What a week

Quite the week for the Tar Heels: a big win against Kentucky; a frustrating yet explainable loss to Texas; then the big loss, when Carolina announced that P.J. Hairston would not be reinstated, ending his Carolina career before his junior year could even start.

But first, back to the Texas game. Not much to be said about that one, other than this is the kind of season this team is going to have. They're young, so will confound Tar Heel nation by coming out flat some games or missing tons of free throws.  The Heels played pretty well, and despite the sluggish start had tied the game midway through the first half.  

Then Carolina starting missing free throws, which kills a team twice - especially when you miss that many. One is you are obviously leaving points, free ones at that, on the rim.  Secondly, missed free throws and empty trips keep a team from picking up any momentum. That can wear you out physically and mentally, and it was evident versus Texas.

Also evident, for the first time this season, was Leslie 'Acutally I do indeed play for the Tar Heels' McDonald. Long an afterthought during his time in Chapel Hill, Leslie looked good in making 4 of 9 three-point shots.  For better or worse, he is now a key player, one the Heels will depend on to balance the offense and open things up for McAdoo but especially Meeks and Johnson and Hicks, who is likely to play more with Joel James hurt. 

Of course, most of us were counting on P.J. Hairston to play that role. Carolina's leading scorer from last season became tantamountly tantalizing as fans envisioned adding a player with his offensive game, particularly his outside and free throw shooting, and toughness to a team that has already beaten Kentucky, Michigan State and Louisville. 

I am of two minds on Hairston.  He clearly made some mistakes, with the biggest one being that he kept making the same one - speeding in a car rented by an individual of questionable character to put it mildly - over and over.  Even after being pulled over once he committed the same offense two more times.  Not good.

That said, he went to class while he was held out of nine games, and by all accounts was mature about the suspension, competed hard in practice, and was a good team mate.  Oh yeah, he was also embarrassed.  You would think that would mean something with the NCAA, but I guess not.

Hairston will likely go into the 2014 draft, an opportunity he turned down in favor of coming back to school last year.  Not exactly the way things are supposed to go for a student-athlete, especially one at Carolina. 

This team has shown that even without Hairston they can and will have a great season.  I wish the same could be said for P.J. Hairston.

GO HEELS! 

Hot Stove-itude

I have to interrupt this Carolina basketball blogging to comment on how nice of an off season the Nationals have had.

The Doug Fister move was very nice.  Any time you can add a durable, play-off tested pitcher with a sub-4.00 ERA in the American League as your third starter* you are having a good off season. The Nats' rotation will once again be one of the best if not the best in the National League, with Strasburg, Zimmermann, Fister, Gio (*anyone who walks that many batters has to be our fourth starter) and either Ross Detwiler, Taylor Jordan or my personal favorite, Tanner Roarke, as our fifth starter.

Of course, the starting pitching was not the issue for the 2013 Nats but the bullpen was as Washington struggled to replace lefty set up man Sean Burnett. But this off season has solved that problem, too, as the Nationals acquired lefthander Jerry Blevins from the A's.  Not only does Blevins give the Nats a proven southpaw who should be just as good as Burnett was, it also means Washington's pitching staff includes the only two University of Dayton Flyers - Blevins and Craig Stammen - in the majors.  Book the UD Alumni Association night out at Nats Park NOW!

Not only did the Nats improve their rotation and the left side of their bullpen but our division rivals the Atlanta Braves have gotten worse.  They lost Nats-killer Tim Hudson to the Giants, but more importantly lost their heart and soul when Atlanta native and perennial all-star catcher Brian McCann signed with the Yankees.  

Sure, the Braves signed Gavin Floyd, and their remaining starters from last year - Medlin, Miner, Teheran - are very good. And they still have Craig Kimbrell, Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton.  But this off season our roster has gotten better, and their's has not.

Reignite the Natitude!

