Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - VICTIM NO MORE: Manny Diaz BREAKS Silence on Darian Mensah Transfer, Duke Moves FORWARD

Starting point is 00:00:01 Duke head football coach, Mani Diaz spoke this week for the first time publicly since the Darien Mentsa to Miami move. And I thought Diaz addressed it perfectly. 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 is Kenton Gibbs. I am Alex Dono, and on today's episode of Locked on ACC, we'll take a look at a certain NCAA tournament first round prop that has me a little nervous as an ACC guy for the coming days. Is the next head coach at Syracuse basketball?

Starting point is 00:00:48 Is it so obvious that he's right in front of our noses? We'll talk burning questions in football as well. So, you know, Kent and Duke, Blue Devils, they opened up spring practice this week. So Mani Diaz, he was on a conference call with the media on Tuesday. and this was the first time publicly that he was given the platform to speak up about the transfer saga that saw Darian Mensa, who he thought was going to be his starting quarterback for another season, you know, bolts for Miami. And it was a very public thing. Duke sued Mensa over the move. Ultimately, it was settled out of court.

Starting point is 00:01:25 And Mensa is now in Miami Hurricane. Miami's going to be starting their spring ball next week. And so when Diaz was asked about it, it on a Tuesday conference call. Tell me if you agree, Kenton. I thought he could not have answered the question better than he did in terms of keeping this from becoming an even bigger distraction, right? Diaz said about Mensa, quote, it's been a while and we've kind of moved on. I mean, the portal is the portal, right? Those are the rules we have right now, and everybody knows our calendar is a little out of whack, but there's no one in this program who is going to sit around as a

Starting point is 00:02:02 victim. We're excited about what's next. We're excited about who we have. How do you grade that answer, Kenton? I'd say a solid A minus B plus. Here's the thing. Oh, I go A plus. Like what could have been and I'm, wow. Okay. Tell me what he could have done better there. Well, here's the thing. An A plus needs to get me fired up. I need to feel like, you know, when you think of an A plus, that's between a 97 and 100%. Like, hey, you, you've done overly what was asked of. you in this type of thing. And I come from a communications background. So if you're going to write a paper, that's going to get 100%.

Starting point is 00:02:38 You got to take it to the next level. Don't get me wrong. I think that this was a very good answer. I think this was a very good answer. But with that being said, I look at this and I'm like, what else is a coach supposed to say? Like, what else is a coach supposed to say in this moment? I think that he had a lot of lanes for right answers because even if he would have said, I think it's total garbage.

Starting point is 00:03:00 I think this is everything that's wrong with the sport. and it's a shame the way that it went down, but it went down. It is what it is. We move on. We move forward, right? That's a very different answer. To me, that's still a great answer.

Starting point is 00:03:13 It is what it is. He's not sitting here complaining about it and being a victim about it. And that's the biggest thing to me. Don't be a victim. Don't throw your players, your current players under the bus, saying, hey, I know we're not going to get another Darian. We got guys in the room that are good, nobody's a day. You know, nothing like that.

Starting point is 00:03:29 And you're going to get a pretty good answer here. I think that he said basic coach speak of, hey, it is what it is. You know, we move on. We move forward. I ain't going to complain about it. I ain't going to cry about it. I mean, I'm sure he had plenty of time to kind of rehearse that in his head because he knew this is going to be the first thing I'm asked about.

Starting point is 00:03:47 I need to have the best possible answer ready. But at the same time, I think you overestimate how many coaches would have blown a fuse to an extent. Like, if the same thing that it kind of did to Davo Sweeney, I feel like Davo would have completely gone off the map on it and complained for five, ten minutes about it and throwing Miami under the bus and Mensa, whoever the player is under the bus. So like I give Diaz credit. Is that the wrong answer, right? Even then, I think that is the wrong answer.

