Hard Sweet Tea

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, would you schedule this game? He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation.

He's just completely taking the wind out of my seat. It's time for the drive with Josh Grant. After a brief hiatus and observance of Martin Luther King Day yesterday, we are back on a Tuesday drive. WSJS news talk sports for the Triad. NC State, a huge win against Miami on Saturday. They're in action tonight on the road at Georgia Tech. The North Carolina Tar Heels, do I need to say who they're playing tonight in Chapel Hill?

I don't think I do. Both those games we'll be keeping an eye on. But the biggest game in the ACC tonight is right here in the Triad at the Joel. It is Wake Forest facing 19th ranked Clemson. The Tigers fresh off a win against Duke from over the weekend. Tonight is ripe for a Wake Forest win.

Don't call it an upset because it isn't. You look at Vegas odds they have Wake Forest as a two-point favorite. Ken Palm has Wake Forest winning tonight 78-75. So those who follow the sport closely, those who set lines, they have respect for Wake Forest.

Hopefully after tonight everybody else will have caught up. Tonight could be the best atmosphere that Wake Forest has played in at the Joel all year long. And it's not gonna be because a ton of Clemson fans are coming from upstate South Carolina driving three and a half hours to watch a nine o'clock tip.

No, that's not why it is. This has been growing slowly but gaining momentum over the last month or so. Against Duke I wasn't very optimistic at what the crowd would look like. When I got to that game I was pretty impressed. The lower bowl was not filled full of Duke fans. Three quarters of the fans in the lower bowl were Wake Forest fans and that's without the students in attendance. I thought that was a pretty good crowd. It exceeded my expectations. Didn't think anybody would be there last week when you play a bad FSU team at nine o'clock on a Wednesday night.

I was wrong. The Wake students showed up. W.D., you were there. How would you describe the turnout for Wake Forest against FSU? I was very surprised the students were back. They showed up. They showed out. Very surprised to say the least. So tonight you're playing a team that right now is first in the ACC standings, ranked 19th in the country.

As W.D. mentioned, the students are back. This is a high-level basketball game. I think we're gonna have a great crowd tonight in Winston-Salem.

It's been building. Wake is 27-2 at home over the last two years. 27-2. That's better than anybody in the ACC and it's tied with Kentucky for the best home record across the country over the last two seasons. This was Steve Forbes when I asked him what he expected from tonight's environment after his team beat who, W.D., Saturday night? Boston College.

Here's Coach Forbes. You put yourself in position to play meaningful games. You want to play meaningful games. So here's one. You know, we hope we play more, but here's one. You know, we're five and two. There's still a lot.

I mean, we ain't have to turn yet. So let's, I'm not gonna talk about anything else. Just the fact that this isn't a big game because they're, you know, they're winning the league and they beat us. And, you know, when we got beat by them, we didn't play well in the second half, but I told you guys they were good and everybody kind of, they're good. They're well coached.

They got good players and it'll be a big challenge, but we're looking forward to it. Quietly, Wake Forest might be the best team in the state of North Carolina right now. They have the best offensive efficiency in the ACC according to Ken Palm. They have the best scoring offense in conference play across the entire conference. They might have the best win of anybody out of the core four of the ACC. What win does North Carolina, Duke, or NC State have that's better than winning at Wisconsin the way that Wake did? And they have the best record. Five and two in ACC play thus far. They have the best record out of the ACC Big Four. But I put out the question on social media at Josh Graham Radio. It's also up on our Twitter at WSGS Radio where we're streaming video.

Video also streaming on YouTube and on Twitch. Best team in the state, who is it? Right now 53% of the polls say North Carolina is right now. Wake Forest, despite all those things I just listed off, they're still not getting that respect. They feel like they're, it feels like to me they're in a similar spot that Clemson was in going into the weekend. Where Clemson had all these bona fides but nobody was respecting the Tigers. Then they beat Duke and suddenly they're ranked 19th in the country. Wake Forest still isn't receiving votes into the top 25. Beat Clemson. Beat Virginia this Saturday at the Joel. That's gonna change. I think if Wake wins these next two games they should be ranked in the top 25.

Plain and simple. If they win their next two games. Both of them are at the Joel. It very well could happen. I like Wake Forest to win tonight now that Clemson has come from being the disrespected team to now being the team with the target on its back going on the road. Wake matches up well with Clemson. They played before as Steve Forbes was noting. Wake lost the game by 20 and if you just look at that you'd think well they got run off the floor Josh. Clemson's clearly a better team.

