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Duke's off-season has started with Mark Mitchell entering the transfer portal, while Tyrese Proctor will be returning. Despite the loss of Mitchell, Duke still has potential with players like Proctor and incoming recruit Cooper Flagg. NC State's tournament run came to an end in the Final Four against Purdue. Purdue's strong performance and tough matchups made it difficult for NC State to compete. However, NC State's run was still impressive and should be celebrated by fans. Welcome to Inside the ACC, I'm Noah Teague from Technician Sports and I'm joined today by Troy Jones of Citrus TV and Brendan Olinga of the Daily Tar Heel. How are you guys doing today? Doing well. Basketball season's over, so not too good, but ready to talk about NC State. Yeah, I'm kind of depressed that college basketball is ending, but we get to talk about the team that was in the final four that we didn't expect, so I'm very excited for that. Absolutely, and it was one wild season across college basketball, and including in the ACC, NC State, their tournament run finally came to a close in the final four against Purdue, and then of course the off-season cycle has gotten started, and we'll start with a little bit of the off-season, particularly with Duke, as that's where the spotlight is going to be this off-season, with a lot of moving parts. Mark Mitchell has gone into the portal, Tyrese Proctor announces that he's returning to Duke, so overall, first initial thoughts on Duke's early off-season so far. Yeah, I think the loss of Mitchell will be pretty impactful, because he was one of their best players down the stretch, and especially in ACC play, I thought he got better as the season got on. It's a really strong compliment to Philip Palsky down low, and with Proctor, I'm at the start, before the season started, I had Proctor as the ACC player of the year, obviously that didn't come to fruition with his injuries and his struggles off the gate after his injuries, but I think Proctor still has a really solid skill set to be an experienced guard that Duke can have in that backcourt, with Roach leaving, he'll probably kind of step into that role, but Duke should also be one of the favorites in the ACC still next year, as we'll touch upon later. Cooper Flagg is coming in, and I think Flagg, we all know, is going to be one of the best prospects in his class, he might be the number one overall pick in the 2025 draft, that's an impactful add, so I think Duke, you know, there's still a lot to go in this off-season, we barely even touched the surface, but I think Duke, if they get some more additions in the portal, more experience, kind of fill in that Roach role in the backcourt, I think that they can be still one of the favorites in the ACC next year. Yeah, Proctor was an integral part of the Duke's rotation, you know, averaged a little over 10 points per game, yeah, as you mentioned, kind of stepping into that role, with that void kind of being left open in the backcourt, Roach leaving, Jared McCain very well could be leaving, possibly to the NBA, that'll allow him to get a bigger role in the offense next season, I would've liked to see a bigger jump from Proctor in his second year, I really had high hopes for him, as a Detroit, but he's still got that, I think could be a solid option for Duke next year, and potentially make that jump. And then for Mitchell, you know, Duke lost no one in the portal last season, that's something you don't really see in today's age or college basketball, it'll be a big loss, he was their fourth leading scorer, this was kind of an expected move, like you said, Cooper Flagg coming in, he's one of the guys that can kind of maybe fill in that role, it'll be interesting to see just, you know, who Duke brings in this offseason, how they approach the transfer portal, but you know, just in general, it was a solid career for Mitchell at Duke, and you know, I'm interested to follow him and see where he continues playing next season. Absolutely, I think for the Blue Devils, you know, you want to shake some things up this season, obviously this season, while they went to the Elite 8, didn't quite go the way they wanted to, going 1-4 against Tobacco Road, you know, missing out on those very high ACC preseason expectations, so at the end of the day, while Mark Mitchell is a very good player, and someone's going to pick up a nice piece in the portal with him, I don't think it's the worst loss in the world, as far as Proctor coming back, you know, I think it's good for them to have a veteran point guard, even if he's not necessarily a super high level player, he's still a good, solid contributor for them. We've seen, you know, time and time over again the last several years that older teams, teams with more experienced players, tend to do better, especially in March, and so you look at this Duke team that is going to be very young, very freshman focused next year, having a player like Proctor back, I think is going to be good, even if this was expected with his, you know, slightly disappointing season, I think it's good for Duke to have that veteran presence returning for them, you know, we'll see what happens with the other pieces, but so far this is, it's been a solid start for the Blue Devils in the offseason. Next up, we have NC State's miracle run to the Final Four, they played Purdue in what was just a very difficult matchup, obviously you have Eadie, you have the guards, and Brandon Smith, who was our lawyer, and ultimately the Boilermakers proved to be just too much in the Final Four for NC State, what did you guys notice in this matchup for the Wolfpack? Yeah, like you mentioned, it was just Purdue was too much, NC State really relied on Burns down low throughout the tournament, and throughout the ACC tournament as well, and that kind of helped spark the offense, but Purdue was just a great matchup, you know, to play against them, Burns was 8 points, wasn't really able to get much going compared to Eadie's, you know, 20 and 12, but for Eadie, it's kind of, you know, a down game, but still, it's 20 and 12, and he did just enough to kind of open up spacing for Purdue's guards, which outplayed State, I would thought if NC State had a chance to win, those guards would really have to outshine Purdue's, they just were not able to do that, and it really just looked like NC State never really had a chance in this game, it's still a run that will go down in the history book, I'm sure NC State fans are disappointed with the result, but for me, I think college sports is really just all about, you know, making memories, obviously you want to win a championship, I think this run will be remembered by NC State fans for years, I know UNC's run back in 2022, even though they didn't get that win, that was some of the most fun watching college basketball I've had, you know, throughout my entire life, so, you know, just happy for State fans, obviously they don't get too much success all too often, and it'll be interesting to see how State can kind of, you know, build on this next year. Yeah, just, I don't think State was ever going to win this game, it was always going to be an uphill battle, and when Burns doesn't have the game, he actually only had one rebound, all game to go along with his eight points, Diara only grabbed five rebounds, C.J. Horne was the leading scorer, but he was only shot eight of 21 from the floor, Purdue just played suffocating defense, really, they didn't have to have their best offensive game to beat NC State, they, it was only a six-point game at halftime, and then NC, and then Lance Jones hit the three, and then there was a stretch where nobody really made a field goal, and then Purdue just buckled down a couple more threes, it was a Mason Gillis three, I think, and another Lance Jones three, that basically said that this game was over with midway through the second half, but it was a valiant effort by State in the first half, I didn't think they played terribly, and I honestly thought Purdue wasn't even at its best, Braden Smith, one of the best point guards in the country, only had three points, but it was still always just going to be an uphill battle, matchup with Burns against ED was never going to, I don't think Burns was really ever going to win that matchup, so Purdue was just a much better team, better, well-coached with such a fluid offense, and for NC State though, you can't be disappointed on a final four run, especially when you were losing to Louisville at halftime in the ACC tournament a couple months ago, so like, it was always going to be a tough road, but NC State fans should cherish this forever, and again, we'll mention about it later, but I think State still has some upside going into next year, we'll mention about it later. For me, I was definitely very impressed by NC State just getting to the final four, and so at this point, you know, it was just kind of a whatever happens, happens for NC State in the matchup with Purdue, which both of you guys have already hit on, was a very tough matchup. For me, being in Phoenix, I got kind of a close look for what State tried to do, it didn't matter, because if you tried to take away ED, Purdue's guards were too good, if you would try to take away Purdue's guards, ED was too good, and so there was just really no winning formula for NC State, and then obviously coming into this game, it was just, you know, just a tough matchup, you know, no matter what, because, you know, ED is 7'4", going up against 6'9", Burns, that was never going to work out well for Burns, who is NC State's primary scorer, obviously Diarra, who, you know, practicing Ramadan during that time, the game was a 3 o'clock local time tip-off, and so there was no chance for him to be able to hydrate or eat a little bit, as he had in some of the previous games, so that definitely hurt them in the rebounding department, and then just overall, you know, no matter the matchup with Purdue, and so for NC State, it's a tough way to go out, but there's nothing to hang your hat about when you go on a nine-game winning streak, and then go to the Final Four, and fall to one of the best teams in the entire country, so definitely no shame in