Inside Carolina’s ‘On The Beat’ crew of Jeremiah Holloway and Evan Rogers join host Tommy Ashley and producer John Bauman to talk all things UNC basketball. The crew discusses North Carolina’s victory over Louisville on Wednesday night in Chapel Hill and look ahead to this weekend’s matchup against BC. The beat writers debate UNC’s progress so far this season and more.
0:00 – Stream begins
0:15 – Show begins
1:01 – Post Louisville win mood
5:24 – Quotes of the week
10:17 – Keeping up with the metrics
13:44 – The debates – Bacot’s place
33:14 – The ACC vs the NET
39:39 – What does UNC have to do?
47:26 – Closing Thoughts – Football changes
50:10 – Road to Duke on Feb 3rd
54:12 – Story time with John
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Welcome man to another edition of inside Carolina’s on the beat I’m Tommy Ashley that’s John Bowman we’re sponsored by Johnny Johnny t-shirt Johnny t-shirt.com all right as you can see there is no Adam Smith so we’re all going to do this once Happy Birthday Adam enjoy your day off from on the beat
He’s definitely earned it especially after a 9:00 game in the Smith Center uh those games are brutal that means long hours working to get all the content up so Adam is off this evening Jeremiah will be joining us in a minute but we do have D1 and only Evan Rogers Evan you
Were in that locker room or in that area post game those light late nights are interesting especially when they’re trying to hustle everybody out out of there what was that mood like after they played so well in the first half and then came out in the second half and
Tried to lay a little bit of an egg there against a Louisville team that I just didn’t think was very good yeah I think uh across the board I mean obviously they were first off happy they won the game uh but there was a sense of accountability or a realization that
They did kind of let things get out of hand a little bit there um J and Armondo both mentioned kind of I think it might have been the Under 12 right around that time when it it got down to a five-point game just the the Huddle and how hbert
Kind of got after them and their lack of Defense um and one of the funny things that Armando said was kind of just like how you know coming into this game this was a game that on paper they should have handedly won and and they ended up
Winning winning by 16 points but kind of the idea that he felt like they probably could have and should have won by more but in that they had to kind of tough it out there for a stretch in the second half how there were learning points
Along the way and and just kind of in general how the game as a whole can kind of just be a wakeup call in terms of knowing they can’t Coast in the ACC no matter the opponent they’re playing even if it seems like on paper they are you
Know outmatched or something like that so obviously you know the guys were happy that they they won and are six and0 in conference play but I think the Imp Rive and important thing across the board about this team is they’re pretty good at staying in the moment and kind
Of taking things as they come um and you could definitely since that last night Jeremiah I want to get you in here um Jeremiah Holloway has joined us Adam’s out as I mentioned with the birthday can’t blame him there Jeremiah the mood in the locker room I kind of felt like
And we talked about it on the postgame with Charelle which if folks are watching this and haven’t watched the postgame podcast shelle is great I mean Charelle has a way of just putting it out there like you need like when you listen to Charelle you’re like that’s
How I need to feel about this stuff because he’s just so on point and we talked about it being sort of a wakeup call to Evans Point Jeremiah is that they can’t Coast even when they’re beating somebody ridiculously um and they sort of learned that in the first in the second
Half is that a good thing for this team to sort of get that dose of reality a little bit even in the win but being able to see that it’s not easy just because you’re so much better than folks yeah I would definitely say that’s uh a
Very valid point uh also hello everybody sorry I’m late everything like that uh yeah but listen it’s it’s ACC play at this point you know this is the this is the part of the Year where especially if you’re North Carolina you kind of have the Target on your back being undefeated
Um you know you’re you’re the team that everybody’s kind of uh gunning for at this point and that would include a Louisville team that you know you know had a had a better offensive showing in the two games prior to to seeing UNC obviously it’s one where you would want
To see them you know kind of go in there take care of business early and they got the big lead and everything like that but you know it it did kind of seem like uh the intensity kind of wasn’t uh you know there at the at the same place but
I think those guys know that um and I think those guys you know have an understanding of okay they need to you know continually you know put their foot on the gas things like or keep their foot uh you know on the gas and just understanding that and I will say
They’ve been consistent this year too of um you know these conference games anybody kind of having the ability to uh you know kind of give them give them a nice shot you know necessarily so I know for us like you know we kind of look at
It and we see it as man you know you and see they shouldn’t have a problem against a Louisville team they shouldn’t have a problem against a Notre Dame team or whoever the case may be but um I don’t know you know when you get on that
When you get on that Court when you get on those 9 4 ft um you know things tend to uh uh tend to change up a little bit so um yeah I think it was good for them to to have a game like that to be challenge especially at home a place
Where they’ve pretty much been unbeatable uh you know to have a game like that um and be challenged I think that um is certainly something that uh that BS well for them uh now and you know certainly down the line and North Carolina was challenged not just by Louisville but by Hubert
Davis last night he refused to let North Carolina take their foot off the gas at all and when he noticed it happening he stepped in right away I have this quote from his uh postgame press press conference it’s kind of my my quote of the quote of the week uh he said um
They’re shooting 90% from the field I said it’s hard to do that by yourself in the gym with nobody guarding you uh well first of all I want to say uh Hubert Davis has never seen me shooting in a gym by myself with nobody guarding me because I’m shooting like 20% but I
Think that speaks to Hubert Davis’s coaching style he’s preached the last few games and the last few weeks intensity on the defensive end focus on the defensive end and there was a stretch last night where Louisville started to hit some tough shots they started to put some pressure some game
Pressure on UNCC and I was impressed with how UNCC responded to that I think part of it is it’s a senior laid in team it’s a team with a lot of experience they’ve been there before but also I have to give a lot of credit to to
