Welcome to the A. C. C. Panic room alongside Lauren Brownlow. I'm job is the PNC arena where Lauren 2023 has been a really really weird year already. I've been to two games at at N. C. State where they beat Duke and they beat Carolina and not a single court storm kind of an odd year. Right. Well I know I know I think I think I think it kind of illustrates the kind of year the kind of year that's been happening in the A. C. C. And also a general kind of attitude shift that I've seen at least with the sense of state squad. Uh That finds ways to bounce back that has a particular buy in. They might not get too down on themselves either within a game or from game to game they can have a disappointing result of Syracuse comeback against a rival. Think about what happened in Chapel Hill, have the fun with the sunglasses and all that stuff after the fact to prove a point and they got the very intense win here late at PNC Arena. Yeah they made plays down the stretch. I mean it was a close game. I wouldn't call it a good one throughout most of it. It was kind of herky jerky. Um I don't know that anybody would have a lot of complaints about any of the officiating. So that was nice to see except for that one really long review that for whatever reason the best like it was really funny to see people at the game be like is there a better camera angle at home than like the Bigfoot footage we have no, there's not, there's not, that's actually like from the, from the like, you know, convenience store surveillance cam footage we had of the regardless. I don't think much seemed to happen there. Like they dissected as best they could on the broadcast there like seems like nothing really happened. But it was, I haven't, I haven't seen video that grainy since my iphone for on a zoom. So it was hard back to the days of like the old cell phones for sure. Like I still have old cell phone videos floating around out there somewhere that looked probably about like that and they are about as useful as that video. So, but I mean other than that, you know, kudos to them because they took a while to make sure nothing happened as best they could. And I think like, I think from what I could sell, these refs seemed to nip any thing in the bud before anything got contentious. Nothing did. The players were fine. They did a lot of like adults. It seemed to go fine and they did a lot of explaining today, a lot of explaining today, there was some explaining after what was a flop that was explaining after what it was clearly a foul on Caleb love on a three, which they didn't call and then he complained because he had been complaining a good bit of some of the non calls and that's fine I get the frustration boils over. But he embellished so much on the floor after that three that they went ahead and they beat him up for his act. So they did it, they did a lot to your point to kind of keep this thing, you know, on its wheels on its access going forward. And I guess that's kind of the thing, I'll get back to NC State and kind of staying on its access and it's the group, it's the players and it's kevin Keats. I don't think kevin Keats necessarily has changed the coach. I think he was able to pull in some guys that are buying into what he's doing, he's buying a lot in the post game. And the one thing about this group, as I saw D. J. Burns, you know, walking off the court again hype with the students. I mentioned the sunglasses, even kevin Keats and I get, it's easier to be in this kind of mood when you won 21 times and you just beat north Carolina in this building uh, and emphatically there down the stretch, you know, I forgot who it wasn't asked him a question about, you know, this being a rivalry win or whatever and he was clearly in his, you know, expletive grinning self like all in on the oh well, you know, I don't value one another. Um you know they're all good wins I care about the winds I mean and besides, I was told it's not arriving. I'm paraphrasing here, but it's just like, it's not a rivalry. So what do I care right perfectly? And then of course with all the sunlight, they really wore the sunglasses after the game. Huh? How about that? How about that? So clearly state and it's something that you and I talked about consistently this season between State and Duke, Duke, Duke Duke got its identity. It's a little bit more workmanlike, so to speak. I know it's like a cliche to say, but they kind of understand their roles. NC State understands that all these guys understand their roles to, they play really, really well together, even in moments where it's a little too. So for me, there were times where john smith and john jr were just kind of doing offense on their own, but they got out of that rut right? And they're clearly having fun and those are the types of guys that thrive and those types of situations and it's sort of like when Caleb love was feeling himself last year, like you kind of have to let some of the stuff go because that's what it feels like. Whatever. If the degree of difficulty on Joyner shots are high, it's like they're likelier to go in at a certain point, Carolina and I've said this plenty of times when I watch Carolina played, this looks like a group that doesn't enjoy playing basketball. I cannot, I cannot get in their head, I can't get it. I don't know what they're feeling but I know Armando Bacot is clearly not happy with these results. He's frustrated with the lack of pivoting or the changes of the attitude changes after the Miami