UNC @ Charlotte

Yeah, it’s a big school where one can get a quality education. I know a lot of very bright and successful people who went there.

But it would be an absolutely terrible school to attend for the college experience. Such a large percentage of its student body is from the area. Many of those students continue to live at home with their parents or rent apartments off-campus. Many of those who live in campus dorms go home for the weekends. Outside of attending class, there’s very little campus life. And it’s in a terribly designed part of town. There’s no neighborhood feel. There’s no college community vibe. The area is not at all pedestrian friendly. There are not many restaurants, bars, coffee shops, entertainment venues, etc., in the area that anyone would want to spend any time in. It seems like it offers a very forgettable college experience.

My wife and I once had a tongue-in-cheek conversation about if we were having an affair and wanted to take our side piece out on a date, where is the one part of town where we could be virtually certain that we would not run into someone we know. There are many parts of town where it might be unlikely, but the only part of town where we could be virtually certain is the University area because we don’t know anyone who would want to go up there for any reason. That very well may change, however.
Perhaps the worst decision ever made in Charlotte from an urban planning perspective- and there have been many - was moving UNCC (charlotte college at the time, I believe) out to its current campus. Imagine if it stayed where Central Piedmont is now. Downtown would be totally different and the school would probably be considered cool to attend.

It is neat that the light rail runs out there.
 
Ah the days of Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, Lew Massey Chad Kinch and coach Lee Rose.
Helluva squad and would have given Dean and co. fits in that title game 1977. Niners should have beaten Marquette in the semis. And of course we should have won the natty. Even though we were banged up - we should’ve won.

But I digress.

Heels need to come out at 7pm Saturday and play smash mouth football and whip UNCC in every phase of the game.
Insofar as basketball, I remember them hitting streaks of great playing in the early-to-mid 90s too - Coach Jeff Mullins had a pretty good squad with, IIRC, their two best players being Henry Williams and Jarvis Lang. They always seemed to be able to get into the dance somehow but then could never get out of the 1st round. They had some conference alignment upheaval going on too - from SunBelt to Metro to C-USA in the span of 4 years or something.

But I digress as well 😆
 
Insofar as basketball, I remember them hitting streaks of great playing in the early-to-mid 90s too - Coach Jeff Mullins had a pretty good squad with, IIRC, their two best players being Henry Williams and Jarvis Lang. They always seemed to be able to get into the dance somehow but then could never get out of the 1st round. They had some conference alignment upheaval going on too - from SunBelt to Metro to C-USA in the span of 4 years or something.

But I digress as well 😆
Took us to OT in 1998 in the second round
 
We very nearly lost that in regulation — wish I could find a photo of the Guthridge jaw drop at a late call that didn’t go our way in the waning minutes of regulation. But we took control in OT and capped it off with this:


Found it in a highlight reel —

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We very nearly lost that in regulation — wish I could find a photo of the Guthridge jaw drop at a late call that didn’t go our way in the waning minutes of regulation. But we took control in OT and capped it off with this:


Had we lost that one, that may have gone down as the most embarrassing loss in UNC basketball history. Don’t get me wrong; that UNCC team was a very good team with some serious college talent. But if one of the best teams in UNC basketball history lost in the second round to an in-state school that has historically been a mid-major, that would have been awful. And the loss to Utah in the FF was deflating enough (hardest I’ve ever taken a loss).
 
Had we lost that one, that may have gone down as the most embarrassing loss in UNC basketball history. Don’t get me wrong; that UNCC team was a very good team with some serious college talent. But if one of the best teams in UNC basketball history lost in the second round to an in-state school that has historically been a mid-major, that would have been awful. And the loss to Utah in the FF was deflating enough (hardest I’ve ever taken a loss).
Loss to IU in the Sweet 16 in ‘84 remains the most traumatic for me, followed by ‘16 National Title, the ‘91 loss to KU in the Final Four (I was there for that), the ‘77 National Title, the ‘87 loss to Syracuse in the Elite 8 and then the ‘98 loss to Utah. But the aftertaste of the Utah loss was the worst because of what turned out to be false claims one of our players made after the loss.
 
What is the backstory on Ryan Browne going to UNC and back to Purdue? Looks like he had a very solid opener as the Purdue QB last week …
 
Loss to IU in the Sweet 16 in ‘84 remains the most traumatic for me, followed by ‘16 National Title, the ‘91 loss to KU in the Final Four (I was there for that), the ‘77 National Title, the ‘87 loss to Syracuse in the Elite 8 and then the ‘98 loss to Utah. But the aftertaste of the Utah loss was the worst because of what turned out to be false claims one of our players made after the loss.
Big difference between most embarrassing and most traumatic. In fact, there is probably no overlap in those two categories. For embarrassing, all 1st round tourny losses are in play, including Weber St and the late 70s for Dean, Texas A&M, Penn and San Francisco. For regular season, we could go with Winthrop in Carmichael or Hampton in the Dean Dome.
 
Loss to IU in the Sweet 16 in ‘84 remains the most traumatic for me, followed by ‘16 National Title, the ‘91 loss to KU in the Final Four (I was there for that), the ‘77 National Title, the ‘87 loss to Syracuse in the Elite 8 and then the ‘98 loss to Utah. But the aftertaste of the Utah loss was the worst because of what turned out to be false claims one of our players made after the loss.
I was there in the Omni about six rows back underneath the basket. I still recall the helpless feeling I felt as the game slipped away. To make it worse (if even possible) were the Wahoo fans cheering loudly.
 
UNCC was pretty good back in the Metro Conference days when it included Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Pitt, etc. Had they been able to hold that together as a group of urban public universities it would have been nice. But of course UNCC didn’t have football then so it was inevitable the football schools were going in a different direction.

I think it’s one of the reasons I was so opposed to Louisville joining the ACC. I always thought of Louisville as a Metro/Conference USA level school. Although I was never excited about the ACC adding BC, Pitt, or Syracuse at least those are good schools.
 
What is the backstory on Ryan Browne going to UNC and back to Purdue? Looks like he had a very solid opener as the Purdue QB last week …
I've heard Purdue told him $ and the starting job were his for the taking if he'd return. This is one of the many interesting transfer situations to watch. I noticed Zach Greenberg (barely played last yr and xfer'd upon BB's arrival) was the starting Center at JMU yesterday.
 
UNCC was pretty good back in the Metro Conference days when it included Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Pitt, etc. Had they been able to hold that together as a group of urban public universities it would have been nice. But of course UNCC didn’t have football then so it was inevitable the football schools were going in a different direction.

I think it’s one of the reasons I was so opposed to Louisville joining the ACC. I always thought of Louisville as a Metro/Conference USA level school. Although I was never excited about the ACC adding BC, Pitt, or Syracuse at least those are good schools.
That was actually Conference USA when those teams were together (sans Pitt) and when UNCC had its strongest run under Melvin Watkins and Bobby Lutz. UNCC replaced Cincinnati in the Metro Conference in 1991. They played 4 seasons in the Metro Conference before it dissolved and most of the Metro Conference teams joined CUSA in 1995, as did Cincinnati, which was coming from the Great Midwest Conference along with Memphis, Marquette, DePaul, St. Louis, and UAB.

Pitt, however, was never a member of either the Metro Conference or CUSA. They joined the Big East in the early 80s, and remained there until joining the ACC.
 
What is the backstory on Ryan Browne going to UNC and back to Purdue? Looks like he had a very solid opener as the Purdue QB last week …
The way IC reported the situation at the time made it sound like the staff told him they were going to look at bringing in another QB to start after seeing him in spring workouts, and that was the impetus for him going back into the portal.

Who really knows how it played out though. Could be that he ended up not liking our coaches/scheme after all and decided that the grass wasn’t greener.
 
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