Tar Heel Fan

Tar Heel Fan Has Moved!!!!

2006-08-25T14:57:00.001-04:00

I grew weary of Blogger's lack of features and general reliability topped off by the fact I could not post to my blog for a day because I made the mistake of attempting to upgrade to the beta version.

So I moved and imported most of the material to a new blogging host:

http://tarheelfan.wordpress.com

Please note the new address and update your bookmarks and blogrolls accordingly.

Thanks for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience.

Tar Heel Fan

Media Roundup

2006-08-24T10:25:00.000-04:00

The WSJ(Winston Salem Journal not Wall Street Journal) casts the spotlight onto UNC defensive tackle Shelton Bynum. [Winston Salem Journal]
I actually missed this on Monday but the N&O's Ned Barnett considers the state of the UNC football program under John Bunting. [News and Observer]
Mark Schlabach is back with "5 Predictions for the Big East Season" in which he asserts the Big East will "flex its growing muscles" against the ACC (if you consider beating Wake, UVa, and Maryland "flexing your muscles.") Rutgers upsetting UNC in Chapel Hill? We'll see. [ESPN]
According to the Washington Post, Maryland has inked a naming rights deal for Byrd Stadium which is now going to be called Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium. I agree with J.P. Giglio, let's just call it Byrd Stadium. [ACC Now]
And there is much ado about a new NCAA rule which allows players who have finished their degree to transfer immediately to a new school. Needless to say the coaches are unhappy. [Charlotte Observer]

Welcome Deadspin Readers!

2006-08-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

Nice. Of course it also happened on a day I decided to take a day off from work for a family outing. I was unaware I had been linked on a national blog. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the site and a big thanks to the guys at Deadspin for showing me a little love.

Welcome!

2006-08-22T16:02:00.000-04:00

Joe Ovies, blogger-in-chief at the 850 the Buzz/620 the Bull blog was kind enough to add me to the blogroll over there and I did not even have to ask. Thanks to Joe for extending me that courtesy and welcome to any readers who bounce this way from there.

Five Predictions Proving ESPN is Clueless

2006-08-22T06:46:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Welcome Deadspin.com readers!!! Or at least this guy named, Mark Schlabach, is clueless. He wrote an article for ESPN.com called 5 predictions for the ACC season. Let's enjoy it together shall we?

1. Florida State will win the ACC for the 13th time in the 15 seasons it has played in the league. FSU will win at Miami on Sept. 4 and won't lose before its Nov. 25 regular season finale against rival Florida. In the Atlantic Division, the Seminoles will finish at least two games ahead of Clemson, which will get out of the gates slowly again this season. Miami and Virginia Tech will play for the Coastal Division title at the Orange Bowl on Nov. 4. Then the Seminoles will beat the Hurricanes again in the ACC championship game in Jacksonville, Fla.

I am not real sure where all of the FSU love is coming from. I would agree FSU is in a better position than most teams based on the QB issue alone. FSU also has an easy conference schedule in this era of unbalances schedules. They have games with Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland, and Virginia. However I think it is utterly foolish to count the NC State game a win considering the history there. They get Miami to open and then play Clemson in Tallahasse after beating the ever living daylights out of Troy(State). Seeing that FSU ranked only at #11 I would think the games against Miami and Clemson are toss ups. And beating Miami a second time to win the championship game? Not a small task. I also do not understand why he thinks Clemson will get off to a slow start. FSU is the only quality team the Tigers play until hosting Georgia Tech and visiting Virginia Tech in late October. If Clemson pulls it out against FSU they could be undefeated heading to Blacksburg. I like Clemson and think they deserve more play than they are getting right now in the Florida-centric football media.

2. For the third season in a row, an ACC coach won't be fired after the football season. Clemson will win 10 games to secure Tommy Bowden's job. North Carolina will win at least seven to take the pressure off John Bunting. Maryland will play better, but won't be bowl eligible because of its tough schedule. So Ralph Friedgen will enter the 2007 season on the hot seat, along with Virginia's Al Groh and NC State's Chuck Amato.

Since I am in the process of calling this guy clueless what does that say about me since we both predicted a seven win season in Chapel Hill? That simply proves I am wrong about my Heels. For some reason he puts Chuck Amato on the hot seat without one time addressing how the Wolfpack will perform this season. That is generally referred to as an "unsubstantiated claim" in which he makes a fairly naked implication but never offers in reasoning why. You get this a lot from ESPN. Al Groh is mentioned as being a hot seat candidate but then again everyone knows Groh is overpaid and not well like in the state of Virginia. 3. The most dangerous offensive weapon in the ACC won't be Georgia Tech's Calvin Johnson. It will be FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford, who will blossom in his second season as a starter. With receivers De' Cody Fagg, Chris Davis and Greg Carr, the Seminoles will become feared again on offense. With another intimidating defense, FSU will be among the last undefeated teams in college football and in contention for the BCS title game.
My rule is that if you mention a team in high praise once then you are simply high on them. If you do it twice in the same column when you are performing a "journalistic back-rub." Yes, FSU will be good, we got that, but not only will FSU be good but they will have the most dangerous offensive weapon the ACC. And not only is FSU going to completely dominate the ACC with their feared offense and incredible but they will be undefeated near season's end and contend for the BCS title! Please stop you are drooling on my keyboard now. The problem with this prediction is it borders on something the FSU Sports Information office would publish. The first issue is asserting that Calvin Johnson will not be the mosr dangerous offensive weapon in the ACC rather that designation goes to FSU QB Drew Weatherford...and his three receivers as well as the whole FSU offense in general. Wait a minute I thought this was about the single most dangerous offensive weapon(singular noun) in the ACC? If you are going to single out GT's Calvin Johnson and demote him to second best offensive weapon then your assertion that Drew Weatherford is better should make zero mention of any other players on the offensive side. Why? Because the comparison is about individuals players and not multiple players. Basically the assertion is made that Drew Weatherford is a better offensive weapon because he has three great receivers and the offense will be feared again. Well if Drew Weatherford is judged based on his receiving corps shouldn't Calvin Johnson be evaluated based on his QB Reggie Ball who is a great pocket scrambler? Secondly, if you read the first prediction which crowned FSU ACC Champion and not likely to lose a game except for the Florida matchup late in the season then you can glean the following: That FSU will go undefeated or suffer one loss(at Florida) and since we are pretty much up to speed on how this how BCS system works we understand that a zero/one loss FSU team will be in position to contend for the BCS title. Then why, for the love of everything Carolina blue, are you telling us the exact same thing again?!?! As though I did not reach the point of nausea after the first prediction. There is such a thing as overreaching and this guy is doing it in spades with his love for FSU.

4. Duke won't go winless. The Blue Devils will lose to Division I-AA Richmond in their Sept. 2 opener, but Duke will win one game to avoid a 12-loss season. After losing quarterback Zack Asack, who was suspended for the season as punishment for plagiarism, the Blue Devils might not be favored in any of their games this season. Give Duke credit: Its out-of-conference schedule is tougher than most teams in the ACC. In addition to playing the Spiders, Duke plays at Alabama and at home against Vanderbilt and Navy.

Excuse me? What we have here is another one of those "unsubstantiated claims." He is bodly claiming that Duke, who may not have a real QB at the position, will actually lose the first game vs Richmond but like a blind hog, they will locate an acorn somewhere else along the way. Against who and in what reality do you think Duke will manage a win if it is not against the I-AA Spiders? Here is Duke's schedule: Richmond at Wake Forest at Virginia Tech Virginia at Alabama Florida State Miami(FL) Vanderbilt Navy at Boston College at Georgia Tech North Carolina

OK, go ahead and tell me which one of these teams Duke will beat if they do not beat Richmond. Wake Forest is a possibility but that game is on the road. Vanderbilt was 5-6 last season in the SEC no less which means they will be good enough to take care of the Blue Devils. Navy is having a good run right now. I actually fear what will transpire when Alabama, FSU, Miami, VT, BC, GT and UNC are on the other side of the ball. And let's not pretend home games are worth anything seeing that no one comes to Wallace Wade to watch the team play! The more comical part of the prediction was how much time he spent patting Duke on the back for scheduling tough which is exactly the wrong thing to do when you have been a perpetual loser. If you are Duke football which is more important: a nice fat SOS number on the RPI or wins on your record? Duke should trade schedules with VT, so Duke can have a fighting chance and VT can actually play someone decent out-of-conference.

5. Georgia Tech will provide the ACC its biggest out-of-conference victory of the season -- but it won't come against Notre Dame. The Yellow Jackets will give the Fighting Irish everything they have, but Notre Dame will still pull out a close victory on Sept. 2. Georgia Tech will rebound well and finish third in the Coastal Division and salvage its season by upsetting rival Georgia on the road.

This prediction mystifies me a bit. First of all he goes through the trouble of telling us GT will come up short to Notre Dame in the opener, then tells us GT will be no better than third in the Coastal Division(behind Miami and VT)[Correction I had FSU in the Coastal as a commenter pointed out that was incorrect.] only to tell us that the ACC's biggest out-of-conference win will come against Georgia at season's end. Now I honestly think this guy was desperate for a fifth prediction because "Four predictions about the ACC" did not sound right. The other problem is there is not much to go on here. Basically when he says "biggest out of conference win" what he really means is "biggest out-of-conference upset win" If you examine the 12 ACC teams' out-of-conference opponents they are, shall we say, a fairly anemic group. The top teams have more cupcakes than a Hostess truck and the rest of the league is only slightly better by virtue of being the prey rather than the predator. In my estimation "the biggest out-of-conference win for the ACC" is defined as a win over the highest ranked out-of-conference opponent by lower ranked ACC team. If that is the case than based on the current polls that boils down to only a handful of teams. Georgia Tech plays #2 Notre Dame in the opener and #15 Georgia in the regular season finale. UNC plays #2 Notre Dame in November, Maryland will match #5 West Virgnia in September, and Miami will play #13 Louisville. So assuming the rankings stay where they are, the assertion is made that the biggest OOC win for the ACC will come when GT takes down the #15 team in the country. Yeah, that sounds like a huge win. In reality the three chances the ACC has for a "big" OOC win are GT vs. Notre Dame, Maryland vs. West Virginia, and UNC vs. Notre Dame. I agree GT has a shot to make it close with ND but the other two are fairly certain to be losers. Miami will be ranked better or near Lousiville when they play so that one would not count as a big win. Basically this is not really a shocking prediction at all since you only had about five games to choose from and excuse me if I do not find GT beating rival Georgia a big deal considering both teams may very well be ranked when it actually happens. ESPN: Cutting Edge Anlaysis for Over 25 Years.

UNC Football Preview

2006-08-21T15:15:00.000-04:00

I was rummaging through some old computer games I had when I came across a CD-ROM for EA Sports NCAA Football 1998. Since these titles are released based on the data from the previous season it included the 1997 version of the North Carolina Tar Heels. Oh what a sweet team that was. The 1997 Heels went 11-1 losing only to Florida State and trouncing Virginia Tech 42-10 in a New Year's Day Gator Bowl appearance. Of course the Gator Bowl victory was under the direction of Carl Torbush since Mack Brown had accepted the job at Texas and long since departed Chapel Hill. Unfortunately that first day of 1998 was the high point of UNC football in the last 20 years. Carl Torbush became head coach by default and the decline was prominent. In 1998 the Heels were 7-5 and won the Las Vegas Bowl but by 1999 they finished 3-8. 2000 was better at 6-5 but not enough to save Carl Torbush who was shown the door. Frank Beamer danced with UNC but only to get a better deal at VT. The result was a hire from "inside the family" in former UNC lineback John Bunting who had been coaching in the NFL without the benefit of college coaching experience. Since I was 900 miles removed from North Carolina at the time I missed all of the local coverage and anlaysis. I remembered thinking what a bad hire this was and John Bunting did not seem like a coach I could get excited over. The program felt stalled at the .500/sub .500 level sentenced to spend the upcoming season wallowing in the middle to lower half of the ACC and maybe sweating out a bowl appearance every so often. Now as we begin the 2006 season we have had five seasons of Bunting ball, only one winning record in 2001 which included a bowl win. A second bowl appearance came in 2004 following an upset of Miami at Chapel Hill(turns out Miami was not as good as they were ranked at the time), then came a loss to future ACC school Boston College in the "Hey Let's Make Use of This NFL Stadium in Charlotte" Continental Tire Bowl. In between those two seasons were two losing records and just this past season UNC went 5-6 against a stiff out-of-conference schedule, beating NC State, but missing the bowl. Five years and aside from a bowl win in 2001, an upset of Miami, and a 3-2 mark against NC State, UNC football has been about as exciting as a chess tournament. At this point is is difficult to muster any kind of passion because I suffer from the naggin sensation that when it is all said and done in December UNC will be 6-6 or 5-7 and if the former is true heading to a bowl game which no one really cares about. Essentially I have little optimism. Then again hope does spring eternal and since I am not ready to pen the "Fire John Bunting" post....yet, let me offer this fan's prediction on the upcoming season: Offense UNC is breaking in a new starting QB and has a new offensive coordinator in Frank Cignetti. The candidates for the QB position are redshirt freshman Cameron Sexton and Joe Dailey, a transfer from a non-Tom Osbourne coached Nebraska. According to the News and Observer, the question of running a two QB system has come to light. UNC has done this in the past and because each of these guys bring something different to the table it may be a solution, at least until one emerges over the other:

In 2001, Bunting's only season over .500, the Tar Heels went 8-5 with the two-quarterback system. In 1997, the Heels went 11-1 with a rotation at quarterback. Bunting insists that it will work again with Dailey, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound junior transfer from Nebraska, and Sexton, a 6-1, 191-pound redshirt freshman. "We're not afraid to do it," Bunting said. "Would we rather have one? Sure. But they both have attributes to help you win football games." Sexton, considered more of a pocket passer, has impressed the coaches with his arm strength. Dailey, considered more of runner, has impressed with his mobility. Dailey compared the situation to having two running backs -- a power back and a third-down back.

So in other words it all comes down to how the offensive line performs. If the offensive line is decent and protects the pocket with a fair amount of consistency then you will probably rely on Sexton and Dailey both or just Sexton alone if he is hitting the receiver. If it turns out the OL is not up to the task then Dailey becomes a better option because he can probably do a better job escaping pressure. Then it could also come down to how the opponent's defense is responding. A weak defense upfront with a great seconday may force Bunting to rely on Dailey and the running game or if the reverse is true then Sexton's passing could be a plus. The down side to this arrangement is it has to be sorted out during live action and I still have little trust in Bunting's skill as a coach to do that effectively. One plus for on offense is the return of three rushing backs: Ronnie McGill, Barrington Edwards and Cooter Arnold. So in one respect the QB position may be less crucial to offense since the Heels will look to run the ball most of the time. It also puts the question of OL effectiveness back in the spotlight since backs need holes to run through and if there is a defender waiting for you when the QB gives you the ball your yard totals are going to be low to say the least. Defense This should be the strength of this team and we all hope we do not see a repeat of the Louisville game this year. Lineback Larry Edwards looks to be the centerpiece of the defense. UNC also returns starters in the secondary. In other words the defense should be solid and needs to provide the offense with some cushion when you consider that running the ball really shortens the game, makes those games lower scoring, and puts pressure of the defense to not give up as many points. The offense is not high octane and with good depth upfront as well as experience at lineback and in the secondary, the defense should be able to keep the offense within striking distance. Special Teams Connor Barth returns as the kicker. He struck me as inconsistent last season but he also can hit some long field goals. I probably have more confidence in him than I do most any other kicker in college football(except for that kid at Colorado). As for the coverage teams, they have one job, and that is to not allow the other team to get crazy good field position or score. If the defense is doing it's job to keep the other team from scoring then the last thing you want is to give up one on special teams. Schedule Outlook Not as difficult as last year in many respects but the OOC does include three bowl teams from 2005. He is a brief summary of how Tar Heel Fan thinks it will happens. September 2nd, Rutgers, Chapel Hill, NC 3:30 PM on ABC I honestly know very little about the Scarlet Knights other than the name of their mascot. They lost to Arizona St. in the Insight.com Bowl 45-40 to finish 7-5 overall. They are capable of putting up lots of yards and points on offense but also are capable of giving up the same amount meaning their game against Lousiville last season(56-5 loss) was very similar to the one UNC played. It would seem that UNC and Rutgers have opposite strengths which could lead to a tug of war. I think the Heels can pull this one out at home 24-21. September 9th, Virginia Tech, Chapel Hill, NC, 12:00 PM on ESPN I would not say UNC is without hope here. VT has their own problems and they are also breaking in a new felony-free QB. However, the Hokies just have too much talent, depth, and whatever else you have to be a winner not to mention a great coach. VT wins going away 31-10. September 16th, Furman, Chapel Hill, NC, 7:00 PM on ESPNU(which no one has) I do not care for playing against Division I-AA schools(and yes I hate the new designations which for I-A and I-AA and refuse to even Google them to find out exactly what they are so I can use them in this post) because it looks weak. Granted Furman is a good team but when it is all said and done your 6-6 mark is really 5-6 because you played a division down to get a win. Of course Furman fans will be all over me, assuming they know this blog exists, should UNC lose which I am not predicting. UNC wins 35-10. September 23rd, Clemson, Clemson, SC, TBA Clemson is actually the closet pick to win the ACC so there is no way UNC goes to Death Valley and walks away with anything resembling a win. Tigers roll 38-7. October 7th, Miami(FL), Coral Gables, FL, TBA At least UNC has a week to heal up from getting beaten by Clemson so they can go to Miami and get beaten again. And, no, I do not think UNC can beat Miami on a semi-regular basis like NC State can beat FSU unless we fire Bunting and get a Miami assistant to be the head coach. Miami wins 31-14. October 14th, South Florida, Chapel Hill, NC, TBA I know very little about South Florida other than they failed to score on NC State which was comical because even UNC scored 31 points on the Wolfpack at Carter-Finley no less. UNC should step up and get the job done because (1) They are at home (2) I think they match up to South Florida and (3) Any hope and I mean any hope of a bowl game rides on winning three of the four OOC games because there is no way in blue heaven you are winning at Notre Dame. UNC wins 21-13. October 19th, Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 7:30 PM on ESPN Two strikes against UNC already. First, this is a Thursday game and while I do not have a history of Thursday games involving UNC I am going on instinct that it is not a good mark. Secondly, UNC never wins at Virginia or so it seems. I mean Virginia could send out the Virginia AAAA state title team and UNC would find a way to lose at UVa. Of course this is an interesting position on my part since UNC actually leads the series by six wins. I guess I am still hung up on that 20-17 loss in 1996 in which UNC gave the game away in the final minutes. UNC did beat UVa on a pair of home runs by Matt Baker last year 7-5. I like their chances but I am still thinking Thursday night in Charlottesville is a bad combo. I call it UVa 23-20 in overtime. October 28th, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill, NC, TBA I am not spending anytime writing about this one. Wake is not a good team. UNC wins 37-14. November 4th, Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, 2:30 PM on NBC What were they thinking when they scheduled this one? I am all for a tough OOC schedule but playing the Irish in South Bend is a little like going to the dentist. You have an idea what is going to happen, you are sure you are not going to enjoy it, the only question is how bad will it be? I actually see some inkling of a chance. Notre Dame did not have a good defense last season which means the offense will not be totally handcuffed. UNC has a decent defense which might be enough to slow down the offensive juggernaut which is Notre Dame. Of course Charlie Weis, at least in the eyes of the media, is the full embodiment of all football knowledge which makes him and Mel Kiper the only two humans on the face of the planet who understand everything about the game of football so that alone is worth two touchdowns for Notre Dame. I probably should make it three given the gap between the two coaches here but I am feeling generous. Notre Dame wins 45-23. November 11th, Georgia Tech, Chapel Hill, NC, TBA GT has a great receiver in Calvin Johnson and a good QB in Reggie Ball. The Yellow Jackets will press the UNC defense, UNC should be able to get some kind of offense going. The Heels' best bet is to grind the clock, keep Johnson and Ball off the field which means the UNC defense will be rested and Homecoming will end swimmingly. UNC squeaks it out 20-17. So at this point UNC would be 5-5 and hosting.... November 18th, NC State, Chapel Hill, NC, TBA This could be a :"Losing Coach Gets Fired" game. For some reason no one thinks Bunting and NC State coach Chuck Amato are in trouble. If Amato falls to 3-4 versus UNC and 2-4 versus Bunting I happen to think the natives in southwest Raleigh will be restless indeed. If they make a bowl he will likely keeps his job but the hot seat will be warming for next season. In reality Bunting probably does not feel any heat from this game, even if he loses. Such is the apathy in Chapel Hill about football. However if this loss drops UNC to 3-8 then he might not make it to the Duke game. As for the much anticipated renewal of hostilities between State and Carolina strap yourself in for a penalty fest full of bad officiating, nasty turnovers...oh wait that was last year's game. Well since nothing much has changed and each team is still coached by the same two guys I have no reason to believe the same game is not played out again. UNC wins 31-24. November 25th, Duke, Durham, NC, TBA Duke sucks. And let me be clear I do not say that as a part of standard UNC fan usage Duke really does have a horrible football team. They lost their started QB to some academic cheating scandal and now they may have a converted wide receiver under center. They could be 0 for the season come Nov. 25 at Wallace Wade unless they are able to be Richmond in the opener because let's be honest. Duke. Will. Not. Beat. Anyone. Else. UNC romps 41-10. So there I am calling it a 7-5 season which will get UNC into some bowl played well before New Year's which will keep John Bunting in Chapel Hill at least two more seasons and the apathy rolls on. In terms of how badly could this season go I would look at the games with GT and NCSU as possible losses. South Florida and Rutgers might be a surprise. 5-7 is a real possibility and if all four of these games go the wrong way UNC ends up 3-9 which you would think would lead to some serious questions about John Bunting and the direction of the program. I will reserve judgment on that until after the Rutgers game which I believe to be a must win if the season is to go well. There is no room for error on this schedule. Notre Dame, Clemson, Miami, VT are certain losses. Rutgers, South Florida, and Furman are must wins coupled with the Duke win which makess Virginia, GT, and NC State the three crucial games which separate UNC from a bowl year and another weak 4-5 win season.

Tiger. Woods.

2006-08-21T09:36:00.000-04:00

Having watched Michael Jordan play basketball I had convinced myself I had seen the greatest athlete of my generation play. Correction, he was the second greatest athlete because Tiger Woods is by far the best. Tiger won his 12th major yesterday by five strokes as the rest of the field floundered somewhere behind him, Woods opened up a five stroke lead. It was the 12th time Woods had a part or all of the lead going into Sunday and for the 12th time he won. This essentially means that when Tiger is in position to win he does not choke it away. In other words if he is at the top of the leaderboard history says the tournament is over and everyone else is playing for second. Now I happen to think that any debate on his greatness versus Jack Nicklaus cannot begin in earnest until he passes Nicklaus as holding more major championships. I do think it is entirely fair to debate the issue on the basis of the body of work so far in comparison to how Nicklaus had performed. Tiger is 30 years and 9 months old and he already has 12 major championships to his credit. He accomplished this feat in 40 major starts which means Woods is averaging better than one win in every fourth major played. Nicklaus by his 40th major only had nine titles. As for age Nicklaus did not win his 12th major until the 1973 PGA Championship about seven months after his 33rd birthday. So not only has Woods won three more majors in he same number of major tournaments BUT he has three more majors three years earlier. This is to say that Tiger would have to go 0 for his next 12 majors to have the same number of majors at the same age as Nicklaus was at this point in his career. Woods also won his 51st PGA event and is only 31 behind Sam Snead for the most in the category. The question we have to ask now is how many will he win? Assuming he stays healthy and his game continues to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field the question is not if he passes Nicklaus but when and by how much? Nicklaus career provides a glimpse of what kind of time table we may be looking at. Nicklaus won his 16th and 17th majors in 1980 when he was 40 years old and then surprised the field at Augusta in 1986 to win his 18th and last. In ten years Woods will be 40 which includes another 40 major starts assuming he is healthy. Woods just went 12 for 40 during the first 10 years of his career. I am going to handicap him to account for the beginning some level of decline as he approaches 40 and say he only wins 10 of the next 40. That would put him at 22. I would also think that he is more durable than Nicklaus was and will be more competitive through his mid to late 40s so count on about four more major titles after age 40. That would give him a surely insurmountable total of 26 major titles. If you also factor in the possibility that he may be on the verge of ripping off a streak of dominance which has him winning multiple majors a year then he could very be at 20 by age 35 and still could win 8 to 10 more after than to get him close to 30 major titles. I just do not see any limit to what he can do on the golf course. Woods said in the press conference yesterday that he was playing as well as he did when he won four straight majors at the turn of the century and now he had seven years more experience. That means the first time around he won more on his physical talent and did not have the experience level. Now, not only does Woods have the physical talent but he has the experience of winning 12 majors and 39 other tournaments. This is evident in the strategies he used to win the British and the PGA where Woods looked for controlled drives even if it meant sacrificing distance because his approach shots are so good it does not matter if he is 50 yards behind his playing partner Woods is still probably hitting the same club or higher. And if his putting is on then as long as he gets in on the green he will drop more in for birdie than not. This may sound like gushing on my part but I am awed by his performance on the golf course, his intensity and focus as well as the manner in which he handles the media. He is the total package and playing on a level no one has seen since Nicklaus and I suspect before it is all done even Nicklaus will be considered second best to Woods. And there will be no debate.

Ground Rules

2006-08-17T12:13:00.000-04:00

During my vacation from blogging I spent some time considering the direction this blog would take and the content it would cover. A history tells us I started this blog focusing primarily on North Carolina basketball which has been a passion of mine since childhood. I have since expanded it to include any number of sports stories, opinions, and when necessary the occassional bashing of Duke basketball. I have reached a point where I am having difficult keeping up with it all. I also feel the need to redefine the kind of content I post. This leads me to some new rules for blog. 1. More Narrowly Focused This means I will save the heaviest blogging for UNC related news and especially basketball season. I will delve into other sports if the news is big enough but for the most part I will stick to what I know and love the most and that is UNC sports and most particularly basketball. As a part of that focus I will offer opinions on college sports in general and give some attention to happenings at Duke and NC State as well as other ACC schools. 2. Hating Your Rivals with Civility Part of being a UNC fan is possessing a certain degree of animosity for NC State and a high degree of disgust for Duke. That is the territory. That being said there are two routes you can with that. You can be civil, offer legitimate criticism, and bring some humorous quips to the forefront at the expense of your rivals or you can attack them at every turn and go for the cheap shot out of entertainment value. It is my personal opinion that my blog has been characterized by much of the former but sadly enough good chunks of the latter. It is easy, very easy, when you have your own personal soapbox on the internet and really no accountability to take a anything goes attitude of sorts as long as you can make people hit your site. It is easy to bludgeon your rival to a pulp in hopes that people will hit your site because you launch great zingers. In other words it is real easy to be Gregg Doyel at CBSSportsline(and if you do not know Doyel, he is a "columnist" on the CBS Sports website who does nothing but inflame people just to stir the pot without offering any real substance). One example of how this played out here was in my treatment of JJ Redick. Some UNC fans will tell you I was tame concerning Redick but I thought I was out of line with my treatment of him for DUI arrest especially considering the history of such arrests in UNC basketball. However I did not think my treatment of Duke or Redick in reference to the loss to UNC at Cameron in March or their upset loss to LSU was completely in context of the game and the rivalry. Basically what I am saying is anything on the court or within the context of the season is fair game was long as I am tasteful and using relevant data to back up my criticisms. Ridiculing Redick for his DUI was out of line on my part and does not reflect my belief that all people are fallen in one way or another which calls us to show grace. 3. Thoughtful Analysis Backed Up With Substantive Data This should not really be a change. Among the things I dislike are people who use personal attacks in an argument and people who make arguments which are all emotions and noise but no real facts. I will do my level best to make sure that does not happen here. This may mean that I am a day late chiming in on something because I need enough time to research and make sure what I write is grounded in reality. 4. Comments and Email Welcome But.... I enjoy comments from readers and emails are fine too. I do reserve the right to do with those whatvever I want to on my blog. I will also not tolerate egregious personal attacks or profanity of any sort. If you do not like something I said then please do me and everyone else who reads this blog(because we know they are coming by the droves) the courtesy of making a decent argument which does not question my lineage or invite me to acts against my own body which are physically impossible to perform. I will delete comments I think are inappropriate or if I get a rash of them like I did when I allegedly insulted UCLA during the Final Four in April I will address them directly and make my best effort to expose any idiocy I find for what it is. 5. I Will Post What I Can, When I Can I hope to keep this going regularly and in basketball season daily. And let me also express my gratitude to those who wander my way from other sites or at random. I hope you enjoy the postings here and feel free to offer up any suggestions for how I can make it better.

Back from Vacation/Break

2006-08-16T15:01:00.000-04:00

Yes, I was on vacation and taking a general break from blogging altogether in an effort to organize myself ahead of the coming college football season. Well, actually as a true UNC fan I am far more interested in the beginning of the basketball season but football is a nice distraction/outlet for frustration. All of this means I hope to have some sort of UNC football preview forthcoming, assuming I can find the time. In the meantime, the NBA released rookie portraits and they are interesting to say the least. First, let us all behold the glory of the Orlando Magic's first round pick J.J. Redick who used his rookie portrait as an opportunity to reinforce the perception most people already have about him: From NBA.com I mean, he looks like a Rockette for crying out loud. On the other hand NC State's Cedric Simmons has the right look for his photo though I honestly thought it was Jerry Stackhouse at first glance: From NBA.com Then again there is something about the visual here that makes Shelden Williams' head look weird: From NBA.com

Change of Heart

2006-08-08T09:17:00.000-04:00

Well sort of. I actually started mulling this Floyd Landis controversy a little more and found a whole new litany of questions. 1. Why only one positive results out of hundreds he has had? Landis like every other world class cyclist is tested numerous times over the course of his career. Bobby Julich wrote that the testing is so rigorous that cyclists are forced to inform the US Anti-Doping Agency and the UCI of there wheareabouts and are subject to random tests at their home even if they are not racing. So given this level of scrutiny why was Landis only caught this one time? The scenario that is playing out is that Landis was so devasted by his Stage 16 failure where he fell eight minutes behind the yellow jersey that he used some sort of synthetic testosterone that night to enable a quicker recovery which led to his amazing comeback in Stage 17. However, there is some debate over whether anything Landis could have taken or any patch he could have used would have provided enough effect to enable him to pull of the comeback he managed that day in France. It is also been made clear that for him to try anything of this nature would have been exceptionally stupid since there is no way to mask it. So what we have here is a set of conditions which must be proven true: (1) The testosterone had to be effective (2) Landis had to act in a manner out of character for him and turn to some kind of perfomance enhancer to ausuage the pain of losing the yellow jersey by such a wide margin and (3) Landis would have to be inherently stupid to think he would not get caught on the post-stage test. I think the media would be well served to ask these questions and address the issues as part of the debate. 2. Swift Justice No one really wasted one moment(myself included) in pronouncing Landis guilty as charged. I saw very little in the way of actually anlysis or postulating some kind of reasonable explanation for the postive result. Sure there were the "kitchen sink" theories which lawyers for Landis threw out in the first days following the leaked results of the "A" sample but no one in the media actually engaged in any objective reasoning. And on Saturday when the "B" sample result was made know the headline at ESPN.com read something like: "A+B=C'Ya" In my opinion that is neither professional or objective but a sensationalized headline. It also should be noted that the level of interest in the Tour de France was minimal until this happened and now the media seems to care so much because we live in such a rubberneck culture where the misery of others is entertainment to us. If anything the media has been totally complicit with process to convict Landis which is far removed from there role. As for the speed of the condemnations, it seems a little odd that everyone is tossing Landis under a bus so quick when Tyler Hamilton was accused of blood doping two years ago and has yet to be fired from his team(Phonak the same team that dismissed Landis ten seconds after the results came out) nor widely condemned by the media in general. And while this is not unusual for the people to hang you before the trial, the move to dismiss Landis has a air that someone might be hiding something. Speaking of which... 3. Conspiracy Theory Landis said yesterday that the UCI and WADA have an agenda. He blasted them for failing to follow their own procedure in leaking his "A" sample results and lamented the fact he was condemned in the media before being properly informed so he could mount a resonable defense(which he says led to the wild theories coming from his camp). Now I think conspiracy theories are often times wrong because it requires too much complicity among too many people to get it all right and keep it a secret. In other words someone in the conspiratorial chain of individuals is going to slip up or talk about it. That being said, let's take Landis' theory at face value and ask what agenda the UCI, WADA, and the Tour de France could have. First there is a longstanding feud between WADA president Dick Pound and Lance Armstrong. Basically everyone at the UCI, Tour de France, and WADA believe Armstrong cheated and was blood doping at some point in his string of seven wins at the Tour. The problem is no one has been able to prove it and it has led to some nasty back and forth between the parties. The question is would the WADA, UCI, and Tour de France be so petty as to switch the samples on Landis in an effort to discredit him and his Tour win as a veiled shot at Armstrong and United States? Would these parties be so petty as to frame Landis out of spite because another American won the Tour? Did they decide to make an example of someone in light of banning the top contenders prior to the Tour? Granted these all seem a little silly or not very plausible but that is not the real issue. The real issue is we are ready to believe Landis is a cheater without pausing to ask whether the WADA, UCI, and Tour de France are capable of unehtical behavior. If it is so easy to believe that Landis, who had one positive test out of the hundreds he has taken, is capable of committing such a horrendus act of cheating on one occasion then does it not stand to reason that we can also believe that members of the WADA, Tour, and UCI who have made numerous accusatory statements against Lance Armstrong are also capable of engaging in a fraud to frame Landis. The point is you cannot(easily) declare Landis to be unethical without also considering the possibility of something shady going on with these governing bodies who have repeatedly shown a penchant for anti-American seniment where Armstrong was concerned. I do not think it is that much a stretch of logic to believe they would flog Landis as an example to others, as a cheap shot at the U.S. or just out of anti-American spite in general. Now I will grant Occam's razor and the general complexity of conspiracies puts a serious damper on this thinking but I also see nothing in the past behavior of people like Dick Pound or the director of the Tour de France which makes me comfortable granting them absolute moral authority in this issue. 4. Maintaining Innocenence I brought this up yesterday and it deserves a little more thought. If the evidence is so damining what reason would Landis have for maintaining his innocence? I said there were two possibilities: The first is he is mounting the Pete Rose defense which is to deny everything in hopes you can be exonorated on a technicality or you deny because you are trapped into it by the PR machine. The second possibility for maintaining your innocence regardless of the evidence is because...well...you are innocent. After having considered the issues I am beginning to lean towards the possibility that Landis may actually be innocent because the Pete Rose defense is such an idiotic defense to mount I am not sure why anyone would undertake it. Landis denied wrongdoing from Day 1 which is usually a good PR move but to maintain the denial even after the evidence is in means you are unwilling to come out of the corner you painted yourself in by initial denial or you actually believe you are innocent. Based on what I have seen and heard from Landis, he seem to believe he is innocent. Could he be a great liar playing the PR game with deft skill? Sure, he wouldn't be the first and certainly not the last. However, the issues above cast a long shadow of doubt on his guilt. Granted it is not nearly the shadow his innocence is under but the postive result not withstanding I still see the final verdict on this in doubt. Final Thoughts I am not familiar with how the testing is done but the first thing I would do, if I were Landis, is demand a DNA test on the samples in question to make sure they were my samples that were tested. There may not be a reason for this. There may be enough evidence in the chain of custody to perclude this test but I would want to make sure the samples they tested were mine. I would also ask for a release of all my test results from the Tour de France. I would be interested to know what his test after Stage 18 showed. Of course synthetic testosterone probably clears the system in the time frame between stages but I think providing overwhelming evidence of clean tests with one tainted test could be a powerful PR tool. Of course given the swift justice he has endured Landis needs to come up with incontrovertible evidence that he did not use a performance enhancer or that someone at the UCI, WADA, or Tour de France framed him for the crime. Absent that he will be considered guilty and the governing bodies will ban him with the evidence in hand.

