PTI - North Carolina FIRES Hubert Davis

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss North Carolina, the NBA, and MLB Opening Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon me the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilburne, a man in Munich, just set a Guinness Royal record by pulling a 2,200-pound carriage with his nipples. I'm Tony Kornheiser. I'm still a little tender, but I made it back in time for the ship.

I'm impressed that it's a Munich man and not a Florida man. So in other words, you believe it's true now? You believe it's true? There's greater credibility when we take it out of Florida, take it out of the swamp. I think all those Florida stories are real. I do. I think they're real. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Kate Cunningham's Collapsed Lung,

Tiger's TGL appearance, and Tim Kirchon joins us on opening night of the baseball season. But we begin today with the University of North Carolina firing their incumbent basketball coach and former Tar Hill star player, Eubert Davis, days after Carolina blew a 19-point lead and lost in overtime to Virginia Commonwealth in the first round of the tournament.

This was the second straight year, Carolina has gone out in the first round. Davis leaves after five years in Chapel Hill and a 125 and 54 record. Wilbon, do you understand this from North Carolina's perspective and where do they go from here? I can understand it, but I can understand not doing it. I can make the case either way. For saying to Hubert Davis, we don't like losing in the first round and we arrogantly are North Carolina. And this is what we expect. We expect, by the way, to keep up with the school eight miles away. It wears the other blue. other hand, Caleb Wilson, who could be the first player chosen in the upcoming NBA draft,

could be. He was hurt. Top three. Didn't play. They were 19 and 5 with him in the lineup. Yeah. So was that an embarrassment that they were 19 and 5? You can make the case either way.

I'm sort of annoyed, maybe because I keep hearing what is North Carolina go from here. I keep hearing about all these coaches who coach other places. They're going to leave Alabama. They're going to leave Arizona. Why? At a time in which basketball now, college basketball is pro basketball. You can pay people. You got rich alums.

You too can afford. Anybody Carolina can afford. This is not Dean Smith or even Roy Williams, Carolina. And so they got to be careful about that, and I don't think they are. So I'm going to dispute a little bit of what you say. I thought they could have given him another year. But within the last three or four days, I've talked to a bunch of Carolina grads. And it was sort of unanimous where they said, no, this has to be done.

More than that, though, Mike, and you brought up Dean Smith's name. More than that, they said, we've got to get away from the Dean Smith lineage for a while. We've got to not do this internally as we have been doing. And this is sort of what Georgetown faced, to get away from the John Thompson lineage. The other thing that stood out to me was to a man. Every one of these people had the same guy at the top of the list. And you know who that is? Jay Wright, and they said, but we'll never get him.

No. They said, we'll never get them. And that's where Billy Donovan's name comes up, Tommy Lloyd's name comes up. You know, Dusty May's name comes up. I want to say this to you, because you use the word arrogant. I would not use that for Carolina. This is not just another job. North Carolina is one of the pillars of college basketball and has been for 70 years.

There's North Carolina, there's Kentucky, there's UCLA, and maybe there's Kansas. And that's the list. So the person has to come in here with no questions asked, just like Uber Davis. Nobody had a problem with that. And she was the right guy. But you need a different guy now. Forget what they say. You think they're going to get away now from Dean Smith's lineage?

You think the person coming in there has no connection to North Carolina? Because I don't see that. And I do see a certain arrogance, by the way. Erigance is usually earned. North Carolina earned that over 80 years of competition. Can I give you a wild name? Because 20 years ago, Petino's name would come up. And 10 years ago, Calapar.

I got that. Maybe he's the same name. No, because I'm a guy you're going to say he'll never do it. Who? Steve Kerr. Would you talk? to Steve Kerr. I talked to him.

First of all, I'd like to get his advice, but I don't think you'd do it. And Jay Wright, no. He's not going to do it. No, no, no. But they all want Jay Wright. Who wouldn't want Jay Wright? Okay.

Oh, man. Let's move to the NBA Players Association pushing back on the league's requirement. The players must participate in 65 games to qualify for MVP and all NBA honors. The Union said Tuesday that Kate Cunningham's potential ineligibility

is a clear indictment of the rule that must be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries. Now, quoting, Detroit Star has played 61 of 71 games, and his collapsed lung threatens to keep him out of many, if not all, the remaining 11, Tony. Is the union right that this rule has to change? The Kate Cunningham case is an exceptional case. While he was playing, he played in 61 of the 68 games to that point.

