PAGE 12
SCOREBOARD
Cfi
KRISTIN PRATT
A LITTLE SPORTS PRATTLE
Move past
football to
other teams
A week ago today, UNC
Athletics Director Dick
Baddour held a press
conference to explain the late
Sunday announcement that John
Bunting was sacked as head
coach of the football team.
Just one week.
But with the intense media
coverage of the decision, to me it
feels like it has been much longer.
In seven days, we have seen the
coverage of UNC football become a
new beast that needs to be tamed.
The fallout of Baddour’s mid
season proclamation has some
major ramifications for UNC
sports and their media coverage.
Instead of just covering games,
practice, injuries and speculating
about Bunting’s fiiture employ
ment, now the media has to
speculate about everything.
The chatter now and until the
spring will be about how this will
shape recruiting, who will be the
next coach, how revenue from the
sport will be affected.
Other issues are how this deci
sion will affect the players for the
rest of the season, and how else the
University should have handled
the situation.
The football program will
be examined like some newly
discovered bacteria strain for
months because the change
in administration will ripple
through every aspect of UNC
football, from the players to
coaches to business.
While intense media cover
age is expected for UNC revenue
sports, I think the attention to
the football program detracts
from the attention that other
UNC teams should be earning
this time of the year.
No, I don’t mean the basketball
teams the football fallout will
not harm the amount of publicity
those Tar Heels get, trust me.
I’m talking about the teams
who will be participating in the
upcoming ACC tournaments.
The women’s soccer team
defeated Wake Forest on Friday
to be the only undefeated team
in ACC play and extended its
winning streak to 18 games this
season. The team hasn’t lost since
Aug. 25, to Texas A&M.
The Tar Heels will be advanc
ing to the ACC Tournament in
Cary on Wednesday, looking for
their 17th tourney title in 18 years.
Nov. 1 is also the same day the
men’s soccer team will be search
ing for its own conference tourna
ment title. The men are 3-4-1 in
the ACC after their victory against
Boston College on Thursday.
UNC’s field hockey team also
will be participating this week in
conference play, looking to get
revenge on the ACC teams they
lost to earlier this season.
While some feams are antici
pating their conference post-sea
son, some Tar Heels have made
their mark already in their con
ference championship quest.
The men’s and women’s
cross country team ran in
Charlottesville, Va., for ACC
glory. The women placed sixth,
while the men ended up eighth.
Brianna Felnagle placed 11th and
Pablo Durana finished 25 th to
lead the Ihr Heels.
But the names of these ath
letes probably won’t get as much
media attention as Bunting or
Baddour. And they should.
While I know that revenue
sports will always get more media
attention, and I realize that a
change in the head coach position
for football is a major deal, I think
that rather than speculating about
the future of the football program,
more news outlets should high
light and discuss the success other
UNC teams are preparing to find.
The football story might be
juicy, but the future factors are
not as timely. Instead, the media
should pay more attention to UNC
Olympic teams and their ACC
tournament participation.
Contact Kristin Pratt at
kpratt@email.unc.edu.
Sports Monday
FIELD HOCKEY Radford 1 UNC 6
Tar Heels show hope in defeat
Turnovers end
inspired effort
BY BRIANA GORMAN
SENIOR WRITER
Of all of the losses and
all of the missed opportuni
ties for the North Carolina
football team this season,
Saturday’s 24-17 loss to Wake
Forest at Kenan Stadium hurt
the most.
The Tar Heels were three
yards away from forcing over
time with the No. 24 Demon
Deacons and securing a
chance to
get their
first win
against a
Division I-
FOOTBALL
WFU 24
UNC 17
A school this year, when quar
terback Joe Dailey threw an
interception in the end zone
on the last play of the game.
“This was definitely the
toughest loss of the season
because we got down there
in the fourth quarter which is
where we wanted to be,” said
Ronnie McGill, who finished
with a career-high tying 29
carries for 117 yards and one
touchdown.
“We got the ball down
to the three-yard line, and
things just didn’t go our way.
