Return to the Final Four, and Return of the Carolina Way

The great run of this year's Tar Heel squad has been exhilarating for a number of reasons.  One, it's the Tar Heels!  Two, after too long of a stretch without an ACC championship or a Final Four (since 2008 and 2009, respectively) the Heels have reasserted their place at the top of our nation's basketball pantheon.  And three, and most importantly, this team has marked the return of the Carolina Way.

The academic scandal, which has tarnished both the basketball program and more importantly THE University of the People, has practically erased that Dean Smith-built standard.  But this year's team has resurrected the Carolina Way, in many different ways.

As I've joked with friends throughout the year, you know this squad - and every squad since the scandal broke - is not taking paper classes with majors clustered in the old and notorious  African-American and African Studies department.* This is a likable team of student athletes, personified by first-team Academic All American Marcus Paige. Roy seems to really love coaching them, and the warmth between the players and coach is evident: on senior night; in the locker room celebrations; on the dais of the post-game press conferences; everywhere.

It's also an old school, Dean-like team of upper classmen.  Eleven of the players are juniors or seniors, and the roster is made up of the kind of guys Dean used to guide from perplexed freshmen into all-Americans in four years, guys like Brice Johnson** or Isaiah Hicks.

Finally, seniors rule in the Carolina Way and that is certainly true of this year's team.  Brice Johnson has been our best player all season, but Marcus Paige has been our most important one down the stretch. I can not gush enough about Paige.  As I posted in my last blog, academically alone he's been huge post scandal.

However, consider the senior leadership Paige has shown in this exhilarating run.  At Cameron, his steal, defense and lay up singlehanded stopped Duke's run in the second half, and his free throws clinched that win. In the ACC tournament championship game he did it again; his defense helped keep Malcolm Brogdon in check, he led a run that gave Carolina the lead for good in the second half, and down the stretch had another key steal against the Hoos to stymie their come back.

And of course, after Notre Dame ran off twelve straight points to take a one-point lead who answered for Carolina?  With Brice on the bench with 3 fouls and UNC down one, Paige drove left and made a tough baseline jumper to give Carolina the lead, one they would never relinquish. That basket started an overpowering Carolina scoring run, aided by a key steal by Theo Pinson but punctuated by another great play by our Academic All American. That play started with Paige out jumping and out fighting Zach August for a rebound, then saving that rebound as he was falling out of bounds. Paige got the ball to Kennedy Meeks, who Wes Unselled a pass to Pinson who promptly threw an alley-oop to Hicks for a slam dunk.

A text book Carolina Way  fast break, started by a guy who epitomizes and is resurrecting the Carolina Way.

GO HEELS!

* That department has been reorganized and is now under the College of Arts and Sciences as the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies.
** That is literally true of Johnson, who has been named a first team All American by the AP and the Basketball Writers of America.

March Whatever

I titled this post March Whatever due to the sense of inevitability and lack of excited that frames this year's NCAA tournament.

The big story is Kentucky's quest for an undefeated season and John Calipari's second national championship, which coincidentally will match the number of final four appearances his teams have had to forfeit (UMass, Memphis). Is there any excitement watching this mix of one-and-done and McDonald's All American players, led by one of America's smarmiest coaches? No, there isn't. It's no fun.

The other stories aren't much better. Every year it seems the tournament gets more and more hyped, more and more corporate, and less and less entertaining. The charm of the tournament is the underdogs, but this year the NCAA selection committee picked underachieving name brands like UCLA and Indiana instead of more interesting teams such as Dayton, Richmond or even Miami. It's a corporate, brand-name tournament played by student-athletes who put far more into the NCAA than they get out.

Finally, there's Carolina. Last year, I had our team winning the national championship as I usually do. That team defeated Kentucky, Duke, Louisville, and Michigan State, the top four teams in the preseason polls, so were a legit threat.  Carolina, Dean-style basketball resurfaced in Greensboro last week for 3.75 games to produce some hope for the NCAA tournament, but one reason for a whatever is this team is probably a year away from a legit pick to go 6-0 and winning another national championship.

