Not impressed

My kids and I went to the Wizards game last night against the Bobcats.  We got great seats at a nice price courtesy of StubHub, but the main reason we went was to be in the same room as Raymond Felton.  

It was quite an alumni night.  On the Wizards you've got Brendan Haywood (who had 15 and 7), all star Antawn Jamison (who had a great game and led the 'Zards to the 15-point win) plus assistant coach Mike O'Koren. In addition to Felton - who played okay but did not look comfortable in the half court offense the Bobcats run; I'd love to see him on a west coast team that likes to run - the Bobcats feature Jeff McInnis, the injured Sean May, plus Phil 'Greatest Heel of All Time' Ford on the bench as an assistant coach.  Buzz Peterson also works for the Bobcats, hired by team president/part-owner/former roommate/best friend Michael Jordan.

In addition to Carolina, Fayetteville was also in the house as former Fayetteville State coach and alumni Jeff Capel Jr. - the father of Duke grad Jeff Capel III, the current coach at Oklahoma, and Carolina's Jason Capel - is another of the Bobcats' assistants.

After the game I came home to watch the Memphis-Tennessee game, and part of the heavyweight reunification bout between Vladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov.   As you know, Tennessee and Klitschko both won, but I don't know which team/fighter was less impressive.

Neither Tennessee nor Memphis looked that good to me.  Both teams took bad shots and seemed easily flummoxed into making bad plays.  Both teams finished the game at under 40 percent shooting, and Memphis shot less than 50 percent from the free throw line.  The Tigers came out hot then seemed to lose interest.   And as Memphis rallied late Tennessee looked really nervous - except on that last shot.

Part of it may have been the hype, which probably made some of the players nervous.  But as I watched it was hard for me to picture either team giving Carolina problems - or Duke or Clemson for that matter.

Klitschko was even less impressive.  At 6'7" he is a physical marvel and a heck of a physical specimen, and is much bigger, taller and has a much longer reach than Ibragimov, a Russian Avar.   After the third round he realized he could win on jabs alone, and never really committed to the fight.   He won a unanimous decision after 12 lack luster rounds without much action - or punching - at all.  It got so boring that his trainer, the legendary Emmanuel Stewart, told Klitschko he was going to win but criticized his own fighter for not committing to the bout or throwing enough punches.  

I wasn't impressed.  Hansbrough could have taken all four of them - Memphis, Tennessee, Ibragimov, and Klitschko - by his damnself.