Monday Cardinal Couple -- Previewing the ACC: North Carolina. WNBA: Dream break Fever

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- PREVIWING THE ACC:  NORTH CAROLINA

- ATLANTA DREAM BREAKS THE FEVER

- CHILLIN' 4 CHARITY:  Shoni version

North Carolina is the next school we are looking at as we work our way down the ACC alphabetically.

They go by several names besides North Carolina. UNC, Carolina, Heels and Tarheels are the most common.

Address: Chapel Hill, NC

Mascot: Rameses

Enrollment: 29,127 (2013)

Acceptance rate: 27.6% (2012)

Founder: William Richardson Davie

Founded: December 11, 1789

Colors: White, Carolina blue

 

 

 

The Ram is the official UNC mascot. He is known as either Rameses or Jack.

UNC participates in (14) women's sports:

Basketball                                   Rowing
Cross Country                              Soccer
Fencing                                       Softball
Golf                                            Swim & Dive
Lacrosse                                     Volleyball
Track & Field                              Tennis
Gymnastics                                 Field Hockey
Rowing                                       Volleyball


We'll look at four of these today.

BASKETBALL

Mavunga will be a key for UNC

The TarHeels had an impressive 2013-14 season. On a squad that lost Coach Sylvia Hatchell to leukemia treatments, they went 27-10 and got to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament after knocking off South Carolina. They fell to Stanford to end their season.

A talented compliment of players return, including Stephanie Mavunga, Allsiha Gray and Jessica Washington. They do lose Diamond DeShields via transfer route.

FIELD HOCKEY

An impressive season for UNC, going 18-6 and reaching the NCAA semifinals before falling to UConn 2-1. They return a strong cast and are expected to battle Duke and Virginia for the conference title.

LACROSSE

UNC went 15-5 overall and 5-2 in the tough ACC Conference. They made the NCAA Tournament but fell in the second round to conference rival Virginia.

VOLLEYBALL

A rapid start to the season had the Heels at 12-0 before taking their first loss to Duke. They ended 27-5 on the season and 16-4 in conference but was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round by California.

SYNOPSIS

Carolina is a lot like Duke in the fact that they are usually pretty  

good and top 25 ranked in most women's sports they field. They'll challenge the Cards on the hardwood and in the fall sports of field hockey, soccer and volleyball. Basketball, in particular, will be a tough test for Jeff Walz and the Cards...despite DeShields departing, they have an experienced team returning.

Louisville isn't on par with UNC in field hockey or lacrosse yet, but is gaining ground.  Soccer and volleyball appear to be evenly matched.   

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 It took Angel McCoughtry more than 25 minutes to get going. Once she did, the Atlanta Dream were on their way to their ninth win in 11 games.

McCoughtry scored 12 of her 20 points in the second half, leading the Dream to a 76-68 win over the Indiana Fever on Sunday night. Her 3-pointer with 2:04 left in the game put the Dream (11-4) up for good.

After taking stock of her game at halftime, she wanted to be more engaged in the second half.

"I was just lazy on my shots," McCoughtry said. "Once I get my focus, I can knock anything down. I hit a 3, made a couple of plays to get us going and found my rhythm."

Atlanta appeared to be on the verge of letting the game get away midway through the fourth quarter. Nursing a 65-61 lead, the Dream committed four straight turnovers -- two by McCoughtry -- that sent Indiana on a 7-0 run for a 68-65 lead with 3:53 left.

Indiana then let its opportunities to grab the win slip away.

Briann January missed a wide-open layup with 3:30 left that would have given Indiana a five-point cushion. Then, with a 68-67 lead and 2:25 on the clock, Karima Christmas missed two free throws that set up McCoughtry for the go-ahead 3-pointer.

With the Dream leading 72-68 with under 43 seconds left, Celine Dumerc blocked Shavonte Zellous' 3-point attempt and then scored in transition, sealing the game for Atlanta.

"Indiana always plays you tough," Dream coach Michael Cooper said. "They gave us all we could handle."

The Fever (6-9) lost their fourth straight game.

Zellous scored 18 points to continue her hot streak for the Fever. She had 33 points against Tulsa on Wednesday and 18 points Friday against Phoenix in narrow defeats.

Sancho Lyttle scored 16 points for Atlanta and Erika de Souza added 12 points and 13 rebounds. Natasha Howard and Marissa Coleman each scored 10 for the Fever. Shoni Schimmel had five points in 13 minutes of action.


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Chillin' 4 Charity has gone viral. Everyone is getting into the act.
Here's Shoni getting hers:

http://www.wnba.com/video/wnba/2014/06/26/Chillin4charityDreamFINALmp4-3312186/




paulie
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Monday Cardinal Couple -- What price athletic success?

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-UNC quandary over classes for athletics a black eye for academia.

The recent revelation of controversy between "no attend" classes at North Carolina and grade boosting for athletes is a dark cloud floating over the whole system of academia. 

A riveting report on the current controversy on the TarHeel campus can be found at the link below

Classless Classes?

A decade of academic fraud? At what price does success on the athletic fields and dollars for the athletic program via keeping star athletes academically eligible come? 

Is this anyway to run a University? 

A) Tom isn't that great a student..but he can toss a football 65 yards and threw for 5 TD's against State U.
B) Tom needs to carry a 2.0 to play for 'ol coach' and the grades just aren't coming for him in sociology, choir and algebraic concepts. 
C) Professor Abe Sentee has this class where the students don't have to attend, just turn in a paper and...presto! They get a "B" (Where were these classes when I was in school?) 
D) How many kids like Tom can we get into Prof. Abe's class and how many more classes are out there like it? 

And, if it's going on at UNC...a highly respected ACC center of academic learning...where else does the shadow fall? 

Just another reason for Duke to giggle at UNC, I suppose. 

The term 'student-athlete' gets sacked for a 10 yard loss in this case. Do all-conference stats and All-American honors begat bunny classes and questionable standards? Does academic cheating wash itself clean if the team gets to the Super Duper Bowl and earns the "U" 3 or 4 million? 

And has it bled over into other sports beside football? 

Tip of the iceberg here, I fear...and that's a sad thing. Consider the average student, working a job, struggling to get by with a "C" average but actually paying tuition, taking classes that might lead to a nice paying job upon graduation and this poor soul actually having to attend class, study and sweat out mid-terms and finals. He might even get a rare Saturday where he can sit in the student section and cheer for Tom to beat State U. 

Now, if he could run a 4.3 second 40 yd. dash and  bench press 300 lbs....

It could drive you Cameron crazy. 

I always thought of my college years as a combination of professors who really taught me something, cared about how their students learned and performed and ample opportunities to learn, explore, have a little fun.

That and spending time at Jim and Joe's Beer Depot, Zanzibar and in the Delta Zeta sorority house. 

Maybe a chance to get a degree in something that might be useful in later life? My G.P.A. may not show it, but I actually studied and learned some important business concepts. 

Location and capitol. 

I'm guessing 99.9% of the college scene is still that way across academia land. Students still yawn and stretch at 8 a.m. classes and there are still albino squirrels on ye dear ol' Belknap campus? 

It's the .1% that really stinks, though. 
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