For the first time in the history of the ACC, not a single Tar Heel was named to the three All-ACC teams as voted by the members of the media. Just for good measure there was no one on the all-defensive or all-freshman teams either. How bad is this? Jason Capel made the 3rd team in 2002.
A couple explanations for how this happened besides the simplistic: everyone sucked.
The first is Ed Davis likely ends up at least on the third team had he finished the season. I think his stats would have been just as good, if not better than FSU’s Solomon Alabi’s and he has that nice media halo around him of having been established as an elite player. Davis was 18th in voting so it stands to reason he makes the jump had he played.
The other is I would really like to have seen what John Henson could have done had he been playing his natural position all season or at worst since the beginning of conference play. I am thinking he would have played well enough to garner all-freshman honors and possibly sneak onto the all-defensive team.
Having addressed those two let me say this is in no way surprising. Of the players left to choose from, no one really deserved it or play consistently enough to warrant it. There is a possible argument you could make for Will Graves on the third team ahead of FSU’s Solomon Alabi. Graves averaged(ACC games only) 11.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg and was fourth in the ACC in three point percentage at 38%. Alabi averaged 10.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg and 1.9 bpg in ACC games. The problem is Alabi had a string of games early in the ACC season where he scored in double figures plus FSU finished 3rd and had Chris Singleton also on the third team. Graves also lacks the media halo.
I was going to mention that Deon Thompson was 18th in conference scoring which might garner him some consideration but I imagine I would have a full blow riot in the comments section if I did that so best to let that be.
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Doesnt saying “everyone sucked” violate the blog rules? THF might need to suspend himself for a day or two.
I have a worse punishment lined up. I have to accompany my wife to a Clay Aiken concert Friday night. smh
I guess they don’t let quitters onto the All ACC team.
Lance Thomas on the All ACC defensive, really? Maybe it is because he came back from the “debilitating” knee injury in Chapel Hill and found even more creative ways to foul people. Who am I kidding; Marcus Ginyard was on this team multiple times, so it proves it is more about hype than actual defensive performances.
THF, do you still want to have the debate over whether this team is the worse in UNC history?
The stink of this season just can’t leave the room fast enough, the Mc’D classic needs to hurry up and get here so that we can get our updated glimpse of the incoming recruits who can hopefully provide a little Lysol to the lingering odor that is Carolina basketball 2009/10.
IF the ACC players that are believed to leave arly for the NBA actually do and IF we get the production in our incoming freshmen that everyone is praying for and IF we get that soph-junior year bump in production from our PG IF he even still goes here and IF John Henson doesn’t break into fraily pieces Carolina players should be all over these awards next year. IF
What else do we have left to hope for but IFs? (cough cough ACCT)
Not true. Al-Farouq Aminu is on there.
“THF, do you still want to have the debate over whether this team is the worse in UNC history?”
We will have it because I have to slot this season’s team in my running countdown. Also, this has no bearing on that because, like I said, Davis’ injury ultimately kept him off and I think he makes it otherwise.
You know THF, if my wife tried to take me to Clay Aiken concert (thankfully she won’t), I’d revolt or maybe have a sudden attack of migraine/diarrhea/flu!!
Good luck.
Clay Aiken is an appropriate way to celebrate the end of this basketball season. We’ll be history by Friday night.
Too bad for Henson and Davis. Even as crappy as the team has been, there were some bright spots in performances. I can see lots of UNC talent littering these teams from our current roster if they can ever come together.
I guess THF is not a member of the ClayNation.
THF –
I was a federal prosecutor for several years, and I can tell you that having to go to a Clay Aiken concert is a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
File for an injunction!
Henson has shown recently that he could develop into a star. He is the one source among returning players for legitimate optimism for next year. Still, his play over the first two-thirds of this season was so bad that there was no way he was going to garner any post-season honors.
Roy’s incoherent handling of Henson and Strickland is running neck-and-neck with his indulgent handling of Thompson and Ginyard for Blunder of the Year.
^^^@Tarheel8486
IF-
You know what they say about Grandma…if she had a certain body part she’d be Grandpa.
I just watched Roy Williams’ pre-ACCT press conference, which I thought was one of his best this year. And it helped me remind myself, once I get away from these often over-reactive fan blogs, why I think UNC basketball is in pretty darn good hands.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/barnes.sign.pdf
No comment needed.
