MY ANNUAL PLEA TO THE NCAA:
If the Super Bowl can kick off at 6:30pm ET, why on earth does the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game not tip til 9:20pm ET?
Wanna hook in a new generation of fans? Make the game at a time when they can stay up to watch it.
It’s wild to think that UNC is a Kris Jenkins shot & an Armando Bacot tweaked ankle away from potentially having won 3 of the last 6 National Championships.
What a career for
@LeakyBlack
.
**1st player in
@UNC_Basketball
HISTORY** to achieve the following combination of career stat thresholds:
• 600 points (698 total)
• 500 rebounds (593)
• 300 assists (301)
• 50 blocks (74)
• 100 steals (137)
Congrats Leaky!
#LockdownLeaky
Leaky Black (
@RechonBlack
) on the celebration after the Duke game as the team congregated by the Carolina seating & what face he picked out in the crowd: Nassir Little (
@2ez_nassie
).
This answer is the epitome of what being part of the
#CarolinaFamily
is all about.
It’s no secret college basketball has a block/charge problem. This offensive foul call against Leaky Black is quite possibly the worst one I’ve ever seen.
How's this for neat?
Both Arizona and North Carolina won at Duke this year, meaning that Caleb Love, Steve Robinson, AND the Tar Heels ALL WON at Cameron in 2023-24.
It's only fitting.
Drake Maye now leads the nation in:
• Total TD: 32
• Total Yards: 3,110 (only player over 3,000)
• Total Yards / Game: 388.75
• Passing TD: 29 (tied with CJ Stroud)
What does the starting point guard from each of UNC's last 4 National Championship teams have in common?
• 1993 - Derrick Phelps - JUNIOR
• 2005 - Raymond Felton - JUNIOR
• 2009 - Ty Lawson - JUNIOR
• 2017 - Joel Berry - JUNIOR
This year...
• 2023 - RJ Davis - JUNIOR
Somebody on
@SportsCenter
just said that this was Hubert Davis' 1st win over Duke.
Uhhhhh...I'm sorry what?
Need a refresher of HD's 2 prior wins against Duke?
Cannot stop watching this video of
@_kruck75_
,
@cedthr33
, &
@PowerEchols
. Not to mention, they're incredibly productive:
Combined vs. Miami
21 tackles
14 solo tackles
2.5 sacks
3.5 TFL
1 INT
3 PBU
5 QBH
Raise your hand if your college basketball team has ever won a National Championship in 4 straight decades.
(The only fan bases that should be raising their hands are UNC & UConn)
Any guesses as to who the ACC's leading rebounder is in conference games?
Not Armando Bacot.
Not Norchad Omier.
Not Efton Reid.
Not PJ Hall.
Not Ian Schieffelin.
It's HARRISON INGRAM (
@Harrisoniingram
) at 10.6.
Yet another reason for UNC's ascension.
Just a friendly Monday reminder about
@UNC_Basketball
's postseason pattern:
• 2005 | lost in ACC semis | National Champs
• 2009 | lost in ACC semis | National Champs
• 2017 | lost in ACC semis | National Champs
• 2022 | lost in ACC semis | ???
#RuinAnotherRetirementParty
I'm still trying to figure out how
@ElliotCadeau
made the physics & geometry of this pass work. Rest assured, this is not a normal find to a cutting big man. This is next-level vision & execution.
Sports is about the people & the stories.
British Brooks returned to action as RB1 for UNC tonight after missing all of last year injured & led the team in rushing with 103 yards (2nd career 100+ game).
Postgame, he & Mack Brown share a special embrace.
Want to give a shout-out to Leaky Black (
@RechonBlack
) for his willingness to be open and vulnerable in UNC's postgame press conference talking about his struggles with anxiety & how his therapist and prayer before games with Jackie Manuel have aided in his health. Thanks Leaky!
GG Jackson currently live on Instagram. Says multiple times that it's just rumors about him wavering on UNC.
Translation: EVERYONE CHILL.
#JordanClass
#CarolinaFamily
This was the absolute right call from Hubert Davis.
With all due respect to Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik, allowing the 5 seniors who have been in the UNC program their whole careers to be the starters on Senior Night was the only correct choice.
One of the best (& most overlooked) things UNC did last night was start with 6'5 Cormac Ryan guarding 6'5 Tyrese Proctor
Proctor's previous 5 games?
• Points: 17, 11, 24, 18, 12
• 3s: 15-31, 48.4%
Last night?
• 2 points
• ZERO 3-point ATTEMPTS
Have you realized how efficient Jalen Washington’s (
@jalen_w13
) shooting has been for UNC?
• FG: 54-77, 70.1%
• 3FG: 8-15, 53.3%
Not high volume, but highly efficient.
An interesting lineup note UNC’s win over Clemson on Saturday:
2 Tar Heels played the entirety of the final 14 minutes.
NOT RJ Davis
NOT Armando Bacot
NOT Cormac Ryan
NOT Elliot Cadeau
It was Harrison Ingram and Seth Trimble.
