It is a bit ironic that I had posted the video of Michael Jordan’s dunk at the end of a Maryland game in College Park from 30 years ago.

The dunk elicited boos from the Maryland fans then again it doesn’t take much for the Maryland fans to boo. They did so during a sportsmanship announcement before the game and one person yelled “F*ck Carolina” during the national anthem. To the credit of Maryland officials that person was removed.

As for the dunk itself, Roy Williams would have preferred it not happen but acknowledges these are “kids.”  If anyone has an issue with it, the blame is probably more on Kendall Marshall than Henson. Marshall, being the point guard, controls the basketball and its his choice whether to dribble the game out or not. Henson says it was all instinct, maybe the same is true of Marshall who tied his career high in assists on that play.

The broader issue here concerns the lack of “edge” we see with this team sometimes. Dunking the ball on Alex Len once the game is decided when that kind of edge seemed lacking earlier in the game is not the best look. In fact Henson had a dunk attempt earlier in the game what was more open than this one and could not throw it down. The refs called a phantom foul on Len and Henson missed both free throws. There will also be complaints it was classless but viewing the dunk as a function of pissing off Maryland fans more, there will be plenty of people who will have zero issues with it.

In my mind, the most straightforward way to compare the 2010 and 2011 teams’ performances is to look at the cumulative Four Factors, as well as the offensive and defensive efficiencies (points per 100 possessions), for each the teams’ non-conference schedules.  Shown below are the offensive Four Factors for the 2010 and 2011 non-conference schedules (category leader is in bold):

Looking at these data, we can see that last year’s team scored a bit more efficiently during its first 15 games than this year’s squad has, thanks to a small advantage in eFG% and a rather sizable advantage on the offensive boards.  Given the struggle that this year’s team had shooting in November and early December, this is really not that big of a surprise, though it should be pointed out that the 2011 team has done a better job of taking care of the ball (overall), and given the problems turnovers caused last year, this should not be overlooked.

But what say the defensive stats?

Well, it is almost exactly the opposite, as the 2011 squad has a 4 point edge in defensive efficiency.  The 2011 Heels have outplayed last year’s squad in three of the four defensive Four Factors categories, and even their increased rate of sending their opponents to the line could easily be attributed to a more aggressive/intense defensive effort.  This is particularly interesting when one remembers back to last preseason, and the amount of talk that focused on how well that team was going to play defense.

But taken together, the two data sets do not make that great of an argument that this team is in a significantly better position heading into conference play than last year’s team was.  One was better on offense, the other was better on defense, but the efficiency margins (offensive efficiency – defensive efficiency) for the 2010 (+16.0) and the 2011 (+17.0) squads are essentially identical.  So then, where is the optimism coming from?

There are really two reasons:

1. The difference in how the 2010 and 2011 teams ended their non-conference schedules and,
2. A comparison of both the non-conference and conference schedules the two teams faced (or will face).

Despite the strong similarities between the two teams’ overall non-conference records and statistics, there is a dramatic difference in how those numbers were accumulated.  The 2010 team started out very strong, winning 7 of their first 8 games and had many believing that the preseason rankings were at least possible.  However, the Heels (for a multitude of reasons) took a dramatic turn in the second half of their non-conference schedule, going just 4-3 in their last 7; and even some of those wins were less than inspiring (e.g. yielding 23-2 run to close the Albany game).  Now, compare that to this year’s squad, which looked ragged to start the season (going 4-3), but have produced a solid 6-1 record since the start of December, and looked completely dominant in their last 3 games.  A similar comparison to the one above (Four Factor, efficiencies), this time from just their last 7 games, produces dramatically different results.

Offensively, this year’s squad has really made a big jump over the last 7 games, as their eFG% is up to a very respectable 53.1, and their TO% has dropped to a Lawsonesque 16.2.  All of which adds up to them producing an offensive efficiency that is now 3 points better than that which was produced over the last 7 games of last year’s non-conference schedule.  More importantly, this offensive improvement has not come at the sacrifice of the squad’s defensive effort.

