Welcome to another edition of Wral Triangle and two. I'm Mark Bergen. He's Luis Fernandez Battle of the Blues Week is here. College Game day is gonna be in Chapel Hill Lewis. I cannot wait. Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a big deal obviously anytime you have it and now that it's what a top 10 matchup, right? What, what did you, what did you rise to in the, in the men's pole? I haven seen number seven. Number stays at number three. Story right there. That was good. Yes. Yes. And for me too, the big storyline going into this one is putting potentially you have AC C player of the year matchup between RJ Davis Kyle, Philip Posy and the AC C has struggled Lewis because we're potentially entering a world where both UN C and Duke are the only two teams to make the NCAA tournament. So can I can I, can I stand on the soap box really quick? The mics, all yours. The floor is yours, Lewis. I hate that, that narrative that's currently going on because you look at like some of the different like rankings and things like that and you still have a lot of teams in the AC C who are in that general bubble or within the bubble type thing. Watch if I go to the rankings, I'm gonna go to the net rankings right now because you love the net rankings. Apparently. Hold on, let me just search a, hang on, hang on, hang on. The only two teams in the top 25 from the AC C UN C at three Duke now at number seven in OK. But it's the A P poll. The A P poll is somewhat important. You look at, here's net, here's net right now. Ready, North Carolina eight, Duke 19 Clemson 28 Virginia Tech 45 Wake Forest 46 Virginia 49 Miami 62. Pitt 67. How many teams make the NCAA tournament mark? Well, 68 with the play in games, Lewis. So what I am saying is that the AC C needs better pr and this is not, this is not a, an original thought. There are a lot of people who have said this already, but the AC C needs better public relations from someone to hype them up more because I think that the AC C is gonna be just fine. I don't think they're gonna have the most teams in the NCAA tournament. But this notion that it will only be Duke and North Carolina I think is ludicrous. I can't wait to live in this world and tell you you're wrong. Several weeks later. We'll see about that though. I will, then, then we will, we will, we will write, we'll do what we need to do. I love it. Uh I want to talk to some RJ Davis because the outside shooting has been there. The efficiency has been there to me though. What I've noticed is when you run him off the three point line and he beats his man off the dribble. He did it consistently over the weekend against Florida State. It's the floater, the giant killer that he has perfected. And if you decide, OK, he needs to shoot over a bigger man. He could do that with the floater or if you want to just send help the helper. He's got that driving kick just mastered at this point. And that to me like you can point to the shooting, but the floater is just special for a player who's been undersized, but it's the scoring. It's the efficiency. And right now, if the season ended today, I think he'd be your conference player of the year. Philip POWs is right there. I was looking this up though in advance of today's episode though Lewis, there's really no correlation between the top team in the AC C and the AC C player of the year if you go year by year. But I think potentially you have that matchup. That narrative is on the table before this Saturday's matchup. RJ Davis Kyle, Philip Pas always fills it up for the Blue Devils as well. He does, he, he struggled a little bit against Clemson on Saturday but did end up, you know, having a big and one towards the end of the game. No, I mean, what RJ Davis is doing, I think is, is pretty amazing. Um You know, you mentioned his ability to finish and it's for a guard his size to finish the way he does is phenomenal, especially when you take into account how good he is from the free throw line, right? So you, you put all of it together. He's his, uh I don't have them in front of me, but the numbers of his like open threes right now like open threes that he takes, it's absurd like he's making, it's gotten to the point where I watch RJ Davis shoot in open three and I am shocked if it does not go in. Um I mean, he's, he's, he is on path to be AC C player there. He's on path to be all American. He, he is on path to get his uh jersey up in the rafters that UN C um following one of those qualifications because it's what I think it's, you have to finish all American. You have to be the final four mop or you have to be AC C player of the year. So, um he's, he's right up there getting ready to be honor. It's, it's been a good year. For RJ Davis. He has played well. Elliott Cao also coming off a season high against Florida State. And what I noticed in that game too, Lewis was like their ability to get by whichever defender was in front of them. And then the problems that creates for an opposing defenses and just breaking down defenses and getting to really whatever spot you want to on the floor. You mentioned the tar heels ability to defend the three point line that's gonna be huge. And then from Duke standpoint coming into this game, regrouping, I look at it from, ok, Jeremy Roach working