All right. This is Kate Cunningham, but you don't have to change the rule. He was having an MVP year and then he had a collapse lump. The reason you don't have to change the rule for MVP is that I'm sorry, nobody is going to vote for an MVP that played in 61 of 82 games when there are worthy candidates who have played in 65 or 75. Right now it's possible Jalen Brown will play in 75. It's possible Gilgis Alexander will play in 70. And Wemagnanah and Yolkich, who have been hurt this year, will play in 67 or 66. So in Kate Cunningham's case, a worthy MVP will be selected who has played in more games. Now, you know this as well as I do. The only reason the NBA players are pushing back on this is because of the all NBA teams. Because each one has a clause in a contract to give them a lot more money.

That's right. So their entire rationale is money. The reason this rule exists is not money. It's load management. It's so that people who are stars will not sit out for no other reasons. and then to rest. And it is so fans can believe the NBA wants the great players to play more often. And by the way, who ratified this 65 game rule?

Players Associated. The players. That's right. So when it's just the third year? Remember all the players left the league and these are all new players? No, you ratified and live with it. People talk about accountability and culture. What?

Yeah. This is because of load, damn management. Yes, I agree with you. I agree with you. And you can have exceptions. And Kate Cunningham should be an exception. Yes. Because he ain't trying to miss anything. That's right.

This team's not tanking. And he wants to be out there every game. So I'm a voter. That's right. Have an exception. So here's my thing. It's 65 now. If you go down to 60, 60 is 73% of the games.

To me, if you play in 70% or more, I'm okay with it. It's acceptable. But don't be the players union and hide behind this nonsense. It's about money. Like somebody imposed it on the league. No, that didn't happen. Stop. Let's stay with the NBA.

Let's go to the dregs at the bottom of the barrel. The Washington Wizards who have lost 16 straight games, deliberately, I might add, are in Utah tonight. Utah has lost 14 or 17, needs to finish fourth worst in the standings to guarantee they keep their first round pick. They're currently fifth worst. So, Wilbon, are you perversely interested in this game of losers? Or would you rather pay attention to Oklahoma City at Boston tonight?

Yes. I'm going to watch Oklahoma City versus Boston, all of it. from tip to bus. I'm going to watch it all. But the other game, which I will not even click over to, I will not. I will not allow myself to do that.

But at the end of it, I'm going to want to know what happens because this is the DeBansa Bowl. That's what this is. Or something like that. Or who is your number one? Or close. You got to at least put yourself in it, right?

And if losing, see, here's the thing. Here's what we differ again on tanking. If you don't want people to tank, then don't have a draft system. The draft system inherently by definition says if you stink, we will reward you. It incentivizes you to lose. You can do one or two things. Flaten the odds.

Flatten the odds. No ping pong balls. Don't even bother with that. Relegation homes or penalty. What is it in the G League? What is relegation mean? Where are you going? How about if you had like the league is about to go to 32 anyway?

You keep like four of those teams. You have a 28 team league. Yeah, you get relegated. And you play each other for 50 games. Play some G League. Yeah. Be like athletes in action and go around and play the colleges. So that's a year.

40 years ago. So you know where I stand on the wizard. I know. The wizards are a disgrace. I'm with you. And they, because what they've done is they have perverted the one great thing about sports, which is we play to win.

They're not playing to win. But don't you want to. But if they get the, lot, the balls and they would like, they shouldn't. If the advances in your town next year, you're not going to watch. Utah's tanking because they want him because his Brigham Young kid at the moment.

No, but it's, it's wrong because it's incentivized to lose. It is. It's just the wrong. It is. Do you know who's not playing tonight for the Wizards? Yeah. Everybody's not playing. You give the Wizards.

All their starters are out and Utah's four starters are out. They're trying. You know what? I would watch this except if it starts too late. I don't want to wait until 1130 to see how they have conspired to lose. Listen, everybody is out of this game. Yes. I wrote it down and now I can you.

Here we go. Here we go. So we got on Utah, George Collier, Kester's been out forever, Nerkich, Sensible, who had played like 65 games. Markinen has been declared out. Jared Jackson's been declared out. So this is Ace Bailey and you may as well. You know what else?

Thurl Bailey. That's who should be playing. The Wizards have less than that. They can't have less than that. They have no starters. They have no starters. I just named the whole Utah team. They have no starters.

They want to lose. It's a flaw in the system. Adam Silver, come on. Man, what are we doing out here? Let's take a break. Coming up, the Yankees and Giants open baseball season tonight, we're going to ask Tim Kirchin how hopeful Aaron Judge should be feeling about his team this season. We'll also ask him about Shoah's remarkable pitching performance yesterday.

The other game, one of the teams has won 12 straight. Isn't it a pleasure that Oklahoma City's trying to win? Boston's trying to win. Oklahoma City's got somebody hot on their heels. Wemnon Yama. They're saying, not so fast, young man. Not so fast. We can still win. I'm watching this tonight.

