Hello, podcasts condession dot com. This is Jeff, one of your podcast
hosts, and you can follow me on Twitter at talkin' acc Sports. That's
at Talkin' acc Sports t A l K I N A c C Sports.
The podcast moderator is Matthew and you can follow him at a S D Underscore,
Hokey Smash. I'm going to turn it over to our moderator, Matthew
as he welcomes our guest, and everything looks good on my d Matthew.
All right, Uh, Christian, let me go ahead and introduce you while
we wait for Matthew to join us, we have a great return podcast guest.
Always excited to hear great voices on this podcast, and we have a
great one here. Tristan Freeman is the owner and operator of Fan Sided Busting
Brackets is here. You can follow Tristan on Twitter at hoops Nut three five
one And for me, this is the official beginning of the college basketball season
which starts in Earnest tomorrow. Looking forward to that. So we've got a
great guest to get into that. All right, Tristian, before we start,
is there anything that you want to plug and talk about? Uh?
I mean you already mentioned it busting brackets. Where we did we cover college
basketball on daily basis, We did well in the offseason, and we're just
glad to finally get down to some on the core action. Instead of talking
about hypotheticals and what players can do, we now can talk about what they
have done. All right, very good? Who as we get into this
season, we're gonna talk some ACC basketball. Who is on the ACC's coaching
hot seat as we start the college basketball season? Yeah, I think the
obvious name to watch it is Kenny Payne and turn his second year Louisville after
a miserable first year where some arguably he was calling for his head already.
They recently lost an exhibition game to Kentucky Wesleyan and that's just a miserable effort
on their end. And Kenny Payne isn't doing himself much favors when it comes
as postgame press conferences. Just seems lifeless there. And they have some talent,
but not that much talent where if it does pieces don't fit together,
they can win games. And I'm already concerned. And they take on a
UNBC team who isn't really projected to be very good, but they happen to
lose that one, then his seat's going to get extremely hot, and then
the question is going to be whether or not he even finishes the year.
So he's definitely the guy to watch. Another coach to look at is Brad
Bournel did the coach of Clemson. They were ranked last year really good.
They were on top of a sec but then a season and then collapse that
included that the deadly lost to Louisville took him out of tournament. This year,
he has a senior Layton roster that should easily should make the tournament and
not do more if they happened to miss the postseason again. I can see
situation where the administration just clear his house because they're gonna have a new roster
anyway. Tristan, welcome back. I just want to ask you a couple
of questions about your site. I mean, I always give you a chance
to plug who's all writing with you? Who's all writing with you? Now?
Yeah, we get guys that come and go each year, and we
have a fairly bunch of new crops, but the usual suspects like Jared Anderson
who covers the ACC and especially Virginia Tech coops, Joey Lewis, who's the
map ex shortened their guy but also covers just not everything else. Those are
some of the guys that has written a lot this offseason. But we have
a fairly good crop of a couple of dozen writers who's really talented. It
can pretty much cover the entire landscape. Outstanding, outstanding, so as we
get and this is probably a good precursor here to our next question here.
ACC basketball is here, you know, going to start up really quick here.
As Jeff said, who are some of the major newcomers we should get
to know in the ACC? And I'm talking about players and coaches here.
Perhaps there was an assistant of note that was hired by you know, hired
by somebody. But who are some of the major newcomers we should get to
know in the a SEC transfer portal players that sort of thing. The floor
is hears friend, Yeah, I think from the coaching's perspective, Michael Shrewsbury
taken over for taking over Notre Dame for Mike Bray. I mean, he's
a guy that took Penn State to rear n CLAA tournament appearance. He's the
guy that shot that had a an elite spacing system where guys should shot nothing
for threes, and I think people really look at him as a revolutionary mind.
And you know, he doesn't have a great roster, but I think
the future looks right concerned what they have in the twenty twenty four class.
