Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - DEVASTATING: Syracuse Orange REEL After Calvin Russell Injury—FSU QB Competition

Starting point is 00:00:00 Talk about an up and down week for the Syracuse Orange. They have the joy of introducing Jerry McNamara as a new head basketball coach on Monday, but then the agony of a significant football and basketball injury on Tuesday. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown-on Caines, and on this loaded episode of Lockdown ACC, we're going to talk some NC State tonight because they have their new head basketball coach. But there's another search in the triangle that is still in progress, and the results of the final four might have some impact on who North Carolina brings in to coach their basketball team.

Starting point is 00:00:57 We'll talk spring football, which team's stock is up and which team's stock. is going down during this spring period. But Kenton, it's been an eventful week for the Syracuse Orange. There's a lot of excitement up there for Jerry McNamara, who was officially introduced on Monday as their new head basketball coach, a new era for Q's basketball. But then they get the awful news today. And again, like, I don't want to speculate on what the exact injury is,

Starting point is 00:01:27 medical privacy, all that. But it's usually not a good sign. when a university puts out a press release and a social media statement about a football player who also plays basketball suffering an injury. And it's a player near and dear to my heart, who I covered in South Florida, five-star wide receiver, and he's also a hooper at Syracuse, Calvin Russell, who got some burn for Syracuse in basketball this year. He enrolled in January.

Starting point is 00:01:59 He actually made his career debut against NCC. state in a game this season is going to play wide receiver for the orange. We don't know exactly when that's going to happen because Syracuse announced that Calvin Russell formerly a high school star at Miami Northwestern in my neck of the woods has suffered a significant injury and is going to be out for an indefinite period of time, which I don't know what that means, Kenton, and I'm sure there's already rumors flying around, but it's certainly not a good sign for Russell and not a good signed for Syracuse's wide receiver depth? Yeah, not at all.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Not at all. This was a wide receiver group that could not afford another injury. This was a wide receiver group that could not afford, I'm sorry, not another, could not afford any injuries rather. Yeah. This is a group that, I mean, Donald, you name me the impact player that you think of in terms of Syracuse's wide receiver room. I mean, I'd say Demetra Samuel, who plays two ways, who plays receiver and defense.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Maybe he focuses a little bit more after receiver. based on what happened to Calvin Russell today. But yeah, outside of that, you know, they got a few transfers that came in. Cole Weaver from Miami, Ohio, Elijah Moore from Florida State, Matthew Outen from Penn State. But I don't think any of those guys are dudes

Starting point is 00:03:16 the way Calvin Russell could be. And that was about to be my point exactly. I said, name me an impact player. Yeah, I'm literally just naming players. Not a guy that you think is going to be on the roster, or a guy that you're like, if he ends up on all-ACC team at the end of the season, I won't be like, really? I'm just reading the roster.

Starting point is 00:03:36 And so you can't really afford to have an injury to that type of room. And also, and this isn't even funny. This isn't me being facetious at all. A lot of people would say, man, Syracuse has got one big guy playing basketball and football, another guy playing both ways and all that. And they had a lacrosse player at quarterback. Man, they got some really talented dudes at all these different spots. That's one way to look at it.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Another way to look at it, you're broke. You can't afford the extra basketball players, so you need a football player to play basketball. You can't afford a good corner and a good receiver, so you need a guy to play both. You can't afford a backup quarterback that can actually understand the concept of a forward fast, so you need a lacrosse guy,

Starting point is 00:04:17 who we still have not seen a single football highlight of as your backup quarterback. I'm concerned. I'm concerned about. Syracuse. This seems like, you know, Fran Brown is a well-meaning guy and everybody likes him and all that and, you know, he gives you those good press clippers. And by the way, he cares about these young men as young men. Oh, he does. And he even, he attached a quote to the statement about, you know, how, how close he is with Calvin Russell and his family. And I know that to be the case, because I

Starting point is 00:04:50 covered Calvin Russell's recruitment. And Fran Brown is a major reason why he's at Syracuse and not at Miami. So I know Fran's sincere about that. And that's what I'm saying. Fran Brown is as when you talk about a man, a stand-up guy in this game, trust me, y'all see this hat back here. If you cannot see the hat, if you are listening, I'm pointing to an NC State hat that's in my background here. I've seen some guys that are not stand-up guys that are very much lay down and roll over guys that are very much stab you in the back guys. It is appreciated and rare to have a guy like Fran Brown. in this thing. But to say that, I also have to acknowledge there are some severe deficiencies on the Syracuse team. And when you have deficiencies, sometimes in college football,

