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  • shwineka 4:21 pm on November 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Caulton Tudor, , hater, , , , , The Tudor Files, , UNC   

    The Tudor Files 11.7.12 


    Caulton Tudor is a columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. According to his bio, he’s been writing for North Carolina papers for more than 30 years. If you’ve ever been around a sports desk, you know that the most senior guy in the room usually has his own column, and you are not allowed to question his column. Caulton is that guy at the N&O. Good thing we don’t work in newsrooms anymore! These are the Tudor Files……

    Caulton is paying attention to basketball again! It’s been a while since we’ve heard from our buddy in Raleigh. Other than a quick “I have no idea who will win the NCAA tourney” column, he’s been mostly focusing on football. Maybe he’s been focusing on football a bit too much, though? This one was just phoned in.

    One way or the other, this will be one of those benchmark basketball seasons for folks who believe Roy Williams wins big only when he can hit opposing teams over the head with a fistful of NBA first-round draft picks.

    This will be an important season to Roy’s haters whether or not UNC wins a lot of games.

    The North Carolina men’s basketball coach will begin his 10th season at his alma mater with only one player – sophomore forward James Michael McAdoo – rated as a certain first-rounder in the 2013 NBA draft.

    Junior wingman Reggie Bullock is listed by most of the scouting services as a likely first-rounder and several other Tar Heels are routed as eventual first-round possibilities.

    So to recap, this season is important for people who think Roy Williams can only win with lots of NBA talent. He only has one first-round NBA talent guy this year. But then again, he does have another first-round guy and several others who will be first-rounders…….EVENTUALLY.

    Caulton then goes on to say that because UNC lost so many players, Carolina fans are expecting a season like ’05-’06, when UNC outperformed expectations to make the tournament and win a game. Then comes this:

    But there’s one big difference. That 2005-06 team had freshman Tyler Hansbrough but barely stopped Murray State in its first NCAA tournament game before losing to George Mason.

    Clearly it was a masterful job by Williams, who was voted league coach of the year.

    There are so many things wrong with this passage. His “one big difference” here is describing what the ’05-’06 team did in the tournament. That’s not a difference. This year’s team hasn’t played a single game, let alone a tournament game. It’s kind of impossible to make that comparison. He hasn’t even defined some kind of expectations for this year’s Heels. What is this big difference?

    He then says that after barely beating a mid-major then losing to another mid-major that it was “clearly” a masterful job by Williams. So Roy is a good coach?

    Faced with a similar inexperience after Hansbrough led the 2009 team to an NCAA title, Williams provided his critics with some fodder when his 2010 team failed to land an NCAA bid and stumbled to 5-11 in the ACC.

    OHH, so he’s NOT a good coach? Either way, this season will be important to Roy’s haters.

    With a freshman – Marcus Paige – at point guard and a rebuilt interior, this North Carolina team more resembles 2009-10 than 2005-06. Unless, that is, McAdoo is a new Hansbrough.

    I kind of agree that this year’s squad is a little more like ’09-’10 because it doesn’t have any seniors like David Noel in the post. But this is just a ridiculous way of making a comparison. Larry Drew II, while inexperienced, was a sophomore when he started for ’09-’10. Bobby Frasor started his first game as a freshman…..for the ’05-’06 team. So by Caulton’s own logic, this year’s squad would actually be much more like that team.

    If the recruit rankings are on target, Williams’ talent pool is not overwhelming by past standards. …… No one in the group was rated as a top-25 player, much less top-10. 

    Except that the WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SPORTS has Marcus Paige at No. 22.

    This season will be an adventure for Williams, 62. On paper, he doesn’t have Final Four material. For that matter, he doesn’t really have regional top-four seed material.

    So on paper UNC doesn’t even have material to be in the top 16 teams? AP Preseason No. 11.  Coaches Preseason No. 12. 

    I hate this non-argument kind of column. He’s not saying that Roy is a good coach, though he says there’s some evidence to that theory. He’s not saying Roy is a bad coach, though there is some evidence to that theory. He’s just saying, “HEY GUYS, we’re going to add more evidence as to whether Roy is a good coach or bad coach THIS SEASON.” As if there was a season in which that wasn’t the case.  You could say he’s trying to put more stock in this season because Roy doesn’t have “a fistful of NBA talent,” except that he told us in the very beginning that this team does have a fistful of NBA talent. Dumb.

