welcome to the final AC C panic room. Tried to go to, uh what was it? Uh Was it the MC I center, the Verizon Center at the time in 2016 at the AC C tournament in Washington DC uh, but the budget would not allow. So here we are on stream. You are doing the final AC C panic room. Lauren Yeah, I was gonna say I was pregnant uh when we did that and now, uh my son is about to be seven. So it's crazy when you think about it. pretty sure I had more hair in that one too in the first panic room. But that's another, that's another conversation for another day. All right. So let's, let's start with the NCAA tournament and work our way backwards. The teams that are in the teams that are not in the team, the team that doesn't want to play in the other postseason tournament. and then we'll look back on the AC C tournament in Greensboro this past weekend. Uh, yeah, you're right. The, the, the, the teams that are in, it's not gonna take a long time. Five teams in the NCAA tournament, Lauren, I'm not surprised that it's five teams. What I am surprised is that how close there could have been more, but that really does kind of crystallize the entire point of the AC C season. Had they just done a little bit more. We'd have a completely different conversation this season and you know what you can say a lot of things about North Carolina season. But one thing you can't say is that they weren't helpful to their conference mates. Ok. Because aren't they still a quad one? They're, they missed the tournament and they're still like one of the league's only quad one wins that, that anybody had, think of how many, like trip wires were out there in Quads three and four. You know what I mean? And North Carolina was just out there like, hey, please, we have a good win here. Would you like to have a good win, we're right here, here you go. And I mean, the other teams and it's kind of a story of the season because, like, the other teams didn't do that. They weren't as helpful, you know, as North Carolina was because the schedule for a combination of reasons, you know, we've, we've parsed through some of it. You can't control the early season tournaments. You know, any other year you play a Loyola, you play like, even state's case, you play a butler, it's gonna look a lot better than it did. You know, this year I, you know, I saw some people kind of bring up state non I don't think State's Noncom was bad enough to get them punished and their record overall was good enough plus no bad losses. They've done enough. They also have more good wins. They, they were, they were always fine for those reasons. But the, I mean, if you want to talk about the gap between State and Carolina, we probably could but by the end of the year to me, like, they're about where they should be in terms of like the disparity between where they, the way that they're playing right now, you know, you want to talk about Clemson. Ok, fine. But at the same time, like Clemson, I don't know how you make sense of that resume either. We've talked about it like I would envy the committee on this. I really don't. Let's go ahead and let's go ahead and pull this up. Uh, if you look at Clemson's team sheet, we'll get to Carolina here in a second. Uh, but since you brought up Clemson and why they're not in the NCAA tournament, they got six wins. This was, this was pointed out to me by a listener that they got six wins against teams that are in the field uh, from the AC C, I'm like, yeah, but half of those were blowouts against N C State and I'm not quite sure that's gonna be enough if you want to know why Clemson is not in the NCAA tournament. You can look right there at the strength of schedule, Wake Forest at N C State in previous years can sit here and not along going. Yep, that's gonna be the thing that puts you in the bad place in the NCAA selection committee's eyes. So you look at their nonconference net rate. The schedule, it's in the three hundreds. You look at the R P I nonconference rate, the schedule, it's in the three hundreds. When you look at their losses, they've got bad losses on the resume too, including Louisville late in the season. That's a like if, if you lose to Louisville at the beginning of the year when things you're just told it was kind of like unsettled. Ok. Well, then maybe I can justify it, but you've lost, lost to Louisville in February when they're historically one of the worst teams we've ever seen in the NCAA. Shout out to Aaron Beard who has an NCAA tournament bylaw that he created while sitting next to me in Greensboro, uh for the AC C tournament. It's the, it's the, it's the L V clause you lost to Louisville and that's what's gonna keep you out. So, and, and look, this is where I understand, Uh in, in the case of, you know, Brian Ives have pointed this out if I can pull up his, uh if I can pull up his tweet here in a second as I'm doing some live AC C panic room editing on the fly. So Brian Ives our friend over at the AC C network pointing out the clum in it for 14 and six and AC C plays the best record to miss the NCAA tournament since it expanded to 64 teams back in 1985. I mean, we just started the 20 game schedule though. So like some of those records, like I've, I've, I've kind of side eyed a bit because I'm like, yeah, you're gonna set a wins record when there's like, this many more games. And I mean, they only just moved to 18, I feel like fairly recently. Yeah. And, and it's funny, it's funny that, um, it's, uh, Chris, uh, dag on box on Twitter who does AAA