A SCOUT'S PERSPECTIVE - OBSERVATIONS & RUMINATIONS

Raise your hand if you know about Coach Hank Raymonds.  UNC plays Marquette tonight, March 25, 2011 for the right to advance to the elite eight in the NCAA basketball tourney. Some Carolina fans are lamenting the Heels' loss to the Al McGuire led Marquette Warriors in the 1977 NCAA title game.   I'm from North Carolina and attended grad school at UNC. I will be rooting for UNC because I've always respected their program. I wasn't a Carolina fan when I was young. First and foremost, I was a fan of my father's teams at Winston-Salem State University; but since that's a small, predominantly black college in NC, it wasn't on the radar of most basketball fans in North Carolina when I was growing up, let alone the country.  ACC basketball is THE SPORT in NC.  Since I like to go against the grain, my favorite ACC team when I growing up was the University of Maryland, but that's a story for another day. Today is a great time to introduce readers of this p...

“Take, Lord, receive all I have and possess.You have given it all to me; now I return it to You. ” Last year on March 16, 2010 William & Mary played UNC in the NIT at historic Carmichael Arena. UNC won the game 80 to 72 , but the game was significant to me because it brought back memories from a game I attended when I was a student at William & Mary on December 7, 1977. William & Mary has not enjoyed much basketball success since its inception.  The NCAA started classifying institutions as Division 1 for the 1948-49 season.  William & Mary is the second oldest school in the country and is one of only five original Division one institutions whom have never appeared in the NCAA tournament. They other schools in this not-so-elite class are Army, The Citadel, Northwestern, and St. Francis College in New York. The only postseason playoff berths "The Tribe" has participated in are the 1983 and 2010 National Invitational Tournaments. I wrote the following comment...