WFNZ Podcasts
All week, the focus around the final Saturday of the regular season was on Coach K's legacy ahead of the final home game of his legendary career as he and Duke welcomed the Tar Heels to Durham. As a result, Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels were given no chance in his first trip to Cameron Indoor. However, thanks to what may have been the team's most complete game of the season, the Tar Heels walked in and pulled one of the most unexpected upsets in college basketball this season, handing Coach K a loss in his final game at home on a night where they honored him afterward.
Saturday night, Duke's men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski will take to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the final times as the team head basketball coach when they welcome the rival North Carolina Tar Heels. This is a game that many expect the Blue Devils to show out in with it being Krzyzewski's last game and with the way that this same team beat the Tar Heels earlier in the season in Chapel Hill.
The Hornets return to practice tonight for the first time since they lost last Thursday at home, to start the All-Star break. The 8-day layoff came at the perfect time for the Hornets, as they lost 9 of their last 10 games before the break and currently sit at 29-31. 9th place in the Eastern Conference. This was a team that we believed had turned the corner earlier this season after marquee wins at Philadelphia, and at home against the Lakers. Since then, injuries have torn the roster apart, for a team that lacked little front-court depth as it is. Charlotte has 22 games remaining in the regular season, with 13 at the Spectrum Center, and 9 on the road. Earlier today, Hornets head coach, James Borrego joined the Nick Wilson Show, to express his message to his team, as they try to work their way back into position to host a Play-In game in April:
The first match in the history of the expansion MLS franchise in Charlotte, the Charlotte FC, is now less than four days away, as the team travels to Washington DC to take on DC United in their opening match. Charlotte FC is coming off of a winless preseason down in Charleston, but there is a good feeling around the team following the final friendly against Inter Miami over the weekend, where the team got its first goal in 2-1 loss where Miguel Angel Ramirez said that he felt the team played much better than the score showed.
It is no secret that it has been a down year in ACC basketball this season, but there have been some teams that have had nice seasons, outperforming their preseason expectations with the help of their head coaches. Mike Brey and Notre Dame were picked preseason eighth in the conference and currently sit at 19-8 (12-4) and might be the biggest threat to Duke right now in the conference's regular-season race. Jim Larranaga and the Miami Hurricanes were tabbed to finish 12th in the conference in the preseason and currently sit in third in the conference with a 20-8 (12-5 record and have a win on the road at Duke in their favor. However, the favorite of the group should be Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes, whose team was picked to finish 13th in the preseason polls and is now staring down a tournament appearance sitting at 21-7 (11-6).
We're entering the third season of the Matt Rhule experiment in Carolina, and since he took over, the Panthers have yet to have a franchise QB lineup under center. That's an area of focus for the team this off-season after they started three different signal-callers during last season's 5-12 campaign. Carolina has been rumored to be interested in current 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo, Texans QB Deshaun Watson, as those are the two most desirable quarterbacks that might be available on the market this off-season. Yesterday, a new name emerged as there was a report that Carolina has called Minnesota about the potential availability of Kirk Cousins, who's entering the final year of his contract with the Vikings. Cousins has had his struggles in the NFL both with Washington and now Minnesota, but when put in a situation to succeed, has proven to be more than capable of playing the position at a high level. Ellis Williams, Panthers beat reporter for the Charlotte Observer, joined the Nick Wilson Show earlier today, to discuss what adding Cousins to the fold, could mean for the Panthers
Sunday was the 64th running of the Great American Race, the Daytona 500, from Daytona International Speedway, as rookie Austin Cindric took home his career win at the Cup Series level in his first full-time start in the series. This was also the regular-season debut of NASCAR's new NextGen car, a car that some are hoping will bring more parody to the sport than the previous car.
When it comes to the 2022 NFL Draft and the Carolina Panthers, it feels like the majority of the buzz right now surrounds the fact that the team looks like the most likely spot for the first quarterback to be selected. The success of Malik Willis has some wondering if the Panthers could be looking in that direction with the glaring need at the position and Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports has reported that people inside of the Panthers building are also really excited by what they see from Kenny Pickett.
The Daytona 500, also known as the Great American Race is this Sunday, as the 2022 NASCAR season officially gets underway. Last season we saw the sport experiment with different tracks, formats, etc in an effort to make the racing more competitive, and fun to watch. This season, NASCAR will look to build off that success, as they try to recapture the popularity the sport had in the late 1990s. Earlier today, Tyler Reddick, a driver for Richard Childress racing joined the Nick Wilson Show to talk about a variety of different topics before the season starts. Of those topics, was how Reddick can win the Daytona 500, and etch his name in racing lore:
The Panthers completed what will hopefully be their final round of hires for Matt Rhule's rebuilt staff this offseason earlier this week with the hirings of Kevin M. Gilbride (tight ends coach), Joe Dailey (wide receivers coach) and Robert Kugler (assistant offensive line coach) to the offensive staff on Monday. This completed a nearly complete revamp of the team's offensive staff, which saw four members of this past year's group either parted ways with or moved on from on their own, headlined by the in-season departure of offensive coordinator Joe Brady who was replaced earlier this offseason by former Giants head coach and offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo.