Heels win!

That headline does not do tonight's improbable win over Tennessee justice.  In the last 2 minutes there were enough weird and wacky plays for a life time of games, let alone one, let alone the something called the Franklin Mortgage Music City Bowl.


With a minute and a half left the Heels were dead, trailing 20 to 17 (Carolina was only down 3 thanks to HUGE a blocked extra point by Dante Paige-Moss)  AND Tennessee had the ball after a dropped pass by Dwight Jones on 4th and 20.  


I even left them for dead; at that point I tweeted: 'Heels first game ended w/ a dropped pass by our best receiver (Pianalto) and loss to an SEC team (LSU); last game ends the same way (Jones and Tennessee)."


But we had two times out left, the defense held and forced Tennessee to punt, and yadda yadda yadda, Carolina got the ball back on our 20 with 39 seconds left.  T.J. Yates, who has been so inspirational all season, completed a 35-yard pass to 'Woody' Harrelson, a play that netted 15 more yards after Tennessee was whistled for spearing/leading with the helmet.


The spearing was a huge blunder as it almost immediately put Carolina in field goal range.  But it was not the biggest blunder of the last minute and a half.


Fast forward to 16 seconds left.  Carolina is out of time outs but has moved the ball to the LSU 28.  The key phrase is OUT OF TIME OUTS.  Instead of throwing a pass to the sideline, a play that would have given the field goal unit a chance to take the field, Butch Davis called a running play.  The good news - Sean Draughn ran for 9 yards to the 17 yard line.  The bad news - and it was bad - was that the running play left almost no time to spike the ball and therefore give the kicking team a chance to take the field.


At that moment the Carolina Tar Heels became the Carolina Keystone Cops.  While Yates was trying to get the offense set - which was taking a long time since the Heels had gained almost 10 yards -  the field goal unit started taking the field.


Panic ensued, but more importantly the clock was winding down.  


Luckily, Yates kept his head ("If you can keep your wits about you while those around you are losing theirs, then you are a man my son" - from If, by my main man Rudyard Kipling) and realized that time was more critical than yardage.  He ran under center, took the snap, and spiked the ball with one second left.  Of course, with the kicking team running around Carolina was whistled for having too many men on the field.  


The penalty moved the ball back to the 22, but most importantly the penalty stopped the clock. The kicking team took the field - correctly this time - and Casey Barth calmly nailed a 39-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.


In the second overtime a Quan Sturdivant interception set up another Barth field goal, this time from 22 yards, and somehow the Heels won a game that Butch Davis should have lost.


For me, this game reminded me of how resilient and determined the Heels team has been, and how much of an embarrassment Butch Davis has been as a coach. 


You don't have to be Vince Lombardi to know that when you are OUT OF TIME OUTS you don't run it with 16 seconds left.  You need quick plays, and at that point in the game quick=pass.  Then to see the kicking team run out onto the field, when we had yet to spike the ball or kill the clock?  The team was obviously unorganized and panicky.  


Disorganization and a lack of discipline have been a problem all season for the Heels.  During the season it usually manifested itself in too many stupid penalties.  That happened tonight, too, but the running play with 16 seconds left and the kicking team taking the field were the whipped cream and cherry a top an undisciplined team sundae (in case you're wondering, that last line was NOT from Kipling).


I honestly don't see the appeal of Butch Davis.  It's not like he's winning 10 games a season, or the Heels are playing for the ACC championship every year.  Instead, we get 8 wins, embarrassing headlines about agents on campus, players cheating in class and getting thrown off the team, and a football team that wins IN SPITE of their coach's clock management or organization.  


I imagine Carolina can find some one else who could win 8 games a year, take us to a middling bowl game, AND not embarrass a university known throughout the country for doing things the right way when it comes to student-athletes. 


I support firing Butch Davis before he embarrasses the university any more.


Who DO I support? The Tar Heel players.  Like I said earlier, the players have been inspiring in the face of the suspensions and injuries.  Tonight a number of Heels stepped up and made plays, the first among equals being Yates. 


Statistically he had a mediocre game, but leadership-wise he WAS Carolina football tonight.  His decision to spike the ball is the most vivid example.  But I also loved his 39-yard touchdown to Dwight Jones to end the first half, a smart, savvy, improvisational play.  


Of course, Barth was cool as the other side of the pillow in making a clutch field goal with one second left.


