Welcome to the A. C. C. Panic room alongside Lauren Brownlow. I'm joe obvious and coach K taking his last trip to chapel Hill to take on north Carolina on saturday. Nothing special, Nothing commemorative, there won't be bourbon. There won't be, you know, something from alexander Julian given to coach K. A new suit in retirement. No peter miller quarters. It from Roy Williams as it should be. I, I agree. Just play the game and keep it moving well. I mean, you know, they talked about it the other day after one of the press conferences because I guess they've been being asked about that Carolina had been and they were like, look, we, we talked to him, we talked to Duke. It's cool. Like we're gonna, and they did say that they were gonna, you know, kind of give him a special introduction before, you know, honoring him mentioning it's his last game and stuff like that. Um, but that's what, you know, that's what they all agreed upon. So it's all good. They even, I think it was steve kirchner UNC sports information. And he even pointed out that I think like when they got to 1000 wins, they got him a plaque and all this stuff. He's like, it's cool. We, we talked, we're cool. It's funny you mentioned that plaque when they got to 1000 wins because that happened at the smith center, fans weren't having that. And I don't think, I don't think fans are in the mood for any of that this season either. Given the way that north Carolina has been playing, which we'll get to here in a second after their win at Louisville. But I can see where north Carolina fans just wouldn't be in the mood to commemorate mike Yastrzemski in any way, shape or form. Um what we saw last Saturday against NC state, that's what they want to do. They want to celebrate Roy, they want to celebrate 1982. I don't want to give candy love and I love that. I respect that. That's how it should be. Yeah, I mean it was, I believe the all time great Jeff Bzdelik that said, yeah, you give respect by showing no respect. And I think north Carolina did that against NC State. Those are words to live by. Those are words to live by. Alright, so let's um, let's look at these two teams going into the game looking completely different. Duke goes to Notre dame where the irish have been playing really good basketball and they've been really good at home and they get Trevor keels back and defensively Duke did the thing and I know this is gonna sound kind of, I'm not, it's not a backhanded compliment to do because I do think they actually play defense. But we do wait, Duke differently from the other teams in this iteration of the A. C. C. Because man, there's just not a lot of good defense being played in the sec in general, Duke does it. So it's almost refreshing to see it when they play, It doesn't always mean they dominate. It just means that, hey, this is something that a lot of teams are not used to seeing in the A. C. C. Up until they played Duke. Yeah. And I think I think it's more so than the defense. It's having a strength that is consistent. If that makes sense. That's not to say that they haven't been had on that end of the floor from time to time. The Miami game comes to mind fsc you a little bit, but they still play hard defensively they can still change the game defensively even if they're struggling a little bit. And that's the thing is is in this league especially. And you know, even just talking about Carolina, for instance, in contrast, you can't count on almost anything consistently even in the same game from them, much less like from game to game. And so I think that part of it has been what's refreshing for me when it comes to do because that, you know that they're going to give you all they have on the defensive end and then more often than not it's going to make a big difference. Of course the problem for the problem for Duke is that sometimes I feel like it's kind of reminds me of the Zion Williamson RJ Barrett year where they're so talented that I think sometimes they get away from just feeding who should be getting the ball. Uh in this case, I feel like paolo Bancario should be the guy in close games that should continue to be fed the ball. He's their most dynamic player, he's their best player. But we saw that in the RJ Zion year there, you know, including the loss in the NC double A tournament where I think they forgot that. No, no, no, I get that. Barrett going into the season was supposed to be the guy, but Zion was clearly the guy all year long. Give him the ball, you know, as Julia likes to say die with your fastball and I do think that Duke is still kind of learning that and to their, you know, in their defense, it is still just early. I mean we just got into february and I think this is going to be an interesting turning of the season for Duke going forward because this is traditionally when Mike Yastrzemski starts to understand, look, this is when you're supposed to start getting better, this is when you're supposed to be who you are and I didn't come back for a short tournament run. I came back because I believe this group is special enough to potentially get to the final four. So we shall see how Duke starts to play on saturday, which then gets to the flip side of this. I know I'm self aware when I talk about north Carolina this season. I feel like I've been soft on Carolina this team this year. I feel like I'm looking for reasons to believe that they've turned some kind of corner or there's some sort of development. So I present this to you Lauren, you tell me if I'm crazy. Let's strip the N. C. State game out of this conversation because I think we all understood that saturday was one of these special days with the roi stuff Jordan in the house, the opponent, Everything else. You look at the Virginia tech win the