Heels Successfully Push Season Reset Button

Carolina's season started anew tonight, with 6 minutes left to go in the first half against the U.  From that point on, Carolina dominated, and in the process reinvigorated their season.

This game had BC written all over it.  A good team that came in unintimidated, and hit a number of difficult shots early to build a lead that Carolina could not whittle down - despite generally running their regular offense centered on getting Hansbrough lots of looks.  Jack McClinton was having a Tyrese Rice kind of half, and the Heels were down.

Perhaps the sheer number of touches Hansbrough got caused others to fall asleep, at least offensively, but whatever the reason Caroline trailed 24-32 with 6 and half minutes left in the opening stanza.  Despite Hansbrough's effectiveness - 17 points in 14 minutes - and Danny Green's great all around play, the Heels were down and the bad BC juju was starting to reemerge.

At that point the season turned, and it was turned by Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington.

Lawson started the season as the Tar Heels' best player.  With Hansbrough slowed by injuries Lawson led the Heels to their early successes in Maui, a home win against Kentucky and the huge blow out win over Michigan State.  But he's also been outplayed recently.

But Ty got his groove back the last four minutes of the first half - improbably on the defensive end.  Starting with a great hustling steal against McClinton at the four minute mark Lawson led Carolina's comeback, a comeback that turned an eight point deficit to a four point half time lead. The surge was made possible by his smothering defense on McClinton while Carolina's offense turned steals and blocked shots into fast breaks at the end of the first half.

Unlike the games against BC and Wake, Lawson outplayed an all-ACC caliber guard tonight.

In the second half Wayne Ellington relieved Lawson in turning around the season. After a scoreless first half Ellington really got his groove back - to say the least - hitting 7 three-pointers in the second half. During one stretch he hit 8 shots in a row and led Carolina to a 20 point cushion over the Canes.  Ellington had been in a funk all season really, and prior to the Miami contest his high for the season was TWO made threes in a game.

Having Lawson and Ellington back to their expected form once again makes this a dangerous team.  Even if Deon Thompson continues to struggle, having Hansbrough, Green, Lawson and Ellington hitting their collective strides - and hitting shots and playing defense - puts the swagger back and restores the aura for this year's Carolina basketball team.

A Few More Heel Notes

• Ed Davis got some of his groove back too tonight.  He had two huge blocks in the last four minutes of the first half, two offensive rebounds, and a nice put back.  He and Green had tremendous games on the defensive end tonight.
• An unsung hero was Bobby Fraser, who was on the floor the last two minutes of the first half guarding McClinton. Fraser still struggles mightily on offense, but he held McClinton scoreless at a key juncture of tonight's win. Interestingly, during that stretch Carolina had Frasor, Davis, Green, Hansbrough, and Ellington on the floor.
• Hansbrough is the MAN.  But you'll get an argument from many that Danny Green is indeed the MAN.  Regardless, those two kept Carolina in the game in the first half by their damnselves.  Hansbrough had 20 first half points and was a one-man band for much of that stanza.  Green had those two massive blocks in the first half and hit the three pointer at the end of the first 20 to give Carolina a 4 point margin.  Green finished the night with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks.
• Looks like Ginyard will red shirt this season. I feel sorry for him, but at least we'll have him next year where he can perhaps metamorphose into David Noel  
• How about that dunk by Miami's Daquan Jones?  One of the nastiest I've seen in a long time; it was Stackhouse-at Duke-esque.
• Wake looked impressive in winning at Clemson today.  They had too many talented bigs for the Tigers.
• During the telecast Vitale predictably shilled for a beleaguered coach, in this case Gary Williams.  He predicted a surprise win when in reality Maryland has been more renowned of late for surprise and shocking losses.  Not gonna happen Dickie V.

Anyway, Clemson - who is 0-55 in Chapel Hill for one of the most amazing records in sport - come to Carolina on Wednesday. Can't wait to see the Heels come out for that game, and to watch Lawson and Ellington help Green and Hansbrough make this a great season.  Go Heels!

