The college basketball season just came to an end and the NBA season has entered its early morning hours when sleepy fans roll over in bed, squinting, asking “Are you still awake?”
So aside from the violently anticlimactic NBA finals, which the Lakers will probably win again unless the Spurs bore them to death first, what is there to watch on television? Simpsons reruns? Yes. Football? No. Baseball? No.
But why not? Because football and baseball suck. I’d rather watch chess, and at least if you are watching chess there is the chance that Bobby Fischer will freak out and go off on one of his anti-semitic conspiracy rants, or Deep Blue will shoot its opponent with a space laser.
Football and baseball are not interesting to watch and worse, they are jam-packed with the kind of statistical minutiae that thrills nerds like the Plimpton-esque septuogenarian Peter Gammons and the pudges at ESPN. I wish that when we changed our national pastime from baseball to regime change, we had instead changed it to basketball.
And the players are fat and ugly.
For the record, I am only posting this to squash the post below it, which is lewd and inappropriate for younger readers.
So let’s hope that the ordeal of the UNC basketball team will continue for the next few weeks, to at least get us over the hump of the beginning of the baseball season. Here is an email off a message board with some interesting insider info. It is pretty long, but quite interesting.
****************************************
this is from the carolina board
From a very good contact:
“I’ve been privy to a lot of information over the past few seasons, some
of which I have shared before, but most of which I have kept to myself.
Now that the situation has mercifully been resolved, it is time to come
clean. Obviously, this won’t contain every detail, but provides more than
enough evidence to appreciate the whole story.
Think back to long before we ever knew of the problems we were about to
face, specifically Sunday, February 18, at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson,
SC. The Heels were ranked #1 in the country, but losing at halftime to the
lowly Clemson Tigers. This is where the downward spiral of the last three
years began.
A lot of people have heard the rumors about Joseph Forte’s “@#%$ you,
Doherty, I’m taking my @#%$ game to the league” comment, after a vicious
tongue-lashing from his head coach. What they don’t know is that even
Forte’s teammates knew that their coach was out of line. Brendan Haywood’s
response was “You need to chill, Coach.” Jason Capel, largely thought to
be feuding with Forte at the time, defended his teammate with “What did he
do?”
Doherty’s response? “Let me @#%$ coach you, just get out there and play
the God @#%$ game.” The problem was, though, that he was doing more
cussing, and less coaching. This began the cycle of berating players
almost ceaselessly until his resignation on April 1.
From there, the end of an 18 game winning streak, UNC went 5-5, including
2 embarrassing losses to Duke, and bowed out in the second round of the
NCAA tournament to Penn State.
That off-season brought Forte leaving for the NBA, followed by the worst
season in Carolina history, during which many fans turned on Jason Capel
because of his perceived attitude problems. It seemed so simple then, but
Capel was fighting an uphill battle against his tyrannical coach.
After the first horrible loss to Duke, Capel couldn’t take it anymore.
“Coach, you need to get your head out of your @#%$ and try to help us,” he
begged, having exhausted all other means of helping his team as a senior
leader.
Doherty’s response was not exactly what the team needed. “Jason, you’re
un-athletic, slow, your brother sucked, and your dad isn’t that good of a
coach. Don’t @#%$ tell me what to do. I’m the God @#%$ coach of this team
and if you want to leave and be a loser like your dad and brother, then go
ahead!”
After Adam Boone, Brian Morrison, and Neil Fingleton had already left the
team to transfer, the story broke about Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel, and
Melvin Scott considering following out the door. The three then-freshmen
had to be convinced not to transfer by members of the basketball program
(not including their head coach) at the 11th hour, when each of them was
prepared to make their decision to leave public.
As part of the agreement to return, Doherty promised the three players he
would change, and was placed in mandated anger management counseling.
The troubles had already had a strong impact on recruiting. Other schools
used their knowledge of the problems against UNC in head-to-head battles,
and in at least two major cases (Jason Fraser and Torin Francis), the
visiting recruits were told by current and former players who had played
under Doherty not to make the same mistake. Rather than vindictively
plotting against the coach, the players were only looking out for peers
that they had gotten close to through summer ball and all-star events.
That’s where most of the “Torin’s mom didn’t want him to come to UNC” came
from. She was told by current and former players to absolutely,
unconditionally not allow her son to play for Doherty, less he suffer the
same experience they were trapped in.