Roundup!

2006-08-07T13:02:00.000-04:00

And this was the weekend that was: Floyd Landis on Plan C So Landis' "B" sample was tested and the results were announced which showed the same thing the first one showed and that was he had too much testosterone in his body and that some of it was synthetic in nature. (pause post) Now, having been a NCAA student-athlete I endured the specter of the random urinalysis drug test once a season except it was not as random as one might think since you had 24 hours notice. This always led to the comical sight of the soccer players showing up, entering the bathroom with their cups and emerging with it full of completely clear urine. In other words they spend that last 24 hours drink six gallons of water in an attempt to flush their system of whatever they may have ingested, smoked, or drank which may or may not produce a postive result. In my world the two greatest dilemmas I face was (1) Whether or not I could fill the cup up to the line since they tested us after we ran 8 miles in ninety degree weather and (2) whether or not the poppyseed muffin I ate the week before would show up as an opiate on the test. I also am humored by the fact that all these world class athletes have vials of the urine or blood stored in labs all over the world which can be taken out and tested days, months, and years later to see if they were juiced or not. (resume post) Anyway, Landis is not in full spin control as he conducted interviews this morning in which he distanced himself from the more ridiculous excuses he offered last week such as drinking beer caused his levels to go up. He is also maintaining total innocence which is an interesting position to take in the face of such damning evidence. A man who stands firm like this when everything we know says otherwise is either (1) Clinging to a wing and a prayer or (2) Actually innocent. I honestly do not know how the second could be true unless you buy into Landis' theory that the UCI and World Anti-Doping Agency has an agenda. This is somewhat plausible in light of the accusations leveled against Lance Armstrong but as with all conspiracy theories it also requires too many people to know what is happening to make it happen. I mean this isn't a soap opera where someone can sneak into the lab and switch the labels on the DNA test to make little Nicky believe that Paul is his father and not Ned. I assume there are significant controls in place. Landis is basically in Pete Rose territory now where if the samples are correct he is only hurting himself in the long run by sticking with a defense that is totally debunked by the evidence and no one outside of his family and hometown actually believe. Landis also has to prove how synthetic testosterone made it into his sample if he did not use a patch. That excuse should be interesting to say the least. Tiger Wins Buick Open Tiger Woods gave the rest of the PGA Tour something to think about as we head towards the final major of the season by shooting four consecutive 66s and winning by three strokes over Jim Furyk. And yes Tiger hit driver in this tournament, only hit 2/3 of the fairways and still won by three. I did not see but on shot of this tournament and it was Tiger driving the ball left of the green on a par 4 from the tee and then angrily swinging the club again. Woods then walked down to his ball alone with driver in hand which I presume he was ready to break against a tree somewhere. As much as is made about Woods' drives and the erratic nature of his accuracy it should be noted that if his second shots are dead on and his putting is good then the drives really do not matter. Woods hits his second shots, even from the rough, well enought to overcome his failure to drive the ball as accurately as everyone else. The PGA Championship is in two weeks and it will be Tiger Woods' tournament to lose.

Chase Chasing Dimaggio

2006-08-04T09:32:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's a bad headline. The Philladelphia Phillies Chase Utley extended his hitting streak to 35 games last night the 10th longest streak in MLB history. As most everyone who has been drawing breath and watching any amount of baseball knows the record is 56 games held by Yankee great Joe Dimaggio. Second on the list is banned all time hits leader Pete Rose at 44 games. What that means is we are about five games away from this being a media frenzy which may crush the life out of poor Mr. Utley. I also think 56 is as Gene Hackman said in Hoosiers "beyond your wildest dreams so let's keept it right there." Pete Rose's 44 games in a row is probably considered the de facto modern mark. I think if Utley can pass Rose that is a significant accomplishment in itself especially if you consider the Rose is banned and anyone knocking him down a rung should be congratulated. Of course if Utley gets to 45 then the logic goes that 11 more games is most certainly doable. Can Utley do it? He has a lot in his favor, this untimely post notwithstanding. He has great speed as he illustrated Wednesday night when he beat out a comebacker to the pitcher(who took a moment to check the runner) which was initially ruled a fielder's choice but changed on review. It was also made moot by the fact he singled in 9th inning. His speed means that he can beat out infield rollers or even lay down a bunt if necessary to keep the streak alive. He is also batting .330 for the season which tells me he is a good hitter and not some mediocre hitter who just got hot like his teammate Jimmy Rollins who went for 38 straight at the end of last season into this one. As for whose next on the schedule. The Phillies are at New York and then Atlanta. It will be interesting to see how this streak proceeds against decent pitching. Road games also mean Utley's Phllies will come to bat during all nine innings as opposed to home games where they would lose the bottom of the ninth if ahead. A week from now it will either be over or he will be at 41 straight with Cincinnati coming to town for the weekend.

Signs of Intelligence

2006-08-02T09:59:00.000-04:00

I heard the following statement from one of the ESPN announcers during the five minutes I was watching the World Series of Poker: "He is a graduate of the University of Maryland which is the southernmost member of the Ivy League" That's right, Maryland is now a member of the Ivy League which I am sure I just missed with of all the conference realignments which happened last year. For the record Maryland is in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the southernmost member of the Ivy League would be the University of Pennsylvania.

Where in the World?

2006-08-01T10:58:00.000-04:00

Busy and recovering from a rare bout of flu in the summer. On top of that the sports world has not held my attention during the past week. Here is a short summary of what has been happening. Doping So Floyd Landis was getting a little help on that day he came back from eight minutes behind to gt back into contention to win the Tour de France. Well, that is the story we are getting now. Despite Landis' deft working of the media and his denials the New York Times is saying that a source close to the testing process indicates there was some synthetic testosterone in Landis sample. The "B" sample currently being tested will likely confirm this result and if that is the case expect two things to happen: (1) Landis will be stripped of his Tour de France title and banned for two years and (2) Americans in general will conclude they really have better things to do than watch cycling since whatever result you witness can be overturned a week later. Landis is not alone in his dilemma as Justin Gatlin who shares the world record in the 100 meters has also tested postitive for banned substances and is on the chopping block for a lifetime ban. He is also up for the "Most Creative Excuse" award by blaming a masseuse who vindicatively rubbed steroid cream on Gatlin's legs prior to the Kansas relays which resulted in a positive test. This might be plausible if Gatlin was not associated with Trevor Graham who has been linked to so many tainted atheletes I am surprised he has a job in track and field. MLB The Braves are done. They hosted New York for three games and got swept, fell 15 back of first place and sealed their own fate which is missing the playoffs for the first time since 1990. The trade deadline passed and for reasons that pass understanding the Washington Nationals held onto Alfonso Soriano instead of trading him and getting something in return. Well at least they got to keep Soriano whereas the Philladelphia Phillies trade Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Yankess and got pretty much nothing in return except some minor league players who are nowhere near big league ready. No wonder Philly fans are the way they are. The Cubs traded Greg Maddux to the Dodgers and I agree with Deadspin.com on this. It is strange to see Maddux traded. ACC Football I will hopefully get into this more in depth in the near future. The writers made their picks last week and the four ACC schools in the great state of North Carolina are bringing up the rear in the Atlantic and Coastal divisions. UNC and NC State are fifth in their respective divisions followed by Duke and Wake Forest. Miami and Florida State are the (boring)picks to win each division and battled in the second ACC title game. There has been a lot of talk about Clemson being the cool pick to win the division but when the chips are down the writers go with what they know which is more of the same. Then again, I am not sure if there is any value to picks made before fall practice opens. A lot of these schools have QB issues which will go a long way towards determining how well they play. I would think seeing two weeks of practice might shed some light on who will really be bringing it come September. The ACC also tightend up the rules on how far down the standings a bowl can go to take a particular team. Last season Boston College(5-3 in theACC) got shipped to Boise for a bowl game while closer more lucrative bowls took 3-5 teams from the ACC. The rule is that a bowl cannot go more than one game down in the standings. So this year if BC is 5-3 they get sent to Boise in favor of someone who is 4-4. I am sure that will make them feel so much better. BTW, the ACC has 8 bowl bids and 850's Adam Gold said yesterday he is waiting for a team with a 2-6 league mark to make a bowl game. I agree that would be pathetic and funny all at the same time(even if it is UNC.)

This Weekend While I Was Battling the Plague

2006-07-24T15:20:00.000-04:00

I was sick all weekend which made me fairly miserable but also granted me total control of the bedroom television all day. I was able to enjoy the full weekend coverage of the British Open and the Tour de France which both turned out to be American triumphs. In my last post I covered the emotional impact of Tiger Woods' victory at Royal Liverpool. Now on to the rest of the things I observed while trying to cough up my right lung. The British Open

I heard some golf analyst interviewed on 850 the Buzz last week who said that Sergio Garcia is still somewhat immune to criticism for not having delivered the goods since standing toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship. My question is can we criticize him now? Not only does Garcia break multiple fashion taboos out there he simply folds like a cheap lawn chair when he gets anywhere close to a lead in a major. On Saturday, Garcia blistered the front nine at 29 and moved within one shot of Woods at -11. With three negotiable par 5s left on the back nine Garcia produces one birdie and finished the day at -12. Woods was -13 and led to Garcia and Woods being paired together. Bad news for Sergio who bogeyed four holes on the front and took himself out of contention. One announcers said Sergio probably wishes "Tiger was 42, 43 years old." I am not sure even that would matter.
Let me just say I like Chris DiMarco. He almost matched Tiger shot for shot. I would have been interested to have seen how the round would have gone had they been paired together. It would have made for some epic golf I am sure. It was also a case of two grieving sons dueling each other for that "destiny" win for their father/mother. Tiger won that duel but no one would have minded if DiMarco had pulled it out.
"CAMERA PHONES!!!" That was Woods' cry on at least two occassions where he stepped away from his ball after being peturbed by the beeping of camera phones. It happened so often that Woods and Garcia were warned on the 10th for slow play. This led to an interesting discussion among the ABC announcers of whether the PGA would enforce a one stroke penalty if the slow play continued(BTW, they were slow, a full hole behind DiMarco/Els but then again they were the last group.) Yeah, riiiiiggghhhht. The PGA is going to dock Tiger a stroke on something as trivial as slow play when he is holding up no one behind him. A better idea would be the PGA removing anyone from the course who is brandishing a camera phone while the player is addressing the ball. I am sure the specter of being kicked out of the tournament would be enough of a deterrent for those amatuer photogs.
Someone on ESPN Radio this morning suggested that Woods' win was cheapened by the fact he chose to hit driver only once and instead hit three wood and 2 iron to keep the ball on the fairway and short of the pot bunkers. At times Woods was a full 100 yeards behind Els or Garcia on his drive but because he hits his irons so far and so well he can accomodate for the extra distance. It is no secret Tiger has not hit his driver accurately in a long time and his strategy at Hoylake was simple: Keep it in the fairway. In doing so Woods showed himself to be a brillant tactician as well as physically capable golf player. This theory is wrong for two reasons. First, it forces Tiger to hit a longer second shot which requires far more accuracy considering the speed of the greens and pin location on a links course. Woods essentially played to his strength which is not necessarily his drives but his approach shots. Not to mention, Woods' putting was dead on all weekend which illustrates putting the ball in birdie position does not matter if you are unable to put it in the hole(Just ask Sergio Garcia). The second point is the object of the game of golf which is to move the ball from the tee to hole in the fewest number of strokes over 72 holes. Nowhere in the rules of golf does it dictate certain clubs must be used to accomplish this task. Woods did what he needed to do to accomplish the goal which was shoot the lowest score. I could care less if he used a putter to do it and speaking of which I found it more disturbing guys were putting from the fairway onto the green than I did Woods not using driver. This guys was trying to trump up controversey to spark an on-air argument for ratings.
Finally it has been 39 years since the Open was played at Hoylake. What are the odds it will be another 39 years or when Tiger is out of his prime before it ends up there again.

Tour de France

Much to the chargrin of Frenchman another American won the Tour de France this weekend. Floyd Landis who was counted out after Stage 16 when he fell 8 minutes back(yeah he's done) came back in Stage 17 and close the gap back to 30 seconds, stayed put until the Stage 19 time trial which constitutes the last "real" stage on the Tour. Since Landis was far superior in the time trial than any of the overall leaders he concluded Saturday with a minute lead which would be enough to secure victory on Sunday. Why?
Because for some reason the last stage in Paris is a stage that is not really a stage. In other words your opponents are either unable to catch up to you because the stage occurs on the streets of Paris or out of some sense of sportmanship they refuse to try. Lance Armstrong said that it was cermonial for the most part except if you fell and broke a collarbone you could lose the Tour. This probably explains why Landis had teammates surrounding his bike for most of the stage. If you ask me it seems a little anti-climatic. If the stage counts when make the winner earn it. If the streets of Paris cannot accomodate real racing then leave Paris for the very end and have some real racing to determine the winner. This would be like a team winning their third game in the World Series and then handing them the next game in a slow pitch softball exhibition.
And the OLN announcers were good for the most part except for one depressing segment where they lamented Carlos Sastre who was close to the lead and then was blown away in the time trial. They kept using phrases like "he has lost everything" and "you have to feel for Sastre having rode so well only to lose now." First of all, stop the presses, we have never seen a case in the history of sports where someone leads a race or game all the way through and then fails at the end. The NCAA Tournament was made on stuff like that. Secondly, they make it sound so life altering as though Sastre is contemplating suicide for having failed so utterly in his pursuit of cycling's greatest prize. I have expected him to take a ride straight off a mountain since apparently life was no longer worth living.

And Tiger Cried...

2006-07-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

Tiger Woods finished off a masterful performance Sunday winning the British Open at -18 two stokes ahead of fellow American Chris DiMarco. Woods, in his trademark final round red shirt, tapped in for par on 18, pump his fist in the air and then walked over, embrace his caddie and broke down in tears. It was the first time since losing his father that he had won a golf tournament. As he moved into the crowd he found solace in his wife's embrace and the tears fell freely. It was a incredible moment of raw emotions and a glimpse of humanity in a player who is known for his intensity on the course and a singular focus on winning. For any son who has lost a father, Tiger Woods' tears reminds us that grief needs only a perfect intersection of events to dominate our will. The moment we lose someone close to us we enter into a "new reality." We are forced unwilling by death to awake in the morning without that person in our life, without the benefit of hearing their voice or enjoying their company. Their counsel is forever lost and memories which begin to fade almost immediately are all we have. Grief comes in waves, at first like tidal tusnami's nearly drowning us in pain and sorrow. With each rising sun we adjust, we come to terms with their absence and understand that their legacy is our to protect and carry on in our own life. The grief with was a storm surge the day he died ebbs aways to small waves lapping our bare feet on the beach. There are those occassions, especially in that first year where the "firsts" make those waves stronger and bring us once more to a broken heart. The first birthday or Christmas, Father's Day or Thanksgiving all carry with them the sorrow of missing someone who had been a constant figure in our lives. Tiger Woods faced one of those "firsts" on Sunday. As he stepped off the 18th green he came to terms with the "new reality" of his life without his father. Earl Woods would not be amid the throng of well wishers to give him a hug nor could he pick up a phone and here his father congratulate him on another major win. It was the first time he had won without his father seeing it. And as he walked off that green into a new reality he found a caddie to absorb his tears and a wife to steady him against the torrent of grief newly rising. And the comfort for Tiger Woods is he has crossed one more barrier on the road grief would have him walk. He has come to terms with another part of the new normalcy he must live now. And it doesn't mean he won't look for his father the next time he wins before catching himself or shed a tear when he misses him now and again on an 18th green somewhere. But in many ways now he really can move on.

Tiger on the Prowl; ABC Rejoices

2006-07-21T13:38:00.000-04:00

Undoubtedly the sound of unbridle joy heard this morning was coming from ABC executives who are positively giddy over the fact that Tiger Woods is at the top of the leaderboard going into the network's weekend coverage of the British Open. Tiger's disappointing outing at the U.S. Open where he failed to make the cut in his first tournament since his father's death has faded in favor of vintage Tiger who recorded an eagle two on the par 4 14th hole. At the time Woods was three strokes in front at -12 and since then Ernie Els has closed to within one in the clubhouse at -11. This is not surprising for two reasons: 1. Woods played well at the Western Open two weeks ago. He finished second and appeared to show signs that everything was clicking. Losing your father, as I found out, takes more than a week or two to deal with, in fact you never really deal with it you just adjust to a new reality. The crucial mistake for Woods was making the U.S. Open his first tournament back given the difficulty the USGA provides on the course during that tournament. In Woods' case his father's death is magnified by the fact that their relationship and golf were intertwined. Playing golf for the first time without his father watching, whether it be from afar or on the course was a difficult task. The same was true of Michael Jordan who retired from the game after his father died and anyone who does not think the two are related does not understand the grief process. 2. I think Tiger likes the course. Royal Liverpool has not been host to The Open since 1967. Not many of the golfers have seen it before and Tiger's first look at it was a week before play started. According to the analysts the course plays significantly shorter than it is listed because the ball rolls and skips so easily on the fairway. Also, when you drive the ball like Tiger does having par 5s in the mid to low 500 yard range is tatamount to handing him birdies and eagles which is precisely what happened in the first round when he finished the final three holes(pars 5-4-5) with birdie-par-eagle to get to -5. He will be paired with Ernie Els, a major winner in his own right, so it should make for compelling viewing tomorrow morning/early afternoon. Another reason to like the British Open. The rounds wrap up earlier in the day.

The Next ___________

2006-07-18T14:10:00.000-04:00

On non-sports related item before I get into the real post. I caught a couple of episodes of the show JAG which is about lawyers in the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General's office investigating a variety of crimes and misdemeanors commited by sailors and Marines. I noticed that there are cases where some sailor commits some minor mistake that result in some major problem which is later resolved without harm to anyone but the sailor in question and his/her commanding officer get booted from the Navy or assigned to desk duty at Norfolk. However, at the same time the officers in the JAG corps who serve as the heroes of the show bend or break rules on a consistent basis only to receive minor slaps on the wrists for their indiscretions. Just a double standard I thought I would mention without having in relation to the post at hand. Anyway, ESPN will apparently continue to wallow in a pool of its own excrement and muck tonight debuting the "World Series of Darts" just before showing the "World Series of Poker" Dan Shanoff at ESPN.com's Daily Quickie wonders whether or not "Darts" will be the "next Poker" I am wondering when the madness will stop. First of all, poker is not a sport. I question whether horse racing is a sport(don't get me started on lead stories about Barbaro's condition, it's a horse! If he was 2nd in the Derby he would glue and dog food by now!) I know for sure guys sitting around playing a card game is most definitely not a sport. And do not give me silly arguments about strategy and mental prowess, you either have the cards or your don't and if you can get your opponents to fold by bluffing then that is a wonderful accomplishment but in no way is it a sport. Darts on the other hand is closer to being a sport since it requires physical motion and accuracy. Secondly, I take issue with Shanoff's contention that darts is the "next Poker." I have never been able to understand what the media obessesion is with find the "next" whatever. Anytime you have one person or sport/event catch fire with the public the media instantly begins looking for the next incarnation of that person or thing. During the late 1980's the media was hot to crown the "next Michael Jordan." USC's Harold Miner was dubbed "Baby Jordan" and was expected to be everything Jordan was only he was not. Why? Because he is not Jordan. When someone or something special comes along it become popular because it is unique. Americans do not like getting behind something they have already seen, we are fickled that way. That is why no one watches re-runs on TV. Jordan, as an example, was on a different level in almost every way than the rest of the league. His media presence and his play on the court made him a superstar. The other part of his mystique was that he as different than anything we had seen before. That is why Harold Miner was doomed from Day 1 because having another 6-6 guard with a shaved head and 46 inch vertical is not captivating. Also consider that the odds of a second individual coming along with exactly the same prowess and media attraction as Jordan during the same span of time is long anyway. In fact I would argue that LeBron James is the next top superstar in the league and is closer to emulating everything Jordan has done but at the same time James is a completely different player than Jordan plus three years younger when he became a rookie. My point is that finding the "next" something is always a bad point to start. The most basic method of finding out who or what is the next attraction for the public is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. And whatever is left clinging to the plaster is not the "next" anything, it is it's own thing.

Quote of the Day

2006-07-14T09:56:00.000-04:00

From Michelle Wie after shooting a six-over 77 in the first round of the PGA's John Deere Classic:

"It was very uncharacteristic," she said. "Considering that I had the water hazard penalties, considering that I had to call unplayable, considering that I hit my driver like 50 yards right, I felt like I played really well.

Um, OK, except she just described what happens when I play a round of golf. That would be like me saying, "Considering I got two traffic citations, considering I hit a parked car at the office, considering I kept running off the road on the interstate I feel like I had a good drive to work." I probably should cut her some slack since she is only 16 years old. One problem is that everyone in the media wants to act like she is mature beyond her years and posesses some sort of media savvy. She does not and this quote is evidence of that. When offering your own "spin" on a set of events it always helps to stay fairly close to the truth of what happened so the "spin" itself is credible. For Wie to say she felt she played well when her score and the actual events speak to the contrary illustrates so serious deficiencies where addressing the media is concerned. Of course if you are unable to "spin" the events to your liking just find a good scapegoat:

"I would like to say it didn't, but it bothered me a little bit," she said. "Bugs on me, I hate bugs, and I was starting to get a little aggravated like the fifth time I stepped out. I was a little aggravated, but I felt like I shook it off."

This is just another point that proves Wie would be better off devoting herself full time to the LPGA Tour honing both her golf and public relations skills hopefully in a bug free environment.

Trevor Hoffman's Big Night

2006-07-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

I have spent the morning trying to figure out what kind of extravagant gift the American League Champion will send San Diego's Trevor Hoffman for essentially handing World Series home field advantage to the AL during the All Star Game last night. The National League was one out away from ending nine years of futility against the junior circuit when Hoffman gave up three consecutive hits, the last a two RBI triple by Texas Michael Young to put the AL up 3-2 in the top of the ninth. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera took care of the NL in the bottom half to give the AL 9-0-1 record in the last 10 contests and home field advantage in the World Series. Of course the ninth inning last night is precisely why HFA should not be determined by the All Star Game. Especially if you watched any part of the game last night you realized that neither team was taking the game as thought it mattered which is exactly how it should be played. It led to LA's Brian Penny throwing some serious gas in the 1st inning as well as some wild base stealing by the Met's Carlos Beltran and Washington's Alfonso Soriano. It was a fun game, with a quick pace, and some late game dramatics. However, it also has bearing on the how the World Series it played and that is flat wrong. The game is approached and played by everyone as though it is not consequential except that is consequential because Bud Selig overreacted to a tie a few years ago. If Selig's intent was for the managers to start managing the teams as though it was a real game then perhaps he should tell Fox not to interview them during the game or instruct them to actually run the game instead of telling the players to do pretty much what they want out there. It is an exhibition game and as such make sure it does not influence the way the championship of your sport is decided.

All Star Caliber Thoughts

2006-07-11T12:12:00.000-04:00

Well, not really. We have more insight into what drove France's Zinedine Zidane to head butt Italy's Marco Materazzi in the chest drawing a red card during the World (Non)Cup Final Sunday in Germany. Well actually we have conflicting accounts, one which says Materazzi called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore" and also told him to go engage himself in a sexual act which may or may not be anatomically possible. Materazzi has since denied the claim saying that he did insult him but did not call him a terrorist or presumably the offspring of one. The Italian clamied that he was not cultured and says he did not even know what an Islamic terrorist was. Are you kidding me? Does Itlay keep this guy in a bubble and only let him out to play World (Non)Cup games? Unless you have been absent from the planet or not living in a civilized modern society(which I am pretty sure includes Italy) you know what an Islamic terrorist is and you know that Islamic terrorism is a bit of a problem right now which means he knew exactly how horrible an insult it was. I actually think confessing to not knowing what an Islamic terrorist is in 2006 following three major attacks in the U.S., Spain, and Britain as well as two wars in the Middle East shows he may have fewer brain cells than Zidane did for cold cocking his culturally ignorant rear end onto the field of play. Materazzi obviously missed the first day of media savvy training which stipulates then when you deny having said something and you want to claim ignorance that ignorance has to be plausible on some level. Unless he has been underground or off the earth for the past six years then claiming ignorance on the definition of an Islamic terrorists is simply not credible. I am also marveling at the incredible cross-cultural power of insulting someone else's mother as a means of talking trashing during a sporting event. And here I thought that questioning another player's parentage or disparaging the loins from which they were conceived and birthed was solely an American art form and skill. This instance proves that insulting another person's mother not only has international appeal as an effective physchological technique but it also produces far more violent responses when employed against a European player versus some street baller in Harlem. It also shoule be noted that if there were more head butts of that variety during World (Non)Cup games, the ratings would be right up there with the NFL. And I will make brief mention of baseball's All Star Game which I used to enjoy but now not so much because (1) I do not believe an exhibition game should have any impact on how championships get decided such as determining home field advantage and (2) I also think preparation for this game or the game itself should influence the unfolding of the regular season as little as possible. In other words, managers should use whomever they want prior to the All Star Game and not have to worry about whether a pitcher will be available to start in an exhibition game on Tuesday if he pitches in a game which has actual bearing on the standings on Sunday. Players should play as little as possible during the game as to protect them from injury and not cause serious issues in their own teams pursuit of the pennant. This goes back to my first point which is removing the HFA factor from the All Star Game and allowing it to stand as an exhibition for the fans and not something that actually has any meaning. Sooner or later someone crucial to a first place team will get injured or a pitcher will blow out his elbow and then you will see some controversy.

Since Bashing the French is Cool...

2006-07-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

....I think I will join in. Italy beat France on penalty kicks or some such nonsense as that to win the World Cup which is not actually a cup but a golden ball on top of some golden stand. I mean the Stanley Cup is an actual cup but now we find out the World Cup is not an actual cup but a trophy with a ball on top. Why not call it the World Ball or the World Trophy. World Cup? A tad misleading methinks. But I digress.... The real story of the other than the fact they once again kicked the ball around for 120 minutes only managed to score one goal each is the actions of the French captain Zinedine Zidane who was red carded and therefore ejected for headbutting an Italian player for reasons unknown to those watching the game(which did not include me, I was busy cleaning up after having a flooring crew in my house for three days.) The most shocking aspect of the headbutt was that I completely unaware that the French were capable of such unprovoked and egregious violence. Where was this spunk in 1939? The second most shocking aspect is the fervent protest Zidane gave to the referee for getting the red card as though he did nothing wrong. Though it should be noted that he is a French soccer player so protesting and whining about something he clearly did wrong is not a surprising as one might think. The best line concerning the final yesterday came from the Ace of Spades blog who said of the French: In fairness, they lasted longer against the Italian soccer team than they did against Hitler. Anyway, I am glad that is over.

Hot Dog!

2006-07-07T12:51:00.000-04:00

Having now fully recovered from my harrowing run-in with that woman at the NC State Fairgrounds I caught up on some news from the holiday weekend which included the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. The champion eater in what can be described as the most grotesque display of gluttony known to modern man is a Japanese guy named Takeru Kobayashi who ate 53 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minues beating out American Joey Chesnut who I am sure needed a complete replacement of his entire GI tract when he was finished. Deadspin pointed out that apparently Kobayashi regurgitated some of his hot dog at one point but the judges offered a quick ruling with this priceless quote:

The effluvia never touched the table. When the hot dog came up, and some of it came out his nose, Kobayashi sucked it back down. To me, that’s the testament of a champion and great athlete.

First of all, to anyone who finds it strange that an Asian man can woof down that much food I would point out my first hand experience with my adopted two year old Korean son who has been known to put away two plates at the Golden Corral buffet and not make a sound doing while at the same time maintaining 2% body fat. The boy can put some serious food down and still had 12 month shorts which are too big on his waist. Secondly, in order for any competition to be televised on ESPN as a sport it must have its own analysts and jargon which can be used in the on air conversation. The term "effluvia" as well as the fact they have some sort of rule pertaining to the regurgitation of food obviously gives eating contests a legitimate place in the pantheon of American sports. It also should be noted that, sadly enough, all it takes for such legitimacy is some sort of competition complimented with jargon and televisable commentary. I supposed the next step is team eating which leads to college and professional teams, tournaments, and a draft. Can you imagine what kind of comprehensive draft coverage we would get from ESPN? They would undoubtedly dredge up some Mel Kiper, Jr-type to discuss how some guy has the tremendous space between his gums and cheeks or has an incredible chew and swallow technique. I supposed they would adopt some kind of instant replay system to asceratin whether or not the "effluvia" actually touched the table or not. There is little doubt that some controversey would explode over someone deftly catching the "effluvia" on the back of his hand and sneaking it back in his mouth. Then as the money flows in so would the agents, the endorsment deals from Oscar Meyer, and that's right performancing enhancing drugs and/or some kind surgery to add more stomach space like NASCAR crew chiefs adding extra fuel cells to the car. I also think that Stephen A. Smith would be a natural at this, especially given the way he was downing Cheez Doodles during the NBA Draft two weeks ago as seen here. I also think that marketing the Spelling Bee would be far easier than this digusting ritual.

The ACC Football Schedule

2006-07-06T21:36:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Joe Ovies at 620 the Bull. Click on it to enlarge.

Fireworks at State Fairgrounds; Traffic Chaos Ensues

2006-07-05T09:40:00.000-04:00

So for the Fourth of July, Tar Heel Fan took the Tar Heel Family out to the North Carolina State Fairgrounds to witness the most impressive fireworks display involving no more than two explosions at a time in the country. Of course extracting yourself afterwards is a complete disaster leading me to wonder why, after all these years, someone in the Raleigh PD or State Highway Patrol has not figured out how to empty the parking lots at the fairgrounds without total chaos. I actually had the kids and wife in the car before the fireworks ended but as soon as they were over every car made a move. We were in a parking lot by the fairgrounds of Trinity Rd and needed to get back on Trinity turning right and then left on Blue Ridge Rd to get back to Lake Boone Trail and the Beltline. So I was able to exit my row on the the road heading out to Trinity and so did pretty much everyone else which create a situation where about four cars where attempting to line up in the same spot. In addition to the traffic all of the people who were inside the fairgrounds started walking through creating a car/pedestrian nightmare. At this point I move my van up close to the side of another van to seal of my front and force the walkers to go elsewhere. Traffic is barely moving it at all and at one point I look to see this woman standing in front of my car as though she is directing the pedestrian traffic. As the cars move I am unable to since she is standing there and it permits an SVU to push in front of me keeping me in place. My wife gets out of the can and goes to ask the woman to move out of our way. She then says she was in the SVU that is now cutting in front of me and that we "came from behind" and was attempting to cut them off. A driver from behind me comes up to yell at the woman and says he would have hit her had he been in my place. Eventually a Raleigh cop who was walking around doing everything she could to earn her overtime pay told the woman to get back in her vehicle. A second driver told me he wished I would have hit her. Click on diagram to enlarge: Eventually we straighten out into two lanes with the Tar Heel Van behind SUV in question but the SUV's move proved to be bad one and the lane we are in is being pinched off and cannot move. So I starting pushing right and a very nice driver let me in allowing me to move into their lane which was having more success in getting onto Trinity Rd. We passed the SUV and exited the lot first claiming a small victory. So it's over right? Not entirely. When I get onto Trinity Rd there are two lanes moving down to the police controlled intersection at Blue Ridge Rd. I was unsure whether both lanes were turning left so I moved to the left lane from the right lane. About that time the right lane on Trinity moves up quite a bit because some drivers a turning right on Blue Ridge. The SUV, which has exited the lot, drives by in the right lane and the woman turns her head to stare at us the whole time they are passing by. At this point I could care less since the traffic would eventually move into Blue Ridge. We make it down to the light a turn left and traverse past Wade Ave where the left lane we are in really opens up and we pass numerous cars in the right lane(which is moving slowly) including the woman's SUV, who honks furiously at us as we go by!!!! Now in a situation like it is pure chaos. All you can do is protect the six inches around your vehicle, do your best to slide into the best space or lane available and hope that(like me) you get a nice person who will let you in their lane to get out. The question I would ask that woman now was whether gaining one spot ahead of my vehicle based on the notion that I was cutting in from behind worth acting like a complete jerk in front of her family and having countless numbers of people who witnessed her action walk away talking about what a completely worthless human being she was for standing in front of another vehicle to prevent them from moving so your vehicle could slide in ahead. I would think not and the results speak for themselves and because I did nothing to impunge my reputation with the drivers around me I was given a courtesy to move over and ultimately exited the lot ahead of someone who acted like idiot in the middle of total chaos. I do not believe in karma, but that looked an awful lot like it.

