(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. - Bada, Bada Boom, sold. - Huh? - Just sold my car on Carvana, dropping it off and getting paid today. - Already? - What, you still haven't sold yours? You told me about it months ago. - I just-- - Is the offer good? - Oh, the offer's great. - Don't have another car yet? - I could trade it in for this car I love. - Come on, what are we waiting for? - Ah, you're right. - Let's go. - Whether you're looking to sell your car right now or just whenever feels right, go to Carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. - Cooper Flag is obviously the name getting all the attention for John Shire's team, but don't you dare sleep on the rest of Duke's loaded recruiting class. (upbeat music) - You are a Lockdown College basketball. You're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Hey there, what's up? Welcome into the Lockdown College Basketball Podcast, the only daily national college hoop show out there. I'm your host, Isaac Shire, joined today by our good buddy, Leif Toodleen, who hangs out with us every week, so good to have Leif with us and you're joining us at Deep Place to get your college basketball content every single day. It's all part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thanks so much for making us your first listen or watch and I want to remind you that you can get every episode ad-free on Amazon music. Special shout out goes to all the every dayers joining us and all the members of the Lockdown College basketball discord. So glad that you're all here. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now through September 22nd, all FanDuel customers can get, can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. It is at FanDuel.com right now to get started. Leif, we're rolling on with our team previews ahead of the 24/25 season. We're about seven and a half weeks away from tip off, baby, it is coming. We've already hit Kentucky, Kansas, Gonzaga, Alabama, Iowa State, Creighton and Baylor. And today we're going to the ACC and the Duke Blue Devils. If you want to check out all of these team previews, we've got a nice little playlist on our YouTube site so you can just go and flow through all of these teams. We're also in the midst of doing conference previews. We did the ACC last Friday and the United. So obviously we talked about Duke there as well, but today it's only about the Blue Devils and the Cameron Crazies and year three for John Shire. Last year, Duke finished 27 and nine, 15 and five in the ACC. That was good for second. In the ACC tournament, they lost to NC State in the quarter finals. Did the same in the NCAA tournament where they were a four seed beat Vermont, James Madison and Houston before falling to the Wolfpack in that crazy run they went on that was in the Elite Eight. Last year, they finished seventh at Ken Palm, eighth at Torvick, ninth at Evan Mia, tenth in the net and ninth in the final AP poll, which was now a thing. We now get an AP poll after the NCAA tournaments over. At Ken Palm, they were eighth in offensive efficiency, sixteenth in defensive efficiency. At Torvick, they were ninth and 20th. And Leaf, here we go, man. All anyone wants to talk about is Cooper Flag, but as you and I well know, now it's not just Cooper Flag. This is the number one recruiting class in the nation. It is six total incoming players and man, they are ready to go for year three with John Shire and they have to be because John Shire loses seven transfers out. They lose their top four scores and nine of their top 11, but they do get back Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster. So, Leaf, what is Tyrese Proctor gonna have to do this year to help bring together all these freshmen and all these transfers? - Well, it'll be finding the right combinations. And we talked about this with Alabama, we've talked about this with other teams. When you have that much depth of talent, it's a good luxury to have. It's a great problem to have, but you have to find the right combinations and manage ego because some of these guys that are five stars could have been the star player elsewhere. And now they're coming off the bench. - How many majority of them could be the star player elsewhere? - And here's the craziest part, is a few of the players on this team that are the most vital are the guys who are veterans who have decided, you know what, instead of transferring elsewhere, we're accustomed to being role player. The best example would be Zack Edie's pal Mason Gillis. Mason Gillis played alongside Zack Edie for years and was the most efficient player even over Zack Edie in the big 10 last year in terms of offense. He knocked down open threes due to Edie's gravity. And now he goes, well, you know what, I could be a really good player elsewhere. I could go pro, no, I'm gonna go to Duke. You know what that means? He's gonna play in between mile lock and flag and knocked down open threes and be a defensive pest. You have guys like Isaiah Evans who may be the seventh or eighth man who is the number 12 or 13 guy depending your recruiting source. You have Khan Knipple who's getting all the buzz right now. Well, is he going to beat out C on James? Who from Tulane? I mean, he resembles Trevor Keels. That's the, that's the copy here around ACC talk. Well, Trevor Keels was a starter as a freshman. So which of these guys are going to be able to adapt? Because if you say, well, all these guys that will embrace their role because that's what they signed up for that naive, that's not going to happen. But if enough do, then this team's a problem because you have Cooper flag. And then I think the second most important player of the newcomers is common model lock who should just put a lid on the rim. And then all you have to do is score the ball with the combination of the other guys. So, okay, Leaf, that's where I want to go because you've got two returning rotation players with all due respect to Neil Beggavitch and Spencer Hubbard. Really, you've got Caleb Foster and Tyreesh Proctor. You've got three main transfers and you've got these six freshmen. And I do, that's 11 players, all of whom have various levels of expectations and how am I going to get mine? Yes, you hope, as you said, that a lot of these guys are bought in for the Duke on the front of the jersey, but man, that's going to be very difficult to manage. So if you're John Shire and you're in year three, how exactly do you go about making that happen in a healthy way that allows you to keep the locker room and allows the product on the court to be highly, highly successful as we expect it to be? That's a great question. I mean, I don't know exactly what it entails, but I think Duke is one of those schools that doing all right doesn't matter. Duke has not made a Final Four with John Shire yet. And three years of getting good recruits? Yeah, they did. No, they didn't. That was the last year I was last year. I'm a wild man, come on. Yeah, it was going to say, I don't think I got that one wrong. Dude, I look, I haven't finished my coffee. I'm in a brain fog. Let's go, keep trucking. But the expectation is you take over from Coach K, that means you make Final Four. So this is the year you have the recruit and you know, they've had good recruits, but this is the recruit. They have Cooper Flag. You have common maulock, both of whom are going to be top 10 picks. Now you add in Tyrese Proctor, who's probably the best or second best point guard in the ACC. You can say third best if you count Salas as a point guard. But regardless, you got an upper echelon point guard in the ACC. You're so, you have such a depth of guards and luxury of riches, that a guy who was really, really good for you for four years in Jeremy Roach, was escorted out because he knew he wasn't going to play very much. Jeremy Roach goes to Baylor because he has more options, which is another top 10 teams. Oh, whoa is me. But that's the expectation for Duke, is you need to have players that compliment what you have. So it's going to be Proctor, Flag, Maulock. And my guess is it'll be foster at the two, but I don't know this, 'cause I think Khan Knipple, when there's smoke, there's a fire. And everyone's talking about how great he is. And then I think they play, eventually it'll be Gillis, but I have no idea how they're gonna start the season. I think Gillis is the guy, 'cause he adds enough defensive toughness and shooting, but he's at least a good enough shooter to make the team guard him as opposed to Malik Brown. If you played Malik Brown, Cooper, Flag, and Khan Maulock, I don't think a team scores. - That's absolutely right. Because, and we in fact, you and I referenced this on our Alabama preview last week, this Duke team has the potential to put some massive, massive lineups out on the floor together with some of those now. That's not gonna be a crazy high level offensive team, but it doesn't matter if you can stop them from scoring. Right now at Torvick's preseason projections, Duke is second, and his algorithm has them third in offensive efficiency and third in defensive efficiency. That's gonna be hard to beat if they can really do that. And so to all that conversation, what I'm really curious to see, like even if you're going deep into your bench and going nine and 10, somebody's going to get left out of the cold, out in the cold, somebody's gonna get left out of this mix. I don't even know if it's worth trying to predict who that is, but let's do it like, as you look at this, who do you think kind of gets elbowed out because there's just not enough time and minutes to get everyone what they need? - I think the player that looks the most likely to me to be disgruntled by their role as Isaiah Evans. - I wondered about that. - And I don't think he's out of the rotation, but the reason I bring him up first is that's the guy that I think if you put him in the right situation, could be a 15 point per game score. And the reason I say I think he's the most likely is because the ball's gonna find its way to Cooper Flack, the ball's going to be in the hands of Isaiah, or excuse me. - Tyrese Proctor. - Tyrese