Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - CHAOS: Duke PUSHES BACK Against Miami Over Darian Mensah | Who’s REALLY Right?

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Duke Blue Devils take a bold stand in the Darian Mensah transfer saga, sparking debate around player empowerment, NIL contracts, and the legal chaos reshaping college football. With Miami Hurricanes aggressively targeting Mensah as their next starting quarterback, will contract disputes and NCAA loopholes derail Miami’s championship ambitions—and set a new standard for athlete movement across the ACC?Jackson Holzer and Kenton Gibbs break down the latest twists in the Duke-Miami saga, weighing in on NIL controversies, shifting ACC power rankings, and the financial arms race transforming roster building. Heated discussions highlight which teams—like NC State and SMU—are rising, why Syracuse struggles to stay competitive, and whether anyone can stop Miami’s loaded roster. Plus: ACC basketball upsets, transfer portal drama, and why the conference’s future has never been more unpredictable. Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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.

We've talked a lot about this Dary and Mensa situation with Duke, with Miami. Is he allowed to enter the transfer portal? But here's a question for you all, ladies and gentlemen. Who is actually in the right here? You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome in a locked on ACC. Jackson Holesler host of Locked-on Syracuse.

That's Tenting Gibbs host of Locked-on, NC State Wolfpack. Thank you all so much for making us your first listen of every single day here on the Locked-on Podcast Network where it's your team every day. And of course, we're always free and available wherever you get your podcast. And on today's show, NC State, over the weekend, they suffered a pretty terrible loss at home to Georgia Tech. But guess what? All of a sudden, a victory at Clemson, Kenton's very happy about it.

We'll talk about that. later on in the show and how NC State, maybe they're now a lock to make the tournament. That's coming up later on in the show. Plus, in early 2026 football outlook, who's going to be good in the ACC? Who's going to be good or bad in the ACC? Spoiler alert. Syracuse, I don't anticipate is going to be very good next season. But first and foremost, we continue with this situation involving Darien Mensa, who is actually in the right. side of history in this whole situation. All that and more coming up.

You're on today's edition of Locked on ACC. And before we get to everything, this episode is brought to you by Fandul. Fandall is officially in playoff mode every game day during the NFL playoffs. Fandall is giving customers even more ways to get in on the action. Visit fandle.com to get started. All right. So Kenton, the floor is yours. I mean, who is on the right side of history?

You got so many different angles. Is it Duke? Is it Derry and Men? Is it Miami? Is it all of them? Is it none of them? What are your thoughts? Well, I often say that there are stories where there are no heroes and we try to paint one. We try to find one. And in this story, I don't think that there are any villains. Why do I say that, right? So when this news first drop, Corey Smith, who covers, who covers NC State as well as I do. And he's been doing it a little bit longer than me, said, if Duke fans are mad at Darry and Mimsa for making the

best decision in entering the portal. Remember, you never would have had him if he didn't leave Tulane for the same reason for the last winter. It's a cold world. And I said, nah, bro, this is objectively very different. He left Duke on the last possible day to enter the portal after signing a two-year contract last year, not saying Duke fans weren't pumped and didn't care if Tulane fans were mad last year, but Duke fans have every right to be upset. Now, why am I saying that? In this story, there are no true village. What do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? Darien Mintz is doing something that is legally bad. He's trying to break the contract.

That's just the fact. He signed a contract of two years saying, hey, you all have my marketing rights for two years. NIL is exactly that. Marketing rights situations, whatever the case may be, whatever the buyout is or whatever the amount is or whatever they're deeming the impact to be, that's just what Darien has to pay out. Duke's not wrong for saying, dude, you signed a two-year contract. either play for us for two years or pay out for not, you know, doing it. And then Miami, how could they be wrong for going after the best quarterback available?

