Can finally focus on basketball season

The Heels lost a very entertaining Meineke Car Care Bowl yesterday, 30-31, to Dalal Abulhasn's West Virginia Mountaineers. To their credit the Mountaineers, especially quarterback Pat White, made plays down the stretch and the Heels did not.

Despite a phenomenal performance by Hakeem Nicks, who dominated the first half for Carolina, the Heels could not overcome turnovers and dropped passes in the second half. Leading 30 to 24 and driving into West Virginia territory on a drive to put the game away, Shaun Draughn fumbled on the 30. Earlier in the final stanza Greg Little, who had a nice game catching and running the football, dropped a long pass that would have given the Heels a big first down.

Finally, T.J. Yates was intercepted with less than 2 minutes to go on his only bad pass of the game. Those plays were the difference in the game and the loss.

I would have felt better if Hansbrough, or at least Danny Green, were on the field for the football Heels.

Despite the final outcome, the season was a good one for the Heels. We saw Butch Davis point the program in the right direction last season, and the progress continued this year with 8 wins, a bowl game, and road wins at Rutgers and Miami. Best all all, this is still a relatively young team with loads of talent returning. That's true even with Brandon Tate graduating and if Nicks goes pro early.

And despite the final score, Evan and I had a fun time watching the game and tackling each other during commercials.

But before looking forward to the 2009 football season we must turn to the 2009 basketball Heels, who get back in action tonight against Rutgers.

One Quick Nats Note

The Nats did not sign Severna Park-native Mark Teixeira despite putting some serious cheese on the table. I'm not sure he is worth that money, money that the Nats will probably spend on Adam Dunn and hopefully some pitching.

The Yankees upgraded their pitching with CC Sabathia, but even with A.J. Burnett (who only produces in a contract year) and Teixeira I'm not that impressed with the Yankees lineup, projected to be:

LF Johnny Damon (on the downside of his career); SS Derek Jeter (ditto, but not as steep a slide as Damon); 1B Mark Teixeira and 3B Alex Rodriguez (legit threats); DH Hideki Matsui (oft injured and like Damon not the threat he once was); RF Xavier Nady (serviceable but hardly intimidating; I'd go with Nick Swisher); C Jorge Posada (fading fast as most 35+ catchers do); 2B Robinson Cano and CF Melky Cabrera (neither have been focused nor productive the last two seasons; or use Swisher in CF).

Anyway, I'd still put the Yankees behind the Rays and Red Sox in the AL East for 2009.

As for the Nats, though he strikes out a lot and is yet another former Reds player, Dunn would be a nice addition. No one on the Nats hit more than 15 homers last year and Dunn is a consistent 40 homer guy. He'd look good in the four hole.

The Nats would look semi-legit with this lineup: LF Willingham (24 homers with Florida last year); CF Milledge; RF Dukes; 3B Zimmerman; SS Guzman; 2B Willie Harris???? ideally the Nats sign Orlando Hudson and do NOT give the job to Mets reject Anderson Hernandez; 1B Adam Dunn?; C Jesus Flores.

The pitching staff is a bigger question. Former Marlin Scott Olson and former O Daniel Cabrera will likely be the 2nd and 5th starters, respectively, with John Lannan in the rotation as the 3rd or even number one starter. Depending how Cabrera performs in spring training, the Nats could have three rotation - but at least two - spots open, with folks like Colin Balester, Shaun Hill, Jason Bergman, Shairon Martis, Matt Chico and even Mike O'Connor to battling for a spot.

More than anything else

This time of year it's the anticipation, more than anything else, that drives me and others nuts.  

When, oh when, will the Meineke Car Care Bowl finally get here?

What an incredibly lame name for a bowl game.  Will Carolina add that corporate name - or logo - to the 'ring of honor' at Kenan?  Could anything be more crass?  Great to see amateur athletes shilling for companies like Fed Ex, Meineke, Papajohns.com (for my money, if you're playing in a bowl with .com in it you are officially in the lamest bowl of them all), and other leading lights of American capitalism.

At 46 I'm entitled to sound like a cranky old(ish) man, but I liked it better when there were only four New Year's Day bowl games: Rose, Cotton, Sugar and Orange.  There were other bowls, like the Gator, Liberty, Sun and Peach, but for years that was about it.  You could easily and obviously gauge how your season went: if you played on New Year's Day, you probably won your conference and were among the best teams in the country.  If you played in the Gator Bowl, etc. you had a above average season.  Unlike now, where a 6-5 season gets you a code to redeem at a pizza company's website and a reward for being mediocre.

Christmas Redux

We had our typical Manuel-Merow Christmas yesterday: Alison and the kids stayed in their pjs all day playing games and hanging out. This year that mainly meant playing Mario Kart, Wii Music and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on the Wii, Ariadne playing brain bowl and a fashion show game on Nintendo DS, and Evan goofing off with all things Star Wars (light sabre, model x-wing fighter, etc.).  The kids had a great day, and were smiling from 8 am to 11 pm when they finally went to bed.  I'm usually a Christmas outlier: I take a shower and usually go for a walk - and go outside! - after lunch.

Another Christmas tradition was watching some NBA basketball.  The Celtics and Lakers played an entertaining game with the Lakers ending the Celtics' win streak. I didn't have much rooting interest in the game, but still can not root for the Celtics.  

