August 6, 2025 • 42 mins
In this edition of the podcast, Josh & Anthony talk about incoming transfer, Luka Bogavac setting his UNC arrival date, after being granted his student visa & clearing another hurdle to be eligible to play in 2025-26, & they also weigh in on NCAA Tournament expansion being put on hold for the time being
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The five hundred and seventy fifth edition of the Four
Corners podcast stars right now.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is the Four Corners Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I've said that
to be in Chapel Hill, to be at the University
of North Colna. We win fifty four to fifty three.
Let's Carolina a minute, but Carolina wait aga with twenty
seconds left to play. Goes back to Michael Jordan jumper
from out on the left, going go wait a wordy
wordy five, darl We're going to win the national championship.
(00:38):
Weeber front course. Carolina, Hey, Nike cook time outlive tag
that co pal tag de co pal on making a
They're out of time out front Courton William's on the drive,
gets it back out the head long outside shot short,
leave it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
He's over.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Carolina has won the most and I'll championship seventy two.
And how about them tar Heels, they are the national champion.
How been a luckiest coach in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hull makes for three too strong on the shot.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's it. Victorials are the national datum champion.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Carolina has been tested and tried and been proven successful
through all the years and the way that we will
play will be the Carolina way.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Davis has not only titus career high in points, but
also in three pointers.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Oh my gosh, a step back will this one goes
out thirty nine for RJ. Davis.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It's like an A one mixed tour out here.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Here are your hosts, Josh Marlowe and Anthony Pagnata.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Hello and welcome in to another live edition of the
Four Corners podcast. We are powered by Carolina Electrical Services.
Josh Anthony here with you on Tuesday night, late on
a Tuesday night, But that's because about an hour or so,
the good people over at Inside Carolina reported some news
around the status of incoming Montenegro professional player Luca Bogavots
(02:16):
and his unc status for the upcoming season. And we're
here to talk about that because he cleared a massive
hurdle and you know, he's one step closer to being
deemed eligible for Carolina ahead of the upcoming season. We'll
talk about that. We'll also give some thoughts on a
national topic around college basketball, one that I know I'm
(02:36):
very passionate about I imagine Anthony is as well, which
is NCAA tournament expansion, which was officially put on hold
for the upcoming tournament. They'll revisit this sometime later for
maybe the twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight and some tournament.
We'll talk about that before we got here. Just to
kind of bookend the back end of the show. Every
(03:00):
edition of the Pod, as we always do with the
Pod Thought of the Day, we go to Bruce Lee
for today's Pod Thought, and that thought is quote, if
you always put limits on everything you do, physical or
anything else, it will spread into your work and into
your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus,
and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them.
(03:21):
End quote. I think this is a really good quote
for where Carolina is at right now, because, you know,
it feels like there have been certain times under Hubert
Davis there have been limits on what Carolina could achieve
on and off the basketball court, whether it was because
of a lack of nil funding, whether it was from
(03:45):
poor roster construction. It hasn't felt like in all of
his four years that the sky was the limit for
Carolina and that they can reach the final four, cut
down the nets, and win a national championship. And if
there is a plateau that exists for this program. That
is the plateau, that is the expectation, that's the that's
(04:07):
the standard, and that's the demand. And look, Hubert Davis
knows that he knew what he was signing up for
when he got hired as Carolina's head coach upon the
retirement of Roy Williams. I think he could look at
what he's done and defend what he's done, but I
bet you if he was being honest with himself, he
would tell you he has not met the standard set
(04:28):
upon him since you know, he took over and has
been the steward of this program for the last four years.
That's why we enter this year with the belief that
it's a make or break year for him if he
wants to be on the sidelines for the foreseeable future,
and hopefully this year, not only does you know Hubert
Davis meet the limit, but he he he exceeds and
(04:52):
goes beyond the limits because if not, it very well
could cost him his job.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, I mean, I think the plat tow for this
basketball program is probably the final four. I mean, maybe
a national championship is a little too aggressive, but I
do believe that that is a plateau that Carolina can
reach under Hubert Davis. They've done it before, They've reached
the final night of the season under him, and I
(05:19):
think that was not a fluke. I think that was
a guy that was really showing you some of his
coaching prowess. And unfortunately, since that point it just really
hasn't shown through. I believe though, that this season you
will be able to see that. I mean, Carolina has
completely overhauled this roster. I believe that this is going
to be a group that can get back to at
(05:41):
least where they were in twenty three twenty four, where
going into the year you felt like Carolina had a
chance to be very competitive. We saw a play out
throughout the entire season, and really Carolina showed that they
were one of the better teams in the entire country
for most of the year until they got to the
NCAA Tournament and they ultimately fall short to Alabama, a
(06:02):
team that has been a thorn in their side and
really isn't going to go away for a while now
because of how good NATO It's has been there so far.
So I mean, look, I think this is one of
those areas that you know, Hubert Davis. You know, he's
got to take this one to heart if he's hearing
this edition of the podcast and be able to rise above,
(06:25):
you know, some of the limitations that your team is
going to present you. There are going to be limitations
with this team.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We know it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
There's ones with just about every team that's out there.
Outside of maybe that eighty two title team and that
nine title team, those teams felt like they could do
just about anything on any given night and it wouldn't
really matter who the opponent was. These teams, I don't
know if they're necessarily that good, and I don't know
if this year's team's going to be in that category
(06:52):
as well, But I do believe that he is going
to be able to hopefully rise above expectations for them.
And again, we've talked about it so much this off season.
If you are a Carolina fan, you should be rooting
for that. You should be hoping that that happens, because
there are not many other great options out there to
take over this program without having to go, you know,
(07:13):
with the option of going outside the family. And even then,
you know, if you go outside the family and hire somebody,
who's to say it's guaranteed that they're even going to
have success here at Carolina because of all the pressure
that comes with it. So I'm rooting for Hubert Davis
to be able to rise above the plateaus that unfortunately
have shown up for Carolina these first few years under him,
(07:36):
and I think everybody should be doing the same.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You mentioned that this is a revamped roster, and I
think with the way that this roster is constructed, I
think Luca Bugabots was the most important get they got
this offseason because he was the perimeter score that this
roster did not did not have. You know, when we
were sitting here in mid to late May, they did
(08:01):
a great job, you know, bringing guys in the back court.
You know, guys know how I feel about Kayan Evans.
Jada Young. I think was a nice, you know, depth
piece that can really round out the back court. You
reshape the front court. Henry Bassar, the Arizona transfer, Jaron
Stevenson arrives in Chapel Hill. You got Jonathan Powell, who
is going to maybe be the best shooter on the roster,
(08:22):
but you needed something outside of just a shooter, and
then that's what you get in the form of Luka Bogobots.
We've talked a lot about, so no reason to kind
of rehash kind of who he is as a player
and what he's bringing. But you know, whenever you go
the international route, and this is something that Carolina is
going to do a lot more moving forward, there are
(08:45):
always hurdles that come with it. It is in terms
of getting them over here and getting them cleared to play.
So when Carolina decided to go after him, these hurdles
were not a surprise. This was something that they knew
upon the recruitment they would have to go through. It
was just kind of going to be a check by
checkpoint of getting him closer and closer to get here.
(09:07):
I think in a perfect world, he would have been
here a lot sooner. You got to remember he did
not commit to Carolina. I believe it was the end
of May when he joined the program, and maybe there
was some stuff he'd already planned overseas for his summer
with his basketball season coming to an end. But with
the new schedule where you can practice in June and July,
(09:28):
you have the annual beach trip, which is where this
team and this program really they try to force chemistry
because of how the roster overturns. You would have loved
to have him here for those incidents, but that was
not the case. Still, the most important deadline was having him,
you know, enrolled in classes and be ready to go
(09:49):
when the fall semester begins, you know, thirteen days from now.
And that's what they were able to do. Today. He's
been granted his student visa and is expected to be
in Chapel Hill sometimes next week. This follows a deadline
or a data point where he cleared UNC emissions back
in early July. He had an interview with officials at
(10:13):
the US embassy in Montenegro last week, and so now
now that he has now been granted his student visa,
the final thing for him to do is to be
cleared by the NC double A. The important thing to
note here is with all that stuff already done, we
know the nc doublay can be a headache. We see
(10:34):
see how they kind of drag things out, But this
was maybe the biggest hurdle yet to kind of climb
in terms of just getting him the student visa. The
expectation is that he'll be a student in thirteen days
and more importantly, when this team opens practice and the
open practice. Believe it or not, in just over six weeks,
he'll be able to be on the court a full
(10:56):
participant ahead of the twenty twenty five twenty sixth season.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, and there's no doubt that everything that you said
right there is one hundred percent right about him being
you know, getting over the biggest hurdle because no matter
where you stand politically, you know that this was going
to be more difficult during this presidency than in other
presidencies because of the immigration policies and everything like that.