los he talked about I am 100% worried about making the N. C. Double A tournament and they come out here and they play the exact same kind of game where Caleb love is making passes that make you go why did you do that? His shot selection again? Why are you doing that? Um Maybe don't complained to the ref you get more flies with honey. I mean I know you're caught up in the moment. I know but tell me he's okay you can say it was because of the flock. Tell me he didn't get it because he complained. He got it. He got he got because he complained. I totally get with you on that and Pete nance bless him like the guy was asked to do a lot in replacing brady manic. We know that's not the case but even today it was like and he had he had some moments here and there but D. J. Burns made his life miserable multiple times today. Even Armando Bacot was on the receiving end of some of D. J. Burns move to the basket. It was kind of like did you ever play double dribble on the Nintendo back in the day. So like you know you played double dribble, there's a corner three, it's like a glitch in the game. So you go all the way you run all the way into the corner and then you hear the shot from the corner and it always goes in, it's like automatic. Right? Well that was like I'm sitting right in front of basketball apparently because it's the highest percentage three pointer and so obviously because it's a three sure like to get an open corner three. Yes that was that's D. J. Burns but that's D. J. Burns every time he's here like literally right in front going the lane and the crowd just starts getting hyped up and he's gonna hit a floater sometimes he's behind the basket and getting it into to bounce off the rim just right. So he's had a truly blessed season after the game though, I don't know if you caught any hubert Davis postgame press conference. So Lauren I can sit here and watch the star, he'll squad and go there's gonna be a moment where it all folds up like the moment gets you and you just don't know what to do next right and I've seen it multiple times this season and they're running out of time. They're literally running out of opportunities there. Oh and 10 in quad one opportunities joe lunardi I know for the home audience they were going on and on and on about how he spent like half the first half talking about Carolina's tournament chances. They got two more of these opportunities left against the Virginia squad that the historically do not play well against Tony Bennett and then they got their final home game against Duke. They could win one of these games and I guess find themselves in a situation where they go to Greensboro for the A. C. C. Tournament and they're gonna have to play on friday night but they're running out of opportunities and I don't understand hubert Davis is almost detached optimism about what this team is doing and how he feels. They can close out. I mean I think in his mind that's probably all that works with this group or whatever. I mean we've seen him try kind of different things along the way like different tactics to try to fire them up and I think like at a certain point what else can you do? Like I mean you look at them and you know I've seen people talking about it to you and I have talked about the three point shooting and whatever but at the same time this was a team that shot 7% points higher last year in A. Cc play. It's only getting worse lately, not better their three point shooting and I know losing man it hurts a lot but like some of these people are the same guys that got the shots last year and they're just not making them. And I think sometimes basketball can be kind of simplistic in that way where you're not, if you can't make three pointers like as a team, right, just in general, I'm not saying they're always getting the best looks or anything like that. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying like if you can't make them, you're not going to win a lot of college basketball games unless you do something else really well and Carolina just doesn't well, here's the problem with that. I understand what you're saying about and it's the old Roy Williams, the games a lot better when the ball goes in the basket. I get all that, I get all the the problem is we have enough of a sample size with this particular group to understand that they weren't all that great of a three point shooting team to begin with. So and I tweeted this out, I'll go back to our hood blog, wrote something this week and more of a long form fashion than what I had kind of tweeted and talked about on the air. We have enough of a sample size of this big three Armando Bacot R. J. Davis Caleb, love to understand that this is a very particular group. It's a peculiar group that has run hot as we saw last year as they went all the way to the final and lost to Kansas, but they can also get like, like the giant sucking sound you hear when they start to really get tight and they have essentially give games back to their opponents when they have opportunities to take it. Today is a prime example with about eight minutes to go. With about eight minutes to go. I had a tweet I had a tweet ready to go. They're hitting threes, they're up six states kind of you know overheated. They're trying to do too much and I'm going yeah UNC is wrapping this up same as it ever was. It doesn't really matter. And I know we've talked about this. I've seen worst Carolina squads sweep this N. C. State program. I mean I remember you you got mad