Women's Basketball:

Hatchell signs new contract

According to a statement released today by the university, UNC's board
of trustees approved a seven-year deal for the Hall of Fame coach that
starts this month. Hatchell's agent, John Meadows, said the package
will improve her salary this year to $705,000 from $476,000, making her
one of the highest paid women's coaches in the nation.

Football:

Kenan Stadium plan moves ahead

The University of North Carolina's Board of Trustees approved the
design for a first phase of plans to substantially expand the Tar
Heels' football stadium.

This is good news. A commitment to expand and improve Kenan Stadium is a commitment to make the football program a serious contender.

Countdown to Kickoff #36: North Carolina

If the Tar Heels can improve upon
their 96th-ranked turnover margin and win half of the close games they
lost last season, seven wins and North Carolina's first bowl since 2004
is likely.

Basketball

Tar Heels know pressure will be on to win title

After an uncertain offseason that ended with an unlikely outcome by
today's standards, the Tar Heels are left with an inescapable fact:
They are the clear preseason favorite to win the national title that
has eluded Hansbrough in his first three years.

Baseball

Forbes promoted to Associate Head Coach



Following a stint in Chapel Hill as an assistant from 1999-2002, Forbes
has served as the Tar Heels' pitching coach for the last three seasons
and has helped guide Carolina to three straight College World Series
appearances.

UNC Sports Information issued a press release this afternoon stating that junior Danny Green is will "test the waters" and enter the NBA Draft without an agent.

Is his situation different from Ellington and Lawson? A little bit. He's a junior, and can only test said waters and pull out of the draft once.

Well, no it's not, but I thought I'd get your attention.

Disclaimer: This post is being written by a Carolina fan, someone who places team wins and championships above all else (save player safety).

Now that that is out of the way, let me continue. First, the good news: Tyler Hansbrough is returning for his senior season of Carolina basketball. Fantastic. Tyler has been a pleasure to watch for three seasons, and we'll get to see him for one more. He's been "A joy to have in class," as it used to read on other kids' report cards. Tyler is one that we will tell future generations about. He's good.

Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson have decided to go through the NBA Draft process without an agent.

I hate the phrase 'test the waters.' It's cliche, like 'golf-ball-sized hail.'

This is what I think the process must be like for Carolina players thinking of leaving school early to play professionally:

Coach advises me to stay + I want to stay = Stay in school (Hansbrough)

Coach advises me to stay + I want to go = Declare without agent (Lawson, Ellington)

Coach advises me to go + I want to go = Declare with agent (Brandan Wright)

Coach advises me to go + I want to stay = Declare (Michael Jordan, James Worthy)

I can't envision a scenario in which Roy Williams advised these two players (particularly Ellington) that they would set themselves up best by leaving after the 2007-08 season. I have not seen a mock draft that projected Ellington as anything about the second round. Every day, as we waited for Hansbrough, Ellington and Lawson to make their decisions, it seemed another player declared for the draft that could be picked before them.

Take a look at some of the guards that have declared for the NBA draft, and probably would go ahead of Lawson and Ellington: Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, D.J. Augustin*, Jerryd Bayless, O.J. Mayo, Mario Chalmers*, Brandon Rush, Chris Douglas-Roberts.

* - has not hired agent

That's just at the guard position. Other players like Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, Brook and Robin Lopez and Chase Budinger could go ahead of the two Heels. So what are they listening to? Do they love playing basketball at Carolina but wish to do without everything that goes along with it? I'm curious, because another season (with a sweeter ending) could do wonders to their 2009 draft stock.

I still think a team without Lawson and Ellington could be in the mix for a Final Four run, but they certainly make the team the prohibitive favorite in 2009.

We just got our asses kicked.

Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino bumps into Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz. "Why the long face, Jeff?"

"Oh, we just lost to North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament, and our season is over."

"That's too, bad."

"You don't look so happy yourself, Rick."

"Yeah, well, we just lost to North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament, and now our season is over."

"Sorry to hear that, Coach."

"You too."

The ink hasn't yet dried on the Tar Heels' victory over Louisville, but the men's basketball team is headed to the Final Four in San Antonio next weekend. And the Tar Heel women's basketball, thanks to LaToya Pringle, came back from an 18-point deficit to get past Louisville and into the Elite Eight.

"The big fella" has a very nice jumper. I love the fact that Tyler Hansbrough can hit from 18 feet now. Twenty-eight and 13 for the national player of the year, when the Tar Heels needed him. Didn't get a lot of scoring help in the second half from the backcourt (save a big three from Lawson), so Hansbrough took the game into his own hands, and the Tar Heels move on to face the Davidson/Kansas winner. Funny that all of us that cheered for Davidson in Raleigh could see them on Saturday night. Funny thing: I just saw Jonas Sahratian blow kisses to the crowd from the podium and saying, "We love you!"

LaToya Pringle, the quiet one, the one that's always there, but you don't realize it until she's got 27 and 11, willed the Tar Heels into the Elite Eight past Angel McCoughtry (35 and 13) and Louisville. I thought the ride was over for Coach Hatchell's crew, but the Tar Heels regrouped, made a run, and held off a furious rally. They'll play LSU Monday in New Orleans for a Final Four berth. The #1 seed plays the #2 seed 65 miles from LSU's home floor. Right . . .

68-47. Good, quality win over a good, quality team. Tyler got off to a slow start but Danny Green provided the offensive spark he'd been missing in the first two games. Also . . . Alex Stepheson did a yeoman's job defensively and had two highlight-reel blocks in two straight possessions. . . Ty's ankle continues to look better - he's getting back that blow-by speed we'd missed. . . Deon had a solid contribution . . . Wayne did a nice job on both ends of the floor, and I love his confidence in his jumper.

Between ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNews, the four-letter network has 96 hours of programming daily. Let's say they have 16 minutes of commercials per hour (I don't know, I'm just estimating). That's about 26 hours. So now we're down to about 70 hours of programming. So let's take those 70 hours and parcel it out thusly for this time of year:

40 percent NCAA Tournament
30 percent Baseball opening day
20 percent NBA
10 percent other stories (football off-season, hockey, etc.)

40 percent of 70 hours is 28 hours of NCAA tournament talk per day. There are now 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament. If all teams are talked about equally (they aren't - when's the last time you heard the talking heads prat on about Western Kentucky), then each team is talked about for an hour and 45 minutes. That's a lot of talk time. If you include Washington State's talk time because that's the matchup, it's 3 and a half hours. If your team is going to be talked about for 105 minutes every day on one of these networks, crap like this is going to happen.

The Tar Heels ran up the score? Really? I don't have the stats on this, but I'd wager that Carolina is the only school still standing that can say every single dressed player has scored in the first two games of the tournament. And it's incumbent upon Arkansas to play defense. Show some pride. To his credit, I don't remember John Pelphrey complaining. It's just people trying to fill their 105 minutes.

If Skip Bayless is talking to himself, is he still wrong?