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Tate: On Beckman, beer and best conference

What a wild and woolly time ... with games and sports issues exploding like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Here we go, with help from Jim Turpin’s Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

Beckman’s no-choice decision

Tim Beckman probably was trying to return too soon, and surely North Carolina wasn’t the perfect location.

Two obvious reasons for his bad timing: (1) Saturday’s game here revived the issue of his dealings with UI athletes and injuries; (2) Carolina already is on the NCAA hot seat.

Two Larry Fedora news conferences immediately centered on his volunteer assistant, and the Carolina chancellor stepped in to cite Mike Thomas’ reasons for Beckman’s firing a year ago.