SleepHawk Worldwide
SleepHawk Worldwide
UNC Football Heartbreak, NBA Trade Shockwave, and College Hoops Preview
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of the Sleep Hawk Worldwide Podcast, hosts Brandon Staton and Tyler Hansbrough dive deep into the latest news and updates surrounding UNC's football and basketball programs.
They start by analyzing the tough losses for the Tar Heels football team, including the heartbreaking defeat against rival Duke. They discuss the defensive struggles, the impact of losing key players, and whether head coach Mack Brown's job is in jeopardy.
The conversation then shifts to the highly anticipated UNC basketball schedule, highlighting marquee matchups against the likes of Kansas, Alabama, and UCLA. Tyler and Brandon break down the importance of these games, the team's preseason ranking, and the expectations for the Tar Heels this season.
Additionally, the hosts touch on the recent NBA trades involving Karl-Anthony Towns and Julius Randle, sharing their thoughts on the potential impact on the Knicks and Timberwolves. They also provide a quick recap of the latest NFL action and discuss the challenges facing various teams.
This episode is a must-listen for any UNC fan or college sports enthusiast, offering in-depth analysis and insights from two passionate hosts. Don't miss out on this comprehensive discussion on the world of Tar Heels athletics and beyond.
and now the sleepwalk worldwide podcast. Here are your hosts, brandon staton and tyler. What's up everybody. Welcome to the sleep. The SleepHawk Worldwide Podcast. This is SleepDog with the Big Hawk.
Speaker 2What's up everybody. It's the Big Hawk. It's a beautiful Sunday and we are back in the studio ready to do a great pod A lot to talk about. I'm excited to sleep.
Speaker 1Yeah, a lot of big-time topics to chat about. This time we got some UNC Duke man. It's hard to get hyped up about after what just happened on Saturday. Uga-bama game Also. Me and Big Hawk kind of had the same experience with that one UNC basketball schedule is out. That's the light at the end of the tunnel for Carolina fans. Big NBA trade Carl Anthony Towns, julius Randle we'll get into that.
Speaker 1Nba training camp starts today, as you're listening, october 1st, which I guess is, as you're listening, not until tomorrow. So that's Tuesday and the season starts on the 23rd. We'll run down towards the end of this episode. We're recording here on Sunday what's going on, what has happened so far on the NFL Sunday. But first things first. Anybody in our listening area that can hear us hope everything's going great. I mean that hurricane just tore through the western part of North Carolina. My parents live out there. They're doing great. They don't have the internet and that's, as I said, the worst thing that happened to them. They're just sort of southwest of Asheville. My sister's supposed to get married there next weekend.
Speaker 2Can't get there.
Speaker 1Not sure what's going to come of it, but man, I don't think I realized how serious it was there until over the weekend. So hopefully all you folks listening that are in the area, you and yours, are doing okay. Jumping to Duke UNC game. I mean heels come out up 20-0. Duke is one. They flash on the screen Duke is 1-72 when trailing by 20 in the second half and then they just look like I I mean that one running back from dude was like eric dickerson, rest of the game and carolina loses it 21, 20, um, in kind of a carolina fashion. I mean, I was like started to get a little disheartened. Maybe it was getting a little little saturated, a little hydrated there toward the end of it. Uh, just a bummer man like I don't know dude.
Speaker 1I think the defense is really struggling. Especially, you know you go from 20 to nothing. You're thinking, wow, all right, we're back on track to a loss like this, on the heels of a loss like we had james madison, I don't know man, the whisper is going to start getting loud. Big Hawk, I'll say it right here, right now I'd roll down on this ship with Mack Brown as long as it takes. I don't see the Tar Heels making any moves during the season? Why would you? I don't think. As a fan, my expectations are high enough that I feel like anything should happen to Mack Brown. But this is just only natural. Right, you're going to get some calls after we've had some disappointing stuff and whatnot. I mean, it's all reactionary here, but that one's tough. That was a tough one to take, especially to Duke when we had.
Speaker 1I felt like the game in hand.
Speaker 2Yeah, and sleep first of all. You're right, my thoughts are with the western part of the state they went through a lot and I know your parents don't have internet. A lot of people don't have electricity and, uh, you know we kind of get frustrated about that a lot of people don't even have running water, yeah, and uh, I never even comprehended that.
Speaker 2I was like man. You know we get pretty frustrated when we don't have electricity internet and all that stuff. Man, you take away running water. That's a dip, man, they're going through it Can't even get there.
Speaker 1Hopefully we get this figured out soon and our thoughts are with you.
Speaker 2Hold on one second. Alexa's just having a fit.
Speaker 1Alexa, just Sorry, just cussed.
Speaker 2Alexa out. All right, moving on, yeah, I'll tell you what Tar Heels dude. Yeah, throw her out the window.
Speaker 1She probably drawn up some plays for the defensive coordinator over there.
Speaker 2Carolina yeah, you got to go to one of those ping pong draft style plays. Uh, you know, you just like when they do the nba draft lottery that's how we're figuring out our uh defensive schemes.
Speaker 2Uh, listen, hey guys. Uh, I've said this, it's really hard. Um, you know we just lost one of the best quarterbacks in college football. Uh, max, one of the best recruiters in college football. Mac's one of the best recruiters in college football. You know you're going to have years like this. We're not Alabama, we're not on that level, we're not a powerhouse in football, but Mac knows how to win. It's proven. He is a Hall of Famer and I know it doesn't feel like that right now. I would take everybody's reactive responses right now just kind of calm down. Actually, I thought they came out and actually played pretty hard and I thought they got off to a good start. Obviously, we're all disappointed with the end. There's a lot of Carolina fans that are pretty upset and you know what. I never believe in toning those out, those guys. You know what? If you're a Carolina fan and you want to voice your opinion, go ahead, uh. But personally I think you stick with Mac, even through the off season. I think he's a great coach and he'll bring in some talent.
Speaker 2Uh, winning is not easy and you know, whenever you have a turnaround of players, like that that left for NFL, uh, and you have talent leave it takes a while and um, you know, I know we don't like to hear that in the portal, nil air and there's other coaches that can do it, but I believe in Mac. I still believe in Mac and you know we'll see where this ends up. But I know it was tough. We should have won. And you know what.
Speaker 2You don't win them all, but you hate to lose them in that fashion and you hate to get steamrolled by a team like JMU when you're Carolina, much bigger school with higher expectations. But you know, that's that's, that's my thoughts. I don't have, you know, the the intellect football scheme wise to really dissect the game like that. But I can tell you from a psychological standpoint, this is how I approach it. Yeah, 100%, man. Look, here's the deal. As far as I say, you're not gonna get any better than Mack Brown the game like that. But I can tell you from a psychological standpoint, this is how I approach it yeah, 100 man.
Speaker 1Look, here's the deal. As far as I say, you're not gonna get any better. Mac brown, that carolina or most other places, um, you know what boils down to it. You can't let duke run for five yards of carry on you. Let him rush the ball 40 times, just run it down your throat, I mean defensively. It's been a struggle for carolina for a long time.
Speaker 1And you know they've had great offenses and even when the offense isn't, you know you can't forget. I mean you know the quarterback we rolled into the season with lasted about, you know, half a game before he was out for the year Right, and I know he wasn't. Drake Mayer wasn't expected to be. But I mean you go through an entire offseason where that guy essentially is your number one and then boom, the whole thing changes. I mean I'm not making excuses. You've got to win this game period. There's no doubt about it. I think Mack Brown would be the first person to tell you that I'm with you.
Speaker 1Everything you just said I mean I think as a Carolina football fan, over the years my expectations have become more and more realistic and it's very similar to being a Commanders fan, dude, like. I mean things seem to be going swimmingly for those guys right now and you know I'm not that excited. You just kind of like, let it play out. It surprised you with the result. I mean, look, you lost a generational quarterback. You know, in Drake May and prior to that, probably maybe the top two quarterbacks that have ever been at Carolina in the past, two generations of the team. So I mean the quarterback position in college football is maybe the most important position in all of college sports.
Speaker 1So, look, I mean we came in here. We got a kind of weak schedule, this Duke game. It doesn't even matter what happened before, what happens after, how strong the schedule is, how good the team is. Those things have demonstrated they don't matter when you play state and when you play Duke and pretty much anything. So you know it's a bummer to. You know it's like their foot off the gas and I mean it's like every time they handed a kid the ball, thomas or whatever. I mean kid had 30 yards, 30 carries for 166 yards in a touchdown. Got to be the best game he's ever had.
Speaker 2Yeah and Sleep. I just want to say one thing. You said in college football quarterback might be the most important position. I would say the quarterback might be the most important position in all of sport.
College Football Fan Perspectives
Speaker 1Yeah that's what I meant A lot of analysts and I agree with that.
Speaker 2A lot of people say that and also have one other thought, and there's a lot of things that coaches can't do. They can't tackle, they can't go out there and players got to compete and somebody on that locker room has to step up and take a little bit of accountability. You can have all the schemes you want you can draw up, you know you can have the best coaches in the world, but at the end of the day there's no great coach without great players. Or you know, you've got to have a little pride if you're a player and you've got to go out there and make tackles and just bear down and compete, and you know that goes across the board in all sports.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm, yep, well, we've got Pitt coming up next. That's not going to get any easier. Then we got Georgia Tech. Both those games at home At Virginia, at Florida State, wake Forest I think they lost to somebody atrocious, or it was real close. Boston College has looked great this year. All of a sudden that looks like a pretty good game. I think they've looked great. Every time I've looked at them they're 4-1. Then we got NC State to close the year. They look like shit too.
Speaker 1You know, all of a sudden schedule. We were talking how easy it looks. It looks a lot more daunting after these past two games. So you know, it's hard to tell. You know, look, here's the other reality. And granted, you haven't played anyone, okay, but you jump on the defense. We've got 17, 20, 10, 70. Okay, and then 21 to Duke. I mean, those numbers don't jump off the page at you as horrible scores. Again, you played Minnesota. I mean Minnesota is whatever they're in Big 18 conference, the old coal miners, nc Central, james Madison. You expect to keep those teams. Anyway, the point I'm saying is that, like Utah, I don't know what a cover two is. I don't know what his own defense is, I don't care.
Speaker 2I know what a touchdown is.
Speaker 1And I know that when we score them it seems to be like well, martin Hampton has got to be a dope guy. He's got to be one of those guys that's top running back. I mean I got a pretty narrow view of the college football running back landscape, but I mean the guy's a monster, he's got to be, an early pick In the days of first-round draft picks being running backs.