Well consider the details. Wake played at Wisconsin three nights before that. They got back at 2 in the morning and then a day or two later or the next day they're having to ride down to Clemson. It was a terrible turnaround for them to start conference play. They ran out of gas. They were leading at halftime by seven points in this game. They were almost up by double digits at one point. They ran out of gas.

It was a fatigue thing. Clemson also had a kid who's not gonna be playing tonight that hit four threes in the game. Tonight's game's gonna be in Winston-Salem.

So when you factor a lot of that, Damari Monsanto has certainly taken a lot of steps since early December. When you factor all of that in it sets up well for Wake who's not gonna be bothered by the size of PJ Hall and what Clemson throws at him. Tonight is ripe for a Wake-Forest win. Don't call it an upset because that's not what it is. But Wake gets a big win tonight against the Clemson Tigers. On Twitter at WSJSradio 336-777-1600 if you want in. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show.

However and wherever you're listening we certainly appreciate that. Now let's get to the latest on the Carolina Panthers coaching search. Yesterday.

Was it yesterday or was it two days ago? We learned that Sean Payton is going to be interviewing with the Carolina Panthers. As soon as I learned that piece of info I had this thought. It's time to start accepting Steve Wilks is not going to get the Panthers job. It's not fair. I think he deserves it.

I think he'd be the right guy. But when you start looking at the details of what's happened over the last week and Steve Wilks interviewed a week ago it's not going to happen for Steve. Because since then they're interviewing a dozen or so candidates for the job. Like Scott Denver said initially this was going to be a short list.

It's been far from that. Dozen or so more candidates they've talked to. Many of them are comically unqualified when compared to Steve Wilks. Looking at you Ben Johnson, looking at you Ken Dorsey, looking at you Mike Kafka. First year offensive coordinators. The fact that they're interviewing all these guys when they know they already have Steve Wilks who would take the job who was so qualified I think is telling. They believe there are better former head coaches out there. Sean Payton, Jim Caldwell, Frank Reich. All of them offensive minded coaches.

I said it a week ago I still feel this way. I think it's gonna end up being Frank Reich and it's gonna be underwhelming because I would hire Steve Wilks over hiring Frank Reich but I think that's where we're headed. And there might be a belief in the building this is not based on any info it's just a guess. They might be able to keep Wilks on staff as an assistant.

They still might believe that. I don't know if Wilks will go for it but remember there's no salary cap on coaching salaries. So if David Tepper wanted to pay Steve Wilks like a head coach to be a defensive coordinator nothing stopping him from doing that as long as that's the understanding with the head coach that he hires. Remember Wilks, no other team has invited him to interview for a job. Not for a head coaching job. His assistants have been requested for DC openings like Al Holcomb but not Steve Wilks.

I think it's time to start accepting that that's where this is going to end up right or wrong. Let's go to Ed in Winston-Salem. First call of the week and I got a feeling Ed wants to talk about North Carolina recruiting. Anytime there's a big commitment for North Carolina basketball Ed always seems to call in so Ed go right ahead. Yes sir I saw I'm sure you saw where Ian Jackson 6'5 wing player just committed. Number two player in the country. Yes yes number two in the country and also you're probably aware of this also Elliott Cadeau just recently committed a number one point guard in the country and then they got James Brown a 6'10 center top 30 player from the state of Illinois and then one local kid Drake Powell 6'6 wing top 50 player and they're involved with three other guys that are top 10 players. So I just like to give a shout out to Hubert and his staff and like I say it's early we don't know how these guys are going to turn out but right now he's on you know a very good recruiting class maybe the number one recruiting class for 24 and I hope it's Harry Olson that can keep their home streak you know going tonight against the Boston College and thank you for taking my call. Yeah Ed okay I appreciate the shout out for what Hubert's done. What's really cool to broaden that. Boston College.

Thank you. What's really cool to broaden that though is we're lucky to be in a state where you have four teams and four fan bases that are feeling pretty good about where they're at right now. Everybody wanted to fire Kevin Keats after last year. You think state fans are feeling that way right now? Watching the way that the pack have been competing and what Keats was able to pull in in the portal DJ Burns and Jarkel Joiner.

Nah they're pretty happy. Wake Forest their coach of the year Steve Forbes and how competitive they've been the most competitive they've been in a dozen years. Duke not meeting their standard right now but it's a first-year coach.