Changing Your Mind

2006-07-03T15:37:00.000-04:00

During the N.C. State coaching search, one name that was bantered about was Gregg Marshall, head coach at Winthrop. Marshall had built a great low major program at Rock Hill with six NCAA appearances in eight years all via the automatic bid. Some thought he was ready for the move to the big stage at NC State but the Wolfpack went a different direction. So it was not surpising when he ended up being named head coach at the College of Charleston. CofC is a member of the Southern Conference(as is my alma mater UNCG) and is a step higher than the Big South Conference. Marshall went to Charleston had a press conference annoucing his hiring and then drove back to Rock Hill, called Winthrop's school president and asked for his old job back leaving C0fC in the lurch. So CofC just had a coach who accepted the job and even was introduced to the world as your coach only to have him quit the job to return to his previous employer. The next logical step? Hire a coach who did the same thing 13 years ago! Former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins is set to be named the head man at CofC. Cremins is a good coach who went to a Final Four in 1990 with Georgia Tech and his teams perpetually gave UNC fits during his tenure there. He also has the distinction of having taken the South Carolina job in 1993 only to renege on the deal and return to Atlanta. The good folks at the College of Charleston must be banking on the virtual impossibility of one man pulling the same stunt twice.

Also In the Sports Blogosphere

2006-06-30T10:48:00.000-04:00

Since the sports news is slow(read: I do not care about Wimbledon, the World Cup, or who Ozzie Gullien likes or dislikes) I offer up some fine material from some fellow bloggers/internet writers who are obviously a heck of a lot funnier and better at this deal than I am. The first is a site called Deadspin which offers sports news/commentary/general humor. It may be one of the best sports blogs out there and they even have a whole section devoted to the horrendous Chris Berman. It is not because they like him. Also linked from that site is a college football blog called Every Day Should Be Saturday. This blog offers us a absolutely hilarious(as well as profanity laced so consider yourself warned) list of reasons why Disney/ESPN/ABC sucks. Here is a sample:

29. Wide angle shots, fades, and pensive shots of young athletes recounting the trauma of growing up poor/fatherless/in Bosnia/stricken with acne/slightly nervous/average/motherless/ with rickets/etc in puff pieces. Adversity, dear ESPN, is boring. Show us how long it takes for Matt Leinart to pick up a girl in a bar–now that would be Sportstainmenttastic! Hey-yo!

Any gratuitous abuse of ESPN is always welcome here at Tar Heel Fan. That being said I do find some of the writers at ESPN.com extremely funny. Bill Simmons aka "The Sports Guy" is one of my favorite writers for his wit and insight into sports. During the NBA Draft he kept a running diary which is well worth reading. Perhaps the best section was describing the New York Knicks first pick:

And that brings us to our featured attraction of the evening ... "THE KNICKS ARE ON THE CLOCK!" ESPN wisely works the MSG crowd into a hostile frenzy by showing the obligatory "KNICKS UNDER ISIAH THOMAS" graphic. Has there ever been rioting at an NBA draft before? 9:34 -- Stephen A. on the No. 20 pick: "I'M A BORN AND RAISED NEW YORKER, OK? YOU HAVE GOT TO GET A DOG ON THIS ROSTER, I DON'T CARE WHERE YOU FIND HIM. I DON'T CARE, YOU GOT TO GET SOMEONE WHO WILL BE IN PEOPLE'S FACE, SOMEONE WHO'S HARDCORE. YOU LOOK AT ISIAH THOMAS AND HIS DRAFT HISTORY ... YOU KNOW THAT HE KNOWS TALENT ... THIS PICK HAS GOT TO WORK. IT'S GOT TO WORK!" (Translation: The Knicks need to pick someone good.) 9:36 -- There are those moments in sports when you expect something great, and then it actually happens. And then there are those rare moments in sports when you expect something great, and something even greater happens. This was one of those moments: The Knicks on the clock, the crowd pushing for Marcus Williams, and then ... --Stern: "With the 20th pick, the New York Knicks select ... Renaldo Balkman." (Crowd explodes in horror.) --Stern (over the boos): "Renaldo is not here." --Patrick (without missing a beat): "And it's probably a good thing." (Shot of a beaten-down Spike Lee laughing hysterically.) 9:36 -- That was fantastic

Speaking of which, how can Isiah Thomas draft a guy from two-time NIT Champions South Carolina(read: not a good team) who did not even average double figures through three years of college(read: an average player on a not so good team) especially when Marcus Williams was still on the board? Oh wait, it is Isiah Thomas, so forget I asked.

NBA Musings

2006-06-28T23:52:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know I really do not care that much about the NBA. The held the NBA Draft tonight and because of the 19 year old age limit the best high schoolers will be enrolled at a college near you next season leaving one of the weakest drafts in recent memory. On the UNC side David Noel was taken 39th by the Milwaukee Bucks. Congratulations to Noel who is a great athlete and exceptionally hard worker. He was the glue last season and gave a group of young players the lift they needed to beat all the predictions. J.J. Redick was taken #11 by Orlando and Shelden Williams was apparently told two weeks ago that Atlanta was taking him despite their need for a point guard. The ESPN talking(or shouting in the case of Stephen A Smith) heads lauded Williams' defense and he was named defensive player of the year twice. I also happen to believe that those awards were based on shot blocking and the fact he played at Duke. His one on one defense was horrible. I lost count of the number of decent to exceptional centers who racked Williams up for major points which included Sean May doing it twice for over 20 points and 20 rebounds in 2005. And who can forget that faithful March 4, 2006 at Cameron Indoor Stadium: Here's hoping Shelden plays better defense in the NBA than he did on Tyler Hansbrough that night. NBA Draft talk also afford us the opportunity to poke fun at Isiah Thomas who still is being permitted to show up and run the New York Knicks on a daily basis only now he is the coach and has a one year clock to fix the mess he has made there. It is not happening so Knick ownership should fire him now like they did Larry Brown(who had no business being there, had an impossible roster to work with, and may be past his prime.) Over at ESPN.com Patrick Hruby and Kurt Snibbe have put together some funny photoshops linking Thomas with some disastarous moments throughout history. I thought this one was particularly humorous for obvious reasons: And no as a Tar Heel fan I still hold Thomas in utmost contempt for being on the 1981 Indiana team which beat UNC in the National Championship game...and for kissing Magic Johnson on the cheek before one of the NBA Finals in the late 1980's.

Satire News Article

2006-06-28T09:52:00.000-04:00

DUKE SETTLES LAWSUIT WITH SATAN Trademark Case Seen as Source of Recent Troubles at Duke DURHAM(THF)-Duke University, citing a desire to put "all this ugliness behind them" agreed to pay the Prince of Darkness more than $10 million in damages related to a trademark infringement lawsuit the Evil One filed against the university earlier this year. According to court papers, Satan, filed suit in US Federal Court in Greensboro, NC for what he called "egregious infringement upon his trademark and name" for the university's use of the Blue Devil mascot. The filing, which was recently unsealed, demanded millions in damges and royalty payments for the school's long standing use of the image. Duke contested the suit on the grounds the Devil is not blue but red and the matter was immediately heard by federal judge Mark O'Connor. According to court documents O'Connor opted for a quick ruling against the university saying any use of the devil in such a manner as to "intimidate opponents is a clear attempt to draw upon the reputation of Satan" and ordered the school to pay the full damages to Satan. The Duke legal team, despite their own association with the Dark One, called the ruling a sham and indicated they would not comply. Duke patent refusal led to O'Connor issuing a most unusual contempt of court order which stipulated that Satan could have free reign to "do as he wishes" with the university until they comply with the court order. The contempt citation was issued on March 3rd one day before North Carolina played the Blue Devils in Durham. Duke lost their senior night game to their hated rivals. What followed can only be described as "three plus months of hell" for Duke. On March 13 several members of the lacrosse team were involved in an off campus party where a rape was alleaged to have occurred. The following week the Duke basketball team was eliminated by LSU from the NCAA Tournament. In April, as the lacrosse case spiraled out of control, the Duke women's basketball team lost the national championship game to Maryland. In June former Duke guard J.J. Redick was charged with DUI near campus and over the weekend Duke AD Joe Alleva was involved in a boating accident where his son, J.D., was charged with operating a boat while under the influence. According to an anonymous Duke official, the boating accident was the last straw. "We thought we had grounds to have it overturned" said the official, "but Satan is just relentless with the stuff he can throw at you and we decided it was best to put this whole thing behind us" Individuals close to the Devil say he is satisfied with the outcome and will follow the court's mandates to leave the university alone for the time being. When asked if Satan would pursue similar mascot related litigation, Hell officials said he had already reached an agreement with the DePaul Blue Demons which included their move to the Big East. Demonic officials said Satan would "wait and see how that Herb Sendek thing works out at Arizona St." before deciding on whether to challenge the use of the Sun Devil as a mascot in Tempe. Sources also indicated that Satan's contract with Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was not effected by the lawsuit against the university.

NCAA Tournament Expansion Talk

2006-06-27T12:13:00.000-04:00

The men's and women's basketball committees are meeting this week in Orlando and one of the hot topics up for discussion is whether they should expand the NCAA Tournament to include more than the current field of 65. This idea was floated back in March at the Final Four and USA Today raised the issue in May on the grounds of parity. In both cases expansion propsals topped out at 80 teams. Now as the committees prepare to meet the National Association of Basketball Coaches is asking for complete doubling of the field to 128 teams. That's right 128 teams. The reasons cited for such a grand expansion are the failure to include tournament worthy teams and the fact the 64/65 team format has been in place for a long time. The also cite the increased number of Division I teams, the fact the NIT is now controlled by the NCAAs, and the George Mason tournament run. First of all the longevity of one format over another is a weak argument. I would take that to mean it works and very well so there is no need to change it. As for NCAA control of both postseason tournaments, that does not seem to matter to me. The two reasons I take issue with the most is the "George Mason" argument and the increased number of Division 1 teams. The GM argument stipulates that by expanding the field it increases the chances for small schools to have their own magical Final Four run based on the Patriots' improbable run in the the 2006 Final Four. However I would argue that a 128 team expansion would actually kill such runs because it add an additional game these Cinderella schools have to play. It is my observation that the more games a lower seed has to play the worse off they are in continuing the run. In a 128 team field GM would have played a team 11 spots lower than them before facing the higher seeds. While there is no conclusive evidence of how an extra game would effect the outcomes of future matchups I tend to think that had GM been saddled with an opener against a lower seed it would have hurt them going forward. And if they contest the first round a weekend before the round of 64 or even at different sites then changing sites or experiencing a delay also gives higher seeds more time to prep for the upcoming lower seed. I think the GM argument is a celebrity cause for the coaches who want to strike a tone with the fans who they perceive are hungry for a bevy of lower seeds penetrating deep into the tournament. I think the rarity of the feat is what makes it compelling and special to watch. The second argument on the number of D1 schools is also a simple argument to refute. Taking the CollegeRPI rankings posted by Jerry Palm there are 334 D1 schools playing basketball. The argument the coaches are making is based on that number but the real number that should be considered is the number of teams which finished above .500 last season which is only 171 teams. Why is this important? Because outside of winning an automatic bid there is no way a team which lost more than they won should get anywhere close to the NCAA Tournament. In fact I am not entirely sure a team that is under .500 in their conference should be allowed into the NCAA Tournament. Assuming you use this rule it would mean you are taking 75% of the teams, who, in many cases, did nothing but finish with one or two more wins that losses. This would essentially render the regular season worthless except for purposes of seeding. It would set up a system where all a major conference school has to do is win 15-17 games and they know they are getting in to the tournament. And while parity is nice the tournament also has to have credibility and adding 63 teams, of which there are at most eight who were borderline exclusions, is an inherently bad idea. Getting into the NCAA Tournament must actually mean more than playing one game above .500 all season. The prize of winning the national championship must be based on earning your way into an exclusive field of teams which includes enough good teams to make you earn your way to the top. A field of 65 is less than half the winning teams out there which means the regular season has served its purpose in weeding out the bad teams. The reasons the NBCA gave are cover for the real motive behind such an expansion and that is job security. Most of the job stability which surrounds a coach is tied to his ability to make the NCAA Tournament. Coaches like Jim Boeheim, who floated the 80 team field at the Final Four, are afraid they cannot guarantee a spot in the tournament every year because of the increased parity from the mid-majors. They also unwilling to give up there lucrative home games against St. Sebastian's School for the Fingerless in exchange for road games at mid-majors or even hosting them for fear they will get beaten at home. In other words there are apparently enough coaches who would feel a lot better about keeping their job if getting into the tournament were easier. In my opinion getting into the tournament is not supposed to be easy. Getting a NCAA berth should mean you played well all season and you acquitted yourself as one of the best 65 teams in the country. Yes, automatic bids to lower seeded conference finishers does muck things up a bit, and yes a few teams would get shafted every year who could have won one or two games. But the last thing you want to is make so a winning record virtually locks you into a NCAA Tournament berth and until I see more than one #11 seed making the Final Four every 20 years I would not tinker with the current system. It seems to a do a decent job producing a worthy national champion.

UNC Loses Baseball National Championship

2006-06-26T22:38:00.000-04:00

So up 1-0 in the series and 5-0 in Game 2, the wheels came off UNC as they surrendered 11 runs and eventually lost 11-7 on Sunday night to send the series to a decisive third game Monday. It was close but horrible fielding, missed opportunities on offense, and a badly timed visit to the mound did UNC in against Oregon State as they lose the game and the national championship 3-2. Tied 2-2 in the top of the eight UNC puts runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs and then moved the runners on a fielder's choice to first. What followed was two strikeouts, the last negating a steal of home. In the bottom of the eight Daneil Bard(MLB 1st round draft pick) is cruising after giving up 2 runs in the fourth. With two outs and Andrew Miller(also a MLB 1st round draft pick) warmed up in the bullpen, UNC coach Mike Fox visits the mound and discussing removing Bard for Miller. After Bard pleads his case and stays in he walks Bill Rowe and then surrenders a single. Miller comes in and a routine grounder to second is thrown past the 1st baseman allowing the go ahead run to score. As much as the error hurt the two spots where I thought the game was lost were (1) failing to score when the bases were loaded with one out in the eighth and more importantly (2) Mike Fox's ill timed visit to Bard at the mound. If there was one thing my Daddy taught me about baseball it is never disturb a pitcher who is getting the job done, regardless of the pitch count. Bard gave up two runs in the fourth and after that did not throw a single breaking pitch the rest of his stint. He threw 42 fast balls and was retiring the Beavers easily. My question for Fox would be what made you think he could not handle the one more batter? Why not let him keep going in the rythym of the the game and see what unfolds instead of walking out there, make him think he is done, and effectively killing his confidence? Maybe it unfolds the same way but I have a feeling that if Fox holds firm, Bard finishes the inning unscathed. I would have personally preferred to see Bard face Bill Rowe and if he failed to retired him then actually taking him out for Miller who then could stay in the game indefinitely considering he is a starter. Fox essentially out thought himself and as a result the Heels come in second. As my Daddy would say, "I've passed this way before..."

On Vacation

2006-06-22T19:40:00.000-04:00

I will be out of contact until about Tuesday taking a vacation. I will be pulling for the Tar Heels as they try to win the College World Series this weekend. GO HEELS!!!

Stanley Cup Championship Musings, Part 2

2006-06-21T10:47:00.000-04:00

-If there is one issue I have with Raleigh is their penchant to do things in a strange way. When you win a championship, especially in the professional world, you usually have a parade(it also should be noted that if NC State finishes 4th in the ACC and beats Notre Dame in a bowl game the Irish did not even want to be in you have also have a parade/celebration of some sort, but I digress.) Concerns about construction downtown led city officials to opt for a parade essentially through the RBC Cente parking lot to a stage where the crowd listened to speeches and were generaly euphoric. Of this was not a bad idea since 30,000 people showed up and it was a atmosphere reminiscent of the tailgating that went on before the playoff games. Then again some people were not happy with the lack of a downtown parade so they decided they would have one of those too today at noon. The team will also be honored by the General Assembly and assuming the combination of heat and no discernible parking downtown does not limit the crowd too much it should be a raucous time. -I saw local TV coverage of the celebration and it was downright comical. Well it was comical on WRAL, on WTVD they actually did a better job with it. I would actually love to here the backstory on how the two competing stations decided on where they would station reports for interviews. WTVD put two reports at the beginning of the parade and interviewed players before their vehicle actually entered the parade route. The interviews were thorough as possible and the reporters were not generally in the way. Contrast that to Mark Roberts for WRAL who staked out somewhere in the middle of the route. When I picked up watching it he was basically walking around babbling in a vain effort to find a Canes player to interview. In the first set of vehicles that came through were Canes support personnel which apparently Roberts did not realize this so he was moving about wondering when the Canes players would come through so he could interview them. Finally he got on in the form of Nicolas Wallin who he began to interview and the was interrupted by three Raleigh PD motorcycle cops coming up the side which led to Roberts saying the following: Well it looks like we are in the way here so we are going to move back as you see the Raleigh police department is coming through here. (To one of the cops coming by) Hello Seargent, we are staying out of the way, thank you. (After the cops pass through) Oh we have another chance to talk to Nicolas Wallin. Priceless stuff. Mark Roberts is the guy who stands in front of the big map of the Triangle roads every morning(and possibly during the evening news broadcast) and tell you where all the traffic trouble spots are. In other words it does not sound like he will be manning the anchor desk anytime soon. The WTVD reporter made the mistake of telling Doug Weight that he would, "See him in training camp." Weight is an unrestricted free agent and probably will not be back with the Canes though it is possible he might return. -Jim Rome, who I normally detest, gave excellent props to the Canes yesterday on his show. He was trying to guess where the Cup was at that moment. Erik Cole(a big Rome fan) called in and said Brind'Amour had it at his house. How does that work exactly? Does Rod just have it sitting on the kitchen counter or table? If he has a dog I cannot imagine he would put it on the floor for fear he might want to "mark" it. During the parade he told WTVD he slept with the Cup in his bed which I think is funny. I wonder how those guys who take care of the Cup feel about all of this handling of it. They use white gloves and polish it up nice then the Canes players promptly hug and kiss it, pour beer in it, and possibly drool on it in their sleep. I am sure they just go to a happy place. -I also noticed Brind'Amour was wearing an NC State hat. That is as close as NC State has been to any sort of championship for almost three decades. -And finally, to those like myself who said hockey would never work in NC, hockey does not belong in the South, and hockey will eventually usher in the Army of the Potomac to occupy our Southern cities, I would say we were wrong and anytime you hear the words "Carolina" and "championship" it is cause to celebrate.

Stanley Cup Championship Musings

2006-06-20T10:44:00.000-04:00

First of all I will make the full disclosure that I have been to this point a bandwagon fan. I actually was, like many people, resistant to the whole "Southern hockey" deal as an assault on traditional Southern heritage. When the playoffs started I softened that stance because I felt that a Raleigh professional team making a run for a major championship demanded my support so I readily jumped on board even though I knew very little about hockey and even found it tedious. So the past three months have been a learning experience for me as I figured out how the game was played, discovered that even though only 2 or 3 goals are scored there is still plenty to be excited about, and that hockey can be a nice companion sport in the winter to my true love which is college basketball. So, while I rejoice with all Canes fans with the big win, I also know my place as someone who came along a little late in the game and by no means do I put myself on the same level with those hard core fans who have been there since 1997. That being said I can say going forward I will support the Canes and look for great things from them in the future. A few other thoughts: -This is the first professional title in North Carolina history which is huge for the state and the city. It is also huge for the franchise because it should make novice fans like me permanant supporters. I also maintain, as I speculated before Game 5, that this is truly a North Carolina championship that is both inclusive and exclusive in nature. By that I mean all North Carolinians can get behind this win unlike the college basketball titles which tend to address only part of the state's population. In terms of exclusivity I think it very much a North Carolina only championship. I do not say this to disparage fans in South Carolina or Virginia but I am pointing out that the title was won in our capital and is something that North Carolinians can lay greater ownership to in terms of state pride. The two pro teams in Charlotte, though in North Carolina, are considered to be shared by both of the Carolinas. This is also the first time I have been living in a city that won a championship of any kind. -As for the game, the Canes came out and played some impressive hockey. They were the agressors, the put pressure on the Oiler defense, while playing some excellent defense giving up one goal which came after Cam Ward had made two saves on the play already. It was a great effort befitting a veteran and talented team. The moment Rod Brind'Amour took the Cup was sensational as thought years of frustration and desire came pouring out in one incredible moment. -Cam Ward won the Conn Smythe trophy which is the playoff MVP award. Some argued that Brind'Amour should have won it and had the Canes won in five games he would have but Brind'Amour essentially disappeared in Games 5 and 6 but was a factor in Game 7. His locker room leadership provided the Canes the inspiration they needed but unfortunately that does not tabulate in the voting. Not that Ward is not deserving. He mad some impeccable saves throughout the playoffs and his play coming in when Gerber was getting eaten alive by Montreal save the playoff run from complete disaster. -Apparently the anti-Carolina contingent, which seemed to be relagated to traditional hockey cities, can be found in spades among the Charlotte citizenry. Tom Sorenson has a piece on the Charlotte web site which I will not link as not to hand him any free hits. Sorenson, being such a witty fellow, proceeded to denigrate the Canes Game 7 win as only the 393rd biggest game to occur in the state of North Carolina. Among the games he lists which were allegedly more important were all the Panthers home playoff games, games David Thompson played in for NC State, any UNC-Duke game, Ric Flair winning or losing WWF/WCW/WWE wrestling titles, Charlotte Hornets playoff games, NASCAR races, and even some UNCC(yeah I know its Charlotte now but I do not feel like playing nice) basketball games. Wow, jealousy is so unbecoming. I had no idea the people of Charlotte would have reacted with such vitrolic envy over Raleigh having a pro team win the first professional championship in North Carolina history ahead of the Panthers and Bobcats. The sad part about Sorenson is that he plays right into the hands of the national media who still question the placement of a team in Raleigh and some who say the Canes did not deserve the Cup because they do not have "true" fans. Yes, as a recovering anti-hockey guy I can relate to that feeling and I would also say there are more than few bandwagon people jumping on just because they are winning. I also know that the fan base has been truly and permanantly enlarged by this event(myself included and yes I know that places me on probabtion for at least five seasons.) I know that there were 18,000 people at the RBC Center last night who stood the whole game in cheering the Canes to victory. It is unfortunate that there are some people who allow such incredible jealousy to produce this kind of hatred. Sure some people do not like hockey and there are others who cannot go along with it because it eschews Southern tradition. I also think most of those people would agree that regardless of how they feel about hockey or the culture they understand that this is a great moment in the sun for the State of North Carolina. This title gives North Carolina ever greater credence as a state than can support professional sports. Good ol' fashioned North Carolina pride demands that in the very least you give a small cheer for the positive light this sheds on the state and on our capital. And for anyone who cannot stomach the thought of hockey or carries such an incredible level of envy of Raleigh because they got the girl while you were left at the altar should, for the good of the state, remain silent. Believe me, you are doing more harm to the reputation of the state than anything else.

CANES WIN GAME 7!!!!!

2006-06-19T23:19:00.000-04:00

CAROLINA HURRICANES:

STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS From ESPN.com:

From CarolinaHurricanes.com:

From News and Observer:

The Weekend That Was

2006-06-19T12:42:00.000-04:00

I came to a realization Saturday night. I realized how glad I was that the NCAA Tournament does not include a best-of-seven series to win the championship. I just do not know how much I could deal with UNC being up 3-1 on someone and have them lose two straight games and look really bad doing it. Of course I would have to think that UNC would have more titles since series play tends to produce the better team in the end. I really hope that is the case tonight as Carolina hosts Edmonton in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Canes looked flat and basically were steamrolled by the Oilers physical play in a Game 6 loss 4-0. I also thought the Oilers got away with felony assault on some checks but that does not tend to matter when you allow Edmonton to carve up your zone and get clean shots at Cam Ward. Erik Cole returned to the lineup after being at three months with a broken neck(and let it be said that I hope I can go back to doing anything three months later if I ever break my neck or even two cracked vertabrae as was the case with Cole) There is nothing like a Game 7 for ALL the marbles. One goal could win it and the Canes need to wake up and take it right to Edmonton's zone, they need to be physical, and they need to leave it all on the ice because there is no tomorrow. UNC baseball is rolling at the College World Series. They topped Cal State-Fullerton Friday night in extra innings and last night handed #1 Clemson a 2-0 loss. If the Heels win once more they get a slot in the best-of-three championship series(yeah I know what I said before.) UNC has some very strong pitching including two guys taken in the first round of the MLB draft earlier this month. Here's hoping for another national title in Chapel Hill. In case anyone was beginning to think Phil Mickelson was on the same level with Tiger Woods, Mickelson took care of that by choking away a one shot lead with a double bogey on the 18th hole of the US Open yesterday at ultra difficult Winged Foot. Mickelson who called himself an "idiot" afterwards used his driver and sent the ball into the rough and then instead of chipping back onto the fairway tried to hit the ball out of the woods and played pinball with the trees. Needless to say I can relate which is why the US Open is so fun because all of these pros end up looking like your favorite uncle after he has had five beers and lost four golf balls. Now, Woods did not make the cut but he also had not played since the Master because of the death of his father. I know I was barely thinking straight two months after my father died and given Earl Woods prominence in the golfing career of his son it may take Tiger a while to get his "A" game back. The difference between Mickelson and Woods in that situation is Woods would have found a way to win. He would have either made a smarter club selection on the drive or pull out some tremendous shot to at least salvage the playoff. It would have been Mickelson's third straight major title, now all it is images of Vintage Lefty choking away the big one. My father-in-law who theorizes that Tiger Woods majors drought was the only reason Phil finally won most likely enjoyed yesterday's result. He has some serious dislike for Mickelson. And let me note that my opinions of the NBA Finals and World Cup soccer are the same as they were last week. On the NBA front I watched Dallas opt to foul Shaquille O'Neal instead of actually playing defense since O'Neal makes about one free throw as often as they score goals in World Cup soccer. The NBA is just not good basketball to watch and the fact they are starting game at 9:20 PM EDT is atrocious. They spend so much time on pre-game and I cannot really be sure what can be said about the game that has not been said every 10 minutes on SportCenter every day and night. As for the World Cup, there is more time spent kicking the ball around than anything else. I see final scores of 0-0 flash by which means two teams kicked the ball around for over 90 minutes and nothing happened. I also find the players behavior after they get knocked down as though a sniper in the press box has blown a hole in their right leg only to bounce up once a yellow card is issued to their opponent. I know baseball is also low scoring and so is hockey but at least there are things happening in the context of the game. I see very little going on in a soccer match.

Surveying the Media

2006-06-16T20:11:00.000-04:00

The sports spotlight has shone on Raleigh during the Stanley Cup run and produced lots of Hurricane related stories. Here is a sampling of what I found: Local Media Pessimism Following Game 5 loss: CANES' 112 POINT SEASON, PLAYOFF RUN PROVEN TO BE FLUKE BY GAME 5 LOSS RALEIGH POLICE ON SUICIDE WATCH FOR FIRST TIME SINCE NC STATE ACC QUARTERFINAL LOSS WEEPING HEARD NEAR RBC CENTER, GNASHING OF TEETH TO FOLLOW CITY OF RALEIGH ON THE EVE OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION National Media Bias Against Canes' BRIND'AMOUR VOWS TO DRINK BLOOD OF YOUNG CHILDREN FROM CUP IF CANES WIN NBC'S PIERRE MGUIRE; OILERS CRAIG MCTAVASH SET WEDDING DATE HOCKEY IN RALEIGH? EXPERTS SEE LITTLE HOPE OF SUCCESS AUTHENTICITY OF CANES FANS QUESTIONED

THE EDMONTON OILERS: GREATEST TEAM EVER?

Of course the Ryan Smyth coin controversey got plenty of play:

OILERS SMYTH DIGS QUARTER FROM ICE; CALLS SOMEONE WHO CARES

SMYTH USES QUARTER TO BUY GUMBALL MACHINE RING JUST IN CASE

RBC CENTER COIN WORTH ALMOST TWICE AS MUCH IN CANADA

And finally there is much talk about the Oilers "momentum" and Canes' injuries

OILER WONDER WHERE MOMENTUM WAS AT WHILE THEY WERE FINISHING 8TH IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE

CANES' INJURIES LEAVE ONLY MINOR LEAGUE TALENT ON THE TEAM

WITH GAME 6 RESULT ALREADY DECIDED NHL MULLS MOVING RIGHT TO GAME 7

Yes this was all satire but the one true headline I want to see in my Sunday morning News and Observer is this one:

CANES WIN CUP

GO CANES!!!!

Talking About Momentum

2006-06-16T11:43:00.000-04:00

"Momentum" is one of the great buzz words in sports media. There have been whole articles written about it. It even has a nickname("mo'" or "big mo'"). It stands as one of those incredibly abstract and unproven concepts which sports journalist pontificate on for hours on end as it pertains to the results of the next game. Given the amount of attention it garners you would think we would have some sort of concrete definition on which to cling. "Momentum" in physics is best described the "tendency for an object to continue to move in its direction of travel" That is probably an apt description of the application in the sports world but in the case of physical momentum inertia is the driving force. What would we find if we examined the inner workings of sports related momentum? In terms of sports momentum I would describe it as the tendency for a player/team to continue to confidently play well and succeed in competition based on the results of the last contest as well advantages gained from favorable circumstances. Or if we wanted to use a formula we could say: Momentum = Good play + Confidence x Favorable Circumstances Take the current Stanley Cup Finals matchup between Carolina and Edmonton. The sports pundits have universally declared that Edmonton now has the "momentum" going into Game 6. And according to the formula they are probably right, lets take a look. Good play in Game 5 in addition to increased confidence coming off a win and staving off elmination multiplied by home ice advantage in the next game and two key Hurricane injuries. And if you reverse to apply the formula to the Canes you have poor play in the last game coupled with the doubts stemming from the final play and the failure to win the series at home multiplied by injuries and Game 6 on the road. In other words the fact the Canes played badly and lost in a bad way supposedly renders a negative impact on the level of play they will bring in Game 6 which is magnified by being on the road and dealing with injuries. Edomonton on the other hand should experience a continuance or increased in their excellence of play from Game 5 coupled with new found hope which magnified by the fact they are better off in terms of injuries and playing at home. And if you just read that and thought, "That is a load of crap" you would be right because any and all talk of momentum outside of a single game is total poppycock. Since it is my formula I will now pick it apart. In terms of "good play" your play is only as good as your next game. What you did in Game 5, aside from giving you a fresh dose of confidence, has no bearing on Game 6. The next game is a different game with different conditions and a blank scoreboard. Your body feels different and everything they may have worked in Game 5 could turn into disaster in Game 6. As for confidence it is extremely fragile. I happen to think had Cam Ward somehow stopped that blast 16 seconds into Game 5 and denied Edmonton a 1-0 lead from the start the Canes would have won the game. Not because it would have given the Oilers one less goal but because it took the wind out of the Canes early and gave Edmonton confidence within the context of the present game. A player's level of play and confidence are subject to change at anytime based on the flow of the game. There are some rare instances were elite players enter a zone where both of these factors operate at the top level but usually it is more like a rollercoaster ride. This is probably even more of the situation in hockey because the game tends to be more chaotic than the other major sports. So much depends on deflections and perfect opportunities that good play came come(Eric Staal scores twice) and go(partially to blame for giving up the GW goal) at the blink of an eye. As for favorable conditions there is some constancy here in that home games give the home team fan support and injuries take key players away but then again given how the above factors mainfest these can be rendered pointless. And if any of the above nonsense fails to persuade then the fact there is two day break between games is enought to dissuade any thought that momentum exists. UNC coach Roy Williams had an interesting take on momentum when he was asked about sustaining it going into the tournament after UNC had been playing so well and 10 straight games. He said that Dean Smith taught him that momentum has to be recreated upon entering tournament play and then sustained from there. I would add that it must be recreated repeatedly given the nature of the NCAA Tournament. In terms of professional championship series I think momentum must at the very least be created when you change venues. Anytime there is a break in the normal flow of games or a change in the conditions it is my opinion momentum is reset to zero and is recreated at during the game. In this series the Canes created momentum by coming back in Game 1 and it seemed to carry to Game 2. Then the series shifted to Edmonton so momentum was set to zero and the Oilers won and for the most part carried it into Game 4 but the Canes played better and took the 3-1 lead. Everyone says the Canes had momentum except they shifted back to Raleigh so momentum is reset once again and the Oilers seized upon it immediately to ultimately take Game 5. At this point people are talking about Edmonton's momentum which I would argue does not exist because the series has shifted once more to Edmonton. While I do think that momentum is a small factor in the way teams play I think the individual play of players, the bounce of the puck/ball, and lots of little things no one can control has more of role in the results of games. The Canes will either play better or they won't. The Oilers will either do a good job of defending their zone or they won't. And somewhere in there a fluke goal will get scored, a bad play will be made, and someone will do something sensational to save the game for one team or the other. And I know for fact momentum will have nothing to do with it.

The Official Duke Bad Back Excuse

2006-06-15T10:58:00.000-04:00

At Duke not only are you armed with a jumpshot, you are also armed with the skills to win in life, and an excuse when things are not going so well. According to ESPN.com J.J. "U-Turn" Redick will resume draft workouts next week after "resting his back." You really cannot make this stuff up can you? For those who might not know the "back problem" excuse has some glorious history at Duke. In 1995 Duke basketball hit a bit of a rough patch following the 1994 NCAA Runner-up finish. They started the season well enough but as they entered ACC play the wheels came off in a hurry. Mike Krzyzewski suddenly and mysteriously took a leave of absence to address a serious back problem and exhaustion. The team was turned over to Pete Gaudet who promptly ran the it straight into the ground. Duke finished 2-14 in the ACC and was dead last. As the above linked article from Truth About Duke points out the losses which according to NCAA rules go on the record of the head coach were expunged at Coach K's request. In the realm of speculation is a rumor that upon his return Coach K had a meeting with his assistants and pointedly told Pete Gaudet that he had " F---ed up his program." Gaudet left the team shortly afterwards. So now comes J.J. Redick who apparently took a week away from showcasing his uncanny ability to create his own shot so he could rest his back. What is even more disturbing is the timing of the whole thing. According to the ESPN article Redick canceled workouts with Orlando and Boston on Monday telling them he needed to rest his back. Less than 24 hours later he gets popped for DWI. How embarassing is that? You tell potential employers that you are physically unable to workout for them but you are obviously well enough to go out a party until 1 AM before getting caught trying to evade a police checkpoint. Redick has apparently rescheduled with these teams and the first question I would ask Redick when he arrives is if his back needed rest why was he out partying and drinking until 1:00 in the morning? And the second question would be whether or not he thought the workouts were so unimportant that he could cancel them on some unverified excuse and then go out partying that night? In my opinion a person who is in the process of marketing himself to a team that is going to invest millions of dollars in him should take the utmost care of himself. In fact during this stage of the draft process he should refrain from doing anything that might reflect negatively on him including getting drunk, especially if he had just canceled two workouts to "rest his back." The latter DWI issue makes Redick look like he lied to the teams in question about his status and really wanted to hang out in Durham instead of working out with these teams. In the real world if I were interviewing for a highly competive position and I decided to cancel the interview because I was sick only to get arrested for DWI that night I am pretty sure that potential employer is going to stop returning my calls. This whole mess is dumb on so many levels without even mentioning the stupidity of getting behind the wheel while legally intoxicated. Anyway, he should probably talk to his former coach and find out the best way to get his unpleasantness expunged from his record, Coach K is really good at that kind of stuff.

