Matt Doherty defends UNC, Julius Peppers while slamming N.C. State fans
Aside from inevitable, unavoidable instances where they find themselves hanging with hip-hop stars, college basketball coaches don't really offer up much reason to pay attention to their Twitter accounts.
Former UNC and SMU coach Matt Doherty bucked that trend Tuesday morning, though. Doherty felt a gush of inspiration to defend his alma mater, his tenure as UNC coach, his former player, Julius Peppers ... and oh yeah, crack at N.C. State fans while he's at it.B
Before we get to the rant, in case you've missed this, again, let's review. UNC's living under cloudy skies these days. There remains too many questions to count over the school's academics and ethics regarding football and basketball players signed up for specific classes and majors. Peppers' damning transcript recently made its way online.
Roy Williams has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing. On the outside, it shows a lot of college football players and a few college basketball players wound up taking courses -- that non-athletes took as well -- affiliated and/or taught by a department chair who is now long gone and done serious damage to the University of North Carolina's reputation as an elite academic institution.
K. We're set with that? Onto Doherty's diatribe. These tweets came all came Tuesday morning.
Julius Peppers was one of the smartest players I ever coached. He remembered plays better than anyone. He was a good person and a worker...
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
...I wish I had a team full of players like Julius Peppers!
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
Doing poorly in school doesn't mean you are dumb. See Steve Jobs, Bill Gates.Both college drop outs!
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
@austin_johnson can't believe a Pack fan is taking shots at UNC's education? Really? Stay tuned for some famous NC State quotes!
A famous NC State player once said, "I can go left, I can go right. I be amphibious!" Go Heels!
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
An NC State player said in response to a question on why he chose State, "I always wanted to go to school in the North." He was from SC!
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
— Matt Doherty (@DohertyMatt) August 21, 2012
@thedevilwolf I get paid for not working!SMU owes me thru May 13. Good gig if you can get it!Gives me time to toy with the State "grads"
It's not off-the-handle stuff, but how often do we see a coach rip off the filter like this? The N.C. State cracks are hilarious. Imagine Williams having a moment like this. It wouldn't happen -- but wouldn't we love to see it? If anything, Doherty's tweets are entertaining. But let's reinforce this: He coached at UNC from 2000 to 2003, so during Peppers' time at North Carolina.
He's gone about defending himself and Peppers in a weird way here. Sure, we're glad he said something, but now he's brought attention to the quasi-scandal yet again. Can't imagine folks at UNC wanted this addressed like this. But this is, after all, Coach Doh we're talking about.
Oh, do you not know Coach Doh?
Lastly I'll note that Doherty isn't really going hard against accusations. If anything, he's just standing up for the good qualities he holds in high regard with Peppers and UNC.
Which is fine. Totally, totally fine. Keep tweeting, Doh. It's slow in the college hoops world here in late August.
