UNC African Studies: Can the failure of a university's academic programs require suspension or dismissal of athletic coaches?

Two years ago or so, I was writing for Bleacher Report on a number of subjects and in several areas. Among my subjects were UNC football and basketball.

During this time, I wrote an article blaming the UNC academic side at Chapel Hill, and specifically its Chancellor, for failing to properly monitor the academic situation, resulting in the still continuing scandal at UNC dealing with the fake African Studies department and its Chair Julius Nyang'oro.

Bleacher Report killed my article. I was told that they had received a call from someone who I understood was from UNC complaining about the article and that it was not fit for publication because it failed to have sufficient sources.

Now, after major articles written by many about the failures at UNC, and with the eventual resignation of Chancellor Holden Thorp, UNC continues to ride the wave of blame anyone but the management in public statements and let the coaches and player dangle. Doing this not only demeans people close to the athletic departments and lets the real culprits go free, it also presents a politically charged approach to the way in which academic programs are treated by the NCAA. 

It appeared that the case dealing with the athletics department was over until a "student"-athlete leveled new charges against the UNC basketball program and its coach Roy Williams. Having fired Butch Davis as the first scapegoat of the cheating scandal, and having done whatever they could do collectively to adversely affect sports over their treasured academics, the UNC board and its chancellor found the going tough especially when outside consultants and attorneys began their review. There is no question but that the academic side took a hit by requiring the resignation of Holden Thorp, at least in my personal view. After all, the sporting side of a university is not at fault for what the academic side does. 

And there is also little question but that the continuing scandal has been thrust on the sports side again by the attorneys and others in order to try to avoid further damage to academics.

Yet, there is also no question but that Roy Williams has not run a dirty program. Why would he? And also no question but that paying off the sports side in getting Butch Davis fired is only the tip of the iceberg of what the academic side has done to major revenue generators by continuing not to defend their sports program and taking the entire hit on academics.

To suggest in any way that academics were not involved in courses for athletes is the joke here. Roy Williams and Butch Davis should have monitored classes at the university to ensure they were run correctly? They were responsible for academics? 

Nonsense. This is a figment of a man or group trying to hold onto their jobs and positions at UNC, and those people know who they are. 

The deeper question however is not what the sports side did, but rather what more damage will occur. Larry Fedora has already made a public statement about what he was told not jibing with what has occurred recently, with the clear possibility of leaving UNC, something he may have done anyway. And tinkering with the program like the NCAA is now doing again makes Roy Williams and basketball at risk.

For a huge university like UNC, the blight of a small, insignificant program is incredible. How or why criminal charges were dropped leads to speculation that far bigger fish are about to be fried. 

It is the view from here that these people will include Holden Thorp, shown above with Dick Baddour and Butch Davis. We will see.

2014 NCAA college basketball tournament - Where bias and mathematical nonsense against the ACC and in favor of the Big Ten and Big 12 will be laid to rest

"DEAN SMITH, legendary men’s basketball coach from 1961 to 1997, right front, is one of five basketball Hall of Fame coaches and players honored during halftime of the UNC-Virginia game in the Smith Center on Feb. 7. Standing beside Smith is Coach ROY WILLIAMS, who joined Smith in the Hall of Fame in 2007. Also present for the ceremony are, from left, unforgettable former Carolina players BILLY CUNNINGHAM, JAMES WORTHY and ROBERT MCADOO." 

Take all Hall of Fame coaches and players in the ACC and you can fill the stands behind these historic greats. It is hard to believe how good the ACC is and remains. A conference above all others.

Yet, in today's allegedly "mathematical" world, we have pundits who proclaim that picking teams is an art and they know how down the ACC has been for years. How the ACC is not going to the Final Four this year, apart from Louisville which is not yet a member. And how it will be that Syracuse and Pittsburgh have the best chances, along with perennial favorite Duke of course. How it is the Big East that rose above the ACC and remained there until the end.

The "science" of basketball reaches its zenith with "bracketology," where some unknown guy was able to market perhaps the biggest nonsense of all: "Bracketology." We now have "bracketologists" appearing everywhere. Specialists who claim to know college basketball so well they can tell you the last four out and in. Their bias is palpable.

And we have BPI, RPI and others that claim to gauge the strength of schedule (SOC) and other similar letters that mean less every year. It's all NPI (Nonsense Power Index).

Some pundits, like Jay Williams, are transparent in their efforts. They claim there are problems with their own conference. Yes, yet another down year for the ACC, while lauding their teams with just the right degree.

In Jay Williams' case, his mentor Jay Bilas has gained some respect by showing neutrality, which he does by constantly proclaiming the Big Ten the best conference and Michigan State the next champion. But Duke of course is always on top of the ACC. Where they both went to school.

There is safety after all in the Michigan State choice. They have almost all chosen MSU. They love their coach. And they love to chose them. From the game on an aircraft carrier to the last one in their stadium, they lose to UNC not due to coaching or players but because of the inability to adapt to moving decks and claimed losses of personnel.

The end result is that the claimed stronger conferences, where "strong" teams play each other, and a "tough" out of conference schedule as designated by the same people who "rate" teams, benefit and are able to proclaim themselves among the best even with nine losses.

Never in memory have nine losses merited a top ten finish in the polls. Yet, Kansas, playing in that great basketball conference the Big 12, does.

If I were Bill Self, this is major recruiting stuff. Come here, recruit. I want to tell you a story of how powerful our "basketball" conference is that we get our team in the top ten in the polls with nine losses. Yes, and almost all losses with their starting five playing.

Excuses abound in this nonsense world of claimed mathematical accuracy and pundit inflating "who have they played?" mentality.

NC State winning an hour from Xavier's home? Sure, because there were more Dayton University fans who booed Xavier than Xavier fans? Or maybe because NC State fans were so much better at shouting?

And again, Kansas. They play in such a superior league that a loss to one of the other "top ten" teams is perfectly alright. Understandable.

Let's not forget that the leaders of the media largely include those who are hellbent on getting the ACC as far back as they can.

The Bill Rafferty, Big East, New Jersey sportscaster and former Seton Hall coach (yes, that Big East team). The Joe Lunardi, St. Joseph's University, Big Four, Philadelphia connection whose team Villanova (another Big Four member) constantly was one of the top ten over-ranked teams in college basketball. It goes on and on.

And all of the coaches voting Roy Williams the most overrated coach in the land. Yes, his coaching has nothing to do with wins, as he so graciously states all the time. But his fellow coaches, including Coach K, the worst of all, will resort to "it" in order to show it had nothing to do with coaching that his team lost in Chapel Hill this year. Just "it." Sure Mike. Just it.

Brent Musburger is the man who compared Tommie Smith and John Carlos to Nazis, and who attended a Big Ten school (Northwestern) while driving illegally. He is the former Big Ten sycophant now relegated to SEC games. And he lorded over the broadcasts of Big Ten and ACC teams, almost single-handedly giving the Big Ten the best in the land designation.

The Big Ten is loaded. We hear this year after year.

An even more common refrain is that the Big Ten and the Big East are much better than the ACC. Even the A-10, to the pundits.

For twenty years, everyone has ganged up on the ACC. Why? Bad blood?

Well, ACC fans, it's time. In every neutral way, the ACC appears to be on the verge of breaking away again.

Not only do two of the top three recruiting classes this coming year come from the ACC (Duke and UNC), but the ACC's nine teams in the NCAA and NIT basketball tournaments will continue to show their stuff.

All winners so far, with the biggest win NC State's, we should remember that each time an ACC team beat an intra-conference foe it was the weakness of the foes and the ACC that provided a reason to demote ACC teams, precisely the opposite effect that all those losses in the Big Ten and Big 12 had on their teams' rankings.

Kansas? Top ten with nine losses. Belmont, which won at North Carolina and lost at Kentucky, both games played on the other teams' home courts, just too little in terms of wins, despite the same number of losses.

