It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day. Now here's Nick Coffee. All right, let's get it started.
Hour number three. Here on a game day edition of Coffee and Company,
fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. It is game day for the
Ville Louisville's TBT team, and they'll take on Sideline Cancer coming up at seven
o'clock. It's on FS one if you want to watch it on television,
but I would encourage you to go out and enjoy the nostalgia that you will
certainly get from being back in Freedom Hall, which I've not been to watch
a basketball game at Freedom Hall. I mean, I think it was the
two thousand and nine season, which I guess was actually no, the last
year of Freedom Hall was two thousand and nine twenty ten, and I don't
think I went to a game that year. And I know the year before
that that was the year they were really good. I went to a couple
of different games. But yeah, that alone is just nostalgic. Because I've
been in Freedom Hall since then a couple times for a concert, I think,
which is totally different. And then when I walk through there to get
like to when you park at the State Fair and make your way out towards
the front, like you walk through Freedom Hall. But I hadn't been in
there for basketball in a long time. And then to see a bunch of
former players, and in a weird way, there's even further you know,
I wouldn't call it nostalgia, but knowing that a lot of the guys that
played at Louisville that are playing, you know, in this event for this
team did not play at Freedom Hall because they're too young. I mean,
I feel like the young centers around for a while, but I don't know.
Just to know that, like you know, Russ never played in Freedom
Hall is kind of crazy to me. So again, I would encourage you
to go out there and take it all in. I don't know if this
is gonna get you to pull the trigger and actually purchase tickets and go.
But they do sell bush light, I was, I mean a lot of
places you can't get bush light at a restaurant, you can't get bush light
on draft nearly anywhere. Heck, I mean most places who sell bush light,
you know, in stores, I mean they're only giving you the thirty
rack like just cans, which, hey, it's fine, but you know,
I like to mix it up sometimes. If I can get an aluminum
bottle, ig go aluminumottle, if I can find a glass bottle, or
go glass bottle. But they had had some ice cold bush light on hand
Freedom Haul, and it made me very happy. I mean, it was
just it was the best day all around for me to say, though you
were though I don't know if that's why, but you know, we can
we can choose to believe that's the reason they had bush light available. I
didn't see noybody else drinking it, but that's okay. It means more for
me. So yeah, looking forward to it. Hopefully they can keep this
role or keep you I say, keep this run going. I mean,
I've only played one game, and it was closer than most of us would
have expected. But didn't you say Indiana John had a similar situation, not
to where you felt like they were going to lose, but they were not,
I guess, dominating the way you would have expected it Against Valpo.
Yeah, they just couldn't put them away. It was a lot closer of
a game when it came down to the elon ending, and I think They
ended up winning maybe by nine or ten points something like that, but it
was a lot closer throughout the majority of the game than it should have been.
Yeah, Louisville, I mean they were in a fight. I felt
like there were a couple of moments for Bellerman to where they could potentially not
run them out of a gym. I don't think that was going to happen,
but make it to where it was going to be really hard to see
them finding a way to come back and win. Now, luckily for Louisville,
it you know there it wasn't as if they got to the elam ending
and really turned it up. They had such a good run going in the
second half that made it to where once you got to the under four stoppage
for the elam ending, you know they were in position with a good enough
lead to where they had some cushion. But I want to give Bellerman that
team United a lot of props man, because they came out, they played
hard, they made shots, they competed, and they had a good game
plan. They did not want to run. And look that's something that is
not a knock on you know, their age or anything. Although these guys
for Bellerman. Not all of them, but I mean some of them are
probably close to or maybe older than some of the Louisville guys. And it's
just weird for me to call these guys old whenever. You know, I'm
older than all of them. So and you know I remember them playing,
but technically for this event. And if you consider, you know, there's
some dudes that are playing in this that just got out of college this past
year or the year before. They are on the older side comparatively speaking.
However, even if you would have played Louisville and Bellerman in twenty twelve when
all these guys were playing, or thirteen whenever it was, you still would
have seen a Bellerman team not want to run, you know what I mean.
