Hot Stove: UNC Basketball

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PTOHeel said:
Question for people who say 'I don't care about college revenue sports any more' or something to that effect. There were a couple of comments on the last page of the portal transfer thread and I didn't want to derail it. What does not caring about revenue sports (and obviously we're talking about basketball and football here) mean to you?

My feelings about college BB and FB have changed a lot over time. That's both because of how the environment around these sports has changed and also how my life has changed over time, going from being a fan as a child, to a young adult, to being married, to having children, to children being young adults themselves. All of these things change how I watch and enjoy sports. But when the actual seasons roll around, I'm still watching the games and cheering for the Heels. I'm curious if that's not the case for some of you. That you don't watch the games anymore and don't care if they win or lose.
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Despite everything the games themselves are pretty unaffected by all of this.

If just watch the games it’s easier to digest. You lose the fun of following players and teams growing together but that was being diluted anyway.

Watch the games and cheer for the name on the front.
 
My enjoyment of UNC bball is down due to the constant roster turnover. And to some extent probably due to not having many great teams lately

But I still enjoy college bball as a whole. Still think there’s entertainment value if you like basketball and want something different from the NBA

College bball wasn’t exactly at its peak pre-NIL either and I’m not sure the overall product is any worse today
 
Obviously I follow the team very closely -- the biorhythms dictate that I do and I have historically enjoyed that. One of the things that, dating back to the time when this information was well-known and publicized, I have always loved is knowing what the players major in. Obviously that is hardly ever even known anymore and when it is it tends to be an "athlete's discipline." At least those have morphed over time from historic "slides" to something that at least sounds like it might be useful to future PE teacher or media figure.

I'm still quite engaged but I also feel some of my enthusiasm waning for the student-athlete side of things and I'm not sure where that will ultimately lead me.

As an aside...birthdates are becoming increasingly hard to find even with more potential places to find them so I am considering laying down the Ritmos. I started doing them for the 2000-2001 season for the posters at ACCBoards.com. Now there is a facebook page and at times I have posted them on Instagram, twitter, and Bluesky as well as several different message boards. I enjoy them but I have noticed in the last couple of years that it is pretty clear that most are not reading them. I even know some folks that find them annoying but at least tend to be polite about that.

I figure that in my case this heralds some sort of alteration of my sense of things -- I'll always find Coach Smith's way imitable both on the court and in life. And Carolina is my alma mater. Like someone mentioned above -- I'll still try and go to games and keep up with the players but I do wonder what shall become of my attention in the coming months and years.
 
donbosco said:
Obviously I follow the team very closely -- the biorhythms dictate that I do and I have historically enjoyed that. One of the things that, dating back to the time when this information was well-known and publicized, I have always loved is knowing what the players major in. Obviously that is hardly ever even known anymore and when it is it tends to be an "athlete's discipline." At least those have morphed over time from historic "slides" to something that at least sounds like it might be useful to future PE teacher or media figure.

I'm still quite engaged but I also feel some of my enthusiasm waning for the student-athlete side of things and I'm not sure where that will ultimately lead me.

As an aside...birthdates are becoming increasingly hard to find even with more potential places to find them so I am considering laying down the Ritmos. I started doing them for the 2000-2001 season for the posters at ACCBoards.com. Now there is a facebook page and at times I have posted them on Instagram, twitter, and Bluesky as well as several different message boards. I enjoy them but I have noticed in the last couple of years that it is pretty clear that most are not reading them. I even know some folks that find them annoying but at least tend to be polite about that.

I figure that in my case this heralds some sort of alteration of my sense of things -- I'll always find Coach Smith's way imitable both on the court and in life. And Carolina is my alma mater. Like someone mentioned above -- I'll still try and go to games and keep up with the players but I do wonder what shall become of my attention in the coming months and years.
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I enjoy your Ritmos, but respect whatever you decide.
 