(11:22):
So you knew this was going to be a really
tough hurdle and it was not a guarantee that he
was going to be able to clear this. So the
fact that he gets over this one and now all
that's left is that he has to clear NC double A,
you know, whatever restrictions or anything that they have for him,
I think he'll be perfectly fine. I don't think the
(11:44):
NC double A is going to have an issue clearing him,
but you never really know. We've seen it with the
NC double A before where they have been difficult. Really
more on the football front for Carolina. You know, you
go back to the tes Walker situation and everything like that.
We saw them sort of drag their I'm hoping that
they don't end up dragging their feet on this. I
(12:04):
think even if they do end up dragging their feet
a little bit, he's still going to be able to
practice with the team, which is the good news for
right now. And the ultimate thing that they need to
be able to get him on the court and doing
with his teammates is really bonding playing basketball, learning what
you know some of his teammates' tendencies are, and everything
like that. So I think Carolina has got the big
(12:26):
stuff out of the way now. You know what is
seen as a pretty powerless group in the NCAA. You
just have to get past that, and I think they
will be able to hear relatively soon. This is great
news because now Carolina has their guy on the wing
that they sorely needed. You talked about it this probably
being the biggest need. I would say probably after point guard.
(12:49):
They really needed that point guard this year. And maybe
you think that set Tremble would have been fine there
and that Carolina would have found a way around it.
They would have found someone at that to two guard
spot and they would have been fined. So maybe this
is what you consider the biggest need for Carolina that
they were able to get filled. But either way, you're
getting a really great player, a guy that can do
(13:11):
so much for you on a win on the wing,
can create his own basket really good in transition, a
guy that really thrives off of ball screen. So that's
something that Carolina really has to be able to do
to free him up and allow him to knock down shots.
But that's the thing you're talking about. A guy that
shoots the ball about as well as anybody in his league.
This past year, shot the ball well from the outside.
(13:35):
His effective field goal percentage was the third best in
the entire league that he played in. And if you're
wondering what league this is, Johann Behringer, who just got
drafted in the first round of the NBA draft, was
a part of this league.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Behringer is eighteen years old, Bogavak little older twenty one,
So that's the reason why he probably wasn't as sought
after when it came to the NBA draft. But Carolina
getting a guy that would have been drafted in the
NBA draft, and I think that's big for them to
get on the wing is that now you've got him,
(14:08):
You've got Caleb Wilson, You've got you know, Set Trimble.
I don't know if Set Trimble is necessarily an NBA player,
but I don't think it's out of the realm of
possibility that he could be. I still think if he
shows enough this year with the level of defender that
he is, he could be an NBA player. That's three
guys right there that you're looking at on this roster
and saying could be NBA players. And that doesn't even
(14:30):
factor in Henry Vasar, who a lot of people believe
would have been drafted as well. So I mean, that's
four guys that you look at and think are NBA
talents on this roster or at least have the capability
of being NBA talents. That's a long way from where
Carolina was even this time last year, where we were
we still had questions about this roster at this time
(14:52):
last year. It feels like we're in a much better
place with this group, both with the talent that they
have in the starting lineup and with the depth that
they yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Well, the biggest thing why I put Bogabots ahead of
point guard is because if Carolina had to move Seth
Tremble to the one or have to start Derek Dixon.
I think there would still be a pathway to them
having a successful season. Not having a legitimate wing was
(15:21):
was the nail in the coffin last year because Kate
Tyson was just a complete utter bust trying to make
the transition from Belmont up to Carolina. And while Jonathan
Powell does qualify as a wing, he's going to be
put on the floor to do one thing, which is
stand behind the three point line and shoot thirty seven
thirty eight percent. And I think he can do that.
(15:44):
I think he will do that. But I like that
much better coming off the bench as opposed to him
maybe being in a starter role where his limitations is
are going to be exposed. Bogavot says, not only bring in,
you know, a NBA game to Carolina, but he's bringing
an NBA side. He's six foot five, he's two hundred pounds,
he can score the ball in a multitude of different ways. Yes,
(16:06):
he's gonna, you know, shoot you know, thirty nine percent
from behind the three point line, but there's a mid
range game there as well. And I think more importantly,
when you look at what he does as a rebounder.
He could be in one man fast break, and you
saw plenty of times where he got the ball and
ran ninety four feet down the other end and kind
of lay up a dunk or drew a foul. Quite
(16:27):
simply or quite frankly, Carolina did not have that a
year ago, after having that with Cormack Ryan, with having
that with Harrison Ingram, that kind of vanished from last
from last season, and it's a big reason why Carolina
His offense once they really got out a non conference
play was nonewhere near as explosive because teams, once they
(16:48):
really started taking away R. J. Davis and forcing other
guys to beat them, they're just one enough guys on
the roster that can do that. Luca Bogovots I think
is poised to arrive on UNC's campus, join this program
and lead this team in scoring or at least be
the top two score And if he comes here and
(17:08):
he averages, you know, fifteen points per game and does
so on forty five percent shooting from the field and
forty from three and nearly you know, ninety percent from
the foul line, I think we're going to be very
pleased with his game. And I also think you've got
to look at the fact that he's twenty one years old,
so he is older. He has played against you know,
(17:30):
pro competition, so you could argue this this will be
a step down playing in the ACC, especially this version
of the ACC. But the way he ended his season
last year he scored nineteen or more points in eight
of the final ABA games is including a season high
twenty seven points back on April twenty fifth. The more
(17:51):
he plays, the better he gets. And I think this
will be a guy that will show steady growth, steady
improvement over the marathon season that is the college basketball year.
The guy you see in November won't be the guy
you see in December and so on and so forth.
And so I think Hubert Davis, Jim Tanner, this coaching staff,
(18:14):
they can go to bed and rest a little bit
easier at night knowing this guy's here. Because you know,
I got I got asked by our dear buddy Josh Smilow,
who you know we talked pretty frequently during the season.
Of course, in the offseason when this news got broke down,
he goes, well, now, now are you pumped? Are you excited. Well,
I want to clear this up, buddy. I've been very
(18:36):
optimistic about this offseason from the get go. I've thought
Jim Tanner Hubert Davis did a fantastic job revamp, revamping
this roster, reshaping this roster. Is it gonna win a
national championship? Probably not. Can it compete for an ACC
title in a second weekend in the insul A Tournament?
I think that's the case. I don't think any of
(18:57):
that would have been possible without Luca Bogobots on this roster.
And so, you know, does this get me even more excited? No,
because I'm always excited for Carolina basketball. What this does do, though,
is kind of rest some of the concerns I was
going to have entering the season where I look at
(19:18):
this roster and it's not perfect. There isn't such a
thing as a perfect roster nil revenue sharing transfer portal world,
But this is a roster that I think is suited
to set to Hubert Dave us up to give us
the best firm evaluation of him as Carolina's head coach,
and I think that's the main goal. The main objective
(19:38):
of this year is finding out what Carolina has sitting
on its bench. You can answer that question a lot
more clearly with Luca Bogobots on the floor as opposed
to sitting on the bench and street clothes being deemed
in eligible wild in double A.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, I mean that plateau that we talked about earlier,
I mean it grows when you've got a guy like
Luca on the team as opposed to if you don't.
I mean you talked about it. Man, if they don't
have him on the team, I mean, you're rolling with
Jonathan Powell at that position. And while Jonathan Powell I
think is a little bit better than maybe some people realize.
He's a really good shooter. I think he's a much
(20:13):
better defender than a lot of people will give him
credit for. I mean, he's not exactly a guy that
I think is gonna blow you away at that position.
And then if you say, well, okay, we don't want that,
well you could roll with an incredibly big lineup. And
we had talked about that possibly being a way that
Carolina goes with Henry Vassar at the five, Jaron Stevenson
(20:39):
at the four, or at the three, or Caleb Wilson
at the four or the three, and we said it, Look,
Caleb Wilson is a guy that his back to the
basket game is way too good to not have at
the four spot. And so now you know, all these
conversations about what do you do if Luca isn't here?