So I don't say that dact like all there are a bunch of old
dudes, they can't do it. In fact, I thought at times some
of these guys for Bellerman looked like they were in better shape than the Louisville
guys, but they knew their best chance of beating a team like the Ville
that has Mandres, Haraldsonano, Mianwaku, Russ Smith, Paydeon, Siva David
Johnson their best bet is to have the game played in the half court setting,
and they did that and it worked. They were knocking down shots,
they were tough on the glass. I actually thought at times they just outworked
them. Well. They made seven of thirteen threes in the first half,
which is why you saw them go into the halftime break with a decent lead,
and then slowly but surely louisvill started shipping away at that and was able
to pull off the victories seventy nine to seventy. I was really happy for
Chris Jones to have that moment where he First of all, I'm happy he's
playing for this team, and also I'm really happy that he was able to
knock down that game winner, and he had a good game, and he
was a good addition. There's no doubt when it comes to bench production,
he was the best player off the bench. In fact, he outplayed a
lot of the guys who started. Chris had fourteen points in twenty three minutes,
made four of nine shots, made all six free throws, and had
a couple of steel So yeah, he was very much needed on Saturday afternoon,
and Chris was somebody that I think, obviously, unfortunately this is where
there should be some accountability for people who falsely accused those of doing something heinous.
But Chris was accused and charged of sexual assault whenever his career came to
an end at Louisville. And I hate to say this, but I do
think there's a lot of people who when they think of Chris Jones, they
think of that because that's not something that typically happens. And I think most
people who think of that are aware that he was proven to be innocent,
because it was proven that he was not even there when the alleged incident took
place. But the fact that that's still something that people think of when they
think of him here is awful for him. Now, he had some other
stuff going on to where he had, you know, kind of become a
pain in the asked to Rick Patino, and there's a high standard when you
play for Rick Patino as far as everything, I mean everything, and he
wasn't living up to that. So you know, he was getting himself in
a little bit of trouble, but it wasn't trouble like what you you found
out about when he got arrested. I mean, and again that ended up
not being something that happened so I'm happy that he's playing for this team and
had that moment because he was somebody that I remember interviewing him whenever he decided
to come to Louisville after his stint at JUCO. He was one of the
best players in the country at Northwest Junior College and he actually played for Steve
Forbes, who's now now the head coach at Wake Forest. So Chris was
really really appreciative of being able to play Louisville like he was somebody that you
know, a lot of his teammates really liked him. I mean, he
was he seemed like somebody that embraced what he was walking into, meaning,
this is a dude joining a team that just won a national championship and now
he's going to be, you know, one of the top guys getting minutes
for them. And he was, you know, he was great, you
know, as a player. I mean, he wasn an elite by any
means, but he was a good player. And you know, I don't
think anything that happens in the TBT is going to, you know, change
how people kind of view his legacy, and I'm not saying that it should,
but he always appreciated Louisville and the fans, and you know, I
think last year he wanted to play for this team and it just didn't didn't
work out. They didn't have the didn't have spot for him. Well then
he ended up playing for a different team and he had a hell of a
game against Louisville and they had a lot of success. And I think it
made sense that, you know, he proved to whoever's putting this roster together,
who with the GM, is Hey, this guy is somebody we should
add if he can give us that kind of work like he did. I
think Chris had like twenty something points when he played him last year, so
he was a good addition, and again I was happy for him. Peyton
siva twenty three minutes and did not do a whole lot as far as scoring.
Only took four shots. He had four points, three rebounds, four
assists, and no turnovers, which is a pretty a pretty efficient line for
Peyton. And then Trees with twenty Trees was not as active as I would
have expected. You know, I don't think he needed to do a whole
lot more than what he did. I mean, he was seven of twelve
from the floor with twenty points. Nine rebounds and you know, it's a
pretty good afternoon for him and Russ. You know, foul trouble really got
him. He only he only took eight shots, which is not normal for
us, but he finished with a And then David Johnson, I thought he
had a really quiet seventeen points, was six of fifteen and made five of
twelve from three And David is the young buck out here. In fact,
David is substantially younger than the majority of the guys who are getting minutes on
this team at twenty three years old. Although Nanu is a young I mean,
I mean, just double check this. Yeah, Chenano Wanwaku. I
mean he's let's see here now, who's twenty seven years old? Which I
remember Patino always talking about nan Who being really young for like a first year
and even in a second year guy in college. I guess he was like
a head in school or something. Because nan Who's not played here since two
thousand and sixteen, I mean that's eight years ago. Maybe that age is
not correct, but either way, you know, I wish, you know,
I wasn't out there coaching, but I would if it was me.