Heels Get Back on Track

Carolina looked like Carolina again on Thursday in defeating ACC-bottom dweller Virginia in Charlottesville.  Carolina got out to an early lead, and the Cavaliers could only make it a game when Roy went to an odd line up at the 10 minute mark of the first half.

Carolina did the things a classic Tar Heel team does:  feed the post and get good shot, and run every time you get a chance.  The best news from this game was the play of Ty Lawson.  He ran often - quite often the result of nice defensive plays by my man Danny Green - and did a great job feeding Hansbrough.   Psycho-T got lots of touches, lots of trips to the free throw line, and lots of points.  Both Tys looked good, with Hansbrough netting a double-double.

Danny Green had another typical Danny Green game: some steals, some 3s, some great D, and a freak nasty dunk.   His versatility makes his a great Heel, but also an intriguing NBA prospect.  The fact that he makes plays on both ends, and has cut down on bad plays, could translate into a later first round draft pick in the June draft.

So lot of good things to take away from this game, but it's hard to gauge how good a team is when it plays Virginia, a team that lost to Liberty University earlier in the season.   Nonetheless, it was the first ACC win of the season and a road game at that so I shouldn't quibble.

The Heels host the Hurricanes Saturday a 9 pm.  Miami seems to be back up and is on a six-game winning streak.  Their last win was a come from behind victory over lame Maryland on Wednesday.

ACC NOTES

• Big game today between number 3 Wake and number 9 Clemson in the lesser Carolina.   I wonder when the last time there was an ACC game between two top 10 teams and neither team was Duke or Carolina?  I was going to have my research team look that up this morning but he was on a play date.
• Duke just defeated Georgetown in Cameron.  I wasn't rooting for Duke but was glad to see them defeat the Hoyas, and for an ACC win over the overrated Big East. The Big East has good teams, but their strength is more quantity than quality; it's two conferences fused into one.  I also think the Big East benefits from it geographic overlap with New York and Bristol, the two poles of sports of journalism.   And outside of the Huskies, teams from that conference have under achieved in the NCAA tournament of late.
• FSU won two games this week, including on the road at NCSU on Tuesday.  That may say more about how bad State is than how good the Seminoles are, but if FSU finished with 8 wins in the ACC their non-conference schedule may allow them to sneak into the NCAA tournament.
• Maryland went 0-2 on their Florida road trip and may end up challenging Virginia and Georgia Tech for the worst team in the ACC.

Hate Blogging After A Loss

Two days after Carolina lost on the road to Wake Forest and I have to drag myself to this blog (but hey, my eight readers have been hounding me . . . well, at least seven of them have).

The game is old news by now.  The silver lining is that Carolina played terrible, on the road, against a top 5 team, and yet only lost by 3 points.  And, when the season began, if there was a game that Carolina was likely to lose, it was this one.  

Still, watching Carolina play badly is disturbing.   But not so much for the loss.  Carolina basketball means something, and one of those things is you don't take what the defense gives you.  Rather, you do what YOU want to do.  That sentiment was coined and put into practice by Dean.   Another Dean-ism is the best shot is the shortest shot.  The three-pointer is important, but it is NOT Carolina basketball.  

Against Wake, Carolina and especially Lawson and Ellington, took what Wake gave the Heels.  Instead of pounding the ball inside to Hansbrough et. al. Lawson kept the ball on the perimeter too much, and late the entire team - even Hansbrough! - got way too three happy.  Carolina was way too passive and let Wake do what Wake wanted to do.

The only Tar Heel who played like a Tar Heel was Danny Green.  On offense he took threes when it was a good shot, but also penetrated, played the passing lanes and was great on defense.  He played and thought and reacted like a Tar Heel. No one else did.

