Notes (non-game) from Chapel Hill

[Zippy1808]

Thought I'd share some belated notes on the scene from Chapel Hill on this non-SU basketball Saturday... outside of the game itself...

It was not my first time there... having friends who live in Durham, I've been to Chapel Hill many times and went to a game at the Dean Dome on the same weekend we played NC State out-of-conference a few years ago.

First, Chapel Hill itself...

It's a pretty darn-near-perfect "big" college town. Huge school near a metropolitan area (and a decent-sized) airport, yet not hours away that it's in the middle of nowhere and difficult to get to.

UNC is a massive campus, very easy to get lost. It's gorgeous though, a great mix of stately buildings and some newer ones with grassy areas in between. The huge football stadium is right in the middle of it all, even more central than the Dome. Then there's a big hospital complex off to one side, almost like the one on University Hill. It takes a LONG time to walk from one side of UNC to the other.

Temperatures were probably around 50 during the day on Monday, yet we saw lots of students wearing shorts to and from class. And this may be a generational thing (I'm 35), but it seems every campus I go to now (including SU) -- I see many, many more kids wearing their school sweatshirts, etc, than I remember when I was a student at SU. Perhaps merchandise is just so much more readily available today. I only remember owning 2 SU shirts. Or maybe they're just lazier dressers!?

The main drag off-campus is Franklin Street. As you'd expect at a much bigger school, it is much, much bigger than Marshall Street. Comparable to College Avenue at Penn State if you're familiar. A healthy mix of bars, restaurants, take-out food, drug stores, souvenir shops, etc. On Monday we hit a few places, ending up at “Top of the Hill” – TOPO for short. It’s a pretty big third floor bar with an outdoor space. Lots of SU fans were there. A long walk to the Dean Dome though, which is clear on the other side of campus.

As for the Dean Dome…

It’s big. We like big arenas of course, but part of the fun of being an SU fan and going to so many places in the Dome, is also getting to experience the much smaller places where you can get up close without paying a bundle… like I did at Virginia Tech a few weeks ago. The Dean Dome is just like any other giant NBA arena in that respect, so it’s really nothing “special.” It opened in 1986, and is showing its age much more than the Dome. The single concourse has this brown tile on the floor that you would see in a mall from that era that hasn't been renovated. Concessions are small and of not much variety. And that single concourse is jammed at halftime. One big-plus: they have all individual seats, no bleachers. They are padded downstairs and in the first few rows of the upstairs. But I for some reason felt like while SU has been trying every year to do something to brighten up/modernize the Dome, UNC's arena was a bit trapped in the 80's.

The crowd around us in the upstairs corner was everything you've heard (I think) about Carolina fans... very, very passionate and knowledgeable. And it was LOUD. Very LOUD. One guy got in my face a bit when I was cheering what I thought was a basket in the first half - which turned out to be a foul against us. He screamed at me to "Watch the game!" There was this woman easily in her 70's in the row in front who was going crazy the whole game... and standing up at the big moments. There was a mom behind us with a great southern accent who was loud and proud the whole way. As for that guy I mentioned earlier, he was even more annoying when he decided to start calling for a walk or double dribble literally every time we had possession. Then the topper, on the way out, he angrily told my friends to "Go Back to Cary." (Apparently Cary, a Raleigh suburb, is where the relocated northerners are known to live in large numbers.)

The next day...

We had some time to kill (as my flight back to NJ was cancelled because of the storm), so we returned to Chapel Hill and visited the Carolina Basketball Museum. It's awesome. It's a larger version of what Duke has attached to Cameron. It's two buildings over from the Dean Dome. There are tons of exhibits with jerseys, shoes, ticket stubs, trophies, etc. It feels a bit like Disney when they make you watch a 4-minute video about UNC basketball before the "real" ride begins. We spent a good hour there, which I did not expect going in. Carolina has a lot more "extra" artifacts, beyond the requisite trophies, that were lacking at Duke's version. I hope someday when the Dome expands (or there's a new stadium), we have something equally as impressive as Carolina's. One zing though: they had a draft board - just like you see at the NBA draft - listing all of their first-round picks through history. There are many. However they used current or semi-current versions of the team's logos for almost EVERYONE... regardless of the year they were drafted.

Bottom line...

