to number one and stuff like that. I think that'd be great. Now, I'm trying to play devil's advocate because I'll say I like this idea a lot. And I think it's something, you know, I'm glad Smith said he talked to Jim Phillips about it. I hope Phillips is seriously considering it and, you know, getting a team on this to kind of explore the feasibility. But if I am going to play devil's advocate, I think here's a potential

Starting point is 00:16:02 drawback. If you're in, if you're in the bottom tier, the bottom division, the one concern that I have, given that we're talking about college basketball where this day and age, if you have one stellar transfer portal, one stellar recruiting class, let's say you're in the bottom tier because you, you know, haven't been good for the better part of the last five years, but you just kill it in the transfer portal. And you've got suddenly a top tier team, but you're playing in the bottom tier division. And because Kyle Smith has created this system where, you know, the top tier teams are playing each other and the bottom tier teams are playing each other more than all of a sudden, like, you're a really good team this year, but you're in the bottom tier because what you did the last five years,

Starting point is 00:16:47 and you don't have the opportunity to get quad one wins because you're in that bottom tier division. So that, that to me would be one of the obstacles that, you know, what if you do have kind of a Cinderella type of offseason? And, you know, NC State, of course, had a tough year, but they just had a surprising final four run last year, you know, you can turn around your basketball team pretty quickly this day and age. So then if you're stuck in that second tier, I think that could hurt you a little bit, where, you know, Kyle Smith has created this idea where it's going to take you kind of a couple years to work your way back into the top tier.

Starting point is 00:17:24 But what if your team goes from really bad to really good in one off season? Because that can happen in that sport. But I think that they're helped out more than the teams who are really good, one year, and bad the next are hurt. If you think about it, right? and you talk about a team that was dominant, great, whatever, and then they have like a mass exit, or they get their coach leaves,

Starting point is 00:17:44 or, you know, they had a couple one-and-duns that all leave, and you didn't reload upon that the next year, you're stuck in the top division with the best teams, and you no longer have the talent to justify being there. If I'm in that lower division, I'm good, let me swat around these bozos. Let me get a bunch of 15, 20-point wins off these clouds. And again, the middle of the pack and lower tier teams that are in the upper one,

Starting point is 00:18:14 they would have more room to complain than anybody because that screws their conference tournament seed. Because they're like, oh, my God, we got whooped on by these teams that are the best in the conference. We had a young team and it took them too long to figure it out. They figured it out late. And now we're a 12 seed, barely making it in, having to win five games or five days. When under the traditional model, we might have been a six or six or six. seven seed who got at least one by. So, you know, I think that if anybody has a complaint, it's not the teams that got good over at night. That's the team to me that would benefit the

Starting point is 00:18:49 most from this type of situation. Yeah, no, that's fair. We'll go back to football, primarily football, although this is, this pertains to every ACC sport. Paul Feinbaum has issued a warning to the Atlantic Coast Conference and a possible explanation as to why the ACC settled with Florida State and Clemson the way that they did. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode

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Starting point is 00:20:13 Thank you for making Lockdown ACC your first listen in your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast, free on YouTube. For your next listen, check out Isaac Shade and Andy Patton on Lockdown College Basketball. We've been rolling through this ACC tournament, by the way, North Carolina. You probably already know this if you're watching this episode, but North Carolina did get past Wake Forest. So we'll see if we'll see if Cooper Flag like, you know, rises, rises out of the grave like the Undertaker and plays against the tar heels. I would sit him for the rest of the tournament, though. That's probably what John Shire is.

Starting point is 00:20:48 The rest of the ACC tournament, I should say, probably what John Shire is going to do there. But Andy Pat and Isaac Shade will have you ready to fill out your brackets with confidence when you watch and listen to Locked on College basketball. So Paul Feinbaum, ESPN, ACC, ACC, ACC network, personality. He said something interesting, Kenton, because you asked this question a lot last week, you know, why exactly did the ACC agree to settlement terms that seemed very favorable to Florida State and Clemson, like really kind of thinking about the short term, not thinking about the long term. And Paul Feinbaum addressed that and also offered a warning to the ACC.

Starting point is 00:21:28 He said, if you're the commissioner of the ACC, you have to live in the moment. You plan for the future, but you can't be too hung up on five, six, seven years from now because there's a chance you won't be the commissioner, he said on WJOX radio. He being Jim Phillips made the best deal for the moment. He had to stop the hammer. He had to stop the bleeding. He did that, but there is a due date. When that due date comes, it's going to be open season, I believe, on the ACC. And Kenton, that due date is going to be right around 2031.

