Hey, look at that. We reached double digits.
In this edition, we’re taking on the Jordon Hudson-Bill Belichick situation. Had to be done.
We honestly were ignoring it, hoping it would go away like that guy at our door trying to sell us solar. But it’s not going away, and if anything it seems to be getting much, much worse.
Sigh. OK, let’s do it…
1. The lead-off: Will Jordon Hudson destroy Chapel Bill?
Reed: I think you and I both agree that when we first heard of Belichick’s girlfriend, it seemed a little odd, but we just kind of shrugged.
“Bless his heart. Grandpa is dating a cheerleader.”
Andy: Yep. It was sort of a “who am I to judge?” mentality. But now I’m starting to waver.
With every passing day and story after story about her interference and involvement, this is not a good look.
Reed: Not a good look at all. And this week, it reaaaaaally came to a head. Like, national news came to a head. To recap:
Belichick gave what many considered a disastrous interview to “CBS Sunday Morning.” The segment showed Bill in all his humorless glory and revealed Hudson, sitting off-camera, shutting down the reporter’s question about their relationship.
She was a “nightmare” who stormed out of the interview, causing a 30-minute delay, according to TMZ.
Meanwhile, national media has piled on, running unflattering story after story about the couple. One covered Hudson’s $8-million real estate portfolio, another plans by the coach’s friends to stage an intervention.
Belichick later issued a statement defending Jordon, but UNC is reportedly concerned.
And this list doesn’t even cover everything. There was much more, including Hudson’s bizarre choice to release a private email from Belichick written several weeks ago complaining about the media coverage of his book.
What is most concerning though is the amount of influence she seems to have on the football program. She is reportedly the one who killed “Hard Knocks,” which was set to feature the Tar Heels, bringing in tons of money and exposure.
Andy: Be an Instagram Influencer all you want, but when you start to be a UNC Football Influencer (and not in a good way), she needs to hit the transfer portal.
Reed: And I know some people will say, “Who cares about his private life?” But that’s the thing: You can no longer separate his private life from UNC football. And I do think this is all very bad news for the program.
Listen, I worked at the New York Post for many years, and I can tell you that with public figures, disfunction is like an iceberg. You only glimpse about 10% of it.
If Fanduel offered a prop bet on how many more times Hudson is going to cause trouble this year, I’m definitely taking the over.
Andy: We’ve said since the beginning that this hire was either going to be a wild success or an all-time disaster. There really isn’t much room for anything in between.
The Jordon story is going to garner all of the headlines during the part of the year when there is little else to discuss.
If UNC football is winning in the fall, it will all be forgotten. If we take a lopsided loss at home to, say, Virginia, it’s only going to get worse.
Reed: Winning will probably solve everything — but my confidence in Belichick has plummeted. I’m not saying his girlfriend is going to derail the program. But I’m not not saying that.
At the very least, this whole saga shows bad judgment on his part and suggests a famously steely man has lost control.
2. News roundup
🏀 UNC will face Ohio State. The matchups for December’s CBS Sports Classic were just announced and UNC will take on the Buckeyes.
The second game will feature Kentucky and St. John’s, giving the Heels a chance to hang out with Ian Jackson.
Our take: Heels vs Buckeyes is always a great game. Last time the teams met in this tourney back in 2022, UNC squeaked out an overtime win.
👀 More on Zayden High suspension. The forward was forced to sit out after violating the campus policy on sexual exploitation, according to reports.
High reportedly filmed a sexual encounter with another student without her consent.
Our take: Ehhh, we don’t love this, but High has been punished, and if he’s truly remorseful and has made amends, we’d be happy to have him on the roster.
🔥 Theo Pinson puts Rashad McCants on blast. On his podcast, Pinson called out the former national champ, who recently said playing for UNC was like working on a “plantation.”
“What this comes down to is you taking no accountability for shit. You take accountability for nothing. You shit on guys that you went to war with,” Pinson said.
Pinson also revealed that McCants had recently come to Chapel Hill in an attempt to repair a relationship with the program.
Our take: We long ago lost all respect for McCants, and at this point, we’re happy to just never talk about the guy again.
👎 Andrej Stojaković commits to Illinois: Well, that was a short courtship. Carolina was reportedly among his final three choices, but Illinois ultimately won out.
Our take: With Baby Stoj off the board, it seems like UNC will have to hold out for any grad transfers or guys withdrawing from the NBA draft to add to next year’s roster. It still feels like we could use a little more scoring punch.
3. This week’s reason why Duke sucks
When we used to do the podcast, we’d end every episode with that week’s reason why Duke sucked. The tradition continues here.
The Lakers suffered a shocking elimination this week against the Timberwolves, and all the fingers are pointing at rookie head coach J.J. Redick.
Redick managed to do something the previous two Lakers head coaches had not: completely crap the bed in the first round.
Frank Vogel won it all in 2020, and Darvin Ham went to the Western Finals in 2022.
This series was supposed to be a mismatch: The Lakers were the #3 seed, the Wolves a #6. The Lakers had arguably two of the league’s greatest players in Lebron and Luka, and Minnesota had…Rudy Gobert — one of the most smack-talked.
The Wolves’ big man gets consistently voted the NBA’s player most overrated player buy his peers, and Luka took great joy in taunting him during the series, at one point yelling, “Sub him out!”
Then it all ended badly for LA in game 5. And yeah, you could blame the roster construction or James’ aging legs, but we prefer to lay this one on Redick.
Much of the criticism centers around the mistakes he seemingly made, including a completely head-scratching move to play just five players for the entire second half of game 4.
His temperament has also been called into question, occasionally revealing himself to be the same spoiled Duke player we took so much joy in loathing years ago.
He stormed out of a game 4 press conference, leading some to label him “childish.”
“JJ’s not built to be a coach in a sport that plays 82 regular season games ... He’s gonna figure out how to deal with people better or he will not be long for this job,” Bomani Jones said.
No worries on Redick’s part. He always has poetry to fall back on.
👊 Thanks for reading, and before you go…
Last week’s poll results: 57% of you thought next season’s Heels look worse on paper.
Reach out: If you’ve got thoughts or comments, send them our way at thbthd@gmail.com.
Go Heels!