Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Here's How NC State Can Slow Down Zach Edey & Purdue, Final Four Odds, UNC & Conference Realignment

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

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Will the Cinderella run continue? Can we get a David versus Goliath with a similar result this Saturday? Keep it locked here to Locked on ACC. You are Locked on ACC. Your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Because we have the NC State Wolfpack representing the ACC.

We are locked on ACC. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains alongside as always. Kenton Gibbs from Lockedon. on Wolfpack Kenton. How are you doing today? I'm great as always, man. We got not one, but two of them things in the final four. Two tams, four bracelets. You know what I mean? I'm just saying. That's how we roll it right now. So I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. Before we introduce our awesome guests who really needs no introduction. I want to remind you guys that today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel.

Make every moment more. New customers join today. You'll get $200 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. visit Fanduil.com slash locked on to get started. Now we have with us a man who's been very busy on this network in recent weeks. Isaac Shade is the host of Locked on Tar Heels and Locked on College Basketball. We're going to ask him to wear both of those hats on this episode. Isaac, first and foremost, if anyone was going to represent the ACC in the Final Four, did you think the Wolfpack would be the ones? Of course I did.

I knew that since November. No, man, not a chance. Speaking of being busy, one of my, I've been busier with basketball on one of my shows than the other, because the Tar Heels did not get it done against Alabama last week. Sorry that we let the conference down, but I'm sure the Wolfpack friends and Duke friends are not crying over that at all. Yeah, Dono, look, this run by NC State is unbelievable to watch. I mean, most programs are fortunate to have one run like this, like NCC. state did back in 83. But now the Wolfpack are doing it for a second time. And y'all, it is so fun to watch. I love that we all, as ACC people, know about all these guys, about the DJ

show with both of them. But I love that the nation is finally learning about our big man inside, Mr. DJ Burns, with that smiling those twinkle toes he's got going on in there. Yeah. He's the, oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say, and with DJ Burns, there could be opportunity if he decides not to pursue the NBA. He's getting buzz as a possible NFL offensive tackle as well. What do you think, Kenton, can he do that? Listen, I love DJ Burns. I love the smile. I love the footwork. I think that people are drastically underestimating what it takes to be a lineman in the NFL. A lot of people look at Jordan Milata and say, oh yeah, any big guy can do it. Jordan Mila played a position that was very similar to offensive line

in rugby, the sport that's very similar to football. Basketball, very different, very different. And most of the basketball guys that we've seen transition over to football successfully were leaner, thinner guys who went on to be tight ends. That's right. You know, with all due respect to DJ, again, very laterally quick. If I'm talking about, hey, is he going to stretch the field as a tight end? Do I trust him to make those tough catches?

Absolutely not. but I do trust them to take down the 7th 4 giant coming up this weekend. That's what I do trust him to do. I may not trust him to protect my quarterback's blind side, but you better believe it. I trust him to take down Zach Edie. Yeah, I mean, good grief. Like, it's going to be a literal mountain to climb to take down Zach Edy

because he's given up seven inches to the reigning national player of the year, who, by the way, is going to win that award running away again this season. And fellas, this is the critical thing for, NC State because as we've talked about with this run, the five games in five days in the ACC tournament, knocking off five previous national champions done only before by the 2011 Kemba Walker-led Yukon Huskies who went on to win the national championship. NC State has continued to make that type of run.

And the competition level just keeps creeping up. And now it's a whole different ballgame as we look at Purdue and then most likely Yukon if they're able to get by the boiler maker. So I'm just telling you, if this thing happens and the Wolfpacker cutting down the nets on Monday night, it will be just literally legendary and unlike anything we have ever seen, even unlike that 83 national championship. Well, and let's talk a little bit more about EDI because, you know, we're going to find out Saturday who the better team is. You know, we already know who the best player on the court is going to be. And that's like you mentioned, the soon-to-be two-time reigning national player, uh, of the year. And, you know, we've seen what he's been able to do these past couple of years.

Look no farther than the elite eight, 40 points and 16 rebounds to advance to this final four. Now, listen, I know he's going to have five guys or four other guys on the court with him at all times, but containing EDI is key. How does NC State do that? That's right. Well, look, DJ Burns is going to need help. I do not believe that Burns in single coverage can take care of EDI by himself. And so what NC State's going to have to do, is I'm sure Coach Keats has been working with his staff tirelessly this week to devise plans and schemes, junk defenses. Let's try different things.

Throw different looks at them and see what might stick. But I think it's going to have to be multiple defenders. And this is what Purdue has faced all year. They are the number two, three-point shooting team by percentage in the nation. Why? Because all these guys are always coming at Edy, and that leaves the other four guys that you just mentioned, Dono, open for these looks. And so the thing I've said about Purdue all season long is while Edie's going to get his, it's about how you can mitigate that.