I don't see anybody as wrong in like a truly villainous sense or anything like that. But I will say this situation overall is what's wrong with college football right now. Is what is creating a lack of interest in college football because it used to be about the name on the front of the jersey as they would say, but that it's never truly been that. It's always been the guys who are wearing the name on the front of the jersey. My guys are better than yours. And now nobody knows whose guys are going to be good year to year because of so much influx and change in movement.

Indiana just won a national championship for crying out loud. That just happened. You know who was there playing against them? A Miami team that still hasn't won the ACC. So I'm saying this to say, we are seeing different teams rise to power. We're seeing different groups and all that. It's with that happening, with it not just being blue bloods anymore,

with it not just being the same old song and dads at the party, there's going to be problems with that to begin with. But then when you add on the layer of what's creating these other groups in the party, right? what's creating all of these differences in the party, or what's creating all this parody, rather, it's happening because players are moving very freely, and this is almost to the point of too freely. Because again, if you signed a contract for multiple years,

you signed a contract for multiple years. I think there are villains in this story. I think that Miami is definitely a villain, but not in the traditional sense, because Miami is simply bringing, breaking the rules, but they're not actually breaking the rules because the rules don't exist. Darian Mensa is a member of Duke. He should not be having any communication with playing for Miami while he is under contract.

He is breaking the rules, but the rules do not exist. But I want to pull up this tweet right here from Pete Damo. It was earlier today on Wednesday, January 21st. Statement from Duke Athletics on quarterback Daria Mensa. quote, Mr. Mensa has an existing contract with Duke, which the university intends to honor, and we expect he will do the same. The court order, temporary restraining order, TRO, issued yesterday ensures he does not violate his contract. The university is committed to supporting all of our student athletes while expecting each of them to abide by their contractual

obligations. The Duke Blue Devils are the hero of this story. because I would like to follow that up by saying Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald mentioned that Duke is trying to make this situation as difficult and as messy as possible. Derry Ments is not backing down. He wants to leave the program. He wants to be a member of the Miami Hurricanes and be their starting quarterback in 2026. And obviously, I mean, it's tough to criticize someone who is acting in the best interest of themselves. Yeah.

the same time, he locked himself in. He signed a two-year contract, which at the time made him one of, if not the highest-paid quarterbacks in all the college football. And I understand that the market has changed now, but that is the risk when you sign a two-year deal. Guess what? Derry Mensa, I don't think he would be complaining all that much about his contract if he stunk last season at Duke.

But he was really good to his credit. So, yeah, I guess he deserves more money, but he signed the contract. contract. So I look at Duke and I just say thank you. Like, thank you so much because this is what is needed. You need to fight back at some point. And your quarterback saying on the final day of the transit portal, hey, I'm out deuces. No, no, no, no, no. That's not okay. He signed a two-year contract. He is obligated to be a member of the Duke Blue Devils next season. They were the ones who determined his market value. I don't know how the court is going to rule. I don't think anyone, really knows what is going to happen with this whole legal situation because it's it's just

brand new to everyone here of what's going to happen but at the end of the day thank you to the Duke blue devils for doing the right thing which is make this as messy as possible make Darian Mensa bleed not in the literal sense but in the figurative sense make him bleed make him suffer make him understand what's actually happening right now like you want this if your Duke to drag out to August. Like, that's what you want. You want him to have no idea what he is going to do for this upcoming season. You know, I'm going to say this, and I'm going to leave it right here in terms of the

hero and villain narrative of it. I get it in the way of dichotomous thinking, if you create a hero, there often has to be a villain. But I would disagree because in this situation, I don't see anybody as the villain because of my, I know that I have an inherent bias towards the players and towards players. and towards player empowerment and them doing what they're doing. I do not feel like there's a villain here, but I do agree that Duke is right.

I do agree with you that if there is a hero to this scenario, it is Duke the same way that it should be for anybody else. And here's my biggest gripe. I keep hearing from everybody, oh, how could Miami have done everything above board? They had to have tempered. Well, Tulane said the same thing about Duke last year. They said that they tempered halfway through the season

and that he tanked the AAC championship game because he wasn't focused and was already plotting his exit for Duke and all that good stuff. Leave that crybaby whining nonsense on the playground unless you have substantial proof that what is against the definition of what is against the NCAA definition of temporary has occurred, leave it on the playground.

