Category Archives: UNC

Dit-Dit-Dit-DAH!!!

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Nate
8 Comments

This theme of this post can best be described as: JOY.

When I heard those iconic four notes to kick off ESPN’s first Monday Night Football telecast of 2011 last night, I must have looked like a kid who just won first place in the Pinewood Derby.  The lockout really is over! This is football! It’s real! No more pretending to care about the NBA, no more agonizing front-page coverage of golf (hobby, not sport), no more seeing UNC on the front page of ESPN for more accusations of academic and athletic impropriety.

(One can dream, right? Maybe just until October? Please?)

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

Duke Twitter Rankings: The Kendall Marshall Challenge

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Shane
21 Comments

Today, in advance of Duke’s first games in China, I’m introducing a new feature. The premise is simple- I evaluate the twitter accounts of every Duke basketball player for the past week, list the highlights, and give them an entertainment score out of 10. Here’s the official logo:

The word I would use to describe my rating system is “holistic.” There are no formulas, no science, just the feeling I get in my gut. Here’s where it gets really tough: whoever wins the week with the highest score will have to face Kendall Marshall, who reliably has some of the strangest, funniest, and weirdest tweets of any athlete I’ve come across. If a Dukie can do the unthinkable and take him down, the Tobacco Road Twitter Belt will be theirs.

Now, in order from worst to first, here’s how the week played out in the twitter world of Duke basketball.

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Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

The TRB Comments of the Week!

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Shane
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Every Monday, 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

There was some great stuff last week, but the positive comment of the week is a no-brainer. It comes from a reader named Dot Harward on Devil Wolf's excellent Duke football post:

Loved your article! I have loved Duke football as a child then as a Duke grad. At 82 years I still love Duke football. Now at 82 years I find it difficult to walk from the parking lot to the stadium, but I am determind to be ther this year.

YES, DOT! YES!

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Defensive Development in the Carolina System

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Adrian
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New readers –

This is launch week on Tobacco Road Blues, the new site dedicated to Duke and UNC sports. This afternoon's post comes from Adrian Atkinson, a contributing writer. He'll be covering UNC sports, and basketball in particular. If you're interested in writing for TRB, follow the contact link to the right. Enjoy.

 

-Shane

A Quantitative Look at Defensive Development in the Carolina System

Conventional wisdom declares that experience matters in college basketball, especially on the defensive end of the court. While effective defense is a function of myriad physical traits—lateral quickness, length/wingspan, and strength, to name three—it is also heavily dependent on a player’s mental attributes. The ability to communicate with teammates, to make crisp and timely help rotations, and to execute the nuances of a complicated defensive scheme are all things that can be mastered irrespective of a player’s level of athleticism. But they can rarely be mastered without a healthy dose of experience. Shared court time with teammates—both on the practice floor and in game situations—is essential for developing the type of defensive IQ and chemistry that all championship-caliber teams have.

Moreover, there is an interaction effect between a player’s experience and his physical traits. By reacting instinctively rather than thinking, a defender can gain a half-step of quickness that might be the difference between a successful help rotation and an unsuccessful one. On the other hand, a player who is not yet acclimated with a defensive scheme can often look paralyzed with indecision on the court. This lack of experience and defensive understanding can erroneously manifest itself as a lack of quickness or effort.

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Firing Butch Davis: Um, What?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Shane
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New readers –

This is launch week on Tobacco Road Blues, the new site dedicated to Duke and UNC sports. This afternoon's post comes from Nate Friedman, a contributing writer and the first fully-UNC affiliated author on the site. He'll be covering UNC sports, and football in particular. If you're interested in writing for TRB, follow the contact link to the right. Enjoy.

-Shane

Firing Butch Davis: Um, What?

“It doesn’t make sense.”

I’m echoing several national-level writers, including ESPN’s Pat Forde and Heather Dinich, as well as CBS’ front man Gregg Doyel. All said that UNC had legitimate reason for firing head coach Butch Davis (Doyel in particular wanted his head on a platter) on Wednesday, July 27. All suggested this was a long time coming. All were shocked at the timing of the decision.