Ooops! Canes Lose Game 5

2006-06-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

The Carolina Hurricanes lost Game 5 in OT to the Edomonton Oilers on a shorthanded goal off a lazy pass from Corey Stillman to Eric Staal. The Canes were hearding up ice on the power play when Stillman was bothered by a defender and hung the puck out in the open ice. It was taken by an Oiler player who went one-on-one with Cam Ward and put it past him in the top corner. Game 6 will happen Saturday night in Edmonton. Two thoughts: 1. People are complaining now about karma and how too many fans treated this like a coronation rather than a game that needed to be won. And yes there was way too much presumption going around Raleigh yesterday and even before that when the Canes locked up the 3-1 lead. I do not believe in karma however and having witnessed any number of seven game series in the three major sports which use them I can tell you that more times than naught a team up 3-1 loses Game 5 and then wins Game 6. The flip side to that is the rare case that we are witnessing a complete debacle on the part of Carolina and the 3-1 lead will eventually turn into a Edmonton win in Game 7. Make no mistake it is a very precarious perch the Canes are not sitting upon. There is pressure to take care of business in Game 6 as to avoid Game 7 which would be a free for all, everything on the ice affair that anyone could win. 2. The Canes still have two chances to win it, with one of those happening on home ice. They won in Edmonton once already so there nothing to say they cannot do it again but it will be tough since the Oilers have the momentum and questions about Aaron Ward and Doug Weight injuries loom very large in the background. On the positive side the Canes have not lost two straight playoff games since going down 0-2 in the 1st round to Montreal a testimony to their resilence. And in terms of the bigger picture early March was the last time they lost three straight games. It was a bad play but based on what I have seen from these guys they turn losses into motivation to play better and win the next game. I expect nothing less come Saturday night.

Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 and Other Musings

2006-06-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

The Carolina Hurricanes lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 with Game 5 tonight at the Big ATM(aka The RBC Center). This is a great scenario for the Canes, playing at home with a chance to clinch the Cup but is it also fraught with danger. Yes, 3-1 leads are commanding but I would venture to say that a 3-1 lead in hockey is probably the least commanding of the professional sports given the manner in which goals are scored. It would be real easy to lose this game and the have to go back to Edmonton for Game 6 where the odds of winning decrease in proportion to the increasing pressure. All of sudden you are looking at Game 7 and anything can happen then. The best bet is to wrap it up now. There must also be strong resistance to having this game feel like a coronation and a foregone conclusion. There have been rumblings that the fan base is getting ahead of itself which is not a good sign. However if the weather is a sign we are currently being rained upon from tropical depression Alberto so take that for what it's worth. NC State AD Lee Fowler has decided to begin the rehabilitation of his image following the basketball coaching search by coming out and essentially saying NC State fans at Wolfpack basketball games suck. Well, he did not say that but he did say this:

"It's kind of taken on what the college atmosphere's about and the fans have done a good job of giving that to the Hurricanes," Fowler said. "It would be great if we could get our fans to yell that way for 40 minutes because those fans were at a level I had never seen before."

Nice way to call your fans out there Lee! First of all the fan support has been great for the Canes and it has turned aside that annoying national media mentality that hockey would not catch on here. Though it should be said that I think it has been and will to some extent be a bandwagon team. My opinion is that Carolina is on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup so I would the fans would come out in droves and cheer passionately for them. If the Canes experience a downturn in the future I would expect the attendance to dwindle but I also think that if they win tonight it will do a lot to bring more permanant fans into the fold. Secondly, Fowler needs to understand that the key to having a rabid and passionate crowd is to win games, get ranked, hang some banners and stop being UNC and Duke's doormat. Wolfpack nation was as divided as a fan base could be over Herb Sendek who had a winning program but not one that was bringing the championship glory much less a very exciting brand of basketball. Couple that with the persistent losing to Duke and UNC(including a 24 point drubbing at RBC this past season that initiated a four game losing streak) then your fans are going to be less than inclined to bring the passion. Do you think the Cameron Crazies would be the Cameron Crazies unless Duke was winning the way they have won over the past 25 years? Win some games Lee and until that starts happening stay away from the media. And finally if the Canes do win the Cup tonight the question has been raised by one of the astute posters at the 850 the Buzz blog of whether this would be the biggest win in North Carolina sports history. The assertion was made that it would because the only other national championships won in this state have been the ten NCAA basketball titles(9 men, 1 women) by UNC, Duke, and NC State. Since each of those schools can only claim a fraction of the state's population then it is not a title that can be celebrated by all North Carolinians. I would agree with that and also add that the Stanley Cup is a more prestigious prize than the NCAA title plus it is a higher level championship because it comes from a major professional league. I also believe that the Carolina Hurricanes are truly a North Carolina professional team as opposed to the Charlotte Bobcats or Carolina Panthers who are really shared by both North and South Carolina because they are located on the border in Charlotte. The fact the Hurricanes play in the state capital make them very much a North Carolina team and if there is anything more telling it is the unity Wolfpack, Tar Heel, and Blue Devil fans have found in cheering the Canes on. The Stanley Cup is in Raleigh tonight, it is up to the Canes to make sure it stays there.

J.J. Redick Charged with DUI

2006-06-13T13:40:00.000-04:00

Former Duke star, ESPN darling, presumed lottery pick, and all time ACC leading scorer J.J. Redick was charged with DUI this morning in Durham after he attempted to evade a police checkpoint by making a U-turn(which according to my late father is something you never, ever, do.) Redick only blew a 0.11 which is a tick above the legal limit but the law is the law so what can you do. Redick's arrest comes a mere few weeks before the NBA Draft which Redick was inexplicably projected to go as a lottery pick. Given all of the attention that gets paid to off the court issues, the arrest may impact Redick's status somewhat though it is a first offense, a mistake a lot of people make, and he is a clean cut white boy from Duke. Oh wait a minute I forgot that last part does not matter anymore. In fact there are few things I am wondering like whether or not Duke will launch a full investigation into the basketball program perhaps suspending the entire team for the next season. Maybe Coach K will resign under pressure since he obviously has very little control over his players. The warning signs are there and Duke would be foolhardy to ignore them and should crush the basketball program like a walnut under the merciless hammer of justice lest the name of Duke be soiled! I also find the whole episode humorous considering Redick's clean cut reputation and the fact Dick Vitale cannot help but be completely spastic in his effusive praise of all things Redick. The spin from Duke's #1 fan will be interesting when it comes forth. And I am pretty much laughing my Carolina loving self silly over the irony of Coach K's constant mantra about being a "leader" and "arming" his players with more than a jumpshot but preparing them for life, which has now been turned on its head. Hey K, here some free advice, how about arming your kids with the good sense to know when to call a designated driver or even a cab. In fact, if you anywhere within the juristication of the Durham DA, Mike Nifong, I would highly recommend the cab option since it also provides you with an alibi witness just in case someone accuses you of some unsavory act. Redick is due in court on July 17 where pretty much nothing of consequence will happen.

Canes One. Win. Away.

2006-06-12T23:44:00.000-04:00

The Carolina Hurricanes took care of business in Edmonton tonight taking a tight 2-1 decision to give them a commanding 3-1 lead with Game 5 Wednesday night in Raleigh, NC. That's right on Wednesday night you could have a professional hockey team clinch the Stanley Cup as the home team in Raleigh, NC.

The World Cup

2006-06-09T13:08:00.000-04:00

Just so you know, I really could care less. I hardly ever watch soccer much less the World Cup. Even though this year the U.S. has a highly ranked team I really have a hard time watching the World Cup. I find it tedious at times and the play is boring. The guys can flat out kick the ball which is amazing but generally speaking I will probably watch snippets here and there, especially in the championship game(because I really like watching drunken Europeans nearly riot over something as trivial as sports) *If something wild happens like a riot or the U.S. makes it to the semi-finals I might give it more attention, other than that I will be in my yard watching the grass grow.

The NBA Finals

2006-06-09T09:44:00.000-04:00

Just so you know, I really could care less. I stopped watching the NBA when Jordan retired after 1998. Even though this matchup of Dallas and Miami is a "throwback" to the star powered, highly talented Finals of the Jordan years I really have a hard time watching the NBA. I find it too predictable at times and the offensive sets are boring. The guys can flat out shoot though which is amazing but generally speaking I will probably watch the very end of the fourth quarter, especially in the clinching game(because I really like watching championship moments) Dallas won Game 1 over Miami 90-80. *If something wild happens like Shaquille O'Neal eats someone then I will give it more attention, other than that I may use it as a filler post.

CANES WIN 5-0; NOW UP 2-0 ON OILERS

2006-06-08T14:53:00.000-04:00

Or to put it into "redneck" terms the Canes took the Oilers behind the woodshed and beat the ever living daylights out of them with a two-by-four. Basically the Canes' players were angry despite winning Game 1 because they played horribly for the first two periods. Game 2 was a different story as the Canes dominated ever facet of the contest. By the beginning of the third period the Oilers were down 3-0 and so frustrated that they basically starting hitting the Canes players just for the fun of it which resulted in two more power play goals. Players on both sides afterwards called it playoff hockey and these sort of things happen when the rout is on but there was no excusing the hit Oiler goon Georges Laraque gave to Andrew Ladd presumably as payback for Ladd hitting Roloson in Game 1 and taking out the Oiler goalie for the rest of the series. Which is fine except Ladd was pushed from behind into Roloson by Burgeron so maybe during practice today Laraque can hit Burgeron to make sure justice is fully served. Laraque got a major penalty(which I did not know resulted in a 5 minute power play. If this had happened 10 minutes earlier the Canes would have won 7-0) and a game misconduct resulting in an ejection. He did the same thing during the San Jose series we will see if the NHL sits him down for Game 3 or not. Anyway, the game was a statement and while the Canes have done nothing but hold home ice, the manner in which they throttled Edmonton coupled with the loss of Roloson makes a Oiler rally very difficult. Of course they say Edmonton is a tough venue to play for the road team. The Canes need to keep the stellar play going and grab at least 1 of 2 on the road.

Al Qaeda-Iraq Coach Suddenly Resigns

2006-06-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

Pressure to win against the U.S. proves to be too much BAGHDAD-The Al Qaeda-Iraq Insurgents terrorist team is without head coach Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his staff this morning who departed overnight under immense pressure from a 500-lb U.S. bomb which flattened his home and office. Sources close to the situation say Zarqawi and his staff were reviewing a new game plan when the U.S. overwhelmed the Insurgent defense and completed a long pass directly into Zarqawi's living room. The final score of the match was U.S. 8 Insurgents 0. Team owner Osama Bin Laden is now faced with the ardous task of filling a coaching position in an already competitive market. A spokesman for Bin Laden said that they were currently looking at candidates from the "mid-major" level and are really interested in someone who has experience dealing with the United States and Britain. Many analysts believe that this means Bin Laden will be taking a long look at terror leaders in Afghanistan though one cannot rule out the possibility Bin Laden will go "outside the family" to Hamas or Iran to garner the "next great terror leader." While the field is wide open one thing is certain, the process will be a quick one. "Allah willing we hope to tender an offer in a matter of days and fill the post." said Ala Muhammed Barak. "And we certainly will not be taking 33 days and then settle for some unproven Motlov cocktail hurler who happened to plant a few successful IEDs over 20 years ago. No, we want a proven winner who we know can recruit" Barak says securing and holding new recruits will be the primary focus of any new man in Iraq. It has been rumored that certain committed players quit the team and signed on with the U.S. squad leading to the ouster of Zarquawi. Barak also indicated that they are presently resisting the calls from some to go after a "big name" terrorist for fear that the contract demands might be too much for the terror oufit to handle. "Things have been pretty lean for about five years now, revenue is way down, and the season ticket fan base is not what it once was prior to 2001. Some of the more well known terrorists might hedge at the possibility of having to live in a cave. Demands for things like 80 virgins in the afterlife and direct flights to heaven upon martyrdom is not something we really have any control over" Zarquawi, who enjoyed some success against the United States, is sure to be a hot commodity in one of the upper level afterlife leagues. Sources close to Satan himself say Zarquawi is already being considered for the head job on two underworld teams, the Screwtape Six-Six-Sixers and the Diablo Burning Lakers. Zarqawi has been unavailable for comment.

Customary Duke Bashing

2006-06-07T10:17:00.000-04:00

I was reading through the threads and realized I had been lazy in fulfilling the one of the primary tenets of the "Tar Heel Fan Blog Charter" which is engaging in occasional Duke abuse. I ran across this play diagram on the Inside Carolina message board found at a out of date anti-Duke website: The play described above is from the 1999 NCAA Championship game when Duke at 37-1 took on UConn. Duke was a heavy favorite since they only had one loss(a buzzer beater against Cincinnati in the Great Alaska Shootout) and despite the fact that UConn was also a #1 seed. As the game unfolded the UConn defense held a Duke team, which included future lottery picks in Elton Brand, Corey Magette, William Avery, and Shane Battier, in check. With 20 seconds to and UConn leading 75-74 Duke rebounded a Husky miss and senior guard Trajan "the Alaskan Assassin" Langdon brought the ball up. Duke opted no to take a timeout(or they did not have any) but rather put the ball in Langdon's hands to try and win the game. Legend has it that when Langdon looked to the Duke bench for direction coach Mike Krzyzewski simply said, "Take 'em Trajan." Langdon brought the ball front court and then attempt to drive the lane but was stopped short, picked up his dribble and then fell down with the ball and was whistled for traveling. UConn got the ball back and was subsequently fouled. They hit two free throws to give them the 77-74 win. Of course Langdon was 7-15 and had 25 points so it was not a bad decision to have him push for the shot but I am wondering why Duke did not have Avery, the point guard bring the ball up and then set Langdon up coming around a screen off Avery's penetration. At any rate I thouroughly enjoyed watching such a highly regarded Duke team choke it away like that in the final seconds.

Considering Michelle Wie

2006-06-06T11:26:00.000-04:00

In case you did not know, Michelle Wie is the 16 year old golfing phenom from Hawaii. She is blessed with incredible talent and is capable of driving the ball just as far as the men can. Oh, did I mention she was only 16? Aside from her incredible talent she also carries herself with great composure, she has a very telegenic smile and wonderful personality. So far she has already secured huge endorsement contracts and is set to be a fixture on the golfing scene for the next 30 years. Oh, and she has yet to win a single tournament on the professional level. I always operated on the mentality that one should at least have some kind of body of accomplishments before being handed the keys to the kingdom. That is no longer the case, just ask LeBron James. One of the problems with Wie is that she splits time between trying to qualify and win in men's tournaments and actually playing on the LPGA Tour. Now let me get the gender issue out of the way first. I have no problem with women competing with men as long as the sport places them on equal footing in terms of physicality. In other words women should not play football, the physical differences such as the fact women are weaker than men percludes a woman from being able to play football at the same level as the men. The same is true of basketball and baseball. Golf is different. A woman(or in this case a girl) can obviously develop the skills and strength necessary to hit a golf ball the same distance as the men. There is no pronounced physical aspect of the game which gives a man a significant advantage over a woman. So as long as Wie earns her way into the tournament then she is free to play against the men. This past week Wie made an effort to qualify for the U.S. Open and she was close but eventually failed in her bid. And while I have no problem with Wie trying to qualify or even playing in men's tournaments, I think that has become an obsession that may end up harming more than helping. Playing with the men is one thing, playing and winning is another and she needs to be doing that more right now. There are two schools of thought here. One is that you should seek out competition or conditions which are superior to you and by playing against those you can continually raise the level of your game. The second thought is to play against comprable or even slightly weaker competition to get the experience of winning and gaining a sense of success as a confidence builder. Wie seems to be opting for more of the first school thought rather than the second. Having been a competitive runner I know the value of pushing your own limits against people who are better than you. That being said, had I opted to constantly have my butt handed to me over and over I would probably lack any real confidence despite the improvement I might see in my times. The competition I faced in high school provided me a perfect mix. I ran against comparable runners with 50/50 odds of winning, I faced guys who I had no prayer of beating but could at least hang behind to force myself to run faster. I also faced the cupcakes who I can beat handily. There was value is each of those situations for me, even when I was 300 meters ahead of the second place guy. Winning is one thing. Knowing how to win or understanding how to handle the pressure associated with pulling a win out of a tough competition is a totally different animal. Wie has little experience with learning how to win in a tough situation. Going on and playing the men may be good motivation to push the limits of her game but if she fails to develop confidence and a winning mentality I think it will weaken her as an all around player. My advice to Wie(because we all know she checks out Tar Heel Fan every day) is to break-up her schedule and spend some more time on the LPGA winning tournaments. She needs to be in a final round pairing with Annika Sorenstram with the LPGA Championship on the line to understand how to make the clutch shots and experience the joys of winning. She can still take her cracks at the men's tour but notching a few LPGA wins, especially in the majors would server her just as much right now as taking her lumps against the men. She is only 16. She has so much time ahead of her to develop her game completely and then go after the men's tournaments.

I Think Barry Has Something For That...

2006-06-05T10:36:00.000-04:00

The quest to expunge the records book of Barry Bonds highly questionable 73 home runs in 2001 came to an unfortunate halt when St. Louis 1B Albert Puljos went on the 15 day DL with a strain/tear of his oblique muscles. The time off and the subsequent recovery time when he returns pretty much spells an end to the hope he could top Bonds' single season home run record thus clearing at least one tainted mark off the books. Of course had Puljos cheated and been using steroids he may not have suffered the injury. Isn't that how it always is? One guy cheats by taking steroids and breaks the record. Another guys comes along and is on track to break the record using hard work and natural talent only to end up with a season threatening injury. Given the compeltely classless individual Bonds is he is probably off somewhere laughing.

The Spelling Bee

2006-06-02T09:40:00.000-04:00

A 13 year old girl from New Jersey has won the Scripps Spelling Bee. Katharine Close spelled some word which she will probably never again use in her life but hey it was good for the gold last night. Close beat out Finola Mei Hwa Hackett of Canada and Saryn Hooks of Taylorsville, NC who got royally screwed by the judges for saying she missed a word she actually spelled right. Now how does that happen? Don't the judges have the word in front of them? I am unsure how she can spell the word correctly and the judges dismiss her when one would think they have the word written down in front of them? Also, I did not know there was instant replay in the Scripps Spelling Bee. Apparently it is more like the college football system where the officials make the call. Can you imagine the excitement if the parents could challenge like NFL coaches do? Because it is a competition ESPN usually covers the Bee and for the first time ABC showed it in prime time. I actually could do with even more sports related references during the Bee which would undoubtedly make it more entertaining: Play by Play Announcers Get one of the notorious loundmouth guys to do the Bee. Can you imagine Dick Vitale doing color analysis. "Robin I really like this kid, Rajiv Tarigopula, he is major PTPer. Did you see they way he parsed the etymology on that word? Awesome baby with a capital A!!!! I am convinced he is going to be a BMOC, Big Man on Campus. In fact he looks like Duke material to me, they should have him try and spell Krzyzewski! Let me tell you something Coach K is one of premiere basketball coaches in this country." Or go for something like the play-by-play rambling of Bill Murray's groundskeeper character in Caddyshack "The word is 'ursprache' Close is mulling it over. The Cinderalla story, was unable to talk until she was three, about to become the Scripps Spelling Bee Champion.......She got it right! She got it right! More Pronounced Reactions from Contestants and Parents An interview following elmination: "I have seen better #$&%*^ judges at elementary school spelling bees. I mean every word I got was either from Scandanavian or French origin and everyone knows I am much stronger on the Greek origins. It was clear the ^*&+#$@ Scripps people were sick and tired Indians winning the contest." Or when Saryn Hook was mistakenly eliminated it would have been fun if her parents stood up and starting yelling at the judges Coach K-style: "That's bull***t, that it total bull***t. How can you--She spelled it right! She got the f---ing spelling right and you are too f--ing stupid to realize it? There is no f---ing second "s" in the f---ing word. You killed us. You f---ing killed us." I think if a kid got a word right he or she should scream like Alonzo Mourning does after doing, well anything, or have some ten year old kid spell the word and then as he is walking back get in the face of one of the other contestants and say something like, "Come and get some!" I would have paid to see the winner, Close, pump her fist Tiger Woods-like when she won. Then she could have jumped up on the judges table with her arms in the air. When they gave her the trophy she could have either sat their kissing it like MJ did when he won his first NBA title or walk around the room hold it in the air. Collapsing face down on the floor in a heap of tears would have worked too. More Post Spelling Bee Follow up Stories ABC actually has an article on their web site about past participants but it is all good news. I want to hear about the kid who following his crushing defeat at the hands of some obscure 13 letter noun of Russian origin is thrown out of his house for failing and ends up homeless. How about someone who won the contest at age 11 and then proceeded to blow the prize money on Power Ranger action figures. There is also the story of that fourth or fifth grader who does so well he thinks he can make the jump straight to high school only to drop out by the second year and is now selling mortgages out of some strip mall location on the bad side of town. Then there is the kid who had a lot of promise, actually finished in the top 10 twice and won it all his last year who ends up only pulling B+ averages in high school, gets a chance to attend a major university but eventually transfers to the local community college and is now a manager at the Home Depot. Some Final Random Thoughts I hope Katharine Close has some quality people protecting her "brand." In fact she should probably ink at least one or two endorsement deals right now. My best advice for Close comes from the immortal Venus Flytrap from WKRP in Cincinnati who said(while drunk), "Go pro, skip the Olympics!" Seriously, if I was Saryn Woods I would file some kind of greviance with the Spelling Bee people. Winning this thing take some serious concentration and to toss her out and then bring her back undoubtedly threw her off her game. And again, how can the judges not know whether or not she got the word right? If they do not know then who does? If Scripps wants to have this thing really take off they should come up with things like rankings and even find a way they can put the contest in a tournament bracket. Since ESPN's ultra hype machine is on board you would have little trouble getting the Bee to be as big as the NCAA Women's Tournament. You should also add some competitions throughout the year to generate some win-loss records and stats to be followed. The fantasy league would not be far behind. Of course if you did all of that you would also need to start testing for performance enhancing drugs. We all know that the point it becomes big money parents, teachers, and contestants alike will be looking for that "edge" by taking drugs to improve their memory. Scripps would need to do random drug test to see if contestants had unusually high levels of B-12 or ginseng in their system. In fact they should look into this now. Do not make the same mistake MLB made and turn a blind eye to the use of performance enhancers. Sooner or later you will get some kid who has won a record three straight titles going for a fourth only to find out he has been juicing it up since he was eight. *Author's Note: I referred to Katharine Close as being unable to speak until she was three. I have no idea if that is true but was taking a little license to make a joke. She spelled words that I would not have clue how to spell so she deserves a congratulations for obviously being a total genius. No offense was intended in the writing of this post nor did I harm any animals. Copyright © 2006

HURRICANES DEFEAT BUFFALO 4-2

2006-06-01T22:40:00.000-04:00

CAROLINA HURRICANES EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS The Canes gave a scare going down 2-1 in the second but followed up with three goals in the third to win the Prince of Wales Trophy(yeah I know, I could do without all of the snooty Canadian names too but what can you do?) Anyway the #8 seed in the West, the Edmonton Oilers, who somehow managed to get through will be the opponents for the Stanley Cup Finals which will begin on June 5th in Raleigh, NC. The Canes have home ice and will be favored to win the Cup. I mentioned the Prince of Wales Trophy and the story goes that in 2002 when the Canes beat Toronto to win the Eastern Conference they skated around the rink with the Prince of Wales Trophy much like the winning team does with the Stanley Cup. Tonight they posed for a team picture with the trophy and then went to locker room. Very businesslike. It reminded me of an urban legend of UNC's James Worthy who was asked if the team wanted to cut down the nets at the regional final in 1982. Worthy said no because they were the not the nets they wanted. UNC won the title a week later.

Things I Was Thinking About While Waiting for the Hurricanes to Score a Goal...

2006-05-31T10:14:00.000-04:00

Which they did and tied the game with three minutes to go in the third period before losing in overtime 2-1 on a power play goal by Buffalo. Now I have enjoyed watching the Hurricanes play but I still think hockey is more chaos and freaky ricochets of the puck. The most impressive part of the game is watching these guys skate with unbelievable agility and speed. I also cannot figure out how the goaltenders put their legs in those kinds of positions. Anyway Buffalo visits Carolina Thursday night for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. GO CANES!!! Which the Detroit Pistons down 3-1 to Miami and playing Game 5 tonight to avoid elimination it is obvious where the flaw with the team lies: Flip Saunders. In two years under Larry Brown the Piston won the NBA title and then went to Game 7 in The Finals versus San Antonio. This season under the direction of Saunders they have looked every bit the part of a team that is one step behind and completely out of focus. It took them seven games to dispatch Cleveland whose only offensive threat was Lebron James. Now against Miami they are being eaten alive by Dwyane Wade. They have zero heart and fire at this point. Motivation is the job of the coach as is establishing a good game plan and seeing that it is executed. Saunders is apparently doing neither. ESPN is now referring to Barry Bonds as "Chasing Aaron" now. As a public service Tar Heel Fan would like to offer the following advice to ESPN: IT'S OVER...LET. IT. GO. Speaking of records Jayson Stark who writes baseball columns at ESPN.com served up a nice article on the Top 10 records on baseball. What I really liked about it was his assertion right up front that the home runs records from the "Asterisk Era" have been rendered worthless and as a result he did not included them in his Top 10. At least someone at ESPN has some good sense. NC State's Cedric Simmons has opted to stay in the NBA Draft. More bad news came when recruit Larry Davis asked to be released from his Letter of Intent to he could go to Seton Hall and the Pack also stands to lose the recruit Dan Werner in the same fashion. The good news is Sidney Lowe may be available a full month sooner than expected after tonight's Game 5 in Detroit. Lowe still has to finish college and pass the NCAA recruiting exam. I am sure he will also be tied up with some huge college graduation bash. Here's hoping he gets a really cool graduation present from his peeps.

Bonds Passes Babe, Media Kisses His...

2006-05-28T23:20:00.000-04:00

I think you know the rest. The hype around Bonds passing Ruth has more to do with the figure Ruth was than it is Bonds actually hitting 715 home runs. On one hand the hype of Bonds passing Ruth would only be slightly annoying without the cloud of steroid use hanging over the San Francisco outfielder's unusually large head. The accusations alone place such a stigma on the whole mess I honestly wish the media would stop acting as though he won the World Series. Because that is precisely what ESPN is doing. As of this writing, ESPN has the big "splash" headline up which includes an oversized picture and a huge headlines along with multiple stories and links covering the event. This treatment is traditionally used for championships or a sports news story of epic proportions. I have seen it used to announce most of the champions in major sports as well as the death of Dale Earnhardt. The Fox News website even put it as their lead story. Now, I do understand the dynamic and passing Ruth is a huge deal since Bonds has moved into territory only one other man has been in over 100 years of baseball. The cloud around Bonds stinks so much that I think it should reduce the furor being raised. Of course the News 14 Sports here on Time Warner Cable in Raleigh perhaps had it right when they showed the highlight which included the following graphic: BONDS HITS HOME RUN #175 This might be a reference to the number of home runs Bonds has hit without performance enhancing drugs though the good money is on it being a typo. Undoubtedly a slight Freudian slip on the part of the technician who created the graphic.

Ignorance in Buffalo

2006-05-27T20:44:00.000-04:00

The NHL Eastern Conference Finals have produced a fairly high level of animosity between Carolina Hurricanes fans and loyal followers of the Buffalo Sabres. The 850/620 Blog has hosted some heated discussions and the News and Observer's Ned Barnett jumped into the fray when he received responses from Buffalo fans who say his columns re-printed in the Buffalo area papers. This article in particular, a response to Buffalo fans, drew the ire of Buffalo columunist Jerry Sullivan who proceeded to write a column lambasting North Carolinians as being ignorant of hockey and implying we are essnetially all tobacco peddling, NASCAR rednecks of low IQ. Now, I know very little about hockey so I steer clear of discussing too much since I would undoubtedly sound like an idiot. Sullivan also has little problem with that. Here is my email in response to his journalistic regurgitation:

Mr Sullivan, First of all I would like to think you for demostrating what "pronouncing your ignoranc" look like in written form. Since I am fair guy I would like to correct your ignorance as displayed by your article on 5/26. "Keep in mind, this is the perspective from North Carolina, where the burning intellectual question is how swiftly a bunch of guys in overalls can change four tires and fill up the gas tank without getting run over by a stock car." Congratulations for latching right on to the oldest stereotype of the South and particularly North Carolina. I would have been more impressed with some sort of original thought on your part but you probably thought we would be too dumb to understand it. "Really, how can Buffalo fans ever comprehend what's involved in watching a NASCAR event? I'm sure that while watching the cars go endlessly around in a circle - pardon me, oval - the typical race fan is quietly debating Sartre and the latest developments in the "Research Triangle" I am not sure what factor intelligence has on watching NASCAR? In fact if NASCAR is such a dumb sport why are they in process of abandoning the smaller rural tracks for ones in metro areas? And the last I checked Watkins Glen, NY was 2 1/2 hours from Buffalo so I have a sneaking suspiscion NASCAR is bigger in upstate NY than you are willing to admit. In fact how many NASCAR races have you actually watched? Can you tell me why a team would opt to only take two tires at the end of the race? Do you know what it means if a car is "loose" or "tight?" Could you be so kind as to explain to me what a "wedge" is or what purpose the "roof flaps" serve? My point is different sports have their own nuances and terminology. Some are easier than others, but denigrating any of them is outright stupid. "I've always thought their state motto should be, "Hey, at least we're not West Virginia." Sure, a lot of our finest minds have left town to get jobs there, but I'd rather export young people than cigarettes, which kill people. Tobacco should be their state flower." I have no idea what that motto part means but I will say that tobacco was entrenched in NC fields well before anyone thought it was dangerous and I am not how well you understand economics but a state is usually incapable of switching its economy overnight. I would also like to point out that smoking is a choice people make now with full knowledge of the dangers and addictive quality. So spare me the self righeous garbage about exporting something that kills people. In fact speaking of killers... "Some of Carolina's deep thinkers would have us believe that the Duke men's lacrosse players are really just a bunch of misunderstood good guys." Nice. Especially coming from the city where O.J. Simpson spent his professional career. Of course O.J. got off with far more evidence against him than Durham DA Mike Nifong has on the three indicted Duke players. I guess you cannot be bothered with silly things like "innocent until proven guilty" or a simple perusal of the facts surrounding the case. And not that I am taking either side in the case just pointing out what kind of classless individual it takes to use a rape scandal as cheap shot against someone. "Maybe we spend too much time dissecting hockey's little nuances. But you should hear Carolina people talk about basketball. When the sanctimonious Dean Smith began using the four corners offense, you would have thought he'd invented the light bulb." Listening to Peter Laviolette complain about the officiating, you'd swear he once served as an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski, the whiny Duke hoop coach. If Laviolette is so smart, how come he couldn't figure out that Ryan Miller was one of the three best goaltenders from the United States?" Ah, the basketball cracks. Yes we tend to hold Dean Smith in high regard because he is the all time winningest coach in NCAA history and he did it the right way. His strategies, four corners included, changed the face of basketball. Was it inventing the light bulb? No, the next time you watch a college game ask yourself why the shot clock is part of the game. As for Mike Krzyzewski, you will get little argument from me on him except I think you do Pete Laviolette a disservice by comparing him to Coach K. "Having seen his Hurricanes get dominated for stretches of Game Three, Laviolette was no doubt reminded of how important it is to have the last change at home. Of course, when you talk about the last change in Carolina, they assume you're talking about the oil in the Dodge." You are so witty! There is nothing funnier than dropping some kind of line implying that people in the South are so entrenched in NASCAR and car repair that we assume any reference to the word "change" must be about changing the oil. In fact I have never changed my own oil and neither do most of the people I know. And I am not sure why you stopped short on the stereotype and did not use Ford or Chevy instead of Dodge there. "But I don't mean to belittle the good people of Carolina" Are you insane? You just spent the better part of this article implying that North Carolinians were a group of dumb NASCAR watching rednecks who engage in the murder of people through tobacco sales and use a recent rape scandal as fodder to denigrate our intellegience. Now you come down here and say you do not mean to "belittle" us? It's a little late for that. And besides, if you are going to write an article full of cheap shots at North Carolina and its citizens please have the courage of your convictions to stand by it without giving some pseudo apology at the end to make it look like this was just a good natured ribbing. As for your salient points about hockey culture you may be right or you may be wrong. Since I have little working knowledge of hockey I will refrain from speaking about it any detail lest I "pronounce my ignorance" I would expect the same from you except had you done that your article would have been about two paragraphs in length. Hockey is a niche sport much the same way NASCAR appears to be. I am not sure why people, even in Raleigh, think hockey is supposed to rocket to the top of the popularity chart when sports like basketball, NASCAR, and to some extent college football have been here for over 50 years. As for Ned Barnett and the N&O, Canes fans are not even happy with anything they have say about hockey so I can only imagine what kind of ire they would raise from more knowledgeable fans of the sport. Barnett's response to the inbox flurry was ill advised. You response to Barnett went well beyond reason given that your article is nothing more than a series of overused attacks based on worn out generalizations. There is nothing you said that we have not heard before only it was funnier and more cleverly presented. The sad truth about your aritcle is that you had an opportunity to engage the issue and Barnett with an honest evaluation of hockey and the place it represents in the culture. You were afforded a chance to be respectful and educate people by correcting the misconceptions Barnett and others have offered. Instead you chose to answer their misconceptions with some of your own and when you were finished you came off as the pompous, self righteous, Northerner which did nothing more but fulfill the view many Southerners already hold of our northern neighbors. In short the article was petty and incendiary in nature, but then again I am sure you already knew that and are most likely quite please to see your inbox fill up with half cocked responses.