A rare distinction – I hope – that will be a trivia question in a few years bracketed by another national championship.
The real candidates, Ginyard and Davis, were injured and the freshmen just didn’t come along quickly enough for serious consideration.
^^^^^I still think that not recruiting John Wall was Roy’s biggest blunder of the year. Yeah, I know he said that shoe didn’t fit, but how does 82-50 fit? How does 5-11 in the ACC fit? How does the NIT (maybe) fit? I bet the John Wall shoe wouldn’t have been as uncomfortable as those shoes are.
850,
I don’t know…. if John Wall wore those baby blue Jordan’s he may have blown out his knee……
7YrsBlue –
If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs.
^^John Wall could have played better with one good knee then most of our guys did with two…
faustus1500,
How right you are.
LarryS –
The press conference could have been worthy of Winston Churchill, but it cannot begin to atone for what all agree was one of the worst seasons in our history.
Every basketball expert in the country had us in the top 15, at least, coming into the season. Are we now even in the top 75? Our talent was overrated, but not by that much. When the record so significantly underperforms the talent, the first place to look is at the coaching.
As I have said before, Roy’s overall record establishes him as one of the best in the business. But it is not fan “over-reacting” to acknowledge the obvious, to wit, that Roy grossly bungled this particular team. It seems to me that you or I could have been the coach this year and gotten the same 16 wins.
Less than 48 hours ago, we were humilitated on national television by our arch rival, making a joke, on us, of what had been advertised as the best college competition in sports. With all respect, now is no time to become all warm and complacent on the basis of a well-spoken press conference. What shows up on the floor speaks more eloquently than anything that shows up in front of the microphone. Words will neither make up for this dreadful season nor provide realistic hope for the next.
^Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
LarryS –
Although I do not believe a bad season can be made up for by a good press conference, I think characterizing it as “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah” is a bit harsh.
^ That was for your hand-wringing drivel. Not Roy’s PC.
LarryS –
Please quote the sentence or sentences I wrote that you believe are not true.
^ “It seems to me that you or I could have been the coach this year and gotten the same 16 wins.”
Who said I’m warm and complacent? I just said I believe we’re in good hands, which we are.
LarryS –
What is your evidence showing that it’s not true?
P.S. “Evidence” means something more than ipse dixit assertion.
P.P.S. The basics of it are that the team substantially underperformed this year, Roy bears more than a little responsibility for it, and almost everyone on this site except you seems to know it. The notion, which you announced less than 48 hours after this Duke disaster, that it will all be fine because, on the basis of A PRESS CONFERENCE, the coach sounds soothing, takes the concept of rose-colored glasses to a new level.
Maybe this group is just uncoachable. The x’s & o’s may not matter if the mental connection isn’t there.
^^ rath, you can’t be serious.
I don’t have to have evidence to show that my 92 year-old grandmother can’t lift 500 lbs.
I don’t have to have evidence to show that my bulldog can’t jump 24′ feet up onto our rooftop.
And I certainly don’t have to have evidence to show that you could not have equaled Roy’s 16 wins coaching this team.
I’m not looking through rose-colored glasses. I just don’t think everything is as bad as the Hand Wringing Society makes it out to be. Roy reminded me of the things I’ve always appreciated about him, and why I still trust him and his abilities.
Roy took what were his best players and either kept them on the bench or played them out of position in order to accomodate less talented players. He also stubbornly refused to abandon a defense that calls upon players to double team nobody’s down in the paint and leave 3 point shooters wide open…even against teams whose whole stinking offense revolves around the 3 point shot. I put those two on Roy.
Aside from that, this team can’t shoot. They can’t even hit free throws. I put that on the players.
They also don’t play team offense. They don’t set screens. They don’t send cutters to the basket. They don’t move without the ball. Their spacing is terrible. That could be Roy not teaching, or it could be the players not learning – I’m guessing its more the latter then the former.
I thought that when we hired Roy Williams we would never again be down at the bottom of the conference staring way up at a Dook team that was way up above us. The afterglow of the National Championship has faded. Now Roy, and his players, have a lot of work to do to make the program respectable again.
7YrsBlue –
I hear you. Still, someone with Roy’s experience and savvy (and salary) probably should be able to figure out how to coach them, even if it’s really hard, which apparently it was. But if you’re right, and the team was oblivious to coaching, that would lend support to the view that we could have had the same 16 wins no matter WHO the coach was.
rath,
If you were going for hyperbole there then fine. If you were serious then I would say that was over the top. I also understand that it is classic fan behavior to assign all blame to the coach when a team loses and none of the credit when the team wins.