his way back from ankle and knee injuries coming off the bench in the last game, one of eight from the floor. Is that a role that he can play coming off the bench? Because before uh this past weekend's game, he had consistently been a starter for like 30 plus game, 30 plus games for the Blue Devils. Yeah, I think what, what John Shire mentioned after the, the Clemson win was that, um, like, uh Jeremy Roach didn't practice at all. Um And so you're seeing just because someone is healthy enough to play does not mean that they are healthy 100% you know, and I think that's what you're still seeing with Jeremy Roach. Um adjusting to a new role with those injuries in place that's always gonna take time. Um You know, I don't know if we can expect Jeremy Roche to be putting up 20 points a game over the next couple of weeks. You know, you, the hope is he gets to that point again, he's healthy enough to, to do that. Um, but I mean, it's, uh, for, for me, if I'm duke, the concerns I'm having are just kind of what these past few games have looked like. Right. Um, you have a tight game against George Tech. You lose against Pitt, you, you know, beat Louisville, they came back a little bit in the second half, kind of similar to what they did, um, against UN C but, you know, you beat Louisville and then it takes Clemson throwing up all over themselves for you to beat them in Cameron Indoor. That's a little bit concerning obviously and it's, it's how these teams kind of match up, right. Um Right now you look at that kind of stretch that I mentioned for Duke right. Here's the three point shooting from the opposing teams in that stretch 11 of 20 against Georgia Tech is what they allowed. 10 of 20 against Pittsburgh is what they allowed a little bit better recently, like I said, 5, 17, 7 and 23. But either way I, the matchups are not super great for Duke. Um That's a little bit of a concern there facing the UN C team. That's very good and has been playing very well even though that Florida State game was close and has been playing incredible defensively right now, Ken Palm has UN C as the number four adjusted defense in the nation, which is just wild when you think of where they were last year at this time. So, um, you know, UN C is hot. Duke's floundering a little bit. So the question is, can the Blue Devils turn it around in a hostile environment this weekend? Yeah. And a lot of those questions get answered with an upset win in Chapel Hill. I mean, it's as simple as that. I mean, no, no, seriously. It's true. Yeah, I, I will say one thing, Mark to watch, we're recording this on Monday. January 29th, Duke plays at Virginia Tech coming up later today. I'm gonna be very interested to see how they respond to the Clemson game in that Virginia Tech game if they play well and have a lot more momentum going into, you know, if, if Jeremy Roach gets a little bit healthier, Mark Mitchell continues to get a little bit healthier. Um You know, they'll continue to play well. Um So that I'm, I'm gonna be curious to see how all that unfolds who heels have. Uh Georgia Tech on Tuesday night road game in Atlanta. Go ahead, Lewis. Who, who are you kind of player wise? Who are you zoning your, your, your, your sights on ahead of this big game on Saturday? I mean, Davis and Philips are the two in, you know, I look at it. Ok, who's guarding Davis from Duke standpoint and then Philip Posy, it's like, do you want to put Baycot on him? Do you want to rotate? You know, maybe Ingram, like, you know, how do you defend each of those matchups? And then again, if Roach is coming off the bench, again, not just a key contributor this season, but when Duke's gone on runs in previous seasons, someone who has a lot of experience. So it's like, ok, how do you slow down RJ Davis? Well, you know, that's your match up potentially. So how, how they play that, that chess match and that offense versus defense and prioritizing what's actually important. Um that, and then, I mean, like the home court advantage too, I mean, it sounds crazy but like with this game being in Chapel Hill and it's like, it's no surprise that game day is gonna be there the 12th time. Uh It's been at the Dean Dome for uh ESPN S College Game day. So it's like that, that's really what I'm looking at. It's like in these big time games, Lewis. And when we talked with Chris Duhon months ago, when you think about the legends that have gone through these programs, it's these kind of games that they step up in. You know, we talk with Chris Duhon. It's, you know, he had the game winner against UN C all those years ago on a reverse lay up. It's still something that he talks about to this day with Raymond Felton, who's his buddy? You know, he's going up against. I, no, absolutely. The, the two players I we, we talked a little about UN C so I'll turn to Duke a little bit here. Sure. The two players that I am most interested in, I think for Duke are Jared mccain and Tyrese Proctor and, oh, you know, there are two starting guards, they're starting backcourt. Sure. But you have a really good backcourt in RJ Davis and Elliott Goodell and you have a really good backcourt in Tyrese Proctor and Jared mccain. It's a great match up from that perspective and mccain and Proctor are both playing some of their best ball