The Rock Star Coach

The University of North Carolina Tar Heels are having a very good season.

Currently, they sit at 7-2, ranked 17th in the country, and are tied for first in the ACC's Coastal Division. Virginia Tech is the only team that can knock UNC out of the ACC Championship Game without the Heels losing a game.

That's the good.

The bad is...this. According to published reports, the University of Tennessee is attempting to lure head coach Butch Davis away from Chapel Hill. Last year, it was Arkansas, Butch's alma mater, that showed interest. That interest cost UNC almost $300,000 a year, and also resulted in promises being made for facililty improvements at Kenan Stadium. All of that followed a 4-8 first season in Chapel Hill.

This year, the team is better, and the (apparent) suitor is much more serious. Rumors are flying about UT potentially offering Nick Saban money ($4 million+) to lure Butch away. If true, UNC may not be able to keep Butch with a few hundred thousand dollars and some extra seats.

Two years, two rumors. Most likely, two raises. That is the problem with "Rock Star" coaches like Davis. As long as he is at UNC, whether it's for two more months or five years, there will always be a traditional "football" school that thinks they can lure him away. If UNC keeps him, it will get expensive...especially if the idea that "whatever Butch gets, Roy Williams gets" is true.

I wonder if UNC can continue promising Butch improved facilities, while at the same time doing nothing to the Dean Dome. Will ol' Roy start to get miffed? I don't believe that Roy will sit idly by while a football coach makes demand after demand. The one problem is that Roy doesn't really have any leverage. Everyone knows that Roy is at his dream job, which also happens to be THE big dog in college basketball. In order for Roy to get rumors started, he'd have to flirt with an NBA team (like Coach K a few years ago), and I just don't think Roy can convince anyone he'd leave UNC for the NBA.

Butch Davis' leaving UNC wouldn't surprise anyone.

Contrary to popular belief, most State fans I know don't think Davis is leaving. They also don't care one way or the other. It's just funny to see the "dance" start every season. UNC signed Davis to a larger contract than any football coach at the school had ever had...and if Butch is still the coach on New Year's Day, they will likely have given him raises after each of his first two years.

Can UNC afford to pay Butch $4 million a season? Should UNC add the 6 or 7 thousand seats (at a cost of $$millions) to Kenan Stadium it will take to make him happy? If Butch gets a big raise at the end of the year, how much will the assistants' pay go up? Will Butch actually agree NOT to let his agent float his name out next season? Will this process start all over again in a few weeks if Charlie Weis gets fired at Notre Dame?

Stay tuned...the show is just beginning.

NC State, UNC Reach Super Regionals

Congratulations to the Wolfpack and the Tar Heels on reaching the second weekend of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Both teams are now just two wins away from a trip to Omaha for the College World Series.

North Carolina will host Coastal Carolina, and NC State will go on the road to face the Georgia Bulldogs.

Best of luck to both teams.

All-Encompassing Update

During the summer, there's not a lot of (ACC) football or basketball news to write about, so rather than driving myself insane trying to find topics, I will just occasionally (or more often, depending on what sparks my interest) weigh in on a few random topics.

JJ Hickson is probably staying in the draft. I don't think he should, but he didn't ask me. He chose not to play at the Orlando pre-draft camp, and wasn't invited for interviews and measurements only. Evidently, he's content with his current draft position...or he thinks he's going to blow the scouts away at his private workout that he will have soon. I believe his best chance of improving his draft stock would have been to go to Orlando and shine against other "wanna be" draftees. However, Sidney Lowe has been around the NBA quite a bit, and if JJ is following his advice, I will easily concede that he's doing the best thing for his particular situation.

The Danny Green saga is very interesting. Apparently, as long as the NBA doesn't specifically tell Mr. Green to pull out of the draft, he is going to stay in it. Tar Heel Fan has all of the UNC/NBA draft news anyone could need, including a couple of articles about Danny Green. It seems that being in prison made Danny Sr. an expert on the intricacies of the NBA draft process.

Football is only a few months away!!!

The United States Open is basically two weeks away. My early prediction: Tiger Woods wins! How's that for going out on a limb? I'll step out a little farther...Tiger will finish at -2, and will be the only golfer in red figures. Plenty of people will be predicting that someone other than Tiger will win, citing his long layoff for knee surgery. I say he will win, because he always wins at Torrey Pines. Also, in 2002, he missed quite a bit of time because of a similar knee surgery, and he won his first tournament back that year, as well. Where was that tournament played?? Yep..Torrey Pines.

Well, that's it for now. Check back soon for another all-encompassing update!

(Still Too Early) ACC Tournament Preview

The 2008 ACC Tournament starts a week from tomorrow. It promises to be interesting, because the league has been relatively balanced this season. There is reason for every team to be cautiously optimistic about their chances.