Roy has some missteps in how he has handled personnel but I think what he said in his PC today about players not listening or still doing things wrong they should have learned on Oct 15th is a salient point. If the players are not doing the things they should then perhaps that is why they are not playing?
If they are uncoachable then a summer away from the coaches isn’t going to fix that. Only wholesale changes to the roster can.
LarryS –
OK, if you don’t have evidence for that one, is there another one of my statements you think is untrue, and whose error you CAN document with evidence? I’ll quote a sample:
“Every basketball expert in the country had us in the top 15, at least, coming into the season. Are we now even in the top 75?”
Is that untrue?
“When the record so significantly underperforms the talent, the first place to look is at the coaching.”
Is that untrue?
“What shows up on the floor speaks more eloquently than anything that shows up in front of the microphone.”
Is that untrue?
It is not handwringing to acknowledge what’s in front of your eyes. Roy’s overall record is a grounds for confidence, you’re right about that. But his handling of this team is a grounds for no little concern — something that, oddly, you seem unwilling to admit.
Roy had three highly acclaimed five star recruits on his squad in Davis, Zeller and Henson before injuries, and yet, Henson and Zeller were getting 25 minutes a game combined.
Was Davis a problem or not? If he was, how could Zeller and Henson have been rotting on the bench?
I don’t think a team composed primarily of four and five start recruits loses by 30+ points in a rivalry game (barring a fluke run of three pointers, which was not the case here) unless the coach has at least partially lost control. And 30 is kind because Duke tried not to humiliate us by adding to the lead in the second half.
We may have won one more game than we did in 2003, but the league was also much tougher then with a balanced schedule in which we would have had to play Maryland once more and Clemson once more.
^^And I’m not going to admit I’m overly concerned, ’cause I’m not. It’s that simple.
Please don’t address any more “how people should really be seeing this” junk towards me. People don’t always have the same response to the same event.
After listening to the press conference my major question is this, if you’ve been telling them since October 15th and they still don’t get it then why are they on the court at this point? If the player’s on the court don’t get it then put in the players on the bench. If the players on the bench that are on scholarship don’t get it put in the walk ons. If the walk ons don’t get it then hold open try outs on campus and find players that do get it. Anybody who still doesn’t get it in March doesn’t deserve playing time let alone a scholarship. If the player’s are that damn stubborn about learning the system we can always refuse to offer them a scholarship for next year, after all scholarships are issued on a yearly basis to the players. I’m reminded at this point of a line I heard in a movie one time that went like this, “Just how many sticks of dynamite would we have to set off between your ears before your head clears?!?”
If the problem is that bad then Roy’s biggest failure this season has been as a recruiter. As someone in the press conference pointed out, Roy has known most of these kids since they were 15 years old. How could he not see this problem coming if he has been talking to them for the last 4 to 7 years? It’s pretty hard to hide your character, intelligence, work ethic, and strength of will(both good and bad) from somebody for 4+ years. Roy said they had to be reasonably smart to get in to the university, so it’s not intelligence. Well then what in God’s name is it? Are they that stubborn? lazy? scared? How did they even get on this team in the first place if that’s the case. If they can’t or won’t learn basic fundamentals of the game they should be replaced with somebody who can or will learn them.
Anybody catch the part of the PC where Roy said if he was having this same conversation by the season after next it would be from the first tee? At least he sounds like he plans on getting it fixed next year, and that hopefully means he has a plan. I also liked his comments about being more introspective. At least it sounds like he is trying to evaluate what he is doing wrong and fix it.
My advise at this point if he is keeping these player’s would be to hire a drill sergeant to be on the coaching staff, somebody that will get in their face when they screw up and PT them until they puke. My second piece of advise would be to hire an assistant to coach defense. It’s just not getting results on the court the way they are coaching it currently. My third piece of advise would be to go to Dean Smith and ask him to evaluate what Roy has done wrong and what he has done right if he hasn’t already.
THF –
First, at no point have I maintained it was ALL Roy’s fault. But as you say, and as almost every one of the commenters understands, he made errors and it cost us. Indeed, it seems to me, and I believe others, that he did exactly what he (correctly) says the players did: Make the same mistakes again and again.
