Monthly Archives: October 2011

Triangle Prophets, Week 6

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Shane
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Every Friday, a group of fearless webmasters and sports fanatics from around the Triangle will gather to predict five college football games against the spread. Every Duke, Carolina, and N.C. State game will be featured, along with a smattering of high profile non-Triangle games. As the season goes along, we’ll keep the standings updated and see who emerges as the one true prophet. Make your predictions in the comment section. Each week, we’ll feature any and all commenters who pick all 5 games correctly.

Current Standings

1. William Earnhardt, Site Designer – 13.5 points
1. Me – 13.5 points
1. The Devil Wolf, TRB – 13.5 points

4. Nate Friedman, UNC football correspondent – 12.5 points
4. Tar Heel Fan Blog – 12.5 points
4. Jim Young, Editor, ACCSports.com – 12.5 points

7. John Watson, The Devil’s Den – 11.5 points

8. James Henderson, Publisher, Pack Pride – 8.5 points

 

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When Worlds Collide (in a Parking Lot)

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Joey
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Each week, contributor and new parent Joey will post his thoughts as he undergoes the transformation from fanboy to father.

Last week in this space, I shared with you my own personal enlightenment upon tearing down my man-cave. This entire transition from Delirium to Dad has its perks, too. One of which is coming to fruition this very weekend.

I’ve become somewhat of a Tailgate freak. Go ahead and make your jokes about there being no tailgating at Carolina football games, tailgating in a parking deck, etc. Trust me, I’ve heard them all. I’ve also personally disproved all of those stereotypes over the last seven or eight years.

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Limbo: A Profile of UNC’s Carlos Somoano

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Shane
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(From the annals of last year’s sports journalism class comes this feature on current UNC men’s soccer head coach Carlos Somoano. At the time, he was just the interim coach and wasn’t sure if he’d land the top position. This piece caught him in flux.)

Limbo

Carlos Somoano’s early dreams didn’t include Chapel Hill.

He spent his youth in Texas, the epicenter of American football. But while an entire state looked to the gridiron, Somoano and his friends traveled an hour and a half just for a few good hours on the soccer pitch. Everyone else called it a “sissy sport,” but Somoano was devoted. So devoted, in fact, that he made his way to a Division 2 program when college seemed like a distant possibility. So devoted that he played in Europe before suffering a career-ending leg injury. So devoted that he took his first job as an assistant coach for no pay, and his second for a mere $16,000 per year.

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Fall sports rankings and national title odds

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Shane
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Let’s take a look at the respective rankings of every fall sports team at Duke and UNC.

Football

UNC: #35 (by the ‘others receiving votes’ portion of the USA Today poll)
Duke: #42 (hey, we got a vote!)

Men’s Soccer

UNC: #4
Duke: #26

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Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Doldrums

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Marc
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This is the worst time of year to be a college basketball fan.  Let me explain.  In the springtime after March Madness we all sit around and evaluate the “what ifs?” and “should haves.”  As we move into summer we accept that college basketball is still far away.  We decide whether we want to watch golf, baseball or stab our own eyeballs with forks.  From personal experience I can declare that the fork stabbing is far more entertaining than baseball or golf.  We’re frustrated there isn’t college basketball, but we’ve come to accept it.

However, as we venture forth into fall we feel that college basketball is right around the corner.  We can almost taste it.  We want to see Sportscenter highlights of Duke or UNC crushing a team by forty.  We want to see Virginia Tech squeak by cupcakes and laugh as they don’t get picked for the NCAA tournament yet again.  We want to see Wake Forest actually lose to the Polytechnical School for the Deaf and Blind.  But we can’t always get what we want.

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Duke Earns Its First Erwin Cup Point!

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Shane
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The Duke football essay project returns tomorrow, but in the meantime, here’s the wrap from the weekend.

-Check the scoreboard, baby! (Right sidebar.) Duke has its first point of the Erwin Cup, and it was well-earned. Visiting the #5 UNC Tar Heels, the men’s soccer team pulled out an incredible 2-2 draw. Luckily, Will asked me the day before the game what would happen in the case of a tie, and we decided that the difference in possible points earned would go to the road team. So in this case, UNC stood to gain 3 with a home win, and Duke would get 4 with a road win. The difference is 1, so Duke takes the point.

Riley Wolfe scored the game-tying goal for Duke in the 84th minute, and the Blue Devils are now unbeaten in their last five matches.

-UNC women’s soccer did a better for themselves, winning 4-1 at Miami. You can watch the goals here.

-Duke women’s soccer continued its incredible season, and Tara Campbell earned yet another shutout, in a 1-0 win over Virginia Tech. You can see the nifty goal, scored by Kaitlyn Kerr after a great headed pass from Chelsea Canepa, here:

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Optipessimism Week 5: North Carolina – East Carolina

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Nate
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Before getting to this week’s Optipessimism, I have to beat my own chest for a minute and explain to you, lovely readers, my commitment to Tar Heel football. Upon hearing that the night game against ECU would only be televised in my area on a channel called the CBS Sports Network, and I didn’t get it, I called up Comcast and asked what it would cost to just buy it for a day, like pay per view or something. I had to buy a whole “package” of sports channels for a whopping $5 a month, though the low cost meant I wasn’t too broken up about it (I know, I’m undermining my heroics statement). So I have officially spent real money now this season on Carolina football in absentia; and I promised not to donate any money to the program when they fired my precious Butch Davis! (I’m kidding. Seriously. Donating money requires, well, money.)

The reason I’m telling you all this is because part of the sports package included NFL RedZone. Which is, hands down, the most perfect sports channel for a football fan ever invented. It’s amazing. You literally miss nothing. I sat down at 1 PM on my couch on Sunday and watched, enraptured, for hours. I caught nearly every touchdown, almost all the important plays, and felt like I could carry a legitimate conversation about the flow of all 10 or so games. It’s incredible. And there are no commercials. My question: how the heck has no one done this yet for college football? (And ESPN Goal Line doesn’t count; they don’t cover all the games.) I can understand there would be some serious obstacles, namely:

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