UNC Mailbag Part II

Thanks for reading the second fan mailbag for Keeping It Heel.  We got a good number of questions again, and I’ll address as many as I can.  If I didn’t answer your question, please don’t give up.  Resubmit your question and I’ll try to knock it out on the next edition of the mailbag.  If you don’t like my answer, you get a complete refund of what I’m charging you to read it.  Jokes aside, if I don’t know, I’ll give you my best guess.

Someone asked over DM… “How long until Roy offers King?  Will Reggie or anyone else have a NBA decision to make next year besides JMM, if so who?”
Me – Two great questions.  I truthfully don’t know the answer to the first.  There is a lot of interest in King from a wide variety of schools.  All I know about King is that he’s a top player in his class and any school would be lucky to have him.  I haven’t seen any timelines on when he wants to make his decision, but last I heard he wasn’t very close.  If I were offering, I’d wait a bit closer to decision time to keep the wolves (aka negative recruiting against me) at bay.  But that’s just me.

To the second part of the question, it depends on what kind of year Bullock and any of the Freshmen have.  Bullock has NBA height and a very good shot.  If he continues to improve the way he did last year, he will have a big decision to make, because I think he could go top 13.

This isn’t a question, but @chrmullins sent in the Ron Swanson line of the week with “You had me at meat tornado.”

@johnsaldijr wanted to know “When will Hubert hit the recruiting train, what kind of impact u think that will have.  any updates on him working with PJ”

Me – One of the biggest deals to me in recruiting is messaging, especially as an assistant coach.  You have to say what the HC would have said had he been there, or at least not go too far off.  With Hubert though, getting him on the recruiting trail may be a good idea sooner rather than later.  There’s something about someone who used to break basketball down on television professionally sitting in your home talking to you about basketball that has to be amazingly cool.  The closest I’ve ever come to that was… well… never.  But it is a unique recruiting advantage that I’d be more than happy to take full advantage of if given the chance.

As far as PJ goes, I really believe he is going to have a breakout year this year.  The jump from HS to ACC basketball is amazing.  The game moves MUCH faster, especially when you play for an up-tempo club like UNC.  You’re suddenly being guarded by defenders that are much more skilled than most you played against in HS.  That can be a difficult leap, especially for some guards.  He’s had a year to digest it, and he’ll be in beast mode this year.  As to your actual question, I don’t have any updates.  I hope my last rambling substitutes for an answer.

@tdcmba asked “How will the bowl ban affect attendance at Kenan Stadium in 2012?”

me – You know what’s more of a fight than the bowl ban?  Fan mentality.  UNC fans have been burned fairly repeatedly ever since Mack Brown bought a ticket for Texas while the rest of the team was headed to Las Vegas for a bowl.  Since State has seemed to have our number ever since TA couldn’t get across the goal line (If you’re a State fan, you just yelled ‘HE DID GET ACROSS THE GOAL LINE’.  My response to you is ‘HAHAHAHA’.  Your retort would be ‘How have you done the last few years?’.  I’d say ‘Touche.  Quit reading my column.”  I could go on.  And on.  But here’s the thing.  These young men are putting their bodies on the line for us and our school and they deserve our respect as does our University.  As far as attendance?  Two things draw fans.  Grit and determination in the face of adversity.  If the players and coaches show abnormal effort, they will win the trust of even the most scorned supporter.  The second thing that draws fans?  W’s.

The next three questions are all from @rlw_jr

“Dean Smith is king.  Rank Dorrance on an all sport coaching list.  How do you think UNC should honor him when he retires?”

Coach Dorrance is an amazing human being, and without actually looking up factual things, I’d wager to say he’s the winningest coach in major D1 sports.  When I worked as a reporter, Coach Dorrance made my job and my life amazingly easy.  He was available throughout the season for interviews.  When they won the NCAA Championship, he made himself available to me while his team was eating their victory dinner, and even pulled out two players for interviews.  I think he appreciated I covered them through their entire season, and not just when they won a championship.  I appreciated that he always made time to help me and draw positive attention to the program.  In my heavily biased opinion, Dean is king but Coach Dorrance is going to leave a legacy at UNC that will never be rivaled, beaten, broken or matched.

@rlw_jr “can you hook a brotha up with a date with Heather O’Reilly?  Seriously.”

me – Lemme check.  Nope.  Don’t have that kinda sway.  If this were an official swagger check, I would have failed.

@rlw_jr “when Coack K retires, will it hurt our program because of the rivalry?”

Me – I’ll actually turn this question into an entire column.  Since I’m not really answering this question, I’ll give you a bonus questions.

@rlw_jr “with the ‘success’ of Calipari, do you think Ry should change his recruiting style and go for 1 and done or is there something special about following and watching the dev. of a player in 3-4 years?”Me – Roy will always go after the great players, but truthfully most of the players that work very well in his system will stay 2-4 years.  As a fan I like watching the players develop and I love being able to attach myself emotionally to the development of the guys that stay more than a year or two.  I like what Roy is doing now recruiting wise.  I’m a big supporter of getting the best players to fit the system regardless of their anticipated stint in college, because you never know.  Mike from Oswego who is ranked 1 in the world may fall in love with Carolina campus and decide he wants to play 4 years.  (I made that name up).  Tyler from Missouri may decide he wants to do something special and stay all 4 years (I didn’t make that name up).  I think Roy recruits the player and not the assumption, and I’m a big fan of that.

That brings us to an end.  Thank you for reading.  Your feedback is always welcome.  Your questions for future mailbags are always desired.  Because without you, this kinda doesn’t work.  So send your questions on twitter to @strayUNC or email me at localsportsvoice@gmail.com.