Like I said yesterday, UNC -- ranked No. 2 or (laughably) No. 1 (from some) -- ain't making the Final Four this season, no matter how much hype they have right now.
Now I have the instant-history evidence to back it up: I just watched them barely beat Winthrop at what was essentially a home game in Charlotte. (Yes, 7 is "barely.")
I'm not dissing Winthrop, a scrappy sub-mid-major, but this is the type of UNC "quality win" to file away for your March predictions.
I appreciate that UNC is young and still learning to incorporate a bevy of sick freshmen, but you'd expect a little more domination from them. Don't let the pro-UNC spin fool you. Foreshadowing...
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Good Lord! We're one game into a 30+ game season. There will not be an undefeated team this season - that's a given.
Instant history aside, let's see how the season winds up. Remember, it's not how you start the season, but how you finish it.
Go Bruins!
Shanoff if you believe what you wrote you are a moron.
When Carolina won it all they lost by 11 to Santa Clara in their first game.
These things happen. Especially to young teams.
Yeah, I take this as seriously as the "Adam Morrison is a bust" post.
(Had to edit a major boo boo)...
I look for any reason to see bad fortunes for just about any team east of the Sierras. Its a product of growing up on the west coast and developing a serious reverse east coast bias anti-virus infection syndrome.
Problem is, most of the time going overboard "supporting" a west coast squad turns out badly. Except for...mostly just UCLA.
That all being said, I agree with DS. UNC is going NOWHERE!! (Thats what he said, right?)
Somehow I suspect that come March, the only thing anyone will remember about tonight is Oral Roberts beating Kansas.
Win Florida squeaks by a lesser team you will be preaching about how they are becoming battle tested early on and the importance of learning how to win close games.
yeah yeah, it was a little scary, but as posted above, UNC began the 2005 campaign with a loss to a MUCH worse Santa Clara squad. its obvious that defense is what's lacking right now, but a team's defense can improve as they play together and get comfortable around each other, the 2005 squad was maligned for their D, but it came through in the end. point being, UNC has too much talent and too good a coach to be ignored, I'm not saying final four, i'd bank on elite eight as a given and if the ball bounces the right way, they'll be right there.
Who cares if the TarHoles barely won or that Rawk Chawk got beat the important event tonight was Emmitt Smith beating Albert Clifford Slater on Dancing with the Stars
#3 Kansas lost tonight. By your logic, Shanny, they won't be final four bound either.
I guess Kansas wont make it to the sweet 16, based on your logic at least.
oral roberts: this year's george mason???
Calm down, Dan. Long season, don't get yourself all worked up about every little thing or youll never make it to the end.
Stupid...
It was more a home game for Winthrop techincally (their campus is only a 30 minute drive from campus) UNC Chapel Hill's campus is over a 2 hour drive
At least it was an exciting early season CBB game when there are too often big time blowouts early.
College is much different than High School, so who knows how those UNC kids are going to do. No matter how good they are they'll still have their ups and downs.
Anyway, when UNC doesn't make it to the Final Four maybe they can meet up with the Gators and watch the games somewhere because your wife's (not yours) team isn't making it either.
You know the instant history thing is cute and all... but when you use it as evidence for something that may or may not happen in March/April it becomes obnoxious.
lol there were far more UNC fans than Winthrop fans..so don't toss that excuse out there.
Call it as it is. Winthrop, a solid team for the last decade, played a good game against UNC, who IS breaking in new players. Winthrop is more experienced, and they used it.
UNC won't be in the Final Four. But this game isn't the reason why.
Is it really a surprise to anyone that UNC@chapel hill is overrated pre-season? This has been the case for 30 years. Last year, there was a big stink about how many fouls were NOT called against Duke. But, over the years, it's been even more blatant that north carolina at chapel hill gets away with crap. Hanstravel is a great player, no doubt. But, EVERY time he goes to the basket, he lowers his shoulder, rams his defender, and shuffles his feet. By the way, how many foul shots did Winthrop take last night? Oh, yeah... zero.
This was the same as a home game for the heels, regardless of the travel distance. Charlotte is like tarheel-central in the state.
Personally I cannot wait to see the damage the MVC can cause this year. Who was that schmo from the last tournament that said mid-majors don't belong? Witchita St, Creighton, Southern Ill., Bradley, all these teams can do some serious damage to the "powerhouses".
Go Salukis!
I agree wholeheartedly with Jason from East Lansing.
Had that been Florida, it would have been touted as a great comeback win for the defending champs. Instead, it's Carolina (or Brett Favre or some other Shanoff outcast). So, we get to hear how they don't deserve the hype. Talk about Kansas! They actually lost!! But, of course, we all know that no college bball team goes undefeated so both of those games will be long forgotten whether both teams rebound or bomb.
Please, please, please Dan...try to be a LITTLE unbiased!! I'm tiring of the Florida fball/JAX/Florida bball hype and the constant dissing of alot of other quality sports teams. I guess it was entertaining when it was a team I didn't care about like the Red Sox or Yankess but when you starting dissing a program like Carolina, it gets old VERY QUICKLY. Please show some unbias!!!
In his defense, Mr. Shanoff is a fan, and I don't think he has ever claimed to be unbiased (unlike ESPN). So essentially, he is a fan of his teams and will talk about his teams.
Such a silly comment to have such conviction about two games into the season. "Instant-history" more times than not turns into "future foot in mouth."
I'd argue that you can't categorically count any legitimate current top 10 team out of the final four at this point since EVERY team will be different come March, particularly those with a heavy reliance on Frosh. Translation: the UNC team that enters the tourney will be markedly better than the admittedly raw one that "barely" beat Winthrop (a tourney team last year with four returning starters) last night. Carolina has as good a shot as anyone to be in the final four, and to summarily reject that notion in mid-November is just plain foolish.
Ugh, what a bad post. Young teams always start out iffy and start to put it together in Feb and March. Predicting the final four in November is an exercise in futility.
Imagine if Shanny's wife went to Duke? He would be even more insufferable.
Oy. You never celebrate UNC's early season woes. They always play close games early (and lose some)
If anything, this worries me about them even more (being another ACC team fan)
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