Palehosefan

Nothing to see here, move along.

Dean Smith didn't win a championship with Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Shammond Williams, Antawn Jamison, Brenden Haywood in the late 90's, and Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Jeff McCinnis, and Shammond Williams in the mid 90's. Jim Boeheim and Gary Williams were known as chokers until 3 years ago also. I know you are still bitter for some reason, but don't let it blind you forever. I know you are angry for Roy leaving Kansas, but show some anger at Self for leaving Illinois, Roy gave 15 years of his life to Kansas, I don't see why you need to trash him constantly. By the way, how the hell does a coach choke? Does he forget how to coach? Does he change his game planning specifically for the games he chokes in? Should be go out onto the court and play the games for the players? Does he teach his players to choke? Did Roy choke enough in practice that it rubbed off on Hinrich and Collison? Every year that Roy was in the tourney, and it was every year, did he all the sudden get nervous and crap his pants leading his players to forget the gameplan? Or maybe did they just get outplayed? Dean Smith's teams played in 11 final fours and only came away with 2 championships. But he's a choker also right?

ESPN USAToday coaches poll. 1. Kansas (8) 741 24-9 9 2. Wake Forest (12) 724 21-10 15 3. North Carolina (6) 697 19-11 22 4. Georgia Tech (1) 604 28-10 3 5. Illinois (1) 598 26-7 11 6. Syracuse 557 23-8 19 7. Connecticut 541 33-6 1 8. Oklahoma State (1) 511 31-4 4 9. Kentucky 480 27-5 8 10. Michigan State 476 18-12 NR 11. Arizona (1) 475 20-10 NR 12. Duke 403 31-6 2 13. Louisville (1) 374 20-10 NR 14. Mississippi State 365 26-4 13 15. Texas 334 25-8 10 16. Maryland 316 20-12 24 17. Pittsburgh 247 31-5 7 18. Alabama 224 20-13 17 19. North Carolina State 218 21-10 20 20. Wisconsin 216 25-7 16 21. Notre Dame 214 19-13 NR 22. Florida 160 20-11 NR 23. Memphis 131 22-8 NR 24. Washington 108 19-12 NR 25. Stanford 64 30-2 6 They have NC State and Bama instead of Michigan and Cincinatti that I have. They are about 4 equal teams, so I can give them that. I just can't leave off Michigan, they are gonna be good, Horton is a stud.

Here is the reason I'm feeling confident about UNC's depth, its not about pickup games and all that, I used to believe all that hype, just like guys that were stars in college football spring games and never amounted to anything. David Noel, has never been a shooter, but he's a 6'6 235 pounds SF that was forced to play PF due to is great strength and UNC's lack of big men, bench presses close to 400 pounds due to his football days, but that still doesn't help him with his shooting. What he can do is rebound, and get up and down the floor as good as any of our players, he like Jackie Manual, knows his role isn't to be a shooter, but a slasher that gets up and down the court and he will get his points. Quentin Thomas, was the top ranked PG on the west coast, 6'4 with very nice handles and great defensively, his shot still needs some work, he earned the backup point guard spot over Wes Miller, who was on scholarship at a lower school but chose to transfer to UNC as a walk-on, he's a sharp shooter, but he's not the most athletic PG. Byron Sanders, well, he's 6'9 230 pounds and he was akward his freshmen and sophomore years, but now he has bulked up and worked on his inside game, all they need him for is a few minutes and a few rebounds, he's athletic so he will be good in Roy's uptempo system that we will get to see in full gear this year with all of the depth. Damion Grant was a 6'11 enigma his freshmen and sophomore years, exactly what UNC needed in a big shot blocker that can run the floor, unfortunately his knees wouldn't allow him to play at all until this year when he finally could work out and shed about 20 pounds. It was a horrible cycle he was in, he was overweight so his knees didn't get better, his knees wouldn't get better because he was overweight, he finally got healthy this offseason. Thats why I'm confident, none of them are stars now, but they are athletic and know their roles, on top of Roy finally being able to run his system all out due to depth and the team learing the system after a full year under Roy now. Experience is the problem now, can they go from winning 1 tourney game their entire career to winning it all? I'm hoping so.

