Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC assistant coach feared Barnes was going to Duke

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UNC Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach Steve Robinson, speaking to the Raleigh Sports Club this week, said he was not quite sure he was going to win the recruiting battle for Harrison Barnes with Duke University. Speaking to a crowd of approximately 185 attendees, Robinson said things looked bleak when he saw Barnes attending a UNC-Duke game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Barnes was attending as a guest of the Blue Devils during Barnes’ senior year in high school.

“I looked up behind the Duke bench and saw him wearing a Blue Devil shirt,” Robinson said. “I told coach (Roy Williams) that I did not know if we would get him. His mother assured me that he would make a visit to UNC.”

Robinson said Barnes’ mother held to her word and as everyone knows the highly recruited basketball player selected the Heels over the Blue Devils. Barnes decision has paid huge dividends to the team’s success.

Robinson went on to describe the unique experience of playing Michigan State on the USS Carl Vinson. He indicated that the weather, pregame festivities and meeting the President of the United States made it much more difficult to prepare for the game than normal.

The former Florida State head coach commented that Barnes, John Henson and Kendall Marshall have been the team’s top performers this season. He noted that Henson continues to improve each season and that Marshall has had four 15 assist games.

“That is the first time in UNC basketball history that has happened,” Robinson emphasized.

When asked by a member of the audience about UNC center Tyler Zeller playing “soft” in the post thus far, Robinson commented that Zeller just “needs to play better” and that he did not know if “soft” was the correct way to describe Zeller’s play. On the academic side, Robinson proudly pointed out that Zeller is an “academic All-American scholar athlete” for his performance in the classroom.

“College basketball is alive and well,” Robinson said when asked about the early season upsets that have seen four different teams hold the #1 position in the rankings. “The atmosphere for the UNLV and Kentucky games were NCAA tournament like environments. They were played on their home courts,” Robinson pointed out.

To help you learn more about the Raleigh Sports Club, the club has released a new professionally produced membership promotional video. To watch the video click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UePabzdajM. The RSC has added several prominent speakers to its schedule. Please visit www.raleighsportsclub.org for news and postings as it is updated regularly.

– Greg Pierce

Duke, Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny, UNC

Good move for ACC basketball to play more conference games

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Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced Thursday that beginning in the 2012-13 season the league will play an 18-game conference schedule in basketball. Good move. In fact, it’s a shame there can’t be more.

The best days of conference play were when each team played the other twice, once at home and once away. You always knew you had another shot at the team and it built interest among fans. To go a year without playing another conference opponent at all is ridiculous but even this plan might not change that.

With the ACC expanding to 14 teams, in order to play all home and away, you’d have to play 26 conference games and that’s undoable. The days of smaller conference are gone but for those who remember, those were the days.

“Our member institutions have been talking about this increase for awhile and knowing our league will be expanding to 14 in the future, we’ve decided to move to an 18-game conference schedule next year, regardless of our membership number,” Swofford said. “The additional conference games create a more equitable schedule and we’ve received significant feedback from our fans for more conference games.”

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny, UNC

Tar Heels, Wolfpack are underdogs in bowl matchups

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Sporting News is predicting both local teams – UNC and N.C. State – to lose their football bowl games. A seven-person CBS Sports panel picks Missouri over UNC 4-3 while the same panel picks Louisville over State 5-2. The WhatIfSports simulation game predicts Missouri 26, Carolina 22 and Louisville 26, NC State 23. Football USA predicts Missouri 28, Carolina 24 and Louisville 21, NC State 20. Below are previews of the two games.

Monday, December 26, 2011
Advocare V100 Independence Bowl

North Carolina (7-5, 3-5 ACC) vs. Missouri (7-5, 5-4 Big 12) ESPN2; 5p.m.
Independence Stadium (49,147); Shreveport, La.