Everybody's dogging John Shire when at this point last year Hubert had lost more games than John Shire had at this point and we saw how it turned out for Hubert and what you're talking about Ed is true and John Shire's recruiting is very good. So if you're a Tar Heel fan, if you're a Blue Devil fan, if you're a Deacon fan, if you're a state fan, a lot of reasons to feel pretty good right now. All four are very competitive and I put out this stat on social media earlier today. All four teams have a chance to make the NCAA tournament this year. Since the tourney expanded to 64 in 1985 that's only happened three times. You got to go to 91 when both Duke and North Carolina made it to the Final Four. You got to go to 2004 when Duke made it to the Final Four.

2005 when North Carolina won the national championship. Is that foreshadowing when all four are good? You have at least one of them ending up in the Final Four? Let's hope so but it certainly is pretty exciting to follow. Hey Triad this is Rich Eisen. Catch me this evening at 6 for the Rich Eisen show.

Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. End of the week I'll go up to New York. I'll have a chance to visit with Mr. Tepper in Carolina.

Straight from the horse's mouth. That was Sean Payton in Los Angeles sitting down with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and according to several reports out in LA he met with the Houston Texans last night. He set to meet with the Denver Broncos out in LA.

Today the Panthers conversation will be in New York as he noted with Mr. Tepper. The question that needs to be asked is Sean Payton worth the headache for the Carolina Panthers? Is it worth everything it would cost them to bring him in from a football perspective?

It would be splashy. You would win the press conference. You would capture the attention of the NFL if you're Tepper and I'm sure that does matter to him. But in terms of winning and achieving your goal of winning a Super Bowl and getting this organization where it needs to go, does Sean Payton accomplish that?

I personally don't think he's worth the headache. For one, he would command more power than any other candidate that Carolina talks to. If Matt Ruhle got final say on personnel, you don't think that Sean Payton's going to get that? Matt Ruhle got a seven-year contract?

You don't think Sean Payton's going to ask, well why can't we get that? I've done a lot more than Matt Ruhle has. I won a Super Bowl as a head coach. You want me to coach against the team I'm a legend of? A legend for?

Twice a year? You're gonna offer me less than what you paid Matt Ruhle? Good luck with that. Personally, I think a team is run best when you have a clear front office to coaching staff power structure that's in place. Where the owner obviously is the boss, but the general manager has his role in selecting the players, and the coach has a relationship with a GM, certainly has input but does not have final say on personnel. Sean Payton's probably not going to go for anything less than, I want final say on personnel. And he has a resume that he can dictate that to teams. I'm saying I don't think that's worth it for the Panthers. He's also the only candidate that would cost you draft picks. Now what does that compensation look like? Well, here's Sean Payton again from that conversation with Colin Cowherd. I think each team would be a little different. Mickey Loomis and I have talked already about it. I think ultimately the compensation for the Saints would be a mid or later first round pick. Okay.

Now we can arrive at that in a lot of different ways. Okay, so a first round pick next year? Would you be cool with that? Hey, give away a first round draft pick for next year and you can hire Sean Payton while also giving him final say on personnel and giving him a boatload of money.

Would you go for that? There are few coaches that I think are worth a first round draft pick for you to give up. And I'm not convinced Sean Payton's one of those coaches because I'm old enough to remember George Seifert.

Again, this is what's puzzling to me. How quickly we forget things. Two years ago the Panthers had an offensive coordinator people thought was a shoo-in to be a future head coach and Joe Brady, oh this guy's a wonder kind. Oh man, the Panthers have this star. He's getting interviews for head coaching jobs. Less than a year after that he's fired by the Panthers. Yet Carolina is hiring the hot first-year offensive coordinators for their head coaching opening? When they have Steve Wilks who will take the job? Why are they interviewing Ben Johnson, Mike Kafka, and Ken Dorsey? If they hire one of those three men I will lose it. That, that would be a horrific look for Carolina if they hired any of those three coaches.

And David Tepper would have a lot of questions to answer if he should do that. But how quickly can we forget just the Joe Brady situation a couple of years ago? And when it comes to Sean Payton, Josh, come on, he was a head coach for a Super Bowl team. George Seifert won two Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers. But it turns out when Carolina brought George Seifert in to be their coach, they didn't get Steve Young or Joe Montana with them.

And what happened? He was 16 and 32 over three years including a 1 in 15 Marcus final season. Now am I saying that Sean Payton's gonna go 16 for 32?

No, that's not what I'm saying will happen. But it is pretty clear that Sean Payton's entire tenure with the Saints coincided with a Hall of Fame quarterback's career in Drew Brees. And W.D., last year he didn't have Drew Brees and what happened?

