The Best of the Sports Shop

Now that the women's NCAA basketball tournament has concluded, Reese and Pam talk about how the talent of teams like LSU and Iowa helped grow the popularity and exposure of women's basketball.  Also, the Clippers defeated the Lakers last night 125-118. Reese and Pam discuss the important game between the LA teams that had playoff implications. With the Clippers' victory, the Clippers hold a o...

Vashti Hurt of the Carolina Blitz joins the Sports Shop to discuss if UConn's fifth national title now puts them in the conversation to be a college basketball blueblood. She also discusses how entertaining it was to watch the women's NCAA tournament, final four, and national championship game, and if we should expect the tournament to be just as good, if not better for the upcoming seasons. Now t...

As always, each and every week throughout this basketball season we've got a chance to shoot around with C.L. Brown. This week is a little different as it's C.L.'s last appearance at the Sports Shop before moving back to Louisville, Kentucky to become the new sports columnist for the Courier-Journal. C.L. discussed the overall landscape for college basketball from this past year's season and share...

The UConn Huskies are the official 2022-'23 national champions as they defeated San Diego State last night. The Huskies complete their dominant run throughout the entire NCAA tournament by winning their fifth title in program history under three different coaches. In the years to come, this title may look like a surprise to some on paper, but when you look at what UConn accomplished throughout the...

During the women's final four on Friday night, No. 2 Iowa punched its ticket to the national championship game by defeating No. 1 South Carolina. Caitlin Clark as she has done all season led the Hawkeyes with another dominant performance, but even then, South Carolina on paper had the better team to win the game. This leave Reese, K-Mac, & Pam wondering just how legit were the Gamecocks all-se...

Throughout the NCAA tournament, Iowa's Caitlin Clark has been channeling her inner John Cena with her "You Can't See Me" celebration and various others. This led to LSU's Angel Reese pointing to her finger signaling for a ring toward the end of the game before the Tigers won their first-ever national title in the direction of Clark. Many fans, however, took to social media following the game and c...

Even though this is sports talk radio, the Sports Shop has to highlight the 2023 Dreamville Festival which took place at Dorothea Dix Park this past weekend in Raleigh. Usher night one's headliner, while J. Cole and Drake along with special guests closed things out on night two. Graham was in attendance for both days and shared the experience from his perspective and why it was so important to hav...

Tonight is the NCAA women's final four, as the lone representative from the ACC is Virginia Tech as they're facing LSU. The game of the night will be Iowa vs South Carolina as Reese claims it's the new "David vs Goliath." Obviously, with South Carolina's historic runs in the tournament, they're the team to beat every year, while Iowa is having one of their best seasons in program history. Reese an...

As the end of the 2022-'23 college basketball season approaches Reese wants an early evaluation of our local teams here in the triangle as we begin to look ahead to next season. Obviously, Duke will be the team to watch since they won the ACC Championship this season and already have some star players announce their return. Both North Carolina and NC State will be the teams to keep an eye on as bo...

The Sports Shop sets a record-breaking time on discussion Major League Baseball. Yesterday was the opening day for the 2023 season for all 30 teams and this will be the first season of the new rules that have been put in place by the league. Aaron Judge started his season of trying to set a new homerun record by hitting one out of the park, and Shohei Ohtani had an impressive showing on the mound....

Obviously, this final four has unique factors to it that should make it entertaining, but at the end of the day are people going to be tuning in just to watch basketball? Reese, K-Mac, and Pam discuss the star players of each team that should give casual fans a reason to watch. Also, "cinderella" teams such as Flordia Atlantic making it this far is what the tournament is supposed to be about, but...

This weekend is the third annual Dreamville festival at Dorthea Dix Park. While Graham is still waiting for his ticket, he explains what his backup plan is for getting into the event with his friend. While the plan isn't so smart, K-Mac brings up the comparison that it's probably what Lamar Jackson experienced right before he decided to tweet out his frustrations against the Ravens. It may very we...

