Spanning the interwebs to bring you the constant variety of (Tar Heel) sports…
• ACC Now is reporting that the UNC-LSU football game in Atlanta on September 4 will kick off on ESPN at 8:00. Plenty of time to take off from the Triangle early Saturday morning, get to the hotel to check in, and make the game.
• Buzz Peterson’s return to Appalachian State was a successful one, as the Mountaineers posted 24 wins this season and finished tied for 1st in their division in the Southern Conference before falling to Pacific in the semifinals of the College Insider.com tournament. Buzz is now a hot name again in the coaching circles, being mentioned at Charlotte and Central Florida, where he could coach the son of his college roommate, Michael Jordan.
• Rhode Island, for one, is happy to be playing in the NIT and thinks three wins and the ESPN exposure is worth far more to the program than a one-and-done in the NCAA tournament. In another interesting note, in addition to using Carolina’s colors (they call it Keaney blue) and animal mascot, URI has also pirated UNC’s fight song.
• In case you’re wondering why Carolina keeps getting those 9:00 NIT tip-offs on ESPN, it’s because the Heels are a heck of a draw, garnering some of the biggest NIT ratings ever on the World Wide Leader, according to Robbi Pickeral at ACC Now. The UNC-UAB game scored 1.4 million viewers, including nearly 10 percent of all households in the RDU metro area.
• A little off-topic, but for those of you who fall asleep listening to Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg call a game and need a little Gus Johnson fix, look no further than the Gus Johnson soundboard. Now if someone could come up with a Bill Raftery soundboard, you could have your Gus with “onions”.