at me back in 2020 in the law school Anthony season when I said watch state get swept by this group and you're like that will never happen what happened, they ended up getting swept. So I've seen some things Lauren you've seen some things so we kind of know how this plays out and I thought that's how it was going to play out this afternoon at PNC arena and instead I I did not I trusted history over the moment the macro versus the micro right? I I trusted that that north Carolina and the historic nature against the state would find some sort of way to win. Instead. North Carolina did what they've been doing all season long and give the other team a wide open door to go and take it. And we saw that in the eight minute mark in a way. I think it's like a microcosm two of their season though. Like you probably did think they go up by six with eight minutes to go and they're on they're on a run and they're getting hot and they're confident and you look around and go yeah well of course they're going to pull this out because that's what good teams do, right? That's what we saw them do last year eventually what we have not seen them. And that's the thing this year. Like for the most part they get into I mean I saw Carolina fans tweeting about it as it was happening literally like they were like the state's got us right where they want us a six point lead late in the game like and that's the thing and they knew it was coming like it's almost like they get and they're like all right cool, we did what we needed to do alright, we've taken care of our business and it's like no like you have to actually keep doing the thing that you were doing and states the one that stepped up and made plays and then Carolina ran around like a chicken with its head cut off and it was called time out. Didn't cure everything. It was wild, it was wild to watch it just kind of implode on itself as N. C. State fed off the crowd. That was a little bit sleepier in the first half because I think some people were still hungover from the Stadium series game last night. Um It was a decent crowd but it really came alive in that final moment and again you could see Carolina implode and I know we've seen enough of Carolina this year that I find I'll go back to what I said earlier about hubert Davis sometimes and you and I know this and I was talking with some people about this in the postgame luke hancock and Brendan marks and uh and Andrew carter. It's like we all agree and you agree we we've been to enough press conferences where we know the coaches are not telling us what they're probably talking to with the team right? We see that enough times and in a moment like this where the seasons literally slipping away where Carolina needed this win against N. C. State way more than N. C. State needed to win against Carolina in terms of N. C. Double A purposes. Now Julia and I talked about it earlier this week in terms of like that who needs it more? I'll get back to that micro macro on the micro. Yes Carolina needed this game more for obvious Q. One opportunities. But on the macro if you feel that you're better than Cara this is the time to prove it. It gets back to what I said in the past and see status had time to prove it and they've fallen flat. So if you really about that life as the kids like to say, well you'll go out there and lay the hammer down on Caroline, you'll flex on them and that's exactly what they did. They did it later, they did it later, they did something, but it finally happened. So it gets back to my, my central premise about hubert and I'll go back to that al hood piece on your blog that I have meandered my way into whatever it's free form jazz in the panic room. Sometimes folks that I want to, I'm at the point now where hit the reset button, like just let's last year was maxed out. You'll always have last year, you'll always have those memories and sometimes groups will come back and it wasn't the best idea to all come back. Okay, last year was your year. This year was pushing it too much. Now, let's see what hubert Davis can do with his group, not a group that while he recruited there clearly come into play for Roy Williams, A group that Roy Williams probably got more silver hair from than any other pre And eventually retired and for the most part, up until February 16 of last year was largely the same group that we've seen this year. So I'm really curious to see and I hope that fans, I think for the most part fans understand this, the reaction in a loss like this on social media gets a little too overheated. I think for the most part people are still in a little bit of a wait and see that. See what happens with Hubert, Hubert Davis getting his guys. But that doesn't do anything about this year. Yeah, I was gonna say, I think people are in like a wait and see mode not so much for next year or not so much for this year, but for next year it's more just like they make the tournament, they don't make the tournament whatever at this point. But let's just see like how things go next year and maybe they have like an actual normal this year of college basketball for them because it's just, it's been anything but kind of in the last three years with them. It's been all over the place and it'll be interesting now I wasn't in that building so I'll have to take your word for this. But I can tell you like on tv it didn't seem to me, maybe it was because of like you said like stadium series whatever didn't seem to me like nearly as angry as the crowd as