newsletter that I highly recommend everybody follow. Actually dug up an old article from 2005 that had coaches lamenting the unbalanced schedule and how it was going to affect you and to your point, not only did Clemson have a bad strength of schedule on conference, the unbalanced schedule did not do them any favors. And on top of that, on top of that, they lost to those teams like Louisville in the unbalanced schedule, no margin for error. Right. If you have teams on the schedule that aren't going to help you, you have to beat those teams. It's just that simple and, you know, you look at like a State and a Carolina, for example, right? And like, you know, those teams don't have bad losses, they really don't. Neither of them do. State's worst one is at Syracuse and that's, you know, on the road by two points. Clemson loses by 10, at 10 and then they lost by 18 to Loyola. You know what I mean? Like, you can't, that's the other part. It's not like those teams are upsetting you on a buzzer beater. Like, and I think the committee looks at that and guess Clemson had injuries early on and they've had other factors go into some of those games. Do I think they look the part? Yeah. Like we all saw them in Greensboro. I seen them in other games. I actually think the Carolina game ended up killing them because you can. you know, car, that was the last time Carolina showed a, a pulse, right? Pretty much, wasn't it? I think Clemson was after Virginia, right? Or was it before? I don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no. Clemson game was before Virginia Carolina. Like, and get blown out like that. Like, and they got blown out more than they should have. That didn't help. Like it's just, it is what it is. And, and the thing is too and this is where I struggle some too. and I'm not trying to, like, bang on Clemson too much. I know I've done that before but it wouldn't be an ac panic room if I'm not at Clemson basketball. But like, they, they have done bad nonconference schedules in the past and it has hurt them and the thing is like, you see, it hurts everyone else. It doesn't just hurt Clemson. It hurts everybody else in the league because then when they play, you, they're playing like a 75th, right team instead of the top 50 team? And it's not, I mean, I know that some things happen that are kind of beyond your control, but it's not that hard to game the system a little bit and, and schedule a little bit better or at least, like, perform better in non con too ac c teams tend as, as a whole with exceptions, like Virginia has gotten way better obviously with their non con, uh, Duke and Carolina every year, always go pretty strong. I think they did well enough. You, you've gotta, you've got to win some of those games too. You can't perform poorly against it. You know, like you can't Boston college schedule easy, but then they lose to New Hampshire and Maine and then they go into league play beating like that's what I'm saying. It all has like a domino effect and when everybody else in your league is not up to par from a net standpoint, you're kind of screwed for the rest of the season. Meanwhile, North Carolina has the opposite problem of Clemson. They had a good schedule. The problem is they didn't win enough games in their good schedule and that put them in the bad place for the NCAA selection committee. Look at, look at how many fewer three and four than Clemson are there. I'm just saying, I'm just pointing that out. So you, you look at their quad four, you look at their quad three, they've got no bad losses on the schedule. You look at their strength of schedule both in the net and the R P I. It's very, very good most of their games. I think only one double digit loss. And this is why North Carolina ends up being one of the last four teams considered is because of their opportunities. But again, it gets back to, you have to do something. with your opportunities and that's going to get to the quad ones. I'm telling you right now, the more and more I think about it and the more I've looked at the team sheet, the more I'm convinced that if Alabama had knocked on a four freaking overtimes and they somehow pull out that game, they're in the inside. This is where I disagree and I, I, I understand why it gets brought up. Right. I get it But we weren't, I think it's more about what they did late. Like, would that have helped them? Sure. But if there's something in 12 and we're scuffling as badly as we've been seeing them scuffle. Do you really think the discourse around them would have been that different? So you flip it. So would you flip it with the Alabama game and say, let's say they, they, let's say they beat Duke at Cameron or, or at the Smith Center because the thing about Carolina is it's not. And that's the other thing about Carolina too. If you, if this is why I'm, I ultimately come down to this isn't a tournament team because they had opportunities to win these Q one games they had second half leads in a good chunk of these Q one opportunity games and they let these things go and Duke certainly comes to mind in both instances. Yeah, I mean, they've had, they had so many chances, like, like you said, you know, they, they had chances to get what they needed to get done, done. Even like you said, Virginia ac tournament, you got Duke, you know, they had their chances, they couldn't get it done and, You know, it, it, it, it is what it is. They had plenty of times where they could have gotten one more quad one so you could