that, you know, watching Purdue, they're a very, very, very talented team, obviously they couldn't quite match up with UConn in that national championship, but definitely some phenomenal talent on that team, so next up, we're going to talk a little bit about some of the teams across the ACC, and just give, you know, one word to describe each team in the ACC, and we'll start with Duke. Yeah, my one word would be disappointing, I think Duke, coming into the year, high expectations, got to an Elite Eight, but I think overall, when you look back at the year, you're going to say it was not really up to Duke's standards, and I think it was a fairly disappointing year for the Blue Devils. Yeah, I'm going to go with a little bit of a different word, I'm going to say legit, because it's not, I won't say legit, but like, I think it's legit's a good way to describe John Shire, and his run, and the way he coached a lot better down the stretch this year, for me, I think he, I think the last couple games of the regular season really showed that he probably should have won the ACC Coach of the Year, but it was always going to be Hubert Davis, and he lost, and yeah, you can't call your season a true success if you lose to North Carolina twice, and again, like Noah mentioned, you go one and four against the Tobacco Road Schools, but I think Shire has shown some promise, a lot more discipline as a coach, but as the jokes come on, yeah, Duke was pretty soft most of the year, so that's a good way to describe it, that soft, is that Duke just didn't play with as much intensity and physical toughness in years past, that was a little, that was probably the most disappointing part, that they just weren't aggressive enough, and that was the one, that's the one weakness that I really hope that it gets fixed sooner rather than later. Absolutely, for me, it was just a tough pill to swallow, that's kind of the way I see it for Duke, you know, you talked about getting swept by Carolina, losing 2-3 against State, you know, if you're a Duke fan, you're obviously competing to be at the top of the mountaintop, and so to not even win against, you know, teams in your general area, just to cross town, very tough for Duke fans, it's going to be a long offseason, especially with the way they went out in the NCAA tournament, they'll be hearing about it for months, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Duke, they've got a lot of talent coming in, they're going to add more in the transfer portal, but for the next several months, it's going to be a tough pill to swallow, and while there was progress made this season, it's not one that I think Duke fans are going to remember particularly fondly, just because of the way that some of the things went on tobacco road. So the next thing we have is Carolina, what is one word to describe the Eels? Yeah, my word is rebound. I think it's, you know, their success this year was built on rebounding, but it's also rebounding from the disappointment of last season. Obviously, not the way that Eels fans would want to go out in the Sweet 16, but overall, great year, and something to build off of for next season. Absolutely. I think for me with North Carolina, my word is just progress. You know, after last season, not being in the tournament to come back as a one-seas for Carolina, that's a lot of progress for the Eels. Obviously, you know, the tournament didn't go the way you'd want it to go ending in the Sweet 16, but this was such a bounce back year, they took such a major step forward, and I think they've positioned themselves very well for next season. I think that they very well could be at the top of the ACC next season, and so definitely a time of progress for the Eels. Troy, who do you have for the Eels, for their word? Yeah, I think that my word for Carolina is going to have to be a big bounce back, basically. Like you both said, they really need to find a way after last year's big disappointment, and they really did get in a big way, number one seed, best team in the ACC for most of the year, had the player of the year in R.J. Davis, who has never looked better than he was in years past. And again, like you guys said, I think Carolina is in a little bit of a much better position than they were last year. They'll be in a better position to set themselves up this year to compete. They have a couple of really good five-stars coming, and Ian Jackson is on my radar. Cadell will come back. Trimple's in the portal, but you also might get Ingram back as well. You still will have some of the new players, but of course, Macon Davis will be gone. That'll be tough to replace, but I think Carolina will finally show what they have. That's a couple of the last players that Roy Williams recruited, so we'll get to see what Shubert Davis can do when he builds out a roster that's full of his players that he brought in. So very excited for Carolina next season. Absolutely, and rounding out tobacco road is NC State. What word do y'all have for the Wolfpack? Yeah, I think it's the word of the day, but I'll go with miraculous. I think if you asked me what word described NC State's season a couple weeks ago, it would have been very different, but the run they were able to go on, it'll be remembered for a long time, and it was definitely a miraculous season for the Wolfpack. I would have snapped because they snapped themselves and they woke up at the right time of the season. Again, we mentioned losing at halftime to Louisville in the ACC tournament. We all thought it was over for them. Kevin Keyes was going to be fired and they would have to conduct a national search. You'll probably see a lot of their guys in the floor tonight, but instead we get the legends of DJ Burns. Not that he wasn't already a legend, but he cemented himself on a national stage. So did most of those eight guys that played the whole way for NC State. Kevin Keyes, there's that quote where they say he's a winner, and he proved it this year despite some calls for his head the majority of the year. There's a tweet that was out there that basically said Kevin Keyes should be retained and people were calling that person crazy, but Keyes proved a lot of people wrong. He probably proved everyone wrong because I think everyone was a doubter of him in some way, shape, or form, but he got himself a nice contract extension just from winning the ACC tournament. I think that would have been enough for State Bank this year, but then you go all the way to the Final Four, you beat Duke and you lead eight. That felt like a fairy tale the entire way through. Again, we'll mention it later, but State is also in a really good position next season. Absolutely. I think I know the tweet with the article that you're referring to, and that person has a lot of receipts they can send to old takes exposed. But for me, I think the word is just grateful, and it goes to the Wolfpack Band-Aids where this team has not had much success at all for the last 40-something years. So to be in a position where you finally have a trophy that you can lift and put in the trophy case, you have some TV time on SportsCenter during March, you have some attention. I think for a lot of NC State fans, they're just grateful to finally be able to taste a little bit of the high life in March. It's been a very, very long time for NC State fans. You never know if you're going to have a run like this again. So to have this was huge, whether you're in college or very old and saw the 70s and 80s teams, everyone is just very glad to finally have a piece of that winning back that they used to have. So for NC State, my word is grateful. Next up, we have Miami. This one should be rather interesting. Completely forgettable season after you make the Final Four for the first time ever, and you were still in a very good position to do something this year. You brought some of that glory like O'Meara and Pack, and you bring in a great transfer like Matthew Cleveland. The season didn't start out too poorly. They were 11-2 in early January, and they just beaten the ranked Cunston team. Then they lose a weight portion over time. Sure, that's fine. Then you lose at home to Kenny Payne's Louisville by nine. I think that's where the traps came off for Miami. And still even in February, they were 15-7, still a winning record in the conference. And then you lose 10 straight games to end the season. Just an absolutely putrid way to go out like that. But I do think that this is probably going to be forgotten immediately next season because I think that the transfers they brought in early in the cycle already with Brandy Johnson should provide a lot of help to a frontcourt that's about to lose, that just lost. Nor Chad O'Meara, who was injured most of the season. So you wonder if O'Meara was fully healthy, would Miami have still made the tournament or have been a lot more competitive than they were down the stretch? A lot of their depth's gone. So it's interesting to see how they will face that. But always having a guy like Patrick Packback and Matthew Cleveland as well. There's still a little bit of continuity, and I still do trust Laraniga. But forgettable is the perfect way to describe it. It's probably one of the most forgettable seasons you'll ever see and want to just throw out the window like that. Yeah, my word is flop. I think going from the Final Four coming into this year with really high expectations, I thought that they legitimately could compete for an ACC title. To go from that to second-to-worst team in the ACC, I don't think anybody saw that coming. Just an absolute flop of the season. Pretty excusable from Jim Laraniga and the Hurricanes. Will they turn around? Probably. But yeah, just a really, really bad season for Miami after going on probably the best run that they've ever gone on in program history last season. Absolutely. My word is hangover. They had the high of going to the Final Four last season. They were living their best life, living like there was no tomorrow. And they woke up in 2023-24 with that pounding headache, did not want to get out of bed. Everything hurt. This season was a hangover for Miami. Even with so many players coming back, they couldn't do anything. They couldn't get up off the mat. And