Tar Heel Bred Tar Heel Dead

ACC dominant in the NBA playoffs

thbthd — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:45:06 +0000

Congratulations to Tyler Hansbrough and the Indiana Pacers who hung another unexpected L on the Heat last night. You also gotta love Danny Green and the Spurs. That team, for the first time in like 20 years, is not the most boring in the league. In fact, they’re almost fun to watch, with lots of ball movement and long-range shooting. Here’s hoping those two teams meet in the Finals.

In the meantime, check out this chart of minutes played in the first round by school. Not surprisingly, international players are the most dominant, in part because they’re grouped together in a single category, whereas all the college players get spread out among the different schools. Also a slight surprise, Dook players are getting more burn than UNC players. But just barely.

There are a few more interesting charts here, including playoff minutes broken down by conference. The ACC rules that one.

Chris Paul could have been a Tar Heel

thbthd — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:24:37 +0000

Here’s an interesting article for UNC fans from Peter Vecsey. Two things of interest. The first is this little interview with Chris Paul who says he’s driven to be a good player after being turned down for a scholarship by Matt Doherty.

Doherty told Paul there might be a spot for him after the season. Apparently, he’d offered his last available scholarship and the chosen one was undecided.

“But there’s definitely room on my team for you as a walk-on,” Paul recalls Doherty generously informing him.

There’s also a bit about how Carlos Boozer bombed in the playoffs and that the Bulls will probably try and waive him. The Bulls were -10 when the former Dookie was on the floor, and in the pivotal game 6, he went 1-11. We devoted an entire chapter in Duke Sucks to how former Dookies have a habit of disappearing in the playoffs. Glad to see Boozer is keeping the trend alive.

How do you say “Duke sucks” in Mandarin?

thbthd — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:01:31 +0000

We recently received this photo from a reader in China. We’re not sure whether to be thrilled or frightened that the message of Duke Sucks has made it across the world and to the Great Wall. A place of peace has been polluted with our petty basketball hatred. Cool.

Best pass of the year

thbthd — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:12:03 +0000

Here’s what we voted the top dime of 2011-2012, and of course, the honor goes to Larry Drew.
Wait, sorry, no. It’s Butter throwing a full-court bullet to a streaking Zeller. If you look closely, you can see the shot clock reads 32 seconds when Z puts the ball through the hoop. The TV cameraman was even too slow for this one.

Tokoto vs. Plumlee

thbthd — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:46:57 +0000

It’s really no contest. On episode 57′s installment of “Duke Sucks” (tm, all rights reserved, buy the book), we were talking about how incoming Carolina freshman J.P. Tokoto was busting on Miles Plumlee at the college dunk contest a couple weeks back. Here’s the video. Pretty hilarious, and it’s good to see that the UNC-Dook rivalry is intense even before a player has set food on campus.

And Tokoto definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to jamming the ball. Check out some of his moves at the high school dunk contest. Anyone else getting a little Vince Carter vibe?

Best Dunk of the Year

thbthd — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:39:48 +0000

Here’s our pick for the best jam of last season as chosen on episode 57′s End of the Season Awards Spectacular. It was a tight race, but this one had it all: it was athletic, one-handed, done in traffic, the game was close and it knocked a defender down. Cool.

Tar Heel Bred, Tar Heel Dead – Episode 57

thbthd — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:51:04 +0000

Andy and Reed continue to break down (and get over) the 2011-2012 season with the ever-popular “Post Season Awards Episode”. Reed is left dumbfounded when Andy reveals his special tribute to Kendall Marshall. This week’s reason that Duke Sucks is like the Plumlee brothers – there are three of them.

Players continue tradition of pick-up games at Cobb court

thbthd — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:54:08 +0000

The team — or what’s left of them — hit the public courts on campus Wednesday to continue the tradition started last spring of playing games against regular students. Here’s the video. We’re too lazy to make up a bunch of jokes, but we’ll get you started. “Oh, so now P.J. Hairston hits his shots?”

James Michael McAdoo to make it to his sophomore year

thbthd — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:03:50 +0000

His junior year is another story. But for now, let’s celebrate the news that JMM is returning to school. We figured this would be the case, but with so many mock drafts predicting he would be a top 10 pick — often ahead of the other four Heels entering the draft — you never know. Here’s what he said:

I’ve had several discussions about my future plans with my family and Coach [Roy] Williams and have decided to return to UNC to continue playing for the Tar Heels and continue my education. I love being at Carolina and really enjoy competing with and being around my teammates and am excited about what we can do together next season.

He should also be excited about how much he could potentially see the ball. He’s likely to become the focal point of the offense as the most experienced, proven big man (like Zeller was last season), and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he averaged 15 or so points.

Obviously this is great news, and Carolina fans are no doubt breathing a big sigh of relief that next season won’t be a complete rebuilding year. With McAdoo returning down low, along with guards McDonald and Bullock, the team should be good enough to contend for the league title, as long as the incoming freshman provide something.

Obama loves Butter

thbthd — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:19:50 +0000

During halftime of last night’s game, Obama praised Kendall Marshall. (And this from a guy whose closest adviser used to be a former Dook player.) Marshall’s response?