South Carolina athletics director Eric Hyman spoke about the $25,000 fine the SEC levied against his school after the fans stormed the basketball court following the Gamecocks win over No. 1 Kentucky Tuesday night.

“First, let me say that the atmosphere at the Colonial Life Arena Tuesday night was as
exciting as any time since I’ve been here. Our fans did a great job all night and the
student section was awesome. We certainly don’t want to take away from that enthusiasm
and excitement.

“However, the SEC schools voted unanimously on the sportsmanship policy and the
subsequent fines for violating that policy, and we support it fully. The purpose of the
policy is for the safety of our student-athletes, coaches, officials, students and our many
fans. While I was thrilled with the outcome of the game, I was also very concerned that
we follow this policy to prevent a dangerous situation from occurring.”

RALEIGH – Hello from press row at the RBC Center, where the unranked North Carolina Tar Heels are taking on the N.C. State Wolfpack. The place is packed, as one might expect. The crowd is loud and ready go explode. A quick note about the blog, this is going to be a fun blog, which will offer jokes at the expense of both teams, quirky observations and some actually insight on the game.

With that said, let’s get this thing started, shall we.

NC State 6, UNC 5…15:34 left in 1st half

So, before the game, I was sitting in press room and talking to the beat writers of both teams. You can get a much better sense of what’s going on by talking to the guys that are there with the teams on an everyday basis and I can honestly say that I learned something new:

UNC coach Roy Williams HATES, HATES, HATES N.C. State more than any other team in the league, including Duke. With him, it’s personal and goes way back to his days as an assistant and a student at Chapel Hill.

As one beat writer, who’s been covering UNC for two decades put it, “Roy hates N.C. State more than syphilis.”

They went on to say that should the Wolfies win that the bus ride home for the UNC players will be far worse than losing to Duke or any other team in the league. This is the game Roy wants more than any other.

UNC 12, NC State 10…..11:26 left in 1st half

So far, here are some observations:

The Wolfpack are playing right into UNC’s hands. The teams that have beaten the Heels have been teams that have pushed the ball. The Wolfies are slowing it down and taking a lot of time on each possession to get a shot off, which is perfect for the Heels. …

Neither team is hitting their outside shots and the inside play is dominating the game. I would think that would also play into the hands of the Heels. N.C. State needs to knock down its 3s if it’s going to win.

We have Sidney Lowe’s pimp red blazer vs. Roy’s light blue blazer.

OK, so freshman John Henson just shot an air ball at the free throw line, which sent this place into a frenzy. Dude, really? An air ball? And you were a high school All-American?

UNC 19, N.C. State 14….7:57 left in 1st half

N.C. State is getting killed on the inside and on the boards.

UNC had a chance to go up 25-14 but Ginyard had the ball slip out of his hand while going in for an open dunk. N.C. State took advantage of it and scored five quick points.

UNC 28, N.C. State 21…..3:58 left in 1st half

OK, a couple of random observations during this timeout:

It seems that the only words that anybody knows to the Wolfpack fight song is, “Go to hell Carolina!” The rest of the time, all you hear is a little bit of humming and people making things up as they go along until that part comes up again. It’s kind of funny. …

Also, in the pregame announcement of the N.C. State players, a noise meter was rolled to center court and supposedly the louder the crowd gets, the more light bulbs light up. As one might expect, the lights reached all the way to the top, but the noise level wasn’t any louder than it was when they rolled the thing on the court. It was very, very loud, but it wasn’t like it got progressively louder. I’m callin BS on that noise meter.

Marcus Ginyard is having an awful offensive game. It seems the game plan for N.C. State is to let him shoot because he hasn’t made a thing all night.

Speaking of not making anything, where in the world is Scott Wood and Dennis Horner for the Wolfpack?

HALFTIME
UNC 37, N.C. State 33

Here are some halftime notes and facts:

They’re having a cornhole contest on the court during halftime, but it seems like the sanctity and spirit of the game is being violated as neither contestant has a beer in his hand. And just for the record, both players sucked.

