Former NC State target Malik Newman is transferring from Mississippi State

An interesting development and a somewhat odd situation: Malik Newman, who withdrew from the NBA Draft at the deadline, has opted to transfer from Mississippi State. That means he's pushing back his draft clock from 2017 to 2018 at the earliest, which is not something you will see often from a kid who was widely considered a one-and-done player heading into college.

Newman was a consensus five-star recruit out of high school and was the No. 8 overall player in the 2015 class. About three hundred coaches picked up their phones and called him after the news of his transfer became official. NC State was one of the schools recruiting Newman out of high school, and the Wolfpack was among his finalists. Kansas and Kentucky were in the mix along with some other SEC schools.

He ended up at Mississippi State at least in part because he was a legacy--his dad played there in the late 90s. (Additional note: we are all old. Good heavens.) But his brief stint at MSU didn't work out; his father said Monday that there were "trust issues" between Goodman and Ben Howland, who just completed his first season as the Bulldogs' head coach.

From Michael Bonner of The Clarion-Ledger, here are some remarks from his dad:

"I think maybe in the recruiting process of Malik going in and thinking he was going to play one way and he was playing another," Webster said. "Ben has to do whatever he thinks is right for his team. And who in the hell is going to question Ben? Ben, look at his resume. That doesn't mean he's a bad coach. It doesn't mean anyone is questioning him. It means the style of play just didn't fit Malik."

It's early and there's no indication where Newman might turn next, but I would absolutely expect NC State to be involved. Newman didn't have a great freshman season, but the talent and pedigree obviously are there. He's more combo guard than point-man, and he proved a good shooter from outside.

He could, hypothetically, play alongside a Markell Johnson in 2017-18. Newman doesn't cloud State' s recruiting at guard, is basically what I'm saying. State's going to need help after Dennis Smith and Terry Henderson exit and that gives the program a lot of playing time to sell.

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NC State will host Coastal Carolina, Saint Mary's, and Navy at Raleigh Regional

The full NCAA baseball tournament field was revealed Monday afternoon, and NC State learned which teams it'll be welcoming to Raleigh. Coastal Carolina is the two-seed in this regional, and will be a formidable obstacle. Saint Mary's, which is making its first-ever tournament appearance, is the the three-seed, and Navy is the four. The Pack will open with Navy on Friday night.

NC State's NCAA bracket: http://pic.twitter.com/gLWwadyMCp

— The Wolfpacker (@TheWolfpacker) May 30, 2016

The ACC got a record 10 teams into the tournament. Duke, Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest each snuck in to the field despite iffy records. North Carolina did not. (Heh.)

As you can see in that there screen shot, NC State is paired with the Baton Rouge Regional, so if the Wolfpack advances it will face the winner of that regional in the super regional round. The Pack would need somebody to topple LSU in order to host the super regional. In 2013, Rice pulled an upset that allowed the Pack to host in the supers, so hey, maybe history will repeat itself.

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The war on residential Solar goes national

Big utilities are afraid of distributed generation:

“Across the country state legislatures and/or utility regulatory commissions in more than 30 states are evaluating current net metering policies and are taking steps to update them to eliminate the shift in costs from customers with private solar systems to customers without these systems,” said Jeff Ostermayer, a spokesman at Edison Electric Institute (an association representing investor-owned electric companies in the United States) by email.

But the Brookings review suggests that these types of policy changes may not be warranted after all — that, rather, the benefits provided by rooftop solar actually outweigh their costs. The review points to state-commissioned studies from Vermont, Mississippi, Minnesota, Maine and even Nevada that suggest net metering results in net benefits for all energy customers.

EEI is likely the largest and most prolific industry-funded group opposing rooftop Solar, but other groups have been springing up like weeds in the last few years. Which gives you an idea of the huge amount of money being spent by utilities to undermine this (much needed) trend in energy production and use. Their argument is almost completely without merit, because they only focus on Solar net-metered customers not "paying" for grid use and maintenance. But in reality, the surplus power generated from rooftop Solar is bought and used by another customer within a few blocks of the point of generation. As opposed to power generated 50 miles away, traveling a grid that loses up to 17% of that power along the way. Get it? The utility actually saved money (profits) from that transaction, because it's more efficient and reduces the long-distance demand:

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NC State starter Ryan Williamson needs Tommy John surgery, won't play in NCAA tournament

NC State will host a regional; opponents to be announced

Well hot dang, here's a somewhat surprising announcement: NC State in fact will host an NCAA tournament regional. I really thought the Wolfpack's rough finish to the season would trump its strong resume, but it appears the committee gave proper weight to the Pack's tough late-season schedule.

So there will be baseball in Raleigh next weekend! Now the only question is who joins the Pack there. East Carolina is a solid bet. I would not be surprised to see UNC-Wilmington in the regional as well. NC State is the only school in North Carolina hosting a regional and so it's likely the committee sends other tourney teams in the state to Raleigh.

The selection committee put a significant emphasis on RPI this year, which is why the field of regional hosts breaks down like this: Miami, NC State, Florida State, Clemson, Virginia, Louisville, LSU, Florida, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Louisiana-Lafayette, TCU and Texas Tech.

The Pac-12 and other traditional baseball powers out west got completely shut out. It was a down year for the programs in that part of the country, and I think when the committee members looked at it closely, they couldn't justify a bid going to Arizona or Arizona State over a team in the southeast that ranked higher in the RPI and played a stronger schedule.

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College baseball tournament selection show: TV channel, online streaming, start time

NC State's spot in the field of 64 is secure and has been for a long time; we just don't know quite where the tournament selection committee will see fit to place the Wolfpack.

(Update: We are hosting, my friends! Forgot they announced the hosts the night prior to the full selection show. Apologies for the unnecessary sweat that occurs below. Go Pack.)

NCAA baseball tourney selection show

Start time: Noon ET

TV: ESPNU

Online streaming: WatchESPN

NC State's hosting resume is excellent, but external factors and a bad finish to the regular season are working against the Pack. There are a lot of teams in the ACC lining up for those coveted hosting spots, and State's lost ground to pretty much all of them over the last few weeks.

I'm guessing that this will come down to a decision between either NC State or Virginia when the committee gets down to the nitty gritty of the last few spots. State has the head-to-head, but UVA has a superior conference record and got a big win over Louisville (a sure national seed) on Saturday night.

One thing to bear in mind here: if NC State is not hosting a regional, don't assume the Pack is going to be a two-seed somewhere in the southeast. The folks at D1baseball.com have been projecting the Pack out west as a No. 1 seed at Arizona State. (Could be Arizona instead.)

That might seem like a slight, but actually that would be a good draw because the Pac-12 (and the west coast in general) is weak this year. Basically, it would be the committee acknowledging NC State's outstanding resume and offering a concession for what could be considered a host-site snub.

It's almost certain that a regional in the southwest would be easier to navigate than, say, a regional at Coastal Carolina. Sure there's extra travel, but you're on the road either way. The more I think about this possibility, the more I like it.

This discussion could end up moot, of course. To the whims of the selection committee we go!

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Senate Republicans target married military couples

The chickenhawks are at it again:

Instead of the current Basic Allowance for Housing system, which assigns flat-rate stipends for zip codes across the country based on troops’ rank and family status, the new proposal would move closer to the military’s Overseas Housing Allowance. That system sets maximum payable stipends but awards troops only for their actual expenses, making recipients provide proof of what they pay in rent and utilities costs.

Dual military couples and service members who room with friends would not be able to game the system either. They’d see their individual stipend cut in half, adjusted to cover just their actual costs and nothing more.

Let's get one thing clear from the get-go: A married couple who are both active duty service members are not "gaming the system," they are (both) serving their country and enduring countless hardships. My niece and her husband were both active duty Air Force for several years (she's a civilian now), both working hospital clinic hours. Child care costs were horrendous, and ate up any amount of surplus they might have seen from dual BAH payments. I realize many reading this are not very sympathetic to active duty military personnel, and you have many other issues on your plate about which you are more concerned. But if you want to take back the US Senate, this is an issue that has the potential to do just that. Even though Burr does not sit on the Armed Services Committee (Tillis does), replacing Burr with Deborah Ross is the first step to regaining a majority, which will also flip the leadership of the SASC and stop these insane efforts to balance the budget on the backs of our men and women in uniform.

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Sunday News: Drinking our milkshake

VIRGINIA LOOKS TO POACH BUSINESSES THREATENING TO LEAVE N.C. (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot) -- A possible exodus from the Tar Heel state is looming, led by PayPal and Deutsche Bank protesting the state's bathroom law limiting a transgender person's ability to use the public bathroom of their choosing. Virginia is laying out the welcome mat.
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Comparing NC State's NCAA tournament hosting case to the other candidates

NC State lost ground of the last few weeks on several teams it is competing with for a regional hosting opportunity. That'll happen when you close out the season 3-7, even if every single one of those games came against NCAA tournament teams.

Within the ACC, Clemson's surge has done the Pack no favors. The Tigers have won eight straight an nine of 10 to move past the Wolfpack and lock themselves into a hosting spot.

Florida State, which had also been direct competition with NC State, holds a 2-0 record against the Pack and has had a much better ACC tournament showing.

The locks for a hosting slot or national seed include the following teams: Louisville, Miami, LSU, Florida, Mississippi State, Clemson, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech, and Florida State.

That's 11 spots accounted for, with five more to fill. D1baseball.com replaced NC State with Coastal Carolina as a regional host in its tournament projections on Friday. They also have Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Louisiana-Lafayette, and Virginia hosting.