ultimately, it ended with that super long losing streak at the end of the year. So just very disappointing for Miami, the way that they let that kind of high, they didn't build off of it. Instead, they let it just hit them back in the face and took a big step back this season. So we'll see what happens next year. I do like what they're doing in the portal so far. I think they do bounce back, but very disappointing year for the Hurricanes. So next up, we have Syracuse. What's y'all's word for the Arms? Yeah, I went with potential. I think for Syracuse, I didn't really think in year one of Autry that they could really be competitive and be near that bubble, which they were this season, finished around middle of the pack, upper half of the ACC. I think there's a lot to build on for next season, and we'll get into it. But I think that this is potentially a sleeper team going into next season. So just very excited for the potential of the Orange in a new era under Autry. I feel like the potential of this Orange team for this past season, but I think one word to describe it is not good. It's multiple words, really. It's just not good enough, shockingly enough, because this was a team that was projected to actually be in the top 25 by a lot of people before the season began. You bring in a guy like J.J. Starling, Maheem McLeod, a new head coach in Adrian Autry, finally getting rid of the old habits under Boeheim and bringing a guy like Chance Westry, who I thought was going to be a big difference maker. J.J. Starling actually got better as the season went on, and I really do like his progress going into next season. But then you got a guy like McLeod, who was more of a liability on the court, more than being a positive, and then Chance Westry not even playing a game this year, and then guys like Justin Taylor not being able to take that next step up compared to his classmates like Judah Mintz, Malik Brown, and Chris Bell. And now, I think, I don't want to say it's way too early to determine it was just his first season at the helm, but I think Autry has to show at least some signs for Syracuse to get off of that, off the bubble, get barely in the bubble, whatnot. This Orange team really needs to be stable, be who they used to be a decade ago when they were the number one team in the country and were undefeated 26 games into this season. You need to show at least some signs of progress because really for the last three seasons, it's been almost the same deal, being middling in the ACC and being just off of the bubble. So far though, I do like them bringing in Eddie Lampkin from, I do like them bringing in Eddie Lampkin from Colorado, and they have some guys that are visiting very soon, bringing in, they brought in Dan Inglesiad to replace Jerry McNamara, who's now head coach at Siena. Dan Inglesiad brought Mount St. Mary's to a tournament, and I think that he's going to attract some of his, one of his best players here this weekend. That's just me, what do I know? But I think Syracuse, if they bring in another scoring guard to replace June Mets' productions, they brought in a center like Lampkin, but I think they could use one more and you should get another year from, you should get the four of Chris Bell and J.J. Starling back. Malik Brown entering the portal and Cody Copeland is always really tough because I really do think that Copeland could have started this upcoming season and Malik Brown is just a stud, he does everything right on the court besides being undersized and being asked to play at the five most of his season for the Orange, but I do think that he fell short of a little bit of some pretty decently high expectations compared to the last few years under Boeheim. I'm cautiously optimistic to see what the Orange can do, who they bring in the portal, because it should be still an interesting project to watch because I do think Autry is a terrible coach, but he needs to show at least some signs of can they get out of mediocrity. Absolutely, I think for me just the word is just fine. For me, I didn't have super high expectations for the Orange coming into this season and they just kind of, they followed the path for the most part. They beat a lot of the bad teams and struggled with a lot of the good teams. Obviously, they did get a signature win over North Carolina, but for the most part, I felt like a lot of the season for Syracuse never got too high, never got too low, too much and you're one in a post-legendary coach era. I think that's fine. It's not what Syracuse basketball should be. Syracuse basketball should be one of the best teams in the country, but it's going to take time to build this thing and I think they're starting to slowly move back in the right direction. Obviously, Troy, you talked about the addition of Lampkin, which I think would be very beneficial to the Orange, but nothing to write home about this season other than the Carolina win, but I think it's one that is also not setting Syracuse back at all. Our next team that we have is Woolville, who obviously is a settler-dweller in the ACC. What do you all have for the Cardinals? I went with terrible. If I had two words, it would be dumpster fire. Louisville has just been really bad the last two years. Kenny Payne going, Kelsey coming in. It'll be interesting to see how Louisville can rebuild a program that has, within the last 10 years, won a national championship and should be playing at a much higher level than they have been the last couple of years. My one word is going to be just laughable. The last two years have been some of the worst and honestly most pathetic basketball I've ever seen deployed by a Power 5 program that, again, won a national championship just barely a decade ago. How the program has completely just taken a nose dive. How Kenny Payne is, again, just one of the worst coaches I've ever seen. It was always a weird hire from the start and it showed after these last two seasons. There's not a lot of words to describe just how embarrassing the Kenny Payne era is. It's one of the top two worst coaching hires of all time. There's somebody else that I can't remember that's probably worse. I'm thinking about Kim Anderson's tenure at Missouri in the mid-2010s, which was also really laughably bad basketball. At least Kenny Payne won a couple of ACC games, but it wasn't a lot, so there's not much that separates them. It's just a laughable time. Pat Kelsey, as much as I don't really like the fit and what Louisville should have gone after, he will at least bring some stability to the program. Their full will be much higher and the guys they brought in on the transfer portal, including a couple of Kelsey's players from Charleston, are really intriguing. I like the direction Louisville went overall in the coaching process. They had the right process. It just felt like they could have gone fishing for somebody big without the prestigious of a program they are. They should be at least better and not laughable next season, hopefully. For sure. My word was Payne because that's basically every game for the Cardinals. It didn't matter who they were playing, whether it was a top-tier ACC team or just a bottom-tier, barely mid-major type team. Louisville always found ways to lose games. No matter what, you just knew that there was nothing that was going to save this team. Last season, I think they only won four games and then they bring Kenny Payne back. You could kind of tell very early on, okay, this is going to be it for Kenny Payne. I'm surprised he made it as far as he did all the way to the end of the season. To me, this season, it reminded me of that scene from the Simpsons that, stop, stop, he's already dead scene with Louisville fans. Because every single game, it's like taking a baseball bat to that fan base. I felt bad for Louisville fans all season long. I'm glad that they don't have to put up with that. I think that things are changing for them. I know it's early in the offseason, although low-key, they are maybe having a better offseason than their in-state rival, Kentucky, which, hey, if anything, that'll give Louisville fans some solace. They were able to get rid of Kenny Payne, get an adult in the room in Pat Kelsey. We'll see how he does. They got to watch Kentucky lose in the first round to Oakland. Then they got to watch Cal walk out the door to Arkansas. Now it looks like they're watching a Kentucky meltdown with Mark Polk. For Louisville fans, if nothing else, they've had a fun month in March, even if they haven't been playing on the courts. Very painful on-the-court experiences for the Cardinals. Next up, a team that was also bad, but not quite as bad, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. What do you have on them? I think one word to describe is that this was expected. This was a team that was one of the youngest in the ACC, a lot of freshmen playing, not a lot of experience coming in. But then you have a coach like Micah Shrewsbury, who just took Penn State to the NCAA tournament. Honestly, they got better as the season went on. They looked a lot more competitive. They had the Freshman of the Year in the ACC in Marcus Burton. A lot of intriguing young guys that found their role and looked better as the season went on. I'm thinking about their game against Syracuse, where they looked terrible in the first half. I know I just pretty much completely crapped on Louisville and deceived their program for the last few years. That first half played by Notre Dame was one of the worst halves of basketball I've ever seen, at least. Then they kind of got a groove going at the end of the half. In the second half, they played like an ACC team. They looked completely competent. Brayden Shrewsbury was playing on fire that game. Burton was really good. They really battled back against that Syracuse team. They had a couple of chances to tie or even win the game, but it didn't happen because they're too young. They didn't have that guy to just close it out. But I do really like what they showed as the season went along. They have a couple of really good young players. Burton's a guy that should be on a lot more people's radars coming into next season. Lots of Terry Booth in the portal, but it shouldn't be that big of