Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Can Clemson, Miami, Louisville & SMU compete for National Title in 25? | ACC Hoops' decline

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Explore the evolving landscape of ACC sports in this insightful podcast episode. Hosts Alex Dono and Kenton Gibbs examine the shifting dynamics in both football and basketball, highlighting key teams like Clemson and Louisville. They discuss ESPN's early top 25 rankings and the potential for these teams to make a significant impact.The episode also covers Virginia Tech's strategic decision to appoint Sam Seph Keys as their new defensive coordinator, leveraging his NFL experience with the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings. Additionally, the hosts address the challenges facing ACC basketball, including the decline following the retirement of legendary coaches and the influence of NIL on college sports.Join us for a comprehensive analysis of the ACC's future, packed with expert insights and engaging discussions.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Does the ACC heading in the next football season, do they have a team that can actually contend with the big guys in the SEC and the Big Ten for a national championship? 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. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

He is Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains, and today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Super Bowl 59 is here, and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with Fandual Sportsbook. New customers can bet just $5, and if you win, you'll score $200 bucks in bonus bets.

Download the app or head to fanduel.com to get started. On this episode, we'll talk about why, ACC basketball has declined. And whether there's a way to bounce back or if this is just going to be who we are for a while, back to football, Virginia Tech seems to have their new defensive coordinator. And, you know, Kenton, we talked a little bit last week about the CBS sports way too early, top 25 in football. We spent most of the time talking about how they had Miami ranked number three,

which even as a Miami guy, I thought that was a little bit too high. But I want to take a look at the ESPN way too early top 25 for next football season. So they've got they got four ACC teams in their top 25. They have Clemson coming in at number seven, who both Kenton and I agree, should be the class on paper at least to the ACC this year. They've got the SMU Mustangs at number 15. They've got the Louisville Cardinals at number 20. And they have Miami down at 23, even after CBS Sports has.

Miami at number three. There's a big disparity there. You know, we had Kent and Clemson and SMU in the college football playoff this season. Neither team was able to get past the opening game. And then all the narratives are the ACC didn't belong in the playoff, all that stuff. So heading into next season, can one of these teams or maybe another not mentioned even actually contend for a national championship and push the blue bloods of the Big Ten who've had back-to-back national champions and the beloved SEC. Do we have someone who can push these teams and make a deep run?

Donald, it hurts my heart to say this. It really does. It makes me sad because you know how much I love the Pony Express. You know how much I love the boys in Dallas. You know how much I love that swarm and defense that they play. And some Kevin Jennings, give me more of it. I think when he learns how to stop playing

hero ball, he's going to be fantastic. With that being said, I think every single one of the teams ranked in the top 25 except SMU can absolutely win a playoff game next year. Oh. All of them except. Wow. And listen, listen,

when I look at SMU, I think to myself, what's going to have to happen for them to be the team that they, you know, that can win a bowl game. Did you know that they're losing their top rusher, their top, I believe two or three

receivers, I believe Jordan Hudson is the only one that still has some eligibility left in their top four or five receivers, that's tough. You're losing. Again, it's just too much production between Roger Daniels Jr., Kishon Smith, Moochie Dixon, and Matthew Hibner, all gone. And it's just like, listen, love me some R.J. Maryland. Look, love that. I think that they're a really good group.

I really do. Richard Smith, I think he was part of the engine that made this offense go. And so I'm saying to myself, you were looking at a quarterback that already played a lot of hero ball last year when he had really good weapons around him. What's going to happen this year when the weapons are not quite up to that level? You know, that's something that concerns me there. But every other team, I just see reasons why they could be it. You know what I mean? I really and truly do.

Clemson is Clemson. Okay. Let's not sit around and kind of wonder why. This is a team that last year their Achilles Hill was their passing, was pushing the ball downfield, and they got better at that as the year went on. And they're bringing everybody back. They're bringing back Westcoe Williams.

In terms of the passing, they're bringing everybody back. And Mapa is not that type of back that you're like, hey, we need to get him the ball in space and make him. He's a big bruising downhill, no frills type of guy. So, yes, you're losing Maffa. You're losing your leading rusher. Again, same criticism. I lobby toward SMU and saying Breschard Smith is gone.

