The Skinny The loud hum of airborne helicopters passing overhead late Thursday night could only mean one thing: that the fires burned on Franklin Street, that Chapel Hill was in a communal state of exaltation, that the Heels had beaten the Blue Devils. At the Smith Center on Thursday, the Tar Heels put together arguably […]
Michael Venutolo-Mantovani
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As Long as Kyle Larson’s 42 Car Is on the Track, He’s Got a Fighting Chance to Win
In advance of the Daytona 500 on February 18, the INDY’s in-house NASCAR aficionado, Mike V, has been previewing drivers he predicts will emerge as the primary contenders for this year’s cup championship. In the previous editions, he caught us up on the charismatic North Carolinian Ryan Blaney and one of racing’s greatest heels in […]
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Welcome to the INDY’s Exhausted Coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games™
With the Winter Olympics set to open in two days—though you can catch the first event, doubles curling, at eleven p.m. tonight on NBCSN—we bring you the INDY‘s official Exhausted Coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games™, in which newly minted first-time father Michael Venutolo-Mantovani and committed insomniac Elizabeth Nelson attempt to make sense of […]
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Three Conference Losses, a Sloppy Win (and No Biscuits), Some Days Off, Now Duke: The Week in UNC Hoops
The Skinny Three straight conference losses hadn’t befallen the University of North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball team since 2014, yet the Heels came back from South Carolina after last Tuesday’s defeat at Clemson matching that dubious streak. Clemson’s early onslaught of three-pointers left the Heels in such a deep hole that they couldn’t ride […]
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Why the Eagles Are Going to Win the Super Bowl
In basketball, baseball, and hockey championships are determined via seven-game series. Those series are built, in theory, so that the better team will win. There are statistical arguments to the contrary, but at its core, that’s the idea. The one-and-done, on the other hand, is made for chaos, which is why many people regard the […]
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Kyle Busch Might Be a Jerk, But He’s Also One of NASCAR’s Best Drivers
Editor’s note: In advance of February’s Daytona 500, our in-house NASCAR aficionado Mike V has been previewing drivers he predicts will emerge as the primary contenders for this year’s Cup Championship. In the previous edition, he caught us up on the charismatic North Carolinian Ryan Blaney. Here he acquaints us with one of racing’s great […]
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The Tar Heels Dropped Two in a Row and Maybe Aren’t Actually All That Good This Year
The Skinny Carolina’s move back into the AP Top 10 lasted less than half a day, when mere hours after they were anointed once again as one of the nation’s ten best teams, they engaged in a maddening no-show at Virginia Tech. Unlike their last trip to our northern neighbor (a January 6 61-49 loss […]
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High Point Native Ryan Blaney Is Exactly the Kind of Driver NASCAR Needs Right Now
Last week, in preparation for the impending Super Bowl (of Motorsports), we covered the ins and outs of a NASCAR season, the convoluted and labyrinthine rules of racing’s playoff format, and how over the next four weeks I would be profiling each of the four drivers that I predict will be racing for the Monster […]
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Underwhelming, Uneven, and (Mostly) Uninspired: The Week in UNC Hoops
The Skinny Carolina was taken to task this week by a few teams who, depending on whom you ask, either punched above their weight or are criminally underrated. Last Saturday’s game against Notre Dame found the Heels needing one of South Bend’s lynchpin players to miss not one but two buzzer beaters in order to […]
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The NFL Is Wrapping Up Its Worst Season in Decades. We Should Blame Fantasy Football.
Now that we have a full season of ratings to postulate on, you can prepare yourself for a slate of various think pieces on America’s interest (apparently waning) in professional football. While there are many reasons for the decline in overall interest or engagement—bad on-field product, games spread across three and sometimes four nights a […]