The Wizards lost again later that night to the Cavaliers.  Washington, especially Antawn Jamison, played great and had an eight-point lead with two minutes to go until the referees whistled three questionable calls against the Wizards.  Another tradition, home teams led by a superstar getting the calls. 

A few more Christmas Day hoopservations:

• Does anyone look more European than Pau Gasol?  The terrible shaggy haircut, 'I still live with my parents' beard, soccer-ready upper body?
• I think that game featured two NBA players - TWO - without ANY tattoos: Leon Powe and Derrick Fisher. Had to be a record.
• The Wizards need a point-guard.  They had trouble all day getting the ball to their best players: Jamison and Butler.  Mike James scored a lot yesterday, but they need a one who can initiate their office and get those too lots of looks.  They don't have that now.

Tyler Hansbrough

I was 'Obama-wins' happy on Thursday night when Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford's scoring record at Carolina. As it happened, I was in the car so had XM on and got to listen to Woody Durham call the record-setting basket.  

But there were two reasons I was so happy.

One, Hansbrough is Hansbrough. I'm not skilled enough to add anything to his resume, but he really is not only the epitome of Carolina basketball, but of sport itself.  Sport is still important for a number of reasons - fun, exercise, competition - but to me the essence of the endeavor is selflessly giving everything you've got for a greater (team) goal, and of course stepping up. Is there an athlete ANYWHERE who more honestly pays homage to that ethic? When you watch Hansbrough play you are watching pure, honest effort, the essence of what sport should be about.

The Carolina part is there to make that glow even shinier.   His effort is for a greater team and institutional goal - Carolina basketball.  And Hansbrough has a lot of Dean in him - a hyper-competitive yet humble athlete.

Two, it was a brief but great celebration of Carolina basketball complete with Phil Ford on the floor.  For all the Tar Heel heroes - Jordan, Worthy, May, Noel, Hansbrough, Cunningham, McAdoo, Scott, Rosenbluth, Jamison - and despite being number two on the scoring list, Phil Ford will simply always be the greatest Tar Heel of all time. He never won a national championship (but made the 1977 Final Four) and washed out in the pros (after being named rookie of the year) due to drugs (thanks again hippies!) and alcohol (which also cost him the Carolina job; Dean had groomed him to be his or Guthridge's eventual successor) Phil Ford still reigns.  Perhaps those setbacks make him that much more heroic in a Faulkneresque way.

Kudos to Tyler Hansbrough.  Anyone who plays that way and outscores a Who's Who of college basketball cements their place near the top of the list of all-time greatest Tar Heels, the ultimate list in college basketball. Roy Williams spoke for millions when he said there will be no one sadder in college basketball when Hansbrough leaves Chapel Hill than ol' Roy - and the legion of Tar Heel fans across the universe.  

[Note to self: next time you type 'has a lot of Dean in him' you should end the entry right then and there.]

Carolina 'Clip Reel'

While home sick yesterday afternoon - I think just my second sick day (where I was actually sick in the last 20 years) - I discovered this great collection of Carolina YouTube clips courtesy of ESPN: The Magazine: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3699803

It's an Orthodox thing (or is it an Ottoman thing?)

With the Carolina hoops team on exam break, but mainly for the issues themselves I've been focused on the riots in Greece and the Blagojevich story in Illinois. The stories are linked, and not just by Orthodoxy; Blagojevich is Serbian Orthodox. [I've also spend lots of time thinking, and making calls, about who will be the next Secretary of the Interior. Here's hoping my man Raul Grijalva gets named to that post this week, but that's for another blog.]

Back to Greece, which is a strong democracy but a troubled one. The riots demonstrate that the motherland lacks some of the democratic institutions we take for granted. A healthy democracy has healthy institutions: courts, bureaucracies, press, organized and active civic and charity groups (everything from the Salvation Army to Sierra Club), elected bodies on a local, state and national level. Greece has most of those, but you need all of them to be more than a country that has regular elections and peaceful transitions of power - no small feat that, and I don't mean to down play those two accomplishments - and one that has a flourishing democratic culture and a free, mobile and open society.

These riots have shown that when it comes to the democratic and modern state bureaucracy Greeks have NO faith that government policies and hiring will be done equitably and fairly. It's not just government; the same is true in academia where bureaucracies care more about their jobs then they do about educating young people. That is why so many successful Greeks - in Greece, not the diaspora - are products of American, British and German universities.  There is a good commentary on this in The Economist (shout out to Bill Wood for the link).

The problem is not new, and seems to be a stubbornly persistent relic of the Ottoman era. Over the summer I read Thanos Vlekas, considered the first modern Greek novel.  Published in the 1850s, the book chronicles the trials and troubles of a hard working Greek farmer who consistently gets screwed and imprisoned at various points in his life by the bureaucracy, army and land owners in the newly independent Greek state of the 1830s.  Bribes, connections and nepotism were de rigeur in Ottoman-ruled Greece, and bribes and nepotism are still very common in Greece, even after almost 30 years in the EU. It appears the Greek public is finally fed up. 

