UNC Basketball History
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donbosco
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On This Day in 2021: "Roy Williams says UNC's Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe, who were seen partying without masks last week, won't miss Saturday's game vs. UVa. 'I'M STILL UPSET ABOUT IT. BUT LET'S NOT MAKE IT OUT LIKE WE CHARGED THE CAPITOL BUILDING OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT.'"
https://dailyprogress.com/sports/ro...noYMm0oZHQgmP4JuuL_aem_cHJO_-M66EDyUMIO9kQhEQ
https://dailyprogress.com/sports/ro...noYMm0oZHQgmP4JuuL_aem_cHJO_-M66EDyUMIO9kQhEQ
Mostly agree. The NCAA Tourney wasn’t at all capricious for ACC teams. Win the ACC Tourney and you’re in. Beginning in 1975, win the Tourney and you’re in and a 2nd team made the tourney (Maryland). The ‘75 NCAA Tournament had 32 teams and no seeding. In ‘75, the NCAA Tourney was limited to a max of two teams from any conference.
Doubt it was capricious for Big 10 or SEC PAC-8 or Southwestern Conference schools - win the regular season and you’re in (Prior to 1975).
donbosco
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David Moon is a friend of many friends of mine though I do not know him. He wrote this on social media.
David Moon
"GRA AND CALEB
Look, I’m one of those old man Carolina basketball fans who remembers Doug Moe and Larry Brown. And even a 6’4” kid from Scotland Neck, NC. Number 42! In the 1967 class. Gra Whitehead! Gra never really played that much, but the kid held a rather prominent place on the team program that I placed on a music stand in my Jacksonville, Florida bedroom when I was a thirteen year old Tar Heel and a junior high trumpet player. I don’t quite know why, but I think I will always remember Gra Whitehead.
Of course, all the star players’ pictures surrounded those of Gra. But, dang. Gra was a part of a pretty damned good team too!
In other words, I’ve been around the block a few times. I’ve seen many big wins, major losses, but just a few great coaches. The good ones seem to stick around. Just like a Gra Whitehead memory. Dean, Gut, Roy and Hubert.
For over a half a century, I have found solace in just being an obscure and imaginative member of over 50 Carolina basketball teams.
Years ago, when 6’3” Kevin Joyce of South Carolina, out jumped Carolina’s 6’10” Lee Dedmon to seal the 1971 ACC Tournament Championship for the Gamecocks, I was in my backyard, shooting hoops and listening to the game on the radio. My dad came outside to check on me only after he heard the crash of the brick that I threw into and beyond the garage door after the devastating loss. He asked what was going on. I told him. He didn’t scold me. He simply nodded his head, put his soggy and unlit cigar back into the side of his lips, turned and walked back inside.
I don’t know about y’all, but dang. I have always admired my dad’s nonchalant demeanor in that situation. I took the game so seriously that I threw a brick through my family’s garage door! When he put the cigar back into the side of his mouth, man. He spoke volumes with that cigar placement.
Basketball is just a game. But that brick said something, too.
Look, I’m trying my best to relate my old man past to what Caleb Wilson must be going through right now. Sure, the kid doesn’t have the Carolina past that I do, but dang. From what I am reading, the kid is a Tar Heel through and through.
The kid is a Carolina basketball player. And a true Tar Heel. Just like Gra Whitehead. Honestly, when I heard about his hand injury, I looked frantically for a brick to throw! Then I remembered my dad. It’s just a game for us. It’s a career for a young kid who chose Chapel Hill to play for a year or two.
Hey, Carolina will survive all the turmoil. I’ve witnessed over 50 years of such stuff. What’s really important right now is that Caleb Wilson continues to hold his head up high, and keep making the absolute best of what God’s planned for him. Even if it means throwing a brick or two.
Get well, Caleb!"
It is an interesting rememberance. I have read the name Gra Whitehead in old rosters...he was a 6-5 high school star from Scotland Neck and never really played any real minutes at Carolina. He appears to still be alive but not very well.
David Moon
"GRA AND CALEB
Look, I’m one of those old man Carolina basketball fans who remembers Doug Moe and Larry Brown. And even a 6’4” kid from Scotland Neck, NC. Number 42! In the 1967 class. Gra Whitehead! Gra never really played that much, but the kid held a rather prominent place on the team program that I placed on a music stand in my Jacksonville, Florida bedroom when I was a thirteen year old Tar Heel and a junior high trumpet player. I don’t quite know why, but I think I will always remember Gra Whitehead.
Of course, all the star players’ pictures surrounded those of Gra. But, dang. Gra was a part of a pretty damned good team too!
In other words, I’ve been around the block a few times. I’ve seen many big wins, major losses, but just a few great coaches. The good ones seem to stick around. Just like a Gra Whitehead memory. Dean, Gut, Roy and Hubert.