pin it all in Alabama if you want. But to me I don't know that, that, that changes the way we're talking about them right now and I think that plays a little bit of a role too. Is Alex getting the, I need to check on that. Just hold on one second. What's that? What's going on there? I'll go, uh I'll go solo, lay out here for, uh, for a second. You guys can check out all the things that are going on in the background, right? So, uh, as we were discussing, with the uh with Carolina and Clemson, uh they're one of the last four teams out. Both Carolina Clemson pitt ends up being one of the last teams in. So let's go back to the Twitter Machines and we will go through the teams that actually did end up making it for the NCAA tournament. Uh We go to the South. Hey, Lawrence back. Let's, let's, let's welcome back, Lauren, shall we, Alex taking care of? Uh Yeah, he could not find the toilet paper. oh, hey, you know what happens to all of us have, what, what better way to have last panic room than Alex not finding toilet paper. It really does just kind of bring everything full circle on uh on this, on this endeavor anyway. So to the South region where in my small print N C state gets in as the 11 seed in a matchup against Creighton, which Brownlow, I mean, North Carolina is not in the tournament but Does State lose? Just despite Carolina fans that would want them to win? I'm just, well, here's my question. Here's my question because I don't know the proper answer. Do Carolina fans want State to beat Creighton or do they want State to suffer the same issues that happened when Creighton and Carolina met up in the issues with injuries? I don't think so. No, I highly doubt it. And I actually like, Uh The rivalry discourse aside, like there is not a State fan. I know in real life that would ever root for Carolina and anything the opposite isn't true for me though. And that's not, this isn't me saying like, oh, they take it more seriously. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just genuinely like, I mean, heck, I know a bunch of people that fell in love with you burns this year. I'm just saying they love watching him play. They've loved state. So, but that's not whatever. It's neither here nor there. Like, I know more, I don't know, I know more Carolina people that would root for State in a game like that because they have beef with a team like Creighton than vice versa. So I, I think that they'll, Most of them probably won't be like, super thrilled either way or engaged. You know what I mean? But I think if state wins, then they'll probably have some starky comments to make and support that. The, the only thing I got about this, uh this particular, uh part of the bracket for state is that I'm kind of sad. We're not going to Denver because I love, uh I love you had me at Denver. Yeah, like when I Denver, I'm like, dude, uh Meanwhile, meanwhile, Virginia is taking on uh what is that? They're taking on firm and the pat that they're in and that's very, very exciting for them. Uh Now, speaking of like areas, I was shocked that not a single AC C team was going to Greensboro, right. Uh Since Virginia wasn't going to Greensboro, people were thinking, well, maybe Duke ends up in Greensboro. No, that actually doesn't happen either. Duke is going to Orlando. I actually texted my brother be like, hey man, you can actually go, I don't know, you know, go, you know, argue against Duke or, or get your ac C vibes. Like, I don't know what you're gonna do anyway, Duke ends up being in the east, which is the, which is the side of the bracket that has like all the names to it. It's funny that it's like a Rorschach test for people. People see names and they think, man, it's loaded. But then you've got Purdue which just went to the, with Penn State in the big 10 championship game and you and I are both in agreement when it comes to the big 10, we're not exactly fans of the big 10. This happens all the time. People just absolutely love the big 10 and then when it comes to the tournament, they usually flame out. So Perdue chances are they are not going final four, they are not gonna be seeing Duke at any time. yeah, what, where do we have them going? Did they lose in round two to, to Petty Hardaway or? We don't even get the rematch. We would love Derek lively and, yeah. No, I mean, it is, it's, it's an interesting bracket for sure. It's not one. I'd love to be in, to be honest, I don't, they, they has a lot of teams in it, not Purdue necessarily that are like, oh, I would rather not play them right now, especially. I mean, Duke's first opponent, honestly, oral rob like that's a team that was, has been dangerous for at least a couple of years now. Still is, has one of the better players in the country, um, in Max. I still don't know how to pronounce his name because it's not how it's spelled at all. But he's awesome. It's like a, even though it's like, spelled, uh, completely, not like that at all. Um, but he's awesome. Like, he's really efficient. I think Duke's defensive defense will have like a a lot to say about what he does. And I think he probably hasn't seen a lot of defenders like Duke has. But at the same time, like that's the type of game that Earl Roberts can score. And if you know, if they get going and the building gets going against Duke because that's an honestly Duke doesn't hate not being in Greensboro. Let's be real. Ok. So I'm glad you brought that up because I, and this is something that Luke De Cock and I have have bounced back and