The Series: Missouri leads 2-0.
First bowl meeting
The Coaches: Everett Withers: 7-5 (1st year) at North Carolina and overall
Gary Pinkel: 85-54 (11th year) at Missouri; 157-91-3 (21st year) overall
Last Meeting: Oct. 2, 1976: Missouri 24, North Carolina 3 at Columbia, Mo.: The 12th-ranked
Tigers racked up 557 yards of total offense in handing the No. 14 Tar Heels their
first loss of the season. UNC earned a Peach Bowl bid that season and finished the season at 9-3.

North Carolina … The Tar Heels are 13-15 in all bowl games and 13-12 as ACC members. The Independence will be their fi rst postseason game in Louisiana and their first contest in the state since a 42-10 win at Tulane on Nov. 13, 1993. … ACC teams are 10-11 all-time against schools representing the Big 8/Big 12 at game time.
UNC has never played a Big 8/Big 12 team in postseason. … UNC is in a bowl for the fourth straight season, its longest streak of postseason participation since 1992-98. … North Carolina is one of five FBS teams with an 1,100-yard rusher (RB Giovani Bernard, 1,222) and an 1,100-yard receiver (WR Dwight Jones, 1,119). Missouri has played two of the other teams in that group of five, losing to Baylor and Oklahoma State. … Bernard is 43 yards from the second-highest freshman rushing total in ACC history. … The Tar Heels have held five of their past six opponents below the national average in total offense. … For theseason, six of 12 opponents failed to rush for 80 yards against North Carolina, which permitted an average of 3.14 yards per rush. … In four non-conference games, QB Bryn Renner has completed 67-of-88 passes (.761) for 958 yards, eight TDs and four INTs.

Missouri … The Tigers are 12-16 in all bowl games and are playing their fi rst postseason contest against an ACC member. … Missouri is in a bowl for the seventh
consecutive season and for the eighth time in nine years. … The Tigers are making their third Independence Bowl appearance, having defeated South Carolina in 2005 and lost to Arkansas in 2003. … In all action, the Tigers are 4-4 against the ACC. … The Tigers enter on a three-game winning streak that concluded the 2011 regular season. … Four of their five losses have been by 10 or fewer points. For the season, they have gained 2,835 yards rushing and 2,834 by passing. … RB Henry Josey amassed 263 rushing yards on only 14 carries in a win over Western Illinois on Sept. 17; the yardage total is the fifth-highest by an FBS player this season. Josey is 12th nationally with 116.8 rushing yards per game. … QB James Franklin is one of only three FBS players with 800 or more rushing yards and 2,000 or more passing yards in 2011; the others are Chandler Harnisch of Northern Illinois and Denard Robinson of Michigan. … The Independence is one of three bowls in which both teams have one of the nation’s 25 leading rushers; the others are the Rose (Oregon-Wisconsin) and the Alamo (Baylor-Washington).

Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Belk Bowl

NC State (7-5, 4-4 ACC) vs. Louisville (7-5, 5-2 Big East) ESPN; 8 p.m.
Bank of America Stadium (73,667); Charlotte, N.C.

The Series: Louisville leads, 3-0
First bowl meeting.
The Coaches: Tom O’Brien: 32-30 (5th year) at NC State; 107-75 (15th year) overall
Charlie Strong: 14-11 (2nd year) at Louisville and overall
Last Meeting: Sept. 29, 2007: Louisville 29, NC State 10 at Raleigh, N.C.: After allowing eight
touchdown passes and 925 yards of total offense in the previous two games, the
Cardinals forced five turnovers and pulled away for a victory over the Wolfpack. Coach Tom O’Brien’s first team, struggling
to find an offensive flow because of injuries to quarterbacks, was still a couple
of weeks away from hitting its stride. A four-game late-season winning streak
helped the club finish at 5-7.

