Heels Barbeque Hogs

Kind of an obvious headline considering how good NC barbeque is (though I've had a some good Q in Arkansas before) and of course how well the Heels played this afternoon.  They completely chopped up Arkansas, a quality team that had played well down the stretch to get an NCAA tournament bid.

But it really does not matter who Carolina plays.  Those kind of details are immaterial when Lawson is playing like he did today, when you have players like Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough, AND the two-headed four monster of Dean Thompson and Alex Stephenson score 26 points on 13 for 13 shooting with 5 blocked shots.  Thompson was as smooth as Stephenson was strong. Two of his blocks led to excellent fast break baskets for the Heels; Stephenson was brilliant on both sides of the floor.

The 13 for 13 shooting from the four spot was impressive, but ALL the numbers for the Heels today were gaudy.

Hansbrough had another double double with 17 and 10, Ellington scored 20 on 8 of 12 shooting, Lawson scored 19 points against 7 assists - for the weekend he had 11 assists and ZERO turnovers - the Heels had only 7 turnovers for the game against 8 takeaways (3 steals, 5 blocks), and shot 67.7 percent as a team for the game. 

Oh yeah, they won by 31 points.

The Heels play Washington State, arguably the weakest of the number 4 seeds, next week in the Sweet 16.   The Cougars like to slow tempo - dramatically - and held Notre Dame to 41 points in winning yesterday. For the record, it took Carolina 15 minutes to score 41 points today against Arkansas.

Washington State will try to slow down the Heels, but it won't matter.   The hidden strength of this team is rebounding, and Washington State won't be able to slow down the Heels unless they control the boards.   Don't expect that to happen; Hansbrough, Thompson, Stephenson, Green, etc. are just too tough on the glass.  

And finally, can anyone slow down Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough?  I doubt it, so don't be surprised if it's another blow out for the Heels.

NCAA NOTEs

• I refused to acknowledge the strength of the Pac 10 this year, but when you consider they have 3 teams in the Sweet 16 I guess I was wrong.  UCLA played an ugly game versus Texas A&M, but Kevin Love made plays down the stretch to lead the Bruins.  Stanford won a tough game versus Marquette for the right to play Texas in Houston later this week.
• Miami lost to Texas despite a valiant comeback try this afternoon, leaving the ACC with only one team left in the tournament.   Still, it was a very successful season for the Canes who were predicted to finish second to the last in the ACC but instead made it into the second round of the NCAA tournament.
• I agree with many of the pundits/columnists/members of the sports world chattering class that the ACC needs to assess why the basketball seems to have slipped in America's pre-eminent basketball conference. As a first step/quick fix I would return to the balanced schedule where every school plays every other school in the conference twice - even though that would mean 22 conference games.  At least that way a 500 record in conference would get you into the tournament and would boost every member's RPI.
  
• The Big East, who put a hurt on the ACC over the weekend, also has 3 teams in the field of 16 including one - Villanova - who shouldn't have even been in the tournament!  Louisville is still alive in Carolina's bracket and should get past lucky Tennessee to get to the elite 8 and a meeting with the Heels.  Carolina has had great luck in the past against a Pitino coached team and will exact a little revenge on the Big East on the way to the four.
• The class of the Big 12, Kansas and Texas, predictably made it in to the sweet 16.  No surprise there, but it is surprising to have two Big 10 schools survive the first two rounds of play.   No surprise that Michigan State made it; you should always pick the Spartans to make the sweet 16 when filling out your bracket. But I was surprised to see Wisconsin make it.  
• The Badgers play Davidson in what should be one of the most intriguing game of the next round.   Wisconsin is similar to Georgetown in that they have a big sloooowwww semi-talented center and play a physical brand of basketball.  So Davidson could win this game and go to the elite 8.  
• Stefan Curry was phenomenal in taking down Georgetown, by his damnself, this afternoon.  Georgetown played pretty well - at least Sapp and Wright did; Hibbert looked terrible and all the Hoyas had trouble getting him the ball - but could not stop Curry even when they and everyone else on the eastern seaboard knew he was going to get the ball.  That is probably the ultimate compliment for an athlete - to succeed when everyone on the other team is trying to stop you.  Some of that credit should go to Davidson's point guard who did a great job of getting Curry the ball.
• And credit the entire Davidson squad and their coach.  They did not panic when they got down double digits.  Props to the Wildcats, who advance to the sweet 16 for the first time since Lefty Dreisell was their head coach.
• Tellingly, Carolina takes down one of Hillary's home state teams the same week that Obama picks the Heels to win the tournament. A good sign.  But there's more Carolina-Hillary-Obama mojo.  In 2005, Carolina defeated Illinois to win the national championship.  Of course, Hillary was born in Illinois.  And in a sop to her current home state, the Heels could probably take down the Knicks without breaking a sweat (and exact some revenge on Isiah Thomas, too).
  

Finally, check back tomorrow when I hope to post some video and photos from our visit to Nationals Park on Saturday for the college game/run through between St. Joseph's and George Washington; we got tickets courtesy of my brother, Baseball America editor John Manuel.  

My first impressions of the stadium are:

• It's a modern stadium, not a throw back like Camden Yards.  It's sleek and clean and tall and white with blue seats, not brick with black wrought iron and green seats.
• That said, it feels really small. I can't imagine there is a bad seat in there, as you feel right on top of the field no matter where you're seated (we roamed a bit) or at least from the concourses (we did one lap around the stadium);
• Expect all the benefits of a new ball park: wide concourses that are open to the field, lots of food choices, comfortable seats, and a Build A Bear workshop in the outfield near the kids playground;
• One '$611-million-in-public-funding-helped-build-that? note: I didn't care for the exclusive patio for the President's Lounge Club (whatever it's called) right behind home plate; it's basically a place for mucky-mucks to watch the game 25 feet behind home plate while the rest of us look on in envy;
• The Green line is a lot faster than the Orange or Blue line.  We took the Metro from our house - Red line to Gallery Place, Green line to Navy Yard - and it was great and seemed very quick.  Part of it is there are only four stops on the Green line once you transfer at Gallery Place: Navy Memorial, L'Enfant Plaza, Waterfront, then Navy Yard. 
• Perhaps best of all, it doesn't smell like RFK!

Go Heels!