a loss. I'm expecting they will go portalling this offseason for a lot more experience to help out their younger guys or just hope that their younger guys can really take a massive step up. I'm really looking at Brayden Shrewsbury and Marcus Burton to be one of the best backcourts in the ACC next offseason, if we're being completely honest. We'll touch on that a little bit later. But the progress looks really good. The hire was really smart from getting Shrewsbury. I like the potential they have. It's not the highest potential, but it's sizzling and a good rise as next season starts, depending on what they do this offseason. My word is forgettable. Obviously, Notre Dame will have some highs this year. Marcus Burton, winning rookie of the year. Not many high expectations for the Irish coming into the season. First year under Shrewsbury, a lot of young guys. Just not a team that was really moving the needle for me this season. Kind of forgettable, but something definitely to work up to starting next year for Notre Dame. I think that they can work themselves back up to a notable program that they've been for the last decade or so. Absolutely. For me, it's year zero. When you come into a program like this, where there's going to be a lot of work to do in the rebuild, you're in a tough conference. With Notre Dame, you can forget year one and just say, hey, don't worry about it. Don't start the clock this year. See what you got. And they had some fun moments throughout the season. I thought that their win over Virginia, where they absolutely smoked them by 20-something points. Obviously, that's a big win for the Irish, even if that was when UVA was at their low point in the season. Obviously, there was a lot of tough moments, but they were able to stack some wins. They were able to beat the Virginia Techs, the Georgia Techs, the Louisville's of the world. And then, of course, the late season win win against Wake Forest. For Notre Dame, it's nothing that exciting, but you got some good individual wins. They had a win over Clemson. You look at this season for Notre Dame, and you can look back at it and say, hey, we survived this season. We're going to go into next year, and next year is really going to be more of a year one. Now that Shrewsbury has his feet under him at Notre Dame, he talks about how they're going to have a very strong backcourt next year with Burton and Shrewsbury. So it's nothing to write home about, but nothing too painful for Irish fans this season. Next up, we have the Virginia Tech Hokies. Completely mid is a perfect word to describe this team because I just kind of felt many multiple times during this season, I just kind of forgot that they existed. It's nothing against them. They're a completely fine team, but 19-15 overall and 17-15 during the regular season, it's just really not going to cut it. Despite having a decent court and you have a really good backcourt and Hunter Couture and Sean Padula, they just really didn't do anything with it. They didn't really have any great wins. They did beat Iowa State and Boise State in the non-conference and they were competitive against Auburn and a very good South Carolina team. They had some actually decent wins looking back on it, but to completely admit, it's a perfect way to describe it because as an ACC team, you never want to be in the 8-9 kick game. That's just a brutal game to be in because it's just one of those games where you're reminded that, hey, you're an extremely good basketball team that nobody's going to remember a year from now and going to Syracuse and Syracuse also being in the 8-9 game the past couple of years, it's a pretty brutal experience. Virginia Tech is always going to be in the bubble. I do like Mike Young as a coach and they are bringing in some pretty good transfers for next season, but at some point, they beat the NIT the last couple of years, but haven't made the tournament in a couple of seasons and they only made that tournament because they won the ACC tournament, so they just kind of have to find a way to be legit next season because it's not a terrible team. They just got to find their next guy to break through and get out of that kind of mid spot on the bubble. Get out of the bubble. It's time to actually be a top six ACC team. Yeah, I went with Rebuild. I think this is a team that won the ACC two years ago. This is expected to be a down season and like you said, it's really just middle of the pack. Some good wins against Virginia, also some bad losses. I think that there's definitely stuff to work on for next season. I think Virginia Tech can reach that level beginning in 2025, but yeah, just really not a great season for Virginia Tech and pretty mid like you said, Troy. For me, I would go with Disappointing. This season was one where obviously you had the two giants in Carolina and Duke at the top of the ACC, but there was definitely a window open for somebody to step up and kind of rise up towards the top of the ACC this year. I think at the beginning of the year, a lot of us thought that team would be Miami and so when they fell off, maybe Virginia Tech could have done that, but they just didn't. They just never really got their footing going in ACC play. I remember when they came to Raleigh, I was very impressed with them offensively. They showed that they do have some potential, but they just never quite realized that potential. They were never able to be consistent. Obviously, they had the 33, 34 point win over Virginia. Hoagie fans are obviously going to love that. They beat Wake Forest towards the end of the year, a pretty good team, but overall for this season, I felt like there was just a lot of missed opportunities for the Hoagies in a year where there was a window open for them to be able to win, even if it wasn't necessarily their best roster. Their talent was still enough where they could have won, and they just didn't quite put the pieces together. Things didn't quite click, and so they'll go into this offseason hoping to bounce back. Hopefully, this offseason, they can bring in the right transfer pieces to get themselves off the NIT and at least make a first-round appearance in the NCAA tournament because this is a team that, quite frankly, they shouldn't be going to the NIT. They should be expecting to go to the NCAA tournament some, compete in this league just with the way that they have the fan support, they have the resources, they have a pretty solid recruiting location being close to the DMV, close to the Carolina's, all of that. So for Virginia Tech, this season was a disappointment. Next up, we have their in-state rivals, the Virginia Cavaliers. Yeah, my word was half because this was basically half of a team. Really good defense, but truly one of the worst offenses I've ever seen in college basketball. They say defenses win championships, but you also need to score more than 50 points to win championships. So I don't think Virginia deserves to be in the tournament. They made it, they got embarrassed, they really need to figure out these offensive struggles that they've had now for many years, and that'll be the biggest thing that they need to look into starting next season. Yeah, my one word to describe this team is just messy, to say the least. This is a team that, you know, again, always was going to play amazing defense, and they were one of the best defenses this year. Brian Dunn is the legit defensive prospect that I think can play in the NBA, but they had no semblance of an offense. Their best offensive scorer was Reese Beekman, and he's probably like the third best option on a really good offensive team, and he's had to be doing most of the scoring. And, you know, 13 points a game is just not going to cut it in the NBA. That's just not enough. Nowadays, your leading scorer should have at least 16 points a game, and so only like around 13, barely over 14 a game is just not enough, and only having two guys that can score. This is a team that can actually decently shoot the three ball well, but that's not, they don't take a lot of attempts per game, and the guys they brought in from the transfer portal, like Miner, Rhodes, were expected to just be a little better than they expected, especially Andrew Rhodes, the Summit League freshman of the year, and he went from a 17 point a game scorer to barely even scoring for a game, and on 29% from the floor. It's just, this is embarrassing how this team runs its offense, and just even in the portal this year, they just need to find like one guy that can really make a difference, because Tony Bennett hasn't really touched the portal often because of the continuity of some of the players he brings in, and they just need to bring some sort of scoring punch in that is proven that can be a reliable one or two, and especially also for facing Beekman as well. I just don't see how Virginia can progress on the offensive end with how teams play offense nowadays. It's just very ancient, and that's actually another pretty good word to describe how this team has ran. It's just pretty ancient and old school. Not that there's anything wrong with old school basketball, but you've got to show some signs of life. Absolutely. For me, I would describe them as Iowa football. They could not score points to save their lives, and you know, they played phenomenal defense all season long, and that's going to give you a good floor. It won them a lot of games this year, but they're not able to win much of importance without any offense. I remember I went up to Charlottesville for their game against NC State, and they held state to only 15 points in the first half, and yet somehow they found themselves in a dogfight at the end of that game, barely breaking 50 points to win that thing, and that was with overtime. You look at this for Virginia, and that's just one of several games where they really struggled defensively all year long. They were great. They held Miami to 38 points a game, but their offense continued to get in the way over and over and over again. It cost them in the ACC tournament when they weren't able to put NC State away. They inexplicably were unable to hit free throws. You look at Isaac McNeely, the one guy that was a decent free throw shooter, and even