Hubert Davis he pulled his team together in that timeout I was really impressed with how UNCC closed the game after that point so I wanted to call that out as my quote of the week jeremi get in get back in here with your quote from the week it can be from
The week it can be from last night it can be from the press conference with football anything um cuz of course there was a ton of it that came out of Monday’s presser but if we’re going to stay basketball then give me something from either last night or over the
Weekend from a Carolina player that somebody may have missed gotta yeah uh I could do one for basketball um you know one that I had um so obviously Jaylen Withers had you know kind of a Breakout game against his former team he had the double double Off the Bench so he
Actually ended up being the first uh UNCC player to have a double double Off the Bench since Brady manik did it the year that he was here um and I thought it was interesting that he really saved his best game of this I won’t say saved
I’ve I held off when I was writing about it on saying saved you know it’s not like he uh coasted to just wait on the Louisville game so but he did pull out his best game of the season uh against obviously you know his former team uh
And you know his former teammates so um one quote that I had um well I’ll do I’ll do a couple of quotes from uh from from Jaylen Withers so uh you know he obviously had the the teup quote about you know uh I’ll go ahead and read it so
His teup quote was it was was definitely special it was great to not only have my first double double as a Tar Hill but uh to have it against my previous team and then he closes with uh I think that alone says it all um and then there’s
Another one uh with Hubert Davis Kind of wrapping it up saying simply put um he says we just don’t win this game without Jay wit as he’s been calling him this year because they have the two jayin uh he said we needed him to have his best
Game of the season and but the reason I bring that quote up uh Beyond just the quote itself it is the uh the overall impact that I think Jaylen Withers has been having as of late um I think for him and I you know talked to him a
Little bit about it uh when we got him in Charlotte just adjusting to that role adjusting to what they need of him you got to think this was a guy that you know averag 10 points a game his freshman year at Louisville um on a you
Know a solid Louisville team as well and you know since then you know sure his his scoring numbers you know kind of haven’t quite been up to there but even last year you know to average nine points a game to shoot 40% from three to
Now uh you know the the playing time is has adjusted a lot and what they asked him to do but um I thought he really got to flash a lot of his athleticism um he was able to you know have his activity translate on the stat line so he was
Really able to score some points uh and obviously give that double double so um I think he adds another dimension to them not just offensively but I think defensively he could give them another like if he can be on the court 2020 25 minutes T night playing the defense that
You know they need him to play and being active on the boards I mean he was playing at the five uh you know a little bit more than usual last game he’s played at the five this year before with Ingram at that four uh but I think if
He’s able to stay active and if he’s able to um just just play like how he did yesterday regardless of stats just play with that same level of intensity that gives him another dimenstion uh on both ends of the Court absolutely Evan get in here give me a quick quote of the
Week that stood out for you yeah this was uh from Armondo after the game on the topic of net rankings kenpom all those ranking systems that everyone loves to talk about after every game um but I just thought this was a hilarious response from Armando um so when he was
Asked you know do you keep up with Kim bom do you keep up with Ned I think it was the question was proposed to him in a way of this was a team you should have blown out you kind of keep track of how maybe not blowing them out will impact
Your rankings in the net or in Kim pom or things like that and Armando said I follow and I see everything I know all the metrics I look at everything so we probably should have handled them a little bit better but I think today there were a lot of good teaching points
And then someone asked well who sends you this stuff how do you keep track of it and Armondo claims he says I get a sheet of everything I see everything I watch all y’all’s quot quotes I look at everything I’m a subscriber I just got it under a fake name um
So obviously there’s a probably a lot of joking and humor that goes into this um but kind of just on on the point of the net rankings in itself I think you saw last night I think UNC dropped one spot in the net and then two spots in kenpom
Which really isn’t that big of a drop um I think the important thing is is when you’re playing teams like Louisville which is a quad four game even though it is an ACC opponent or a Notre Dame who if you played him at home is a fringe
Quad three almost quad four game the the work that UNCC has done in the non-conference play in beating Oklahoma and beating Tennessee and and just kind of taking care of business in that uh non-conference schedule has kind of given him a cushion to where margin of Victory not might not
Become as as big of an issue as people might think this isn’t like last year where you know you you saw people kind of become these net rankings experts and and kind of keeping track of all the quad ones and the quad twos and how that can change throughout the season um and
I think another nice thing in terms of scheduling for UNC is that they only play Louisville and Notre Dame once each they don’t they don’t play either one of those teams twice and I think that’s important because just from a metric side or even just from a team standpoint
You don’t want to play those teams at the bottom of your conference multiple times even if it might help say your regular season record um I think in terms of long longterm goals and what can help you those are the kind of games that you like to have as maybe a little
Tuneup here and there but that’s not a team you want to play twice and I think it all kind of just goes to show that this team is in a a totally different spot than what they were last year in terms of just obviously the roster and
Also like the metrics and the ranking systems and it’s probably not going to be something people will be checking on a daily basis come you know mid-February end of February Evan I have some uh thoughts about your quote of the night uh Armando I know has a lot of nil deals
But he’s going to need more to pay for all these subscriptions these things are not cheap the premium subscription for Evan maya.com I think is like $120 or something crazy so I I respect Armando I believe that he keeps in touch with the net and he visits kenpom and
All that I’m just saying you know be careful with your nil money because if you’re not careful it’ll all go to these recurring subscriptions that you forget to cancel in April when you’re maybe preparing for the NBA draft or what have you I think that perfectly cues up as