Starting point is 00:05:38 you can have a few players that are good enough to cover up those deficiencies, right? Al-La Lamar Jackson when he was at Louisville. How many of those players played in the NFL offensively? How many of those players that he played with went on to have any I can't think of any outside Lamar. Okay, but that's my point. A really great player can cover a multitude of sins. And I'm not saying that Ruff, Calvin Russell, was to that level of, oh, he's going to be to Lamar Jackson, the receiver. But I'm saying he was going to be to the level of covering over a few scenes in that wide receiver room.

Starting point is 00:06:13 Losing him is a massive blow. And this just feels like a very snake-bitten kind of tenure here as a head coach. Well, and okay. So obviously, you touch. on a couple things there. Syracuse these last two years have not only had really bad injury luck, but they haven't had the depth to overcome it.

Starting point is 00:06:31 So those are two compounding problems, right? You can't, you know, it's not anyone's fault when Steve Angelly tears his Achilles in a game, and it's certainly not anyone's fault that Calvin Russell suffers a significant injury, but not having the depth to overcome it, that is a problem. And you look at Syracuse's odds, Kenton.

Starting point is 00:06:51 You know, again, losing, one player is not going to dramatically change their future for winning the conference. But on Fandul, they have the fourth worst odds to win the ACC this year, meaning only three programs have worse odds than they do, North Carolina, Stanford, and Boston College. So Syracuse was already near the bottom, and then an injury to the guy you could argue would be the most dynamic player on your roster because Calvin Russell, Kenton, this is the highest-rated recruit that Syracuse has landed this century. You have to go back to the 90s

Starting point is 00:07:26 the last time they landed a recruit that was ranked as high or higher than Calvin Russell. And true freshman, but he was going to play this year. The good news is he's got, you know, he's got four years of eligibility remaining,

Starting point is 00:07:38 right, or maybe five. I don't know what the NCAA does anymore with that. But, you know, so it's only a matter of time before Russell gets on the field. But, you know, we're going to assume his first season

Starting point is 00:07:48 is now in jeopardy if this is as significant as it sounds. Yeah, I mean, you know, I play college football at a high level, obviously, you know, as a member of the Wolfpack football team or whatnot. And one thing I can tell you, nobody's putting out a press release for a high ankle spring. Nobody's putting out of press release for a shoulder that's popped out of place or dislocated. Nobody's, uh-uh.

Starting point is 00:08:13 No, no, they're going to pop that sucker back in there. They're going to say, what shot do you need? What field do you need? We're going to keep it pushing. We're going to keep it rolling. You know, we obviously hope the best for this young man. We've heard, I've heard nothing but good things about him. Donald is much closer to him and his family than I am as, you know, he's in South Florida,

Starting point is 00:08:33 where the young man is from and whatnot. But again, I've heard no bad things about this young man. So, you know, I hope, I hope the best for him. I hope the best for Syracuse football because this is just a really tough break for a team that couldn't afford it. Like you said, the injury history, you can't really put. on Fray and Brown in the meaningful way. However, the lack of having a guy, and

Starting point is 00:08:57 let last year Syracuse team be a prime example of what I'm saying about Zena. Did I not say the same thing about Ricky Collins last year when they bought in Angelio? I said, there's a serious problem. If they are bringing in a quarterback at this point, there's something going on there to where he's worse than we think.

Starting point is 00:09:17 And lo and behold, they went from beating Clemson to all, all of a sudden, they could not sniff a win to the most viral thing that Coach Fran Brown said at the end of the season was that game was against the day was over when they walked off the bus. That was the most impactful thing that happened with Syracuse football from that point on. So I genuinely, I look at this and I say, okay, I get it. The NIL support may not be there. You may not have the funds of other schools to stockpile talent and whatnot. but you've got to have more dudes than just one or two.

Starting point is 00:09:55 You've got to have more dudes than just a couple top-in players. Because football is a violent game. It's the last of the gladiator sports that people still care about. And you've got to know when gladiators go to war in the arena, everybody don't make it out unscathed. That just ain't how this thing goes. All right. So here's a difficult question to answer because obviously I can tell,

Starting point is 00:10:18 you know, Fran Brown is really, really well-liked in Syracan. You know, they're coming off a brutal year. What did they win three games last year? I don't know. Can anything happen this season that puts him on the hot seat? Or is he kind of like I like to say, is he on scholarship for another year where there's really nothing he can do in 2026 to get on a hot seat?