Over the last 7 games, Carolina has gone from a good, but inconsistent, defensive team, to one that borders on great, as a (raw) defensive efficiency of 87.6 would be among the best in the nation.  Overall, the 2011 team’s improvement over the last seven games is most evident when one looks at their efficiency margin, which is an outstanding +24.1 (for reference, the 2009 Championship team had a raw EM of +23.5 for the season).

In addition to the dramatic difference in how the 2010 and 2011 teams ended their non-conference schedules, there is also a significant difference in the strength of the schedules the teams played (or will play).  What is shown below is a comparison of the average strength of the opponents on both the non-conference and conference schedules for the two teams, using Ken Pomeroy’s College Basketball Ratings.

So, at this point last season, we had a team that was starting to regress as it made its way through an easier non-conference schedule, all in front of a very daunting ACC schedule.  However, this season we have seen a young team steadily improve over the course of a more challenging non-conference schedule; and going forward, it appears that the ACC schedule could be as weak as we have seen in a long time.  What does this all mean?  Well, the Heels should be favored in 14 of their 16 ACC games, and while they won’t win them all, 11 or 12 is certainly within reason.  There will be stumbles, but if this team continues to grow at the same pace that they have grown over the last 4-5 weeks, then they should be very dangerous come March (including that last game on the ACC schedule).

And that, is reason for optimism…

January 3rd, 2010: Marvin Austin, other juniors announce return

This was actually supposed to be good news. UNC getting all those great players back to form what should have been the most formidable defense in the ACC. It was going to be freaking awesome right? If only UNC could get some decent play out of the QB position we would say more times than we could count.  Little did we know this particular news item was the harbinger of death for UNC football. Instead of getting a top five defense, UNC ended up with this.  If we knew then what we know now, we would have hoped all these guys would go pro and lived with the attrition rather than a two prong rectal exam by the NCAA.

January 4th, 2010: UNC loses to Charleston

Also known as the date the 2009-10 basketball season went off the rails and crashed into a forest of pine trees setting landscape ablaze while we all sat gawking. The bad news actually started before the game with Will Graves and Marcus Ginyard being held out for injuries. In the case of Ginyard, he never got well again or never recovered from 2009, who knows. UNC struggled with Charleston but ultimately took an eleven point lead with under four minutes to go only to piss it away. The capper on it all was Charleston trailing by three and UNC allowing a three point shot to tie the game, a shot Roy Williams tried to stop via a foul except he had one arm in a sling and could not wave his arms to get Deon Thompson’s attention to tell them to foul. The Heels fell apart in OT and the result was the infamous tweet from John Henson about how they just made someone’s college career.

January 13th, 2010: UNC gets smacked around by Clemson

UNC’s trips the state of South Carolina were not happy ones. This one started early on with the team bus being struck by a car on the way to the team shootaround. What we did not know was that was a sign of how the game would go as the Heels steamrolled by Clemson. Talk about what goes around, comes around, I enjoyed Clemson beating Duke in Littlejohn during the 2009 season now it was UNC’s turn. This was a nothing goes right game from the car hitting the bus to Tyler Zeller being held out of this game (and many more to follow) and the Heels playing like this was the first time they had ever seen a game before. At one point, Roy went Blue Team, put the starters on the bench and with his back to the game drew up how to break a press. It was bad stuff all the way around.

January 15th, 2010: UNC announces Tyler Zeller out indefinitely with a stress fracture.

This where they slapped the words INJURY PRONE on Zeller’s forehead.

January 16th, 2010: UNC loses to Georgia Tech at home.

It felt like losses in 2010 fell in the same category with two possible differences. UNC either fell behind by 20 and quit or fell behind by 20, rallied and still lost. This was the latter.

January 20th, 2010: Wake Forest smacks Heels in Dean Dome

This loss was the former. Oh and Ed Davis missed the game due to injury.

January 31st, 2010: “I have no idea what that was” vs Virginia

At this point I think we kept waiting for UNC to find the bottom. Losing to Wake Forest was it right? Right? Not so much. After beating NCSU (thank goodness UNC could do that much) the Heels hosted Virginia and holy crap was that awful. How bad was it? Ed Davis scored 4 points on 1-3 shooting. Will Graves and Larry Drew had 15 each, Deon Thompson had seven and no one else scored more than four. Heck, Terrence Petree had four points in garbage time.

