Some random pieces of news for your consideration.
- Bobby Frasor's surgery to repair his torn ACL was successful. Great news and high hopes his rehab goes well so he is ready to play his senior season. Incidentally this is why Roy was absent from the weekly ACC teleconference which prompted various humorous and conspiratorial musings on the IC message board.
- One of the things slipping through the cracks last week was ACC Now's post on Butch Davis' raise. As it turns out UNC restructured the retention bonus pay outs to cover $157,000 of the $291,000 raise. In other words, money that was being paid into a deferred compensation account will instead be paid to him on an annual basis. The remaining $134,000 comes from an $29,000 bump in his base pay, $5000 more added to his expense account and a $100,000 increase in supplemental income(i.e. Rams Club money.) He also has bonuses if UNC reaches top level bowls and the buyout scheme is still in place. I think this was an appropriate way to handle it. Over the half the money being used for the raise was set aside anyway and UNC basically realized that some accumulated retention bonus five years from now is not going to stop Davis from leaving but raising his present salary might and for now it did.
- Ken Pomeroy has an interesting take at Basketball Prospectus arguing against UNC's inclusion in the group of teams favored to win a national title and also saying the difference between UNC and Duke is smaller than most people realize. I am not going to get into this too much now. The 2005 had some similar things said about it at this point in the season three years ago. Look no further than the ESPN Power 16 poll in week #10 and #13 to see examples of the belief that UNC was no better than the fifth or sixth best team in the nation. The poll from week #17, which was two games into the NCAA Tournament, tells a different tale, one that matched the result after the title game. I know the concerns are there, I share them, but this season is only halfway done and I think UNC will meet the challenge when the time comes.