Opening Round

In the words of Larry David, the first week of games in the NCAA tournament have been 'pretty, pretty good.'  I'd like to espouse on the entire week - NC State beating Xavier, the other 12 seeds ALL winning, etc. - but of course my twin poles* are Carolina's scintillating win and Duke's equally scintillating loss.

As a basketball game the UNC-Providence tilt was a great one. Both teams made shots and made plays all game. It's not unusual to see ugly games this time of year, with games that are filled with mistakes and missed shots; this was not one of those. Both teams played hard and played well.

For my money, despite my love for Marcus Paige and as great as he was late, this game was won by Brice Johnson.  He competed on both ends of the floor, and in this one his defense matched his always reliable offense. Brice did it all well.  He hit his array of half hooks and put backs, and made two big free throws down the stretch.

On D, he had two massive blocked shots after Bryce "Second coming of Harold The Show Arceneaux" Cotton had willed Providence to a 5 point lead.  And Johnson excelled throughout in executing one of THE cornerstones of Carolina basketball - the wall on defense.  Carolina started playing Cotton to drive, and on the times we did stop him it was often Johnson providing the back line defense.

As great as Cotton was Johnson turned out to be the best Bryce/Brice on the floor.

For a few minutes there thanks to Cotton and Mercer Carolina fans had to confront reliving two of the worst days in our hoops history - the loss to Arceneaux and Weber State in the first round in 1999, and 1979's Black Friday when the Tar Heels and the Devils both lost in the first round.** 

It was a head-scratching display by the Devils, as an ACC team coached by a Hall of Famer looked nervous and scared down the stretch. Conversely, Mercer looked confident and consistently made shots and plays. The body language from Rodney Hood after he was called for traveling said it all.  

This Devils team was weak at the point and down low all season, and both flaws were certainly exposed by the Bears. When Quinn Cook is the brains of the operation, you are in trouble. 

That is probably an overly harsh assessment of Cook.*** Hood and Jabari Parker both played nervously and badly, and when that happens this Devils team is going to lose, simple as that.

Still, kudos to Krzyzewski for his classy visit to the Mercer locker room to congratulate the Bears on their win. It takes a confident and centered man to do that, and I'm sure the players and staff from Mercer were touched by his words and visit.  A very Dean-like mover from a blue Devil.

Some more March Madness Musings
    
I still love Carolina's chances to win 5 more games. They had to play tough and smart to beat Providence, and did.  GO HEELS!

If the Heels don't win it all I hope that Virginia does. If the Hoos do not, I would happily root for Wichita State, where Eddie Fogler used to coach. Their coach, Greg Marshall, seems far too happy with himself (the greatest sin to the ancient Greeks) but it would be a great story.

Here are my round of 32 picks BTW: 
Florida - Pitt will give them a game though, thanks to their new-found offense
Stephen F Austin - riding a winning streak AND the mojo of that four-point play
Syracuse - Dayton will run out of gas
Kansas - Ho hum; Stanford can't hang with Jayhawks
Virginia - Scare from Coastal Carolina will make them better
Michigan State - Ho hum
Carolina - Marcus Paige is GOD
Villanova - No comment on this game
Arizona - See Villanova comment
ND State - These guys our pretty good, SD State untested
Creighton - A little bit better than Baylor
Wisconsin - Much better than Oregon
Wichita State - Chip on their shoulder leads them to win over Kentucky blue bloods
Louisville - They are much better than the team they are playing
Mercer - Call them butter because they are on a roll!
Michigan - This will be a great game that the Wolverines will win late          

*  I can not believe the CBS play-by-play guy used the word 'pollack' to describe Gonzaga's Polish-born center - and to do so while calling the game with Mike GMINSKI! Kudos to the G-man, who is one of the best color commentators in America, for immediately calling him out.

** Who knows, if this was 2019 maybe we would have lost. Or Carolina fans should play 19 in the lottery?

*** I think it's safe to say that Cook easily joins Laettner, Wojo, and Redick on the list of most loathesome Devils of all time.  That guys loves himself and his fellow right-wing boobs from Durham WAY too much, and thus he makes that dubious list.

GO HEELS!

Quick picks for 2012 NCAA tournament

As you have no doubt read by now, my first draft bracket is like a Charles Bronson movie. Carolina gets revenge for: the 2008 Final Four and beats Kansas in the regional final; losing to FSU twice this year by beating the Noles in the national semi-final; losing to Kentucky last year and in December by winning the 2012 National Championship.  