     

     

  • bwineka 10:22 pm on November 4, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , UNC,   

    The Rafters Podcast Episode 1 

     

    As promised, we actually followed through and began our weekly podcast just in time for this week’s tipoff of the 2012-2013 season.

     

    Expect the podcast to be a free flowing conversation, often straying off topic but reeled in before ever jumping the shark. Actually, we have a whole tank of sharks just waiting to be used as props to our shenanigans. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

     

    The Wineka ‘Broughs (see what we did there?), Sam and Benn, will lead you through love/hates of the week, the “Starting Five” topics we find most pertinent to speak on, a look around the ACC and national basketball scene, what to look forward to in the upcoming week in sports and pop culture and what to check out on The Rafters. Again, don’t expect this to be the case every week.

     

    For Episode One, The Rafters was joined by fellow UNC Alum, Yankee RB – Ryan Barry – while we got out all our pent up summertime basketball talk and went on about everything from new Tar Heels in the NBA to NC State, of course a couple digs at Coach K and what we expect from the freshmen (Or do we have to call them first years? Damn you, gender neutrality!) and the rest of the season and ACC.

     

    Get comfortable, the first Rafters podcast is a doozy at an 1:26 runtime.

     

    Enjoy, and don’t forget to send us suggestions or tell us how awful we are  over at Twitter @TheRafters.

     

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

     

     

     

  • shwineka 2:04 pm on October 31, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , UNC   

    Rivalries Renewed 

    After the recent loss of the victory bell, and the COMEBACK STORY OF THE YEAR against State in football, I’ve been thinking a lot about rivalries. Some added fuel to this mental fire came from none other that the Tar Heels’ senior guard Dexter Strickland, who recently had this to say to CBS’ Jeff Goodman regarding N.C. State topping the preseason coaches poll in the ACC:

    “They talk those guys up every single year and we beat them every single year,” Strickland said. “They are the least of our worries. Beat us one year and then they can talk smack. Until then, you can’t put them in the mix.”

    I imagine this picture when I read that quote:

    Sounds pretty confident, eh? While most of us armchair coaches would call that foolish — even call it the dreaded “bulletin board material” like the hack headline writer as CBS did — consider the source. Strickland is a 22-year-old senior who’s never lost to State in his career despite the Wolfpack’s recent recruiting success (Remember C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown are JUNIORs. That heralded class, despite losing Ryan Harrow, was supposed to lift State’s program a while ago.) So why should he view the new State team any differently? I’m getting off topic.

    The point of this is to examine what makes a good rivalry, and I think Strickland’s comments are the type that helps keep them alive and well. When I was a student at UNC (2004-’08) many of my fellow students were apathetic toward State. After all, it wasn’t much of a rivalry during those years, although Sidney Lowe’s single win against UNC did come in the 2006-’07 season. The State game (a very important one to me as I had many friends attending NCSU) wasn’t as big a deal to my out-of-state friends or even fellow North Carolinians who had only recently become aware of basketball after arriving at UNC. Frankly, that sucked. Besides the Duke game, I wanted tickets to no other game more than I wanted State tickets. The fact that UNC was beating them handily and regularly only added to my desire.

    One downside to attending these games, however, was the inevitable “Not our rival” (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap) chant that would always surface near the end of the game. Sure, most any student would agree that Duke is Carolina’s MAIN rival, but to just dismiss the Wolfpack seemed ignorant, both of history and of proximity. A rivalry with State is only natural, and the passion is there on the State fans’ side of it FO SHO. The passion is clearly there among the players. You can tell by Strickland’s comment that he’s not pleased with all this talk that State is the best team in the area this year.

    Passion among the fan bases is what makes the Triangle the best area of the country for college hoops, and now that State seems poised for a return to prominence, it can only help UNC in terms of recruiting players who want to play in the rivalry and making the Heels’ regular season resume that much more impressive — or daunting depending on how you look at it.

    So please, when you’re out there, parading about as some Tar Heel born or bred fan, do your part to stoke the flames. Have you insulted a State fan today?

     

     

  • shwineka 11:29 am on March 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , March Madness, , , Temple, UNC,   

    Midwest Bracket Breakdown 

    After yesterday, I proved to myself once again that among individuals watching more than 50 hours of college basketball per season, I am the worst bracket picker of the lot. But while Wichita State and Long Beach State let me down, there’s an entire region kicking off today that will save my spirits. If the Midwest plays out like my bracket, I’ll be one happy camper for the foreseeable  future, and obviously that’s because I have UNC advancing out of it to the Final Four.