Eight and nine. In fact, if you look at the years he had with Drew Brees, there was a stretch in which he won, he had losing seasons in four out of five years with Drew Brees. It is prime. Four out of five years had losing seasons. And you want me to believe it's worth not only should they hire this coach, but you need to give them say on personnel and a fat contract and a first round draft pick to hire this dude? No. I'm out.

I'm out. It's not worth it to me. It's not worth the headache. You know what is worth the headache, though, W.D.?

Do tell. The big news of the day. Oh yeah.

Bojangles, in March of this year, in a partnership with Appalachian Mountain Brewery, going to create Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea. I had a feeling we might get to this. It's biggest news of the day, frankly. I'm surprised we haven't already gotten to it. Does this mean at hospitality, ACC media days? Hey, March, ACC tournament in Greensboro, there are gonna be some hard sweet teas available?

There better be. Gotta figure that one out. Jim Phillips? The least he can do. Listen. Listen to me. You might not know my name, but you do know that Bojangles matters around here. And if you get some Bo's Hard Sweet Tea, there's some who don't know what I'm talking about right now. No, there was a release today that Bojangles and Appalachian Mountain Brewery are creating Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea. That's gonna be Bojangles Sweet Tea mixed with alcohol. And they're gonna come in this pack that looks like a Bo box. Oh, man. What more could you ask for? Great marketing. Late March, 2023. It's gonna be a 12 pack.

12 pack of 12 ounce cans and individual 16 ounce cans that you can buy. You in on this? They will not be sold at Bojangles restaurants, but will be sold at participating retailers in North Carolina and South Carolina, Circle K, QT, Sheets, Spins, Harris Teeter Lowes, Walmart, Food Lion, and a few other independent stores. You in on this? You gonna have some?

No. You're what? I don't like Bojangles Sweet Tea. I'm not a sweet tea guy though. This is not me saying sweet teas garbage or anything like that. People like what they like.

I don't like sweet tea. But if they if this is successful and they could figure out how to do a hard lemonade because they got the pink lemonade that they give away too, all in on that. I can tell you right now, this is going to be successful. I can just feel it.

In North Carolina? Oh yeah. I'm looking at these cans.

They are perfect. It looks like the Bojangles cup and... Oh it's gonna crush. It's gonna be so good. What's it say on the can here? At the end of the day, Jeff. Oh say hey Jim. What's up, Jim?

Jim Phillips. That's him calling me. Yeah. Not by my name. Yep.

At the end of the day, Jeff. It says, stepped like we mean it. That's what it says.

Does it say anything on the outside of this case too? I'm looking at it. How do we feel about Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea?

336-777-1600. When's the best time to whip out a Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea? I mean, it is tricky because most people, like they get their Bojangles and they're carrying around a cup like at work, but you can't... Because this is my issue. Sweet Tea doesn't really go together with alcohol, does it? Is there precedent for this? Sure it does. No, like it doesn't really seem like the people that would be drinking alcohol are the same people that are pounding Bojangles Sweet Tea all the time. I disagree. It seems like you want one or the other, not the two together.

Oh no. When you want a Sweet Tea is not the same time you want an alcoholic beverage. I'm telling you right now, the people that do... Am I wrong on this?

336-777-1600. If I'm wrong, I'll wear it, but I've never seen somebody say I've got a tough decision to make. I either want Bojangles Sweet Tea or I want to crush some brews right now or I want to crush some alcoholic beverages.

Now that's just my observation. Again, not a big sweet tea guy. If you want to put out the pink lemonade, hard lemonade Bojangles, I'm all in. That sounds refreshing, that sounds like a good time, but that's just my read on the hard sweet tea. Who am I talking to?

I think Andy in High Point has some thoughts on this. Andy, real quick, what do you got? So there's two times for a Bojangles hard sweet tea. The first time, after you mow the lawn. Yes.

You can't tell me that wouldn't crush. The second time is when you're celebrating the Panthers hiring Sean Payne. All right, thanks for the call, Andy. That's right on point when you're talking about getting done with chores.

You're mowing the lawn, you just did something outdoors, you're sweating a little bit. I want some refreshment. I want Hayes Permore's thoughts on this. And in addition to that, I want some alcohol too.

And yes, Permore would be a good person to talk to about it. Just got to lock down and defend. Beat hot.

Six fan of Carolina basketball. Got it out the mud, Dot. How was my execution last week with grammar school? Perfect.