In terms of the brackets, the Midwest and East look pretty tame. In the Midwest, I guess Belmont takes down Georgetown so NC State goes to the sweet 16 but that's it in terms of upsets.  

In the East, I have Vandy beating Syracuse (44 to 41 or something exciting like that, though I want to pick UNC-Asheville in an historic upset over the Orange), and FSU toughing it out against a slumping Ohio State on their way to their first Final Four since 1972 (where coincidentally enough, they beat Robert McAdoo and the Tar Heels).

I have a few upsets in the South - UNLV over Duke - but that's about it as Kentucky coasts in an easy region.

The West, however, is the crazy bracket. I have Memphis over Michigan State, Long Beach State (and their Kramer inspired 'The Beach' unis) and Murray State BOTH making the sweet 16 before Missouri beats Memphis to win the regional.

Then Carolina finally beats FSU, and Kentucky blows out Missouri in the national semi-finals. A gassed Kentucky runs out of steam late in the second half, Marshall feeds Zeller, and Barnes drives at will as the Heels win 81-71 in their favorite Final Four destination, New Orleans.

Or something like that.

Oh yeah, GO HEELS!

In Z I trust

I'm feeling good about tonight's tilt versus the devils.

Why?

Mainly Tyler Zeller.  Not only has he been playing great lately, but I think there has GOT to be some karmic pay back for the game in Chapel Hill.

Of course, the Heels need to go over screens tonight to guard the devils' three pointers,  Marshall needs to be Marshall - but how can he not be? - and we need to rebound.

I also feel that Barnes, who simply seems to be less engaged against lesser teams, will be super focused tonight.

So put it down - Heels 86, Duke 73.  Or something like that.  GO HEELS!

Got one out of the way

Glad to see us get it inside, happy to see us shoot it well, and glad to see us win - but very nervous about all the turnovers.  Zeller, Barnes and Henson looked great but our entire back court, especially Marshall, looked way to shaky.

I caught parts of the Washington - Georgia game,  and neither team shot it well on Friday night.  Overall, neither team looked as good as LIU.  

But, still a little nervous.

And have to mention how much I'm bummed seeing Irving back for Duke.  Or is his return the first sign of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx starting to infect Nolan Smith?  Let's hope so.

GO HEELS!

Good Guys Win, Bad Guys Lose

In assessing anything Carolina-Duke it's easy to pivot to the obvious differences -  liberal versus conservative, public versus private, Paul Wellstone versus Rand Paul, humility and authenticity versus arrogance and entitlement - that animate the rivalry.

Tonight none of that mattered.  What did was that Carolina was simply better than Duke on the basketball court.

As it has been of late, the Heels played a complete game.  Everyone contributed, from the walk-ons who played hard and were NOT scared for the first two-minutes, to Leslie McDonald and Justin Knox making plays off the bench, to Henson continuing to be a force down low even with 2 early fouls, to Zeller bringing it down the stretch, to Dexter Strickland throwing down the best dunk since Danny Green stole Greg Paulus' manhood a few years ago.

But the first among equals were Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall.  

Barnes was steady all night, but was HUGE in stopping Duke's deja vu run to start the second half.  As it was at the University of Long Island at Durham a month ago, the Devils cut into a double-digit halftime lead with a 7-0 run to start the second half.  Barnes would have none of it.  The alleged 'freshman' from Iowa went on his own seven-zero run and the game was, but for the shouting, over.   When the Heels needed to answer the Devils, Barnes did.

The H Barn was not the only freshman to step up.  It's easy to forget how young this team is when you see guys like Barnes and player of the game Kendall Marshall play the way they did tonight.

Marshall was steady, not spectacular, in leading the Heels to a spectacular and methodical win over the right-wing boobs from Durham.  KButter finished with 15 and 11 assists.  This is his team.

Finally, one more word on the walk-ons.  As impressive as Barnes and Marshall were, I was equally impressed by the 2 minutes of play from DJ Johnson, Van Hatchell, and Daniel Bolick - and by Roy's decision to start 3 walk-ons in the most important game of the year.  

How cool is that?

Private versus public, conservative versus liberal, etc. but the reason Carolina is better than Duke - in every way, not just on the basketball court - was that decision to start the walk-ons.  Roy rewarded unheralded, unsung Tar Heels who play hard in practice and make this team better.  For that, we are cooler than Duke, with better karma.

And this year a better basketball team.

GO HEELS!