    For the first time in what seems like forever, Carolina got a decent draw. You will certainly remember last year’s bracket of death with Ohio State, Kentucky, Syracuse and Marquette thrown in the mix with UNC.  Even in the 2009 title year, UNC’s bracket included Blake Griffin-led Oklahoma and the Wes Johnson/Johnny Flynn Syracuse team, which had several members of this year’s Orange squad as well. Gonzaga then fielded one of its best squads in years. Even some of the lower seeds were dangerous in 2009 with All-American James Harden on 6-seeded Arizona State.

    This year is no cakewalk, but it’s certainly a fair draw. Below is a breakdown of UNC’s potential opponents if the higher seeded team advances, and then a few more in case of upsets.

    Second Round

    Vermont – The Catamounts advanced to play UNC after beating Lamar in the First Four. Their starting front line doesn’t include anyone over 6’8″. We’ll keep this short. A 16 has never beaten a 1, and we dont’ anticipate this being the first time that happens, even if John Henson doesn’t play.

    Third Round

    Creighton – The storyline here is that Creighton’s leading scorer, All-America candidate Doug McDermott, played high school ball with Harrison Barnes. The Blue Jays are first in the country in field goal percentage, and seventh in scoring. Carolina ranks 54th and second in those categories respectively. Both teams like to run and put up points, however Creighton is 90th in rebounding, where UNC is fourth. The Jays don’t like defense, and are 182nd in the country in defensive efficiency according to Kenpom.com. Carolina is eleventh. Could this game end up with more than 200 points scored? Possibly. Would Carolina lose this game? Probably not.

    Sweet Sixteen

    Temple – The Owls put up respectable scoring numbers (around 30th in the country in major categories) but rebound even worse than Creighton. They don’t have a ton of height, though their guard play makes up for that. If Henson is healthy, we see a fate similar to Vermont’s for Temple.

    Michigan – The likely opponent for the Heels, Michigan sports a good tactician in Coach John Beilein, and potent scorers in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke. While they’re not far behind UNC in adjusted offensive efficiency, they are significantly behind in defensive efficiency (Kenpom). They’re also TERRIBLE at rebounding (311th in the country), which is one of Carolina’s strengths. If Hardaway or Burke get’s hot, it could make this a tough match-up, but as long as the Heels put their heads down and play their game, it’s a winnable game.

    Elite Eight

    Kansas – Here’s where it gets dicey. Is it possible that Georgetown or even Belmont could put on Cinderella’s slipper and upset the Jayhawks? Yeah, it’s possible. Is it likely? Absolutely not. Kansas is well-coached and has Player of the Year candidate Thomas Robinson. Robinson, however, isn’t the only problem Kansas presents for Carolina. PG Tyshawn Taylor has been a scoring machine in Big 12 play and would be a tough guard for Reggie Bullock. Couple that with 7′-0″ Jeff Withey’s improvement, and the Jayhawks are one of the only teams in the nation that can stack up with UNC’s size. We all remember what happend the last time UNC played Kansas in the tourney, and we’d rather that not happen again. Hopefully that game got all of Roy’s jitters about playing KU out of his system, and this time the Heels will just get down to business.

    The best part is that Kansas has plenty of time to get upset before the Elite Eight, the worst part is that if they make the Elite Eight, the game is close to home for them in St. Louis.

    We think the draw for Carolina is pretty good. While any team could prove a challenge in the early going, on paper at least, it’s not likely that there will be a really tough game until the Elite Eight against the 2-seed. This is much better than previous years, and it has us excited for the run.

    Go Heels.

     

     

  • shwineka 3:41 pm on February 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , UNC   

    Duke Post-Mortem 

    Usually a loss to Duke is followed by utter despair. As the seconds start to wane, and it becomes evident that the Tar Heels aren’t going to pull it out, you might switch the channel to avoid the eminent celebration, or at least mute the TV. This was not the case Wednesday night. Instead we were left with confusion and mixed emotion. There was surely some despair after the loss, but with the sheer unbelievability of it, there was befuddlement. You couldn’t shake the feeling that you’d just seen a legendary game, so naturally you wanted to be excited, but the result of the game deterred that ability. It’s taken a day of mourning and avoiding ESPN at all costs, but it’s time to think about this game in a two ways: it’s implications for the rest of the season and where it falls in the UNC/Duke rivalry writ large.