But it's a different scenario. It's a very different scenario. And I like Kevin Jennings more than I like, more than I like Kay Klebnik. But again, you're just looking at a situation where you have way too many, way too many really talented guys on the perimeter for Clemson to where I'm thinking they're going to be primed to have another great year.

And boy, defensively, when you talk about losing production or not, I mean, listen, Barry Carter, he's a big-time guy. He's a big-time player. He was a hell of a lineback for Clems for years. That Sammy Brown kid is terrifying. Oh, yeah. It's nightmare fuel if you're an offensive coordinator. I mean, he's everywhere.

As a freshman, you could tell sometimes he didn't exactly know where his eyes were supposed to be, and he's still making plays all over the place everywhere. So I think as he develops, and that defensive backfield, it's Clemson. The defensive backs are never going to be a problem. That's just, I don't know what it is about them. but that's just kind of the way that they roll and operate. I think that they're prime to be a scary team. Louisville, you know what travels?

If you got to travel for the players, there's two things that travel in football, a run game and the defense. And Louisville has what two things in spades, Donald? Run game and a defense. And then you talk about your Miami Hurricanes. Now, they're the most enigmatic of the three that I've always. It's Miami.

If the questions are answered, it wouldn't be Miami, okay? But they're the most stigmatic of the three because I believe that their defense, first of all, I hate to say this for a Miami team, but the tip of the spear is Ruben Hurricane Day. We know that we know that he is going to set the world on fire next year. I believe he's going to be healthy. He's going to be better. And I think next year, this year he showed flashes of where you're like,

oh, my, we've got to do something about that guy. halfway through the game. I think next year there's going to be a situation where people know from either you deal with him meaningfully in your game plan or he's going to reckon.

He's going to reckon. And when he starts off that way, it makes it easier on the guys in the back end. Not to mention that new DC hire I think will be a lot. We'll have them a lot more prepared than they were this year

because talent's never an issue with Miami. I've never looked at Miami and said, oh, they don't have ball players. It's always something with the guys with the headsets or something with chemistry, and they don't have as bolsterous of a transfer portal class

as they have had in the past. And so I can see them competing as well. And Carson Beck, while I don't love him as much as most people, I think he's good enough to where if those offensive pieces can be good with him. Not great. We don't need Cam Ward, 40-pointed game offense. If they can be good enough to, let's say,

30, 24, to that I'd probably say, 2730 more than that. If they're in that range about every game, they'll have a shot because I think that defense is going to be much improved. And they were young last year. That defense was fairly young last year. They're only going to get older, only going to get better. I can see those three teams competing. SMU, I love you. My heart goes out to you. I think this is going to be rebuilding you. Yet, I think both Clemson and Miami made necessary moves to change defensive coordinators. And I thought they both made good moves. You know, Clemson's defense was not good enough by their standards, and they bring in Tom Allen.

They poached him from Penn State. Miami, you mentioned hired a new coordinator, Corey Heatherman, who was the DC on a successful, very successful Minnesota defense last year. And, yeah, Miami had personnel-wise not nearly enough at defensive back, and they have already signed five DBs through the transfer portal. So they're doing what they can to address those needs. So let's take a look. Let's zoom out.

We mentioned where the ACC teams sit in this way too early from ESPN, Clemson at 7. SMU at 15, Louisville at 20, Miami at 23. Who else they've got in there? So ESPN ranks Ohio State at number one to repeat. I think a big question for the Buckeyes is, how's the quarterback transition going to go, Kenton? Because you're going from Will Howard, who elder statesman veteran transfer player,

one and done guy, but it was just, you know, and he got better as the season went on. And they're going to transition. They're going the opposite route because their likely starter is going to be a guy who, was a true freshman this year, Julian Sayan, who only attempted 12 passes. So former five-star talent and all that. But we'll see how that he's going to have plenty of wide receivers, though, to help him with that

transition. But we'll see how that goes for them. They've got Texas at number two. They're, of course, making a quarterback change of their own. They're going to hand it over to Arch Banning. Penn State at three, Notre Dame at four, Georgia, five, Oregon, six, before Clemson at seven. Then they got LSU at eight, BYU, nine, South.

