Tag: UNC

Social Media reacts to UNC’s season opening win

Social media reacts to UNC’s season opening win over the South Carolina Gamecocks.

The North Carolina Tar Heels kicked off its season with a 31-17 win against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the Duke’s Mayo Classic.

Before kick-off, UNC announced that the Tar Heels would be without transfer wideout Nate McCollum and defensive back DeAndre Boykins out with a lower-body injury. A team already missing a top transfer in Tez Walker due to eligibility issues tacked on more pressure as Drake Maye would be without two top skill makers on UNC offense.

Despite the hit the Tar Heels took before the game started, the game plan appeared intact, as UNC could create constant drives throughout.

The biggest question was the defense for North Carolina, with significant struggles in the past few seasons, but that was answered early with massive momentum shifts created by the D.

Unsurprisingly, this game brought quite a reaction, with fans pouring in reactions to UNC vs. South Carolina. Let us examine how the fans reacted to the Battle of the Carolinas.

UNC football defensive keys to the game vs South Carolina

Taking a look at the defensive keys to the game for the UNC football program against South Carolina.

All eyes will be on North Carolina this weekend as they travel 142 miles to Charlotte, North Carolina, to take on South Carolina.

The game is known as the Battle of Carolinas and has built quite the hype, with College GameDay choosing to cover this game for week one. The pressure is on for UNC this year with all the talent on the roster, a loaded running back committee, and arguably the best quarterback in College Football with Drake Maye at the helm.

Undoubtedly, UNC enters this meeting with big question marks, one being the status of transfer wide receiver Tez Walker, as his eligibility is still in question by the NCAA. The other is UNC’s defense and if they can fix the glaring issues that have hindered them the last few seasons.

North Carolina will need to do a few things this game to come out victorious, but here are the three key things on the defensive end required to have that outcome.

Exclusive: Who does Paul Finebaum is the top target for the Big Ten in conference expansion?

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum says that the Big Ten will look to target two ACC programs next.

In the world of college sports and conference expansion, change seems to be the one true constant. The ACC is expanding and the Big Ten never seems far removed from the idea.

But what is next for the Big Ten in all of this? And who is the Big Ten’s top target when they expand next?

Especially with what the ACC did this week…

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum talked this week about the future of college football and in particular, conference expansion. With the Big Ten adding UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington in 2024, the Big Ten now sits at 18 members.

Does the Big Ten look to add two more teams to raise their membership to 20 universities? Finebaum thinks that if the Big Ten does expand, two ACC programs would be the target.

“I happen to think North Carolina is number one for both leagues, they bring so much to both leagues. Is it Miami? You’re also talking about broad areas. I don’t think geography matters more. Brands matter more,” Finebaum told Rutgers Wire.

“The Big Ten essentially has become a television network. I compliment them for having a myriad of programming but I don’t understand the logic beyond that. Greg Sankey made a good point: SEC is contiguous. At least you can look at a map and say it isn’t the SEC but I get it. The Big Ten makes no sense. This is what happens when you have the decisions made with television networks.”

North Carolina, given their national brand in basketball, makes sense for the Big Ten. They add the growing media market of North Carolina to the Big Ten’s portfolio.

They are an AAU member and are also strong in football.

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Finebaum then made an interesting analogy to the current geography of the Big Ten, one that Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz would agree with.

“This part of the house doesn’t comport with the next part. It is a hodgepodge. One part looks like this, another part looks like that,” Finebaum said.

“I congratulate the Big Ten on what they’ve done but now it’s the NFL”

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Tar Heels Field Hockey favored to win ACC

The North Carolina Field Hockey team is favored to win the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

The North Carolina Field Hockey team is looking to dominate the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) again, and they are being picked to do so.

UNC will be looking to win their seventh straight ACC championship on the heels of a 6-0 conference record last season. The honor comes from the 2023 ACC coaches poll, with UNC taking the top spot, followed by Virginia (No. 2), Syracuse (No.3), Louisville (No.4), Boston College (No. 5), Wake Forest (No.6), and Duke (No.7).

The Tar Heels are scheduled to play their first regular game of the season, Friday, against Michigan for an ACC/BigTen challenge.

What makes this upcoming season so unique for the Field Hockey team is that it will be the first time the program will not be coached by Karen Shelton in 42 years. Instead, they will be led by Erin Matson, who many consider the greatest field hockey player in the program’s history.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Social media reacts to conference shakeups in college athletics

Social Media reacts to conference shakeup and what that means for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

College athletics has changed as we know it, with NIL deals and the transfer portal changing how programs compete. Another significant change is conference realignment, creating new exciting matchups while ending rivalries.

Washington and Oregon were the most recent to make a big splash, finalizing a deal to join the Big Ten. The sudden moves and debates have left some wondering if the Tar Heels would leave the ACC to expand their audience and revnue or stay connected with what has worked. UNC’s athletic director, Bubba Cunningham, spoke out against any claims of the Tar Heels leaving the ACC, praising the conference and telling staff they were staying put.

This decision heartened some fans, but left others pondering the opportunity lost by not at least considering another conference. Leaving the ACC would hurt UNC’s traditional rivals, but you can’t help thinking what matchups UNC could snag if it played in the SEC.

Let’s look at how social media reacted to the conference shakeup.

Hunter Dickinson and the top-50 players who used the NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal

We have a handful of former five-star recruits in the portal.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the transfer portal in college sports.