Well Tommy the debate that we wanted to have tonight about Armando Bott do you want to explain that to our viewers yeah so we got so I mention it in the chat while you guys were talking we’re going to have since it’s just a two and two right you got host on your
Left side or your right side whichever your screen looks like and then you’ve got beat guys on the right we’re going to have debate here first of all first debate is going to be arando bott’s place in North Carolina history um his numbers Evan you wrote the story his
Numbers continue to go up and up and up and up and he’s passing some legendary tar Hills on the alltime list and also the ACC debate we talked about the net and all the numbers right there and yes those metric sites and Evan Maya and all those guys those are rabbit holes that
You can get down in and explore it is insane about how detailed they get but it’s also an interesting debate and how many teams the ACC might get in the NCAA tournament we’re going to talk about that as well as we get into it so host
Versus beat writers you got it boys so what’s going to happen is whoever gets to go first chooses their side and you got to argue the other one it’s just how debates work whether you agree or not so Evan I already know which way you’re
Going on one of them so I’m taking the one I want andfor for you into the other side of it um and also we’ll throw a poll up on the inside Carolina YouTube channel so I want everybody to do a couple things I want everybody to like
It like the video like you guys have been doing but I also want you to vote in the poll at the end of all the evidence do not make a decision before the evidence is closed unless you just like one side better than the other then
You can pick it but anyway so that being said let’s get into this Aro debate I let Jeremiah go first here Jeremiah your thoughts on Armando’s place in North Carolina history it’s not just about numbers it’s not just about uh ring yeah it’s about rings but it’s about
Availability and Longevity and all that where does Armando Bott fit in North Carolina history and do his numbers that he puts up deserve an aster beside them given that he’s in his now Fifth Season some of the guys he’s passed only played three for the Toros well when we’re when
We’re saying is are we saying like where does he rank all time not not purely number-wise take that into account okay um like everybody would would say Tyler hansbro is the number one scorer ever in North Carolina history sure’s probably he’s probably the most decorated North Carolina player ever I’m giving all the
Awards he’s won is he the greatest North Carolina player I don’t know if anybody would would push him past field forward those type debates here with Bott so I think just kind of putting in perspective there are if I have a correct eight retired jerseys uh like permanently retired jerseys in the in
The Smith Center so there’s that’s already eight guys um you know but there’s certain criteria to do that you got to win Player of the Year and and there’s different criterias to do that um then you think about some of the other just names that have come through
There um um you know it’s hard it’s hard to compare a cross position to like I wouldn’t say oh he’s not better than you know Joe Barry like you know yeah Joe Barry was a guard scoring guard bott’s more of a a big so I guess you have to
Kind of consider it in those terms too but if you did lump in everybody I would say you’d have to put him in the top 25 because you almost have to the fifth year thing I do understand and I think the thing that’s interesting about the fifth year is Armando actually
As those numbers himself so like if you ask him about it he himself will downplay the numbers like he’s not going to politic to say oh well I’m you know I rank this I I cross 2,000 points uh but at the end of the day he did cross you
Know 2,000 points uh you know they’re not gonna those points all counted he played in those games so you know I’m not gonna uh knock him for having those numbers but at the same time like you said I mean someone like a Charlie Scott played three years and you know he just
Passed Charlie Scott that’s just kind of you know goes into the greatness of kind of player that that he was um you know like I said I did say I wasn’t going to go across positions um but you do have to think about a guy like a Vince Carter
Came out of here you know you just got to think about just certain guys uh like that however long they were here you know some of the numbers they put up but for him to he got the rebounding record outright like he got that year four uh
So it wasn’t like it’s going to be unbreakable when he leaves but he did break that record in year four he did play in the national championship game uh you know and he has been uh you know in all ACC level of player so it’s it’s
Hard and also you have to think in recent Carolina years in recent Carolina history a lot of their best players uh were one and done you know like a they they’ve had a lot of guys in the last I don’t know five maybe like seven or eight years
That have kind of been one and done type players so for him to kind of add to a to his college Legacy and he might not end up being a guy where we say oh XYZ came out of North Carolina and did this in the NBA uh you know he might not end
Up be in that like in that Michael Jordan Vince Carter class um but you do have to you know kind of look at the um UNC record book so I would say I would definitely put him in the top 25 uh maybe North Carolina does if they
Have a miracle run not a I won’t say Miracle run if they have the run that they hope to have and and get to a national championship and win it that actually does that has to that has to shoot him up um but right now I’m going
To say a top 25 I think that’s probably Fair um yeah I would say that’s a fair am and also one thing I’ll just throw in before I you know kind of give it up I will say that some of the UNC teams that he’s played on outside of the team that did
Make that run to the National Championship a lot of those teams didn’t get off the ground much uh in the regular season even that team that went to the championship so this is certainly the best team that he’s been on this is probably the first elite team that he’s
Been on uh so I think that would factor in as well first I want to just put this debate in context I think it would be really helpful for everyone to take a look at Adrien Atkinson’s pieces that he did for inside Carolina in the summer of
2022 uh he he’s done it a few times uh ranking the top 100 UNC basketball players so just to put this in context when Jeremiah says uh Armando is a top 25 guy uh George Lynch ranked number 22 Mike ‘ Corin 21 um Bryce Johnson is in
There as well I think yeah Bryce Johnson’s number 25 so that’s the caliber of players we’re talking about uh for UNCC basketball all time in the 20s and I think Armando is ranked higher than that and I think his stats deserve no asterisks at all because you have to