Wolfpack point guard Farnold Degand is a transfer from that great hoops school known as Iowa State. When a player that couldn’t cut it at Iowa State is in your starting backcourt, there are problems. Also, did you know that he can fit 42 Skittles in his mouth at once.

UNC guard Will Graves is the only player from the state North Carolina that gets significant playing time for the Heels. Did you know he has more tattoos than Degand can fit Skittles in his mouth? I think Graves has 54, to be exact. UNC has four players from California that get major minutes. Did you know you can smoke marijuana legally in that state if you get a prescription?

HALFTIME STATS OF NOTE
Ginyard, 0-for-4 shooting…Wood 0-for-4 shooting…Horner 0-for-2 shooting…UNC 3 turnovers…N.C. State 1 offensive rebound…UNC 5 offensive rebounds…N.C. State shooting 50 percent…..UNC shooting 45.2 percent….Smith and Gonzalez are a combined 9-of-12 shooting….Drew II and Strickland are a combined 5-of-7 shooting.

Every time something big is about to happen, the P.A. boy yells, “Wolfpack in the house!!!” That really is annoying.

Start of the second half.

N.C. State 43, UNC 38…..16:58 left in 2nd half

The Wolfies have come out firing from long range and are knocking them down. Wood drills a 3, followed by Gonzalez. The RBC is roaring. Meanwhile, the UNC guards are looking like their usual selves, turning it over two times on three possessions. It’s looking so bad that Roy called a timeout before the TV timeout at 16 minutes.

You just have to wonder if the N.C. State guards can continue to live and feed off that emotion and drain their shots.

Ginyard needs to stop shooting. Wide open 3 and he misses badly.

N.C. State 43, UNC 38….15:55 left in 2nd half

The worse possible thing for UNC has happened, Drew II hit some shots in the first half and he’s continuing to shoot because of it. He’s missing everything now.

UNC can’t even make a layup at this point. The Heels are lucky State hasn’t pulled away. UNC has one stinking point in the first 5-plus minutes.

UNC 43, N.C. State 43….13:23 left in 2nd half

Just now looking at the court for UNC, no wonder they can’t score. Their five consisted of Drew, Strickland, Travis Wear, John Henson and Thompson.

Sidney Lowe took out Gonzalez and he shouldn’t have done that. He’s the only one who can score for the Wolfpack. As a result, UNC scored seven unanswered.

UNC 45, N.C. State 43….11:48 left in 2nd half

The Wolfies haven’t scored in the last seven minutes and are 0-for-12 with three turnovers during that stretch.

WOW!!!

UNC 51, N.C. State 43…..9:42 left in 2nd half

It took eight minutes to do it, but the Wolfies finally scored. WooHoo!

State is lucky it’s only down nine points.

UNC 54, N.C. State 45….7:56 left in 2nd half

N.C. State is 4-for-20 this half.

Wood and Horner have a combined 3 points. No wonder they’re losing by 13 freaking points.

I think it’s time for Sidney to retire the pimp jacket. He had a nice run in the ACC Tournament his first year as head coach wearing it every day, but those days are long gone.

N.C. State has one field goal over the last 12 minutes.

UNC is on a 28-6 run.

Wolfie fans are bolting for the exits. Some are yelling at Sidney as they’re leaving.

Horner makes a basket with 3:30 left in the game with the Wolfies down 17. It’s his first of the night. Nice for him to show up and play the whole game.

UNC 68, N.C. State 54….2:51 left in 2nd half

Stop the presses, Horner has made two 3-pointers in a row. Way to step up big, Dennis.

Well, the death of UNC basketball has been greatly exaggerated. In this league, this year, they’re still going to win some games and lose some. This isn’t a very good team, but it’s not awful, either.

N.C. State just doesn’t have enough consistent firepower to be competitive every night. There are going to be games they win, like against Duke, when a lot of people are hitting their shots. But on nights when Horner and Wood disappear, they’re going to lose big, like they did tonight.

I will be posting video interviews from Roy, Sidney and players following the game. Thanks for reading.