Starting point is 00:04:18 Like, I think Diaz handled it so well because the best thing that you can do, not only for yourself, but most importantly for Duke football is to completely brush it aside. I mean, he did like say, hey, the calendar is. the calendar. So it's like he made you know, like I'm not happy about what happened, but it's the reality of what happened. We've moved on and we're excited about who we have, which doesn't take anything away from, you know, Walker Eaget, who's probably going to be their next starting quarterback. So like I thought on every level he couldn't have answered that better. So let's let's do the thought exercise of he answers it to dabble way, right? Whatever you imagine

Starting point is 00:04:57 to be Daubo's answer. He gets up there and he says, scorched earth. Exactly. Scorced right but in that scorst earth he does not throw his current players under the bus or anything like that he talks about how foul miami is he talks about deria minza being a turn code he talks about you know all those things right in what manner is that the wrong answer because even if we go from the the standpoint of well i just want to minimize this i don't want it to be a distraction any longer i don't want to here's the reality even with his answer it's not going away even nobody's going to say, well, that puts it to bed. Now we don't care about Duke's quarterback situation. People are still going to look at it and say, hey, your quarterback situation got exponentially worse at the 11th hour of the transfer portal. I bet dollars to your donuts despite this answer. You and I are going to be at ACC Media Days.

Starting point is 00:05:53 I bet dollars. I'm sorry, I bet donuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, dollars to donuts. I'll receive a donut for every dollar that you would receive. for me. There is at least going to be one person that asks him, hey, what happened with Derry Minza? How do you feel about that situation? So to me, there is no putting this to bed, making this go away completely. His answer to me was like, it was the chill version of like, hey, it is what it is. The fiery version of it is what it is wouldn't have pissed me off

Starting point is 00:06:22 either. I wouldn't have thought to myself, that's a terrible answer. The players on your team are now going to be disappointed, upset, frustrated, or confused by your answer. You make a good point that there's no way for this to completely go away. Like, that's fair. I just, from where I sit, I still think if you say something that's a little bit spicy, little inflammatory, a little scorched earth, then that story gets even bigger again. But you got me thinking, though, like, the story's not going to die. Like, if we find out, because it's probably not going to be televised, but like if Walker

Starting point is 00:06:58 Eaget throws two interceptions in the spring game, it's going to be. be talked about, right? Somebody, probably Kent and Gibbs, is going to ask him about Terry and Mensa at the ACC Media Days coming up in July, because I know you will. I know you've got, and I know you're going to ask Mario about it as well. That's not. Listen, listen. So Donald said that because if y'all don't have a background here, I'm known for asking those types of questions at ACC Media Days.

Starting point is 00:07:24 But here's the thing. And you're so good. Let me just tell people as a side note. You're so good at that. Like I was sitting next to you for some of these last. year and like your questions are so good but they're like so they're so surgical and you you bring up things that like you know the coach is probably not going to really want to talk about so it's like I feel like I'm watching curb your enthusiasm like I feel a little awkward because it's like

Starting point is 00:07:51 how are they going to tap dance around this one like those are the types of questions you ask and it's like you do a great job with it here's the thing here's the thing right I'm not going to to bring this up only from the standpoint of I don't think that there's any new information or better information that can come out. You know what I mean? Like when I asked, for example, when I asked Mario Cristobal last year, how do you get over to can't get right eye this? I'm looking for there's new information that you could potentially say, hey, these are the things that we did in the past and these are the things that we do going forward or whatever the case. There's plenty of room to answer that in terms of, you know, something that changes. For this situation, for this situation,

Starting point is 00:08:31 I don't know what changes, what is given to the listeners, because that's always my biggest thing. I'm asking those questions for the listeners, for the viewers, for the fans. What do you gain from me saying, so, Daria Minza, last minute, 11th hour, he leaves. How do you feel? How do you even replace him at that point? All the good quarterbacks are already taken. How do you feel in that moment? I don't think it necessarily gives anything because we know.

Starting point is 00:08:57 He felt blindsided problem. He felt stunned. he felt like, well, damn, if you would have told us on the first day at a portal, we would have went out and said, okay, great, let's go get ourselves a quarterback. So, I mean, I, again, I ultimately look at this and I say there was a lot of room for right answers. There was only a few paths that would be wrong. And to me, you would have to go out of your way to say, now we got some kid from San Jose State at quarterback. You know, this is just nonsense or something like that.

