Ostensibly Hoops

[Tree]

You would be wrong about that. Tatum and Brown are going to be real studs who deliver consistently every night. What age did Jimmy Butler start peaking?

[Tree]

Well the Mandela effect strikes again. Apparently now Anthony Mason is dead in this timeline. Horrible news.

[The Anti k*]

If anyone’s interested, Kentucky is tipping off against Germany in a USA Basketball event on CBS Sports Network.

Well, eCat might be interested…

[hedge]

I'm not sure even he is interested anymore...

[Tree]

Care factor 0

[Tree]

Rather watch homerun derby with a pitching machine that gets dinged if it doesn't throw a pitch in time.

[The Anti k*]

To each his own. I despise the NBA.

[Tree]

It's all about football. Anything after that is questionable.

[hedge]

I have very little interest in pro sports outside the playoffs. Mainly b/c the players themselves seem to feel the same way. I do enjoy the playoffs in all pro sports...

[eCat]

I didn't watch any UK basketball. I just got back from vacation

[hedge]

Where'd ya go this time? Dollywood?

[Jungle Rat]

Ball of twine

[eCat]

Where'd ya go this time? Dollywood?

close, we did go to Gatlinburg, but not Dollywood

saw bears 6 different times this week - one came up on me at the cabin when I had my back turned, scared the shit out of me

[Jungle Rat]

Dammit

[hedge]

Are you talking about large hairy gay men or actual bears?

[hedge]

UNC Sets Home-And-Home Basketball Series Against Kansas

The Tar Heels will travel to meet the Jayhawks early in the 2024-25 season, with the return game set for the following year in Chapel Hill.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The long and storied college basketball histories at North Carolina and Kansas will connect and intersect again, as part of a newly agreed on home-and-home series announced Monday that starts in the 2024-25 season and continues the next year.

The Tar Heels will travel to meet the Jayhawks at venerable Allen Fieldhouse on Nov. 8, 2024, marking the second occasion ever UNC has played there in Lawrence, Kan., and the first time since 1960. The return game is set for the following season, with Kansas visiting the Smith Center on Nov. 14, 2025, to play in Chapel Hill for the first time.

“These two games should be exciting for players and coaches on both teams and a win for fans of college basketball,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said Monday in a statement released by the school. “It’s an opportunity for two great programs to play in each other’s home arenas, which are among the best and most historic in our game.”

Kansas stands as the winningest program in college basketball, entering the 2023-24 season with 2,385 all-time victories. UNC checks in third on the list with 2,347 wins. The Tar Heels are second in all-time winning percentage, while the Jayhawks are third.

Carolina and Kansas have compiled a combined for 10 championships, 247 wins and 37 Final Fours in 103 NCAA Tournament appearances. UNC ranks first all-time in NCAA Tournament wins and Final Fours, second in appearances and third in championships. Kansas ranks third all-time in NCAA Tournament appearances, fourth in wins, fifth in Final Fours and seventh in titles.

“These will be two great games from programs whose rich histories are intertwined so much,” Kansas coach Bill Self said Monday in a statement released by the school. “It will be a special day in both Chapel Hill and Lawrence when we play and I am looking forward to it.”

Thirty former UNC and Kansas players and coaches have been enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. UNC and Kansas have secured a combined 22 National Player of the Year awards and 131 first-team All-America honors, including the two most consensus first-team All-America seasons in college basketball history (25 Jayhawks in 32 seasons and 18 Tar Heels in 27 seasons).

Carolina and Kansas have played 12 times with each team winning six games apiece, including four straight victories scored by the Jayhawks across the last 16 seasons. The 2022 NCAA championship was hanging in the balance the last time the two teams met, as the Jayhawks overcame UNC’s 15-point halftime lead that night in New Orleans to win 72-69 and claim Self’s second national title.

UNC and Kansas have played seven times in the NCAA Tournament, matchups underlined by two championship clashes (1957 and 2022) and three Final Four games (1991, 1993, 2008). Carolina-Kansas is the most frequently played matchup in the Final Four, twice more than any other pair of teams have played in the NCAA Tournament semifinals.