Speaker 1I mean, he's a shoe-in, but he's our guy, you know, and and and, no matter how good he's been, great, and unfortunately he can get out in the flat and catch the ball Right. But I mean, you think if your team could stack the box, it's just amazing what he's been able to do, even though everybody knows he's sort of our penultimate weapon and they just can't stop anybody, at least when it matters. So I don't know, man, it's, it's Carolina football, dude. Dude, like you get your hopes up and uh, you know, look, eight and four still on the horizon here. I'm not dogging the team or there's coaches or anything. Man like, as a fan, nobody gets to be more critical of a team than their own fans. It's like being family, like I obviously want these guys to win, I want to do great things, I want them all to be happy. But, dude, that's when you can't lose like that. I'd rather lost that game 21-0 than 21-20, after leading by 20 in the second half. To your point, yes, teams got to have some grit, but anyway I think I said this they flashed that stat Duke was got to have some grit. But anyway, um, I think I said this they flashed that stat duke was 1 and 72 when trailing by 20 in the second half and they're now 2 and 72 and probably pretty happy about about that that uga and bama game, dude. So I mean I got my, my whole setup on my back deck now, right, so it's kind of nice because the four o'clock kick was good, because the sun kind of was behind my house and I'm chilling, dude. I got the grill going, I got tv back there, I got fan blowing the mosquitoes off of me, and then I just just totally disheartening but I'm like hey, at least we're gonna get a great game carolina and and alabama.
Speaker 1And then the carolina game kept dragging on and on and we finally lost it. And then I was like well damn, we'll probably miss the first quarter. And I log in and Alabama's walking out of the tunnel and I'm just like man, dude, this is incredible. Like look at all the people pageantry and all this and they just proceed to start walking the dog on Georgia, like I mean smoking them. I think they were up 28-0 early in the second quarter and like, yeah, georgia started coming back a little bit. I'm like starting to wind down, this is the latest I've been awake in a long time. It's like after 10 o'clock. So I shut her down. Not going to lie, man, I put everything away and got in the bed, woke up in the morning and I was like huh, I wonder how bad Alabama ended up beating them.
Speaker 1I see all these highlights about you know. Two-minute drive down the Georgia Thoses 60-some-yard touchdown Incredible, incredible play. Fake Dude's wide open. Next play Alabama kid, 17 years old. Carolina ain't getting players like that anymore. Right, that kid was just one play that taught me something. And then Georgia comes all the way down the field and damn near scores again. I don't know, man, how much of that game did you catch? That's got to be the game of the season. That one delivered.
Speaker 2Yeah, it did and sleep. You know I text my friends a couple group texts. I said man Bama's playing like JMU to start this game.
Speaker 1You know they come out there. You mean Georgia was yeah, oh yeah, no, no, no, yeah. Sorry, we would be the Georgia in that situation.
Speaker 2And so I was kind of laughing about that. But you know what? This is what I'll say about the game sleep. I think Georgia and I think Bama arguably had the most annoying fan bases in college football. And the way I look at that game is you combine the two most annoying fan bases and then you just put them all in just a big arena and it's just a massive, massive circus act Both great football programs, just a lot of characters on the sidelines and it just seems like Alabama has been America's team and everyone that kind of follows football is just I'm a Bama fan, so I I I pull for Georgia from that just based off of that. But I didn't watch a lot of the game. I thought it was a great game. I fell asleep early but that's when Bama had a big lead and that's all I caught of that.
Speaker 1You know it's funny because when I watch like I mean, obviously we just talked about being a Carolina football fan. I root for Carolina over all those guys head to head. But I just like watching these great teams play Like, for whatever reason, I don't like Ohio State, I don't like Ohio State, I don't like Michigan, but I love watching Alabama. I love watching Georgia when Tennessee is good, for whatever reason. I like watching Texas when USC is good. I like watching those guys. I don't really like Miami and ACC teams. If they're great, that rule goes out the window.
Speaker 1I don't really like Miami and ACC teams. They're great. That rule goes out the window. So for me, it's great to watch an Alabama-Georgia game and have absolutely no dog in the fight, so to speak, because it's just like all right, I'll just chill and see what happens. I have no stress about this whatsoever. Yeah, it was like you're right about their fan bases. I got friends on each side of it, right, and they're all like okay, bud, I don't think you ever played football, maybe in your entire life, not even in peewee football. It is funny how hey, I guess you could say the same thing about us in basketball. But it's funny because it begs the question.
Speaker 1You know, I shot this out in our group text. I was like dude, and this is while alabama was rolling in alabama. By the way, rankings came out today. They're number one. They're the best team in college football right now. You can't convince me otherwise. I mean, they showed it even though they almost lost. You know, they almost gave up the game. Those guys are unbelievable at football, and that's the thing.
Speaker 1I was like dude. Could you imagine? All right, like, imagine Carolina playing Alabama like in even the best season that we've had in a while, but in a season like this especially. It just really sort of like illustrates what we're up against, and I think that's the thing that fans don't probably. They're not enough of uh sort of like. We're not sane enough to realize this when we're pulling for caroline. I mean, dude, these guys, they got guys three deep on their depth chart that are all five-star guys, and that's the problem with a school like Carolina. You've got to win the recruiting in your state, but if one of these dudes gets an offer from Georgia like a la Todd Gurley I think back in the day Todd Gurley was down to Carolina and Georgia, and maybe some others, I have no idea. That was what. I recall that situation. I mean, he goes to Georgia every time. Why wouldn't he? We got Drake away from Alabama though. Yeah, we got Drake away, but that has big asterisks there.
Speaker 1I mean his dad went here, his brother went here, his brother's a hero here. I mean, look, we did, we got him and we got like a Ryan Hampton I don't know what he was out of high school. I don't follow recruiting, but like that dude's really good. If he was at Alabama, holy shit man. But that's the thing is.