I think most people tend to have less "fandom" as they age. Witnessed that with my stepdad going from a guy who woumd never miss a game (season tickets) over a couple of decades to a guy who sold almost all of his tix and just went to a couple games per year

Now that I am 50 I am in the same boat. I still very much care for my Heels, but don't invest the same time and energy to it. I used to schedule events around Tar Heel basketball and football games. Now I try to be aware enough to catch the games on tv, but if other plans prevent it then so be it.

So part of it feels natural to me, but I do also feel less "pull" due to the lack of continuity and mercenary nature of current college sports. It is also harder to care about playing SMU in January vs the old rivalries, stuff like that.

I also hate what analytics has done to the game, can barely watch NBA at all. As Steve Kerr recently noted, the game used to be about creating the best shot, so it had a flow around the basket that made sense. Now, you just fling 3's and hope the math works out in your favor due to that volume. Hard to recognize the game I used to love at times....
 
PTOHeel said:
Question for people who say 'I don't care about college revenue sports any more' or something to that effect. There were a couple of comments on the last page of the portal transfer thread and I didn't want to derail it. What does not caring about revenue sports (and obviously we're talking about basketball and football here) mean to you?

My feelings about college BB and FB have changed a lot over time. That's both because of how the environment around these sports has changed and also how my life has changed over time, going from being a fan as a child, to a young adult, to being married, to having children, to children being young adults themselves. All of these things change how I watch and enjoy sports. But when the actual seasons roll around, I'm still watching the games and cheering for the Heels. I'm curious if that's not the case for some of you. That you don't watch the games anymore and don't care if they win or lose.
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It's just hard to let myself be invested in teams whose players I know won't be around for more than one season. I miss the players of my generation, who bled Carolina blue and who considered it to be an honor to wear the Carolina jersey. I still support Carolina of course. I watch some of the games, but I don't circle the dates on my calendar like I used to. Instead, I find myself flipping channels looking for any exciting game, where I don't really care who wins or loses as much as just enjoying the beauty of the game itself.
 
donbosco said:
I enjoy them but I have noticed in the last couple of years that it is pretty clear that most are not reading them.
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I was new to the Biorhythms, first time I saw them was in here. I was wary at first but, just wasn't quite sure what exactly it was, but I always liked it when a ritmo nugget panned out. I also always wondered where they came from. Is it akin to dowsing? Does a spirit come upon ye like a faith healer? Obviously the best answer now would be "it's strictly numbers, son, I just cipher em" but I strongly sense some other inspiration is at play...
 
hedge said:
I was new to the Biorhythms, first time I saw them was in here. I was wary at first but, just wasn't quite sure what exactly it was, but I always liked it when a ritmo nugget panned out. I also always wondered where they came from. Is it akin to dowsing? Does a spirit come upon ye like a faith healer? Obviously the best answer now would be "it's strictly numbers, son, I just cipher em" but I strongly sense some other inspiration is at play...
Click to expand...

It is a combination of numbers and spirit actually...as in it can become evident over time that certain categories are more important to a player than others. Physical might not mean much to a player who runs on adrenalin but Emotion might for example. Of course, it takes time to suss such things out. Another reason making the Ritmos more difficult to handle...the players aren't around long enough to discern patterns.
 
Oddball said:
I think most people tend to have less "fandom" as they age. Witnessed that with my stepdad going from a guy who woumd never miss a game (season tickets) over a couple of decades to a guy who sold almost all of his tix and just went to a couple games per year

Now that I am 50 I am in the same boat. I still very much care for my Heels, but don't invest the same time and energy to it. I used to schedule events around Tar Heel basketball and football games. Now I try to be aware enough to catch the games on tv, but if other plans prevent it then so be it.

So part of it feels natural to me, but I do also feel less "pull" due to the lack of continuity and mercenary nature of current college sports. It is also harder to care about playing SMU in January vs the old rivalries, stuff like that.

I also hate what analytics has done to the game, can barely watch NBA at all. As Steve Kerr recently noted, the game used to be about creating the best shot, so it had a flow around the basket that made sense. Now, you just fling 3's and hope the math works out in your favor due to that volume. Hard to recognize the game I used to love at times....
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I haven't been to a game in years. If you, or anyone else wants to sell ticket, I'm interested.
 