Tight end Robert Taylor, a senior like Yates, had 9 catches including two big ones in final drive in regulation.


Draughn carried the load all game and scored on a nifty 58-yard run in the first quarter.


Quentin Coples was huge on defense, and the unsung play of the game was Paige-Moss' blocked extra point.  


That blocked point after touchdown symbolizes this team. It's a minor detail, the extra point, and there was every reason for Carolina to pack it in at that point.  But that was true for the entire season.  When Greg Little and Marvin Austin were kicked off the team the entire Carolina squad could have given up the season.


But Paige-Moss did not give in on that extra point, and he and Yates and Barth and Taylor and Coples and Highsmith and Burney and Sturdivant and etcetera did not give in on the season, either. 


Pretty good stuff.  


GO HEELS!


PS: Fire Butch Davis

Coda

Not Ed Cota.  Rather, let's end this bad era.

The last 12 to 18 months were not that great.  Many of you have heard me lament how 18 months ago, in April 2009, I was in the White House to watch President Obama sign the Omnibus Wilderness Bill into law.  A few days later Tyler Hansbrough led the Heels to their fifth NCAA championship. 

Since then we've seen Duke win a national championship and the rise of ignorance/the Tea Party, otherwise known as Rand Paul.

But that era is now over.  

And the person to lead us out of the morass is . . .  No, not Barack Obama.  I'm talking about that proud son of Ames, Iowa - Harrison Barnes.

Yes, Carolina basketball begins anew tomorrow night. After a one year bad dream (I was going to say nightmare, but we all know the roots of that word are Doherty, Latin for night, and eightandtwenty, late Saxon for mare) the transition from the Hansbrough era to the Barnes one tips off Friday night versus Lipscomb.

Funny to think how at this time last year I was optimistic about Marcus Ginyard, Ed Davis and Deon Thompson's Heels, and full of promise about Larry Drew, John Henson, and Dexter Strickland.  Funny how ancient some of those names seems now, even though Deon Thompson IS the Carolina and Hellenic Blue blog since he plays professionally in Greece. 

The 2009 National Champs could not do anything wrong, but last year's team could not do anything right: shoot, rebound, make smart decisions, beat Duke in Cameron for a fifth year in a row, etc.

But Barnes is supposed to change everything.  He's even been voted a preseason first team All-American.  Not pre-season first-team ACC freshman team - first team NATIONAL All-American.

Despite the hype around Barnes - and fellow freshmen Reggie Bullock and Kendall Marshall - I'm more apprehensive this year than I was a year ago.  Just as I thought the election of Obama meant the U.S. had finally turned the corner politically into a mature, serious, problem-solving society only to see American politics tripped up by the Tea Party,  last year's season brought back all the anxieties and nervousness of the lost years of the post-Dean era.  I thought Roy had solved that malaise - he has won two national championships in six years!  But that's what losing can do, at least watching Carolina lose can do, to a person.

Things have got to get better.  Roy, like Obama, is too good to let a lost season/election cycle happen again.  Henson, Dexter Strickland, and Tyler Zeller - who if healthy could become a monster talent this season - will be a lot better.

But just like much of Obama's success will depend on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, ol' Roy will have to rely on Larry Drew II.  Drew's numbers were decent last year, but a point guard is not a numbers position.  You've got to lead, inspire, think on your feet, and deliver when needed - like Nancy Pelosi.  I think all the good people in the world are hoping that Drew - and Reid  - get their Pelosi on in the 2011 season.

GO HEELS!

One more Tar Heel topic: how about that thrilling win IN Tallahassee against the Seminoles?!  Their 37-35 win,  Carolina's first ever at Doak Campbell Stadium, helped wash the bad-election taste from my mouth.  The Heels fought the entire game, TJ Yates had another terrific game, and Carolina even got meaningful contributions from their fourth string running back, someone named Hunter Furr (do they wear that when they hunt? Really?).

Anyway, have to give some grudging props to Butch Davis.  He has held the team together despite suspensions, injuries and investigations.  I'm torn as to what to think about the guy.  

On second thought, give the props to the players.  The football program has clearly embarrassed the university, a sin for which there is almost no penance.  But the Tar Heels football team, the players who have kept their noses clean, are competing and making the university proud.

I assume Harrison Barnes will do the same, starting tomorrow night.