Led by National Player of the Year Lennie Rosenbluth, the Tar Heels won the first of their six NCAA titles in 1957 by defeating Wilt Chamberlain and the Jayhawks 54-53 in three overtimes in Kansas City, Mo.

UNC’s only previous appearance in Allen Fieldhouse was a 78-70 victory on Dec. 17, 1960, in Frank McGuire’s final season as coach of the program and Dean Smith’s third season as an assistant coach at Carolina. Smith was 29 years old then.

These teams have previously played two regular-season games in the state of North Carolina — Dec. 11, 1959, at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh and Nov. 28, 1981, at the Charlotte Coliseum in the first college game for a UNC freshman named Michael Jordan. The 1959 game was part of a two-night doubleheader that also included host NC State and Kansas State.

The roots connecting Carolina and Kansas run exceedingly deep:

— Smith played for Phog Allen at Kansas, where he was a member of the 1952 NCAA champions and 1953 NCAA finalists. Smith was the head coach for 36 years at UNC, where he won two NCAA titles, led the Tar Heels to 11 Final Fours and retired as the winningest coach in college basketball history. Following his graduation from Kansas in 1953, Smith began his Hall of Fame coaching career the following season as a volunteer assistant to Allen and Dick Harp.

— Roy Williams was the head coach at Kansas from 1988-2003 and Carolina from 2003-21, leading the two programs to a combined nine Final Fours. Williams won NCAA championships with the Tar Heels in 2005, 2009 and 2017, and is the only coach to post 400 victories at two schools (418 at Kansas and 485 at Carolina).

— Larry Brown played for and coached under Smith at UNC and was the head coach of the Jayhawks for five seasons. He led Kansas to a pair of Final Fours and the 1988 NCAA championship.

— Harp was head coach of the Jayhawks when they played the Tar Heels in the historic triple overtime game for the 1957 NCAA championship. Later, he was a member of Smith’s coaching staff in Chapel Hill.

— Brad Frederick played for Smith at UNC and is in his 11th year as a member of the Tar Heels coaching staff. His father, Bob Frederick, was the athletic director at Kansas for 14 years and hired Williams, then an assistant coach under Smith at UNC, to be the Jayhawks’ head coach in 1988.

— Steve Robinson, Joe Holladay, Jerod Haase, C.B. McGrath, Matt Doherty and Jonas Sahratian were on the staffs at both Carolina and Kansas. Haase and McGrath played for Williams at Kansas. Doherty played for the Tar Heels, was an assistant in Lawrence with Williams, and was head coach at UNC for three seasons.

— Fred Quartlebaum was an assistant coach at UNC under Doherty from 2000-03 and is in his 11th season on the Kansas staff. He’s director of basketball operations for the Jayhawks.

[DooKSucks]

The game in Lawrence is on my birthday. I may go out there to watch us lose to KU yet again to say I've been to Allen Field House.

[eCat]

Lebron James kid went into cardiac arrest at a USC practice, He is stable and out of the ICU.

Lakers star LeBron James confirmed that he has received the COVID-19 vaccine.

"I know that for me I can speak about myself," James said. "I think everyone has their own choice to do what they feel is right for themselves and their family, and things of that nature. I know that I was very [skeptical] about it all, but after doing my research, and things of that nature, I felt like it was best suited for not only me but for my family and for my friends, and that's why I decided to do it."

a very fair opinion, but I can't help but wonder what he thinks about it now.

As a father who pushed his son to get the vaccine, I regret that decision and have done so for months now.

[hedge]

It's impossible to prove a negative. For all you know, the vaccine is the reason your boy is alive right now. I'm not saying the odds are high that that's the case, but it's at least possible. There's no way to know that, but there's also no way to know if the vaccine is the cause of whatever is going on with Lebron's kid. In any case, I'd guess that cardiac arrest amongst the 18-22 year crowd is exceedingly rare...

[Jungle Rat]

Hank Gathers would agree