Perfect. I mean, it was accurate seeing that Duke was down at the half and they literally had to get it out the mud in that second half to get a dub. And for you to go in there and just flawlessly execute that, Josh, I'm telling you man, I was more impressed with that than I was with the RJ because this one really fit the situation and you just flow with it and you could tell by the response. That was the Greek Whitehead, right?

The Greek Whitehead from Duke last week after the win against Head. Yes, you could tell by his response. Like, he was all bought in. He didn't view it as a segment.

He didn't view it as this white guy talking weird. It was just conversation. We got it out the mud. We did, bro.

Great job. B. Dot, we got grammar school to do in a bit, but I want to get your thought on this poll question I put out earlier asking who the best team in the state of North Carolina is. I know you were gonna say North Carolina and that's a good argument to make if you, there is definitely an argument to make for the Tar Heels, but I'm more interested in how you would rank the teams one through four as of right now. Duke, Carolina, NC State, and Wake Forest, because to me it seems like all four are kind of close to each other right now.

There are marginal differences and that to me is a very interesting thing to follow over the next couple of months. How would you rank those four? I think I would go, of course, us first.

Just very biased, but because I do agree with you. I feel like that it's very close, but I'm gonna pick us first. I feel like we have more weapons. I like what Duke is doing over there with the size, but I just don't buy in yet, but I still put them at two. NC State has been rolling. You're gonna put Duke over NC State even after state beat him by 24?

Yeah. And Wake, I think Wake won, what did Wake win by? Wake beat Duke by 11, but that was in camera, or excuse me, that was in the Joel. I think I'm a little biased on baby T and NC State right now, which is why I'm gonna put them at four, but I really don't rock with Coach Forbes, but because Davian is over there, I'll put them at three.

So I'll go us, Duke, Wake, NC State. Understood. Now let's get into grammar school.

Josh Graham has his own way of speaking. And just when you think it can't get any worse, Josh is going to attempt to learn B-Dots vernacular. I'm gonna put one in the air. It's time for B-Dots grammar school brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. Heritage Hardwood Floors, man, right over there at Winston-Salem State University. You can go check out the basketball floor over there. You talk about the best schools and basketball programs in North Carolina, Winston-Salem State University should be on that list, Josh. Heritage Hardwood Floors. Now with the framing of the question I put on Twitter, I said, what's the best basketball team in the state?

Some folks were firing off at me. Men's teams, you mean? Because Duke's really good in the women's side, UNC one. And then I clapped back with, well, if you want to exploit my phrasing, you might as well just say the Charlotte Hornets since I didn't specify college, but then I remembered the Hornets probably aren't as good as some of the teams in college. The Hornets got 11 wins. And nah, not gonna talk about the Hornets. But this is grammar school brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors.

Heritage Hardwood Floors. Capsule freaking loot. And yes, this is season three. You just saw that Josh got a satisfactory grade when he was in the field using the phrase, get it out the mud. You did very good, Josh Graham. And we have a phrase for you to use this week. What's that? Want the smoke.

You can use it however. Do you want the smoke? Did they want the smoke? Do y'all want the smoke? Who wants the smoke? Does anybody want the smoke with y'all?

However you want to use it, but you have to use want the smoke somewhere in a press conference before next Wednesday. All right, got that written down. We'll see what we can do. I'll be at Clemson Wake Forest tonight, see if I can work that in. I've got a Caulkastic question for you.

Caulkastic, let's go. What is Brooks and Dunn? What is Brooks and Dunn? Yeah, this is something we were talking about.

What did he do? Brooks and Dunn. I thought you said what has Brooks and Dunn.

I thought it was a guy named Brooks and who had done something. Brooks and Dunn. Is Brooks and Dunn, are they any kin to Brooks and Dunn? Because if they are, then I can find out what Brooks and Dunn has done.

It is related to music. Brooks and Dunn is a band, a band that WD likes. What are the bands that WD likes?

WD didn't know what it was earlier today. Alright, so it's not a band that WD likes. Brooks and Dunn is a folk band. It's a country band, close enough.

That close enough? Do I get a country for folk? Turn me up. Brooks and Dunn. Brooks and Dunn. That's what I said, Brooks and Dunn.

We got a DeMarco Dunn. Do you think Brooks and Dunn is any relation to DeMarco Dunn? Garrison Brooks and DeMarco Dunn?

No, I don't think Ronnie Brooks is related at all. It's where I first met Mary. Really bad Brooks and Dunn impression there. Throw a couple of us, we'll introduce you to Brooks and Dunn later down the road. That red dirt road.