he wasn't able to hit his free throws down the stretch. Then you look at what they did once they got into the NCAA tournament. They played some defense. They didn't play any offense in that game whatsoever, the most important game of the season. Their offense completely no-showed, and so you look at this for Virginia. There has to be some, kind of like what you talked about, Troy, a scoring punch brought in from the portal. Tony Bennett, he's an older coach. He's an old school coach. He's not the type that's really embraced this new era of the portal, but he's going to have to at least play with it some this year and find a way to really ignite this offense so that even if it's not great, it just needs to be mediocre. If they can have a mediocre offense, this would be a very good team, but without any teeth to this offense, they're not going to do anything past getting maybe to the first rounds of the NCAA tournament. For Virginia, they are losing a decent amount of talent this season, and so you wonder what are they really going to be next year. For me, I'm not particularly high on them for next year, especially with the fact that there's nobody that I'm really seeing there that I'm saying, yeah, that's the guy who can be a number one scoring option for the Wahoos, and so for me, just, you know, this is Iowa football on the hardwood, so tough year for the Wahoos, even though they did make it to the NCAA tournament. Next up is the Pittsburgh Panthers. What do we have for Pitt? Yeah, I think I'll go Rob. I mean, if you have Pitt and Virginia, you put them in a seven-game series, I think Pitt at least wins in five games. It was a much better team than Virginia, I guess, from Pitt State. You lose a non-conference game against Missouri who couldn't win a single game in the SEC. You did it to yourself, but Pitt was way too good of a team to not be in the NCAA tournament, so I think looking back on this season, if you're a Pitt fan, it's going to be Rob. Yeah, one more shot is they're probably pissed down there in Pittsburgh right now. I mean, watching Virginia having to play basketball in the NCAA tournament when it could have been you playing against Colorado State, this is a team that kind of actually looked in the mud early on in the year. They lost in late December to Syracuse, and they just didn't look good and didn't have any really secure wins. They started the ACC play, losing their first three games. Two other good teams as well, Clemson and North Carolina, and they also lost Athens Institute by 22. Then they beat Duke in Cameron Indoor for the first time since the 1970s, and that's just when their season started to turn around. Blake Jensen was one of the best offensive players in the entire conference this past season and one of the most underrated players in the country in general. They got better. Carleton Carrington was one of the best freshmen this past season. They got really good minutes from Ishmael Leggett and freshman Jarlin Lowe. They had a solid core to work around with. Jeff Gapel was kind of on a hot seat, heading into the ACC play. We talked about how we just didn't really see it in him quite yet, and then the team turns around under his tutelage. Yes, they did lose to Missouri in the non-conference, but I think nobody expected Missouri to be as bad as they were this past season. So I'm not really putting that much into how they lost that game, but they definitely probably should have made the tournament over Virginia, not just because of I would rather see Pitt play offense than Virginia. They just had a better resume, and they beat Virginia on the road at John Paul Jones Arena by 11. So what's to say that Pitt probably should have just gotten in because they beat Virginia, and they have the resume to do so with their offensive prowess as well. So I'd be really pissed if I were a Pitt fan right now. Absolutely. I think for me, the word is frustrating. If you're a Pitt fan, you're frustrated with the NCAA committee leaving you out of the tournament. You're frustrated with the team for losing to a Missouri squad that went 0-18 in SEC play. That right there is just extremely inexcusable. The woeful of the SEC, if you will. The way that they had this huge late season game against Wake Forest, and they got ran out of the gym by the Demon Deacons. And so you look at this for Pitt, and it's like they had their chances. They were right there, and then things just blew up when they probably shouldn't have for the Panthers. Obviously, I think that when you're looking at it, Pitt was the better team from Virginia, should have been in the NCAA tournament. But at the same time, they had these losses that just made it very difficult for them to be justified into the tournament. And if you're a Pitt fan, you look, then you're like, yeah, that is a bad loss. And so you're very frustrated with the way that you were so close, you had these chances, and you just blew it. And so for Pittsburgh, I think you have the right guy with Capel. I think he's a good coach. You should have a quality roster coming back next season. But it's a frustrating year if you're Pittsburgh because you did things the right way. You still got left out. You still had these bad losses. And then also the last frustrating part for them is that they came close in the ACC tournament. Obviously, their first game was against Wake Forest. In that time, they did get back against the Demon Deacons for that loss. There was a few weeks before. And then they played UNC very, very well. One of the best teams that played against UNC, the way they played them. Pitt did things so well in that first half, especially, and then just couldn't quite hang on against Carolina's offense in that second half. That's that one last frustrating part of the year for Pitt where it's like, I mean, if you had won that game, you probably are punching your ticket to the NCAA tournament, or you would have gotten a chance to play NC State, who obviously was on a heater, but they were the Tennessee in the tournament. So you would have definitely had a shot to get the automatic bid. So for Pitt, it's a good season, but also very frustrating as there were a lot of gut punches for Panther fans. Next up is the Clemson Tigers, Elite Eight Clemson Tigers. They, unfortunately, they proved me wrong. They proved both you and me and you know wrong. We were not the highest Brad Brunel. We weren't high on Brad Brunel. We weren't exactly his, we weren't exactly our most favorite coach in the ATC. Perennial underachieved in the last couple of seasons and not an easy matchup. First round against the Mountain West champions in New Mexico. It did look like they were going to be a first round exit, especially after, especially after they lost the boxing college of all teams in the ATC tournament and looked pretty bad in that game. And then they caught fire. They, like we also talked about, they were, they had a final four upside and they almost got, they almost got there with that, with the way they played. They're strong, they're strong frontcourt the entire season with P.J. Hall and Ian Shipman in the tournament. It was Chase Hunter and Joe Gerard's turn to be really strong with P.J. Hall with P.J. Hall being in foul trouble for most, for a lot of those games and they just were able to persevere through. Really solid team. They made me eat my words in the tournament. Now, is it going to be easy to replace Scott, a perennial All-American level guy like Hall? I don't know, but Shipman should be back. He's a root and he's already a very underrated forward that does everything right on the boards. So really exciting for Clemson. He also happens to replace Joe Gerard, who also shut off a lot of Syracuse fans up by being, by being, by being placed in the right role the way he should have been at Syracuse. But unfortunately, he wasn't meant to be here. So I'll hope about Gerard being good at Syracuse. It's really tough on me being in Syracuse, going to Syracuse, but I'm really happy for him. I'm happy for Brunel and he deserved, he deserved it after entering the season kind of on the hot seat. Yeah, for me, it was just inconsistent. I think out of any team that was playing in the NCAA tournament, Clemson, I think they could have got blown out in that first round. I wouldn't have been surprised. And if they made the final four, I wouldn't have been surprised. I think they had the pieces to be an elite 18. They didn't really play like it for most of the season, but they found it down the stretch. And that's just going to be something that Clemson needs to do. They need to use those pieces and just be more consistent throughout the entirety of the season. And they can keep making runs like they did this year. Absolutely. For me, Clemson was just stunning this year. And you talked about how we weren't necessarily the highest on Brad Brunel. I remember when I was filling out my bracket and I was looking at that matchup, the two things I was low on all year, Brad Brunel in the Mountain West Conference. And I was like, what do I do with this? And I was like, you know what? I'm even lower on Brad Brunel. Give me New Mexico. They're going to do this. They've been playing well recently. And Brad Brunel shot me up. He shot everyone else up by going on an absolute heater when it matters the most in March. And the thing that really impressed me was that the winds, it wasn't just like these fluky, crazy winds. He was really controlling games. They were leading for the vast majority of the games. And they really earned that spot into the Elite Eight. Obviously, they couldn't get past Alabama's high octane offense, one of the best offenses in the country. But for Clemson to have this type of historic run is incredible. So hats off to the Tigers for proving everybody wrong. And I'm excited to see what they do next year. They should be a good team. Obviously, Brunel will see if he can take this moment, you know, and use it as a launchpad after being at Clemson for like almost 15 years. But I think that this is what Clemson needed. They needed a big moment and they finally had it. So hats off to the Tigers. Next up, we have the Boston College Eagles. Yeah, I think just simply, I think there was a fun team to