Tar Heels off-season thread

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Reminds me of when Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich on the 1973 Yankees swapped wives.

This week was the 50th anniversary of that infamous trade - I hadn't thought of it in a long time and saw this article then you mentioned it...

https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/its-50...ane-swap-ever/

[cato]

Good for Carolina to turn the page on this nightmare of a season. I can’t imagine how playing in the NIT would be a net positive for the players in this drama. Yes — see your commitments through. They did. The NIT is an invitational, not a commitment, and these young men don’t want to be invited anywhere together.

I am old enough now that I not only respect players like Bacot and Davis — I sympathize with them. In fact, I would almost say that I wish they would both return so that they could salvage some face, but I don’t ever want to see them celebrating in Cameron again and if both of those guys come back and they do a bit better in the portal, I would be very worried about exactly that happening.

[quahog174]

You know he didn’t grab her on the rebound.

Heels don’t seem committed to the triangle offense.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Justin McKoy and Tyler Nickel have both entered the Transfer Portal. First dominos to fall...

[MartyClark]

This week was the 50th anniversary of that infamous trade - I hadn't thought of it in a long time and saw this article then you mentioned it...

https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/its-50...ane-swap-ever/

The details are fuzzy but somehow I met Fritz Peterson and his wife, not sure which wife, when I was in college. He had some connection to the area or to Northern Illinois University and I met him before the wife swap details became known. He was a nice guy and his wife was very pretty and polite.

Fairly scandalous stuff back in the day.

[rsvman]

Justin McKoy and Tyler Nickel have both entered the Transfer Portal. First dominos to fall...

Are there supposedly guys who were on their team this season? Sheesh. Hubert doesn't play his bench enough for us mere mortals to keep up.

To be honest both of those sound like made-up names to me. 🤷I'm a real wanker for saying this.♂️

[Matches]

Are there supposedly guys who were on their team this season? Sheesh. Hubert doesn't play his bench enough for us mere mortals to keep up.

To be honest both of those sound like made-up names to me. 🤷I'm a real wanker for saying this.♂️

McKoy transferred there from UVa - wonder if he’ll hit up a 3rd ACC school. That would surely be some sort of record.

[Phredd3]

McKoy transferred there from UVa - wonder if he’ll hit up a 3rd ACC school. That would surely be some sort of record.

Well, it would tie the women's record, anyway, set by Elizabeth Balogun: GaTech -> Louisville -> Duke.

[roywhite]

McKoy transferred there from UVa - wonder if he’ll hit up a 3rd ACC school. That would surely be some sort of record.

Hard to beat Bones McKinney for the total Triangle/ACC experience (granted, much of it was pre-ACC and probably before "the Triangle" became a common identification of the area)

Played at Durham High School (one of the all-time great NC high school teams)
Played 2 years at NC State
After service in the Army, played 1 year at UNC
Coached at Wake Forest 1957-1965
Coached the Carolina Cougars 1969-1971
Somewhere in there he completed studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, in the town of Wake Forest

[Matches]

Well, it would tie the women's record, anyway, set by Elizabeth Balogun: GaTech -> Louisville -> Duke.

Don’t be silly - Louisville isn’t in the ACC. Next you’ll be telling me Notre D- what? {gets passed a note} Oh for the luvva….

[CameronBornAndBred]

Here's an honest look from Carolina beat writer Pat Welter. Way too many good quotes to highlight, but here's a notable one.

The question we are all still asking is why didn't this work? I remember after their loss to Kansas in the national championship saying on air that all of the starters except Brady Manek could come back. After I said it I kind of regretted it because I thought I might be mocked, no way they'd actually do it, but then one by one they did. It was a perfect storm of low NBA draft stock, eligibility, NIL and unfinished business. The Tar Heels were preseason number one because their close game experience should have been an edge in a sport with so little continuity. Instead that experience turned into a weakness. There was no joy to Carolina's games this season, playing looked like a job or a chore, especially when contrasted with the enthusiasm and togetherness we saw locally in NC State and Duke.

https://www.wralsportsfan.com/welter...-end/20762402/

[gep]

We've got to stop teaching kids and young adults it's ok to quit when things are difficult. Social media is not inescapable - don't look, limit replies, uninstall the apps, pull a Stetson Bennett and get a flip phone. If you're playing high level college basketball you probably want to play at the next level too, the trolls don't go away and you can't drop out anytime they get too mean so why aren't Hubert and the staff helping the guys learn how to deal with it? My youngest sister used to pout and quit when she was losing games, but she was 6 and grew out of it, time for Carolina Basketball to do the same.

