NC State Away Game

Tonight, NC State played an away basketball game at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pen yet another chapter in the fierce rivalry between the schools. Ultimately, UNC-Ch managed to upset the visiting Wolfpack 89-80, but I would like to bring your attention to a few interesting items related to the game.

First, when the brilliant capital S logo was displayed on the screen I was reminded of a recent YouTube surfing session on the collegiate exploits of one David Thompson. Fans of ACC basketball will quickly recognize David Thompson as the finest collegiate player that the ACC has ever produced. When I was watching a highlight reel of Thompson, I noticed the the NC State logo that I thought was fairly recently adopted, was in fact, a retro logo that has been spruced up a little. Thompson is seen in the video sporting essentially the same logo in the early 70's. I am embarrassed to discover this fact 35 years after the fact.

Speaking of David Thompson, one of the broadcast features of tonight's game was a fan voting game called TXT-of-War in which a question is voted upon by sending in a text message. Tonight's vote was to determine whether David Thompson (NC State) or Michael Jordan (UNC-Ch) had the better collegiate career. To a student of the game, the comparison is laughable because while Thompson is a first team 50th Anniversary all-ACC team member, Jordan, frankly, is not. He doesn't even make the second string. The announcers, showing their knowledge of the game, declared the decision to be a "no brainer" in favor of Thompson. They even declared that members of the Baby Blue Brigade (BBB) had to realize that this comparison was a farce. Later in the show, cooler heads seem to have prevailed when Thompson was leading the vote 55% to 45%. The vote percentage for Jordan was alarmingly high, but, then again, no one has ever confused a UNC-Ch fan with a Mensa member. Later in the show, and the last time it was shown, the vote was back to 50% to 50%., thus proving that UNC-Ch fans have the basketball knowledge of a drunken chimpanzee. Shameful!

Another highlight of the broadcast was a clip of a UNC-Ch player (Zeller, I believe), getting Kenny Smith'ed in a game earlier this year.

Lastly, the flames of the fire generated by the Thompson/Jordan split, were fanned by a quick shot of T-Shirt worn by a member of the BBB. The shirt read "NC State is not our rival". I can only presume that the shirt refers to the ongoing inferiority complex that UNC-Ch seems to have with the Cameron Crazies, but who knows?