Hubert Davis Catch-all

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SnoopRob said:
Predictive analytics do the best at showing how good a team is rather than simply what it has accomplished.

Which do you think is closer to being "right" for Miami (Ohio) right now...22nd or 87th?
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I think both have their place and that if the script was flipped

where UNC had strong predictives but lost to Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, etc

Fans would be whining about the season more than they were already

Miami OH is a fairly big outlier. Not many big variances between the two

If you are evaluating the success of their season and the job Steele has done 22 is closer to being right
 
Heelsandeers said:
If you are evaluating the success of their season and the job Steele has done 22 is closer to being right
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So you think Miami (OH) is the 22nd best team in the nation?

Because if we're evaluating the success of the season for the team and coach, how can being the only undefeated team be anything other than 1st?
 
SnoopRob said:
So you think Miami (OH) is the 22nd best team in the nation?

Because if we're evaluating the success of the season for the team and coach, how can being the only undefeated team be anything other than 1st?
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You could even say they are having a perfect season.
 
Bigs23 said:
I don't think it ruins it for most fans.
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I think that fan enjoyment is probably age dependent. For those UNC fans who have followed the Tar Heels for more than 30 years their enjoyment level is much less than those fans who have followed UNC for less than 15 years
 
heelinhell said:
I think that fan enjoyment is probably age dependent. For those UNC fans who have followed the Tar Heels for more than 30 years their enjoyment level is much less than those fans who have followed UNC for less than 15 years
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I really wish that I had a good sense of Student Fan Enjoyment.

I do have at least some insights into Town Fan Enjoyment through having many friends still in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that I talk to and otherwise communicate with often. I'd say that is at a pretty normal level. It always peaks around dook games and in March to be sure but I have some good friends that are pretty diehard townie backers. They seem worried after being elated over the dook win but are fairly angry over the state drubbing (more pissed at wolpfack antics than the loss in some cases).
 
donbosco said:
I really wish that I had a good sense of Student Fan Enjoyment.

I do have at least some insights into Town Fan Enjoyment through having many friends still in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that I talk to and otherwise communicate with often. I'd say that is at a pretty normal level. It always peaks around dook games and in March to be sure but I have some good friends that are pretty diehard townie backers. They seem worried after being elated over the dook win but are fairly angry over the state drubbing (more pissed at wolpfack antics than the loss in some cases).
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My friends are older UNC grads, and we all agree that is not much fun to follow our football and basketball programs. A few had been members of the Ram's Club for over 25 years but have decided to quit. I have been a member for 32 years and have been tempted to quit. I really like supporting the student athletes in the "Olympic sports " and asked the club office if my membership dues could be restricted to sports programs other than football and men's basketball in the future.

He said I could not restrict my membership dues, but he wanted to know why I would want to do that. I said that I preferred to support true student-athletes ,not give financial support to hired guns who have little or no interest in academics or getting a degree. I have until June 30th to continue my membership so I will see how I feel over the next 4 months.
 
heelinhell said:
My friends are older UNC grads, and we all agree that is not much fun to follow our football and basketball programs. A few had been members of the Ram's Club for over 25 years but have decided to quit. I have been a member for 32 years and have been tempted to quit. I really like supporting the student athletes in the "Olympic sports " and asked the club office if my membership dues could be restricted to sports programs other than football and men's basketball in the future.

He said I could not restrict my membership dues, but he wanted to know why I would want to do that. I said that I preferred to support true student-athletes ,not give financial support to hired guns who have little or no interest in academics or getting a degree. I have until June 30th to continue my membership so I will see how I feel over the next 4 months.
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From 1980 to 1983 I worked evenings at Administrative Data Processing for UNC (up on Franklin Street down near The Cave -- the building is also right behind Tijuana Fats) and I swear that I remember processing donations that went only to a single team sport. Maybe that was a thing in those days. Perhaps it still is in some manner detached from The Ram's Club?
 
donbosco said:
From 1980 to 1983 I worked evenings at Administrative Data Processing for UNC (up on Franklin Street down near The Cave -- the building is also right behind Tijuana Fats) and I swear that I remember processing donations that went only to a single team sport. Maybe that was a thing in those days. Perhaps it still is in some manner detached from The Ram's Club?
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It is still a thing. For example, baseball has the Diamond Heels Club but donations to it do not count toward RC points or membership.
 
Heelsandeers said:
I think both have their place and that if the script was flipped

where UNC had strong predictives but lost to Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, etc

Fans would be whining about the season more than they were already

Miami OH is a fairly big outlier. Not many big variances between the two

If you are evaluating the success of their season and the job Steele has done 22 is closer to being right
Click to expand...
Agreed. Analytics play a part but the bottom line is wins and loses. Especially so in basketball where garbage time can skew data and where the score and situation also influence outcomes.