I don't want to hear about it. I do not care to hear about it. I'm sorry, I don't. With that being said, again, to me, is definitely a hero in this story because they're saying, hey, the contract is the contract is the contract. Let's honor and stick to these contracts. I'm not going to call a kid a villain for doing what's best for himself for trying to get itself a raise or whatever the case may be. Because if these universities could find a way to weasel out of paying players and in doing that enrich themselves or make themselves be in a better situation financially, they, of course, would do it. So I'm not going to criticize a kid in a way that people would.

not criticize the university. I'm not going to criticize Miami for going after a player that, again, was available and is good. And again, by the definition of tampering, there are a billion loopholes around what is officially tampering. So, you know, that's on the NCAA to tighten this up. If we really look at this thing, and I would say that there is a villain, it's the NCAA. Oh, that we definitely agree with. Exactly. Because they had every opportunity to do better and to close up some of these loopholes and to make tampering more concrete and to do something about these agreements that are signed between players and collectives. Because if the deal is, hey, we just got your marketing rights and that's it.

And you can't be marketed by anybody else. Well, then that's a de facto. That's what it is. He can't go anywhere and get paid for marketing and name and image or like that. He can't. So ultimately, the NCAA not doing enough and saying, throwing their hands up and said, hey, It's tough. I don't know what to do. That to me is a big problem. All right. Well, coming up here on locked on ACC, early, 26 outlook. Who's going to be good,

who's going to be mid, and who's going to be bad? We'll talk about it next on Locked on ACC. College basketball season is in full swing, and Fandall is giving all customers even more ways to get in on the action. Every single college basketball game, because right now, Fandall users, at a profit boost waiting for them in the app. Here's what I love about it. You get to use the profit boost on the bets you already feel good about. Or you can even build a parlay around the players and moments you think will decide the game. Then you apply to profit boost and go after even bigger winnings.

And when you win, Bandw pays out instantly, which is perfect for college basketball. Fandle is the best place to get into the action all college basketball season long. So visit vandal.com to get your college basketball profit boost. every game day. Locked on ACC. I'm Jackson Hulzer. That's Kent and Gibbs. While we were actually recording the who's right in the whole Dary and Mensa situation from Stuart Mandel, Duke is expected to enter Dary and Mentsa's name in the portal today. A source told the athletic. Duke is also having someone from San Jose State at quarterback potentially visiting the program as well. So Duke, it looks like they are going to pivot. Remember, Duke, by order of the court, has to enter

Darien Mensa's name into the portal. This situation is all about whether or not Darian Mensa can actually get paid when he goes to the University of Miami. But for all intents and purposes, I am not going to get my fairy tale wish that Darian Mensa will not be playing football for anyone but the Duke Blue Devils in 2026. So with that said, let's go over an early 2026 ACC football outlook. Is Miami the team to beat?

Why wouldn't there be? I mean, I understand that you cannot just replace a Bane and Mezzadour one for one. And I understand that those two are absolute game records that gave offensive coordinators fits all throughout the season, not just

during the playoff run. But with that being said, you bring back Mark Fletcher. You bring back You bring back, Tony. You bring back so much experienced and so much winning experience as well. You bring back a ton of guys who know what it's like to get that taste. They know what it's like to get extremely close.

I don't see why they wouldn't be a team that we should expect to at minimum, at minimum, be very good next year. They may not be back in the national championship picture, but you can definitely expect them to be, at the top of the ACC. I expect the same thing as well. I think there are no question the team to beat in the ACC. I remember thinking last year that Miami was a 10-and-2 team and a lost Cam Ward, who was the number one overall pick in the NFL draft. And I thought at the time, this was a dumb take by me, I guess,

that that might be Miami's best chance in a while to actually win at the national level, not just have successful seasons. Mario Cristobar's already proven they can do that. but to really win and get close to winning a national championship, dare I say, actually almost win the national championship, right? They replaced him with Carson Beck. Carson Beck, I think, was everything that Miami hoped he would be. He did his absolute best. He's not the guy we thought he could be a couple years ago, but he was still a very good quarterback.

