Despite ACC championship loss, UNC students feel confident about team's chances
The University of North Carolina Tar Heels lost to Florida State in the ACC men's basketball championship Sunday.
As the game ended, hundreds of Carolina students used social media platforms Facebook and Twitter to proclaim their love for Carolina and the men’s basketball team, no matter the final score.
Many students chose to set the lyrics of “Hark the Sound,” UNC’s alma mater, as their Facebook statuses.
Other students took a different approach, citing UNC’s past successes in men’s basketball games this season as reason to disregard the results of yesterday’s game.
“Public Service Announcement: Trash talk from fans of teams who we beat by 18 or more points this year is ignored,” wrote Tyler Surratt, a 2011 UNC graduate and avid Tar Heel basketball fan.
An article on social media reactions to UNC’s loss Sunday would be incomplete without including Twitter reactions from the players themselves, some of whom are known as much for their Twitter accounts as for their basketball prowess.
After the game, Kendall Marshall, a UNC sophomore and point guard on UNC’s men’s basketball team, sent multiple tweets about eating cookies from [B]Ski’s, a Chapel Hill sandwich restaurant and student favorite.
Other team members like John Henson, a UNC junior and forward on the UNC men’s basketball team, have refrained from tweeting since before Sunday’s game.
Henson was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 but could not play in Sunday’s game due to an injured wrist. UNC coach Roy Williams told local newspapers that whether Henson will be able to play in the NCAA tournament remains uncertain.
Despite yesterday’s loss, UNC students remain hopeful about the UNC men’s basketball team’s future success.
When UNC senior Emma Pham saw the score online, her first reaction showed the dedication of Tar Heel basketball fans.
“Remember in 2009, when we lost the ACC tournament and went on to win the national championship?” Pham quipped.
“Yes, we’re out of the ACC,” Pham said. “But we still have bigger things to move onto this year.”
Of course, the fact that Sunday’s game wasn’t a complete loss for the UNC team strengthens UNC student’s positive outlook about the men’s basketball team in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
UNC is in the Midwest Region of the NCAA tournament this year, getting a coveted number-one seed.
The first game will be this Friday night against the winner of a play-in game between Lamar University and the University of Vermont.
A victory would pit them against the winner of Creighton University and the University of Alabama in a second-round matchup on Sunday.
Meghan DeMaria is a Spring 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.