And I mean, I guess you still have to have
(21:00):
some of those conversations what do you do if he
doesn't get cleared by the NCAA. But to me, I
don't think that's even really a conversation at this point.
I think most people believe that they've gotten past the
biggest hurdle, like we talked about, and now they're going
to be moving towards getting him on the court. I
think if they do, then you know, Caroline has got
a real chance to compete for one of those top
(21:22):
three spots in the ACC. I don't think that's crazy
because especially if you if you said, you know, if
he's giving us numbers that are similar to the numbers
that he produced this past year, which I mean, look,
he's playing in a professional league. That professional league I
think is good. Do I think it's the level of
(21:42):
athlete that you see in college basketball. I don't. I
do think that a lot of those guys. I mean,
you look at some of the stars in those leagues.
Those are guys that used to play in college basketball,
and a lot of them played at UNC Greensboro, Texas.
Arlington was one of the guys. I think that was
Eric Neil, who's actually his teammate on SC Derby. You
(22:03):
know some of those guys, I mean, they're they're okay.
Clearly they've done some decent things to stick around for
as long as they have. And I mentioned Johan Berenger
being in that league, but he's also very young. I
think this will be a little bit of a step up.
I don't necessarily look at this as, oh, this is
no doubt going to work, He's gonna put up big
(22:24):
numbers type of pickup. But I do think this is
one that can be very successful for Carolina this year,
and he can be a big contributor for the team
as they move along. Now, the question to me is
does he have enough time to get acclimated two things
to be able to start in the first game of
the season, Like, what does he look like? I think
(22:45):
one thing that will be really interesting to see is
when they play that exhibition against BYU, what does he
look like, how does the communication look with between him
and his teammates, Because here's the thing, Not only do
you have to work over the lack of time him
that you've been together, you're also working through a language
barrier as well. So we'll see how quickly that communication
(23:07):
really develops between him and his teammates. But if it does,
and you know, he's played with guys that are from
the US before, so maybe it isn't really that much
of an issue. Maybe the language barrier isn't that thick,
then I think he'll be perfectly fine and he'll get
acclimated quickly. But then the thing is how quickly is
he picking up what the coaching staff is wanting him
(23:29):
to pick up. So we're entering a really interesting time
here over these next few weeks next cub to about
a month with Luca Bogobak.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, I'd be pretty surprised if he's not starting for Carolina. Heck,
when they go to BYU for the exhibition, when they
host the exhibition or the season opener, you would have
loved to have him on campus for the summer for
the workout and the practice sessions. But let's I mean,
the coaches will tell you they're not even doing full
(24:01):
install stuff pretty much basic as you're not on the
court long together. And you got to remember they start
practicing in six weeks like they practice at the end
of September as opposed in the middle of October. Plenty
of time for a twenty one year old who's been
playing in the professional league. I think to acclimade himself
(24:21):
to Carolina, to Hubert Davis, to his new teammates, and
established himself as one of the primary focal points of
Carolina's offensive attack. That's the baseline expectation. And I think
you know from there, if the ceiling is the root
for him, the sky is the limit and we'll see
(24:42):
where he ultimately to tie it back into the pot.
Thought of the day where he plateaus. Most important thing
is Luka Doncic is no longer the best, the most
important Luca in basketball in North America. That is now
Luca Bocabots. This is the Luca that if Lebron had
his roster, he would be competing for NBA titles with
(25:04):
the lot with the Los Angeles Lakers, because Luca Bogovots
is going to brand NACC banner wins. Duke wins over
State and hopefully maybe a Final four during his time
in Chapel Hill. With that being said, we'll do something
that we don't do a lot of on the POD,
(25:24):
but when it's when it's warranted, we do it. And
that means we're gonna talk about a national College Basketball discussion.
NCAA tournament expansion has been something that's been on the
table for quite some time and it felt inevitable, and
if we're being honest, it still is inevitable. But it's
not gonna happen for next for next year, for the
(25:44):
twenty twenty six tournament. Dan Gavitt, who heads up the
stuff for the NCUBA tournament, you know, he's the the
SVP or thea A, released this statement on Monday. Quote,
Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for
the twenty twenty six Men's and Women's Basketball Championships. However,
(26:06):
the committee will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding
to seventy two or seventy six teams in advance of
the twenty twenty seven Championships. End quote, so we will
remain a tournament of sixty eight. That means the fine
folks at the field of sixty eight put up to
(26:27):
change the name of their business for at least another year.
And while it's being tabled, this is not going away.
And when we're sitting here this time next year, we'll
probably be talking about the tournament being expanded. I believe
all the way to seventy six teams. I think they
wouldn't even bother going all away or just to seventy two.
(26:49):
I gonna gonna surprise you guys. I am not in
favor of expansion. I think I think the sixty eight
team tournament is the perfect number, the perfect allotment. You know,
when the tournament expanded back in twenty eleven from sixty
four to sixty eight, I did not think that it
was warranted. Then the first four has proven to work.
(27:12):
It does for you know, it does generate I think
interest earlier in the week of the of the first
weekend of the tournament, and you look at some of
the legendary runs that you have seen from teams going
from the first four to the final four, from the
first four to the second weekend, we're like in Carolina's
cases past year, from the first four to the round
(27:33):
of sixty four. I do think it has ultimately been
a success. I don't think expanding to seventy two to
seventy six to put middle of the road SEC or
Big ten teams in the tournament something that we need
to explore. My argument has been if they expand the field,
and you know, the last eight teams that get into
(27:56):
the field or the teams that you see play in
the playing game, are literally the last handful of teams
get selected, and the schools from one mid leagues get
to go to a legitimate NCUBA tournament site. I think
I can stomach that because I have a problem seeing
these sixteen seeds have to play in Dayton. The dating
games should be all the eleven seeds, all the twelve seeds,
(28:19):
whichever you know. However they want to seed line the
playing games as opposed to making teams that won their
conference tournament then have to go win another game before
they really get a full NCUBA tournament experience. Short story short,
Monday was a small victory for college basketball fans in
the short term and the long term. I do feel
(28:40):
like this will be expanded. What did you think of
the NCAA postponing expansion for at least one more season.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I loved it. I love the fact that they had
to postpone in and no, it's not the NCUBA making
the choice to do it. It's because they just ran
out of time. And that's great. I think that's amazing
because their feet on more stuff than just about anybody,
and they did it again and it costs them more money.
The thing is is that that's gonna be the argument
(29:09):
for expanding the tournament. It's more money. It generates more
interest because people are going to watch these games no
matter what. This is the thing. We're sitting here complaining
about this. Do you think that we are not going
to watch those games. We'll be tuned in. We'll be
tuned in watching those games.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I would argue that I don't think it's generating the
interest earlier in the event, unless you're like myself, which
is a college basketball die hard. I mean, most people
do not start watching the tournament until Thursday at noon,
when the first round of sixty four game does tip off.
I think with the way that they would want to
(29:47):
table it and set it up for TV purposes, I
think Tuesday Wednesday become Thursday and Friday, where you have
basically a site host all four game. I think Dayton
would be the perfect site for that, but I think
four is a better number as opposed to hosting eight.
The bigger issue is that you know it would devalue
(30:13):
the regular season more than expansion in any other sport.
We've seen the NFL expan has playoffs, the regular season
not devalued. We've seen baseball expand its playoffs. The regular
season no longer is was not devalued. Same thing for
the NBA. College football. They've expanded their postseason and they
(30:35):
went from two to four to twelve, and now we
might go all the way to Big As sixteen, but
it's not devaluing the regular season. You could argue for
college football it is enhancing the regular season because now
there are certain games in October and November that mean
more than they did back in the two team or
(30:56):
the fourteen playoff era. That's not the same case for
college basketball. It's just not because now the bubble is
going to be significantly larger. And if for being honest,
how many people do what I did this past year,
which watched every bubble game there was the last month
(31:16):
of the season. There aren't many, So expanding the bubble
is not going to it's not going to generate interest.
