UNC, FSU, and `The Scouting Report`

As you probably know, the University of North Carolina went to Tallahassee this weekend and caught a serious beatdown from the Florida State Seminoles, 90-57.

There was a mini-controversy because Roy Williams exited the building with most of his staff and the entire team except for five walk-on/end-of-bench guys with 14 seconds left in the game.

But, I don’t want to talk about that.  It’s not really a big deal, and at this point no one should be surprised that Roy Williams did something a little  – well – prickly.

The Perfect Storm

In what can only be described as another example of “NC State stuff” (to keep it PG), the Wolfpack lost to Boston College on Saturday.

As a result, Tom O’Brien has taken a spot on the Hot Seat.

Speechless

Former PSU coach Joe Paterno

What in the world is going on in State College, Pennsylvania?

It’s a rhetorical question.  You know what has happened.  It seems like a bad movie, but it’s real life.

Young boys being fondled, molested…..assaulted……by Jerry Sandusky, a long-time Penn State assistant coach who was also the founder of a charity that purported to help young boys escape bad situations.  Eyewitnesses afraid to call the police.  People in positions of power protecting the pedophile in order to protect an image, instead of protecting children.

In the aftermath, students protesting the firing of a legendary football coach. 

Well……Duh.

Michael McAdoo had his hearing today.  His request for an injunction was denied.  Is anyone surprised?  I bet these guys are.  The linked post (at Tarheelfanblog.com) is only one of (at least) three recent posts that talk about McAdoo’s situation.

There are people all over the internet who claim that McAdoo is being forced to pay too heavy a price for his transgressions.  Of course, there are all sorts of crazy people on the internet.  That’s why people tell you to keep your kids away from the computer.

LeBron versus Jordan

Thanks to Scottie Pippen, the debate over who is (or can be) the greatest basketball player of all time has escalated during the current NBA Finals.

As you can imagine, it has brought people out of the woodwork to worship at the Jordan altar.  “LeBron doesn’t have any rings.”  “LeBron left Cleveland for Miami instead of ‘doing it himself’.”  The list of reasons that LeBron can’t ever be greater than Jordan seems to be ever-expanding.

Wrong Answer, Mr. Johnson

Austin Johnson of Pack Pride released a column today detailing all the reasons why he thinks NC State football coach Tom O’Brien made a poor decision by granting Russell Wilson his release.

Simply put, I disagree.

Yes….This Just Happened

North Carolina State has hired Mark Gottfried as its new head basketball coach.

The search seemed to last some time, and Gottfried isn’t the “big name” hire that many NCSU fans had hoped to be hearing during this press conference.  But, after AD Debbie Yow was unable to come to terms with the big fish she went after, Gottfried is a very solid choice.

His resume stacks up quite nicely when compared next to Gregg Marshall, Mick Cronin, and Shaka Smart, who were thought to be the “next level” of candidates.

But, the story coming out of the press conference is going to be Yow’s comments regarding Maryland coach Gary Williams and his comments to potential coaching candidates during the search.

It was widely speculated by the media (including some who claimed to have direct knowledge) that Williams was bad-mouthing Yow to anyone who would listen in an attempt to sabotage the search.  Normally, this type of talk is limited to message board conspiracy theorists, but apparently this time there is at least some amount of truth to the accusations because Yow addressed the situation directly during the Gottfried press conference.

Here’s a clip of her statement.

That type of straightforward response will endear her to State fans, even if it isn’t the most professional way of handling the situation.  At the same time, the fact that Gottfried seems to get a kick out of her comment makes State fans like him more, too.

Good first day!

Hey ACC Sports Journal: Your Heels Are Showing

There are some things you don’t expect from professional journalists.  A fake resume for a struggling coach, full of insults and jokes, is one of those things.  However, that’s exactly what was posted at ACCSports.com from the keyboard of Tim Crothers.  You know Tim, right?  Author of such legendary sports books such as Hard Work by Roy Williams (Crothers was a co-writer) and The Man Watching, a biography of UNC soccer coach Anson Dorrance.

In Good Faith?

Today is March 1st, 2011.  In 3 days, the NFL landscape is going to become very bleak if the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires.  For those of you that don’t know, the CBA is the document that ultimately determines how and how much NFL players are paid, and how much revenue owners get to keep.

In reality, it’s much more complicated than that, but that’s basically what it does.

What Should Be Happening…

We should be getting ready for an awesome weekend of college football games  (Yes, I know, FCS has their playoffs this week, but I’m talking about the big boys).

ESPN lists 11 Division I FBS conferences.  Those 11 champions would be in the 12-team tournament.  Yes, even 7-5 Troy from the Sun Belt Conference.