Carolina 10, Iowa State 11, Alabama, 12. It's kind of funny ESPN wouldn't have Alabama higher. Maybe it's not true what they say about ESPN, 11 Alabama so much. Illinois, 13, Arizona State, 14. SMU is mentioned at 15. Kansas State. Then Indiana, Florida at 18. Tennessee at 19, Louisville 20, Michigan 21, Texas A&M 22, Miami 23,

Boise State 24 and Ole Miss 25. I know it's locked on ACC, but what do you think of Florida at 18? Depending on who you listen to, you know, the DJ Lagway hype train gets to be so momentous that people talk about Florida, like maybe they should be a top 10 team, not number 18. I think 18 is right for them because DJ Lagway is going to have to do

his best hand word impression next year. Yeah. I don't think anything about their defense. Nothing. Literally nothing about their defense. And here's the thing. As much as I want to believe, man, they did a really smart thing by paying Billy Napier or by not buying out Billy Napier and buying better players in the

Portland instead, which, by the way, I'm not saying buying players as a knock against anybody because, hey, it's the nature of college football. The national championship winning team had a $20 million roster. It's just a deal. I do, however, think that you're putting flexial over the Humber Dam with a crack in it by saying, oh, we've got a bad head coach, boom, we're going to get them better players. It does not matter. It's a great point.

It does not. If the problems that players were leaving over were player development, why would just buying better players later? I mean, if I don't know how to drive a stick shift, getting me a Ferrari is not going to, not going to help the situation if it's not automatic. If you don't know how to drive at all, why would I give you a Ferrari, even if it was automatic? If you can't, you know, if I don't trust you to back out the parking lot, why would I say, you know what, the money we were going to spend on your car insurance, we use it as a

dollar payment for a Ferrari? What? So, you know, I think that they've kind of put themselves behind an eight ball in that regard, but more power to them, you know, I'm sure it'll just mean more next season. That's right. Well, we do have some hoops to talk about because Brett Friedlander wrote a good article about, you know, why the ACC is down. Like, we're down bad when it comes to basketball, which does not fit the ACC reputation. Sticking with football, though, for a second, it looks like Virginia Tech has a new defensive coordinator. You want to keep it locked right here.

We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Guys, it's tax season. And you know what that means? It means I will not break a sweat thanks to Intuit TurboTax, our great sponsor. Taxes was waiting and wondering and worrying if you're going to get any money back and then waiting, wondering, and worrying some more. Now, Taxes is matching with a TurboTax agent, a TurboTax expert who can do your taxes as soon as today. An expert who gives you your taxes, their undivided attention as they work on your return while you get real-time updates on their progress so you can focus on your day. an expert who will find you every deduction possible and file every form, every investment,

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We're available free. Wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Make sure for your next listen, if you check out our other shows, Kenton and Grayson host Locked on Wolfpack. I host Locked on Cains. So, you know, we were talking Kenton about other ACCC schools making their defensive

coordinator hires, Tom Allen to Clemson, Corey Heatherman to Miami, most notably. and it looks like Virginia Tech also now has their guide. This is being finalized as we record this here on Monday evening. They're on the cusp, according to Pete Thamble of ESPN, of hiring Arizona Cardinals, linebackers coach, Sam Sefkees, to be the school's new defensive coordinator. I like about Sefkees, he's got NFL experience for the past several years, Kenton, Arizona Cardinals linebackers coach for the past two NFL seasons. was on the Minnesota Viking staff for two seasons prior to that.

One thing I don't see a whole lot of is defensive play calling experience. But I think any time you see college programs getting coaches who have NFL experience and have been part of those cultures, I think that's probably a good starting point here for Virginia Tech whose defense was, you know, bang average, really probably worse than that, but they were ranked 57th in the country last year. Yeah, and I think the biggest thing here in terms of this new hire, is you're thinking about a guy who's going to bring you in a wonky defense. And boy, who does better with wonky defenses than Virginia Tech?