It's going to make people think, well, these games don't
really matter, because even if they lose this game, they
could back themselves into the NCAA tournament anyway, like college
basketball would actually benefit from downsizing and going back to
(31:40):
a sixty four team tournament, or if we want to
go back to the forty eighteen model to increase intensity
and awareness. They're not going to do that. And so
that's the thing is that there's no real on court
benefit to them expanding the tournament. You're just going to
put more middle of the road teams in as opposed
to deserving mid majors. It's not going to generate more
(32:02):
interest in the sport. And the reason why they didn't
expand isn't necessarily from a lack of They ran out
of time. They don't have the money. They don't have
the funding to expand. If the money in the and
the funding was there, this would have been passed without
with with without a second thought. But that money, that
that funding is not there right now. Once they get
(32:24):
that expansion, we'll be knocking on our door in a
big way.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, and that'll be here next year. I mean, let's
just be honest with ourselves here. There is no way
that this does not pass by next season. But you
brought up the best point and the one that I'm
making when it comes to this. Guys, they are not
putting teams like Indiana State from a couple of years
ago with Robbie Avila. They're not putting that team in
(32:47):
the NCAA Tournament. They're not putting Drake from a few
years ago in the NCAA Tournament, a team that gets
left out that had an amazing regular season. They're not
putting those teams in. They're going to put a Lenova
team that is eighteen and fourteen. They're gonna put that
team in the NCUBA Tournament. They're gonna put some of
these teams in the SEC that I mean finish with
(33:09):
below five hundred records. I mean, you'll have teams that
finish with six and twelve records in conference play that
will make the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
It's already happened. Look that.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Is I mean, is that really what you want? Or
more teams like that that are that that don't even
win a third of their conference games getting into the
NCUBA Tournament. That's that should not be what you're looking for.
And that's to me the best argument. And you could say, well,
what do you guys really know about that? We know
(33:40):
the bubble pretty well. We've come to learn the bubble
unfortunately pretty well over these last few years. And I
for one think that some of the teams that could
possibly get in don't deserve to get in the NC
DOUBLEA Tournament. We've talked about it for years that some
of these teams don't deserve to make it. I mean,
look at the argument so that we had this year
(34:01):
with the teams that made it, even involving Carolina. You know,
if the tournament was expanded, Carolina would have been in
easily and there would have been absolutely no conversation about
whether or not they should be in the NC DOUBLEA Tournament.
You're gonna have more and more teams that are gonna
have questionable resumes like this is my plea to the
people that are out there throughout the rest of the country.
(34:24):
You think it's bad that Carolina had the record in
Quad one that they had, that'll become a normal thing
that teams like that will make it into the NCUBAA
Tournament with ease. There will be teams that don't even
have a quad one victory that will make it into
the NC DOUBLEA Tournament if you continue to expand this field,
and that I think is where things get a little
(34:46):
too crazy. You can question the quad system all you want.
I don't think it's the best way to decide who
gets into the NC DOUBLEA Tournament either, But at the
same time, I mean, yeah, there needs to be there
needs to be some aware do these teams deserve to
play for a national championship when it's all said and done.
They don't. And I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen
(35:08):
if they expand this to seventy six teams. What will
happen is that they will add four more at large teams,
but they will make sure that there are more sixteen
seeds that have to play in the first or in
the first round in Dayton. They're gonna do that. If
they expand to seventy six, that's what's gonna end up happening.
So again, and I think you're one hundred percent right
(35:32):
about that too. If you make the NCAA tournament, if
you get an automatic bid, that automatic bid should be
an automatic bid into the tournament field and people will say, well,
those teams really aren't that good. Would we really want
to see those teams in there? Yes, they deserve to
be in there more than the teams that didn't win
their conference. So I think that should be how they
(35:55):
do it if they do end up expanding it. But
we know this is not what's gonna happen. They're not
gonna listen to us. They're gonna do whatever they want.
And more of these mid major conferences are going to
continue to feel like they are getting pressed out of
college basketball, that they don't want them necessarily to be
involved with the NCAA tournament. And it's gonna get us
closer and closer to that split between the power conferences
(36:18):
that we think eventually is coming somewhere down the line.
We all talk about it with football, but it's moves
like this that also start to show you some of
those cracks in basketball as well.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, and there was some other news that came down
really like in the lead, stuff about how much power
the power conference uh UH conferences now have when it
comes to decision making and their influence. They're taking more
and more away from the group of five UH conferences.
(36:49):
And then the you know the one bid leagues, and
so college college basketball the INSBLA tournament from this time
it's its inception, through all of its expansion to sixty
four to sixty five to sixty eight, teams worked and
(37:10):
it was justified. The product stayed great, the interest stayed great.
You know, you have the arrival of television in the
eighties that made March madness. Now what we know is
the best three week sporting events we have in the
United in the United States. And while it kind of
seems maybe folly to think that if you just go
(37:31):
to seventy two or seventy six, then it would ruin that,
but it's not going to have the benefit that the
extra dollars are going to generate, and so just leave
just leave it alone. It's you know, even once you
added the first four that the bracket still fits on
a sheet of paper and it looks right and it's beautiful,
and it's it's you know, something that we all look
(37:52):
forward to us sports fans every year is Selection Sunday
and seeing that bracket unveiled, filling out our bracket with
the you know, the the next couple of days and
so I'm glad we got one more year of sixty eight,
because that's probably as long as we have is just
is just one more. And I do think when we're
(38:12):
talking about this, probably this time next year we'll be
sitting here talking about you know, they're being seventy six
teams being included in the NCAA tournaments, which for a
coach like Steve Forbes at Wake Forest, I bet you
he'd love to see tournament expansion because his job wouldn't
be on the hot seat. Probably the same thing for
Will Wade when he under delivers at NC State. But
(38:33):
at Carolina, you know, just making what has what's happened
in the last three of the four years isn't good enough.
Like you know, the fact that we've gotten so comfortable
talking about the bubble, It's not something that I enjoy
boasting about like I enjoy watching college basketball. Don't get
me wrong, but I'd much rather be watching the top
ten matchups on a nightly basis as opposed to losing
(38:55):
sleep watching bubble matchups to see where my team stacks
up against the bubble team. As we got closer and
closer to selection Sunday, and you're right, in a seventy
sixteen field, Carolina gets in with the breeze. It's not
it's not even a debate than being included. And I
thought Carolina deserved to be in the tournament this past year.
And I'm not saying that because I'm a Carolina fan.
(39:17):
Two years ago when they missed it, I sat right
on this podcast and said they didn't deserve to be there,
So there was nothing to be upset about. But when
you you know, when you look at this, you're not
putting better teams on the floor. You're not. You're not
you're not bettering the competition, you're not generating interest, you're
not generating ratings. You're just generating revenue. And at some
(39:39):
point we got to quit chasing money when it's hurting
in the product on on the court that makes the
money to begin with. But for now, we'll celebrate the
sixty eighteen tournament, maybe appreciate it more than we usually do.
When we get to twenty twenty six March Madness. With that,
that is going to wrap up this edition of the
(39:59):
Four Corners Podcast. We want to thank everyone for being
here live with us on a Tuesday night, on a
late Tuesday night. But when we got the news that
we got it was a no brainer for us to
get on here and talk about it at least for
thirty five to forty minutes. In the meantime, we will
direct you, guys to the website heeltough blog dot com,
where the Luka Bogobos news has already been written about.
(40:21):
You can find it right there at the top of
the page when you go to heel Tough blog dot com.
Any more news and notes around Carolina basketball, you know
that I or Anthony will have you covered same thing
with Carolina football full blown preseason mode for that side
of the website. Position previews are going out in a
big way. The entire offensive side of the ball has
(40:42):
been taken care of. We've now turned our attention to
the defensive side. Make sure you go to the website
to get all those position previews ahead of the upcoming season.
Any recruiting transfer portal stuff, you know Anthony will have
you covered with that information. As well as for the podcast,
you guys know where to find us every major podcasting platform.
(41:02):
Simply search the Four Corners podcast and we will pop
up there. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe
that a way you don't miss any editions of the show.
I thought the remainder of the basketball off season still
to come this week. It's going to be a busy
week for the pod here. In early August, we got
the what If Series, We get into the nineteen seventh
of the biggest what ifs around Carolina basketball from that decade,
(41:25):
and we still got to review what the field of
sixty eight guys said about Carolina's offseason. Some like it,
some love it. We'll react to that as well. Make
sure you hit that subscribe button that a way you
don't miss those editions of the show later this week.