That Greek culture of inertia is one reason Greeks in America are so different from Greeks in Greece. Nothing is more Greek-American than being an entrepreneur, so much so that the Greek diner or pizza place is a prominent part of the American tapestry.  The opposite is true in Greece where it is harder to have your own place and make you own way.

  
But before we get too smug here in America we have to talk about fellow Orthodox Christian Rod Blagojevich. That kind of stuff still happens in Chicago and elsewhere. Here in Washington, newly appointed school board chair Michelle Rhee is having the same problems with the District's entrenched education bureaucracy that students in Greece do.  A chart in today's The New York Times implies that Rhode Island is the most corrupt state in the U.S.  And by no means are Greek-Americans immune; over the years I imagine many Greek-American businessmen and women have paid bribes, etc. for building permits, etc.

Corruption is everywhere, but the reason residents of Illinois aren't in the streets is that unlike Greeks, Americans generally have faith in their elections, elected officials, and institutions. After all, Blajojevich got caught and we just elected Barack Obama. Things change here.

More importantly, the corruption in American is usually episodic, not systematic like it appears to be in Greece. And those episodes have NOT hindered the mobility and liberty of most Americans.  That it one reason why Greeks have been in the streets this week and folks in Illinois have not. 

A good day in Greece

While the riots continued in Greece today, though it appears at a much milder level, there was some good news from Athens today as Panathanaikos defeated Anothisos 1-0. The victory not only qualifies Pana for the sweet 16 knock-out round, but InterMilan also lost so the Greens won Group B of the UEFA Champions League.

Panathinaikos got off to a terrible start, losing their first two games, but rallied late to win their last four games including two on the road.

The knock-out round starts in February.

The stands looks packed for today's game, so I guess only Olympiacos and AEK fans were in the streets.

Not a Great Day for Greece

The rioting in Greece has now gone on for three days. The shooting of the teenager in Greece was a terrible tragedy, but the riots that have lasted for half a week are way out of proportion, at least in my opinion.

As is usually the case, the shooting triggered action on the simmering complaints about the Karamanlis government and recent corruption scandals in Athens, and gave the lefty-wing crazies an excuse to riot. And as you know, Greece is home to some of the western world's most active and organized anarchists (ironic on many levels). So instead of marching peacefully or holding a sit-in or calling into a radio show/write a letter to the editor, etc. etc., protesters turn to bricks and molotov cocktails, much in the same way anarchists "greeted" Bill Clinton - and embarrassed Greeks around the world - when he visited Athens 9 years ago.

Parts of the Greek left are incredibly stupid. They should be proud of fighting the Nazis during World War II as the resistance was led and primarily made up of Communists. But once the Cold War started it seemed obvious that Greece was finally and firmly part of the west, and that the west was better than the communist east. Many leftists and students in Greece continue to romanticize communism and oppose anything to do with the west - NATO, the EU, alliances with the United States - despite the recent and terrible histories and experiences of neighbors like Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, etc.

The east-west schizophrenia goes back hundreds of years to the Byzantine empire, the fourth Crusade of 1204 (where western Crusaders sacked and conquered Constantinople rather than march on Jerusalem) and being torn between looking west to Rome - and beyond - or being more comfortable looking east even if that meant being part of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, the dirty little secret of Greek history is that most Greeks at the time of the fall of Constantinople certainly preferred the Ottoman Empire to being subservient to Rome and the Catholic Church.

The end of World War I, and the way the western powers handled the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974 feeds that lingering mistrust of the west.

Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying there's a lot of stupidity coupled with institutional memory in the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki, etc. this week.

Greek police should not shoot and kill teenagers, but the Greek left needs to understand that Greece is firmly ensconced in the western world, a world of liberal democracies and civil societies and the European Union, not a third-world country where seething mobs influence politics and society.

I'm embarrassed by the police and the rioters.

More Carolina Sports

Big soccer weekend for the Heels.

The women advanced to Sunday's championship game after defeating fellow number one seed UCLA on Friday 1-0. Carolina scored on senior midfielder Yael Averbuch's first half penalty kick and held on for the win. Averbuch is Carolina's all time leading scorer, quite a feat when you consider the who's who of women's soccer who have played in Chapel Hill.

Carolina plays Notre Dame for the second time this season in soccer and the fourth time this fall (men's hoops, and football). Notre Dame is undefeated and untied this season, and is the only team to defeat Carolina so it should be a great game. The Fighting Irish will be favored, but the Heels will be playing in Cary in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,000 mostly Heels fans.

The men play today - in Chapel Hill against Northwestern - for a chance to go to the final four next weekend in Texas. The Heels limped into the NCAA tournament but have gotten hot at the right time.

Go Heels!

Two random notes

• We TiVO the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and were catching up on some old shows including one that featured 'LA punk legends' X. It was the original line up, with John Doe - best rock and roll voice of ALL TIME - Exene Cervenka, D.J. Bonebreak, and my man Bill Zoom on guitars. They were promoting their new greatest hits record, and played "New World." The lyrics, which were written for Ronald Reagan, still resonate 20 years later. They still tour quite a bit - I've seen them at the old and new 9:30 Club - but it was great to see them on TV.
• One last pop culture note: I've gotten way into 30 Rock lately, having watched the first season on DVD and catching other episodes on-line or via TiVO. Star and fellow Greek-American Tina Fey is on the cover of Vanity Fair, and in the interview mentions one of the traits she picked up raised as a 'Greek girl' is a predilection for cheetah prints.
  