The Dean Dome should probably be on every fan's bucket list (as I mentioned, I was excited to go there a few years ago for a non-SU game)... but for SU fans, you may find it a little overrated. My favorite road venues have two things: smallish capacity, and on campus. Yes, the Dean Dome is on campus, but it's huge. We know huge. NC State is huge and off-campus, so that's 2 negatives, but I'll be there in a few weeks too. (Checked out the NC State-Notre Dame game the day before ours.. it was sold out and also LOUD!) But size is why Cassell Coliseum gets points where the Dean Dome doesn't. Same for the Pete at Pitt, which is not oversized.

And that brings me to my next stop: Pitt next weekend! They'll be fired up after beating Notre Dame!

 

[Carolinasu]

I have been to the dean dome also. I wasn't really impressed either with anything about the place. Unlike you I was far from impressed with Carolina fans knowledge of the game but it is funny that the game I attended( NC State/ unc) everytime a State player scored the whole crowd jumped up and started spinning their hands while yelling travel! And I mean every time. At the ACC tourney last year I sat by a 1000 of them during the Pitt game and it was the exact same thing. Knowledgeable about basketball is hardly how I would describe them. And maybe its worse because I live by them. I share your opinion of the smaller venues though, Clemson was a very nice little town and Charlottesville was great also. Next time you go there eat at the Timeout on Franklin street. Its kinda famous around those parts.

 

[cto]

I enjoyed my visit to the UNC campus also. I was with Laurie Taishoff, president of the SU Alumni Association, and she had arranged a very nice tour with the director of the UNC alumni association... which is how we spent Monday afternoon. As you said, it is a very impressive (albeit spread out) campus... all Georgian style brick.

The Dean Dome, as you said, is very spacious... except for the row of seats directly behind the visiting team bench where my knees were pressed against the back of Trevor Cooney's chair for the entire game. Very similar to the way the seats are squished in at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

I loved the way there was ZERO hokey garbage (or piped-in music) during timeouts. Instead, the UNC band played at every timeout. This was very similar to Chrisler Arena at Michigan... where one left the game with "The Victors" ringing in her ears.

Aside from the game's outcome ... and aside from being stuck in NC for two days because of closed airports in NYC ... it was an interesting experience. It's fun to attend a game at one of these well-known venues.

 

[OttoMets]

...

I loved the way there was ZERO hokey garbage (or piped-in music) during timeouts. Instead, the UNC band played at every timeout. This was very similar to Chrisler Arena at Michigan... where one left the game with "The Victors" ringing in her ears.

...

That just made me grin - with about three minutes left before halftime, you and Daryl had some solid facetime while the television audio clearly captured the UNC pep band in all its glory. He seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly.

The irony was not lost on me. I meant to point this out the next day - 'Daryl, it looks like you find this much more enjoyable than our home atmosphere. You're telling me that college pep bands are more pleasant than being yelled at by a D.J. and Mr. Excitement for 15 minutes?'

 

[Zippy1808]

I was thinking that as big as the Dean Dome is, I do like how the ACC really only has one team (NC State) that plays its home games in what's mainly a "pro" arena that's off-campus.

The only others really close are Wake Forest and Florida State which play in what are essentially local civic centers (although Wake has assumed control of their building in Winston-Salem... and FSU's building is directly next to campus)... and Louisville, but the Yum! Center was built for them and is supposed to be an incredible facility.

A far cry from the Big East which had Georgetown, Nova, Marquette, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John's, UConn, and Providence all playing off-campus at least part-time.

The older I get, the more I enjoy walking through an actual campus on the way to a game. (Even if it gets me more and more depressed every year!)

 

[CaptainJ]

That just made me grin - with about three minutes left before halftime, you and Daryl had some solid facetime while the television audio clearly captured the UNC pep band in all its glory. He seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly.

The irony was not lost on me. I meant to point this out the next day - 'Daryl, it looks like you find this much more enjoyable than our home atmosphere. You're telling me that college pep bands are more pleasant than being yelled at by a D.J. and Mr. Excitement for 15 minutes?'

I nominate this for post of the week, at least! I didnt notice Daryl, so acknowlidging this for the first time made me grin as well. Thanks

 

[CaptainJ]

That just made me grin - with about three minutes left before halftime, you and Daryl had some solid facetime while the television audio clearly captured the UNC pep band in all its glory. He seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly.

The irony was not lost on me. I meant to point this out the next day - 'Daryl, it looks like you find this much more enjoyable than our home atmosphere. You're telling me that college pep bands are more pleasant than being yelled at by a D.J. and Mr. Excitement for 15 minutes?'

I don't know if they play Southwest Airlines "get out of town" commercials as often in Syracuse, but the footage from the second paragraph would be perfect for those ads.