Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Wral Triangle and two. I'm Luis Fernandez. He is Mark Bergen. Normally we come to you on a Monday, but today is Wednesday. We're gonna go ahead and get right into it with AC C basketball. We are in the heat of the schedule for the men's and women's teams. We're gonna talk about of men's basketball today. Uh Mark you excited, man. I know, I know you said last time we talked, I know you said you're still like transitioning into the basketball flow of the things. Are you fully transitioned? I now understand your mindset Lewis where as soon as the Tar Heels football team lost two games, you say bring on the hardwood and the hoops because North Carolina is back in the top five at number 46 game winning streak and RJ Davis is bawling right now. He, he is no, RJ Davis is having a, a heck of a season for the Tar Heels. They're up to number four. Now, last week when you watched, gosh, I, I forget how many it was, but it felt like six, you know, top 10 teams all lose and UN C able to clutch out a couple of wins. Um The, the tar heels are definitely in a position. It just feels like very, um they're returning to Rare Air when it comes to the basketball program. Um RJ Davis averaging 20.4 points right now. Uh 95% from the free throw line, 41% from three. Yeah, he's just crushing it. Um Armando Bacot, I think is rounding into form a little bit more. Um He's at 14 points right now. Harrison Ingram's been wild to see Cormac Ryan all of the above. Uh They have uh they're, there's a lone perfect team in AC C play right now. Five and oh last week uh beating NC State. Um So it's, it's gonna be interesting to see how these, this next week shapes out for the dark heels mark because they have uh we're recording this on a Wednesday night or Wednesday afternoon, excuse me. So they've got Louisville tonight at 9 p.m. in the Dean Smith Center. The the Cardinals are not, you're gonna be there too, Lewis and RJ Davis if he can, I am, I am covering the game. Dare I say this in all American season, I mean, if he keeps up with this efficiency from three and from the foul line, maybe the overall field goal percentage could be a little bit better. Maybe you could say, oh, his assist to turnover ratio could be better, but it's the pace that the tar heels are playing with as well. And then I'm gonna make the, my favorite point guard analogy when it comes to any guard play. And especially as we get closer and closer to March, he is the straw that stirs the drink, Lewis. And so, yeah, I'm all the way there now after a week ago where my brain is still on football, but we've now transitioned to basketball season, especially when you're talking about the North Carolina Tar Heels. Yeah. No, RJ Davis has been phenomenal. II, I think he's got to be all American or in that all American conversation at the very least this year with the way he's been playing, uh, UN C up to number four. What I think is going to be interesting to see now they're, they're five and O in AC C play, right? They are number seven in the net. So everything is looking pretty good for them last year. I know they were, you know, they didn't make the tournament. Obviously, they were a lot of bubble watching going on in Chapel Hill now. Not so much. Um, they play the next three games over the course of five days I think, uh, home against Louisville tonight and then, uh, at, uh, Boston College on Saturday and then they will play, I believe it is at or home. No, it's home against Wake Forest on Monday. Um, so we saw the, the demon deacons just getting a, um, we're gonna call that a, a spicy match up there between, uh, NC State and Wake Forest. We'll get to that in a little bit though. Um, so, uh, it's, it's gonna be interesting to see if you can come out of this three game stretch, uh, unscathed because it's those quick turnarounds, the quick turnarounds. But Lewis here's my, uh, area of caution and we'll talk about this for each team, but it would be Elliott Cao still a freshman. I notice if you just look at the stat sheet, he's a guard shooting less than 60% from the foul line. And I talked with a lot of Tar Heels fans that have been watching this team for years when he's open, give him the green light to shoot and to develop that confidence. And I love that he's a pass first player. I like that about him. You don't see that a lot with guards anymore because you see the combo guard and let me just let loose and launch it as soon as I step across half court. Aah Steph Curry when he's open, shoot the ball. But then when he gets to the foul line, I think developing that confidence from the outside is to say, let's improve those foul line numbers. And then when he is open from the outside, don't be afraid to shoot the ball, especially when you're open. That would be an area of improvement. I'd like to see in the coming weeks for the tar heels. Sure. And I think, um, you have to remember with his age, especially Elliott Cao is still stepping into things. I like the way he commands the offense. I like the way he moves up and down the floor. Elliott is gonna be, I think it's one of