FINAL
UNC 77, N.C. State 63

Tickets for the University of North Carolina’s football game vs. LSU in the 2010 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game on Saturday, Sept. 4, in Atlanta, are now on sale at TarHeelBlue.com. The game will be played at the Georgia Dome on ESPN. Game time has not yet been announced. Tickets will be split evenly between UNC and LSU with each team receiving 31,200 tickets and the game and its surrounding events will be managed by the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Ticket prices range from $65-$160.

Carolina returns 19 starters from last year’s 8-5 team that earned a second-consecutive bowl bid. The Tar Heels finished sixth in the country in total defense and return nine starters on that side of the ball, including all-star candidates Marvin Austin (DT), Robert Quinn (DE), Quan Sturdivant (LB), Bruce Carter (LB), Kendric Burney (CB) and Deunta Williams (S).

With conference play a third of the way completed, here are some news and notes regarding each basketball team in the ACC, which is still wide open for just about anybody to win. Just when you think a team is poised to make a run, it gets beaten by somebody you think has no business winning. The bottom half of the league is much stronger than last season, but the top is much weaker. There isn’t a team in the league worthy of being labeled a top 10 team.
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The 1991 ACC Player of the Year, one of the centerpieces of North Carolina’s 1982 National Championship Basketball Team three first-team All-Americas and five former first- round NBA Draft picks are among the 12 former Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball standouts who were announced today as the 2010 ACC basketball Tournament Legends Class.
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Tyke Tolbert, a former wide receivers coach with the Arizona Cardinals and
Buffalo Bills, has been named wide receivers coach of the Carolina Panthers the team
announced today. A seven-year NFL coaching veteran, Tolbert has spent the last six
seasons with the Bills.

“Tyke’s experience both as a player and coach provide him with a sound
knowledge of the wide receiver position,” says head coach John Fox. “He is a highly
regarded coach and we think he will make strong contribution to our offense.”

Tolbert graduated from Louisiana State University where he was a three-year
letterman at wide receiver for the Tigers from 1988-90.

After college coaching stints at Louisiana-Monroe, Auburn, Louisiana-Lafayette
and Florida, Tolbert began his NFL coaching career by participating in the NFL’s
Minority Internship Program with the Detroit Lions in 1997. The Arizona Cardinals hired
Tolbert as wide receivers coach in 2003 and under his tutelage, Cardinals rookie receiver
Anquan Boldin earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and was the only rookie to
make the Pro Bowl.

Tolbert went to Buffalo as wide receivers coach in 2004 and was instrumental in
the development of young receivers Lee Evans, Josh Reed and Roscoe Parrish.
A native of Conroe, TX, Tolbert, and his wife Linda, have two daughters, Morgan
and Madison.

While there are clearly no great teams in the ACC this year in basketball, it’s still a conference that holds at least six teams that will make the NCAA Tournament. But the question is, who is the best team in the league and that is one that is almost impossible to answer at this point. However, there are a few candidates.
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Sunday morning about 11 a.m., I got a call from somebody informing me that former Clemson star defensive and and current Chicago Bear Gaines Adams had died of an apparent heart attach. It was obviously shocking news and somewhat hard to comprehend. After all, how in the world is a 26-year-old dying of an apparent heart attach, especially someone that is a professional athlete and in great shape?

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Larry Williams and the boys at TigerIllustrated.com, which provides the best and most in-depth Clemson Tigers coverage, did a fantastic job of playing tribute to Gaines Adams, who died Sunday morning of cardiac arrest. If you like Clemson or are just curious to learn more about the former All-American, I strongly suggest you click here.

East Carolina coach Skip Holtz has wisely decided to take the job at South Florida, it was announced Thursday afternoon. It’s a great move for Skip, who led to the Pirates to back-to-back Conference USA championships.

Some may not view South Florida as a glamorous job, but consider this:

It’s in the Big East, which only has eight teams and that means a trip to the BCS is very possible. Pitt, Cincinnati and West Virginia have made it there, so why not South Florida?

South Florida is in the most talent-rich state in the nation for high school players. Skip has always been a good recruiter, which means he’ll do well in that state. There’s plenty of studs to choose from even after Florida, Florida State and Miami pick their players.