And I knew Bellman wanted to slow it down. If you could get him
to speed it up and really take advantage of you know, somebody like David
Johnson running the floor with Montrez Harol to throw it too, then I think
that's what she could have done to really, you know, give yourself a
big advantage. But Bellerman, to their credit, was was doing a good
job of slowing things down. At that point, I would have said,
look, get Nanu, get tresent position, throw them the ball and let
him go to work. And they didn't. Again, they ended up winning,
So it's okay. But with Nanu. You saw it a little bit
with Bellerman, and you may see it tonight with Sideline Cancer Hakka Nanu,
you know, like hack a shack, like fouling him on purpose. So
he has to shoot free throws. And here's the thing about nan who's free
throws. Yes, he shoots it granny style underhanded, but he needs to
figure out which one he wants to do consistently. Because Nanu, I mean,
he shot every single free throw underhanded. And I think last year in
the professional league that he played and he shot underhanded. And I don't know
how well he shot as far as percentages, but he's gone. I think
throughout his entire pro career and even his college career, Nan News gone back
and forth, Am I gonna shoot it regular? Am I gonna shoot it
underhand? And I feel like you got to? I mean those are you're
honestly doing two completely different things. Yes, it's considered a free throw,
but like it's totally different, Like everything involved is different. So I just
feel like not having one that you're gonna stick with makes it to where you're
never really gonna get that much better. To be honest with you, there's
probably not a scenario where na Over becomes this elite free throw shooter, but
I could since when he started struggling at the free throw line, he became
uncomfortable even with the ball. Like there was a play where he had a
decent shot around the rim and missed it. And I think it's because he
just tried to get it off so quickly so nobody would foil me. Do
he want to go to the free throw line? And thankfully Nick Mayo was
there to clean up. And you know, he's been a good addition too.
So you know, I don't think they played great. I hope they
got some you know, I don't know if it was rust or if it
was nerves or what it is, because again we talked about it earlier,
this whole thing is kind of awkward for the players involved, and I think
it's maybe awkward. It's not the right word for fans because you know,
you're not out there actually playing, but it's impossible to not really get into
it when you're there, especially and you know, go crazy when that fan
that was sitting in front row pulled out the twenty thirteen banner and started waving
it around like that place was nuts for the six thousand people roughly that were
there, like it was an insane atmosphere. It was awesome. So you
know, these players are energized by that, and they also want to win
because they want to win money. But you know, the difficulty in balancing
Okay, like this isn't really a U of L thing, but it also
kind of is, like it's just I don't know, it's different, it's
just different, but it's awesome. I love the TBT, always have,
and I love that now we have a team here, hopefully we'll have one
every year and hopefully they can make a run. So somebody asked earlier when
they went out last year, so last year they lost the third game,
so a loss tonight would be an earlier exit than a year ago. But
for what it's were tonight's opponent, Sideline Cancer. They are the toughest team
left in this region for Louisville if you just base it off of the bracket,
which you know, some people, I mean, I'm not sure how
they went about. I think Team Diesel got the number one seed because of
Shaq and Team Diesel. Like I mean not saying that like it's a conspiracy,
it's shady, but that team, you know, they didn't I didn't
see anybody as far as personnel that I would have expected to be, you
know, worthy of being, you know, the number one seed in this
pod. So they lost to the eight seed, which is Team d r
C, which you know, they've got some some names I've heard of.
But to me, this is a good example of this is a good example
of guys who don't have Like Bryce Beamer. I'm not sure how many points
he had, but I mean he was somebody when I saw some of the
early parts of that game. He's a six to six wing who can shoot
the hell out of the ball. White guy bald head. He plays for
team d r C, who beat who beat beat that team Diesel team with
shack and he just graduated college, like, he just finished college and he
played at Francis Marion University. So you know, clearly he doesn't have the
career act, you know, credentials that some of these other players have.