Heels Handle Spartans

I really enjoyed watching Carolina thoroughly dominate Michigan State last night in the ACC-Big 10 challenge. It was a phenomenal performance by a squad that is playing NBA-quality basketball. To beat a team like Michigan State - quality program, perennial contender, pre-season final four favorite - that bad on the road is impressive.

This team just looks different than most college teams. Though it's only December and Hansbrough has only played in four games, the Heels are in sync and playing a high level of college basketball. The fact that Hansbrough, Ellington, Green and Lawson have played together three to four years makes this talented team a scary one. And I think it's noticeable because in this day and age teams don't stay together very long, at least teams as talented as the Heels.

Last night's game unfolded much like the win over Notre Dame, a top 10 opponent that hung with the Heels early only to be overwhelmed by Carolina's talent and effort.

And as it was versus Notre Dame, the two most impressive talents on the floor were Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson. Hansbrough was methodical and unstoppable as he posted another double-double. Once again he showed off his improved range, hitting a number of jumpers, and on the boards he is simply more determined than most players. Determination alone will make him a success at the next level.

On Lawson, I'm not sure where to begin. As good as Hansbrough was, Lawson was even better. Steals, assists, three-pointers, fast breaks, drives to the hole, etc. etc. etc. Lawson is playing with a focus and maturity that seems unstoppable right now. He's not just a fast point guard tailor made to run Roy Williams' offense. Lawson has grown into a complete basketball player and point guard.

Heels High Notes

• Great to see Wayne Ellington break out of his mini-slump. He looked great in the first half, hit shots from all over the floor, and finished with 17 points.
• I continue to be impressed with Ed Davis, who finished with 10 and 7 in only seventeen minutes. This guy is this year's Marvin Williams. What a weapon off the bench.
• My favorite play last night - among many including the two fast breaks started by my man Danny Green - was Will Graves' dunk off an in bounds pass. It was a great Carolina basketball play. That was not a play designed for Graves, simply two basketball players being smart on the floor, pure Carolina.
• Got to see Sheed in the stands!
• Once again, the ACC won the Big 10 challenge 6-5. The final tally should have been 8 to 3; Virginia Tech should have beaten Wisconsin, ditto Georgia Tech over Penn State, and Miami would have won if McClintock hadn't slapped an Ohio State hoopster. But even with those losses the ACC won, and the top two ACC teams - Carolina and Duke - humiliated the top two Big 10 teams on the road.
• Finally, Carolina's women's soccer team is back in the final four for the 24th time in the 27 history of NCAA women's soccer. They play again on Friday night, in Cary, on ESPNU. The Heels are shooting for their 22nd NCAA championship.

Go Heels!

Good Week

It was a very good week for the Manuels, the Heels and the Greens.

Eighteen Manuels - the whole brood - got together in Fayetteville this weekend for Thanksgiving. Our parents, the four siblings, our spouses and the eight grandkids got together to give thanks. We even emulated the Kennedy's and played our own Thanksgiving Day football game. David and Kate Kushner and Ariadne and me, squared off against Johnny Manuel/Nicholas Stamatos, Paul Kushner, Evan Manuel and Michael Stamatos. Despite our advanced age and advancing waistline David and I held our own against that younger team.

I'll post some photos of the weekend soon, though I did not take as many as Cleo did.

Carolina Football

The football theme continued on Saturday afternoon when David's brother, Keith Kushner, a former place kicker at Duke, gave us four tickets to the Duke-Carolina game at Wallace Wade Stadium. The Heels looked pretty good, and were especially great on third down, in winning 28-20 and defeating Duke for the 17th time in their last 18 meetings (the one Duke win was Evan's first college football game, BTW).

T.J. Yates looked good for most of the game (though he had a hard time consistently finding Hakeem Nicks most of the game) as did Shaun Draughn (until he got tired late in the game). Despite two more turnovers the Heels moved the ball most of the afternoon on their way to 28 points.

Duke also did not have trouble moving the ball, at least until they got inside the 20. Carolina's defensive philosophy, as I understand it, is to give up the short stuff but to then close quickly on the receiver. Duke took advantage of that most of the game but once the field got shorter, inside the 20, and Carolina had less ground to patrol Duke had trouble making plays and getting into the end zone. And Duke's quarterback, in contrast to Yates, was generally terrible on third down and near the end zone.

Carolina finishes 8 and 4, and will play in a bowl game for the first time in years. Coach Butch Davis seems to be a great recruiter and motivator, but I'm not crazy about his defensive philosophy and his late game management. But despite those complaints, he clearly has Carolina pointed in the general direction of the good-ol'-days of the Mack Brown era of the early 1990s.

A few more quick observations from the Duke game:

• Wallace Wade is a quaint old-timey stadium, in a horse shoe, but the Duke football operation seems rinky-dink to me. Terrible concessions, the bathrooms were portable trailers, and the area around the stadium is cluttered with suburban architecture, not the signature Duke gothic style (I've always kind of liked Duke's gothic look, even if it is a knock-off of Princeton).
• The crowd of 35,000 was probably 55 percent Carolina fans. There were enough Tar Heels in the stands for the call and response "Tar" "Heels" chant.
• We sat in front of one of the most obnoxious Dukies I've ever had the pleasure to be a around. Lots of put downs of state schools with the stereotypical triumphant elitism thrown in. We also sat behind a guy wearing a 'Wade Wacko' hat - as opposed to 'Cameron Crazies.' Though some were obnoxious, you have to hand it to loyal Duke football fans. Their team has stunk for years, but there is a fan base there.
• Finally, I don't know why Duke fans feel so smug and elitist - Hansbrough has eaten Duke's lunch in Cameron for three straight years, their women's soccer team comes close but we still dominate them in that sport, and the football team has lost to the Blue Devils once in a generation. Third-rate athletics, second-rate education, first-rate tuition. Oh, and Richard Nixon went there too. Give it up Dukies (but thanks to Duke grad Keith Kushner for the great seats).

Heels In Hawaii

The Heels looked fantastic in winning the Maui Invitational last week. They rolled over Chaminade without Hansbrough but with a very active Danny Green, easily dispatched a semi-legit team in Oregon behind Hansbrough, and dismantled a very good 8th ranked Notre Dame in the final by 15 points.

Hansbrough and Lawson in particular excelled against the Irish. Hansbrough displayed a few new moves: he hit a little twisting fade-away baseline jumper, blocked two shots, and took two threes as part of the offense, hitting one. That was in addition to his regular relentless on the boards and his trips to the free throw line.

And Lawson was simply faster and more aggressive than anyone on the Notre Dame squad. He was dominant and confident.

That's what impressed me the most about the team's play - the whole team looked dominant and confident. Everyone who played looked great. Deon Thompson was aggressive on the glass and confident with his stroke; Danny Green made shots from all over the floor and above and under the rim; Bobby Frasor was off against Oregon but was in the flow and confident against Notre Dame; Will Graves is getting more minutes as a result of Ginyard's injury and looks to have improved his game so he's not just a jump shooter; freshman Ed Davis already looks comfortable running Roy's system and is long and strong on the boards; ditto Larry Drew II, who looks way too poised to be a freshman. Both Davis and Drew II are sons of NBA players and have already displayed a high basketball IQ this young season.

The only Heel not feeling it, in my opinion, is Wayne Ellington. He hasn't found his groove yet but I'm quibbling. The Heels looked fantastic last week in Hawaii. Bring on the ACC!

Panathinaikos On A Roll

Finally, it was a great week for the Greens.

In the UEFA Champions League, Panathinaikos won a huge road game at InterMilan. Inter dominated Pana in their first game in Athens a month ago, but the Greens got great play from their goalie in winning 1-0 on Tuesday. It was Pana's second impressive road win in a row, coming on the heels of a 3-0 thrashing of Werder Bremen earlier in the month.

Panathinaikos got off to a terrible start in the Champions league, but the two road wins have them in second place in their group, behind InterMilan. They can clinch a place in the next round of the Champions league if they win their next game at home versus Cypriot squad Anorthosis (who tied InterMilan at home last month).

And last weekend the basketball team defeated arch-rival Olympiacos, led by former Hawk Josh Childress, 86-69. The Greens were led by my man Dimitris Diamantidis and former Maryland Terrapin Drew Nicholas. Panathinaikos is loaded this year, with Diamantidis, Nicholas (who was a star in Turkey before moving up to the Greek League), former Houston Rockets guard Vasilis Spanoulis, former Grizzlies bench warmers Antonis Fotsis and American Mike Batiste, and another former Terp, Euroleague and NBA vet Sarunas Jasikevicus.

Wizards Wisps

So the Manuels, Tar Heels and Panathinaikos had a great week. The hometown Wizards did not.

As you know by now, the Wizards fired head coach Eddie Jordan after a 1 and 10 start. Under new coach Ed Tapscott they've already doubled their win total, and stand at 2 and 12.

Tapscott seems like a good guy; I've liked his studio work in analyzing the Wizards. But he hasn't coached a team since leading American University in the 1990s. So we'll see, but this team will not be very good until Arenas returns or they somehow find a real point guard (not Stephon Marbury, BTW). As Eddie Jordan pointed out before getting canned, Washington is starting it's fourth string point guard in Dee Brown.

As readers of CHB Blog know, I've had issues with Eddie Jordan. It took him years to give Haywood the minutes he deserved. Last year B-Hay finally played 30 minutes a game, had a career year, and the Wizards' defense improved enough to make the playoffs despite Arenas missing most of the season.

One issue he never fixed was perimeter defense, something the Wizards have had problems with for years. But as one unnamed NBA scout once said, if your best player doesn't play defense no one else will.

But despite those problems and issues, firing Eddie Jordan was a bad move and unfair. Jordan led the 'Zards to the playoffs four years in a row, even last year without Arenas. Despite his only passing interest in emphasizing defense, anyone who got the Wizards into the playoffs last year must know something about coaching.

Without Haywood and Arenas, or a serviceable point guard, this team is simply not that competitive. Maybe they should have been 4-7 instead of 1-11, but that is not Eddie Jordan's fault.