And yet Miami, with a lesser quarterback, goes to the national title game where they had a drive for a chance to win at all. So they were able to replace a guy like Cam Ward. The reason why I mentioned that is because, yeah, you're going to lose Akeem Mesedore. You're going to lose Ruben Bain, who I hope the Jets take it to. Sorry to Ruben Bain. You're just a really good player. He played too well when he was at Miami.

That's his fault. You're going to lose more pieces. But that's just the reality of college sports. Every great team, they're great for a reason. It's because they also have great players. And those great players end up playing on Sundays. And so I look at Miami and I say, you have all the talent in the world, you have all the athletes in the world, you have all the money in the world.

Yeah, you're going to lose a couple of guys on the edge. That stinks. You wish you had it for this upcoming season, but you still have Mark Fletcher, you still have Malachi Tony. And also you're going to have Darien Mensa as your quarterback. And Derry Mensa was the second best quarterback in the ACC last season based on the all conference team selections selections. You could argue whether or not it was him or Haines King, but Hainsting was the one who ended up getting first team. point being is that I think Miami is very clearly right now the team to beat. But outside of Miami, who do you think is second on that list? You know, that's a very, very interesting question because there's a lot of teams with lots of talent, but very big questions. There's lots of teams that I want to say, hey, I feel great about this team, but I'd be lying if I did say that. What do I mean by that, right?

if I look at, you know, for example, if I were to throw out my school, NC State defensively, way too many holes for me to feel comfortable and say, oh, yeah, this team's going to be great. If I go over to Louisville, love Isaac Brown, a lot of your other backs are still in the portal. And on top of that, who's going to be playing quarterback for you? And on top of that, you ask yourself, well, Bell is leaving. I believe he's going to the NFL.

I could be wrong there. Bell at Whiteout is leaving, too. you ask yourself, well, who's next up for all of these different things for them? I mean, defensively, they somehow always seem to figure it out. But you still ask yourself, can they get over to home? Louisville is shown us. They can beat the best of teams, but I say it every year, and Louisville has not proven me wrong yet.

They have a game or two where you just scratch your head and say, did they forget how to play football? Are they beyond that yet? Georgia Tech, as much as I love Coach Key, is he. He's going to figure it out without a quarterback and having that. So that's the thing. I'm selling Georgia Tech stock. So last year I was an early buyer into Georgia Tech this year.

I'm selling. I'm selling, selling, who are you buying? Who somebody has to be second? And that's what confuses me and perplexes me because I'm at a point where I'm leaving out one team. And who is that?

Dabbo and company? No. I'm not buying them at all. Okay. SMU. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one to buy. That's a good with a back.

It's the same quarterback, same coach. They're good consistently. A couple years ago, they're in the ACC championship. They've already proven that they have a higher ceiling than Louisville. Based on what we have seen over the last two years when they're both in the exact same conference. Yes, I know that Louisville was in a conference title game the year before SMU was in the conference. But since the two have been in the ACC, they're pretty similar to where. You don't think that SMU or Louisville have the upside to be true contenders,

but they are always at the top of the ACC. And SMU, same quarterback, same coach. You know that they're good. They've gotten a couple of big transfers as well. Yeah, they lost Chris Johnson, but I think they'll be okay without him on offense. So I look at it and I say, I think SMU might be the second best team in the ACC on January 21st,

2026. I have plenty of months to change my mind. But if there's a, second team that I'm going to buy, it would be SMU. I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at that buying some SMU stock. You know, I'm sure Grayson is very happy about this, but I'm not mad at buying a little SMU stock.