    First, the obvious one: This was one of the best games in the already legendary series between the two schools. I can’t say the outcome was particularly energizing, but consider all the interconnected factors in Duke’s comeback, and it seems like something that could only happen on Tobacco Road.

    There was the timely shooting, with Duke hitting three 3-pointers in the final two and a half minutes. There was a no call on a travel violation by Seth Curry (No, this is not me blaming the refs. It happens, but it doesn’t change the fact that it DID happen.) There was the eerily precise deflection by Tyler Zeller. I mean, that thing was a swish — a perfect fucking swish. Call it an own field goal. There were missed free throws, and of course, the big last shot.

    If just ONE of those doesn’t happen, the game is different. How many of you felt sick when you saw that Duke was only down two with 13 seconds left? I personally felt like throwing up. It didn’t make sense for them to come all the way back just to miss the last shot. This is Duke-Carolina. Something was about to happen — a tie and OT, or like what actually happened, a loss.

    The fact that Austin Rivers — the recruit who chose Duke over UNC and who has the classic, JJ-esque arrogance in his game — had the ball should have tipped me off. This wasn’t going to end well.

    Chapter written.

    As for this season, this game’s implications aren’t the end of the world. An otherwise masterful 37 and a half minutes was nullified by a horrific two. Harrison Barnes (25 pts, 3 rebs, 2 stls), Tyler Zeller (23 pts, 11 rebs, 2 blks) and John Henson (12 pts, 17 rebs, 2 asts) have been playing like All-ACC candidates. Kendall Marshall (14 pts, 8 asts) is finally turning into a scoring threat with his penetration. Beginning with a run at the end of the first half, UNC played like the better team, but just couldn’t quite put the game out of reach.

    It raises the point that’s been made about this team before. It lacks killer instinct. Being up 10 with less than five minutes left to play is the time to put your foot on a team’s neck and stomp away, not to get lackadaisical.

    On the bright side, if the Heels play like they did Wednesday night, they’re going to be quite tough to beat. Currently, many observers are projecting UNC to grab a No. 2 seed. I know I wouldn’t be happy to see Carolina as the two in my bracket — a team with a huge, high-scoring frontcourt that can run the floor and block shots? Please. The Heels biggest worry is not ability, but mentality coming off this loss. They’re going to be in the tournament next month, but will they be able to make something happen?

    As we saw Wednesday night, anything is possible.

     

     

  • shwineka 1:57 pm on January 30, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , UNC   

    Poll Position: Heels move up 

    UNC moves up to No. 6 in the Coaches and No. 5 in the AP Poll.

    At this point in the season, the poll voters have settled down, making it tougher to move up without a resounding Top 10 win or somehow otherwise impressive performance. As long as UNC takes care of business against lesser ACC teams, it will need losses by higher up teams in order to move up. The Heels can help their ranking by beating Duke, which would potentially put them back in the Top 5 in both polls.

    Duke being ranked above Baylor and UNC in the Coaches Poll is ridiculous. There are some voters who must not have seen them play. The Blue Devils have a great record (actually the exact same record as Carolina), but haven’t looked very convincing in some close wins and aren’t that good defensively, as their game against FSU showed. The AP voters must have been watching the Heels’ last few games because they gave UNC a huge bump to No. 5, and that must be based on the recent play of the frontcourt trio of Barnes, Zeller and Henson. That is all.

     

  • shwineka 3:19 pm on January 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , UNC   

    Inside the mind of a State fan…. 

    Now before you turn and run screaming from the title of this post, hear me out. I’ve been doing some thinking about this, and I might actually have a theory as to why N.C. State fans have such a hatred for UNC (or UNX, UNCheat, the Tar Holes etc. if you go by their nomenclature). I’ve often wondered why State fans, beyond just a mere conference rivalry and close proximity, seem to harbor this innate hatred of all things Carolina. I think I might have boiled it down to a simple statement: State fans hate UNC for the same reasons UNC fans hate Duke.

    Now, my theory is based on said fans having attended each respective university. I can’t say I will ever understand lifelong State fans who did not attend N.C. State. I mean, seriously, why would you do that to yourself? Anyway here it goes.

