Right, NOW I remember....

What a pleasant and relaxing win for the Heels today versus Clemson.  After about a month - starting with the loss to Texas - of games that led Carolina fans to mutter into their tweets and scratch their heads the Heels played a pretty complete game and coasted to an easy win.

Yes, an easy win.  It was as if the ghosts of Kendall Marshall or Tyler Hansbrough reappeared. Or maybe it's just the ghosts of Clemson. In what has got to be one of the weirdest stats in all of sport the Tigers are 0-57 all time in Chapel Hill.  

That track record could have made a win against Clemson a self-fulfilling prophesy but with this year's team you never know.

This game was a reminder of how great we feel when the Heels win games comfortably, or win a big a game versus say Michigan State, Louisville or Kentucky. But more importantly, this game provided a head-slapping case of "Now I remember - James Michael McAdoo is our best player!'  

In November, it was McAdoo on the cover of Sports Illustrated with Jabari Parker. He came out of the gate red hot to open the season but has  been inconsistent ever since. The only complete game he has played since November was the win over the Wildcats, where JMM was the best player on the floor.  

We saw that player again tonight; it was the complete, first-round pick, diving-on-the-floor, swooping-to-the-hoop McAdoo.  

There has been plenty of analysis of what has been wrong with this team, but bottom line if this team is going to win 9 or 10 games in the ACC, or go deep in the ACC and NCAA tournaments, it can not be Marcus Paige's or Kennedy Meek's team. 

It has to be James Michael McAdoo's team. He is that talented, and when we see it for 30 minutes a game as we have against Kentucky and tonight (as opposed to about 10 minutes to start the Syracuse or Virginia games) the Heels can play some great Carolina basketball.

And Heels fans can have a pleasant, relaxing night.

GO HEELS!

Good week for the Motherland

After five years of an historic economic crisis coupled with an ill-conceived austerity program there is actually some good news from the Greece, news good enough for even the paper of record to notice.

For me, some of the best news was featured in Thursday's The New York Times, under the headline "In Greece, Elites Are Starting to Feel the Pain."  The article contains multiple rays of sunlight for the motherland.  

The economic elites who borrowed and bribed their way to the top of Greece's food chain are actually being charged, arrested and prosecuted.  Greece has always been burdened by cronyism and corruption but the perpetrators have usually been protected by the country's political elites.  That's where the bribes usually came in.  The article documents that that may finally be changing.

But that's not all!  These guys - literally - are being prosecuted by law enforcement officials whose investigations are not being halted by those same political elites.  That kind of political intervention has crippled Greece's institutions, and fostered and furthered the public's cynicism about the state and the notion of justice, fairness and democracy itself. Holding these corrupt economic elites accountable is both fostering a sense of justice among the average Greek citizen AND strengthening the kinds of institutions that a modern democratic state needs to function (institutions like a justice system, public schools, media, civil society to name a few that Americans often take for granted).

But wait - there's more!  The chief prosecutors for the state are women - Eleni Raikou and Popi "The Terminator" Papandreou.  The more women involved with the Greek state, the better.  Men dominate the (corrupt) Greek political class as well as Greece's (crony-capitalism) economy, and the glass ceiling for women is very low.  One way to solve both problems - to throw the bums out and clean house, and empower half the nation's population - is to elect more women to political office and hire and promote more women in the private sector, the media and all walks of Greek like. 

Another piece of good news appeared in last Sunday's The New York Times Travel Section which named Athens as one of 52 places to visit in 2014.  A new contemporary art museum is opening in Greece's - and civilization's - capital and the upbeat taverna and cafe culture has apparently rebounded.  
   
And speaking of rebounds, the third piece of good news came from the NBA.  Also on Thursday the Milwaukee Bucks, featuring Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo, sponsored "Greek Night" as they played the Memphis Grizzlies, featuring Greek-Americans Kostas Koufos and Nick Calathes.* In an ironic twist, Antetokounmpo was born in Greece but has 
yet to play on the national team but American-born Koufos and Calathes have (Calathes and Antetokounmpo both played professionally in Greece; Koufos replaced Greg Oden at Ohio State; Calathes also played at Florida). The 19-year old Antetokounmpo even starts, but that's mainly due to the woeful nature of Milwaukee's team.  

Unfortunately, not every Greek is proud of his accomplishment - or his Hellenism; even though he has the requisite crazy-long Hellenic last name Giannis is a Nigerian-Greek and the son of immigrants.

That fact has prompted the kooks at Golden Dawn (Χριση Αυγή) to denounce a Greek-born, Greek-speaking, Greek flag-waving son of Ellas.  They claim that genetics matter more than identity.  Of course, the American experience is the best refutation of that dubious claim.

Greece's Antetokounmpo on draft night

  For a video on Antetokounmpo's impact on Greece click here.

As it is with being an American, being Greek or Hellenism itself is NOT about genetics. There is no American gene but we are united by our values, our institutions, and an identity we choose. 