February, 2010: UNC loses six of eight games; Ed Davis breaks his wrist; THF liveblog dies a horribly painful death

So much crap happened in February, I refuse to itemize.

The loss at Virginia Tech was not that bad. After all it was a road game and Roy tinkered with the lineup a bit. UNC just fell short. That was followed by a trip to College Park where the Heels got run out of the Comcast Center by Maryland 92-71. I was in Korea watching this game online at 2 AM. It wasn’t worth it. The Duke game transpired almost entirely while I was sitting on a plane in Seoul waiting for de-icing hoping this eight month old child we were bringing home would make it through the flight. UNC played well vs Duke but ultimately succumbed to the Devils in a game that saw Ed Davis break his wrist. Following yet another win over NCSU the Heels embarked on another three game losing streak beginning in Atlanta with Georgia Tech in a loss that was so bad, I shut down the liveblog without warning after the commentary reached message board quality. That led to one individual being banned who then harassed me via email for the next few weeks, boy was that fun. Then came another close but fell just short loss to Boston College but at least Zeller returned. UNC then lost to FSU which was not as close as the final score indicated. Also during that time David Wear was lost for the season with hip surgery, Drew transfer rumors were as strong freshly made coffee, Ed Davis may or may not have signed with an agent and Roy Williams looked suicidal. The month ended with a win over Wake Forest.

March 6th, 2010: UNC gets throttled at Cameron

It was a 32 point shellacking that was basically over from the start. It was also one of those games UNC gave up on memorialized by Larry Drew’s half-hearted defensive effort on Nolan Smith right before Smith blew by Drew for a dunk. It was embarrassing on so many levels.

March 11th, 2010: UNC loses to Georgia Tech and is eliminated from ACC Tournament

This made UNC not going to the NCAA Tournament official, not that they were going to get the automatic bid. This game was a sign of hope that perhaps this team was not as bad as we thought but in the end, the Heels lost and were eliminated from the ACC Tournament to wait to see if maybe the NIT could come calling. They did which saw UNC play much better making it all the way to the title game before losing to Dayton.

March 20th, 2010: UNC women’s basketball seeded 8th bounced from 1st round by Gonzaga

Yeah, even the women’s basketball team struggled after years of success.

April 5th, 2010: Duke wins the national championship

Having a bad season is torturous enough. Having a bad season and watching your chief rival win a national title with a team that was not supposed to win it. Yeah that really sucks.

May 6th, 2010: Wear Twins Transfer

This is included not because losing the Wears was a bad thing in terms of the basketball but rather because it added to the negative PR. It was another mark in the ledger because of the way it happened. The Wears left town like the Baltimore Colts to the point their own teammates did not even know it was coming.

May 29th, 2010: Marvin Austin’s now infamous Club Liv tweet happens.

Except no one paid much attention to it at the time. Or did they. Of course it was ultimately debunked as lyrics from a Rick Ross song and as Doc pointed out the timestamps did not line up in context with his other tweets to put him at Club Liv. Still the initial perception was Austin was partying at a club with really expensive champagne. At the very least Austin’s Twitter feed raised questions and those question ultimately became an NCAA investigation.

June 7th, 2010: Baseball misses CWS for first time in four years

The big difference here is everyone knew UNC baseball was in for a rebuilding year before the season. The fact the Heels missed the College World Series after four straight appearances was not a shock. UNC did not make it out of the regional round however losing to home standing Oklahoma after beating Cal and Oral Roberts.

July 5th, 2010: News breaks that Den Smith’s health has deteriorated

There had been whispers about this for awhile. Dan Wiederer of the Fayetteville Observer was the first member of the media to talk about it openly. Twelve days later, Dean Smith’s family confirmed the long time coach’s battle with dementia. Smith still has good days and makes a rare public appearance. However this is a tragic twilight for a man of such utter coaching brilliance. Dean Smith is UNC basketball and in all honestly this may have been the worst news of the year.

July 12th, 2010: Quan Sturdivant popped for pot; Reddick & McAdoo’s apartment lost in a fire.

Oh we were just getting started. Hilariously enough the post on Sturdivant led to some interesting discussions among the THF community including the admission of casual marijuana use by at least one person which I really did not need to know. For Michael McAdoo, the apartment fire was just the beginning of his troubles though that alone was bad enough.

July 15th, 2010: NCAA opens investigation into UNC football.

I probably should just link the NCAA Investigation category and be done with it. It started with a probe into agents and during the early going the focus was on a handful of Tar Heel, Marvin Austin and Greg Little in particular who were seen at a Miami party. And if it had just stopped there we would have all been very happy. It didn’t, oh boy how it didn’t.

July 22nd, 2010: NC Secretary of State office opens agent investigation.

Because Elaine Marshall was trying to win an election she actually had no chance of winning anyway.

August 9th, 2010: RB Gio Bernard lost for the season with knee injury.

What we didn’t know is how much UNC would actually need all the RBs they could get by season’s end.

August 10th, 2010: Yahoo Sports publishes article highlighting connection between agent Gary Wichard and UNC assistant coach John Blake.

The first of many such bombs from Yahoo. In a separate revelation, former UNC player Cam Thomas tells ACC Now that former UNC player Kentwan Balmer paid Austin and Thomas’ way to CA in 2009 putting the 2009 season wins in jeopardy of being vacated.

August 26th, 2010: UNC announces academic improprieties were found during agent probe leading to 2nd prong of the invesitgation.

Boom goes the dynamite. Just when we though this was not going to get worse, it did. UNC came up with the brilliant plan to trot out Holden Thorp, Dick Baddour and Butch Davis to announce the academic prong. The press conference revealed very little with the most salient points found here. Since this broke a mere nine days before the first game, the circus that followed the team throughout the season was both pathetic and entertaining all at the same time.

September 3rd, 2010: 15 players initially held out; Carter, Sturdivant cleared later that day.

In my opinion UNC totally botched the release of this information. The general consensus was UNC would hold some players out and since there was no release on how many or who, the media staked out the bus departure in Chapel Hill. As this is going on UNC issues a release saying six players are ineligible and nine player held out. By Friday evening that number was down to 13 with the clearances of Carter and Sturdivant. Unfortunately that led to the front page banner headline on the N&O which no doubt became wallpaper for rabid Wolfpack fans.

September 4th, 2010: UNC loses to LSU in Chick-Fil-A Kickoff.

UNC led early but special teams and ball snapping snafus allowed LSU to open up a 30-10 lead. UNC rallied, furiously behind over 400 yards of passing from T.J. Yates and 200-plus receiving from Jhey Boyd. The Heels were down 30-24 when two passes from Yates hit Zach Pianalto right in the hands for what would have been the game tying touchdown. Instead the Heels came up just short versus what turned out to be a very good LSU team.

September 5th, 2010: John Blake resigns

The official reason was Blake felt he was a distraction. There was probably some truth to that but the probably real reason is Blake decided to walk away with $75K now versus getting his rear end fired four weeks later with nothing.  As other revelations surfaced UNC claims they knew about them but I have trouble believing that because the fact Blake was getting money from Wichard, regardless of intent, would have given them cause to push him overboard without the golden parachute.

September 18th, 2010: UNC loses to Georgia Tech

This was one of those games where you asked whether having Robert Quinn, Marvin Austin, Michael McAdoo, Da’Norris Searcy, Kenrid Burney and Deunta Williams would have made a difference. UNC could do nothing with the triple option all day and a couple of ill timed turnovers by UNC ended up being the difference wasting a big time effort by RB Johnny White. Two straight games lost with UNC in possession at the end with a chance to win the game is about as torturous a two losses as you could ask for.

September 22nd, 2010: NCAA suspends Deunta Williams and Kendric Burney

Four games for Williams, six games for Burney. Williams was dinged for spending some quality time with former Tar Heel player Omar Brown at the latter’s house in California. Yes, sleeping on someone’s couch is considered an improper benefit. Burney took the same trip but also others which involved Agent Like Creature Chris Hawkins. That association got Burney two extra games despite having a smaller dollar amount than Williams and the rule book saying the penalty for benefits over $1000 is four games.