And then when you look at some of the players, I think the freshman
Ellie k kde with a five star reclass guy who's going to basically replace kab
Love in the backcourt. How he fits with r. J. Davis is
going to be key to North Carolina. And then you could talk about Duke
cast four five star, five star freshmen, including one of them Jared McCain,
who's reportedly likely to start for them. And then as someone who covers
the local Pittsburgh squorts, Carlton Carrington. The four star freshman Garford pitt has
had rave reviews so far and he's set to start at point guard, and
Pittsburgh, after losing its entire backcourt last offseason, is going to rely on
him a lot, and if he can have a big year, then he's
to be able to take a pit after a tournament. And then one transfer
watches Hunter Sallas, the former five star guard from Gonzaga. No Moore as
a defender didn't have much of an offensive game. He's already looked really well
for Wake Forest and the Exhibitions had over thirty two twenty seven points in a
win over Alabama, which is a fairly notable game. And four team that
is going to struggle with offense sometimes about the marri Man Santo, They're going
to need Hunter Salace to come in and have a big impact, well said,
Well said, Who are five ACC players that you think are really going
to take the biggest sleep in progress from last year to this year. The
fourest hero is Tristan Yeah, so I think Booga Poplar is one name to
watch for Miami. Obviously ACC player the year Isaiah want Gone and as well
packs back. But I think the guy most likely to take Wong's place that's
sort of another league guard is Popular. He was a starter last year and
it was a very good from three point range, and with a bigger role,
I expect bigger results from him. Isaac McNeely was a guy that has
some minutes that Virginia last year, Virginia four starters. They returned respeak them,
but they need a lot of help and McNeely has a chance to be
the best pure score on the team. I know they brought in Andrew Rody
from Saint Thomas, but we'll see how his ability from the Summit League translates
up. But I think Neely has has a chance to have to have a
really big year. Hunter Salles was a guy that I mentioned before. He
is absolutely gonna be a breakout candidate. Only average around four points at Gonzaga.
I could see him quaducling that to at least sixteen game and we've seen
what Steve Forbes has done with previous transfer guards. Bob and Miller was a
former top five the prospect for Florida State who didn't we missed half the last
year due to an NCA and the post suspension because of in permissible benefits.
But he's a guy that NBA scouts have their eyes on. He's a very
skilled forward that can shoot the ball and is highly athletic. I think he's
gonna be someone that can break out for seminals. And then you could pick
a number of guys because Syracuse had a lot of freshmen that got minutes last
year. For Chris Bell, a guy who who started some games for them
really good combo forward. I think he's someone that can easily have a breakout
year and have a big impact for them in the front court. Because their
guards are going to be solid, they just need some front court production to
balance things out offense. Well said friend. Well said, so rank the
ACC teams as we go into the year. Tristan, sure, do you
want to go top the bottom and bottom up? We'll go bottom up?
Okay? Well. I originally had Notre Dame last because I think from a
roster perspective, the dirda worst in the league. But I just have no
faith in Louisville, so I switched them up. So I have Louisville fifteen,
Notre Dame fourteen, Boston College thirteen. I think Clinton Posts being back
is big, but I just don't trust the rest of the roster. Georgia
Tech with Damon Startdamuer, I like him and I like the guards. They
bring back a lot of production, and they Addamurray Abram from Ole Miss,
But their front court's a major question mark for me. Florida State, we
still don't know as of recording what's going to happen. Premus fears his wave
requested they don't get him. Then it's basically Darren Green and a bunch of
non offensive threats on the perimeter. So I think Florida State's to eleven and
then Virginia Tech ten, Wake Forest nine, PITN eight, Syracuse seven.
I think all those teams are pretty much in the same category. I think
Virginia Tech losing Rodney Rice's latest they have is a big blow for him.
And then these are the teams I think can make the tournament. Virginia at
six, NC State five, comes in four, UNC three, Miami two,
and Duke one. Well said, you ran through that pretty well.
We're gonna go through some lightning round questions here, Tristan. Which ACC team
is gonna exceed expected expectations this year that you perhaps don't expect And I guess
that's probably comes from your from your list of teams that could potentially surprise people
that are earning that first six you first mentioned. Yeah, I think Syracuse
is a team that has a really high stealing because Judah Mintz was an All
conference player as a freshman, He's only going to get better and to pick
up a JJ Starlin is going to be big for them. Assumement Adrianautrey,
you know, sort of has a new style play and is an exclusively zoned
This is a team with a lot of athletes that gonna be really good man
on man defense, Well said. Well said, so, which ACC team
will perform lower than expected this year? I mean this is one of these
things where perhaps I'm thinking analytically that you know, some team in your top
the top six, perhaps the bottom drives out or something like that. Yeah,
the team that I've been least high on it is Virginia. They they
you know, the loss of Jaydon Gardner is big for them in the front
court. I'm on franklin Er, de Leat and Score and key Hey Clark.