Hellenism evolved the same way. Three thousand years ago perhaps there was a purely Greek gene, but from the times of Homer to Alexander the Great to the Byzantine empire to today millions of people CHOSE to become Greek, to speak and read and write and learn in Greek, to identify as Greek. Everyone from St. Paul to Giannis Antetokounmpo have done it. From 2,500 BC to 1453, to today, millions 'became' Greek for the same reason my parents and millions of others moved to the United States - because it's awesome (or the peak of civilization, same thing really).

And now, by being a Greek in America, Antetokounmpo has hit the jackpot!
 
Zito o Antetokounmpo! Zito H Ellas!  Zito H Americi!


* Of course, as one of America's foremost historians on Greeks on the NBA, I have to point out that we have already HAD a Greek night in the association, one that coincidentally also included Memphis (makes sense since "it's the home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks").  In the 2001-20002 season, Greek hoopster Antonis Fotsis started one game in his one year in the league, and it was against the Phoenix Suns.  Their starting center was his fellow Hellene Jake Tsakalidis (who played in the NBA for seven years and averaged 5 points a game).  

And as a public service, or if you do not believe me, here's the box score.  If you click on the link you will see that Fotsis and Tsakalidis each finished with 2 points on 1 for 3 shooting. Tsakalidis played 22 minutes to Antonis' 9, and finished with 4 boards. 
   
It is also interesting to see who else played in that game.  Pau Gasol was the starting center for Memphis with Shane Battier at forward.  Tsakalidis's fellow Phoenix starters were a veritable Hoops Who's Who; the starting forwards were NC State's Tom Gugliotta and Shawn 'The Matrix" Marion with a back court made up of Penny Hardaway and Stephon Marbury, with Brooklyn's Joe Johnson coming off the bench with Thunder Dan Majerle.

Of course, just to keep things interesting, I will also point out that unlike Antetokounmpo, Tsakalidis was born in the old Soviet Georgia to ethnic Greek parents. 

One last Antetokounmpo note.  Giannis has been starting at small forward, often alongside Turkey's Ersan Ilyasova.  Ilyasova was born in Turkey, but his last name sounds that he could easily come from a family of one-time Greeks, Albanians or Slavs who eventually converted to Islam thus becoming Turkish.  Either way, in America a Greek and Turk can hoop it up together in harmony!

2014 ACC Hoops Preview

This weekend starts the unofficial official start of the ACC men's basketball season.  Due to the addition of Syracuse, Pitt, and Notre Dame the schedule actually started on December 8th when Maryland - losers at home to Boston University - went on the road to defeat Boston College.  

But starting this weekend almost every ACC team stays within the conference between now and the ACC tournament on March 12th in Greensboro. In fact, there is only one non-conference game left in the entire league, Norfolk State at Miami on Saturday, February 1st (tickets are still available).

Not surprisingly when you consider the name of this blog, I'm picking Carolina to come in first during the regular season (but I don't have Hellenic coming in second, in case you were wondering).  Like most, I see Carolina competing with Duke and Syracuse for the top spot, with Pitt and Virginia giving the ACC five good teams that will make the NCAA tournament.  Notre Dame will be up and down and finish at 9 and 9 and sit firmly on the bubble.  The Irish have wins over Duke and Indiana and could finish with wins over Carolina, Virginia and Pitt.  But losses to North Dakota State and Indiana State, both IN South Bend, could keep them out of the tourney.

Maryland will need some luck but I see them at 9 and 9 - but with no good wins other than over Pitt and Notre Dame in College Park. The lack of good wins coupled with that home loss to BU probably keeps them out in their last year as an ACC team.
  
I have Clemson of all people also finishing at 9 and 9, with good wins over Virginia and Pitt at home. Their best non-conference wins are over Temple, Davidson, and South Carolina but they lost to UMass, and Arkansas and Auburn to go 1-2 versus a very mediocre SEC.  I doubt that is enough to get in.

At one point ACC officials were boasting that half of the new conference, 7 or 8 teams, would make the tournament.  I doubt that will happen.  What is certain is that once again ACC basketball will not be as strong as it was in it's prime, pre-football incarnation, and will once again be a top heavy conference.

Here is my predicted finish:

1. Carolina 15-3; losses at Notre Dame, Duke and an upset at Virginia. I seeing us taking down the 'Cuse in a week on their home floor.
2. Syracuse 14-4; like us, I have them losing tough road games at Pitt, UVA, Duke
3. Duke, 14-4; like SU, losing at Carolina, at Pitt, at Syracuse.  Duke's weak front court will hurt them in big games all year as it did versus Notre Dame on Saturday.
4. Virginia, 11-7; this pre-season top 25 team will hold serve at home, but an upset over Carolina, Duke or Syracuse is necessary to offset some bad non-conference losses.
5. Pitt, 11-7; they will grind down teams at home and struggle on the road with better opponents.
6. Notre Dame, 9-9
7. Maryland, 9-9
8. Clemson, 9-9
9. Georgia Tech, 8-10; play a pretty easy conference schedule
10. NCSU, 8-10; just not very good but better than teams 11-15.
11. FSU, 6-12; may have gotten these guys wrong, but they have a tough schedule and can't score.
12. Wake Forest, 6-12; probably a year away
13. Virginia Tech, 6-12; will be lucky to get to 6 wins actually
14. Miami, 6-12; ditto with VT, and can not score
15. Boston College, 3-15; could be historically, Georgia Tech pre-Cremins bad, 