The long and short of it is that Jerry Sullivan is a troll of the Gregg Doyel variety. He wrote a article which was fully intended to anger Canes fans and North Carolinians in general. Perhaps I fell into the trap by responding but I have little patience for people who opt for personal insults and cheap attacks instead of actually making a valid point. Canes and Sabres tied 2-2. Go Canes!!!

Coach K Not Duke's Highest Paid Employee

2006-05-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

According to the Durham Herald-Sun, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is no longer the top paid employee at Duke University. In fact Coach K has dropped all the way down to fourth on the salary list at Duke and may be in danger of missing the playoffs. Krzyzewski had been the highest paid employee at Duke on numerous occasions in the past and while he makes millions of dollars beyond his Duke income as a car salesman and a credit card rep, one has to wonder what impact this will have on the K's ego. Perhaps we will begin hearing new rumors of how some NBA team has been in contact with him about their coaching vacancy so that he can leverage himself back to the top of the heap. The real shame is that this did not come out a few weeks ago when he could have used the NC State coaching job just like everyone else in college basketball did to get a raise. Wow, cracking on Duke and NC State in the same post, must be a good day.

What if You Hit as Many Home Runs as Babe Ruth...

2006-05-25T13:38:00.000-04:00

...and no one cared. Welcome to Barry Bonds world as the much anticipated equaling(but not yet surpassing of) Babe Ruth for second place on the all time home run list generated very little attention in the sports world or the world in general last weekend. Of course that still has not prevented ESPN from going to live look-ins of his at bats during Baseball Tonight but then again ESPN also finally put the Bonds reality show Bonds on Bonds to rest showing signs that the folks in Bristol might be developing a clue. In fact, based on my read of this weekend in the sport's world, I would venture to say that more people were concerned about Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro's shattered leg than Bonds tying Babe Ruth for second place on the all time home run list. Is the lack of attention to Bonds surprising? It shouldn't be despite gallant attempts by ESPN and the media at large to make Bonds the story of the baseball season. For starters, the media market is simply oversaturated with Bonds to the point the fans are tuning him out. The steroid allegations have not helped and it might be a somewhat unspoken damnation of Bonds by the fans that they do not consider his 714 total to be legitimate. And I am not sure it has been mentioned here but the Bonds home run this past weekend only tied him for second place on the all time home run list. It is very hard for fans to get excited about milestones much less ones that are not really milestones at all. Tying and passing Ruth is a pseudo-milestone in the sense Ruth was such a gargantuan(literally and metaphorically) figure in baseball. It is a nuanced milestone which requires a significant appreciation if history which most fans do not have thanks to the "Instant History" mentality created by ESPN and the new media. The length of time between 713 and 714 also played a part as fans clearly were fed up with worrying about it. In all honesty I am glad the market i.e. the fans dictated the way Bonds is being treated by the media. Sometimes the best thing to do about someone you dislike in the public arena is deny them the attention they so brazenly crave or in the case of ESPN starve them of the ratings they are prostituting themselves for in an effort to fill their own coffers. I mentioned previously that the focus on Bonds passing Ruth was a flat out insult to Hank Aaron who actually holds the all time career home run mark. At this point I also think there is a great disservice being paid to St. Louis 1B Albert Puljos who is on track to hit 84 home runs. Undoubtedly that projection will come down but the failure to give Puljos, who appears to be clean on all accounts, his due is a travesty. The focus on Puljos will heat up if we get to late July and he is around 50 homers. In many ways the best poetic justice would be for Puljos, a soft spoken and classy player, to break Bonds mark and essentially erase that blight from the record books. That would a be a fitting footnote to Bonds' career.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

2006-05-24T13:18:00.000-04:00

To my brother who recently accepted a tenure track professorship at Lake Superior State University in Michigan. Time to figure out what "establishing your forecheck" means.

The NBA Draft Lottery

2006-05-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

So the NBA had their dog and pony show known as the Draft Lottery last night and the Toronto Raptors received the #1 pick. The worst team in the league, Portland, fell all the way to fourth. The Charlotte Bobcats, who have my allegiance because they are in NC and they also have two UNC players on the roster, will pick third. The big winner in the whole draft is Chicago who will pick second despite being a playoff team because they traded Eddy Curry to New York for their 2006 1st Round draft choice. The jury is still out on whether or not this was a bad move for Isiah Thomas since Curry may end up being better than any of the talent in this year's draft which is inherently weak for various reasons including the age limit. Here is my breakdown of the first five teams: 1. Toronto Raptors The smart money for Toronto is to steer clear of any of the top college players and take someone no one in this country or Canada has seen play. In fact Andrea Bargnani, a seven footer from Italy, would be a great choice. Why? Because before I read ESPN.com I had no clue this guy existed and I am sure that goes for about 65% of all NBA fans. So if he is a bust then you can blame it on attempting to draft one of those agile European seven footers which we just did not know enough about at the time. Plus, it's Toronto, how many fans do they really have anyway? 2. Chicago Bulls This is a gravy pick for the Bulls. The team is young, very talented and already in the playoffs. They will continue to improve regardless of whether they picked here or 16th. Oh wait, they do get to pick 16th too, so they can waste that one on whatever they want. I honestly have very little idea what Chicago has or needs. LSU's Tyrus Thomas has great athleticism and is an excellent defender so would probably be a good choice. He is also a project and could really use a situation where he does not have to come in and contribute immediately. If I was Chicago I would then call the Knicks and see if you could get Eddy Curry back by dangling the 16th pick in front of Isiah. 5 to 1 he bites. 3. Charlotte Bobcats As a pseudo-Bobcats fan I really do not care who they pick as long as it is not Adam Morrison. I find Morrison to be absolutely creepy and it would make pulling for the Bobcats more difficult even though Raymond Felton and Sean May are on the team. I also might have a problem with UConn's Rudy Gay simply based on the possibility of this play-by-play call during the game: "Felton brings it front court and spots an open Gay going to the basket. Ray to Gay on the alley oop" OR "Felton to Gay down to May back to Gay out to Ray for three. Yes!" I mean how many people can you have on your team with rhyming first or last names. So the best bet is to take Washington's Brandon Roy. 4. Portland Trailblazers The upside for Portland is there is no can't miss player like Michael Jordan they can pass on to take some good-but-not-great player who injures himself out of the league in a few years. And speaking of upside, the Blazers have nowhere to go but up so about anyone they can take is going to be a decent pick. Except this draft sucks so if they are smart they draft the best player available, break his foot in training camp so he misses the whole season thus relagating them to finish with the worst record in the league and then hope they get the #1 pick so they can take Greg Oden when he leaves Ohio State next year. As for the pick, just spin the wheel, they are all the same at this point. 5. Atlanta Hawks See Portland Trailblazers The only other plotline I am interested in is to see where Duke All Americans J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams end up. If teams are looking for a clutch playoff shooter then Redick will fit the bill. In fact Robert Horry is looking a little old so maybe San Antonio can trade up and grab Redick so he can bring his special brand of postseason consistency to the Spurs. As for Williams, anyone looking for a top defender should take Williams. His ability to block a shooter from the blindside as well as his clamp down defense on the likes of Tyler Hansbrough this past season and Sean May during his junior year make him a can't miss second or third member of any double or triple team rotation.

Game. Set. Reasonable Doubt

2006-05-23T16:55:00.000-04:00

The defense lawyers for the accused Duke lacrosse players filed motions to have the Durham DA Mike Nifong release all of the evidence he had to them in a discovery motion. Nifong turned over 1300 pages of evidence which the defense promptly leaked to the media. According to Fox News the evidence basically shreds any and all credibility this woman had left and cast serious doubt on any hope these three men or any others on the Duke lacrosse team did anything but talk nasty to her. Included in the relased documents are conflicting stories, denials that it happened followed by a admission that it happened. The accuser also asserts her fellow dancer was in the bathroom when the raped occured(how big was this bathroom?) The dancer, Kim Roberts, denied to police that she was there but I am unsure if that was before or after the Durham DA attempted to coerce her with an arrest for a parole violation. The report from the nurse who did the rape kit found very little evidence to support forcible rape. Also at the center of the discovery is what is not there and that is toxicolofy reports for the accuser which were either not done at the hospital or were done and not released to the defense. Nifong told WRAL that if there was a report then it would have been in the papers released to the defense. The toxicology report is important because of eyewitness testimony that the accuser was drunk and Nifong has even hinted that a date rape drug may have been used. Which begs the question be asked: If there is no toxicology report then how does he know a sedative was used? If he has a report, why then has he not turned it over? I think the answer is clear. The case is hanging by a thread at this point and I can only assume we are a short while from its complete dismissal and the serving of a civil lawsuit against the players, Duke University, and anyone else who has money.

NCAA Tournament Bids

2006-05-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

It's May and the NCAA Tournament is still alive and well. -Mike DeCourcy wrote an article coiniciding the ACC spring meetings in Florida. ACC officials are complaining loudly about the paltry four bids they got in the NCAA Tournament this year. DeCourcy basically argues they are wrong to complain and they got exactly what their teams played to get: NIT bids. I do not have much argument on the case. It is one thing to gripe about the lack of bids if your teams did their homework and then got shafted. However, Florida State and Maryland played absolutled nobody outside the conference or to clarify in Maryland's case, the beat nobody of signifigance. If ACC officials want to ensure more bids them they need to quit scheduling schools like Nebraska and actually step up to some real competition. -Of course USA Today has an article debating the size of the tournament which is probably right up the ACC's and every other major conference's alley. The NCAA says it will take up the issue when it meets in late June. The idea has been floated to add anywhere from three teams to 15 bringing the field size to 80. Coaches have called for an expanded field citing the increase in Division I schools and more parity using the George Mason Final Four run as evidence. I dealt with this issue here back in March when Syracuse's Jim Boheim made the same suggestion in the run up to the Final Four. Without rehashing this too much I would like to point out the most interesting line in the whole USA Today article was this one:

Division I's growth from 282 teams in 1985 to 334 today and growing parity in the sport — underscored by George Mason's Final Four appearance in April — have fueled coaches' calls for a larger field. Boeheim, among others, advocated perhaps eight to 10 more teams, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches pursued the proposal during its annual meeting with the NCAA committee last week in Atlanta.

Notice it is not the school ADs or even CBS clamoring for the change it is the coaches. Why? Because the coaches end of paying the biggest price for failing to make the NCAA Tournament. As I pointed out in my previous post, Boeheim, as an example, is now in a 16 team super conference which means he will be routinely beat up unless he has an elite team. Finishing 7th or 8th in the Big East is a considerable possibility in the new lineup and if the tournament was 80 teams, a winning record would make you a shoo in. Now expanding the field to 68 and creating play-in games for each region would probably serve to balance the field. I would argue that the 8 play-in teams would need to be team 60-68 regardless of conference affiliation. An expansion to 80 would be an unmitigated disaster. The argument that increased parity neccisitates expansion is pure hogwash, especially if it rests on what George Mason accomplished. If you examine all the teams who were left home this season, they were without a doubt bad teams. Taking the ACC snubs as an example: FSU and Maryland both were terrible and had no business in the field. I would also argue that the parity we see in the NCAA is not found in a higher number of quality teams but rather that the gap between the #1 and #65 seed is closer than it has been in the past. Of course there is also the possibility that this kind of parity is cyclical. Taking a look at the total seeding for the Final Four beginning in 1980: 1980: 21 1981: 7 1982: 11 1983: 12 1984: 11 1985: 12 1986: 15 1987: 10 1988: 10 1989: 9 Average Total Seedings for Decade: 11.8 1990: 11 1991: 7 1992: 13 1993: 5 1994: 8 1995: 9 1996: 11 1997: 7 1998: 9 1999: 7 Average Total Seedings for Decade: 8.7 2000: 22 2001: 7 2002: 9 2003: 9 2004: 8 2005: 11 2006: 20 Average Total Seedings for Decade: 12.2 So on the basis on total Final Four seeds the current decade with still three years left has a slightly lower seed average than did the 1980's. The 1990's was clearly a year where the cream of the crop rose to the top in the Final Four whereas the 1980's was far more predictable. In fact the seeds for the national champion team also shows parity has always been present. 1980's: 2, 3, 1, 6, 1, 8, 2, 1, 6, 3: 3.3 average seed wins 1990's 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 2, 1: 1.4 average seed wins 2000's: 1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3: 1.5 average seed wins Based on these two stats it is clear that there was far more parity in the 1980's, even after the expansion to 64 teams in 1985, than there is the past 16 years. Not only did you have a wild mix of seeds in the Final Four but more times than naught a lower seed ending up winning the national championship. Only three #1 seeds won the title in the 1980's versus seven in the following decace and four of seven so far this decade. The 1980's also had a #11 seed making the Final Four and also boasted a Final Four(1980) absent of #1 seeds. It also should be noted that the recent abandonment of the college ranks by many high school players as well as the bleeding of underclassmen for the NBA has placed a premium on experience which most mid-major teams have. The age limit will, in the very least, put a lot of talented players back into the major schools and I would also expect major school to start recruiting in such a way as to have a mix of talented one/two year players and four year players with good talent. In other words I think various factors of players turning earlier to the NBA and the cyclical nature of these things have created a perception of parity in the NCAA Tournament. I would surmise that the pendulum will swing the other way at some point and a decade like the 1990's with Final Four teams full of high seeds as well as high seeded winners will be the trend. Tinkering with the NCAA field is a dangerous thing. And while I do not think it would turn a lot of people off, I do think the current bracket is balanced and easy to follow. Adding another slate of games also upsets the 22 day period of games which have become a staple to so many fans around the country. The addition of more games, especially pitting lower seeds would simply create more background noise and a kind of class division between what the NCAA says are tournament games and the "real" tournament games which include the higher seeds. Simply put, it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

Durham DA Spins Wheel, Indicts Third Player

2006-05-16T10:15:00.000-04:00

At least that is the way it seems. The Durham County DA Mike Nifong got his third indictment in the Duke lacrosse rape case. The grand jury, who mind you, only hears evidence from the DA, indicted Duke senior co-captain David Evans on charges of rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping. Now based on what has been released to the media the crux of the case against Evans is an identification(which I have deplored before as being a gross violation of police procedures and due process) and a partial DNA match from "genetic material" found on a fake fingernal in the trash can. The other two players accused, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, have been charged solely based on the identification. In fact the second round of DNA testing did not find any link between the 46 members of the lacrosse team and semen found inside the woman. Such a link is not necessary to prove rape since condoms or a lack of emission would create the absence of such material, but the question of who the accuser had sex with during the same timeframe is an important question to answer. Another intriguing notion brought forth is the insistence of the accuser that one of the attackers had a moustache. Defense attorneys for Evans insist he has never had a moustache which could create doubt if that comes up in trial. Now the DA has never tip his full hand on the evidence he has so some judgement is being reserved to see if he brings anything to trial which trumps the overwhelming mountain of evidence the defense has been willing to put into the public arena. As I have said before the case is tilting in favor of the defense at this point and even the manner in which this indictment has been handled nor the evidence we have seen counts as a ringing endorsement of guilt. In fact, at this juncture, the only thing that is certain is the DA has strapped himself to this speeding train and he will end up going to wherever it takes him. And I really do not think, given the political pressures of an election year and the racial tensions involved, Nifong ever had a choice in the matter. It was either this or be castigated by the black community for protecting the rich white boys who raped the poor black single mother of two. At the same time his handling of the case and the behavior of the police in coercing witnesses through bogus charges is inexcusable. Reasonable doubt is still the flavor of the day. Side Note: When Evans showed up at the courthouse on Monday to surrender himself he was processed and then presented a $400,000 certified check for his bail and then was free to go. Many people will make this case about the rich vs poor aspect and even hope for a guilty verdict so the rich kids can get the comeuppance. Now I do think that kids who are born into money and wield those riches around without any sense of responsibility or notion of the hard work it takes to make it to that level are snobby brats who need to learn life lessons. On the other hand it is not a crime to be rich nor it is a crime to have the means to defend yourself in court. And on the top of that, if you are innocent of something you are entitled to having the innocence made manifest. Just because these guys are rich does not mean they deserve to be railroaded for a crime they may not have committed.

Canes Win Series Despite Storms of Apocalyptic Proportions

2006-05-15T10:24:00.000-04:00

I have been accused by certain members of my family of being a traitor for support the Carolina Hurricanes. My late father detested the Canes and their last Stanley Cup run in 2002 on the premise that hockey was a Yankee sport and had no business in the South. There is probably an argument to be made on that but as I said before I will support the local team because winning the Stanley Cup brings nothing but good media vibes to Raleigh and North Carolina. The Canes won last night against New Jersey and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. Buffalo is up next and since I know as much about hockey as I do lacrosse I will refrain from making predictions or providing any kind of analysis. I watched the game and I still think many goals happen by accident or it seems that way. And during the game last night, the lights in the RBC Center went out for about 1 minute with two minutes left in the game. That's because a line of severe thunderstom moved through the area which prompted the three local networks to literally fall all over themselves trying to provide up to the minute coverage of these storms. For about three hours Sunday evening the three major network affiliates brought us riveting updates of Doppler radar images right down to the street level!!!! In fact, Greg Fishel, who drew an angry email from my dear departed father for pulling this trick several years back during a movide Daddy was watching, almost seemed aroused. Here is a general paraphrase of what he said with my own commentary in parenthesis: Fishel: As you can see by the pinks and reds here on the Doppler 5000(sounds like a sophisticated piece of technology doesn't it) this storm is likely producing hail and wind gusts up to 58 MPH and may be indicative of a tornado(or a temporal vortex). In fact if we could stay with this for just a couple(or 120) more minutes. Our Doppler updates every thirty seconds(because Elizabeth Garner lost the password to changing the settings) and we can see this storm is moving fast(but not fast enough for Survivor fans). The cell is moving east and if we go to street level mapping(Expedia! dot com!!!) we can see the cell is now at the intersection of Highway 98 and Main Street in Wake Forest(I guess that is one less McDonalds to worry about then) and it looks like it will move into Bunn in the next 15 minutes(which will probably be wiped off the face of the earth). Now I must caution anyone in the area of this cell, this is a powerful storm and you should take cover immediately(because we have a sudden rash of people watching WRAL TV while standing outside plus most North Carolinians are inherently stupid about what dark clouds on a warm May evening might bring when seen on the horizon) Now lets back up the view here and get a feel for the size of the storm(not to scale) and not to toot our own horn here(of course you will) but we have the best radar technology in the business, you will not find anyone who can bring you this kind of detail on radar(especially making the really bad parts look pink in honor of Mother's Day). Let's go to Debbie with an update on some severe traffic problems around Wade Ave probably resulting from these storms(and the fact the 18,000 people are all going to the RBC Center for a playoff game) Greg Fishel: Severe Weather Pimp

Ignoring the Facts

2006-05-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

I honestly wonder how some people get thrust into certain positions where they are able to write missives read by the masses and are lauded as being a quality journalist. I get this feeling about once a week concerning CBS Sportsline's Gregg Doyel but I also realize Doyel is a troll and rabble rouser of the first order who intentionally pushes buttons just to see his hit meter climb. Another such individual is Dan Shanoff who writes a daily article on ESPN.com called The Daily Quickie. The Quickie is a run down of major sports news stories for the day and includes interesting tidbits. It is a mixture of opinion and news which often times runs amok of the facts as he did this morning with this section:

Mark it down: College hoops' game of the year will be Dec. 23 in Gainesville when champ Florida hosts Ohio State's "Thad Five."
The game, nearly finalized (as reported in the Gainesville Sun), would match college hoops' two most intriguing lineups in 15 years:
The best starting five since Duke's defending champs in '91-92 versus the best freshman class since Michigan's Fab Five in '91-92.
(I've already e-mailed my father-in-law to claim one of his Florida season tickets, right behind the opponents' bench. Dickie V, turn and wave!)
That game will cap a fantastic week: Arguably, the second-most intriguing game of the season will be on Dec. 21 at Madison Square Garden, when Duke and Gonzaga play for the first time.

I scarcely know where to begin to parse the numerous errors made here. First of all, true to his schitck, Shanoff loves to prods these "best since blah blah blah" lines. Arguing that the incoming Ohio State freshman class is the best collection of talent since the Michigan "Fab 5" is fraught with inconsistencies since (1) The OSU five has yet to play a game and (2) You imply every major recruiting coup pulled by any coach in the past 15 years is less than this group. The other problem is that if you adhere to the high school player rankings the OSU class is not even the best class this year. According to Scout.com the highest ranked class this year belongs to North Carolina who has six Top 100 recruits and three from the top ten including the #1 point guard, shooting guard, and power forward. And even if I you put very little stock in the rankings, common sense dictates that the two classes are comparable on paper which also renders the declaration invalid. In fact, many people regarded the current graduating Duke class as being one of the best recruiting classes in the past 15 years and they actually have some results to show for it. As for the assertion that Florida has the best starting five since the repeat champions from 1991-1992, that again is a unfound assertion. Now, one thing is clear, this point it completely arguable from any number of angles since there is no on paper rankings we can draw from like we did with the high school class. That being said, I would argue that the following teams had a equal if not better starting five. The 1993 UNC and Michigan, 1996 Kentucky, 1998 UNC, 1999 Duke, 2001 Duke, 2004 UConn, 2005 UNC and Illinois, and 2006 Duke which had two All Americans could also be considered in this group. The 1993 Michigan team also proves a utter contradiction on the part of Shanoff he asserts that the OSU Five is the best since the Michigan Five. If the Fab Five is the best recruiting class until this coming season, then how can you not acknowledge them as one of better starting five players since in 1992-93 they were coming off a runner up finish to...the Duke team which you say is the gold standards for five best starters. The answer is you cannot make blanket statements about how this team or that team is the best since 1992 if all of the empirical evidence(which includes the 1999 Duke and 2005 Illinois teams winning 37 games, as well as the fact the other schools listed also won titles in the years mentioned). Of course it does not end there. Aside from the drooling Shanoff does over Florida-OSU potential matchup as being the best game on the schedule, he goes on to say the second most intriguing game on the schedule is Duke playing Gonzaga in New York. Did Adam Morrison return to Gonzaga? Has JJ Redick been granted a fifth year by the NCAA? Then how, pray tell, can you call this matchup intriguing when it is coming the year after the scoring duel between Morrison and Redick. And if that was not bad enough guess who is coming to Chapel Hill on November 29, 2006 as part of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge? Ohio State. How can you reasonable argue that Gonzaga-Duke is a more interesting matchup than OSU bring the second ranked recruiting class to face the top ranked recruiting class along with all of the stellar players both teams already have on campus like Tyler Hansbrough? In fact this game may be a more compelling game than the Buckeyes visiting Gainesville because I would argue that the sheer combined talent level between OSU and UNC probably exceed that of OSU and UF. Now I am not one to launch into a diatribe about the media conspiring to ignore UNC nor am I going to delve into the world of Duke bias(which is clearly illustrated here). This piece by Shanoff is devoid of a sensible grasp of the fact and riddled with more blustering hype than it is actual journalistic depth. I will probably watch OSU and UF play just to see if both teams are as good as advertised and I do agree it is a key game to watch. The fatal flaw of ignoring the OSU-UNC game and then calling the Gonzaga-Duke game second in interest behind the OSU-UF matchup is downright stupidity. Author's Note: In the May 3rd Daily Quicked Shanoff made brief mention of the OSU-UNC game on the side column in which he said: The gem of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge schedule released yesterday was Ohio St. (featuring frosh "Thad 5") vs. UNC and super soph Tyler Hansbrough. A long way from the almost apolectic frenzy he seems to be having over the OSU-UF game.

Duke Lacrosse Case: Witness Intimidation

2006-05-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

I am not sure what kind of game the Durham DA Mike Nifong is playing but it is most certainly a dirty one. According to the News and Observer, the alibi witness for one of the players, a taxi driver has been arrested and charged with shoplifting in connection with the theft of five purses from the Northgate Mall Hecht's by a woman in 2003. According to the driver, Moezeldin Elmostafa, Durham detectives picked him up and asked if he had anything to add to the case. He told them he did not and was then transported to the Durham County jail and booked for shoplifting. What was Elmostafa's role in the purse thefts in 2003? He was the taxi driver which took Lisa Faye Hawkins and her daughter to the mall and then waited outside for them while they shopped. He later took them home and was then contacted by Durham police in reference to the shoplifting by Hawkins. Elmostafa cooperated in every way even providing his driver's license and Hawkins was eventually found guilty. So Elmostafa, who simply drove a customer in his taxi to and from the mall is charged with a misdemeanor 2+ years later for the actions committed by someone else who happened to use his taxi for transportation and who has already been found guilty of the crime. Are we to assume that had Elmostafa chose to perjure himself and change his story the police would be more forgiving about his (non)crime? In fact we know they would because the friend of the alleged victim, Kim Roberts, who initially indicated no rape occurred, recently changed her story. Why? Roberts had been arrested on a probation violation by the Durham DA and following that arrest and a reduction in her bail she suddenly shifts her story in support of the DA's case. Of course the DA also got some good news in that apparently there is a 90% DNA match to a third alleged attacker. However, 90% may never make it to court plus there is an issue of where the evidence came from. Apparently some DNA was taken from a fake figernail found in the bathroom trash which along with the short of perfect match is also chock full of circumstantial possibilities as to how it ended up there. So let's see what we have so far: Police initally casting doubt on the victim's story which included an accusation against 20 men, not three. Only one DNA match and it is not perfect which means it may be excluded Intimidation of witnesses by the police which in one case resulted in a changed story. Photo evidence which seems to favor the defense Two identifications which came from a lineup that failed to follow state and local law enforcement procedures and may have trampled upon due process. Current Prediction: Reasonable Doubt

Random Thoughts

2006-05-10T16:36:00.000-04:00

Barry Bonds agent has indicated the embattled slugger might be interested in returning for the 2007 season. Over at ESPN several executives needed to be treated for excessive excitment over the possibilities of another full season of breaking news stories, scandal exposes, nightly highlights of his accomplishments, and plenty of "Chasing Hank Aaron" updates throughout the season. Excuse while I gouge my eyes out. Michelle Wie made the cut at a men's tournament held in South Korea and eventually finished 12 strokes back of the winner of the SK Telecom Open. She also made it past the first round of qualifying for the men's U.S. Open. Now, I have no problem with a woman trying to play on the men's tour and if she is successful so be it. And no I am not one of these people who say men should be allowed to play on the women's tour that just seems silly to me. However, I would find Wie's pursuit of winning on the men's side a little more compelling if she had actually won an event against the women. So far she has not one single win on the LPGA tour and could be accused of dodging other female teenage phenoms. My take on this is that she should prove her goods against the LPGA before attempting to move over to the men's side. An internal Duke University report has placed part of the blame for the administration's slow reaction to the rape allegations against members of the lacrosse team on the Durham police who initially indicated to Duke campus police that the accuser had no credibility. The initial report from Durham PD said she had accused 20 players of assaulting her and that the whole thing would simply blow over. Her story eventually changed to say three attackers raped her and the Durham DA picked up the cause. Now I still do not know who is telling the truth here. Because of the deluge of evidence from the defense into the very willing media hopper it is easy to lean torwards the players being innocent. This report from Duke along with the compromised identification process in which the accuser was only shown Duke lacrosse players spells out two words: Reasonable Doubt. That is if it ever makes it to trial. I think you have good odds now that the accuser will eventually back out of the case much like Kobe Bryant's accuser did. The civil lawsuit will come shortly thereafter. Now the NC State coaching search has ended we take time to consider what really happened during those fateful 33 days we are going to wish we could get back the moment the grim reaper shows up at the door. The News and Observer has wasted very little time spinning the search and all its details to make Lee Fowler look as good as possible. In fact the article in today's N&O speaks of a weary Fowler who worked tirelessly to close the deal as soon as possible. It also presents the search as one that was not bumbled but simply progressed to a point where Sidney Lowe was the logical choice. Longtime ACC journalist Al Featherston was on 620 AM this morning with Morgan Patrick and Joe Ovies defending the search at length. Featherston asserted that the search was not as long as the one which brought in Jim Valvano or Chuck Amato(and if that was the case on the latter the NC State should have kept looking.) The media being in the dark, says Featherston, made the search look worse than it actually was on the inside. And while that may be true, Fowler has to know how things will be perceived and while will not know the answer to the question of whether Lowe was the right hire or not for 3-5 years, as it stands right now, the public perception of Fowler and NC State is not in the highest of esteems. And the Carolina Hurricanes are now up 3-0 on the New Jersey Devils. They win on the road 3-2. That should wrap up the series for the most part.

Carolina Hurricanes

2006-05-09T13:26:00.000-04:00

OK, I will be honest. I really do not like hockey and I do not mean in some kind of blind and stupid dislike. I simply do not care for it. Hockey is not my cup of tea. I find watching a game tedious, the actions seems largely disorganized, and I do not undestand the rhyme or reason of most of the on ice action other than when they shoot at the goal. Of course most die hard fans tell me that hockey on TV is terrible and you have to be there in person but I am not one to spend money to go to an event for a sport I do not like. I also realize that hockey and baseball are similar in the respect to the game is largely made up of a great deal of action that does not resort in points or runs. In my case baseball has a very orderly feel to it and a nice progression even if runs are not being scored. When I watch hockey I feel like I am watching 10 guys skate around chasing a puck which is difficult to control and running into one another. It seems chaotic to me even though the die hard fans will tell me that it is has a flow and design to it but unless it is a power play I fail to see it. That being said(I really like that phrase by the way) I fully support the Carolina Hurricanes in the quest for the Stanley Cup. I will cheer for them and wish them all the best because they do represent Raleigh and North Carolina at large. I think it is important to pull for the local teams* and support them even if you do not care for the sport itself. The win last night to put the Canes up 2-0 on New Jersey was a great win. To fall behind with 20 seconds left in a sport like hockey which had a high degree of difficulty when it comes scoring only to push the puck past the goalie with three seconds left to tie the game is an incredible feat. The Canes completed the victory by scoring in overtime. *As a UNC fan this provisio does not apply to Duke and was only valid for NC State during the Herb Sendek era of Wolfpack basketball.

The NC State Coaching Search Ballad

2006-05-05T12:31:00.000-04:00

To the tune of Don McLean's American Pie A long, long time ago I can still remember An NC State title run And the fans crowed how they were the best Walking around with gigantic chests And it seems they were having lots of fun But the NCAA made them shiver With every sanction it delivered Selling shoes for hard cash A stolen stereo in the trash. Then came Les, and then came Herb Hoping the losing would begin to curb But the fan’s delusions only grew At a place we call MooU CHORUS So, bye, bye to that Herbie guy Went to five straight tourneys but all the fans still cried The farmer boys were all drinking until they puked Saying, “I wish we could at least beat dook” “I wish we could at least beat dook” Did you read the media guide? Do you believe in Wolfpack Pride? Only if Amato tells us so. Is NC State better than UNC? This year they thought that is how it would be, And the Pack would finally win ACC But something happened on the RBC floor UNC dropped the Pack by 24 Noel dunked on the heads And the fans went off their meds Then they lost to BC and they lost Wake At Greensboro the Deacs drove in the stake And Herb looked for another job to take At a place we call MooU CHORUS Now Herb was gone and the fans rejoiced Hoping that Fowler would soon make the right choice And bring Rick Barnes to Raleigh So he made some calls and offered some cash Hoping it would be enough to make Barnes dash And the wuffies would dance with glee. But while Fowler was looking down Barnes got a raise that would astound He called and told Lee “No!” “I have a title contender you know” So the rumors broke and the fans did scream Realizing they had lost their dream And it was looking worse than it really seemed At a place we call MooU CHORUS So the search wore on as the spring came Fowler came up with another name Of someone he thought would fit the bill So Air Hog One did hit the air To talk to a coach who had great hair, And wanted more money from the till. But Pack Pride did track the flight And the fans kept watch by the arena at night They heard John was here for a bit And they nearly had a fit. Until they realized that something was rank As Calipari used the Pack just like ol’ Frank And now the search was in the tank At a place we call MooU CHORUS So they contacted Billy, Tom Crean, and Few Izzo, Patino, and Romar too. But none them wanted to talk So they talked to Bo Ryan, Tim Floyd, and Wright Tubby Smith was contacted late one night But no one was ready to take a walk So Lavin and Beiline were the next two names Who had experience and some coaching fame But no one bothered to see What kind of buyout there might be Since Beiline was in for about 3 mil And Lavin’s fiancé loved the LA thrill It was 30 days and no coach still At a place we call MooU CHORUS So Fowler and State were a laughingstock For every journalist to write and mock And the fans were beginning to turn away Some talked about Phil Ford and even Whitt Some thought one of them might be a good fit But nothing as the calendar changed to May And finally there was some news to read Sidney Lowe had finally earned his degree The offer was finally extended The long nightmare had ended And three coaches I admire most Dean, Roy, and McGuire’s ghost Were glad they did not get called for the post At a place we call MooU. CHORUS

It's Over, It Begins

2006-05-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

After 34 days, four outright public rejections from named coaches, speculation on every possible canidate in the book all wrapped up with the slow and torturious flogging of the NC State basketball program by every one with a keyboard and some means of publishing what they write, the Wolfpack finally are set to name a head basketball coach. It is no other than Sydney Lowe, member of the 1983 National Championship team and current assistant coach with the NBA's Detroit Pistons. Now first and foremost there is no way anyone and I do not care if you have watched every game State has ever played since Everett Case. There is no evidence or signs which will reveal to anyone whether or not this was a good hire or not. Lowe has never been a college coach so there is no record to dissect there. His two NBA head coaching stints involved teams which were possibly worse than whoever played in the NCAA Final Four that same year. We are five years away from knowing whether this coaching search stumbled and bumbled onto a great find in Lowe or whether he was the desperation choice and a repeat of the Matt Doherty debacle at UNC. Taking what we know right now and considering how badly this seach went, I think this is a good hire. Lowe is an unproven commodity on the college level but the risk level is the same as with any of the mid-majors available. In the NBA all you do is coach and work with players in a manager-subordinate role. There is no recruiting and unless a coach is also a GM, there is little control exerted over the team outside of the game. College is different. Lowe is actually running the program from top to bottom and he must contend with the NCAA, the NC State administration, the fan base, the media, and the boosters. On top of this Lowe has to coach the team, teach the players the game of basketball, recruit players for the team and ultimately answer for every loss. In my opinion I think coaching a college team offers a complexity and challenge not felt in the NBA. And that is the unproven part for Lowe. I think he will be a good game coach and should be a good recruiter especially if he fills his staff with excellent assistants. The rest of the deal which comes outside of the game will be the test and that will be the point where he will have to learn quickly if he ever wants to succeed. There are just so many questions and so few answers at this point however. The manner in which Fowler and Lowe will be judged should be evident at around the five year mark. After five years Lowe will have his own players and his system will be fully established. Five years will show enough evidence of what kind of program he is running and whether or not a strong recruiting system has taken root. One of three things will be true in five years. NC State will be floundering, NC State will be on the rise and ready for a breakthrough or NC State will have cracked that barrier Herb Sendek hovered around for so long. The first will probably result in serious rumblings from the fan base. I also think if the program is exciting and Lowe makes some good inroads recruiting and with his coaching style then even if they are on the cusp in five years, Wolfpack fans will be patient. If it is the latter then the rest of us may not be able to bear the Wolfpack boasting. In the end Lowe is a connection to past glory and a time when NC State fans were very proud of their basketball team and all seemed right with the world. If Lowe can recapture the glory of the Valvano title with the integrity of the Sendek program State should be on its way. Check back in five years and we will see how it has gone.

