I still love the ACC tournament

Though it's not - thankfully - the old do-or-die event of my youth, I still love the ACC tournament.  Growing up in North Carolina it was THE sporting event of the year. 

Many ACC vets complain that the event is too NC-centric, and for years it was.  Back in the day it was always in Greensboro, and since each conference could only send one team to the NCAA tournament (until 1979 or so) it was HUGE. How huge? In school, teachers brought it TVs for the students to watch for two occasions: moon walks and the first day of the ACC tournament.

Of course, expansion of the ACC and the NCAA field has diluted the impact and significance of the ACC tournament. But I still love it, and it bothers me that even though Carolina has two national championships and has won the ACC regular season five of the seven years ol' Roy's been in Chapel Hill, Duke now has one more ACC tournament championship than we do. 

That will change this year, I hope. 

With a 1 pm conference call looming, here are my predictions:

• Virginia will defeat Miami, give Carolina a game in the first 10 minutes then succumb to the Heels on Friday;
• In a match up of the two worst coaches in the ACC, Virginia Tech will somehow defeat Georgia Tech. But don't be surprised if the Hokies choke big time, either;
• NC State will defeat Maryland, who seems to be phoning it in, then get waxed by Duke;
• BC will in turn wax Wake, then play a great game versus Clemson.  Both teams will be desperate, but I have BC winning and advancing to play Carolina.
• FSU will ride Chris Singleton's return to defeat a distracted and oddly complacent Virginia Tech team.

So Carolina will then have to play and defeat BC for a third time in the semi-finals, a prospect Dean always loathed.  But behind my pick for ACC tournament MVP John  Henson the Heels will make it to the final to play, FSU.

I was impressed by the Seminoles in their win over Duke - and their game versus Carolina.  With Singleton back and Singler and the Plumlees struggling look for an FSU upset, aided by Derwin Kitchen.

Then as it was versus BC, Carolina will need to defeat a team for a third time in a season, but the Heels will to win their 18th ACC Tournament Championship.

GO HEELS!

ACC season

As improbable as it may sound, there is a very good chance that Carolina could go 11 and 5, at the very least 10 and 6, in the ACC this year. And it's not inconceivable that the Heels could finish 12 and 4.

The Heels have looked better lately, which is heartening and the main reason to be optimistic.  Larry Drew is playing better,  Tyler Zeller and John Henson are dependable post players at both ends of the floor,  Dexter Strickland has figured out ways to score (though it would be great if our shooting guard could shoot) and has been playing lock down defense, and Leslie McDonald and Harrison Barnes and Reggie Bullock may give us some legit outside shooting. I also love the work the two Justins, messers Watts and Knox, are doing off the bench.

But the main reason to be optimistic about 10 wins in conference is the generally atrocious condition of the ACC. Duke is very good - they were likely great with Kyrie Irving - but that is practically it when it comes to the ACC. 

Finally, the schedule favors the Heels.  Our road games are at Duke, State, Boston College, FSU, Clemson, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Miami. Those last 4 are likely wins. The Heels could fall to Clemson - though I doubt it - or Miami in Coral Gables; the U is getting better. Or we could pull one out over BC in Chestnut Hill.  But with no visits to College Park or Blacksburg you only need to pencil in 4 road losses.

At home we get to feast on some pretty weak teams. The Hokies, Clemson, State, FSU, Wake, BC, Maryland and Duke come to Chapel Hill.  Ideally we run the table at the Smith Center, but even if we lose to Duke or suffer a hick up along the way against Virginia Tech or Maryland that is still only 2 home losses.

Pretty good news for a team that went 5 and 11 last year. I'm trying to stay realistic with this team but when you look at the schedule and the rest of the league 10 wins seems more than doable. And without Irving I feel good about taking down Duke at least once, so put me down for 11 wins for the 2011 Heels.

Heels Notes

• One easy way to gauge how weak the ACC is are the polls.  Duke is the only ACC team in the top 25 this week, again.
• Interesting to note how Carolina has played 5 teams in the current top 25: Kentucky, Texas, Vanderbilt, Minnesota and Illinois.
• ESPN's Joe Lunardi has the Heels listed as a 9 seed in his first edition of Bracketology.  Though we are only 1-4 versus the teams in the current top 25 when you look at Lunardi's field you see that we have already defeated three teams predicted to make the NCAA tournament, Long Beach State and Lipscomb, in addition to Kentucky.