So for all those reasons, it's March Whatever for me. Despite that - GO HEELS! 

Here are a few more hoop notes for now, with my picks for the tournament coming tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

Three must-read articles have come out in the last week: my classmate Scott Price's piece in Sports Illustrated about UNC, John Feinstein's column on Syracuse and the ACC, and Barry Jacobs' column on the ACC tournament. 

Scott's piece is worth reading even though it's a little too cynical and broad. I still have faith that UNC will restore the Carolina way and that the University of the People will get it right. Scott quotes my former professor John Shelton Reed quite a bit, too. The SI piece posits that Carolina started losing it's way when Jordan and the Dean Dome turned a plucky and liberal program into a national brand, a process augmented by the world wide leader in sports hyping the UNC-Duke rivalry. 

The common thread through all three articles is the ACC now represents all that is wrong in college athletics. There are no more student athletes, just unpaid workers building a successful brand of entertainment and sports programing (the ESP of ESPN). It used to have a down-home tournament for fans of a geographically-compact conference; now its tournament is an east-coast roadshow in fairness to teams - not schools - that range from south Florida to New England to Indiana.

Worst of all, Feinstein points out that not only has its football-fueled expansion and money-loving ruined the quaintness of the basketball tournament, it has tainted the ACC's highest and mightiest. Who would have thought that Dean Smith's school could host an academic scandal, Duke would ignore two instances of sexual assault, and Syracuse would have to forfeit more than 100 wins due to academic schemes to keep players eligible?

Worst of all, to me at least, these problems are not that hard to fix: make freshmen ineligible, or follow baseball's example of holding a high school draft and if you don't sign with a team you can not be drafted again until you complete your junior year; play fewer regular-season games - 8 in football, 20 in basketball; 25 in baseball.  Those reforms would restore the quaintness of college athletics, keep the athletes in class more, and make sure that academia not corporate, name-brand, money-loving broadcasters set the agenda.

This year's NCAA tournament may make me shrug 'whatever' but these scandals make me embarrassed and ashamed for caring so much about college basketball. 

Did The Season Just End?

With today's dispiriting loss to Maryland, a game where the offense was better but the defense lackadaisical, it's not hard to declare the 2010 season over for the Tar Heels.  We all knew this year would be a rebuilding year, and it now looks more and more like an NIT year.  


Against Maryland today we simply could not get a stop - at any time during the game. I know Maryland leads the ACC in scoring but our defense never ever rose to the occasion after two spirited offensive runs got the Heels back in the game, especially early in the second half.


The lack of defensive execution undercut some positives from today's game, namely the play of Ginyard, Thompson and Davis (who finished with 16 rebounds but was weak on defense).  Those guys had nice games, but the flip side was Larry Drew completely stinking up the joint, finishing with 0 points, 4 turnovers versus 5 assists. 


I probably should not be that harsh. Carolina can probably still qualify for the NCAA tournament with a 7 and 9 ACC regular season record (both because of the Heels' strength of schedule and the fact that the PAC 10, and some mid-major conferences who have gotten 3 bids recently, are very weak this season).  


But to do so, we will need to run the table at home since it appears unlikely that the Heels will win another road game this season. That's the rub - the Heels only have four home games left, versus State, Miami (the two 'easy' games) but also host FSU (doable since we're talking about a Leonard Hamilton-coached team) and Duke on Wednesday.


For more reasons than one the Duke game is crucial.  The good news is, a win could turn around the season and give this team confidence as it enters the second half of the ACC schedule.  The bad news, the season really would end with a loss to Duke.  


There is one ray of hope in Carolina's road schedule, and that's Boston College.  In addition to visiting Chestnut Hill, the Heels have to go to Durham, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech.  Of course, it would be fantastic to win in Cameron for the fifth year in a row, but winning at Duke and Wake appear unlikely with this squad.  Winning in Atlanta seems a bit more likely but not nearly as possible as winning at BC.  


