bch@unc.UUCP (Byron Howes ) (01/30/84)
Unc has had problems getting news out, so I missed last week in my set of inflammatory postings. Again, I trust my bias towards North Carolina will be well reflected here, so take everything with a grain of salt. 1) North Carolina continues to earn its ranking. A 37 point blowout of Wake Forest, plus back-to-back wins on Saturday and Sunday over top 20 teams (Georgia Tech and LSU.) The week before UNC had a couple of very close shaves over a determined Virginia an inexperienced but underrated Duke team which made me worry about our patented January Slump. Never- the less the record stands at 17-0 and 7-0 in the ACC. Go Heels! 2) DePaul has made a believer out of me. Few teams can come into Pauley and do a number on UCLA, but DePaul did. The team is beginning to have a final four look to it, and I like what I see. Like Lefty Driesell at Maryland, Ray Meyer may finally have a team he can coach, rather than just guide, which means he may finally get the championship he deserves. 3) Georgetown. Looking better and better. Their guard play seems to be working and the front line isn't depending on Ewing to do it all for them. Ain't the Big East Wunnerful. Syracuse leads the conference but Georgetown has the higher ranking. 4) Kentucky. Gimme a break. They're potent on the inside, but the guard play isn't consistent enough to make them a great team. Turpin and Bowie are respectable replacements for Robey and Phillips, but Master is no Kyle Macy which is what is needed to run this team. (I'm sure this will come back to haunt me but...) 5) Houston. Gimme another break. Anders return may make a difference on this team, but their inability to work at the charity stripe (you would have thought they'd have learned after last year) and their general lack of common sense really hurt them. There's a motherload of talent out there. Surely somebody must be able to put it to use! 6) Maryland continues to give the ACC a bad name against Notre Dame. They're a good team, but it amazes me how they choke when they play against Digger. UNC has them on the back end of another one of these Saturday/Sunday doubleheaders coming up in February. (N.C. State comes to Chapel Hill on Saturday) It's an experience I'm not looking forward to witnessing. Hopefully their long stretch outside the ACC wars will take the edge off. 7) UTEP is still unknown to me. Rumors have it they play a light schedule, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Has anybody seen them play? 8) Illinois. "Hey Coach, can we go home now?" *4* overtimes against Michigan? This team gets the award for stamina, if nothing else. Actually, from what I've seen they're a pretty good team (for the Big 10 these days) who play out there in that oversized mushroom in Champaign. (I admit to a certain bias here -- I was in the U of I band that played during the first roundball game ever held in the assembly hall -- guess that dates me pretty well.) 9) UNLV -- Sorry, folks, I still don't like what I see. Jerry's still got to beat a few ranked teams before he'll make me a believer. 10) Oklahoma. Waymon Tisdale is the best college player in the country (well, next to Michael Jordan.) Tubbs has got a monster on his hand as soon as the rest of the team realizes what they can do with Waymon in there. I love to watch this Kid play. There's not much he does wrong and a whole lot he does right. ------------------------------------ As to the IU/Purdue competition going on in this newsgroup, I tend to side with the IU folks. Bobby Knight may be down now, but he'll be back. Count on it. Those of us who pull for teams that are consistantly good, but have a down year now and then, know all too well that gloating now means that you will live to eat your words. Ask N.C. State! Besides, what are you guys gonna do this summer when Knight is coaching the Olympic team? Pull against him anyway? For my money Bobby Knight is (of course next to Dean Smith) the greatest coach in the country. Few can get as much from as little has he has gotten over the years and few have the kind of record he has. Taking pride in a victory is one thing, gloating and making yo-ho comments smacks of a certain tackiness that your team probably doesn't deserve. -- Byron Howes UNC - Chapel Hill (decvax!duke!unc!bch)