Fridays with Feinstein may never be the same after Junkies producer Matt Valdez's spicy troll job of John Feinstein.
The Sports Junkies' weekly conversation took a turn for hilarity this Friday when Valdez triggered Feinstein over Duke's surprise withdrawal from the ACC Tournament.
Duke, who's 9-9 in conference play and 13-11 overall, is 10th in the ACC and bordering on not making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 26 years (1994-95). Prior to withdrawing from the ACC Tournament, Duke was scheduled to face Florida State (16-5), the second best team in the conference.
That is until the Blue Devils suddenly came down with a positive COVID test, forcing their withdrawal.
It could be argued that another loss against a highly ranked opponent — like oh, say, the 15th-ranked team in the country — could be curtains for Duke's NCAA Tournament chances, and that avoiding that game altogether may actually give them a better path.
In fact, that's exactly what Valdez did argue.
"I want to piss you off even more," Jason Bishop said. "Some people think that Duke, they buy into conspiracy theories, and Duke shut it down because they don't want to be just left out as an at-large."
"Are you kidding me? Come on," Feinstein bemoaned the idea. "Who are 'some people'?"
The Sports Junkies, all in unison: "Matt Valdez."
"The same way a golfer withdraws after shooting a nine," Valdez shot back.
"That may be the stupidest thing I've ever heard and that's a long list," Feinstein said. "I mean I texted with [Mike] Krzyzewski yesterday. He's devastated. He thought they could beat Florida State. They were finally playing pretty well. They beat a good Louisville team very handily on Wednesday night."
"There's a story in the student newspaper at Duke," he continued. "There are over a hundred kids who are rushing fraternities who have tested positive. I thought Duke kids were supposed to be smart — wrong. That's like the Carolina and Maryland people who go around saying that Krzyzewski made up his back surgery back in 1995."
(DISCLOSURE: Matt Valdez is a Maryland graduate.)
"I mean I know there are people who can't stand Krzyzewski because he's been so successful," Feinstein continued. "I happen to know him far better than any of those people and I know what a competitor he is, and he was dying to play Florida State last night. Yeah, sure. They made up a positive test."
"And apparently it was a freshman walk-on who tested positive," he added.
"So there was a hundred students that rushed the fraternity. They all tested positive," Eric Bickel said. "And then a walk-on, too?"
"Well apparently this kid was involved and somehow went to a fraternity rush party," Feinstein said. "Even though they've been isolating the basketball players all season. And because the kid's a walk-on and not a scholarship guy, he went — apparently. I don't know this for a fact, first-hand."
"Very convenient," Valdez jabbed.
"Oh, shut up," Feinstein fired back. "Shut up. Don't be an idiot. Seriously. Don't be an idiot, Matt."
Bitter.
"Do you think Krzyzewski's won 1,170 games without being competitive as hell," Feinstein said. "Are you kidding me?"
"John is riled up this morning," Jason Bishop observed.
After talking about God knows what for the next few minutes (read more on that below), it was time for their weekly chat to end. But not without Feinstein, definitely not still bitter, delivering a parting shot on the way out the door.
"Alright, we gotta let you go," Bishop said. "We riled you up enough today."
"I am now all fired up to go and work. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it," Feinstein said. "And Valdez, get a life."
"Did he just hang up?" Bishop asked.
"I thought it was a No-Fight Friday. Apparently not," John Auville said. "Alright, so that was John Feinstein."
"We know how to push buttons, don't we?" Bishop said.
"We were being normal," Bickel said. "We were just being normal."
"You know what? Makes you think," Valdez tacked on. "Duke doing the ooooooole withdraw."
Anyhow, whatever else it was they discussed in the segment spilled over onto Twitter, where Feinstein and Bickel have only ever had positive interactions.