He didn't play for a big enough school, a big name school like some
of these others have. But you know what, he's fresh out of college,
in great shape and is playing at a high level. So you know,
just because you see a roster full of guys you've never heard of that
played for schools you've never heard of, doesn't necessarily mean you can you know,
you can take them lightly. So again this I got a team d
r C that is the in all honesty, that's the one team I've seen
in the entire event that doesn't have anybody that I've ever heard of that played
for any school that I've ever heard of, other than one guy, which
we're gonna get to that in just a second. I just realized who this
guy was. But again, they they they knocked off the number one seed
team Diesels. So you can't take anybody lightly. But for those who haven't
heard tonight, sidelined Cancer is expected to have Jack Golkie with them playing in
this game. So Jack Golkie, of course is the legend around here who
put together a performance I feel like we'll never see again as far as the
kind of shots he was hitting, the difficulty, I mean, just the
weird, the weird way he you know, just moves his body around but
keeps keeps you know, keeps his his upright squared up to where he can
get a good look. I mean, Jack Golkie is a legend around here
for what he did to Kentucky ending their season, ending Cala Perry's time in
Lexington. And we had a texture earlier that made that made a you know,
asked the question that I think is a fair question, that is,
like, do you worry about the karma? Right, Like we we roasted
Kentucky for having Jack Golkie, you know, do what he did in their
season and give him one of the biggest upsets they've ever experienced. But like,
maybe he does the same thing to Louisville tonight. Well, first of
all, Jack Golkie doing it in this event would not be the same as
him doing it to you in the NAA tournament, but it's still what suck
it would and I would imagine that Kentucky fans will be if they watch.
In fact, there'll be Kentucky fans there. I saw some on Saturday.
There'll be some there tonight, like it's never ending, Like it's just what
they do. They go to Louisville games and they love it and they loved
that. You know they're there. That's why they were blue, if we're
being honest. But Jack Golkie, I mean, you know, him lighting
us up would probably be something Kentucky fans would love to see because Col's gone,
Like Jack Golkie's still gonna be a sensitive thing for them, but like
their energy and anger for that happening is now toward towards a guy who,
at least for the time being, is considered an op as they say,
as the kids say, he's opposition, he's coaching at Arkansas, he's in
your league. So yeah, I mean, I don't know what kind of
defense they have planned tonight. I think they did a couple of different things
against Bellerman man a man's own, but don't let him get hot, because
we've seen what can happen whenever when he gets he gets going. But back
to team DRC. I don't know how I missed this as somebody who you
know has looked at these rosters extensively, and you know I really, I
mean I sat around and watched both of the games that took place in the
Lexton yesterday. I watched a good chunk of the Indiana Purdue game, like
I love this stuff. So I did not realize that this team DRC that
I just mentioned having mostly guys I've never heard of, but one the one
guy that they have that I have heard of is Darius Washington. The Darius
Washington who played for Memphis nineteen years ago. Oh my gosh, when Louisville,
I mean, do you need And this is great because you would have
no reason to know this as a non Louisville fan and as a is somebody
who's a lot younger than me. Darius Washington has one of the all time
like choke embarrassing moments in basketball history. So he played at Memphis and he
was only there I think for one season. No, he's there for a
couple of seasons, and you know, he's one of the best recruits in
the country. Goes to play for Caliperry and he ended up going pro did
he went undrafted? But anyways, Louisville is up I think two points and
he gets fouled on a three by Francisco Garcia, which I don't know how
this doesn't come up like as soon as as soon as I google it,
but it doesn't, because it would be great to hear the call of this.
Yeah, let's see, this will probably sound like crap because it's I
mean this again, that was that was nineteen years ago, two thousand and
five. So he goes to the free throw line. Yeah, Louisville is
up seventy three to seventy five. He gets fouled as the clock strike zero.