Starting point is 00:09:27 Like, that to me is a wrong answer. or saying, hey, our outlook on next season has been drastically dimmed by Dary and that's the wrong answer because now you're casting aspers and doubts on your player's ability to get it done without this one player. That's a wrong answer. I will fully acknowledge there is room for a wrong answer. I think that there was more room for a right answer if you're, if you have half a working brain. Yeah, I mean, you're probably right about that.

Starting point is 00:09:54 I just thought this particular answer just came off to me as really classy. as a great way not to stoke the fires and make the story bigger than it has to be again, while also being complimentary of who's in your building right now. I just thought it. And to those things, to those things, we can agree fully. We can agree fully that it was classy. It did give the people in your building a boost and all that thing. And that's why I said, A minus is a good grade point.

Starting point is 00:10:23 If you get all A minuses, you're going to walk away with what, a 3.8, 3.7, something like that? I just say, I don't want to be in professor. Gibson's class because when I turn in that paper, I'm expecting an A plus. If that paper comes back with an A minus, I'm switching to another professor. Hey, hey, come on, man. See, that's why I don't do. That's why I'm a recruiter for startups and not a professor because I don't, you know, my candidates think I gray hard sometimes, but you know, we get what we need to get

Starting point is 00:10:51 out of them as well. So, you know, ultimately, I think that he, like I said, I agree with you on all front, classy. good for the people in your building, all those things. I just don't think this was a world-breaking, ground-breaking answer to where I'm like, hey, he knocked out of the park, man. He bought up stuff I couldn't even thought about.

Starting point is 00:11:09 And now he's got me to thinking, and that's a great answer. And, you know, I think Manny Diaz is a much better head coach now than he was when he was the head coach of my hurricanes, you know, five, six years ago. But even back then, he always had a way with his words and his hashtags. Like always a great sound bite. and he clearly still has that ability. And, of course, quarterback situation is right at the top of burning questions when it comes to Duke and a handful of other programs.

Starting point is 00:11:37 What about the burning questions for Clemson and Florida State? Can they become or stay relevant again in the ACC football landscape? You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. I'm Kahlia Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball. And this is Mazda's women's basketball snapshot, celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. It's officially tournament time and the number one seeds are set. Yukon is the number one overall seed at 34 and O and will headline Fort Worth Regional 1 at Dickies Arena.

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Starting point is 00:14:22 Locked-on-ACC.com. Thank you for making locked-on-ACC, your first listen. So, you know, Kenton, we talked a little bit about this yesterday with Miami and NC State. CBS Sports has their top questions or burning questions for every ACC football program this spring. And for Duke, the question is, can the defense make up for uncertainty at quarterback? So it's a quarterback tangential question. you know, Darian Mentsa had a tremendous season at Duke last year, but the defense didn't help him out a whole lot. You got Walker Eaget from San Jose State this year.

Starting point is 00:15:04 But I will say something, Kenton, that I learned about Walker Eaget or I remembered about him. Because I think I did watch a little bit of Duke of, was it Stanford against San Jose State last year? Eget was on San Jose State, but I didn't really connect the dots on that. He threw for 473 yards against an ACC program in Stanford. for last year. So Egot does come off a fine year, albeit at, you know, a lower level of football that he's stepping into this year. This was probably the worst Manny Diaz coach defense I've ever seen last year. Same. This, this defense was not like bad. They were, they were God right. They were downright awful, right? And so when you look at that, you're asking yourself, can they

Starting point is 00:15:49 do that while losing multiple impact players from last year? Yeah. What are we talking about the defense for? You know what this defense is going to be next year. Unless we go by the thought of, well, it's Manny Diaz, he's going to write the ship. We just know he's going to write the ship. That's the only way that you could possibly have the thought that this defense is going to be not just good, but good enough to take over for the fact that you are very likely downgrading at quarterback in a meaningful way. I don't see a world where that happens.