Put not just in context of how many years he played but also the style of basketball that UNC is playing at this time there’s a lot of two big years uh when UNC was playing under Roy Williams where they were pounding the ball with a power forward and a center a lot of
Post-ups um then you look back at just how basketball has changed over the years um so many more three-pointers now uh so much more jump shooting especially when you look deeper back into the historical ranks so Armando is a guy who might have dominated even more um if he
Was playing in a different era but he’s still thriving this day and age for North Carolina in this uh three-point shooting basketball world that we live in I’m tremendously impressed with what Armando is doing on the court all the accolades he deserves them and you know climbing up the ranks and things like
That it’s also a testament to his ability to stay healthy which not everyone who’s come through North Carolina has been able to do especially big men so I think you have to give him that Mark as well and the last thing I’ll say before I turn it over to Evan
Turn it over to the losing side of this debate um is I will say Armando’s story is not yet done there’s a whole March Madness to go with him especially the way this team is playing so I think he has a lot of work that he could do to add to his
Legacy wow you give John Bowman the test before the the answers before the test and he knocks it out of the part it was a great response I agree with everything Jeremiah said as well the biggest takeaway for me is you got to win a championship to be
Considered a greater at North Carolina I mean if he played somewhere like NC State and did what he’s doing where they haven’t won one since 83 and it’s not a slight it’s facts um then he would certainly be way up the food chain with NC State he wouldn’t be beyond the ones
That have won the national championship and I think you’re the same way at North Carolina you mentioned George Lynch um I would wager I would be interested in the chat there’s 150 plus people in here and I might ask this when we do a post game where there’s over a thousand is where
Do you rank George Lynch versus Rond Bott who’s higher on the list that’ll be an interesting debate but Evan your take on Bott standing here in North Carolina history here in what January mid January of 2024 when he still got an half a season left to play yeah it’s interesting Jeremiah mentioned the
Rafters and obviously you got the retire numbers but he also got the honored numbers and currently at at this moment Bott doesn’t meet the criteria to have his jersey honored I think it’s something of either a first or second Team all America an ACC Player of the
Year MVP of a championship game or final four and I think there might be one or two more but either way he doesn’t meet that critor criteria right now and I would make the argument that if his when his career is all said and done and he’s
Still you know doesn’t meet if he still doesn’t meet that criter criteria if if he isn’t an All-American if he isn’t the ACC player of the year most valuable player of a title team something like that I would propose that you should and and probably could make
An exception for Armondo I think he is a player that deserves to have his jersey in the rafters I think when you take into account the rebounding record that he broke and and whose record he broke specifically in HBO I think that’s enough to have them in in the rafters I
Think it’s crazy to think that a guy who’s more than likely and I kind of on the side that I don’t know if his records need an asri I’d kind of prefer maybe a parenthesis where you have his total career number and then in the parenthesis you have his number through
Four years just to kind of give some context um but you’re talking about a guy who who more than likely barring health is going to finish second all time in the in the ACC and rebounding he’s already over Ralph Samson he he’s probably going to pass Tim Duncan pretty soon I mean you’re
Talking about alltime greats you know NBA Hall of Famers so how I view Armando’s Legacy is in a vacuum would just be the idea that he is a player that I think has garnered the Legacy to where if he doesn’t meet this criteria that’s been
In place for I don’t know how many years he is worthy of being made an exception and that’s kind of how I leave it that’s an interesting debate cuz if you’re going to make exceptions I think one of the biggest omissions in the whole thing is Ed
Kota and even Kennedy Meeks I mean kitty Meek should have been mop in the final four in 2017 he what and that would have got his name up there um interesting names in the chat Antoine Jameson Jameson never won a title they won ACC championships but they never won NCA
Title got there twice and couldn’t get it done for whatever reason K that was brutal I was there J Jameson was a national player of the year though you know what I mean like he was like he had he had the highest individual Accolade that you could have even if he wasn’t on
A team that was able to to bring one home certainly valid and again folks bott’s got what 20 more games to to set that record here I I think what you do when you rank I don’t know if total numbers are a thing um scoring numbers I mean you can look
In the NBA at the scoring numbers but if you look at rebounds per game I don’t have the list in Front of Me John you’re you’re great with stats you can pull it up if it you know per game if I played 100 games or more I think that’s the
Best rebounder that Carolina had whoever leads that list if it’s Bott then it’s Bott um but these guys that only had the chance to play three years and now they can play five I think that’s where where the numbers sort of it sort of brings
Into to me and again I’m old school is that you don’t uh you don’t get credit for being there forever you know if Michael Jordan played however many years LeBron had played who has more points I mean it’s those type debates that go on on the highest level but I think it’s an
Interesting one Bott certainly one of the most beloved Carolina guys and I would I would say and you guys would agree a great interview and a great and a great Ambassador one of the the quotes one of the favorite as as far as tarhill fans quotes is when he was walking off
The court at whatever game and he said he would die for that school and die for Carolina that right there skyrocketed him into Tar Hill lore is one of the fan favorites forever and um can I can I ask I’m sorry I mean can I ask one and this
Is recent memory so everybody would be able to kind of participate because I guess everybody would have seen would y’all who would y’all say had a better career between bot and Tyler Zeller that’s an interesting one I have to do some research there what do you
Think John I’m taking Bott when you look at his overall career um I think Tyler Zeller uh was good but he had some really talented post players around him as well um that he might have benefited from a little bit um you know Bott like I said he’s been basically doing it all
Himself at that Center position he’s been playing next to a different caliber of four uh than Tyler Zeller was is playing next to so yeah my initial take there um is I’d rank Bott higher I also want to say just briefly uh Evan to your idea about a parentheses next to