Will Graves and Larry Drew had good stretches.  Graves' three point play gave Carolina a 57-54 lead, a play I expected to spark a typical game-clinching run that is a Tar Heel trademark.   Drew flashed some offense but was especially strong on defense.  

Finally, besides the straying from Dean-inspired Tar Heel ball, the other disturbing thing about the loss - and I mean earth-shaking, cold-sweat disturbing - was watching our two best players - Hansbrough and Lawson - look bad and discombobulated for 40 minutes.   

Hopefully it's a one game thing; Hansbrough will bounce back.  But I'm close to pushing - well, actually not that close - the panic button on Lawson. He's been completely dominated in both losses, on the defensive and offensive ends.  Against Wake, foul trouble - on two terrible calls - hurt his play on D.  But he needs to pick it up.  He was the best Heel early in the season when he was incredibly focused - on both winning a championship and playing for an NBA contract.   But that play disappeared against Tyrese Rice and Ed Teague.  Here's hoping Ty gets his mojo back on Thursday in Charlottesville.

Other Hoops Notes

• The referees were terrible in that game.  Way too many fouls and no flow to the game, a college game that did not go into overtime yet took 2 and half hours to play.  I don't think the officiating hurt Carolina.  It was simply a poorly officiated college basketball game.
• I assume folks caught one of the most shocking basketball scores since last year, when Maryland lost to American at home, when the Terps lost at HOME to Morgan State, a marginal team from the MEAC (Coppin State they ain't).  It's going to be hard for Gary Williams to keep his job if they miss the NCAA tournament this year. 
• One last Terp note.   The Morgan State game was the fourth Maryland game I've watched this year, so I feel confident in stating that Greveis Vasquez is the dumbest player in the ACC.  The Post had a article on Vasquez that highlighted how much he dislikes the Maryland fans in College Park, and how often he curses at the student section.  I may be going out a limb here, but I don't think Dean (or any other ACC coach in the league today) would condone that kind of behavior.
• The Morgan State game was on the same night that BC lost at HOME to Tommy Amaker's Harvard team.  An embarrassing night for the ACC.  Not only are those two schools hoops nobodies but they are coached by failures like Amaker and Morgan State's Todd Bozeman, the disgraced former coach at Cal.
• As bad as Carolina played on Sunday, our hometown Wizards looked much worse the night before in losing to Raymond Felton and Larry Brown and the Charlotte Bobcats.  I went to that game with Evan and my man Ed "Go Huskies" Mierzwinski.  The Wizards looked good for most of the game, especially young guns JaVale McGee and Nick Young, but also Javartis Crittendon.  The Wizards had great looks down the stretch, and in the last two minutes every player on the floor - Jamison, Butler, Blatche, James and Young - each missed open and good shots.
  
  But the game wasn't lost in the last minute, they lost it in the fourth quarter when Raymond Felton came back in after spraining his ankle.  He dominated (4 assists, 4 points, 3 assists in the last 7 minutes or so) and set up his teammates. The inability to get our All Stars good shots is the biggest problem with the Wizards.  The 'Zards start journeyman Mike James at point, and it's not working. I'd go with Crittendon and Young, with Butler, Jamison and Blatche, in the line up and use James, McGee, etc. off the bench. The bad point guard play hurts this team offensively and defensively, and did so against the Bobcats on Sunday and in another loss to Milwaukee on Monday.  Yeesh.
  

Quick Music Note

I vote in an annual music poll organized by a fellow activist here in DC.  This year my selections for best music were all singles.  I couldn't think of a single long-playing record I really liked.   Here is my list of top singles/music for 2008, in no particular order:

Golden Age - TV on the Radio.  Rips off baselines from my favorite record of 2007 by LCD Soundsystem, but cool and accessible hooks.
100 Yard Dash - Rafael Saadiq.  Great neo-soul hook and love the back up dancers in the video; song is too short.
Vote for Hope - MC Yogi. Obama theme song.
Strange Overtones - David Byrne and Brian Eno, from my favorite album of the year.  Self described as folk gospel or something pretentious like that; great phrasing by David Byrne.
L.E.S Artistes - Santogold. Funky and quirky and hooky and syncopated and sung by a cool girl.
Untouched - The Veronicas.  Sounds like the 80s without sounding like the Killers ripping off the 80s.
That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings. Stupid by oh so hooky, great hooks, great name, stuck in my iPod all fall.
Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now - McFadden and Whitehead. Stuck on heavy rotation ever since the election, but not a new release.