I thought it was going to be. Usually there's hostility from the jump like and you can feel the venom in the air and I didn't feel that and if anything down the stretch, like all I felt was like just this joy for their team and I thought that that was, I can't remember the last time. I feel like even when they've beaten Carolina in that building, I honestly don't know the last time I have felt that, I don't know if that makes sense, but you know what I'm talking about. No, I know exactly what it's almost like it's it's beyond an f you moment for state fans. This is like they're genuine joy for this team. And I thought that that was really cool. I'm glad you brought that up because to your point, yes, I felt that the first half was a byproduct of some sleepiness. Hell I'm sleepy. Okay. I was at the Stadium series game last night. It was a hell of a lot of fun. I got back late, my kid had a hockey game that we had to be at the rink at seven o'clock in the morning, like it's been a day. Okay. You saw some things last night. So I think there was a little bit of sleepiness. But to your point about the joy of the wind rather than what some people thought was going to be this really nasty, you know, stick it to you and see type thing after after what had happened in Chapel Hill with gravy on smith and everything else and all the all the talk of free throw differentials, everything else. I think the fan base for the crowd here has taken on the personality of the team, which is good. Yes, it's great to see this very often. So they feed off of the excitement of watching D. J. Burns place and you can still hear the noise they make when he gets the ball. And it's just like, it's these little, it's like seeing a puppy for me to hear that sound and I need that in my life. So like thank you guys like thank you all for that because I hear it. It's like this anticipation of like, yes, he's got the ball. You know, you're, you're exactly right. Ian smith play is fun there, the fun team and I would make the, and I would make the argument that I don't even know if Carolina was winning, if they'd be fun. I really don't. I really don't. And that really comes through and I don't want to like get into like all vibes and feelings here. But that matters. That matters when you play sports. It matters as a team dynamic and I don't know what this group is like off the court. I don't care why this group is like off the court. They might be all chummy. I don't know. I don't care. I'm nearly 44 years old. I don't really care what college kids do. However, when you watch them on the court. Okay. You can tell if you enjoy doing something with somebody else, it's no different than, you know, I enjoy doing radio with Giulio. I enjoy doing radio with gold, but I can tell radio hosts who don't enjoy doing shows with other people that comes through whether you realize it or not. So I enjoy doing panic room with you Brown. Well, but for, for the, for the Tar Hills, they don't look like you're enjoying basketball. And I maintain that I'm not even sure that they would look like they really enjoyed it if they're on the right side of the tournament bubble. Yeah. I don't know. Like I said, I don't know either. I haven't seen a whole lot of that. And you know what I'll say this too. We've talked about it, but it's true. Like by the time they were on their run last year, like they were a fun group to be around. They were making jokes all the time. Like just constantly. They were super fun to be around and it's obviously things are a lot more fun when you're winning and when the pressure isn't on you too. You got to remember the dynamics of last year with Carolina. Both are dealing with that to a degree. I mean like let's be real there. The blue bloods there, you know, having a worse than expected season. They're not ranked, They've got new coaches and they are dealing with a lot of that too. And that's, that's kind of a different level of burden. I know any other takeaways from today's game Brownlow before we get out of here. Um, No, I just was, I was glad for how positive it all felt in the end. I know that sounds like whatever, but after one of these you guys big state fans, you made my heart feel warm and fuzzy with how happy I can hear it. I can hear, I can hear the catharsis in there and the joy, it was just nice. It was nice to hear and it made me and I have to take my like small moments of joy. Listen, I got to take them where I can get them right now, whether it's seeing magic mike or this. So what's what's Sexier when D. J. Burns gets the ball in the low post or anything you saw on magic mike, I'm still going to take the D. J. Burns thing just because the magic mike movie feels like it was made by like an ai it just kind of like kind of like my country song, a little like, you know, fair enough, fair enough. Fair enough. Anyway, that's gonna wrap it up for this edition of the panic room next week. I'm going to attempt to go to sport for sporting events in a single day. Okay, well, because state plays in the afternoon and then you've got duke and Carolina in the evening and the wolfpack are playing or I'm sorry the canes are playing a hockey game seven. That's four and try to get to all four. It's better than the time you and I went to to basketball games in the day. I mean, I've done two. I've done three has been my most, and that takes a lot out. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. All right. We'll see you all next week in the panic room.