those things where it's going to take time. Um, and I do feel like he has been shooting more, looking back at just kind of the, the most recent box scores, right? Um, he had only two shots against Pitt four shots against Clemson, but then against NC State and against Syracuse, he's up to 87 shots, he took a couple of threes. Um, he still hasn't made a three since December 29th, but it's, it's one of those things with Elliott Cao where I feel like it's just gonna take time. He's gonna continue to grow into his role into the two years as a basketball player. The NC State game for me was really good for Elliott Cadeau. Um, he had 11 points, you know, six assists. O only two turnovers. Um He's, he's taking steps in the right direction. Um, but, uh, that's, that's what's so good about this, this UN C team, right? He doesn't have to be, he doesn't have to overexert himself. He can grow into who he is as a basketball player because you've got guys like Harrison Ingram, uh, Armando Bacot RJ Davis. Um, you know, you want to continue to see that the Cormack Ryans of the world continue to take steps. Um, but at UN C is in a really good spot. Um, they, they are three point field goal defense. Um, I don't know if this, if you've been paying attention to this, it's, it's wild to look at just how teams have been shooting against them in recent stretches. I mean, as NNC State only had one or two, you Syracuse make a couple towards the end, but just in general, teams have been shooting very poorly from three against UN C. So that's one of those things where, ok, when those shots eventually do start to fall, how does UN C react? What do they continue to do? But I feel like UN C is just continuing to grow. Um And they're, they're really hitting their stride now, which is, it's gonna be interesting to see what that is and the AC C needs that, to be honest because uh Un C and Duke are kind of carrying the AC C as a conference or right now. It feels like the last thought I have about the tar heels is that to open that Syracuse game to push the pace is they open in a press and pressuring opposing ball handlers all the way up the floor. I don't know if that has impacts. I don't know the Xs and Os as well as some people do. But if that has an impact on that three point defense that you were talking about Lewis, I know it. The i, the way the Syracuse game, I'll put it this way. Um The way UN C has been in the past couple of years after getting a win against State like that on the road, a tight one. You would have expected a letdown against Syracuse for UN C to come out and put the foot on the pedal like they did uh against the orange and dominate the way they did in that game. Um It, it's, it's good steps, good signs for UN C, not just this season but as a program as a whole before we move on, what are you most looking forward to tonight's game against Louisville? Um I think it's like I, I said this on, when was this state game? Was that las last Wednesday? I said this, um while the State game was going on, Harrison Ingram is one of my favorite players in um the AC C in the country in North Carolina. However you want to phrase it to watch, uh because he's just truly a do it all kind of guy. Um offensively, it's a lot of, hey, isolate him in the post, let him go to work. Um You know, he's, I, I enjoy watching him just play offensively in general but he, he just kind of gets it. Um He's, he's a glue guy. He's someone who, you know, against NC State, he had 19 rebounds which was the most for a UN C player against NC State. Um, ever, it's ever, yeah, ever, ever. And when, when you listen to him postgame, he, he very much just kind of understands that his role is constantly shifting and he's, he's, I think what it was after the state game, he said, you know, oh, you know, my, my wrist has been hurting me a little bit, so I understood that my shot might be a little bit off. So I needed to compensate with attacking the boards and getting rebounds and things like that. So, um there are just good vibes in general around this UN C team as a whole. You want to see that continue against Louisville, who is not good, not good, Mark. All right, let's go on to Duke. Yes. So number seven, Duke, the Blue Devils have also been trending upward considerably. Uh They lost their first AC C game of the year back in December, uh right, eight straight wins since then, the most recent one coming at home against George Tech on Saturday. Uh So next up, they have about a week off and then they'll play again home against Pitt, which is good because they've got some injuries that they are dealing with. Mark. Yeah, the time off will do them well because knee injuries to key players, two starters in Jeremy Roach, Mark Mitchell and you're talking about? Ok. What kind of impact are we talking about here? Roach is your number two scorer Mitchell is your number three scorer? And Roach is a senior guard and he started the last 32 games for the Blue des has a lot of experience and you wanna try to get both players back on the court healthy as close to 100% as you can get midea with knee injuries don't know, full to quite