Proctor and then Isaiah Evans would have to play the two guard probably. And I think there's just too many players that could play the two guard because you've Tyrese Proctor at the one, you have C on James, you have Khan Knippel and Caleb Foster all vying for time at the two, and Evans would be a traditional three, but I think Duke wants to show what Flack can do at the three and the four, 'cause Duke is one of the foremost schools that believes, you know what? We're gonna give them NBA exposure. They'll play the way they'll play in the NBA. And Cooper Flack can play the four in the NBA, but I think he's gonna want to play the three, just like Jason Tatum, just like Brandon Ingram. And I know that was under Coach K, but the premise still remains in which you wanna play these guys and have the opportunity to show what they can do. Like Brandon Miller got talked about about the bad shots he'd take because he's a difficult shot taker, but a difficult shot maker. Cooper Flack's not the exact same player, but the reason I bring that up is Brandon Miller could have played two through four, but he played the three and would dominate with his size, and then you'd be like, well, okay, how's he gonna skill up? Well, it doesn't matter, 'cause that's what he's gonna play in the next level. Flack is going to do the same thing, and then you have Malik Brown, Mason Gillis, who also play the four, and they can take the rim away along with common model lock who will maintain the spot at the five. So I just think Isaiah Evans is the one that feels a little bit nudged out of his typical position. I'm sure he'll play. I'm sure he'll play next to Flag who plays the floor, who plays the four, and they'll space the floor more, but it just feels a little bit more of a tenuous perch on his projected minutes per game. The one I can get behind that, I'm also interested to see what happens with Darren Harris's production. I think that's interesting. And then depending on how effective model watch is, I'm curious about Patrick and Gangba as well. Of the transfers, I think you're gonna need Malik Brown's defense, but his amount of time, I think, will depend, will be dependent on just how much he can do offensively. So those are some things we're watching out for in terms of like, how do you manage what is a very, very, like this is a great problem to have if you're the Duke Blue Devils, right? Trying to figure out like, we've got this wealth of talent. How do we get all of it to come together in just the right way? So, Leaf, we need to look at, as you said this is year three of John Shire, no final fours yet, but man, there's so much hope and expectation surrounding Cooper Flag and everyone coming in. Is this the year? We'll talk about that coming up in just a second. 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Again, that's code lockedoncollege50@factormeals.com/lockedoncollege50 to get 50% off your first box, plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. This episode's also brought to you by our good friends at FanDul. You've heard us talk a lot about FanDul America's number one sports book. In the summer, we've been telling you about a booster of bonus you can get daily. Well, now we've got something a little different for you because right now through September 22, all FanDul customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with the YouTube TV base plan, you're gonna be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time. We're talking blue doubles today. We have out some national championship odds. Duke, Yukon, and Kansas have the best national championship odds at plus 1,000, followed by Alabama at plus 1,300 and Houston at plus 1,600. And if that's not enough, be sure to check out FanDul's profit boost in the app and use it for FanDul's double your winnings for all of Sunday, September 15th, this Sunday's pregame money line bets. Profit boost will be live starting Thursday, September 12th. View your account page how to learn more about your boost. If you wanna get in on any of this action, visit fanDul.com/lockedon to download America's number one sports book. Duke last won a national championship in 2015. Leaf, they most recently made the final four in 2022 in Coach K's last year, not under John Shire as I erroneously suggested earlier. And these first two years have been very solid, but not final four standard. Year one, there were some offensive limitations. Obviously the injury bug bit the Blue Devils hard that year. Last year, in my opinion, the biggest Achilles heel was trying to find a five. You had flipped kind of masquerading as that. This year though, to me, Leaf, as I look at it, there are possibilities for better balance, including both phenomenal offensive capability and a potentially vicious defense, as you mentioned earlier. Is this the year we were able to see John Shire really put this thing together, get the train rolling and make it all the way to the final four? - I would say yes, because the roster looks better to me than the past couple. I think the year where they lost