boston college win and then last night's win against Louisville, they all have one thing in common to me, North Carolina wasn't all that great throughout the game, but they still found ways to win. They overcame bad shooting. They overcame some defensive lapses. They did not wilt like we've seen, especially at Louisville yesterday didn't do this on the road. So they've got this four game winning streak. It hasn't been pretty, but I do think it builds confidence and they've been consistently good at home against bad competition. The question now is can they do this against superior roster talent with duke on saturday? Yeah, I mean they're good enough. That's the thing with them. Is that one thing we do know about them and it's not a constant from night to night. It's not, but we know that their offensive ceiling is pretty high. Like they are a very good offensive team. They're not perfect offensively, but they're pretty good. They're a really good shooting team. Um, they're not as good necessarily scoring inside unless it's baked hot. But they're, I mean they just have a bunch of different guys on the court at any given time that can shoot from three and that's a big asset to have the problem for them. I think it's just look at it and it remains true. I think it remains true. They go as Caleb love goes like, like the the only reason I'm not trying okay, this is gonna sound overly simplistic and I don't mean it as a personal attacks Caleb love, okay, I don't, but the only reason they almost lost that game or the big reason was because of his play down the stretch. That's not to say he can't, he still hit a big shot in overtime, like he hit some big shots. And the thing about Caleb love, that's both good and bad is that it seems almost like his shooting confidence at least is not deterred when he's been missing them. The problem is I think the quality of his shots goes way down when he's missing, he starts pressing, he starts panicking and when he got that ball taken from him at the end of the game, like he is a sophomore, he has almost completed his second year, like the lack of awareness and that's always the thing with him. You see him do special things on the basketball court from time to time. Really special things, but every now and then and this was true his freshman year to even later in the year he would do things that you're like, okay, yeah, what's going on here man? What's going on? Yeah. And and the thing is it goes beyond last night's game. He hasn't been good, he hasn't been here, He's been in a slump, which means he'll make like all of his shots against Duke like he did last year I guess. Yeah, I mean who knows scalable does have a tendency where he has played well against Duke wearing these marquee games like absurdly well more so than he had been playing going into it. That's the other part. But if you look at this four game win streak they've won in spite of Caleb loves shooting woes. But you know, there's been some other aspects of this have been positives. Whereas Caleb love you watch and you go, what the hell are you doing dude, leaky black has added another element to his game in this four game winning streak. He's not one to take threes, He learned that lesson, but slowly there's been some confidence there and he's not filling it up. But you know what last night, he was three for three from beyond the arc in that win over NC State like everybody got threes, he's not doing the most when it comes to threes, he's just contributing when needed, hitting big shots when needed. I think in these four wins, he's at least hit a three. So that's a positive development for north Carolina going into this game because again they're gonna need everybody to be playing their best against a superior roster and shout out to lady last night and postgame. He talked about how he'd been dealing with anxiety um and that he, his therapist and Jackie manual both have been kind of working with him on that and he's kind of turned a corner in the last couple of weeks and that's why I think he's crediting that at least with part of his improvement. And you know, I thought it was interesting last night too and I think maybe you know, humor even admitted last night. I thought this was interesting that he's kind of, you know, he's learning lessons as he goes, this is his first year as head coach. And he was talking about how he was talking to them in the time out, huddled towards the end and he was reminding them that this is fun and that he could sense that their mood, you know, was able to shift a little bit. And the guys all talked after the game about how much fun it was, it was not a game. I would characterize watching it as fun, but they were just kind of like they're in this high stakes situation. It's an A. C. C. Road game, they've got a chance to win it. That's how hubert kind of rallied and he said he's like, this is fun, we're in overtime on the road in sec play like, let's lean into this, let's embrace it, let's just have a good time. And that's hard to do when you play for a program like north Carolina. But I think, I think that approach has helped them a little bit and and sort of, it's like a mix of, you know, bad cop and good cup all from the same head coach, you know, so, so north Carolina is not going to break out all the, all the, the pop and circumstance for this game there, is there anybody else that can honor, you know, is there, I don't know, can they bring hands burrow back for something? I mean, I know for the game I know for the game in Durham Cameron, Indoor stadium, Hands Borough has to be there for that just as a reminder because he won all the time there. But I don't know, I don't know what you do in this situation. I mean, I think they probably, I'd imagine some