When you think about all those years with Bud Foster, did you know that people didn't know what position Camp Chancellor would play in the NFL because of how Bud Foster used them? He was all over the place. He was on the line of scrimmage. Sometimes he was in the lineback position. Sometimes it was a deep middle hole safety. He did a little bit of everything.

which I don't know why, but it just feels to me like Virginia Tech is getting back to those roots with this hire. Now, like you said, like you alluded to, there is a lack of play calling experience. Yeah. And one thing that I noticed with a lot of Ricky coordinators and coaches and all that, you're going to see a lot of trying to be somebody else. And I feel like he's going to try at least to start this season off to be this like, oh, everybody says we should run base. So we should run. Brother, that's not what you're hired.

for you're going to be hired to be very aggressive the cardinals defense this year was fairly aggressive and and you know got after quarterbacks and whatnot you're going to be asked to do the same thing here because we know what what virginia tech does when it comes to dbs okay so if you can get to quarterback soon enough if you can stop the run at a high enough clip you'll be just fine but those are that's always going to be a situation where again rickie quarterbacks coordinator, how much of you are you going to be? I want to see you be your best self and let your flag flies. This is who I am from day one.

But it's just much easier said than done. Yeah. Now, to be fair, Seth Keys doesn't have zero play calling experience. But here's where he was a defensive play caller, Kenton. Wofford and UW Plattaville. I don't even know what that is. But he did call defensive plays at those locations. So that, you know, it's something.

It's something on the resume. Alex Marinoviz, Dono, come on. You and I both know that that's not exactly the same level of ball as you would be playing in the NFL or playing in the ACC. With all due respect to Wofford, it's a different type of thing. I didn't even know Wofford had a football program. Oh, come on, man. They're a money game team for a lot of teams in the Carolinas.

Whenever a team in North or South Carolina wants to play a team that they know they're going to be, it's either Presbyterian, Wofford, South Carolina State. Those are generally the three. They're like, oh, come on, come on. Come on over here. We're going to beat your brains up. We're going to pay you for it.

In Florida, in my state in Florida, it's Bethune Cookman, Florida, A&M are the major ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's just, you know, Wofford is just one of the ones in the North Carolina area. But I will say this. I will say this. I'm excited to see how this works out. I'm excited to see how this works out because I don't think, you know,

the ACC having more good coaches is always a great time. As a matter of fact, we'll get into a little later how a lack of good coaches can affect you. But in all seriousness, I think that this is a pretty good heart. And I want to see how it pans out. Yeah, so let's shift gears to basketball because honestly, to me, to me, the biggest thing affecting ACC basketball, Kenton, is we went from two years ago, you know, having multiple Hall of Fame caliber coaches. and coaches who were all-time wins leaders at their various schools to suddenly a lot of those guys all retiring within two years and in some cases within two months of each other with what we just experienced with Tony Bennett and Jim Laronaga both stepping away within a short

period of time from Virginia and from Miami respectively. And this was, this caught my attention. Brett Friedlander from Saturday down south wrote this article, no longer the greatest. ACC basketball has fallen victim to finances, expansion, and its own bad decision. So let me give you an excerpt of this. And then Kenton, we can talk about how the ACC can bounce back, right? He says a steady decline that began after the COVID interrupted 2020 season has reached a historic new low this year.

Other than Duke, which has maintained its familiar spot near the top of the national polls, and Louisville revived under first year coach Pat Kelsey. the drop-off has been monumental, he says. With just over a month remaining in the season, eight of the league's 18 members have losing records and are ranked 111th or worse in the NCAA's net rankings. The conference went 2 and 14 in the SEC ACC challenge, and its overall non-conference winning percentage of 0.652%,

is it's worse since 1968, 1969. Woof. Like Muhammad Ali, some of the ACC's decline can be traced to the inevitable passage of time. As immortal as Coach K, Roy Williams, Jim Beheim, Tony Bennett, Mike Bray and Jim Laranaga might have seemed they couldn't go on forever. And their departures have left a significant coaching vacuum throughout the league. He says, you don't lose Hall of Famers and coaching legends without expecting at least