at this point. Tyrese Proctor has been averaging, I, I believe right around 20 points a game over the past couple of games. Um and Jared mccain is uh to, to quote uh WRL sports anchor Chris Lee a bucket. Um Truly the, the way he was able to score at will in the second half against Clemson was huge. Um So I'm, I'm very excited for this guard matchup. Um I think it's gonna be really good um against uh for you and Duke. How much does it pain you to compliment the brotherhood? It doesn't, it doesn't mark, listen, II I call it like I see it, I call it like I see it. I on uh on Saturday, I was, I was sitting baseline filming the game and, uh, Tyrese Proctor three or four from three in the first half. And this move little shake, the guy kind of stumbled a little bit. He pulls back three and I was like, oh my gosh. I, I turned to, I think it was, it was either Charlie Mickens or Jordan Kramer from, you know, ABC 11 and CBS 17. I turned to them. I was like, that's a bad man right there. I tweeted, I was like, Iris Proctor, that's a bad man. And I've had so many of my friends who went to UN C like message me and be like, hey man, what are you doing? I'm like, I am a capital J, I'm a capital J journalist. I've got to give everyone credit, give everyone props. Ok. I that's, that's how I view it. I call it like I see it. I'm, I'm, I'm supposed to observe and report. And so my eyes told me Iris Proctor, that's a bad man. Lewis. That's fantastic. And for anyone wondering about the game day festivities, WRL Sports fan.com uh start at 11 hour long pregame broadcast. Uh in terms of which gates you go to, which you can bring into the stadium, it is a free event in advance of the game. Everything's got to be cleared out by one o'clock though. So quick turnaround between the 11 a.m. start time for ESPN S college game day and then the 630 uh tip off at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill. Uh Lewis, any final thoughts before we move on to our Super Bowl discussion. Uh, just let's, let's get it football time. All right. Where, where do you want to start this? We're gonna have Chiefs. Niners. Niners are now one point favorite Ted into the Super Bowl. We can talk some about the conference championship games that we saw on Sunday, Lewis, but take this in any, any direction you'd like and I'll, I'll go from there. Um I think that Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are inevitable. That's, that's my main takeaway. Um What do you mean by inevitable Louis Philson? Hey, like you could run from it. You can, you to quote, was it Thanos you know, run from it, hide from it, fear or whatever, but it, the Patrick Mahomes and, and the Chiefs come all the same like they, they do what they do. Patrick Moms had a better first six seasons than Tom Brady did, especially if he, you know, caps off with the third Super Bowl. Um, you know, this is the best defense he's worked with. Um, the offense we noted the struggles, right? Sure. But you have some improvement players like Rashi Rice Marquez Valdes Scantling is catching the ball and then, uh Travis Kelsey enters the playoffs and turns back into a hall of fame t end. So I, I just think that the Chiefs are inevitable and I think I think they're gonna win it. Um, I think San Francisco as, you know, look great when they needed to look great, but it also looked bad at some times here. Um, and that, that Chiefs defense is, is better than the Niners defense. Um, and I think that while the Niners offense is better than the Chiefs offense, you don't bet against, uh, Patrick Mahomes. All right, I'm gonna come down a little bit of a different stance here and I want to preface what I'm going to say that there is no doubting Mahomes, greatness in terms of being at another tier than all of his peers currently playing the position. So let me preface what I'm going to say about that. We're praising Patrick Mahomes today in the second half, the Chiefs didn't score. They punted the ball five consecutive times and they took a knee on their final possession. Yes, he makes the throw to mvs Downfield at the end of the game is the Chiefs defense neutralizing Lamar Jackson and making him look like a video game quarterback. That's what won them the ball game. Yes, Travis Kelsey 11 for 11. Great efficiency. 100 and 16 yards. I personally think he's shown off for his girlfriend. But to me, the storyline with the Chiefs this season has nothing to do with the offense, has something to do with Mahomes and his ability to throw to essentially Mannequins as receivers. It's a little bit of a hyperbole, but it's the defense, it is the defense that has gotten the Chiefs to this point and we're not talking nearly enough about that because we just want to focus on the quarterback and the quarterback. Hey, no, that's, that's fair because the Ravens, I thought that the two best remaining defenses, uh, in the NFL playoffs were the Chiefs and the Ravens. I don't think that's a hot take by any means. And so what you had was Mahomes and the offense is able to take a lead. They start off fast and then they are able to manage the game from that perspective, time of possession, uh picking up some first downs and playing the field position game. Uh you know, I think it was, it was one of those cases where