Speaker 1Like these guys, you want to talk about defense, and that's funny too, because, like in football, I think offense beats defense in college football, just because the schemes are so different. I mean you look how good those two teams' defenses are and they hung up what like almost 80 total last night. So I mean, what a fun game, though that kid's catch at the end. Williams or whatever from Alabama Kid's 17 years old. He doesn't turn 18 until february, I mean, and this dude could play in nfl right now, so we don't have anybody on our team on that could receive a position. That I mean maybe since like hakeem nicks, that's seems that good, these guys got like Julio Jones and these guys that come out of their program like on a regular basis.
Speaker 2Josh Downs. He had a pretty good year last year. Josh Downs good call, he's playing okay for the Colts, I agree with you Sleep, but we've had some talent, we've had some talent, we've had some talent.
Speaker 1We haven't had Julio Jones and we haven't had Devontae Smith and we haven't had AJ Brown. I mean, these are absurd players.
Speaker 2That's a strong core.
Speaker 1You know. So that's the thing. We haven't had some of these dudes that go to Georgia. So, look, I think when you don't have those players, inconsistency is going to happen and you're gonna lose like inexplicable games. So I mean, look at notre dame lost to northern iowa and then northern iowa just lost nc state or northern illinois or whatever, like dude teams that don't have like these alpha players is why they're, why ohio, why the same five teams are good every single year, because they always get the same guys. The best players go to those five places, six, seven places and that's it.
Speaker 1So, anyway, if you're a Carolina football fan, chill out, dude. You ain't getting better than Mack Brown. Period, I'm sorry. So just take the good seasons when they come, roll with the bad ones when they come, and and just live to fight until basketball season. Speaking of basketball season, the schedule just came out and we always kind of make fun of the schedule, but probably a lot of people have been making fun of us Because we had a whole lot of hard-hitting things to talk about for I don't know about five months now. So we're going to jump into the UNC basketball schedule coming out Season just right around the corner. Um, what are your key takeaways?
Speaker 2because I didn't even know that until you told me yeah, the schedule came out last week.
College Basketball Schedule Analysis
Speaker 2Um, oh see first of all today no, no, uh, I will say this is one of my favorite times of the year is when teams start to you know, just from playing. This is where it starts to get a little more intense and you start working towards some goals and you start meeting as a team and start having a lot of hardcore practices. But the schedule just came out. Obviously we talked about the Kansas game is going to be great at Allen Fieldhouse. That's going to be you want to mark this one down November 8th. That is a big-time college atmosphere. A lot of people will argue it is the best home court atmosphere in college basketball. Some people will say Duke. I will disagree. I haven't heard Duke loud much. And then we'll move on to December 4th against Alabama in Chapel Hill on the big time ESPN. Obviously that is going to be a great game. Obviously Alabama they knocked us out of the tournament Last year is either in the Sweet 16 or Lead 8. I think it may have been Sweet 16.
Speaker 1Sweet 16, yeah.
Speaker 2Yep, and you know Nate Oates has done a great job for Alabama. They have the kid Omarion, something from Rutgers, who I thought was the best player in the portal. They got that big. That is going to be a big-time game. Alabama's going to be a great team. They're going to be probably a top 5, 10 team in the country. To start. A lot of people right now have us top 15, top 20 for sure. We're kind of hovering in and out of there. But you know Carolina fans, we don't really care about the preseason stuff after what we went through a few years ago, so preseason means nothing to us.
Speaker 2December 21st, ucla on the biggest stage in sports we're talking the Garden, new York City, madison Square Garden. That's going to be an exciting one. Two of the biggest powerhouses in college basketball historically are going to meet in Madison Square Garden. That's going to be a great game and Mick Cronin does a great job defensively. He's one of the best coaches in college basketball in my opinion, and we knocked him out. What was it? The lead eight in Philly to go to the final four? I think so. Two years ago I was there.
Speaker 1We knocked him out in the three years ago 16.
Speaker 2Sweet 16.
Speaker 1Okay, and then we went and played St Peter's St Peter's Yep To go to the final four.
Speaker 2Yep, that's going to be a big-time one.
Speaker 2I'm just looking at it. Obviously we have our rival games February 1st at Duke, NC State. February 19th at home in Chapel Hill. That's going to be a big one. Nc State obviously, losing DJ Burns, that's going to be tough for them to recover. They have some players. I think they're going to be a pretty solid team. That should be a good showdown.
Speaker 2Duke obviously the flag kid. There's a lot of expectations. A lot of people have them as a top five, top ten team. I don't know. I'm going to be curious to see how Duke goes. They've had a lot of turnaround.
Speaker 2Obviously, you know the flag kid has a lot of expectation. I just think it's hard for a freshman doesn't have a lot of experience to come in, even though he's extremely talented, to kind of put that much expectation on him. I think freshmen do better when there's a good core group veteran players, you know, juniors, seniors and then you start adding in the high-quality freshmen. But we'll see I could be wrong. Obviously I've been wrong before. And then we end the regular season with Duke at home March 8th. That's going to be a big one. Obviously, you can't ever go wrong with the Duke game, but I'm excited about the schedule. It's right around the corner. Obviously, we'll have our preseason preview gearing up for that. Basketball season is on the horizon. There's a lot of expectation this year. We, in my opinion, we have the best player in the country, RJ Davis right now, who I consider, and it's going to be exciting. I'm'm excited about sleep.
Speaker 1Dude. So a couple things on this. Kansas I just pulled up the way too early and at this point it's not way too early. It came out on September 9th, so 20 days ago. Espn, top 25. Got Kansas 1, Alabama 2. Okay, so we got both of them on the schedule. We got UCLA is 24, florida is 21, both of them on the schedule. We got Duke at 9, carolina at 10. Not a lot of ACC in there. We've got a tough schedule. Obviously, dude, this is not even the official top 25. There's some heavy hitters on our schedule.