For over a half a century, I have found solace in just being an obscure and imaginative member of over 50 Carolina basketball teams.
Years ago, when 6’3” Kevin Joyce of South Carolina, out jumped Carolina’s 6’10” Lee Dedmon to seal the 1971 ACC Tournament Championship for the Gamecocks, I was in my backyard, shooting hoops and listening to the game on the radio. My dad came outside to check on me only after he heard the crash of the brick that I threw into and beyond the garage door after the devastating loss. He asked what was going on. I told him. He didn’t scold me. He simply nodded his head, put his soggy and unlit cigar back into the side of his lips, turned and walked back inside.
I don’t know about y’all, but dang. I have always admired my dad’s nonchalant demeanor in that situation. I took the game so seriously that I threw a brick through my family’s garage door! When he put the cigar back into the side of his mouth, man. He spoke volumes with that cigar placement.
Basketball is just a game. But that brick said something, too.
Look, I’m trying my best to relate my old man past to what Caleb Wilson must be going through right now. Sure, the kid doesn’t have the Carolina past that I do, but dang. From what I am reading, the kid is a Tar Heel through and through.
The kid is a Carolina basketball player. And a true Tar Heel. Just like Gra Whitehead. Honestly, when I heard about his hand injury, I looked frantically for a brick to throw! Then I remembered my dad. It’s just a game for us. It’s a career for a young kid who chose Chapel Hill to play for a year or two.
Hey, Carolina will survive all the turmoil. I’ve witnessed over 50 years of such stuff. What’s really important right now is that Caleb Wilson continues to hold his head up high, and keep making the absolute best of what God’s planned for him. Even if it means throwing a brick or two.
Get well, Caleb!"
It is an interesting rememberance. I have read the name Gra Whitehead in old rosters...he was a 6-5 high school star from Scotland Neck and never really played any real minutes at Carolina. He appears to still be alive but not very well.
donbosco
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Greensboro News and Record from March 14, 1967 reporting on the freshman teams around the state. That's Gra Whitehead -- this was his big year actually, averaging 14 ppg and playing forward and center. Charlie Scott was the star of that team and his entrance into the varsity was much anticipated. Future Davidson star Mike Maloy is mentioned here as well. Had Lefty Driesell gotten Scott to join Maloy they would have been a true powerhouse.
donbosco
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A few days late on this but going into a game against state college it seems at least mildly appropriate...
Since February 5, 1992 and the Bloody Montross Game, a 75-73 home Carolina Victory over a Laettner/Hurley #1 ranked and undefeated dook team - many in The Tar Heel Nation have been on the look-out for blood. Indeed, metaphors abound as do real world examples for how we, and our hero-warriors in sky blue, spill our ALL over the Truly Beautiful Game as played in the Spirit of The GOAT, Coach Smith. This bundle of thoughts here, by the way, shall necessarily be partisan.
The Bloody Montross game saw a first half in which Big Grits, then but an unwieldy sophomore giant yet to earn that moniker, bleed from the back of his crew-cut head - and be knitted back together with 6 stitches, only to return to bleed yet again from a face slash just beneath his left eye. He also scored 12 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked 4 shots and greatly frustrated that boil of a blue devil, Laettner, and his twinish tower, the spongy Cherokee Parks. The win was sublime and over one of the most chock-full of hateables squads to ever come out of Buck Duke’s Fake Gothic Misplaced Preppie Colony.
And since that halcyon day there has been a blood watch. In the 30+ years since it has been unscientifically noted that if a Tar Heel bleeds then the chances of winning are greatly enhanced. With the Bloody Montross game always close to heart and mind the years passed and the battles were won and lost until a decade later when the Foreigners ventured the 8 miles to The Southern Part of Heaven, they - ranked #10 in the nation - to take on a struggling 15-14 Heel team in the final regular season match. The year before had been the 8-20 debacle. Freshmen and Sophomores - names then new to us but today much remembered - May, Felton, McCants, Sanders, Noel, Manuel, Scott, and Jawad Williams made up the heart of that mercurial team. The game was fraught and violence stalked the sidelines. Raymond Felton shed his blood that day and the underdog Heels prevailed 82-79.
In the years since, a litany of our faithful have opened their veins for Carolina. Of course no one should ever forget the shameful hit on Hansbrough ordered by Coach Rat in the waning minutes of an 86-72 Tar Heel rout (and sweep) of dook on March 3, 2007 that resulted in bright, bright red on a home white jersey #50 - a move that, for many, pushed the long-held rivalry into a surreal place beyond sports. And there it has stayed.