Obama Music Poll

I've got an almost embarrassing Obama mix on my iPod (the iMix can be found at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=296144153 ). That mix, plus the looming inauguration, inspired this week's poll. For more on the songs featured in the poll you can visit my Facebook page. I think you need to look under Boxes to find my music (assuming we are 'friends').

ACC Basketball Preview

Hope everyone has had a great holiday season. I've enjoyed the break; we had a good time playing tourists in DC as we visited the Lincoln Memorial, the new Capitol Visitor Center, and the National Zoo in the last 10 days.

But I am really looking forward to two big January happenings: inauguration day; but more urgently the start of the ACC basketball season.

ACC basketball - unlike football, which went 4-6 in bowl games - has had a decent December. So far there have been impressive wins by Carolina and Maryland over Michigan State, Duke trounced Purdue and Xavier (the Musketeers have in turn defeated Virginia Tech and Virginia), Carolina and Miami have beaten Kentucky (Miami winning in Lexington), Carolina won the Maui Invitational, Florida State took down the Gators (and NC State had a great chance to defeat Florida in Gainesville yesterday but choked in the final minute), Virginia Tech and Miami have each beaten St. John's on the road (something Notre Dame could not do) and once again the ACC won their made for TV challenge versus the Big 10.

Those are the highlights. There are some shocking low lights, such as Virginia losing at HOME to Liberty (Jerry Falwell's school). And Georgia Tech losing at home to Penn State and Illinois-Chicago . . . and Virginia, and Florida State losing to Northwestern. In general, Georgia Tech and Virginia did not help the conference at all in December (especially when you consider the Yellow Jackets' blow out loss to LSU in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl in their home town).

So after looking at the ACC schedule, here are my predictions and descriptions for the upcoming men's basketball season.

Carolina 15-1
Clemson 11-5
Duke 11-5
Wake Forest 9-7
Miami 9-7
Virginia Tech 8-8
Boston College 7-9
NC State 7-9
Maryland 6-10
Florida State 6-10
Virginia 4-12
Georgia Tech 3-13

A few observations:

• As you can see, I'm going on a limb and predicting that Carolina will lose a game. As Bill Guthridge once said, "basketball is not an undefeated sport." I think the Heels will take both games versus Duke, giving Hansbrough, Green and company a four-year sweep of the Devils in Cameron. I see the Heels slipping up at either Miami or maybe NC State. The Heels will NOT lose at Wake; one, they are too talented and two, though at home Wake will be coming off an 8 day layoff and will be rusty and red-meat for the Heels.
• Wake will make the NCAA tournament but are probably the most overrated team in the ACC. Unique among the upper echelon teams in the ACC, Wake does not own a win over a top 25 team though they did defeat an unranked Baylor team and just traveled to Utah to defeat Brigham Young (the university, not the person). I think Wake will hold serve at home but will have trouble on the road in the ACC. With at least 9 wins and good talent this team will reassert the Deacons' place in the top half of the ACC, and mark the complete recovery from Chris Paul's early departure and Skip Prosser's untimely death.
• I'm still not that impressed with Duke. I think this team will win it's share of games, but once again they are too dependent on the three-point shot, and once again Krzyzewski has not developed a reliable bench. By the time Duke rolls into Chapel Hill to end the season they will be spent and done, and fodder for a West Virginia or Arizona State or Wisconsin in the second or third round of the NCAA tournament.
• It's hard to call them a dark horse, but Clemson is one of the most intriguing teams in the ACC. Oliver Purnell knows what he is doing, and this squad will improve on last season's record and likely make it to the sweet 16. The Tigers destroyed Miami, in Coral Gables, in December and could easily finish with 12 or 13 wins if they win at Boston College and/or Florida State.
• Those two teams - the Eagles and Seminoles - will have NIT-worthy seasons punctuated by an inability to win on the road. They have talent, but without the adrenaline and energy of a home crowd will struggle to get to 7 wins. A bit more talent or seasoning could get these guys to 9 wins but I don't see it happening.
  