The baseball season officially begins tonight, as the Yankees face the Giants, which makes it a perfect time to welcome back our great friend ESPN baseball analyst, Tim Kirch. Let's start with this. Aaron George turns 34 next month. He has never won a World Series. He's a great player.

Never won a World Series. How do you see this year's version of the Yankees, Tim? Yeah, I got a good look at them this spring. Look, they won 94 games. last year. And I think they're a better team this year. Cody Bellinger was added. He adds to the offense, the defense, and the athleticism. Ben Rice is going to hit 30 home runs this year. Judge is going to win the MVP again. That's how good he is. But Garrett Cole, their best pitcher, who's coming off Tommy John, looks like he's going to be ready at the end of May. And Carlos

Rodon is going to be ready at the end of April. Therefore, they're going to have pretty good starting pitching. Look, I'm not suggesting that they're a great team. I'm just saying, I think they're slightly better than they were last year, and they won 94 games. Well, let's jump to the other team in this opener, Tim, new Giants manager, Tony Vitello, jumped, of course, from Tennessee to the major leagues with zero professional experience. What are we to expect from him and the Giants? This is a really intriguing story. He's the first manager ever to manage a major league game with no professional

experience. Now, his team went 19 and 9 this spring. They were looking for more emotion and more energy, and they got both of it from this guy. But no one's ever done this before, and there is a huge difference between being the head coach at Tennessee and a major league manager, especially when you're opening with the New York Yankees. I was told that he is a great recruiter, but I'm not sure recruiting is really going to help on the major league level, but I do. But I do know we have to give this guy a chance because his energy level is off the chart. We'll see if that makes a difference. We cannot have you without talking about Shohei. We like trying to talk about golf in the early 2000s without talking about Tiger. Not to talk about Tiger.

So Shohei, of course, Tim, as you know, struck out 11 of the first 14 batters he faced in yesterday's spring training tune-up. What is this forecast? His forecast is great because everything that this guy decides to do, he goes out and does it. I've never seen anybody in baseball rise to the occasion quite like him. Just look at a couple of years ago. He had Tommy John surgery. He couldn't pitch. So he said, all right, what can I do that no one else has done?

So he had 50 homers, 50 steals and made it easily. Now there are whispers that he wants to win a Cy Young Award. He's got four MVP. And now he's trying to win the Cy Young. And I will not underestimate him under any circumstances because when he makes up his mind to do something, he does it. He is the most remarkable player I have ever seen. And they have plans to put him in the rotation right from the beginning

and leave him there for the whole year. It won't going to be, oh, we got to give him three weeks off in the middle of the season. He's in for the long haul if he's up. All right. So let me follow this up with the Dodgers sort of Dodgers' question. question. If the Dodgers is great, is there anybody in the National League? And I know who I wanted to be, but if there is anybody in the National League who can legitimately challenge the Dodgers, who is it? I think it's the Phillies, but a few things have to happen. Zach Wheeler, who is

injured right now, their best pitcher has to come back completely healthy. And then Schwabber and Harper and Raeumuto and Turner have to have career years. That's the only way that anybody is going to beat the Dodgers this year. Michael, I have seen them the last six years. Three championships, winning percentage of 630. The last team to do that over a six-year period was the 53 to 58 Yankees. We are watching a dynasty, and this is the best Dodger team that I've seen in this decade. It's baseball so anyone can win. The Dodgers are the prohibitive favorites. I think the Phillies have the best chance to beat them. Well, you broke Wilbon's heart because you wanted you to say the Cubs, and you didn't I'm expecting that.

I know. We'll get you out of here on this. And this is, it's nice to talk about Judge and Shoahatani and all of this stuff. But there is a larger issue that people are going to see tonight. They're going to see it for the rest of the season, maybe the rest of time. It's a fundamental change in baseball. It is robotic umpiring. This is a big deal, and we're going to see it.

Do you have any observations or predictions on the introduction of this, how you feel about it and how players you have taught? talk to feel about it? Yeah, I talk to a lot of players and a lot of managers about this. And one manager told me, he said, look, I think we should have a complete robotic system calling every ball and every strike or no system at all. We're kind of in the middle here. And he also said, it worries me, you know, just a little bit, that the challenge system,

the strategy for the challenge is more important sometimes than what is going on in the game. and that doesn't sound particularly healthy to me. I am willing to go along with this with the understanding if it's not working, we have to move on and try something else. But obviously the reason they're doing this is United States beat the Dominican on a strike three that ended the game that was clearly a ball under the ABS system that will, in theory, not happen

unless you're out of your challenges by the ninth inning. So it's going to be fascinating to watch, but this is here to stay. That's a very important point that you make. You don't want to challenge in the first inning with nobody on just to get a runner with two outs. You better make sure there are runs involved in this because if you lose them, they're going forever.