Speaker 1I've got good news for Carolina fans. My kid was born March 8, 2024. Last season, carolina, my kid was born march 8th 2024, okay, so last season, carolina dropped duke at home the very next day, his first full day on earth, okay, and so that's a good omen. Um, and then we got him on his birthday. First birthday dude, duke carolina 6, 30 tips. Gonna be tough to keep him awake for, but uh, I mean, believe me, I'm to slip this kid some coffee, all right, because he's going to be there.
Speaker 2Oh yeah.
Speaker 1Oh boy.
Speaker 2Yeah, oh boy, as much as those tickets are going to cost.
Speaker 1I wonder how old you got to be for your kid. You got to pay for his ticket. I need to find that out. We might not put this in the public either, because it was like what time was he born? On March 8th. He's not technically a year old yet. Yeah, listen, kid, you go stay awake, you go remember this shit because these tickets were expensive.
Speaker 1I think the season is Caroline's kind of right, where you want her to be Right in the middle of the pack in terms of the top 25, of course You'd probably debut somewhere between be right in the middle of the pack, you know, in terms of top 25, of course, right, like, yeah, you probably debut somewhere between 8 and 12. Be fine with that. Um, you know you're on the radar. Some great teams I think you're gonna see this year. Um, and you know you're right about this cooper flag kid man. Like, as much as I hate to say it, when mb some of the nba guys start, you know, because he trained some with the Olympic team and you know I mean, but look, dude, they said the same about Zion. Zion was great when he played, you know, and what did they do with it. I mean, if you're Duke, you've had some great, great players that you know. I don't know what it is. To be quite honest with you, it's really interesting because you mentioned like, hey, a lot of times when a kid comes in with that much hype, it's nice to have a good, you know, core of veteran players. And I mean I'm like I know their roster up and down but they become kind of the one and done engine right, so they got, I think, a lot of their, you know, primary players are young and that's just bidding people, man, like I have not seen that work yet. I haven't seen it work anywhere.
Speaker 1Um, and look and look, we talked about it. Right, it's like what do you want to be as a college program? Do you want it to be a facilitator to the nba or do you want to win national championships? Doing both is tough, you know. I mean, if you go look at the, the nba players that went to carolina right now there's some good players, but you know, your top of your class nba guys didn't go to carolina anymore, you know, and it's just it's. Who do you want to be? Uh, you know, you got it's. I don't know. Man, it's fascinating the way college basketball works now and, um, you know, it remains to be seen a lot of good storylines, man. It's gonna be a lot of good, good teams, a lot of good basketball. Um, and he'll should be right in the thick of it, man, which is where you want to be.
Speaker 2And Sleep. You just talked about it. You talked about those one-and-done factories. You look at Kentucky and you look at Coach Cal. Look what those one-and-dones got him. He's at Arkansas now. That is a team right now that I have on the radar that I want to watch is Arkansas. Cal took a lot of players and a lot of talent with him and the problem with what Cal was doing in Kentucky, in my opinion, if you take the schemes out of it a little bit, is he had a problem because he struggled with teams that played physical, hard-nosed defense and smart, disciplined basketball. And the reason I say that is because his motto the one and dones. They really got hurt when the COVID year was added and they started playing these older, more physical, more mature teams. These five-star kids are great. They're great for the program. They go on to be great NBA players. You look at Kentucky's NBA list right now.
Speaker 1It's unbelievable, it's an all-star team.
Speaker 2But I'm telling you right now they got beat by a lot of teams and they haven't had a lot of tournament success and that's what led to Cal leaving Kentucky, because Kentucky is the most delusional fan base in all of college basketball and their program is designed to win at all cost.
Speaker 2You can tell me that they wanted to have their motto and they wanted to be known as the one and done factory. Okay, well, they were, and that got their coach fired. Teams want winning okay, and I'm very curious this year, from a college basketball perspective, what is Kentucky basketball going to look like? Because those fans are not patient enough to watch a coach turn a program around and start having success. Their coach. Right now he is under the gun to win, and win in the tournament.
Speaker 2That's what Cal did not do towards the end. Yes, he had a heck of a run for a short period, a lot of success, but ultimately he didn't win in the end. Yes, he had a heck of a run for a short period, a lot of success, but ultimately he didn't win in the tournament. And what really hurt him were the older players, the older teams that were disciplined and physically beat them up, uh, and lack of shooting. They didn't have a lot of shooting. And listen, all you Kentucky fans that hit me up on Twitter blah, blah, blah and said you guys were a good shooting team. You weren't, and it proved that in the tournament. Okay, when you're not playing on your home court and you're not in your routine and you're in a different atmosphere, you guys couldn't throw it through the hula hoop, so you played yourself there. Keep coming at me on Twitter and I'll keep following you and telling you what the reality of your team really is. And you know, I don't mind Cal. I actually think he's a really good recruiter and I think I'm really looking forward to the Arkansas game in Rupp. I think that's going to be the college basketball game of the year. I think that Carolina going to Lawrence is going to be up there on that radar as well for college basketball fans. And the reason I say that sleep is because of the history.
Speaker 2You talk about coach williams coming back to carolina after he built that uh kansas program to what it you know ultimately was a sustainable powerhouse college basketball program and then leaves. There's still a lot of feelings there and this has not left their fan base and they're going to be ready for this game. This is a must watch game and Kansas right now has one of the best players in college basketball, hunter Dickinson. I feel like he's been in college basketball forever, but the showdown there's. A lot of people think he's better than RJ. No, he's not. Rj is the best player in college basketball coming back. Rj Davis is the best player in college basketball coming back. Rj Davis is the best player in college basketball. Hunter Dickinson is the only argument that can be legit and a lot of people are saying that.