Either way, we need 5 wins to get into the NCAA tournament and need to start versus the Devils on Wednesday.


GO HEELS! (please!)

A godly Sunday

Did you know that if you do a Google search for the phrase "Danny Green Is God" this website is the first - and last I checked only - site that pops up? 

I hope that phrase turns into a few more hits, and after today I wouldn't be surprised.  Danny Green dominated the first half against Oklahoma as the Heels cruised to a 72-60 win.   Where to start in reviewing Green's game?  He hit threes, drove to the basket, played great help defense.  

But for me two plays stand out. One was his offensive rebound and put back against the Griffin twins.  He simply out muscled and out willed both brothers on that play.  I predicted that Hansbrough would out will Griffin; on that play Green did. Two, I loved his little pull up 8 footer with about three minutes left when Oklahoma was flirting with a comeback.  Instead of launching a three - as he did three years ago in the regional final against Georgetown - Green put the ball on the floor and sank an easier shot.  A smart play that was the final nail in this win.

And what a win.  For the second game in a row Carolina calmly dismantled a foe that on paper was supposed to be a challenge. But today Carolina was never really threatened.  The Heels jumped out to an early lead behind Green and Tyler Hansbrough - and did not look back as they moved on to their second Final Four in a row, third in five years, ninth in the last eighteen.

The second half started much like the first, but instead of Green it was Ellington hitting two shots, Lawson hitting from three and driving the lane, and Deon Thompson getting and making great looks.   The rout was on and the lead eventually grew to 21 points before some sloppy play made the game look closer than it was.  The Heels dominated.

In fact, the domination was so complete that it made me wonder if Oklahoma was actually any good.  Other than Blake Griffin, who is incredibly agile, the Sooners looked like a high school team against the Heels.  One good player and that's it.

I'm surprised Jeff Capel (Fayetteville South View High, and Duke) didn't call a few timeouts to tell his team to stop shooting so many threes.  Oklahoma had absolutely NO offense other than Griffin.  So let me know, why did folks think Oklahoma was any good?

Then again, he is a Dookie so I shouldn't have expected much.  And I went to Smith, not Southview.

But the other story here is how good Carolina's defense was.  They effectively doubled Griffin, particularly in the first half when Hansbrough was on the floor.  For a guy who got his 22 and 12, his play was a non-factor on the final outcome.

Chalk up another dominant win for the Heels.  A dominant win where Hansbrough was in foul trouble, Ellington broke his streak of more than 20 double-figure games after finishing with only 9 points, where our fifth option on offense is our third leading scorer.   That's how good this team is.   I like our chances next weekend.

A FEW MORE NOTES

• Today's game was a battle of the last two states to hold the designation of "The Worst and Most Embarrassing Senate Delegation."  The title had resided with my home state for six years when we had Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth "representing" the Tar Heel State.  But now Oklahoma wins that title hands down with Tom Coburn and James Inhofe representing the Sooner State in the Senate.
• The referees really stunk in this game.  They called too many ticky-tack fouls against both teams, and as a result the game had absolutely no flow or pace.
• Louisville, the overall number one seed, looked as bad as Oklahoma today in choking to Michigan State.  They were completely out-classed by a Spartans team that was not intimated.  The Cardinals looked tight and nervous and were playing not to lose.  They cracked under the stress of making the Final Four and the pressure from Michigan State's defense.  
• That game was also a testament to Tom Izzo, who wins every season yet seems underrated.
• One of the most shocking parts of today's game was the commentary of usually off-base Clark Kellogg.  Kellogg was on the money 3 times today: calling out Capel and Oklahoma for being too reliant on Griffin for all their offense; comparing Danny Green to all the wonderful things baking soda can do (for baking, cleaning, as an air freshener, etc.);  and for pointed out that while Griffin was enjoying his home run trot after a freak-nasty dunk Ty Lawson had raced to the other end of the floor for two points.

