Being The Gosh-Darn Favorites

I want to thank J.S. for putting up two great posts this weekend. It was nice to have something up on this blog that I actually enjoyed reading. He seems to have a prodigious output of posts like I sometimes tend to do, so this is going to be a lot of fun.

Let me share something with the world here. I hate UNC-Chapel Hill. I hate the people, I hate the attitude they have, and mostly I hate the sports teams. My sister actually went there and I did not speak to her for 4.5 years and we are just getting to know each other again. So just remember that as I mock them mercilessly and just think of it as sour grapes. One of the reasons I hate UNC is the coach, Roy Williams. I don't hate him personally, I hate his "gosh, we just do the best darn things we can to win and if we don't win I am going to buy the whole team some pop and we can talk on the front porch" demeanor. He is really a basketball killing machine but wants to pretend to be down home. He can go to Hell. I also hate how Duke is considered the Yankees of college basketball while the Tar Heels are not universally hated, despite the fact UNC has won more championships and are always a national powerhouse. They are still loved by most people, except Duke fans, it is insane. I want this to change.

Andy Katz has provoked Roy Williams' downhome demeanor and it is going to give me a seizure. Also, watch for a link-o-rama fest.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3493057

North Carolina coach Roy Williams made it clear to his Tar Heels that if they don't put the team first in their quest for a national title, they won't play for him next season.

I guess putting the team first means recruiting violations that are never punished?

http://www.fanhouse.com/2007/09/30/did-unc-break-recruiting-rules/

Sean May was putting the team first even AFTER he left school to sit the bench for the Bobcats.

Of course UNC did an internal "investigation" and found they did not break any rules. They were also putting the team first.

http://carolinabball.blogspot.com/2007/10/unc-finds-no-recruiting-violations.html

You want more blatant violation of NCAA rules that went unpunished?

http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2008/04/30/obama-scrimmages-with-unc-tar-heels-but-did-it-violate-ncaa-ru/

I realize every team does things like this, supposedly, but why don't people hate UNC? This bothers me. They commit violations, minor as they are, have an annoying good white player, and get a lot of calls from the refs. I am vexed.

"If I feel that someone is out for themselves, I don't give a darn who it is, they won't play," Williams said last week in Akron, Ohio

I don't give a darn! He does not curse, how high and mighty of him! Golly gee, buddy.

North Carolina is the overwhelming favorite to win the 2009 national title.

As they should be, they lost only one player from the team last year that made the Final Four and have an absolutely loaded bench. I have prepared myself for this fact. This is team is like the 1991 UNLV, 1997 Kansas, and 1999 Duke teams in that if they don't win the National Championship there is really, really something wrong and should be investigated fully.

"I didn't think [there was] any way in Hades that we'd have all three back," Williams said of getting Lawson, Ellington and Green to return on the deadline to withdraw from the NBA draft.

If you don't think "no way in Hades" is something fucking stupid to say then I don't know what to say to you. Just imagine if someone came up to you and said that phrase, and tell me you would not want to punch them in the face and then scream in their ear. You would immediately do it.

I wish Andy Katz would just misquote him and throw the word "hell" in there.

"The '05 team had six or seven guys, but this team has a chance to go much deeper," Williams said. "On the '05 team, we won just 19 games the year before so there was no reason to be fat and happy. None of those guys thought about the NBA and the NBA had no interest in them. They were hungry to show people they were a big-time basketball team.

Gollllllllllllllllllllly, that is a great point Roy. I am sure Marvin Williams the 6th man on that team was not thinking about the NBA when he was ranked the #10 recruit in his class.

http://www.insidehoops.com/high-school-2004.shtml

Oh and Roy, that team also had 3 of the 10 recruits from the 2002 class as well in Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Rashad McCants. I would say the NBA had their eye on them as well.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=4&pid=88&yr=2002

Quit with the "little old me, I just get the best players I can and do what I can with them" act. Andy Katz should have included in the article that this quote by Roy Williams was insanely incorrect and pointed out every starter for that team was highly recruited and would have fit in well in the NBA. I would argue that UNC is the premier recruiting factory in the nation and Roy just continues to pretend he gets very few talented players, but mostly just farm boys from East Indiana who shot on peach baskets when they weren't busy working in the fields.

Williams said the "high character" of this Tar Heels team is a reason he's not concerned that he has "too many guys."

Yeah that 2005 National Championship team had no character. Now someone is not being a team player and trying to sell his ring.

http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2008/07/18/tar-heels-2005-championship-ring-is-being-auctioned-on-ebay/

What Williams is talking about is the high character of players like Ty Lawson.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6189197

How many other UNC players were in the car when he got arrested? If you know Ty Lawson, and know what a high character person he is, then you would know the answer is zero. High motherfucking puppie petting baby kissing character. That's all Ty Lawson is.

The only thing Williams still doesn't have a handle on from last season is the perplexing first half against Kansas in the national semifinal.

You get your ass kicked sometimes, I don't see how this is tough to get a handle on. They got out to a 40-12 lead because your team played poorly. This is why I don't like good ol' Roy Boy, he can't just say, "we got our ass kicked." Google it. You will never see him say it.

"It's the most dumbfounded I've ever been as a coach," Williams said of the Kansas loss. "In the locker room, we prepared like we did every game in the ACC and in the NCAA. They'd all been the same and the kids appeared to have a good focus. I'm just dumbfounded, still dumbfounded. Kansas just came in and hit us in the mouth."

I am dumbfounded too Roy. You didn't have your team practice by riding mules around the gym shooting heads of cabbage into a wooden box, pointing out shiny objects in the stands to your players, or putting your shoes on their hands? I have no idea what happened either. Gosh, Roy, I am dumbfounded also.

Maybe Kansas kicked your ass.

UNC won't back down in scheduling once again.

They are the best team in the country and the odds on favorite to win the National Championship. Why would they back down?

Williams is taking the Tar Heels on the road, too, against lower-level teams that could cause problems, like UC Santa Barbara on the way to Maui and Valparaiso in Chicago

How are you going to write an article about how good this team is and then say UC Santa Barbara and Valparaiso are going to give the Tar Heels problems? Andy Katz is playing perfectly into Roy's aw-shucks persona and it kills me. UNC has no business losing more than 2 games this upcoming year. What problems do UC Santa Barbara and Valparaiso reasonably give them?

"The league is so much better and experienced," Williams said. "And in playing Kentucky, Michigan State and the Maui games, I think those kinds of games will get us ready."

How can you write an entire article about how awesome UNC, including things like this:

With those three back, UNC will return its top six scorers, who combined to score 78.7 points, which is more than 319 Division I teams averaged last season.

Add in returning forwards Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard, guard Bobby Frasor (coming back from a knee injury) and the infusion of even more talent with ready-to-contribute freshman guards Larry Drew and Justin Watts and forwards Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis, and the Tar Heels are as loaded as any team in recent memory to be challenging for the title.

then even pretend there is another team that is in the same class? UNC is the clear favorite and they deserve to be, I just wish someone would start hating on them for the fake modesty and "aw shucks, look at us" mentality.

I will try to write something less angry later today. We'll see how that goes, without Simmons around, I am running on anger fumes right now.