Another one bites the dust

I've often used this space to opine that Mike Krzyzewski is NOT a great Xs and Os coach.  He certainly in an excellent recruiter and motivator.  But Duke usually succeeds due to effort and attitude, not necessarily skills and sets.  In fact, their offensive stats are pretty simple.  

Krzyzewski gets his players to play extremely hard and extremely smart, especially on defense. 

But his players often struggle once they leave Durham.  Without Krzyzewski in their ears and in their heads they don't have the skills to fall back on to succeed in the NBA.  The  most successful Duke professional of the K era, Carlos Boozer, had to reinvent himself in the League.  At Duke, he was a back to the basket center; in the NBA he is a face-up smallish forward who has turned into an all star.

The lack of success of the players is also true with ex-assistant coaches.  With the firing of Fayetteville native Jeff Capel, the Coach K coaching tree looks bad.  First Tommy Amaker crashed and burned at two schools in big-time conferences (Seton Hall and Michigan) before finding moderate success at a non-big time conference at Harvard. Quinn Snyder lost AND was embroiled in a recruiting controversy at Missouri.  And now Capel, who only won when Blake Griffin was on campus. 

Johnny Dawkins, losing his way through the Pac 17 at Stanford, is just killing time waiting to join the unemployment line outside of Krzyzewski's office.

All these guys were hired by ADs who assumed they could transfer Duke's style to their campuses.  But you can't duplicate K's motivational skills or emotional work.  And with not many X and O tricks to fall back on, coaches like Amaker, Snyder, Capel and Dawkins fail.  

The 'Carlos Boozer of coaches' is Notre Dame's Mike Bray, who unlike the other Duke coaching alums did NOT play at Duke.  Maybe there is some there there on the sidelines, but ex-players fail to notice it among the shouting, cursing and motivating coming from Coach K.

NCAA Tournament Observations

Besides watching the Heels lose the other big outrage from today is the field of 68.

• Sure, the ACC was down.  And Virginia Tech is a pretty stinky team in general: not that skilled, not well coached and thus not that focused.   But how the selection committee thought that VCU or UAB was better than the Hokies is beyond me.
• The new 68-team field stinks.  It should have stayed at 64.  The possibility, no matter how remote, that one team would have to play 7 games is unfair. I don't even want to fill in those four games in my bracket; it a charade. Go back to the old system, but select better committee members.
• Villanova, Marquette, and Cincinnati - whose strength of schedule was similar to snubbed Colorado's - did not deserve bids. In a fit of anti-BEast bias I'm picking Clemson to beat UAB, then take down West Virginia in the second round. Ditto Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois or Penn State.  Boston College would have beaten those last 6 teams, and probably Villanova the way the Wildcats finished the season.
• Alabama beats Georgia 3 times, and GEORGIA gets in?

My first draft Final Four has Carolina, UConn, Kansas and I guess Pitt.

EAST

Carolina has a decent but challenging draw.  They'll have to beat Syracuse and their zone, which will be a challenge but Barnes, McDonald and Marshall have been hot of late.  Then the Heels have to take down overall number one seed Ohio State.  If Carolina was not in that bracket I would pick the Buckeyes in a walk to make the Final Four. 

I don't expect many upsets in the East, other than Clemson over West Virginia, and Georgia beating Washington.

WEST

Duke has a semi-difficult draw for a change; no Baylor or West Virginia on the horizon like last year. I have some PIRG solidarity for UConn, and Kemba Walker is hot again.  It's their bracket to lose to me. 

This bracket features not one but TWO games featuring four teams from power conferences that nonetheless stink: Tennessee versus Michigan, and Missouri and Cincinnati.  I have Tennessee and Missouri winning.   No real upsets here, just stinky games.

Tennessee may give Duke trouble, but like many I see Texas taking the Devils out, and for UConn to end San Diego State's 15 minutes of fame.

SOUTHWEST

This bracket is sound and fury signifying nothing.  There may be some interesting background noise from my sleeper team but Kansas will make the Final Four. My sleeper school is Morehead State.  I have them taking down Louisville and Vanderbilt to go to the sweet 16 before losing to the Jayhawks.

I went back and forth on FSU-Notre Dame and Georgetown-USC. I ended up picking FSU to lose to Notre Dame in a game that will feature little scoring (even though they are a Big East team it's hard to pick against a Hansbrough; big brother Tyler had 29 points tonight, his fourth consecutive 20 point game, to single-handedly take down the Knicks).  I guess Georgetown will defeat USC but no way they handle Purdue. 

SOUTHEAST

Is this the year Pitt makes the Final Four for the first time since World War II?  Probably, since their bracket is full of bad basketball teams.  Wisconsin, Florida, and St. John's are the other top four seeds, hardly world beaters. Lot of toss up games - UCLA vs. Michigan State, UF versus that winner,  BYU vs. St. John's.  My other sleeper - Utah State - is in this bracket.  I have them in the sweet 16 before losing to Pitt.  