Like a good day against Zach Edie is only allowing him 20 points and 10 rebounds. But it's incumbent upon the other Purdue guys around him to knock down shots. And so that is like the sophomore back court of Braden Smith and Fletcher lawyer. That is Southern Illinois transfer, Lance Jones, who's brought a new level of athleticism to what Purdue's able to do this year. So what NC State has to hope for is that they can get some of that mitigation and that those other guys around Zach Edie can't knock down all their shots. And hopefully they can get quick rotations in help defense after Edy passes out

because he's really good at doing that as well. You know, I want to take a quote from USA hockey, former head coach, Herb Brooks. You don't have enough talent to win on talent alone. And that's the reality for NC. State. This is not a team that is talented enough to say, man for man, our best five against your best five, we win this game. Where NC State does have the advantage is momentum, the ability to attack from multiple guys, because there have been multiple guys this year, especially during this run that a board in. And the last thing is this team has to have that belief and that connectedness that is, that has displayed itself all throughout this run. because how many, you know, for all the nerds out there who said, oh, by quality of shot, Marquette wins by 14 points.

Nerds need to shut up and get out of sports in the way that they are in it because I watched, I watched all of those threes back in real time. And there were about four or five that were uncontested. And I'm sorry, but unless you expect your team to hit every uncontested three, which in the NBA isn't realistic. And those guys get paid so much money. Duncan Robinson is making more than entire family trees of business owners. You understand? And he won't make every open three that he puts up. So expecting that out of the college guys is absolutely insane.

Where the Wolfpack have been winning, again, that chemistry, that connectedness, that finding the cutters, that knocking down timely shots. You know, everybody keeps saying this luck. But again, like I said yesterday, that's preparation meeting opportunity. This team has been prepared every time an opportunity presented itself. And in Phoenix, there's going to be an opportunity to do something special. The question is, are the Wolfpack repair. And I think Kenton kind of getting into it even more is, for me,

one of the areas NC State does have at least an athletic advantage is in the backcourt. You know, you think about Casey Morsell, you think about DJ Horn. And these guys are able, like, not that the Purdue guys aren't athletic, I just believe, truly believe that the NC State backcourt has a different level of athleticism. Purdue's backcourt as good as they, I mean, Braden Smith's ascension this year, like, let's be honest, Braden Smith and Fletcher lawyer as a freshman starting back court for Purdue last year was ultimately, that's where the blame rested for that loss to Fairley Dickinson. They kind of just couldn't rise to the occasion in that game. But boy, buddy, have they stepped up

this year? Even still, I truly believe that NC State's backcourt is going to have an advantage because there's a little bit of height. Purdue's back court is pretty short. Even Lance Jones, who plays the three, the Southern Illinois transfer, he doesn't have much height. And not that it's the same thing as like Yukon, whose back court is like 64, 65 and 666. But NC State, I think can find some advantage there. So that's an area I watch for. Like, can they attack? Can DJ Horn? You know, I think the nation looks at DJ Burns and thinks, oh, this is the man. Let's not forget that DJ Horn is the leading score for this basketball. It's team folks. He is a dude. Yeah, there were plenty of times during the season where he carried

the offensive load when the offense was absolutely stagnant. When DJ was going through some illness struggles and when the offense just went cold, there were times where DJ Horn said, if y'all don't know which way to go, I'll make it easy. Follow me. And he led us to the promised land enough to get into the tournament, of course, via winning the ACC tournament, but that's need to hear about it. And we can't forget Michael O'Connell's rise this postseason, y'all. That to me, might be the single biggest linchpin in this with point B being Mo D.R's relentless rebounding even while playing on empty stomachs, right? Like, come on.

It's so impressive. Well, still in this episode, I want to get Isaac to put on his locked on Tar Heels hat and talk about conference realignment from a UNC perspective because they get thrown out in a lot of these rumors. And I want to take a look at these fan dual odds, folks, because not surprising is why I refer to them as the Cinderella men, NC State, not getting a whole lot of respect here. obviously the big money, the smart money is on Yukon to win the whole thing and is Purdue favored by too much? You want to keep it locked right here.

We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. And folks, I'm only getting started with Fandul. We've been winning money during this NCAA tournament. We've been having a good time. And it's not even just college basketball, guys. The sports calendar is absolutely loaded. And Fandual's making it even more exciting to get in on the action because right now new customers get $200 in both. bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

That's $200 you can use to bet the tournament, Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, so much more. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on and make your first bet a big win. And you do have NC State getting 9.5 points on Saturday. Alabama getting 11.5 points against Yukon. So you got some big underdogs you might want to take a look at all of that on

Fandual, America's favorite sports book. Thank you so much for making this episode of Lodon. On ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. So, Isaac, if I look at the betting odds, why even bother watch these games, right? Because Yukon are double-digit favorites, minus 11.5 against Alabama, which is another great story. They just get overshadowed by NC State being an even better story.

