Carolina Football
While the changing of the Bowden guard earned the day’s top billing, the story in the ACC’s Coastal Division was which team would finish behind reigning champ Virginia Tech.
North Carolina cemented its status as a trendy preseason pick by being voted to finish second in the division in coach Butch Davis’ second season.
Despite UNC’s youth, coach earns a vote of confidence
The Boston Herald
North Carolina coach Butch Davis didn't exactly plan a party to toast his Tar Heels' selection as the second-best team in the ACC's Coastal Division in the ACC Football Kickoff preseason poll released Monday, but Davis did wonder if some media voters were partying before casting their ballots.
"My question is how many people that voted did they give sobriety tests to?" Davis quipped. "It was kind of shocking and surprising."
UNC picked to finish 2nd in Coastal Division
The Durham Herald-Sun
It sounds like Greg Little will have a hard time convincing Butch Davis that he should play basketball again next season.
Little may shift focus to football
The Durham Herald-Sun
North Carolina hasn't been very competitive in recent seasons, but second-year coach Butch Davis could have his team poised for its first winning season since 2001 and a run at Virginia Tech in the Coastal Division. The Tar Heels return a league-high 18 starters.
Who's best in the ACC? It's anyone's guess
The Florida Times-Union
The ACC will look more like the NFL in one way this football season -- injury reports.
The conference will adopt a standard guideline for reporting injuries during the week, associate commissioner Mike Finn said Monday at the ACC Kickoff.
ACC copies NFL
The News and Observer
Over the past three years, the ACC leads all conferences in players selected in the first round (25) and overall (115) in the NFL draft.
Despite that high-caliber talent, the ACC's teams have struggled on the field compared with other BCS conferences. The ACC has lost eight BCS bowl games in a row and hasn't had a team in the BCS championship game since Florida State lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2000 season.
ACC looks for vindication
The News and Observer
In this era of 24-hour sports news cycles, many coaches have taken to giving predictable answers or avoiding certain questions during conference media days. Ask most coaches who’s the league’s fastest player or most overrated team and they’ll likely squirm before saying they don’t know or they can’t say.
The coach's coach
The Fayetteville Observer
Carolina Basketball
Call Monday night's East-West All-Star game a tiny preview of the ACC's future, and a great look at the talent of North Carolina high school basketball.
UNC recruit and Jordan alumnus Justin Watts sank two clutch free throws down the stretch and scored 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the East's 99-93 win over the West squad that also featured several ACC recruits.
Watts' late free throws help East to win
The Durham Herald-Sun
Carolina Baseball
Parker Thomas, a 6-5, 225-pound right-handed pitcher from Mount Tabor, has committed to play baseball at North Carolina, Coach Mike Lovelace of Mount Tabor said. Thomas, a rising senior, also had offers from Appalachian State, East Carolina and N.C. State.
Thomas was 4-4 with a 3.40 earned-run average and 69 strikeouts in 46 innings last season, and Lovelace said that Thomas' fastball is consistently in the low 90-mile-an-hour range and has been clocked as fast as 94 mph.
Mount Tabor pitcher commits to UNC
The Winston-Salem Journal