Starting point is 00:16:22 I don't see a world where this defense rises to that level. But sure, burning quests in a way, I guess. To me, the better question would be who's going to be the number one pass catcher for this year? Obviously, you talk about what benefits a quarterback. The running game is going to be one of those things. But having a great receiver, having a great tight end, having a past catcher that's like you're snuggy. It keeps you warm. It keeps you tucked in at night.

Starting point is 00:16:50 You know where it's going to be at all times. That's what a number one receiving option looks like. And if you're saying, hey, my quarterback player is going to be worse, that's my question. Because guess who left with your starting quarterback? Your top receiver. So who's the guy now is a better question for me. All right. So how about this question for Florida State?

Starting point is 00:17:11 I don't think this question meets the mark. I would give this like a C minus if I'm Professor Dono this week. They're burning question for Florida State. can this team get more consistent they write and i i think there's a number of questions i could ask about florida state heading into next year maybe my first question is can they win a freaking road game right you know kent would you like to guess when is the last time florida state football won a road game we're talking the florida state seminals last time they won a road game would that be the end of 2024 2020

Starting point is 00:17:50 Geez. November 25th, 2023, a road game at the even worse at that time, Florida Gators. I think Florida is probably better than they are right now. Yeah, that was the last time they won a road game. A true road game because they also won the ACC championship a week later. So you're splitting hairs if you consider the ACC championship game the following week to also be a road game. My Lord. So wait a minute. Last time they won the road game, Jared, verse and Braden Fisk were on that roster? Yes. And Jordan Travis had just broken his leg, I think, the week prior to that or two weeks

Starting point is 00:18:30 prior to that. My God on today. What? You know, Donald, I thought to myself, I know Donald's going to ask a burden question about, you know, whether or not your coach is still going to be there or something like that. And here you come with the real heavy hitters. Yeah, we already know Norville's not going to be there at the end of the year. That's not even a burning question.

Starting point is 00:18:55 This is how you know it's real beef with Miami of Florida State. He had to pull out the worst looking stat possible. Ain't won a road game since 2023? Oh, my Lord. The calendar has turned three times since then. Wow, wow. I'll tell you this. If they cannot win a road game, we all know.

Starting point is 00:19:19 what the result is going to be, right? You go into Bama week one. I mean, hey, if you don't take care of business in Brian Denny, I mean, I guess people will say your season is still all right. But we've seen, we've seen Bama basically destroy this program before. We saw it. And right now, I mean, the program is already that, you know, Teflon, Don, Mike Norvell, first ever coach to be back-to-back,

Starting point is 00:19:45 hottest scene in America, according to ESPN. But man, that's tough. That is a great question because if they can't win a road game this year, again, you and I both agree that he's going to be out by Halloween. You may be out earlier than that. If you can't win a road game, this year, you might be out earlier than that. You'll be out, what is it, Octoberfest is like early in the month. He'll be in Munich drinking Das Bout in October Fest.

Starting point is 00:20:13 Yeah, he'll be drinking the best gold slacker he's ever had in Germany. Oh, yeah. Garnet and Goldschlager will be on the menu for him. Now, you know, for Clemson, how do you feel about this burning question? I don't have a major critique of this one, I don't think, although I think there's a few questions you could ask. They ask, is Christopher Visina ready for his moment under center? It's not a bad question, right?

Starting point is 00:20:39 Is there new, we're not even sure because he is competing for it, but that's their presumed starting quarterback. I like where the question is going. I don't like how it's framed. I want to ask this. This would be my burning question if I was CBS. Will Clemson's quarterback development finally improve or prove that it is worth something after no longer having the five stop? Because we haven't seen good quarterbacks from Clemson that weren't the number one, number two guy in the country in how long?