North Carolina scored 100 points tonight.
No individual player had more than 17.
Heels assist on 24 of 32 FGs (75%).
THAT is North Carolina basketball.
Ian Jackson becomes the 4th
@UNC_Basketball
commit in the class of 2024.
This class was already No. 1 in the nation & now adds the No. 2 player in the class.
Sleep on Hubert Davis at your own peril.
Time with the lead in the 2 games UNC vs. Duke this regular season:
• UNC: 77:47
• Duke: 16 seconds (led 2-0 in the 1st game & that was it)
As I said earlier this week - The 2023-24 North Carolina Tar Heels are simply a better TEAM than Duke.
North Carolina's RJ Davis is the 2023-24 ACC Player of the Year.
Not a unanimous choice but pretty close.
• RJ Davis, UNC - 68 votes
• Kyle Filipowski, Duke - 3
• PJ Hall, Clemson - 2
• Armando Bacot, UNC - 1
• Quinten Post, BC - 1
UNC Family: I bet Brady Manek could use a bit of a pick me up tonight. If you have a minute you can spare out of your evening, let Brady know how much he means to this community.
Use this hashtag so the messages all get grouped together:
#TarHeelsForBrady
Asked the
@UNC_Basketball
starters at today's press conference if they had had a chance to talk to Dawson Garcia before or after the Marquette victory. Their response (or lack thereof) was.....interesting.
Seth Trimble (
@sethtrimble1
) announces on his Instagram that he is pulling out of the transfer portal & coming back to UNC for his junior year!
If I'm not mistaken (someone please correct me if I am), this is the 1st time UNC has had a player enter the portal & decide to return
Of the current AP Top 25, 24 have played at least 1 team ranked outside the
@kenpomeroy
top 200 (19 have played multiple). Indiana is the worst offender, having played 5 sub-200 teams in 6 games.
The only AP top 25 to not play a sub-200 KenPom team?
The North Carolina Tar Heels.
Here we go, another incorrectly called block/charge:
This should be PJ Hall’s 4th foul, instead it’s an offensive foul on Caleb Love. Hall clearly & obviously still moving with Love already in the air.
D'Marco Dunn just played the best game of his young UNC career.
• 14 points (career high) on 5-7 FG, 2-3 3Fg, 2-2 FTs
• 5 rebounds (career high)
• 1 ast
• 2 stl (career high)
• 1 blk
• played tough defense on El Ellis
The importance of North Carolina winning that game cannot be emphasized enough.
First Quad 1 win of the season.
Comeback from 14 down.
Bookmark this game when we look back on the 2022-23 season.
In North Carolina's 5 ACC losses, they've lost by 8, 2, 7, 1, & 6.
That's an average of just 4.8 points.
UNC has to find a way to close out tight games.
Sure, RJ Davis' 42 points on Monday night was bonkers, but perhaps nothing else beats how into the
@CrumblCookies
promotion Coach Roy Williams got. This man is INVESTED in getting some cookies!
Updated scholarship availability for North Carolina following Caitlin Clark's decision to transfer to the Tar Heels for her senior year:
4 available scholarships
(h/t to
@uncappedtyler
)
If anyone wasn't previously willing to accept UConn as a
#BlueBlood
, that conversation is now over.
Only 4 programs have won 6+ NCAA Tournaments:
• UCLA (11)
• Kentucky (8)
• North Carolina (6)
• UConn (6)
Not Kansas.
Not Duke.
Just those 4.
RJ Davis has moved past Kyle Filipowski & Hunter Dickinson & now has the 2nd best Wooden Award odds at
@FanDuel
behind only Zach Edey.
• Zach Edey -750
• RJ Davis +2600
• Kyle Filipowski, Hunter Dickinson, Dalton Knecht +3000
• Kevin McCullar +6500
This is the dunk I've been waiting on for 5 years.
Always knew it was in there somewhere.
@LeakyBlack
with the single most vicious dunk of his career.
What a pump fake.
What a finish.
WHAT. A. MOMENT.
🚨Armando Bacot isn't the only Tar Heel that moved atop the UNC record books today🚨
Following his 14-14 performance from the free throw line, RJ Davis jumped to No. 1 in career free throw percentage (min. 50 made).
Top 10:
North Carolina's Q3 loss at GT has flipped to Q2 (at least for today) thanks to the Yellow Jacket's win over FSU yesterday.
UNC's updated Quad results
• Q1: 6-4
• Q2: 6-2
• Q3: 6-0
• Q4: 5-0
Oh boy, how do you not call a foul there? North Carolina shouldn't have been in that position, but RJ Davis should have been at the free throw line with a chance to win it for UNC.
Here's something to keep in mind about Leaky Black's (
@RechonBlack
) importance to
@UNC_Basketball
:
Holding a player (let's say, oh I don't know, Ochai Agbaji for example) 10 points below his season average is like scoring 10 points above your own season average
DEFENSE MATTERS
Jae'lyn Withers powerful block on one end.