Of course, I have Carolina winning the national championship, taking down UConn and Kansas (payback for 2008) in Houston.  I love our four dudes - Zeller, Henson, Marshall and Barnes - and see them getting hot enough to win six in a row.

GO HEELS!

Speechless, Part III

Did not think, in a million years, that Duke would play that well, especially on defense.  The Devils had looked listless for the last few weeks and I honestly did not think they had that game in them. 

Tantalizing to think how things would have gone if Strickland's dunk had not be erroneously called a charge.  Duke gets those calls all the time, but that one was particularly outrageous.  Calling charging on that kind of play - with a defender lazily standing under the hoop, the place where you know the ball is heading - is always cheap and rewards NOT moving your feet.  Rather, refs are rewarding standing there like a statue.  

But Singler's play today was even worse.  The refs did NOT reward him for playing defense.  Instead, he was rewarded to not paying attention and hastily turning around to see what the hub bub was all about.   The last thing refs should do is reward that kind of 'play.'  Sheesh. 

I also wonder if fatigue was a factor for a team that only really plays 7 players and was playing it's third in three days.  But enough whining, which makes one sound like, of course, a member of the Duke Blue Devils.

Speechless, Part II

Another phenomenal game by Harrison Barnes today at the ACC tournament.  Unguardable gets thrown around a lot, in fact today by Clemson coach Brownell, but Barnes WAS truly unguardable on his way to 40 points in a tough win over the Tigers.  I was shocked to see he missed 5 shots all day.  To state H-Barn is playing with confidence would be an understatement.  

Barnes kept Carolina a float in the first half was Marshall and Henson had underwhelming first halfs, and Tyler Zeller barely made an impact.  

Ditto the second half as Barnes was incredibly efficient on offense.   Actually the entire team stepped it up; Henson was all over the place on D and on the boards and started to score in the second half, and Marshall shook off his funk, too.  Finally, down the stretch in regulation and in overtime Barnes and Zeller hit clutch basket after clutch basket.

It took an entire team effort to win this game.  Clemson played some very tough basketball today against the Heels.  They were very active defensively, and offensively Clemson has some scorers.  Their recent history has been as a defensive team, grinding out games.  But with Stitt, Tanner Smith, and Jennings the Tigers have some fire power, too.   They are a tough team and were a tough out today that required Carolina's A+ game.

Man, did they hire the right coach, too; I would not be surprised to see Brownell lead a less-obnoxious Rick Barnes-like renaissance in Clemson.

So now, the game of games this season: Carolina versus Duke for the ACC tournament championship and perhaps a number one seed.  I love our chances, as we have handled Duke both times we've played them this year.

But mainly it's about Harrison Barnes.  This guy could be getting Carmelo Anthony-hot at the right time.  Last week in Chapel Hill against the Devils he was unstoppable, which was just a prelude to today's version of unstoppable.   Of course, in addition to Barnes I think Zeller, Henson and Knox are too much for Duke inside, too.

GO HEELS!
Of course, if I was literally speechless this would not be much of a blog post. 

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!

Should NOT Go Up to 11

After watching the Carolina-Duke game for the sixth time in the last four days, I tuned into a little of the Big East tournament tonight.  I've always thought the Big East was overrated, this year and every year.  Year and year, teams in that conference are usually not skilled at a key basketball skill called "making baskets."  

Other than being bad at the main goal of the endeavor, it's a great league (honest, why would ESPN lie?).

So after watching some Big East action, and checking on the records of some of the teams in that conference, I am more convinced than ever that there is NO WAY the Big East deserves 11 bids.  

Pitt and Notre Dame are good teams playing well, and Syracuse, Louisville and St. Johns each won two-thirds of their conference games (though Louisville lost to Drexel and they only have one real quality non-conference win over UNLV; St. Johns defeated Duke but lost to Fordham and St. Bonaventure).

Those 5 are legit, as are UConn - with wins over Tennessee (a team that beat Pitt), Texas, Kentucky and Michigan State - though there were only 9-9 in conference.  Georgetown is limping-out the season without an injured Chris Wright; the Hoyas have lost 5 of their last 6.  But you have to keep them in the big dance due to their wins over Memphis, Missouri, and Old Dominion.  

Up to 7 bids for the Big East.

But the other teams often discussed - West Virginia, Cincinnati, Villanova and Marquette- have very weak cases for making the NCAA tournament.  All four feasted on bottom dwellers like DePaul, South Florida, and Rutgers.  Conversely, none of those squads have more than one impressive win.

West Virginia defeated Vanderbilt, but lost to Miami, Minnesota - two legit teams - but also to Marshall.  They have one win.

Villanova has been exposed as a fraud, losing 5 in a row and going 5 and 10 in their last 15 games.  Their best wins were early in the season to UCLA and Temple, but they too lost to Tennessee.  They do not deserve a bid.