Of course, the odds favor a Duke-UNC matchup in the finals.

Since there are still a few games left in the season, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the seedings. There will be some interesting twists, and I'm not convinced that finishing higher is absolutely better.

NC State, for example, could still end up with the 10th, 11th, or 12th seed. Normally, you'd think that you would want your team to avoid finishing dead last. I can't say that I want them to be at the absolute bottom, but that could very well be the best spot for them.

Here's why:

The matchups for Thursday are: #5 vs. #12; #6 vs. #11; #7 vs. #10; and #8 vs. #9. Friday's matchups are based on the assumption that the better-seeded team wins: #1 vs. #8/#9; #2 vs. #7/#10; and so on. Consequently, the middle four teams on Thursday get to play each other for the right to square off against Duke and UNC, both of whom would be coming off of a week's rest.

The #5, #6, #11, and #12 are playing to face the "other two" top 4 teams, and no matter which teams end up in those spots, you'd rather play them on Friday than Duke or UNC.

Duke has struggled to win (and lost a couple) when their jumpers aren't falling. On Saturday, they may be a little more tired, and the jumpers may be a little less consistent. Ty Lawson is just coming back from a high ankle sprain, and Quentin Thomas has lost some of the spark he had during Lawson's absence. How will Lawson's ankle hold up for back to back games? If he has soreness, can Thomas step up?

I used NCSU as the example, simply because as a State fan I'm more familiar (and concerned) with their situation. The fact is, UNC and Duke are the elephants in the room, and every team in the ACC would want to avoid playing them for as long as possible in the tournament.

The only real upset of the ACC Tournament would be Duke or North Carolina losing a game, unless the loss came in a championship matchup between those two teams. The other ten teams are all "Jekyll and Hyde." They could all win or lose any game they play, and no one would be really surprised.

The Wolfpack is a prime example. They could show up, play hard, and win a couple of games, or they could lack focus and not even need to unpack in Charlotte. Which Maryland team shows up? The one that beat UNC in the Dean Dome, or the one that lost to American?

Luckily, we get to find out in just a few more days.

"Psycho-T" - Why All The Hate?

People love to take shots at Tyler Hansbrough.

They call him over-rated, and criticize every little thing he does.

I think I know why.

As an NC State fan, I hate to admit it, but it is probably a combination of two things:
1) He plays for UNC.
2) He is really good.

People love to say that Tyler gets away with an extra step quite often. I've said it myself, more than once. It is the truth, actually. However, we leave out the fact that traveling is very rarely called, and lots of players get away with an extra step these days.

That doesn't fit the argument, so we leave it out.

Then, there's the criticism of how he plays the game. He plays a little out of control, causes contact, and is bailed out too much by the referees. Another of my personal favorites. Again, there's a lot of truth in the statement. However, using it to criticize Hansbrough is probably not fair. J.J. Redick was another recent example of a guy who did the same thing. Now, I am NOT a fan of this type of play, and I wish in some situations the referees wouldn't call the foul. But, since they do, I can't really fault Tyler for taking advantage of the situation. Any player in the NCAA that can draw contact like that does the same thing. Hansbrough is just better at it than most.

Last, but certainly not least, the mother of all TH criticisms: He'll never be a star in the NBA. That seems to be the clean-up batter of Tyler criticisms. Is it fair? No. Not even if it's true. Is it true? Only time will tell.

Hansbrough's NBA prospects are, in my opinion, pretty good. At worst, I think he'll be a solid, rebounding, "energy" guy coming off of the bench. At best? This is where the debate comes in. If his game is, right now, all that it's ever going to be, he'll be a solid NBA player. Teams need guys to rebound, and get "garbage" points, without having to run plays for them. A team that already has two or three proven scorers would relish having someone like Hansbrough to work hard and get 10-12 rebounds a night.

The big knock on his NBA chances is his jump shot. No one has ever seen it, so we assume it's not there. Hansbrough only takes one or two (maximum) shots a game that aren't close to the basket. Does he not have the ability to make that shot? Or does Roy Williams have no desire to see him shoot it? The answer to that question will ultimately determine how high up the NBA "star scale" Hansbrough climbs.

If he can knock down a 15-18 ft. jumper with any regularity, he will be compared to Karl Malone. He already has Malone's size, he plays tough defense, he rebounds, and he's probably better facing up and driving to the basket than Malone. He just needs the jumper. If he shows that, he will be very difficult to guard. And, he could end up being a big-time NBA player.

There it is. Honesty about Tyler Hansbrough from an NC State fan. Now, I must go visit another blog so I can get back to my criticisms!