watch. That's my word, fun. You know, not really the best season for BC, but they just, you know, they played a fun brand of basketball. I liked watching them all year. Got a good win against Providence in the NIT. Just an overall, you know, not the best year, but they were, you know, they were fun to watch. Yeah, I was never bored with them playing basketball. And that's a good thing in basketball is that you're never bored watching a team. So I'll say that they were at least a little bit of fun. They were fun. They were a little bit of fun. They had some energy in them. They brought in the right guys in the transfer portal, like a Claude L. Harris. Clemson Post is one of the best players in the HTC period, who averaged 17 and 8 and shot over 40% from three. And they had excellent guard play in the backcourt as well. And I do, and another word to say that you should buy stock down to potentially next season with Earl Grant. I think this is a coach on the rise. I think this is potentially a team on the rise. They can definitely not finish out of that, you know, bottom four first day in the HTC tournament. They should be playing at least a first round buy next season. Absolutely. You know, for me, the word is stock up with Boston College. You know, I do like Earl Grant. I think that he has done, you know, for a school that is traditionally not the best in the ACC. He's done a good job with Boston College, especially towards the end of the season, where they were really able to, you know, get a little bit of momentum, figure things out. You know, obviously, their big moment came in the ACC tournament in DC, where they, you know, jumped all over Clemson and got that huge win, which, you know, when you look at it, where Clemson ended up finishing to see Boston College beat up on an Elite Eight team, that is huge for that program. I think it gives them a spark. And then, you know, when they went up against Virginia, they almost had that game. I really thought they could have pulled that out. Obviously, you know, Virginia is just a very tough team to beat, even if they don't play any offense. But for Boston College, you know, the way they closed the season, I was impressed with them. And I'm very excited to see where Earl Grant takes this thing. Obviously, Quentin Post was very integral to that this year. We'll see, you know, what they do next year with their roster. But I'm excited and optimistic about Boston College. Next up, we have Wake Forest. What do you have on Wake Forest? For me, it was just collapse. I think, you know, after they got that win against Duke with the court storming, it seemed like they were almost a lock to be in the NCAA tournament. Just then, just absolutely collapsed down the stretch of the season, losing a game against Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, three in a row. Just some bad teams that you cannot lose to. If you want to be a tournament squad, this team had the making. March Madness team. But, you know, you have to win games that are in front of you. And they just couldn't do that down the stretch of the season. Yeah, just complete agony for me. Just one word to describe how they played down the stretch. You know, again, that Duke win was absolutely huge. And with the way they were playing up until that point, that was a team that was perfectly capable of being an NCAA tournament team that could score at will, that had a really good starting five. And then they just lose three in a row to bottom tier ACC teams, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, and especially the Notre Dame game. I don't know how you lose that. And then you beat Clemson at the end of the year. And then you had to get revenge against Notre Dame, but then you just couldn't pull it out against Pitt. Just complete agony for, again, a coach that I like in C. Forbes, a team that, again, had a really dangerous back, who would be Miller and Hunter Salas, and that also convinced Cameron Hildreth, Andrew Carr, Efton Reed. And not to mention that they were bringing the Martin Monsanto back all the way through the year. So it just is a little disappointing for me that the way they played. But I'm trusting Forbes to at least bring in a couple more scorers from the portal this offseason. Absolutely. I think for me, looking at this Wake team, it's same old, same old for them. They always seem to be right there, very close, but never quite getting themselves over the hump. And the way I look at it, it's very tough for a program like Wake Forest where they do have some incredible history with guys like Chris Paul, like Tim Duncan coming through that program. And so if you're Wake Forest, you want to win enough games to at least get you into the tournament. And they had a very solid roster with Efton Reed, with Hunter Salas. They put all this talent together. Steve Forbes has shown that he is very good in the portal. He's also shown that he's NIT Steve, not NCAA tournament Steve. And so for Wake Forest, I think you'd go into this offseason a little bit frustrated, a little bit mad that you didn't do quite enough to earn your way off the bubble and into the NCAA tournament. And you look at it for this team, how much of a step forward are they going to take? With all the talent they had, you would have thought that this would have been the year that they finally punched through, make it to the NCAA tournament. And now you're looking at saying, if not this year, when is it going to happen? And so for Wake Forest, it's just the same old, same old as they've had for the last several years where things just don't quite work out for them to make the NCAA tournament. Next up, we have the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, second to last team for us tonight. Yeah, my word is trap. I thought the Georgia Tech would be, if it wasn't Louisville, they would be the worst team in the ACC. Didn't end up finishing that, finished fourth worst in the conference. They had some trap games. They beat UNC, they beat Duke. Two of the six ACC wins that they got all year. A team that could win a big game when they needed to, but overall, just was the disappointing year that we kind of expected under Damon Sotomayor. And we'll see how they can build on this and keep going as the years progress. Yeah, my word is trap for them. It's tough. They didn't, in those kind of games against a team like the North Carolina, against the Clemson, against the Syracuse team that had just beaten Carolina. They really played tough in those games and in a lot of games as well. They had some very close losses, which included also beating Duke. They also only lost to them by four at Cameron Indoor. They only lost to Virginia by nine. They only lost to Pitt by eight. Only lost to an ACC team that made the final four by six. It's tough winning their last three, three of their last four down the stretch and playing a very tough game against a decent Notre Dame team. This is also a team that, like their football team, they got some really great wins, had some pretty bad losses. But overall, the first impression from each of their coaches is pretty good on me. And I believe in both of them to at least make some sort of progress next season, both being Brent Key and Damon Sandmeyer. Although I do think Brent Key's success will be a lot more immediate next season. For sure. For me, the way to describe this season is drunk, because nothing they did really made sense. You look at them, they were able to hang with the best teams on their schedule. If you would have told fans they're going to beat Duke, they're going to beat Carolina, they're going to beat Clemson, Georgia Tech fans would be over the moon ecstatic, thinking that they're the next best thing since sliced bread. And yet that's not what happened, because at the same time, they couldn't beat Louisville. They couldn't beat Florida State, these teams that were not all that good. They could have beaten Notre Dame. But they did have a lot of very exciting wins. Obviously, they had in the SEC challenge, they beat Mississippi State, who obviously proved to be a very good team this year. They never quite found enough consistency, though. They didn't have a way to put things together game to game. But they had some great moments, they had some great wins, some things that their fans, while they're going through this rebuild, can look back on and say, okay, this was solid for us. But it's definitely not where you want this program to be. Anytime you're letting Kenny Payne beat you, you're not in a good spot. So for Georgia Tech, it was just, you know, kind of a crazy wild season that, you know, you can't really explain much of it. But here they are with some incredible wins and some really, really embarrassing losses. Next up in our last team is Florida State. Who do y'all or what word y'all have for Florida State? Well, another ACC team that was pretty forgettable. And it's not looking good to them, I guess, long term, because, you know, Leonard Hamilton plays a lot of guys, he played at least 12 deep this season. And none of the guys really stood out on the offensive ends. You know, Jameer Watkins really did play well down the stretch. He pressed, he had a 27 point performance in the dome. But, you know, with how many players they played, you at least expect a consistent starting five to come out. And I just didn't really feel like it was the case with how many players were getting playing time experimenting. You know, there was over 10 players on this team this past season that played over 10 minutes. And, you know, it's not bad to have enough depth in college basketball. But when most of the guys aren't really playing consistently and aren't sticking enough to really justify them getting playing time, like, I don't know what to say. So like, before I say it's another team that kind of plays an archaic style of basketball that has a coach that was very good a couple years ago, that's just slowly declining in stock. So and I don't really see it getting better than they just need like a sharp rebuild, like a couple of other ACC teams did this past season. They kind of need that Notre Dame style. Okay, let's pull the plug on the old coach, get some new guy in with new ideas. Yeah, Troy, you