UNC's Schedule Drops, Anticipation Rises - IC Daily | Inside Carolina | College Basketball

0:00Insurance says it's on one side's fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they'll make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive casualty insurance and company and affiliates, price and coverage matched limited by state law. Welcome into IC Daily for September 10th, Thursday. You get into double dose today folks. We actually recorded today's daily yesterday on the 9th or on the 8th and the schedule was dropped on the 9th. So we're coming back to add on still relevant. Second portion of the show will be after this schedule. Push on the Rob Harrington. I'm Tommy Ashley and Johnny T. showed of course is the sponsor Rob ACC finally released the schedule.

1:00Carolina's slate came out notable. They do not play Climpson this year. This is ridiculous. But I digress notable number two and we already knew this because they have handled that by creating the game in Greensboro. They only play in C state once. But other than that, you're take on this this. I don't think it's that difficult. But maybe I'm being you know what let's start over. I'm all over the place. All right. I'm not even going to do anything. I'm just going to start. Welcome in to IC Daily for September 10th, Thursday. I'm Tommy Ashley. That's Rob Harrington. Shout out to Johnny T. Shirt. Johnny T. Shirt.com. This show will be a two for we recorded a segment that we're worried on use for the IC Daily on Tuesday. So to follow this, it's all relevant. It's about the schedule. It's about anticipation of the season. First section before the break, Rob schedule drops. No Climpson. It's just crazy. Only in C state once in conference. But that's

2:03been handled with the adi conference game. Your initial thoughts when you saw the ACC drop here. It's an interesting slight to me. It doesn't appear to be overly difficult. But then again, who actually knows until we actually see some teams play? That's right. I mean, it is very difficult to handicap how difficult this schedule is unless you are a true expert at the portal. Know it every other team that even if you do, you don't know how it will work. But I think I didn't get safe to say, you know, of course, we already knew the home and away opponents, but we didn't know sequentially how it would operate. Look to me, it looks like about like 12 Q1 type games. We'll see about that. Again, we don't know. I do think that if the Tar Heels are going to compete seriously for the conference title, the regular season title, I think there is a sneaky stretch in mid-January. They have to handle business because it's good teams and it's dangerous teams we think. I'm looking at it now. They start with Cal at home. Okay, that has to be a one

3:07at BC. Yes, it's a row game that has to be a one. But then they have their at Louisville. They have state at home, the conference version of the state game, state at home. They're at Florida state. I think it's dangerous. Luke Lacks will be interesting. Moneyball tests for Michael Malone. Not that he hasn't seen that in the NBA, but you'll see it's full blossom in college when they go to Tallahassee. That's a tricky three game stretch. If they were to come out of that stretch, including the first couple games, Cal on BC at 4 and 1, I'd feel like they had a chance. But I think if they're going to compete for the conference, they probably need to go at least 4 and 1. I think it sets up favorably for them to do that. But they have to get off to a good start because as you work down the schedule, it gets tougher and tougher as you go, certainly at the end. When you look at it and I hinted at it, you said it. It's tough to know what these teams have until we get into it. We've talked off air Louisville spent a ton of money. You would assume

4:10they're going to be good. Virginia is usually pretty good. Stanford and Cal trip last year was not good for Carolina. So you get those West Coast teams at home. The stretch I was looking at. And of course, it's Duke, home and away. And then everybody else, home or away, or not at all, that I've already mentioned. You handle the Northern swing in the conference. You go to Boston College, two Syracuse, which again, does need to be wins. But that Louisville, and they play a couple Monday or Saturday, Monday games that are interesting when you have to travel on the front-end or back-end. But that Louisville, and then at February 8th and February 13th, you would figure that week off before Wake Forest would be at a good time. But your thoughts there, given that, from all we've heard, and there's been articles out already that have flooring sealants for the Miss team, Louisville and Duke are widely considered to be, if not the top two teams in the