Not Celebrating Barry Bonds

2006-05-04T10:37:00.000-04:00

There is an inordinate amount of hype surrounding Barry Bonds' career home run total and the fact he stands two away from Babe Ruth on the all time list at 714. ESPN which continues to completely prostitute itself by reporting Bonds steroids scandal but at the same time serving as the slugger's shief promoter has been giving daily updates on Bonds pursuit of Babe Ruth. Apparently the fever pitch has reached a point there Major League Baseball on two seperate days has announced that there will be no celebration if Bonds hits #715(and I say if because Bonds' knee is literally being held together by a string of ligaments). MLB also said it will not authenticate the balls used during San Francisco games during the run up and passing of Babe Ruth. Why? Quite simply MLB has said that it does not celebrate someone moving to #2 on any record list. Of course as much as MLB gets wrong, they got this one right. Why is ESPN and the rest of the media so hot to trot to celebrate Bonds' passing Ruth when all he is doing is moving from 3rd to 2nd on the list? 1. Babe Ruth still maintains a legendary mistique. Even though Hank Aaron passed Ruth by over 40 homeruns, there is still something about Babe Ruth that piques the interest of baseball fans. Given that Bonds is only the third man in MLB history to hit 700 homers, passing Ruth who played 70-80 years ago is considered a big deal. Obviously it is difficult total to attain, so much so only one man prior to now has ever done it. In fact it seems to be such a difficult thing apparently it cannot be done through any legal and normal means, but I digress. Since Babe Ruth is long considered the most well known and one of the greatest sluggers to ever play the game, the logic goes that if Bonds' passes him he somehow attains the same status. Even if that status is only second best in totality. 2. ESPN et. al do not believe Bonds will catch Aaron It is clear based on the way Bonds has played and the fact he no longer benefits from the use of certain drugs to stave off the ravages of old age on his playing form that Aaron's record is out of reach. Passing Ruth represents the only opporunity to hype Bonds doing anything significant at this point in his career. The ESPN hype maching never misses a chance to treat something that is not really a record as though it was a record just for the sake of boosting their own ratings(see Pat Summit.) As I said above, Ruth still hold a magical place in the pantheon of MLB greats so by having Bonds pass him validates Bonds in that regard. Of course how many of the other MLB greats have a suspicious trail of syringes and chemical creams in their past? 3. ESPN loves Barry Bonds Now, I never miss a good opportunity to bash ESPN for muddying the water when it comes to presenting sports and presenting news. I have written before about the skewing of the line between the business side of ESPN and the journalistic integrity or lack thereof. Now, ESPN has been intensely focused on the Bonds steroid scandal and regardless of this it is very evident that ESPN loves Barry Bonds. Or rather ESPN loves the ratings Bonds brings which may explain why they tout the scandal and the accomplishments all at the same time. People love a train wreck, so they talk about his history of steroid abuse. People also love accomplisments, milestones, and singular moments of triumph so ESPN presses the passing of Ruth. And if it was just that maybe I would be writing another post about NC State basketball but ESPN has gone Bonds wild. During Baseball Tonight ESPN has been chronicling the 20 Greatest Moments in Bonds Career. What is that? I can think of 10 other guys who played the game cleanly and whose accomplishments are not tinged with the possibility it was done using performance enhancing drugs but ESPN chooses to focus on Bonds. On one hand at least it still falls within the journalistic realm of being some kind of historical retrospect on a storied career. However, ESPN did not stop there and became a utterly contemptible whore for Barry Bonds when the elected to broadcast a weekly reality program showcasing the slugger behind the scenes. So in the midst of reporting allegations of steroid abuse and a career on the cusp of tainting some of the greatest records in the game ESPN decides to shed any objectivity they may have possessed in the name of ratings and revenue. The saddest character in this whole saga is Hank Aaron who is being dissrespected on a nightly basis by ESPN who thinks passing Babe Ruth is a great accomplisment. It is a great accomplishment and Aaron not only did it but did it by a whole season's worth of home runs. ESPN is out there marketing a non-record chase which is the most solied and tainted chase we probably have ever witnessed in the world of sports. I just happen to think that creating this much hype around a player who may have broken Federal law and used drugs to enhance his play for becoming the 2nd best home run hitter in MLB history is a gigantic slap in the face to the guyswho is #1 one on the list and did so entirely through his own physical abilities. And it should be noted that instead of being a prickly, self-righteous, prima donna, jack*ss as Bonds has been throughout his career, Aaron played the game and broke the record with class and respect. I would agree that Bonds is in very select company. He is a member of a club which only has three members at 700 home runs. I also think that his membership in that club is extremely suspect and ESPN should take a more reserved approach to celebrating Bonds passing Ruth since (1) it is not even a record and (2) he did not do so on the up and up. Author's Note: I have made numerous references to the Bonds steroid issue in this post and in doing so I have presented it as being a fact of reality rather than merely allegations. The reason being is I happen to think Bonds is guilty as sin of using numerous steroids and any other drug he thought might help his cause. And this is not a court so innocent until proven guilty has no bearing here. There is enough evidence out there from comparitve pictures to suddenly rising statistics, and the book written by the SF Chronicle writers to safely assert that Bonds not only used steroids, but that he also gained a significant advantage from them. It also should be noted that I believe that if something is prohibited by Federal law then it is automatically prohibted within a sport even if that sport does not address the issue. MLB falls under the juristication of the Federal government and by default it is subject to the laws of the Federal government unless it is given an exemption(such as the anti-trust exemption). No exemption exists and therefore any use of steroids by any player was illegal on its face.

Governor Easley Declares Disaster

2006-05-02T09:41:00.000-04:00

Assumes Control of NC State Coaching Search RALEIGH(THF)-North Carolina Governor Mike Easley invoked emergency powers late yesterday evening and assumed direct control of the search to replace former NC State head basketball coach Herb Sendek. Under state law the governor has the authority to declare a disaster which affords him a wide range of powers to deal with a catastrophic situation. Within minutes of the declaration a brigade of national guard troops were seen on Hillsborough Street near the NC State campus and were apparently positioning themselves to occupy the athletic department in order to maintain control of the situation. NC State Athletic Director Lee Fowler, who was apparently at home, was met at the door by a small contingent of soldiers who informed the embattled AD that he was under house arrest for the duration of the disaster edict. As the NC State coaching search moved into its second month word began swirling around the state house that a group of NC State supporters in the legislature were signing a petition asking Easley to take action. The move by Easley to declare a disaster over this issue is particularly controversial since the measure is routinely reserved for natural disasters or terrorists acts. A spokesman for the governor's office said it was well within the pervue of the governor's authority to act. "The governor has the authority to invoke emergency powers whenever he feels a situation has arisen which is a serious and dangerous hardship to the public." said press secretary Marge Colter, "The state was able to setup a lottery in three months, but NC State still cannot find a basketball coach after one month? It is an embarassment to the state and it is also having serious reprecussions on worker productivity." According to the Department of Labor, worker productivty during the last 30 days has hit an all time low as people interested in the coaching search have virtually ignored their job responsibilities while attempting to follow the latest news and rumors. The coaching search coming on the heels of the usual downtime during the ACC and NCAA Tournaments led to fear that the state's economy would begin to suffer from the lack of productivy. "The governor is not going to sit idly by and allow the citizens of the state of North Carolina to be held hostage by the complete incompetence of the NC State athletic department." Colter stated, "The effects on worker productivity were too dangerous to ignore and besides it really is a disaster over there[at NC State]." As for possible candidates for the job, the governor's office has refused to comment on names. Legal scholars have noted that since Easley has invoked emergency powers he should be able to appoint someone to the position without dealing with the normal red tape. Some experts even think he might make an interim appointment for next season and then return control of the program back to NC State hoping that they can get someone lined up to coach the team for the 2007-08 season. According to Colter whatever move the governor makes it will be quick and decisive. "Let's face it, NC State has become a national laughingstock and there have been no real signs of any movement for days from the NC State administration. Invoking these powers is the last thing any governor wants to do but someone had to do something or it might never end" ***This is a parody news article***

Michael Irvin is an Idiot

2006-04-29T12:19:00.000-04:00

I was watching the NFL Draft coverage and ESPN's "analyst"(and I use that term loosely) Michael Irvin is griping and complaining about the Houston Texans passing on USC's Reggie Bush in favor of NC State defensive end Mario Williams for the #1 pick in the NFL draft. Now, on one side, not taking Bush may turn out to be a bad move for the Texans given his incredible talent, but that is not how Houston sees it opting to build defense first. Irvin, however is irate at this choice and even went as far as to make the moronic assertion that he is tired of saying "defenses win championships" Irvins says this is not true since scoring more points and more specifically scoring more points than you opponent wins championships. He even cites his own Dallas team winning three titles in four years during the early 1990's as evidence that the power of the Cowboy offense was more important than the defense. Of course what Irvin fails to realize is that one way of scoring more points than you opponent is for YOUR DEFENSE TO KEEP THE OTHER TEAM FROM SCORING!!! How much is ESPN paying this pot smoking clown to get on TV act like a complete buffoon. How about looking at some stats before making such a stupid case. I would assert that you need balance on both sides of the ball to win a title, but even if you offense is mediocre a good defense can keep you in the game and in fact score points for you. If you look at the three Dallas wins from the 1990's they held Buffalo to 13 and 17 points and then allowed only 17 points to Pittsburgh. In fact the most points scored by a Super Bowl loser in the past 26 years is Carolina in 2004 scoring 29 points followed by a couple of losers at 24 points. Baltimore held the Giants to seven points in 2001, and in 2001 Ty Law's interception return for a touchdown accounted for 35% of New England's points in a 20-17 win. I get that Michael Irvin is an offense guy because he was a wide receiver. I also understand that if you do not have a good defense to stop the other team and get the offense on the field to actually score points then you will not win many championships if any. Michael Irvin: Football Genius

More Thoughts on the Duke Lacrosse Case

2006-04-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

In considering the media role in the Duke Lacrosse Case I asserted that one of the deeply troubling trends found in the conclusions being made on the national coverage level exhibited an incredible level of hubris and illustrated little knowledge of Duke, Durham, and North Carolina in general. There was never a starker example of this than Michael Wilbon’s comments on the April 21 PTI program on ESPN. The discussion centered on the Duke Lacrosse topic du jour for that day; the sale of Duke Lacrosse apparel at Duke University stores. The discussion surrounded the motivations certain people had for buying the jerseys with some doing it for support and others as some sort of sick joke. Wilbon then bloviated that the selling and wearing of Duke lacrosse jerseys might not play well in North Carolina since it is a “Red State”(read: conservative) and also had population with strong religious convictions(read: Christian fundamentalists). I scarcely know where to begin with the implication made by that one point. The first is the use of the term “Red State” to imply that North Carolina is overtly conservative. While NC did vote for George Bush in two elections by overwhelming majorities and does have two Republican senators, it also has a majority Democratic state government. It also should be noted that while most of the state went red in 2004 and 2000, Durham County is a blue county largely due to the black population which traditionally votes at a 90% clip in favor of Democrats. Of course the question I would like Wilbon to answer is why NC being a Red State versus a Blue State makes a bit of difference in this case or why does having a population of individuals who trend towards a more Christian way of life matter either. I would hope that regardless of what you believe, who you vote for, who, where, or what you worship that you would be outraged at what allegedly happened in Durham on March 13th. Is Wilbon implying that Blue Staters or religious novices are somehow less sensitive to the issue or would be more accepting of people wearing Duke Lacrosse jerseys as some kind of novelty? I would think not and essentially what Wilbon did was make some kind of asinine speculation based on commonly held generalizations and patterns of behavior. Another point of note is two issues concerning the DA. The first is statements made by his opponents in the race for Durham County DA. The other two candidates are basically taking Mike Nifong to task for overexposing the case to the media. There is truth to what they are saying but somewhat in Nifong’s defense is the fact he got pulled into a media war with the defense and anything other than straightforwardness would have led to accusations of a cover-up. I honestly believe that Nifong has put what too much of himself and this case in front of the media. I think reelection politics has a lot to do with that as well the need to match the defense sound bite for sound bite. Time will only tell how much it hurts his case in the end. Speaking of hurting the case, a revelation was made Friday that the line-up the accuser used to glean the identifications of the two indicted players was made up of only the lacrosse team members and may have broken state procedures on how such photo arrays are done. According to experts photo arrays should include person who look similar to the suspect in question. This apparently was not done and it may jeopardize the identification in its entirety. One question that enters my mind is why they failed to use proper procedure. I think the answer lies with the police and the DA being unable to zero in on a suspect which made it impossible to assemble a photo array of similar pictures since they did not know who to start with in the first place. What basically occurred here was the accuser was presented with a photo array of the whole team from which she picked her alleged attackers. Now, this is not saying she misidentified her attackers or that she is lying. It is however disturbing to think that IF she was making this story up she could have in that moment picked ANYONE out of that array which could have and may have resulted in the indictment of an innocent person. The reason the procedure calls a photo array centering on one suspect is that it protects the rights of individuals who are not under suspicion. Imagine for example a man attacks a woman on the street in front of his apartment building and then runs inside to his apartment. The woman only gets a marginal look at him and did not see where he went once he entered the lobby. So the police decided to assemble a photo array including only the men living in that building. What are the chances she is going to wrongly identify the wrong man and land someone in hot water? I say the chances are really high and that is why the identification may be virtually worthless if it makes past pretrial hearings.

The Duke Lacrosse Case, Part 2

2006-04-24T10:35:00.000-04:00

The Defense The defense lawyers in this case have been known for their penchant to put their case and counter evidence on display for the world to see. The most obvious reason why is they are influencing a potential jury and hoping the public opinion will tilt so far in favor of their clients it will force Nifong to drop the case altogether. Underneath all of that is another reason. It has been said that if these guys are innocent then their defense team has no reason to be out there in the media making the case now as though they are afraid to go to trial straight away. While this may be true I also think the defense team is waging a war to protect the players’ right to innocence until they are proven guilty. It is clear the defense team wants to wage a war to protect the reputation of the players. Aside from the jury implications, the defense is out to form public opinion about their clients. The accusations by themselves are damning enough to the point some of these guys have lost job/intern opportunities this summer and Syracuse University has announced that it will not accept a single Duke player into their program. Every member of that team is essentially tainted and the behavior of the university did not help matters in executing judgment on them before all the facts were known. Now, the defense could have easily said that the trial would prove their client’s innocent but let’s not be naïve here. The public is far more skeptical of an accused person who goes to trial and gets off than someone who avoids the mess altogether. The danger for the defense as it pertains to the reputations of these players is the legal mumbo-jumbo of a trial tends to cloud the facts and is followed by fewer people. Add to that the fact the trial is most likely months off when the interest will die down. It would appear the defense team made the decision present the evidence they have now while the iron is hot rather than wait until trial when the story will have died down and fewer people follow the trial because of the nature of legal proceedings. It also should be noted that the defense has been very good in shaping the picture they want to shape. The information they have released so far has been extremely damaging to the DA’s case. The proof is in the pudding since public opinion if very split. As is the case with the DA only the trail can tell us whether the decision to present the defense case in public first actually pays off for these guys. The Accuser She is a 27 year old NC Central student, mother of two, and yes she is a dancer/stripper. Now, I will say up front I find her line of work to be utter exploitation of her body and morally repugnant. I also think that being in that kind of work increases the chances she will encounter a situation such as this one sooner or later. Having said all of that she is entitled to justice if she was raped and under no circumstances did she ever surrender the right to say no when the time came. It is also a real possibility that her line of work muddies the waters of her own credibility. Aside from the information above we know very little except what the defense has willing told us based on pictures they have released and interviews their own private investigators have done. Based on the best available information the accuser was either falling down drunk or somewhat drunk when she arrived. Photo evidence shows that she already had bruises on her body when she arrived and that she fell down the stairs leaving the house. The police officer told the dispatcher that she was passed out drunk and the security guard at the Kroger she was obviously drunk when she was brought there by her friend. This is all through the light of the defense and hearing her on the stand may tell a different story. She also has the issue of her friend doubting the story until this past Friday when she magically found her way on to a TV screen to say she now believed her. Somehow I smell the odor of someone seeking 15 minutes of fame, but that’s just me. The ultimate question is what happened in that house. Was the accuser so drunk they she was assaulted while passed out? Did nothing happen and she was upset over the little dispute that occurred so she cried rape? Is it possible that she was drunk and engaged in activities with them but does not remember it? Is it as she says that she was sober and forced into a bathroom and assaulted? Tar Heel Fan’s Opinion And this is strictly my opinion. Since all of the evidence we have heard has come from the defense that case looks really weak. And as much as the prosecution has been in front of the media they have kept much of their case details closer to the vest than the defense. I think the lineup identification is worrisome and disturbing in the way that it puts the freedom and innocence of certain players at risk merely by association. Aside from the victim and accuser who has suffered in this situation, some of the players who had nothing to do with this crime and situation are also victims because simply by being on the team. They are victims of a media who for the sake of sensationalism and brevity cast this as the “Duke Lacrosse Team” story and not the story of some members of the Duke Lacrosse team being accused of sexual assault. And regardless of what happens the life of this woman has been ruined and if the allegations prove true she is truly scarred. To a lesser extent the players who are clearly innocent have had what is to be the best years of their life ruined by the whole ordeal and for that the media and Duke Administration is to blame. I only hope justice can be served for the accuser. I also hope those who have been needlessly maligned by this ordeal can find justice and perhaps some sort of vindication. Something tells me that if the case falls apart we will see lawsuits galore from both sides of the case.

We Have Movement!

2006-04-21T22:49:00.000-04:00

The NC State coaching search which could be likened to 40 weeks of pregnancy has finally shown life after 10 days of virtual silence from officials and wild rumors from everyone else. According to 850 the Buzz regular interviewee Mike Decourcy of The Sporting News former UCLA coach and current ESPN analyst Steve Lavin has an offer on the table if he wants the job. After 20 days and two very public rejections this is probably not a bad choice for NC State. Just don't tell the NC State fans that however. The reaction at the Pack Pride message board has been more along the lines of "weeping and gnashing of teeth." Some State fans are obviously unhappy with the polished Lavin possibly being the head coach. And to those Wolfpackers I would simply say: BE QUIET YOU ARE GETTING ON MY NERVES!!!! Ahem. Run this through the mill. Every possible coach in the country has been linked to this job. Lee Fowler went hunting for big game and ended up facilitating raises for Rick Barnes and John Calipari. As the days have worn on the names have popped up and been shot down. According the David Glenn on his WRAL blog the candidates on this point were Lavin, John Beiline of West Virginia, and Dereck Whittenburg of Fordham. Beiline had a huge buyout and is viturally the same as Herb Sendek. Whittenburg would have been a Matt Doherty situation where he got the job because he was "in the family" without any major coaching experience. At this point you should all fall on your knees and thank the heavens it is Lavin if he actually signs the contract. He was 145-78 at UCLA which is a .708 winning percentage. That also includes a 10-19 final season so prior to that he was winning 81% of his games. And while he has not won the big one or been to a Final Four he has been to the Sweet 16 on numerous occassions. Also bear in mind he was 33 when he took the job at UCLA and undoubtedly his you and inexperience as a major head coach may have created problems for him. Three years on the outside as a observer and analyst of the game should help him come in with a proper perspective. The biggest complaint NC State fans had with Sendek was a lack of personality and a failure to get past a certain level of mediocrity. Lavin has the media gig down pat, he is a great personality and will provide an interesting contrast to the country boy Roy Williams and the business executive Coach K. His success at UCLA exceeded the level of success enjoyed by Sendek at NC State in terms of NCAA Tournament advancement. The only two questions out there are can he recruit to State and how well can he coach a game versus two of the greatest coaching minds in the country. I honestly think he will do fine and as long as Wolfpack fans do not expect a Final Four or national title in the first four years he should be able to mange expectations. Lavin is the best State is going to get and I think he will be a great fit. If they had any wits about themselves they would fall into full support and start living up to all of that "passionate and loyal fan base" malarkey they were trying to sell Barnes and Calipari when they were on the hook. This is a step up from Sendek and this satisfies the personality requirement. Only time will tell what happens on the court.

The Duke Lacrosse Case, Part I

2006-04-20T23:37:00.000-04:00

As a blogger from the Raleigh area one might construe that I have fallen short of my responsibilities for not having raised this issue already. Part of my hesitation was that I not be seen for jumping up and down on Duke just for the sake of doing it. The other side of it was that I simply did not have enough information to render an opinion on the matter. And while the media at large is often satisfied with blowing hot air out over the airwaves or printing whatever speculations they can get their hands on I tend to operate differently. Of course underlying this reasoning is the incredible complexity and confusion of the events of March 13, 2006 in that house on the outskirts of Duke's campus. I happen to think that a woman who cries rape should be given every opportunity to receive justice but I also think that a whole lacrosse team of players is innocent until proven guilty. As of this writing I have yet to render an opinion on who might be telling the truth. Here is my view of the parties involved. The Media Whether we know or not June 17, 1994 was a dark day for American society. That was the day of the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase in California which subquently ended in his arrest and led to his long trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson. What the coverage of the O.J. trial brought was a genesis of the 24 hour news cycle where networks like CNN devoted the whole day to trial coverage and little know legal analysts who once got 5-10 minutes to address some issue became half hour fixtures on prime time news channels. Ever since that trial, every major crime that captures the imagination is picked up and carried by the media ad nauseum. The recent Natalee Holloway case in Aruba gave more life to this phenomenon and the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case has fallen into the same cycle of neverending coverage. One terrible aspect of cases like this is the news hosts pontificating on this case and its meaning for the Durham community and Duke have probably spent less time in Durham or at Duke than most anyone. In other words you have hosts interviewing people about a community or situation in which the hosts know very little about factually and everything else they know is based on generalizations. The second problem is that both the DA and the defense attorneys have made unabashed use of the media in their efforts to market the case to potential jurors. The media has been nothing less than a totally willing partner in this venture. The DA and defense are not at all bashful about leaking any and all information to the press which may aid their case. It is clear the intention was to try the case in the media. For the DA it was intended to show the community how tough the prosecution was being and for the defense it was to pressure the DA into dropping the whole thing. Both sides have failed and the result is a whole lot of evidence out in the open allowing people to form hardened opinions on the case, some of which may be called to jury duty. The media has been grossly irresponsible overall with the exception of local radio station 850 The Buzz which has been very reserved in its presentation of the case choosing to stick with verifiable facts. The sad truth is the case may have already been decided by the potential jury and that mean no justice for anyone. Duke University The fact that this is Duke makes this case all the more explosive. Duke is considered "Ivy League South" and has all the prestige and glory a highly touted private university can muster. In fact had this event occurred at East Carolina or even NC State the attention would be far less. The fact that it was Duke and also coupled with the fact that a black woman had accused a group of white men of rape gave in the racial element needed to make a national story. There is also a element where Duke's failure to properly administer the behavior of the lacrosse team may have created the situation. According to the News and Observer the lacrosse team had a long history of misdemeanors and violations of the campus judicial code. Numerous players on numerous occassions engaged in criminal activity or illustrated reckless behavior which was largely unchecked by anyone at Duke. Does this mean any one of them was guilty of rape? No, but it does indicate that there was, to use a favorite NCAA term, a lack of institutional control over the team on matters of off the field behavior. Now resigned Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler was surely aware of how his team was behaving and should have done more to rein them in and if he was incapable of doing so then AD Joe Alleva or President Richard Brodhead should have taken actions to bring the lacrosse players under control. This is not saying that had tighter controls been instituted it would have prevented the alleged incident but at least there would have been a record of some kind of attempt to bring these guys under umbrella of authority. One sure fire way of telling the world you knew you had a ticking time bomb and did nothing to stop it is to slap some kind of sizable CYA penalty down on the team. In this case Duke horribly overreacted and suspended the entire team and cancelled the season on the allegation that three of the 47 team members had comitted this act. This reeks of grade school discipline when the whole class stays in for recess because two attention seeking idiots in the back of the class decide upsetting the teacher is far more fun than slides and swings. What is an even greater travesty is the fact the whole team was tagged with these charges and based on everything I have read it is probable the whole team was not even present at the party. A whole bunch of good guys with excellent grades and overall decent records as citizens of Duke and the city are penalized because a few are accused of a heinous crime. A group of guys who want nothing more than to play collegiate lacrosse and exercise their talents at the highest level are now stuck sitting in their dorms with no season left. Of course in Duke's defense, the racial nature of the charges made virtually any decision they made a bad one. If they move too slow it is called a cover up and they are insensitive to the Durham community. If they come down too fast and hard they are seen as being to draconian and wrongfully punishing innocent students who may have not even been present. There was no middle ground here but part of that is based on Duke's failure to act when the charges were minor and the behavior controllable. The bottom line here is that Duke could have addressed the behavior of the lacrosse team which was by most accounts out of control. Dealing with the minor infractions would have given Duke opportunity to identify troublemakers and established a punishment track which would have made the actions they ended up taking completely in line with precedent. The Distict Attorney Mike Nifong is the DA for Durham County, he is white, and he is also running for reelection in a predominatly black county and city. That is pretty much all you need to know to draw a conclusion as to why Nifong has aggressively pursued this case. As much as I would like to think he is a zealous advocate of the people and will always employ this kind of passion in obtaining justice for any victim, years of watching politics has made me cynical. There are two absolutely inescapable motivators for Nifong here. The first is politics. Nifong is up for reelection and there is no way in Hades he gets reelected as D.A. if he ticks off the black community. A black N.C. Central student alleges rape against white Duke students and what you essentially have is a political time bomb. If Nifong was three years out from reelection, then he could afford to play this much more cautiously because voter memories are very short and as long as you say the right things during the year before the election the odds are a mistake you made 2-3 years back will not matter. Since this case fell into the election year Nifong had no choice but to go after the lacross players come hell or high water. Even as it appears the case is falling apart, Nifong pressed forward with indictments because if he does not he will be easily beaten when the voters hit the polls. The second aspect is race. Nifong is making a preemptive strike against a reaction from the black community. The last thing Durham officials want is Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton leading a march down the center of Durham. Instead of allowing the outrage to fester and grow, Nifong headed it off by taking the hard line, even if it means putting innocent men through a trial. If Nifong so much as hesitates or fails to toe the line, the black community will take him to task. And I do not mean this is a necessarily negative action their part. There is still plenty of inequality in the world and enough reminders that black victims often get a raw deal when accusing white attackers. It also should be noted that there is a tenancy to play the race card when it is not a racial issue at all. As difficult as it is, we must strive to remember that someone alleged attack someone else in a sick manner. The act alone regardless of the colors of the skin should be enough to outrage the entire community of people, bring the zeal of the D.A., but at the same time create a proper environment where justice can trult prevail. Sadly, this is not occurring in Durham. The D.A. is using the media to play politics by using various leaks. The interest for Nifong is not justice for the victim or finding the truth, the interest is reelection and whatever truth ensures that is the one he will be presenting to the jury. Next: The Defense Paints a Picture, The Accuser, and The Case Itself

NC State Coaching Search: Day 18

2006-04-19T13:10:00.000-04:00

Since it has been over a week since there was anything significant out of Raleigh. The interest has waned and people are starting to come to terms with their miserable lives such as they are. In my opinion Fowler has wasted the energy and enthusiasm of a rabid mob on the protracted coaching search to the point that when he does actually name someone they will be scrutinized until the cows come home. However, if there is a ongoing frenzy then the mob mentality will take over and the crowd will embrace whomever is hired as a conquering hero. Here are some ways Fowler could stir the pot to make things more interesting: 1. Schedule a press conference without revealing the reason why and then come to the podium and make a terse two sentence statement about the search continuing. Then take questions and answer every one of them with a quick, "No Comment" unless they mention a candidate by name then hesitate and shift the eyes a little before refusing to comment. 2. Have NC State booster Wendell Murphy dispatch his plane to any number of locations around the country just to spark speculation. 3. Drive to RDU airport with two other athletic department employees and walk through the terminal a couple of times just so enough people will recognize you then go back to your office and watch the rumors spread from there. 4. Send someone over to the RBC Center this evening around 9 PM driving your vehicle and have them turn the lights on inside for 30-45 minutes before leaving in a hurried fashion just as the media arrives. 5. Get your own account on Pack Pride and start posting vague but slightly contradictory rumors on the message board about the coaching search. Then when the posters are good and worked up make a suggestion that talks haven begun with Herb Sendek to bring him back to Raleigh while simulatenously starting the same rumor on the Arizona St. message board under a different username. There is a bevy of entertainment to be had over this situation and I honestly think Lee Fowler is duty bound to provides us enough inneuendo and vague speculation to flood the message boards with all the manic and delusional ravings we need to keep us all occupied until football season gets into gear. Plus, the money to be made off of new premium subscriptions at Pack Pride should be reason enough to stoke the fires of unsubstantiated speculation. I mean what else is there to do right now?

NC State Coaching Search: 16 Days and Counting...

2006-04-17T13:52:00.000-04:00

The days grow long and list grows short. And considering it only took God six days to create the heavens and earth(humanity included) the length of this search has to be reaching an embarassing point. Or perhaps not since this is not the kind of decision Lee Fowler can afford to screw up because it would probably cost him his job. The unfortunate aspect of this whole ordeal for NC State is that the names having been dropping fast and furious. Since Barnes and Calipari were approached and turned down the job names like P.J. Carlissemo formerly of the 1989 runner-up Seton Hall Pirates and having been choked by Latrell Sprewell as an NBA coach. Billy Gillespie of Texas A&M was a popular choice among Wolfpackers and was even rumored to have gone underground just as Fowler has done. It would appear he has surfaced and seems to be happy at College Station and add to that the Aggies were just forced to cough up a scholarship for a low academic rating which looks more like Jim Valvano than Roy Williams. Jay Wright is happy as a clam at Villanova or his wife is either way he is not leaving Philly. Rumors about former UNC coach Matt Doherty or current South Carolina and former Wake coach Dave Odom appear to be just that. Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg of 1983 National Championship fame is fan favorite but does not sport much in the way of a winning resume. In fact even the Pack Pride message board has reached a resigned state and seems to be discussing the topic less and less. I think there is a real possibility that Fowler intends to drag this thing out to the point everyone forgets NC State does not have a coach while he secretly hires someone who will covertly assume the job and be revealed the day before practice starts. The backlash would be minimum and how much complaining could anyone do considering it would be a done deal? Of course I am not serious, but I do wonder what is going on in whatever secret location Fowler is locked up in conducting this search. Fowler deserves a lot of credit for going after big game for all to see to quell anyone who would claim he did not try to get a name coach. And I think this long secret silence is actually brillant since it shows he is not panicked or at least not showing he is panicked. Fowler appears to be willing to take as much time as possible as not to make some half-cocked, rush-to-judgement choice just to get the job filled. This is what is commonly referred to as due-diligence and Fowler appears to be a master at it.

Why Doesn't He Talk About UNC More?

2006-04-14T15:43:00.000-04:00

I am sure some people probably think it is strange that a blog called "Tar Heel Fan" has spent the last two weeks talking about everyone else but UNC? Good question and since I need a fluff piece to fill in the gap I will address my focus here. 1. No Real News From UNC The basketball season is over at UNC and the last piece of news we had was that Tyler Hansbrough would return for his sophomore season. Other than that it has been slow over there in Chapel Hill and since I am nowhere near the point I am ready to talk about football I really have nothing UNC related to pontificate about. Some more rabid fans will dissect the sping football game or even spent time talking about the super recruiting class UNC has coming. I really have no interest in discussing things on this level which seems better suited for the Inside Carolina message board rather than here on this blog. If anything new breaks in Chapel Hill, it will be on this blog, but right now, no news is good news for UNC fans. 2. Commenting on Rival Schools is Related Since I am local resident in North Carolina and I also am a UNC fan, the occurences in the Duke and NC State community are absolutely relevant. Perhaps it is good for a humor post but I also like delving into the intricacies of the coaching issue at NC State for example. And while this blog is also a Tar Heel fan blog it is also a blog about ACC basketball from a UNC fan's perspective. 3. Sports In General It is also my intention to delve into all sports issues and arenas. The NC State coaching search and the NCAA Tournament before than sucked all of the air out this little blog's room so that is all I have focused on so far. I will get into talking about baseball some and the NBA playoffs a little bit though I find the pro basketball scene very tedious. At any rate I forsee this blog being busier during the crux of the college basketball sports year from August until April/May. So summer blogging will probably be lighter unless something of monumental proportions comes to light in the ACC or at UNC. And yes, this was a filler post. I hope you enjoyed reading my vitually meaningless drivel.