What is the first thing you got for me? Josh, what is a goon? G-O-O-N. What is a goon?

I know in hockey, a goon is like a big oafish type player that you'll throw out there to fight people. You want to, what was the word I introduced you to, by the way, over the weekend? Chocked full of. Yeah, I said the state was, I said the Bengals were chocked full of North Carolina guys and you hadn't heard anybody say that. Like, chocked full of nuts. It was chocked full of guys who got it out the mud and you put in like, yeah, you saw that?

Pretty good. I'm gonna say a goon is like, I don't want to say loser. Let's say like just this oafish bully type figure but not really known to be smart. Yeah, that's fair. I'll give you that.

See, I gave you Brooks and Dunn as a folk band, so I deserve that. Absolutely. It's a low ranking member of a gang usually. Usually the goon is like just the muscle, goes out there and he's the one who'll take the fall for him and stuff, you know. So the guy who fired a shot at Omar Epps's character, that was a goon acting on behalf of Tupac? Yes, that was one of Tupac's goons. At the end of Juice.

Yes, at the end of Juice. See, that's application. That's application. He was a goon. The fact that you're using their real names when referencing them was throwing me off. I forgot their names.

Second word, Josh Graham. Oh, the guy who was the goon was, um, shoot. He was in, remember the Titans? He was the one, no, no, no, the goon that shot at Omar Epps was the linebacker across from Gary Bertier and remember the Titans. Left side, strong side.

Left side, strong side. You ever seen him over the Titans? That was you applying your caustic qualities into the urban sector of grammar school, so that still works for the segment. We're confusing WD, he's seen none of these things. I've seen Juice. You've seen Juice?

I have seen Juice. Actually, you impressed me a bit. What's next? Alright, up next, what is Trill? T-R-I-L-L. Now, Trill is the combination of two words. If you can tell me what those two words are that makes the word Trill, I'll give you a buzzer for that.

Or if you can tell me what Trill means, I will give you a correct buzzer for that. Trap and Thrill. Trap and Thrill.

It's a thrill when you're trapping, is what you're saying. Yeah, that's probably not right. Is that your final answer? Sure. Incorrect. But I know about Trillville. See, Trillville, you know about their music? Uh-huh.

You're ridiculous. Trill is the combination of two words, Josh Graham, true and real. That means Trill. Okay. Okay? Originated really in the South of Texas. It means well respected. Somebody who's Trill is well respected.

Josh, you have to get this last one correct in order to get a satisfactory grade today. Do you understand that? I understand. And I didn't know if I was gonna be able to do this because we're doing this, but because we're doing it visually, I can.

So this will work. When you see a basketball player throw this sign up... Oh, the three goggles? What does that mean? Three goggles means... No, not three goggles. When they hit you. When they cover their eyes?

Yeah. But they're like, just look at the goggles right there, just put up. What do the goggles mean?

Goggles. Do it again. That's great. I wish you guys could screen grab that.

I'll see what I can do. Yeah. What's that mean?

This right here. Not the threes. The goggles.

I'm so confused. I just thought that was three goggles because you have three fingers up in the air. I'm getting your threes up.

I keep telling you. Not the three goggles. These. These. Those. What is that? What does that mean? The binoculars. I guess that means I'm locked in. Like I'm looking at you. I got you. In your eye hole. That's what I want.

A player does the goggles when he's locked in. Correct. That's the final answer. Sure.

That is incorrect. No! For an assist, Josh Graham. I saw you, bro. Boom.

I dropped that dime. A no-look. Hit you with the goggles.

You know why? Because I saw you, bro. An assist. Point to the passer. Point to the passer. That's what we do at Carolina, too.

But you'll see Caleb out there and he'll daggone drop a no-look to Mondo and then you'll see him hit them goggles. You know why? Because I saw you, big fella. I saw you. Not my best showing. But I'll try to bring it. I'll try to bring it. You've had three episodes this season. You're satisfactory in one. Next week, I want that smoke. That's what I'm talking about. Get warmed up, my boy. Carolina, B.C.

Go out and see B.Dot. Seven o'clock tonight. Hopefully you run into more people in the bathroom who are fans of the show. That's always awesome. And they're wondering how in the hell am I here when they just were listening to me in the car. That's always the best experience.

Yeah. So if you listen to the show, say hi to B.Dot. He always does.

He always enjoys that. All right, Dot. Have fun tonight. We'll talk to you next week. Let's go. Go Cowboys.

The Drive with Josh Graham, only on WSJS. ACC basketball rankings on the way. Maybe we get the latest news from Bojangles as well.

