- ESPN released their schedule this week for the 24-hour tip-off marathon that kicks off their college basketball coverage, and Duke will be a part of it. The Devils will begin their title defense at home against Miami of Ohio at 7:30 PM (ET). Take a look at the entire schedule here.
- Speaking of Duke Basketball, Miles Plumlee made a little splash on the interwebs when he used 6’10” brother Mason as a prop to win the Duke camp dunk contest by vaulting over him to throw down a one-handed jam. He loses some style points for using his other hand pretty heavily for leverage and the fact that Mason had to duck down a little, but a nice display of athleticism nonetheless:
- On the other end of the Youtube spectrum is Nolan Smith, who chose to share his “hidden talent” of singing Dru Hill’s “In My Bed” with the world recently. Feel free to watch, but be forewarned, Smith’s singing may just be as bad as his one-handed floater is good:
Yikes.
- There are a few reports popping up here and there claiming UNC has been mostly cleared in the NCAA investigation, including this one. While speculation is all still premature, it would be nice if the bulk of the damage just involves losing Marvin Austin for 1-4 games.
- Doc over at Tar Heel Fan has a nice roundup of notes coming out of UNC football camp, including that Ryan Houston is a svelte 235 pounds, Marvin Austin is currently taking reps with the second team, and Butch Davis has refused to preemptively name a starter for the LSU game.
- Meanwhile, in the recruiting game, UNC got a commitment from Salisbury High’s Romar Morris, who can run a 4.3 40 and is rated the #10 all-purpose back in the country. Davis continues to dominate in-state recruiting, as Morris is the ninth player on the Rivals.com top 30 seniors list in North Carolina to pick UNC this year.
- One team those future Tar Heels won’t be facing off against is Tennessee, as the Vols have backed out of a scheduled home-and-home with Carolina in 2011 and 2012, choosing to fork over some cash instead of face off against a program on the rise. While UT and UNC may both get another W out of this by replacing that slot in the schedule with some cannon fodder, this surely hurts Tennessee more as Clay Travis points out that Butch Davis can now tell recruits the Vols are afraid to play the Heels.
- Interesting basketball note as 6-7 forward Jackson Simmons shunned scholarship offers from a number of really solid mid-major programs (ODU and Richmond among them) to agree to walk on at UNC next year and potentially earn a scholarship down the line if he plays well. Roy Williams has a history of getting in-state kids as walk-ons dating back to his time at Kansas but several analysts are saying this is probably the most talented player he’s gotten in this type of situation, as Simmons was drawing interest from programs such as Wake Forest and Clemson, as well.
- UNC has dominated women’s soccer for decades: is Carolina cross-country about to be the next Olympic sport that North Carolina goes big-time in?