September 30th, 2010: Yahoo tosses flash grenade into room about Blake receiving money from Wichard

When this first came out it looked like the end of the world. As it turns out it was more like those flash grenades SWAT teams use to disorient people with light and sound. Once the effects wore off, it was still a big deal but not as clear cut as we were initially led to believe. Ultimately the fact John Blake received any kind of money from Gary Wichard while working at UNC might be enough for the NCAA to rain holy hell down on the Heels. Then again, who can really predict what the NCAA will do. When this came out however, it looked like the low point of the whole fiasco.

October 1st, 2010: NCAA denies Williams, Burney appeals.

Um…yeah.

October 9th, 2010: FB Devon Ramsay held out as part of academic probe

This was potentially a major kick in the teeth since Ramsay played in the first four games and UNC has won two of them. The NCAA, in a rare moment of grace (or CYA take your pick) said UNC would not be required to vacate any wins Ramsay played in. At the time it was yet another player lost and another dimension to an already tangled mess.

October 11th, 2010: Quinn, Little declared ineligible; Austin dismissed.

The big shoe finally drops. We knew all along that Marvin Austin was in deep water. We did not know how deep or that it was over $13,000 worth of illicit benefits but we figured it was deep. Little’s situation was not as clear and appeared to be a 50/50 proposition, that is before we knew he was taking jewelry and trips all over the place. Quinn was the real shock since no one was sure why he was so deeply involved. His presence at ACC Kickoff seemed to signal UNC thought he was clear. As it turns out, UNC did not know the extent of his involvement at that time because he never told them and no one bothered to ask. Even though there were other players with academic issues pending, this was a huge step towards closure. At least at this point, Butch Davis had an idea of what his cards would look like going forward.

October 18th, 2010: UNC announces Zach Pianalto is out for the season.

Every game in which Zach Pianalto has scored a TD he has been injured. The game vs UVa was no different.

October 20th, 2010: Brown out for season; Burney misses seventh game due to unresolved academic issue

Charles Brown ends up with the redshirt after his honor court appearance results in probation and suspension from representing the school. Kendric Burney finished his NCAA penalty but still had an unresolved academic issue to clear up. This meant Burney would sit out the Miami game. The issue involved a waiver he was using to only take three hours in his final semester versus the NCAA required twelve. When a grade was changed in a class by the honor court from C to C- it could no longer be counted towards his major and therefore meant his waiver was no longer valid. The NCAA ultimately granted Burney a waiver to complete the course next semester and reinstated his ineligibility.

November 6th, 2010: Johnny White lost for season in win over FSU

Like the win over UVa which broke the three decades drought in Charlottesville, UNC huge win in Tallahassee was marred by White breaking his clavicle early in the game. That left UNC with Anthony Elzy, Shaun Draughn and Hunter Furr. The first two on that list got injured/shaken up at one point late in the game leaving Furr as the only option. All he did was come in and run for 27 yards on three carries to keep a UNC drive moving. The loss of White led to question as to whether UNC burn Ryan Houston’s redshirt. Turns out that was not necessary.

November 15th, 2010: Ramsay, McAdoo declared ineligible.

Swatting flies with nuclear weapons? Perhaps. The problem is we have no idea what the actual infractions were since privacy laws prevent UNC or the NCAA from discussing it. UNC is appealing and at this point Ramsay’s is awaiting a hearing while McAdoo is awaiting a final decision. Ramsay’s mother has been plenty vocal about it saying it was only one paper. Surely it must be more than that to have the NCAA use the “death penalty” on an individual.

November 19th, 21st 2010: UNC loses two straight in Puerto Rico; Barnes goes 0-12 vs Minnesota

It started so well too. UNC throttled Hofstra in that 2007-2009 sort of way. The Heels scored over 100, threes fell like rain, it was freaking awesome. Then came Minnesota and we all had flashbacks to last season. Harrison Barnes who was perceived as the savior of the program went 0-12 and as of this writing has yet to really get it going. UNC then lost to Vanderbilt sending the Heels back to Chapel Hill with two losses around their neck and the same questions as last season creeping up again. The play of Barnes was the real concern. So much hype. So many assurances he was going to instantly be the real deal. Everyone, Barnes included is waiting for something major to happen with his game.

November 20th, 2010: UNC loses to NCSU for a fourth straight year; UNC women’s soccer bounced from NCAA Tournament

This sucked in a variety of ways. First of all, UNC did a pretty good job controlling the game. The Heels led in the 2nd half when the wheels came off. The first was Russell Wilson converting a 3rd and very long on a scramble with a late hit penalty tacked onto the end. Then UNC makes three stops with goal to go forcing NCSU to go for it fourth down. After flushing Wilson from the pocket and 15 yards further back, the NCSU QB simply throws the ball up into the corner. A jump ball occurs and UNC safety Da’Norris Searcy tips the ball which comes down in the hands of NCSU WR Owen Spencer for a TD. After brief confrontation between the players, Tar Heel LB Kevin Reddick was ejected from the game. After a UNC three and out, NCSU got a punt return for a TD to take the lead.  The game was pretty much downhill from there. UNC did rally but came up just short. After all the crap taken from NCSU fans over the NCAA investigation, UNC fans would continue to endure gloating about what happened on the field as well.

The UNC women’s soccer dynasty could be relied on to make it to at least the College Cup semifinals if not win the whole thing. Not this year. UNC lost to Notre Dame 4-1. It was the first time since 1985 UNC had dropped a game by more than a one goal deficit. It was only the seventh NCAA Tournament loss in school history and denied the two time defending champions the opportunity for a third.

December 14th, 2010: Carter, Pelc lost for bowl game

Sucks, especially for Carter who was having ACL reconstruction and undoubtedly worried about his potentially lucrative NFL career. How is that for fairness. Carter does nothing wrong and plays but gets injured and has his draft status potentially altered. Robert Quinn and Marvin Austin break rules, don’t play, don’t suffer a serious injury and still get paid.

December 27th, 2010: Anthony Elzy out for bowl game for academic issues.

Turns out, Shaun Draughn was more than enough. UNC could have done without another issue like this cropping up however.

December 30th, 2010: UNC wins Music City Bowl in bizarre fashion; Deunta Williams breaks right leg.

Sucked big time for Deunta Williams who everyone agrees is one of the best guys on the Tar Heel team and a great representative of the school. His little NCAA snafu was largely considered dumb(for lack of a better word) since Williams was hanging out with a former player and not taking money from agents or ALCs. As for the game, yes UNC won, so we won’t spend too much time looking a gift horse in the mouth however this must been seen to be believed. A fitting end to a strange year to say the least.

It might be said we are having a little pity party here and not giving due notice to some of the good things that happened like the play of T.J. Yates who broke records and carried UNC to 8-5. Or there is…um….hey the field hockey team fell just short in the national title game, that was sort of good right? The losing streak in Charlottesville ended, UNC won at FSU and the Heels finished with an eight win season and a bowl victory. The NCAA investigation casts a big shadow and no, I am not even going to talk about basketball except to say the NIT run was nice but not enough to erase some of the psychological trauma dealt by the 2010 team through January and February. I guess the moral here is as Tar Heel fans we have been spoiled. The success enjoyed by UNC is as consistent as a fan could ask for and over 50 years of a clean NCAA record means what happened this summer is a shock to the system. So maybe we are being a bit overly dramatic calling one bad year a “year of hell” but given how well UNC has done, it sure felt like it.

So good riddance 2010, bring on 2011.

Happy New Year!

Unfortunately for UNC had to change travel plans for the Heels’ game in New York on Tuesday night. Originally Tar Heel players were going to meet in New York but now  they decided to meet in Chapel Hill for practice today. At present eight Tar Heels are in town for practice with others still trying to get there. Now I have this image of John Henson and Tyler Zeller riding in the back of a truck with a polka band trying to get to Chapel Hill.

I am sure this will all get worked out. If you are in North Carolina enjoy the rare Christmas snowstorm, watch some football and check out this hilarious Star Wars Christmas Special.