That play summed up the game.   Griffin had some nice dunks, but the Sooners had nothing else.   A motivated and balanced Carolina team played a great game - especially on defense - and are on their way to the Final Four.  

Oh yeah, and Danny Green is god!

hUpdate

While waiting for today's game versus Oklahoma - a game I think the Heels will win thanks to Ellington and Lawson - a few more hoops stories caught my attention.

• How cruel or ironic or whatever for the Wizards to lose last night - in Gilbert Arenas' return from knee surgery - courtesy of a blocked shot by none other than Kwame Brown?  Kornheiser semi-famously coined the term 'Curse of Le Bulez," and there may be something to it.  Last night, the twin curses of the DC franchise - a wasted number one pick and a talent wasted by multiple knee surgeries - met in one game changing play.  Funny how sports - or I guess life in general - sets up those kinds of situations.
• Villanova won one of the ugliest games I've seen in a while.  Both teams played incredibly hard but not necessarily well. But that's Big East basketball, and that's enough to dominate this tournament.
• Interesting and I think ultimately prophetic quote: "He won't come out and admit it; of course he's going to say it's about the team winning, and ultimately it is," close friend and teammate Bobby Frasor said. "But it's the same type of deal when we played Notre Dame ... and he faced Luke Harangody. He wants to prove to everyone that he is better. He wants to out-perform [Griffin], get the win and just do everything he can to show how good he is."   Sounds right to me.

Putting the Elite in the Elite Eight

Carolina administered a thoroughly enjoyable beat down last night to the Bulldogs of Gonzaga to reach the regional final for the third consecutive season.

I enjoyed this game for three reasons:

1. I like watching Carolina basketball, and despite perhaps a few too many three-point shots, this game was pure Dean-inspired Carolina basketball.  The Heels ran, fed the post, took what they wanted from the over-matched Zags, made great decisions, and played the passing lanes; that's the way the game is supposed to be played.
2. It was a bit of a revenge game since Gonzaga beat Carolina the last time the two teams met, and I enjoy watching the Heels beat teams that have it coming (like defeating Coburn in the Senate on wilderness, or taking down the Dukies in front of their entitled fans in Cameron).  I especially like watching them beat teams like that my a wide margin.
3. But more importantly, and most satisfyingly, Carolina's play in the last two games has reenforced the notion that this team is focused on winning the national championship. They looked efficient and confident last night, and the stats tell the story.  The Heels shot 55 percent (if you omit the play of the scrubs) and 58 percent from three, and had 12 takeaways - 4 blocks and 8 steals - to only 9 turnovers.  

So a great win over an allegedly good team.  

Finally, I like our chances against Oklahoma.  Look for Hansbrough to out will and out fight Blake Griffin.  Psycho T hit a number of tough shots last night on his way to a ho-hum 20 and 10.   I expect Griffin to get in foul trouble against Hansbrough. 

But this game will be won by Carolina's back court.  Gonzaga's Pargo was supposed to be a match for Lawson, and we saw the beat down "Nine Toes" administered.  Then look for Ellington and Green to complete the job.  Ellington is playing the best basketball of his career and is the best 2 guard in the tournament if not college basketball right now.  And Green is fully out of his funk; he went 3 for 6 on three-pointers, and had his usual stat sheet stuffing game last night: 13 points, 7 assists, 3 boards, 4 steals, 2 blocks.  Man, I love that guy.

Anyway, I like our chances.   GO HEELS!

ACC in the Dumps

I was actually rooting for Duke to beat Villanova out of ACC loyalty two nights ago.  What an embarrassing run for the conference.  I still assert that the ACC was the better conference this year, but obviously the Big East has had a better run in the tournament. 

The mystifying part is trying to explain how badly ACC teams have played. Duke looked completely out of it - mentally and physically - against Nova. Ditto Boston College and Wake in their humbling and bumbling losses in the first round.  Duke, FSU and Wake - along with Carolina - should have made it to the Sweet 16.  Instead, we're left with head-scratching losses and second-rate status.