Starting point is 00:21:13 Yeah, that's a great point. And even some of the ones who were didn't work out because wasn't DJ We Yunga L.A. Wasn't he a top recruit? I mean, obviously Trevor Lawrence was. He was ahead of Bryce Young. He was ahead of. DJ was ahead of Bryce Young, you know, and now he's having to learn tight in. Now he's having to learn, you know, Canadian football receivers in motion toward the line of

Starting point is 00:21:36 scrimmings type of deal. So it really does beg the question. You know, the same way I say, I tell the story. about me at parent teacher conference and all the teachers saying, your son's bright, but he talks too much. And my mom said, everybody ain't lying on you. I'm looking at Clemson.

Starting point is 00:21:53 All these quarterbacks are not accidentally being underdeveloped. All these quarterbacks are not accidentally not turning into a better player over the course of three to four years in your program. So will Clemson's quarterback development finally show in a meaningful enough way for us to sit here and say, hey, Bazina did not come in as a five star. He did not come in as a highly heralded. He's the guy.

Starting point is 00:22:17 He's going to be the one. And yet he was able to not only be a quarterback that we won with, he was a guy we won because of him. He was a guy that he took this thing over and took it to the next level. When we come back, let's talk a little basketball. An over-under I'm concerned about in the NCAA tournament. Plus, Syracuse and Boston College are reportedly maybe competing for the same head. coach. But if Syracuse lets Boston College hired Cherry McNamara, there's a big, big problem in upstate New York. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on locked on

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Starting point is 00:24:48 Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission and merchant swap firm. Thank you for making Lockdowne ECC your first listen. For your next listen, check out our other shows. Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone host Lockdown Wolfpack talking all things NC State. I talk all things Miami on Lockdown Caines. All right, first and foremost, Kenton, the big time odds-on leader in the clubhouse to be Syracuse's next head basketball coach is former Syracuse player and legend, Jerry McNamara, who, you know, before becoming, he's the head coach at Sienna. Good luck against Duke tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:25:34 You're going to need it. But they hadn't made the tournament, I think, in a decade and a half, 16 years. So he's done obviously a good job in a short time in Sienna, was a longtime Syracuse assistant after. after he played there. Like McNamara just makes too much sense for them. I was also seeing that he's reportedly on the short list to be Boston College's new head coach. But Kenton, as I said before, like McNamara seems like a perfect fit and I think qualified enough to be Syracuse's head basketball coach and he's a Syracuse legend. If they let Boston College or anybody else hire him, there's a big problem with that program. Well, similarly, similarly to

Starting point is 00:26:16 Jerry McNamara being on Boston College shortlist. Meg the Stuyter is on my short list of next people to take out on the date. So, you know, me and her, I'll have my people reach out to Miss Pete's people and we'll go from there. So what did her boyfriend is a six, five hundred millionaire in Clay Thompson, you know, the details. Why are we boggling ourselves down with that? I got some good charm. You know, Pat Riley once famously said, there are many obstacles, but there are none.

Starting point is 00:26:44 Yeah. That applies to your situation. Ah, see? That's Donald. Yeah. See, Professor Donald is going to give you a good grade and he's going to give you a motivational quote. How you believe in yourself? Don't take my class.

Starting point is 00:26:58 My class is going to feel bad. But, you know, I think that this is very clear. He's going to Syracuse. I mean, your alma mater opens up. And Sienna is in New York, if I'm not mistaken, correct? Yeah, I think it is. It's in the tri-state area or it's in New York. He probably lives in the same house.

Starting point is 00:27:14 Either way you cut it or slice it, I think that that makes too much sense. And on top of that, they faced basically the same problems in terms of Jackson Holger is on here shaking his little plastic cup every time. I'm talking about, we need money. Give us money. Well, so does Boston College, right? Boston College doesn't have some major crazy investment that I don't know of. And this would be one of the biggest, one of the biggest missed opportunities in quite some time.

Starting point is 00:27:41 if Syracuse lets an alum slip away to go to a conference opponent that's in a very similar space that you are in despite the fact that you're the much more story program. That would be insane. Well, I looked up where Sienna is, and I'm assuming it's the one that's in New York State and not the one in Italy. That one's in Tuscany. This one is in Loudounville, New York, which is just outside Albany. Now, my geography, like outside of Florida stinks, but I would assume just outside of Albany.