Some random notes:

• As great as it is to have Syracuse in the league and weaken the horrible, can-not-make-shots Big East, I am still not a fan of this expansion - any expansion past FSU and Virginia Tech frankly. The schedule feels cramped, and there are quite a few teams that play Saturday and Tuesday games in a week. That tight turnaround is bad physically I imagine, but these are also supposed  to be students.  An 18 game schedule has got to mean players are going to miss more classes due to basketball.  
• I tried to use the official ACC app for my iPad to look at schedules, which reminded my how clunky and useless that app is. In addition to having an inadequate 'schedule' tab you can not sort results or schedules by team. Not good. The Raycom and ESPN apps are better in my opinion.
• UNC-Greensboro's Wes Miller, who won a national championship with Carolina in 2005, is 1-3 versus the ACC this year, losing at Carolina and Wake and to State at home but going on the road to defeat Virginia Tech.
• NCCU is 1-1 versus the conference, but 2-0 if you only count the first half.  They beat State in Raleigh in overtime and led Maryland at the half before losing to the Terps.
• It has not been a steady diet of UNC-Gs and NCCUs however. Teams have played ambitious non-conference games. That's nothing new for Carolina and Duke, but teams have played Kansas, UConn, VCU,  UMass, Tennessee, Indiana, etc.  The problem is, the ACC has not fared well in most of those games.  VCU is 3-1 versus the conference, and UMass is 2-1.
• When the ACC has losses to UNC-G and NCCU and a losing record to the Atlantic 10 - which granted is a very good league - you can tell that it once again is a top heavy conference with some terrible bottom feeders.

Random holiday sports blog

As the two-week holiday break comes to a close a variety of sports-related items come to mind and are hopefully blogable.  Two of those items were prompted by events Evan and I attended.

• One was going to see 'Grudge Match' starring Robert 'Raging Bull' De Niro and Sylvester 'Rocky' Stallone.  I'm not going to review the film, which was better than I expected (despite Kevin Hart's complete lack of self respect/minstrel show-like performance) and had an ending that was not obvious or formulaic. There were many mostly-tongue-in-cheek homages to the Rocky movies, which struck me most obviously during the climactic fight between De Niro and Stallone. Once that sequence started I found myself rooting hard for Stallone.  How can anyone root against Rocky?  I stopped watching that franchise after number III, but 'Grudge Match' reminded me how great the first Rocky film was, and how great of a character Rocky Balboa was, I mean IS. 
• in 'Grudge Match' Stallone's character is an out and out liberal. He buys dolphin-safe albacore tuna which he pulls out of a reusable shopping bag while standing in front of a Union Yes sticker on his fridge in a house without a TV but with an artist studio where he fashions small sculptures out of reclaimed scrap metal. All that's missing is NPR on the radio, some free trade coffee and a copy of The New York Times.
• Our second event was last night's disappointing loss to the Tyler Hansbrough-less Toronto Raptors. Though it was only one game, one in which the Wizards came out inexplicably flat and only had about 6 productive minutes the entire game, the loss was another reminder about how cursed DC sports teams are. And the biggest curse is the one of expectations. The 2013 Nats and Washington football team are the most obvious examples, but the 'Zards are doing their part. Every time they come close to .500 they stink up the joint, as they did again on Friday night in dropping their record to 14-16. The only good news is that in the Eastern Conference they are still the 5 seed for the playoffs, and that John Wall is playing like an All Star.
• I guess Washington sports resembles our current political situation. Breaking even is the best we can do - perhaps the most we can expect - with a Democrat in the White House, Dems in charge of the Senate but crazies in charge of the House.
• The best basketball news of the break - NBA division - has got to be Kendall Marshall signing and now excelling with the Lakers. K Butter had 20 points and 15 assists in last night's win over the Jazz. Here's hoping he can build on that and craft the successful NBA career he deserves.
• Speaking of the NBA, I still can not understand how limited Hansbrough's success has been. Some of it has been injuries, but I thought on effort alone he would be more established and successful at this point in his career. Carolina's best NBA player now is probably Ty Lawson, though injuries have slowed him down lately after a great start to the season. Danny Green seemed poised for the title after last year's breakout performance in the NBA finals but has been replaced in the starting line up by Marco Belinelli. 
• San Antonio's starting line up features 4 players - Belinelli, Parker, Splitter and Tim 'U.S. Virgin Islands' Duncan - born outside the 50 United States. Not to be outdone, their in-state colleagues the Texas Rangers' starting line up will likely feature players from EIGHT different countries (if you count Puerto Rico; Japan, Korea, Curacao, DR, Venezuela, Cuba, and the U.S.) on opening day. And the Mavericks' best player is from Germany, their point guard from Spain, and their center from Haiti. Ironic that one of America's most nativist states features sports teams with so much diversity.
• GO HEELS! My ACC preview is coming soon.