What a win

An exhilarating - way too exhilarating - win tonight over LSU.  Carolina closed like Mariano Rivera against LSU to gut out the win and secure a place in the sweet 16.

LSU came out of halftime looking like Greece versus the US at the 2006 world championships by hitting 9 of their first 10 shots. I'm not sure if Carolina came out lackadaisical or cocky after their nice to run the end the first half, or LSU simply came out fired up, but the Tigers started hitting shots from all over the floor.

Conversely, Carolina looked tentative, especially Hansbrough and Thompson.

But that's when Ty Lawson shook off his bad toe and the bad juju.  He started by hitting two three-point shots to blunt the Tigers' new-found momentum.  Carolina finally tightened up the D a bit - led by Bobby Frasor (3 steals in 17 minutes!) and Ed Davis (9 points/7 boards/2 blocks in 25 minutes) but also Danny Green after Roy 'talked' to him on the bench. Then Ty Lawson started doing what Ty Lawson does: aggressively and repeatedly taking the ball to the rack.   

The ACC player of the year had a number of tough takes for baskets, with a few and-1s too. It was inspirational on more than one level: a guy stepping up when his team needs him, a guy excelling while playing on a bad wheel that visibly bothered him in the first half; a guy sacrificing his body on defense (2 of Carolina's 11 steals).  In the end he scored 21 of his 23 team-high points in the second half.  Great stuff from a great player.

But Lawson didn't do it alone.  Wayne Ellington was Georgelynchesque tonight, making plays all over the floor. He was 9 for 16 overall and 3 for 6 on three-pointers to finish with 23 huge points.  But his excellent shooting only tells part of the story. Ellington was strong on every part of the floor, and finished with the points plus 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot.  He was also strong on defense, and had two nice 'wall' plays in addition to the steals.  And on Danny Green's huge three down the stretch Ellington made a game-changing play when he tapped a loose ball, volleyball-style, to his teammate.  As great as Lawson was, Ellington was his equal.

Hansbrough was very strong in the first half, then seemed intimidated a bit in the second.  Still, he had his own big shot down the stretch too to extend the lead.

Those three, plus Frasor and Davis, helped the Heels really tighten up the defense down the stretch. Frasor in particular had a two important steals during the decisive Carolina run to put the game away,  The Heels eventually figured LSU out, and their oft-maligned defense came up strong in the last 10 minutes of tonight's game.

Bottom line, it looks like Lawson is back.  Five days of rest should help Ty recover in time for the sweet 16 next week  As long as he feels good, I'm feeling good.

ONLY A FEW MORE NOTES

• I hope that 3 gets Danny Green back on track. He looked very tentative today, but to his credit he took that second three to help put the game away.  If Green is on and Lawson is healthy - and tonight for Carolina that was for only about 15 minutes - the Heels are unstoppable.  
• So much for conference loyalty: the Dukies were repeatedly shown cheering on LSU.  I doubt the Devils will make it that far, but I'd love to beat them for a third time in the Final Four.
• Oh yeah, Go Longhorns (even if they are coached by Dean enemy Rick Barnes)!
• Roy did something tonight that he and Dean are usually reluctant to do: he called time out three minutes into the second half during the massive LSU run.  Tar Heel fans recall that Roy did NOT do that during the Kansas onslaught in last year's national semi-final.

Heels Look Good; Rest of College Basketball Looks Boring

The Heels rolled behind Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough and Bobby Frasor to an easy 40 point win over Radford in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Even with Ty 'Nine Toes' Lawson on the bench the Heels still ran to more than 100 points.  Sure, it was only Radford but scoring 100 points in 40 minutes of play is almost always worth noting, and the Heels did it with their back up point guard (technically their third-string point guard since Frasor has primarily played the 2 this season).

As predicted here at Carolina and Hellenic Blue, Wayne Ellington led the way. The offense was very very efficient, especially to at the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and the Heels generally got any shot they wanted.