Good points, as for UNC's depth, here are the guys that you know will give you solid minutes. PG. Felton SG. Manual SF. McCants PF. Marvin Williams C. Sean May off the bench: Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott, and David Noel. Thats 8 for sure, you have a right ot be wary of Quentin Thomas, Wes Miller, Reyshawn Terry, Byron Sanders, and Damion Grant. But, you will just have to see for yourself. As for Duke over Maryland, and Kentucky. Maryland is a talented team and Gilchrist is my darkhorse for ACC POY, watch out for them, Kentucky does have alot of freshmen, but in this day and age most teams are counting on freshmen. Randolph Morris is already one of the top 5 centers in the game as a freshmen, Rajon Rondo and Joe Crawford are absolute studs also, they could have a similar type impact that Felton, McCants, and May had their freshmen seasons, and they didn't have the other talent that Kentucky does around them. Duke just has Dockery, Daniel Ewing, JJ Redick, Shavlik Randolph, and Shelden Williams as their starters, thats a very good starting lineup, but after that, freshmen Nelson and Lee Melchioni are their best bench players. Nelson is a good one, similar to McCants as a freshmen without the 3 point touch, but those two aren't going to scare anyone. Especially since Duke has to play in the ACC, which is quite possibly the most talented the league has EVER been. I would have to put Notre Dame, Texas, Maryland, and Kentucky ahead of Duke at this point. Texas is just loaded again, even though its young talent, they will start off slow, but will be great again come Tourney time. Notre Dame is just solid with Thomas leading the show and Torin Francis down low, also Jordan Cornette, Dennis Latimore, and Chris Quinn will be solid contributors. I don't know if I posted my top 25 yet, if I already did, I apoligize, if not, here it is. 1. Kansas Jayhawks 2. Wake Forest Demon Deacons 3. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 4. Syracuse Orangemen 5. North Carolina Tar Heels 6. Illinois Fighting Illini 7. Michigan State Spartans 8. Arizona Wildcats 9. Texas Longhorns 10. Maryland Terrapins 11. Kentucky Wildcats 12. Connecticut Huskies 13. Oklahoma State Cowboys 14. Wisconsin Badgers 15. Louisville Cardinals 16. Notre Dame Fighting Irish 17. Duke Blue Devils 18. Pittsburgh Panthers 19. Mississippi State Bulldogs 20. Michigan Wolverines 21. Cincinnati Bearcats 22. Memphis Tigers 23. Florida Gators 24. Stanford Cardinal 25. Washington Huskies

Nice top 25 whitesoxfan99, I just have a few disagreements. Gotta disagree there, even when he's healthy, his talent doesn't match his size yet, he mainly gets his points by sure size and will. At best he's the 3rd best big man in the ACC behind Sean May and Shelden Williams. But WF is loaded nonetheless. Again, I can promise you depth is the last issue with UNC this year, chemistry could possibly be a problem, but this is quite possibly the most depth UNC has seen in 10 years. I like the analysis of Duke, but I think they are rated about 6-8 spots too high, they are the weakest Duke team since 1995. I gotta disagree about Hodge being the best in the nation also. McCants is comparable numbers wise, but I won't go there due to homerism. Instead I will go with Hakim Warrick. Here are their numbers side by side with McCants just for kicks. Julius Hodge 18.2 ppg 6.4 rpg 3.6 apg 1.39 spg .361 3 point % Hakim Warrick 19.8 ppg 8.6 rpg 2.6 apg 1 spg .00 3 point % Rashad McCants 20 ppg 4.5 rpg 2.2 apg 1.77 spg .410 3 point % Basically McCants has the lead in scoring, 3 point %, and steals Julius has the lead in assists Hakim has the lead in rebounds I can see your argument for Hodge, I gotta go with Hakim though. Overall, great job typing all of that and you are spot-on with most of your info.

From BA. Any particular losses you are upset over? I can't find any right off the bat. CHICAGO WHITE SOX Jonathan Aceves C Brian Becker 1B Mike Bell 3B Darren Blakely OF Morgan Burkhart 1B Julio Castro RHP Dionys Cesar SS Leo Daigle 1B Courtney Duncan RHP Jose Espinal RHP Cip Garcia C Ryan Hankins C Kyle Kane RHP Carlos Maldonado C Aaron McNeal 1B Brian McNichol LHP Jose Mieses RHP Michael Moore OF Bryant Nelson 2B Richard Paz IF Oneli Perez RHP Ken Ray RHP Jose Santiago RHP Robert Sasser 3B Bobby Smith SS Reggie Taylor OF Edward Tejada C Andres Torres OF Mario Valenzuela OF Jake Whitesides OF Patrick Williams IF Mitch Wylie RHP

lol yeah thats true, they are all too pampered to remember how to fight, Jeff Van Gundy was still the best riding around on Zo's leg.

Lots of interesting things with that situation. Foley seems to be interested in Spurrier, yet he seems to be putting him on the back burner after some comments he made about waiting a while longer before hiring anyone. You would think if Spurrier is their man, they would snatch him up before other jobs become available, UNC's job is already rumored to be offered to Spurrier. Another interesting note about the situation, Florida's president was Utah's president when Urban Meyer was hired.

BINGO, thats the most difficult part for me, trust. My brother's ex-wife cheated on him and it just completely messed him up since then, I've always been terrified of being cheated on by my girl. I can't imagine how much it would hurt. I know deep down that she's not gonna do anything, its just always a worry. Luckily I can be myself completely around her, she see's more of myself than any of my guy friends have seen, how weird is that? She enjoys Family Guy as much as I do, we sit and watch everynight and just laugh our asses off.

Hughes, Haywood, and Curry all look very bad after that incident. Wasn't much of a fight, more like slap, run, roll around on the ground.