With that, guys, it is going to wrap up this
edition of the show to thank Anthony once again for
(41:46):
hosting with me. We want to thank you guys for
watching and listening, and as always, Coach our Heels just
doesn't get any sweet as a matter
The five hundred and seventy fifth edition of the Four
Corners podcast stars right now.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is the Four Corners Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I've said that
to be in Chapel Hill, to be at the University
of North Colna. We win fifty four to fifty three.
Let's Carolina a minute, but Carolina wait aga with twenty
seconds left to play. Goes back to Michael Jordan jumper
from out on the left, going go wait a wordy
wordy five, darl We're going to win the national championship.
(00:38):
Weeber front course. Carolina, Hey, Nike cook time outlive tag
that co pal tag de co pal on making a
They're out of time out front Courton William's on the drive,
gets it back out the head long outside shot short,
leave it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
He's over.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Carolina has won the most and I'll championship seventy two.
And how about them tar Heels, they are the national champion.
How been a luckiest coach in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hull makes for three too strong on the shot.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's it. Victorials are the national datum champion.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Carolina has been tested and tried and been proven successful
through all the years and the way that we will
play will be the Carolina way.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Davis has not only titus career high in points, but
also in three pointers.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Oh my gosh, a step back will this one goes
out thirty nine for RJ. Davis.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It's like an A one mixed tour out here.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Here are your hosts, Josh Marlowe and Anthony Pagnata.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Hello and welcome in to another live edition of the
Four Corners podcast. We are powered by Carolina Electrical Services.
Josh Anthony here with you on Tuesday night, late on
a Tuesday night, But that's because about an hour or so,
the good people over at Inside Carolina reported some news
around the status of incoming Montenegro professional player Luca Bogavots
(02:16):
and his unc status for the upcoming season. And we're
here to talk about that because he cleared a massive
hurdle and you know, he's one step closer to being
deemed eligible for Carolina ahead of the upcoming season. We'll
talk about that. We'll also give some thoughts on a
national topic around college basketball, one that I know I'm
(02:36):
very passionate about I imagine Anthony is as well, which
is NCAA tournament expansion, which was officially put on hold
for the upcoming tournament. They'll revisit this sometime later for
maybe the twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight and some tournament.
We'll talk about that before we got here. Just to
kind of bookend the back end of the show. Every
(03:00):
edition of the Pod, as we always do with the
Pod Thought of the Day, we go to Bruce Lee
for today's Pod Thought, and that thought is quote, if
you always put limits on everything you do, physical or
anything else, it will spread into your work and into
your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus,
and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them.
(03:21):
End quote. I think this is a really good quote
for where Carolina is at right now, because, you know,
it feels like there have been certain times under Hubert
Davis there have been limits on what Carolina could achieve
on and off the basketball court, whether it was because
of a lack of nil funding, whether it was from
(03:45):
poor roster construction. It hasn't felt like in all of
his four years that the sky was the limit for
Carolina and that they can reach the final four, cut
down the nets, and win a national championship. And if
there is a plateau that exists for this program. That
is the plateau, that is the expectation, that's the that's
(04:07):
the standard, and that's the demand. And look, Hubert Davis
knows that he knew what he was signing up for
when he got hired as Carolina's head coach upon the
retirement of Roy Williams. I think he could look at
what he's done and defend what he's done, but I
bet you if he was being honest with himself, he
would tell you he has not met the standard set
(04:28):
upon him since you know, he took over and has
been the steward of this program for the last four years.
That's why we enter this year with the belief that
it's a make or break year for him if he
wants to be on the sidelines for the foreseeable future,
and hopefully this year, not only does you know Hubert
Davis meet the limit, but he he he exceeds and
(04:52):
goes beyond the limits because if not, it very well
could cost him his job.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, I mean, I think the plat tow for this
basketball program is probably the final four. I mean, maybe
a national championship is a little too aggressive, but I
do believe that that is a plateau that Carolina can
reach under Hubert Davis. They've done it before, They've reached
the final night of the season under him, and I
(05:19):
think that was not a fluke. I think that was
a guy that was really showing you some of his
coaching prowess. And unfortunately, since that point it just really
hasn't shown through. I believe though, that this season you
will be able to see that. I mean, Carolina has
completely overhauled this roster. I believe that this is going
to be a group that can get back to at
(05:41):
least where they were in twenty three twenty four, where
going into the year you felt like Carolina had a
chance to be very competitive. We saw a play out
throughout the entire season, and really Carolina showed that they
were one of the better teams in the entire country
for most of the year until they got to the
NCAA Tournament and they ultimately fall short to Alabama, a
(06:02):
team that has been a thorn in their side and
really isn't going to go away for a while now
because of how good NATO It's has been there so far.
So I mean, look, I think this is one of
those areas that you know, Hubert Davis. You know, he's
got to take this one to heart if he's hearing
this edition of the podcast and be able to rise above,
(06:25):
you know, some of the limitations that your team is
going to present you. There are going to be limitations
with this team.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We know it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
There's ones with just about every team that's out there.
Outside of maybe that eighty two title team and that
nine title team, those teams felt like they could do
just about anything on any given night and it wouldn't
really matter who the opponent was. These teams, I don't
know if they're necessarily that good, and I don't know
if this year's team's going to be in that category
(06:52):
as well, But I do believe that he is going
to be able to hopefully rise above expectations for them.
And again, we've talked about it so much this off season.
If you are a Carolina fan, you should be rooting
for that. You should be hoping that that happens, because
there are not many other great options out there to
take over this program without having to go, you know,
(07:13):
with the option of going outside the family. And even then,
you know, if you go outside the family and hire somebody,
who's to say it's guaranteed that they're even going to
have success here at Carolina because of all the pressure
that comes with it. So I'm rooting for Hubert Davis
to be able to rise above the plateaus that unfortunately
have shown up for Carolina these first few years under him,
(07:36):
and I think everybody should be doing the same.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You mentioned that this is a revamped roster, and I
think with the way that this roster is constructed, I
think Luca Bugabots was the most important get they got
this offseason because he was the perimeter score that this
roster did not did not have. You know, when we
were sitting here in mid to late May, they did
(08:01):
a great job, you know, bringing guys in the back court.
You know, guys know how I feel about Kayan Evans.
Jada Young. I think was a nice, you know, depth
piece that can really round out the back court. You
reshape the front court. Henry Bassar, the Arizona transfer, Jaron
Stevenson arrives in Chapel Hill. You got Jonathan Powell, who
is going to maybe be the best shooter on the roster,
(08:22):
but you needed something outside of just a shooter, and
then that's what you get in the form of Luka Bogobots.
We've talked a lot about, so no reason to kind
of rehash kind of who he is as a player
and what he's bringing. But you know, whenever you go
the international route, and this is something that Carolina is
going to do a lot more moving forward, there are
(08:45):
always hurdles that come with it. It is in terms
of getting them over here and getting them cleared to play.
So when Carolina decided to go after him, these hurdles
were not a surprise. This was something that they knew
upon the recruitment they would have to go through. It
was just kind of going to be a check by
checkpoint of getting him closer and closer to get here.
(09:07):
I think in a perfect world, he would have been
here a lot sooner. You got to remember he did
not commit to Carolina. I believe it was the end
of May when he joined the program, and maybe there
was some stuff he'd already planned overseas for his summer
with his basketball season coming to an end. But with
the new schedule where you can practice in June and July,
(09:28):
you have the annual beach trip, which is where this
team and this program really they try to force chemistry
because of how the roster overturns. You would have loved
to have him here for those incidents, but that was
not the case. Still, the most important deadline was having him,
you know, enrolled in classes and be ready to go
(09:49):
when the fall semester begins, you know, thirteen days from now.
And that's what they were able to do. Today. He's
been granted his student visa and is expected to be
in Chapel Hill sometimes next week. This follows a deadline
or a data point where he cleared UNC emissions back
in early July. He had an interview with officials at
(10:13):
the US embassy in Montenegro last week, and so now
now that he has now been granted his student visa,
the final thing for him to do is to be
cleared by the NC double A. The important thing to
note here is with all that stuff already done, we
know the nc doublay can be a headache. We see
(10:34):
see how they kind of drag things out, But this
was maybe the biggest hurdle yet to kind of climb
in terms of just getting him the student visa. The
expectation is that he'll be a student in thirteen days
and more importantly, when this team opens practice and the
open practice. Believe it or not, in just over six weeks,
he'll be able to be on the court a full
(10:56):
participant ahead of the twenty twenty five twenty sixth season.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, and there's no doubt that everything that you said
right there is one hundred percent right about him being
you know, getting over the biggest hurdle because no matter
where you stand politically, you know that this was going
to be more difficult during this presidency than in other
presidencies because of the immigration policies and everything like that.