to Tennessee, Duke was just not physically tough enough. They had the individual scoring ability, but not the defense. Last year, you saw a slight improvement on defense at the end of the year. And that was the same as the year before with Derek Lively getting healthy. But they got a little better defensively at the end of the year, but like you said, flip was masquerading as a five and that put them at a defensive cap. They couldn't get better than a certain threshold. So they had to be really good offensively. They beat Houston likely due to Jamal Shad getting hurt and they had the path to the final four if they could beat a team with a really good center. Well, that's where they were weakest defensively. They lost to Jay Burns. This year, I wouldn't say that Shire went to overcorrect it, but he has overcorrected it in the sense of defensively their front court is a monster. Malik Brown was all ACC defense. You bring in Cooper Flagg who might be the best defender in the country one through five. And then you have common mall lock who was playing on the South Sudanese national team guarding Anthony Davis this summer. So I don't think they're gonna have too many issues. And that's before I mentioned Mason Gillis. Mason Gillis is not the same defensive specimen, but he brings the tenacity and an experience that really matters to these type of teams that are youthful and athletic. So you asked the question of do they have the pieces? Yes, the reason I would say, oh, it's not a slam dunk. It's never a slam dunk for anyone to make the final four. Sure. Last year, although I will say I felt very, very confident that Purdue and UConn were gonna make the final four the entire year. This, the reason it's harder this year is 'cause there's not that many, there's more teams that I think are final four quality than there were last year. Last year, it was UConn per do. And then I think it's here below Houston. And then there was a full jump and a half to get to anyone else. And I think North Carolina would have been the fourth best team and Tennessee the fifth best team. But I would say there's probably on paper at least, I have to watch with my own eyes, six or seven teams ahead of the four from the fourth spot last year. And that makes it harder for Duke to get there. It's just a numbers game. Yeah, that's a great point. And when you factor in that several of those teams are gonna be rolling out much more experienced lineups like Alabama we talked about last week, the youth is certainly a factor that we're gonna have to watch. It doesn't mean you can't do it. It just means it's harder than teams that have guys that have been in college and doing it longer. And that's where players like Mason Gillis, you mentioned, play a big factor, Tyree's Proctor in helping these guys, the young guys really come together. So, Leaf, we've got these two returning players, just one returning starter in Tyree's Proctor because you lose four starters. Flip and Jared McCain off to the NBA, Jeremy Roach, off to Baylor, Mark Mitchell, off to Mizzou. You also lose five other transfers, Sean Stewart to Ohio State, TJ Power to Virginia, Jalen Blake's to Stanford, Christian Reeves, the Clemson, Jaden Schutzer, Virginia Tech, and obviously Ryan Young is out of eligibility. But you replace it with these portal additions. We've talked about Syon James from Tulane, Mason Gillis, Purdue, Malik Brown, the defensive stopper from Syracuse, and this six-man freshman class, headlined by Cooper Flag, number one overall and the number one small forward. Come on Maluach, whose number four overall, these are at 247 and number one center in the class of legit seven-footer. You've got Isaiah Evans, Khan Knippel, the number 13 and 18th in the class, Patrick Enganga, who's 21st in the class and then Darren Harris, a 6-6 small forward, who's number 40 in the class. Leaf, this team, as we've said, is loaded. As you look at who John Shire's gonna go with right out of the gate at the tip, you've kind of started alluding to your starting five. Would you hit me with who you would roll with to start the game? - I would personally go with Tyrese Proctor, Khan Knippel, Cooper Flag, Mason Gillis, Common Maluach. That would be my personal. My expectation would be it'll be Caleb Foster over Khan Knippel, and I don't know if it'll be Gillis or Brown, but I think by the time the dust gets settled, this may not be from day one, but by the time it gets going where, okay, this team's got a rhythm, I think it'll be Mason Gillis, 'cause he's a perfect complimentary piece between the two. He adds shooting, he adds toughness, and he doesn't lose you any defensive ability. I think there's a world in which, if Malik Brown plays 25 minutes for Duke, that they don't give up more than 55 points a game. - Yeah. - Like if they played per 40 with that front quart of flag, Malik Brown and Khan Maluach, they might give up 45 points per game for those 40 minutes. - Which is a very reasonable thing, and at that point, it's like any offense lost because of Malik Brown is gained because of his