    The parallels between the UNC/Duke relationship and the UNC/NCSU relationship are actually pretty easily noted. Duke is a higher ranked university compared to UNC, while UNC is higher than State. For kids growing up in North Carolina, there’s naturally going to be a little animosity if someone attends a “better” school than you. Now we all know that school rankings don’t accurately describe the experience there or even in some cases the education. For instance State’s engineering program is well-respected and tough to get into, and I’m not sure UNC even has an engineering program. (actually, it does) But generally speaking, the perception as far as education goes is: Duke > UNC > N.C. State.

    UNC students, and fans, get a little prickly if it’s brought up that “Duke is a better school,” or even “Duke is a ‘good’ school,” for that matter. Imagine being a State fan. You’ve got two “better” schools right there in the Triangle, and they’re both actually better at basketball.

    Another parallel is the perception of the respective student bodies. Tar Heels think of Blue Devils as snobby yankees with trust funds (to be blunt). N.C. State students (Wolfpackers?) think of Tar Heels as sissy English majors in khakis. UNC and N.C. State view Duke and UNC respectively as the preppier, more stuck-up version of themselves. For UNC, they hate that Duke is a private school. For State, they hate that UNC acts like a private school. What’s not to hate about someone more stuck up and obnoxious than you?

    Finally, there’s the media attention given to Duke and North Carolina. UNC typically gets just as much media coverage as Duke, so it’s not media envy that burns up Tar Heels, but just the fact that they — and Coach K in particular — are constantly covered by ESPN and other outlets. BREAKING: Duke hit a shit-ton of 3-pointers last night! Coach K has 4,000 wins and leads the ACC in smirking! Better show you a highlight!

    To Carolina fans, Duke is undeserving of its media darling status. Now imagine being an N.C. State fan, and every time you turn on the TV or look at a magazine, there’s Tyler Zeller’s mug, blankly staring back at you. You think it would start to get to you? Well, it does. That’s why State fans go mad, can’t hack it, and end up doing something stupid like the picture at the top of this post or peeing in the Old Well.

    So to recap, N.C. State fans feel slighted that UNC is viewed as a better school, annoyed at its preppy student body and overwhelmed by its constant media attention. Perhaps now we have better insight into the mind of the Wolfpack, but then again I have this unsettling feeling that I just wasted an hour of my life writing this that I won’t get back. I’LL NEVER GET THAT BACK.

    I hope we win by 30 tonight.

     

     

    • DM 3:57 pm on January 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Viscerally upset by the even topical comparison of UNC to Dook (evil EEEEVVVIIILLLL) … however the lines “why would you do that to yourself” ,”yankees with trust funds” and “‘actually’ better at basketball” made up for it…. GO HEELS!!

    • Becca 9:50 am on January 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I sincerely regret the power of a few ignorant people with a paint can – to create an unflattering representation of State and to provide pure fuel for Carolina’s superiority complex. From the true mind of a State fan, I really don’t think academics or athletics are the primary reason for aversion. We’ll still be tailgating in our cowboy boots and throwing red paint on things (I’m now venturing into the mind of a Carolina fan) despite any season record or ACC standing. Any animosity is usually in response to the “preppier, more stuck-up” attitude.
      On that note, I guess we should all work on our mass generalization habit.

  • shwineka 11:29 am on January 18, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Deividas Dulkys, , , , Stephen Schramm, , UNC   

    Wrap-up: FSU dismantles hapless Heels 

    UNC 57, FSU 90

    Box Score

    For one half of basketball Saturday, it looked like UNC would get a nice road test. Yeah, at the close of half the Heels were down, but Tyler Zeller was playing great and Deividas Dulkys was shooting lights out. Surely FSU wouldn’t be able to keep this up for another 20 minutes right?

    Oh, how wrong.

    Dulkys himself continued the destruction going 8-10 from 3-point range on the day, notching a career high. I know it seems like Tar Heel fans are always complaining about someone going off for a career game against them, but COME ON! It happens EVERY year! I digress.

    Anyway, if you watched you know what happened. Carolina never put it together, and actually played worse in the second half, while Florida State couldn’t miss and scored a season-high 90 points. The questions about UNC’s toughness since Saturday are certainly warranted. What team with national title talent goes out and loses by 33 to an unranked team?