And to be fair to Cisco, he did foul him. Like Francis
Garcia knew as soon as he went up in the air that washed has had
a chance to make contact. He did exactly that. Cisco like clenched his
body like trying to not touch him, but it was too late. And
I'm watching the replay here, see if the sound is any good. So
he's down Louisville. There's no time left. Louisville's up to Darius Washington Junior
goes to the line to shoot three free throws. He makes two, and
it's tied. He makes three, the game's over, Memphis wins. It's
a freshman for the season. If he hits three in a row. Memphis
goes to the NCAA Championship two to go. And what you can't see is
him looking over to his bench and telling them it's over. He can't describe
the fresh are here. How about a young Scott Davenport on the bench with
Rick Betina. How about a young John Kellaperry coach in Memphis. To tell
you right now, but if you'll see a more pressureized situation this year,
it was tournament. As we're watching Rightdre, tournament's on the line. I
gotta say, nineteen years later, watching that is the first time I've watched
it where I felt sad for him because he was so cocky as a player,
always ran his mouth. He played for Memphis and cal and I forgot
that was the Conference USA championship game. Louisville is a top ten team.
They made a Final four run that year, and Memphis needed to win that
to make the tournament, and he missed those free throws. Imagine if the
same thing happened tonight. Well, I doubt he's playing very much at his
age. Well, so he plays for Team DRC, Yeah, that would
be in the future. They again, like people kind of pointing or maybe
don't point and laugh. But like, I know, this is not really
college basketball. I know this is just I know what this is. But
like it's still fun for us as Louisville basketball fans, and it's basketball fans
in the month of July when nothing's going on. But I'm telling you,
if if he gets a chance to play Louisville again, even though it's the
Ville and it's not the same players or anything like that from nineteen years ago,
that's at least a half assed storyline, is it. Not? Like
that's crazy to me. So I don't know what kind of points he put
up or how much he played. You're probably right, John, He's probably
not playing a ton But if Lowell advances tonight and they play that team like
Lowell fans are gonna taunt him like it might have I mean, he might
still have like psychological damage. I mean, that was a really really talked
about thing for years in college basketball, because you know he was I mean,
I shouldn't say he never recovered, but like that became what he was
known for. All right, quick break will come back on the other side,
Kate, I can't speak. Take this thing up till six o'clock right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, Coffee and Company are rolling
along here on a Monday afternoon. A reminder. I'm gonna be out next
week vacation as we head off to Florida for a little getaway, our annual
family vacation, which we've had a few trips this year, but this is
this is, this is the one we really, we really look forward to,
and it'll be my last bit of vacation that I used. I think
I'll have like two days left to burn before the end of the year,
which was always the goal. In fact, you know, I never liked
being away from the show for a full week. Although you know, I
think makes sense to have a week off for family vacation. I don't think
I'm asking too much. In fact, I get a lot of vacation,
which is one of the I mean, one of the great perks of being
an employee here at the Great iHeart Media. I hope my bosses are listening.
But two years ago I had to eat like five days that I didn't
use because I didn't you know, I mean, I didn't plan ahead,
and I didn't want to take off at the very end of the year,
especially when there was a lot going on, and I hate taking days off
just to take it. So I said, I'm never doing that again.
I'm gonna make sure I utilize every bit of vacation and comp day that I
get. So you know, you'll be in good hands next week. But
I'll be back following my trip. And who knows, maybe this Louisville team
is still playing in the TVT we'll see. Speaking of the TVT, so
the the actual tournament Twitter account just updated this around five o'clock and they've given
us the starting lineups for these two teams, and Louisville going with a little
bit of a different lineup. Sean Minwaku will come off the bench, Nick
Mayo will start. I like that. I like Nanu and Tres playing together,
but I also like, you know, I think as far as keeping
guys fresh, I think, you know, it makes sense to when Tresh
has got to get a breather, throw Nanu in there, vice versa.
In same thing you can be said about Nick Mayo. In fact, all
three of these bigs are Tres Mayo and Nanu are all all very different and
it can help me in a variety of ways. But no, it was
active. But he's not going to start for Sideline Cancer. H Jack Golkie
is not going to play, which he wasn't here for their game the other
night, So I think it's because he's finishing up Summer League. Didn't Indiana
have a player have to do the same thing, Yeah, Miller cop he
ended up coming. He played in the second game. Yeah, So I
don't know if he couldn't pull it off from like a travel standpoint, maybe
you couldn't get off work because he, you know, maybe looks like a
guy who's working a nine to five like everybody else, and just you know,
when he gets off work, he goes and is an assassin, a
sniper, knocking down three. He's making you know, fans cry. But
he won't he I don't think he's gonna be here at all, so he
won't play. And their starting lineup, I mean, I'm not going to
give you names of guys that you've never heard, but just looking at Sideline
Cancer's stat line from their first game, they rely heavily on their bigs and
they I mean pretty efficient. I mean they were eight of twenty from three
point range, which is pretty good. They didn't shoot a ton of them.
Uh. And Alonso Verge, if you remember that name, he played
at nebrass and I don't really remember when he came out of college, but
he was a really good player, you know, for Nebraska. And yeah,
he was let's see here in Nebraska. He graduated in twenty twenty two,
so he's he's a relative real le heast, relatively a young guy.
Averaged fourteen points a game in all three seasons he played at Nebraska before going
pro. And yeah, he's he put up let's see here, pull it
up. He just had it. Yeah, he had twenty seven points for
them, so he was the guy that led the way for him. However,
you know, they were balanced twenty seven from Alonso Verge. Chris Coffee
add at seventeen, the kid from Louisville, which, by the way,
I know I talked about him last week, but since he's going to be
an action tonight against this Louisville team, the Ville, I should say he
is. He's good, and I bet a lot of people don't know who
he is, don't know. He's from Louisville. He played at Seneca High
School, was a known player around here locally, didn't get recruited from what
I know about by big schools. But once he got to Georgetown he developed
into a really good player. And I'm talking about Georgetown College here in Kentucky,
not Georgetown in the Big East. And he became NAI National Player of
the Year. But that happened I think in twenty twenty, you know,
the forgotten season. So you know, with that, he's a guy that
didn't get probably the love that you know NAI level, you don't get the
same amount of love as you do of course at the highest level of college
basketball. But he's a good player. He's been a good pro since he
made the jump to the professional ranks. And he'll dunk on you. I
mean he's he's six seven long, athletic, can rim run. He had
seventeen seventeen points for him in their in their first game, so you know,
they're a good team. And I'm a little worried. I'm getting nervous.
Now. This won't be a loss that will, you know, hit
me as tough as a loss will be Whenever Louisville loses a game under Pat
Kelcey. I mean, it's not gonna make me cry, but obviously you
know that's different. This isn't Louisville basketball, but it's the closest thing you're
going to get to it, I think, and you know, but I'll
get over it quicker than I will if it's anything else. And because of
just the awkwardness around the whole thing, just that you know, these guys
are here giving us their time. You know, they're not being paid to
play right now. The only way they get paid is if they win the
whole thing. You know, it'd be hard for me to be like super
critical if they play poorly. But again that's also all we know, right,
All we know is to watch Louisville basketball play and be on the edge
of our seat and overanalyze, overreact to everything good or bad because we're crazy
about Louisville basketball. And again, this isn't Louisville Cardinal basketball, right,
This isn't you know, a Big East game and ACC game. But it's
still a bunch of former players who we love around here, and it's just
hard to kind of balance that. But I think they're going to win the
night, but just being nervous about a game, and maybe not nervous to
where like you know, I'm pacing the room during the commercial breaks. It's
not to that extent, but like, when's the last time you were nervous
about a louisvilleasket game of your lois boll fan? I mean, I think
year one was they were so bad even the year before Kitty got here,
and obviously wasn't close to as bad as you know what we got after that,
But I mean, how do you get nervous when you when you know,
like a really bad loss to a bad team certainly sucks, but when
you know it's always a possibility. In fact, for a while it was
it was more likely than not, like you just kind of get numb to
it. But this event has made me feel alive again watching Louisville basketball.
That to go along with you know, everything else that is going on with
U of L hoops, with Pat Kelsey, which I'm hoping he's there tonight.
I'm not sure if he's gonna be there. Wouldn't shock me if he
is, because you know they've I think he's in town. I know he
was recruiting over the weekend and his team was there. You got to see,
but they showed a bunch of them on the big screen up there.
So I'm sure if Pat Kelsey's there tonight, they'll, uh, they'll they'll
do it once again. Uh and you know that'll get excited. Jeff Brown
was there, they showed him and everybody got fired up. So yeah,
good stuff. All right. We've also spent a lot of time today not
just talking TVT but talking about the ACC Kickoff, which of course is the
ACC's annual media days that's going on in Charlotte. Today was day one.
