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Daily, it is Monday, March the 2nd. I'm Tommy Ashley. That is Greg Barnes,
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always Johnny T-Shirt, JohnnyT-Shirt.com and go to insidecarolina.com and sign up for
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your premium membership. Don't Google it. You go to insidecarolina.com and sign up for
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your premium membership or you can hit the QR code this on your screen now and take it to the screen.
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Sign up. Greg, we'll talk about Carolina's game with Clemson on Tuesday night tomorrow.
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I mean, it's certainly a big one for North Carolina. Let's have a little fun here with this one.
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And we'd like to try to do these based off discussions on the message board. And when popped up
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this past week, would Caleb Wilson return to North Carolina for $5 million? It's an interesting
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discussion. And once upon a time, the answer would be yes, not only yes, but blank yes,
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not anymore. It's crazy. We're talking about these kind of dollars when it comes to college
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athletes, given the landscape and how it used to be. But Greg, $5 million is a lot. I'd do a lot
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for $5 million. But if I'm Caleb Wilson, there's no way in heck that I'm coming back to North Carolina.
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It's just crazy money for top picks and NBA draft these days.
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It really is. And when you factor in that the lifespan of professional athletes is pretty short.
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Then you've got to maximize your earnings opportunities. And I think that's really what it comes
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down to. The benefit we can dive into this in a minute, but the benefit of the current landscape
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in college athletics with NIL and revshare is that if you're a really good college player,
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but maybe don't project as a great NBA prospect, then you can really do well for you and your
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family. Armando, they caught, did that already, Davis did that. But when you're talking about
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somebody like Caleb Wilson, you've got to offer a tremendous amount of money. And I know that
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AJ DeBonza apparently got upwards of $7 million to play at BYU. And there's a reason for that
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is because he didn't have an option to go to the NBA. And there's a lot of programs that we're
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willing to pay a lot of money for AJ and for a lot of these other guys. And given how successful
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the freshmen have been this year, I mean, it makes sense, right? I mean, there's a lot of value
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in having a stud freshman. But with the way the NBA contracts are set up for the rookies.
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And typically a four-year deal, two years, first two years are guaranteed, next two years are
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team options. For the last season, you're looking at basically what $24 million guaranteed
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for the first pick baseline. That's just the first two years. And then, of course,
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if teams want to expand that, they can. And there's kind of a sliding scale. I think it's like an 80%
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to 120% of that initial value. And for most teams who are trying to make sure they get these
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guys in place and keep them for a long time, because that level pays a little bit lower than the
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second contract. You're seeing a lot of these teams choose to pay up to that 120% threshold.
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So when you're talking about $5 million for Caleb Wilson to come back for his sophomore year,
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what you're really asking is, can North Carolina compete with the NBA teams to pay him
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for one year of his time when he may only have a shelf life of 10 to 15 years at best?
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And if Caleb is a, you know, a top 10 pick, at a minimum, he's looking at guaranteed,
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probably $10 million, $11 million from the NBA, just by signing on the dotted line.
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That's the kind of numbers you're talking about that Carolina would have to throw out the young man
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to really even making consider coming back.
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Yeah. And let's be honest, and folks are watching this going, what the heck are they talking about?
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This is a silly conversation. It'll never happen. And yes, you're right. But they're more than
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just Caleb Wilson's out there. There's more than just Caleb Wilson's on the Tar Hill roster at the moment.
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But $5 million will get you a 26 pick in the NBA draft. Give her take. I'm sure the numbers will
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go up for this coming season. But Greg, we can flip it and say, when you talk about a guy like Henry
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Vassar, I mean, I think if you're a top, it depends on what your goals are. Let's, let's start there.
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Right. Do you enjoy the college landscape? Are you going to be a successful professional player?
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Are you playing for a second contract? Or you just want the money that you might get as the first
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contract? And I think for a guy like Henry Vassar now, the discussion is more relevant than
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for the elite guys. They are, I think we have discussed it plenty. He certainly played like a
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first round pick. Often he has not at other times, but you're taking on guys in his, in his area,
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right? What do you do? Do you go pro? Do you make the money? Or do you enjoy the college life? Like
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you mentioned, I'm on the Baycott in RJ Davis granted, they may not have made that guaranteed
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pro money, but they certainly lived the life while they were in Chapel Hill as a college athlete
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that made a ton of money. I'm not sure there's a better, there's a better gig in the world than that
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for, for the question marks, I guess, on the next level. Yeah, I think it's a great question.
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I think Henry is the perfect example of where this can be beneficial because let's talk about
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college baseball for a second. A star player here in college baseball because of the way the rules
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are set up. Once you agree to go to college and play baseball, you've got to stay for three years.
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Now, if you're a great high school player, then you can go straight. I kind of like that set up
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more than what we've seen with NFL and NBA where you have more restrictions. But with baseball,
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you're stuck at school for three years. And so what happens is kids who are really good players
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at the college level in their junior year, that's where they have the most leverage,
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because they can entertain major league baseball teams and find out what their value is.
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But they also have the option of saying, you know what, thank you. I'm going to go back to
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school for one more year. And so that gives them some leverage and MLB teams, you know, always,
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all right, I will pay you a little bit more. We see it time and time again, every single year.
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The catch is, of course, if you come back, then you lose that leverage. And you better have
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a really good year or could hurt you in your decision-making process. Henry's somewhat in that
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situation right now because he's got this blend of, okay, he's a French first round draft pick,
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right? So when we're talking about first round draft picked, guaranteed monies in the $5 million
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range, I think for the upcoming draft, five to six. But he also has eligibility remaining in college.
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So if he thinks that, hey, you know what, I've gotten a lot better over the past year, which he has.