According to a tweet from ACC Now, Time Warner Cable will be showing Saturday’s Carolina/East Carolina game at 3:30 on channel 520. I am assuming this is in the TWC service area in central and eastern North Carolina. The game is also scheduled for ESPN3.com.

A contract dispute between Disney/ESPN/ABC and Time Warner Cable in late summer threatened to disrupt programming, but a last-minute deal was struck in early September to keep those channels on the air. One of the benefits of that deal was that Time Warner customers would finally get access to ESPN3, but TWC announced recently that ESPN3 would not be available to its subscribers until late October. Fortunately TWC has stepped up to the plate for its Carolina fans as well as its Pirate fans.

I am guessing they wanted to see how “Lost” and “24″ turned out before making it official.

We can officially close the book on David and Travis Wear who will get to eat homemade macaroni and cheese while being role contributors in Ben Howland’s “offense.”

Here’s the deal. I have built this entire blog on the idea that you can be a fan but at the same time take a level headed, respectful approach to the team, coaches and players. That was put to the test this season when the default mode was to rip anyone wearing a Tar Heel uniform. In situations like a player transferring the standard operating procedure around here would be to wish them well, respect their decision and move on. And I have tried to take that tact but this whole business, especially the way Papa Wear orchestrated it, has me a little pissed. The way the entire process was handled struck me as extremely disrespectful to Roy Williams and UNC basketball in general. Now, being a father, I know that the decisions you make for your kids are often made with little for other people. If you are halfway decent, you make every effort to take the feelings of others into account but ultimately you are going to act in the best interests of your children, screw the consequences.

Certainly that could be the case here but it is one thing for me to do that when my children young, it is quite another to do that and be their spokesperson to the world when they are nineteen freaking years old.  It seems like it has less to do with David or Travis and more to do with Papa Wear and their mother.  Perhaps I am wrong since I cannot crawl inside either of their heads and poke around. However when you get statements from mother, Gloria Wear, like this:

They love UCLA,” the twins’ mother, Gloria Wear, told ESPN.com’s Diamond Leung. “Great school, great coach, great program. Why would they want to leave home?”

Or from Papa Wear:

And it was going to be somewhere on the west coast,” he said. “The boys and their mother (Gloria Wear) had no intention of going outside of this time zone.

It is difficult not to draw the conclusion where the decision ultimately was made at. I mean, seriously Mrs. Wear, if they thought UCLA was all that and a bag of chips, why in the name of John Wooden did they ever leave? It sure would have saved everyone a ton of trouble had they figured that out from day one.

At the end of the day I think that is where my gripe lies. There is this impression that coming to UNC was some huge mistake. Fine, it apparently was and it is not huge news that high school kids sometimes make poor decisions about their future.  What I am having the most trouble with is the feel in the comments from the family that UNC is somehow inferior to the situation at UCLA or this idea that UCLA was where they really wanted to be but they ended up wasting a year in Chapel Hill which they are no longer interesting in talking about. On top of that it now seems as though the manner in which their release was obtained reeked of cowardice on their part. When I was 20 years old and I made the decision following my junior season to not run cross country the next year, I went to the head coach and informed him myself. What’s more my father and mother did not make that decision, I did. The only thing daddy wanted to know was if the grant-in-aid applied to the 2nd semester otherwise he would need to come up with some extra funding. So I find it utterly amazing these two hid while their father talked to their head coach. I guess when you have played charades with your coach over the past month by discussing your development for next season with him all while considering a transfer it might be tough to look him in the eye ever again.

Yeah, I know. This is all coming off like some jilted lover. Then again some jilted lovers are perfectly justified to feel jilted and tell the world about it. I guess my rather meandering point here is while I would love to show these guys respect for having worn the Tar Heel uniform for one season, but I can’t bring myself to do so. Part of it is being a jilted lover but the other part is I am not sure they ever earned it.  Not because they did not play well on the court but rather because they thought so little of Roy and their teammates to at least be straight with them concerning their plans.

So best wishes…I guess…though if down the road their career takes a rather even path into the mediocrity I will have a tough time not saying “I am glad they are someone else’s problem.”

Kadeem Jack is a hot commodity right now, so hot that the North Carolina Tar Heels have come calling and Jack is interested.