5:14conference going into it, then certainly two of the top three or four. I think those, at that point in the season, we should know what Carolina is fully. We should know what every team is, minus injuries here or there. But that's going to be an interesting tale for me to see how this is progressed all the way deep into mid-February. I think it takes. I agree. I like the fact that it's tougher on the back-end because it's preparing you for the postseason. And you'll see, sort of to the point we made before they need to get off to a good start to have a chance to win because they don't want to be digging out of a hole when you get to mid-February because they have four out of six road games to close the season. They have Louisville at home. If he's eligible, Seth Trimble in Chapel Hill, which will be a weird and emotional game, I think, for the fan base. And you will have had three months by that point to get used to seeing him in a Louisville jersey, but not at the Smith Center. And so that leading into the due game, I mean,

6:17that's a lot of work to do at the end of the year. They need to be, if they're going to win the conference or have any chance, they have to be right there going into that stretch at least. But regardless of that, I think it's good preparation as you're about to embark, hopefully a real postseason run, whatever the ACC tournament does. I think everyone will be looking for them to certainly redeem what last year's team did in the NCAA tournament. You've not to go out in the first round. I mean, we're getting ahead of ourselves, but I think I do think as tough February works. Think, think, think Tommy in the old days, and we've talked about this during the summer, you would have an elite non-conference matchup in February for that exact reason, at least one, to prepare you for seeing new teams in the tournament. Caroline, I sort of has that this year late January with Illinois. It's a little bit earlier in the calendar, but when you start at January 30 with Illinois, and you look at Louisville Duke, Duke Weiss actually after January 30. That's really difficult

7:19schedule after a somewhat more favorable non-conference, I think. We'll find out what these guys are made up for sure. Yeah, you mentioned Illinois game. It comes in that by week there, and then you circle around and you don't have a game in that late February by week. Those weeks are always interesting to me because if you're kind of limping into it, it's probably good to have some time off, but if you're rolling, you want to keep playing. It'll be interesting to see how Michael Malone handles that stretch there. We've seen games at Pittsburgh that go sideways, so that's not one to overlook. Then you close with Duke, which will be my youngest senior Duke game, which is crazy to think about. When you look at this, Rob, and we'll put you on the spot, and again, folks, if you're watching this, keep on rolling through. We'll talk about anticipation for the season, and a little bit later in this show, in this segment. Expectations, now that you've seen the

8:23schedule, you see who they play, who they don't play, where they play them. What are your realistic expectations? Which I posted on the message board and said, it's impossible to have anything accurate prediction wise, not knowing what all these other teams have, but I'm going to ask you anyway, because it's September, and we're going to look at expectations and throw out a number. I have no idea, to be honest with you, knowing. I would think that 16 and 2 wins the conference. 8 and 8, or your excuse me, 9 and 9 is midway, midway the conference, maybe, which is now 8 or 9, which is another head scratcher. But your thoughts on what Carolina needs to do realistically, across the course of this, for you to be able to look on March 7th after the regular season, say, well, that was a damn good season for Michael Malone in his first go, right? Yeah, I mean, I think they certainly need to get off to a good start, and when a couple of

9:27these non-conference games, we know two years ago when the heels barely made the tournament, controversially made the tournament, they struggled to win those games last year they did better. And I think they need to continue to build off that, because while they have the top of the league, they'll have some very challenging opponents. There are some soft touches in the conference still. I mean, like I said already, I sort of blew off at BC, even though that's a road game, it's too easy to be a conference road game, probably. Again, we don't know, but I doubt they're going to be very good. And there are more like that where they almost have to win. I think I'm just in terms of a number, obviously, TBD. I think something like 14 and 4, I think would be a very successful year. To your point, I don't think that wins the conference. I think Duke and or Louisville may do better than that, but the heels are going to get their cracks at these guys. They play them both twice, obviously, Duke twice, they get Louisville twice. I think if they can go two and two in those games with a couple of slips elsewhere,

10:33I think they'd be in good shape with a good shot at 14 and 4. And that's probably, again, if they do some good work in non-conference, that'd be a pretty good seed. You know, it's a lot of all we can do is speculate, but I think that looks like a very good first season outing. If it's something like 13 and 5, okay, anything lower than that, like 12 and 6, I think would be not good enough. I just send the conference. And again, your analysis will change depending on what they do in the non-conference, but I'm looking for them to do better than a 12 and 6 type year. Yeah, and again, not knowing how these other teams are going to look, obviously, injuries. Used to be the only thing we really talk about, not knowing, but not knowing how these other teams would look. I agree with you there. I do like that there are plenty of Q1 games in there, whereas in the past, there was not the case. It was either Duke or Louisville. There's other options here. And they get these teams, some of these teams at home.

11:36You know, I'm a big proponent of playing everybody home and home. But if you're not going to do that, they've drawn a good straw getting Virginia home, Miami home. So it should play out well. Rob, I'm going to cut us out of this one. I'm going to go to a break and I'm going to flip it over. Old school records set out. We'll flip the record over, press play, put the needle in a groove, and roll into the anticipation for 26-27 portion of the program. That's Rob Harrington. I'm Tommy Ashley. Flip the vinyl. Listen to the rest of it. Almost to the weekend, almost to Carolina football against East Tennessee State on Saturday and Kenan Stadium. So it's interesting following the tar hills on the football side. Rob, we're going to keep it on the basketball stuff. It's safe. It's easy and it's a great question. Michael Malone comes in. Is this the most anticipated season since the link? I'll let you start it. We can go back and forth. I'll take the older approach. And you keep the gin as it jinsy now.

12:42I'll keep the gin x version. You keep the gin z version. Whatever. I think we're going to be two x, Gen x. I don't know. I don't know if there's any gin z happening around here. This is a fun topic. It's a fun thing. I enjoy it. It's pondering it. Obviously it's personal to everyone. Certainly my all time this season, I'm looking forward to it a lot, not quite as much as 2004. If you were in Chapel Hill at time, especially that midnight madness, midnight madness of all things, jam packed. Roy walks out onto the court for the first time as Carolina coach. The place was electric. That team wasn't great. It was a competitive, sort of tragic team, but it was so exciting to know. We talked about yesterday. They already had Marvin Williams too. In my mind, it was already done deal that it was going to work. It was just a matter of watching the fruits of Roy's labor and bringing back all those players

13:44who mean loaded with talent. You have to give Matt Dirty credit for that. I was extremely excited. I think it was thinking maybe 2012 because Harrison Barnes came back and I thought he was going to be a national player of the year. That team was a disappointment to me. Obviously injuries were an issue late in the season. Then 2023, we could talk about this one. It would seem like that would be up there. For me, I wasn't convinced they were really a number one caliber team. I didn't like the way they played at the end of 2022, even though it worked. I mean, I have some epic moments, but I didn't like all the yellow offense. I hoped they would have a more balanced attack in 2023. The trepidation there proved present. Then, you know, he was first year. They lost Sharp and Kessler. There's always excitement about a first year coach, but it was more of an unknown. I think I'm more excited about this season with Michael Malone, at least going back

14:46to probably 2012 because even 2016 and 2017, I didn't know what to expect. I was obviously very excited about those teams, but it might have to go all the way back to 2009 because we knew they brought all those guys back. Even before that, probably number two all time for me after 2004 will be 1998 because I was on campus. It's more special to you when you're on campus. They didn't just retire. Guthrie just then, but they're bringing back an absolutely epic team. That entire season was just magical. So those are the ones off the top of my head at least I would have to stop at 2004, but it may be in the mix for the season I've been most excited about since then. Maybe 2009. It's a great subject. It's a great debate. I mean, clearly, after North Carolina last few years, Michael Malone comes in with a ton of hype, a ton of excitement. And, you know,

