But...

The accountability factor has already been markedly different.

And in a, in an era where college athletes are being compensated the way they are, that has to be a piece of the equation.

It's not just, "Oh, you know, the, I love this guy and I recruited him when he was a freshman, and he's a junior and he's having a tough time, but I'm gonna stick by him." No, if you allocated $2 million to that guy and he's not playing, then you, you have misallocated resources.

Yeah

... about maintaining that." And whether it's Bubba coming around, bringing on Newmark, bringing, you know, Malone, the Hubert thing not working out the way they hoped it would, put it all together and they have realized, "Look, what do we care about more than anything? It's winning, and if we gotta change our things to get back to that, that's our Carolina way, that's our North Star." And to your point, they, they've had to do a lot of things that are very un-Carolina-like.

Mm

... and I think that that's of, of benefit.

You've seen injuries in the postseason, you know, flare up two years in a row now with this team.

So I think having more depth just in that regard, especially in the front court, um, is gonna be huge for them.

And obviously Sharnowski's dealing with a knee injury right now, um, said that he wanted to be back before the season begins, so we'll see how, how his recovery continues to progress.

But yeah, I, I think it's gonna be fascinating because they are just, f- strictly in terms of the build, it's not just the fact that it's not one guy, it's that they don't have that do it all forward who's sort of the, the queen on the chessboard.

Um, you know, like I'm anticipating Jon Blackwell is gonna lead this team in scoring, and that's different for Jon Scheyer.

[laughs] Yeah.

Who's taken the biggest step, according to those guys at Cameron Indoor, moving forward with some of their returning pieces?

Yeah.

I think the two who immediately come to mind are Gongba and Caden Boozer.

You know, Caden Boozer last year, I thought we saw a lot of growth from him in the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament when he had to step in for Caleb Foster after Foster broke his foot.

But the growth has been, you know, I think a huge piece for Duke this summer, you know, and you've got to keep in mind with Caden Boozer too.

He's also dealing with the psychological recoil of the end of Duke season and that turnover against Chicago.

And, and, John Shire, I thought, put it really well.

What's the word out as far as the frontcourt is concerned? Because in my mind, I know Jaron Stevenson comes back, but that 4-5 spot is something that's going to have to hold up for Carolina to be where they want to be in the ACC.

And I guess you're not surprised by the quality of opponents that you see when evaluating the Duke schedule.

Yeah, it's what we've come to expect from Duke and John Shire.

His ambitious scheduling, I think, has been a real benefit for Duke the last couple of years.

Last year, for example, even going on the road and playing at Tennessee in an exhibition, obviously Duke is going to do the same thing and play at Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas in an exhibition this year.

And you heard from players up through, you know, January, February, even about how fruitful that was for them in terms of getting a real road test, seeing what that environment was going to be like.

And, you know, it's again, it's it's all for Duke and John Shire.

It's all about putting yourself in the best position to succeed come March.

Is that fair to say? How real was the NBA interest this summer?

What's the vibe been like kind of there locally in the trenches of the Lombardi-Belichick partnership and where that stands heading into year two?

Yeah, I mean, Rex, you know that I am by no means a football expert in terms of X's and O's, but I would say there is less enthusiasm locally for this UNC football season than for any that I can remember since I got to Carolina, which was back in 2013.

I mean it kind of reminds me of the last year of Larry Fedora where you know the only thing I can remember about that team is that they got into a fight with NC State at the end of a game and then he came in the press conference and said what fight there is there is you know I would say I wouldn't say none but there is negligible interest in the football program the schedule this year is much tougher than it was last year obviously the team went four and eight last year lost several of its best players in the transfer portal.

At a time when everybody in the sport is getting older, North Carolina chose to bring in a massive, sprawling high school class, and they think that that's going to be a way to build some long-term stability, but you obviously have to win games in the here and now.

To your point, between the roster building, the on-the-field miscues, the off-the-field shenanigans, the headlines now about CSC and HR violations, from day one, it has been an exercise in we don't necessarily know what's going on.

We think we're the smartest men in the room.

And clearly, as the results show, that is not the case.

Brendan, do you think that there is – possibility that if it just goes really poorly on the field this year that even Belichick might look at it because what I think is buyouts probably pushing 30 million or something in there right in the 20 million range like he would even consider maybe just negotiating something and getting out or do you think he's dug in to try to go for the long haul here?

What's the vibe been like? kind of there locally in the trenches of the Lombardi-Belichick partnership and where that stands heading into year two.

Yeah, I mean, Rex, you know that I am by no means a football expert in terms of X's and O's, but I would say there is less enthusiasm locally for this UNC football season than for any that I can remember since I got to Carolina, which was back in 2013.

I mean, it kind of reminds me of the last year of Larry Fedora, where The only thing I can remember about that team is that they got into a fight with NC State at the end of a game, and then he came in the press conference and said, what fight? I wouldn't say none, but there is negligible interest in the football program.

The schedule this year is much tougher than it was last year.

Obviously, the team went 4-8 last year.

um, lost several of its best players in the transfer portal at a time when everybody in the sport is getting older.

North Carolina chose to bring in a massive sprawling high school class.

He would even consider maybe just negotiating something and getting out, or do you think he's dug in to try to go for the long haul here?

And if so, how did you see that fitting together with what we're trying to figure out this team's identity becomes under Bryson Graham and Tiago Splitter?

Yeah, you know, I think the number one thing is him coming in and being willing to be malleable, right? He is going to be the star.

He is going to be the guy they build around.

He is, you know, the most promising prospect long-term on the roster right now since he's been drafted.

But at the same time, being willing to do everything.

You know, he's...

You guys will see this.

Now, look, I do not think that

And if so, how did you see that fitting together with what we're trying to figure out this team's identity becomes under Bryson Graham and Tiago Splitter?

Yeah, you know, I think the number one thing is him coming in and being willing to be malleable, right? He is going to be the star.

He is going to be the guy they build around.

He is, you know, the most promising prospect long-term on the roster right now since he's been drafted.

But at the same time, being willing to do everything.

You know, he's...

You guys will see this.

Now, look, I do not think that

How does this team compare to the other teams he's had that's won titles earlier in the decade? Are they in that class metrically?

Yeah, so, you know, certainly defensively they are.

UConn is the top five defensive team in the sport right now.

And, you know, watching them play up close, watching them practice up close, they guard the ball they guard as well and as intently as anybody in the country the the separator between this team and those two back-to-back championship teams as of now is surprisingly the offense it hasn't been quite nearly as efficient as it was during both of those two title teams teams are really selling out to stop UConn from shooting the three they're having one of their lowest three-point attempt rates under Dan Hurley as a head coach and they're making those shots when they take them they just don't have as many opportunities to do so so The offense is still a work in progress.

It's certainly a team that hasn't been at 100% most of the year.

They've been without Braylon Mullins, their five-star freshman for large periods of time.

They've been without Terrace Reed, their starting center for a few games.

But you hear people in college talking about that this – freshman class that's that we're seeing in college is unlike many classes we've seen in recent years how many guys at the top would you put in the top tier of freshmen and how would you separate that group talking about peterson talking about devonta and you mentioned cam boozer there is anybody else you would add