I know he had his detractors, but he was still a great champion
caliber player for them. They just got a lot of newcomers, particularly from
lower conferences. We'll see what Jordan Minor can do coming from Mayormack into NYC.
But I think their front court is the real question. And if we
speakman doesn't take that final step of offensive development that we've been long waiting for,
I could absolutely see them being on the bubble and potentially on the wrong
side of it. Well said, that's awesome man. Okay you are.
You are mister analysis for us. That's why we love having you come on
here. And Jeff and I were both talking about this, and Jeff brought
up up the statement we've had. We've had our friend pick six previews on
here, Brett on here before, and you two both know your sports really
well. He's just a college for football feed and you are a college basketball
field. So we're so happy to have you on here. Which A,
who's your preseason ACC Player of the Year. It has to be Kyle Philipowski.
I mean, he's the best player on the best team, and he's
the rare store that returns for Duke, and he's someone that could definitely average
twenty and eight. I can see it happening for him, and he is
the easy pick for me definitely. Who's your ACC Newcomer of the Year?
And this, and I'll be fair here, you can and you can pick
a transfer portal player. You can pick a you know, pick a newly
recruited freshman that sort of thing. You can pay your pick's wide open here.
Yeah, so I actually do both because I think there could be two
distinct categories newcomer overall aka to transferred year. I'm gonna go with Hunter Salads
because that's as I said multiple times now, he's gonna have a big impact
with wake Forest and leads statistically. And then Freshman the Year, I'm gonna
go with Carleton Carrington of Pittsburgh, even though he's not rated as high as
duke freshman lak Do. He's gonna have the ball in his hands a ton
and he's going to have the highest usage, i'd argue of all the freshmen,
and his staffs is going to put him up there and will a great
chance to win it. Who is your ACC Coach of the Year as we
go onto the preseason, so John Shiter is going to be the favor because
the Duke finishes first in the regular season, he's going to have it,
But because it's expected, they usually give it to the coach that overachieved the
most, and I think rat Burnell Clemson. I have them finishing the top
four considering what happened last year. If he has Clemson safely in the tournament
field and they're not only getting double by but a contender to get a good
seed the Big Dance, I can see him get rewarded by the ACC coaches.
I think that's a fair statement. And he's got a pretty solid guy
at center. He got a player there. Yes, who wins the ACC
bens basketball title, It's gonna be duke because the teams that normally could put
up a big fight, Virginia and even North Carolina. I just have concerns
about Virginia's roster and UNC's coach, so it has to be due because I
don't see them losing as much games as the others. Well said, man,
Jeff, you're up all right? Thank you. Matthew Tristan are you
kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier in the podcast, but right
now today, how many ACC teams do you think make the NCAA Tournament.
I'm gonna go with six, but I think it can go from six to
eight because I think some of the other conferences aren't going to be aren't gonna
have as big as years. So I think it's gonna be a good opportunity
for the ACC and sort of bounce back and get back into that six eight
range. And right now, who do you have is you know not you
don't have to go all the way to the eight because it's wide open.
But who do you feel would be locks at the moment? Oh, I
mean right now that the clear locks is Duke, North, Duke, Miami,
and North Carolina. I think last year it was more of a weird
circumstance with ritorials. They just have too much talent and then you know Clemson,
NC State in Virginia I feel okay with, but I could also see
scenarios where they don't miss it. So right now I have three locks,
and it should before, but you never know if the a SEC, it's
probably the right number consider what they've done in the past couple of years.
All right, very good, Matthew. I'm gonna pass it back to you
as we close out in our last segment of the podcast. Sounds great,
open microphone time, Tristan. Anything you want to talk about, Yeah,
okay, Well, I'll just take a look at a team. Like while
it's overall in the a SEC, I think the coaching has been talked about
a lot, and we could potentially have some more turnover going forward because Jim
Laernega and Larry Hamilton are under seventies and both have said, hey, you
know, I want to stick around for a while, but you never know
what health can do can happen, so I think their their coaches to potentially
watch. I think kuber Davis is going to be fine, but if North
Carolina doesn't get back and being a contender the next couple of years, I
can see people getting tired of him as well. And then you know,
you have the Brunnell Capel Keats group of guys who have done enough to not
get fired, but not necessarily enough to be completely safe. The next couple
of years is going to be a big all of them as well. And
then Louisville course is one of the top jobs in the country. I don't
see how much longer they're going to be able to be okay with the Kenny
pay experience. So even though we've had a lot of turnover, there's still
plenty of turnover that can happen in this league and it's gonna be something that
they're going to need to go through, especially when you have three new teams
come in the league. But I think the coaching caresel is probably the biggest
topic of conversation about the ACC and his feature trying to compete with the other
leagues in this sport. You are the man cause you are so analytical and
so smart. We're so happy to have you on the All Sports Discussion AEC
podcast, and we would love to have you come on again during mid season.