Again, it’s in Tampa, which means better weather and playing in a bigger stadium.

East Carolina was lucky to have held onto Skip this long. He revived the program from the dead and brought the Pirates two titles. They also beat Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Boise State and UNC along the way.

It was time for Skip to leave and jump to the next level. Hopefully ECU fans will wish him well rather than being bitter like West Virginia fans were when Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan.

I’ve made it no secret that Skip is one of my three favorite coaches and people of all time in any sport at any level. So, here’s to Skip! Good luck in South Florida. You deserve it.

UNC flew into tiny and remote Anderson Airport today instead of flying into one of two airports in Greenville. The Heels probably won’t make that mistake again. While the Heels were playing the game some 20 miles away, the plane sat at the airport collecting ice on its wings.

While this usually isn’t a problem, Anderson’s airport is woefully behind the times, which is only fitting for that awful town, and doesn’t have deicing capabilities.

Thus, the Heels now have to drive all the way back to Chapel Hill via bus, which means they’ll arrive back home sometime between 4 and 4:30 a.m.

Have fun at those 8 a.m. classes tomorrow.

CLEMSON, S.C. — Hello from press row in Littlejohn Coliseum, where all the heavy hitters are sitting. There’s Jay Bilas, Andy Katz, NBA scouts and of Phil Kornblut of the S.C. Radio Network. The coliseum is sold out and there aren’t as many UNC fans here for this game as have been in the past.

A quick note, this blog is going to provide some important information, but it will also be used to make fun of a lot of people, including myself. After all, if we can’t laugh at ourselves, then who can we laugh at? Well, OK, maybe we could still laugh at Tim Tebow and Lane Kiffin.

And just like that, Demontez Stitt drives the baseline for a basket, and follows it up with another basket. Three possessions for UNC and three turnovers. 7-0 Clemson.

David Potter just picked up his second foul of the game with not even two minutes gone. I have to admit that the second foul looked rather cheap.

Clemson’s Noel Johnson comes off the bench and drains a couple of 3’s and this place is going crazy. As I talked about earlier on the Frank & Buck Show, the team that hits the most 3s will probably win. Both have struggled from the outside this year and making 3-pointers should be the difference in the game.

15:32 left in first half, 17-6 Clemson

Roy Williams was so upset during the media timeout that he tried to have for Clemson fans removed from the building, briefly forgetting he wasn’t in Chapel Hill. You knew it wasn’t going to take long for a Roy Williams joke to emerge.

I am so happy that Oliver Purnell opted not to wear that pimp-looking orange jacket. God, that thing is ugly. But at least he’s never in danger of getting hit by a car at night while wearing it.

Clemson has made four 3-pointers. 22-8 with 13:46 left in first half.

Tanner Smith just drains another 3 for Clemson and then points to the student section and asks them to get louder. Wow, already showboating.

32-12 with 10:52 left in first half

OK, during the media timeout, a promotion offered a free ticket to a “massage parlor.” Um, aren’t those illegal? Since when did the Anderson Mall become part of Las Vegas?

Well, the pathetic ball skills of UNC is starting to hurt them. The Heels have no answer for the press.

Another 3 for the Tigers and they’re up 23 freaking points. UNC is getting completely undressed. But this is Clemson, the schools that has blown more double-digit leads in ACC history.

35-16, 8:24 in first
While there’s a break in the action, it’s time for a little DID YOU KNOW, Clemson style:

Did you know Clemson has lost 10 straight games to UNC? Did you know Oliver Purnell and Roy Williams served as assistant coaches in the 2004 Olympics? Did you know point guard Andre Young can sleep in a shoe box? Did you know that Devin Booker, younger brother of Trevor Booker, has the worst haircut in the ACC?

46-26, with 3:24 left in first half

The frantic pace has calmed a little as both teams are getting a little winded.

UNC still can’t pass or shoot from the outside. This might be the worst group of Tar Heel guards I’ve ever seen. Seriously.

It’s halftime and the Tiggers are up 50-32. Again, this is far from over. My bet is that UNC will only be down by 10 with 10 minutes to play.