I agree with this. The coaching staff should have been instilling "team first" etc throughout the season.

Good for Carolina to turn the page on this nightmare of a season. I can’t imagine how playing in the NIT would be a net positive for the players in this drama. Yes — see your commitments through. They did. The NIT is an invitational, not a commitment, and these young men don’t want to be invited anywhere together.

I am old enough now that I not only respect players like Bacot and Davis — I sympathize with them. In fact, I would almost say that I wish they would both return so that they could salvage some face, but I don’t ever want to see them celebrating in Cameron again and if both of those guys come back and they do a bit better in the portal, I would be very worried about exactly that happening.

Well... the "I" does mean "invitational", but like the NCAAT, I don't think I ever thought of the NCAAT as an "invitational". The NIT is a post-season NCAA tournament, just not the "big dance"... but a chance to continue playing, and maybe win the darn thing.

[Jeffrey]

That's a good point. With the best team they could buy they didn't make the NCAA's. Good chance the money ran out.

9F

UNC may need to stop handing out money and go back to paying with unearned degrees. Their brand is already permanently tarnished, so they might as well.

[UrinalCake]

Are there supposedly guys who were on their team this season? Sheesh. Hubert doesn't play his bench enough for us mere mortals to keep up.

McKoy transferred in from UVA, hasn’t done much but could occasionally spell Bacot for a few minutes. Nickel was a four star I think, never got any playing time but was a good shooter. Their fans wanted him to play more and feared he would transfer because Hubert wasn’t giving him any time. It’s kind of a bizarro world where UNC rode its starters and their fans screamed for more bench minutes, while Duke plays two bigs and rebounding is one of our strengths.

[UrinalCake]

I can’t imagine how playing in the NIT would be a net positive for the players in this drama. Yes — see your commitments through. They did.

They haven’t seen through their commitment to letting us make fun of them for as long as possible.

[Neals384]

UNC had a number of players on the bench who allegedly were decent players coming out of high school but got little or inconsistent playing time this year. One would think the NIT would be a great chance for those players to get consistent playing time for at least one game so UNC can have a better sense of what they have in real game situations. It is kind of like a college football team accepting a bid to a mediocre bowl.

That being said, I agree with those above who said that no matter what UNC did, there would have been a bunch of posters here criticizing/insulting it. I am all-in on the rivalry but at some point we are the ones who end up looking a bit ridiculous.

I keep hearing that Puff Johnson is major emerging talent - wouldn't it be great to see him shine in the NIT?

Given that it was a COVID year and the program was "shutdown" on selection Sunday, I have no issue with Duke not participating in the 2021 NIT. However, had it not been a COVID-year, I would have been disappointed to see Duke turn down an NIT bid. The 2021 team struggled with a bunch of close losses, but was coming off two impressive ACC tourney wins bolstered by the emergence of Mark Williams. I wanted to see more of that team.

I also would have loved to see the 1995 play in the NIT had they been eligible. I think the 95 team may have been the best sub .500 team of all time and would have enjoyed seeing them try to prove that in the NIT.

As a Duke fan, I typically want to see the team play as many quality games as possible. Sure, it is a big letdown for a program like Duke not making the NCAA tournament, but playing or not playing in the NIT doesn't change that. In fact, turning down an NIT bid seems to be an admission that your season was such a dramatic failure that you want to get it over with as soon as possible.

Of course, that doesn't mean I would recommend hanging an NIT 3rd place banner.

Runner up Runner up!

Yeah but only for a short while. It's not like Duke fans dredge up UNC's 2010 NIT run to the finals with any regularity. That's the same year we won it all so it would be ripe for the plucking.

Ready as needed for this important duty...see above

[brevity]

McKoy transferred in from UVA, hasn’t done much but could occasionally spell Bacot for a few minutes.

Man, the academic standards at UNC are worse than I imagined.

B-A-C-O-T. It's not that hard!

[OldPhiKap]

McKoy transferred in from UVA, hasn’t done much but could occasionally spell Bacot for a few minutes.

Man, the academic standards at UNC are worse than I imagined.

B-A-C-O-T. It's not that hard!

In a world of funny brevity posts, this one exceeds expectations.

[kako]

Man, the academic standards at UNC are worse than I imagined.

B-A-C-O-T. It's not that hard!

Must spread sporks!!!!!

9F

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Man, the academic standards at UNC are worse than I imagined.

B-A-C-O-T. It's not that hard!

Lol. I wonder how many times his name has been autocorrected to Bacon? I guess the sign of being a true Heels fan is that the word bacon autocorrects to Bacot.