Starting point is 00:10:40 Oh, no, no, no. I, regardless of what you believe of Syracuse in terms of this is who they are, this is who they are, people care about football. There's an appetite for you to not care about football, whatever the case might be. You cannot carry multiple three to four win seasons and keep your job anywhere that is serious about football. Now, and let me say one thing before you continue. Oh, go ahead.

Starting point is 00:11:05 Dino Babers got fired for less. Like his worst season at the end was five and six. He got fired before the final game. That was after winning five games. He went seven and six. It was a lot of average guy. Actually, he did go 1 in 10 in 2020, but he survived three years after that, five and six the final year. So, I mean, they do have, they do have standards in Syracuse.

Starting point is 00:11:30 But that's, but that's exactly my point. You cannot have multiple years of three to four wins, call yourself serious about foot and call yourself serious about football. You can have one or the other. But if you have one, you can't be like, you can be serious about football. or you could hold on to a coach and believe hope against hope after multiple three wins season because at the end of the day, and I hate to say this, but you know what phrase the NCAA used to use a lot, lack of institutional controls. Right.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Yeah. And what did that mean in essence? It meant the buck stops at the head coach. That's what it meant. If a bunch of people, even if it was staffers that the head coach had no clue we're even around, If they were mucking up, buying things they shouldn't buy, paying people and all that, the NCAA would say, now wait a minute, you're the big man, you got the big check, you got the big office, you're responsible for this. Do you think that people don't have that same perception of wins and losses?

Starting point is 00:12:36 Obviously, Fran Brown did not do anything to hurt Mr. Russell. He didn't do anything to hurt Mr. Angelie. He didn't do anything to hurt these players. but the reality is two straight years of three to four wins. Hey, come on, man. It's been real. It's been fun. It's been real fun.

Starting point is 00:12:57 You're going back to coaching those DBs down there in the SEC country, and we'll go on by their way. Well, we're going to talk more ACC spring ball when we come back, which teams are raising or lowering their stock during spring. And also got a quarterback competition in Tallahassee, right? We talked yesterday about the one in Clemm. and how there's a clear frontrunner. The frontrunner may not be as clear with Florida State. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of LockdowneACC.

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Starting point is 00:16:04 Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen. All right. So update in Tallahassee, they are in their second week of spring practice. according to Pete Naco, Savon, Three Sports. Florida State had their first scrimmage, and it's a clear two-way quarterback competition between Ashton Daniels, who was at Stanford a couple years ago,

Starting point is 00:16:31 was a backup at Auburn this past year, and Kevin Sperry. And Kenton, I don't know about you, but if I were a Florida State fan, I'm obviously not. But if I were, I think I'd be rooting for Kevin Sperry because don't we,

Starting point is 00:16:46 already know what Ashton Daniel's ceiling is? You know, wouldn't you rather have a guy with a higher ceiling like Kevin Sperry win that job? So I think that's who I'd be rooting for. You know, and the other thing about this situation in terms of the Kevin Sperry and Ashton Daniels situation, Kevin Spirry's been there for a year. Ashton Daniels just got there a few months ago. These are two guys that are relatively new to the scene in the situation here where it's like, hey, this ain't really going to rely on experience and somebody's got a leg up and who knows

Starting point is 00:17:18 the offense inside and out and all that. This is going to be very much old. Learn on the fly. You got to adjust, dude. What are you going to do about it? The reality is I really and truly think that if I were a nose fan, if I were a nose fan, I would root for Spare only from this idea, not only because of you know kind of what your ceiling is with Ashton, but also you know that you have a very limited window.

Starting point is 00:17:43 with Ashton, right? If Spirry can do the impossible, even if Ashton Davis does the impossible and somehow pulls this team to where, you know, Mike Norville remains Teflon Don, first ever coach to end up at the top of the hot seat twice and walk away, right? He comes out playing mini men by 50 cent next year

Starting point is 00:18:03 or the year after that because he saved his job. Ashton Dennis is going to the NFL. Spare is still going to be there. So I would hope if I would, Florida State if I was a nose fan. Hey, Spirry's the guy and he does what we need to do to save Norevel's job. Because again, that leaves you in a situation where he's your quarterback for this upcoming year and at least one more, at least one more, let alone he could give you a third out of

Starting point is 00:18:31 that thing. And now you're really in good position. So unless you are just so fed up with Norellova where you're like, darn it all the heck, I want to burn down today, you would, I would like. for Sperry to be the guy if I was in telling us. Yeah, I mean, Sperry, he's a sophomore. He only appeared this past season, 2025, you know, limited experience in college, 12 for 17, 194 yards, two touchdown, zero interceptions.