Seth Trimble thunderous dunk on the other.
BUT WATCH THE ONE-HANDED, 3/4-COURT RJ DAVIS PASS IN BETWEEN.
That...is Carolina basketball.
On a night where Carolina's defense will be rightly heralded for their 9 sacks...
Don't miss that the OL allowed ZERO sacks.
That's a credit to both the line and Drake Maye.
Want to know why the
#CarolinaFamily
is so special?
I received an email from an older Tar Heel which included the following:
"I am 81 years old. The Heels have made it to the NCAA championship game in every decade that I have lived! I'll be ready for the 10th in just 8 years!"
Thanks to
@iget_buckets35
for his work in the Chapel Hill community.
And folks - moreover, make sure to not miss who else is in this picture:
@caleb2love
. That speaks volumes about a young man who is transferring elsewhere but still giving back to Chapel Hill in the meantime.
I spent last evening at the Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill eating ice cream, meeting kids and their families, and learning more about what the House does for our community. Thanks for having me
@rmhchapelhill
!
Armando Bacot says he hasn't had an opportunity to connect yet with Brice Johnson about breaking his single-season UNC double-double or rebounding records, but looks forward to talking trash to him about it this summer.
Just had this thought...
UNC could treat the NIT essentially like college football teams treat Non-CFP Bowl Games:
Play to win, but use the opportunity to prepare for next season.
Give upcoming players opportunities, try different sets, test out new lineup combinations, etc.
Love this quote from
@LeakyBlack
on the
@carolina_pod
:
"Obviously having that '1' beside your name is different, but at the end of the day we've always had 'North Carolina' on our chest."
The Tar Heels played in the 3 most watched basketball games of 2022 so far. College or NBA.
I hope every recruit in the country is looking at this list. Come to Chapel Hill and play on the biggest stage basketball has to offer.
Most watched basketball games of the year so far:
17.0M UNC vs Kansas
16.2M UNC vs Duke
13.6M UNC vs St Peter's
11.9M NBA Finals Game 2
11.4M NBA Finals Game 1
11.2M Duke vs Mich St
11.1M Villanova vs Kansas
10.3M Duke vs Arkansas
10.1M Purdue vs St Peter's
Nothing better than the newly minted 2023-24 ACC Champions climbing out the top of the bus to celebrate.
Cormac Ryan is wild. And he deserves every second of this celebration.
📸 cred:
@sophiaczek
(used with permission)
We now know the landing spot for all 6 Tar Heels transferring out of the UNC program:
• Puff Johnson - Penn St
• Caleb Love - Michigan
• Justin McKoy - Hawaii
• Tyler Nickel - Virginia Tech
• Will Shaver - Belmont
• Dontrez Styles - Georgetown
Tennessee lost at home to Kentucky today.
Arizona lost at USC (a sub-.500 team).
UNC won at Duke.
The conversation for the 4th No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament just got much more interesting.
The 2 teams who competed in last year's National Championship (Kansas & UNC) have lost a combined 11 players to the transfer portal.
At least part of the reason for both is bench usage rate. Out of 363 teams in D1:
• UNC - 360th (18.3%)
• Kansas - 361st (18.0%)
Miami hadn’t allowed 40 points this season. Now they have.
Miami hadn’t allowed 100+ team rushing yards this season. Now they have.
Miami hadn't allowed a 100+ yard rusher this season. Now they have.
Miami hadn’t allowed 500+ yards of total offense this season. Now they have.
🚨BOOK IT🚨
With both Tennessee & Arizona losing today, I'm calling it - we have our 4 1-seeds locked up for the NCAA Tournament:
• South: Houston
• Midwest: Purdue
• East: UConn
• West: UNC
👀👀👀
Get his mullet to Chapel Hill immediately.
Focus is on staying in NBA Draft, but why not make a big pitch?
Time for Armando to do his thing.
@iget_buckets35
🤝
@MatthewMayer24
News: Baylor's Matthew Mayer, NCAA champion in 2021, entered the transfer portal prior to the deadline. Mayer's focus is on preparing for the NBA Draft and his full intent is to put himself in a position to stay in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Carolina has had 3 500-point scorers in a season 7 previous times. Here's how those teams finished:
3 National Champs
1 National Runner-Up
2 Final Fours
1 Elite Eight
This season? (points updated as of ACC Semifinal):
Cam Johnson - 559
Coby White - 520
Luke Maye - 486 (needs 14)
When you look atop the ACC standings in women's basketball, you notice Duke & Notre Dame tied for 1st, each with a 7-1 conference record.
Those 2 losses?
Both courtesy of
@CoachBanghart
&
@uncwbb
.
Former Marquette and North Carolina basketball player Dawson Garcia will transfer to Minnesota for next season. Given the proximity to home & the family health issues, I would imagine the NCAA will grant a waiver for him to be able to play immediately.