defense, right? And so I really like that you broke that up into what, like if you put your own John Shire mask on and what you would do and then what you think you will do, I treated mine as what I think John Shire will do on day one. So I also have Tyrese Proctor at the one, Maluach at the five, and then I was different on two through four. I did have Caleb Foster at two. I went with Sion James at the three, and then Flag starting at the four. And Leaf, I think because of those differences, that's what I'm most interested to see, is, you know, I'd position this basketball, it doesn't really matter all that much, but is Cooper Flag going to wind up essentially playing small forward, as you said earlier, as he probably will in the NBA, or will he start as kind of a small-ballish four? That end, as you said earlier, he's going to do some of both this season. I'm just curious to see what role he's in at the beginning and end of basketball games. - Yeah, I actually, I think it's likely that that lineup plays a lot. I don't know if it's a starting. The reason I like starting Gillis is just the experience right off the bat, and you put it there, but honestly, Gillis came off the bench last year for Purdue, while being the most efficient player offensively in the entire Big Ten. So it's very possible he's comfortable with that role, and then it is your lineup of Sion James and Caleb Foster. And I personally think Khan Knipple has more flash, like if he hits it, he's going to be better than Foster. But Foster's likely the starter because he's just steady. He's steady, he's a good shooter. He's not this otherworldly shooter that some people say Khan is. And then he's steady, and he's probably a slightly better athlete at this point defensively. And so I think that is a lineup that doesn't have the super offensive or defensive tenor to it, but it's in the middle, and it's safe. I think by the mid-season, they're going to find an identity. And whether it's starting Malik Brown and just saying we're going to take the entire basket away, and you're going to have to be this from three with Tyree's Proctor, his all-defensive team in his own regard, hounding you, then be my guest or Sion James hounding you, be my guest. That's what I would do, but I think your strategy is probably the safest of just in terms of production. I just don't know if it maxes out the ceiling, and I've always kind of been someone that believes in finding identity and trying to max that out as opposed to playing kind of in the middle. - Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. And if Gillis is coming off the bench, there's a world in which he is your six man of the year in the ACC. Like I could see that very much happening. I also, the way you were talking about Knipple's potential role, if he's coming off the bench, it makes me flash back to like Grayson Allen's freshman year to see if there's-- - I knew you were going with that one. - Yeah, does that make sense to you as well? - Yeah, because apparently he can just like flat out and shoot the heck out of the ball. And then he's grown from being like six, four as senior year to six, seven right now. And those type of players typically aren't bench players. Like you look at them and you think, okay, that's an NBA guy. Well, so Grayson Allen shot 48% from three in the NBA last year. So you put a solid athlete, and Grayson Allen was considered like a spectacular athlete at Duke. And you put a solid athlete to shoot the lights out next to the team that is this talented. It does remind me of that 2015 team. It's a different makeup, but I think he's the type of guy who can break open a game and a spurt. I wanna see him start and just play next to some of this talent, but I think you're probably right. He will probably come off the bench and probably by the end of the year, could have that impact that Grayson Allen did. - All right, we'll keep our eyes on that. Well, we need to get to talking about who are the teams that this Duke team is actually gonna play. We're gonna look at the schedule and make some record predictions and NCAA tournament predictions and ACC landing spot all coming up in just a second. Right after I tell you about LinkedIn, when you're hiring for your small business, you wanna find quality professionals that are right for the role. 