Every Friday, I do a little housekeeping and highlight some items out there in the media from the previous week.
- The Board of Trustees has approved the expansion of the Kenan Stadium complex. The first phase is to add two floors to the Kenan Football Center which will add room for various team needs and “16-20 luxury boxes” which Kenan presently does not have. Apparently UNC and Duke are the only ACC schools lacking luxury suites in their football stadium. The fact UNC has been compared to Duke in football at any level is a fairly shameful development. This phase is supposed to be completed before the 2009 season.
- Doug Gottlieb ranks the top ten basketball programs since 1984-85. UNC comes in #2 behind Duke mainly because Duke has one more national title and is slightly better when it comes to 30 win seasons, NCAA Tournament wins and Final Four and Sweet Sixteen appearances. Tough to argue with the numbers in between the nauseous heaves of seeing Duke ranked a slot above UNC.
- Also in the rankings done by Gottlieb, the ACC ranks 3rd behind the Big East and Big Ten/Eleven. However if you remove the three expansion teams because let’s face it at least two of them suck in basketball(historically speaking) the ACC is easily #1. Now I know expansion has been deemed a success because of the money, blah, blah, blah. That still does not mean I am not going occassionaly gripe about the unbalanced schedule and the fact the league has been watered down in basketball somewhat.
- Dick Baddour showed Sylvia Hatchell the money and the board of trustees approved it keeping the UNC women’s coach in Chapel Hill probably until she is ready to quit or UNC actually beats Tennessee in a Final Four and wins a national title. Whichever comes first.
- The THF Countdown enters the Top Ten on Monday which should be fun considering the remaining ten teams are a combined 314-43 with eight Final Fours and three national titles.
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Grrrrr… I can’t agree on Dook at #1 in anything.
I read about the Kenan expansion a few days ago. Very impressive. I’m sure every recruiting trip includes a preview of what is coming at “your new home field”.
I’d be real interested to see a year by year breakdown of the points for this ranking system. For example, I have to think our 2005 National Championship team would be one of the top 5 individual teams overall, no? When considering wins, all-americans, 1st round draft picks, etc. that team was truly stacked.
Any poll done or endorsed by Doug Gottlieb should be ignored. Why listen to a convicted criminal with a blatant bias. Doug Gottlieb is the love child of Billy Packer and Pat Summit.
“Doug Gottlieb is the love child of Billy Packer and Pat Summit.”
Ewwwww…Excuse while I try to scrub that image from my brain.
As of this typing, UNC is #3 behind Kansas–which I cannot bring myself to think about on so many levels. No doubt if they keep looking at the numbers the ‘Heels will fall behind Georgetown.
As for being lower ranked than Duke–or any other program for that matter–I’ll take solace in the fact that the weights are arbitrary, and that we are better than the Blue Devils on the margin (i.e., that our recent past is much better than theirs has been).
This is totally un-sports related… but talk about an odds and end! Has everyone heard about Carolina Alum and former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards and his hollywood honey rendezvous this week? Wow… just putting it out there
CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY GOTTLIEB MADE THE CUT-OFF 1984-1985? First and foremost, this is Doug Gottlieg we are talking about. ESPN looks for as many ways possible to keep Duke important. If you move the years back one, to 83-84, everything changes. I still stand by my argument that it is more impressive just how consistent UNC has been over the past 40 seasons. From 1968-2008, the boys have racked up the three national titles and 14 Final Fours. An ALL-UNC team from that period would probably go like this:
G-Phil Ford
G-Michael Jordan
F-Jerry Stackhouse
F-Tyler Hansbrough
F/C-James Worthy (or Bob McAdoo)
Hmmm…I believe that there are three HOF-level players on that roster (three who also were selected as members of the TOP-50 best players in the history of the NBA). In addition, Ford and Hansbrough are two of the most accomplished and beloved Tar Heels ever. Stackhouse should have been POY in 1995. The bench would have included…oh, you all can fill in the blanks there.
Suck on that Dookies.
I think we need to clarify something here: this prestige ranking by ESPN was NOT conducted by Doug Gottlieb. It was conducted by Harold Shelton, Nick Loucks and Chris Fallica of ESPN Research. Trust me, I always welcome an opportunity to give ol’ Dougie some grief (always make sure to take his cash and not his plastic, thank you very much). However, for this ranking, we cannot lay any blame at his feet.
Dean,
If I count right, they started where they did to rate the last 25 seasons. It’s a round number, but why they didn’t do 30 or 40 or 50, I’ll leave up to the conspiracy theorists. Again though, it’s arbitrary, so don’t sweat it too much.
1984-85 was when the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64. That is probably why they started then.
If UNC had no “luxury boxes” at Kenan Stadium, then what are those swank seats on the north side of the stadium mirroring the press box?
Let’s get the conversation rolling again. Too much silence. I know the Tremeloes had a big hit in 1967 with “Silence is Golden” , but UNC basketball is one of those things that need discussion. BTW, why do so many people think that song was sang by Simon & Garfunkel?
Of course, Silence is Golden was written by Frankie Valli and orignially released by the Four Seasons in 1964…
I can’t imagine why anyone would have thought it was a Simon & Garfunkel song.
I’d still take UNC ’68-’08 over any other program.
Silent Sam, you have just enlightened me on something I did not know. I wonder why it never became a big hit for the Four Seasons? Of course, it sounds nothing like Sherri Baby, Walk Like a man, or Rag Doll.
I did a little google work & apparently Silence Is Golden was the B side of the Four Seasons #1 hit Rag Doll.
Until today I was never aware it was recorded by anyone other than the Four Seasons.
Even guys from the class of ’67 learn something new every day.
Glad I could enlighten you too. Speaking of “enlighten”, that’s another big terminology from the late 60′s.
Yes DeanF, I’d say over the last 40 years I’d have to go with UNC as well.
I believe the “swank seats” are in the Chacellor’s box and are used as a reward for large donors. I think the difference is that luxury suites would be rented by companies and individuals, just like at the RBC Center.
Good point, PRGuy. I’ve been in the Chancellor’s Box in the offseason (It was the John Bunting era, anyone could just walk into the stadium and take the elevator). The view is fantastic up there.
Another issue is that I don’t see where 16-20 luxury boxes would fit in the Kenan Football Center configuration.
I think it will be similar to Carter-Finley which has the Murphy Football Center on one end with suites in it as seen here:
http://www.ncsu.edu/facilities/buildings/carter-finley.html
They are adding two floors to the Kenan Football Center on the open end of the bowl which will have suites overlooking the field from that end.
People might confuse “Silence Is Golden” with “The Sounds of Silence.” And thanks to you all for getting me thinking of the latter, it’s now firmly ear-wormed in my head.
When construction closes the stadium on its open end, it should be a lot louder on the field, and will add to the home field advantage. Carter-Finley’s noise level really picked up when the north end zone project was completed, and it’s reasonable to expect the same at BKS.
Yes Alpha Wolf, “hello darkness my old friend”