Someone’s name saying Five Seasons when when does it stop I mean if a player plays one season should we put parenthesis one season and then multiply all their stats by four I mean at that point you know Dewey Ferris would have the most three-pointers per minute played in UNC basketball and you could
Times his stats by a thousand and make him the if he would have played all these minutes he’d be the all-time three-point shooter so respectfully I just want to say you know people play at Carolina for different amounts of Seasons you know some guys are here for
Two seasons and then they’re off to the NBA or they’re here for a season one and done and then they’re off I think you have to just look at how many years they’re in Chapel Hill regardless if it was a covid related extension H for Five
Seasons yeah Zer won Aces he Player of the Year yep and he’s been a pro I’m still not sure how Tyler didn’t play in the league longer than his brother um but maybe that was a Charlotte Hornet thing Timmy Anne mentioned it’s a great Point Baker and
RJ they had to deal with the pandemic these guys that had to play in those pandemic years those are crazy I will say this about one and DS I don’t think you can be an all-time great and be a one andone I don’t think you can you had a
Great season or whatever but just because you’re one and done I don’t think you can be considered one of the all-time greats unless you were National player of the year or or whatever won a national championship more the MVP and even then I don’t know if you can go one
Year and be an all-time great I think bott’s going to be considered I like the top 25 thing that you mentioned early Jeremiah I think that’s probably Fair um but George Lynch anybody that wants to rank anybody over George Lynch as a is in that debate
Is I have to question what we got going on here unless tar Hills can get it done on April 8th this year let me take a second talk about no John you can do the Johnny t-shirt I love it you’re you’re so good at it so you’ll handle Johnny
T-shirt I’ll get the one later you are listening to on the beat live we want to take a second to talk about our sponsor for this show and all of inside Carolina’s podcast Johnny t-shirt if you’re on Franklin Street sometime this winter for a UNCC basketball game you step outside to go
To the game and you realize man it’s a little colder than I thought it was going to be you can go to Johnny t-shirt pick up a new jacket any new UNCC gear that you need you can grabbit from Johnny t-shirt you can also check out their online shop as well um we
Appreciate them for supporting inside Carolina podcast so we’d ask you uh to give them some business whenever you’re in the market for UNCC gear we’re going to take a quick break Tommy I always give this quote to you let the national guys pay the bills we’ll be right back
With a little bit more on the beat live perfect timeing we’re right here at the bottom of the hour Thursday January 8 shout out to Johnny t-shirt and shout out to the folks that have joined us almost 200 here folks if you’re not watching the postgame podcast make sure
You get in on those and if you’re not checking out everything Jeremiah and Evan do as well as Adam do on the site make sure you check out all that stuff I don’t know if if anybody’s in this chat that watch we had a thousand plus people
In the chat after the NC State game uh last week which is pure Insanity had 500 last night at 11:30 in the morning or excuse me 11:30 at night after a Louisville North Carolina game so shout out to all the inside Carolina folks that are just crushing it joining us
Each and every time we do these shows let me ask this question somebody people in the chat are talking about and this may I think this is probably an age thing but Tyler hansboro or Phil Ford who’s the greatest Tar Hill to play the game that’s an interesting debate in the
Chat I’d love to see I’m not going to put that on y’all um but I’m going to put throw it out in the chat Tyler hbro Phil Ford it’s a numbers and a championship over what everybody considers the legend of North Carolina anyway let’s talk a little bit about ACC basketball Carolina
6 and0 leading the conference Jeremiah um we’re what there’s 20 games in the conference so they’re six they’ve got a a stretch here going north as the title of our show is heading north um first of all is this league any good how many I and I think it’s a valid
Debate um and your take on what North Carolina needs to do to be able to get a high seed here I mean what what is the standard North Carolina needs to set to be you do not want to be a three seed in the tournament you don’t want to be
Lower but I almost would rather be a seven than a three just simp simply because you set yourself up to play some really strong teams if that makes any sense but what’s North Carolina’s uh path going forward to be a one or two seed here in a conference
That’s not good metrically like we talked about earlier yeah um I feel like there’s a lot to that conversation because when you look at the ACC the most recent Bracketology that I saw in take in a Bracketology takes SA those for later I’m just saying the most
Recent one I saw had five ACC teams in it um and I have to double check to remember you know some of the two of the ACC teams that were in there were first four teams uh and then there were three UNCC Duke being two of them that made
The field just straight up made the field um so that’s where the perception of the ACC is at the perception is the ACC is a four or five bid League um so that’s kind of where they’re at with it now how that pertains to North Carolina moving forward what when UNC has going
For it right now uh it beat Tennessee and Tennessee has you know it wasn’t like Tennessee fell off a cliff like Tennessee has still you know it’s only recently that UNC has been ranked ahead of them in the AP poll so that Tennessee win is going to age well I do think the
Oklahoma win will age well but maybe not to the caliber the Tennessee win will um and some of their losses that they have I mean really two of their three losses are very quote unquote justifiable that’s probably not the right word to use but um even Villanova they’re not a
Bad team but I mean ukah and Kentucky those are two of the best teams um in the in the country so your losses are you know to teams that could beat anybody any given night with ease probably um and then your wins you got some good wins in here too um your
Clemson wins probably your best Conference win as far as just well I know Florida state is you know whatever five and one in the conference but at the time uh your Clemson win was uh would have been your best win what unc’s got to do now is essentially just in as many games
As they can just take care of business uh night and night out and they’re probably gonna have to win a lot of these games uh by double digits like they’re going to want to have some if they want to get a one or a two seed they’re gonna have to have like a