Among those who have shed their red for Carolina are Luke Maye, Cole Anthony, Garrison Brooks, Marcus Paige, J.P. Tokoto, and Justin Jackson (twice!). Most recently a blow to the face against dook left Armando Bacot with a mouthful of blood. Of course, R.J. Davis also received a nice bloody shiner in that same win over dook. And all that scarlet spilled always accompanied a win. The sweat of George Lynch is nigh sacred and a mark of defensive distinction almost always tied to successful outcomes - and as Tar Heels educated in The Carolina Way we appreciate that sacrifice, encourage it, and applaud it. Blood too has been a mark of distinction - and will likely continue to be - of the all-out team play - from each according to the need of the team - that is family.
Since February 5, 1992 and the Bloody Montross Game, a 75-73 home Carolina Victory over a Laettner/Hurley #1 ranked and undefeated dook team - many in The Tar Heel Nation have been on the look-out for blood. Indeed, metaphors abound as do real world examples for how we, and our hero-warriors in sky blue, spill our ALL over the Truly Beautiful Game as played in the Spirit of The GOAT, Coach Smith. This bundle of thoughts here, by the way, shall necessarily be partisan.
The Bloody Montross game saw a first half in which Big Grits, then but an unwieldy sophomore giant yet to earn that moniker, bleed from the back of his crew-cut head - and be knitted back together with 6 stitches, only to return to bleed yet again from a face slash just beneath his left eye. He also scored 12 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked 4 shots and greatly frustrated that boil of a blue devil, Laettner, and his twinish tower, the spongy Cherokee Parks. The win was sublime and over one of the most chock-full of hateables squads to ever come out of Buck Duke’s Fake Gothic Misplaced Preppie Colony.
And since that halcyon day there has been a blood watch. In the 30+ years since it has been unscientifically noted that if a Tar Heel bleeds then the chances of winning are greatly enhanced. With the Bloody Montross game always close to heart and mind the years passed and the battles were won and lost until a decade later when the Foreigners ventured the 8 miles to The Southern Part of Heaven, they - ranked #10 in the nation - to take on a struggling 15-14 Heel team in the final regular season match. The year before had been the 8-20 debacle. Freshmen and Sophomores - names then new to us but today much remembered - May, Felton, McCants, Sanders, Noel, Manuel, Scott, and Jawad Williams made up the heart of that mercurial team. The game was fraught and violence stalked the sidelines. Raymond Felton shed his blood that day and the underdog Heels prevailed 82-79.
In the years since, a litany of our faithful have opened their veins for Carolina. Of course no one should ever forget the shameful hit on Hansbrough ordered by Coach Rat in the waning minutes of an 86-72 Tar Heel rout (and sweep) of dook on March 3, 2007 that resulted in bright, bright red on a home white jersey #50 - a move that, for many, pushed the long-held rivalry into a surreal place beyond sports. And there it has stayed.
Among those who have shed their red for Carolina are Luke Maye, Cole Anthony, Garrison Brooks, Marcus Paige, J.P. Tokoto, and Justin Jackson (twice!). Most recently a blow to the face against dook left Armando Bacot with a mouthful of blood. Of course, R.J. Davis also received a nice bloody shiner in that same win over dook. And all that scarlet spilled always accompanied a win. The sweat of George Lynch is nigh sacred and a mark of defensive distinction almost always tied to successful outcomes - and as Tar Heels educated in The Carolina Way we appreciate that sacrifice, encourage it, and applaud it. Blood too has been a mark of distinction - and will likely continue to be - of the all-out team play - from each according to the need of the team - that is family.
GoHeelsweeeehoooo
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Is this the appropriate thread to discuss the future of the Dean Dome? - couple articles out today with what's going on in the decision making - looks like there's 3 options - maintain the Dean Dome without making any improvements and that will cost like $150 million - completely renovate the Dean Dome which will cost around $600 million and also probably involve the team having to play in Greensboro for a few years or build a completely new arena most likely at Carolina North for around $800 million
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If the team is forced to play in Greensboro for a few years, I think that will truly usher in the downfall of UNC basketball.
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Back in the day we usually played 1 game a year there
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Of those 3 options I would choose #2 but have the team play in Carmichael during the renovation. Build skybox luxury suites in the rafters to cater to the seen and be seen and put more students on the lower level who will not arrive late and leave early.
Sure and as donbosco mentioned played 2 in the Big Four. And back in the day 2 in Charlotte in the North-South DH. But never a whole home season.
And if I'm not wrong, one of the reasons for playing in Greensboro and Charlotte was because of the capacity of Carmichael and to allow fans in the other two large regions of the state a chance to see a game in person.
GoHeelsweeeehoooo
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Option 1 is definitely a nonstarter - it's probably not a popular position but I think option 3 is the way to go
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Well if its option #3 then they have a chance to correct the mistake they made with the seating in the Dean Dome...but I wouldn't hold my breath