Although roster continuity is one of the keys to success in March Madness, it’s also incredibly helpful for some programs to use the transfer portal to find ready-to-play contributors.

More than 1,600 men’s college basketball players used the transfer portal last season and some of the players who appeared on last year’s edition of this list (e.g. Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman) played impactful minutes in the NCAA men’s tournament. Several important players in the Final Four (like Miami’s Jordan Miller and Nijel Pack or UConn’s Tristen Newton) were transfers.

Below, we highlighted some of the most notable names in the transfer portal.

We used data from our good friends at Cerebro Sports — you can create a free account to evaluate player performance across all levels globally. Their C-RAM metric grades players on a scale from 0 to 10+ based on their overall performance.

This story references projected impact metrics provided by EvanMiya.com. BPR values are interpreted as the expected points per 100 possessions better than a D1 average player while on the floor.

We have also included projected impact metrics from BartTorvik.com, which you can view here and learn more about it here.

Additionally, NBA likelihood percentages are provided by Nick Kalinowski. You can learn more about the metric here.

You can see a full list of the available players if you click here and you can also check out our rankings for the women’s college basketball transfer portal as well.

Hamdy Refaee named UNC assistant fencing coach

The North Carolina fencing team named Hamdy Refaee as the new assistant coach.

The UNC fencing team has added [autotag]Hamdy Refaee[/autotag] to their coaching staff, naming him the new assistant coach.

The announcement came Friday that Refaee would join the Tar Heels after working as an instructor at Tim Morehouse Fencing Club for the past two years. In a press release by Go Heels, North Carolina’s head coach Matt Jednak stated his thoughts on Refaee joining the program.

“We are very excited to have Hamdy join our family,” Jednak said. “He is not only an amazing coach, but an amazing person. His character and energy show that he has always been a Tar Heel. Our team is going to benefit greatly from all the experiences he brings with him. I personally feel very blessed that he is with us.”

Refaee comes to UNC with experience as the assistant fencing coach for the US Air Force Academy for three years. Refaee also had two stints with the Egyptian National team, winning a few tournaments, including placing for a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in 2016.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Twitter reacts to ESPN asking “Who is the REAL Carolina?”

ESPN had Twitter in shambles after asking whether USC or UNC was the real “Carolina.” We take a look at the reaction.

The temperature is heating up between the North Carolina Tar Heels and South Carolina as fans debated who the real “Carolina” was.

Days after ESPN announced that College GameDay would be covering the battle of the Carolinas at Bank of America Stadium in week one, they tweeted out a million-dollar question.

Who is the REAL “Carolina”?

The question sparked the reaction, garnering over 1.5 million views, as fans debated which team should be considered the real Carolina. The answer is clear to the Tar Heel faithful, with the program being as prominent as it is around the nation. However, in what seems like a different reality, Gamecock’s fans believe they are the authentic representation of the name.

If looking at the stats solely keeping it on football, UNC dominates the head-to-head meeting with a record of 35-20-4. The Tar Heels also won the first initial meeting between the two in 1903, with UNC claiming the victory 17-0.

Now, with the history behind us, Let us look at how Twitter reacted to which program is the true Carolina.

North Carolina women’s basketball adds Andrew Graber to staff

The North Carolina women’s basketball team named Andrew Graber the new Head Strength and Conditioning Coach.

The North Carolina women’s basketball program named Andrew Graber the new Head Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Graber has been a program member, working as support staff for the last two seasons. In a press release by Go Heels, UNC women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart explained what it meant to have Graber transition into the head strength and conditioning coach.

“I’m proud of our program and the women in it that we were able to attract such a talented applicant pool,” Banghart said. “Sport science is the future of athletic performance training and Andrew is so versed in the software and the application of it. He has a national championship as a lead strength coach, and he has run the sport science programming for numerous sports teams. He will help with feedback – and feeding forward – as we develop our daily, weekly and monthly plans together to put our student-athletes in the best possible position for success.

UNC went 22-11 last season, dominating at home with a 13-2 record in Carmichael Arena. The season ended in a heart-wrenching defeat to Ohio State, losing 71-69 in round two of the NCAA tournament.

This upcoming season is expected to be fruitful, especially with some of the games already announced, like the showdown on November 30th against South Carolina.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Twitter reacts to UNC hosting Chelsea-Wrexham

Fans from all over packed Kenan Stadium on Wednesday, July 19 for the historic Chelsea-Wrexham match. See how people reacted on Twitter.

Wednesday was a historic day at UNC’s Kenan Stadium, as it hosted Chelsea-Wrexham for the first-ever professional soccer match in its 95-year history.

Normally covered in Carolina Blue for Tar Heel Football games, Kenan was decked out in English soccer gear. There were team shops for both squads on the main concourse, Chelsea and Wrexham banners donning the lower bowl, plus the 50,000+ fans in red, white and blue – several from out-of-state – packing the stands to watch an English power go up against a mighty, up-and-coming squad.

The match did not disappoint. Wrexham kept things close early, going into halftime down just 2-0 and even earning a couple of solid scoring chances in the box, but ultimately ended up losing 5-0.

It almost felt like a home-field advantage for Chelsea – nearly everywhere fans looked, they saw royal blue. Despite the thousands of “Let’s Go Wrexham” chants, Chelsea fans roared after each of their five goals.

UNC should evaluate the impact of Chelsea-Wrexham and the benefits of hosting such a historic soccer match. Wednesday night was certainly a success and hopefully, it paves the way for other opportunities.

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