We had an opportunity to put
it in overtime, and we just
couldn’t quite do it. This was
a really frustrating loss.”
Trailing by a touchdown,
the Tar Heels (1-7, 0-5 in the
ACC) got the ball back on
their own 20-yard line with
four minutes remaining in
the game. Dailey took com
mand of the ensuing drive,
converting two fourth downs
with a 15-yard pass to senior
Emotional week impacts players
BY DANIEL MALLOY
SENIOR WRITER
It was a week that began with
John Bunting getting fired and
ended with Joe Dailey throwing
an interception in the end zone
with just seconds to play.
In between, the North Carolina
football team refocused and gave
perhaps its best effort of the sea
son taking No. 24 Wake Forest
to the brink.
“You get news like that, it’s a
different week,” said freshman
quarterback Cam Sexton, who
rotated with Dailey every two
series Saturday.
“There’s just no way around
it. We did everything we could to
make it normal, but the feeling
was different.... Coming out, it
was definitely different, definitely
difficult.”
The task was made more dif
ficult when, just more than three
minutes into the game, WFU
returned a blocked punt for a
touchdown.
In most cases during this now
1-7 season, UNC has fallen behind
quickly and felled to respond. But
Women’s soccer
keeps on rolling
BY SAM ROSENTHAL
SENIOR WRITER
Having already clinched the ACC
regular season women’s soccer title
and feeing No. 20 Wake Forest, the
No. 1 North Carolina women’s soc
cer team could have come out flat
and uninspired for Friday night’s
game at Fetzer
Field.
The obsta
cles were
numerous.
Rain poured
WOMEN'S
SOCCER
WFU 0
UNC 4
down in buckets; it was cold; two
Tar Heel starters were out and
the Demon Deacons needed a
win badly.
But it was Senior Night for
North Carolina, and head coach
Anson Dorrance’s team showed
up firing on all cylinders, as four
different UNC players scored en
route to a 4-0 shutout.
The Tkr Heels, now 18-1 overall
and 10-0 in die ACC, have won
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DTH/LARRY BAUM
North Carolina defenders Kareen Taylor (27) and Jermaine Strong (38) do their best to slow down Demon Deacons' wide receiver Kenneth Moore
during Wake Forest's 24-17 victory against UNC on Saturday at Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels played some of their best football of the season.
Jesse Holley and a three-yard
quarterback keeper.
And it was Dailey who found
true freshman Hakeem Nicks on
the right sideline for a 44-yard
pass to put the Tar Heels on the
3-yard line with 41 seconds left.
this time the offense engineered an
80-yard drive to knot the score.
The drive was emblematic of
the Tar Heels’ ability to rally in
spite of their difficult situation.
A game after looking lifeless
in a 23-0 loss at Virginia after
which Dailey said the team’s big
gest problem was a lack of passion
UNC came out with emotion.
“There was more want-to,”
defensive endHilee Tfcylor said.
‘And our losses have been due to
want-to.”
Bunting tried to deflect atten
tion away from himself, say
ing that the high emotion was
because of the in-state rivalry.
Before the game, he wrote in
the locker room: “Our focus is on
us and Wake Forest.”
After being fired last Sunday,
the coach has experienced an
outpouring of support from fans,
including a big reception at the
team’s weekly Old Well Walk.
“I did not want any of the atten
tion, that was so nice, but I didn’t
want that to detract from what our
players need, which is to focus on
themselves and playing and Wake
18 straight
matches since
a season
opening loss to
Texas A&M in
double over
time. Wake
Forest is now
13-5 overall
and 5-4 in the
ACC, and they
have dropped
to seventh
place in a con
ference with no
UNC senior
Heather
O'Reilly had
three assists in
the 4-0 win.
separation between every top team
that doesn’t wear powder blue.
With starters Robin Gayle and
Whitney Engen not in the lineup
Gayle in South Korea playing
with the Canadian National Team
and Engen nursing a calf injury
UNC’s depth prevailed.