(11:22):
So you knew this was going to be a really
tough hurdle and it was not a guarantee that he
was going to be able to clear this. So the
fact that he gets over this one and now all
that's left is that he has to clear NC double A,
you know, whatever restrictions or anything that they have for him,
I think he'll be perfectly fine. I don't think the
(11:44):
NC double A is going to have an issue clearing him,
but you never really know. We've seen it with the
NC double A before where they have been difficult. Really
more on the football front for Carolina. You know, you
go back to the tes Walker situation and everything like that.
We saw them sort of drag their I'm hoping that
they don't end up dragging their feet on this. I
(12:04):
think even if they do end up dragging their feet
a little bit, he's still going to be able to
practice with the team, which is the good news for
right now. And the ultimate thing that they need to
be able to get him on the court and doing
with his teammates is really bonding playing basketball, learning what
you know some of his teammates' tendencies are, and everything
like that. So I think Carolina has got the big
(12:26):
stuff out of the way now. You know what is
seen as a pretty powerless group in the NCAA. You
just have to get past that, and I think they
will be able to hear relatively soon. This is great
news because now Carolina has their guy on the wing
that they sorely needed. You talked about it this probably
being the biggest need. I would say probably after point guard.
(12:49):
They really needed that point guard this year. And maybe
you think that set Tremble would have been fine there
and that Carolina would have found a way around it.
They would have found someone at that to two guard
spot and they would have been fined. So maybe this
is what you consider the biggest need for Carolina that
they were able to get filled. But either way, you're
getting a really great player, a guy that can do
(13:11):
so much for you on a win on the wing,
can create his own basket really good in transition, a
guy that really thrives off of ball screen. So that's
something that Carolina really has to be able to do
to free him up and allow him to knock down shots.
But that's the thing you're talking about. A guy that
shoots the ball about as well as anybody in his league.
This past year, shot the ball well from the outside.
(13:35):
His effective field goal percentage was the third best in
the entire league that he played in. And if you're
wondering what league this is, Johann Behringer, who just got
drafted in the first round of the NBA draft, was
a part of this league.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Behringer is eighteen years old, Bogavak little older twenty one,
So that's the reason why he probably wasn't as sought
after when it came to the NBA draft. But Carolina
getting a guy that would have been drafted in the
NBA draft, and I think that's big for them to
get on the wing is that now you've got him,
(14:08):
You've got Caleb Wilson, You've got you know, Set Trimble.
I don't know if Set Trimble is necessarily an NBA player,
but I don't think it's out of the realm of
possibility that he could be. I still think if he
shows enough this year with the level of defender that
he is, he could be an NBA player. That's three
guys right there that you're looking at on this roster
and saying could be NBA players. And that doesn't even
(14:30):
factor in Henry Vasar, who a lot of people believe
would have been drafted as well. So I mean, that's
four guys that you look at and think are NBA
talents on this roster or at least have the capability
of being NBA talents. That's a long way from where
Carolina was even this time last year, where we were
we still had questions about this roster at this time
(14:52):
last year. It feels like we're in a much better
place with this group, both with the talent that they
have in the starting lineup and with the depth that
they yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Well, the biggest thing why I put Bogabots ahead of
point guard is because if Carolina had to move Seth
Tremble to the one or have to start Derek Dixon.
I think there would still be a pathway to them
having a successful season. Not having a legitimate wing was
(15:21):
was the nail in the coffin last year because Kate
Tyson was just a complete utter bust trying to make
the transition from Belmont up to Carolina. And while Jonathan
Powell does qualify as a wing, he's going to be
put on the floor to do one thing, which is
stand behind the three point line and shoot thirty seven
thirty eight percent. And I think he can do that.
(15:44):
I think he will do that. But I like that
much better coming off the bench as opposed to him
maybe being in a starter role where his limitations is
are going to be exposed. Bogavot says, not only bring in,
you know, a NBA game to Carolina, but he's bringing
an NBA side. He's six foot five, he's two hundred pounds,
he can score the ball in a multitude of different ways. Yes,
(16:06):
he's gonna, you know, shoot you know, thirty nine percent
from behind the three point line, but there's a mid
range game there as well. And I think more importantly,
when you look at what he does as a rebounder.
He could be in one man fast break, and you
saw plenty of times where he got the ball and
ran ninety four feet down the other end and kind
of lay up a dunk or drew a foul. Quite
(16:27):
simply or quite frankly, Carolina did not have that a
year ago, after having that with Cormack Ryan, with having
that with Harrison Ingram, that kind of vanished from last
from last season, and it's a big reason why Carolina
His offense once they really got out a non conference
play was nonewhere near as explosive because teams, once they
(16:48):
really started taking away R. J. Davis and forcing other
guys to beat them, they're just one enough guys on
the roster that can do that. Luca Bogovots I think
is poised to arrive on UNC's campus, join this program
and lead this team in scoring or at least be
the top two score And if he comes here and
(17:08):
he averages, you know, fifteen points per game and does
so on forty five percent shooting from the field and
forty from three and nearly you know, ninety percent from
the foul line, I think we're going to be very
pleased with his game. And I also think you've got
to look at the fact that he's twenty one years old,
so he is older. He has played against you know,
(17:30):
pro competition, so you could argue this this will be
a step down playing in the ACC, especially this version
of the ACC. But the way he ended his season
last year he scored nineteen or more points in eight
of the final ABA games is including a season high
twenty seven points back on April twenty fifth. The more
(17:51):
he plays, the better he gets. And I think this
will be a guy that will show steady growth, steady
improvement over the marathon season that is the college basketball year.
The guy you see in November won't be the guy
you see in December and so on and so forth.
And so I think Hubert Davis, Jim Tanner, this coaching staff,
(18:14):
they can go to bed and rest a little bit
easier at night knowing this guy's here. Because you know,
I got I got asked by our dear buddy Josh Smilow,
who you know we talked pretty frequently during the season.
Of course, in the offseason when this news got broke down,
he goes, well, now, now are you pumped? Are you excited. Well,
I want to clear this up, buddy. I've been very
(18:36):
optimistic about this offseason from the get go. I've thought
Jim Tanner Hubert Davis did a fantastic job revamp, revamping
this roster, reshaping this roster. Is it gonna win a
national championship? Probably not. Can it compete for an ACC
title in a second weekend in the insul A Tournament?
I think that's the case. I don't think any of
(18:57):
that would have been possible without Luca Bogobots on this roster.
And so, you know, does this get me even more excited? No,
because I'm always excited for Carolina basketball. What this does do, though,
is kind of rest some of the concerns I was
going to have entering the season where I look at
(19:18):
this roster and it's not perfect. There isn't such a
thing as a perfect roster nil revenue sharing transfer portal world,
But this is a roster that I think is suited
to set to Hubert Dave us up to give us
the best firm evaluation of him as Carolina's head coach,
and I think that's the main goal. The main objective
(19:38):
of this year is finding out what Carolina has sitting
on its bench. You can answer that question a lot
more clearly with Luca Bogobots on the floor as opposed
to sitting on the bench and street clothes being deemed
in eligible wild in double A.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, I mean that plateau that we talked about earlier,
I mean it grows when you've got a guy like
Luca on the team as opposed to if you don't.
I mean you talked about it. Man, if they don't
have him on the team, I mean, you're rolling with
Jonathan Powell at that position. And while Jonathan Powell I
think is a little bit better than maybe some people realize.
He's a really good shooter. I think he's a much
(20:13):
better defender than a lot of people will give him
credit for. I mean, he's not exactly a guy that
I think is gonna blow you away at that position.
And then if you say, well, okay, we don't want that,
well you could roll with an incredibly big lineup. And
we had talked about that possibly being a way that
Carolina goes with Henry Vassar at the five, Jaron Stevenson
(20:39):
at the four, or at the three, or Caleb Wilson
at the four or the three, and we said it, Look,
Caleb Wilson is a guy that his back to the
basket game is way too good to not have at
the four spot. And so now you know, all these
conversations about what do you do if Luca isn't here?
