I spent four years in undergraduate school at UNC. I spent another three years in law school there. During all that time, I became well acquainted with the myth of the “fat cat” Rams Club member. While based in a nugget of truth, the vast majority of the legend (like the Gimghoul conspirators) is a myth. The truth is downright convicting.

You should be a Rams Club member.
While there are a small group of well-to-do Rams Club members who park on stadium drive or at the Smith Center lots, have lower level season tickets to basketball and fifty yard line seats at Kenan, that group is a small minority of the membership of the Rams Club. And it costs less to be a Rams Club member than many folks think. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Did you know that Carolina consistently ranks #1 in college merchandise sold worldwide every year? If that is the case, why are we not even first in the ACC in the number of athletics donors?

[Graph courtesy of www.ramsclub.com]

To rank behind FSU and Clemson is bad enough, but to rank behind STATE?! C’mon people!

‘But, BBE, don’t you have to have a lot of money to belong to the Rams Club?’ No, my friend, you do not. There are all kinds of levels of giving. Naturally, the more you give, the more you get, but the truth is that most of the Rams Club budget (i.e. scholarship funds) comes from the large number of smaller donors.

The bottom line is this: Even at the lowly Ram Level (where the BBE house is currently giving), you get the media guides, the rights to buy football season tickets, the opportunity to buy individual basketball and football tickets with Rams Club priority, and invitation to a slew of events, as well as the satisfaction of funding scholarships for student athletes at UNC. All of this for what amounts to less than $17 a month. And “Young Alumni” (5 years or less from graduation) get a 50% discount.

There is not one of you that is reading this that cannot afford that. You don’t have to be alumni. Even if you can’t afford to buy tickets (we can’t yet either), you accumulate membership priority points and bonus points for longevity, so that when you can afford it, you will get better seats.

Give up your Wal-Mart fan status. Put your money where your heart is.

Hokies…woodshed. Woodshed…Hokies.

It seems there’s a rite of passage wherein the pater familia begins to succumb to the infirmities of age and the upstart young ‘un decides the time is ripe to take on the old man. The response goes something like this: “I may have a _______ [sprained ankle][turf toe][back spasm][bout of the flu][hyperextended knee][pus-filled toe], but I can still whoop the tar outta you, boy.“

The performance by the Tar Heels today was inspiring and unlike anything we’ve seen from this tired, disjointed team in the last few weeks. They didn’t always know where to be on offense, they didn’t play the best defense in the world, but they played with gritty determination getting to seemingly every rebound on both ends of the floor, and scoring points from every position and every spot on the floor.

Let’s hope we can get a little more rest and recuperation and take a return visit to the woodshed in Raleigh next week (the Pack should remember the way.)

UNC’s Athletic Department has this announcement today:

CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina men’s basketball team may be without three of its top five scorers in Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech, which will tip off at 1:05 p.m. at the Smith Center.

Sophomore point guard Ty Lawson will not play against the Hokies due to a sprained left ankle, an injury he suffered on Feb. 3 against Florida State. Lawson did not play the final 36 minutes of the game in Tallahassee and was unable to play against Duke, Clemson and Virginia.

Sophomore power forward Deon Thompson, who has started all 25 games and is averaging 9.4 points a game, hyper-extended his left knee at Virginia and is questionable for Saturday’s game. He was unable to practice yesterday, but is scheduled to practice on a limited basis today.

Junior forward Danny Green, the fourth-leading scorer, has the flu and is unable to practice today.

Junior forward Tyler Hansbrough (infected toe), junior guard Marcus Ginyard (sprained right ankle, turf toe on left foot) and senior guard Quentin Thomas (back spasms) are expected to play against Virginia Tech.

We may not be the best team in the country right now, but we definitely have the best squad any hospital ward ever saw.

Comfy Floor Syndrome

Have you ever been so tired that the floor looked irresistably inviting to just lay down and go to sleep? I get this when I’ve been at the mall with Mrs. BBE for more than 3 hours or so. She sees me eyeing the paper thin carpet like it’s our Sleep Number bed, and I’m seriously analyzing whether I can hide myself in that rack of Sunday School dresses and pass out.