Starting point is 00:18:59 But he's young, like you're talking about a guy you can grow from within your program. And I know, listen, I'm, I'm a Miami guy and Miami keeps bringing in quarterbacks, but the situations are different, right? because Miami is knocking on the door of being championship level. If you're Florida State right now, you are rebuilding, right? So it's like, like, what do you get? Like, is Ashton Daniels the difference between winning an ACC championship or getting to the college football playoff or not?

Starting point is 00:19:28 Like I would say the answer is no. So you might as well go with the younger guy who could be part of your future. If Miami is knocking on the door of a national championship, Florida State ain't even in the same neighborhood. and the wrong zip code. You understand? They sit up there, wait a minute,

Starting point is 00:19:44 I made a wrong turn at Albuquerque. I don't know what's going on here, but we need to find our way back. But in all seriousness, I mean, I have a thousand percent agree. You're right. I know it.

Starting point is 00:19:53 If you're looking at the older, more experienced guy who's sealing you know and saying, well, what does he get you? I understand. From the coaching staff standpoint, you got to save your job. You really don't have time to develop a quarterback

Starting point is 00:20:06 and say like, all right, well, what can spare you turn into? But again, the reality of this is, if you are a nose fan and you believe in Sperry, that that has to be your guy. Even if you're like, well, I'm not super sold on him, but let's give him a shot, you have a much larger window. And you can say, well, whoever the new coach is is bringing his quarterback with him, how do you know that? How do you know that?

Starting point is 00:20:30 There are plenty of coaches that are going to have excellent seasons this year, and their quarterback is going off to the NFL or to the USFL or to the Canadian football. football league or going to learn some enterprise rental car. But they had a fantastic year with that quarterback. And so now you're hoping that this new coach can bring in a quarterback or you're banking on. Well, our NIL will be there once Norville is gone in order to get a great quarterback. And that's great. It's good and then you to have a really good quarterback.

Starting point is 00:20:57 But you know what you also need big fellas up front? You know what you also need big fellas on the defensive line. And last time I checked, didn't both of those brothers that were at Florida State one of them was a freshman that was pretty good on the defensive line and I can't remember what yet the other one was but didn't they transfer it or are they still there no they're still I think they're twins but they're still there they they they hit the portal but then they mozied on back oh okay the deceit I knew okay I wanted to say the Sears but I didn't want to be wrong there okay the DeSiers but I'm going to tell you this much how has that worked out before for Florida

Starting point is 00:21:34 State guys moseying into the portal and coming back it happened with a lot of guys after 2023 when they were like, you know, almost at the top of the mountain and then they went 2 and 10 the next year. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, I rest my case. When you got to throw the bag at somebody, when you got to have somebody throwing on the chain so big, it dropped a temperature in every room they walk in in order to keep them with your program. Doesn't be well. It's a lot like how I talked about loser bill stuff infects a program. If you got to overpay in college when some of these guys are like, oh,

Starting point is 00:22:09 Yeah, they're making a scholarship and they get about 40, 50,000. Meanwhile, this guy over here is making enough money to walk to his mama job and say, mama, go on and retire. Daddy, go on and retire. Pops, I love you. Come on, man, no more working than this still mill. Come on. Come sit right here.

Starting point is 00:22:24 Your job is to be my dad. That's your job for the rest of your life. Yeah. So it's a very, it creates some very awkward moments in the locker room from what I've heard. So let me ask you, with all the spring practice reports and intel, we've been getting any teams you feel better about or worse about you know i've been out i've been out at miami practice and like we already know miami's favorite to win the acc this year but um i definitely come out of miami's practices to this point feeling really good about the depth um yeah i