It was also good to see Danny Green score in double figures and end up with his first career double-double.  A relieved Green gave a small fist pump when he scored his first basket.  

Next up for the Tar Heels is LSU, who defeated Butler.  Lawson may play, but I would not be surprised if he is held out one more game. LSU won the very weak SEC, and I don't think they match up well with Hansbrough, Deon Thompson, or Ed Davis down low.  

Carolina's win was the only bright spot in what can be generously described as a lackluster first round of games.  Some games were partly interesting, led by our Nebraska Avenue neighbor American University's 10 point halftime lead over Villanova.  But the Eagles eventually faded and lost by 13.

Today, East Tennessee State hung with number 1 seeded Pitt for 36 minutes before losing, and Morehead State trailed Louisville by 2 at half before losing by 18 points.  So three close and interesting games, but not much excitement overall in the tournament.

Nicaa Noodlings

• Carolina's score is noteworthy for another reason; outside of UConn no one else in the field knows how to score.  Most games seem to be in the 60s or lower 70s, including high seed teams like Pitt (72) and Louisville (74).  Scoring in the 70s is okay if you're playing a good team, but not when you are playing a 16 seed.
• BC and Clemson thoroughly embarrassed the ACC. Clemson looked terrible and made a Big 10 team look efficient on offense. They should ashamed of their play and total lack of concentration against an NIT-quality opponent in Michigan. BC was just bad. Tyrese Rice played like a frustrated freshman not a seasoned senior.  The Eagles also made a plethora of bone headed fouls, passes, and mistakes.  How they beat Carolina in Chapel Hill I'll never know.
• Maryland played a spirited game against Cal, and Duke took care of business after a slow start to defeat Bingamton. So the ACC is 3-2 with Wake and FSU about to play tonight.
• Hard not to notice the empty seats in every locale, except for Greensboro where Carolina and Duke are both playing.  It seems like the NCAA books too many of these games in venues that are too big.  But there were empty seats in Philadelphia even though Villanova was playing. 
• So far I was correct about Dayton defeating West Virginia, and Western Kentucky taking down Illinois.  But was wrong about all the Utah schools - I had all three advancing - the Arizona schools - I had them both losing - and Virginia Commonwealth.  

NCAA Preview

No secret that I have the Tar Heels winning their second national championship in 5 years, and their 5th NCAA championship overall (and Roy's second) in all my brackets.  As long as Lawson is healthy - and Hansbrough is Hansbrough - the Heels have too many weapons and should win the National Championship.  As important as Lawson and Hansbrough are to Carolina, I'm picking Wayne Ellington to lead the Heels to the championship.  I love the way he asserted himself in the ACC tournament, and I expect every Heel to be very focused over the course of the next three weeks.

For the record I am in three pools: Sierra Club, Joey Pillow's alumni and the king of them all, the PIRG/Drumtra pool.  And as many of you know, I usually pick who I want to win rather than who I think will win.  But even with that 'system' in place, other than picking the Heels to win it all, I had some trouble with each of my brackets.  

The South is the easiest to fill out; I see Carolina advancing to the Final Four after beating Oklahoma in the regional final, avenging a loss to Gonzaga two years ago along the way.  I have WKU beating Illinois, and Temple upsetting Arizona State and Syracuse. I think both the 'Cuse and UConn will tank in the tournament. I've already seen some folks predict a Clemson win over Oklahoma but the Tigers are 7-7 in their last fortnight of games. Though I generally blindly root for ACC teams I've lost my faith in the Tigers.

My picks in the East are pretty conventional - Pitt beating Duke in the regional final. Duke has a good draw with a chance for a rematch against VCU in the sweet 16. I have the Rams beating UCLA and Villanova; beating Nova may be a stretch. I want to pick local school American University to beat Nova in the first round, but that will be tough too. I've lost any good feeling for FSU but have them making the 16 and losing to Pitt. But Pitt always chokes and the Noles match up pretty well with the Panthers with lots of bigs. I've seen the Panthers play a few times, and just don't think their back court is that good. Toney Douglas - who is that good - could lead the Noles to an upset but I doubt it. Anyway, I have Pitt beating both FSU and Duke which stinks for the Big East-ACC thing.