some drop-off, but the void has grown even larger because of the hires made to replace them. Rather than seeking out the best, most experienced candidates, Duke, North Carolina, and Syracuse all chose to stay within the family by hiring former star players with no previous head coaching experience. Louisville went the same direction after firing Chris Mack in 2022 in the wake of an NCAA investigation into alleged rules violations. On the job training gambles. Only the Blue Devils John Shire appears to have paid off, which is fair. While Hubert Davis has taken the Tar Heels to a final four and won an ACC regular season title, he's in

serious danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years. Syracuse's nine and 11 in year two under Adrian Autry, and Kenny Payne was let go after winning only 12 games in his two campaigns with the Cardinals. Besides Davis, only one other current ACC coach has taken a team to the final four, and it took a miracle for Kevin Keats to get NC State there a year ago. So the first big point, Kent, and let's focus on that for a second, is the coaching. Now, I think, you know, in the case of, you know, both Virginia and Miami, both of their coaches, is Ron Sanchez at UVA and Bill Courtney and Miami. You both have interim tags.

Miami's awful, though. I mean, I have a hard time. Like, part of my job is watching Miami's Miami basketball. And the fact that we had to, like, be really happy that they actually took a game to overtime against Cal that they ultimately lost. Like, hey, we didn't lose by 30 or 40. This is fantastic. It's really bad.

But, you know, to be fair, they haven't found their next permanent head coach yet. Neither has Virginia. I mean, I guess maybe there's a chance, Sanchez could. stick around, but both of those teams are looking for their next guy. But overall, like, I mean, do you think the ACC is going to start investing in coaches within the next couple of years to try and bounce back from this? Oh, you have to. You have to.

But, you know, as much as I want to say something, actually, you know what? No, I'm going to say it. I'm going to be bold and I'm going to say it. Why does the ACC not get the benefit of the doubt that other conferences get in not only basketball, but also other sports? Whereas like, oh, they're having a bad year. That's okay. It happens.

It happens sometimes. And they'll bounce back. And another thing, wasn't the ACC supposed to be down last year going into the tournament? Oh, they over-performed in the tournament. Yeah. The ACC was cooked. Now, no, they were cooked. Oh, you know, old terrible old NC State won your conference tournament.

There's no way. You know, they're right next to Kentucky. And Kentucky, once they beat the mess out of Oakland. University because there is no way some six-foot bald guy could go out there and shoot the lights out or balding guy could go out there and shoot the lights out. You know, so I say all that to say, I think the ACC deserves a little grace here because historically when you've been dominant year after year after year after year after year and there is no direct one-for-one moment to say like, ah, this is the problem. Sometimes the ebb and flow of things just make downs happen. But now to

address those things you talk about in terms of the coaching, you absolutely have to invest in coaching. You absolutely have to make sure that you're nailing the right hires. And it is, I'm going to say something about everybody hiring in-house that needs to, I need everybody to not react negatively or super terribly when I say this word. Some of these schools are starting to have incestuous gene pools. You need to diversify. You need to diversify. You need to have guys who are themselves. A guy who comes from another guy's coaching tree who saw that guy win national championships

by running the same 12 sets all the time is going to want to emulate them without realizing, oh, that guy retired not just because he was old, because the game passed him by. The game had passed that concept by. So you go out and you try to do the same thing through diminishing returns because now everybody knows the thing.

everybody knows the thing that you want to do well. So I look at this situation with some of these teams that replace from house and all that. Just do, clean, clean house. Go back, reshuffle the deck, try again. Okay, because again, having this situation where we've got to keep it in the family, no, you don't. Do you need to expand the family? It's like House Targaryen in Game of Thrones.

You know, you got to branch out that family tree a little. of it. You want to keep it like, so the other part of this is, um, does the ACC need to invest more from a basketball point of view in NIL? Because that, that's, you know, the idea of buying players used to be taboo. You talked about Ohio State football of $20 million roster. We want a championship. There's no more taboo around that. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of locked on ACC. Oh, my friends, we are certainly not done yet with Fanduel. In fact, Super Bowl 59 is coming up. This is the time to get in.