The 6-foot-9 senior forward out of Manhattan Rice High School is planning a visit to North Carolina sometime soon although no date has been set.

More importantly,  Zagoria’s report seems to indicate that if a trip down to UNC does occur, then it is possible that it will be more than just a visit and could culminate with an outright commitment:

[Maurice] Hicks [Rice H.S. head basketball coach] didn’t rule out the possibility that Jack could even end up committing to the Heels if he were to visit.

“He’s the type of kid, he’ll probably wind up doing that,” Hicks said. “If he goes down there for a visit, he’ll probably go.”

Damian Leslie, Jack’s mentor, echoed Jack’s interest in the Tar Heels.

“I’m pretty sure it sounds like a promising situation,” Leslie said of North Carolina. “I don’t think he would turn that one down. It sounds more like he would visit though.”

So what would this mean for the Heels?  Well, the obvious benefit would be the addition of another player who is capable of playing down low.  Jack is raw offensively, but according to Scout, his strengths are explosiveness, rebounding (confirmed by the 20 he grabbed against JayVaughn Pinkston), and running the floor, all of which are traits that tend to excel in the Roy Williams’ system.

On the flip-side, there appears to be some disagreement as to where Jack really stands as a recruit.  Dave Telep (Scout) has him rated at #43, which is 11 spots higher than he had the Wears, but he is not ranked in the Top 100 by RSCI, the Top 150 by Rivals, or the Top 200 by Bob Gibbons (neither RSCI nor Gibbons have released their final rankings yet).  If it turns out that Telep is not accurate, is it possible that UNC would actually be better off eating the scholarship this year so it could be saved for the loaded Class of 2011, despite needing front-court depth for next season?  This is the type of question that is great for blogs and also makes me really glad that I am not the one who ultimately has to make the decision.

Regardless, this will certainly be something to keep an eye on.

For the record here is the bottom five where we will be conducting the unpleasantness of the day.

24. 2000
25. 2004
26. 1990
27. 2003
28. 2002

Since this team failed to make the NCAA Tournament they are automatically slotted behind 1990. Since they finished with 20 wins they rate out better than 2002.  The question is whether they are better than 2003 or not. The easiest calculus where that is concerned is the NIT performance. 2010 made it all the way to the finals whereas 2003 lost in the 3rd round. While both teams faced a season ending injury to a quality big man, I am willing to mitigate more of 2010′s troubles slightly since there were some forty plus games lost due to injury. The scheduling is close and 2003 probably faced a tougher ACC slate than 2010.  Ultimately the NIT is the deciding factor, especially since UNC won three games away from Chapel Hill and finished with 20 wins.

Here is the full countdown updated to include 2010:

1. 1982
2. 2009
3. 2005
4. 1993
5. 2008
6. 1998
7. 1995
8. 1984
9. 1987
10. 1997
11. 1991
12. 2007
13. 1986
14. 1994
15. 1983
16. 1989
17. 1988
18. 1985
19. 2006
20. 2001
21. 1992
22. 1996
23. 1999
24. 2000
25. 2004
26. 1990
27. 2010
28. 2003
29. 2002

Oink, oink.

At any rate, here are the awards:

Team MVP: Deon Thompson
Defensive POY: Marcus Ginyard
Most Improved: John Henson
Most Inspirational: Justin Watts
Most Assists: Larry Drew
Top Rebounder/Highest FG%: Ed Davis
Highest FT%: Will Graves

Tyler Zeller was recognized with a scholar athlete award. Travis Wear received an award for being the freshman who exemplified determination, sportsmanship and sacrifice. Leslie McDonald, Dexter Strickland, David Wear and the walk-ons got a free meal.

Thus ends the Lost Season of 2010. May we never speak of it again.

Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt flirts with St. John’s but decides to stay in Atlanta. Yellow Jacket fans mourn.

Boston College fires Al Skinner and hires Cornell’s Steve Donahue.

Wake Forest fires Dino Gaudio after three seasons. The final two of those were somewhat promising but ended amid serious team chemistry issues.

The question is whether Wake’s Ron Wellman makes a serious run at Butler’s Brad Stevens and if he does boy would that makes things fun around here.