You're not going to want to miss that. But first, a word from our our friends at Modern Chevrolet. We've been telling you about them for a while. And one of the key things that we keep coming back to is family. And that's something that's used as a bit of a cliche sometimes. But you kind of get the sense of family atmospheres and businesses the moment you walk into the building. The fact that people know each other because they've been there for long periods of time, 10 years, 15, 20, maybe even more than that.

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The Modern Chevrolet difference. This was the hardest ACC basketball rankings we had to do so far. We call it critically acclaimed. We go 10 through one, the top 10 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference in basketball. So as I spell that out on the front end, feel free to tell me where I'm wrong as we go through this list here. Let's get it started. And we begin with number 10, Virginia Tagg. The Hokies have lost five straight games. They are one and five in ACC play. You know who that one win was against?

North Carolina back in December when Armando Bacot was out of the lineup. Virginia Tagg has hit a rough stretch in the season, but I wouldn't completely write them off because they had a really good out of conference. And some of the analytics and net numbers favor the Hokies. So there still is a chance that Mike Young's team can have a turnaround.

Number nine. Speaking of teams you can never write off, the Syracuse Orange. Came close against Virginia a couple weeks ago. Last night, razor thin against Miami, the entire game.

Miami holds on to win by four. It's hard to see the path for Syracuse into the NCAA tournament, but you're talking about Jim Boeheim. And you're talking about Joe Girard III, who feels like he's been there for ten years. Jesse Edwards and Judah Mintz, who's made a lot of big plays. Can't really write off Syracuse yet either.

There they are. Number nine in the ranking. Number eight. Pittsburgh. Won at NC State. Beat Virginia on its home floor. They're a legitimate team, but lost to Duke.

Blowing a 10 point lead going into the second half or an 11 point lead. They have decent wins and they even got some on the road. Beat Northwestern by a ton.

Who isn't any good? Northwestern's never good. They won on the road at NC State. That's, as I mentioned, a really good win. Almost won at Vanderbilt.

Almost doesn't really help you so much when you get the tourney time. Pitt's going to be on the bubble. Good basketball team legit was impressed with what I saw up close. They have some players that might be among the most fun players in the league.

Blake Henson comes to mind, for example. This Pitt team is to be taken seriously, but I can't rank them much higher than eight. Number seven. Duke. Beat Dick. Beat Duke. Beat Pitt.

Excuse me. Head to head. Last week. Could speak today.

Feels like a Monday, but it's Tuesday. When you have the head to head meeting, that has to count for something, doesn't it? So Duke beating Pitt. They still have such a high ceiling. They just need to get Jeremy Roach back. How much do you punish Duke for losing games that it's been at the expense of not having Jeremy Roach?

I don't know how you balance that. I have the Blue Devils at seven. Number six. NC State. Again, they beat Duke head to head. They beat Miami on Saturday in overtime. Their last three wins are against, in order, Duke, Virginia Tech, with Virginia Tech being on the road and the Canes. That's a really hot stretch, but do we just forget about NC State's loss at home against Pittsburgh a month ago? Do we just forget about some of the close wins or close losses that they've had?

I don't know. The PAX resume, it's good, but they still have to earn my trust in games like tonight and prove that you can go to Georgia Tech when everyone's expecting you to win and do just that. NC State is essentially the 26th ranked team in the country.

They have the most votes and the others receiving votes category. They're right there on the borderline of being ranked. Ranked teams supposed to win at Georgia Tech. We'll see if NC State passes that test, but until they do that, I'm still hesitant to trust them completely.

Number five. North Carolina. Carolina nearly beat Virginia last week without Pete Nance nor Armando Bacott who went down a minute into the game. They fought throughout that entire game. They still have a lot of areas to grow. We need to see more from Seth Trimble, see more from Jalen Washington, maybe more from Demarco Dunn. Is he going to be part of the rotation? We will see. Puff Johnson, you name it.

Some of those ancillary parts. But it impressed me that they went into Louisville and from end to end won the way a good basketball team is supposed to. Even though it wasn't in Chapel Hill, they won their first road game of the year.

That's a really positive step. I want to see NC State do something similar tonight at Georgia Tech. North Carolina has Boston College tonight. That should be a game as well.

They have no problems. Number four. Wake Forest.

That's right. Right now, I would take Wake Forest over any team in the state of North Carolina. If it was a neutral floor right now on Tuesday, January 17th, I would take Wake Forest over North Carolina, NC State or Duke.