Second, my principal disagreement with LarryS (apart from his pretty nasty “blah, blah, blah” crack with not even an attempt at analysis) is that he gives Roy a pat on the back at a very odd time and on a very odd basis: less than 48 hours after the nationally televised Duke humiliation, and on the basis of words spoken at a press conference.
In my view, we had too many press conferences this year and not enough performance. How on earth, at this unhappy point, can it be thought that a PRESS CONFERENCE provides grounds for confidence?
On a positive note, the baseball teams seems to be doing pretty well.
I’ve enjoyed the back and forth from rath and larrys. Spirited debate and I understand where both are coming from. When this nightmare is finally over after our first or second NIT game, we will all be able to breathe for the next 6 months or so. Let’s hope that Coach Williams is able to do the same, not forgetting this year, but rather taking it as simply another lesson learned. Basketball is not life, not even Carolina basketball.
ugatarheel –
Ha! Well, I think we can all agree with that.
What the baseball team?
ugatarheel –
Yes, the baseball team, although I agree with most of your basketball post as well.
Even more than a PG, Roy needs to recruit a big, tough, wide-body S.O.B. to get us some rebounds and knock the opposition’s forwards on their butts. Apart from everything else, we just got pushed around too much this year.
I agree with that completely the last 4 championship teams have all had strength under the basket. Hansbrough, May, Montrose, and Worthy all had physical presences that was sorely lacking this year. I thought Davis would be that guy this year but that did not happen unfortunately.
I think it gets back to the idea that Ginyard, Thompson, the Wears all did a better job in practice picking up things, doing what they were supposed to and others did not. In Henson’s case it was not his fault as much as Roy’s because he was out of position. The same could be said for Strickland who is not a true PG. The result? The more talented players saw less time because they did not practice as well.
I agree with rath and uga that we need a big ol’ tough banger in the paint.
My suggestion to the coaching staff (in my infinite wisdom) would be to pull up scout.com’s prospect list. Flip thru the 2010 & 2011 lists (JIC a scholly opens up), filter by C or PF, then make a list of all uncommitted kids +250 lbs & plus 6’8″.
Flip thru the profiles & target whoever is mean muggin’ in their pictures.
ugtarheel – I thought Davis was going to be the presence in the post this year as well. He certainly has the ability, and he showed he was capable of dominating inside at the end of last season. Deon has never been a banger inside, and I had no expectations he would be this year. So it makes me wonder, is Ed a follower? Did he play tough inside last year because of Hansbrough, and this year he followed Deon’s lead? Of all the players, Ed has been the biggest mystery to me. Why did he start playing so soft inside this season?
As for Henson, my understanding was that he wanted to be a 3. It was certainly the position where he could have gotten the most playing time if he had his outside shot working. And before the injuries we were already flush at 4 & 5. When he got some time inside earlier in the season he didn’t look any better than he did outside. I can’t really blame Roy for that one. There’s a lot of things I question, including why he didn’t give Henson more time earlier, but I can’t really dog him for playing Henson at the 3.
There is a very real thing called basketball IQ, and I’m not sure that this team scores very high, individually or collectively. I agree with Coach Williams when he says that you either get it .or you don’t. I also believe him when he makes the point about there being a limit to how much he can teach. This group of players demonstrated all season long that they never really got it. Coach Williams said last week that Will Graves was probably the smartest player on the team, from a pure basketball standpoint. Hopefully, the new class coming in will show us a little more IQ.
To continue a happier note…looks like Dustin Ackley may not be far from starting at 2nd base for the Seattle Mariners.
Why doesn’t Roy encourage defenders to fight through screens? I once heard it had to with running his breakneck offense. If the guards fought through screens, they would not be in place for the outlet pass off the rebound. Unfortunately, if the opponent is red hot from downtown. It really backfires. This season there is no reason to follow that defensive philosophy. This UNC team is not fast breaking team. I mean look at the number of fast break points the Heels have score this season? Not very many.
ed davis’ Tweet:
Ain’t said this in a min but I love Carolina about 19 hours ago
and according to Henson’s twitter account, his sister is going to dook. thats a shame.
i remember reading that Adam Lucas story about Deon and feeling optimistic.
but where was the more vocal than Marcus? i never saw that. i dont recall more than 3 times all year i even saw his lips moving when shown on tv.
limited the Babbitt kid from Nevada to a bad shooting night? i guess. but the SOPHOMORE had 15 and 11. one of his 16 double-doubles on the season, a season with ZERO single scoring digit efforts. Babbitt had only 5 games where he had fewer than 7 rebounds.
his stat sheet does not refer to how vocal he was, tho.