used mid for Virginia Tech. I'll use mid for Florida State who played Virginia Tech in that 8-9 game. Had some solid wins, you know, beating Wake Forest, beating Syracuse in the dome. But then also just some bad losses like against Louisville. Solid start to the year, struggled down the stretch. It was a very forgettable, mediocre midseason for Florida State. And as you mentioned, kind of looks like they kind of need a rebuild, start fresh and start a new starting next year. Absolutely. For me, it was just boring. You know, there was not a lot of times throughout the season where I've looked at Florida State and said, you know what, that's the team I want to watch. And it's because they just they never really stood out throughout the year. You know, you watch this Florida State team, they were okay. They, you know, could compete with the bottom teams in the ACC, get those wins, but they couldn't really do much else besides that. They really struggled throughout the year. They got their doors blown off by Florida, who, you know, obviously is a very good team, but you want to be competitive with your rival, you know. And then down the stretch through ACC play, they were never able to flip the switch like we saw teams do like NC State, Clemson, Boston College. You know, those teams figure things out at the end. But with Florida State, it just never really happened. And so for them, you know, you look at Leonard Hamilton, he's a man that has been there forever, somehow still looks the same as when he got there, the man is ageless, you know, and you can't really fire him with the way that he brought that program to great heights. But they're also just not really going anywhere with him. And so you look at next season, and it's not a lot of optimism. There's not much to be happy about from this past season. And for Florida State, it's a tough spot. Fortunately for Knowles fans, you know, they have football to look forward to, great season this past year, and this upcoming year, they should be good again. But for Florida State basketball, man, it's in a tough spot right now. But finally, before we get out of here, we're going to have some way too early ACC predictions, going over, you know, our champion, best player teams that we think will rise to this point, as well as a look at the newcomers. So we'll start off with who is going to be the 2025 ACC champion. I mean, I don't think you can really take any other team besides Duke. You've mentioned Cooper Flagg, we also, I also forgot to mention that a bunch of the other five-stars they brought in, like a 40-month blue-knot from Africa, also a five-star recruit. This Duke team is set to be very dangerous next season, with Tyrese Proctor also coming back, who I think will be healthy and will be very good and play at a caliber of one of the best guards in the ACC, like I expected him to earlier this season. You're kind of getting into the softness, quote-unquote, with Filipowski and potentially McCain, although it would be very good if he did get a guy like McCain back, because that guy was playing out of his mind. At, in the end, during the NCAA tournament, I think Shire is only going to get better. He got, he has proved that he's a legit coach at the, after the end of this season, and I just hope that he can instill this team with a little more toughness. And you have Cooper Flagg, who, might as well, you might as well give him, the ACC freshman year, potentially the player of the year as well, without even playing a minute of basketball. That's how good he is. I'm going to go with the Tar Heels. I think, you know, this kind of indicated maybe by Seth Trimble leaving in the portal the other day. I think R.J. Davis does come back. I think Harrison Ingram comes back as well. It'll be interesting to see who takes Armando's place down low. Will it be Jalen Washington, or will they go towards the transfer portal? But I think UNC builds on this season, keeps momentum going, beats Duke in the ACC championship. Script writers are going to cook next season. Yeah, I'm a, I'm gonna agree with you, Brendan. I think that your ACC champion next year is going to be the Tar Heels. Look, Hubert Davis, you know, he finally put things together in the regular season this year. He had probably his best squad this year, and I think it's, you know, obviously it's going to be very different with, you know, guys heading out like Armando Baycott. We'll see what happens with R.J. Davis. Maybe he comes back. Maybe he goes pro. We'll see. But for Carolina, they have a lot of talent coming in. Ian Jackson is going to be phenomenal. Drake Powell is a kid that I'm very interested to see. And then for Duke, you know, I, I'm hesitant to go all in on Duke, and it's because we've seen so many teams, times, these teams that get hyped up so much throughout the offseason that have all these freshmen, they don't always live up to expectations. And so we'll see with this Duke team. I think, obviously, they're going to be very good. They're going to be a force to handle. Cooper Flagg will be legit. But do I see them necessarily living up to all the hype and being, you know, this great number one team? I don't. And, you know, when you're looking at the ACC for next year, the only two teams that I think are really safe bets right now are Duke and Carolina. And so for me, I'm going with Carolina. I like what they have better. I like their coaching a little bit better. So we'll see what ends up happening. But for me, my ACC champion next year is Carolina. Next up, Player of the Year for 2025. I'm going to go with R.J. Davis, assuming he comes back. I still think, you know, he is the best player in the ACC. I think he can realistically go back to back, assuming he, you know, does return to UNC. And if he doesn't, I'm buying in on the Cooper Flagg hype. I think, you know, he's going to step into Duke right away, going to be one of those Duke freshmen that make an impact in their first year. And I think he very well could win ACC Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year next season, should R.J. not return to UNC. Yeah, I kind of forgot that R.J. still has a year of eligibility. So he would be my pick if he returns. But it's also, even if he does return, it's kind of hard not to buy into Cooper Flagg and just the immediate impact he will already bring to this Duke team, probably be their best player right away. And just kind of, you know, we saw how good Filippovsky is. I think Flagg, in his first game potentially, he'll just immediately wipe out whatever Filippovsky did these last couple of years, if I'm being completely honest. Absolutely. You know, for me, I'm also going to go with Cooper Flagg. I think if R.J. comes back, he definitely would be right there in the mix, however, without knowing that he's going to definitely come back. I'm going to hold off on picking him and go with Cooper Flagg, who has a chance to be the number one overall pick. You know, he has it all. He's got incredible size at 6'9", and he's one of these players that, you know, as soon as he steps on the court, regardless of who is, you know, playing with him, that team is going to have a really, really solid floor just because of all the incredible things that he can do. So for me, I'm very excited to see what Cooper Flagg can do next year. You know, obviously, this will be some of the best competition he's ever faced. You know, obviously, we'll still have guys with, you know, the super senior years. So, you know, with him being a freshman going up against, you know, guys that are in their fifth, sixth year of college, it'll be interesting to see how well he holds up during that. But I am very excited to see what he can do. He's a special type of player, the type of player that will make plays on both ends of the court, that can be the number one overall pick. So for me, Cooper Flagg is just a little too tempting to pass up. Next up, a team that y'all think will rise next season. Yeah, I mentioned this a little before, but I'm going to go with Syracuse. I think I'm higher than maybe most people. What Syracuse was able to do this season in their first year under Autry, I think they had the pieces there, kind of need that presence down low. Could that be an Eddie Lamkin coming in from Colorado? I think Syracuse can make that jump and potentially be a tournament team next year. Yeah, I'm going to go with Notre Dame. You know, I just can't deny how much I, I just can't say enough how much I love how their freshman backcourt, potentially sophomore backcourt in Shrewsbury and Burton played this season. It's kind of amazing that they haven't entered the pool yet because those guys could definitely be on the caliber of playing for pretty high caliber, high major teams. The fact that so far they've been able to retain guys like Burton and Shrewsbury and only lose a guy like Booth to the portal is really, really important for their upside and their floor. So I'm really loving how they're shaping up to be next year with Shrewsbury at the helm. Just get a couple more pieces in the portal, a lot more experience, and you potentially have yourself an NCAA tournament team right there. For me, I'm going to go with the very easy pick and that's the Louisville who I don't think you can go any lower than they've been the last two years. And so for them, you know, even if they're not making the NCAA tournament, even if they're not contending for the ACC, they're a team that is going to rise with an adult in the room. You know, this is a team that they're going to have to completely rebuild the roster. And I think that's a good thing because, you know, we've seen with the past two years, these players have not been able to figure it out. Obviously, they've had a clown trying to direct them around, but, you know, still you can get a whole fresh, new, clean slate. You get Pat Kelsey in there, which, you know, who knows if he works out, lives up to the expectations, but he is guaranteed a better coach than Kenny Payne will be. You know, he's a coach that has been able to win. He's been able to win at places that don't traditionally win such as a wind throw up, you know, and then he took College of Charleston and turned that into a really, really strong