Huge Carolina Sports Weekend

This is very big Carolina sports weekend (and unfortunately, I'm in Salt Lake City for a meeting). The most important game is today's tilt up the street from our house as Carolina travels to College Park to play Maryland (four years ago the kids and I went to this game - Carolina got waxed - but we met PHIL FORD at the alumni event and got a great photo. PHIL FORD!). Maryland is undefeated at home and against ranked teams this season, so this will be a tough game for the Heels.

The good news for Carolina is they've shown they can win on the road, winning at Rutgers and Miami, and should be very motivated. With Virginia Tech’s loss to Miami on Thursday night the Heels can win the Coastal Division (doesn't that sound stupid ACC fans?) if they run the table and win their last three games.

So that's a pretty big football game.  But no matter how big a Carolina football game is, it will always pale to a Carolina basketball game. Carolina's 2008-2009 season begins this afternoon - tip-off is only half an hour after kick-off - when the Heels take on Penn in Chapel Hill at 4 pm.

There are two very big stories as we head into this game. One, the Heels 'return' all five starters from last year's ACC champion-Final Four squad, and are expected to win the national championship.

But probably an even bigger story is the health of Tyler Hansbrough. He'll miss today's game with a stress reaction (the precursor of a stress fracture), as will Marcus Ginyard. Hansbrough is not expected to miss significant playing time once he heals, but nonetheless could miss the first two or three games of the season.

Hansbrough is Hansbrough, the best college player in the country and one of the top five Heels of all time.   And Ginyard is important too, but will be replaced in the starting line up by the ever capable Danny Green.

However, as it usually is with hoops, the key to this season will be at point guard.  Hopefully Ty Lawson stays healthy, and he should be very motivated this season. Not only is Lawson playing for a national championship - a no-brainer for most - but he also clearly wants to go to the next level after the season.  Those twin motivations will ideally keep him from disappearing during games, something that was an issue in the first half of the debacle against Kansas. 

Penn traditionally dominates the Ivy League but finished third last year in the conference, and with an overall losing record. Carolina blew them out in the Palestra last year, after the Quakers stayed close for the first 5 minutes, in Wayne Ellington's homecoming game. This year they are expected to challenge Cornell and boast high school All-American Zack Rosen, who turned down Virginia Tech among others to play and study at Penn.

Finally, the Carolina women's soccer team, the most successful college sports team of all time if you go by national championships, won their first round NCAA tournament game last night against Western Carolina. Their second round game is against Charlotte on Sunday.

The NCAA final will be played in Cary, which should help the Heels if they advance to the Final Four. But as we know, this year advancing to the Final Four is not enough.

From Salt Lake City - GO HEELS!

Center-left Country

As we all know, Republicans are very good at repeating talking points and staying on message.  In trying to spin Tuesday night's results, which include not only a liberal yet pragmatic president-elect but also significant Democratic gains in the Senate and House, Republican pundits have repeatedly described America as a 'center-right' nation.  I assume that is an attempt to box in the new Democratic majority.

Maybe it's already working, with Pelosi stating that the country needs to be governed from the center at a press conference on Thursday. Of course, governing from the middle probably makes sense, both as a starting point and as a strategy to prevent overreach, overreach that could trigger a backlash against the party in power in the 2010 mid-term elections (something that traditionally happens).  More importantly that a philosophy, governing from the center is a necessity since the government is out of money anyway.

But I have to push back against the notion that the U.S. is a 'center-right' nation. I think it's clearly center-left, more of a Clintonesque ideology.  I think culturally the country is generally left (except for gay marriage, but on gay rights it's different), and had been economically conservative since the 1980s.  But the recent financial collapse and the crash of Reagan-era deregulation may spur a shift towards economic populism and liberalism.

So culturally we're left, economically we've been right but may be shifting, and politically we've been split. However, the last 5 elections, covering a generation, show that rather than being split a center-left pattern is emerging.  Clinton won elections in 1992 (with help from Perot, but he ran a pretty lefty campaign) and 1996 - a landslide - then Gore won the popular vote in 2000.  Bush won a narrow margin four years later (by 3 million votes), and now Obama wins in a rout (by more than 8 millio votes).  And don't forget Democrats took back Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections by running left on the war. 

In four of the last five elections the center-left has won the popular vote.  And if patterns from the Obama win persist - Hispanics and young voters going 2-1 for Democrats, increased turnout by African-Americans - this trend could last for two or three more elections.  And who knows, if the economy rebounds there may be money for a national health care system, a complete overhaul and modernization of our infrastructure with more mass transit, and a shift to clean energy.

Frank Rich plows some of the same ground in today's New York Times (though for the record I posted this blog entry on Saturday night).

Hellection Update

There's a new Greek-American member of Congress, Dina Titus from Nevada. Kudos to my friend Art Dimopoulos, the publisher of Odyssey Magazine who went out to Nevada to campaign for her. She joins Shelley Berkeley, who is descended from Greek Jews, in the three-person Nevada Congressional delegation. That makes five Greek-American members of Congress: the Nevada two plus Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), John Sarbanes (D-MD), and my man Zack Space (D-OH). And we can claim Greek-in-law Nikki Tsongas, the widow of Paul Tsongas, who represents Lowell, Massachusetts who is 'Greek by osmosis.' Those six join Maine Senator Olympia Snowe in Washington. Not bad considering there are about 1 million Greeks in the U.S.