Let's look at the resumes of those teams and how they compare to the Pack's.

	W-L	RPI	SOS	vs. RPI top 50	OOC RPI	OOC SOS	ISR	Last 10
NC State	35-20 (15-13)	10	2	19-17	6	25	14	3-7
Virginia	36-20 (19-11)	18	13	14-16	65	112	29	7-3
Coastal	44-15 (21-3)	12	34	7-8	30	5	18	10-0
Vanderbilt	43-17 (18-12)	9	15	10-12	13	158	7	7-3
Arizona State	34-19 (16-12)	33	44	7-9	34	70	21	6-4
ULL	40-19 (21-9)	15	25	11-9	7	1	20	9-1

NC State does not have the most impressive win-loss record in comparison to the rest of these teams, but State does have the second-toughest schedule in the country and has played a LOT more games against the RPI top 50 than these other potential host squads. The only college baseball team with more top-50 wins is Louisville (20).

NC State has a series win against Virginia this season, and it also has a win over Coastal Carolina.

But there is the matter of that finish to the season. Some of these schools have been smoking hot down the stretch. Coastal Carolina won both the Big South regular season and tournament titles. Louisiana-Lafayette tied for the regular season Sun Belt title and can take the tournament on Sunday.

State's the only team in the group to finish with a losing record in its last 10 games, and that factor might be a difference-maker, even though the Pack has some clear edges in multiple categories. There is also the matter of how the selection committee wants to allocate host sites--they'd prefer not to cluster everything in the SEC and ACC, and more generally, not put all of the host sites in the southeast. That also could work against NC State. It has before.

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More DMV screwups compound Voter ID problems

Thanks to the GOP, the term "Backlog" has never been so commonly used:

Thousands of drivers in Forsyth County and across North Carolina have lost their license because the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles didn’t update its records, Forsyth County Clerk of Court Susan Frye said. “We’ve had people lose their jobs over this,” Frye said Friday.

She said once she started noticing the issue, she and other clerks across the state tried to get answers from the DMV. Court officials finally got one in March when they were told about the backlog, she said. Frye said clerks were also told that a disgruntled DMV employee shredded some of the error reports. Steve Abbott, a spokesman for the DMV, declined to comment on that or any other additional questions because of the pending investigation.

That's also not the first time McCrory's painfully incompetent bureaucracy has used that "disgruntled worker" excuse, but you know? We never see them. "Oh, he's gone. That problem has been dealt with, and most severely, I assure you." Right. Until the next disgruntled strawman decides to shred some important data. It's funny, but it's really not funny, especially if you're one of the thousands who lose your driving and voting capabilities as a result

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Plantation owner's cotillion disrupted by angry peasants

NC State comes from behind to beat Georgia Tech, avoids winless tournament

Hopefully it's the start of something special, like perhaps a run to Omaha.

After losing a lead late in both of its first two games in the ACC tournament, NC State came out on the right side of the heroics Friday night in a 7-5 win over Georgia Tech. Stephen Pitarra tied the game with a two-out, two-run single in the top of the ninth, and Brock Deatherage won it in the 12^th with a two-run homer, the Pack's third of the game.

Brett Kinneman and Chance Shepard went back-to-back in the second to put the Pack up 3-0 in the early going. It was Shepard's second homer in as many days and 13^th of the season. Kinneman has five round-trippers in his impressive freshman campaign.

Brian Brown couldn't make the lead stand up. After an uneventful first three frames, Brown came unhinged in a fourth inning that saw the Yellow Jackets scored all five of their runs. The sophomore lefty has now allowed four or more runs in four consecutive starts; his ERA has ballooned from 2.29 to 3.74 in that stretch.

Andrew Knizner and Kinneman made two quick outs to start the ninth with State still trailing 5-3, and it looked like the good guys would suffer the indignity of going winless in the tournament. But, Shepard walked and Tech centerfielder Ryan Peurifoy dropped what should have been the game-ending fly ball, setting the state for Pitarra's heroics.

Joe Dunand hit a one-out single and scored ahead of Deatherage's fifth homer in the 12^th.

The beleaguered Pack pen that blew leads against Florida State and Miami was magnificent in this one, going eight shutout innings. Chris Williams dropped his ERA to 1.69 with four shutout innings; it was the second longest outing of the sidewinding redshirt senior's career. Austin Staley pitched a perfect ninth, and Will Gilbert added two shutout frames in extras to get credit for the win. Johnny Piedmonte, making just his third appearance in May, struck out the side in order to earn the save.

Tech went winless in pool play. The Pack finished 1-2. Miami and Florida State play Saturday with the winner advancing from pool A to play for the ACC championship. Clemson is in the driver's seat in pool B with a 2-0 mark, but Louisville and Wake Forest are still alive.

State's salvage win likely keeps it in the conversation for hosting a regional given its strength of schedule and RPI ranking, though any hopes of being a national seed faded with a 3-7 stretch run.

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After dark

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ACC tournament open thread: NC State vs. Georgia Tech

Hey, how 'bout we win one of these things? That'd be neat.

Brian Brown is the starting pitcher for NC State this evening, and his counterpart is Cole Pitts, who is 0-6 with a 6.90 ERA. He has as many walks as strikeouts (32 of both in 45-2/3 innings pitched), which is not so great. There should be some scoring opportunities for the Pack this evening.

And it'd be nice to get a good start out of Brian Brown, who needs to elevate his play with the NCAAs a week away.

First pitch tonight is at 7:26 p.m. ET. RSN will have the television coverage again. I might skip the first five minutes to avoid highlights of last night's unpleasantness.

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Spellings' new golden boy hates student loan forgiveness

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University of Non-Carolinian Carpetbaggers

I’ve been very hesitant to criticize UNC President Margaret Spellings. She hasn’t been in place long enough to judge her. Protests based on her past experience seemed, to me, unfair. I believe in judging people on what they’ve done, not what they might do. However, Spellings most recent hires sure send up red flags. She’s […]
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NCDP files records request on contaminated water advisories

There's no room for conflicts of interest where public health is concerned:

Democratic Party chairwoman Patsy Keever announced the records request at a news conference at party headquarters in Raleigh. “Sworn testimony suggests the governor’s press staff pressured state water experts to lift ‘do not drink’ orders for families living near coal ash ponds,” she said.

Asked if Ellis’ request wasn’t just an effort to provide well owners with additional, reassuring information, Keever said the records could disclose his motive. “We need to look into who is making those decisions and why,” Keever said.

No doubt McCrory's propaganda machine will try to write this off as election-year politics, but this is an important move on NCDP's part. We really do need to find out how this decision percolated through the system, and just how involved Duke Energy was (allowed to be). But also, the voters need to be sent a clear message that Democrats really do care about the environment and public health, and that they don't have to rely solely on non-profits for the protection of such.

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Profile of a Possible Savior REDUX: Shaka Smart

Spring 2011, after years in the wilderness, NC State parted ways with Sidney Lowe and were in the business of finding someone to save us. The media portrayed us as being rejected numerous times, so eventually Mark Gottfried ended up answering the call and has experienced positive-to-mixed results over his 5 year tenure. This series will take a hop in the TARDIS and theorize whether or not we would have been better (or worse) with another candidate from Backing the Pack's famed, award-winning* Profile Of A Possible Savior series or POAPS for short.

*validity of statement under question

(All stats & figures from Wikipedia, KenPom, & Scout.com)

Mark Gottfried's tenure at NC State:

Layman Stats

Overall Record	108-69 (.610)
Conference Record	44-44 (.5)
NCAA Appearances	4 (2 Sweet Sixteens)
Conference Titles	0
4/5 Stars Signed	11

Geek Stats (KenPom)

Average National Rank Overall	48
Average Adj O / Avg National Rank	112.6 / 24
Average Adj D / Avg National Rank	100.1 / 115

Next Up

Texas Head Coach Shaka Smart

In The Beginning

And on the 8^th day God created Shaka Smart. Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens man. Two guys around 2011 who were seen as the second coming. Both took their mid-major programs to the Final Four. Both were young and a little unorthodox in their coaching techniques/strategies. Now Stevens has moved on to...ahem...greener pastures and Shaka is the lead at Texas. For NC State, Shaka seemed like the much more viable option to pursue. In fact, out of everyone on this POAPS list, Shaka is the only coach we seem to know State pursued for sure. Smart's stock was so high after the NCAAs, the media would've seen his hire as a coup so now is where it's important to note this original POAPS was written before conference tournaments were even finished. POAPS praised Smart's regional experience as an assistant at Florida & Clemson as well as his unique defensive philosophy. The fear of Shaka (great book title) was his general inexperience with no proof he could build a program from the ground up. POAPS did not look favorably on the potential hire of Shaka Smart and felt the fan-base may have a split view on his arrival. A few weeks letter I'm going to assume that view would change a little bit.

5 Years Later...

Layman Stats (All combination of time at VCU of the CAA/A-10 & one year at Texas of the Big 12)

Overall Record	128-48 (.73)
Conference Record	62-26 (.72)
NCAA Appearances	5
Conference Titles	2 (Tourney: CAA & A-10)
4/5 Stars Signed	7

Geek Stats (KenPom) All combination of time at Minnesota of Big 10 & TTU of Big 12

Average Rank	28
Average Adj O / National Rank	108.7/ 67
Average Adj D / National Rank	93.6 / 28

Shaka's skills seem to be in contrast of Tubby Smith's from our last Redux. VCU was already a successful program that Shaka helped to grow and Texas, despite Rick Barnes faults, will always have the resources and recruiting base to be successful. Therefore Shaka should be commended for making good situations better. His winning percentages over the past few years show that in multiple conferences and two separate programs Shaka can compete in and outside of the conference. Since he missed the NCAA tourney in his first year as head coach, Shaka has made it every year since, yet in the 5 year time frame that we are discussing Smart's teams have failed to get past the first weekend. Notably, Shaka has won 2 conference titles in this time frame (in separate conferences) both with VCU.