Plethora of just convincing wins like 1015 points um I mean me and Evan were talking about it yesterday like you played these conference games like you can slip up like honestly like if they lost the game before they played Duke on uh February 3D like I wouldn’t be
Shocked if they lost the game before that just because you know this is the part of the Year where everybody just loses games I mean last week it was I’m trying to think it was what seven of the top nine teams lost to an unranked opponent like this is the type of this
Is the the part of the year where you get there and even Louisville kind of you know cut it in close with them yesterday so I think the path for UNC to get a one or a two is lose probably in the regular season you probably don’t
Want to lose any more than like two conference games and that’s just because of the state of ACC like if this was a typical year where you know you felt like it was multiple teams ACC that could have made a run in the tournament okay maybe you could get away with
Losing four five I don’t know you know but at least if you finish in the top three in the ACC all right you can get a you can get a decent seed but um I mean even Duke that one year when they lost to South Carolina when they won the ACC
Tournament they were like a five seed in the ACC but they got a two- seed in the tournament because the ACC was perceived as a much better uh product but now that they’re not I mean I would think maybe you could get three but I would think
Probably like two or three losses is probably the sweet spot to still secure maybe a number one or a number two um and if you do have two losses one of them better be the Duke you know so um and you got to beat Duke as well you got
To get at least one on them so um yeah I would think a very dominant um conference run and a pretty deep ACC tournament run um and I think they’re in contention for one or a two yeah I I think to to our point we’re talking about you know you mentioned Florida
State NC State’s 5- one only lost to Carolina Florida State 5- one only lost to Carolina the problem with ACC Evan is that if you do lose one of these games Boston College is not an easy way to easy place to play um you know of course
They went to Clemson and won there that’s not an easy place Virginia is never an easy game to play but if you lose those games it dings you so bad in the in in the in the numbers that they rely on so much and to Jeremiah’s point
Back in the day you know back in my day you had an ACC that was strong and and that’s what’s always the interesting debate for me is the Big 12 um oh they just beat up on each other they’re such a great conference but they you know they may have five or six
Losses but it’s because the conference is so good and they just beat up on each other well if the ACC does that then everybody sucks and you know that narrative fits into The Narrative of the of the metrics as well so your take on this is what does North Carolina have to
Do they go to Boston College and they’ve got a few game they got wait for us on a quick turnaround what does this team have to do to to keep their standing for you know a high seed in the NCA tournament yeah I agree with the the
Loss total Jeremiah lat I think 17 and three is probably the line is where I would draw it uh for them to I’ll call it the road to Charlotte because if they’re one or two SE they they’d more than likely be playing in Charlotte that first weekend um I’d say 17 and three
And then probably winning one game in the ACC tournament I don’t think you’d have to win the entire bracket but I do think you could not afford to lose if they were I guess if they were 17 and three they’d more than likely be the number one or bare minimum number two in
The conference so they get the double buy and I don’t think you could afford to lose a game against a team in that double buy game but you could afford to lose a game against maybe in in a semi final of the ACC tournament um as for
Who those losses come to I mean kind of like how Jeremiah said I think a split with Duke is necessary because that is a right now the only game in the ACC at home that qualifies as a quad one uh Clemson was in that conversation for a
Bit but uh kind of in in Clemson fashion they’ve really fell off as of late um come conference play and yeah it’s uh it’s a weird spot where the ACC is right now because I think in the non-conference people were pretty high on kind of the state of the
ACC especially in comparison to last season uh you had Clemson there for a good bit who was undefeated and picked up a pretty quality win at Alabama uh obviously uh high hopes for Miami coming into the year uh people were high on them um but once conference plays come
You’ve kind of just see the middle kind of mix amongst itself like you guys mentioned you’ve got NC State and Florida State who are five- one and I think Clemson has three maybe four ACC losses uh which is crazy but um they’re two and four two and four yeah so gosh I
Mean like if the season ended today there might be three teams in the ACC that would be in the NCAA tournament and Duke UNC and I think Clemson would still get in just because I think the conference as a whole has a lot of work
To do I mean right now it’s UNCC Duke Clemson in that order in the net and then wake is the next highest around the 4748 margin and UNCC was ranked 46 last year at the end of of the season and didn’t make the tournament um so I think
They’ll get to four or five that would be my guess I think five is probably where I could imagine them going to but it’s it’s not a guarantee uh the conference has a lot of work to do in terms of you’re going to need some of the middle to kind of separate itself
Because having these teams kind of beat up and beat up on each other who may have not capitalized in the non-conference whether that’s Florida State losing to lip scum or NC State losing to Tennessee and then beating up on the Detroit mercies of the world like you you have this middle ACC that
Outside of Clemson and Miami they didn’t really pick up many Marquee wins in the noncon conference which does the ACC no favors because that’s when these metrics and net rankings initially come out and once they initially come out you have to do your work from there um so I would
Say in in terms of you know you and see in this discussion 17 and three where you’ve got a split with Duke and your other two losses are to the middle of the ACC like I don’t think you could drop a Notre Dame or or something like that
And then just one win at the bare minimum in the ACC tournament I think would secure you a two or one seed which is kind of crazy because you think about four or five years ago you go 17 and three in the ACC you’re a Surefire lock
Probably for for a one seat but it’s kind of the the current state of the conference right now yeah I mean it’s crazy Carolina canot well teams like Clemson in Florida State and NC State cannot afford to lose to the bottom dwellers in the the conference or they’re not going to make
The tournament um how much you care about that is a debate but I think that the ACC as it’s currently constituted needs more teams to make this tournament here’s something else a factor I think when you have teams like Florida Atlantic make the final four I think