I have to imagine that’s how Roy’s Boys feel about now.

That was a grueling, gutty game. The desperation was palpable on the part of the Virginia players. I’m looking at the stat sheet and wondering how it’s possible they shot less than 30% from 3, because it seemed like every time they needed one they got one.

Marcus Ginyard is a tough cookie. His presence was critical tonight and he toughed it out for the team. I love having a guy like that, but it seemed like everyone made a contribution, and anytime you have a 1 point win, every little bit was crucial.

It is obvious that we are a much better offensive team when we can turn the other team over. The reason they were in the game at the end is because they had 15 more field goal attempts than we did. We really need someone at the point that can pressure the ball. Ty Lawson may not be Derrick Phelps, but it’s obvious that he brings more of that aspect than poor old Q.

I don’t know how much rest and healing can go on in three days, but I hope our guys can get some. Even if they have to find a patch of floor.

Virginia has an outstanding playmaker at point guard in Sean Singletary, as well as… well… not much else. UNC has talent everywhere but is razor thin at point guard with injuries to Lawson, Frasor, and Ginyard.

Quentin Thomas has another opportunity to grow as a leader and as the leader of Carolina’s offense. More importantly, he has a chance to redeem a defensive performance against Clemson that allowed Cliff Hammonds to go off. And it will again be important for someone besides PsychoT to show up offensively. (Paging Messrs. Ellington and Green…). We’ll also see what kind of toughness the team has playing their 3rd game in six days with the previous two being the always taxing Duke game and a double-overtime.

Double OT to preserve The Streak. That was gut wrenching and painful. I’ve never been hungover, but I bet it’s something like this. Imagine if you were a Clemson fan.

That truly has to be painful. You could see it in their eyes as PsychoT took over in the second overtime: “It’s going to happen…again.“

I think I’ve decided that if the Psycho T moniker ever becomes overdone, his new name will be Tyler “The Inevitable” Hansborough. The man just will not be denied.

I can’t imagine how a guy like Quentin Thomas, with all he’s gone through during his career, starting with that debacle against Santa Clara in his home town, can step up and drain two HUGE free throws to keep the streak alive. That kid’s got big’uns. Next up: UVA. Time for a beat down. My stomach needs a rest.

I’ll be honest: I’m worried about this one.

When Lawson went down, I did not think it was impossible for us to beat Duke. As good as Duke is, they have NO answer for PsychoT. If Green or Ellington could have done anything, I think we beat Duke.

Looking past Duke, I thought we would have real problems against Clemson without Lawson. Unlike Duke, Clemson has the personnel down low to take Hansborough’s effectiveness down a couple notches, requiring our guards to step up. I didn’t see anything against Duke to instill any confidence that we can do that.

Clemson is coming off two comfortable wins against BC and UVA, is still 3rd in the league standings, and their only other conference loss besides one to us and one to Duke is a three point loss to Miami. And we didn’t exactly handle them in Littlejohn last time, either.

I ‘ll optimistically assume that Green or Ellington show up and we keep Rivers from going ‘Paulus’ on us. UNC 75 – Clemson 70

You know mama’s rule: If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all. So….

There was a Carolina-Duke game last night.

[whistle whistle whistle]

[crickets chirping]

*ahem*

And, uh… Duke won.

Which is to say that, with Tywon Lawson (point guard #1) and Bobby Frasor (point guard #2) out of the game, and Wayne Ellington and Danny Green having one of their worst shooting nights all year…. Duke was up 5 whole points with under a minute to play.

Congratulations, Duke. [slow clap]

TarHeelBlue.com has just unveiled a shiny new website:

Inside Carolina Basketball with Roy Williams

Very cool. What with the new museum and now this, we sure have lots of shiny new stuff around the program!

I love it when Dook and State tangle. Or tango. I’m not sure what Hickson and Thomas are doing. Scheyer is just being Scheyer.

I told my Dookie dad this morning that I love the Dook – State game because one of them has to lose. Ergo, I win.

Tonight was great. Dook had a second straight game of being down at the half and State had the smell of victory in their nostrils before the acrid aroma of another bitter chokejob/meltdown filled Cameron High-School Gym.