Speaker 2That's why I'm excited about this and also the history behind the programs and a lot of hard feelings that the Kansas fan base have for the Carolina fan base and listen, there's no denying it, they've had our number. They beat us on the big show a lot. I've been part of those. Those are some tough losses for the whole family and all of Carolina fan base and it would be great to go to Kansas and hand them an L on their home court. Now, you know I've got a lot of faith and a lot of trust in Coach Davis. They've done things like this. You know I've got a lot of faith and a lot of trust in Coach Davis. They've done things like this. You look at when they walked into Cameron and handed Coach K his final L on his home court. Man, that was amazing. Then the final 4L right before K retired. That was great. This is going to be one of those games that Carolina fans. Man, I'm excited for sleep.
Speaker 1Yeah, this is a big one. Like you said, kansas has enough ammunition in the rivalry as well and, let's face it, like it or not, duke does too right of getting the upper hand on occasion. So it makes it a rivalry and I think it's look from a practical standpoint in this season's, you know, and then look from a practical standpoint in this season's storyline is concerned Like that game's going to kind of define who Carolina is, at least in the first part of the season, and it's. It's amazing how teams can mature from one half of the season to the other. So, you know, getting into conference play, and, and, and, and and doing. Well, there is like you lose the Kansasansas, you get the doors blown off in kansas, like it's not the end of your season, right, by any means. But if you flip it and you go in there and you win, um, it can really jolt and it can really sort of mold who you're going to be, in my opinion. So, um, it's a really, really fascinating.
One-and-Done Phenomenon in Basketball
Speaker 1Open to the schedule, I do want to come back to one of the things you were saying about, because we're going to talk a little bit about the NBA in a second. But you're exactly right about Kentucky and as you were going on about that, I was saying I'm thinking to myself the guard play, especially that these guys have, because I think we just talked about how important point guards are. In college basketball, I mean I'm sorry, quarterbacks, and in college basketball, I mean I'm sorry, quarterbacks. And in college basketball, I mean point guard, you got a good point guard. You can go a long way. I mean, all of our teams has pretty good point guards, right, um, or guards in general. And you know, I think if you look at the roster, I mean devin booker and maxi and god, I mean I'm like blanking right now, but I mean even god, who do they got?
Speaker 1I mean, they got insane players, they're insane starting five and but the thing of it is is they're all still young and they aren't all there at the same time. And you look at the, the maturity of a human being versus a kid that's 18, a kid that's 21, 22, and then, of course, where do these guys get this meteoric rise? Where they get to be 23, 24? I mean it seems that number is getting younger 21, 22, 23 but, like their bodies fill out, they get a regimen. Where they're, they're just. This is all they do all day. You know they're training, they're eating.
Speaker 1They got people in here that there's millions of dollars invested in these guys, and so what, what? What it is, in my opinion, is kentucky duke. These guys like Because, listen, zion Williamson is an incredible basketball player. He's got an injury bug, but when he's on the court, dude, this guy's an all-star and there's no question about it. But what they're doing is they're facilitating the next step for these guys, but they don't get any sort of cohesion along the way, and that's what I think the recipe is is you look at carolina and I think you know, look, if, if carolina gets cooper flag, I think they take him. I like it. Kid wants to go here. You're like, hey, no thanks, man, we're only looking for top 50 guys, 50 to 100 or whatever, right. So you know, I'm not saying that we, if we can land one, we don't.
Speaker 1But the point is is like I feel like the the focus is, hey, give me some guys that are above, way above average and maybe fringe NBA now, and you know, need some development to get there and versus guys that are NBA. Because here's the thing Um, maybe Cooper Flagg is I've learned my lesson talking about Wimby Maybe Cooper Flagg is that good, but the reality is not all of them are, and not everybody that comes to that program is going to be LeBron James or Anthony Davis or even Zion Williamson, and basically what I'm saying by that is they can win on their own, they can win a game by themselves, and a guy like LeBron James could win a game by himself and if he had gone to college, he probably would have won a national championship. Guys like Carmelo Anthony, you know those guys, I mean, these are generational players. So, like Tyrese, maxey is one of my favorite players in the NBA right now. I think that guy's got strong potential to be MVP before his career is over, okay, but like he vp before his career is over, okay, but like he wasn't gonna win a game. He's not michael jordan, he's not alan iverson, that guy wasn't gonna take over a game and win it by himself and win a national championship by himself. So, uh, you can take over a game, but can you take over a season? Can a team? He's not derrick rose, you know, just retired, by the way.
Speaker 1So I think that's the biggest thing with the one and dones is like everybody gets enamored with these guys who are so good. I mean, they're very good, but they're good in comparison to everybody else's around them, maybe in the class they're in and maybe the class before them, but, like in the decade, is Cooper Flagg like the best player that's come along in a decade? Like no, I just maybe I don't know, but I think everybody thinks that every next guy is the guy and, um, they're chasing. They're chasing a mountain dude. Because you look at some of these guys now and there's no, no lack of. I mean, look, you look around the nba and look where these guys went to college. Now it's always so fascinating to me to figure out like all the, all the good players you know a lot of them went to Kentucky. They're like they're either one and done or they were from somewhere you've never heard of, so um you know that's.