program in the CAA. And so for me, I look at this Louisville team, I don't know what their roster is going to look like, but I can tell you this, they're going to be much better coached. They're probably going to have better players. And, you know, just by default, they have to rise, I think, in 2024, 25. Next up, who is the team that will disappoint next season? I'm going to go with NC State. I think, you know, when you have a team that makes a run like this, where they're, you know, not very good during most of the regular season, and then make a run in the postseason, they kind of, you know, disappoint and don't reach that high in the following year. We saw that with Carolina in 2022. They didn't really play very well, made it as an eight seed, made the NCAA Championship, comes in as a one seed next year and can't even make the tournament. And then we saw what happened with Miami this year. I think NC State, we can see a very similar thing. I think maybe their bubble team next year, maybe they can make the tournament. I don't think they will be as good or as highly rated as people might think coming off of this tournament run. Yeah, it's really tough. Again, it's really tough to pick who's going to disappoint going into next season. But I do think a team like Florida State, while they don't have high expectations going into next season, but they might be coming into a potentially stinker, stinky year for them. That's a good way to describe it. They might be the worst team in the ACC. They might be pretty middling going into next year. There's just no optimism for me going into the program. You have no optimism after a team like that. There's just not a lot to be excited about. You can't really fall low from where they were this season, but it doesn't take a lot to fall like that. But yeah, it's not looking good for them. For sure. Those are definitely candidates that I could see. Obviously with NC State, the way that you have this very high high, they could take that Miami path. We'll see. Obviously, I think that this kind of run gives them a big NIL bump. We'll see. Definitely going to have some high expectations for next season. We'll see. If it's the old Jeeps, they very well could disappoint. Then Florida State is obviously a team who they're just going backwards right now. Their program is in a bad spot. I already talked about how I don't like where they're going for next year. But for me, I think my team that will disappoint next year is Virginia. I am very low on the Cavaliers. It's because you look at this Virginia team, and they really struggled on offense this past season. You look at what they have for next year, it's not getting any better offensively next season. I look at them, they're not going to score a 70 points game. Are they going to score 60 points game? I don't know. Is this going to be a 50 point per game team? I'm definitely worried about that. This is a team that has struggled offensively for a while. If this continues to go down, they're not going to be able to keep winning games by forcing teams to just run out on the shot clock. They're going to have to start to hit shots, especially in modern college basketball. I look at this team. Obviously, Tony Bennett, one of the best coaches out there. Where he's got this program, it's similar to where Clemson and Dabo Sweeney were a little bit, and where things just weren't quite meshing with the modern age of the sport. We saw obviously Dabo Sweeney, he made some adjustments to his staff. He was able to fix things. Will Tony Bennett be able to make adjustments to his team, whatever that looks like, to get this offense up to speed? I don't know if he does. Until he's able to do that, I really worry about this Virginia team, their ability to score points. If you're not scoring points, you're not going to win a lot of games. For me, I don't see Virginia being very good next season. Last up before we get out of here, with SMU, Stanford, and Cal joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, who of the three do you think is going to adjust best to ACC life next season? I don't think any of the three are going to be very good in the ACC next year. If I had to pick one of the three, it would be SMU. They had a solid year in the American. Stanford and Cal are really just experiencing a lot of transfer turmoil, in part from maybe a new coaching hire at Stanford. But also, those players that were playing in the Pac-12, some of them don't want to make that trip to the ACC and make those long road trips every week. So SMU doesn't really have to worry about that as much as Stanford and Cal do. So I think just from player availability and who they'll have, I think SMU will have the best year of the three next season. I think it's going to have to be Stanford. And the reason why is that I'm very high on Kyle Smith's hire. It's one of the best hires of the cycle. I cannot describe how much I love what they did with Smith, and taking Washington State to a tournament for the first time, ironically, since Tony Bennett was their head coach. And Stanford is losing most of their talent, most of the year. And that will be tough, but I do trust Kyle Smith a lot. He's won at places where he probably shouldn't win in college basketball. And knowing his background, the way he plays basketball, it's beautiful to watch. And when you win at Columbia, when you can win a program like Columbia, you can probably win a program like Stanford. And you can also win, if you can win a program like a San Francisco, you can win at Stanford. So I'm very high on this hire. It depends on who he brings in, but his style of basketball, I think, should translate very well. Because I don't think a lot of the ACC teams have seen the way a coach like Smith has won their offense like that. Absolutely. For me, I'm kind of struggling to pick which one I think will have the most success, just because I think all three of these teams will be bottom feeders next year. You talked about Stanford and Cal. Those guys are bleeding players right now. Any talent that they did have is on the way out the door. So I definitely don't think it'll be Cal. SMU, they had a good season, but it was in the AAC. And they're bringing in Andy Enfield, who I'm not the highest on. We'll see how that works out. I think in the short term, I will go with SMU for next season, just because they were able to at least produce a winning record. They were able to compete somewhat, but I don't think they'll be all that good. For Stanford, I do like the Cal Smith hire. I think long term, it does work out. And maybe out of the three, they're the best long term. But just with the way they're losing players and the way that they already were not that good last season, I don't see many wins for Stanford next season. But with the new format in the ACC tournament where the bottom three teams all miss the ACC tournament, I'm not saying they're all going to miss it, but it's certainly a possibility. I don't have much confidence in any of these teams for next season. But before we get out of here, any last thoughts on the basketball season from you guys? Yeah, I think just this is another reminder that the ACC is still king in college basketball year in and year out. People want from the national media, you know, want to bring down the ACC regular season, maybe not as competitive, but they show out postseason and we saw that from NC State this year and Duke reaching the Elite Eight. So still love ACC basketball, and I don't think that'll ever change. Yeah, and that's somebody who's not very high on the ACC in how they perform in the regular season. They proved me wrong. They always perform in March. Somebody is always going to make at least the Elite Eight. And we saw a team like NC State make the Final Four completely unprecedented, but it just goes to show how deep the conference is and that any team really can make a deep run like that. I think you could probably name like five other ACC teams that could have had the juice to make the run, although I don't think it would have been as improbable as what NC State did. So the ACC is still one of the best conferences, and there's no denying that even if Stanford, Cal, and SMU, they can all just be half decent, we might be looking at the deepest in the country next season. Absolutely. To me, it's just a fun league and, you know, still one of the best leagues. You know, maybe top to bottom, you know, you look at the SEC, the Big 12, the Big East, maybe those are better conferences, right? But the ACC, it's not like it's light years behind. It's still a very competitive conference. It has national title contenders every year. We saw North Carolina as one of the best teams in the country. We saw NC State in the Final Four. Clemson making an incredible run of their own to the Elite Eight. Duke, obviously, is always going to be, you know, towards the top of college basketball. We saw them go to the Sweet 16 this year. And so you look at it, and this is, you know, still a basketball league. It's still a great league to watch hoops in, whether, you know, it's in Chapel Hill, whether it's in Raleigh, whether it's in Durham. I know I'm just naming off places in North Carolina right now. You know, but also if you go up, you know, to Syracuse, or you go down to Clemson, there's a lot of great basketball in this league. And that's what this year showed us. And I'm very excited for next season where, you know, hopefully a lot of these teams are still going to be very good. Hopefully we see a Miami bounce back. Hopefully Louisville shows any sign of a pulse. Virginia Tech maybe takes a step forward with some roster shake-up. Hopefully Virginia doesn't fall off a cliff like I think they will. But, you know, obviously, you know, across the Atlantic Coast and now going out to the West Coast, there is going to be meaningful basketball everywhere in the ACC. And that's what this season showed us. So very grateful to be able to watch ACC basketball, to cover ACC basketball, and I'm already looking forward to next season. So with that, that'll wrap everything up for tonight's show. Thank you to everyone for listening. It has been an incredible run.
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