Would He Have Recruited Better Than Gottfried?

Hard to say really. While Smart was at VCU he happened to coach a solid mid-major program in a state/region that is ripe with basketball talent. VCU was a school that a hands-on, media darling like Shaka could sign players and he proved himself to do so. Even in one year at Texas, Smart was able to pull in a 5 star and two 4 stars so it is safe to say his recruiting is not an issue. Gottfried has been successful in pulling in more high-level talent, that is undeniable, but Sid & Herb had their successes on the recruiting trail too. You can recruit to NC State. There is much to say that Shaka would have great success recruiting to our program but there is no proof as of yet whether Shaka would be more successful than Gottfried long term.

Advantage: A Wash

Would He Have a Better Offense Than Gottfried?

After 3 Reduxs, there likely are going to be very few coaches who can trump Gottfried here. On average, Gottfried has had better offenses than Shaka by advanced metrics. In the 5 years we are reviewing, Shaka has only shown an ability to produce a top 50 offense twice. Shaka seems to be fairly defensive minded and while his offenses have shown potential to be great, they also consistently seem to be mediocre-to-bad. Mark Gottfried's mutant power is offense, Shaka is not beating him here.

Advantage: Gottfried

Would He Have a Better Defense Than Gottfried?

On the flip side, a coach like Smart obliterates Gottfried on this measure. The POAPS' write-up on Shaka Smart had a mixed review on his defense at the time. Well Shaka must have used that as motivation playing "Hearts on Fire"while going through a montage of coaching "Havoc" and demonstrating how to take charges. Shaka's defenses have been near elite in his time at VCU and Texas. In fact, they seem to be his calling card, as one of his assets was taking the "all press, all the time" strategy of many coaches and modifying it to fit his teams' strengths and weaknesses. Shaka averages top 30 in the country for his defense, something Mark Gottfried has never even dreamt about. It's a forgone conclusion that Shaka would take this category by a mile.

Advantage: Smart

Conclusion

"Numbers is bulls***" according to BTP so in this entry there isn't a clear cut answer here as it was with our last two. If you asked any average college basketball fan who would've been a better hire for NC State, Smart or Gottfried, the answer is undoubtedly Smart. I am inclined to agree, but in doing this research, concurring with that statement has less to do with the numbers than I thought it would. I suppose I thought Smart's offensive numbers would be better or that his recruiting would be a little more equal. Smart is still a very young coach with a dynamic personality and unique style of play. His hire at NC State (after the Final Four run) would've invigorated the program and the national media would've had a ton of coverage on it, mostly positive I'd surmise. Still, Smart hasn't lived up to the prognostications he'd be one of this eras greatest coaches as of yet. In his years as a head coach, he's only got the one deep run in the NCAAs and I question, were he here, whether we'd keep him over a job like Texas or Florida. Yet with 5 NCAA appearances, a 70 + winning percentage, two conference titles and a top 4 finish in 3 separate conferences he can definitely be considered a very good coach. "Very good" for NC State in 2011 would've been a homerun. And while the recruiting numbers are a wash and the offense/defense numbers can conceivably cancel out, subjectively Smart's ceiling is much higher than our current head coach. So in my humble opinion Shaka Smart would've assuredly been a better hire than Mark Gottfried whether the numbers make that definitive or not.

Next Time

Master of the Shocker, Wichita State Head Coach Gregg Marshall

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Late home run carries Miami past NC State, 8-7

Elliott Avent's pitching-by-committee approach almost worked against Miami on Thursday night. Avent threw every serviceable southpaw he had against the lefty-heavy Hurricanes lineup and State led most of the game, but alas, calamity struck late, just as it did Wednesday. The Canes rallied in the ninth to win, 8-7.

Reliever Tommy DeJuneas surrendered a three-run bomb in the top of the ninth inning, flipping a 7-5 Pack lead into an 8-7 edge for Miami. The Pack bounced back in the bottom half and got the winning run on base, but that's where the rally ended.

After falling behind 2-0 early in the game, NC State put up a five-spot in the fourth, but Miami got two back in the fifth and tied the contest in the eighth. State seemingly had its game-deciding hit in the bottom of the eighth when Chance Shepard crushed a home run to left-center, but, well, y'all know how we do things.

It was overall a sloppy effort by NC State pitching, though it was aided by Miami's inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Wolfpack pitching issued nine walks and was responsible for five wild pitches. There were almost no easy innings, which is testament to Miami's lineup, but also speaks to the erratic nature of State's bullpen.

NC State had to work through jams in a lot of innings, and its early good fortune there was very rapidly erased by that ninth-inning shot. Play with fire long enough against a great team and it's likely gonna go bad at some point. It went bad at the worst possible time.

A win over Miami might have solidified a regional host slot for NC State, but now I think that opportunity is gone. The Pack's negative trend over the last few weeks is going to knock the team down to a two-seed somewhere, which means traveling to somebody else's place.

This team can do some damage still, but the degree of difficulty is going up with every loss. It's a good thing we like a challenge.

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ACC baseball tourney open thread, Day 3: NC State vs. Miami

Ah the whims of this tournament format. NC State has played only one game but already knows it cannot reach the ACC title game. Florida State improved to 2-0 earlier Thursday, and with a head-to-head win in hand, it would win a tiebreaker with the Pack if both finished 2-1. Alas.

NC State still needs to win these next two nights to breathe some life into its regiional hosting chances, which have been crumbling of late. The Pack is 2-5 since Elliott Avent got bit by that dang snake. Coincidence? Clearly not.

The Wolfpack and Hurricanes get underway at 7 p.m. ET this evening, with television coverage by the various Fox Sportses. It appears NC State is going with a committee approach to pitching this game, which does not bode especially well for the team's chances of pulling the upset, but we will see.

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Friday fracking video

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PODCAST | Senate Candidate Deborah Ross Talks Trump, Yoga, and the US Constitution

North Carolina’s US Senate race in 2016 could be one of the most bitterly fought in the country. Democrats hope to defeat Republican incumbent Richard Burr in their battle to retake the upper chamber. But it won’t be easy: the race will be expensive, contentious, and, now that North Carolina is a swing state in a […]
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Greenwashing on the cheap: Enviva's miniscule conservation grants

Look at that cute little forest over there:

Maryland-based Enviva, criticized by environmentalists for mills that make wood pellets to be burned as fuel in European power plants, said Wednesday it is spending $295,000 for grants that will help two conservation groups protect bottomland forests in North Carolina.

The Triangle Land Conservancy will receive $100,000 to help acquire a conservation easement on 127 wooded acres near Beaverdam Lake and the Neuse River east of Raleigh. The Nature Conservancy North Carolina chapter will receive $195,000 toward the $935,000 purchase of 1,294 acres of forested wetlands on the Roanoke River in Washington County.

If anybody reading this is on the boards or otherwise associated with these two (great) non-profits, please try to focus on the big picture. And that big picture is missing hundreds of thousands of acres of forests in the Southeast already, and NC hardwoods are being chopped up at an alarming rate:

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GOP assault on HBCUs moves forward

A higher education wolf in sheep's clothing:

The measure has been greeted with suspicion from some advocates for the schools. At the committee meetings on Wednesday, several questioned whether this is an effort to cut the schools’ funding or put them at a lower tier than the state’s 11 other public universities.

These cuts would drastically cut the schools’ incomes. The legislation allocates $70 million of taxpayer money to replace it, Apodaca said, which he said is $9 million more than estimates project will be needed.

As they say, the devil is in the details. And the definitions. Allocate: 1. To set apart for a special purpose; designate. It's only the secondary part of the definition where the word is expanded to denote the movement/transfer of resources. And in the latest iteration of this particular bill, that second thing is not a foregone conclusion:

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Offer hope, not fear, and compete

As I’ve been calling around the state talking to people about my campaign, I often get the refrain, “But those districts are gerrymandered. They’re safe Republican.” It’s a story that Democrats and analysts have been telling that’s just not true. Or at least it shouldn’t be. When the Republican legislature redrew the districts, they made […]
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The #goacc Moment of the Week (5/26/2016)

The weekly in-depth look at the best (worst?) moments in ACC schadenfreude.

Hoo boy, are y'all in for a treat this week. We've got some truly fantastic entries for y'all to vote on, and I think you'll have a rather tough time selecting one winner, even with the return of #goacc legend Frank Beamer! More on him in a minute. Last week, in sort of a surprising result, the poll of Syracuse fans saying they'd rather have more comfortable seats at the Carrier Dome vs a winning football team won in a landslide. Fairly confident we'll see a much closer vote this week. We've also got an absolute doozy of a #suregrin winner, a great photoshop, and of course, some wisdom from the world of wrasslin'. Let's get right down to the vote. Which is your #goacc Moment of the Week? Vote below!

1. Josh Pastner hanging out with Andre 3000 in Atlanta.

Hey Ya! Andre 3000 is teaching me all about #ATLiens! http://pic.twitter.com/reMWDTzu7y

— Coach Josh Pastner (@GTJoshPastner) May 25, 2016

Andre 3000 is probably thinking to himself, "who is this nerd?"