Perfect tonic

Though it entailed driving to North Cackalacky and back in 48 hours, through snow on both ends of the drive, attending 'The 100 Years of Carolina Basketball Celebration' on Friday night was well well - well - worth it.  

The night was the perfect antidote to the recent doldrums the 2010 Heels have experienced, but it was much more than that.  

The biggest highlight among many was the halftime tribute to Dean Smith.  There are a million reasons to love Dean Smith, my unparalleled hero, and Carolina. I can't believe how lucky I am to be Tar Heel born and Tar Heel bred.  And that kind of cheesy but incredibly sincere affection I have for Carolina is shared by almost every Tar Heel you will ever meet.  And it is epitomized by Dean Smith.  

Dean may be the last true hero.  We already know his flaws - he was a big smoker, he's divorced, and he probably went to the four corners 2 minutes too early in the 1977 national championship game versus Marquette - but he will never let us down like other heros (take your pick, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, Mark Magwire, John Edwards, etc.) have.   

He's successful yet genuinely humble; lives in the public eye but abhors public adulation; an activist Christian who is NOT pompous or judgmental. Dean is authentic and sincere.  

Most importantly, Dean understands that we define ourselves in how we interact with other people (had to drop some Aristotle; it's Carolina AND Hellenic Blue after all)  in his case mainly his players who have always excelled on and off the court.  When Dean says 'we' he means it.  It's always been about we, not me.

He even strikes a pose that is almost Sinatraesque in this photo from Inside Carolina.

Dean Smith not only epitomizes the University of North Carolina, a university that epitomizes the good side of the Old North State - more tolerance and excellence than other southern states, a general moderateness and humility, with a distinct lack of pretension - but the transplanted Kansas epitomizes the state itself.  North Carolina's state motto is "Esse Quam Videri" Latin for "To Be Rather Than To Seem."  

That's Dean Smith, and why most of the 21,000 in attendance welled up when Dean came on the floor on Friday night.

There were other highlights from the Celebration of 100 Years of Carolina Basketball, including:

• Evan and I got to speak with Lenny Rosenbluth, the first supersTar Heel who led Carolina to an undefeated 1957 National Championship season.  Evan got Mr. Rosenbluth to autograph a photo from a commemorative edition of Sports Illustrated of Rosenbluth battling Kansas' Wilt Chamberlain.   Pretty cool.
• Watching Phil Ford play one more time.  By far the three loudest ovations of the night were for Dean, Ford, and Tyler Hansbrough.
• The nice hand for of all people Matt Doherty.  That's another great statement on North Carolina. Fans at other places would have booed, but the North Carolinian thing to do is clap politely. Doherty's tenure as coach was a disaster, but he is still a Tar Heel. Classy move by Heels fans to give him a nice ovation.
• The centerpiece of the celebration was an old timers game that featured more than 100 former players, some who played in the 1940s, that featured walk ons to stars like Ford, Walter Davis, Bobby Jones, Eric Montross, and 1993 Final Four MOP Donald Williams.  A highlight of the game had to be Shammond Williams' defense of Donald Williams at the end of the game, and the classic Carolina ball movement that led to Serge Zwikker's game winning basket for the White team.  
• The celebration ended with a legends fast break, with Heels whose jerseys are in the rafters passing a ball down the floor in a mock fast break. The fast break featured Bob McAdoo, Billy Cunningham, Rosenbluth, Ford, Wayne Ellington, Al Wood, among others, and culminated with Tyler Hansbrough making a lay up. 
• The game was interrupted every four minutes for video highlights and live interviews.  The best one had to be the debate between Wayne Ellington and Jawad Williams on which recent National Championship team was better, the defending champs or the 2005 edition.  

The debate reminded Heels fans that we should not feel sorry for ourselves this year.  The Heels have won two championships in five years, have the most national championships - four - in the modern era (since 1979), been to 3 final fours in five years and 5 since Dean retired in 1997 (remember the old days when the Heels went 9 years between final fours?),  have averaged 19.9 wins a year for the last 100 YEARS, boast an unparalleled list of alumni, ad infinitum. 

Best of all, Carolina basketball is probably the only entity that could pull off such a special celebration.  What other school has that kind of history, legacy and quality?  

[Of course, boasting like this is not very North Carolinian, but as any native of the Tar Heel State will tell you: "North Carolinians love to brag about how humble we are." So today's blog Esse Quam Videri!]