The way-too-early college basketball polls are, well, way too early. Let’s guess at why almost every basketball blog out there titles their summertime predictions for the coming season Way Too Early. Maybe because they have to keep writing about college hoops through the dog days of summer and don’t know much about most of the […]

Mack Brown has become Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside, just as he said. When Brown returned to Chapel Hill as football coach in December of 2018, he said his recruiting philosophy would be the same as when he first arrived here 30 years earlier. Despite his 1988 and ’89 Tar Heel teams going 1-10, Brown’s goal was […]

Now, a 12-team college football playoff makes sense. Sort of. We all figured a super conference would be coming someday, but weren’t sure how football realignment would go to form it. The ball began moving down the field when Texas and Oklahoma decided to bolt from the Big 12 to join the Southeastern Conference. That […]

Yes, WCHL AM/FM will continue carrying Carolina games. The athletic department announced Tuesday that it has another Raleigh affiliate on the Tar Heel Sports Network, this time WPTF. You may recognize those call letters as the home of NC State for decades and decades before the Wolfpack games moved to WRAL FM. It is great […]

“Pushing Through the Peaks” By Bret Dougherty The ultimate comeback story keeps on going… So much was said over the long and extraordinary return of former UNC Tar Heel ace and Colorado Rockies closer Daniel Bard who won MLB’s Comeback Player in 2020. He was the late first round pick of the Boston Red Sox […]

35 Years after Len Bias: The ‘What if’ Never Subsides By Bret Dougherty Ask yourself – Who would you draft right now? Would you take a ’86 Len Bias over a ’84 Michael Jordan? 35 years after the shocking death of University of Maryland legend and 1986 Boston Celtic first-round draft pick, Len Bias, and […]

My friend Joy is one of the best athletes I’ve known. Webster’s definition of athlete is a “person trained in exercises or games requiring strength, skill, stamina.” Joy Hakan still checks all of those boxes and will be 86 next month. She was married to the late Joe Hakan, whose architectural firm was the local […]

What happens if Carolina loses its opening game at Virginia Tech? Mack Brown spoke at the ACC Kickoff this week and verbally circled September 3 as the most important game of the upcoming season. Yes, it’s the opener in very-tough-to-play Blacksburg, but it also has the potential to be the buzz-kill of all time. Or […]

The Milwaukee Bucks completed three important journeys. Their almost-miraculous NBA championship signaled long, medium and short passages all sorely needed in their own right on an unforgettable night where the largest outdoor crowd ever celebrated the team’s first world championship since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Roberston led the Bucks to the 1971 title, 50 years […]

The NCAA boss is taking the money while he lasts. One of the more shocking stories that has come out recently reports that Mark Emmert earned $2.9 million in fiscal year 2019-20, which was a raise while the NCAA he runs and its member schools were on their way to losing billions. As President of […]