UNC, who beat Louisville, Kentucky, Michigan State and Duke, all preseason top four teams, a feat never achieved before? Just up and down. And doing this without all but one of its starters and its two best returning players? No consistency. They will go nowhere.

Perhaps it is the weight of UNC Tar Heels history in college basketball, as shown by Wikipedia, that leads to this bias.

NCAA Tournament champions
1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009
NCAA Tournament runner up
1946, 1968, 1977, 1981
NCAA Tournament Final Four
1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009
NCAA Tournament Elite Eight
1941, 1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
NCAA Tournament appearances
1941, 1946, 1957, 1959, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Conference tournament champions
1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1945, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008
Conference regular season champions
1923, 1925, 1935, 1938, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012

Or perhaps it is the whole conference's superiority over so many years. 

But now, we have a chance to see just how much the ACC will prove this to be all nonsense. The nonsense with Michigan State losing at home to UNC because they were not at full strength. Or whether UNC can come up with its best at the end. Or just how bad Roy Williams is as a coach. Or whether the Big Ten and Big 12 will reign supreme as the pundits know they should.

In the end, the teams have to play each other. Watch as they fall. And in the end, watch them eat their words. 

ACC in another down year? 

More nonsense.

Of scowls, frowns, faces, posturing and belittling - How Coach K and Duke talk about their opponents

Amid the biased people on the planet, with all the bias in today's silly at times idiotic act as if the pundits and absurd statistics can determine who is on the top line, and other ridiculous sports phenomena, we are presented with perhaps the very persons who have created it all. Duke's "hall of fame" coach Krzyzewski , or Coach K, and the Duke literati.

All year,  Krzyzewski has belittled his opponents, even so far as to add a new concept roundly reported by his sycophants, especially Jay Williams and Jay Bilas. Yes, they just did not have "it" when they lost. Yes, they should have won but were just off. Never, ever did they outplay Duke. So goes Coach K. And so goes his team.

As the ACC Championship game just ended with another Duke loss, we will have to hear from Coach K about how lopsided the free throws were.

Not how his teams traditionally hit, smash and thrash their way to the ball and basket. Not how his games often include substantial injuries to the other side by his punchers, maulers and brawlers.

But how it is that Coach K, the wonder who managed to win so many games, is just the best and he and his teams lose, the other teams do not win.

Leave aside his teams' talents, and believe that Coach K matters somehow whenever his teams win. And how the "nose in the air" attitude of Duke is how the university conducts itself, not how badly its coach with a "k" leads and how his teams always act so superior.

Terry Holland called his dog Dean Smith. Coach K never calls Coach Smith, and never has. Indeed, you will rarely hear Coach K talk about any coach other than those who are dead, and then only if it helps his image.

For the record, Dean Smith ruled Coach K and his Blue Devils according to a WRAL website. Something that was very hard for Coach K to take, so he constantly argued that Coach Smith got the breaks and other coaches lost because of bias.

• 1970-1979:  UNC 23-8
• 1980-1989:  UNC 16-9
•   1990-1999:  UNC 14-10

We have had a Duke majority in wins only in the last fourteen years.

Coach K was as unpleasant and rude to Dean Smith as possible, constantly claiming he was given liberties that were affecting him winning. A Coach K tradition that continues to this day. Also, Coach K has always tried to win through being physical. Check out the fouls. He told his players to play like this today. And they fouled and fouled and fouled. 

But perhaps the most significant war against a coach, other than Coach K's campaign against Roy Williams, is the following event that will always stand out in history.

In 1989, this became a reality when during the ACC Championship Coach K jumped off the bench in reaction to a foul on one of his players. He began scolding Carolina player Scott Williams for his aggressiveness and yelled, “Hey 42, that was a dirty foul!” Dean Smith was having none of it and yelled at Kyrzyzewski, “Don’t talk to my players!” As if reading off a script, Coach K turned to Smith and said with a face full of passion, “Hey Dean, Fuck You!” Needless to say, it was a polarizing moment in the Carolina Duke basketball history. In both the minds of both Carolina and Duke fans, there was now more than enough reason to hate their down the road counterpart. However the vibrant interactions between the storied coaches was not all that sparked the flame for the rivalry. The actual basketball games and the drama that unfolded within are also incredible to reflect upon.