• The U should be better but unlike Clemson I don't see them picking up any big road wins. The Canes will likely win at bottom feeders like Virginia and Georgia Tech but struggle everywhere else. They will be a bubble team all season long, and have to win at either Maryland, BC or NC State to get to 9 wins. But 9 wins in the conference is no guarantee to make the NCAA tournament. Miami only has one quality non-conference win, at Kentucky. Their season may be undone by the loss at home to Ohio State in the ACC-Big 10 challenge, the game in which All-ACC player Jack McClintock was ejected after slapping at a Buckeyes player, a bone-headed move that cost a game and perhaps a season.
• Virginia Tech is another talented bubble team. They'll get to 8 and 8 but like Miami lack a defining non-conference win, and are unlike Miami will probably end up in the NIT. Unlike the Hurricanes, who may stay home due to McClintock's mistake, the Hokies may miss the NCAA tournament due to Xavier hitting a half-court prayer at the buzzer. A win at Duke tonight would help VPI get to 9 wins and give them a signature victory.
• NC State will overachieve to get to 7 wins. With J.J. Hickson gone, Costner and McCauley should rebound and return to the form of two years ago. But State is still very weak at the point and will get to 7 wins primarily due to the fact they play Georgia Tech, Virginia and Boston College 5 times.
• Finally, it will be another rough season in College Park, with lots of howling for Gary Williams' head. This team will be very shaky on the road and limp to 6 wins and the NIT. I have no idea how they defeated Michigan State. Not to jump all over Gary, but it's fascinating to look at all the local talent he has NOT recruited to Maryland. The list is a who's who of young basketball talent: Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Michael Beasley, Ty Lawson, Marcus Ginyard, and that's just off the top of my head and from the last three years! All of those guys played high school ball or grew up in the DC-metro area but never made it up to College Park.
  
• So the ACC should get 5 bids to the NCAA tournament, an underwhelming number of participants. I've blogged this before, but the ACC has yet to benefit from the football-inspired expansion. The football season produced mediocrity, as evidenced by the bowl record of the conference, and the football schools have yet to enhance the hoops side of the ledger. And the unbalanced scheduled - necessitated by a 12-team league - has weakened the value of winning 8 or 9 games in the ACC. Eight wins in conference used to be a lock when the NCAA tournament committee knew a team had played Carolina and Duke four times a season. But those days are gone.

That's how I see the season playing out. Let me know what you think, and Go Heels!

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.

Tyler Hansbrough

I was 'Obama-wins' happy on Thursday night when Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford's scoring record at Carolina. As it happened, I was in the car so had XM on and got to listen to Woody Durham call the record-setting basket.  

But there were two reasons I was so happy.

One, Hansbrough is Hansbrough. I'm not skilled enough to add anything to his resume, but he really is not only the epitome of Carolina basketball, but of sport itself.  Sport is still important for a number of reasons - fun, exercise, competition - but to me the essence of the endeavor is selflessly giving everything you've got for a greater (team) goal, and of course stepping up. Is there an athlete ANYWHERE who more honestly pays homage to that ethic? When you watch Hansbrough play you are watching pure, honest effort, the essence of what sport should be about.