Just read jackie manuels blog. He really sums it up this year, I believe. I read his blog from jan 04-2009 and I quote:
“I apologize for that picture but if we don’t play our best players instead of our most experienced or hard working players, we are headed for a year like 1994″
He said that after unc lost to BC. He could have been talking about any game THIS YEAR. Which leads me to think if roy has the capabilty to change his ways…..
the entire Jackie post:
http://jackiemanuelsposse.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/belates-links/
our main man william has a comment on that entry.
then go to the main page and read Jackie’s last 3 entries, alternately taking the Heels, and Roy, to task (Henson shouldve played more minutes, Marcus shouldnt) and taking us at THF to the woodshed and calling us spoiled.
good stuff.
gotta put a lot of stock in a guy who has been through the system.
***
we arent all completely off base tho. jackie said on 2/1:
“Perhaps we should stop helping from the wing and let the basket-drivers take their chances with Ed Davis and John Henson.”
yes! well. before ed was injured, that is.
Wait, someone has a bulldog with a 24 foot vertical jump. Impressive, most impressive.
So, now that basketball is officially over, in our hearts – please consider going to the spring game. It appears there will be a full day of fun and excitement for the whole family.
This is a tremendous step forward for the program, as well as hosting a Thursday night game in Chapel Hill and returning to the post season over the last two years. Football needs your support and they have this interlocking N&C on their uniforms that you may be familiar with too. Also, just in case you haven’t been following the current LSU saga they aren’t having much fun down in the bayou presently and you couldn’t hope for more than Les Miles as a coach and leadership challenges in the locker room.
I don’t want to take our eyes off the pain in front of us presently but this might help. Did I mention that baseball tickets are $10 a seat and there are good seats to be had with ample parking in the ramshead deck just across the street.
Enjoy,
Leroy
Yeah, that was me; obviously I was in the tank for Danny Green from the start. I just have a soft spot for guys who grow up in broken homes. What I was right/wrong about was that Lawson all of a sudden seemed to start being able to create his own shots on offense, and Ellington got more dependable from outside. They both started playing pretty good defense in February as well.
The 2007 team may have been our most talented team of all time. If you give that team a few more months, I don’t think they would be losing two games to VPI, much less Georgetown, but timing is part of the luck factor.
Jackie Manuel was a fun commenter.
Unfortunately, he isn’t even writing on his own blog that much now. It has been a hard season on us all.
By the way, if a conference (the SEC) has two teams with the same nickname, I mean, does that sort of imply a general lack of diversity and creativity throughout the region?
And by the way, guys, I just want you to know that when the men’s team at UNC is going bad, it just cheers me up so much when one of you genius types mentions the women beating Duke or the upcoming baseball season.
Thanks so much for that category of comments, guys.
If our lacrosse team is doing well, why I don’t even care anymore if we lose by 32 at Duke. If we have a new prospect on the baseball team, well, who cares if FSU goes out to a 23 point lead in Chapel Hill on us.
Hopefully, you guys mean them in a sardonic sense only, but you might want to highlight the sarcasm a bit more.
Comments like that are for Wake Forest people, who relish competing for whatever damn cup they give elite universities who never come in first in any important sports….
tomorrow would be a nice warm day to take in a game.
i also heard about 2/3 of the radio call-in show tonight. as usual, the first thing i have to say about it is…god bless Roy for even doing the show. the people that call in would have certain residents of, say, the northern US, or western US, wondering how phones are even present in the primitive swamplands of Deliverance, NC.
Roy re-addressed the Presbyterian fan thing. “protecting the players’ families”
Woody mentioned that he had seen Roy with the diagram clipboard on the sideline. Roy said he would never draw a play that they dont already have in place, but would to refresh or remind players what the play was.
i have to admit, i cant recall a single time in the previous 6 years (is it) that that i’ve seen Roy with the board. he had the board the other day, during the game. how in the world do players need a refresher in game 31?
we have a redshirt senior, a senior and a redshirt junior on the court a lot. dont THEY ever say “hey, Strick, go there” or “Travis, over here”. i dunno.
i dunno much of anything, now that i think about it.