A few more Nats - and baseball - notes:

• Nate McLouth, meh. Then again, I guess GM Mike Rizzo is taking the safe bet that one of our outfielders will likely get hurt, and McLouth is a more than capable back up.
• It seems that the only remaining move will be adding a back up catcher.  Otherwise, the Nats' non-pitching roster seems set.
• I have no idea what the Yankees or Phillies have done this off season, but I think I would rather have Robinson Cano than Carlos Beltran**, Brian Roberts and Jacoby Ellsbury.  Adding McCann makes sense but the Yankees' other moves don't.  And the Phillies have signed older guys like Marlon Byrd while losing Roy Halladay to retirement.  Both those squads are way over the hill. 
• Great to see the Cardinals get worse, too, in losing Beltran!
• The length of Cano's contract is phenomenal.  I guess no one in the other Washington learned anything from the infamous A-Rod, Soriano, Pujols, Hamilton contracts.

More Carolina Basketball, more Dean, and Phil Ford

It was more of the same yesterday as Carolina basketball, the style invented and developed by Dean Smith, triumphed over Kentucky for another marquee win for this year's squad.

It was not the most ascetically pleasing contest but it was a win - which IS Carolina basketball.

So is going inside, something the Heels did repeatedly and effectively; so is going to the free throw line; so is sharing the ball and having multiple players contribute.  

The 'sharing the wealth' is becoming the hallmark of this fun and successful team. This year's Heels, especially Marcus Paige, J.P. Tokoto, Brice Johnson, James Michael McAdoo, Kennedy Meeks, Johnson, are fun to watch.  Last year's team had a disjointed feel, a team that had fans nervous for much of the season. The schedule was an exercise in watching Roy try to find combos that worked despite a flawed lineup with too many shooting guards and not much else. High points such as the win at FSU and the 'run' to the ACC tournament final felt like found money, not expected wins.

I think many Tar Heels fans felt the same way heading into this season, especially with Hairston sidelined indefinitely.  But this team has cured any of those unsettling thoughts and feelings. Led by Marcus Paige this year's team almost reminds me of the early 90s Heels, great teams with some great players - Eric Montross and one of the greatest Heels of all time in George Lynch - but without a dominant superstar (Worthy, Jordan, Jamison, May, Hansbrough, Lawson, etc.).*

That lack of a superstar and the use of a deep bench (Henrik Rodl, Kevin Salvatori, Scott Cherry) led many to dub the '93 Heels the ultimate Dean Smith team, where the whole was greater than the sum of it's parts. Dean's humility and Carolina collective triumphed over our society's obsession with celebrity and ego.

And like the '93 team, or any successful team, these Heels simply make plays. Whether we are talking about drives by Paige or McAdoo or Tokoto or Nate Britt, tip ins by Tokoto, Meeks, Joel James or Desmond Hubert, key boards or baskets by Johnson, great passes by Meeks or Paige, or huge steals by Tokoto, these Heels - every Heels player - make plays when they need to make plays.

As great as the win was over Kentucky, the program that blends the worst of Duke (smug entitlement) and NC State (low-brow anti-intellectualism) the half-time ceremony honoring Dean Smith for receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom was even better.

If you have not seen it yet click here. The speeches by Dean's wife, who talked about his commitment to social change, and from Montross were great.  But I want to focus on Phil Ford.

Dean Smith's relationship with Ford epitomizes why Dean is Dean, the kind of person - not basketball coach - we should all emulate.

Ford was an elite basketball player; he won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 (for Dean - and the U.S.), was the ACC and national player of the year his senior year, and the NBA rookie of the year.  

Seven years later his career was over, derailed by the cocaine culture of the early '80s and alcoholism.  He washed out of the NBA in 1985. 

Carolina and Dean did not turn their back on one of the greatest Tar Heels of all time. Dean hired Ford as an assistant coach in 1988. He prospered, and was such a good recruiter that many assumed that Dean had groomed him as his likely successor.

How cool would that have been? Dean to Guthridge to Ford? That's got to be one of the biggest 'what ifs' in Carolina history!

The plan was derailed for good when Ford's demons reappeared, and he plead guilty to DUI in both 1997 and 1999. The second DUI cost him the JV coaching job and his position as lead recruiter under Bill Guthridge. 

Ford left Chapel Hill when Matt Doherty insisted on bringing in his own staff (sheesh, that guy...) but Dean's Carolina family continued to help Ford as he worked as an NBA assistant for Larry Brown in Detroit and New York before returning to Chapel Hill to work for the Education Foundation.

Dean never made a big deal about helping Ford get his life back together; what could be more un-Deanlike?  