48 Hours

 It's embarrassing to admit how much my mood is impacted by the Heels.  As I get older I have gained more perspective so I haven't been mad or short tempered since Sunday night's loss to Virginia.  But it still gnaws at me, to see how badly Carolina played in that loss.


And I'm just a casual fan/blogger.  It must be tearing the players and Roy up, to the point where 'ol Roy got emotional at his post-game press conference.


Let's hope the loss to Virginia was a testament to overconfidence - the Heels had just rolled over State and new a win over the Cavaliers would make them 3-3 - and not due to a lack of talent or heart, or bad coaching.


I guess we'll find out in another 48 hours, when the Heels travel to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech. I wonder if the Heels will find inspiration from the football Heels. Just 3 months ago, also on a Thursday night, Carolina saved their season by defeating the Hokies a week after losing at home to Florida State.  What are the odds of salvaging two seasons in Blacksburg?


And though the Heels are 2-4 they can still finish at 8-8, enough to make the NCAA tournament when you consider their schedule, pedigree, and record.  


To get to 8-8 the Heels will need to do the following:

• win at Virginia Tech, at Boston College, their two most winnable away games;
• hold serve at home versus Duke, NC State, Florida State and Miami.

That's a doable path to 8-8.  


Finally, I would not be surprised if we steal a win at Duke.  It's unlikely, as simply the odds of winning any away game in the ACC five times in a row are improbable, especially for a team that only scored 60 points at home versus Virginia.  But we play the Dookies in the last game of the regular season, and the Devils could start their annual late-season, Krzyzewski-fatigue induced swoon early this season.  Could happen.


Anyway, we'll know soon enough.  Call Butch Davis, and have him fire up the Heels with tales from the football team's win in Blacksburg.  And GO HEELS!

Cure for Car Care Bowl Fever

What a bad loss for the Heels yesterday, or as Joey Pillow texted me "that was embarrassingly awful." 


There are three things to talk about when looking back at yesterday's game: embarrassingly awful mistakes; a failure to close out games; and finally questions about when is Carolina football going to finally turn the corner?


Embarrassingly awful mistakes: quarterback TJ Yates' interception at the goal line in the second quarter; Greg Little's stupid punt after a great and super-athletic touchdown catch; Barth's out-of-bounds squib kick at the end of the first half; 12 penalties; worst of all, the offsides that allowed Pitt to kick a 33-yard field goal instead of a 47 yarder.  


That is a long list of mistakes to overcome.


Closing out games: it seems that time after time, the Heels have a lead but can't finish.  Perhaps the Heels assume their excellent defense will always rise to the occasion, and maybe we need more depth on that side of the ball to keep guys fresh for four quarters.  Or the offense needs to stay on the field longer.  For whatever reason, the defense hasn't been able to close out games against Georgia Tech, at home vs. Florida State, at NC State, and the last 2 Meineke Car Care Bowls.


Finally, when will Carolina football turn the corner? Butch Davis has tantalizingly teed up expectations by regularly beating Miami, beating Notre Dame last year, defeating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg this season.  However, the Heels can't beat NC State or Virginia.  Those wins, and Davis' recruiting prowess, have made casual football fans like me -  I can't believe I've spent so much time blogging about Carolina football - really care again.  


To finally turn the corner the Heels will need to cut down on the mistakes, especially the mental ones like Yates bad interceptions and penalties, and get over the hump by defeating teams like Virginia and particularly NC State.  Heels fans will have high expectations for next year's team, a team that will feature a more experienced offensive line, a four-year starter at quarterback, and an experienced defense that hopefully will learn to close out games.


On the other hand, maybe Carolina football has turned the corner. The Heels have gone to back-to-back bowl games, and the fact that Carolina football matters and that fans have realistic and ambitious expectations is a testament to where Butch Davis has taken the program.  Let's hope for continued progress and at least 9 wins - including a win over NC State - next year.