***
actually, william, when i bring up other sports at UNC, its because i have a genuine interest in them. not like a dook fan who only follows men’s basketball. lets not be them, hm?
William…I take offense to your sarcastic remarks. If I want to talk about baseball or any other sport, that’s my right. I don’t make comments that are designed to make you feel better.
i am dominating the blog paint tonight. *swings elbows*
the latest from Lucas. troubling look back by Marcus.
http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/030810aaa.html
whats the deal with this, from after the scrimmage to start the year. Vanderbilt, was it?
“We were like, `There is no way we can get beat by 30 points the very first time we’re playing,’” he said. “How are we not super-pumped to be playing? As soon as we got back we had a meeting in the locker room. We said, `This is how it’s supposed to go down. We have to play better than this and more together than this.’ Even more indicative of the year, nothing really changed after that.”
Marcus62660 –
With luck, he’s the next Chase Utley.
William if you have a right to rip the basketball team a new @sshole with just about every post you write, then others are as equally entitled to point out positive results in other areas at the university. The last time I checked baseball is not comparable to lacrosse or even wrestling, it’s a major sport (something about being called the national pastime). And if there is one thing I have learned by living so close to UT it’s that womens’ basketball fans can be every bit as rabid as the men’s fans can be.
It’s really quite a shame you would rather continue to beat this dead horse of a season instead of letting a little sunshine in to your life.
Incidentally, I saw the UNC Baseball news on the front page of Carolina Blue while I was watching the Roy Williams press conference, and thought, “Hey that’s kinda cool, at least something is going right with UNC sports right now.” The comment I posted was a little flippant but so what, it apparently brightened a few peoples day.
Sorry rathskellar68 I guess it’s not something “we” all can agree on after all.
I think Jackie’s observations regarding Roy trying to improve from a possible 8-8 season to something better by pushing some freshmen into unfamiliar roles, are very insightful. There is another thing that bothers me, the great question of team chemistry that no one knows about. From twitter feeds it seems Ed and Deon might have had some sort of altercation. It is quite obvious to anyone watching the game that Deon is just not as talented as Ed, yet there had preset roles from the onset of the season, with Ed playing under Deon. In a team, generally the captain is either the player with the most talent, or the player with the most personality and leadership skills. Unfortunately, for this team the captains were pre-selected to be two individuals who possess neither of those skill sets, other than seniority. So a real team leader never emerged. Did that lead to problems with team chemistry? Who knows? Maybe someone who has the confidence of the players can find out and let us know.
OK after looking at that latest Lucas blog, and after listening to Roy’s last two PCs, and after digesting all of the comments from twitter, and fans at court side and what not it has to be obvious that there are some serious malcontents on this team.
I can’t tell you who they are but I sure as hell bet Roy knows who they are. If they aren’t graduating this year they need to be encouraged to transfer or leave early for the NBA draft. That concept is not unprecedented in Carolina basketball history. As somebody said the other day Dean Smith practically packed JR Reid’s bags for him when he left. Additionally Clifford Rozier was shown the door when he wouldn’t put forth the effort to learn the Carolina way. I love this quote from Dean in reference to the Rozier transfer.
“Cliff’s going to find out they want him to play defense in Louisville too.”
That’s damn right as far as I’m concerned! If these guys refuse to learn find someone who will. I’ve always contended that Christian Laettner would never have made it a full 4 years at Carolina because Dean would never have put up with his crappy attitude. Well we don’t need Roy to put up with any crappy attitudes either. No matter how talented someone is if they are a malcontent they are a malcontent and they don’t help your team win ball games in the long run.
Rath…I had the pleasure of coaching against Ackley’s teams from the time he was 10 years old, so I saw him grow up on the baseball field. He is very special and no one ever knew how good he was going to be until he got to Chapel Hill. It’s fun to watch him progress from a little more of a personal perspective.
That is fine, just stop with the remarks implying that such news about other sports is supposed to make us basketball fans feel better. It doesn’t. I watch the UNC women’s soccer teams and the men’s lacrosse and baseball teams, so get off that garbage, too. These are basketball threads. There are other threads from time to time too, but those posters who “hijack threads posted by THF about basketball and who then imply that those of us who are depressed about basketball should be happy because you like the new back-up catcher on the baseball team are moronic at best.