I'm just praising you right now because we want you to come on again
and market it. Come on again with you know, I skit. You
know. The best time to have you come on would be after no after
non conference season, sometime in the new year, when we're ready to start
the ACC season, because you'll have a better take on what the league looks
like. So we're thrilled to have you on. Thank you for joining us
tonight, Christ and absolutely, guys, I appreciate you having me on.
And so we're gonna go over to Jeff now for his open mic. What
do you got Jeff? For us? Is it anything you can I know
we've been talking a lot of hoops, but and I know I kind of
ragged on uh, I kind of ragged on Georgia and Michigan this week on
the Time the Twitter Tie White. What do you got for us? Jeff?
Yeah, Yeah, this has been a fantastic podcast to get get everyone
ready for the college basketball season. But here in the open mic, it's
it's still we're in the home stretch of college football, so we want to
do just a quick recap in the A C. C. And And Matthew,
I'm I'm right there with you, you know, on Michigan, especially
Michigan at least Georgia finally played a team you know, with a pulse this
weekend in Missouri. And and and I don't think they are a great team,
don't get me wrong, you know, but Missouri at least has has
a little bit of a pulse. And we saw Georgia struggle in that game.
So you know, we're gonna find out more about Michigan this weekend when
they play Penn State two months to you know, two months to prepare for
Fenn State. So if you know Michigan can't beat Penn State, I'm gonna
really be, you know, wondering what's going on there because they've basically been
having a preseason schedule for for a couple of months here. But let's take
a look at the ACC quick recap of the weekend Clemson. You know,
so much going on in that program prior to this week, frustration from the
fans, you know, the not infamous Tyler from Spartanburg, Colin Dabos Sweeney,
you know, getting defensive after the callin how do you how do you?
How do you fix frustration in athletics? You go out and you win.
And that's exactly what Clemson did this weekend against Notre Dame. Played their
best game of the season. Notre Dame came into the game ranked fifteenth in
the country, and you know, Clemson had a fantastic defensive performance in the
game. Offense displayed a running game, consistent running game under behind Philip MafA,
who had over one hundred and eighty yards on a phil MafA, you
know, over one hundred and eighty yards on the ground. And you know,
Notre Dame is a strong defensive team. They're good at the line of
scrimmage, you know, not very explosive on offense. But this was a
game that surprisingly Clemson controlled both lines of scrimmage. Not too surprising defensively,
but you know, an offensive line that has struggled, came into the game
with some injuries, played played their best game of the year as Clemson won
thirty one to twenty three. And we'll see if that kind of galvanizes Clemson
into a strong finish now, but definitely their biggest win of the season,
Georgia Tech finally winning back to back games. They've been so inconsistent this year.
They go on the road to Virginia and put up one of their better
performances of the year. Forty five seventeen Florida State. Down a couple of
offensive wide receivers in their game, a little bit of a slow start with
Pittsburgh, but took care of business. They're moving right along. Twenty four
to seventeen Louisville. As I tried to tell everyone last week, they are
basically just about unbeatable in their home stadium and thirty four to three on Virginia
Tech. Maybe Matthew has a thought on that. During his open mic NC
State Dave Dorn, you know, the Brandon Armstrong experiment did not work out,
so he's got MJ. Morris, you know, playing quarterback. And
you know the offensively NC State is limited, there's no question about that.