Junior forward Jaime Gilbert
SEE SOCCER, PAGE 11
VOLLEYBALL Virginia 3 UNC 2
“We really were planning for
overtime, and I thought that’s
what was going to happen,”
said Wake Forest coach Jim
Grobe. “I was on the phone with
(offensive coordinator Steve
Lobotzke) and talking about
Forest,” Bunting said.
Though the coaches told the
team to play the final five games of
the season for themselves, it was
hard to move away from the issue
that has been at the front of every
one’s mind for the past week.
“I was definitely motivated to
win one for coach,” fullback Nick
Starcevic said. “I think the whole
team wanted to. We wanted to
rally behind him and show that
we really wanted to play for him.”
The reason stated repeat
edly by Athletics Director Dick
Baddour for informing Bunting
of the change midseason was to
take the distracting speculation
away. For at least a week, it seems
to have been successful.
“Practice was almost flawless
the entire week,” Dailey said.
“It was a great atmosphere for
the coaches even though we were
all upset with what took place. But
at the same time, we felt like the
pressure was levitated so let’s go
out and have a good time.”
That good time was spoiled
by Dailey’s interception, but in
taking a 7-1 team to the limit, the
Bobcats end preseason at UNC
BY BRIANA GORMAN
SENIOR WRITER
Center Sean May picked off the
pass at halfcourt. He whipped the
ball to guard Raymond Felton who
was streaking toward the basket.
Felton didn’t have a clear lane so
he bounce-passed the ball to the
waiting forward who slammed it
home.
But this was not 2005 and the
forward was not former team-
mate Rashad
McCants.
May and
Felton, mem
bers of the
2005 men’s
NBA
BASKETBALL
Charlotte 94
Atlanta 105
national championship team, were
back at the Smith Center again on
Friday wearing the jersey of their
new team, the Charlotte Bobcats,
to play a NBA preseason game
against the Atlanta Hawks. It was
their second preseason game held
at the Smith Center this year.
Even though the Hawks won
105-94 it was without another
2005 national championship
team member, Marvin Williams.
WOMEN'S SOCCER Wake Forest 0 UNC 4
overtime, so we were preparing
for overtime.”
Even UNC coach John Bunting
was looking ahead, already hav
ing decided his team would kick
the extra point rather than go for
a two-point conversion after the
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DTH/LARRY BAUM
North Carolina wideout Hakeem Nicks sets his sights downfield
during the Tar Heels' first game following an emotional week.
Tar Heels proved that the final
portion of the season won’t be
conceded without a fight.
“That’s been our mentality all
week as players is to go out and
play like (Bunting’s firing) didn’t
happen,” Tkylor said.
Williams broke his left hand the
day before the preseason matchup
and spent his time in Chapel Hill
getting people to sign his cast.
“I wish I was playing,” said
Williams, who is expected to be out
six to eight weeks. “It feels good to
be back, seeing everybody.”
In 2005 the team went 33-4
and won the school’s fifth men’s
basketball national champion
ship. At season’s end four play
ers left school early, and all four
were selected in the NBA draft
lottery. Williams, the No. 2 over
all pick, said he talks to May and
Felton all the time and speaks
with McCants, who is with the
Minnesota Timberwolves, a cou
ple of times a week.
Williams, who never started a
game at UNC had amediocre rookie
season. He averaged 8.5 points and
4.8 rebounds on a team that went
26-56 last season. But Williams said
he learned a lot in his first season,
which he thinks will enable him to
have a more successful sophomore
SEE BOBCATS, PAGE 11
®aiiy Qlar lirrl
MONDAY, OCTOBER SO, 2006
assumed touchdown.
But on first down Dailey
tried running into the end zone
and slipped for a loss of three
SEE FOOTBALL, PAGE 11
“It’s been hard to do that but
at the same time we made all the
good out of it that we possibly
could.”
Contact the Sports Editor
at sports@unc.edu.
m
DTH/IARRY BAUM
Former North Carolina basketball
player Sean May (42) finds him
self in familiar territory against
former Duke Blue Devil Shelden
Williams. Williams was booed
nearly every time he got the ball.