Thursday, June 27, 2013

UNC finishes eighth in Directors' Cup, leads ACC

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina finished eighth in the Directors' Cup, which measures a school's performance in all sports in NCAA postseason competition. The UNC women's soccer and women's lacrosse teams won national championships, which bolstered the Tar Heels to another top-10 finish in the Directors' Cup standings.

UNC finished first among ACC schools, followed by Florida State (11th), Duke (12th) and Virginia (20th). N.C. State (34th), Virginia Tech (36th) and Maryland (44th) also finished among the top 50 nationally. This is the fifth consecutive year that UNC has finished in the top 10 nationally.

In addition to the women's soccer and lacrosse teams, five other UNC teams also finished among the top 10 in their sports: field hockey (second), baseball (third), men's soccer (fifth), women's tennis (fifth) and men's lacrosse (fifth). UNC women's swimming (12th), fencing (13th), men's basketball (17th), women's basketball (17th) and volleyball (17th) also finished among the top 20 nationally.

UNC finished in eighth place for the second consecutive year. In the 20-year history of the Directors' Cup, UNC has finished 17 times among the top 10. Stanford, Florida and UCLA are the only schools with more top-10 finishes than UNC.

UNC's 17 top-10 finishes are five more than the rest of the ACC combined. Here are the final Directors' Cup standings.

- Andrew Carter

Friday, June 21, 2013

2013 NBA draft: Duke's Mason Plumlee a solid bet for middle of the 1st round




With the June 27 NBA draft fast approaching, Mason Plumlee looks to be a solid bet to go in the middle of the first round, according to the mock drafts:

Draft Express: No. 14 to the Utah Jazz

Sports Illustrated: No. 16 to Boston the Boston Celtics

ESPN: No. 17 to the Atlanta Hawks

NBA Draft Net: No. 19 to the Cleveland Cavaliers

Yahoo!: No. 22 to the Brooklyn Nets

CBS Sports: No. 22 to the Brooklyn Nets

Of course, it only takes one team to pull a surprise that sends everyone's mock drafts up in flames. Keep in mind that, at this time last year, no one was projecting Miles Plumlee to go in the first round.

Between preparing for the draft and criss-crossing the country for workouts, Plumlee say down with Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose as part of their NBA job interview series. The trio have a candid conversation and review a little bit of film. Check out the above video -- it's definitely worth a watch.

- Laura Keeley

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