PTOHeel said:
Question for people who say 'I don't care about college revenue sports any more' or something to that effect. There were a couple of comments on the last page of the portal transfer thread and I didn't want to derail it. What does not caring about revenue sports (and obviously we're talking about basketball and football here) mean to you?

My feelings about college BB and FB have changed a lot over time. That's both because of how the environment around these sports has changed and also how my life has changed over time, going from being a fan as a child, to a young adult, to being married, to having children, to children being young adults themselves. All of these things change how I watch and enjoy sports. But when the actual seasons roll around, I'm still watching the games and cheering for the Heels. I'm curious if that's not the case for some of you. That you don't watch the games anymore and don't care if they win or lose.
Click to expand...
The roster turnover in the NIL/new transfer rule era has made it harder for me to get as emotionally invested in FB/BB compared to say a decade ago.

Honestly though that’s only part of why I’m not quite as invested as I used to be, and not even the main reason. Getting older and further removed from my college days is probably the easiest explanation. Both programs struggling in recent seasons contributes to it. I haven’t actually lived in NC or within the ACC footprint in a long time and I think that’s a big factor for me personally. I don’t get to attend games in person very frequently because of that and rarely interact with UNC fans or rival fans in person on a day to day basis. Lately if it does come up in conversation at all it’s usually someone ribbing me about Belichick lol.

All of that to say, I do still watch/follow the teams pretty closely and don’t see that changing any time soon. It’s just different than it used to be.
 
PTOHeel said:
Question for people who say 'I don't care about college revenue sports any more' or something to that effect. There were a couple of comments on the last page of the portal transfer thread and I didn't want to derail it. What does not caring about revenue sports (and obviously we're talking about basketball and football here) mean to you?

My feelings about college BB and FB have changed a lot over time. That's both because of how the environment around these sports has changed and also how my life has changed over time, going from being a fan as a child, to a young adult, to being married, to having children, to children being young adults themselves. All of these things change how I watch and enjoy sports. But when the actual seasons roll around, I'm still watching the games and cheering for the Heels. I'm curious if that's not the case for some of you. That you don't watch the games anymore and don't care if they win or lose.
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I want us to win but it doesn’t bother me very much any longer when we lose.
I like watching the games but if they are on late I’m not watching. And I’m not scheduling other things around UNC games like I used to.

Edit: and I feel like I cared more last year than I will next year.
 
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donbosco said:
As an aside...birthdates are becoming increasingly hard to find even with more potential places to find them so I am considering laying down the Ritmos. I started doing them for the 2000-2001 season for the posters at ACCBoards.com. Now there is a facebook page and at times I have posted them on Instagram, twitter, and Bluesky as well as several different message boards. I enjoy them but I have noticed in the last couple of years that it is pretty clear that most are not reading them. I even know some folks that find them annoying but at least tend to be polite about that.
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I sincerely hope you keep the Ritmos coming next season and beyond if they are not too much of a burden. I love reading them. They are the first thing I read on game days and I find them endlessly fascinating.

The fact that you used the Ritmos to predict the Duke-UNC 2022 FF game squarely on the nose - UNC by 4 when the foolish gamblers said Duke by the same margin - forever cements their validity in my eyes.
 
Oddball said:
FFS, NCAA tourney (both men's and women's) expanding to 76 teams (per ESPN).

Yet another reason I like college hoops less, lack of meaningful games
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Stupid. With NIL now the smaller schools aren't going to do much in the tournament anymore. The bigger schools will just buy the talent and reload every year. There's no need for more teams.
 
Oddball said:
FFS, NCAA tourney (both men's and women's) expanding to 76 teams (per ESPN).

Yet another reason I like college hoops less, lack of meaningful games
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I'm not sure, there could be an interesting game or two.

Hell, the NBA 70% of the teams make the playoffs, don't they?
 
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