15:49there's some that have some trepidation about the pro coach coming back, even what's going on on the other side of the coin with the major sports. But I think Malone, as we've talked about on these shows or on our summer series, he certainly won the off season. He's done everything the right way, built a great staff. And so I think anticipation is at a really high level. I agree with the Roy coming in the first time or the first season he came back having Marvin Williams committed in signed knowing that the future was going to be bright. It was an exciting season. I think 97, 98, you know, those were, you know, a few to told me in October of 1997 when Dean retired that it was going to be just everybody was in shock, but that team was flat out loaded. And we saw how that worked. I was at the final four that year. Miss a reason I don't like going to the final four because every time I've been, they've not won. But I'm going to go way back and I told you this off

16:53air and I'm going to do it. I remember sitting in Kenan Stadium in early April or had to be early April, probably April 2nd or 3rd 1992. And I heard from Michael Jordan kid named 22. You got to get 92. Did I say 92? Well, yeah, it's a memory coming through. Exactly 20 years ago, 20 years ago in 1982 sitting there in the stands at Kenan Stadium when they had the reunion or the when they got back hearing people chant chant three more years. Hearing people chant one more year at where they obviously he left. But the build up for me being I was a young I was 11. The anticipation after 82 knowing that they were going to be loaded again in 83 and in 84 those seasons, at least from a young person when you're young and you don't know a lot, you're very much more excited. You

17:55don't have the worries that other that you get when you get older. But for me, those years were huge. And then you can keep going. I mean, Kenan had some ridiculous teams Rob in those in that time frame. You know, they could have won it all in 82, 83, 84. It could have won it in 81. 87 was ridiculously good. 91 was good. Obviously 93. Another one, 1994. They get all these players back. All the seniors are coming back. You get, you know, stock house and Wallace coming in. I mean 97, 96, what could have been? I'll make people let's talk about this. Would it have been the greatest Carolina team ever and the most anticipated season ever if Jerry Stackhouse and Rossi Wallace don't go pro after 95? I'd wager. I don't know if you can tell me a Carolina team that would have been better than that one.

18:57It'll be a good message board discussion. People can have at it. But that there was some serious anticipation there during 95. You know how nowadays everybody's watching the season going in and wondering about recruiting for next year. That's how kind of like how it was watching that season. But anyway, I think we've covered the waterfront there. But tell me if it's the most anticipated, how does Michael Malone to get back to the present? How does he meet the level of an anticipation? What level of team does it have to be to make it worth the anticipation and the excitement for Carolina fans? I think he's well on his way. I agree. And I'm having a hard time answering that question for myself because of one of the distinguishing factors I think in my excitement for this team is it's really based on the coach. You know, the roster has a lot more questions and no clear star player unlike just about all of these other teams that we mentioned,

20:01including everyone you just talked about in 2012 and most of the Roy and Dean teams had more coming back and said the roster was part of the excitement. I'm very intrigued by this roster but I don't think it's overloaded with talent compared to these prior historical squads. So my excitement is I want to see a guy we know can coach. I mean, the more I dig into his past, the more I dig into Malone style, I think it can work. We have to see. I think he's the right age. You know, he's in his prime coaching years mid 50s, which is a great time to do it. I think Roy was probably about that age when he came through early to mid 50s back to Carolina. I mean, I think that works. So in terms of the expectations, I'm for me, it doesn't have to be sort of like 2004. I mean, that that team underachieved in some ways based on its talent level, even though you could see what Roy was building. I'm looking for that type of thing. Hopefully a 2004 type