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They recently launched this feature that helps, for example, write job descriptions, which does help make this process easier and quicker. So if you wanna learn more about that, post your job for free at linkedin.com/lockedoncollege. Again, that's linkedin.com/lockedoncollege to post your job for free, turns and conditions apply. We turn our attention now to Duke's scheduled ACC like every other power conference other than the SEC has 20 games. You get 31 in the regular season. Quick subtraction tells you 11 non-conference games. We do have Duke's entire non-conference schedule already. It's five high major opponents and six buy games. Just very quickly, the high major opponents, we're not even gonna list the buy games right now. Our Tuesday, November 12th against Kentucky in the Champions Classic. That's in Atlanta this year. Friday, November 22nd is the return game to Arizona. Remember the Wildcats won at Cameron last year. Tuesday, November 26th versus Kansas in the Vegas showdown. Wednesday, December 4th versus Auburn in the ACC SEC Challenge. This is year two of that challenge. And then Saturday, February 22nd, versus Illinois at MSG, the world's most famous arena. Big thanks to the Blue Devils and Alainai for giving us a late February non-conference tilt of this variety. Leaf, let's assume the Blue Devils go six and oh in those buy games. What are you looking at in these five non-con games against the high major opponents? - All of them, they all look awesome. - No man, it's great. - There's very few things that I enjoy more than, other than Feast Week, where you just like watch great basketball all the time. But then a good non-conference schedule. Like I will go through out of my own time and spend time looking through these games and say, I can't wait, I better be free this day. And all five of those hit that box for me. The one, if I had to choose one that I'm most intrigued by would be the Arizona game. Because Arizona last year, after beating Duke at Cameron, everyone said Arizona's the best team in the country. Oh, they have a tremendous size because they have ballo and they have crevasse and they're bullying the interior. Well, we talked about the inefficiency or just the deficiency of their defense, which was the lack of a center. They tried, the Phillip House, he wasn't meant to guard those guys. And everyone said, well, Caleb Love's gonna be awesome. Yeah, he was in some games. But this year, there's a new identity for Arizona. And you'll see just how big and physical Duke is in that game because Arizona's still enormous. Mo crevasse is seven foot two. Tobey Awaka is built like a fire hydrant that happens to be six foot nine. And you're gonna get some physical nature in that one. And then you're gonna get the athleticism of running up and down the style that Tommy Lloyd plays. I think that'll be a really interesting game. And Duke will wanna serve some revenge on the Rhodes court. They lost at Cameron. Maybe they can beat Arizona and at McHale. That would be the one I'm most interested in. But like I said, I'll watch every single one of us. Yeah, absolutely. The other one that I'm most interested after that one because that true road environment's the one I'm looking at as well is the Kansas game. Because Kansas is going to be pre-season number one or number two along with Alabama in some order. And so as these teams go to Vegas, how do these two very, very talented teams line up against one another? And that's one of them that you can't just look at big picture and say, oh, it's, I mean, you gotta dial down to all of the individual matchups as we do more as we get to NCAA tournament time. So very much looking forward to that one. The Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, which that night there's so many great games. Like 'cause I think that's the exact same night that we have the Players Era Festival going on and the Houston, who are they playing? Houston, Alabama is, I think literally going to be going on at the same time as that one. So you talk about those games you don't want to miss. Make sure you're in your couch that night. As for ACC play, Leaf, we don't have the specific schedule yet, but we do know the opponent's home only for Duke. Cal, Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Stanford and Virginia Tech, I'm telling you right now, they don't go seven and 0 in those seven home only games. Something's up. The away only games. - Stanford disrespect right there. - I apologize, look, I am, I'm disrespecting Sanford, but they got to fly across the country and it might not be great. Away only is Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville, SMU Syracuse and Virginia. Now that one is a tougher stretch of away only games. Clemson's going to be wanting some, I think revenge. You talked about with Arizona for a game. They let slip away late last year, Leaf, and then the home and away, and then I'll get your take on all of that. Obviously North Carolina both, Wake Forest both, and then Miami both. So Leaf for those home only, or the away only games and the home and away, what are you seeing? - Yeah, I don't think the road games were all that difficult actually. Clemson's the one that stands out. - Yeah, Virginia, I mean, not going to be easy to go to John Paul Jones and get a win, but they're not what they were with Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome and Yandre Hunter. Like it's not the same team. - This is not 2021. - Yeah. - And you look at these teams, 2019, excuse me. And you look at these teams and you think, okay, like if Duke plays an adequate basketball game against a motivated team, they should still win. They're going to lose a road game. Like don't get me wrong, but that slate doesn't look too bad. And