Starting point is 00:28:15 That's like a stones throw away from Syracuse. So he's right there in the backyard. Yeah, the end of the Syracuse is, it's not exactly the shortest trip. But, I mean, like you said, it's still a situation where, hey, you're in your same state. You are in the place that you go home and all that good stuff. I highly doubt, highly, highly, highly doubt that, you know, they let him get away to Boston College. And again, if they do, if they do, Boston College fans should be dancing in the street. Syracuse fans go to that AD with pitchforks and torches, okay?

Starting point is 00:28:56 I'm joking, I'm joking. Locked on Wolfpack does not, locked on ACC does not endorse any violence. Kenzer Gibbs does not endorse any violence. I'm joking. You're like Gandhi. Not him, not quite him, but we can come up with some other peaceful folks. But in all seriousness, Boston College fans should be dancing in the streets if they landed. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:29:19 And by the way, so McNamara, who's obviously at the tournament coaching Sienna, they face Duke tomorrow. He was, of course, asked the question about Syracuse. And like, his answer in no way, shape, or form said, I'm not going to be the Syracuse coach. Like it was a tap dancing session. He said he called that the rumors tying him to that job. He referred to them as inevitable. But he said, my situation with that right now is that I'm here at the NCAA tournament for the first time as a head coach.

Starting point is 00:29:52 And I get an opportunity to coach Sienna University. And the kids in that locker room deserve that opportunity. That's where my focus is. These kids have given me everything they've got. every day this season and they deserve my full attention and they've got it. But isn't the translation to that is, guys, ask me about this in a couple of days after we're no longer in the tournament. And even going beyond that, Donnell, a lot of people don't realize this.

Starting point is 00:30:20 When you're talking about negotiations for head coaches of this level and this magnitude, now I'm talking about a 10, you're not sitting down at the table across from the universities, you know, athletic director and all that and doing like hammering out bit by bit. You have an agent for that. You tell your agent, hey, this is what I want, this is what I want, this is what I want, this is what I need, okay?

Starting point is 00:30:45 So I need you to give me this, but the wants, if we could get two out of three or if we can get all of them, that'd be great, and you kind of go from there. This is not a situation where he's going to be sitting down, racking his brain about what do I need at Syracuse? This is not going to be that.

Starting point is 00:31:00 This is going to be, hey, I already told my agent what I need. I already took my time out for that and all that good stuff, but I'm here with my players. I'm locked in with my player. You're right. That answer did not say, no,

Starting point is 00:31:12 I'm not going to Syracuse. And of course it damn wouldn't, okay? It would be a bad lot of tell. I love seeing her so much. The ACC means nothing to me. My alma mater means nothing to me. Stop it, knock it off. Yeah, all right.

Starting point is 00:31:26 So another thing, I was looking at some prop bets for the NCAA, tournament. And for the ACC, for the Thursday games and the Friday games, the first round. So this excludes the first four games. You know, NC State came up short against Texas last night. And SMU is obviously going to play against Miami, Ohio. And even if we assume that they win that game, I'm still, I'm on the edge with this one, Kenton. The over under of first round wins for the ACC is four and a half. And that's out of seven possible games. We're not 100% sure SMU gets through.

Starting point is 00:32:05 And if they do, they have to play a six-seated Tennessee team, which will not be easy, right? So if I look at Thursday games, so there's three on Thursday and then four potentially on Friday, Siena versus Duke, I think we can agree that's a win, despite the amazing job Jerry McNamara is doing at Sienna. They're not beating the Blue Devils who are favored right now by 27 and a half points. You also have

Starting point is 00:32:35 on that first day six-seed Louisville against 11-seed South Florida. We talked about this as a possible upset and Mikel Brown's going to be out, Kenton. I'm very nervous because like everybody seems to be

Starting point is 00:32:51 picking USF to pull off an upset. And so like that that one, you know, it's probably a little bit better than a toss-up at best for us. Louisville's still favored by four and a half, but it's not going to be easy. And then six-seat North Carolina without Caleb Wilson for the tournament against a possible Cinderella in 11-seat VCU, which a lot of people are picking for a deep run. North Carolina is favored by two and a half. That one's a little dicey. That one might be a toss-up. And then on Friday, Virginia should handle right state. I'm not too worried about that one, although, you know, people will bring up UVA hasn't won a tournament game since 2019. But I think that's a win.

