Love me some TBL, but that rucking thing kept me from posting here for quite some time. With the custom behind me, took advantage of the open Q sheet to lead a tribute to Carolina basketball on the day of Duke-UNC Part II: The Reckoning.

YHC is a proud UNC alumnus, Class of ’01, and a dyed-in-the-wool Carolina fan since birth. (My sister, who graduated from UNC, AND my twin brother are both Duke fans, however. Long story. Will tell you sometime.)

So the idea was to let some key numbers in UNC basketball history dictate rep counts for many of today’s exercises.

WARMUP

• SSH X 23 (in honor of the GOAT, one of 8 UNC players to have their jersey retired. Lots of jerseys are honored, but you have to be named National Player of the Year to have it retired. We payed homage to all 8 in the course of the beatdown.)
• Willie Mays Hayes x 10 IC
• Good morning x 10 IC
• LBAC x 12 and reverse
• Slow squat x 10 IC
• 8-count body builders x 7 (for every national championship UNC has won. Most people think it’s just six, but the 1923-24 team went undefeated and was named the national champion. If all those pre-BCS national titles in football count, then this one does too, says YHC.)

THANG

Headed to midfield corner for a series of Four Corners exercises, of course paying homage to Dean Smith’s maddeningly effective Four Corners offense.

First we honored Tyler Hansbrough, namesake of Hansbrough Indoor Stadium, and his number 50 that proudly hangs in the rafters.

• Run to near corner for 5 burpees
• Backwards run to far corner 10 burpees
• Run back to midfield for 15 burpees
• Backwards run to home corner for 20 burpees

Total of 50 burpees

Honored four more all-time Tar Heel greats in next phase.

• Bear crawl to near corner for 10 Lenny Rosenbluths (vastly improved Bobby Hurleys, in honor of the player that helped put UNC basketball on the map, leading the undefeated 1957 championship team, which defeated Michigan State in triple overtime in the national semifinal then THE NEXT DAY beat Wilt Chamberlain-led Kansas in triple overtime for the title. He wore #10 )
• Bunny hop to far corner for 12 Phil Fords The best point guard in ACC History wore #12
• Crab walk to midfield for 20 George Glamacks The two-time national player of the year wore #20.
• Run back to home corner for 33 Antawn Jamisons (Was in the building as a freshman for this epic game. Good times. )

Next we honored James Worthy with 52 Carolina Dry Docks (“Threw it away to Worthy!” )

The last retired jersey belongs to Jack Cobb, leader of the aforementioned 1924 championship team. He played before players had numbers, so we did a Jack Webb in honor of Jack Cobb. 1 merkin + 4 presses, 2 merkins + 8 presses and so on up to 10.

Next mode of travel was the low defensive shuffle, as defense wins championships

• Defensive shuffle to near corner for 18 WWIIs in honor of UNC’s ACC Tourney Championships
• Shuffle to far corner for 20 WWIIs in honor of all-time Final Four appearances.
• Shuffle to midfield for 31 WWIIs in honor of all-time ACC Regular Season Titles
• Shuffle to home for 1 WWII in honor of UNC’s lone NIT title (PAX were grateful to learn this particular statistic.)

Circle up for 109 overhead claps IC in honor of the 109 Years of Carolina basketball

(Intended here to lead 138 squats to mark UNC’s all-time wins versus Duke, but, TBH, YHC was starting to feel like some of my more forgettable nights in college. Audibled out of that one to avoid the ignominy of tossing merlot as the Q. )

Instead we ran to rock pile to grab a big ol rock to practice our jump shot, aka rock throws. On advice of wiser PAX, we went to the muddy field for rock throws so as not to damage the nice artificial turf. Moseyed back to drop off rocks and return to center field for Mary.

MARY

• Makhtar N’Diayes of course X 15 IC

• Inch-Worm N’Diayes Proceed with a standard inch-worm but when you get completely stretch out in plank, perform a Makhtar N’Diayes before completing the remainder of the inch-worm. X 10 IC

• Chilcutt ROF 10 count

COT

Adolphus gave a shout-out to all those who completed some or all phases of the custom last weekend. Invited other PAX to give rucking a go if haven’t already, as it is awesome. Also advised checking out running sites to make sure you’re mixing it up. YHC thanked everyone for prayers for my Aunt Lisa, who is close to leaving ICU after over a month there. Been a long road to get here, and going to be an even longer road to recovery, so please keep her and my family in Fayetteville in thoughts and prayers.

YHC took us out.

BOM

Always try to remind myself how lucky we are to have this amazing group, which today ranged from ages 7 to 63! Never take it for granted. Appreciate the awesome spirit of the guys today, including their encouragement and inclusion of my 2.0s, who were hanging in there with us. And appreciate all the non-Carolina fans who put up with this fanboy session.

Win or lose, it’s always a GDTBATH! Go Heels! Beat Dook! Aye!