NC State … The Wolfpack is making a bowl trip in consecutive seasons for the fi rst time since 2000-03. … State is 13-11-1 in all bowl games and 13-10-1 while in
the ACC. … NC State is 2-2 against the Big East in bowl games. … This is the program’s second appearance in the Bowl game in Charlotte; the Pack defeated South Florida 14-0 in the 2005 Meineke car Care Bowl … To qualify for postseason, the Pack won its final two regular-season games, defeating No. 8 Clemson 37-13 and Maryland 56-41. The triumph over the Tigers was the program’s first against a Top-8 opponent since the 24-7 result over No. 2 Florida State on Sept. 12, 1998, and in overcoming a 27-point
defi cit against the Terrapins, they delivered the largest numerical comeback in the program’s history. … QB Mike Glennon threw eight TD passes and one interception in
those contests. … The Pack is one of 10 FBS teams with multiple INT and fumble returns for scores this season. … CB David Amerson has tied the ACC’s single-season
record and is the nation’s leader in interceptions with 11. That’s four more than any other player in 2011 and the most by any individual since Wisconsin’s Jim Leonhard
had 11 in 14 games in 2002. Even if Amerson does not pick off a pass against Louisville, his average of 0.846 interceptions per game will be the highest since 2000.

Louisville … The Cardinals are 7-7-1 in all bowl games, including a 1-1 mark against the ACC; they lost to Virginia Tech 35-24 in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 2, 2007 and
defeated Wake Forest 24-13 in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2,2007. … The Cardinals are 11-10 against ACC teams in all contests. … Louisville earned a share of the Big East title with a 5-2 record in 2011 and won five of its fi nal six regular-season outings. … The Cardindals are 10th nationally against the run, having allowed 103 yards a game,
and 14th in scoring defense (19.17 points per game). Louisville has held six of its opponents to 17 or fewer points. … LB Dexter Heyman has three interceptions
and four sacks on the year. … Louisville’s opponents have returned 12 punts for a total of fi ve net yards in 12 games. … Special teams were key to two Big East victories
for Louisville: an 82-yard TD return of a blocked field goal produced a 10-point swing in an eventual 38-35 win at West Virginia and an 100-yard kickoff return highlighted
a 14-point triumph over Connecticut. … In third-and-1 and third-and-2 situations, the Cards’ opponents have converted only 55.6 percent of the time. … PK Chris
Philpott is one of two FBS kickers with field goals of 50 or more yards in consecutive games; he made a 51-yarder against Cincinnati and a 52-yarder vs. Rutgers.

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny

Wolfpack has a chance to make a statement Saturday against No. 1 Syracuse

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The last time, NC State (6-3) hosted a top-ranked non-conference opponent, none of its current squad members were even born yet.

When the Wolfpack hosts top-ranked Syracuse (10-0) on Saturday at a sold-out RBC Center at 6:30 p.m., it will be the first time since 1979 that NC State has entertained a non-conference foe holding the top spot in the national polls.

Notre Dame was the last non-conference opponent to venture into Raleigh holding the No. 1 ranking. The Irish were coached by Digger Phelps and headlined by Kelly Tripucka, Orlando Woolridge and Bill Lambier. The unranked Pack, coach by Norm Sloan, was led by Hawkeye Whitney, Clyde Austin, Tony Warren and Tiny Pinder.

The Wolfpack had reached as high as No. 4 in the Associated Press poll earlier that season after capturing the Great Alaska Shootout title. State would fall from the rankings with four consecutive ACC losses, including a one-point loss to North Carolina on a Dudley Bradley’s steal and layup at the buzzer.

Against the Irish, the Pack fought back from a 46-37 deficit midway through the second half and held a brief lead in the final minute. But a pair of Tripucka free throws with six seconds remaining sealed a 53-52 Irish win.

NC State owns a 5-25 mark all time in against teams ranked No. 1.

Saturday’s contest will be broadcast on ESPN2 with Jon Sciambi handling the play-by-play duties and Hubert Davis providing the color commentary.

– News Release

Featured stories, The skinny

Bulls, Mudcats offer holiday deals in advance of season

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The Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats, the Triangle’s minor league baseball teams, are giving opportunities for last-minute Christmas gifts. The Bulls are offering two tickets, a hat and a t-shirt, normally a $50 value for $25. The Ballpark Corner store will be open this Saturday, Dec. 17 from 10am-4pm or you can go to the DurhamBulls.com to order the deal. Over in Zebulon, the Mudcats are offering 12 $10 game tickets, five box seat tickets, a discount coupon for a suite rental and, if you order by the end of today (the 15th), a t-shirt, baseball or hat all for just $35. For more go to CarolinaMudcats.com

Featured stories, The skinny

Ghost of John Kasay haunting Panthers

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Kicker John Kasay was the best, most consistent thing going for the Carolina Panthers. He was an original Panther. The new regime lets him go and signed a lesser veteran in Olindo Mare. After missing a couple of short field goals, the Panthers have signed an undrafted rookie (Nebraska’s Adi Kunalic) to compete against him – this on a team that would be in the Andrew Luck derby if not for the winless Colts.