Esse Quam Videri

Visit to UNC Basketball Museum

Even if Carolina had won by 30 and Barnes had scored 40, the highlight of Saturday’s game versus Boston College, at least for me, would have been being in the same room – ok, building – as Tyler Hansbrough. 

Evan, my nephew Paul and I were able to attend that game (thanks to StubHub), and the entire day was one big highlight, from lunch at my sister's, to the museum, to the game itself, to the visit to the campus Wellstone memorial, to dinner at Dip's.

But seeing Hansbrough was honestly the most exhilarating moment.  And as great as Hansbrough was in Chapel Hill, in retrospect it was his epitomizing Carolina that stands out.  At a time of incredible, and in most cases justifiable, cynicism in sports Carolina stands out. 

Prior to the game the three of us visited the outstanding Carolina basketball museum. I’m surprised about how emotional it got during the visit. 

Like most UNC grads, I never played basketball at UNC yet I feel so emotionally invested.  The reason has to be that the values set up by Dean Smith and carried out – usually faithfully - by his successors.

I had originally typed ‘program’ but it really is values. Those values are one reason many of us, but frankly not enough of my fellow alums, are mad at Butch Davis.  I imagine Davis has visited the museum, but I doubt he really gets Carolina if you ask me. 

You visit the Carolina basketball museum and you see a tribute to hard work, success, humility, and perspective. One could argue that humility and perspective are incongruous with a museum; only a school like Carolina could pull that off.

As much as Carolina basketball is about Dean Smith, his values and success may oddly stem from the state of North Carolina and it’s motto.

Hanging over the Dean Dome is one of the largest North Carolina state flags in the world. Every time I see that flag I’m reminded of the state’s motto: To Be Rather Than to Seem. 

I’m getting weepy just typing Esse Quam Videri, that eloquent line of Latin. 

That motto epitomizes both North Carolina and Carolina basketball. Dean knew that authenticity - being - camaraderie, intelligence, effort, hard work, humility and honesty are cornerstones of success. 

You can add democracy to the list, too, when you consider that all that happens at a public university, the nation’s first, dedicated to making an undereducated state more intelligent.

From a bench at the UNC Wellstone Memorial

A place that we love so because it is, as it always has been, the university of the people. All those values, and more, are on display at the museum.

[And the barbeque is pretty excellent, too]

Other schools are as successful as Carolina, and some came close to sustaining a set of authentic values – John Wooden’s UCLA teams being the obvious example.  But no school, let alone basketball team, has sustained a set a values and success as has Carolina.

And when one of Dean’s successors, Matt Doherty, violated some of those values he paid for it.  He earned that 8-20 blemish on his record.

So when Tyler Hansbrough stood up at the end of a video tribute, 21,000 Tar Heels leapt out of their seats to cheer one of their own, one who epitomizes both the University of North Carolina and the State of North Carolina: to be rather than to seem.

As I tweeted during my visit to the museum: God I love Carolina.

Again with the winning ugly!

As miserable as the win was, think how numbing Heels fans would feel if we had lost? Losing that kind of game can ruin a season, especially this late in the year.  It’s trite to say, but winning is better than losing, for a number of reasons.  One good one: winning allows you to just dust the ugly stuff off your shoulder and move on to your next game.

We were able to attend, and at least live it appeared that we got good looks but left tons of points on the rim, epitomized by Marshall’s in-and-out basket with less than a minute left and the Heels nursing a 2-point lead.

It also appeared that we were determined to go inside.  Much has been made of our bad three-point shooting of late.  But I was almost heartened by Roy’s determination (in a loss that’s called stubbornness) to keep feeding the post and NOT jack up lots of threes.  When we fed the post in the second half – in addition to getting it to Zeller we really ran better, too - we built a 15-point lead.

And as bad as our shooting was the biggest problem down the stretch was turnovers, turnovers from guys who usually – at least of late – don’t make them: Zeller, Barnes and Marshall.  Who else on Carolina’s team would you want handling the ball late than those three?


For me, the good news is there isn’t much of a pattern in our recent lackluster play.  Against Wake and Clemson we didn’t turn it over, against BC we did.  I’m confident that the weirdness of the BC game will not carry over versus the Wolfpack on Wednesday.

What hopefully will is the incredibly tough D the Heels played for most of the game. The Heels never let BC run their offense.  Again, the turnovers late let BC make some shots to get back into the game but overall the defensive effort was inspiring. 

As always, GO HEELS!