And I mean, I guess you still have to have
(21:00):
some of those conversations what do you do if he
doesn't get cleared by the NCAA. But to me, I
don't think that's even really a conversation at this point.
I think most people believe that they've gotten past the
biggest hurdle, like we talked about, and now they're going
to be moving towards getting him on the court. I
think if they do, then you know, Caroline has got
a real chance to compete for one of those top
(21:22):
three spots in the ACC. I don't think that's crazy
because especially if you if you said, you know, if
he's giving us numbers that are similar to the numbers
that he produced this past year, which I mean, look,
he's playing in a professional league. That professional league I
think is good. Do I think it's the level of
(21:42):
athlete that you see in college basketball. I don't. I
do think that a lot of those guys. I mean,
you look at some of the stars in those leagues.
Those are guys that used to play in college basketball,
and a lot of them played at UNC Greensboro, Texas.
Arlington was one of the guys. I think that was
Eric Neil, who's actually his teammate on SC Derby. You
(22:03):
know some of those guys, I mean, they're they're okay.
Clearly they've done some decent things to stick around for
as long as they have. And I mentioned Johan Berenger
being in that league, but he's also very young. I
think this will be a little bit of a step up.
I don't necessarily look at this as, oh, this is
no doubt going to work, He's gonna put up big
(22:24):
numbers type of pickup. But I do think this is
one that can be very successful for Carolina this year,
and he can be a big contributor for the team
as they move along. Now, the question to me is
does he have enough time to get acclimated two things
to be able to start in the first game of
the season, Like, what does he look like? I think
(22:45):
one thing that will be really interesting to see is
when they play that exhibition against BYU, what does he
look like, how does the communication look with between him
and his teammates, Because here's the thing, Not only do
you have to work over the lack of time him
that you've been together, you're also working through a language
barrier as well. So we'll see how quickly that communication
(23:07):
really develops between him and his teammates. But if it does,
and you know, he's played with guys that are from
the US before, so maybe it isn't really that much
of an issue. Maybe the language barrier isn't that thick,
then I think he'll be perfectly fine and he'll get
acclimated quickly. But then the thing is how quickly is
he picking up what the coaching staff is wanting him
(23:29):
to pick up. So we're entering a really interesting time
here over these next few weeks next cub to about
a month with Luca Bogobak.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, I'd be pretty surprised if he's not starting for Carolina. Heck,
when they go to BYU for the exhibition, when they
host the exhibition or the season opener, you would have
loved to have him on campus for the summer for
the workout and the practice sessions. But let's I mean,
the coaches will tell you they're not even doing full
(24:01):
install stuff pretty much basic as you're not on the
court long together. And you got to remember they start
practicing in six weeks like they practice at the end
of September as opposed in the middle of October. Plenty
of time for a twenty one year old who's been
playing in the professional league. I think to acclimade himself
(24:21):
to Carolina, to Hubert Davis, to his new teammates, and
established himself as one of the primary focal points of
Carolina's offensive attack. That's the baseline expectation. And I think
you know from there, if the ceiling is the root
for him, the sky is the limit and we'll see
(24:42):
where he ultimately to tie it back into the pot.
Thought of the day where he plateaus. Most important thing
is Luka Doncic is no longer the best, the most
important Luca in basketball in North America. That is now
Luca Bocabots. This is the Luca that if Lebron had
his roster, he would be competing for NBA titles with
(25:04):
the lot with the Los Angeles Lakers, because Luca Bogovots
is going to brand NACC banner wins. Duke wins over
State and hopefully maybe a Final four during his time
in Chapel Hill. With that being said, we'll do something
that we don't do a lot of on the POD,
(25:24):
but when it's when it's warranted, we do it. And
that means we're gonna talk about a national College Basketball discussion.
NCAA tournament expansion has been something that's been on the
table for quite some time and it felt inevitable, and
if we're being honest, it still is inevitable. But it's
not gonna happen for next for next year, for the
(25:44):
twenty twenty six tournament. Dan Gavitt, who heads up the
stuff for the NCUBA tournament, you know, he's the the
SVP or thea A, released this statement on Monday. Quote,
Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for
the twenty twenty six Men's and Women's Basketball Championships. However,
(26:06):
the committee will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding
to seventy two or seventy six teams in advance of
the twenty twenty seven Championships. End quote, so we will
remain a tournament of sixty eight. That means the fine
folks at the field of sixty eight put up to
(26:27):
change the name of their business for at least another year.
And while it's being tabled, this is not going away.
And when we're sitting here this time next year, we'll
probably be talking about the tournament being expanded. I believe
all the way to seventy six teams. I think they
wouldn't even bother going all away or just to seventy two.
(26:49):
I gonna gonna surprise you guys. I am not in
favor of expansion. I think I think the sixty eight
team tournament is the perfect number, the perfect allotment. You know,
when the tournament expanded back in twenty eleven from sixty
four to sixty eight, I did not think that it
was warranted. Then the first four has proven to work.
(27:12):
It does for you know, it does generate I think
interest earlier in the week of the of the first
weekend of the tournament, and you look at some of
the legendary runs that you have seen from teams going
from the first four to the final four, from the
first four to the second weekend, we're like in Carolina's
cases past year, from the first four to the round
(27:33):
of sixty four. I do think it has ultimately been
a success. I don't think expanding to seventy two to
seventy six to put middle of the road SEC or
Big ten teams in the tournament something that we need
to explore. My argument has been if they expand the field,
and you know, the last eight teams that get into
(27:56):
the field or the teams that you see play in
the playing game, are literally the last handful of teams
get selected, and the schools from one mid leagues get
to go to a legitimate NCUBA tournament site. I think
I can stomach that because I have a problem seeing
these sixteen seeds have to play in Dayton. The dating
games should be all the eleven seeds, all the twelve seeds,
(28:19):
whichever you know. However they want to seed line the
playing games as opposed to making teams that won their
conference tournament then have to go win another game before
they really get a full NCUBA tournament experience. Short story short,
Monday was a small victory for college basketball fans in
the short term and the long term. I do feel
(28:40):
like this will be expanded. What did you think of
the NCAA postponing expansion for at least one more season.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I loved it. I love the fact that they had
to postpone in and no, it's not the NCUBA making
the choice to do it. It's because they just ran
out of time. And that's great. I think that's amazing
because their feet on more stuff than just about anybody,
and they did it again and it costs them more money.
The thing is is that that's gonna be the argument
(29:09):
for expanding the tournament. It's more money. It generates more
interest because people are going to watch these games no
matter what. This is the thing. We're sitting here complaining
about this. Do you think that we are not going
to watch those games. We'll be tuned in. We'll be
tuned in watching those games.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I would argue that I don't think it's generating the
interest earlier in the event, unless you're like myself, which
is a college basketball die hard. I mean, most people
do not start watching the tournament until Thursday at noon,
when the first round of sixty four game does tip off.
I think with the way that they would want to
(29:47):
table it and set it up for TV purposes, I
think Tuesday Wednesday become Thursday and Friday, where you have
basically a site host all four game. I think Dayton
would be the perfect site for that, but I think
four is a better number as opposed to hosting eight.
The bigger issue is that you know it would devalue
(30:13):
the regular season more than expansion in any other sport.
We've seen the NFL expan has playoffs, the regular season
not devalued. We've seen baseball expand its playoffs. The regular
season no longer is was not devalued. Same thing for
the NBA. College football. They've expanded their postseason and they
(30:35):
went from two to four to twelve, and now we
might go all the way to Big As sixteen, but
it's not devaluing the regular season. You could argue for
college football it is enhancing the regular season because now
there are certain games in October and November that mean
more than they did back in the two team or
(30:56):
the fourteen playoff era. That's not the same case for
college basketball. It's just not because now the bubble is
going to be significantly larger. And if for being honest,
how many people do what I did this past year,
which watched every bubble game there was the last month
(31:16):
of the season. There aren't many, So expanding the bubble
is not going to it's not going to generate interest.
