Primer on my new team

by Incipient_Senescence on Apr 10, 2011 9:18 PM EDT

I'm a Tennessee Vol, first and foremost. That ain't changin'. However, given that I'm spending the next six years of my life as a Ph.D. student at UNC, I figured I ought to expand the list of teams I support to two. After all, I don't have much against y'all. You were beneficiaries of our baffling collapse in 2000 and our inability to put six healthy DBs on the field in 2010, but those certainly weren't the best Vol teams, so there's no lingering malice. Plus, despite sharing a border, we rarely play each other, so there probably won't be too much internal conflict. And Tennessee orange and Carolina blue, in addition to being my two favorite colors for pretty much ever, look awesome together.

With that in mind, I need to learn about this new school I support. I already hate Duke (at least in basketball--in football they're harmless and cute, and Coach Cut is a good dude), so I imagine that's a good start. I don't hate them as much as I hate Kentucky, but I don't imagine a little ill-will towards Big Blue will go over too badly here. What else do I need, as far as rivalries go. Wake Forest? NC State? Do I have reason to legitimately dislike these folks, or is it just fun to watch them try to actually win a rivalry game (like Vandy and Kentucky in football)? I know there's no real series going with Tennessee or USC--are there any other border wars I'm missing? At UT, the border wars (Kentucky in hoops, Alabama in football) are the biggest rivalries we have. But I guess we have more borders than Carolina. What's left? UVA? Non-border wars? Anything else?

Then there's the actual teams. As a grad student, I haven't paid as much attention as I would've liked to college sports as a whole. I see from the front page that Hensen and Zeller are coming back. Presumably I should root for Barnes to come back too. I have no idea who else is even on the basketball team. No idea who's coming back on the football team, or if people even care. Also don't know how serious the NCAA troubles are? Are you expecting the NCAA hammer or relatively minimal penalties that Butch should be able to work himself out of?

I seem to recall the soccer team being good, but everyone I remember playing college in the Southeast did so in South Carolina (Dempsey, R. Clark, Holden, Onyewu). Any UNC grads I should be aware of? By the way, how Furman got Dempsey and Clark at the same time I have no idea.

What am I missing? Tell me what I need to know.

Also, just so we're clear, no matter how much I grow to love UNC, this is and will always remain out of bounds:

via assets.sbnation.com

Go Vols! Go Heels!

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Football:

It’s important not to have expectations that are too high so that you’ll be disappointed with the 8 or 9 win season. The term ‘sleeping giant’ has been tossed around to describe the program, but the administration is angling to become a Big Time Football Program (Not that this is a bad thing).
Rivalries:
~NC State. I hate these douchbags with the fury of a thousand suns come football time.
~UVA. A lot of good UNC teams somehow lost to mediocre UVA teams. Lot of history, even if it’s usually been bad football.
~Duke. Naturally.
~Maybe a ‘Miami’ or ‘GT’ goes here.
NCAA Troubles:
~Fairly serious. Probably reduction of scholly’s/postseason ban. Somehow, I think BD stays on as HC as UNC pins all of this on John Blake.
Look out for:
~Questionable OC: John Shoop fears rational logic.
~Inexplicable losses/wins. It gets downright manic depressive at times.
~Solid recruiting classes.
~Bowl games to Charlotte/Nashville/Atlanta.

by SuperJew on Apr 11, 2011 10:16 AM EDT reply actions

Manic depressive?

I haven’t dealt with that all last year.

Aaaaand. . . I think you remember the other time that happened.

Also, we just had a basketball coach fired for NCAA stuff, so I’m pretty well-versed on that too.

Thanks for the info. Good stuff. One thing I forgot to ask: traditions. What should I know about? I guess I can’t hope for another singing fanbase, but there has to be something awesome y’all do, right?

by Incipient_Senescence on Apr 11, 2011 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions

Singing? There’s nothing on the level of an entire stadium bursting into Rocky Top, but folks will sing the alma mater and the tag on the end of the fight song, and the latter is pretty easy to remember. (It’s the Tar Heel Born, etc. bit.)

Other things:
Tailgating is a pretty mellow affair, as the parking lots are dispersed a distance away from the stadium, but great nonetheless. You can both hate State and mock them for taking things much more seriously than you; they also believe the entire universe is set against them, so any sort of setback provokes a horrible overreaction. Wake Forest as Vanderbilt is a pretty apt comparison.

Hatred of Virginia can be pretty strong in football, especially during the stretch where UNC could just not win in Charlottesville. It can also fade. Virginia Tech fans are annoying and will descend on your stadium like locusts. There is a Duke football rivalry, we play for a large bell, and it can produce a surprisingly number of tense games despite the skill level of teams involved.

Chapel Hill is one of the most gorgeous places to be on a fall Saturday. The Greek contingent does the Southern dress-up for the games. Cornholing is universal now, you can never go wrong with biscuits and fried chicken, and when one group of people yells Tar the response is obviously Heels.

Anything I’m missing?

by T.H. on Apr 13, 2011 8:56 AM EDT up reply actions

awesome

my campus visit was actually about three weeks ago, and Chapel Hill was a pretty beautiful place to be in the spring as well, even though I think I was a week late for the flowering cherries. Pretty excited to see it in the fall. Actually, I’ll be there next week too, but that’s way too late for any of the spring trees or basketball excitement.

Good stuff. So we dislike Duke, State, and Virginia (sometimes); Wake dislikes us but isn’t really good enough for us to take notice. In basketball, probably Duke is the only one good enough to take notice of.

by Incipient_Senescence on Apr 13, 2011 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions