Morning Links: UNC Investigation Plods On; Smith and Singler Impress vs. National Team

By Zeke Smith Aug 11, 2010, 6:23am EDT

Current update on the UNC football investigation: everyone seems to want to know how Marvin Austin got to California to work out at the Proactive Sports training facility, and they are particularly interested in assistant coach John Blake’s relationship with agent Gary Wichard. Former UNC lineman and current San Diego Charger Cam Thomas says teammate and first-round draft pick Kentwan Balmer paid for the trip. This could be good or bad, depending on what prism the NCAA chooses to view it through: good if the “teammates” excuse gets them out of hot water, bad if the NCAA decides to now vacate some wins off of that 8-5 record last year, as well.

On a more positive note, both Duke and Carolina perform well on college basketball’s recently released Academic Progress Rating. Kudos to both programs.

UNC freshman RB Gio Bernard is out for the season after tearing his ACL during an early fall practice. Carolina does have some backfield depth issues now, as Shaun Draughn and Ryan Houston are backed up by Jamal Womble and… not much else.

Duke PG Nolan Smith is following up his strong junior campaign by continuing to impress just about everyone this summer. He performed well enough training against the US National Team in Las Vegas last month (going head to head with the likes of Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo and Russell Westbrook) to be invited back to camp this week in New York, and that’s after earning MVP honors at this summer’s Greater NC Pro Am. Don’t think anybody saw that coming two years ago. As an added bonus for Duke fans, Kyle Singler was also on the list of players invited to train with the national team.

Tar Heel Fan has some nice notes from the first day of UNC football practice. Carolina will start the year ranked 18th in the USA Today Coaches Poll, one of five ACC teams in the rankings.

Robbi Pickeral has some interesting tidbits in a profile of Tyler Zeller, who was rooming with the Wears when they left UNC. Apparently Zeller thought they “went out for pizza and never came back.”

And finally, police were able to nab a recent felon involved in a drug-deal-turned robbery near Gaston, NC last week because of a key piece of visual evidence. The man was apparently identified by the Tar Heels logo he had tattooed on his face. Yes, this really happened. Let that be a lesson to any of you who are considering branding your face with your favorite team’s logo: if you ever go into a life of crime, things could end badly for you.

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