It's going to make people think, well, these games don't
really matter, because even if they lose this game, they
could back themselves into the NCAA tournament anyway, like college
basketball would actually benefit from downsizing and going back to
(31:40):
a sixty four team tournament, or if we want to
go back to the forty eighteen model to increase intensity
and awareness. They're not going to do that. And so
that's the thing is that there's no real on court
benefit to them expanding the tournament. You're just going to
put more middle of the road teams in as opposed
to deserving mid majors. It's not going to generate more
(32:02):
interest in the sport. And the reason why they didn't
expand isn't necessarily from a lack of They ran out
of time. They don't have the money. They don't have
the funding to expand. If the money in the and
the funding was there, this would have been passed without
with with without a second thought. But that money, that
that funding is not there right now. Once they get
(32:24):
that expansion, we'll be knocking on our door in a
big way.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, and that'll be here next year. I mean, let's
just be honest with ourselves here. There is no way
that this does not pass by next season. But you
brought up the best point and the one that I'm
making when it comes to this. Guys, they are not
putting teams like Indiana State from a couple of years
ago with Robbie Avila. They're not putting that team in
(32:47):
the NCAA Tournament. They're not putting Drake from a few
years ago in the NCAA Tournament, a team that gets
left out that had an amazing regular season. They're not
putting those teams in. They're going to put a Lenova
team that is eighteen and fourteen. They're gonna put that
team in the NCUBA Tournament. They're gonna put some of
these teams in the SEC that I mean finish with
(33:09):
below five hundred records. I mean, you'll have teams that
finish with six and twelve records in conference play that
will make the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
It's already happened. Look that.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Is I mean, is that really what you want? Or
more teams like that that are that that don't even
win a third of their conference games getting into the
NCUBA Tournament. That's that should not be what you're looking for.
And that's to me the best argument. And you could say, well,
what do you guys really know about that? We know
(33:40):
the bubble pretty well. We've come to learn the bubble
unfortunately pretty well over these last few years. And I
for one think that some of the teams that could
possibly get in don't deserve to get in the NC
DOUBLEA Tournament. We've talked about it for years that some
of these teams don't deserve to make it. I mean,
look at the argument so that we had this year
(34:01):
with the teams that made it, even involving Carolina. You know,
if the tournament was expanded, Carolina would have been in
easily and there would have been absolutely no conversation about
whether or not they should be in the NC DOUBLEA Tournament.
You're gonna have more and more teams that are gonna
have questionable resumes like this is my plea to the
people that are out there throughout the rest of the country.
(34:24):
You think it's bad that Carolina had the record in
Quad one that they had, that'll become a normal thing
that teams like that will make it into the NCUBAA
Tournament with ease. There will be teams that don't even
have a quad one victory that will make it into
the NC DOUBLEA Tournament if you continue to expand this field,
and that I think is where things get a little
(34:46):
too crazy. You can question the quad system all you want.
I don't think it's the best way to decide who
gets into the NC DOUBLEA Tournament either, But at the
same time, I mean, yeah, there needs to be there
needs to be some aware do these teams deserve to
play for a national championship when it's all said and done.
They don't. And I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen
(35:08):
if they expand this to seventy six teams. What will
happen is that they will add four more at large teams,
but they will make sure that there are more sixteen
seeds that have to play in the first or in
the first round in Dayton. They're gonna do that. If
they expand to seventy six, that's what's gonna end up happening.
So again, and I think you're one hundred percent right
(35:32):
about that too. If you make the NCAA tournament, if
you get an automatic bid, that automatic bid should be
an automatic bid into the tournament field and people will say, well,
those teams really aren't that good. Would we really want
to see those teams in there? Yes, they deserve to
be in there more than the teams that didn't win
their conference. So I think that should be how they
(35:55):
do it if they do end up expanding it. But
we know this is not what's gonna happen. They're not
gonna listen to us. They're gonna do whatever they want.
And more of these mid major conferences are going to
continue to feel like they are getting pressed out of
college basketball, that they don't want them necessarily to be
involved with the NCAA tournament. And it's gonna get us
closer and closer to that split between the power conferences
(36:18):
that we think eventually is coming somewhere down the line.
We all talk about it with football, but it's moves
like this that also start to show you some of
those cracks in basketball as well.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, and there was some other news that came down
really like in the lead, stuff about how much power
the power conference uh UH conferences now have when it
comes to decision making and their influence. They're taking more
and more away from the group of five UH conferences.
(36:49):
And then the you know the one bid leagues, and
so college college basketball the INSBLA tournament from this time
it's its inception, through all of its expansion to sixty
four to sixty five to sixty eight, teams worked and
(37:10):
it was justified. The product stayed great, the interest stayed great.
You know, you have the arrival of television in the
eighties that made March madness. Now what we know is
the best three week sporting events we have in the
United in the United States. And while it kind of
seems maybe folly to think that if you just go
(37:31):
to seventy two or seventy six, then it would ruin that,
but it's not going to have the benefit that the
extra dollars are going to generate, and so just leave
just leave it alone. It's you know, even once you
added the first four that the bracket still fits on
a sheet of paper and it looks right and it's beautiful,
and it's it's you know, something that we all look
(37:52):
forward to us sports fans every year is Selection Sunday
and seeing that bracket unveiled, filling out our bracket with
the you know, the the next couple of days and
so I'm glad we got one more year of sixty eight,
because that's probably as long as we have is just
is just one more. And I do think when we're
(38:12):
talking about this, probably this time next year we'll be
sitting here talking about you know, they're being seventy six
teams being included in the NCAA tournaments, which for a
coach like Steve Forbes at Wake Forest, I bet you
he'd love to see tournament expansion because his job wouldn't
be on the hot seat. Probably the same thing for
Will Wade when he under delivers at NC State. But
(38:33):
at Carolina, you know, just making what has what's happened
in the last three of the four years isn't good enough.
Like you know, the fact that we've gotten so comfortable
talking about the bubble, It's not something that I enjoy
boasting about like I enjoy watching college basketball. Don't get
me wrong, but I'd much rather be watching the top
ten matchups on a nightly basis as opposed to losing
(38:55):
sleep watching bubble matchups to see where my team stacks
up against the bubble team. As we got closer and
closer to selection Sunday, and you're right, in a seventy
sixteen field, Carolina gets in with the breeze. It's not
it's not even a debate than being included. And I
thought Carolina deserved to be in the tournament this past year.
And I'm not saying that because I'm a Carolina fan.
(39:17):
Two years ago when they missed it, I sat right
on this podcast and said they didn't deserve to be there,
So there was nothing to be upset about. But when
you you know, when you look at this, you're not
putting better teams on the floor. You're not. You're not
you're not bettering the competition, you're not generating interest, you're
not generating ratings. You're just generating revenue. And at some
(39:39):
point we got to quit chasing money when it's hurting
in the product on on the court that makes the
money to begin with. But for now, we'll celebrate the
sixty eighteen tournament, maybe appreciate it more than we usually do.
When we get to twenty twenty six March Madness. With that,
that is going to wrap up this edition of the
(39:59):
Four Corners Podcast. We want to thank everyone for being
here live with us on a Tuesday night, on a
late Tuesday night. But when we got the news that
we got it was a no brainer for us to
get on here and talk about it at least for
thirty five to forty minutes. In the meantime, we will
direct you, guys to the website heeltough blog dot com,
where the Luka Bogobos news has already been written about.
(40:21):
You can find it right there at the top of
the page when you go to heel Tough blog dot com.
Any more news and notes around Carolina basketball, you know
that I or Anthony will have you covered same thing
with Carolina football full blown preseason mode for that side
of the website. Position previews are going out in a
big way. The entire offensive side of the ball has
(40:42):
been taken care of. We've now turned our attention to
the defensive side. Make sure you go to the website
to get all those position previews ahead of the upcoming season.
Any recruiting transfer portal stuff, you know Anthony will have
you covered with that information. As well as for the podcast,
you guys know where to find us every major podcasting platform.
(41:02):
Simply search the Four Corners podcast and we will pop
up there. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe
that a way you don't miss any editions of the show.
I thought the remainder of the basketball off season still
to come this week. It's going to be a busy
week for the pod here. In early August, we got
the what If Series, We get into the nineteen seventh
of the biggest what ifs around Carolina basketball from that decade,
(41:25):
and we still got to review what the field of
sixty eight guys said about Carolina's offseason. Some like it,
some love it. We'll react to that as well. Make
sure you hit that subscribe button that a way you
don't miss those editions of the show later this week.
With that, guys, it is going to wrap up this
edition of the show to thank Anthony once again for
(41:46):
hosting with me. We want to thank you guys for
watching and listening, and as always, Coach our Heels just
doesn't get any sweet as a matter
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