2. Orlando Early trolls Elliot Avent in the best way possible.

@Elliott_Avent hey man. Stop giving ur friends my address. http://pic.twitter.com/S9wKR1dg0O

— Orlando Early (@coachoearly) May 25, 2016

This is some grade A use of Twitter dot com, Coach O.

3. This is certainly one way to start a rally, UNC Baseball team (h/t @worldstarfunny).

NORTH CAROLINA'S BULLPEN http://pic.twitter.com/ZVFG0Rcgcv

— WORLD STAR FANS (@WorldStarFunny) May 18, 2016

Maybe they should spend less time goofing around in the bullpen and work on their game...just saying.

4. Frank Beamer is BACK baby! (h/t @AyoKJones).

this man appreciates the finer things in life @edsbs http://pic.twitter.com/5mIfmUkMyR

— A0K-J1S (@AyoKJones) May 21, 2016

Frank Beamer is livin' that retirement life to the fullest y'all. Getting a pedi while scooping a Cookout Milkshake...Frank knows what's up. I just want to know what kind of milkshake he ordered from Cookout. There are so many wonderful choices - I'm partial to the Oreo milkshakes myself.

5. The Memphis Grizzlies interviewed Jeff Bzdelik for their head coach position because they like wasting time (h/t @marcjspearsESPN).

Grizzlies assistant coach Jeff Bzdelik interviewed with Grizzlies about their coach opening yesterday before talking to the Rockets today.

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) May 19, 2016

What's the point? I realize he hasn't been at Wake in a few years and has been with Memphis as an assistant already, but good lord, why would you waste that time? Bzdelik would win maybe....MAYBE 15 games as an NBA head coach.

the #suregrin award.

This week's winner of all things stupid and ridiculous goes out to the New York Times for this garbage, click-baity article insulting breakfast:

Sorry, there's nothing magical about breakfast https://t.co/ZF1OA9pDNz via @UpshotNYT http://pic.twitter.com/z3pdBsWofA

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 23, 2016

There is EVERYTHING magical about breakfast you ingrates. Send one of your reporters down south and let them experience the magic of Bojangles or Waffle House or Biscuitville or literally any other litany of examples of fantastic breakfast joints. Obviously, this dunce of a reporter has never had the experience of eating a country ham, egg and cheese biscuit, which might be the greatest breakfast food ever made. As the great Katie Nolan would say, DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT, New York Times!

The best photoshop of the week!

Let's go to this wonderful edit via Preston Moser, who posted this incredible Crying Jordan of the Raptors logo, which is even more appropriate after the Raptors got powerbombed through the Spanish Announce Table:

http://pic.twitter.com/PpXQ494fnJ

— Preston Moser (@MO_Jimmer) May 20, 2016

That is just terrific, in so many ways.

And now, for your moment of wrasslin'...

THE JIM ROSS BAH GAWD MOMENT OF THE WEEK!!

Good ol' JR is going to take us to the world of soccer this week, where the New York Red Bulls smoked NYCFC 7-0. Without further ado, take it away JR!

Have a great week everyone!

Poll

Which is your #goacc Moment of the week?

• Josh Pastner hanging out with Andre 3000 in Atlanta
• Orlando Early trolls Elliot Avent in the best way possible
• This is certainly one way to start a rally, UNC Baseball team
• Frank Beamer is BACK baby!
• The Memphis Grizzlies interviewed Jeff Bzdelik for their head coach position because they like wasting time

  104 votes | Results

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Florida State continues dominace of NC State in ACC Tournament

That went from "we got this" to "we surrender" in a hurry.

NC State got the start it needed from Cory Wilder, but the bullpen couldn't hold it. Florida State, which has owned the Pack in ACC tournament play, rallied from a 3-1 deficit late and won 7-3.

John Sasone staked the Seminoles to a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the first, but that was all Wilder would allow until he ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth. After walking the leadoff man, Wilder bounced one five feet in front of home plate to the next batter and his day was done. Austin Staley followed and allowed a single and sac bunt, putting the next Pack pitcher, Will Gilbert, in a tough spot with two in scoring position and one out.

Gilbert got Steven Wells to pop up into the ever-so-conventional 5-3 out when Evan Mendoza dropped the ball and Preston Palmeiro snagged it just before it hit the turf, but Dylan Busby followed with a two-out single to right that knotted the score.

Wilder was perhaps a bit fortunate to have lasted as long as he did; the righty went five innings and only allowed three hits and two runs, but he walked four, uncorked a pair of wild pitches, and hit a batter. Wilder also fanned four.

Gilbert struck out FSU's 1-2-3 hitters in order in the seventh, but the wheels came off in the eighth. After a Jackson Lueck leadoff double (that may have been snagged had Brock Deatherage taken a better route to the ball), Gilbert walked Nick Graganella despite Graganella's best intentions of giving himself up with the bunt. The next batter, Ben DeLuzio, who stayed in the game despite receiving stitches after losing a fight with the centerfield wall, bunted towards third. Third baseman Mendoza broke for it in case Gilbert couldn't get it. Gilbert got it and had all intentions of going to third. Nobody was at third. Bases loaded. Enter Tommy DeJuneas, who looked good with the exception of grooving an 0-2 pitch that turned into a two-run single off the tip of a diving Pitarra's glove. By the time the inning mercifully came to a close, FSU had plated four and it was Katy bar the door.

The Pack, as one broadcaster noted, went "for the small ball jugular." Ever since the snake bite, Elliott Avent has reverted to his old, rally-killing ways. A poorly executed bunt cost the Pack a lead runner in the second, though they did manage to scratch a single run on a double steal (with Deatherage taking home) later in the inning.

A leadoff double from Josh McLain turned into another manufacturing opportunity in the third. Stephen Pitarra gave FSU an out to move the speedy McLain up to even more scoring-y position. Mendoza ground-outed him home and somewhere Ty Cobb is smiling in his grave.

Avent employed not one but two bunts (and tried for a third with Chance Shepard) to push across another precious, singular run an inning later. We'll never know how many runs the Pack might've pushed across had they not sacrificed outs for the sake of the small inning.

Shepard, in addition to hitting the flyball that DeLuzio hauled in while trying to break his neck at the 395-foot mark in center, hit a scorching earth grounder to short that turned into a double play and a line drive down the leftfield line that Sasone miraculously speared, saving a couple of runs. Shep (with the exception of Sasone's bomb) hit the three hardest balls of the day and deserved better than an 0-for-4 afternoon.

It appears Sean Adler (7.08 ERA) will get the nod tomorrow in an obvious attempt by Avent to punt the rest of the tournament and focus on the regional. State would have to win out while FSU loses out, or hope for some sort of crazy three teams at 2-1 tiebreaker shenanigans, in order to advance, so whatever.

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Split State

The latest poll from PPP is a sight to behold: just about every statewide contest is totally tied. The race for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and State Treasurer are all within a point of each other. There’s also interesting results when it comes to HB 2. Let’s take a look. Governor 41% McCrory (-1) […]
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Big Brother Phil: You want to know my plan, gimme your personal information

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Coal Ash Wednesday: To Commission or not to Commission

Another battle between McCrory and the Legislature seems imminent:

Senate Bill 71 gives the governor the five of the seven appointments to the Coal Ash Management Commission and creates new quorum rules to ensure that legislative members can't work without cooperating with the governor's appointees. "The governor's appointments will always be in charge," McGrady said.

But the bill also requires the lawmakers to confirm gubernatorial appointments and limits the reasons for which members of the commission can be removed. "Let's don't relive history here," Stephens told Rules Committee members, saying that the bill would not give McCrory adequate control of the commission. "My message to you is that all three of those commissions are unconstitutional and will be challenged."

It's plain to anybody with half a brain the Executive Branch (including DEQ) is riddled with conflicts of interest associated with Duke Energy, and needs to be under some form of oversight. That being said, I'm not sure the Legislature or the NCUC is any better. I fear Duke Energy may have an entire stable full of stalking horses of different government breeds, and putting faith in any one of them is naive at best. But Chuck McGrady's work with the Sierra Club was exemplary, and I do believe he is a genuine environmentalist, regardless of his other conservative traits. If he's going to be directly involved in the (new) Commission's creation and operation, go ahead and bring it.

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ACC baseball tournament open thread: NC State begins pool play with Florida State

Greetings and welcome to ACC baseball tournament Wednesday, a tradition like numerous others. NC State is up first today, and Cory Wilder will be on the bump. Wilder's had a rough go of it lately, and it'd really help a lot if that changed, beginning with this outing.

Because if the Wolfpack doesn't beat Florida State, it's tournament odds shrink considerably right out of the gate, and these two teams are also in a similar spot with their NCAA hosting resumes.

Here is the full schedule for Wednesday (all times ET):

#4 Florida State vs. #5 NC State, 11 a.m. (RSN)
#1 Miami vs. #9 Georgia Tech, 3 p.m. (RSN)
#2 Louisville vs. #10 Wake Forest, 7 p.m. (RSN)

We need the Pack to take care of business, and then we need the Yellow Jackets to pull off the upset against Miami. It's unlikely, yeah, but that's the best possible scenario for the Pack this afternoon.

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College football recruits don't care about your alma-mater's classic uniform ideal

I think everybody's understood this for a while, even if they don't like it: recruits don't care about tradition when it comes to the uniforms they wear in college. Nor should they, because schools and alumni cling to some really unattractive crap for a long time, often for no good reason beyond some limp defense like "well they've worn it since the '50s!"