The Carolina part is there to make that glow even shinier.   His effort is for a greater team and institutional goal - Carolina basketball.  And Hansbrough has a lot of Dean in him - a hyper-competitive yet humble athlete.

Two, it was a brief but great celebration of Carolina basketball complete with Phil Ford on the floor.  For all the Tar Heel heroes - Jordan, Worthy, May, Noel, Hansbrough, Cunningham, McAdoo, Scott, Rosenbluth, Jamison - and despite being number two on the scoring list, Phil Ford will simply always be the greatest Tar Heel of all time. He never won a national championship (but made the 1977 Final Four) and washed out in the pros (after being named rookie of the year) due to drugs (thanks again hippies!) and alcohol (which also cost him the Carolina job; Dean had groomed him to be his or Guthridge's eventual successor) Phil Ford still reigns.  Perhaps those setbacks make him that much more heroic in a Faulkneresque way.

Kudos to Tyler Hansbrough.  Anyone who plays that way and outscores a Who's Who of college basketball cements their place near the top of the list of all-time greatest Tar Heels, the ultimate list in college basketball. Roy Williams spoke for millions when he said there will be no one sadder in college basketball when Hansbrough leaves Chapel Hill than ol' Roy - and the legion of Tar Heel fans across the universe.  

[Note to self: next time you type 'has a lot of Dean in him' you should end the entry right then and there.]

Carolina 'Clip Reel'

While home sick yesterday afternoon - I think just my second sick day (where I was actually sick in the last 20 years) - I discovered this great collection of Carolina YouTube clips courtesy of ESPN: The Magazine: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3699803

It's an Orthodox thing (or is it an Ottoman thing?)

With the Carolina hoops team on exam break, but mainly for the issues themselves I've been focused on the riots in Greece and the Blagojevich story in Illinois. The stories are linked, and not just by Orthodoxy; Blagojevich is Serbian Orthodox. [I've also spend lots of time thinking, and making calls, about who will be the next Secretary of the Interior. Here's hoping my man Raul Grijalva gets named to that post this week, but that's for another blog.]

Back to Greece, which is a strong democracy but a troubled one. The riots demonstrate that the motherland lacks some of the democratic institutions we take for granted. A healthy democracy has healthy institutions: courts, bureaucracies, press, organized and active civic and charity groups (everything from the Salvation Army to Sierra Club), elected bodies on a local, state and national level. Greece has most of those, but you need all of them to be more than a country that has regular elections and peaceful transitions of power - no small feat that, and I don't mean to down play those two accomplishments - and one that has a flourishing democratic culture and a free, mobile and open society.

These riots have shown that when it comes to the democratic and modern state bureaucracy Greeks have NO faith that government policies and hiring will be done equitably and fairly. It's not just government; the same is true in academia where bureaucracies care more about their jobs then they do about educating young people. That is why so many successful Greeks - in Greece, not the diaspora - are products of American, British and German universities.  There is a good commentary on this in The Economist (shout out to Bill Wood for the link).

The problem is not new, and seems to be a stubbornly persistent relic of the Ottoman era. Over the summer I read Thanos Vlekas, considered the first modern Greek novel.  Published in the 1850s, the book chronicles the trials and troubles of a hard working Greek farmer who consistently gets screwed and imprisoned at various points in his life by the bureaucracy, army and land owners in the newly independent Greek state of the 1830s.  Bribes, connections and nepotism were de rigeur in Ottoman-ruled Greece, and bribes and nepotism are still very common in Greece, even after almost 30 years in the EU. It appears the Greek public is finally fed up. 

That Greek culture of inertia is one reason Greeks in America are so different from Greeks in Greece. Nothing is more Greek-American than being an entrepreneur, so much so that the Greek diner or pizza place is a prominent part of the American tapestry.  The opposite is true in Greece where it is harder to have your own place and make you own way.