Speaker 1That's my thought on the one and done. Um, it will be an interesting game. Cal back in Kentucky. Be easy to root for Cal in that one if you're a Carolina fan. But yeah, I guess all that is to say a lot of very interesting college basketball. And unless you got anything else to go on with college basketball, we can roll that right into the NBA.
NBA Trade Analysis
Speaker 2Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1Big, big news, kind of out of nowhere. I mean, I think it came out of nowhere to Carl Anthony Towns. Timberwolves traded him to the Knicks. Julius Randle, dante DiVincenzo, some other stuff going around in there, I think the Hornets were involved somehow to make the cash work, or what have you? I guess my short answer to my question is who won this trade?
Speaker 2To me there's no question the Knicks won this trade. I think, coming into the season, the Knicks had two major issues. One, the center position. They just lost Isaiah Hardenstein in free agency. He demanded a big payday. And then Mitchell Robinson, who they very value a lot. He's a very good player, but he's been injury prone and he's out a few months this year too, yep, yep.
Speaker 1And listen, mitchell Robinson's a good player, but he's been injury prone and he's out a few months. This year too, yep, yep and listen, Mitchell Robinson's a good player. I like Mitchell Robinson a lot yeah.
Speaker 2He's injury prone. He hasn't been very reliable from that aspect. But the second major issue the Knicks were dealing with was the Julius Randle situation. Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson didn't have the best chemistry, and the reason for that is Julius Randle is very ball dominant, as is Jalen Brunson, and obviously the Knicks also went on a very deep playoff run while Julius Randle was hurt and Jalen Brunson obviously had a historic run and proved himself, and so the focus has kind of gone from, you know, let's. Let's figure out what we need to do with Julius Randall.
Speaker 2By the way, julius Randall was going to acquire a lot of money. He's a three-time all-star, very good player, but financially for Minnesota, minnesota could not afford Carl Anthony Towns' contract. If you look at it, it's four years, $220 million, and at the end of the day listen, minnesota's not New York New York Knicks could handle his contract, and also in his fourth year, he has a player option for $60 million. That's a lot of money from a ball club, and let's not forget, though, let's not forget that Carl Anthony Towns is a very good player. Ball club and let's not forget, though, let's not forget that carl anthony towns is a very good player uh, but minnesota. I think they've the experience. Experience with carl anthony towns in the playoffs hasn't been that great.
Speaker 2If you look at the western conference finals, he really struggled last year. We talked about that and he was very open about it. I think he went three for 22 from the three-point line, which is not like him. He is a very good, versatile big. He can play inside, he can play the power forward, he can play the center position and also, I think, with the way that the East is set up this year, if you look at Boston with Porzingis and then you look at Philly with Embiid, you've got to have size. And if you look at Thibodeau and the way he plays Thibodeau's defense, his defense is designed around guys with size and he requires a rim protector if you look at his defensive foundations.
Speaker 2And so I think the Knicks won this and I honestly think this makes the Knicks a contender. And listen, I've I've criticized Kat for a lot of different things, but he's a hell of a basketball player and I think that, uh, you know, for him going to the Knicks, I don't think it's his, I think it's Brunson's team, which is it's kind of laughable to even think about, like people didn't believe in Brunson and now it just looks like his contract is unbelievable. But I think that will help help uh, you know, you know, with the pressure that cat kind of brings in his contract situation, because he is a max player. And then, if you look at why I think the Knicks won this trade not by much and I think the trade actually works, this trade not by much and I think the trade actually works in Minnesota's favor, a lot too is because Minnesota is kind of they're designing their program in the face of their franchise is going to be Edwards moving forward. What's his first name? Slee.
Speaker 2Anthony Edwards, anthony Edwards yep, I was just blanking on yeah, yeah, he is, uh, he is a hell of a talent and I think, uh, the play that carl anthony towns and a little bit of inconsistency, I think you can't justify his max contract for a team like minnesota and then still try to, uh, you know, build around anthony edwards and carl town and try to, you know, build around Anthony Edwards and Carl in town and try to be contenders, even though last year they were right there at the door of getting to the finals.
Speaker 2And, you know, I just think this solidifies Minnesota and gives them a little more freedom to build around Ant. But also they can keep their, you know, young players like Nas Reid coming in, who had a huge impact and played well while Cat was hurt in the playoffs. So I think this actually works for both teams. But realistically, I think the Knicks are a contender and if I'm looking at Minnesota, I still think that there's a little bit more development that their team needs and a couple more pieces to really put them in the contender category. But I think with Ant moving forward and their development of their young guys and then financial freedom, they can find that piece and eventually, here in about a year or two, become a contender. That's my thoughts.
Speaker 1It's interesting because I agree I could, because I see with like pretty much everything you say I can see going that way. There's a couple ifs, though. I'm like you. I think the Knicks won it maybe, but I'm on a razor's edge and part of me wants to say that Minnesota won it. So let me start with the Knicks first, because I think Carl Anthony Towns an underrated player.
Speaker 1My biggest fear with him is he hasn't played a full season in a while. He gets hurt a lot. I'm looking at his stats. He's a 50-40 guy. This dude's a center that shoots 50% from the floor and 40% from three. He's going to rebound and do all these things, but he's not as defensive guy as Go uh, as gobert was. So that's kind of like it kind of makes more sense when it all shakes out. But the emergence of naz reed, to your point like as a player in the playoffs, like solidified what you know nerds that play like fantasy basketball kind of already knew which was dude naz reed's good player, like a really good player and um, you know it allowed them, knowing they got a guy that's like serviceable. He can score, he can, he can defend like they can let go of carl anthony towns and the best. I mean, if you're gonna get rid of him or gobert, you keep gobert because, like it or not, about gobert, he's a defender, he's a great defender. The uh, what do you call? The stifle tower right? So, um, and now what you have?
