Tom Sorensen tells it like it is

dukey, did you read this?

UNC fans raise whining to new level
Commentary by Tom Sorensen, Charlotte Observer
March 3, 2003

Wine and cheese was the nickname Florida State's Sam Cassell applied to North Carolina fans in the early 1990s. But the tag no longer applies. Now they're simply whine.

Fans of other schools complain more about newspapers and network announcers that are out to get them. But North Carolina fans lead the league in complaints about their own coaches and athletics director.

I spent a couple days in Chapel Hill last week. Took my laptop, digital voice recorder, shaving kit and a change of clothes. What did I forget?

Kleenex. North Carolina cries more about its basketball team than the rest of us do rain.

Matt Doherty is in his third season as coach. Is he the man to return the Tar Heels to the top of the charts? Don't know. He hasn't had enough time.

But fans know. They know he has yet to lead his team to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16. Therefore, he must go, the basketball office must be wiped clean of evidence he was ever there and, oh yeah, his players can't go to the National Invitation Tournament.

There are North Carolina fans, employees and benefactors pulling for the Tar Heels to lose their next three games so they'll finish below .500 and avoid the ignominy of the NIT.

As any North Carolina fan can tell you, the NIT is to basketball what jug wine is to Chardonnay. In fact, NIT stands for Not In (NCAA) Tournament, which is where the Tar Heels forever are supposed to play.

Fans of most schools would suck it up and understand that postseason experience of any kind is especially valuable to a team as young as the Tar Heels.

Yet North Carolina fans gripe in bars and boardrooms, on radio talk shows and message boards, in hallways and offices and even in bathrooms in the Dean. E. Smith Center.

Members of the school's Educational Foundation I've talked to in Charlotte want Doherty gone. Who do they want to replace him? They're unanimous. They want somebody with a last name other than Doherty.

The coach is fortunate in that North Carolina is not one of those weak little schools that allows folks who send money to the athletic department to dictate policy.

Losing basketball games at North Carolina might be uncommon, but complaining about coaches is not. The last time I heard North Carolina fans complain like this was -- let me check my notes -- way back in 1999-2000.

After slogging to an ACC record of 7-5 and a numbing first-round ACC tournament loss to Wake Forest, the Tar Heels tore through the NCAA tournament and reached the Final Four.

Fans were thrilled with the finish but not with the coach. Bill Guthridge had the demeanor of a Wal-Mart greeter, and fans celebrated when, after three seasons, Coach Comatose departed.

Fans also ripped Dean Smith near the end of his career, albeit quietly. They complained his best work was behind him and that basketball -- or was it Duke? -- had passed him by.

ABC no longer means Anybody But Carolina.

It means Anybody But (our) Coach.

 

NICE!!

 

Before anybody jumps in my shit, I have been a Heels fan for al of my 35 years and went to UNC. I read that article and I totally agreed with it. Do I agree that Doherty seems overwhelmed sometimes - yep. But I also remember seeing K, , Valvano, Barnes, and just about every other young coach put into the ACC pressure cooker make some of the same mistakes his first few years. This doesn't mean that Doh will be as good as K or the others, it just means that thie is a tough league to coach in. Now, in a couple of years, if the Heels haven't progressed I think you have to look at firing him. But, until them, some people need to fucking relax. Carolina didn't get into this mess overnight and they won't get out of it overnight. I just hope we aren't going to go down the same road that UCLA did.

 

I see articles like this and it lumps us all together. Yes, I have complained about Doh. But never did I want Gut gone or dare say one wrong word about the Michaelangelo of coaching. The greatest coaching job I have ever seen WAS the year UNC went to final four as an 8th seed.

And for the record I DO want to go to the NIT. We don't deserve the NCAA.

 

vp and gutter, you two are smart enough to know that the law of averages would finally catch up with at UNC. You are not the fans I get bashed for disliking. It's the dukeys, etc. that continuously say there is no other team that give the ABCers fits.

I can respect the intelligent fan, it's the Richard Craniums (and you know who they are) that I can't tolerate.