extent, but some good news too with John Shire saying that they did some imaging on Roach's knee and they're not overly concerned about it. So some good news there. But I hear knee injuries and I don't care if it's even just a mild sprain. I have some cause for concern there but Duke got an eight game winning streak. It hasn't really seemed to matter uh as we get further and further into the season and particularly when we were talking about this U NCAA minute ago when you get closer to that battle of the Blues game. First one on February the third. Where are these players at? From an injury standpoint? What kind of contributions are they making because against the elite of the elite in this conference in the country, once you get into tournament play, you're going to need both of those players if you're Duke. Yeah. Um you know, Mark Mark Mitchell has been dealing with some injuries on and off this year. So, um, you know, him having to sit this past game, uh after, after the game, uh John Shire essentially said that, you know, he hadn't really been able to do much. So they were still feeling out wasn't really sure how long Mark Mitchell was gonna be injured. And that's tough because Mark Mitchell A is gonna give it, give you a lot on defense. He's also there second leading rebounder, you know, when we see Mark Mitchell go off, it's a lot of stuff in the paint. He's still trying to find his three point shot, um which has not been falling. But, um, you know, he's definitely someone who can make a difference for Duke and then Jeremy Roach, I mean, yeah, it's, that is very, very concerning if you're Duke, the fact that it is positive in his day to day versus something gonna be longer. That's big. Um I was at, I was at that game, the George Tech game on Saturday for um Duke George Tech and it was late in the second quarter. It kind of comes up limping a little bit. It was um he, he had left, he came back in and then he left again. He was kind of kicking out his knee is how I would phrase it. You know what I mean? So I don't know if there was something that's more muscle related or it was just kind of like a knee collision type thing. So, uh but you hope Jeremy roach will be ok because he's, he's so big for, for what Duke wants to do. Um So, yeah, but they'll play Pitt. Um Pitt is, you know, ca capable knows that Duke program very well. Um So that's one of those things where, um, you, you hope that what Duke can do, um you know, is get healthy and, and just take care of business having that week off is so big for the Blue Devils. Truly like it was just, it timed out so well a bit serendipitous. Um They play home against Pitt on uh Saturday at eight o'clock and then they'll turn around and play at Louisville on Tuesday. Yeah, hips don't lie. K Philips is doing his thing and then Tyrese Proctor, I'd imagine they'll continue their winning ways. And can you imagine if both Duke and Un C continue the winning streak into the battle of the Blues game come February 3rd. It'd be remarkable to where if both teams are on big, big winning streaks going into that game. Yeah, it's funny how that game always tends to be like as dramatic as possible. So of course, that could be the situation. Um And Philip Posy man, shout out to Phil like Cal Philips went off against Georgia Tech. A lot of shots, not the most efficient, but he, he stuffed the stat sheet. He was huge and we were talking about injuries, right? Tyrese Proctor has been nursing that ankle in that he got back against Georgia Tech in early December and he's really starting to get back into the rhythm of things when Tyrese Proctor is, you know, carrying the offense the way he is, the, him, his connection with Kyle Phillips the way uh Jeremy Roach uh can like look for his shot a little bit more. It, it goes a long way. Tyrese Proctor is completely healthy and back. We've talked to Duke, we've talked to UN C, got to talk a little bit about this. Do you see Jay Williams? Comment, Terry Lewis before we can NC State. Oh, the, the transfer thing. Much to your delight. I'm sure. Now let me put this in the context. He's making these comments at the end of a blowout win, Kansas over Oklahoma State and he gets asked, where would you transfer to? And he says back in the day, I would go to Georgetown, but now UN C I don't wanna be excommunicated from the brotherhood, but I'm sure you are absolutely delighted to see this Lewis. I, you know, um so many of the Duke and UN C players, they kind of run in the same group in the same kind of line if you will in a lot of really talented, highly recruited players and things like that. So I mean, it, I I'll put it this way. Him saying that doesn't surprise me as much as him saying it on TV. Is what surprises me. That's one of those things where I, I probably, I would be steered away from saying I just, I feel like I'm good, man. I, I wanna go to Georgetown. Yeah, absolutely. Let's go to Georgetown. That's, I, I don't think you, I don't think I would want to say that on TV. We're talking about it now. It'll make a headline saying, oh, Jay Williams would want to transfer to North Carolina. And