Isn't that what one's life should be about, helping those who need a little help? That's why Dean is Dean, one reason why he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor, and the main reason folks like us love him and Carolina so much.

Go Heels!

A Few More Things

•  How great was it to see McAdoo back on track?  Much has been made of his aggressive play on offense, but he outplayed Randall on both ends of the floor.
• Foul trouble and perhaps some Dean-like insouciance led to Roy playing Jackson Simmons and Desmond Hubert at the same time in the second half yesterday.  Ol' Roy got away with it even though Simmons looked super nervous bricking 4 late free throws.
• A month ago I was afraid that Britt was the second coming of Adam Boone. Man, was I wrong.  Every minute of every game you can see his confidence and game grow.  In the 3 big wins - against the top three teams in the preseason top 25 - he has been fantastic.  His coast to coast drive late was one of the plays of the game, and like Paige he is money at the free throw line.  His play gives the Heels tremendous balance, especially if he and Tokoto can make an occasional three pointer. 

* I know you knew that list; I just liked typing it.   

 

 

There'll Be A Carolina Victory

There'll be a Carolina victory - every time the Tar Heels play Michigan State.  What a great win in East Lansing against the undefeated and top-ranked Spartans,* again.

Many if not all the post-game stories included words or sentiments such as  'unexpected' or 'upset' but as we all know, when Carolina wins it's never an upset.  Even against number one on the road, even after a loss to UAB.  Carolina is Carolina.
  
Carolina basketball is a feeling as much as it is a system (a term Dean hated) or philosophy.  That feel extends to fans, too. For instance, five minutes into the game in Birmingham I imagine most Carolina fans knew - as I felt - that we were going to lose.  The Heels came out flat, listless, and disengaged thanks to a combination of (a week off)+ (a little too much post-Louisville hubris)=loss.

But those kinds of games are to be expected from a young team still learning it's way.

Five minutes into the game versus Michigan State I felt - I knew, I tweeted - the Heels were going to win.

Why? Because we looked like Carolina. Carolina forced a terrible shot on Michigan State's initial possession to start the game.  On the other end we immediately went inside, as Dean taught for years, something that worked ALL night.

It was Carolina blue heaven all night.

• The Heels were relentless in feeding the post, as Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, and Joel James were getting lots of touches and making lots of shots.
• When someone missed, Johnson, Meeks, and especially J.P. Tokoto were there for the offensive rebound. Tokoto also seemed to grab every lose ball.
• If we weren't feeding the post the Heels were taking it to the rack.  Nate Britt was fantastic both looking for his shot and getting the ball down low, as was Marcus Page.  And Tokoto.
• Our aggressiveness on offense led us to the free-throw line, where at least for one night the Heels were awesome (especially Britt late, less so for James Michael McAdoo).  

Feeding the post, rebounding, getting to the free throw line - THAT"S Carolina basketball!

And so is winning.

The only item not on that list is lots of fast break points. Though the Heels did not run that much, they did have some impressive and important points in transition. Tokoto's block of a dunk attempt early in the second half, a dunk that would have given the Spartans their first lead of the night, led to an old-fashioned three-point play when Britt threw an incredible diagonal pass to a streaking Page for a huge bucket and one.

Page made huge plays all night.  You can pick among his 3 to open the second half, the charge he took in the first half, the fast break basket from Britt, or his big 3 late.

Later in the half, when once again Michigan State had tied the score, feeding the post Carolina-style won the game for the Heels. Johnson scored 4 straight, then Tokoto scored 6 straight with one hoop coming on an offensive board and another on a one-man fast break, before Meeks went on a one-man 4-point run.

As it was against Louisville every Heel contributed.  Britt and McAdoo got us started with some great shooting in the first half; when they went out with two fouls the Spartans finally tied the Heels after trailing by 10 for most of the half.  McAdoo struggled for most of the night, but in addition to the good first half offensively he had a huge board at the end of the shot clock in the second half and a great block with less than a minute left.

Meeks also had an impressive block late, and his skip pass from the post to Page for Marcus' killer three was a thing of beauty and probably the play of the game.  

Lots of great performances for a great win, a win that was all Carolina basketball right from the start.  

GO HEELS!