That has the committee saying whoa we can put these other teams in these teams that that are pretty good that nobody really pays attention to other than their fan bases they make these long runs it’s a great story I mean wow it’s March Madness and I think that matters
You know nobody wants to see Florida State go lose in the first round as a seven seed to you know directional state but they do want to see Florida Atlantic make a run they want to see a St Peters that gets in you know for winning their
Conference but you sort of introduce the ACC being bad introduces more of these non champion quote unquote lesser Conference teams that may have been number one in the regular season got upset in the tournament wouldn’t normally make the tournament they get in and then you see
These these great stories I think it all plays out I think the ACC is in trouble and I think you know it’s a different different podcast different story but I think Carolina needs to get out of it as fast as possible but as far as basketball I think Carolina can ill
Afford to lose to anybody not named Duke maybe Florida state in the conference and still be in line for one or two seed in the tournament I just think it it is such a anchor to you let me take a second talk about congruity congruity hr.com frar hills for you to get your
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Take it great if you don’t you didn’t lose anything but you give a national-based company or North Carolina based company that’s made it national based on the backs of their customer service their technology their ability to grow and expand your business take care of your people while you do
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Wrap this show with some closing words we’re putting the poll host versus beat riters in the YouTube chat I’ve seen 3940 votes each poll there’s 200 people in here folks so we need to see more poll more votes Evan Jeremiah versus Tommy and John how we gonna close it out
Jeremiah give us your closing argument as to uh as to why maybe the beat writers need to take this one now just give us a closing argument on Carolina what you’ve seen anything anywhere you want to go here to close the show I’ll give you the
Floor cool um well I guess since we just didn’t touch on it in this particular podcast I do kind of want to touch on uh the uh the football side of things if that’s all right uh yeah I mean obviously we had the the press conference the other day with uh Ted
Monino who was the new defensive line coach and he was brought up at after being the senior defensive analyist and then you had uh you know Jeff Collins brought on as the uh as the DC so um you know just kind of you know addressing it
I think one thing to kind of pay attention to uh this is the third uh defensive coordinator under MC Brown so far um a lot of those guys are uh are coming back shout out to 828 lawon uh you know a lot of those guys are are coming back defensively so I’m very
Interested to see how those things progress or how that progresses can UNC uh you know uh create the identity that they’ve been trying to create for a half decade now under m brown so um you know but obviously you know you know good talking to those guys and just kind of
Getting to know them a little bit and also before I swing it over I just really want to I think we should all just appreciate how that last segment um I think we all were were saying some strong points but I don’t think anybody was listening because everybody was
Talking about who’s better between Phil Ford and uh in Tyler hansboro so uh you know I hope you guys had fun with that uh you know it was good for us to get reps in but you know I think people were uh little little preoccupied but uh got to appreciate that dialogue as
Well hey you know the the cool thing about these chats to to sort of build off your point is that folks get in here and they talk to each other absolutely and it’s always civil in these YouTube chats yet I go to the message boards and
I see these people that I’ve met in my human being life in the bulot specifically and they’re just each other’s throats it’s unbelievable um you know every thread devolves in the same five or six people just especially on the football side Jeremiah you brought up monino and
Collins it’s just like what are we doing folks YouTube chats I never thought that we would have YouTube chats that were much more chill and friendly and sit around the campfire the water cooler or whatever just you know having a drink and chatting amicably but it is that way
Preston from Greensboro he knows where the bread is buttered he knows to say the old guys and for this purpose John Bowman and Tommy Ashley had oh guys Evan close us out closing thoughts for you um on this week in North Carolina Athletics yeah I’m GNA take it basketball first
But shout out to Preston from Greensboro asking will Dez Evans get 10 sacks uh obviously that’s a an old timey jab it’s funny he mentions that uh Jeff Collins in his his opening press conference when talking about when he was the head coach of Georgia Tech so I want to asked them
What did you think of UNCC specifically their defense and the one player he pointed out was Dez Evans and basically said those are the dudes that you want on your defense in terms of of just getting off the bus and the first team all airport kind of thing um but with
The basketball team I think it’s going to be just another interesting week and two weeks really leading up to this Duke game uh it’s kind of another semi- road trip where they’ve got three of the next four on the road uh and then the home game they have is kind
Of a a tough turnaround going from Boston on Saturday to playing against Wake Forest on Monday night and I think during this stretch for UNC to continue the the play in the trajectory that they’re on I think it’s going to be interesting who’s going to step up maybe
As that consistent third scorer night in and night out because I think they are going to need that uh to to make a Deep Run um I think you you feel good about where RJ Davis is uh you obviously know what you’re going to get from Armando and if you look at Harrison
Ingram his numbers have kind of teetered off a little bit here in ACC play but he he’s still doing a just a lot of the the everything that you want uh he has a high assist rate he’s rebounding at honestly a career best in terms of just
Where he’s at right now um from when he was at Stanford and I think you’re seeing Cormac kind of get into Rhythm it’s tough you you see these games where he shoots like 4 or seven uh against Louisville and then he’ll have you know two or six one of six something like
That um so I just think you know the team is still not at its uh full capacity and I think that’s a good and exciting thing um because I think if you look at a lot of teams around the country that are in that top Echelon I
Could argue a team like Purdue is kind of ADD peak in terms of you know who they’ve got I would even argue Yukon who who now is fully healthy you kind of know who you’re getting out of all those guys maybe besides Castle he’s still kind of growing being a younger guy um