  
But before we get too smug here in America we have to talk about fellow Orthodox Christian Rod Blagojevich. That kind of stuff still happens in Chicago and elsewhere. Here in Washington, newly appointed school board chair Michelle Rhee is having the same problems with the District's entrenched education bureaucracy that students in Greece do.  A chart in today's The New York Times implies that Rhode Island is the most corrupt state in the U.S.  And by no means are Greek-Americans immune; over the years I imagine many Greek-American businessmen and women have paid bribes, etc. for building permits, etc.

Corruption is everywhere, but the reason residents of Illinois aren't in the streets is that unlike Greeks, Americans generally have faith in their elections, elected officials, and institutions. After all, Blajojevich got caught and we just elected Barack Obama. Things change here.

More importantly, the corruption in American is usually episodic, not systematic like it appears to be in Greece. And those episodes have NOT hindered the mobility and liberty of most Americans.  That it one reason why Greeks have been in the streets this week and folks in Illinois have not. 

A good day in Greece

While the riots continued in Greece today, though it appears at a much milder level, there was some good news from Athens today as Panathanaikos defeated Anothisos 1-0. The victory not only qualifies Pana for the sweet 16 knock-out round, but InterMilan also lost so the Greens won Group B of the UEFA Champions League.

Panathinaikos got off to a terrible start, losing their first two games, but rallied late to win their last four games including two on the road.

The knock-out round starts in February.

The stands looks packed for today's game, so I guess only Olympiacos and AEK fans were in the streets.

Not a Great Day for Greece

The rioting in Greece has now gone on for three days. The shooting of the teenager in Greece was a terrible tragedy, but the riots that have lasted for half a week are way out of proportion, at least in my opinion.

As is usually the case, the shooting triggered action on the simmering complaints about the Karamanlis government and recent corruption scandals in Athens, and gave the lefty-wing crazies an excuse to riot. And as you know, Greece is home to some of the western world's most active and organized anarchists (ironic on many levels). So instead of marching peacefully or holding a sit-in or calling into a radio show/write a letter to the editor, etc. etc., protesters turn to bricks and molotov cocktails, much in the same way anarchists "greeted" Bill Clinton - and embarrassed Greeks around the world - when he visited Athens 9 years ago.

Parts of the Greek left are incredibly stupid. They should be proud of fighting the Nazis during World War II as the resistance was led and primarily made up of Communists. But once the Cold War started it seemed obvious that Greece was finally and firmly part of the west, and that the west was better than the communist east. Many leftists and students in Greece continue to romanticize communism and oppose anything to do with the west - NATO, the EU, alliances with the United States - despite the recent and terrible histories and experiences of neighbors like Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, etc.

The east-west schizophrenia goes back hundreds of years to the Byzantine empire, the fourth Crusade of 1204 (where western Crusaders sacked and conquered Constantinople rather than march on Jerusalem) and being torn between looking west to Rome - and beyond - or being more comfortable looking east even if that meant being part of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, the dirty little secret of Greek history is that most Greeks at the time of the fall of Constantinople certainly preferred the Ottoman Empire to being subservient to Rome and the Catholic Church.

The end of World War I, and the way the western powers handled the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974 feeds that lingering mistrust of the west.

Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying there's a lot of stupidity coupled with institutional memory in the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki, etc. this week.

Greek police should not shoot and kill teenagers, but the Greek left needs to understand that Greece is firmly ensconced in the western world, a world of liberal democracies and civil societies and the European Union, not a third-world country where seething mobs influence politics and society.

I'm embarrassed by the police and the rioters.

More Carolina Sports

Big soccer weekend for the Heels.

The women advanced to Sunday's championship game after defeating fellow number one seed UCLA on Friday 1-0. Carolina scored on senior midfielder Yael Averbuch's first half penalty kick and held on for the win. Averbuch is Carolina's all time leading scorer, quite a feat when you consider the who's who of women's soccer who have played in Chapel Hill.