It was hard for me to see Virginia out there instead of the Tar Heels. But the coach is new and a great guy. And his team is probably the top team in the US at the moment. In time, there is no doubt but that wins will do more than even out for him. 

And eventually, we Carolina fans will not need to see Coach K any more. For me, give me Tony Bennett any time. And leave Coach K to the rubble where he belongs.

Air France and Malaysian Air Disasters - Will we never update our most dangerous weapons of terror?

Flights 447 and MH370 seem so similar, it is hard to believe that there is no public outcry for better technology in our least advanced transportation systems on the planet. An article just referred to the mystery of Malaysian Airline Flight MH 370 as if it were the flight in 1942 when Carole Lombard was lost without the least trouble. After all, we still use the same technology, more or less, as was used in 1942.

What a marvel!

And in both instances, separate transmissions from equipment were checked and in one instance used to find the wreckage. But what about our sophisticated air systems?

They largely do not exist.

We learned with Air France Flight 447 that it was not even presumed lost until hours had transpired from its last transmission because it is essentially over ocean where our pre-1942 technology cannot transmit a thing. Lost to the world for hours. Every airplane over ocean like Flight 447.

Normally, we would not have thought of airlines as potential terrorist weapons. Yet, 9/11 changed all that.

And now, with this in mind, and two separate incidents in to boot, we have the incredible fact that the world needs six or more nations, searches costing tens of millions of dollars and potentially never-to-be-found planes and people in order to perhaps begin to think about getting more modern technologies into planes. Or will we?

Some of the other facts are equally bizarre and bear consideration.

Sure, we have updated the flight recorders, but pilots or anyone else in a cockpit can still turn them off. Why is this? For what reason would we want to give pilots that opportunity. For that matter, why aren't the black boxes in secure areas of the plane, operated only through third parties? Who knows?

For that matter, why can't we set up systems that transmit from a crashed plane no matter where it crashes. Even I could design something that would work.

Why are we so mysteriously absent? Because we like to play this game every time another airplane goes down?

Then we have the search itself.

In criticizing the Chinese for their poor resolution in their satellite images, and now for even suggesting that the debris its satellites found is from the plane, we in the mighty US instead are more interested in hiding what we can do with our own. And where our gaps exist in our satellites. So we stay silent, just as the heads of our security systems tell us that we must remain in the dark about most things, including what they do.

(Is Obama really preventing us from determining if the CIA violated the law? Sure. Because now it is a matter of the Department of Justice, reviewing its own government.)

So when will we begin to do more?

And for that matter, when will our heads of security for the country stop treating us like idiots for believing their tripe about the stolen passports used by two Iranians were just normal, business as usual?

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Will UNC Tar Heels Roy Williams Never Get Any Respect? - Reprise

The one thing Roy Williams has worked on this year above everything else is character. Not just bad free throws, silly turnovers, and selfish play. But team character. Something that Duke has seemed to have more of recently given the two game losing streak at home UNC's Tar Heels had suffered on its home court to those Devils.

But then came February 20, 2014. And it all seemed to make sense. The time UNC had taken. The hard work. And the crowd had all come to play. And the result was a true beat-down. Not from what one writer said after the Pittsburgh game, the first game from which Carolina won after trailing at half-time. But from an eleven point deficit during the second half. Just when it was time to collapse.

Giving credit where credit is due, unlike Coach K will ever do, this was classic Roy Williams. He disrupted the disrupting. He took Coach K's "brilliant" orders to his stars to drive on UNC and meshed it into his second half plans to use a 1-3-1 defense. And it worked like a charm. As did the repeated switching of defenses.