I understand the calls for Davis’ head, despite his relatively clean hands through this whole sordid affair. When the NCAA’s improper benefits investigation ballooned into a full-fledged scandal involving a tutor, academic plagiarism, and looming sanctions, it became seriously hard to believe the administration line that Davis knew nothing.

Did Davis orchestrate this whole mess?

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Posted in Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Yoga with Psycho T: A Girlfriend’s Report

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Shane
7 Comments

An hour ago, I got this text from my girlfriend:

"Omg Tyler Hansboro is in my yoga class."

As many readers know, I have a special affinity for the big fella who never lost in Cameron. Normally, I would've been at this class with her, but a knee injury suffered last night while playing ping pong has me sidelined. DAMN YOU, CURS'ED LIFE!

I told her to remember EVERYTHING, but I think the text arrived late. Still, she came away with some good details. Here now is her full report of the episode I'm calling

A Heartfelt Tribute to Pyscho-Chi

(Props to @chrisalyss for the wordlplay.)

Girlfriend:

So I'm waiting in the lobby a few minutes before class starts, and a really tall guy with a dark-haired friend came in. He walked to the desk, and the woman there asked if he'd ever been to the studio before.

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Posted in Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

The Photoshops

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Shane
1 Comment

New readers –

This is launch week on Tobacco Road Blues, the new site dedicated to Duke and UNC sports. All week, we’re going to be running two of the ‘greatest hits’ from Seth Curry Saves Duke!, our previous blog, every day. The new content begins on Monday the 15th.

Today’s morning post is actually a compilation of all the “graphic illustrations” produced in the last year. I put that term in quotes because using it without them would probably insult anyone who did actual graphic illustrations. A great professor named Bart Wojdynski taught me how to use Adobe Illustrator at some point in February, probably thinking I would use the knowledge for something educational or morally uplifting. Didn’t happen. Everything that follows is crude, and the bias level is high in a way that will be less typical of TRB. Enjoy.

-Shane

 

My first effort, the “Choose Your ACC Team” flowchart, done in early January

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Posted in Duke, Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Heartfelt Tribute to Psycho T

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Shane
12 Comments

New readers –

This is launch week on Tobacco Road Blues, the new site dedicated to Duke and UNC sports. All week, we're going to be running two of the 'greatest hits' from Seth Curry Saves Duke!, our previous blog, every day. The new content begins on Monday the 15th.

Today's morning post was written on April 6th, 2009, the night of the UNC-Michigan State national title game. It was the sixth post ever written on the blog, and the first one to attract any attention. Oddly enough for a Duke basketball blog, it got the most positive feedback from UNC fans and some negative comments from Duke fans. I include it to prove right off the bat that I'm capable of shedding my bias for minutes at a time. Enjoy.

-Shane

A Heartfelt Tribute to Psycho T

Friends of the blog, I don't have to tell you that I'm a Duke basketball fan. I'm tied to the school and the program for life. The relationship can be contentious at times, hopeless at others, and downright bitter at its worst. Sometimes I have fantasies about packing my things, changing my name, and taking the first plane west to become a fan of a school like San Diego State. But at the end of the day, my loyalties will always lie with the Devils. It's sort of like an arranged marriage you can never leave.

That being said, there are limits. Continue reading →

Posted in UNC | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

The Welcoming Committee

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Shane
122 Comments

Here we are.

After much pomp and circumstance, Tobacco Road Blues is afloat. In nautical terms, we’re as mighty as the Titanic, but hopefully less prone to tragedy.

In fact, I’m going to guarantee it. I’m going to go that far, because today is an exciting day: reading this website will not increase your risk of personal tragedy.

It won’t lower it, mind you, but I want you to feel safe.

Here’s our deal. As the tag line above says in no uncertain terms, this site is dedicated to chronicling the ongoing athletic battle between Duke and UNC. The best (and laziest) way for me to explain things is via the FAQ format, so let’s get right to it. Continue reading →

Posted in Duke, Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged , , | 122 Comments