State Level Stuff

One last election review.  Hard to believe that in California voters supported a constitutional ban on gay marriage. California!  The vote was 52 to 48 percent for the ban.  Arizona and Florida voters supported similar initiatives. Specific issue aside, seems odd to me that the threshold for amending the state constitution is so relatively low. To amend the U.S. Constitution, both houses of Congress have to pass it AND three-quarters of the states have to ratify the amendment.  Fifty percent plus one seems too low to amend a state constitution.

Jon Stewart still has the best take on gay marriage: unless every one has to marry gay - mandatory gay marriage for gay and non-gay alike, why do straight people care enough about gay marriage to reject it politically?  If you are not gay, this does not affect you.

Finally, who'd a thunk it that on the same day California would reject gay marriage SOUTH DAKOTA would uphold a woman's right to choose, for the second election in a row?  Though in it's defense, California also rejected restricting access to abortions on election day.

Election Redux

I don't have much to add to all the great karma and good feeling all of us have felt since Barack Obama was elected our president on Tuesday night.  I tempted the fates by posting most of my feelings about this election on Monday night.  But that did not jinx the electorate on Tuesday, and at 11 pm eastern we got the country back when Obama passed 270 electoral votes.

[FYI: Nicholas Kristoff paraphrased my pre-election blog in today's New York Times. He didn't have the stones to write the BEFORE the election.]

The good people in this country finally asserted themselves on November 4th, and I can't stop smiling.

This election is the good news that keeps on giving.  Today North Carolina was called for Barack Obama as the Tar Heel State finally put in all together and went Carolina blue in 2008. With North Carolina, Obama is up to 364 landslide-like electoral votes.  For decades, citizens, observers and activists have waited for the combination of African-Americans, new residents drawn by the banking and high tech industries, and Carolina alumni to make North Carolina a blue, or at least purple, state.  It came true this year, not only for Obama but for Senator-elect Kay Hagen and the new governor, Beverly Purdue.  

A negro and two skirts winning state wide? Jesse Helms is spinning in his grave.

The Hagen win - actually the Dole loss - is icing on the Barackake. Elizabeth Dole was an empty suit, a celebrity who won on her name, not her address.  How appropriate to see the tide turn against her after the News and Observer uncovered the fact that Dole had spend almost no time in the state during her six years in office.  Dole hasn't lived in North Carolina since she graduated from the University of Long Island at Durham almost 60 years ago, and didn't deserve to represent the Old North State in the U.S. Senate.   Glad to see you go Sen. Dole; now move back to the Watergate - where you've live for the last 30 years - and leave us alone.

World Series Update

Good article in the new Sports Illustrated about how the World Series does not live up to the quality or popularity of the baseball season. It was good to see a real media outlet mimic some of CHB blog's points about limiting visits to the mound and starting World Series games earlier, especially on the weekend.

Baseball and Barack

Another good article on Sports Illustrated's website about Obama's ability to get baseball and softball back in the Olympics.  The thinking is that one reason those two sports were voted off the island is anti-American and anti-Bush sentiment.  With Obama's election that sentiment should be reversed, reversed enough to have our national pass-time back in the Olympics. 

Election Day

Just got back from voting, and it was awesome and inspiring. When I arrived at 8:30 am the line was around the corner. Despite the wait, it took less than half an hour to vote. I felt great casting my ballot, and smiled the entire time.

I was surprised by how nervous many of my fellow voters, and neighbors, looked. I ran into quite a few friends - John Mackay, the Rumelt-Burgess family, Matt from across the street, the Weisers - at the polls, and on the way out asked Cathy Burgess why more folks weren't smiling like me. Cathy mentioned that she was apprehensive about the outcome. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; quite a few of my crowd - and liberals across the country - has voiced a similar concern.

But I feel 353-electoral-votes great.

I'm off to canvass in Virginia - for Obama - in a few minutes. Turnout will be huge in this election, and I'm anxious to see how things feel on the ground in a battleground state.

But I know I feel great, a feeling that we are going to get the country back today.

Election Eve

Every presidential election in America is important. To quote a former president, that statement is self evident. And though each one is always the most important election on the planet, tomorrow's rises above the usual quadrennial significance.

One, simply marking the end of the last eight years is huge. After running as the 'compassionate conservative' ticket, the Bush-Cheney administration governed at times like incompetents in way over their heads - the war in Iraq, Katrina, the lack of oversight of Wall Street, tax cuts for the wealthy while fighting two wars and thus running up huge deficits - and at other times like paranoid Nixonian rogues - misleading the public about weapons of mass destruction, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo. The combination adds up to eight years of failure and shame, and America's standing in the world at it's lowest. To think that on September 12, 2001 the entire world stood with us as the west rallied against dangerous religious extremism and violence. All of that is gone thanks to the boobs in the White House.

Two, this election could mark the evolution of the United States from a democracy to a participatory democracy. For liberals, actually for any American, that is a tremendous development. Having so many first-time voters vote for a winning candidate will make them lifelong voters. But I also think this election, and the election of someone like Barack Obama, will make people political not just repeat voters. I hope this leads to more people following current events, reading newspapers, writing letters to the editor, volunteering with civic organizations - a rejuvenation of our civic life. That's what a message of hope, and a message than wins elections, can do.