they were able to play truly complementary football not to just use a coach term there. They were able to play football and the defense is II, I think back to that Tampa Bay of Kansas City Super Bowl, right? And you saw Patrick Holmes having to run around, you know, jumping sideways, trying to throw the ball downfield, getting sacked like a million times, all that stuff. Patrick Mahomes doesn't have to be Superman for this Chiefs team to find success. And if Patrick Mahomes can just dial it back a little bit, it's he, he's like perfection. So I just, there's nothing like at that point, there's nothing you can do. I, I think that's fair. I think that is a very fair point mark. I think that the Kansas City Chiefs defense is superb. Yeah. Uh let's talk a little bit more about this too. The Flowers fumble. He's just trying to make a play. There's really no lesson learned. There's no lesson learned in terms of like how crucial a score there is for the Ravens. The interception Jackson threw into triple coverage to Isaiah. I have no idea what he was doing on that play. It was, it was bad. I think he was trying to force it didn't see the uh backside safety moving up and even then it was double coverage. Um You know, and I think it's, it's all layered, right? If they don't have that turn, if they don't have that turnover with the fumble, then they don't have to force it as much as a tighter game. Jackson doesn't think he has to make like the perfect throw. Um But I mean, it's the, the Ravens definitely have a lot of things to, to figure out. Um because they only ran the ball, what like six times in the second half, not nearly enough. And you've had home field advantage this year. You had the one seed. Yeah, we know Mahomes Greatness Burroughs gonna be coming back next year. Josh Allen Stroud's come along. He's gonna be even better. The team around him is gonna be better. Justin Herbert's gonna have a ho a competent coach in Jim Harbaugh. So, if, if you're a Ravens fan after this game, it's like, what more do we have to do? Because this year was supposed to be the year. It's really tough. It's, if you're a Ravens fan, that's really tough to only score. What was it? 10 points at home in the AFC championship game? That is Jackson went into the fourth quarter of the game, Lewis with barely 100 yards passing and this is the league MVP. Come on, man. It's, yeah, it's, you know, I think we've definitely seen Lamar struggle in the playoffs and the blame is to be spread around there, but some of it is just, Lamar's got to play better in the playoffs. Um, you know, that the, I do not love the, uh, coaching that I saw in the second half from the Ravens, but, you know, at some point, Lamar just kinda gotta be better and the, you know, receivers aren't getting open. Um, you know, you're, it's, I think the Ravens are, the Ravens are gonna be just fine. Lamar Jackson is gonna be just fine, but, you know, I like it as a sports until you get over that hump. Until you, you, you get to the, the mountain top. It's always gonna be something that people look at. Lamar was holding the ball too long yesterday too. That's just my opinion. But like here, here's where I'll transition to the NFC. You'll like how I do this, I can sell you on the upside of the Lions. This being the year before the year, more so than I can say. Oh, the Ravens are definitely gonna be back in a conference championship game because the Lions, in my opinion, should have won yesterday. Yeah, they're up 24 should have won yesterday. And here's the thing too, the people, this was my biggest beef and maybe this is just a, a, an advanced football take. But here's what mine is. People saying in the second half, I have no problem with Dan Campbell going for it twice on fourth down where they don't convert. Where's that same mentality when you're up 14 right before the end of the first half down inside the 10 yard line and you decide to kick a field goal, which was the right decision to make it a 17 point lead in a three score game. So like the, the consistency in the logic and the argument is just off there. You're not, you're not, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get me to agree with you on fourth down decision making stuff. I am pro Dan Campbell and going for it. But why didn't he do it at the end of the first half? Because the time was the situation there where you don't have your full playbook available to you. You only have, if you run the ball, you only can run it like you if you run it and you don't get in the end zone, you know, you're done running it on third and goal was not my favorite. It's to me, fourth down decision making, it's ver very, very often it, for that decision making in my mind about the actual decision to go for it or not. My concern comes more with what is executed, what play is called. I think that's where some of the focus has to be more of in these kind of situations. That's that. Do we, you will playing that way doing that thing. That's exactly how the lines got to this point in the NFC championship game to begin with. I got no problem with it. You, you gotta, you know, Dan Camp has said he's gonna put his big boy pants on and, and deal with the criticism. It's, it's part of what happens when you're in that position. Um I