I'd agree with that assessment because all the other teams have too big of questions at too many very, very big positions. And I will say this as far as, you know, hey, replacing Cam Ward was done in, and So you should be able to replace Bain and Mesidor those two and what they did in terms of the tape. They're great. It's I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that they played every offensive line that everybody considered the best. Every one of the offensive lines, everybody said, oh, this is the group. Texas A&M was the number one or number two or somewhere in the top three,

past-rated, uh, rated pass blocking offense, offensive line in the nation. And how many sacks did the hurricanes get against them? A lot. Ohio State, the team with no holes,

right? You've got all these great players all over the place. You go throw a rock in that huddle. You're more likely to hit a future first rounder than a, then in the count. And yet, how did they make that offensive line look? Oh, Jeremiah Smith.

He, he's, he's from the crib, but he ain't, you know, He had a great game. He did. He didn't. He only one who had a great game. I was just about to say it was just him. It was literally not another soul.

So you look at all of those things and then you get to the national championship where they say, this offensive line, they're as fundamentally solid as they come. Every time they do it, they're going to do it the right way. They may not be these super overwhelming six, eight, three, 30 mallers, but everything they do, they do well and they do right. Not only did Bain and Mezedor both have. over a sack of piece and over, I believe, four or five pressures each. They also had that offensive line in their head and flinching on second and one to put the game away.

So it's easy to say in theory like, yeah, you're a place Camp Ward. More so than anything else, the thing that I said about Cam Ward, it would take a whole team effort. Everybody on the team had to raise their level a little bit. And I think the same thing of Bain and Mesidor. It's not going to be a you replace those guys one for one. Everybody on their team has to raise another level. And getting Minsa to replace Beck, I think that raises you. There you go.

I think that raises you. That's what I was going to say. But you still need defensively to have the ability to have guys raise that level on up, which I'm not sure if that's the case at the moment. No, you're not wrong about that, but they are much better at quarterback today than they were last season getting Dary and Mentsa. So I look at Miami. They're the clear runaway favorite right now in the ACC.

I look at SMU and I say, if there's any team that I'm going to pick, I'm going to pick them to maybe be second. I got no idea who I would pick in third. I guess I can default and say Louisville, but just say that Louisville is not going to be anything other than just a very good ACC team. As far as who's not going to be good in the conference, I'm confident in saying that NC State will be fun.

I'm not sure if they're going to be good, but they'll be fun. I am also confident in saying that Syracuse is not going to be good. They might not be fun either. I was just about to say, in a world where we got Boston College. I don't know if it's going to be good. I don't know if you've seen what they've done in the transit portal, but if you've actually paid attention to what they've done in the transit portal, it's bad.

It's terrible, no good, very bad. It's, it's, uh-oh. Jackson, in a world where we've got Boston College, Syracuse, and even the dirty foot club right down the street from us. I'm okay with being fun, but potentially not good. Because there's no big things. Trust me, you would rather be fun and not very good than just simply not very good. I look at the bottom of the ACC, and I think, unfortunately, Syracuse will be in that group. Boston College is Boston College. Stanford is Stanford. And North Carolina, I don't, are you buying any North Carolina stock? No, absolutely not. Okay. So North Carolina.

Why did I even ask you that question? You're an interesting guy anyway. There is a team that I'm very intrigued to get your opinion on. Who? Eight win team last year, or no, no, I believe nine went team last year when it was all said and done. Now I've got to take the standings. In the state of North Carolina as well, you buying Dickering in Wake Forest next year? Are you buying?

Are you buying? I just had to know. I just had to. I'm buying them to do what? Like, buying them to go another seven to eight wins. Are you buying? Are you buying Way forward at 7-8? I mean they can, but like, so what?