Salary vs. Value

2006-04-13T06:38:00.000-04:00

It has been over a full day since NC State received it's second rejection in their search for a new head coach. The Wolfpack administration seems to have hunkered down somewhere secluded putting out feelers and attempting to construct some sort of plan to move forward on their so-called "B" list of candidates. Since we have this pause in the ongoing drama it is time to take stock of what has happened in these past 12 days. NC State AD Lee Fowler understood two things when he began this search. The first is he had to appease the NC State fan base by hiring a star coach. It was imperative that Fowler not start the search with another mid-major coach even if he was a proven winner. State fans wanted a name and a personality to match wits with Roy and K and they also wanted someone who could fire up the masses. The second thing Fowler knew was that he had to bring a "shock and awe" offer to the table to either outbid any school from the very start and express how much NC State really wanted that coach to come. The basic premise was based on the idea that NC State fans would settle for nothing less than an all out offensive to bring in a name coach. The pitfall was that if the offer failed to entice the coach in question, Fowler et. al are left with having raised enormous stakes and failed in the process. The logic was sound on Fowler's part and he should be commended for striking such a bold move to bring in what the fans were asking for since these same fans were the reason Sendek left in the first place. My question now is whether or not this has inappropriately skewed the salary landscape of college coaches? Based on the best available information UNC coach Roy Williams and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski make in the neighborhood of $1.9 million by the time calculate their entire package. As best as I can tell they are close to the top of the college basketball salary ladder and rightfully so since they head the two top programs during the past 25 years. These programs are consistently elite programs and frequent Final Four contenders. These coaches have posted tremendous winning percentages and each have at least one national title(K has three) and numerous Final Four appearances. So in respect to the salary they get paid it seems to be a reflection of three factors: 1. The status of the program. 2. The success of the coach. 3. The priority of the program at that school i.e. Duke and UNC are both "basketball schools." The salary paid to these two coaches seems reflective of their value in terms of their success and the programs ranking in the country. The coach I think fall into the same category as coaches above are Rick Pitino, Lousiville(#2 and #3, but marginally #1), Tom Izzo, Michigan State(#1 and #2 and sometimes #3), Tubby Smith, Kentucky(#1 and #3, #2 somewhat in question), Lute Olsen, Arizona(all three), Jim Calhoun, UConn(all three). All of these guys coach at schools where basketball is huge, they are historically successful, and they each have a at least one national title and multiple Final Fours under their belt(with the exception of Smith who only has one FF.) In other words these are the type of coaches who warrant the top salaries and for the most part their schools have responded. Now the offers coming out of NC State were reported to be either in excess of the present salaries of many of the above coaches or in the case of the Calipari offer very close to it. However, if you take a step back and look at the three factors described above how does NC State and their two "A" list candidates fit into the criteria. Is NC State an elite program with a consistent historical success? No, they have do have two national titles but in most respects they have a flash in the pan period of 2-4 years followed by inconsistency. The records are clear that since the Everett Case days NC State has never been a consistent winner in college basketball. Skipping the second factor for a moment, NC State can probably be described as a "basketball school" simply because they are in North Carolina, the play in the ACC, and their football program is not anywhere close to being more noteworthy than the basketball program. So NC State is somewhat solid on the third criteria. Now let's back up to the second criteria and see how that applies the two coaches in question. I would describe Rick Barnes and John Calipari as being successful coaches. There is evidence that they have developed winners wherever they have coached whether it be Clemson or UMass in the early days or small school Memphis for Calipari and football school Texas for Barnes. That being said their success can be described as limited at best. Barnes has been to 1 Final Four at Texas, has never won the Big 12 Tournament, and just this year set a school record for wins with 30(the previous was 26.) While at Clemson, the Tigers moved from the ACC cellar to the ACC middle and did occasionally crack the Sweet 16. Now, Barnes is poised to do great things but so far all we have from him is a whole bunch of good things. Caliapri has the same kind of record. He has one Final Four appearance from the UMass days(later vacated) and this season Memphis made the Elite 8 with 33 wins and a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Prior to that Calipari had fewer NCAA Tournament appearances in the past five years than Herb Sendek. As is the case with Barnes, Caliapri also appears on the verge of doing some great things at Memphis but again all we have so far a bunch of good runs. So having digested all of this information can someone please explain the logic of a school which has historically been a middle of the road college basketball team paying a coach who has been to one Final Four and never won the national championship more money than the most storied programs in the country pay their wildly successful coaches. The answer is that there is no logic to it because it is a maddening attempt to address the illogical expectations of a fan base who thinks a big name coach is the cure to all their basketball ills. I understand why Fowler and NC State went this route but it also scares me speechless because of the manner in which it threatens to skew the salary landscape of college basketball coaches. Try this logic on for size. If coaching job at NC State which is not an elite program is worth $2 million annually to a coach who has never seen Monday night at the Final Four the how much is the job at Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, LSU, or Marquette worth? Heck, if one Final Four is all you need to get a $2 million payday then George Mason needs to engage in some serious fundraising. Now, I know it is not that simple and there are a lot more factors involved that the ones I have put forward. But, in my humble opinion, the salary of college basketball coaches should be based on the success of the school under that coach and is primarily dictated in financial terms by the interest that school has in the program. In the case of NC State, the booster interest is there so the money is there. However, the success of the coaches in question and the status of the program simply makes the money being offered look like overkill. In fact the I would have to agree with 850 the Buzz's Adam Gold who said that Memphis got screwed on the deal because they ended up giving more money to a coach who has yet to do anything significant. Then again it is NC State's money and they have every right to do with it as they please. In our society the buyer determines the value of something by how much they are willing to pay. If people did not pay $5000 for plasma TV's then I am pretty certain they would be cheaper. So on a objective scale of stats and results it is easy to say that Barnes and Calipari are not $2 million coaches. However, to NC State fans and to the boosters they were see as a coming saviors who would finally push them to the upper tier of the ACC. From that perspective the value they would assign is far higher than what objective measures might say. The problem is when that skewed perspective based value is used in the open market as an objective standard it really mucks things up.

Strike Two

2006-04-11T23:05:00.000-04:00

In the 10 days since Herb Sendek left NC State for Arizona St. two coaches have managed to parlay for themselves a total of $900,000 in raises from their respective schools. In other words, being on NC State's wish list for coaches is good for your personal portfolio. First Texas' Rick Barnes said no and was duly paid for his decision to stay in Austin. I honestly think Barnes made a decision based on the merits and not so much the money(though the money helps.) Next on the list was John Calipari of Memphis who I thought had a reputation of not being the most upstanding of coaches. Now we have evidence that is most certainly the case. NC State AD Lee Fowlet made the decision to make this run at Calipari a public affair after keeping the Barnes pursuit secret. Fowler was aggressive and I thought the public courtship was a bold move with built-in advantages for NC State. By putting it on the table in full view of the world, Calipari was forced to move quickly and Memphis was also forced to either pony up or let him go. So Fowler offers the big money, estimated at more than half a million dollars more than Memphis had recently bumped his salary to following the end of the season. This entered another factor into the mix which was an apparent rift between Calipari and Memphis AD R.C. Johnson who had only offered Calipari $100,000 more even though he had taken the Tigers to the Elite 8. Needless to say Calipari was not amused and essentially stood ready to play the "disrespect" card. NC State came calling(was called?) and Calipari entertained the offer in Memphis on Sunday and followed up Monday with a visit to campus. Now I know that signs are really good if the guy comes and visits. Why waste the time to travel there if you are not serious? If you a coach gets as far as the campus visit and further discussion then it is almost a sure bet. Of course UNC thought Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer was a sure bet six years ago when he came to Chapel Hill to talk turkey about the UNC football job and even verbally committed to take it. UNC AD Dick Braddour forgot to have him sign the contract and Beamer went back to Blacksburg, got all misty eyed, and he received a handsome offer to stay put. He did and a new venacular was born in the realm of North Carolina college athletics. UNC got "Beamered" And now NC State has had the joy of having been "Beamered" too. Calipari played the Wolfpack like a violin. It was a masterful performance in which Calipari led NC State down the garden path only to bash them over the head with a rock and walk off arm-in-arm with Memphis. Even before this occurred I had always felt Calipari was a weasel and now we have proof of it. NC State's rabid desperation for a "big name" coach and a personality of epic proportions was a huge weakness here. Also, it was known how much money they threw at Barnes, it was a safe bet they would throw similar money at the Memphis coach. Calipari played the situation every step of the way from the initial offer right down to the campus visit which scared the living daylights out of Memphis boosters to the point they immediately raised the pot of dough needed to retain their prized coach. Of course the most brillant charade of the whole act was the perceived tension between Calipari and his boss, Johnson, which lent further credence to the idea that Calipari was upset at his treatment. Many in the media thought Calipari was jaded enough to take another job because Memphis only chose to do the right thing after the NC State offer came and not out of recognition for his accomplisments. In the end Calipari did what one would expect Calipari to do and that is look out for himself. It is obvious that being king of Conference USA is enough to feed his massive ego and he is still under no restrictions as to the kinds of players he can recruit. Memphis will easily be a top 10-15 team next season with two good recruits coming in. Calipari had all of his ducks in a row at Memphis and was only missing one thing: a top flight contract. All Calipari wanted was his fair market value for building a contender and if he had to use NC State insatiable appetite for an established coach with great hair so be it. NC State got screwed, hands down. The problem they face now is getting more ominous as the days wear on. It can be reasonably assumed that every single AD in the country who even remotely thinks Lee Fowler might call has either locked their guy into a good deal or has one sitting his desk drawer ready to pull out if necessary. Make no mistake, Lee Fowler did everything he was supposed to do here. He made the big offers and fought for two big names who would have been good fits for NC State. Fowler led them to the water, they just wanted no part of it for whatever reason. It was a huge and calculated risk which would have made Fowler a revered person had it worked but now that it hasn't he is being maligned by the fan base. Now the NC State AD faces a daunting and difficult task which begins with the question: What now?

Secondary Target

2006-04-10T09:34:00.000-04:00

Now that Rick Barnes has officially withdrawn himself from consideration for the NC State coaching job, the powers that be in Wolfpack land quickly moved to their second target: John Calipari, head coach at Memphis. Now in may respects I honestly think Calipari is a better coach than Barnes, at least in terms of the results he has yielded in the situations he has worked. Calipari took UMass to a Final Four in 1996(later vacated because UMass center Marcus Camby got paid.) Calipari took a school that did nothing but lose in basketball and made them a winner. After foolishly jumping to the NBA for four seasons he returned to Memphis and this past season had them at 33-4 and a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. So one thing is obvious, Calipari can recruit and seems to know what he is doing on the sideline. He also had done more with less and posted better records at schools who were not in power basketball conferences like Clemson was for Barnes or the big time state university like Barnes has at Texas. The lure of Barnes was his NC roots and the fact he got in Dean Smith's face one time during a game. NC State is focused on getting a big name coach and Calipari certainly fits the bill. The only problem with Calipari is one of reputation for the kind of players he recruits. NC State went through a two year probation because Jim Valvano played fast and loose with the rules and was willing to bring in less that astute players on the academic and character levels. Calipari operates on a similar scheme picking up a lot of players which could not cut it academically at other schools or have some spectre of trouble in the past which makes them radioactive to the North Carolinas and Dukes of college basketball. Current Oklahoma St guard JameSon Curry, who was a UNC recruit until he plead guilt to drug possession and was cut loose by Roy Williams, is the type of player who would end up with coaches like Calipari, Bob Huggins, and obviously Eddie Sutton. Then there is the incident at UMass where Marcus Camby accepted money and as a result UMass vacated the 1996 Final Four appearance. Calipari has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the case, but when that sort of thing happens on you watch as head coach, it does raise red flags. [PAUSE POST] Now in the ongoing war of rivals, NC State fans have been saying that UNC has no room to talk on this matter since Roy Williams was cited a minor infaction while at Kansas. It seems that Williams approved the giving of gifts to graduating players. First of all, the violations were self reported by Kansas and not the result of a NCAA investigation. Secondly, Williams made a full statement disclosing his side of the story and express remorse for what had happened. And finally, the basis of the violation is that a "student athlete is a student athelete for life" which means that if I am ever in Greensboro and a Spartan club member takes me out to dinner and pays for it then a NCAA violation has occurred since I ran cross country for the university. In other words Williams made the same assumption that I made about myself and that is the moment the last game was played or eligibility was officially exhausted then NCAA restrictions were officially lifted. It was a honest mistake and since the gifts involved were of such little value it is no wonder the NCAA has never categorized this a major infraction. Some NC State fans on the Pack Pride message board have categorized the Kansas gifts as far worse than anything Valvano or NC State ever did. This is an interesting position since according to the search results yielded by the NCAA database on infractions NC State was cited for major violations under Valvano as well as four other times in their history in various sports. In other words State fans need to shut up about this since history has proven there is but one school between UNC, Duke, and NCSU that enjoys a checkered past and that is the Wolfpack. [RESUME POST] I am not saying Calipari is dirty or will commit NCAA infactions the moment he walks on campus. What I am saying is there is a perception as to his commitment to things like academics and character. I think Calipari will be more likely to engage in behavior similar to Valvano in an effort to get the job done and the last thing NC State needs is the perception that they can only be successful on the same level with UNC and Duke if they cheat their way there or recruit the wrong kind of players. NC State fans want so much to be on the same level as UNC and Duke but part of that is not only winning on the court, part of that is running a clean program with model student athletes. Of course this is all water under the bridge. Yesterday some enterprising NC State fan used a flight tracking website to figure out that a plane registered to Wolfpack donor Wendell Murphy left Duplin County for RDU and then flew from RDU to Memphis. Yes, one can assume that planes leaving Duplin County en route to Memphis are not going for blues and BBQ. NC State AD Lee Fowler and NCSU Chancellor James Olbinger made the trip to offer what has been described as an "overwhelming" package. Translation: A lot of freakin' money. We do not know how much but one can only be humored by NC State's predelection to pay coaches who have only been to one Final Four and never been in a NCAA title game the same kind of money Roy and Coach K make. The other interesting part of this is how upfront NC State has been with their pursuit of Calipari versus Barnes. With Barnes it was backwater channels and middle men making the overtures all veiled in secrecy. In the case of Calipari it has been very obvious. It has been speculated that Calipari made the first move in this dance. The agressive and open nature of the NC State offer seems to give that theory legs. Why would NC State open itself to the public embarassment of rejection if they did not already think there was some kind of interest? The other part is that NC State's people want the media to know certain things at this point. Let's be honest, Fowler did not have to travel to Memphis to conduct this interview. The technology exists to do a conference call or even a video conference. Fowler and the gang wanted it to be known that they were meeting with Calipari and that, as sources are claiming, an offer is on the table. Why? Because it placed an extreme amount of pressure on Calipari. Everyone knows that the ball is in Calipari's court and he has to respond quickly as does the Memphis AD. The effect of this tactic means a quicker resolution putting Memphis at a disadvantage to counter effectively and it also may push Calipari to make the decision in favor of the Pack. For all the screaming in Wolfpack nation about Fowler he certainly seems to know what he is doing here, especially if this works out. I would expect some kind of resolution on this target in less than half the time it took with Barnes. So at this point we are left with the following questions: 1. Is Calipari truly interested or is he pushing for a raise from Memphis? 2. Calipari is a good fit in that he has taken programs at a certain level and put them near the top, but do the ends justify whatever means he might employ? 3. Is it wise to pay someone who has limited Final Four or NCAA title success as much as other coaches who have those accolades? 4. Are the Pack boosters and academic surrogates of the athleteic department going to be satisfied with whatever platitudes Calipari offers up? 5. Where does NC State go if he rejects them in this very public courtship? The next few days will tell an interesting tale.

The NC State Coaching Search Timeline

2006-04-06T22:32:00.000-04:00

The Wolfpack's #1 target, Texas coach Rick Barnes, made good use of the NC State drive to make him their head coach by leveraging their $2 million offer into a better deal for himself. Barnes made it official Thursday evening that he will remain in Texas. There are of course other candidates but before we delve into that let's review where we have been: On Saturday, April 1st, there was much joy in Wolfpack nation as embattled coach Herb Sendek left Raleigh to take the head coaching job at Arizona St. In fact the talk of the opportunity to hire a "big name" coach had many Wolfpack fans talking about national championship rings. Attention was immediatley turned to Texas coach Rick Barnes and efforts were made to woo him. As the wait began, the stress on Wolfpack Nation began to show. Three days soon past and the combination of little official news and wild rumors on the Pack Pride message board soon became almost too much to handle. Until finally this evening the news was broken that Barnes was not coming to NC State and uncertainty gripped the hearts of Wolfpack faithful everywhere. One can only hope they find a coach soon, there is no telling how desperate these people will become. Copyright © 2006, BCB Photo Credits: Still shots from The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

NC State Fan Misconceptions

2006-04-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

Now that we are approaching a week since Herb Sendek took his modified Princeton offense and went to Arizona St., Wolfpack nation continues it's vigil on message board and AM sports talk awaiting the naming of the coach which will take them where Sendek could not. Having spent some time reading the Pack Pride message board(they denied my application to be able to post there) I have learned that Wolfpack fans are operating through this fiasco with a number of misconceptions which make it all far more entertaining than it normal. Misconception: State needs a "big name" coach Real Motivation: Instant Gratification My answer to this is why? Why do you necessarily need a star coach when you think that Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Bobby Knight, and Mike Krzyzewski were big name coaches before they landed at their respective schools? Of course not, but it should also be noted that all of those coaches walked into situations where the program was at rock bottom or on probation from infractions committed by the previous coach. NC State does not appear to be in that boat. NC State has been to five straight NCAA Tournaments, is winning 20 games a season, the players are graduating, and the program is clean(Good thing they got rid of Sendek with those shenanigans going on.) It is the general feeling that since the program is in good shape, now is the time to spend the resources to get a big name who can build a mansion on top of Sendek's foundation. I would ultimatly disagree with that assumption. I think there are plenty of good mid-major coaches who carry a lesser price tag who can take the current foundation and build a nice house. The real problem with Wolfpack nation is they are tired of waiting and a big name coach is more likely to shortcut the development process because his name and status brings instant credibility and a almost instant recruiting pipeline. A successful mid-major coach would needs a few years to get the ball rolling. Finding the next coaching star would server NC State for much longer and much better than diving into the middle of a name coach's career. Misconception:The new coach needs ego and personality to stand toe-to-toe with Roy and K. Real Motivation: Inferiority complex when it comes to UNC and Duke As I have said many times before, the NC State neurosis over Sendek had more to do with him not being Jim Valvano than the actual win total. I am not going to rehash these reasons I discussed here but rest assured the low key Sendek did not sit well with State fans who spoke so highly of the sound bite at the ready Valvano. This mentality is what is playing out in this case. State fans want a coach who already has his own aura and orbit in space. They want someone who is a giant right next to Roy and Coach K. There is also some notion that head-to-head recruiting is an issue which seems a little silly. Going back to the first point they want someone who can come in and suck some of the air in the room away from the other two guys and match them not only in Xs and Os but also in the public relations battle. The folley in this thinking is that you are having the coaching search dictate not by what you need but how you can beat two other local coaches in what amounts to a chest beating contest. As much as I dislike Coach K and complain on this blog about the attention he gets and the media favorability I also realize that as a function of how UNC performs none of it matters. NC State fans seem so concerned about how well a new coach would "matchup" with the other two coaches they are obviously willing to pay $2 million a year for a guy in Rick Barnes who is 2-14 against those two combined. In other words they want their coach to look and sound as good as the other two and they do not want to wait for that to happen. Misconception: UNC and Duke fans are fearful NC State will land a top coach Real Motivation: They hope UNC and Duke fans are fearful I could really care less other than the tremendous entertainment value it all has in watching them get worked up over it. If Barnes or someone else comes in and revives the program to the point they are able to beat UNC more often then I will deal with the same way I deal with Duke's current run of dominance. These things run in a cycle, except in NC State's case the cycle has been going for a very long time. I honestly do not worry about such things because UNC's goal when it begins each season is to win a national championship. Since the chances of playing another conference school at any point in the tournament is usually quite remote, why should I care how good they get at NC State. UNC has beaten Duke a total of four times this decade. You know how many national championships UNC has in the same span. One, the same number as Duke. The point is that beating the rival is nice, winning the ACC championship is nice, but winning the whole thing is better. In fact UNC's past two national championship seasons have included ACC Tournament losses to Georgia Tech. I treat a team getting a new coach like a team getting good recruits, I will wait and see what comes of the situation and deal with it then. Besides I think I speak for both UNC and Duke fans in saying that we have so much confidence in our head coaches and the skill they show in exercising their craft that I really will not lose on moment of sleep worrying about what kind of coach ends up in Raleigh, Lexington, KY, or Bloomington, IN. We have two of the best in the business why should we worry about the other guys. Misconception: NC State is an elite program and desired coaching desitnation Real Motivation: Say it enough times and it might become true I have dealt with this some on my other posts and in short, no NC State is not a national elite program. It is also debatable whether thay have ever been that with any kind of serious consistency. NC State fans like to point to the 1980's which included the national title in 1983. The problem is NC State only made it put of the first round 3 out of the next 6 years when they hit the Elite 8 in 1985 and 1986. 1984 they missed the NCAAs and in 1987 and 1988 they went home early. 1989 was a Sweet 16 year followed by probabtion in 1990 due to misconduct. The 1970's were similar with two really good years which included a national title, but during the rest of the decade the Wolfpack was good but nothing to write home about. In fact you have to skip the 1960's and go right to the formation of the ACC and NC State's inital dominance under Everett Case to find anything remotely close to elite program status. Wolfpack fans are stuck in the past and hold up standards of winning which were not even adhered to that closely by the most beloved coach of all Jimmy V. The other part of the equation is that it is difficult to claim you program is elite and a desired job when the fan base runs the coach out of town for doing nothing more than running a clean operation and making it to 5 straight NCAA Tournaments in which he won four times in the first round and went to the Sweet 16 once. This is not to rehash the Sendek situation, but merely a reminder that coaches are going to consider the fan base as a crucial factor in whether or not they even want to put up with the pressure of having to instantly gratify a discontented group of fans who were dissatified with a level of success most schools would kill to have. And I am not saying NC State does not have a right to desire to win and be national champions, it is just a better road to get there if you actually ground view of your program in reality as a means of tempering your expectations. These four misconceptions along with many other delusional comments form a very clear picture of the state of mind in Wolfpack nation. As a group they have launguished in medicority and even when they enjoyed a few moments of glory in the 70's and 80's they were so starved for that kind of success they have woven those into a perception that they are somehow an elite program. This is also born out of the immense inferiority complex they feel being on the same street with UNC and Duke. It has made them utterly self concsious and narrow minded in their focus on the progress of the program. One telling moment this season was when UNC went to Raleigh to play NC State and Wolfpack nation viewed it as their Armegeddon. It was an important game for UNC in terms of momentum and improving their position in the standings and the same was true for NC State. Except Wolfpack fans saw it as a chance to take down UNC and engage in some kind of asinine chest beating when the tournament and the standings were far more important issues. The way that game was framed, I honestly believe was the reason NC State entered into the slide they experienced. If their focus had been on themselves and winning basketball games in pursuit of the bigger picture then perhaps they would have played better and even if they had lost, perhaps it would not have been so devasting. NC State fans are bent on a quest to be instantly catapulted to the top of college basketball and they want to stick it to UNC and Duke in the process. And make no mistake there is nothing wrong with that. However, that kind of climb is rarely instant and anyone who thinks UNC or Duke got there by worrying themselves sick over what the other team was doing would be flat wrong. NC State fans need to answer the question of which is the more important set of wins; 2 or 3 over your chief rivals or the six games in March/April. UNC and Duke know the answer to that question and understand pursuing the greater goal means you are good enough to take care of the other question as well.

Tidbits

2006-04-06T00:05:00.000-04:00

****We interrupt the NC State coaching watch to bring you this important annoucement***** Duke Player Transfers Duke freshman center Eric Boateng a former McDonalds All American in high school has announced he will leave Duke for another program. No reason was given but the move was seen as odd since the graduation of Lee Melchionni and Shelden Williams meant there would certainly be more playing time available. Of course 7' 1'' Brian Zoubek is incoming and would have competed with Boateng for the center position. This is becoming a more common occurrence in the Duke program with players who were high school All Americans play 1 or 2 seasons than fly the coop. What is even more intriguing is how much care and attention these players and their surrogates give to selecting the right school. For one to leave as Boateng is doing or never develop as Shavlik Randolph never did makes the casual observer wonder what is going on at Duke. Are promises made on the recruiting trail not being fulfilled when the player arrives? Is Coach K simply stockpiling quality players in case he needs them or worse to keep other schools from having them? Or do guys want to play at Duke so badly they abandon the aforementioned careful attention and sign with Duke when the offer a scholarship? I am compelled to think that the former is more the case. I think that Duke coaches offer assurances and do everything they are permitted to do in order to land the recruit. It was obvious this year Coach K had neither the time or inclination to develop his bench and build up some of the freshman not named Greg Paulus and Josh McRoberts. Whereas Roy Williams was forced to put four freshman on the floor and develop them for UNC to have a chance, K seemed unwilling to make that effort. K settled on a strict 7 man rotation which left Duke players tired at the end of games. The lack of a bench was key in the UNC comeback in Chapel Hill and also in the win at Cameron when it was obvious that Duke did not have the energy to keep up with the young Tar Heels who rotated as many as 10 players in and out, some with good chunks of playing time. Whatever reason, all eyes are now on McRoberts who may turn pro and #7 ranked high schooler Lance Thomas who is still undecided as to his college destination. UNC picked preseason #1 by most. For what it's worth. Having watched the tournament this season we were reminded how no one can predict the outcome with any certainity three weeks before the title game so talking about who is #1 and who might win it all and year in advance is outrageous. However, there is truth to the polls and UNC stands to be really strong next season. But now we wait. ***Now we return to our program already in progress*** As the Wolfpack Turn Day 5 begins with no news from Texas. The likely scenario that is probably going to unfold tomorrow is an annoucement from Austin that Barnes is getting a nice raise for himself and his assistant coaches for remaining at Texas. In other words Barnes will take the hopes and dreams of Wolfpack nation and crush them. This is a leverage ploy by Barnes and he is taking NC State for a ride to motivate his own AD to sweeten his deal. NC State is quite plainly being used by Barnes for his own benefit. In fact no has offically contacted Texas about Barnes which means Lee Fowler is conducting this little venture on the QT, most likely using surrogates from the Wolfpack Club to facilitate some kind of discussion. Fowler is trying to avoid what happened to UNC in 2001 when Roy came to Chapel Hill and made a handshake deal to come but upon returning to Kansas changed his mind and stayed put. Before Fowler decided to put his credibility on the line and expose the university to embarassment by asking a simple question he would like to at least be somewhat versed in what kind of answer he will get back. Tommorrow we will know more and I also plan to provide some of musing from Wolfpack nation which will tickle the funny bone.

NC State: The Search for a Coach

2006-04-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

Or an elite program whichever comes first. The absolute joy of Wolfpack nation has since subsided into a frenzy of anxiety and grandiose exaggerations of what NC State basketball was, is, and can be assuming the right coach is hire. In fact I was actually thrilled Herb Sendek took the Arizona St. job during the Final Four because it gave all of us here in Tar Heel nation a new source of unending entertainment instead of being fully subjected to one of the worst Final Fours in recent memory. Now the search is on and NC State AD who is loved by the State faithful about as much as Herb Sendek was is charged with orchestrating a coaching search which will meet the following criteria as set forth by the fans: 1. A proven winner or as some call it a "big name coach." 2. A coach who has an ego and can stand up to the evil machinations of Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski. 3. A coach who is able to return NC State to its rightful place as king and ruler of the basketball world which according to local basketball historians is a position the Wolfpack occupied for many decades before the fall of Jimmy V the Great of Long Island. 4. A coach who can bring back the passion and fire to Wolfpack basketball while wowing the press with pithy sound bites. 5. A coach who can recruit high caliber players, win ACC titles, drive deep into the NCAA Tournament, win a national championship, beat Duke and UNC at least once a year apiece, and also find a cure for the common cold or genital herpes. And there is but one man who is able to fulfill this criteria and resurrect the red and white from a curse of biblical proportions and that is.... Rick Barnes, Head Coach, University of Texas Rick Barnes was once the head coach at Clemson and the legend has been repeated many a time around BBQ cookers in and around Wake County that the Hickory, NC native once stood tall against the Dark Wizard of Chapel Hill Dean Smith during an ACC Tournament game. Smith had made a comment directly to a Clemson player and Barnes took exception. With the coaches huddled with the referees at midcourt Barnes expressed his displeasure with Smith who responded in kind and appeared to come very close to smacking Barnes upside the head. Clemson went on to win the game. Barnes also did build Clemson up to a Sweet 16 school and had them ranked in the top 10 at one point. Since arriving in Texas he has done similar work and since Texas is a bigger school with a bigger name he has been able to recruit many quality players and get Texas near the top of the college game. These two factors comprise the full extent as to why State fans want Barnes so bad. And make no mistake, he is target #1 to the point rumors are flying that he has been offered $2 million(which is more than Roy and K make and they actually have national titles on their resume.) It is believed that Barnes is the dragon slayer and he alone is able to take on the beast in Chapel Hill and Durham. It is believed that Barnes will be able to grab the great recruits and put NC State on the same level with UNC and Duke. That being said, there is no evidence that Barnes will have anymore success against Roy and K than he has at Texas or even while he was at Clemson. At Clemson Barnes was 2-10 against UNC which included the 1996 ACC Tournament win and the 2000. Barnes was 0-8 against K while at Clemson though the Tigers did beat Duke during K's "bad back season" in 1995 to register 2 wins. If memory serves Texas has played the Devils twice in two years and lost both games the last by 30 points. While Roy was at Kansas Barnes was 1-4 against him beating the Jayhawks in Austin during his second season there. He did beat UNC in the 2004 NCAA Tournament for his second win against Roy. So combining all those together Barnes has a 6-24 record against UNC, Duke, Roy, and K. Now, some will say that Clemson is Clemson, but his success against either coach or school is not one to blow the doors off. It also a folly to believe that he will necessarily be able to recreate the magic he had at Clemson or Texas at NC State. I have little doubt he will do well but how well? Texas and Clemson were a little more lenient on what kinds of players he recruited where NC State will be less likely to allow things to move in the direction of the Jimmy V days. Exhibit A in this line of thought is Texas guard P.J. Tucker who went to high school in Raleigh. Now, what possible reason could there be which permitted a quality talent such as Tucker to leave the state. If you said his grades then you win a prize. In other words recruiting at State may prove to be more difficult than recruiting at Texas or Clemson. I also should note that I have seen little evidence that Barnes is that great of a game coach. I saw one game this season versus Texas A&M in which he called timeout with 11 seconds on the shot clock and 18 seconds on the game clock, relayed a play, and then sent his team back out on the floor. P.J. Tucker proceeded to dribble the shot clock out because he ignored it and watched the game clock instead. The fault is primarily on Tucker but I would think that Barnes as a top flight coach would make sure than kind of stuff does not happen. There are other names to be bantered around but until the shoe drops on Barnes here I am not going to waste my time writing about them. I honestly think Barnes would be a fool to leave Texas. His program is successful, it is a football school which means he endures far less pressure than he would at NC State and being in the same orbit as Roy and K means you could at best the third choice for attention among local head coaches. And regardless of what State fans may say about how much they love him, if it comes five years have past and he still has not posted any progress above where Sendek was at they will turn on his like a moccassin in the summer. Staying at Texas is a win-win for Barnes since his program apparatus is already in place. Coming to NC State means starting over and if he truly misses the passion of basketball 24/7 which is found in North Carolina, then he may come back. Of course I despise moving so if I were him I would stay put for no other reason but the desire to stay settled.

National Championship: Not Even Close

2006-04-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

On Sunday afternoon I checked my email and I was alerted to seven new comments on the blog here. I logged in and found that I had apparently ticked off UCLA fans with my Final Four post(which is interesting since I spent more time blasting LSU and Big Baby than I did anyone else.) Anyway, the comments ranged from intelligent and well thought out to idiotic and spinless such as refusing me permission to engage in oral activities with one commenters nether regions or calling me a hillbilly(oh and just because someone was born, raised, and resides in North Carolina does not make them a hillbilly, that kind of generalization about the South is only used by people who do not know better). Of course my favorite was being told that I was jealous of the UCLA legacy. Since I have been on this earth only 31 years and since my first basketball memory is the 1982 NCAA title win by my beloved Heels I really have no inkling of what went on during the UCLA dynasty other than what I read in the history books. I have only been concerned with what has happened in my lifetime. Does that mean I disregard the UCLA run? No, just like I would never disregard the 1957 NCAA Championship UNC won as a 32-0 team. However, it would be exceedingly difficult for me to be jealous of something which I never witnessed happening. So in the past 30 years UNC has thoroughly outperformed UCLA in every conceivable facet and this is not conjecture this is proven in the history books. Since 1976, the first year of the post-John Wooden era UNC has won 3 titles to UCLA's 1, been to 10 Final Fours compared to 4 by UCLA, and won 28 more NCAA tournament games than the Bruins with a higher winning percentage. UNC has made every tournament in that span except two while UCLA has missed 8. So if jealously can be defined by being envious of a program that has consistently performed worse than yours in the course of your lifetime then your are correct I am jealous. And if that was not enough, we also got this: Florida 73 UCLA 57 Now before I hear any "At least we got to the title game, UNC lost to a mid-major" let's look at a few things. First, the mid-major that beat UNC was at the Final Four too, so please do not try and tell me that George Mason was your run-of-the-mill mid-major team. Secondly, what goes around comes around, and looking back on NCAA Tournament history UCLA has had their share of first and second round losses to low seeds. Anyone remember only scoring 41 points in losing to #13 seeded Princeton in 1997? And finally, if you get to a title game, then you should at least show up and keep it close for longer than five minutes. In fact three of the five times UNC has been in a title game in the past 30 years they walked away a national champion which is more than I can say for UCLA now 1 for 3 in the same span. And where pray tell was that vaunted UCLA defense? The style of play which was heralded by one commenter as a "return to fundamentals" and that UCLA was "doing something special on defense" Well, Florida thought is was so special they got nine dunks in the second half. Ryan Humprey thought it was special he hit 4 for 8 from three point range. And how many turnovers did Florida have? Six? Seems a little low for a team playing against a great defense. Now I really am not trying to be a jerk or be completely classless. UCLA had a great year and will have great things to come. I am sure they will win a title down the road here and who knows it may come at UNC's expense and I will eat major crow. UCLA had a great year, they are Pac 10 champions and if anything the fact they had a 12 game winning streak may have played a part because it seems that teams with long winning streaks do not seem to win the tournament. And UCLA does play great defense and they would not have been a team I would have wanted UNC to face this season since the Tar Heels were largely focused on Tyler Hansbrough inside. That being said, if there is anything I have learned in watching basketball for as long as I have it is this: Measure your words very, very carefully and do not come onto a fan blog for a team you have not played in several years and flame him with talk of winning a 12th title or how UCLA will win 5 titles before UNC wins another one when you haven't actually won the championship yet! The result of excessive trash talking prior to sealing the deal is when you lose like UCLA did tonight is your words are out there in written form for anyone to see and in the end you look like an idiot. But hey at least you guys made anonymous comments. Congratulations Florida!

