Author Archives: Shane

The TRB Comments of the Week!

Later today, we’ll get to the UNC media guide top 15 and introduce a new prediction feature. For now, it’s the COMMENTS OF THE WEEK, a neglected feature that should have run earlier.

Every week, more or less, we’ll be choosing one comment from the previous week that made our hearts swell with joy, pride, or love. Then we’ll be choosing another that made the rest of our organs swell with shame, hilarity, or disgust. All comments are printed as written.

Positive

Both comments this week come from the Rivalry post, which asked whether Duke and UNC fans would like to see the teams meet in the NCAA tournament. The overwhelming majority of responses, on the post and on twitter, were ‘hell no.’ Nobody wanted the stress, and nobody wanted to accept the awful possibility of losing. Then Andrew put on his badass goggles and took us all to task:

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Top 15 Moments from the Duke Football Media Guide

You can view the guide here. Also, I’m sort of doing this as I go through it, so there’s a good chance that #1 won’t be any more compelling than #15. If it is, though, it’s because I planned it all along. Now then, as I imagine Cutcliffe says in the most badass way possible: let’s roll.

Cutcliffe means 'motivation' in some foreign tongue

15. Pronunciation

From the Player Pronunciation Guide:

Patrick KURUNWUNE – cuh-ROON-WOO-nay

Is it me, or does this not help at all? How the hell are you supposed to emphasize two consecutive syllables? Whenever I try it, I sound like a barking dog. Seriously, give it a shot. ROON-WOO! He’s the 5th-string running back, by the way. God, I hope we get some ROON-WOO action this year.

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Posted in UNC | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Happy College Football Kickoff!

Coming later this morning and this afternoon, we’ll be looking at the top 15 moments in the 2011 version of the Duke and UNC football media guides.

For now, check out the season previews: Duke and UNC. This is truly one of the best days of the year. Plus, good riddance to August! Even when we feel like the summer won’t end, we must always keep in mind the persistence of football.

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Duke Football Preview: Talking Myself Into a National Title

Coach David Cutcliffe, one of the great personalities in college football, is now entering his fourth year at the helm. In his first year, he won four games, tying the school’s best record since 1994. In 2009, he came within a Wake Forest win of leading Duke to its first bowl game since 1995.* Last year, Duke had a slight dip to 3-9, but four of those losses were by six points or less.

*A loss in the Hall of Fame Bowl to Wisconsin. The last time Duke won a bowl game was in 1961, a 7-6 win over Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl.

This year, I think Cutty is ready to finally get over the hump. And I don’t just mean the Bowl Game hump. I think he’s ready to win a national title.

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Posted in Duke | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Responding to Spam Comments

WordPress does a great job filtering out spam comments, but sometimes we think it’s good to let them know we still appreciate their efforts. With that in mind, here are some featured spam comments from the past week. For better or worse, these are all real.

Keep up this good work, you have a nice blog over here with much good information! When you post some new stuff, I’ll visit your blog again and I’ll follow it.
-sexdate

Thanks Sexdate! That sounds like a pretty typical behavior pattern for a person on the internet! I’m glad you’ll be applying it to this site!

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Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Rivalry Question of the Week: Dookies versus Tar Holes

This week’s question is inspired by an email from Dan, who writes:

It’d be great if you write about the nicknames some time. I’m particularly interested in “dook.” I don’t know anyone from Duke who finds it insulting, or even annoying, but many UNC fans seem to treat it as a real “gotcha” stinger.

And also by a g-chat with William:

William: you should do a follow up to the dook fighting post about the heels fighting styles.
William: haha, sorry, i always spell it dook out of habit.

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Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Kelly Cobb’s goal against Notre Dame (Video)

It’s the second one. Just as crazy as I remember. I do wish the camera was on the near side, but it’s nice to have it anyway, courtesy of GoDuke:

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Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

The Weekend Recap – Good Signs

Last year, I was pretty lax about going to see non-basketball sports at Duke and UNC. I hit up most of the main football games, and I was definitely on the spot come hoops season, but I never went to a single soccer match, and only made it to a couple baseball, tennis, and lacrosse games in the spring. It’s lucky I did, though, because those late experiences kicked me into gear. I remembered how much fun it was to watch elite college sports of any kind, and I vowed to make an effort to get to more games this year.

Still, I didn’t know if I’d like watching women’s soccer this weekend at the Carolina Nike Classic. The defending national champs (Notre Dame) were in town, and sure, UNC has the most successful college program of any sport in the country, and yeah, I’ve been getting really into soccer over the past year and a half. But logic be damned- I was afraid to be bored.

Let me tell ya, I was one misguided dude.

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Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Basketball! The Game of the Weekend! UNC women’s soccer preview!

What’s up, gang. A couple things before we move on. First, braggadocio: if you look quick, you can catch my name on the front page ESPN.com, just below Bill Simmons. While that will undoubtedly be a fleeting glory, you can read the article on Ric Flair that got me there here. And if you really want, you can hear me talk about it from a scratchy phone here or here (37:00).

Second, some quick things about the UAE game yesterday.

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Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Duke and UNC Basketball schedules released – get ’em here!

They’re both out.

UNC

Duke

Here are five tough non-conference games for Duke, and five notable teams UNC will surely destroy on their way to an undefeated national championship:

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