then they get a lot of teams that I don't think are very good going to Cameron. Like you said, they should win. You know, maybe they slip up. But then the interesting part is they're home and away. Of course, they play Carolina and that's going to be awesome. Both games in Chapel Hill and in Durham are going to be great. You have Miami who should be better. They had, they were one of the let downs of the entire country last year. They started 13th or something like that. And they were pretty bad throughout the majority of the year. Well, Larry Nega often makes his team that are bad pretty good the next year. They bounce back well. And I don't know exactly what the wake is going to be, but they do have an ACC player of the year, candidate in Hunter's house. That's right. So I think Duke will win the ACC. I think they're going to be just ahead of North Carolina who's got a few more moving pieces to me. I know Duke's got a lot of like new guys and they got to find the right rotation. But at least they have a foundation. North Carolina's foundation is their back work. But even in their back work, there's two players that could be playing the same spot in two of the guard and forward spots. So we'll see what happens there. I hope that it's close because basketball so much better when Caroline and Duke are close in the ACC standings and into ACC tournament play. But I think Duke wins the ACC there. I think Kansas and maybe Arizona beat Duke. I think I think it's the team that ends up like 29 and three coming into or 29 and four. - 29 and two. - Well, does that count for their MT? - Yep, yep, 31 total regular season games. - Yeah, I'll go 28 and three then. - Okay. - I think they're going to go like 28 and three, 27 and four or something like that. - Okay. I like it. Yeah, I think you're right. I think Duke and Carolina are clearly the two best teams in the ACC finishing one and two in some order. I have Carolina projected as the number one just because of the experience, but it wouldn't shock me at all to see them flip, like I think the bigger thing for me is they are a tier unto their own above the rest of the conference. I have Duke projected to finish at 26 and five in the regular season. So just slightly worse than Leaf, but still a great record. I do have them finishing getting a two seed in the NCAA tournament. And like I'm setting Elite eight as the floor for this Duke Blue Devils team. Leaf, what about you for NCAA tournament projections? - Yeah, I think it's the same response I had for Alabama if you guys listen to that. It was, what's a reasonable goal? The Elite eight is should be the goal. Because you can't say final four is easy to accomplish. It just isn't. So reaching the Elite eight should be the goal and winning a national championship should be the eventual goal. I think Duke has the capacity to win the ACC, win the ACC tournament and win the NCAA tournament. Do I think they accomplish all three? No. But it was so hard to do the way our sports laid out. - And so I'll just say, achieve two of those. Achieve two of those. And obviously the end goal would be win the national championship. But I think achieving two is really reasonable. - That's great, we would put it. - The goal that I would put is Elite eight. I think I'll say that for most of the teams that we talk about at the upper upper echelon of our sport. And I'll say that about Duke. I'll say that on Alabama. I'll say that about Kansas. And then you reach into the little bit lower teams. And I don't know what my goal will be 'cause I don't know if it's as attainable. Like as soon as we get to the Iowa States, who I think are really good, the Baylors who have the talent. I don't know if I can actually say that Elite eight's super attainable. Duke, it should happen. Those teams, I think that would be an ideal situation. So that's the difference between the upper upper echelon and the next tier. - I love it. Well, year three with John Shire and the Duke Blue Devils should be electric. All eyes are going, I mean Cooper flag is going to be the biggest name in the sport. It just is a fact of it. We'll see exactly like, can it be Zion level? That's what I'm really curious to see is once that we actually get it out onto the court, just how nationwide grabbing is what Cooper flag and his teammates do this year. It's going to be a lot of fun leaf. I can't wait for it to kick off. November 4th can't get here soon enough. Folks, if you're not subscribed to lockdown college, basketball and video and audio, man, you're missing out and you need to do so so that you don't miss a single second. If you haven't joined our lockdown college basketball discord community, we'd love to have you in there starting to ramp up ahead of November. So come on now, the link's in the show notes and it's absolutely free to join. As always, I want to say apologies to the lawyer family. Let's go Wildcats and until tomorrow. Peace. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - A Prime members, you can listen to this lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
