Can finally focus on basketball season

The Heels lost a very entertaining Meineke Car Care Bowl yesterday, 30-31, to Dalal Abulhasn's West Virginia Mountaineers. To their credit the Mountaineers, especially quarterback Pat White, made plays down the stretch and the Heels did not.

Despite a phenomenal performance by Hakeem Nicks, who dominated the first half for Carolina, the Heels could not overcome turnovers and dropped passes in the second half. Leading 30 to 24 and driving into West Virginia territory on a drive to put the game away, Shaun Draughn fumbled on the 30. Earlier in the final stanza Greg Little, who had a nice game catching and running the football, dropped a long pass that would have given the Heels a big first down.

Finally, T.J. Yates was intercepted with less than 2 minutes to go on his only bad pass of the game. Those plays were the difference in the game and the loss.

I would have felt better if Hansbrough, or at least Danny Green, were on the field for the football Heels.

Despite the final outcome, the season was a good one for the Heels. We saw Butch Davis point the program in the right direction last season, and the progress continued this year with 8 wins, a bowl game, and road wins at Rutgers and Miami. Best all all, this is still a relatively young team with loads of talent returning. That's true even with Brandon Tate graduating and if Nicks goes pro early.

And despite the final score, Evan and I had a fun time watching the game and tackling each other during commercials.

But before looking forward to the 2009 football season we must turn to the 2009 basketball Heels, who get back in action tonight against Rutgers.

One Quick Nats Note

The Nats did not sign Severna Park-native Mark Teixeira despite putting some serious cheese on the table. I'm not sure he is worth that money, money that the Nats will probably spend on Adam Dunn and hopefully some pitching.

The Yankees upgraded their pitching with CC Sabathia, but even with A.J. Burnett (who only produces in a contract year) and Teixeira I'm not that impressed with the Yankees lineup, projected to be:

LF Johnny Damon (on the downside of his career); SS Derek Jeter (ditto, but not as steep a slide as Damon); 1B Mark Teixeira and 3B Alex Rodriguez (legit threats); DH Hideki Matsui (oft injured and like Damon not the threat he once was); RF Xavier Nady (serviceable but hardly intimidating; I'd go with Nick Swisher); C Jorge Posada (fading fast as most 35+ catchers do); 2B Robinson Cano and CF Melky Cabrera (neither have been focused nor productive the last two seasons; or use Swisher in CF).

Anyway, I'd still put the Yankees behind the Rays and Red Sox in the AL East for 2009.

As for the Nats, though he strikes out a lot and is yet another former Reds player, Dunn would be a nice addition. No one on the Nats hit more than 15 homers last year and Dunn is a consistent 40 homer guy. He'd look good in the four hole.

The Nats would look semi-legit with this lineup: LF Willingham (24 homers with Florida last year); CF Milledge; RF Dukes; 3B Zimmerman; SS Guzman; 2B Willie Harris???? ideally the Nats sign Orlando Hudson and do NOT give the job to Mets reject Anderson Hernandez; 1B Adam Dunn?; C Jesus Flores.

The pitching staff is a bigger question. Former Marlin Scott Olson and former O Daniel Cabrera will likely be the 2nd and 5th starters, respectively, with John Lannan in the rotation as the 3rd or even number one starter. Depending how Cabrera performs in spring training, the Nats could have three rotation - but at least two - spots open, with folks like Colin Balester, Shaun Hill, Jason Bergman, Shairon Martis, Matt Chico and even Mike O'Connor to battling for a spot.

More than anything else

This time of year it's the anticipation, more than anything else, that drives me and others nuts.  

When, oh when, will the Meineke Car Care Bowl finally get here?

What an incredibly lame name for a bowl game.  Will Carolina add that corporate name - or logo - to the 'ring of honor' at Kenan?  Could anything be more crass?  Great to see amateur athletes shilling for companies like Fed Ex, Meineke, Papajohns.com (for my money, if you're playing in a bowl with .com in it you are officially in the lamest bowl of them all), and other leading lights of American capitalism.

At 46 I'm entitled to sound like a cranky old(ish) man, but I liked it better when there were only four New Year's Day bowl games: Rose, Cotton, Sugar and Orange.  There were other bowls, like the Gator, Liberty, Sun and Peach, but for years that was about it.  You could easily and obviously gauge how your season went: if you played on New Year's Day, you probably won your conference and were among the best teams in the country.  If you played in the Gator Bowl, etc. you had a above average season.  Unlike now, where a 6-5 season gets you a code to redeem at a pizza company's website and a reward for being mediocre.

Christmas Redux

We had our typical Manuel-Merow Christmas yesterday: Alison and the kids stayed in their pjs all day playing games and hanging out. This year that mainly meant playing Mario Kart, Wii Music and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on the Wii, Ariadne playing brain bowl and a fashion show game on Nintendo DS, and Evan goofing off with all things Star Wars (light sabre, model x-wing fighter, etc.).  The kids had a great day, and were smiling from 8 am to 11 pm when they finally went to bed.  I'm usually a Christmas outlier: I take a shower and usually go for a walk - and go outside! - after lunch.

Another Christmas tradition was watching some NBA basketball.  The Celtics and Lakers played an entertaining game with the Lakers ending the Celtics' win streak. I didn't have much rooting interest in the game, but still can not root for the Celtics.  

The Wizards lost again later that night to the Cavaliers.  Washington, especially Antawn Jamison, played great and had an eight-point lead with two minutes to go until the referees whistled three questionable calls against the Wizards.  Another tradition, home teams led by a superstar getting the calls. 

A few more Christmas Day hoopservations:

• Does anyone look more European than Pau Gasol?  The terrible shaggy haircut, 'I still live with my parents' beard, soccer-ready upper body?
• I think that game featured two NBA players - TWO - without ANY tattoos: Leon Powe and Derrick Fisher. Had to be a record.
• The Wizards need a point-guard.  They had trouble all day getting the ball to their best players: Jamison and Butler.  Mike James scored a lot yesterday, but they need a one who can initiate their office and get those too lots of looks.  They don't have that now.