forth, a columnist for the news and observer. That was a really good crowd for Duke in Greensboro. They show up in the AC C tournament. It's always a good crowd for them in the AC C tournament, especially as they go further. But we, we've talked that we, but we've, I think it's different and we've talked about in the panic room. Uh Luke puts it with, you know, all locals know tourists, you know, the last couple of years of coach game, especially last year, the crowds were very much, gawking. They, they, they weren't there necessarily to watch basketball, in my opinion. I think they were just there to, to witness history and I don't blame them for that. And the crowds that Cameron into a stadium throughout this season have been thinner. I'm not bringing it up as some sort of indictment on Duke fans. You can look across the AC C and understand the crowds are thinner. The crowds have been thinner at Carolina crowds thinner at N C State even though they turn things around the season. It's just a pain in the ass to get the games. It's more expensive than it used to be. There's all sorts of factors why people aren't going to games as much as they used to. But that being said, thinner crowds of Cameron, but louder, more raucous. And I think that kind of, that kind of lent itself to Greensboro. So I, I, I think I've used the season with John Shire to kind of like, um, unlearn some things we've gotten used to when we talk about Duke. So I get what you're saying traditionally under Mike, there are people there just wanna boo Mike this this Duke team doesn't bring it out of you. This Duke team is freaking likable. John Shire is likable. No, I mean, I, you know, I I agree with that, but I still think Duke in the NCAA tournament in Greensboro perhaps is, gets slightly less friendly treatment, although maybe because there's no other AC C team there, maybe it's not as bad. It was always worse when like Carolina was there too. Obviously, but, you know, the crowd would tend to get behind, no matter where Duke was, the crowd would tend to get behind whoever Duke was playing, especially if it was close. And I think, I think that could happen this time too, but really more just in an underdog sense than like a duke ducting sense. And I think for the most part they'll, you know, they should have a pretty friendly crowd there. I not antagonistic. I think you and I can both agree that oral Roberts and Duke uh will provide amazing headlines one way or the other. we'll go with that. We'll go with that. So, meanwhile, over to the Midwest, we got Miami versus Drake. I feel like that's a uh I think that's like a rap mixtape waiting to happen. uh, but no Miami and Drake Miami without, uh, without Norcet Ome, uh, who went out in the NCAA in the AC C tournament. It does kind of take some air out of what we've seen out of Miami. But I still think in that Duke matchup, they play at a high level every time Duke looked like they were going to be running away with it. Miami found ways to get back hit, big shots, get big rebounds, et cetera. So I'm not, I'm not selling a Miami yet, but I could see why, certainly adds a level of uncertainty to the Hurricanes. Yeah, I was impressed honestly because I was expecting, when that happened, I was just expecting them to get blown out of that and that's not what happened. And so You know, I think credit to them and I like their potential cautiously. It's hard because like, how many AC C teams have shown that they're trustworthy in the NCAA tournament? Like, not a whole lot. Um, do I trust like Jim Laga though to get his guys as ready as they can be? Like, absolutely, I do. And do I think that like the higher seeds in their bracket are beatable? Yes. And so, you know, if, if they were like full health, I'd be super gung ho about them. But I just don't know, there's a lot, We don't know yet. And so I'm, I'm kind of cautious with them but I was impressed with the way that they played. They, they had that, that was a game way later than it probably should have been. Totally agree now to back to North Carolina. Uh, and they've decided to not participate, in the N I T for the record. North Carolina is not the first team to bail on the N I T, they're not the last team to bail on the N I T. Uh decisions are made when it comes to this tournament. I can see the argument for teams to go to the N I T when it makes sense. And I can also understand given context when it doesn't make sense. North Carolina. Specifically people bring up 2010 and I like to point out, well, 2010 was a completely different dynamic coming off a championship season with a new group of guys. And it was, yeah, it was mostly younger guys. And guys that honestly, for the most part, I think had started playing better and showing glimpses towards the end of the year. So you're at the point where you look at that and go, do you want to continue that? And you say yes this is a group that's played together for how many games now? I mean, over the course of three years, like, I don't know, 80 something and it's not, and it's not like Hubert Davis is going to go to the N I T and tell RJ Davis, Armando Bacot and Kayla Blu, why don't you guys take these couple of weeks off? We're going to play the young guys. It doesn't work that way. So here's, here's the statement, here's a statement from Hubert Davis, all, all our all season. Our focus and goal has been on being the best team that we can possibly be become and reaching our full potential to give us another opportunity