I tried to give you a sarcastic out, but you didn’t take it. Talk about guys that won’t even take a lifeline….
Seriously, if anyone thinks the following comment is interesting or creative:
“When does football start?”
(add your own joke in here)
marcus62660 –
What was his batting average in Little League? .700?
What a wonderful thing to have known as a kid a guy who has a legit chance to be a major league star.
William…I’m sorry, when did this become the “William Only” blog? Like I said, making you feel better about anything is just not way up there on my priority list. And where does it say this is a basketball only thread? Your arrogance is way over the top as far as I’m concerned. I don’t need a “sarcastic out” to explain myself or any of my comments, basketball, baseball or horseshoes. You’re welcome to stay wrapped up in your little world of “I hate Roy and Dion and Marcus” all you please. Just don’t assume that all of us should stay wrapped up with you.
ugatarheel –
I have suspected for weeks that there is something going on with the team that we’re not seeing that played a significant role in this year’s performance. A few malcontents sure sounds plausible to me. I think we’ll be finding out more in the next few days.
Obviously, no one said that, anywhere, at any time. Please point me to such a statement.
How about the fencing team, Marcus? What are their prospects for this year? Chess team? Please, make everyone feel so much better.
I see these types of comments on the Wake Forest boards all the time. Every year when they go in the tank, the geniuses on their boards start saying, “when does football season start?”
It really is so insightful and brilliant to start talking about other sports when people complain about the current one.
Rath…It was great fun. He was always a very good player but not always the star, until about age 13, when he pulled away from everybody else in terms of hitting. He was a tremendous infielder and his speed was amazing. He was always very quiet, and you could tell he was thinking so much more than anyone else. I dont know what his numbers were, but I know we pitched around him as much as we could.
Sorry, Rath, I would like to answer you point, but Marcus is only allowing people to discuss baseball right now.
William…seriously…what is wrong with you? Where do you get off assuming that if someone talks about something other than how dreadful the basketball team is, he or she is breaking some sort of rule? Are you really so depressed that you have to demand that we all talk about the same thing over and over?
Nobody said that. You must try reading the previous posts. It actually doesn’t take all that long. At least in a general sense of fairness, please try.
What I said was that it was fatuous to assume that anyone interested in the basketball team would be “cheered up” by the moronic comment “when does football start?”
marcus62660 –
“…he was thinking so much more than anyone else.”
An interesting and valuable observation. One of Hansbrough’s great virtues was that he was thinking every second he was on the court. I can’t recall a single time he was caught by surprise. Probably the best example people will remember was his off-the-floor rebound and baseline shot that won the Virginia Tech game even though we had been pretty convincingly outplayed. TH knew exactly where to be and exactly how much time he had. The guy just never stopped thinking.
At one point in my career I became counselor to a person high in the government. I noticed the same thing about her: She never stopped thinking. Every word that came out of her mouth was considered. She came to work thinking and she left thinking.
So I sat up when you mentioned it about Ackley. Thanks for the insight.
Will Hansbrough ever play again? Both he and Ellington are out now.
william –
That’s OK. It’s a long thread, and here in Hawaii it’s only 7:20.
You’re welcome.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. My only, only point is that if there is a person in the world who thinks it makes UNC basketball fans feel better by saying “when does football start?” I don’t think it does and I don’t think it is creative. Obviously each of us, me probably more than most, has dud comments. I am not trying to stop people from chatting about wrestling or whatever.
All I am saying is that when people make those types of comments, it makes me, personally feel worse than I already do about the current season, and you have the right to make people feel even worse if you want to. It only seemed to me that some people seem to think that such glib comments make people feel better.
None of my comments were presented with any “glibness.” Not sure what YOU might be reading into it, but that’s not my problem. I didn’t make any statements about baseball that were designed to make anybody feel better about anything. I don’t possess the power to make you feel anything,,,only you control that. None of my previous statements were presented sarcastically or cynically, though you’re perfectly welcome to interpret them as you see fit.
this blog has gone from fun and exciting (last few years) to visiting it just to torture myself to rehash all of my thoughts and opinions on this season and what went wrong. torture….
a clay aiken concert..on top of this season’s events ?
i think that is torture gone too far.
William you seem to be having a lot of trouble with guys named Marcus these days
^^^^^^
LOL