A Few Random Notes

• If the game had been on Dec. 26th, Evan and I would have seriously considered going. Having to travel so close to Christmas was a deal-breaker for us, and I guess for many North Carolinians as only 50,000 showed up yesterday.
• Terrible basketball games to watch on Christmas.  I like the NBA-Christmas hoops tradition, but this year's games were terrible.  I've never liked the Celtics - even though Sheed plays for them now - and liked them even less after watching Boston spend 48 minutes swarming and hacking Dwight Howard.  Ditto for the Lakers-Cavaliers game, another inelegant wrestling match of a game.  Let the players play; I wish referees would call more fouls against physical defenses.  There are too many low-scoring scrums in the post-Pat Riley NBA.
• The Wizards, in particular Gilbert Arenas, looked terrible yesterday.  I thought he was fully recovered from his knee problems and having not played basketball for two seasons, but he's not. The Wiz committed 18 turnovers in losing to Wayne Ellington's Minnesota Timberwolves.  
• Tyler Hansbrough had a double-double last night, 19 and 11, in the Pacers' loss to Marvin Williams' Atlanta Hawks.  Hansbrough played a season-high 31+ minutes and was 7 for 20 from the field.  He's having a good season now that he appears to be fully back in basketball shape but his shooting percentage continues to be in the 30s (37 percent for the season).  One reason is Psycho T continues to have a lot of his shots blocked; against the Hawks last night 6 of his shots were blocked (4 by Al Horford). Once he figures that out . . .

Thanksgiving in the ville

Didn't get a chance to blog during the Thanksgiving holiday in Fayetteville due to the lack of wi-fi at my folks' house (disappointing legions of fans).  


However, there are some good wi-fi places in the 'ville, namely the 'Coffee Scene' near my parents house across from the Westwood shopping center.  Not coincidentally, it's Greek-owned by one of my first baby sitters, Kiki (Parrous)  Manis.  It's a funky, family-owned joint with good coffee.  It's so funky and cool and urbane that you would forget you were in Fayetteville (if not for the Roses and Food Lion across the street in the downscale Westwood Shopping Center).


Another place is 'Rude Awakening' coffee shop on one of the rehabilitated blocks on Hay Street downtown. We went downtown on Friday night for the annual Dickens Christmas celebration. There is the some there there as Fayetteville has worked hard to made downtown a destination. For 30 years of downtown was full of notorious strip clubs and seedy bars and Hay Street was synonymous - all over North Carolina - with prostitution and drugs.  


But give Fayetteville credit - they wiped out the seedy blocks, and there are a number of local businesses now on Hay Street: Rude Awakening, an art-house theater that packed in audiences to watch Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 911', and a half-dozen restaurants ranging from a brew pub to a diner to a couple new American cuisine places.  


So if you ever visit Fayetteville hit the Coffee Scene and downtown and help Fayetteville make a comeback.


Evan would move to Fayetteville tomorrow if he could.  He loves North Carolina almost as much as I do, and would like nothing more than to move anywhere close to my parents or his cousins Paul and Alex.


A Few Random Notes

• Of course, if we visit God's Country we have to visit the Southern Part of Heaven.  On Friday we met Johnny and his family at Time Out for lunch (so Ariadne and Alison could enjoy a chicken and cheddar biscuit; with our homecoming visit Evan's eaten 3 of those in the last month).  
• The boys then headed to Fetzer Field to watch the most dominant dynasty in the history of sports, the Carolina women's soccer team.  The Heels jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on their way to a 5-2 win over Wake Forest in a NCAA regional final.  The win means the Heels qualified for their 25th final four (out of 28 years of NCAA women's soccer tournaments) and will shoot for their 21st - 21st! - national championship next weekend.
• It's obviously a skilled and talented team but I was most impressed by Carolina's first goal.  Jessica McDonald ran down a pass and reached it just before it went out of bounds in the corner.  Barely slowing down McDonald nailed a perfect cross - on the run -  into the box where Carolina's All-Everything Casey Nogueira (a North Carolina native, BTW) headed it in for a 1-0 lead. 
• On a down note, the Carolina football team saw their 4-game winning streak snapped at rival NC State on Saturday afternoon, 27-28.  The Heels played well, especially in the first half.  But mistakes cost them, especially a key fumble at the goal line in the first quarter, some terrible penalties on State's first drive of the second half, and a blocked field goal was too much for the football Heels to overcome.  State's offense was also able to move the ball against Carolina's impressive defense, something ranked teams like Miami and Virginia Tech were not able to do.  The loss will likely keep the Heels out of the Chic-fil-a Bowl on New Year's Eve in Atlanta, and the Heels will probably end up in Charlotte's Meineke Car Care Bowl (a terrible name, not nearly as romantic as the original Continental Tires Bowl) in late December.
• That said, this was a pretty good year for the Heels and Butch Davis.  Most of the defense will return, and the young offensive line has really improved down the stretch so this team could be scary-good next year.