You know, I get you. I get you. But like when I talk about buying SMU stock, I'm like, I think they can reach the conference title game. And they would have an outside shot at just winning the conference. Right. Like Louisville, I look at it and I say, I know they're going to be good. I just don't know if they have that ceiling. With Wake Forest, you win seven, eight games?

maybe like cool but they're not going to contend next year that that they're not that good i here's the thing i'm not saying as a contender but when you think about what wake forest has been historically and you think if you think about the current landscape of nil right where you're talking about all these teams that are just cash strapped do wake forest has almost as many students as not high school like that's that's the type of alumni base you're talking about now granted this is an affluent alumni base. They do well for themselves and all that good stuff with those degrees. But in terms of NIL, I don't imagine them being one of the superpowers that it makes sense. If somebody told you Wake Forest wins nine games in a Power 4 conference, right, based on what we know about their NIL and their spending,

I think most people would be like, wait, what, what? How did that happen? I think that's damn good for them. I think so if that's where we are, I will buy that stock at eight wins, potentially. I am not buying them at conference contenders. Eight wins. I'm not buying yet, but I'm looking at it. I'm saying, do I need to jump in on this? Let me talk to my financial advice. See if I got some extra ducats to put on that thing.

What about Clemson? What about them? What are we buying them for? Because if I buy them for a buy them. I don't know. They're kind of in the middle. They're in the middle right now. I have no clue what to think of.

And that's the thing. How good is Christopher Visina? And if we talk about them the same way that we're talking about Clemson, and, I mean, not Clemson, Wake Forest and the NC State were like, do I buy them for eight to nine wins, right? We can have that conversation. We can have that conversation. But when we talk about, do I buy them for national championship, which has been their expectation? Absolutely not.

Do I buy them for ACC championship? Still going to be a no for me, dog. So. I, if you're talking to pure investment strategy, I mean, I would, if there's a team I'm going to buy low on, it would be Clemson. That's all I'm saying. I'd rather put money on Clemson than Wake Forest. Give me the boys in Blacksburg. If I'm buying something low, give me the boys in Blacksburg.

That's not a bad one. James Franklin has done a phenomenal job in the portal and in recruiting and all that good stuff. And I'm going to tell you something. When I heard, oh, there's a dissent amongst him in Penn State's boosters, who the hell do y'all think y'all are as boosters? Who do you think you are? Do you think that you can get another him? because he can go somewhere else and get another place where their booster are going to kick out whatever he needs and smile and whatever he says.

Like, nobody cares about what you got going on in Happy Valley to that level to where they're like, oh, yeah, we, you know, been the need to the boosters and we can't go anywhere else. The coaches and boosters don't meet halfway. The coach comes out about 25% shakes hands, says, thank you. I appreciate you. I like this stuff. And he goes on and does his thing. Okay, but I think that he's going to be very, very good at Virginia Tech in year one. And I'd rather buy them as an unknown commodity than Clemson, which we have seen,

has continued to dip and dip and dip and get worse. Fair enough. So I think we both have very interesting investing portfolios here for ACC football in 2026. But we know that Syracuse will not be very good. So they won't really, I will have no stock. We're both shortened. We're both short in Syracuse, baby. And I know that Locked on Syracuse fans are absolutely thrilled with my positivity that I'm showing them so far in the transfer portal in this offseason.

Great job. Great job. Let's pretend that everything's all peachy up there in Syracuse land. But anyway, we're going to shift gears and talk about the hardwood next because last night there was a pretty big game in the ACC. It was in Clemson and NC State got themselves a big victory. So we'll talk about it next tier on locked on ACC. over the weekend, Kenton, it was not very good for NC State basketball. Is that fair to say it was not very good? You're on your home floor and you lose to Georgia Tech? Are we sports guys? Are we historians?

You always bring it up old stuff. You always bring it up old stuff. I just want to know what happened because I think it sets up what happened on Tuesday night, which is just when we're all thinking, is this Will Wade higher? really, is this really all that? Like what's going on with NC State? They're underachieving and now they finally have a bad loss on their resume, which they didn't have before.