Speaker 1I think the biggest piece here, randall is interesting to me because randall's an all-star, right, but like same kind of situation, like it's funny too, by the way, these two guys where they go to school, kentucky, uh, randall and and um, carl anthony towns. But the biggest player to me is devon chenzo. I mean Devin Chenzo is like a Danny Green type role, and now you look at a team like Minnesota with a starting five presumably of Edwards. You've got Gobert, you got Randall, you're probably going to have Jaden Daniels, who's a great defender, like excellent defensive player of the year type guy, and then you can roll out, um, you know, I guess maybe naz reed or or devincenzo. I think you're right. I think maybe there's another piece there. I want to look up their roster. But I mean those guys have been the year before last they were almost in a western car.
Speaker 1Now the problem is you got to get through denver. I mean, I think they did that though, didn't they? You got to get through denver. You got to get through, you can't? You got to remember too, that the lakers and the and the warriors being the shitty teams in your conference, it shows, like, how good that company the rockets are an emerging team thunder are, are they? Western west conference oh yeah, they're getting a much better. You know, clippers are still. They still got kawaii leonard, um. So look, there's, there's a lot of good teams in the west, and that's probably the biggest thing for for the wolves, and I just you know, but my, my thought is is that, gosh, I mean, if anthony edwards makes that like huge leap, um, I mean he's already. He's another guy that could goodbye for um, for mvp, I'm trying to find her damn roster because mike conley is a guy that is a better player.
Speaker 2Yeah that plays for the wolf, so that's a very good piece, uh, and provides a lot of great leadership. But sleep, I'm with you on the um anthony edwards. I think he's an amazing piece and a lot of people compare him to jordan, but you know, you've been on him since day one. You kind of talked about it on the podcast, about how good of a player you think he's going to be, even before he kind of broke out, and I expect him to take a much bigger role.
Speaker 1All he really needs. In my opinion, they got Alexander Walker as a nice player, but everybody else is yeah, not joe ingles. Uh, edwards's thing is, I think, if I had to guess, I mean he's 6 4 225. I mean, dude, he's a prototype kid's, 23 years old. I'm trying. I feel like he. I feel like he's still a little bit of a streaky shooter. I think he's a great shooter. He's a fearless scorer, super athletic.
Speaker 1But I still feel like sometimes I pay a lot of attention to NBA, a lot of attention to that whole class, for whatever reason. I'm fascinated by it. But I see a lot of games where he's been on my fantasy team for about three years now. He'll go four for 15 some nights, four, six for 20. But he still gets eight and six and 16 on a bad night and he's fearless dude. He's the guy you've got to have. Sometimes I wish he'd be a little humble, but if you're going to be great, there ain't no time for that shit.
Speaker 1So anyway, I think they're going to be a really good team NBA season. I know a lot of our listeners might not be super into it, but it's going to be fun to watch. The training camp starts October 1st Season starts October 23rd. Warriors got until the 22nd to give my guy, kaminga, an extension here. Okay, both sides kind of say they want it. What I feel like is going to happen is they're not going to give him the extension and the whole year is going to be a disappointment because he's not. I don't know if he's mature enough to play under that kind of pressure yet, but I think he's going to be a great player. Uh, I think people are going to find he dyed his hair blonde.
Speaker 2You hear about that, oh boy oh yeah, he's about to go out of show, okay, oh yeah, yeah, definitely uh, nfl, let's run them down real quick, as we've been doing here lately.
Speaker 1Oh God, got some sort of Marvel movie ad playing on my screen here. Where are the scores at? That's all I need here Scores, I don't even know. Look at commanders 35-14 over the Cardinals. Jaden Daniels 25 of 29. 206 and a touchdown. Wow, patriots, they're going to get Drake May in there eventually. They're down 27-10.
Speaker 1Start of the fourth quarter to the 49ers. 49ers 1-2. Wow, let's see Raiders leading the Browns 20 to 16, starting out the fourth quarter. Chargers chiefs tied at 10. Boy, I tell you what the chief seems to just find ways to win. Um, they haven't looked all that impressive doing it.
NFL Week in Review
Speaker 1Falcons 26 beat the saints 24. Bears beat the Rams 24, 18. Vikings 31. Packers 29. Jordan love went off at the end of the game. Vikings 31, packers 29. Jordan Love went off at the end of the game. I mean, he's just a guy's a gunslinger. Colts beat the Steelers 27-24. Broncos Jets I mean absolute, just Shredfest 10-9. Oh wow, bucs Eagles Dude Baker Mayfield Guy came out of nowhere 33-16,. Bucks win. Panthers lose another one 34-24 to Bengals. Texans 24, jags 20. And of course everybody saw the Cowboys beat the Giants 20-15 on Thursday night.
Speaker 1Your Sunday night game will be Bill's Ravens. Jimmy's Famous Seafood is about to be popping off. It's a home game for the Ravens. Two Monday night games this is like a new thing and they started doing two games every Monday night, which I'm kind of. Here for Titans Dolphins and Seahawks Lions. So, yeah, my fantasy team, uh, not looking great right now, but uh, the season. Season is young. Um, yeah, I don't know a lot of stuff going on. That's probably the best, most most substantive episode I feel like we've had in in quite some time. Hope we filled your mind like jimmy's famous seafood box will fill your belly. There's my pitch for those guys. You got anything else to call Stay safe. Stay safe out there, guys. Thank you.