Finally, a few caustic notes

• Regardless of the details, Tiger Woods lost whatever manhood he had over the weekend. Anyone who totals his car running into a FIRE HYDRANT and has to have his wife rescue him by smashing his windshield with a gold club has NO manhood left. 
• For the latest example of how disgusting capitalism is, check out the front page of today's SundayStyles section of The New York Times. Above the fold is a series of photos of a 10-year old girl being surprised in school by her father as he returns from Iraq. At the bottom of the page is an ad for Gucci complete with pouty/bored/wealthy/stupid looking models.  We value one thing, the market another.

All football post (almost)

Pretty big football weekend for Carolina Hellenic Blue.

Carolina opens the season as a ranked football team for the first time in years on Saturday, September 5th at 6:00 pm. The Heels take on The Citadel, a military school located in secessionville, Charleston, South Carolina. The Tar Heels will open with a team from the lesser football division (formerly Division 1-AA, now called the Football Championship Series division since they utilize a quaint method known as 'a tournament' to determine their national champion) for the third straight year.

I agree with many who say this is an important season for the Butch Davis version of the football Heels. Almost all the players on the roster are his recruits, and everything about the program has Davis' stamp on it.

And the Heels should be good. They return 8 of 11 starters on defense. On that side of the ball the Heels should be fast, especially at linebacker.

The main questions are on offense. Most pre-season talk has focused on an inexperienced corps of receivers. But for me the keys will be quarterback T.J. Yates' health and turnovers (HUGE football acumen here: the key to the team will be the quarterback and not making mistakes - brilliant!).

When healthy, Yates is an above-average athletic playmaker. I hope he can start 11 games this season. Plus, Greg Paulus's brother is his back up this year, and I'm just skeptical about anything Paulus related.

Last year, Carolina didn't turn the ball over than much, but they did so at terrible moments. A few drive-killing turnovers by Shaun Draughn, especially against Virginia Tech and Maryland, altered those games and perhaps even cost the Heels a 10-win season.

So it will be interesting to see how The Citadel game goes. Last season, another hyped Heels squad struggled to beat a Division 1-AA school in McNeese State. Carolina's defense should dominate the Bulldogs, but it will be telling to see how the offense plays tomorrow. A good start, say a 30-3 win, will demonstrate that the defense is as good as advertised AND give the offense confidence heading into the more challenging part of the UNC's schedule.

GO HEELS!

HELLENIC FOOTBALL

Greece plays a huge game tomorrow at Switzerland in a 2010 World Cup qualifying match. Ellas and Switzerland are tied atop their group with 13 points each, so the winner of tomorrow's game will have the inside track to qualify. The 2004 European champions should be easily leading their group, but Greece inexplicably lost to the Swiss at home earlier this year.

A win, and the 3 points, would virtually guarantee Greece's qualification for the 2010 World Cup (it would only be the second World Cup for Greece; they qualified but played embarrassing football in the 1994 World Cup here in the U.S.). But a tie, and 1 point, would not be the end of the world (cup) for Ellas. That's because Switzerland has a tougher schedule after tomorrow's tilt. While Greece goes on to play at Moldova before finishing at home versus Latvia and Luxembourg, 9 relatively easy points to pick up, the Swiss have games at Latvia and Luxembourg but finish at home against a tough Israel team. If any of those games end in a tie the Swiss will only pick up 7 points, giving Greece the group and a ticket to South Africa.

The game against Switzerland will be shown on a delayed basis on Setanta sports Saturday at 4 pm eastern. If you are in DC feel free to come by the house to watch the game with me and Evan. However, we have to leave right at 6 pm, right after the game should end, to go to a 7:05 Nationals game.

Please let me know ahead of time if you want to come over so I can have enough ouzo on hand.

GO ELLAS!

ONE LAST FOOTBALL NOTE

Interesting column today by Tom Boswell regarding the offensive nicknames (a term he uses in the column) and football game tickets. The column expands on a recent article in the Post that discussed the role of ticket broker that also debunked the myth of the long waiting list for season tickets.

The most shocking tidbit though was that the team sues season ticket holders who do not buy all their tickets. So which one is it, is there a waiting list for these sought-after tix, or do you have to take legal action to force a FAN to buy tickets? Either way, the ticket practices confirm all the spoiled and unlikeable rich-kid stereotypes about team owner Daniel Snyder.