The summer before the 2002-03 season was relatively quiet, awaiting the
arrival of savior recruits. We all thought that maybe Doherty had changed.
Our thoughts were supported with a Preseason NIT title…until we lost our
first game, a second half meltdown against Kentucky.
The next Tuesday, Doherty may have sealed his own fate during a single
practice, where he targeted Manuel especially harshly. Before practice,
Manuel was warming up shooting the basketball. Doherty walked out and
pounced on his defensive specialist. “Why the @#%$ are you shooting,
Jackie?” Doherty asked. “I’m just trying to get better, Coach.” Then it
really went downhill, in front of the entire team…”You can’t get better.
You are a @#%$ terrible piece of @#%$, Jackie. You can’t shoot, you aren’t
that good on defense, you can’t finish. Why the @#%$ did I recruit you?
You weren’t a McDonald’s All-American. You don’t deserve to wear the @#%$
rubber your shoes are made out of!”
“I should have gotten James White or Julius Hodge. You know how much God
@#%$ better this team would be if you weren’t on it? In fact, come to my
office right now.”
The team follows their coach into his office, where Doherty puts in a
highlight reel of the aforementioned White and Hodge. “See! Look how much
better they are than your sorry @#%$! Get out of my sight!”
A full-fledged player mutiny was underway. Felton, Manuel, Scott, and May
were fed up to the point of quitting the team and walking out of traffic.
Ironically, it was help from Rashad McCants, now public enemy #2 behind
Baddour for the Pro-Doherty crowd, and Will Johnson that convinced those
four players not to leave, but the damage was done. The team sent Johnson
to talk to Doherty, but it was already too late.
One week later, Sean May became Doherty’s target of choice for ridicule in
front of his teammates, much in the same manner as Manuel was attacked,
and very much exemplary of the way Doherty tore his players down. May’s
victimization included being called a “fat @#%$” and this statement:
“You’re not half the man or player your father was.”
It wasn’t just May and Manuel. At some point, every player on the team
received this type of unprovoked, belittling attack in front of his
teammates. Nobody escaped Doherty’s ire, and at one point this season,
every player except for Williams, Sanders, and Grant was planning on
transferring because they couldn’t handle Doherty any longer.
Nor were these isolated incidents-rather, they characterize what everyday
life under Matt Doherty was like.
In early February, Chancellor Moeser called Phil Ford about the whispers
he had heard about the state of the basketball program for the fourth
time. Loyal to UNC to a fault, Ford had felt out of place addressing the
concerns, but now, he knew he could be quiet no longer. He told Moeser the
whole story.
Immediately afterwards, Moeser called Baddour to investigate and examine
the situation. Ford tells the players to keep the issues “in house,”
meaning away from the public scrutiny of the media. Directly afterwards,
the player comments to reporters took a strangely positive turn.
About this time, Scott May became the unofficial voice of the team,
athletic department, and players, all of whom were under strict orders to
keep the problems “in the family.” Meanwhile, the elder May met with
Moeser, Baddour, and Doherty many times during February and March.
After investigating the situation, Moeser tells Baddour to handle the
situation and make a decision in the best interest of the program. The
players are told “if you go through it, we will work it out in the
off-season.” It’s no coincidence that they were told this right before the
thrilling victory over Duke.
More relaxed, the players were able to play with more focus and intensity
than they had since the preseason NIT. I can’t go into specifics here, but
the team’s desire to not play in the NIT and then their inconsistent
performance through much it speaks volumes. They were ready for the season
to be over.
Finally, following the loss to Georgetown, Baddour conducts his meetings
with the players to find out more. Some players have kept diaries,
including 6 pages of critical incidents from Jon Holmes, and Baddour has
his decision by that Saturday.
This is the state of UNC Basketball. As cited elsewhere, Doherty alienated
many people in the athletic administration, including ticket director
Clint Gwaltney, Steve Kirschner, associate athletic directors, associate
chairs, secretaries, treasurers, interns, janitors, and almost everyone
else associated with the program.
Though it’s not pretty, all of the above is absolutely, 100% true. Share
with anyone you think needs to know, but keep my name out of it. I trust
your eyes have been opened a bit by my confessional, though I am sorry for
every Carolina fan that it had to happen.”