One Observation...

2006-04-03T23:13:00.000-04:00

I will have more later, but I have one observation as Florida is taking UCLA to school at the moment. Anytime there is a sporting event where ESPN knows for a fact they will get zero ratings they will either show figure skating or bowling. Figure skating has been on all during the NCAA Tournament on ESPN and if you ever watched Monday Night Football on ABC and then flipped over the ESPN they are showing figure skating or bowling. I think we call that throw away programming.

State Fans Looking For Justification

2006-04-02T01:17:00.000-05:00

Now that the anti-Herb faction of Wolfpack nation has succeeded in creating a hostile enough environment to push Herb Sendek inyo taking the Arizona St. job the opinions addressed on the Pack Pride message board range from estatic to well estatic. A lot people over there are very happy tonight and there are also some people over there who are completely delusional. Now, I have written two posts about Herb Sendek and why I thought he should leave and why I thought the motivations in Wolfpack nation to get rid of Sendek were wrong. Some fans at NC State operate on the mentaility that NC State is entitled to elite program status irregardless of the teams performance in reality. They cite the two national titles as proof that NC State exists on the same plane as UNC and Duke. The other aspect of the State fan neurosis is the "Jimmy V effect" which I have written about before. It may also be referred to as the "Chuck Amato effect." Both "effects" simply equate fan support with the personality and antics of the coaches in question with little consideration to actual win totals. Valvano was successful to a point and had some good tournament runs while winning a national title. Valvano's longest NCAA Tournament streak was five seasons the same as Sendek and for the most part his win total is roughly the same as Sendek's. Now that Sendek is out the neurosis has taken a different turn. Wolfpack fans are now attacking anyone who criticizes for they way they have acted or questions their motivations for wanting Sendek out. When WRAL announced the news after the Final Four, sportscaster Bob Holliday commented that the behavior of Wolfpack nation towards Sendek as well as their expectations could be a problem in finding a new coach. Wolfpack fans immediately called foul and even accused WRAL and Holiday of being pro-UNC. There is truth in what Holliday said however. If you are a coach and you interview for the NC State job the biggest question you have to ask is why the previous coach was so hated by the fans even though he had gone to five straight NCAA Tournaments and averaged 19 wins a season? If I am a coach, especially an unproven one, I am going to ask that question. Let's face it, no big name coach is going to leave Memphis, Texas, Gonzaga, Florida or Louisville to come to NC State so the only option they have is a mid-major coach who is unproven on the big stage of the ACC and who has never been in the shadow of two perenniel powers like UNC and Duke. It is absolutely a tough job in terms of coaching in the ACC and playing those two powers each season. Couple that with the behavior of fans who seem completely unsatisfied with winning seasons, NCAA Tournament appearances, and a clean program you have a situation which is fraught with danger. So for State fans to pretend that ostricizing Sendek will have no bearing on current coaching propects is tatamount to outright stupidity. Any coach that gets hired should show up to the press conference with cool sunglasses, red shoes, and a pocket full of cute sound bites because if he does not he will already be behind the eight ball. The other cry being made on the State message board is that UNC fans have no credibility in criticizing State fans because of the Matt Doherty debacle in 2003. Just for review Matt Doherty was a member of the 1982 National Championship team and in 2000 was a first year head coach at Notre Dame. That same year Bill Guthridge announced his retirement after three years, having succeeded Dean Smith as a transistion head coach. The plan was for Roy Williams to come from Kansas at that point, but Roy felt loyalty to his players was more important and stayed. This kicked off a national embarassment as UNC AD Dick Braddour floundered around looking for someone in the UNC "family" to hire. Doherty was about seventh on the list and the only available candidate. I had mixed feelings about it at the time but after one season in which the Heels were ranked #1 at one point before losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Penn St. it seemed like a good move. However, bad recruiting by Guthridge had depleted the ranks and an 8-20 season followed. 2002-03 was better with the Heels going 19-17 while beating Duke in Chapel Hill. Doherty had also stocked the pantry with great players so there was nothing but upside in Chapel Hill. Then all hell broke loose. Rumors began flying that Doherty was verbally abusive to the players and as a result key individuals were floating the idea of transferring. A full blown player revolt ensued and Braddour being the "capable" administrator he is saw fit to force Doherty out. Overtures were then made a second time to Roy Williams who accepted the post, leaving Kansas after a tough title game loss. I was living in MA at the time, so I missed the media onslaught. I gathered from recent discussions on the Inside Carolina message board that the UNC fan based was deeply divided over Doherty much the same as Wolfpack nation was over Sendek. I personally had no problem with Doherty and thought he should have been give a couple of more seasons to see his prime recruiting class through, if any of them stayed. That was ultimately the sticking point in that Doherty was liked but there were also questions about his intensity and how he related to the players. The only reason I raise this brief history lesson is that Wolfpack fans now are using the Doherty situation as a point of deflection on any criticism directed at them for their behavior. Since I am now on record as a UNC fan who was somewhat neutral in the whole Doherty debacle I am under no such restrictions in much the same way I bear no guilty conscience for slavery because my ancestors never owned slaves. One part of this is the reality that this is how fans act, period. State fans were probably ripping UNC fans left and right in 2003 for their behavior so in one way this is payback and in another way this is a fundamental part of how the system operates. Hypocrisy is an element of fan wars(and politics) among rivals so to say that UNC fans are in no position to criticize State fans is idiotic since that is simply how it is done. The other part of the equation is the actual reasons why UNC fans were upset at Doherty versus why State fans are upset at Sendek. In UNC's case, fans were not really that upset about the losing season and missing two straight NCAA Tournaments. The players were in place and there were no real issues with Doherty as a game coach. His intensity on the other hand was the dividing point. Some liked it, thought it brought a fire to UNC that had been absent under Dean and Guthridge but others, players included, saw it as crossing the line. The player interaction and the rumors of player transfers stirred the based into a frenzy and Braddour was put in a bad spot. As a matter of principle I think Braddour was wrong and as my late father said Braddour let the inmates run the asylum. This is not the NBA, the players do not get to decide who the coach is and the AD should have stood beside Doherty and called the bluff of these players threatening to transfer(and I believe it was a bluff orschestrated by Sean May's father Scott May. Does anyone really believe Rashad McCants and Sean May were really going to sit for one year somewhere else thus delaying their NBA careers?) In the case of NC State fans, the best as I can tell their chief complaints about Herb Sendek is not his winning or losing, his ability to go to the NCAA Tournament, or even that he is running a bad program. The problems they have with Sendek is his personality, the style of offense he coaches, and his failure to beat UNC and Duke more consistently even though no other State coach since Everett Case with perhaps exception of Norm Sloan in the early 1970's have done that. So, yes UNC fans complained about Doherty, but I tend to think that an inability to comminicate effectively with the players to the point they are threatening to transfer is a bigger deal than wanting Sendek to leave because he is too quiet or he is not running a flashy offense. And even if I accept that both lines of protest are equally moronic my first point applies. Criticizing a rival school is what fans are supposed to do. I think the deeper issue here is that Wolfpack fans either feel guilty now that Sendek is leaving or they realize that pushing him out is probably a mistake. Why else would they be so defensive in the face of criticism? I personally think they are protesting way too much for a group of people who believed themselves to be on the right side of this issue. If you think you are right about something and in this case if State fans honestly believe that Sendek leaving in favor of a new coach is the best move for them, then who cares what other people are saying. Ignore them or better yet come up with a better response than: "I know you are, but what am I!" Copyright 2006, BCB

The Final Four: YAAAWWWNNN!!!!

2006-04-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

Wow, that sucked. After a great set of games with most going down to the wire we got treated to a pair of games which were over by the first TV timeout of the 2nd half. Also what you had here was a classic case of clearly inferior teams being exposed for the frauds they were by somewhat more talented schools. Even Billy Packer, who probably ticked off the CBS brass, said it was "a weak Saturday evening." Harsh words but true. In fact there is a rumor that multiple individuals are being treated at local Indianapolis hospitals after being thrown from the Glen "Big Baby" Davis bandwagon which came to a violent stop this evening. Chances are they will be treated and released in time to jump onto the Joakim Noah bandwagon for Monday night Florida 73 George Mason 58 Florida just took the glass slipper from George Mason and smack them upside the head with it. The Gators put an end to any dreams of a Patriot title with a resounding 73-58 win. The common thread among George Mason opponents in the tournament was they none of them were playing particular well with the exception of Wichita St, who Mason had beaten earlier in the season. Florida was on top of their game and they did two things well. They had tremendous inside athleticism and Florida's Lee Humprey hit SIX three pointers. In fact Florida hit 12 threes to only 2 for GM which is a thirty point gap. I was beginning to wonder if GM was having trouble playing in a dome, which is something that has bothered shooters before. GM fell behind by ten early, came back to tie the game and trailed by 5 at half. After intermission Humprey hit two threes and all of sudden GM was down 19. The Patriots do not have an offense given to scoring a lot of points quickly unless the other team commits six straight turnovers like UNC did. Florida handled the ball better than that and in the end they not only were more talented but focused on winning the game unlike UConn. Florida goes to the title game for the second time this decade. UCLA 59 LSU 45 I knew this one would be ugly and it was. In fact 8 minutes into the second half, LSU had scored only three points while falling behind 50-27. That means UCLA scored only nine points the rest of the way and still won by 14. That is horrible. As for Big Baby Glen Davis of LSU who had been crowned as the best player in college basketball or something like that looked as though he needs to spend the offseason getting into shape. UCLA ran him up and down the court to the point LSU had expended all but two timeouts by halftime just to offer him more rest. UCLA was able to double him because LSU had a better chance of getting CBS play-by-play man Jim Nantz to refrain from espousing cheesy platitudes than they did of hitting a permeter shot. LSU got exposed because believe it or not beating Duke(which had basically two offensive options) and Texas(which is not as great as many think) is not really a huge accomplishment. And I can only assume that Jim Nantz and Billy Packer had two games worth of material on Glen Davis and LSU because every freakin' time I flipped over to watch a few minutes it was Big Baby this and LSU that. Here's a clue guys. Why don't you talk about the team that is actually cleaning LSU's clock. And LSU's Tyrus Thomas? He had 5 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls. If you anyone had bought any of his NBA stock during the last week they would be out of some serious money tonight. So we get Florida vs. UCLA. I think Florda's Billy Donovan is shady and not only is Joakim Noah from France but he looks like girl. Not to be mean, but the only other time this week I saw someone pull hair like that back into a ponytail for a game was Tuesday night when was I was watching the women's regional finals. And I really would rather UCLA not get another title which will lead to talk about how great UCLA is. History has proven UCLA was great for a grand total of 10-12 years in which they won 10 titles. Yes, that is big deal but since Wooden left the barn UCLA has been to only four Final Fours in 30 years. They lost to Indiana in the 9176 national semifinal, dropped the title game in 1980, won it in all 1995 and now they are here again. [Edit: UCLA fans are quite upset with my perception they are uninterested so I am retracting that particular point since I may have made it in ignorance] In other words I will be taking a neutral position Monday night, though Florida is probably the lesser of two evils and heck they have never won it before.

Considering Herb Sendek Gone

2006-04-01T20:25:00.000-05:00

Multiple media sources are confirming that NC State head coach Herb Sendek has decided that a $1 million annual salary and not having to put up with a slew of whiny and ungrateful Wolfpacks fans is enough incentive to go to Arizona St. and coach there. Given the pressure he has endured in Raleigh this will be a good move for him. He stays in one of the power conferences and he does not have the ghost of Jim Valvano or the specter of two past NCAA titles literally hanging over his head pushing the fan expectations through the roof. I actually did say on this blog I thought Sendek had done all he could and probably should consider his options. Sendek did a great job putting the Wolfpack house back in order even if he did not deliver ACC titles and Final Four appearances. I hope he does well in Sun Devil country. Now the real entertainment begins as we watch Wolfpack nation convulse and contort over all kinds of rumors and expectations of who Lee Fowler will hire with the juicy possibility that they will completely meltdown if Fowler(and the odd are really good on this) gets it wrong.

Convergence!

2006-03-31T14:38:00.000-05:00

It is my opinion after watching numerous science fiction shows that when two forces or entities which are diametrically opposed to one another converge in the same point in time and space that is can potentially rip open a hole in the fabric of reality thus creating a gateway to an alternative universe. Of course in J.J. Redick's case he can hope he gets pulled into an parallel reality where he goes 15 for 18 in the Sweet Sixteen.

Some You Want More Teams?

2006-03-31T12:23:00.000-05:00

Every so often the notion is raised that the NCAA Tournament should be expanded to include more teams. This year's bearer of that particular torch is Jim Boeheim, head coach at Syracuse. Boeheim is contending that greater parity necessitates expanding the tournament to include anywhere from 3 to 10 more teams who would most likely force the creation of more play-in games before the actual tournament starts rolling. In fact Clemson coach, Oliver Purnell agrees with Boeheim on the basis that George Mason was almost left out the field. Wait a minute, Clemson's coach? Oh yeah, there is a relevant voice on the NCAA Tournament considering Clemson has not been it since 1998. In fact it has been that long since Clemson actually made it past Friday in the ACC Tournament! But I digress... I would not actually be opposed to some sort of debate on this issue if I thought Jim Boeheim wasn't complete full of it. Boeheim could care less about parity or the poor little George Masons of the world which might get shafted by the big, bad selection committee on Selection Sunday. No, what is happening here is that Boeheim is afraid that Syracuse might get shafted by the committee on Selection Sunday. In fact if Gerry McNamara misses that three pointer against Cincinnati in the first round of the Big East Tournament, then Syracuse would have been NIT-bound. Boeheim, along with all of the other Big East schools have placed themselves in a very difficult position of forming a 16 team super conference which just enough parity in that unless you are an elite team then you will have a lot of trouble putting together a winning conference record. So Boeheim has conceived a notion that if they can add anywhere from 3 to 10 teams to the tournament, they can then slide most of the 15 or 16 seeds from low major conferences into play-in games and bring in mediocre power conference schools who are missing spots due to some of the improved play from mid-majors. In other words, schools like Syracuse(before they won the Big East tournament and got in), Florida St, Maryland, and Cincinnati would have less to worry about if they finish at .500 in their conference because by going to 68 or 75 teams the tournament has room to include more mediocrity on the 8-12 seed line. Looking at the selections from the mid-major conferences it is clear that the selection committee gave those leagues all the bids they could with the exception of Hofstra who was rated virtually the same as George Mason. Common sense says that if you add 3 to 10 teams to the field, the committee will have no choice but to go back to the middle or bottom of the power conferences and include those borderline schools in order to fill out the field. And since they are rated much higher than many of the lower one bid conferences it would mean those power school selections would be seeded in the 8-12 range. The other major flaw I find in the argument is that it supposes the parity we are seeing means more teams should be in the tournament. This is flat wrong. The parity shown this year in college basketball means that the gap between #64 and #1 is closer than it used to be and all throughout the middle lower seeded teams will be more competitive. The last thing you want to do is add more teams to the mix and increase that gap by watering down the field. Boeheim is also operating on the mentality that as long as he can get into the tournament, maybe they can have a run similar to what they enjoyed in the Big East Tournament where they knocked off three ranked teams in succession. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, but Boeheim's assertion that the tournament should be tweaked to account for the George Masons of the world is disingenious since Syracuse was in the same boat as the Patriots, on the bubble. The truth is the mid-majors are maxed out on the number of teams they can conceivably put into the tournament so expanding it only helps the bubble dwelling power conference schools which in the new Big East there are plenty of. This is the bed the Big East made by forming such a powerful conference and now Jim Boeheim and his fellow conference coaches need to go lie in it. Or I have an even wackier idea. How about not scheduling cupcakes in Nov/Dec. and stop losing to the bottom feeders in your conference by 39 points before you go and ask the NCAA to bail your medicore rear end out in the form of a welfare program called "tournament expansion."

Gratuitous Adam Morrison Abuse

2006-03-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

Now, let me tell you up front I think Gonzaga's Adam Morrison is a creepy looking fellow. The hair, the mustache, and the facial expression just give me the creeps. So obviously I found this to be very, very funny. http://www.losanjealous.com/2006/03/24/adam-morrison

Big News for UNC

2006-03-30T23:11:00.000-05:00

Big News Item #1 UNC forward/center Tyler Hansbrough will return for his sophomore. And this is not some off the cuff answer to some dumb reporter who asks it during the Final Four and thinks that any player who might jump to the NBA next season is actually thinking about that facing the biggest game of their college career. No, this comes from the UNC Sports Information office. And all of those speculating that he would go, Hansbrough has said he never really considered it and even though UNC coach Roy Williams present him with information that stated he would be a first rounder, Hansbrough decided to come back. UNC loses only David Noel(which is a bigger loss on the intangible side and than the tangible one) and anyone who saw Tywone Lawson play in the McDonalds All American game last night knows that he is quite possibly the second coming of Raymond Felton. UNC will be loaded. Can we start the season in like one month please? Big News Item #2 UNC senior forward David Noel won the college slam dunk contest this evening. There is a three point and slam dunk contest for college seniors every year before the Final Four. Even though I would have loved for Noel to be otherwise occupied in Indianopolis, a win is a win right? Apparently J.J. Redick was not in the three point contest. Over at Inside Carolina there were several theories postulated for why that was the case. Some asserted that unless Redick is able to push off illegally or benefit from a moving screen he simply cannot hit his shot. Another poster express fear that a foul would be called on the ball rack if it happened to nudge Redick. I am of the opinion he simply did not plan to be there because he thought he would be playing for that elusive national title. So sorry that did work out for you J.J.

UNC Women in the Final Four

2006-03-29T12:46:00.000-05:00

Hey, Kara Lawson, how about them apples huh? For those that do not know Lawson is one of the studio analyst for ESPN who said she had predicted UNC would win the regional at the start of the tournament but on the eve of the regional final said Tennessee has too much experience and was playing too well. I guess having less talent and only one serious player in Candace Parker should not have been considered as factors. UNC went up big early as UT's Candace Parker sat on the bench for 8 minutes in the first half with two fouls(now you know how Michael Jordan felt in 1984). Parker is a great player and aside from a couple of big threes from Shanna Zolman she was the only offense UT had. Ivory Latta had a so-so night for UNC but with UNC leading by just six with three minutes left, Latta put a dagger in the Vols collective heart by nailing a three from 23 feet with 2 seconds left on the shot clock. UNC moves on to Boston to face Maryland, the only team to be them this season. Duke won against UConn so there are three ACC teams in the Final Four and LSU.

What is a Mid Major?

2006-03-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

I had a commenter on my last post ask why George Mason was considered the first mid-major to make a Final Four since 1979 when schools like Utah and UNLV had been there and in the case of the latter actually won the title? It turns out the commenter had a legitimate point, at least technically speaking. The way the landscape of college basketball is laid out there are essentially six power conferences and then a group of good conferences which are called "mid-major" conferences. After that there are low major conferences who are one bid leagues which become #15 or #16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. By every available definition I can find after consulting Wikepedia and the good people at the Inside Carolina message board UNLV and Utah came from mid-major conferences and are technically speaking considered mid-major schools. So, what why is the media so insisting that GM's run is the first for a mid-major since 1979 when both Penn and Indiana St. made it to the final weekend? The most expedient explanation is that the term "mid major" is not entirely absolute and is not applied simply based on conference association. The term "mid major" is used as a label for a certain type of school or conference which produce consistently good basketball but not at the elite level. Here are the criteria of a true "mid major" as described by the label: -Teams in a historical 1-2 two bid league(The MVC broke this mold by getting four this season) -Teams that are generally seeded in the lower half of the bracket i.e. #8 or lower. -Team that do not tend win more than 1 or 2 tournament games. -Teams that tend to play most power conference opponents on the road and fail to compete with them or win. -Teams that are generally unranked or ranked for a week than dropped at the first loss -Teams and conferences that are generally unknown. So how does schools like Utah, UNLV and Gonzaga fit in with this definition considering the conferences they were/are in are fit the criteria above? They don't because their level of play raised their profile and moved them from a mid-major level to the power conference level even if their conference association is unchanged. In other words if a team excels to the point where they can actively compete and win against traditional power conference schools then they are no longer considered a "mid major." Gonzaga is a perfect recent example of a team who made the transistion. Gonzaga was a #10 seed in the West regional in 1999 when they lost to UConn in the Elite Eight. The Zags were considered a mid-major school and their run was placed on par with the George Mason run this year. However, if Gonzaga had held on against UCLA and then beaten Memphis to make it to the Final Four would they be considered "the first mid-major since 1979 to make the Final Four?" Probably not because none of the criteria above, while applicable seven years ago, no longer applies to Gonzaga. They have been a ranked school, they have been seeded high in the tournament, they have won games in the NCAA Tourney, they are routinely winners against power conference opponents, and they are far from being an unknown commodity. UNLV and Utah had the same situation where they reached a point of being ranked and seeded high where they could beat power conference teams on a regular basis. Simply because a team plays in a weaker conference does not mean they cannot rise to the same level as a power conference elite. What you have in the use of the term "mid major" is a nuanced label based on the evaluation of a team and not hard, fast conference designations based on records or RPI ratings. On the conference level it refers to those leagues which are not one of the power conferences. Therefore any school in that conference is considered by default to be a mid major school. That being said a school can shed its "mid major" label by moving to the elite level by beating power conference schools therefore showing themselves to be a power school from a mid major conference. This is the case for Gonzaga and was the case for UNLV and Utah. In the case of George Mason they were not totally off the radar in many respects but their conference is a mid-major conference and nothing GM had done prior to the tournament would serve to change its designation from being a mid major to an elite school. So, while on a technical level there have been schools from mid major conferences in the Final Four since 1979 those schools were not considered to have been on the mid major level. George Mason is from a mid major conference and according to every criteria that matters prior to the tournament, they are to be considered a mid major school. Whether they will be one a week from now or move into the land of the elite is the telling question.

UNC Women vs Tennessee

2006-03-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

So the "bracket of death" culminates this evening in Cleveland with the one loss Lady Tar Heels taking on perenniel powerhouse Tennessee coached by the women's all time winningest coach Pat Summit. Although Duke beat these Vols by double digit earlier this year and Tennessee has had some bumps in the road due to injury, do not expect an easy road for UNC who is not playing that well at this point in the Tournament. UNC is the better team and has been all season so it will be an interesting matchup. Of course ESPN cannot help themselves from kissing up to Pat Summitt and Tennessee. Studio analyst Kara Lawson stated last night that she thought UNC would come out of the region and go to the Final Four...BUT, she felt that Tennessee was too experienced and would beat UNC Tuesday night. Someone explain to me how at the start of the tournament you predict UNC would win the region knowing full well they would probably play UT in the regional final and now when it comes down to it you flip flop and say the Vols will win. Of course it all became clearer to me when I realized Lawson played for Pat Summit at Tennessee!!! I would have thought that Pat Summit being the great coach she is would have taught Lawson a few things like having the courage to stick with a prediciton when you make it. Here is hoping Ivory Latta and gang stick the Vols with beating so bad Lawson feels it in Bristol. In the other regional final Duke plays UConn in the Huskies backyard. Do you think ESPN wanted a UConn-Tennessee national title game bad enough to screw UNC AND Duke with horrible draws and forcing them to play teams on either their home floor or somewhere reasonably close. I hope the Heels win it all but in many ways the women's tournament is a joke. Just ask Stanford about the refereeing last night in their regional final.

Got #1 Seeds?

2006-03-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

Because the NCAA Tournament doesn't. Billy Packer and Jim Nantz asserted at the end of the Florida-Villanova game that this tournament, at least through, the first two weeks, has been the greatest ever. I would tend to agree just based on the number of games that went down to the wire and the parity shown by bouncing all four #1 seeds. As every tournament starts, you always ask it to show you something you have never seen before whether it be unbelievable finishes or some sort of incredible Cinderella story. This one has given us every bit of that to the point my BRACKET IS DONE. I HAVE NO TEAM LEFT. And stangely I am at peace. Here are my thoughts on this wackiest of Final Fours. George Freakin' Mason On Selection Sunday when George Mason was revealed as the #11 seed in the East, everyone, including this blogger, said it was a bad pick. GM had lost to Hofstra twice in the final two weeks of the season and since both teams were virutally the same on paper, one would have thought that Hofstra would have gotten the nod. That turns out to have been wrong and whether the fact the George Mason's AD was on the committee had something to do with their bid. So here is a team that by all accounts has no business being in the tournament, especially considering their starting guard Tony Skin had been suspended for striking another player in the groin during a CAA Tournament game. Now, in one respect beating a #6 and #3 is not as big of a deal since that has been done numerous times. GM then got a #7 seed in Wichita St and that was definitely a winnable game. But, playing a #1 seed long considered to be the best team in the tournament was supposed to be the end of the road. In fact GM was down 9 at halftime and all signs pointed to UConn being firmly in control. The Patriots do two things well. They play great defense and they also have a very efficient and deliberate offense. As was the case against UNC, which is built in a similar manner as UConn, GM fed the post and worked for a good shot, even if it meant using the whole shot clock. The shocking aspect of this upset is not the fact that an #11 seed has made the Final Four, since that has already been done in 1986 by #11 LSU. And even though LSU took a tougher road that year having to beat a #6,#3,#2, and #1 to get to Dallas, LSU is also a major program and part of a major conference. George Mason is a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference which prior to this season was a one bid league via the automatic bid. George Mason has only been in the NCAA Tournament four times including this season. This consitutes the first time since 1979 a mid-major conference team has been to the Final Four. The expectation was for GM to fold under the pressure of the regional final. UConn was compared to last season's UNC team on talent level. The only thing UConn has in common with UNC now is they both lost to George Mason in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. Can I Get Some Offense? Duke scored only 54 points in their loss to LSU. The UCLA-Memphis regional final produced a total of 95 points. Villanova-Boston College were tied at 51 at the end of regulation and the Texas-LSU regional final was tied at 52 at the same point. While there have been games which have produced fairly nominal scores, it is my observation that more games are falling on the low end of the scoring range. The root cause seems to be bad shooting all around. The shooting percentages have been horrible. Duke shot 27% for example and teams like Villanova and Memphis failed to find the bottom of the nets in their regional finals. It also seems that this season was replete with schools willing to execute their offenses at a more deliberate pace. Defense has also been excellence but it also seems like players just are shooting well. Conference Supremacy? How many people thought that the SEC would get two teams to Indianopolis followed by the Pac 10 and the CAA? Not many. Now, the ACC did not do well and was out by Elite Eight. Then again the ACC was not billed as a superconference with a record 8 bids. Say hello to the Big East with all the hype, two #1 seeds, and no Final Four teams. How about the Big 10 who lost all its teams by the end of the first weekend. The Big 12 had only Texas left and they went home on Saturday. So props to the SEC for getting two teams in and setting up a possible all SEC final. The PAC-10 is often on the raw end of any discussion involving conference prowess and UCLA is there and Washington played UConn toe-to-toe. The CAA? It will never happen again. Tidbits Unforuntate Quote of the Day: "I am a fighter" Tony Skinn(George Mason) who was suspended for punching another player in the groin during the CAA Tournament. Unforunate Quote of the Day II: "We have a tapeworm in our stomach" Glen Davis(LSU) in describing how LSU was still hungry to win a national title. The "Wow Don't We Feel Better Now" Award goes to anyone who lost to George Mason prior to Sunday. Only one time in the history of the NCAA Tournament has a Final Four excluded all four #1 seeds and that was in 1980 when #2 Louisville won the title over #8 UCLA. #5 Iowa and #6 Purdue were the semifinal losers. This is the first time in the 64 team era that at least one #1 seed has not been at the Final Four. Based on seeding, this is the third weakest Final Four field with a seed total of 20. 1980 was the second weakest at 21 and the 2000 Final Four with a #1, #5, and a pair of #8 seeds register a total of 22. Incidentally the strongest Final Four field was 1993 with three #1 seeds and a #2. The 1999 and 1997 Final Fours also included three #1 seeds and a #4 seed. Al four #1 seeds have never made it to the Final Four in one tournament. This is only the fifth Final Four in the last 20 years that does not include Duke or UNC. Only the fourth that is absent an ACC school. And the last time the ACC or Big East did not have an school in the Final Four? 1980. At this point George Mason could win the whole thing. And that is why we love the NCAA Tournament.

The Andy Katz Article, Part II

2006-03-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

I have gotten some serious response on the Katz article I castigated here so much so I am going to examine the issue further. First of all, I think Katz basic premise was flat wrong and not because I refuse to acknowledge what Duke has done but because saying that Duke winning two games a year in the tournament against #16 and #8 or 9 seeds is comparable to winning seven straight national championship is asinine at face value. In addition to that the UCLA titles and the Duke Sweet Sixteen run are from two completely different eras so the comparison is apples and oranges, heck it may even be apples and hamburgers. The issue I originally took with Katz article was the failure to mention the Sweet Sixteen run of 13 straight UNC enjoyed from 1981-1993. It makes more sense to me that if you are going to compare a thing you should compare the same thing. Since Katz did not do it, then I will do it for him in the interest of full disclosure or some such nonsense as that. 1. Notable Differences The first thing I need to put out there in this discussion is the notable differences between the two streaks. Duke is presently at nine and UNC ran theirs to 13 before losing in the second round of the 1994 NCAA Tournament to Boston College. It should be noted that from 1981-1984 UNC was at a #1 seed twice and a #2 seed twice which means they got a first round bye and then played the #8/9 or #7/10 winner in the second round since the field was made up of 48 teams divided into 12 team regionals. In short UNC only had to win once to make the Sweet Sixteen in the first four years. From 1985 forward when the field was 64 teams UNC won the requisite two games for nine straight years. So in terms of having to win two games to get to a Sweet Sixteen both Duke and UNC have the same streak. That being said, the fact Duke was a #1 seed eight of nine times and therefore played a #16 seed tends to almost negate the fact that UNC only had to win one game early on in their streak. Of course the fact that Duke played well enought all season long to get a #1 seed should be considered as should the fact the UNC also did the same and avoided a first round game all together. The result of this maddening logic? A wash in my opinion, with a slight edge to UNC for having the longer streak even if it was on the back of four tournaments where they only won once to get there. 2. Competition Faced During the nine year streak for Duke, the highest seed they have ever faced is a #8 seed. On the other hand UNC has faced seeds as high as #1 on down the line. Here is the seeded teams faced by both schools during their respective streaks: Duke(1998-2006): 16,8,16,9,16,8,16,9,16,8,14,11,16,8,16,9,16,8 Average Seed Faced: 12.2 UNC(1981-1993: 10,9,10,8,15,7,14,6,16,9,15,10,15,7,9,1,16,9,13,5,16,8 Average Seed Faced: 10.3 Of course raw numbers alone are not enough but consideration must also be given to the fact the UNC faced a #1, #5, and #6 in the second round making their road a tougher one thought some would argue that #1 Oklahama in 1990 was anything but the rank they were given. The other side of the dime on this issue is the fact that a full regular season of excellence placed them in a #1 seed so one can reasonably assume this is as difficult if not more so, considering Duke plays in the ACC, than those UNC wins over closer seeds. This again seems to be a wash to me when all factors are considered. 3. Records in the Tournament I have concluded that it is not enough to evalute the fact that Duke or UNC was able to win two games against largely weaker opponents to get to a certain plateau in the tournament. It is also necessary to evaluate their records overall in the tournament during their respective streaks. Duke: 4 Elite Eights, 3 Final Fours, 1 National Runner-Up, 1 National Championship, 28-8 UNC: 8 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, 1 National Runner-Up, 2 National Championships, 39-11 UNC has a slightly better winning percentage(.780 vs .777) and has won their Sweet Sixteen game more often(8 vs 4). UNC also made one more Final Four but also had four more years under the belt. UNC has seemingly finished the deal better winning half the Final Fours they attended during their streak while Duke only won once in three tries. Then again this, like the other factors, is a wash. UNC did better in the Sweet Sixteen but usually bowed out during the next round. Duke in 4 of the last 5 Sweet Sixteen games has lost to a lower seed and that could be considered a major issue since they were the favored team in all but the 2003 game when they were a #3 to #2 Kansas. During UNC's streak the only Sweet Sixteen loss the suffered which could be considered a bad loss was the 1984 loss to Indiana. In 1986 and 1989 UNC lost to the eventual national champion. In 1992, UNC lost to a #1 seed as a #4 seed. It also is notable that when UNC was given a #1 seed during its streak it capitalized on it winning two titles and making three Final Fours in five tournaments as a #1 seed. Duke in 8 tournaments as a #1 seed has made only three Final Fours and won one title. Conclusion The chief fallacy of this discussion rests on the fact that it tends to focus on the wrong periods of success for either program. In UNC's case there is some overlap, but the period from 1991 to present includes seven Final Fours and two titles. Duke went to six Final Fours in eight years from 1986 to 1994 including back-to-back titles which is far better than the current streak. Both programs had a downturn, Duke from 1995-1997 and UNC from 2002-2004 but at the same time both have acquitted themselves as consistant top performers on the college basketball stage. This is what makes the rivalry so intense. For the past 25 years both programs have won three titles and been to a combined 20 Final Fours. In other words Sweet Sixteen streak or not, they are both widely successful and perhaps on some nuanced level one is better than the other. In fact no one remembers which 16 teams won two game year in and year out, they only remember which team was better than the other 64. The only scorecard that really matters is the tally for national titles at each school: UNC 4 Duke 3. And if all goes well in Washington, D.C. tomorrow, UConn could be ready to challenge both schools for supremacy.