They get a win at Clemson? What is this? I hate that. I mean, what's going on with NC State? I mean, good for them, but like what is going on with Will Wade squad right now? Jackson, there's a thing called the Law of the Wolf. And the way the law of the wolf work, this is explicitly for the NC State Wolf Pack. And the way the Lord of Wolf works, every time you expect great things out of NC State, they let you down.

That's why I refuse to call them a dark horse for the ACC next year. I said, they'll be fun. That'll be about it because I don't want to set them up with any expectation. When you expect a lot out of them, you get a little. But the minute, the millisecond, the time that you get an a yoda of a thought, all right, we're going to write them off. They're done. All of a sudden, they're like, hey, you want us to beat? a team that's on an eight-game win this street, nine-game winters

you want us to do that? We can do it. We'll do it on the road. We'll do it on the road, too. Head coach's alma mater, on the road. You know what I mean? We can do that. It's this team, this team, they're just so frustrating.

And the most frustrating part about it is the thing that they did better than Clemson was just effort. They just fought tooth and nail. And I know that that sounds very vague and like, oh, effort and just try hard. there was a point where NC State is up in overtime, and they're starting to pull away. Like it's almost clear, all right, this game is NC State. And a loose ball pops out,

and the first got to hit the floor is NC State start daring with. That's the type of stuff that's like, when you have that combined with your talent, combined with your aptitude for shooting, combined with how Quiet Air Copeland is taking smaller guards to church and saying, hey, come get down on this block. Let me baptize you real quick. with this post game. When you combine it with those things, all of a sudden, you find yourself

winning basketball games. But against Georgia, take this weekend, it just seemed like, you know, they just were like, oh, we'll wake up at some point in time and we'll be okay. We'll get the odd boogers out. Oh, did we just lose? But that was not the case from tip off to to the fourth quarter buzzer to the final buzzer in overtime. This team kept battling the fight. I mean, good for NC State because, I mean, I wouldn't say I was completely writing them off after that loss to Georgia Tech. But up until that point, the way NC State's resume looked was, okay, you have very high preseason expectations. Yeah.

You don't have any bad losses, but you also have really no quality wins. Where's your quality wins? So when they lost to Georgia Tech, I'm like, wait a minute, that's their first bad loss and they still don't have a quality win. So I wouldn't say that Tuesday night was a must win at Clemson, given the state of the ACC and how it's much better this year in basketball than it was in previous years. But this was a game that certainly doesn't hurt and it certainly helps them because yesterday morning I checked ESPN Bracketology.

And I know it's not the only Bracketology expert out there, Joel LaNority, but he does, I think, a pretty good job. And he gives you a good idea of what the outlook is for the tournament on any given day. And he had NC State on the bubble, but in last four buys. It hasn't updated yet, but they're currently well. inside the top 30 right now in the net. All their metrics went way up after yesterday. I'd imagine that as of right now,

NC State went from, uh-oh, they might not make the tournament to, oh, they're pretty safely in right now. Now, they still have work to do because you still have a couple of months left in the season. You can't sit here and say that they are a lock to make the NCAA tournament. But they're on their way when you get a win like this. Yeah, and it can't be denied. And, you know, I just want to talk about the level of play, not just by NC State, but all throughout the ACC, man.

You look at last year, everybody's talking about, oh, is this team done? Is this team down? And you look at all the other power for, excuse me, power for conferences and all them are having to go get guys out of the NBA and go get two-way guys to put a good product on the floor. And the ACC is going out there with just pure unadulterated hoops. and doing great things. Yes, NC State is absolutely on pace right now to make the tournament. I don't want to diminish that and say like,

oh, well, you know, it's just credited to the ACC. But how many good teams do we have in the ACC right now? Really, really good teams. You got a Duke. You got a Virginia. You got a Clemson. You got a Louisville. You got lots of teams.

And I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. The way that Stanford has played so far? Huh? Okery. Get it off the net. And the conference, by the way, I think, is deeper, too, because we just saw Georgia Tech go into NC State. Another game that happened last night, we haven't really talked about it.