Over time some of this is weeded out but the sample size provided by a CBB season is very small.
 
heelinhell said:
I think that fan enjoyment is probably age dependent. For those UNC fans who have followed the Tar Heels for more than 30 years their enjoyment level is much less than those fans who have followed UNC for less than 15 years
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This is based on my anecdotal experience, but it also seems to me that kids/young people aren’t into college hoops like they used to be. When I was kid, college hoops was such a big deal. Now it seems that so many kids don’t follow it to the same extent. And to the extent they do, they don’t have the strong allegiances to teams like most kids I knew growing up did.
 
wmheel1287 said:
It is still a thing. For example, baseball has the Diamond Heels Club but donations to it do not count toward RC points or membership.
Click to expand...
I was a Diamond Heels member for a few years as you say my contributions were separate from Rams Club membership. And you can make separate donations to other individual sports which I am considering and reduce my membership level to minimum.
 
Yes — college basketball is still popular, and in some ways it’s actually growing again, especially recently.

📈 The short answer
  • Overall popularity: strong and rising again
  • TV ratings: up significantly
  • Big events (March Madness): still huge
  • Women’s game: booming even faster
📊 Recent trends (2024–2026)
  • Men’s college basketball viewership is up ~39% this season across networks
  • The 2024–25 season was already trending up, with ESPN ratings +8% year-over-year
  • Some regular-season games are pulling 6–7 million viewers, which is very strong for non-football sports
  • The 2025 NCAA Tournament saw one of the most-watched early rounds ever
👉 Translation: People are absolutely still watching — and more than a few years ago

🏀 March Madness is still a monster
  • The NCAA Tournament remains one of the biggest events in American sports
  • Elite Eight games averaged ~2.9 million viewers (near record levels)
  • Office pools, brackets, and gambling keep casual fans heavily engaged
👉 Even people who don’t watch all season still tune in in March

🔥 Women’s college basketball = huge surge
  • Women’s game has exploded in popularity recently
  • 2025 championship drew ~8.5 million viewers (after a record 18M+ in 2024)
  • Social media engagement and star power are skyrocketing
👉 This is one of the biggest sports growth stories in the U.S.

🤔 What’s changed (why people sometimes think it declined)
There are reasons it can feel less dominant than before
  • Transfer portal + NIL → more player movement, less team continuity
  • One-and-done era → stars don’t stay long
  • NBA + NFL dominance → more competition for attention
  • Regular season can feel less meaningful than March
🧠 Bottom line
  • Still very popular
  • Actually trending upward again
  • March Madness remains elite-tier sports event
 
heelinhell said:
My friends are older UNC grads, and we all agree that is not much fun to follow our football and basketball programs. A few had been members of the Ram's Club for over 25 years but have decided to quit. I have been a member for 32 years and have been tempted to quit. I really like supporting the student athletes in the "Olympic sports " and asked the club office if my membership dues could be restricted to sports programs other than football and men's basketball in the future.

He said I could not restrict my membership dues, but he wanted to know why I would want to do that. I said that I preferred to support true student-athletes ,not give financial support to hired guns who have little or no interest in academics or getting a degree. I have until June 30th to continue my membership so I will see how I feel over the next 4 months.
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they also aren't well run programs with less success and more chaos(turnover) than most name brands.

You could easily argue that both basketball (#1 to no NCAA) and football(last year) or the biggest and/or most covered failures in the sport their respective years.
 
Bigs23 said:
Yes — college basketball is still popular, and in some ways it’s actually growing again, especially recently.

📈 The short answer
  • Overall popularity: strong and rising again
  • TV ratings: up significantly
  • Big events (March Madness): still huge
  • Women’s game: booming even faster
📊 Recent trends (2024–2026)
  • Men’s college basketball viewership is up ~39% this season across networks
  • The 2024–25 season was already trending up, with ESPN ratings +8% year-over-year
  • Some regular-season games are pulling 6–7 million viewers, which is very strong for non-football sports
  • The 2025 NCAA Tournament saw one of the most-watched early rounds ever
👉 Translation: People are absolutely still watching — and more than a few years ago

🏀 March Madness is still a monster
  • The NCAA Tournament remains one of the biggest events in American sports
  • Elite Eight games averaged ~2.9 million viewers (near record levels)
  • Office pools, brackets, and gambling keep casual fans heavily engaged
👉 Even people who don’t watch all season still tune in in March

🔥 Women’s college basketball = huge surge
  • Women’s game has exploded in popularity recently
  • 2025 championship drew ~8.5 million viewers (after a record 18M+ in 2024)
  • Social media engagement and star power are skyrocketing
👉 This is one of the biggest sports growth stories in the U.S.

🤔 What’s changed (why people sometimes think it declined)
There are reasons it can feel less dominant than before
  • Transfer portal + NIL → more player movement, less team continuity
  • One-and-done era → stars don’t stay long
  • NBA + NFL dominance → more competition for attention
  • Regular season can feel less meaningful than March
🧠 Bottom line
  • Still very popular
  • Actually trending upward again
  • March Madness remains elite-tier sports event
Click to expand...
I imagine legalized sports gambling is playing a part in this, unfortunately.
 
heelinhell said:
I was a Diamond Heels member for a few years as you say my contributions were separate from Rams Club membership. And you can make separate donations to other individual sports which I am considering and reduce my membership level to minimum.
Click to expand...
Fun fact...I created the Diamond Heels Club and printed the brochures in my dorm room for the first 2 years on my HP Deskjet. Baseball was such a rag-tag operation back in the day but we had a good time.
 
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