OK, it’s time to run into the press room and grab some grub and a coke. And before I leave, here’s a pic to get you through until halftime.

Some insane halftime stats for you:
Clemson was 7-of-15 from 3…UNC had 15 turnovers and THREE assists….The starting backcourt for the Heels had seven turnovers and one assist….Deon Thompson had two points.

Roy was just so fed up at the play of his starters that he benched all five with less than two minutes gone in the second half. After a brief yelling, all five are set to come back in some 90 seconds later.

Clemson now has two freshmen and two sophomores on the floor and it shows. The offense has bogged down, but it really doesn’t matter as UNC can’t do anything offensively.

56-38 with 15:08 left in game

It’s now time for DID YOU KNOW, UNC style:
UNC is 15-1 vs. Clemson when both teams are ranked…UNC enters tonight’s game with 1,996 wins, second-most all-time behind Kentucky…Did you know that somewhere Adam Boone is laughing hysterically…Did you know that the Heels are now going to be 1-5 on the road this year…Did you know that every Carolina fan is saying to everyone, “Wait ’til next year!”

So, I was wrong about UNC being down 10 with 10 to play. Clemson hasn’t gone into one of its usual scoring droughts. UNC is down 14 with 10 to play and coulda cut it to 11 had it made a wide open 3-pointer.

64-50 with 9:40 left to play

Clemson has gone cold from the outside, yet the Tigers are still jacking up the 3. If UNC had any sort of offense I’d say the Tiggers could be in store for one of their classic meltdowns. As it is, I just don’t think UNC can make the comeback unless Clemson doesn’t score but five points the rest of the way, and even then, UNC would be hard pressed to win.

And just like that it’s down to 11 with 5:55 left to play. The crowd at Littlejohn is starting to get anxious. They’ve seen this movie all too often.

UNC had a chance to cut it to 10. Actually, the Heels had four shots from within two feet and couldn’t make any of them. That’s why the Heels probably won’t complete the comeback.

Demontez Stitt is having the game of his career….Graves just jacked up a long 3-pointer and missed and Roy just turned to his assistant and basically said, “WTF?” The assistant just shrugged his shoulders. UNC had the chance to make Clemson sweat, but like I said earlier, the offense is really pretty bad this year.

75-69, with 3:48 left to play

The Heels must really hate the Palmetto State. First, they lose at College of Charleston and now they get their doors blown off by Clemson.

So during the timeout, a Clemson male cheerleader brought out this huge flag to wave it, but the flag had water all over it and when he waved it, the water flung everywhere. As a result, it took an extra minute after the timeout to start the game some people could wipe up the water.

OK, so this game must officially be over if David Potter is hitting shots.

UNC is now trying a trapping defense. My question is, where the the world was this in the first half as Clemson went on a 26-6 run? Clemson has had to call two timeouts on the same possession because of the trapping defense.

77-62, 1:58 left to play.

And this isn’t an upset. UNC is now 1-5 on the road. I swear I hope the fans don’t storm the court. Seriously, this isn’t an upset in the slightest.

The good news for UNC is that Clemson is the only team in the ACC that does a full-court trapping defense.

Very few people have left this building. It’s late and most people will have an hour or more to drive to get home. Not bad. Of course, a win over UNC happens only once every six years.

One minute left and Clemson is up 15 and could make it 17 if Potter makes his two free throws. Roy just massed subbed.

To fully tell what type of game it’s been for Clemson, the Tigers have hit 17 straight free throws and are 18-of-20.

BALL GAME!!!

83-64

Thanks for reading the blog everyone. And of course, the fans stormed the court. Ugh! We’ll see you Friday on the Frank & Buck Show!

Post-game coverage is forthcoming.

After hours upon hours of very exhaustive and extensive research, I’ve put together a montage of photos to pay homage to those that won bowl games this year. Here are photos representing all 34 bowl game winners. And trust me, this wasn’t an easy task. You try finding hot chicks from Marshall, Wyoming and Rutgers.

The pics start with the first bowl game and conclude with the mythical national championship game. Enjoy the photos!

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