And then Purdue, you know, they're on their revenge tour after last year. They're nine and a half point favorites against NC State. Like what do you make of these? Are these lines just too big? Look, here's the thing. Like, from our standpoint as the ACC, we look at these odds. And NC State is just laughing in the face of these odds because the odds have been against them this entire time.

In real time, I'm trying to scroll back and find it. Yes, here we go from Evan Miyakawa. NC State has won nine straight elimination games to get to the final four. Using pregame win probabilities, the chances of this happening are 0.0097% or 10,314 to 1. So like, I don't care about the odds at this point. As Kenton said earlier, this freight train is rolling and they laugh in the face of your silly probability and odds. However, we got to look at what Yukon is doing. Oh, yes.

Because truly, gentlemen, this is like in the same way that what NC State. state is doing is historic and if they capitalize all the way through to next Monday, ridiculous. Yukon, last year in the NCAA tournament, became the only team ever in the history of the NCAA tournament to win all six games on the way to the championship by 13 or more points. Well, guess what? That streak is still going. So now they're the only team to ever do it for 10 straight games.

Yukon at some point in all four of their games, this NCAA tournament, has led those games by 30 points. That's not been the final margin, right? But at some point in each of their four games so far, it's been by 30 or more. Now, we've seen dynamic, dominant teams do all this and then fall apart. Kentucky in 2015 was undefeated heading into the final four when Wisconsin knocked him off before Duke beat Wisconsin in the national championship. So this is why we got to get out and do it. But all the wisdom, both on paper and what my eyeballs see, tells me that Yukon is a freight train

that we all got to get out of the way of. of. And so we'll see what happens with that. But again, these guys got to go out and do it. Who knows what happens when the lights come on in Arizona this weekend? You know, the smart money can sometimes be a little dumb because by the probability of this thing, I'm not even going to go all the games. I'll just go some individual games. Only two of the games in this nine game winning street, NC State was favored. Louisville, who had whose coach had already agreed to a buyout, which we now know about in hindsight. and Oakland, a team out of the Horizon League that I said was horribly underseated and was going to be a matchup to watch against Kentucky.

And lo and behold, boom. But those were the only two games where NC State was the smart money. I am telling you right now, I've learned something about Vegas. Vegas always doesn't believe in NC State, which is great for betters than Raleigh. I remember the underover on wins for NC State football last year was six and a half or something along those lines. And it was like, really? that's if I were a betting man, I'm putting my house on that. And lo and behold, they go ahead and get eight for another year in a row.

So this is a situation where the smart money may be saying one thing. And, you know, it may be, hey, the story is too good to be true in terms of Eadie and being a player of a year and getting their revenge to it. You know, it's a lot like UVA being the 16 seed upset and then coming back to next year and winning it all. But again, I'm telling you. I've seen it. I've smelt it. I've felt this in the air. And there are too many, I don't believe in coincidence. I really believe that the universe is lazy enough to create coincidence. Did you all know that Thoreau Bailey and Sidney Lowe just happened to be in Utah together this week? They did not plan this to coordinate this. The NBA did not coordinate this. They just happened to be in Utah together this week, took a picture linked up before the game and all that. NC State playing another seven foot four guy that's unbeatable. He's a world. You can't get over and you can't get under.

I remember there was some guy, Ralph, what was his, Samson, Ralph Samson. Heard of him. I remember there was a double-digit seed that upset a highly ranked seed for NC State to go forward. I think it was Utah over UCLA, who was a traditional power at that time. If only that had happened this year.

Oakland did be Kentucky, who was a traditional power. There is something in the air that, you know, There's moments where you just feel it. Destiny is too thick. And this destiny, this destiny here is thicker than Florida air in the middle of July. Donno knows exactly what I'm talking about. And I'm telling this team is going all the way. Hey, can I, speaking of all those coincidences, you know the last time a player won the

national player of the year back to back? Was it Ralph Samson? It was Ralph Samson in 1983. The last time NC State did this exact same thing. Wow. History. History rhymes, right? It doesn't always repeat it. It's a flat circle, baby. It's a flat, flat circle. Wow. Well, I want to pick Isaac's brain on some UNC matters when we come back. Kenton and I had a long talk yesterday about conference realignment with these crazy doomsday rumors. In case you missed it yesterday, there's people saying the ACC could collapse literally by June 30th of this year.

