The Goat Pen

They all loved me...

I do too hedge.

That was a great episode

In light of Carolina beating State for the ACC baseball championship, here is a delightful post from IC:

Thirty years.

The streak has reached thirty years.

It's true. With today's defeat of the Imaginary Defending National Champions by the Diamond Heels in the ACC Championship Game, it's official: it has been thirty years since a North Carolina State University football, men's basketball, or baseball team has won a conference championship in some -- any -- way, shape or form.

Thirteen years, let lone thirty, is a long time. That's how long ago Boston College tied for first place in ACC football's Atlantic Division. Of the 65 schools in all the major conferences, that's the longest period any has gone since winning a conference tournament, or conference regular season championship, or division regular season championship, or even a SHARE of one of those, in the three most significant men's sports. The longest, that is, except for one: N.C. State. The Woofs' dearth of conference titles, going back to their ACC baseball tournament title in 1992 -- the year Bill Clinton was elected president, Microsoft released Windows 3.1, and gas was $1.09 a gallon -- has reached an astonishing, an absurd, a simply incomprehensible thirty years.

Seven years is a long time. That's how long ago this correspondent started delivering these annual reports on Woofie conference championship futility. At that time the skein had just extended from 22 years to 23, and that was beyond astounding. It has now reached the unimaginable milestone of 30.

In just the last four years -- even with the Covid cancellations of 2020 -- 52 of the 65 major-conference schools have won at least one of these things. In the last ten years, 61 have done so. State has managed zero not just in the last four years, nor seven, nor ten, nor thirteen, but in the last three full decades.

Fifty of the 65 schools have won at least TEN of these championships in the past 30 years. All but five (one of which has been in a major conference for only eleven years) have won at least five in thirty years. State has won zero.

In the ACC since 1992, each school has had 30 chances to win or tie for a basketball regular season title; 30 entries into the ACC Basketball Tournament; 30 shots at a football title and 30 at a baseball regular season, 17 of each against only half the league since it split into divisions; 30 chances at the baseball tournament. Counting ties, 198 of these championships or shares have been won in the last 30 years. Zero of those were claimed by N.C. State. Ten ACC schools -- two thirds of the league's membership -- have taken one in the last two years alone. Twelve schools have won one in the last five years. State has won zero in thirty years. Since 1992, Florida State has won 41 of these titles; Carolina 31; Dook 24; Georgia Tech 22; Louisville, including its time in the Big East when it was a fully major conference, 21. Of ACC schools, only Wake Forest with 9 is in single figures. Except, that is, North Carolina State, whose single figure is a zero.

Since 1992, across the 65 schools -- several of which were in a major conference only a portion of that time -- conference or division titles, or at least shares thereof, in football, men's basketball, and baseball, number 1,077. Of those, the number belonging to N.C. State is zero, and their major-sport titlelessness streak stands at 30 years.

Diamond Heels?

Steve Kerr has a son named Nick. Hope he doesn't go pro. Announcers around the country will be getting fired left and right.

That’s Chappelle Show skit worthy, Rat.

spambot banned

Got any weed?

I need another pair of Dudes…and some clean x…

Spam

Not shit you dumb fucking crackpot.

One of our close friends killed herself last week. She had been battling some personal issues, but we didn't know it was this bad. They had moved to New Orleans after the husband medically retired as a major. She was intelligent, cultured, educated, successful and had three wonderful children, 4, 2 and 11 months, but her demons became too much.

I have struggled wrapping my head around it for a multitude of reasons. She was a successful political consultant turned lobbyist, and hell, she was even Miss Ole Miss in college. She was the life of the party and had the most thoughtful soul. When my wife and I were struggling to have a child, she came back from a UN conference in African with a fertility good luck charm from one of the tribes because she knew we had a round of IVF the next week and literally made it a point to come by our house as soon as she arrived back in town to wish us good luck and give us the gift.

I knew that her husband's army career (he was special forces and was deployed 5-6 months per year plus TDY's and was thus gone 7-8 months out of every year) and the transition to mother hood while balancing a lobbying/consulting career and being a law student at Campbell was taking its toll on her and that the move to New Orleans with the unexpected third child had thrown her for an even bigger loop, but I never knew how bad things were for her.

I feel so horrible for those boys, her husband and their families. I can't even grasp that kind of loss.

I'm sorry for venting. I guess I did it just to say that if you have someone you're wondering about, make it a point to reach out to him or her. Maybe it can make a difference.

Sorry for your loss DS.

That's awful

Yes it is. Sorry to hear it, DS...

Thanks, but don't feel sorry for me. Just make sure you check on others.

The details of the suicide are even worse.

I talked to the husband for a bit today. Nothing too deep or crazy, but I wanted to say we love them, that our lives are forever better from having them in it when they lived here and that I am available day or night.

I don't know how he is holding up. I'm sure that after the funeral Saturday and the slow return to day to day life will be the worst challenges.

Friends from all over are donating money to hire child care for him in lieu of memorials / flowers and what not. I think over $60k has been raised so far.

Sadly, we cannot travel to NOLA for the funeral this weekend, and that's bothering me too. Still, if it's anything like what I felt with my grandmother and father's funerals, everything was so overwhelming that I could barely tell you who I had seen / not seen that day much less after the fact.

My last memory of her is from an instagram story. They had a weekend house in NOLA, and they were having a pre-Sugar Bowl party with a zydeco band with their friends from Ole Miss. She posted a video of her dancing and looking happy. That's the memory I choose to keep. It was her.

DS, that is horrible man. I feel so sorry for her husband and her three children. What a terrible waste. Yes, I agree. Check on others.

This suicide epidemic we are in (and have been for the last 10 years, maybe more) this needs to be analyzed and studied. We really need to figure out why there are so many damn deaths of despair. Its an epidemic now, made for a really frightening horror movie that Sandra Bullock just did: Bird Box.

Sorry to hear that, DS…