Starting point is 00:22:57 know offensive line is going to be a question area uh i see jackson cantwell performing very well but we're talking about a true freshman who's going to be a starting offensive tackle most likely, but he's out there really performing. Max Buchanan is a second year ascending offensive linemen at Miami. The wide receiver room is just so deep with guys like Cooper Barcate, Malachi Tony, of course, Drey Jacobs, a transfer from South Carolina is performing really well early on. So like, you know, Miami is only just kind of even solidified my confidence. And I've heard a lot of good coming out of SMU so far, Kenson. So it's like the teams that are kind of at the top, I'm feeling solidified. Like the running back group has been super talented at SMU so far. So like

Starting point is 00:23:49 SMU and Miami I feel good about. I don't know if I can say anyone is really lowering their stock in my eyes because I think the teams we were already concerned about are really doing nothing to like make me feel worse than I already did. You see how Donno did that locked on ACC family. The only two teams we talked about is positive is Miami and Miami West. He thinks he's going to trick us. He's going to fool us with his homerism. But I'm not going to talk about NC steak today. You know what two teams I'm going to talk about?

Starting point is 00:24:18 I'm going to talk about your rivals, Florida State. I'm actually excited about this quarterback battle. I'm actually excited about this. This is a sign to me that this team is not resigned to giving up and giving in on this season. Why do I say that? Because if you were resigned to giving in and giving up on this season, you just try out the old guys. take what you got and go from there. First thing first.

Starting point is 00:24:40 But then there's another team that I'm deeply concerned about for the exact inverse reason. Clemson, why is Vezina not the guy? What do they know? Not only that, one of their quarterbacks that was allegedly in the quarterback battle was the fifth quarterback on the field? Yeah, that was a little weird.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Yeah. What is going on? And wasn't that the guy we were talking about, knowingly last week. And then Dabo saw our show. He's like, I'll show them. Kenton, Dono, Tyler from Spartanburg, I'll show all of you. What is going on in that quarterback room? What is happening over there? And I'm going to tell you, the biggest thing that concerns me is not just the spring game. What I have heard out of their all spring in terms of the way that the defense has dominated the first team, second to every

Starting point is 00:25:35 version of defense is dominated and I'm like, now wait a damn minute. It ain't this much defensive domination in the world. Wait a minute. Somebody needs to be able to put up some points here. This is not something. The fact

Starting point is 00:25:49 that you could only score 23 when you're doing the first versus second team, what's going on? Yeah. Normally when this first versus second team you see some crazy scores where it's like, hey man, they're beating up on the young guys.

Starting point is 00:26:05 all right. What's happening? What's what's actually happening over over and down in Clemson? I'm a little concerned. I'm a little concerned. It sounds like a lot of mid. Hello, my, ma, ma, ma, mid. And I'm going to tell you something that is deeply concerning. If I am a Clemson Tigers fan, I am deeply concerned with the fact that one, we don't have a quarterback that we're like, hey, this is our guy. He will lead us to battle. Something has to happen to supplant him as quarterback. Two, that the offense has apparently been as anemic as a young woman with low iron

Starting point is 00:26:43 and hasn't eaten anything today. If you know, you know, that's a different level of anemic. That's a different level of three hoodies on and a little blanket. And it's still like, can you get my eating bad, babe? Some of y'all don't know nothing about that. I wouldn't wish that pain on my worst enemy. But if your husband is laughing a little too hard right now, you know why, ladies. But no, in all seriousness, their offense is a little big.

Starting point is 00:27:09 And so getting Davis in the offensive line and what they've done in the running game is positive. It sounds like he's, you know, going to do much better things this year. But the reality is if Clemson wants to get back to Clemson, you can't do that with just one fast of your offense clicking at a high line. Yeah, no, it's a thousand percent true. All right, a lot of basketball news going on. We mentioned Jerry McNamara introduced this week at Syracuse. NC State's got their new head coach, and we're all wondering what direction North Carolina is going to go in

Starting point is 00:27:43 and how the final four could factor into that. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ECC. Oh, folks, this is the five-hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like confetti craze, fruity rainbow or cotton candy, there is something for everyone. The board is set. The flavors are ready, and I've got my number one pick in the five hour energy flavor draft. You want to make sure you use this number one pick wisely.