former employers will be there now if it's like a very select list of guys, you know, like a hands bro, like maybe like, I don't know a stackhouse Danny green and those are the only guys that are there that maybe, you know what I mean, like. But yes, just put just put the Danny green dunked on Greg paulus on a loop in that old that will get people fired up. That that that'll definitely Lawson shows up out of nowhere. You know, then you know something's going on then you're like, okay, this is a little much. Do you think Coach K is gonna whack win or lose? Do you think Coach K is going to wax poetic about the smith center after the game? Yes, yes, Okay. Yeah. I mean maybe not too poetic if they lose, but because you know, like look, they beat Notre dame and he had nothing but glowing things to say against, you know about Mike Brey, like the one guy who can beat Mike Yastrzemski, although they didn't happen on monday night. So I'd be just kind of curious. I mean, do they today? Today did did the, did the smith center people get fired up by like putting up the Gerald Henderson, Tyler Hansbrough replay, you know, I don't know about that was a while ago now, it was a while ago, it was 15 years ago I think, I mean do they put on the do they put on the jumbotron, you know, this is going to be the 15th anniversary of it I believe. Do they do they put on the jumbotron like you know the Coach K clip where he's like, well, you know, it's just unfortunate situation. Yeah, that that they were even out there in that situation. I wonder if Coach K would even watch that now and go, oh you think so? I bet. I bet he would. No, no, no. I, I know, I think he, I think he still believes he was, he was right in that situation at the end where hey, if you guys are out, if those, if your starters are out there, we're going to be out there. Which is interesting because like partially because Duke doesn't really have many walk ons anyway. But no, they don't usually. I mean his starters have been in late into many blowouts by many more points. So I wonder if you feel the same, if one of them took a fist to the nose, I guess we'll have to find out. We'll have to find out. Good Lord. He was, if something spicy happens in this game, it would be amusing. You know, like the andre like the andre Buckner matt Doherty thing. You know, if we got something a little spicy and that's why we watch, right? I mean, I guess so. But I'm just saying like, I don't think, yeah, I, I, I don't want to see that's the thing for those, this is one of the things that, that has emerged between Duke and Carolina and he has talked about this. There is a level of respect between the two programs. It's not nearly as spicy as it was. It's not, you know, if you want to look for spicy rivalries, you know, the state Carolina game provides spiciness between, its, you know, medium salsa. It's like, it's like, it's, it's, it's Roy Williams appropriate salsa level, you know, not too spicy. It's probably mild where he can go at halftime and say like, you know, go beat those guys in red badly like that kind of stuff. Right. Right. But there's this level of, and this has been a conversation for multiple years, but it really came through at operation basketball and in conversations with Mike Yastrzemski this season where there's a mutual level of respect between the two programs. They elevate their, you know, that's not saying he doesn't respect you, but I'm just saying like, sure, sure, sure you really got to be kind of close or not close, close, but friendly, very friendly. So there's this, there's this and I agree that the two programs elevate each other in that duke and Carolina are usually viewed as the unofficial start to the college basketball season. But it is fair to point out that all this mutual appreciation society leads to some, it's boring now and why some people just kind of roll their eyes and they'll say things like Louisville and Kentucky is the better rival because there's actual like blood feuds that are going on and that's what I hear you. The thing for me is like that does add an extra layer to it that can be fun. But I still every year almost no matter the circumstances, there's at least one game between those two that just has a next level feel to it. Not, not in terms of like NBA next level. I'm just talking like it's, it's a higher level of basketball, it's a fun game and the atmosphere is at a higher level at both places than it ever is. And you can feel that it's contagious when you're there like, and at least once a year they play a game like that. I feel like where it's like, wow, this game is really fun. It's back and forth. It's intense. Both teams are playing well like, and that's what's fun about it I think is yes. Can they play some gross ones? Yes, of course they can. But you do sense that there's still that different feeling in the building. I feel like when they get together, even if it's more reverential than not now, it's more like mutual respect society. I do, I do still enjoy it for that reason because there's usually there's almost always something at stake. I mean, people were complaining about this being a game day game, but like they're playing for, I think they're playing for first place in the league, they are playing for first. And here's the other thing Carolina needs this like if Carolina is gonna be a satellite tournament team, they need this, they're in desperate need of quality wins. The problem for Carolina is that they're two chances of quality wins are against Duke. So we shall see what we got last night on the road against the Louisville team that most people have checked out on. That's gonna wrap it up for this edition of the sec panic room. We will see you saturday night from the smith center.