Nebraska's helmets are dull, but they've been doing that dull thing for decades, even after abandoning that dull offense they did for decades. Michigan's helmets and uniforms are undeniably iconic, and also represent your grandpa telling a long-winded story with no point. Penn State's blank-paper look basically forces 85 kids to wear a nap. Alabama only puts numbers on the lids, which actually works well as a metaphor for the player as nameless and dispensable football cog. Dammit, I just made Alabama's uniforms interesting for the first time. I may never get beyond this setback.

Anyhow, we finally have quantitative evidence of these obvious uniform-related assessments. Pick Six Previews polled a bunch of high school recruits about their opinions on uniforms. These are the results:

We surveyed 100 D1 recruits about uniforms -- here are the votes for Best and Worst: https://t.co/eiC13g6hNN http://pic.twitter.com/prM5lhX0EL

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) May 24, 2016

I have a few bones to pick here--if you think Texas or USC have bad uniforms, then you're just blind, okay, kids. And Florida State's uniforms have been and will always be awful. Dang Millennials. Florida State's helmet is a re-enactment of an arrow that annually tries to escape that color scheme.

I digress. Point is, high school players much prefer the more modern Oregon-type approach to uniforms than the more traditional approach by most major college football brand names. Both Alabama and Penn State rate high on the bad-uniform side, and there are multiple votes for Michigan, USC, and Texas, as well.

The indifference toward Alabama's or Penn State's or Michigan's uniforms will always be immaterial in recruiting, because it's Alabama and Penn State and Michigan. Aesthetics may be a genuine factor for a few kids but it'll go about two dozen spots down the list of priorities with name-brand schools.

I think Pick Six Preview's Mike Nowoswiat cuts to an important bottom line: there is little-to-no marginal value in rebooting your look if you're Alabama or Michigan. There is some value in that if you're an upstart, like Oregon was, like TCU was, like Baylor was. Maryland's uniforms are polarizing even among recruits, but you know, at least they've noticed that Maryland exists. That's a good chunk of the battle right there. Just make noise. Noise helps; doesn't matter at first if the racket is in any way coherent.

You don't do yourself many favors by sticking to what you've done in the past, unless you're one of those blueblood schools. I like NC State's block-S helmets. But let's be honest: Stanford is Block S University at this point. Sure, NC State's got itself a different twist on the block-S, and that logo is almost a century old and that's cool. Probably nobody's noticed.

State's been really late to the uniform game, and that's been a detriment, superficial though it may feel to me or you. There have been mild improvements here and there, and recently the football program has embraced more alternate looks. The font on the uniforms still looks like it was imagined in crayon by a blind graphic artist, but I have faith that in another couple decades we'll have caught up to 2005.

Basically, it really helps in recruiting if you have a good football team and have had a good football team for a long time, but short of that, it helps to have a team that looks all fancy-shiny-different, which can eventually help along the way to the good football.

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Is Dave Doeren creating a perception problem by bringing in transfer quarterbacks?

ESPN's Andrea Adelson wrote about the pattern of quarterbacks transferring into Dave Doeren's program at NC State, and while I find parts of that piece a bit hasty in their assumptions ("has the quarterback development system broken down under Doeren?"), it does raise some questions that are worth fleshing out.

Let me first back up a second. If you missed the news, NC State added former Boise State quarterback Ryan Finley last week. Finley, who played for new Wolfpack OC Eli Drinkwitz, is a graduate transfer who can play immediately. Does that raise some eyebrows when it comes to NC State's quarterback situation? Yes, yes it does.

But that also might be reading too much into a move involving two parties who are familiar with each other. It'll be a while before we get clarity on that one. No doubt Finley wants to play, and maybe he is better than Jalan McClendon or Jakobi Meyers, but this doesn't have the same feel of alarm that 2013 did.

Doeren inherited a bad roster with a laughably thin quarterback unit. I mean, Pete Thomas was clearly the best quarterback on the team, and when he realized that sports participant Manny Stocker was theoretically his only option at QB2, he may have endured several minor strokes.

Hence the desperate grab for Brandon Mitchell--also not much of a quarterback--and Jacoby Brissett, who at least could sustain a decent offense after 2013. That year State just needed to find a guy who knew which way was forward. (Remember to throw the ball forward, kids, unless the play called specifies otherwise. Fundamentals.)

The Mitchell gamble was worth it, but it didn't pay off, partially because Mitchell's season was derailed by injury, but mostly because he was not experienced or talented enough to step in and succeed. He had never been the primary starter at quarterback in college before, and he'd even spent some time at wide receiver. Didn't work out in Raleigh. So it goes.

That doesn't alter the fact that Mitchell's addition, along with the various other stabs at graduate transfers, was absolutely necessary for establishing a very basic level of functional depth at quarterback. This time around, it's not like that. This is the healthiest quarterback situation Doeren's had at NC State.

So Finley is the third transfer QB Doeren has brought in over the span of 3+ years at State. Is this too many transfer QBs, though, and is that a problem in the larger picture? Thing is, Doeren's tenure is still fairly young, at least from a development standpoint, so it's difficult to call into question the staff's efforts there when we haven't really had a chance to see the results yet.

McClendon and Meyers are still underclassmen, and that aside, who knows how much the staff might have helped Brissett get better? There's plenty of room for development with transfers, too.

Then again, former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Canada wasn't replaced just because his offensive style left Doeren wanting. And this is where pattern can become perception, because you can bet other coaches are gonna take every theoretical inch they can while out recruiting.

Adelson is absolutely right that State needs to show it can develop good quarterbacks, else that knock may become a problem in recruiting, whether or not it's a fair criticism of Doeren's staff. And NC State might prove it can develop its own quarterbacks as soon as this fall, making the whole deal moot. It doesn't take much to shift perception into your favor.

On the field, the questions are simpler. Jacoby Brissett helped NC State win a lot more games. His addition made tons of sense and paid dividends. Ryan Finley's trajectory might end up going similarly, and whatever moves help you on Saturdays don't have to matter much anywhere else. Certainly most fans aren't gonna care.

To borrow a line from the esteemed Reverend Tim Lovejoy: when it comes to the topic of transfer quarterbacks being a problem for Dave Doeren, the short answer is "yes" with an "if" and the long answer is "no" with a "but."

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The Southern tradition of kicking blacks off juries

Chief Justice Roberts calls bs, vacates Georgia death sentence:

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that prosecutors in Georgia violated the Constitution by striking every black prospective juror in a death penalty case against a black defendant. The vote was 7 to 1, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.

In notes that did not surface until decades later, prosecutors marked the names of black prospective jurors with a B and highlighted those names in green. They circled the word “black” where potential jurors had noted their race on questionnaires. After Mr. Foster was convicted, Stephen Lanier, the lead prosecutor, urged the all-white jury to impose a death sentence to “deter other people out there in the projects.” The jury did so.

First of all, what the fracking frack? Second of all, Clarence Thomas is not just an idiot, his hatred for his own race has made him delusional:

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UNC Board of Governors vows to listen, do nothing

Or at least some of them will listen:

A handful of the 32-member governing board's members will listen to up to an hour of public comments following each regular meeting, starting Friday. Speakers will be required to sign in.

"I think it would be an outlet for those people who have been protesting and want to come and have a reasoned comment for us," UNC Board of Governors Chairman Louis Bissette said in a conference call with reporters. "The session is for us to hear from the public, not to respond to demands or engage in any sort of debate. So you will see we will be in full listening mode."

Bolding mine, pretty much all you need to know. It appears logic and reasoning aren't included in Chairman Bissette's repertoire of rhetoric. If they were, he would realize "full listening mode" would require the attendance of all voting members of the Board. Being the top dog in an academic setting is hard work, especially if you'd rather be cooking up ways to entice investors into turning over their cash. Also, isn't he supposed to be skilled at dispute resolution? Apparently those are hidden skills, only to be brought out when profit$ are available.

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The Trump Party

This weekend, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham started urging his fellow Republicans to unite behind Trump. This from a guy who once called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.” Graham is just the latest member of the GOP to fall in line after months of saying Trump was absolutely unacceptable. In North Carolina, we’ve seen […]
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Tuesday Twitter roundup

The Budget outlook is not rosy:

Locking in NC’s decline — 2017 budget brings more distress https://t.co/03KRjvHwFQ #ncgov #ncpol #ncga #ncbudget

— NC Policy Watch (@NCPolicyWatch) May 24, 2016

Apparently many Dem Legislators have started suffering from Stockholm Syndrome:

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NC State will play Illinois in 2016 ACC-Big Ten Challenge, per report

There's been no official announcement, but the 2016 ACC-Big Ten Challenge field is set, according to CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein. NC State will be making a trip to Illinois this winter; these schools have never played each other in the ACC-B1G Challenge. And the Wolfpack hasn't won on the road in the Challenge since 1999. (Way to be clutch in that one, Justin Gainey!)

Here is the complete list of Challenge matchups, per Rothstein:

Michigan State at Duke
North Carolina at Indiana
Syracuse at Wisconsin
Pitt at Maryland
NC State at Illinois
Ohio State at Louisville
Nebraska at Clemson
Iowa at Notre Dame
Virginia Tech at Michigan
Purdue at Virginia
Georgia Tech at Penn State
Rutgers at Miami
Wake Forest at Northwestern
Minnesota at Florida State

(Boston College is the ACC team left out of the Challenge this year, because obviously.)