21:03season that turned out to be a six seed. I think this this team, I think they should be a little better than that because the ACC is not what it was in 2004. I'm close college basketball is not what it was. So I think this roster while not as good as 2004, you don't have to be as good as you are then to be a four or five seed more than anything. I want to see just like with that first Roy team, what is Molo and style going to be and can we tell? You know, it's one thing to wonder that in the preseason. We're all wondering it in the preseason, but if we're wondering it in February, I'll be disappointed because I want to see what he is getting them to specialize in. Whatever it is, I want them to be excellent at something just like in 2004, overnight they're playing up tempo, they're getting off into rebounds. So you knew what the imprint was going to be going forward. Question for Michael Malone, then is what are you going to impart on a college team? What are they going to specialize and will it be evident in the after six weeks or so? That's

22:08what I'm looking for. Whatever the wins and losses do. You wrote a column in what we're talking about Harrington, Aaron, I see daily for Thursday, September 10th, fire on the sidelines. Michael Malone, a distinct breed of Tarot Hill and Rob that was on that drop on Tuesday. If folks haven't read it, another reason to be a part of inside Carolina premium, go read it and I'm looking at it now. How does the fireiness fit in in North Carolina? Dean and Roy and I mean, Hebert could have some firey moments, but how does Malone style? I think this is a valid question and you're well equipped to answer it. How does his style and his fireiness that we expect? Now, who knows? It might be completely different. I doubt it, but if it is, we'll see. But how does that fit in for the North Carolina? Quotin quote, what were you used to? I was going to say the Carolina way, but yeah, but you know what I mean. Now, I think it will be a welcome change and I mentioned in that column, it has to work.

23:13If it works, then people will love the style. If it doesn't work, people won't like the style. I think though, there's been a run of coaches and this is bringing in football too, where they have more of the stoic sideline presence with whether Belicec or sort of this grandpa like thing with Mac Brown. That's not Michael Malone at all. You know, Hebert was fiery toward his team, but he certainly wasn't confrontational toward officials. Michael Malone is very confrontational toward officials. I played a bunch of links in that article. No one has commented, you know, or not many comments yet about that. But if you click through the links, you'll see some pretty fun. So I don't know your ears are not sensitive to curses. Then you'll hear some fr- you'll see some sort of fun Michael Malone moments where he is going after the refs. I don't think Carolina has had that coach before. I mean, Matt D'Arty would get it after them some, but I think Malone being the competitor he is, I don't think that would change. I think that the more direct, hard charging

24:17style, he's more like Roy Williams in the sense that he speaks more candidly, I think, with the media, some of his commentary in the NBA, accusing front offices of lacking fortitude. I'll paraphrase what he said. Things like that, I think that will all be welcome. People want candor. They want directness. I think is a contrast to what you've seen on the sidelines recently. If you feel like Carolina has been more reactive in the portal in NIL era, which a lot of people have felt like they have been, here's a guy who is proactive in everything that he does. As we're seeing in recruiting, as we're seeing in the way that he addresses questions in the off season, I think it will be warmly embraced again if they're good. It has to work. It's going to be interesting to see there are a lot of coaches out there that are fiery that are different from what Carolina is used to having on the sidelines. I think Michael Malone will be a breath of fresh air,

25:22but I think the key thing, and I'm going to get us out of here on this, the key thing that you just said is if they win. Because we've seen guys like Danny Hurley, who people either love or hate, I personally think he's a great coach. He goes overboard sometimes, but they win. A guy on the other side, I'm going to throw some light in the rods out here and get my lane kiffin on the football side. Guys like that, but they win. The approach and the difference, it's just going to be different for North Carolina. That's why I agree with you. There's a great topic for today. On Thursday is most anticipated, and you put it well. It's most anticipated for the players, for the style and all that, but for the man on the sidelines. That's Michael Malone. Rob, I'm going to get us out of here. I appreciate you taking the time. We didn't do a full daily or a full Rob Summer Series slash show this week, but I appreciate you taking the time to do these days and sort of break them up into

26:24bite-sized pieces that folks can digest relatively easy on their morning commutes. I appreciate them. Thanks so much, buddy.