again, let's put this into context. It was like less than four minutes left to play. Kansas is up more than 20 against Oklahoma State in the waning moments of a game that's already decided. I think it's pretty smart and here we are talking about it now and you make the headline for yourself as an analyst and a reputable one at that. It's always, it's always for the brand market. It's always for the brand. Um Speaking, speaking of brands, uh let's go ahead and turn to NC State because when you look at football, when you look at what's been going on in basketball, I feel like NC State's culture is very like set in stone of like this, you know, great grind, very, very, um you know, hard nosed nose, the grindstone blue collar, like that's, that's what today is going for. Um And that game against Wake Forest on Tuesday night was um as you can see here in the, the little banner, the little lower third, the word of choice that I've gone with here is spicy. Um, because you had, I think it was five technicals over the course of the game. Uh Kevin Keats was ejected, his second time being ejected this season. Um It's just what, what a, what a game, what a, what a moment. Um That was for, uh, the, the big four. in Raleigh Lewis, I promised you before the podcast that I would behave. So I will not flip you the double birds, but DJ Horn rallying the Wolf pack back down 11 in this game without your head coach. After it was uh again, you use the word spicy, fiery, whatever adjective you wanna use. But finding a way to win in NC state even above Duke has a better AC C record right now at five and one in the AC C. They're 13 and four overall. But Horn apologizes for this after the game. I will say this if it were a Duke or UN C player, I think we'd be talking about this differently. That is just my opinion. There's no doubt about his talent, his ability on the floor. And again, he apologized for uh the gesture after the game in a post on I'm gonna say Twitter X. I don't know what we're calling it social media. The artist form is Twitter. He said, hold on, I'll, I'll pull up the exact tweet and then I'll, I'll give you my, my take here So he said, uh, my sincere apologies for what happened at the end of the game. I got caught up in the heat of the moment and made a disrespectful gesture that I should have never done. That's not who I am. Uh, if you've been living under a rock or you just don't know, hitting free throws to ice the game at the very end. Uh DJ Horn appears to give the double bird. I don't know who it was to. I don't know if it was, it looked like the rest. I don't think it was intended for a Wake Forest player because that's what I initially thought. But then you look within the context of what happened and the referee turns around, I believe it was at the referee Lewis, but that was just my interpretation. Yeah, I here, so here's my thing, right? Um I think, and this kind of goes back to a lot of like the unwritten rules in baseball and things like that. Uh Sports are emotional. You say things you do things. Um There's nothing wrong with being emotional. There's nothing wrong with expressing yourself is giving the double birds the best look. No, it's not. But at the same time, I think that it's a little bit hypocritical. It, it's a little bit um uh ridiculous on people's part to demand uh perfection from everyone on the court at all times on the field, whatever it might be, but I will say, it's, it's about how far you go. Right. Phillip and double birds. That doesn't hurt anyone. Let me piggyback off this tune. Lewis really quickly. Let me pick, let me piggyback off this tune. We're also talking about young men in their late teens, early twenties. Yeah, it's, these, exactly. Sports are supposed to be fun. They're supposed to be, you know, this kind of conglomeration of passion and energy and excitement and competitive and sometimes your competitive nature gets the most of you. Um Really, as long as no one is getting hurt. If, if you're fans of specific, like if you're, if you're a Wake Forest fan, oh, I, I would not like DJ Horn right now. Absolutely. But that's, that's the whole point, right. I could give you AAA die off on like all the different way. I, you know, hate the Pittsburgh Steelers and how much I enjoyed watching them, uh be exposed to frauds in the first round of the wild card weekend here, Mark Bergen. But, but like, but the thing is like, that's, it's all personal. It's all, it's all part of that competitive nature as long as nobody is getting hurt. That's my main thing. And it is different than say, yeah, it's different than say, I'll just put this out there like Gray and Allen's Antics where he's tripping or hurting another player. Uh NC State will play Wake Forest in Winston, Salem on February the 10th. Keep an eye on this Lewis, if we get a follow up between these two schools, that game and now gonna have circled on my calendar because, uh, after this one, last night again, fiery spicy, whatever adjective you want to use, it was an intense game, uh, last night and, and here, and here's the thing for NC State, right to talk about the