Far too many Americans put down politics, but to me politics is the best thing about America. And not voting is simply un-American. The best thing about America is we aren't like the Greeks or Chinese, bound together by blood or thousands of years of history and tradition. America reinvents itself too often to be rooted in old world concepts like blood or place or family. Instead, the United States is defined by something vastly superior: an ideal and a politics exemplified by elections and Congress and the separation of powers and a free press and the Bill of Rights. Our ideals make us Americans, and it has always bothered me when one of my fellow citizens puts down politics. Politics makes us who we are more than any other facet of American life.

Obama is making politics - and American ideals - cool again for the first time in my lifetime, certainly for the first time since John Kennedy was president. He keeps drawing huge crowds in Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina; conversely, McCain and Palin, with a more fearful and cynical and less uplifting message, have played to some small crowds in the last few days.

And three, there is Obama himself. For me, Obama is significant on two levels. The first one is obvious; electing an African-American is incredible and something frankly to be proud of. What a great leap forward for America and the American electorate. But even more important than his blackness - yes, he's black enough - is the fact that Obama's election reinvigorates one of the best American dreams of them all: the fact - FACT - that truly anyone can grow up to be President of the United States. That simple fact speaks volumes about our nation. Not to sound to corny and immigrantee, but only in American can someone like Obama - and as Chris Rock has pointed out, you can't elect a blacker name than Barack Obama - be elected President. A mixed-race child of Kansan and Kenyan parents, raised in Hawaii - can any story be more everyman American, and better illustrate America reinventing itself?

Again, we are a nation not united by blood or ethnicity but by ideals, ideals that like our nation can be reinvented or rejuvenated every four years.

That is, every four years if the right guy wins. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow on a very historic election day for our nation (and hopefully, it won't always be guys).

A little more blather

• Obama has a great story, but most of our presidents since Kennedy have had similar backgrounds. Did you know, for instance, that Lyndon Johnson's father was from Uganda? Ok, that's not true. Johnson was from a rural part of Texas and graduated from South West Texas State and initially was a teacher; Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from southwest Georgia (southwest Georgia is east of the middle of nowhere); Bill Clinton lived the lyrics of a country song, raised in Arkansas by a mama married multiple times to an array of shady men, and a man who never knew his daddy. Even the Republicans not 'born with a silver foot in his mouth' have humble origins: Nixon was from rural California, and Reagan went west from Illinois in the quintessential quest to remake himself and start all over.
• Earlier in this blog I blathered about participatory democracy. That will be very significant for African-Americans, especially in the south, a young people. In the south, massive turnout rewarded with victory could finally make the south a progressive region, with the long-awaited alliance of blacks (25 to 30% of the vote), white liberals (10-15%, mainly in cities, gay parts of town, and college towns), and ethnics (Jews, Greeks, but most of all Hispanics) making states like North Carolina and Georgia truly bipartisan and in play every election from here on out.
• One last defense of politics. If folks want to put down something, how about attacking economics or fear or unfettered free trade, or greed? To me, those motivations are responsible for the worst things American has done in the past: the slave trade, stealing the land of Native Americans, interning Japanese-Americans, etc. Politics has it's share of problems, but it wasn't politics than produced those atrocities.
• Finally, I think Obama will finish with an astounding 353 electoral votes. In the end, though my head says not to, I'm giving Obama both my home states of North Carolina and Florida. Add those two to the states Kerry carried, plus Obama's strength in expanding the map in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, then Ohio (a state that went very D in 2006 where the economy will carry the day for Obama) and you get to a almost-landslide like 353 electoral votes, with probably 53 percent of the popular votes, for a brutha' named Barack Obama. Astounding, and excellent.

The Closer

Obama is going to go into the ninth inning of this campaign with a lead built on Bush and Iraq fatigue (pitching), McCain's age (defense), and the economy (timely hitting). But the closer for this election is going to be Hispanic voters. While reading the New York Times this morning, it struck me that in the west and even places like northern Virginia and perhaps even North Carolina and it's going to be Hispanics (many appropriately named Rivera and K-Rod) who get the last three outs for Obama.

World Series Update

I made it to the fourth inning of last night's game 3, but have to say starting a World Series game at 10:00 pm eastern time is a joke and a travesty.  

The ratings for this series will probably be low due to the teams and markets, so what does baseball have to lose by being a bit more fan friendly with starting times and the endless commercial breaks?  All games - but especially weekend games - should start at 7 or 7:30, not 8:20 or 8:30.  And in order to appeal to younger fans, there should be at least one day game in there.  

And baseball needs to do something about how long the games take.  For starters, I'd do at least 3 easy things (of course, the first one is not easy): limit commercial breaks to 2 minutes.  To make up for lost revenue I'd allow for a corporate logo near the ball-strike line score at the top/bottom of the screen but the time between innings needs to be shorter; two, a hitter must keep one foot in the batter's box at all time - you're there to hit not go for a walk. Ditto for the pitcher, who I would put a clock on as they do in the Arizona fall league; and three, no visits to the mound, unless you are changing pitchers, by either coaches or players.  Play stops every half inning - talk in the dugout.

Finally, getting rid of the DH would shorten games too, and restore some balance between hitting and pitching. But with the steroid era over I guess that will never happen.