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And so, you know, Friedlander also talks about in this ACC decline thing, the significant revenue gap that exists between the ACC and its top rivals has also hurt the quality of play, he says. So as a product watered down by expansion and the emphasis that's been placed on football is the financial engine that drives college sports in the NIL era. He says, oh, that's also, that is an interesting point, Kenton, because when the ACC decided to expand and, you know, when a lot of these schools, like you think about, you know, the newfound investment that North Carolina is now making an NIL because of Bill Belichick, like a lot of these decisions now in a conference where a lot of the decisions used to be made maybe with basketball first or at least basketball and football kind of

on an even tier. These football decisions now tend to trump the basketball decisions. I don't think they added three schools to the ACC for the benefit of basketball. I think every decision is made with football in mind. Well, Dono, you know, there was an episode of everybody hates Chris, where they talked about who gets the big piece of chicken and why, right? And it was long known in different cultures, particularly the African-American tradition, that the man of the house, the patriarchal house, gets the big piece of chicken. You know why? Yeah. Because he needed the most energy to go out and work and do the things. Of course football is going to always receive the most investment because they are working and doing the things financially. The basketball simply cannot.

A great best, again, we've talked about realignment so much. Why has no conference come clawing for Kansas? Why didn't the SEC break down every door and say, Jayhawks, get your tail in here? Is it in Yukon having trouble finding a home? The Big Ten, you don't want Yukon? No, they do nothing for you? Let me tell you why.

They're a team that, why, you may not consider them a blue blood, they sure as hell got something in their blood. to win the national championships regularly, more regularly than some of the teams that we would consider Blue Bloods. And yet, nobody's checking for them. Why? It's two things. Your market's not big enough and football is the driver. So obviously, football is always going to get a big piece of chicken, but the thing behind that, the thing behind that, that there is a lot of truth, too, in Brett's words, well, now, at what point do you invest in NIL for basketball players? Because it's a similar situation.

It's a similar situation. If you're willing to pay the ducats, you will get the best players. If you're not, you won't. And that's what this is. Everybody keeps talking about, oh, everything is 100% transaction and all that. Well, let me ask you all. Let me ask you, person listening to this. When you do accounting for enterprise rental card, do you do it?

Because you always dreamed of doing logistics and travel and booking short-time rentals for people? Is that why you're doing? Oh, no, no, no, I get it. I get it. Person who does software engineering for Dell, was it a passion of yours that when you were a kid, you just knew, oh, Dell is the place I need to be. No, you do it for the money.

These kids are doing it for the same reason. And so it's not going to benefit you to cry and whine and complain about which we've seen some teams do. And the cryers, whiners, and complainers get left behind. If the ACC doesn't want to be that in basketball, guess what? Spend the ducats. Spend the money. Get the best players and keep it pushing, okay?

It is not a, the world that you, y'all knew, where all of it was for dear old state, where all of it was for the U, where all of it was for, oh, they come here because they just love the universe. Those days are gone. They're gone. Christina, Christina, where's Christina? She's gone. he's gone. What you're stuck with is the reality that like Brett Freelander talk about, you have to pay into the infrastructure, you have to, and more important than the infrastructure,

honestly, just pay the players, just pay the players. I think, especially in basketball, where the best guys know they're going to be there for a year anyway, just pay the players. Just pay the players and go much way. Yeah, fair enough. Well, on our, I'll tell you, on our next episode, we're going to talk about the big takeaways from the full revelation of the ACC football schedule. That's happening later on tonight. We're here with you on Monday night. It's going to be later on this evening.

So we'll definitely react to that. Now, we already know everybody's week zero and week one games. A lot of those non-conference. We know the conference opener for every team, but we don't have the full schedules, which is important, right, knowing, you know, congested parts of the schedule, who you're playing when.

So we will break that down next time. Make sure you follow us. Follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton on X. Follow me at Lockdown-Kaines. And we will talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the awesome lockdown podcast network. Your team every day.