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OMG, what an intense weekend for Carolina athletics.
When you have 26 (or is it 28?) varsity sports and most of them are regulars in their respective NCAA tournaments, Novembers and March to June can get pretty maddening. We are just coming off one of those regular season weekends.
The Tar Heel men lost a game they should have won and won a game they probably would have lost last year. Hubert Davis told his team it wasn’t tough enough after the Thanksgiving Day loss to Villanova. Hubert doubled down on his message at halftime of Friday’s third game in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis against a one-man Arkansas team. The Heels had lost another lead and a Razorback guard was tearing them apart with a career game. Carolina roared back in the second half to win by 15.
Going 2-1 and should have won the dad-gum thing won’t affect their national ranking. Carolina absolutely must play from the jump against No. 7 Tennessee here in for the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge Wednesday night. The Vols are talented and required to be tough to play for Rick Barnes.
Friday ended with a women’s soccer shocker, as improbable as their NCAA College Cup finals loss to UCLA last year. This time, they blew a 3-0 lead as home team BYU scored four unanswered goals in the quarterfinals of NCAA play.
Courtney Banghart’s women won the first but lost their next two games at their tourney in Florida while Banghart keeps retooling her lineup.
Then, the annual football game with N.C. State and all machinations that come before, during and after the renewal of a rivalry beginning in 1894. Mack Brown’s Tar Heels again ended a once-potential regular season by losing to the Wolfpack for a third straight time and falling to 2-3 to NCSU in this Brown tenure.
A fan base divided over Brown’s future will come together after seeing the comments of State coach Dave Doeren, who had “the exact number of days since those pieces of s * * t beat us.” This is the same coach who uses coach-speak when talking about UNC and is liked by Brown, which may be part of Mack’s problem.
Another longer-lasting loss came at Duke, where coach Mike Elko went back to Texas A&M for an estimated $4 million raise. The former Aggies D-coordinator coached Duke to 16 wins and bowl bids in his two seasons.
Then good news, of course, is that Carolina men’s soccer made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament by beating Hofstra on penalty kicks and will play host to Oregon State Saturday at 5 p.m. on Dorrance Field. Under coach Carlos Somoano, the men’s team carries a 6-1-1 record in the round of 16, and the win improved UNC’s all-time NCAA record to 43-24-11. Somoano and before him Elmar Bolowich led teams to national championships and are still alive for a third, which could take us back to Field Hockey on one of those championship weekends.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
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It’s sad when Duke fans, sorry to see their coach go, are calling you up and telling you in these exact words, “You won’t be lucky enough to have Mack Brown leave. You’re stuck with him until HE wants to leave.” And I guess he’s right. Maybe the Panthers will want a Hall of Fame Coach and make him an offer he can’t refuse. Or maybe the Commanders will hire him to coach Sam again, since he did such a bang-up job the first three years with Sam. Bigger miracles have happened! Remember the parting of The Red Sea? Well, this one would actually be bigger!
In November of 2018, Bubba took a big risk in hiring an elderly retired gentleman, who had been out of coaching for 5 years, to lead the Tar Heels to football glory.
The logic for Bubba’s risk was to move the football program from good to great by hiring a coach who had made the Tar Heels great 21 years earlier.
The elderly retired gentleman had a sudden and unexpected departure from UNC in 1997, which left the Tar Heel football program in chaos for the next 21 years.
In the 21 years since the sudden departure, UNC hired 5 coaches to lead the UNC football program to glory.
Their combined won-loss percentage was 45%.
The Big Rams were tired of mediocrity because their drinking buddies down at the club poked fun at them for the inept Tar Heel football program.
So, under pressure from the Big Rams, Bubba rewarded a person who betrayed his loyalty to UNC with a 5 year multi-million dollar contract.
The retired gentleman had great public relations going for him. He was a Hall of Fame coach, and Bubba deeply believed in the PR spin.
After each ensuing loss, the retired gentleman would dutifully point his finger at his forehead and accept full responsibility for not having the players in the right position or not motivating the players.
One of his great motivational talks was “Do not eat the cheese,” which means the same thing as Do not lose this game.
He even put a small chunk of cheese on each player’s locker to remind them not to eat the cheese.
All week, the coach told his players “Do not lose this game,” and the reverse psychology worked. The Tar Heels lost that game.