Since no local teams from the triangle are participating in this year's final four for both the men and women, what's there to do this weekend besides watching the games if you work in media? Well, you can always discuss Lamar Jackson of course... Gameday Charlie joins the show to discuss why he thought it was so strange for Jackson to tweet out during the exact moment John Harbaugh was meeting wi...

As we get closer to the final four weekend in Houston and Dallas, Reese brings up an interesting fact regarding the prices of tickets between the men and the women. The cheapest ticket price for the men's final four is only fifty dollars, while the cheapest price for the women is over $200. Reese brings up the point again that the women's final four is more attractive due to the teams playing on t...

All things NFL prior to the draft are happening right now at the coaches' meeting as the business side of things is taking place. Now, obviously, the biggest news coming out of the meeting has been Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, and now Dan Snyder and the Commanders being bought out, but are we ignoring the fact that the Panthers have the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming draft? Maybe it's because...

Last night during the New Orleans Pelicans and Golden State Warriors game, Draymond Green got into an altercation with Pelicans player Brandon Ingram following a foul. Green received his 17th technical foul of the season and now must serve a one-game suspension. Green stated that he ultimately started the scrum to get the team fired up and the Warriors were able to erase a 20-point deficit to come...

As the 2023 NFL owners' meeting continues so do the discussions of Lamar Jackson and where he'll be playing football next season. K-Mac makes the point that because of Jackson's play-making ability is what makes him a liability for others teams and their owners. Also, K-Mac's Commanders are making headlines as it was announced that owner Dan Snyder would be receiving a $6B buyout for the organizat...

From Farmville, NC to the league... It's official, Terquavion Smith will be leaving NC State and is set to enter the 2023 NBA draft he announced Tuesday afternoon on social media. Smith is the No. 30 prospect in ESPN's top-100 and was named to the ACC All-second team after he led the Wolfpack in scoring, assists, and steals. Smith finished this past season as the second-leading scorer in the ACC,...

John Harbaugh was caught off guard yesterday by Lamar Jackson's tweet while he was in attendance at the NFL owner's meeting. Moments after the tweet was shared Harbaugh spoke with the media and shared his "love" for his quarterback. Although, Harbaugh has hopes that everything will work out between the Jackson and the Ravens organization, Reese, K-Mac, and Pam thinks otherwise. 

Yesterday, North Carolina guard Caleb Love announced his plans to enter the transfer portal via social media. Love stated, "I've taken some time with my family to re-evaluate what's best for me to continue to grow as a player and I've decided to enter the transfer portal to continue my journey." Now that it's been announced that Love will not be returning along with Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, how...

Yesterday during the NFL owner's meeting, Lamar Jackson tweeted out that he initially requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens back on March 1st.  Jackson stated in the tweet the Ravens "had not been interested in meeting my value" in regard to contract talks. The team placed a nonexclusive franchise tag on Jackson worth $32.4M for 2023. Also, now that the Final Four is now set for both th...

Miami is the lone representative from the ACC in the Final Four as they'll be facing the No. 4 seed UConn this Saturday. Is Miami's success in the NCAA tournament a judgment of the ACC not being as bad as people were making it out to be, or just lucky matchups throughout the tournament? Also, are we beginning to see a shift in college basketball where mid-major programs such as FAU, San Diego Stat...

The Dallas Maverick's record since Kyrie Irving joined the team is 3-9. The Mavericks just picked up their fourth straight loss after dropping back-to-back games to the Charlotte Hornets. Doncic has been visibly frustrated as of late and has to serve a one-game suspension after acquiring his 16th technical foul over the weekend. Is all the blame on Kyrie, or are the Mavericks not as good of a team...

After another great weekend of college basketball in the NCAA tournament, the Final Four is officially set. It'll be the first Final Four to not feature a "blue blood" program and not have a top-three seed team participating. The UConn Huskies enter as the highest seed left at No. 4. No. 9 FAU, No. 5 Miami, and No. 5 San Diego State are in their first Final Four. 

Out of the two quarterbacks that the Panthers could select with this year's first overall pick in the draft, which one played against the tougher competition while in college? Stroud after all was a field goal away from playing in the CFB national championship game. Young played his college career at one of the greatest programs in all of CFB and arguably for one of the best coaches as well.