to compete play for and win a national championship. Although we are no longer having that opportunity this season wasn't what we hoped for. I want to thank our players, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, many factors go into postseason play. Uh, and we don't want to do it. We're gonna reset essentially. That's what he is saying. And here, here's the, here's where things start to get dicey with North Carolina. there is this attitude first and foremost and this is, I, I think this is gonna be an unpopular opinion and I'm ok with it. Um because I think I'm coming from a place of understanding that college basketball is in a different place too. I appreciate North Carolina and Hubert davis' honesty. In a statement, they came back to win an NCAA championship, not an N I T championship and has how hard and have like, everything about this season was difficult, everything about this season was difficult in the sense that I got in Greensboro when everything was over, they were done. And I think for the most part Carolina fans, if they're being honest with themselves, they were done too. So I'm not, I think Carolina fans understand this probably better than most. I i it, it feels like a little like concern trolling, but I don't know because I've been seeing some, from some Carolina fans that they're very upset that they're not going, that this team quit. Well, I mean, if you want to use this as a crystal crystallization that they did. Ok. Fine. What else do you need to see from them? Right. What do you need to see? How many to me, that's, that's the thing. Like, what, what else do you want to see from them? And what benefit is there for them going? Like you said, I, I, in theory, it'd be great if they could play and develop the young guys, but that clearly isn't what they want to do And they don't have enough, I think, like, they can't just put out the younger guys. I don't think that's a full enough lineup. You know what I mean? Like, and also what would they last in the tournament? Maybe a game? They barely play it all year. And, like, so I went the practices and go home. Like, what's the point of that? I got a working theory. I got a working theory. There was all, there were already people who were never sold on Hubert Davis to begin with as the head coach. And we saw this all of last year up until they went on a run and we've discussed it at NAUSEUM, what happened next? And I think the way things have played out this year has brought back those people. We've seen this at N C State, by the way, with Kevin Keats where there was and, and now Kevin Keats has a much larger um, sample size at N C State. But last year people made up their minds on Kevin Keats and while this season was good how they got beat by Clemson at the, at the AC C tournament. And who knows what happens in the NCAA tournament is gonna bring those people who were never sold on Kevin Keats back out of the woodwork. So I think the same thing is happening here with Hubert Davis on a much more accelerated cycle because things at Carolina are accelerated because of the expectations related to being a UN C basketball coach. So I think that this is, you know, to, to use an old star Trek uh term uh situation. It's a Kobayashi Maru. Some people will get that shout out to Holden Thor former chancellor who obviously obviously understands that, that uh that situation, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you go to the NCAA tournament, like you said, and they lose after a game or two. Well, then everybody's gonna be like, why did you do this anyway, this was dumb. It's a waste of time. This team they got no heart, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now they say straight up, hey, we failed in our mission this year. We wanted to win an NCAA championship. We failed. failed and we're done and we're gonna assess what we need to do to get back there next season. That's got people dunking on Hubert. Davis with you. Quit. You, you, if you, if you were invited, you accept, you go and play and win for that championship. I think people have already made up their minds on Hubert and they're gonna use whatever they can to slam the guy. But I again, I, I appreciate the honesty. And Lauren, look, we talked about this at the AC C panic room, uh at the AC C tournament, You have to get on your, you have to get on your roster management. Now, that's the current state of college basketball decisions are being made now and that's what Hubert Davis has to focus on. Yeah, I mean, they've got to figure out what moving forward looks like and I think going to the N I T and prolonging this season doesn't help in that process. I just don't think anything productive was going to happen based on it. And no, I mean, the only reason I said concern trolling is because like I got one thing that say that they, they think they're too good for it. And I'm like, trust me, if anything, it's the opposite. Like they know that they're not good at like, they're not gonna gain anything from it, they're gonna leave it early. It's gonna be a waste of everyone's time, just like, really in hindsight, it feels like the last few weeks of the season were for them. So, like, what's the point? You know, and I think I, like you said, I think it's refreshing that there's honesty. You knew the writing was on the wall the moment your, one of your better players and leaders is saying that he doesn't want to play in it like he said it right after the game. So what, what was he supposed to do? He's gonna make them, the argument is Roy did well, Roy made him, well. That was Roy, man. Also. Can we talk about the fact that Roy only did that because he saw there was an obvious benefit and he saw it. He hated every second of that. He did. No, no, no. You could tell. Like you could tell he almost seemed embarrassed when they kept winning. I remember it's like, oh, are we gonna win this? That's somehow more embarrassing Yeah, they were, I was, I gonna say in the, in the two instances, they went to the N I T in modern history. They were the runner up twice, right? They were runners up in oh three and they were runners up in uh but I think like that team got a lot out of. No, I mean, I do, I, I'm half joking about Roy. I do think that they, I do remember him be seeming embarrassed after the William and Mary win because it was a, it was closer than they wanted it to be. And then b, like, he's, he's like, I'm in the N I T and this is what we're doing really. Uh, but, you know, I mean, I think that, again, there was an obvious benefit to be gained. There, there's just not one here and they, if they can get one out of it, they would take it. I think that Roy would have had any team of his that could have had a benefit in you know, in the N I T, no matter what, they're not too good for the N I T, that's not what's going on here either. It's just that there's no, and it's not, I saw it compared to a football bowl game. It's not remotely analogous for several reasons. Like, you know, you, you have more young guys. You can, you could play a whole roster of young guys if you want in a bowl game and no one would bat an eye. How many teams go to the N I T and bench everyone. We don't see that. No one does that. And, and it doesn't what happened in college basketball. You wouldn't see it, you're not gonna see it. They don't play that way. They're not gonna start now. Like, what, so what are we talking about? Like, come on, it was the right call. No, it was the right call. It was the right call. Well, we'll close, uh, we'll close this, close, the panic room, um, forever on this we'll go back to the AC C tournament where, um, Duke kind of fulfilled the mission. Um, and they I, I've been getting a little bit of pushback for making a point that I found it surprising that John Shire didn't get a single vote for AC C coach. I'm not saying he should have won it. But when I see some names getting votes, including Tony Bennett, by the way, at Virginia, it makes me wonder getting votes. But no, what, what, what I'm getting at with, with, if, if we are of this act. attitude. That because typically the pushback is, well, the top recruiting class, they underperform top recruiting class, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, yeah, but the expectation at Virginia is to win the league every year, the expectation at Virginia, regardless of what their recruiting class is, is to be a pain in your ass and be in the running. And he did exactly that again. So why are we giving him credit? I feel like after 2019 Tony should kind of be put in the same position that Kay and Roy had been. Where? No, this is what you do. So it's always gonna be looked at differently because of the recruiting difference. I'm just saying, I know that is the way it doesn't, but it's true and I don't know why because co recruiting is part of coaching, but that's just the way it is. But with Shire, it also tells me that it, it just, it hammers home, it hammers home the point that the, the coach of the year should just be renamed. Hey, our bad. We thought you would suck, ok? Because that's what the coach of the year is. Sorry. We thought you would suck this year, but you didn't. So here is totally true. It's totally true in basketball. And I think a lot of that had to do with Pitt. Look, a lot of people including me did not think that Pitt was going to be good this year. There was an unknown but Jeff Capel did what coaches in the AC C, you're gonna have to do going forward and get the right Kevin Keats did it, Steve Forbes has done it, get that right transfer portal guy and anything's anything's possible and they had a really, really great year. And honestly, I give pitt less grief too for their nonconference schedule not being as good because why wouldn't you schedule that way? Like you're trying to get your team confident and going into AC C play, feeling good about itself. at the end of the day. That's what happened after a kind of a rough start to the season. Clemson had no business having, you know what I mean? Like, it's different in that way, right? Like it was kind of new guys. You're not sure what you're gonna get, you got to ease into things. Clemson had pretty experienced group coming back. Like I just feel like if the coach of the year is about something, it's about, you know, actually coaching and if you watched Duke this year from the beginning of the year with injuries, uh, guys who were heralded, but that did not look the part early Duke and Carolina were in the same conversation when it comes to postseason, what, a month and a half ago at, at like, at the most, I mean, and, and I think the way they played down the stretch has also kind of been like, we, we got our ass kicked now we're taking, we're taking this personally and we're moving on. I do think that the virgin, the loss at Virginia was a bit of an inflection point for guys like uh Kyle Phillips like John Shire. Uh and I feel like they really have turned it on from that point. I mean, I