Thats the interesting thing about the NFL, a good OL style like the chop blocking Broncos can make any RB look good. Unfortunately the Dolphins don't have a good OL, or a good backfield. That we can agree on :-), also about Alge being one of the top 3 TE's, good call there also.

College scouting reports actually do mean something. Its nearly impossible to judge an OL on your own, you have to rely on scouts that have seen lots of film of the player making blocks. You can't judge a group by how many rushing td's or how many INT's their QB has given up. You can have Jonathan Ogden, Alan Faneca, Kevin Mawae, Will Shields, and Orlando Pace as your line and if you have Jay Fiedler and Travis Minor in your backfield, you are going to have problems. Take a look at the Steelers for instance, last year they were last in rushing and the OL got alot of the blame. This year, they are in the top 10, the difference? Duce Staley. Same thing with the Panthers and no Stephen Davis or Deshaun Foster, the Cowboys when they lost Emmitt and nobody could fill in, when Jamal Lewis was suspended. Without a good back or a good QB, an OL will look terrible no matter what.

I didn't see it, but if you can beat Haywood's ass, you can beat pretty much anyone's ass. He is one strong dude now after this offseason.

Thats not a terrible offensive line, Jeno was very solid for the Panthers last year, McKinney is a pretty decent up and coming center, McIntosh also is a young guy that has some starts behind him and was highly thought of coming out in the draft, ditto for St. Clair, Wade Smith, and Vernon Cary. Are they young? Definitely. Does it help that they don't have ANYONE to run the ball behind them, nope. You want to see a worse OL, take a look at SF's roster. LT Kyle Kosier Kwame Harris Rob Murphy LG Eric Heitmann Rob Murphy Kyle Kosier C Jeremy Newberry Brock Gutierrez RG Kyle Kosier Justin Smiley Rob Murphy RT Scott Gragg Kyle Kosier Rob Murphy I follow the draft and football about as close as anyone, and the only one's I could say I truly have heard of is Justin Smiley and Kwame Harris.

If you take Kris Jenkins, Stephen Davis, Deshaun Foster, and Steve Smith from any team, they are gonna be lousy. That would be like the Steelers losing Duce Staley, Jerome Bettis, Casey Hampton, and Hines Ward, that wouldn't be too pretty as a Steelers fan. We already lost Hampton for the year and its not gonna be fun.

I don't know how any of you can say the Dolphins are worse than the 49'ers. Unless I'm forgetting something major, they don't have very good QB's, RB's, WR's, or a good OL. Not to mention their defense isn't anything better than average. I just don't see how its really even close. When John Engelberger, Julian Peterson, and Ahmed Plummer are your teams stars, you are in trouble. They have the 2nd worst point differential of -54 second only to Oakland's 57. Not to mention they just placed Mike Rumph on IR with a broken arm, and Julian Peterson is gone for the season. Miami isn't a terrible team, they just lost their offense when Ricky deserted them, if you place Ricky back on the team then Miami is a playoff contender. Same as if you put Ricky Williams on Carolina, they would be playoff contenders. You can't say the same about the 49'ers, they have too many holes/injuries to let anyone overtake them as the worst team in the league.

I would have to say SF easily, not to mention I believe their best defender Julian Peterson is out for the year now. Either that or I dreamed it up.

I'll do my test here also.

I don't pay attention to the Palehose forum much anymore as you can tell now.

Good article Jason, but I have a question. Why would they move Rogowski to OF? We already have a plethora of OF'ers and not much at the 1B position. I think Casey has the skills to be a plus defensive 1B also, I just don't see why they would change that.

Its a UNC chant, suprise suprise. "Duke is puke, and Wake is fake, but most of all I hate NC STATE!!!"

That is a touching thread, but I had to LOL when I came to the Braveheart picture and winning it for freedom.

Did I mention the kid is 13 years old? This is from BA's Baseball for the Ages. Just thought it was worth noting on this board. AGE: 13 ZAK SINCLAIR, rhp/ss, Pittsburgh The 6-foot-4, 175-pound Sinclair did it all for Pennsylvania's Beaver Valley Red, the nation's top-ranked 13-year-old team. He pitched, he played shortstop, he hit cleanup and he was his team's fastest runner. At the premier event for 13-year-olds, the USSSA Elite World Series, he earned MVP honors as the Red went unbeaten. Sinclair showcased an 86 mph fastball and 72-74 mph slider, and worked only his team's most important games as the Red amassed a 61-3 record. He went 13-0 with a sub-1.00 ERA and also had four saves while striking out 178 in 82 innings. He threw five no-hitters and handily beat the East Cobb (Ga.) Astros, the national AAU champions and the nation's No.-2 ranked team, 9-1 in April, striking out the first six batters he faced. Sinclair also played a big role with the bat, hitting .608 with 28 home runs.

It doesn't work, I tried it with a Dr. Seuss book. "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, wanna do me?"