Eyeballin' this thing in May, I think it sets up well for the ACC, which hasn't won this galdarned thing since 2008. Duke is mega-loaded, plus playing in Durham, where Tom Izzo's powers cannot function. Louisville might be a top-five team and Ohio State's been struggling. FSU and Miami have gimmes. UNC should handle Indiana, the Pack should beat Illinois. Virginia will beat Purdue. That's seven right there. The league would only need one more win to clinch.

On a related note, if the ACC wins the competition this year, it gets to take over the Big Ten Network, no takesies backsies. (Sorry, those are the rules.)

NC State should be the favorite to beat Illinois, which is coming off a rough 15-19 (5-13) season. The Illini program endured a tumultuous February and March that saw a trio of players arrested, two of them on domestic assault charges.

Guard Jaylon Tate's domestic assault charges were dropped, while forward Leron Black has been issued a four-game suspension after his guilty plea for misdemeanor aggravated assault. Guard Kendrick Nunn, who was an important part of the Illini's rotation last season, recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge. He could be suspended for a while, if he remains on the team.

So the Illinois program is a bit of a mess right now.

NC State is coming off a poor season of its own, though nothing quite like the combination of poor performance on the court and wretched stupidity off it that Illinois endured.

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NBA Draft 2016: Cat Barber attends workouts for Bucks, Nuggets, and Pacers

Cat Barber has been really busy lately, and that's a good thing. Last Thursday, Barber was in Milwaukee to work out for the Bucks. On Friday, he was in Denver to showcase his skills for the Nuggets. On Monday, he was in Indianapolis to work out for the Pacers.

Here's Cat in a brief interview from this afternoon:

Cat's likely still got work to do in order to get himself into the first round of the draft, and it didn't help that he suffered a minor injury at the Combine that limited him to just one scrimmage the entire weekend. But it only takes one team that really likes him, right?

Both Denver and Indiana are in the market for guards, and they pick at No. 19 and No. 20 in the first round. Draft Express has Barber going to Indiana in the second round. The draft isn't for another month, so there's a lot that can change between now and then.

Barber did a quick Q&A with the Nuggets when he was in Denver, which you can read right here. Cat mentions that he's got some stereotypes to fight because of where he's from and what he looks like, which might be a passing reference to that weird scouting report on him that was published last month. JEO wrote about that whole thing.

Anyway, it's good to see Cat's garnering a lot of interest from NBA teams. I have a feeling that whichever team does take a chance on him will be glad it did.

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Discussion of Charlotte's Nondiscrimination Ordinance Pulled from Agenda

The LGBT community won yet another battle in the war for equal rights today when Charlotte Mayor, Jennifer Roberts, pulled a discussion of the impact of HB2 from the agenda for tonight's Charlotte City Council meeting.

This doesn't mean there won't be other attempts to repeal the ordinance, which after the passage of HB2 actually no longer exists since state law supersedes the ordinance.

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The Battle for Second

The latest private polling apparently shows George Holding with a huge lead over Renee Ellmers in the battle to be the Republican nominee for the 2nd congressional district. We could see the real fight being the battle for second place: Brannon vs. Ellmers. Greg Brannon has run statewide twice before and has name recognition in […]
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Rip van Holding's election-year attack on IRS

A war we thought we had won

In his commencement address at Elon University on Friday, David Gergen said that North Carolina had been taken over by the “forces of political extremism.” He was, of course, talking about the legislature and the governor. That’s harsh criticism coming from a Republican who grew up in North Carolina and has served as an advisor to presidents […]
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NC State is sending three swimmers to the 2016 Summer Olympics

NC State's swimming program is arguably the best sports program on campus; the Wolfpack men have won two consecutive ACC titles, and they finished fourth nationally this year. Head coach Braden Holloway has developed a team known for its sprint acumen. Speeeeed.

And this is a pretty good indicator of the quality of Holloway's team: three NC State swimmers on the men's side have qualified for the Olympics. I have no idea how long it's been since State had multiple swimmers in the Olympics, but I'm guessing it's been a very long time (if it's happened at all).

The qualifiers: Anton Ipsen (Denmark), Soren Dahl (Denmark), Simonas Bilis (Lithuania).

Those kids made comedy out of the rest of the ACC, so it's only natural that they take the next step. Bilis and Ipsen have defined the swimming program at State as much as Holloway has, and they now have a shot to grab a few medals on an international stage. That's awesome.

So let's go USA, but if we can help it, let's go Denmark and Lithuania, too.

The most recent NC State swimmer to make the Olympics was Cullen Jones, who won an NCAA title in the 50 free and also won Olympic gold in a relay event.

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NC State opens ACC baseball tournament with Florida State

The 10-team ACC baseball tournament field was set Saturday with the conclusion of the regular season, and now we have the schedule. NC State, which is the No. 5 seed, is in a pool with No. 1 Miami, No. 4 Florida State, and either No. 8 Boston College or No. 9 Georgia Tech.

NC State will open the round-robin pool play with Florida State at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Baseball bright and early! Just means you can get to the beer tent earlier, am I right. That start time is actually a break of sorts, because the Wolfpack will be playing night games the next two days. Any extra rest in a baseball tournament is a good thing.

State will play Miami at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, then play the BC/GT winner at 7 p.m. ET on Friday. All of these games will be televised by your trusty local Fox Sports network/RSN.

If you are not familiar with the format of this tournament: after the two play-in games Tuesday, two pools of four teams apiece will have been set. There is round-robin play within each pool, with the winner of each pool meeting in the title game on Sunday. Pool play runs from Wednesday through Saturday, so every team gets one day off. NC State's off day is Saturday.

This format is not ideal, as it always leads to some meaningless games on the third and fourth day of pool play, but it does help teams conserve their pitching for the NCAAs, which is kind of important. And just about this entire tournament field is going to be in the NCAAs.

NC State maintains an RPI in the top 10 nationally but nonetheless could stand to improve its hosting chances with a win or four this week. Thirty-three of State's 52 regular-season games were against teams in the RPI top 50, and every tournament game the Pack plays will be against top-50 opponents.

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The battle to continue NC's renewable energy success

Progress is a four-letter word to some people:

It’s hard to see what’s not to like about North Carolina’s growing renewable energy industry. It’s clean. It creates jobs. It puts idle farm land to profitable use. It’s part of what must be an urgent, global response to climate change.

Yet there are some in the General Assembly determined to halt and even reverse the state’s booming solar power industry and to lower its prospects as a leader in wind power.

Some ideological positions are simply too absurd to understand. Even in the absence of the millions spent by the Koch Brothers and other fossil fuel astroturfers, there will always be a handful of science-fearing individuals tilting at windmills. The industry propaganda just fuels their delusions, and makes it much more likely they'll be able to do actual damage instead of just fuming about it.

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NC State takes series from UNC with 10-1 win on Saturday

A day after getting shelled by the Tar Heels, NC State responded in kind. Preston Palmeiro homered for the second consecutive game, Evan Mendoza drove home three, Ryan Williamson pitched three shutout innings, and State cruised to a 10-1 win.

Palmeiro reached base five times, three via base on balls. Palmeiro, Mendoza, and Stephen Pitarra were tremendous at the top of the lineup; the trio combined for six of State's 12 hits and drove in seven. The Pack's offense could have done a lot more damage if Joe Dunand hadn't gone 0-fer from the cleanup spot.

In the first two games of this series, State's pitching got off to shaky starts. That was not the case Saturday, thanks to Williamson, who was good, if not quite his pre-injury self. His start was brief because of that injury, but the bullpen was there to take State the rest of the way. Will Gilbert shut out the Heels over the final three innings, and needed only 29 pitches to do so.

While it's always nice to see the offense putting up big numbers, the most encouraging aspect of the game Saturday afternoon was Williamson's performance. He injured the tricep in his throwing arm against Clemson two weeks ago, and while he did start last week at Louisville, he managed to finish only one inning.

Against the Heels, he struck out five and allowed two hits over 3-1/3 innings. He was removed in the fourth after his 55th pitch--he is still not completely healthy and most likely was on a tight pitch count today.

Ryan Williamson still battling tricep tightness, Elliott Avent said. Velo down a little today, topped out at 90. Status unclear #mlbdraft

— Michael Lananna (@mlananna) May 21, 2016

He's still missing a few ticks on his fastball, but today was encouraging. We're a couple of weeks out from the start of the NCAA tourney, and hopefully by then he'll be capable of pitching deeper into games. The Pack's gonna need him.

With the series-clinching win, NC State improved to 34-18 (15-13). The Wolfpack will be the No. 5 seed in the ACC baseball tournament next week, so the Pack is through to pool play and gets to skip the two play-in games that open the tourney.

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DHHS proposes cuts to special needs funding

Adding insult to tragedy:

Robin and Dan Marx of Cary are in a similar situation. Their 13-year-old son, Aidan, has a form of muscular dystrophy, and they receive $72,000 a year to pay for nursing aides for him as well as a modified van and alterations to their home to accommodate his wheelchair.

"This is a 350-pound wheelchair. You can’t just put in a car and drive around with it," Robin Marx said. Changing CAP-C would cut the family's Medicaid benefits by $40,000 a year.

Although it appears DHHS is re-evaluating this move after the negative feedback from families who would suffer from it, why is such feedback necessary? I'm sure somebody at DHHS could have made these calculations and predicted these horrific outcomes; if they couldn't or didn't they have no business managing these resources. What if nobody had spoken up? Is that now the way to gauge the effects of policy changes? The term "mismanagement" comes to mind, but I have a feeling they (DHHS) knew good and well the suffering that would result, and were merely gauging the public relations damage they'd have to deal with.