So many say that defense wins championships it is truly old hat. And yet, with Carolina disrespected in every way possible, unranked, given a strength-of-schedule rating as recently as last week in the 50s, ranked that low by those who should know better, having its losses to minor players treated as more significant than those wins against the first four in the pre-season AP rankings, Carolina punched Duke in the nose more than any Duke player has intentionally punched, elbowed and otherwise hit Carolina players.

About a year ago, I published an article with almost the same title. During a poll that many thought worthy of publishing, apparently many coaches made Roy Williams the most over-rated coach in college basketball. What? How is that? Well, they claimed he should have done more with the talent he had.

Over the next year, Jay Williams, perhaps the most anti-Williams sports commentator ever, reared his ugly head. Now, along with Jay Bilas (can't ESPN hire anyone not from Duke whose name is not Jay?), Duke has a one-two punch unlike any other school in the nation. (True, when the Big East reigned over college basketball, announcer prejudice was everywhere. After all, East Coast does mean New York, doesn't it?)

But Jay Williams has such a bias, he found during one game UNC won during this latest eight game streak not one Carolina player playing properly. Each time up or down the court, they were doing something to be criticized.

A not so subtle way for Jay Williams to attack Roy Williams. If I were Roy, I would refuse to talk with Jay Williams. But of course, Roy is not. Among others, he is a Carolina gentleman. But I digress.

Last night, Duke played UNC and, for all to see, superior acting stuck up Coach K was there to show how his great ranked team was going to demolish UNC.

While at least one line had UNC getting two points, the truth is that even those of us who are die-hard Carolina basketball fans had little or no belief that Carolina would win this game. But they did, 74-66.

And the typical Coach K excuse emerged immediately after the game with a bit more of a twist. He blamed "it," which resulted in Carolina winning a game they should not have won.

Too bad that Duke did not have "it." Yes, how better to cast an aspersion on the brilliant coaching job Coach K faced after half-time. How many ways has Coach K dissed Roy Williams? No doubt he and his henchmen were behind at least some of the "over-rated" vote against Roy.

The work against Roy Williams continued out of its typical source. As he tells it, the problem was not the sensational job UNC and it coach did against him, but:

"We looked tired," Krzyzewski said. "We didn't have life ... and that, to me, is the disappointing thing. I'm not afraid to lose and respect people who beat us. But I would've liked to have done more tonight in the second half. So I'm walking out of here frustrated -- not with the loss but with the fact that we didn't ante up the way we should've."

Yes, they were tired, one of the excuses he and his former players had given out earlier in the week on the air. And he did not respect the people who beat them, i.e., Carolina. He said so above, saying he is not afraid to respect "people." After all, he can respect them when they win. But here, Carolina did not win. Duke lost. And he cannot ever respect Roy Williams.

We had one of the most recent ESPN articles saying essentially that Roy Williams has only coached offense during his entire tenure at UNC. This guy is supposed to know basketball? But again, I digress.

Now we have a very important event for those teams Carolina has beaten. Michigan State on its home court at ESPN's and the polls' most favored basketball conference these days. Louisville on a neutral court. Duke on Carolina's court. And Kentucky.

That event is that, despite its perennial placement with the hardest road to the finals because of the nonsense in seeding that happens every year, UNC is on its way to see one or more of them again. Maybe Duke in the ACC tournament as well.

And if they do, watch out. Even without its own home court (Coach K's other diss was of course that it had nothing to do with the Carolina crowd who supported their team unlike any time in the past ten years), Carolina can beat you.

And the message? That the commentators, voters and whoever else influence the NCAA tournament (some even claimed last week they did not know if Carolina would make the tournament) can shove it.

This team of far lesser talent, that lost their main scorer and had less to work with earlier this year than they do now, have a great coach who has molded them into a team.

And they will beat you.

Maybe Carolina will not make the Final Four. But Jay Bilas, who is generally quite neutral, said last night that he would not be surprised if they make it there.

I favor his view. Not just because I am a Carolina fan. Because the facts speak for themselves.