Florida State went into Miami and won. Yeah. And Miami, we've praised here, and I don't necessarily look at Miami and say, all right, let's now think them now. Let's now crush them because they lost this game. But of course. Florida State is going, you can't take, the point is in the ACC this year, it is much deeper.

It is better at the top. It is better in the mid. It is better at the bottom. You can't just have a night off in the ACC. Last year, if you had a night off in the ACC, I might not matter. Instead of beating a team by 20, you might only beat them by 10.

This year, even if you are Miami, who is a very, very good team, who could be a serious threat come March, if you have one bad game against Florida State, that bad game is not a 10-point win. No, it's actually a 10-point win. a loss. And let me, let me take it a step further. Last year, you can have an off week and still go undefeated in that week with two to three games. Who this year can have an entire week of like,

we're not playing good ball, but thank God we've got this team and this team on the schedule. And they're just both of those teams are floundering or all three these teams are floundering, we'll be okay. That doesn't exist anymore. I think the only scenario where that could exist is Duke who has the most talent in the conference has some sort of weak swing where they're playing Boston College and I don't know I mean another bad team in the conference

and they just have a couple of bad games but they still win them. Absolutely. But to what you were just saying, Florida State is dead last in the conference. And they just went into Miami in one. So it's like, I don't know. So you can't have a bad week.

You can't have that. You can't. Whereas like, oh, we played a couple of off games back to back. we're all right. Yeah, okay, you play a couple of bad games back to back. And you're going to be getting it out the net and looking up saying, oh, do we just move our way? Yeah, Syracuse learned that the hard way. They went to Boston College in front of the majority of their fans and they lost the game over the weekend. Now that the expectations are off of them, they're probably

going to beat Virginia Tech tonight, which is a quad two game. I can almost guarantee that they're going to win because this is what they do. It's kind of like with NC State, you know, when the pressure's on them, they shrink. But once the pressure is off, they go, win to Clemson and they win. So I'm calling for Syracuse right now. Ah, you know, they're, they're riding high. They're starting to get back on the bubble. You know, maybe they do make the tournament for the first time in a while. And they lose to Boston College. Now they're dead. The season's over, but they're going to beat Virginia Tech tonight and they're going to suck everyone back in, except for me. I'm not buying them at all. He short the heck out of them.

He's shorting all of it. He's shorting Newhouse. He's shorted the basketball team. He's shorting the football team. I'm not shorted at Newhouse. Newhouse is consistent. Newhouse will give you steady returns. If you want great broadcasters, that is the place you go. You go to Newhouse. We shorten everything from Sarah Cuisters. Except we not shorten the new house, but everything else short.

Yep. Maybe you buy men's lacrosse because they're just, you, they're typical. And even then, they're at there. Actually, they're at their low. So maybe you should buy. Because they're at their long. Right. Okay.

Okay. They haven't won in a long time. We short everything and see if we can get lacrosse in the mergers and acquisition thing. Sell off everything else. Every other short. And then with Syracuse with their next tech basketball coach, you buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. That's the way I'm looking at them right now.

Interesting. Okay. I got you. I got it. I can't say, me, me and my investment advice, though, I did tell you probably to buy stock in Fran Brown. Now I'm just looking at it and say, yeah, that thing is more. But you know what? You know what?

That's not. It's not. Brian Brown was the dot-com bubble of college football. Everybody bought. Everybody was like, oh, that's my God. That's my boy. I'm wrong with him. It's not his fault, though. I mean, you'll hear my thoughts on it on ACC squad on Thursday night.

I have more thoughts on that. But anyway, Jackson Luzer Locked on Syracuse, that's tent to give NC State Wolfpack. Alex Dono should be back for the next episode here. of Locked-on ACC. Folks, thank you all so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening. If you like this podcast, be sure to hit that like button. If you really enjoy the podcast, be sure to subscribe. Tell all your friends about Locked-on ACCC. We will see you all again soon.