asked, uh Kyle Phillipos after the championship game, like, I'm not trying to get you in trouble. I don't know how online you are, but clearly this felt like it was a little bit more personal in the NCAA tournament because you were, you were taking care of business against teams that had clowned you in some shape or form or in the case of Phil Pask had zero points. Uh He had a bad game against Virginia in the case of Miami, they whooped their ass and then they took care of business and I'm not saying that Duke is some sort of final four contender. I'm just saying it was really, really, it's, I don't know, there's no monster out there. I'm just saying that all, all things considered on top of the coach K replacement angle. I think John Shire did a really, really good job this season and it was rewarded with going undefeated at home at Cameron end door. It's the first time in almost a decade. He's a brand new head coach even though he'd been on staff before. Those are things that you typically get, rewarded. And so you got back to recruiting honestly, that's the only thing that you could point to that would, that would point to no votes. And even if we understand that, not all, not all five star recruits are equal. I mean, Duke certainly knows this. Carolina certainly knows this and then becoming the first, to win an AC C championship and coach to win an AC C championship. So it's, I mean, you could have asked for a better start and that's ultimately my takeaway of this. I, I basically two takeaways at the AC C tournament that I feel like this season was a, we'll see what happens in the NCAA tournament. But for the most part, I think that Mike and John Shire can leave this first season feeling successful. Strip away the, the, the case specific farewell stuff. The idea that this transition was gonna work differently than other transitions paid off. It paid off with an eight C C championship in a team that really looks strong going to the NCAA. I don't know, to be honest, right? Like, do I think it would have, do I know if it would have been super different if like he'd left and, you know, like, uh more like Roy did, I don't know that. No, I, I think it would have no, I think it, this, it would have been different because clearly Kay wanted somebody on staff for the year and for somebody to understand the, for the recruits to understand you're playing for this guy. There's no surprises you're coming to play for him. There's a transition. This is who it's gonna be. You're coming to play for him. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I don't, I don't think if it had gone, you know, the traditional way. wouldn't have worked. I don't think it would have worked. So I would say that John Shire gets the win with the AC C championship and Mikey gets a win for how this season played out because his, again in year one, his succession plan seems to have paid off. Now, we'll see what happens with college basketball. Gotta get the transporter right? You got to mesh those guys with recruits too. But I do like how things have started at uh at Duke under John Shire. Well, Lauren, that's it. And I want to thank everybody who has watched us over the last couple of years. I know that you and I have experienced this. People coming up going not because of the radio, not because of what you wrote because, hey, really enjoy the panic room. You got people in the AC C whether it's coaches or A DS tell us they enjoy the panic room. So very, very cool. Still mind blowing. But whatever it's like, oh God, you watch that, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't say anything bad if I did. I was just kidding. Sorry. It's just jokes. Hashtag go C C hashtag Yeah. And I, I, I mean, I think you deserve a lot of uh praise as well and a shout out because um you do a lot of the work for this in terms of like, literally I just get on here and talk like that. But, but it was, it was, it's your platform. This was set up for your platform. I'm just saying it. You, you, you've done it even late nights, you know, when you're ready to go to bed, you've stayed up to let the video, you know, go on the website and load all the way and all of that and, you know, write a headline and do all that kind of stuff and yes, I was doing other stuff along the way too, but I'm just, you just, you appreciate you for that and for kind of like helping me see, there might be something here when we started doing it. And it worked and you guys seem to get a kick out of my weird facial expressions. They're just my face. Um Sorry, sorry slash thank you. I don't know, I don't know what the, the, the, the screen grabs that never made it to W R L sports fan I, I mean, I got a whole, a whole collection of them. Maybe we should, uh maybe we'll start like a sub stack or a Patreon someday and do like a for all of y'all who always wanted like a, a panic room after dark with uh you know, us having thrown back a couple, maybe, maybe we'll do that some day, you know, Get the Patreon going. Let's go. Anyway, thanks to everybody who uh checked out the AC C Panic Room. It's been a lot of fun. Uh And it uh you will see us other places. Uh We got more stuff coming on down the line but it's, it's time, it's time, it's time to sunset the AC C panic room and uh we will see it was the hashtag go ac c friends we made along the way, Lauren. It really was. So usually I say, see you all next week. We'll see you on social media. We'll see you on W R L sports fan, we'll see you on 99 9. The fan,