Tim, I think we're going to see a lot of teams not use them until the eighth and ninth inning and then use them capriciously because they got them and they want to do something. Right. Now, I had another manager tell me, the shorter players are really going to benefit from this. which means if I make a comeback, I'm going to hit $380 this year.

And one guy, one manager told me one of our guys is now listed at 5-11 instead of six feet in hopes of getting an advantage with ABS. But they're going to get measured. That's not going to be a problem. It's going to be an interesting thing every night. Thank you, Tim. Pleasure to have you. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Let's take one last break still to come. returns to golf, sort of. Sort of. Sort of. I watched. I watched. The bill's self just clarify or further confuse us about his coaching future. I watched every swing Tiger took.

I didn't watch one second. Yeah, including the three foot six inch putt that he missed. Yeah. That he missed. Happy time people, happy 60th birthday Tom Glavitt. The left-handed Hall of Favor finished his 22-season major league career with 305 victories, 244 of them with the Atlanta Braves. Glaven pitched 16 years for the Braves,

then five for the Mets before finishing up in Atlanta. There were those. Glaven won two Sall Youngs on the 1995 World Series with the Braves where he was the series MVP. Glaven's career ERA was 3.54, and the top of the rotation in Atlanta, Glaven, Greg Maddox, and John Smolts are all in the Hall of Fame.

Glaven played before the D.H. in the National League, he was a four-time Silver Slugger. In one of those Silver Slugger seasons, 1995, Glavin hit his only home run, a solo shot off Cincinnati. Real quickly. Happy 16th birthday to Gabe Buckley. And at least you're still legally protected. Matthew Wilbon turns 18 today.

He's not legally protected, and I can throw him out. Think I have the nerd to do it? No. I think you're a loving father. I think you'd like to throw him out. Happy 18. But you won't throw him out. Throw him out.

Around this day 20 years ago, Laranaga's George Mason team stunned number one seed, Connecticut to reach the final four is an 11th seed, becoming the most obscure program to ever get that far. What you at that game? Hmm? I was not at that game. From George Mason, Laranago went to the U. He became the winningest coach.

I didn't know this in Miami history. I didn't know that either. In December of 2024, Laranago announced he was stepping down in mid-season saying, quote, after more than 50 years in coaching, it is simply time, unquote. Laranaga led the Keynes to six NCAA tournaments, including their first final four in 2023,

their first elite eight in 2022 and four Sweet 16s. Wilbon, you and I remember Laranago when he was Terry Holland's assistant at UVA. Yes, we do, but those George Mason games were thrilling. The regional simeon final were here in Washington, miles away from George Mason's campus. Thrilling, among the most thrilling things I've ever covered in college basketball all these decades. It was like a home game for them, is what you're saying? It was. Whatever that center was called went crazy, not for the Wizards.

Happy Trails, Jupiter Links. Tiger's bed sheet golf team fell in the TGL finals last night to the Los Angeles Golf Club by a score of 9 to 2. He watched this. I did watch. Tiger was in action

for the first time since last March when he tore in Achilles and later had back surgery. He struggled at one point missing a 3 foot 6 inch putt on the 7th hole. Match was over not long after that. Watching him was exciting, but TGL requires no walking.

Tiger said after that he wants to play in the Masters in two weeks, I'm not certain he can. But if the private plane trackers find him flying to Augusta to prepare. I might think differently. You might, but then we're going to be stressed out watching Tiger do that. Just hoping he can physically do it.

It's not to mention playing the stress of that. I thought they were going to fix the first match to get a second match, get two more hours ago. Glad they didn't. Didn't happen. Scotty Van Pelt had to work. He interviewed everybody in the world. Let's go to the big finish.

Let's do it. 41-year-old Joe Flacco has agreed to join the Bengals on a one-year deal. He says teams are dumb for not signing him to start your thoughts. No, they're not. Bill Self tells the Kansas City star, news of his imminent retirement is BS and bad info, your reaction. He was asked the question, and he opened the door. He said he had to think about it.

Okay, but he opened the door to it. NBA owners voted to consider bids for Vegas and Seattle franchises. You surprised? Stop it. Stop with the show. This is done. Seattle and Vegas. Welcome back to Seattle.

Never should have gone anywhere. G-Leaks says Matt McClung is now its all-time, scoring across all contests, including playoffs. You impressed with that? Get 59 last night. Yeah, I just wish you had a better shot at the NFL. Last one, NFL announced today. Seahawks will host the opening game of next season on a Wednesday, not a Thursday.

Is it a right? The Bears at Seattle, that's the opening. Go on. We're out of time. We're out of time. We're out of time. We're trying to do better than next time. I'm Tony Corny.

I'm Mike Lubbond. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.