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Starting point is 00:28:56 Find your new favorite flavor of five-hour energy shots available. online at five hour energy.com or on Amazon. Thank you for making Locked on ACC, your first listen. It's been quite a saga, Kenton at NC State these past several days with Will Wade, deserting the Wolf Pack, going back over to LSU, and now the PAC have hired their new head coach, and it's a familiar face and a familiar name because he played at NC State, Justin Ganey, who's been a longtime assistant coach,

Starting point is 00:29:33 formerly with the Wolfpack, most recently with Tennessee for the past several years. I would imagine Ganey being an NC state man. Is he getting a hero's welcome so far in Raleigh? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I've been telling everybody that the reality of Justin Ganey is he had the highest boom potential with NC State. In terms of Josh shirts, you were looking at a situation where even if you lured them away

Starting point is 00:29:57 from St. Louis, you're probably going to end up back at the space that we were in with Willway. just in a more honest guy where people were looking to poach him immediately if he had any modicum of success. With Justin Ganey, even if people are looking to poach him, that man loves the university. He loves Raleigh. He loves NC State. He sees this place as home. And so you're thinking even if teams are coming out the woodwork trying to poach him, they got to come with something insane to kind of get this going here.

Starting point is 00:30:30 Right. Like one of the biggest things that people are now looking back at. is quite literally real estate with Willoway, right? Why? Because he rented his home in Raleigh and allegedly bought a, you know, new home in Baton Rouge. And again, this is alleged, bought a home in Baton Rouge, the same home that he sold for $100 a couple of years ago.

Starting point is 00:30:51 Again, this is alleged. But allegedly bought that same place very shortly after. I guarantee you, Ganey is going to buy him a house. He's going to buy him something. He's going, there's going to be a mortgage due every month that he got to pay, not a little bit of rent. So, you know, we'll see how this thing works out. But ultimately, I think that Ganey, it's the state is, it's what the fans wanted after what you go, went through with Will Wade and all that. You wanted somebody that's going to be around that loves NC State.

Starting point is 00:31:21 And Ganey fits those qualifications. Well, yeah, and I was reading, and you can confirm this, that Ganey probably came in the second place to Will Wade when the job was open last. year. So, like, he was very close to getting that job a year ago. And, Kenton, I say this a lot when it comes to coaching searches and covering recruiting and transfer portal. Like, you know, sometimes when you don't quite get the job or you don't quite get your guy, you can still circle back to that a year or two years down the road. So I think that's, that's kind of cool. A dream delayed is not a dream to not. It's not, you know, Jesse Ganey got his dream job. It took a year longer than expected. It took a detour of NC State getting their hearts broken in between.

Starting point is 00:32:05 But, you know, last time we had a coach that jetted off for LSU, we then went on to win a couple national championships. So hopefully time is just a flat circle as many theorize. You know, hopefully this is what NC State is in for. But in all seriousness, this is a very good hire for NC State. And he said something that, you know, really, blew a lot of NC State fans vibes. Two things. Number one, we're going to contest every shot when he was talking about his defensive philosophy.

Starting point is 00:32:39 All NC State fans are sitting there like, what? Our specific defensive thing last year was like, there are certain shots. You can't take away everything. There are certain shots that you've got to let guys hit. And then all of a sudden, we're letting guys who were not that guy

Starting point is 00:32:55 put up career highs against us. So that's crazy to us a little bit. But the other thing was, Justin Ganey's talked about the importance of size. Do you know how long NC State has been undersized down? Oh, forever. It has felt like we are, our center this year, 6-9, 6-9.

Starting point is 00:33:17 And that was the only guy that was worth much down low with all the respect to the other guy. There's the only one that was worth a lot down-low. So, you know, this is, and with Kevin Keats and those multiple guard lineups So as far as like the three to four guard lineups, you are always going to be a little bit undersized. But now to see that you've got to prioritize the size and defense,

Starting point is 00:33:38 it feels completely foreign to NC State fans. We're like, yes, yes, size of defense. We need that. We love that very much. Yeah. All right. So what are you hearing up there in Carolina about the Tar Heels vacancy? So, you know, Billy Donovan with the Chicago Bulls has been the odds on favorite

Starting point is 00:34:00 since that job came open, but it seems like there's some Tommy Lloyd smoke. He's the current head coach of Arizona, who's having an awesome tournament. They're in the final four. And I guess like it seems like Carolina is at least doing their due diligence there with Lloyd. Otherwise, maybe they would have filled this already. Other schools have filled their vacancies pretty quickly. North Carolina has taken their time while Lloyd is still in the final four. and I think his odds to make it to UNC have gone up a little bit in recent days.