Carolina plays Notre Dame for the second time this season in soccer and the fourth time this fall (men's hoops, and football). Notre Dame is undefeated and untied this season, and is the only team to defeat Carolina so it should be a great game. The Fighting Irish will be favored, but the Heels will be playing in Cary in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,000 mostly Heels fans.

The men play today - in Chapel Hill against Northwestern - for a chance to go to the final four next weekend in Texas. The Heels limped into the NCAA tournament but have gotten hot at the right time.

Go Heels!

Two random notes

• We TiVO the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and were catching up on some old shows including one that featured 'LA punk legends' X. It was the original line up, with John Doe - best rock and roll voice of ALL TIME - Exene Cervenka, D.J. Bonebreak, and my man Bill Zoom on guitars. They were promoting their new greatest hits record, and played "New World." The lyrics, which were written for Ronald Reagan, still resonate 20 years later. They still tour quite a bit - I've seen them at the old and new 9:30 Club - but it was great to see them on TV.
• One last pop culture note: I've gotten way into 30 Rock lately, having watched the first season on DVD and catching other episodes on-line or via TiVO. Star and fellow Greek-American Tina Fey is on the cover of Vanity Fair, and in the interview mentions one of the traits she picked up raised as a 'Greek girl' is a predilection for cheetah prints.
  

Heels Handle Spartans

I really enjoyed watching Carolina thoroughly dominate Michigan State last night in the ACC-Big 10 challenge. It was a phenomenal performance by a squad that is playing NBA-quality basketball. To beat a team like Michigan State - quality program, perennial contender, pre-season final four favorite - that bad on the road is impressive.

This team just looks different than most college teams. Though it's only December and Hansbrough has only played in four games, the Heels are in sync and playing a high level of college basketball. The fact that Hansbrough, Ellington, Green and Lawson have played together three to four years makes this talented team a scary one. And I think it's noticeable because in this day and age teams don't stay together very long, at least teams as talented as the Heels.

Last night's game unfolded much like the win over Notre Dame, a top 10 opponent that hung with the Heels early only to be overwhelmed by Carolina's talent and effort.

And as it was versus Notre Dame, the two most impressive talents on the floor were Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson. Hansbrough was methodical and unstoppable as he posted another double-double. Once again he showed off his improved range, hitting a number of jumpers, and on the boards he is simply more determined than most players. Determination alone will make him a success at the next level.

On Lawson, I'm not sure where to begin. As good as Hansbrough was, Lawson was even better. Steals, assists, three-pointers, fast breaks, drives to the hole, etc. etc. etc. Lawson is playing with a focus and maturity that seems unstoppable right now. He's not just a fast point guard tailor made to run Roy Williams' offense. Lawson has grown into a complete basketball player and point guard.

Heels High Notes

• Great to see Wayne Ellington break out of his mini-slump. He looked great in the first half, hit shots from all over the floor, and finished with 17 points.
• I continue to be impressed with Ed Davis, who finished with 10 and 7 in only seventeen minutes. This guy is this year's Marvin Williams. What a weapon off the bench.
• My favorite play last night - among many including the two fast breaks started by my man Danny Green - was Will Graves' dunk off an in bounds pass. It was a great Carolina basketball play. That was not a play designed for Graves, simply two basketball players being smart on the floor, pure Carolina.
• Got to see Sheed in the stands!
• Once again, the ACC won the Big 10 challenge 6-5. The final tally should have been 8 to 3; Virginia Tech should have beaten Wisconsin, ditto Georgia Tech over Penn State, and Miami would have won if McClintock hadn't slapped an Ohio State hoopster. But even with those losses the ACC won, and the top two ACC teams - Carolina and Duke - humiliated the top two Big 10 teams on the road.
• Finally, Carolina's women's soccer team is back in the final four for the 24th time in the 27 history of NCAA women's soccer. They play again on Friday night, in Cary, on ESPNU. The Heels are shooting for their 22nd NCAA championship.

Go Heels!