He would often say that other teams would love to win eight games, or that very few teams were 6 – 0 after the first six games.
The other six teams that the Tar Heels beat ended the season with a combined won – loss record of 34 wins and 38 losses.
The Tar Heels ended their regular season over in Raleigh with another inept defensive effort. The new defensive coordinator that the retired gentleman hired to improve the defense had been retired for 5 years before the retired gentleman snatched him out of retirement to lead the Tar Heels to football glory.
The other team over in Raleigh was motivated to beat the Heels. The Heels were not motivated and looked like they would like to be somewhere other than playing football against guys who hit them hard and talked ugly to them.
It was very uncivil treatment of the Tar Heels, and the retired gentleman took full responsibility for not having his players ready to play over in Raleigh.
It should be obvious that there is a great pretending going on over at UNC that the retired gentleman is the right guy to lead the Heels to glory.
It should be obvious to Bubba that his risk turned out to be a massive failure.
The retired gentleman keeps accepting responsibility for each loss, and one would figure that Bubba would take him at his word that he is not getting the job done.
The retired gentleman keeps saying that he is coming back next year to lead the Heels to football glory.
The only person who can fix Bubba’s boo-boo is Bubba.
It’s sad when Duke fans, sorry to see their coach go, are calling you up and telling you in these exact words, “You won’t be lucky enough to have Mack Brown leave. You’re stuck with him until HE wants to leave.” And I guess he’s right. Maybe the Panthers will want a Hall of Fame Coach and make him an offer he can’t refuse. Or maybe the Commanders will hire him to coach Sam again, since he did such a bang-up job the first three years with Sam. Bigger miracles have happened! Remember the parting of The Red Sea? Well, this one would actually be bigger!
Fixing Bubba’s Boo-Boo
In November of 2018, Bubba took a big risk in hiring an elderly retired gentleman, who had been out of coaching for 5 years, to lead the Tar Heels to football glory.
The logic for Bubba’s risk was to move the football program from good to great by hiring a coach who had made the Tar Heels great 21 years earlier.
The elderly retired gentleman had a sudden and unexpected departure from UNC in 1997, which left the Tar Heel football program in chaos for the next 21 years.
In the 21 years since the sudden departure, UNC hired 5 coaches to lead the UNC football program to glory.
Their combined won-loss percentage was 45%.
The Big Rams were tired of mediocrity because their drinking buddies down at the club poked fun at them for the inept Tar Heel football program.
So, under pressure from the Big Rams, Bubba rewarded a person who betrayed his loyalty to UNC with a 5 year multi-million dollar contract.
The retired gentleman had great public relations going for him. He was a Hall of Fame coach, and Bubba deeply believed in the PR spin.
After each ensuing loss, the retired gentleman would dutifully point his finger at his forehead and accept full responsibility for not having the players in the right position or not motivating the players.
One of his great motivational talks was “Do not eat the cheese,” which means the same thing as Do not lose this game.
He even put a small chunk of cheese on each player’s locker to remind them not to eat the cheese.
All week, the coach told his players “Do not lose this game,” and the reverse psychology worked. The Tar Heels lost that game.
He would often say that other teams would love to win eight games, or that very few teams were 6 – 0 after the first six games.
The other six teams that the Tar Heels beat ended the season with a combined won – loss record of 34 wins and 38 losses.
The Tar Heels ended their regular season over in Raleigh with another inept defensive effort. The new defensive coordinator that the retired gentleman hired to improve the defense had been retired for 5 years before the retired gentleman snatched him out of retirement to lead the Tar Heels to football glory.
The other team over in Raleigh was motivated to beat the Heels. The Heels were not motivated and looked like they would like to be somewhere other than playing football against guys who hit them hard and talked ugly to them.
It was very uncivil treatment of the Tar Heels, and the retired gentleman took full responsibility for not having his players ready to play over in Raleigh.
It should be obvious that there is a great pretending going on over at UNC that the retired gentleman is the right guy to lead the Heels to glory.
It should be obvious to Bubba that his risk turned out to be a massive failure.
The retired gentleman keeps accepting responsibility for each loss, and one would figure that Bubba would take him at his word that he is not getting the job done.
The retired gentleman keeps saying that he is coming back next year to lead the Heels to football glory.
The only person who can fix Bubba’s boo-boo is Bubba.
.