mean, if you like, I, if you wanna, I think more of the one has to be placed on, you know, Kalief Raymond dropping a couple of easy first downs. Um I mean, it's, it's tough when you have a, uh a deep pass bounce off for receivers. I mean, a defender face mask fly up into the air and then Brandon Iu catches it, you know, it's just tough. It, it's, it's, it sucks if you're the Lions. Um And it's just tough. It's just tough man. The clock management at the end of the game two trying to keep all three time outs. But then you run a running play and you call a time out and then you're only left with two. I was gonna use your time outs, use them earlier, like just take the 20 seconds if you were 15 seconds, whatever it is at that point because like it's all, it doesn't matter, you maybe you get 20 seconds back instead of getting, you know, 10 seconds back. Like it's not, it doesn't, it doesn't matter that the drops by the receiver and then Gibbs fub to definitely killer you credit the 49er though, rallying back in when they're performing at the highest level. I like the 49 Ers to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and yes, I know the neutralizer is Patrick Mahomes. I get it, but the 49er playing at their best ability compared to the Chiefs playing at their best ability. The Chiefs have been a different beast, a different team in the playoffs, but they're able to like win close and kind of muck it up and like to me, this is not the same high flying high scoring offense we've seen from the Chiefs in the past where they're gonna light up the scoreboard, that's not their style of play this year. So a lot of casual fans are gonna be like, oh Mahomes Kelsey, you know, uh Pacheco runs hard, they're winning close ball games turnover battle winning time of possession, having an excellent defense this year. If you take anything from the discussion from my standpoint for any of our listeners and viewers, the Chiefs defense has been terrific this season by and large this season, Lewis. I agree. I think where you could beat the 49 ers is with tough defense and running the ball. The 49er uh, run EPA is in the lower half of the league. Uh The Lions ran all over them in that game. The Chiefs run the ball really well. Uh my, if my like kind of like the thing that's for me in the back of my mind, I don't think it's ever happened because Patrick Holmes is the quarterback but Isaiah Pacheco Super Bowl MVP. I don't see, I don't know if they would give it to him. Do you remember the first Super Bowl that they won? And we were all asking, should Damian Williams have won the Super Bowl MVP. And the answer to that was is if you're asking the question, that's what the answer is. I don't know what kind of value you get there from the prop standpoint, but like if the Chiefs win the Super bowl, Pacheco is gonna have, what, 100 plus yards and at least a touchdown, that's we're in agreement there. That's how I do it. I think you'd have good value there, but it's just gonna be, it's gonna be hard to go against Mahomes if, if they go on and win it again. This is not the Super Bowl I wanted, but it'll be fun. It'll be a lot of red and speaking of red, a lot of Taylor Swift as well. Are you prepared for the next two weeks? Lewis, I love it. You like the Swift? Ok. It makes the, the people who, and maybe I'll make some people upset with us, the people who get upset about Taylor Swift being on camera too much during these games. I I hope they hate this. I'm sorry that people are allowed to have a good time. It's nothing really that Taylor Swift does it. Let me just say this, I'll, I'll, I'll land here, I'll land here and I could say this like there are people in this universe that believe that Taylor Swift made Travis Kelsey and it's like, let's look at before they even met or they're even in a relationship. Travis Kelsey, two time super bowl champion. He's one of only like a handful of athletes that's hosted Saturday Night Live before. So like I think they both made each other more famous, but there is a segment of the population out there that believes like call Taylor Swift. Now everyone knows who Travis Kelsey is because of her, that I will shut down immediately. It's different lanes, man. Um And Taylor Swift is in a level of stardom and celebrity that Travis Kelsey is nowhere near 100% 100% Travis Kelsey is more popular because Taylor Swift, I mean, I don't think it's a hot take at all, but that's all I'm saying is just relax and let people enjoy the game. That's all I'm saying. Just relax and let people have fun. I think that's a good place to land. We've got a lot of coverage this week, Wrl Sports fan.com Duke playing tonight UN C tomorrow, Battle of the Blues. Saturday. We're almost into February, which is crazy to say. And we're getting closer and closer to the end of the regular season AC C tournament. March Madness. By March 11th, we'll have online sports betting as well. Lewis. So a lot to discuss and a lot to cover here in the coming weeks with wrrl sports. Anything else you need to plug before we sign off here? No, ma'am. All right. For Luis Fernandez. I'm Mark Bergen. Thank you for watching another edition of Wrl Triangle and two hit the subscribe button on youtube, five stars and five stars only on Apple and Spotify.