    There have also been many questions surrounding Roy’s decision to take his team off the court with 15 seconds left in the game before FSU students stormed the court. It’s the perfect fuel for a seasoned Roy hater like Pat Forde, but I think Stephen Schramm at the Fayetteville Observer takes a better line. Yeah, storming the court is part of college basketball, but as a coach who’s seen his share of court stormings — including this year at UNLV — Roy was thinking about the fact that it only takes one over-zealous fan or one slip-up before the narrative changes. It was unfortunate that the five players were left on the floor, and it you want to get mad at Roy, I guess I can’t argue why you shouldn’t. But him leaving his subs on the floor on purpose? It doesn’t add up. Even Forde admits that “Generally speaking, he has valued his subs and role players.” It was an honest mistake made in the heat of the moment.

    Takeaways

    • UNC’s 3-point shooting woes have continued since the Miami game. The Heels shot a miserable 4-21 for a 19 percent clip. If you are reading this blog you have a pretty good chance of being able to hit 19 percent of your threes. The fact that they took so many was probably driven by the game score, but there is no reason for Kendall Marshall to take five treys. At least he hit one of them, though, as P.J. Hairston went 0-7.
    • Reggie Bullock got a huge minutes spike. Bullock played 23 minutes to Dexter Strickland’s 21, but I wouldn’t read too much into that. Bullock is a better shooter than Strick, and is a better defender than Hairston, so the jump was probably due to the game’s flow.
    • Tyler Zeller had some intensity. Z came to play and seemed he wasn’t going to let the Heels get routed by himself. Then the second half started. He still ended up with a good line for the game, and he fought well on the boards especially.
    • Maybe that nine-game homestand wasn’t such a good idea. It had to be concerting when players said in December that they sometimes struggled to stay focused against lesser competition. The long homestand couldn’t have helped set up the game Saturday.
    • Kendall Marshall had seven turnovers. For the first time in forever, Marshall had more turnovers than assists (4). When his players aren’t hitting their shots it’s going to affect that ratio, but seven turnovers is too many even if he had notched seven assists. The Heels need Marshall to have a cool head on the road, so this is a little troubling.
    • This was probably one of the worst Carolina games in recent memory. The complete lack of intensity by the Heels was disturbing. Carolina just doesn’t — read: shouldn’t — lose by 30. There was an unbelievable performance by Dulkys, yes, but say you reduce his 3-pointers to a typical 40 percent and it only reduced the Carolina deficit to 21 — still a blowout.

    Superlatives

    Player of the Game and Stat Stuffer: Tyler Zeller (14 pts, 14 rebs, 4 blks, 1 stl) For much of the game he seemed to be the only one that gave a damn. He was out of his mind on blocks and rebounds. It’s too bad none of that carried over to the team.

     

  • shwineka 6:00 pm on January 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , UNC   

    Poll Position: Heels up to No. 3 

    Not much to complain about or argue in the poll this week — at least as far as UNC’s ranking goes. The teams above Carolina that lost – err-hem – Duke – went down and the Heels moved up.

    If I’m Baylor though, I’m wondering where the respect is. Syracuse is sitting at No. 1 behind an undefeated record, with its best wins being close, home victories over Florida and Marquette. Baylor is undefeated and has some comprable wins – Mississippi State, West Virginia (who just handily beat Georgetown) and the surprising San Diego State. No. 4 is nothing to sneeze at, but based purely on body of work, they’ve done as much as the Orange. You’ll notice that the two teams in between them, however – Kentucky and UNC – pass the eye test. And yeah, I think they’d both beat Baylor. Guess I’m OK with those ranks then.

     

  • shwineka 1:50 pm on December 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , UNC   

    Poll Position, Week 5: UNC moves up one and down one 

    UNC moved up to No. 4 in the AP poll and down to No. 6 in the Coaches Poll this week. 

    If you average those two, UNC would be No. 5 and that’s where I think they deserved to be this week. So even though I love the fact that they’re No. 4 in the AP, I think it’s a little high, but I also think No. 6 in the Coaches is too low, particularly because they are ranked lower than Duke — who got absolutely blasted by Ohio State last week. Yeah, UNC lost a game, but it was to the No. 1 team, and it was by one point on the road. Were the coaches forgetting that UNC also beat the No. 7 team (at the time) in Wisconsin? Duke did not deserve to be the same building as OSU. How is Duke’s one game — a 22 point loss — more impressive than UNC winning against a Top 10 team and losing by one on the road to the No. 1 team?

    I think Louisville did deserve to jump Carolina after it’s impressive win Friday night and the fact that its still unbeaten. But the Duke snub? Not cool.

     

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