basketball side of things for a little bit. Ok. And NC State still has a lot to figure out. Um, they shot 0% from, from three I believe in this one. you know, DJ Horn, that's incredible. It's DJ Horn is a 42% free throw shooter. But, um, besides that Casey Casey Marcel who is normally a very good shooter is low 30 like Dennis Parker junior who's getting 20 minutes a game, he's at 35%. You know, Jane Taylor is at like 33%. So they're, they're not the best, um, from that perspective and there are little things like that they have to iron out. But if you're not going to be successful, like at those more finesse style of things, you need to muck things up, get it, get it dirty and NC State is in a situation, right? You mentioned how they're five and one in the AC C play right now, I believe, you know, they, they are that I've said this many times, I'm going to continue to say it NC State because of what their nonconference schedule was is in a tough position for their tournament. They have to do really well in AC C play. So, like a game like that against Wake Forest, that's, those are the type of games in AC C play. They're gonna make the difference between who gets into the tournament, who gets out of the tournament. So, of course, you know, Kevin Keats is gonna get ejected in like, you know, whenever it was early in the game because he's trying to get everyone going. Sometimes coaches do that kind of. So, you know, he, he said afterwards, um, I'll to paraphrase and, and remove any kind of expletives or anything like that. Essentially, he was like, he's tired of people saying that this NC State team doesn't fight. I don't know who's saying that this NC State team doesn't fight if they, whoever is saying and I think they're incorrect. Maybe he's talking to his team, Lewis. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. So they, they fight, they, they do what they need to do right now. NC State is 68 in net and I know NET is not everything, but as we have seen with the NCAA tournament selection committee, it's gonna matter come March. So there, I think Leonardi has them as either first four or last four in or first four out like hanging right around that bubble. So NC State is going to be living on the bubble all year long and you're gonna have to be, uh, aggressive. You're gonna have to be tough. You're gonna have to do all those things. If you want to find success and get on the right side of the bubble, you've been saying this for a few weeks now. Oh, of eight against, uh, Wake Forest last night. And then only 33% from three point range. So, if you're gonna play from the inside out and rely on the touch from the big fella, the lefty DJ burns, you're gonna have when a team doubles him, right? What, what's your counter when a teams adjust or they double team him or they deny him post entry, post positioning? You've got to figure out what your counter is to that and 33% from 30 of eight last night, that is not going to get it done if you do want to make the tournament come. March and NC State has had a lot of those type of games, right? Games that are very tight that are very, um, hard fought. You go back to Boston college start AC C play that game going to a past regulation. I forget if it was one or two overtimes. Um, the Notre Dame game, which is a team that they should have beat pretty handily, but it ends up being much tighter. DJ. Burns makes the clutch play at the end. The UN C game was very tight until the final nine minutes or so. And then UN C goes on that like 15 to 4 run or whatever it was. And then, and then this one against Lake Forest, they have to rally and come out tight, you know, uh, in a tight game there. So, um, these, these are the kind of type of games that NC State is gonna play this year. I would much rather have that type of identity as a basketball team than not have an identity at all. Um And I think, I don't know, NC State, you know, at the very least they're gonna, they're gonna fight like uh Keith said after the game yesterday on Tuesday, the, I got, I got nothing left of my man. Yeah. Enjoy the Dean tonight. Yes, I will be there at the Dean Smith Center on Wednesday night. Um I'll also be there on Saturday um when uh Duke plays Pitt at eight o'clock. So we'll have plenty for you. Uh Make sure you catch all that coverage on wrl.com, WRL Sports fan.com. Uh All of that. Um You can listen to us on wherever you get your podcast to go on. Also watch us on uh the 99 9 the fan youtube page. Uh We are getting into the thick of AC C play. I am super excited once we get the February Mark, it's gonna be go, go, go. Um And I'm, I'm pumped to see how this shakes out. Um The, the AC C has a lot of work left to do, but the local triangle teams are right in the thick last thought for me, Lewis. It's nice to see the twinkle in your eye again when we're talking about your beloved North Carolina tar heels. Listen, man, it's been, it's been a good year for UN C but it is, it is still mid January and you don't want to be playing your best basketball in mid January. You wanna be playing your best basketball, uh, end of February, beginning of March.