But they're doing just enough on offense, taking what defenses give them to,
you know, keep defenses honest and then writing you know all American Peyton Wilson
and that defense and just stuffing opponents. And you know, they took out
my Miami twenty to six. Great goal line stand in that one. In
the lay of that game, Miami, I don't know what's going on with
Tyler van Dyk. We were talking about it on Twitter with Matthew. You
know, a couple of years ago, he looked like a pro. Earlier
this season, you thought he had turned the quarter after turned the corner after
struggling last year. And you know that is that is one quarterback who is
not playing with a lot of confidence. And now Miami's got to play Florida
State next week. Good luck with that. Boston College now five and five
wins in a row on Syracuse Duke even without Riley Leonard holds off wake Forest
twenty one to fourteen. And so that was a quick recap of last week
and a quick look ahead. You've got Louisville hosting Virginia. Virginia's got no
chance in this game. I'm sorry, Louisville at home. I mean,
I don't think you're beating them in Cardinals Stadium this year with that team,
and they're just playing at a high level now. Extremely confident Georgia Tech Clemson,
very intriguing game in this one. Two five and four teams trying to
get Bowl eligible. Both have knocked off ranked teams in recent weeks. We've
seen the best and the worst of both teams so far this season, and
that's a game that looks a lot more competitive going into this weekend than we've
seen in in quite a number of years. Virginia Tech Boston College. Virginia
Tech trying to get Bowl eligible, Boston College trying to possibly finish the year
eight and four, nine and three. It'd be something something else there.
So that's that's that's a pretty interesting game there too. N C State going
to Wake Forest. Dave Clawson, He's been fantastic at Wake Forest, but
this does not look like their season at all. And I don't see that
Wake Forest offense being able to do much with NC State's defense. We mentioned
it already. Miami going to Florida State. Yeah, it's going to take
a spectacular effort for Miami to knock off the seminoles in in dope Campbell.
Florida State. They're they're, they're, they're. They already clinched their spot
in the a CC Championship and they're iroing win the a c C and going
to the playoffs. Pittsburgh, Syracuse UH yeah, that's for who's arguably the
worst team in the ACC. And then Duke in North Carolina. Hard to
see Duke going into North Carolina without Riley Leonard being healthy. But you know
that North Carolina defense is so inconsistent. Who knows how it's gonna look,
but you gotta feel like that's North Carolina's game to win. So quick recap
of the week before and look ahead to this week, and I'm gonna turn
over to Matthew and he can share his his open my thoughts. I'm actually
gonna I'm gonna use my open microphone to ask Tristan a question. Tristan,
I know you follow Pittsburgh football a little bit. I know you follow it
a little bit. Uh, I'm wondering what your thoughts would be if you
had somebody like Tyler Vandyke transfer to the univers to the university, you know,
to the University of Pittsburgh to to play. Because I actually thought,
you know, we talked about this several times on the on the podcast before
about how on the podcast before, Matt Matthew, we're kind of losing you
there. I don't know if you're if you might got moved or something.
No, can you hear me? Now? Yeah, that's much better.
Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, sorry, Uh, here's the here's
the deal. Like we watched, uh, we watched Tyler Van Dyke several
times and when he was a freshman, he was actually acc rookie Rookie of
the Year. Is the quarterback at the University of Miami, and I feel
like he's playing for Mario crystal Ball, who kills quarterbacks unfortunately, And I'm
I'm wondering what what you would think, like if Pittsburgh were to upgrade his
offensive line, if you were to transfer to Pittsburgh, like for a new
start, what you would think of something like that over Yeah, I think
it's hard to ask pitt fans for a while another transfer quarterback because the last
two hasn't worked out. Keaton slovas well wasn't very good. And then this
year with with the with the Boston College transfer been a complete disaster. He's
been benched. I mean, yeah, I mean the transfer quarterbacks are high
risk, kyer Ward, I mean, some workout, some don't don't.
It wouldn't be a guarantee if Van Dyke was successful at Pittsburgh either, because
there's also other flaws with this team into including poor receivers at times and then
the struggling offensive line. So would it be nice? Yeah, but I
mean the same thing was said for the last two quarterbacks for Landed after Kenny
Picking. That hasn't worked out at all. Well, said my friend,
you've done what you've done. You've done quite well on this podcast today,
did I I was just curious on your thoughts on that. So you've done
an outstanding job on this podcast. We're really appreciative of having you on Tristan
and we and I'm just using my open mic or phone to thank you to
you know, thank you for your for your gracious time here this Sunday evening,
and we certainly would love to have you come back on perhaps after a
nonconference season. You're and you could really, you know, give us an
updated set on an updated state on where you think the ACC is after you
know, as far as rankings are concerned, who's out performing who's But thank
you for joining us tonight. Absolutely all right, you guys have a great week.