So Y2K, the rapture, it's happening all over again, guys. Be ready for it on June 30th. But I do want to get Isaac's stand on the rumors surrounding UNC because they had been mentioned frequently. So what you want to do, my friends, you want to keep it locked right here on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Fire TV. Guys, this is my spot for live sports, replayed sporting events. I pretty much watching 24-7 thanks to Fire TV. It's your destination for sports from live games.

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We'll ask him to put on the locked on tar heels hat. And so, you know, Isaac, with all these conference realignment rumors, you know, Florida State and Clemson, who are literally suing the ACC get mentioned the most. But I see North Carolina get brought up quite frequently, often linking them to the Big Ten, sometimes linking them the SEC, sometimes UNC and NC State coming in as a package deal somewhere. What do you hear from that Chapel Hill perspective? Fellows, I love this conference. I grew up on it.

I cherish it. I love it. And I want it to stick around. I want it to be successful. I want there to be health. I don't know if it's going to happen or not. And what I've constantly said about North Carolina is that while I want them to be part of the ACC, ultimately Bubba Cunningham as the athletic director and the.

university uppity-ups are going to have to make the best decision for this university. Interestingly, North Carolina, this academic year has lost their president, Kevin Guskowitz, to Michigan State for the same role. He comes from an athletic background at North Carolina, and so was a big proponent of the athletics department. And so just interesting, even intraschool components firing on this thing. Here's the thing for me. North Carolina, both from an academic and athletic standpoint, profiles more as a Big Ten school than an SEC school. I have been constant and consistent in saying this. From the academic standpoint of it, you look at this as kind of a world-class institution and university in terms of what academics they're offering.

and that just profiles more with those schools in the Big Ten. From an athletic standpoint, North Carolina has 28 different varsity sports that they support. The SEC does not have all those. So if North Carolina chose to go to the SEC, they would have to figure out something else, either go to a different conference like gymnastics had been up until this year where the ACC finally had enough teams to actually have ACC gymnastics as a conference or relegate them to club level. However, the Big Ten supports every single one of those 28 athletic varsity teams. It sounds like from everything I've heard that this university is committed to maintaining all 28

of those sports. So if the Tar Heels were to leave the ACC or the ACC were to implode on itself, I would imagine that North Carolina would look first to the Big Ten before the SEC. In terms of conference realignment, I couldn't agree with you more that naturally the Big Ten is the better fit because of those, as people like to call them, country club sports, that, you know, UNC has a ton of them and the Big Ten supports them. That's the reality, right? It's not as much of a, hey, we're going to focus on five, six sports and all the rest are going to be, all the rest are going to be club level sports. And, you know, we see that a lot in terms of the schools in the South, not just NAC, SEC, but even in ACC, right? Many sports that have proud traditions and great rivalries. The backyard brawl happens every single year between UNC and NC State and hockey, but it's not at the level of a Michigan, of a Minnesota, of a, you know, even some of the schools like North Dakota and all that,

North Dakota State and all that is just not quite to that level. But like you were saying, the sports that everybody wants to keep at UNC, I've been saying to Donald all along, and I know that the fans, you know, fan is short for fanatics. I know people get fanatical about their schools, but I keep saying, listen to what the people who make millions of dollars riding on the line. Listen to the people who have, hey, I have changed my family's entire fortune based on making good decisions here. Listen to what they're saying, not what Tiger Guy 308 in the chat rooms has to say.

Because with all the respect, even though his cousin's, sister's husband, twice removes Barber said, oh, yeah, they're definitely going to say we're not playing. And the settlement is coming in five days, which I keep seeing for some reason. Everybody keeps saying the settlement's coming in five days. Really? Yeah, it's something that keeps jumping out in the comments. I can't even keep up with all these rumors now. Dude, it's bonkers.

You know, but conference realignment rumors are a lot like rumors about yourself in your in high school. You just hear them and you say, really? I did that. Good for you, baby. I said the same thing about these conference realignment rumors. Really? that's what's going on. Oh, your school's going to be next, aren't you? You're a special little

team, aren't you? You're going to be right on out of this terrible conference. But no, I agree that if this thing were to implode, if we're going with the, as Donald put it yesterday, greater than zero percent chance event out of Oppenheimer, then yes. UNC would definitely make a lot of sense to the big team. Well, Isaac Shade, I can't tell you how much we appreciate your time. And everyone, make sure you're supporting locked on college basketball and locked on Tar Heels. I know he's been very active on both channels and Lockdown College basketball has been crushing it during this NCAA tournament. So thank you so much and enjoy these shows coming up on the road to one shining moment.

Thank you, fellas. Appreciate you having me. I love it. He froze, right? That's a great screenshot to freeze on. That's a wonderful screenshot. He's Kenton Gibbs, Locked on Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono, Locked on Cains. We'll talk to you guys again next time on another episode of Lockdown, ACC. Thank you.