They were going head to head. They have the best offensive efficiency in the ACC, the best scoring average in ACC play among any team. They have the best record of the North Carolina schools. And they have the best win of the bunch, too. I don't think any win that North Carolina, Duke or NC State has is as good as Wake Forest going on the road to beat Wisconsin at Kohl Center. They beat Duke by 11. So even though they've been disrespected and no one wants to talk about them because they're little all Wake Forest, this team deserves the respect. They deserve to be in the spot right now with the designation best team in the state of North Carolina.

Number three. Miami. Yes, they lost to NC State in Raleigh, but they have decent road wins at other places. They split with NC State back in December. They beat Providence.

That's ranked, was ranked at the top 25. They still have all these guards. Think about everything that had to happen in order for Miami to lose that game. Miami just has dudes all over the place. They made it to the Elite Eight.

They deserve the benefit of the doubt. That's what we're going to give Miami in this spot. That was a really high level basketball game that State won with a great environment and I was happy for them. But Miami does not have a terrible loss yet this year. Actually, they lost at Georgia Tech, but we give Miami the benefit of the doubt. Number two.

Number two. Clemson unbeaten in ACC play, decent road wins at Pitt and Virginia Tech. But tonight is a great opportunity at Wake Forest. Again, it's going to be without Chase Hunter in the lineup.

That's a pretty big deal for the Tigers. He is not their leading scorer, by the way. That would be Hunter Tyson and P.J. Hall that are in front of him.

But no Chase Hunter. They're starting point guard tonight. They don't have the strongest out of conference schedule, which is why they weren't ranked for as long as they were. I still think they deserve to be ranked last week. Right now, they're 19th in the country. When you're first place in the ACC, you belong pretty high up in the rankings, but you're not number one because.

Number one. That's still the Virginia Cavaliers. Virginia.

They. Here are their three losses this year, W.D. Narrowly at home against Houston at Miami at Pittsburgh. Not terrible.

No, not getting run any of any of those games either. They're still the most trustworthy team. They still have the best wins in the non-conference. Clemson lost at South Carolina, who's not good in the non-conference. Virginia beat Baylor, Illinois and Michigan in the non-conference. So they're the best team in the ACC. That's been critically acclaimed this week for those following my ranking of the North Carolina schools. Wake Forest 1, North Carolina 2, NC State 3, Duke 4, and I had them in order 4 through 7 because I really struggled to separate those four.

Like they feel like they are clumped together and trying to separate them is such a difficult thing to do. And I can't remember that ever being the case as long as I followed ACC basketball, certainly since the league has expanded. And I brought up this note on social media earlier today. And we have this poll question that you can vote on. Who's the best team in the state of North Carolina right now?

Looking at the results of that poll currently. 47% say North Carolina, 30% Wake, 20% NC State, only 3% say Duke. All four of these teams could potentially make the NCAA tournament.

It's an exciting time for Carolina basketball. That has not happened. All four making the tournament. That has not happened since 2005. And it's only happened three times since the tournament expanded to 64 in 1985. 91, 2004, and 2005. And this is right after all four of the big four in football went to a bowl game, which never happened in the same season before until this year.

And you might have in basketball. So it really is a great time to be a fan of all of these teams. If you're a state fan, Duke fan, Carolina fan, Wake Forest fan.

A lot of things to be really, really excited about. This is not unexpected news. But Wake Forest is going to be without Ja Tuka for the remainder of the season. If that name sounds familiar, he was the transfer from Marist that came in with three years remaining of eligibility. Average 15 a game at Marist.

Steve Forbes yesterday said that this might be an option. You look at medically redshirting him. Only played in six games this year.

And that's big. Maybe the second player. And Forbes says that he's going to have surgery on Friday.

They put out in a release. Ja Tuka is the second player they've redshirted this year with three years remaining of eligibility. Robert McCray was the other one. And if you're following the development of a guy like Cam Hildreth or like Matthew Marsh from one year to the next, it should excite you what another year in the program under great coaching like Steve Forbes could do for a guy like McCray who is incredibly athletic and bouncy. And Ja Tuka who has already proven at one level of D1 that he could score 15 a game. He wasn't getting on the floor right now. So this might be best for him.

Get completely healthy 100%. And when you come back with three years of eligibility, you're going to have every opportunity possible because Ty Appleby is not going to be here next year. And Davian Williamson is not going to be here. So they're going to need somebody along with Cam Hildreth and Damari Monsanto to man things in that backcourt. And it might be Ja Tuka. So that's a note I wanted to pass along.