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North Carolina evens series, takes a couple pounds of flesh

That was about the hardest thing to watch since that 50-million point loss at Wisconsin in the Lowe era.

With the quick hook of Cory Wilder in the series opener, NC State needed a long and strong start from Brian Brown in game two after just about everybody you would want to pitch in a high leverage situation was burned on day one. The Pack didn't get what it needed from Brown, the flotsam of the pen was exposed, and North Carolina evened the series in an ankle grabber. The Tar Heels touched Brown for three in the first and cruised to a 16-4 win.

Preston Palmeiro and Brett Kinneman hit two-run home runs off ACC strikeout leader J.B. Bukauskas to account for the lone bright spots on a rainy evening in Raleigh.

Brown, who appeared to be overthrowing a bit in the first, walked the second batter of the game and then hit Tyler Ramirez in the head with an 0-2 pitch. Ramirez was fine for an obvious reason: he chose to attend UNC and thus has no brain to protect. It also probably helped that he was wearing a helmet.

Brown was not fine. Three consecutive hits after the HBP staked the visitors to a 3-0 lead. The sophomore lefty was able to survive into the sixth but was charged with six runs, all earned, in 5.1 innings. He yielded seven of UNC's 18 hits and also walked three. With the exception of Chris Williams, who did allow an inherited runner to score but not one of his own, every Pack pitcher (and there were seven of them) allowed at least one earned run. Sean Adler posted the solid infinity ERA. All three batters he faced reached and scored.

Brian Miller, Logan Warmoth, and Ramirez, UNC's top three in the order, combined to go 7-for-13 with eight runs scored and nine driven in. Warmoth homered.

After not allowing a single earned run in five of six starts from March 29^th to April 30^th, Brown has now been touched for at least three earned runs in three straight. His ERA has risen from a low point of 1.98 after the Wake game to over three for the season.

Brown's slump, combined with Ryan Williamson's recent bout with injury and ineffectiveness and Wilder's inconsistency, makes a once stout rotation look like a big question mark heading into the postseason. However, Joe O'Donnell is back on the bump in practice, so help may be on the way.

Speaking of the postseason, Notre Dame and Boston College haven't managed a win this weekend, so it looks like the Heels will squeak in to the 10^th and final seed for the ACC tournament (and could get to 9^th with a win tomorrow and a Wake loss). But, a BC win coupled with a Carolina loss would leave the Heels at home.

Of greater concern for the Pack is their own seed. A couple of weeks ago avoiding the play-in round appeared to be a certainty, but not after limping home 2-7 down the stretch. It's possible that there could be a four-way tie for 5^th-8^th after Saturday's games. I have no clue how the tiebreaker works in such a scenario but I'm sure we'd get screwed somehow. So let's just win tomorrow, ok?

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NC State lands commitment from shooting guard Spencer Newman

The additions keep on coming for Mark Gottfried.

It's been a pretty good week for the NC State basketball program, and it got a little better on Friday afternoon when shooting guard Spencer Newman announced his commitment to the Wolfpack.

Blessed and honored to announce I will be continuing my basketball career and education at NC State! #WPN #Wolfpack ⚫️

— Spencer Newman™ (@Newman_Spencer) May 20, 2016

Newman, who is in the 6'3, 180-pound range, will begin his career at State as a preferred walk-on but told Pack Pride he expects to earn a scholarship. That's hardly an outlandish goal, since the sharp-shooter drew attention from high-major programs during his high school career and at one point held an offer from Oklahoma State.

On that Oklahoma State staff that offered Newman? New NC State assistant coach Butch Pierre. That's the connection here, if it seems like this addition came out of nowhere. Pierre's been familiar with Newman's abilities for a long time.

Newman was either low-ranked or unranked my recruiting services but he seems to have a strong work ethic and has already honed an excellent jump shot. He averaged more than 20 points per game as a senior and finished with more than 2,000 points in his high school career.

Here is some additional background on Newman from Ben Thomas of AL.com, including a lot of remarks from his high school coach.

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Government bullying: Defund community college for Op-ed comments

Tyrants come in all shapes and sizes:

County Commissioners' Chairman Nick Picerno said Thursday night the county should take a look at its funding for Sandhills Community College in light of comments by its president that he will not enforce the state's new transgender bathroom law. That came in response to comments made by a Whispering Pines woman during the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting.

"I think the lady had a good argument," Picerno said. "Maybe we should review Sandhills Community College's funding for this year until they learn to obey the law. I agree with that 100 percent."

"The lady" is not only an anti-everything nut-job, she's also on the Planning and Zoning Board and heavily involved in local GOP politics. Calling her "the lady" is nothing more than a lame-ass attempt to cast her as merely a concerned citizen instead of a political hack. She's also the organizer of the anti-Islam "lecture" at Pinehurst resort:

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Welcome to the fray, Braeburn. Thanks for the help.

The recent episode with Braeburn Pharmaceuticals makes clear that it’s Republicans that are driving businesses away from and out of the North Carolina, not Democrats. Pat McCrory and his misguided legislative allies keep blaming the damage of House Bill 2 on Democrats but that’s clearly wrong. Braeburn rebuked McCrory’s spin and said that the only […]
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Koch "army" being trained to defend McCrory in November

Knocking on doors and leaving oily fingerprints:

The i360 Walk app for iOS and Android provides the AFP army with voter information on the go so they can identify houses strategically and make use of their time efficiently. The most GLA training sessions have been in scheduled in North Carolina where 12 classes of activists and mobilizers will have graduated by the end of June.

The Kochs are heavily invested in North Carolina having held (or scheduled) 12 GLA training sessions and with close to 200,000 AFP "in-state activists" as of January 2015. In the race for governor, incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory (R) is likely their man.

I post this as a cautionary tale for those who speculate political parties have lost their usefulness. When we give up the ability to leverage the resources of an organization, insanely wealthy individuals like Charles and David Koch can easily step in and take the lead. To them, the loss of influence and cohesion in the two major parties is a gift, and they will use it to control us. Live together, die alone.

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Kickoff times announced for NC State's games against William & Mary, Old Dominion

Amid all of the good basketball news Thursday, there was also the announcement of a couple kickoff times for football season. NC State's games against William & Mary and Old Dominion both will be night games, and State also announced that its season finale against UNC will be on national TV, though time and channel are undetermined.

The Wolfpack is beginning the 2016 season with a Thursday night game against the Tribe, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. ET. There is no national television coverage, just ESPN3. NC State's home game against Old Dominion two weeks later will kick at 6 p.m., with coverage from ESPN3. Hard to beat those evening starts in September.

As for State-UNC, that contest is going to air on either ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2, at either noon ET or 3:30 p.m. ET. That's great news since none of those options are the ACC Network and so there is no chance of exposure to Tim Brant. Anyway, it'll be good for the country to see the preview of the following week's ACC title game matchup.

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NC State comes back, holds on to beat Heels

One down, two to go.

If you forgot to set your baseball clock back a day, you missed a good one. NC State was stymied by UNC ace Zac Gallen until some two-out bingo in the sixth, the Pack pen did yeoman's work after Cory Wilder couldn't finish the first, and Elliott Avent's crew downed rival North Carolina 6-4 in their skipper's return to the sidelines after recovering from a snake bite.

Gallen, who entered the contest with a tidy 2.35 ERA and a sterling 90/19 K/BB ratio, was cruising until Stephen Pitarra laced a double with one out in the sixth. Preston Palmeiro cut UNC's lead in half an out later, making it 2-1 with a solid single to right. Joe Dunand followed with a two-strike double in the right-center gap to tie it, and Brock Deatherage untied it with a hustle double on a one-hop hit that got down in front of Heel centerfielder Tyler Ramirez.

The three consecutive clutch two-out hits were followed by a shutdown frame from Cody Beckman, and NC State (33-17, 14-12) went right back to work against UNC (33-20, 12-16). Brett Kinneman opened the seventh with a walk and went to third on a full count hit-and-run single from Chance Shepard (after he thankfully failed to get a stupid sacrifice bunt down). Avent, clearly suffering from bunt withdrawal after missing the Louisville series, then had Josh McLain perform the stupidest sac bunt ever with a runner already at third and no outs. It was in no way a squeeze play, which might have made some sense, as McLain gave away the bunt very early. At least Shepard moved to second on the play.

Giving away an out did not stop State from scoring three more, as Pitarra followed with an RBI single, Evan Mendoza drove home Shepard with a sac fly, and Dunand's second double in as many innings plated Pitarra.

The only blemish for the Pack offense was seeing an end to Mendoza's 23-game hitting streak.

Wilder hit two batters, walked one, and allowed a hit and a run in the first before getting the hook with two outs and the sacks loaded. Chris Williams came on and fanned Evan Pate to escape further damage. Williams ran into his own trouble in the second, allowing a run and leaving with two on and two out. This time, after adding some drama with a walk to load the bases, it was Travis Orwig with the bail out, as he struck out Zack Gahagan to end the threat.

Orwig was dominant. He got six of his eight outs via the K and lowered his ERA to 0.53 on the season.

Austin Staley and Cody Beckman added 1.1 shutout innings apiece as the fourth and fifth pitchers, combining to fan five feckless Heel hitters. Evan Brabrand punched out two more -€” the pen totaled 14 K's -€” in the eighth but ran into trouble in the last. A leadoff walk on a 3-2 slider so good it seemed to freeze the umpire and a seeing-eye single off the cap of Cody Roberts' bat spelled the end of the night for Brabrand. Will Gilbert allowed both inherited runners to score but ultimately wiggled out of the jam to put the Pack up 1-0 in the series.