I don't I haven't heard a whole lot about what was said from the coaches
that are participating today, and usually don't unless they say something, you know,
that'll get him attention, like a like a Mike Gundy talking about how
he's he's done, what his star player did and got arrested for driving under
the influence, he's done at a thousand times. Like, I don't think
you're gonna hear an ACEC coach say that, because that's really just a Mike
Gundy thing. But the takeaways as of right now are Jim Phillips, you
know, not backing down from Clemson and Florida State and stating that they are
going to pursue, you know, fight this legal battle as long as it
takes between those two schools, because they're the ones who are suing the league
trying to get out of the grant of rights. And that's what he should
say, right, I'm not gonna be critical when it comes to that.
You know. He also talked about how the league is in third place when
it comes to revenue sharing among members, and you know, it could be
worse, it could be fourth. And again, I probably don't need to
throw this disclaimer out there, but I will the acc currently being in this
situation to where they're locked into a certain amount of money to distribute among members
from you know, twenty sixteen till twenty thirty six. That has nothing to
do with Jim Phillips. That's not his fault. There's nothing he can do
about it. He inherited that from Jim Swafford, or not Jim was John
Swafford, the former commissioner, who, by the way, it is his
fault. And one of the things Phillips did today was take exception to everybody
bashing Swafford for realizing he screwed this up, like he It was weird,
man. I remember last year he was there as the commissioner. He was
on his way out. You know, they did this big party for like
him and his wife at you know, the night before one of the one
of the evenings of the event. And you know, they had like candles
out on a table, a bunch of picture frames of Swafford and his wife.
It was like I walked into a awake of someone. It was really
awkward and weird. But that's what the ACC does, man, And it
is Swafford's fault that this deal is in place the way that it is.
He knew everybody in the ACC himself included, was so desperate to get a
network because the Big ten had one, the SEC had one with ESPN,
and they wanted one. So he just put together, you know, he
signed whatever deal ESPN would throw his way, and maybe he took the only
deal that they would give him. But still there's no situation anybody could have
thought signing something that cannot be reset for you know, a reassessment as far
as rights and revenue for twenty years, Like that's just not normal. So
it is Swafford's fault. But yet Phillips today just you know, got fiery
about people criticizing Swafford and it is like it is his fault. You can
say what you want, but like that that's to me, that's so acc
is to like not realize that, you know, the guy that you worship,
who you believe is like the best ever because he was the commissioner for
what one hundred and twenty years, like he did screw this up, but
yet you know, in their mind he's a good old boy Carolina guy,
like nobody's going to disparage him. When I just think that's it's so perfectly
acc. So another thing that was worth mentioning at the ACC kickoff today is
that it's the state of the union from the commissioner. And usually that kind
of stuff's boring and it's not usually something I would expect to talk a whole
lot about on this show or play clips, because I don't find that to
be interesting. Usually it's just, you know, what you'd expect a commissioner
to say as the league is about to start a new football season, And
I'm sure that's what a lot of it was today. But also, let's
not act like there's not a whole lot of expectation for him to kind of
put members' fan bases at ease as far as the future of the league and
all this and that, and yet the ACC network didn't even have it live.
They only had it available on a stream and that didn't work. So
unless you were there and you got the stream to or you got the stream
to work somehow for a little while, you didn't even get to hear what
he had to say. And he did say some good things. It sounds
like like, I mean, we played the sound earlier. You know,
he talked about the non conference strength of schedule for the league. He also
discussed how via the portal, there's some really good returning players in college football,
mentioning Louisvill's Colin Lacy. Nobody is returning to college football after having more
receiving yards last year than Colin Lacey, who transferred him from South Alabama.
Cam Ward who was sensational at Washington State. He's now transferred into Miami.