But I think with UNC you you’ve really only got two pieces right now who you can go in and expect 15 20 plus points from RJ Davis and you can expect 14- 15 points and 9 to 11 rebounds from Armondo every game and then and every other piece on this
Team you don’t necessarily know what you’re going to get every night um and I think that will continue to get solidified you know as the year goes on but I think leading up to this Duke game um there’s going to be some interesting tests it’s going to be similar to that
That road stretch they had earli in the year um it might be against maybe the third best team in the ACC in Florida State coming up um so it’ll be it’ll be very interesting for sure well Tommy I went ahead and uh turned off the poll I might have
Selectively turned off at a certain point when I saw who was winning we got 35 votes you also do have to keep in mind there are some people who watch us on their YouTube TV like my dad and I don’t know if they’re able to vote on
The YouTube TV so but you know what the votes were right they were the the the host 51 beat Riders uh 49 it looks like so it it was close it was very close we stopped the count while we were ahead that’s right I I I said I have all the
Control here I said the poll I turned off the poll at a certain time you know put a on that one put a parenthesis on that one yeah really you know we’re gonna have a trophy that has like parenthesis around maybe we have a bobblehead back
Here I I win we win the Bible head this week John there we go I uh I had a story uh an anecdote about RJ Davis I wanted to tell you a little bit about his big three that he hit last night that I think kind of closed the tide of of
Louis ‘s run I had a stat uh that he’s five of five from the free throw line last night 67 of 70 for the season and his Pace free throw percentage is on Pace to break the ACC record for free throws which is just incredible but when Evan started talking about seeding it
Reminded me of this great story uh from my time as the inside Carolina video intern so Evan you’re probably you know never want to root for anything but you’re probably hoping that UNC is the one or two seed in Charlotte because that means you might get to go and
Travel down via car uh to some of those games so that’s what happened for me I forget if it was my junior year or senior year at UNCC uh UNCC was a one seed or two seed in in playing in Charlotte for the NCA tournament so I
Was really excited to be able to go and cover those games you know covering an NCA tournament is really cool um so we go down there and we get the chance to stay in the the media hotel which is like the fanciest hotel of course that I’ve ever stayed in in my life
The Weston or whatever you know I I put my credit card down to pay for the hotel or whatever I’m like okay I have a few minutes here a few hours you know not going to tell Ben but maybe I’ll go out and play a quick Grand of golf in
Charlotte that sounds fun uh so I go over to to cord golf course in downtown Charlotte uh I roll up there it’s a nice golf course but it’s not too expensive I think it was like nine holes $25 whatever I go to pay and the guy says uh
Sir we’re not gonna be able to uh have you play on the course today I’m like what are you talking about he’s like your credit card uh declined and I’m like shocked I’m like what in the world I am not really familiar with credit cards and how they work either um you
Know I’m not sure this the first time certainly that I’ve been declined I’m terribly embarrassed especially to you know walking up as a single to go play you put your card down he’s like oh yeah your card declines so I think I just left I think I just gave up what ended
Up happen in was the ACC media Hotel was so expensive putting my credit card down for the hotel overran all my limits for like the entire month and of course you get reimbursed and things like that um shout out to inside Carolina for always taking care of us but that one payment
To the Weston for the ACC media Hotel shot me out for the entire week so I had to live off of uh ACC media food and I was not able to play golf because I could not afford it because my card had hit his limit so that just reminded me
Of that story Evan uh if you go down to Charlotte for UNCC as the one or two seed just be careful that’s all I’m saying that is awesome I I had one declined at the uh the hotel the resident M right there beside the the football stadium the Panther stadium and
Uh they declined my card and I was like well I’m in trouble uh because I don’t have another one and then my better half took care of it but I called and they were like did you buy a plane ticket it’s in Spain last night I was like yeah
No I didn’t do that and they were like well we canceled it between that and getting a car declined in Walmart that’s a rough day boy when you got a cart full of stuff in Walmart and they throw up the red lights flashing anyway I I will
Say this and shout out to Jeremiah and Evan for joining us and shout out to Adam who’s on his birthday evening I hope he’s having a great time and shout out to John for being here stay tuned inside Carolina for all the coverage um if you haven’t watched Justin Jackson’s
Podcast we’ve had it Taylor VIP with Joel Barry earlier in the week if you haven’t read Evan and Jeremiah’s work off of you know they cover all these games but they also knock knock out great articles also big deal nil stuff’s going on you know Bubba Cunningham and John
Montgomery with the Rams club they’re sending emails and all go check out all the ins nil stories check out Joey’s interviews with TJ bezner with the secondary break and also with graham boon with hills for life just a ton of stuff at uh inside Carolina for you to
Check out Carolina plays at 2:15 on Saturday who’s going are y’all both going or just you Jeremiah you and I actually uh Adam and Jim are going to that one okay but I’mma do I’m gon do the uh women’s basketball game on Sunday nice so you get to stay down here in a
Little bit of cool well it’s going to be cold this weekend here so I can’t imagine what it’ll be like in Boston shout out to the women’s team too they had a big win tonight against Georgia Tech 5 and one in ACC play yeah it is is Carolina both basketball teams are doing
It this year and it’s always a great follow and shout out to Jeremiah for covering them you know more so than we’ve ever had coverage speaking of that we got baseball coverage coming up media day for baseballs next week it’s going to be nuts here for inside Carolina we
Talk about there’s no offseason they’re really isn’t not even during the seasons and now we’re going to have overlap with men’s basketball women’s basketball Spring football baseball tons of stuff going on and all these guys are the ones that take care of it if you’re not a premium member join shout out to
Congruity and Johnny t-shirt for sponsoring us they always help us keep the lights on here and shout out to the crew and shout out to the fans that join us every week 200 plus tonight another great day at inside Carolina another great day in North Carolina Athletics we will
Be back next week Jeremiah Evan John I’m Tommy Ashley peace everybody