The Thursday-Saturday series kicked off a day earlier than a normal college conference set since the ACC tournament begins next week. The Heels may not see the tournament; they are in a three-way tie for the 10^th and final spot. You'll need to be rooting for Notre Dame (which lost in extras to Clemson Thursday) and Boston College (which dropped a game in Atlanta) to stop doing Carolina favors.

Better yet, let's sweep ‘em the heck out of here. WE control your destiny (*evil laugh*).

Friday's first pitch from the Doak is slated for 6:30.

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Friday fracking video

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BeeJay Anya confirms his return to NC State; Lennard Freeman likely heading for redshirt year

All the NC State basketball news decided to happen on Thursday. It's basically all good news, so this is fine. First, Abdul-Malik Abu announced that he is withdrawing from the NBA Draft and returning to the Wolfpack for another season. BeeJay Anya did likewise later in the day.

Lol this is gonna be fun

— BeeJay Anya (@BAnya_Allday) May 19, 2016

Sorry for the scare love y'all lets do it together! https://t.co/N6wRZVVOd3

— Abdul- (@MalikAbu_) May 19, 2016

Neither player ended up with invites to the NBA Combine, though Abu worked out for at least two teams. There are teams that like Abu a lot, but not likely any teams willing to spend a pick on him. Another year at State gives him the opportunity for a breakthrough there.

During Abu's press conference, Mark Gottfried also mentioned that Lennard Freeman had leg surgery on Wednesday. "I would anticipate him redshirting. He needs time to fully heal," Gottfried said.

NC State is now in a position where it can redshirt Freeman and not be concerned about frontcourt depth, which was the goal all along.

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This Time Mitt Got It Right

Mitt Romney has got it right when it comes to his stand opposing Donald Trump’s candidacy for the GOP nomination and then later as his party’s nominee for the presidential campaign. Mitt’s father, Governor George Romney (R-Mich.), fought a similar uphill fight against Barry Goldwater in 1964. Finally, Mitt: Like father, like son? I have […]
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Oklahoma Legislators pass bill outlawing abortion

The Republican war on women escalates:

The Oklahoma Legislature has passed a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

With no discussion or debate, the Senate voted 33-12 Thursday for the bill by Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm.

This is what's at stake, people. If you know someone who doesn't vote, please smack them on the back of the head for me.

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Abdul-Malik Abu announces he is returning to NC State for the 2016-2017 season

PODCAST: Jeff Jackson, Senator From the Internet

How does a junior legislator in the minority party become a bona fide political celebrity? Two words: the Internet. Senator Jeff Jackson (D-Charlotte) unpacks his viral hits, from solo legislating on a snow day to creating the #WeAreNotThis hashtag. For this 33-year-old lawmaker, social media is not a gimmick: it’s a necessity and an obligation. […]
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Club For Growth grooms its next Congressional puppet

The less experienced, the better:

Budd, 44, owns part of a family farm near Advance as well as a firearms complex called ProShots in Rural Hall. But he has not held elective office and faces a bevy of current and former elected officials in the 17-candidate Republican primary set for June 7. Early voting begins May 26. Budd acknowledged that he would face a “learning curve” if elected, but he said he did not think his lack of prior experience in public office would hinder him.

The group’s ad campaign on Budd’s behalf sets him apart from other candidates in the crowded race, with the first such district-wide media effort of the primary. The 30-second ad spots depict Budd as a farmer, family man, “home schooler,” and small businessman who has “never run for office before.”

For those of you skeptical about his chances, remember these two factors: There will not be a runoff in the GOP Primary. Whoever gets the most votes, regardless of what percent of the total that is, will move forward to the General Election in November. And the 13th is gerrymandered to produce a Republican winner, no matter how bat-shit crazy he or his advisors are:

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The #goacc Moment of the Week (5/19/2016)

The weekly in-depth look at the best (worst?) moments in ACC schadenfreude.

Hoo boy, it's been a wild few days around here, eh? Hopefully all these Seahawks Russell truthers can let us have a moment of peace to have our #goacc week in review. Last week we saw the old guy at the Beyonce concert reading a book win pretty handedly. I'm not so sure we'll see such a wide margin of victory this week. Several of these are all worthy winners. We'll also award a couple of #suregrin winners, a hilarious video edit, and as always, close with some wisdom from the world of wrasslin'. Let's get right down to voting - which is your #goacc Moment of the Week? Vote below!

1. Mark Richt lost control of his mind during this old blue jeans commercial (h/t @mattyports).

We unearthed a legit gem: Yes, that's Mark Richt in this 1982 commercial for "Jesus" jeans. https://t.co/gRjOxkkR1g http://pic.twitter.com/AYWEiJy4tX

— Matt Porter (@mattyports) May 12, 2016

Everything about this is hysterical. Per that article, apparently Richt when he was a freshman at Miami answered the casting call for this italian blue jeans company called..."Blue Jesus." I absolutely guarantee that a picture of Richt will be blown up into a giant fathead esque sign for College Gameday in the fall. Better yet, come November 19, someone running the jumbotron at Carter-Finley needs to play that commercial during a timeout.

2. Tim Duncan got blocked into retirement (h/t @gifdsports).

Time to retire Timmy #TimDuncan http://pic.twitter.com/hRTC13xPoH

— gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 13, 2016

Damn. Not the way you want to see a player of Duncan's caliber go out. Honestly, I never expected the Thunder to win that series, but here we are. This clip is kind of a microcosm of that whole series.

3. Dino Babers used some....interesting language when talking about potential recruits (h/t @matthewfairburn).

Dino Babers said if there's a recruit who is egotistical enough that he won't come to Syracuse because he can't wear 44 than "piss on him."

— Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) May 17, 2016

This is absolutely amazing. Hey, we've got more from our friends up north!

4. Syracuse fans were polled about what they'd like to see most at the "new" Carrier Dome. The fans wanted better seats (h/t @Dan_Lyons76)

Syracuse fans'd rather have more comfortable seating at the Dome than a good football team https://t.co/32JMnxEGIF http://pic.twitter.com/vAXjH0RfRH

— Dan Lyons (@Dan_Lyons76) May 17, 2016

Obviously after this tweet was sent out, whatever the equivalent of the Wolf Web is for Syracuse had some poll skewers attack that poll because if you look at it now, a winning football team is in the lead. Even still, people REALLY want to see some better seats in that dome, apparently. Props to @WillsWorldMN for sending me this poll.

5. HARRELSON HALL IS FINALLY DYING (h/t @NCState).

The story on the end of Harrelson Hall: https://t.co/1RlZctaaBg http://pic.twitter.com/K8O61OzJl7

— NC State University (@NCState) May 18, 2016

I wrote about this a little over 2 years ago here on BTP when the university announced this hell hole of a building was going to be demolished. Well, hallelujah y'all - that process has started. This really isn't #goacc in the grand scheme of things, but it needs to be celebrated. All the times people tripped on those awful steps, or got lost in that circular labyrinth of hell like I did many times, make sure to celebrate like I am.

6. Dabo Swinney goes undercover at the construction site for Clemson's new football facility as Frank from Albuquerque (h/t @ClemsonTigerNet).

WATCH: Swinney goes undercover as Fred from Albuquerque: https://t.co/tdtirud9Mg #Clemson http://pic.twitter.com/9GnRwxRp9h

— TigerNet.com (@ClemsonTigerNet) May 17, 2016

I like how Clemson doesn't even try to hide that this is a glorified recruiting video and fundraising video all in one. Pretty amazing, actually.

the #suregrin awards.

Got a couple of award winners this week - first, lets start with the USA Today, and their, ahem, LACK of editors:

For real, @USATODAY? That isn't Colorado. http://pic.twitter.com/e0NSNBQRTG

— Natalie Bee (@ghostinmarble) May 15, 2016

Yeah....good job good effort guys. I hope a retraction was printed for this.

Next, handing out a #suregrin award to all the Seahawks clowns that came over here to BTP trying to tell us that lived through the Russell Wilson-TOB saga that we were wrong, and that we didn't know what we were talking about. Those guys take #WellActually guy to a level never seen before. Go back to creating petitions to keep Cam Newton out of your stadium.

The best photoshop of the week!

Got another video edit this week instead for y'all, and this is a spectacular vine done by the folks over at Barstool Sports:

Steven Adams is basically just Adam Morrison after a Mario mushroom https://t.co/3vBDBw5ryi

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 17, 2016

That is just so well done.

And now, for your moment of wrasslin'....

THE JIM ROSS BAH GAWD MOMENT OF THE WEEK!!

If y'all haven't been watching the NBA playoffs, well, you've been missing explosive dunks like this one. Take it away, JR!

LeBron James vicious dunk, as called by Jim Ross!! (Original vine by Moleman) https://t.co/oqBeKatlQF

— Will Thompson (@thrillis4) May 18, 2016

Have a great week everyone!

Poll

Which is your #goacc Moment of the Week?

• Mark Richt lost control of his mind during this old blue jeans commercial
• Tim Duncan got blocked into retirement
• Dino Babers used some....interesting language when talking about potential recruits
• Syracuse fans were polled about what they'd like to see most at the "new" Carrier Dome. The fans wanted better seats
• HARRELSON HALL IS FINALLY DYING
• Dabo Swinney goes undercover at the construction site for Clemson's new football facility as Frank from Albuquerque

  127 votes | Results

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