For those of you that have known me you know that I am a diehard Carolina basketball fan. I was born and raised in North Carolina and growing up you had three choices - Carolina, Duke, or NC State. I chose UNC and since I can remember I've been a Tar Heel. And for the most part I always pull for the ACC ...it's what North Carolians do but the Tar Heels are always the "tops" on my list. And that is coming from someone who graduated from Virginia Tech. When people ask me why I didn't go to Carolina and became a Hokie instead the answer is always simple, "they didn't offer me a scholarship." But in my heart of hearts when it's basketball season UNC is the team I cheer for.
So when the opportunity presented itself a couple of weeks ago for me to attend the Roy Willimas Coaches Clinic in Chapel Hill to say I was "thrilled" would be an understatement. I was counting down the days and the night before, I was like a child waiting on Christmas morning. I just couldn't wait to get there. Some of my high school friends graduated from UNC and on my trip down I thought about the last time I had been on campus. It was for their graduation in 1990. Was it really 1990?? Yep, it had been 19 years since I had set foot on campus. Wow!! So after arriving early, I decided to drive around and see the campus and how it had changed and grown. Amazing ...
I LOVE to talk hoops ...Coach Willi says I could do it all day and I KNOW I could ...I just love learning new things about the game. And all of us coaches are good at one thing ...stealing from each other and tweaking it to work for your team. So that weekend was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn some of the Carolina system. No, we won't ever have the athletes UNC does but I would like to think our programs are alike in two simple facts - we play hard EVERY possession and we LOVE to play defense.
The players have really been working hard during the first couple of weeks of practice. The team is so competitive with each other and like I said in an earlier blog, "practice should be difficult and games easy" ...I'm excited to get the season started. We scrimmage at Shenandoah next week and it will be nice to go up against someone different. It's hard to believe that the season opener is only 16 days away!!
Until next time ...GO EAGLES!!