Starting point is 00:33:35 I think seven seed Miami against 10 seed, Mizzou, I think that's a coin flip. I mean, you know, Mizzou basically gets home court advantage like low key because they're playing in St. Louis. Miami's just favored by one and a half. These two teams, I did a crossover episode with John Miller of Locked on Mizzou. And these two teams are like the Spider-Man meme. Like they're so similar with the way that they play. So it's like that game's a toss-up. And then what am I missing here?

Starting point is 00:34:04 So you have the possibility of SMU against Tennessee. I'm sure Tennessee will be favored there. And then you have eight-seed Clemson is a two-and-a-half-point underdog against nine-seed Iowa. It's like, are you going to talk me off a ledge or do you agree that it's like it's a little, it's a little iffy. It's a little iffy. We get more than four and a half wins in the first round. I think we're looking at four.

Starting point is 00:34:29 Yeah, you know, as much as I love the ACC, I love my money more. And if I was a gambling degenerate, if I was one of Dono's degenerates on this show, taking a, taking a good bet on this one, I might have to fade that. I might, I might need that under. I might have to go with it. I think I'm going to lock that in tonight. I might have to go with it because that. That's a big ask.

Starting point is 00:34:50 You know, that's a really big ask there. And that's not even mentioning, SMU could get eliminated by Miami and Ohio tonight. Granted, I don't think they will. I think SMU advances. But I don't know, man. I think four and a half is a little high. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:35:05 I'm going to take that under. I'm going to take the under. But don't be surprised if we get over because the ACC has historically overperformed in tournament time. That's the one thing that you can count on. regardless of how many teams the ACC gets in, somehow we always end up saying, well, damn, where are all these ACC teams? Why are all up in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8?

Starting point is 00:35:28 By the way, tomorrow. So I know we've been promoting the bracket challenge, and I hope everybody, if you haven't signed up yet for the Everydayer Club, go to Lockedonac.ac.com. Or if you want to join multiple Everydayer clubs for a bunch of different shows like Locked on Wolfpack, Locked on Canes. You can find all the shows at Lockedonpodcast.com slash every dayer. So, like, if you join tonight, not only do you get a free month with our code March,

Starting point is 00:35:58 a free month at any membership tier, but you also, you have time to fill out your bracket for an opportunity to win $100 in locked on merch. And so it's like, I'm doing the bracket challenge men's and women's. We have until noon tomorrow, so it's like right before the first game tips off is the deadline. I think our brackets go through CBS. So it's like I'm a big procrastinator, and I found out you are as well. So like when I wake up tomorrow morning, I'm going to start because I want to put more than like 10 minutes of thought into my brackets. But I'm going to take this down to like 1159 when I make my final championship selection.

Starting point is 00:36:40 But I am excited to compete against Ketton. and to compete against our listeners as well for this. I'm going to be pounding five-hour energies all night, staying up, watching the tape trying to. I'm lying. I'm lying. Like I've always said, the more intent I focus, the more intently I focus and think I've got the answers,

Starting point is 00:36:59 the worst my bracket is. That's a great point. Yeah, that happens to me as well. My men's bracket is going to be purely vibes this year, purely vibes and throwing darts at boards like Donald mentioned previously. Yeah, all right. Well, we look forward to competing with you all. Of course, we're going to be talking about some of the games on our next episode tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:37:18 Make sure you smash the like button and subscribe. Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever Locked on ACC is available on YouTube. Make sure you follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton and out Locked on Wolfpack. Follow me at Alex Dono and at Locked on Caines. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Locked on ACC. We are part of the number one Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

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