Starting point is 00:22:02 But here's my takeaway from the Fine Bomb comment, right, basically saying that, hey, like Jim Phillips may not be and doesn't have to be the ACC commissioner, six, seven, eight years down the road, but he's the ACC commissioner right now. But maybe it's incentive for him to strike a deal that creates harmony in the short term because that's what you have to address first, even if there is more chaos five, six years down the road. That's what I took Feinbaum's comment to mean. It kind of makes sense why Phillips wouldn't want to be, you know, working in an environment when multiple schools are suing him right now.

Starting point is 00:22:41 At least put the lawsuits behind you for as long as you possibly can. You know, maybe, maybe the place that I grew up, that ain't the best. You know, I'm from the west side of Detroit, Michigan. But where I'm from, when you start that fight, you don't lead till it's finish. And this explanation was a very poor one from Paul Fon. line bomb. What do you mean? Oh, you got to figure out the short term first before you get to the Lord. I'm not trying to hear that nonsense. The ACC should have dug their heels in and fought with everything they had to say, you know what? If you all are to leave in two, three years, we will live with that at the conclusion of these court cases. We will live with that. But what we will walk away from this with, if we walk away from that in two, three years with nothing, that's a power. that would hurt us deeply. However, what we've given ourselves now is short-term stability, sure, but at the end of

Starting point is 00:23:41 that short-term stability, you're cooked, you're done. There's nothing incentivizing these teams to stay here unless somebody, and I'm not going to say any team names here, but one of these teams who everybody's talking about is leaving may be smart enough to look around and say, now, wait a minute, what if we aren't as big of a draw in the SEC. What if we go to the big 10 and we find out, oh boy, it really is a different ballgame and we end up perennially the ninth, 10th even lower best team there as opposed to be, and I get it. Everybody's going to say, oh, that couldn't happen to my team. My team couldn't possibly end up relegated to mediocrity for a decently long period of time. I will tell all of you,

Starting point is 00:24:26 look within. It was not too recent. I mean, it was not too distant for almost every person. I mean, program and started about leaving where you were very me if not worse so you know it's it's one of those things where again if i am going to believe that this made sense for the acc i have to believe the ESPN applied pressure in some way because without that this just looks like cowardice and foolishness it looks like banklessness it looks like uselessness that's what this looks like No, no, I'm with you on that. And I have to wonder, because we talk about these changes being five, six years down the road. But here's the thing.

Starting point is 00:25:08 If you have teams that are potentially going to leave the ACC in 2031, that's not suddenly going to come up in 2013. We're going to start hearing about this two, three years before. I mean, that's what happened with Oklahoma and Texas. I mean, at the time when they declared they were going to leave and join the SEC, weren't they in the 12 for what another two seasons another three seasons after that so that was a slow burn so it's really it's really not as if you've created harmony for the next six years like you might have created harmony maybe for three years because there's going to be a buildup before these teams leave the only difference is that texas and oklahoma left when the tv day was expired so they didn't

Starting point is 00:25:48 have to pay it down that's that's literally the only difference but we're pretty much in the same position and that's the one thing that that uh doug rohan said when he was here that I vehemently disagree with that the ACC would be much more like the American conference than what the Big 12 is right now. The Big 12 is pretty much exactly what's going to happen to the ACC here because again, who are their heavy hitters as compared to who are ours without Florida State Clinton, right? Even if you say Florida State Clemson, Miami, sure, who are the heavy hitters over there compared to our heavy hitters and see like, oh, and granted. Dion Sanders? Like I can't even say that like it's not, it's not

Starting point is 00:26:26 Colorado that's the heavy hitter. It's the coach who's the heavy hitter at that conference for however much longer he's there. I mean, Arizona State just won the Big 12. Utah, Utah was kind of viewed as the heavy hitter when they added them. But yeah, your point is very much taken. If an Under Armour School is your heavy hitter brand in the year of our Lord and Savior 25 with all the respect to Kevin Plank, actually he's a Maryland grad with no due respect to Kevin Plank and underarmor. If your heavy hitter is an underarmor school in 2025, you don't have a heavy hitter. So, you know, I think that the ACC is going to look much more like that than a completely delepetated like, oh, you've got nothing here. Old Dominion will be one of your best school.

Starting point is 00:27:10 This is not going to be that. Well, we appreciate everyone's time as always. Make sure you hit that thumbs up. Subscribe to Lockdown ACC on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Odyssey app, wherever you get your pod. Subscribe on YouTube. And we'll talk to you guys again next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains. I will see you next time right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ALERT: Duke's Cooper Flagg INJURED in ACC Tournament | Will Blue Devils' TITLE HOPES Survive?

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