We're Coming Back

Lawrence Jordan: Nope. Last year was not a banner year for the schools comprising the Old North State's educational system. Aside from the University of New Jersey at Durham - who was handed a basketball trophy by the NCAA seeding committee - all other schools performed at an underwhelming level at best reaching mediocrity.

Prior to the 2009 football season, expectations were high and the mood at The ONH was very positive. Until the season played out.

No North Carolina ACC school posted a winning in-conference record, with UNC topping the charts with a less than inspirational 4-4 record. UNC did finish with 8 wins and went bowling...in Charlotte...and lost...again. The fireworks show expected at the beginning of the year ended up being the neighborhood kids playing with snap pops. Hooray.

Prior to the 2009-2010 basketball season, expectations were high and the mood at The ONH was positive. The national community of basketball fans, The ONH included, expected UNC and Duke to battle it out for first place in the conference, WFU to scare people with their athleticism, and NCSU to bide their time until 2010-2011.

Parts of this prediction was correct. Duke ended up on top and NCSU rounded out the bottom conference tier. But...UNC collapsed during Roy Williams' worst coaching job of his career that resulted in a big blemish on his record. WFU wrestled another mediocre season out of future NBA talent that resulted in Gaudio posting his resume on CoachingLadders.com. All that is evil marched to an ACC Title and National Title. Great. After the season I felt like I did when I watched the movie Seven for the first time. The season grew increasingly grotesque and at the end, the worst case scenario was delivered in a box.

Prior to the 2010 baseball season...wait. We never acknowledged the baseball season. UNC was coming off another College World Series trip. The ACC was projected to be one of the strongest baseball conferences in the Nation. BUT the ONH was so disillusioned that the posts dried up in February. Our bad. To recap, the ACC performed admirably producing 6 top 25 teams including the overall #1 team, UVA. But then the ACC sent only one team to Omaha...and they lost to their in-state SEC rival. Crap.

2009-2010 was The ONH's rookie year. We suffered some bumps and bruises. We learned some humbling lessons. We now resent each other a little more. Overall, the state of North Carolina was pretty much out-performed and out-classed. It was a weird year, hell South Carolina won a national title at something, so we'll shake this one off and prepare for 2010-2011. Sophomore slump? We think not.