Why put the blame on Mare? He has kicked 19 of 25 – that alone makes him better than a lot of kickers in the NFL. But add to it that two of those misses were blocks caused by poor offensive line play, and you have coaches making Mare a goat for a poor season.

Sure, Cam Newton is electrifying but he is also a turnover machine when the tough gets going. The defense can’t stop anybody. Yet you’re going to blame a kicker – the kicker you brought in to replace the legendary Kasay, who has gone on to a winning team in the New Orleans Saints. He has six field goals over 40 yards this year, including a 53 yarder and he ranks four in field goals made.

Kasay is certainly better off playing for a Super Bowl contender but it would have been nice to see a player go through his entire career with one team.

Featured stories, Redskins, The skinny

Former Tar Heel signs with Redskins

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Former UNC tight end Richard Quinn has been signed by the Washington Redskins. Quinn, a 2008 grad, played in 29 games, starting four, while with the Denver Broncos.

The Broncos drafted Quinn 64th overall but he reached an injury settlement with them in August have suffering a knee ligament sprain during training camp.

Quinn only caught 12 passes in college and only one pass in the pros but Skins coach Mike Shanahan doesn’t want him for that. “I liked him as a blocker,” Shanahan said. “I thought he was a dominating blocker coming out of college. I was very impressed with the way he moved defensive linemen and linebackers off the line of scrimmage. We’ll get a chance to evaluate him and see how he helps our football team.”

The Redskins need help at tight end after pro bowl starter Chris Cooley was injured early in the year, backup Fred Davis was suspended by the NFL for using a controlled substance and H-back Mike Sellers was injured last weekend against the Patriots.

Quinn, 25, was born in Alabama, went to high school in Ohio and now lives in Fayetteville.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC’s Moran named to baseball preseason All-America team

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Sophomore third baseman Colin Moran was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason All-America Second Team on Wednesday. Moran earned Freshman All-America honors a year ago in addition to being named the National Freshman of the Year by Baseball America.

Moran paced the Tar Heels a year ago en route to the College World Series. Moran hit .335 on the year with a league-high 71 RBI to go along with 20 doubles and nine home runs.

The Rye, N.Y., native earned All-America honors from ABCA, Baseball America and Perfect Game for his stellar debut season for the Tar Heels. Moran also earned Freshman of the Year honors from Baseball America and was named the top freshman hitter by Perfect Game.

Moran and the Tar Heels will open the 2012 campaign Friday, Feb. 17 against Xavier at Boshamer Stadium.

– News Release

Featured stories, The skinny

Sports Club to honor veterans Wednesday; Duke women’s assistant to speak

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The Raleigh Sports Club will be honoring our veterans at its next meeting – Wednesday, Dec 7th – Pearl Harbor Day. Please note that the meeting will start 10 minutes early since there is a full agenda. Buffet lines open at 11:30 am so please get there early to avoid waiting in line.

Al Brown, the assistant coach for Duke Women’s Basketball, will be the guest speaker and is first on the agenda. Coach Brown is now in his 7th season alongside Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie. In the last 32 years, Coach Brown has produced numerous winning teams and is widely considered one of the best basketball minds in the game today.

Wesleigh Vick, St. Davids basketball player, will be recognized as the Student Athlete of the Week for his accomplishments in the community, classroom and athletics.

The small children at the church will be singing Christmas songs at the Dec 14th meeting. Please visit our website www.raleighsportsclub.org for the scheduled speakers and student athletes to be honored. The website has been updated with new speakers and pictures from the 2011 meeting year.