College Hoops: Digital ACC Preview - Team #4 North Carolina

We continue our journey through the ACC in search of the best digital program. I hope you're enjoying the run through the conference with me. Thus far our journey has shown us #12 Boston College, #11 Miami, #10 Georgia Tech, #9 Virginia Tech, #8 NC State, #7 Wake Forest, #6 Florida State, and #5 Maryland.

Let's keep moving.

#4. North Carolina

Let's dive into the digital scouting report.

Strengths: Real hoops content, including videos that give you a feel for what Carolina basketball is about. Solid Twitter presence, including Coach Roy.

Weaknesses: This is Carolina! Where is the history? I felt it should have oozed out of the site and it didn't. Not much insider info on the Dean Smith Dome, locker room, and life on campus, either.

The Details:

When we hit the Carolina athletics site, here, you get hit with a site that feels alive. There is a lot going on, but (maybe it's the Carolina branding) it doesn't feel out of control (yet). The TarHeel Blue.com Blog is highlighted, albeit I would love to see this more prominent.

When I dove into the blog (image below and link here), I did find a blog that felt pretty up-to-date, even in the late summer. The posts were super short, and didn't have a lot of unique POV, but they did serve as a good source of info on news as it related to Carolina sports in general.

As we've seen in many other school sites, Carolina offers access to Podcasts - which, also as we've seen, are pretty much limited to subscribing for everything.

Things got a little more interesting when I noticed this image on the side of the site -- giving us access inside each of the programs. Hoops is shown in the most prominent place, as you'd hope to see.

When you click in, the content is pretty good. You get access to videos introducing you to what Carolina hoops is about, coaches shows, and player features (where they profile a current player). Pretty solid stuff.

Feeling inspired, I dove into the Basketball section. As you can see from the large image of Tyler Hansborough on the right, the Multimedia tab pulls in the latest Tar Heel basketball videos right to the front of the basketball section.

You also (hopefully) noticed the large Twitter link in the middle of the page. Here's the direct link to the UNC Hoops Twitter feed -- they are over 2,100 followers as of now.


Carolina coaches are also tweeting. From what I could tell include Head Coach Roy Williams - roughly 3,500 followers (link here) and Assistant Steve Robinson (link here). I couldn't believe that Roy was tweeting, but from checking it out, it looks legit.

I'd just love to see Carolina elevate Coach Williams. He's one of the best coaches in the country and he's providing a way to keep connected to him. Bring that up to the surface! I'd also love to see the history of Carolina basketball a little (ok, a LOT) more strong. Some of the best basketball players of all time have worn Carolina blue, and I'd love to feel this when I visit the site.

We'll continue this journey tomorrow with #3!