So you know, those are things that you know, you could find that
out without hearing it from the commissioner, But like there needs to be a
little morale boost, right, you need to hear the commissioners say something that
makes you feel good about the league. And I'm convinced personally. For me,
like, I don't know if he can do that. He's just to
me, he's just an empty suit. And you know he's I've never heard
him and felt like this guy's really got it together. Man. He seems
like a great leader. But one guy who does cover the ACC it does
a great job. David Teel. He writes for Richmond. I mean,
he's probably been covering the ACC longer than anybody, and you know he he
works alongside the ACC. I wouldn't say they pay him. I wouldn't say
that he's, you know, not objective, because I think he is.
But his title for Jim Phillips press conference today, like, to me,
it just sounds like you're you're like you sound like the big Oh put it
this way. And I like David Teale. I met him one time at
an AEC basketball tournament. I had him on the show years ago. Seems
like a great man. He does, he does great reporting. But this
headline makes you sound like such an acc honk for Jim Phillips. Let me
read it to you. Performative antics are not Jim Phillips's style, leave such
foolish foolishness to Brett your Mark, Florida State's board of trustees, and Hulk
Hogan. That's like a play on Hulk Cogan last week for Trump and the
board of trustees at FSU being the ones that act as if you know,
Florida State is you know, criminally being held behind by the league, and
ma, I don't think your Mark has done anything other than just you know,
keep the league's name out there, be a little innovative and you know,
I guess he did maybe take a shot at the ACC. But let's
be real. You're getting sued by the two most valuable members of your league.
That's not normal. And that's the thing when it comes back to the
grant of right stuff, it's all on Swaftford, not on Phillips. But
just lie to us, right, instead of just telling people essentially, hey,
everybody, calm down, we're in third place. It could be worse,
we could be in fourth like instead of doing that, like, how
about you say, look, we realize we are behind, and we realize
that our league members are going to be required to have even more revenue,
more money in place than ever because of the House bill that's likely to be
settled soon. So we're going to work like crazy within our league office is
to try to find every revenue opportunity that's out there to make sure we close
that gap and we never stop. Why not say that? I mean again,
that wasn't like a polished pr statement. I just did that off the
cuff. But like I just, I'm so annoyed by the approach to this
being more so, hey, why are you upset we're in third? He
has that mindset instead of just like, hey, look, we get it
and we're gonna keep fighting like crazy to close that gap. Like that's what
your Mark's doing, and he's not gonna do it. Your Mark knows that
they'll always be behind the ACC. I'm sorry, the SEC and the Big
ten. But you know how about last week he said, we're never gonna
stop until we are the best conference in the country. That's what your Mark
said at the Big twelve media days, not last week with the week before.
We all know that's not realistic. But he's gonna keep trying and fighting
for the league. And Jim Phillips is over here acting like people are boohooing
about nothing. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other
side. Wrap this thing up. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thornton's
on Sports Talk seven ninety Some good news here to wrap up the show.
I mean, it's good news if you care about the NBA. But I
think there's a lot of people who don't watch the NBA but have found themselves
tuning in to Inside the NBA with that crew of Chack, Chuck, Kendy
and Ernie, and it seemed as if we were going to no longer have
that because of the new NBA rights deal. However, Front Office Sports is
reporting that TNT's parent company, Warner Brothers, has submitted a matching offer for
the NBA's new eleven year, seventy six billion dollar rights deal with Disney,
NBC Sports, and Amazon. So what they're targeting is Amazon's sea level package.
So they're going to continue to be a part of the NBA if in
fact this works, unless there's a bidding war. I'm not sure if it
gets into that or not, but it just you know, they're not going
to have as much of a of an affiliation with the league, but they'll
still be around and get some games. Therefore, we will still actually have
inside the NBA if all works out, which is good news, good news.
All right, I'll see you guys at Freedom Hall if you're going.
Let's hope they can pull off another victory here. Keep this thing alive,
fingers crossed. And if you can't go, don't forget. You can watch
it on FS one. And have I not mentioned this yet? I didn't
know it, but you know, I knew John Fantu was gonna be on
the call. Fanta is great, but how about David Padgett doing a little
color analyst work. Good to see David. Good to hear him on the
broadcast. I watched the game back the other day. And you know,
again, if you can't make it, you can watch David and John Fantu
on the call. All right, don't go, well, you can go.
You can go where you want. I was gonna say, don't go
anywhere, but you can because we're leaving. We'll be back in twenty one
hours right here on Sports Talk seven ninety