For me the Midwest, featuring teams I either don't like such as Louisville or teams that seem overrated such was Wake, is the toughest bracket to prognosticate.  Rick Pitino's Cardinals squad is good but has been bad on the road this year, and you know I hate picking a Pitino-coached team. But Wake looked so bad against Maryland I have no faith in them, so by default the Cardinals make the regional final. The other half of that draw is the toughest one for me to predict. I'm intrigued by Dayton and Kansas, and expect BC to defeat Michigan State in a battle of lackluster teams. In the end I have Louisville defeating Wake Forest, Kansas defeating Boston College, then Louisville making the final four.  Then again, my first draft had Kansas in the four.

When I first made my picks for the West, I realized I had three of last year's Final Four teams returning after picking Memphis to advance. A gassed UConn makes this a very weak bracket in my opinion. If Washington gets past Purdue I see them taking down a tired UConn team in the sweet 16. On the other half of that bracket I guess Missouri could beat Memphis but I doubt it. So I have Memphis defeating Washington in the regional final.

That means Carolina beating Pitt in one semi-final, Louisville beating Memphis in the other. In a rematch of last year's regional final Carolina, led by Wayne Ellington, wins another national championship.

A Few Random Thoughts

• I think the tournament will be a redemption tour of sorts for Hansbrough. Gonzaga held him under 10 points in that loss two years ago, so Hansbrough will get his revenge if the Bulldogs advance.  But I also expect Hansbrough to outplay Blake Griffin and DeJuan Blair if Carolina plays Oklahoma and Pitt.  Psycho T wants to go out with a championship, and his will is Jordanesque.  Don't be surprised if he outplays everyone - even Ellington or Lawson.
• Though I love political underdogs, I'm no fan of Cinderellas.  I like watching good basket, not a less than talented team get lucky and eliminate a better team.  
• This year I'm picking two double-digit seeds, Temple and Virginia Commonwealth, to make the sweet 16.  Both are 11 seeds.  VCU is led by Fayetteville native Eric Maynor (Westover High School).
• I have some other double-digit seeds winning one game, but picking Western Kentucky over Illinois is NOT an upset. Neither is Utah State over Marquette. Both the Illini and Golden Eagles are missing key players due to injuries.
• My one semi-legit upset is Dayton over a very strong West Virginia team.  Dayton is my one destiny pick (at least for one round).
• In my opinion, there are only two teams in the field that did not deserve a bid. Arizona is about as worthy as Virginia Tech but some how made it in. Ditto Wisconsin, who stinks and has no good wins outside of the Big 10. There are too many Big 10 teams in. I would have taken Minnesota or Michigan, but not both and kept Wisconsin at home.
• In there stead I would have taken San Diego, St. Marys, and an ACC team.
• Finally, most folks have probably heard that President Obama has Carolina winning the national championship in his bracket.  Obama made the same pick last year, which may have owed more to the looming North Carolina primary than anything else.  But this year it's pure hoops.

World Baseball Classic

While watching the NCAA tournament I'll keep one eye on the World Baseball Classic.  It's too bad these two events overlap since both deserve undivided attention.

The WBC is getting to crunch time, and last night's come from behind win for the USA over Puerto Rico was a great game.  Not only that, but it felt like a big game.  The Americans won thanks to a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth. The big hit was David Wright's two-run double, but Tar Heel Brian Roberts had a big hit and great at bat in the ninth.  His single, after being down 0-2 in the count, kept the rally going and Roberts eventually scored the tying run.

The win put the US in the final four along with Venezuela, Korea, and the winner of tomorrow night's game between defending WBC champ Japan and long-time world power Cuba, a game so big I'm planning to TiVO it and watch it between college basketball games.

GO HEELS!

Please, no wagering (at least based on these picks).