Anson Dorrance retires. Immediately.

[2muchcoffeeman]

Piggybacking from this 2021 post??

Men's basketball is certainly king in Chapel Hill - and almost certainly always will be - but football is clearly number two. It seems to alternate between baseball and women's basketball for number three, depending which is on an upswing and which is on a downswing. Despite its dominance, Carolina women's soccer really doesn't get that much attention. If it did, Anson Dorrance would've been gone a long time ago. (There were some pretty salacious allegations from former players in the late aughts that just up and disappeared like smoke in the wind).

He gone.

 

[maumann]

Incredible legacy for the sport, on the field. But back in the early 1990s when I was at the Herald-Sun, there was a lot of whispering about Dorrance's alleged off-field issues. And he took that "unbeaten streak" far too seriously, even calling the paper to bench that losing on penalty kicks should count as a tie.

I don't believe I ever spoke with the man, but those who did said he was certainly ... self-important. And a bit miffed that his teams weren't accorded the same fame as those of Dean Smith, et al.

Jealousy, perhaps, from rivals and players spurned by UNC. But it seemed like there were almost as many athletes turned off by Dorrance's personality as there were who became Dorrance fans for life.

(Fixed for spelling.)

 

[franticscribe]

A few of us Carolina grads won't even be upset by this news.

 

[Starman]

Hmmm. A couple possibilities, neither very good:

1) Some serious off-field issue
2) Sudden health problem

Or ... he might have just gotten tired of the whole thing, figured he had enough money to walk away, and so he did?

 

[Neutral Corner]

I know nothing about it, but the rumors have been out there for decades.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Hmmm. A couple possibilities, neither very good:

1) Some serious off-field issue
2) Sudden health problem

Or ... he might have just gotten tired of the whole thing, figured he had enough money to walk away, and so he did?

This is not shocking to the coaching establishment. Another ACC coach told me a year ago that Dorrance was going to this very thing with this timing.

 

[Twirling Time]

This is not shocking to the coaching establishment. Another ACC coach told me a year ago that Dorrance was going to this very thing with this timing.

So the timing is an FU to whom exactly?

 

[tapintoamerica]

So the timing is an FU to whom exactly?

Not really a FU to anybody. More of a prediction by the other coach that Dorrance was getting really quirky.

 

[Starman]

So the timing is an FU to whom exactly?

Quitting on the eve of a new season pretty much ensures your top ashistant has to get the job, if you care anything about that.

 

[dixiehack]

I thought maybe the jump in league travel might have something to do with it, but it isn't completely terrible. Starts the season at Denver and Colorado, then the Stanford-Cal double on the same round trip later in the year.

 

[Shelbyville Manhattan]

It's also the exact same manner in which Dean Smith walked away from the school's men's basketball program. Much as Dorrance may have resented the attention given men's hoops at the school, it's possible that it also gave him the idea as to the timing of departure so that there could be only one viable option as to the immediate successor.

Quitting on the eve of a new season pretty much ensures your top ashistant has to get the job, if you care anything about that.

 

[Starman]

And Krzyzewski.