Starting point is 00:34:32 What are you hearing there? Donald, let's just do so bad. Let me do my best Brian Winhorst impression here. Okay. I keep hearing that Carolina Search is not stopped, but somewhat on pause until the final four is completed. Right. Why would that be a hindrance if the guy that's in first place,

Starting point is 00:34:57 is an NBA head coach. Right. Well, would that be the case, Dono? It me thinks there may be a reason why Lloyd's odds keep increasing. Yeah. And I'm going to tell you, the ACC, quite frankly, to be very honest about this, ACC should be afraid. The nation should be afraid.

Starting point is 00:35:23 Carolina with effective leadership is dangerous. Yeah. Good measures. Point blade, wait, period. Like, nobody, nobody. Again, the hat up there, folks, nobody dislikes those guys more than me.

Starting point is 00:35:38 I can confirm that. But I'm always going to be honest about what it is, what it ain't, what it could be, and what it can't. And what it could be, if they have a head coach, that is better than having a team that is the number one in terms of preseason and not making the NCAA tournament,

Starting point is 00:35:57 what it could be with that is Dall Wright terrifying. Yeah. What it could be with a coach who has excelled already in the NIL error? Hey, you know, are you sure y'all don't want to go back to Huber? You know, I'm sure he's going back to you. I've got an idea. Hear me out, right? They went out for their football program.

Starting point is 00:36:22 They went out and hired the head coach with the most. Super Bowl rings. Yeah. Basketball program, Phil Jackson's only 80. Hey, now. I think the Zen Master has a lot of coaching left in those, in that brain of his, Kenton.

Starting point is 00:36:38 And does anybody out there have more rings than, I lost count of how many rings Phil Jackson has. Go out there and get him. Yeah. Yeah, I think he's got as many as Bill Russell. Huh? Come on now. Come on now.

Starting point is 00:36:51 And, and Jeannie Buss is on the other side of America. so you don't got to worry about that being the problem and all that in the friend. See, Donald and I are presenting modern solutions to modern problems. Don't worry the rest of the ACC and NCAA. We're trying to take care of you. Just shut up and get out of the way

Starting point is 00:37:10 while we try to steer UNC to staying incompetent for a little while. Phil Jackson would be an excellent choice. But no, in all seriousness, man, this searches is probably going to land them an excellent. Oh, yeah. And the NIL and the appetite for basketball, well, it's there. There's no, you know, whatever deficits you're seeing in the papers

Starting point is 00:37:30 and being reported and all that, one thing I can confirm about Carolina, when it comes to basketball, they will always find the money. So, you know, this is a time where it could get very, you know, it can get scary, shaky, spooky, hilarious for the rest of the country. It's like, and, yeah, I mentioned Tommy Lloyd, but isn't Dusty May at Michigan, he's also considered a candidate,

Starting point is 00:37:51 if you believe the report? So it's like, is it Billy Donovan? is it the Arizona coach? Is it the Michigan coach? And listen, for any state fan or any other fan of any other school that feels like, oh, Ken is too high on Carolina, you think too much of that job,

Starting point is 00:38:08 name me another job that would have half of the Final Forest head coaches in consideration for it. And people are taking it serious. Name me another one. Right, no, I can't. You could probably name all of three to four programs that would have that. And just to

Starting point is 00:38:28 just to make sure the Kansas Jayhawks, who's their head coach again, Donald? Bill Self. Is he retiring or is he, what's going on with him? I'm not sure. Okay, because I've heard word that he could potentially be retiring and yet nobody is talking about, oh yeah, that, that Kansas job, you know, that, that job there. That's going to be the one. That's the one where, hey, everybody's waiting to see what happened. there. And again, I'm not saying the Bill South is retirement. I'm just saying whether or not he is.

Starting point is 00:39:00 People are still looking at North Carolina. Like, hey, we don't give a damn about that one. That is second fiddle playing in the fog and all that. Again, I'm just being honest about what I see. Nobody would love to tell you, oh, that job is pittance more than me. Nobody would love that more than me. I would take, I would be dancing in the street screaming, that job sucks. Nobody wants it. That job sucks. Nobody wants it. It's not the case. That's one of the best jobs in all the college basketball. It sure is. Well, we appreciate everybody making Locked on ACC your first listen.

Starting point is 00:39:32 Make sure to smash the like button, subscribe. Make sure to subscribe to the Everydayer Club. Go to Lockedonaccc.com. Get exclusive content and get a free month with our code March. Follow Kenton on X at TGIF underscore Kenton and check them out on Locked on Wolfpack. Check me out on Lockedon Cains. Follow me at Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of

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