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I've shown that when I get serious minutes, I can be effective. We've talked about,
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the impact that he plays with or without the stats around him. He's just such a magnetic player.
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He's such a good defensive player that he's very impactful.
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Can he get better if he comes back, right? And can he move himself up into the lottery pick range?
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That's really where the conversation comes in of what is Henry Vassar's options.
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And if he believes that he's better served coming back and getting a better
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rookie contract, well, then it's okay, Carolina, like make it worth my while. If I'm thinking about
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coming back, what are you going to offer to entice me back? Is it going to be $3 million?
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I think that would be in the low end, $4 million, $5 million. What kind of deals can be
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solidified through NIL to make this work? I think there's a lot of leverage for a player like Henry.
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And I think Carolina would be best served if saying we're going to make the best offer we can,
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because what you're looking at is, can we go into the transfer portal and find somebody of Henry's
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value? And that's ultimately what it comes down to. Absolutely. And you mentioned College
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Baseball. I mean, you've got situations where guys, it is 21 or three years removed from your
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high school class. There's ways to finagle that guys go to junior and college and can go straight.
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Bunch of different rules. Jason DeCaro, obviously, if you follow him with Carolina Baseball,
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you know who he is. He's been at Carolina since his third year. And by age, he would still not be
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eligible for the draft simply because he came to Carolina so young, but that three years has kicked
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in. And then you've got other guys who came in older, like a Ryan Lynch, who is a draft eligible
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sophomore. So just a bunch of different ways in the, in the major league draft, but I agree with you.
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I'd like, if you go to school, you should have to stay in school. But we know how that works with
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the NCAA and how it all goes. But let's, I want to dig a little bit further and we're talking
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with Greg Barnes here on inside Carolina Daily for Monday, March the 2nd, the value side of it for a
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team. Like, you know what you have in a guy like Baseball or Jonathan Powell or whoever on the roster
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it is, are you able to get that same value for somebody that's out there in the portal? And I think
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the way the portals work, Greg, is you don't get a hometown discount. I don't think I know, you
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know, like guys like Nick Saban got it. Maybe Mac Brown got it on that side. Maybe some coaches do.
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But I think you pay more and often overpay when you go hunting in the portal versus making sure
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you keep the guys that are on your roster. That's going to be key for these teams that are
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turning over every year is you can save a little bit, I think, by keeping them there. And that's
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where Carolina is going to be, you know, in a month, two months whenever this season wraps up. It's
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an interesting dynamic now. Not only for the players deciding what to do before the teams.
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It is. I think Carolina is a good example, right? I mean, if you look at the point guard situation,
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in North Carolina had Nick Boyd come in for an official visit. They were in the mix for a number
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of other point guards. And all of them kind of fell through. And so then Carolina was like, uh-oh.
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And they had to had to reach for a player and probably ever spend because of that dynamic.
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And I think where where you want to get to, you know, we can use our, you know, neighbor down the
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street, Duke, right? What Duke was able to do in bringing back players from last season?
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I mean, they brought back Brown, they brought back Kayla Foster, Isaiah Evans, Gangba. So players who
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were key rotational guys last season have now become starters and or the six man and Brown's case.
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And when half of your rotation is coming back, yeah, you certainly get a discount for one.
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But you have that cohesion from season to season, which is really lacking. Right now,
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you know, Hubert Davis has talked about that with this team. When you add in the injuries too,
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you know, he was talking back in January about, you know, with, with Seth being out and with
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his not knowing what was happening with Luca, like the team really hasn't had many days where they've
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played together in his January because there's so many new faces. And that's just part of the,
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the juggling act that these coaches have to figure out. And I think that's, that's the ideal play.
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And I would assume that Carolina got a discount with Seth Trimble because they wanted to build
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around him. Certainly was the case with RJ Davis. So that, that is an approach that I think is
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helpful moving forward. And for North Carolina, while you certainly lose Seth, you lose Caleb Wilson,
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you're probably going to have the option to bring back guys at a good price.
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And then it becomes okay. We've got three positions secured for next year.
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Can we afford a, though, a huge paycheck at Henry Vassar to see if we can get him back?
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And whether you're getting back or not, what other pieces do you need to fill a, you know,
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legitimate top 10 type team for the 26, 27 year? So, and the other component of this too, Tommy,
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that's worth mentioning is this past year before the house settlement came in, you saw this mad rush
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of teams from loading payments to players. That's one of the reasons that Carolina was,
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was able to spend so much on this roster. And one of the reasons that Kentucky was able to spend
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22 million on their roster. Some people disagree with me on this, but I think the, the numbers spent
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at least initially are going to be scaled back. So, you're probably not going to have as much
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of a budget as you did last year, at least for the top programs. And so, that's the factor as well
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as you're trying to do the math with your roster management. When I come back, I want to be a college
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athlete, an elite college athlete, and make a lot of money. Just think about how much a guy like
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Tyler Hansbro would have made. And in college these days, I mean, you got to go when the
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getting's good. And if you're Caleb Wilson and players like that, you got to, you got to take
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the money, even if you love it. But there's decisions to be made now across the board for the guys,
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not in that elite echelon. We'll talk more about this as we always do down the road.
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Tomorrow we'll talk about Carolina Clemson on Tuesday night. And we'll do a post game then. But
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that's Greg Barnes. I'm Tommy Ashley. Johnny T-shirts. Always your friend. And of course, all the
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information you get. Shout out to the people that come up to me on the street, or at games, or at
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Bosch Emmer Stadium and talk about these icy dailies. They enjoy the short, crisp nature of them.
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And we enjoy doing them. It sort of keeps things relevant. And, you know, keeps the fans happy.
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Greg, it's always fun. Thanks, Tommy.