Cincinnati has one of the weakest cases of all.  To their credit, they have no losses to Marshall or Drexel.  But their best win out of conference is Xavier.  That's it.

As weak as the Bearcats' bid is, Marquette's is even weaker. They are 19-13, and 9-9 in conference  with NO good wins outside the Big East.  They did manage to lose to every legit team on their schedule: Duke, Gonzaga, Wisconsin, and Vanderbilt. 

Maybe the Big East, a conference with approximately 47 member schools, should have 7 bids, perhaps 8 to reward West Virginia for defeating Vanderbilt.  But anything more than 8 is a joke. 

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!

Speechless

Two hours later and I'm still speechless.  Harrison Barnes' shot to defeat FSU, 72-70, was unbelievable. The confidence, to willingness, the cold no-nonsense approach was pretty impressive and inspirational.

In general, that was a great college basketball game.  Both teams played well and played hard.   And though me made some mistakes late to open the door for their comeback, hats off to the Seminoles for playing so well with their best player, Chris Singleton, out with a broken foot.

Barnes made the big shot, but as it was against Maryland on Sunday, their entire team played well in defeating FSU on their senior night.  Zeller was in foul trouble but made some tough shots and grabbed key boards, Strickland had a huge take and old-fashioned three-point play to stop a Seminole run, Leslie McDonald was a microwave off the bench with 10 points, Marshall (despite two questionable plays in the final minute) had another great game with 8 assists and his own huge shot, a three, to stop a Noles run. 

And then there's Henson and Barnes. Henson, who quietly has made 9 of his last 10 free throws, had another double double tonight on a variety of step throughs, dunks and shot jumpers and hooks.  He was only credited with 3 blocks but it seems like he many more than that.  On the boards he was like Spider-Man, grabbing balls out of the air as if he was shooing a web.  Like Marshall he had a few bad possessions with sloppy passes for turnovers, but he was dominant for most of tonight's game in Tallahassee.

What do you say about Barnes?  The shot was another clutch one in a season full of timely offensive outburst by the Ames, Iowa freshman.  Not only is Barnes confident, he's also maturing.  He did not force anything tonight, made 6 of 10 shots for an efficient and awe-inspiring performance.

This team is making plays, and everyone in contributing - with Barnes the first among equals tonight.  The result is a team peaking at the right time, playing with confidence and playing as a unit.  

GO HEELS!

More Message Discipline - and Hypocrisy

More message discipline from Republicans this morning, in this case by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on NPR.  Gov. Daniels, a far too serious presidential candidate for today's anti-intellectual, anti-fact Republican party (apparently Daniels, among other things, did not dismantle Indiana's state government - at least not yet - and believes Obama was indeed born in the United States) called the deficit - not unemployment, not the lack of corporate hiring, not Al Qaeda, not the two wars we are currently fighting - the BIGGEST threat to the United States.  

Daniels was unusually pressed by the normally non-confrontational host of "Morning Edition" Steve Inskeep about his role as budget chief for Bush 43.  When Inskeep pointed out that when Bush came in office there was a budget surplus and when he left office there was a huge deficit Daniels immediately got defensive quick.  He went on to downplay the measures of the Clinton administration - there was a tech bubble, etc. but he also failed to mention Clinton also DID NOT invade two countries without paying for it - and whined, whined, whined.  

When Inskeep also pointed out that Clinton raised taxes for the wealthy as a way of fighting the deficit. Daniels defended the Bush tax cuts as a stimulus!  

So more hypocrisy and irony from Rs.  If the deficit is the number one threat to these United States, why not do what Clinton did and raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans?  Why isn't everything on the table in this fight for our survival?

And why aren't there any serious Republicans any more?

Two straight solid wins

After a couple of lackluster games I like the way the Heels played this week.  Very methodical wins, with contributions from everywhere on the floor and from multiple players in winning at State and tonight at home versus a desperate Maryland team.

The State win was probably more impressive due to the hostile atmosphere - and that we were down early 9 to 19.  But behind our shooting guards Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald - and some nice play by Justin Knox - the Heels led at half in Raleigh.

The final 20 minutes belonged to Harrison Barnes. I loved the way we came out of the locker room determined to do what Dean Smith always preached: do what we want to do, not what the other team wants us to do.  Barnes and Zeller hit baskets early in the half, and Barnes - with some more impressive dunks - Henson and Marshall put it away down the stretch with Reggie Bullock of all people making a huge, Wolfpack-momentum stopping old-fashioned 3-point play along the way. 

In short, the entire team made plays all night, but especially in the second half, to defeat State for the 10th straight time and 19th in the last 20.

Tonight versus Maryland the beat went on. Barnes got us going early and Zeller was a beast throughout the game as they both finished with more than 20 points.  Henson seemed to have at least that many blocks, Marshall and Strickland were dropping dimes on every possession, and McDonald finished burying the slump he killed in Raleigh with 15 points (a nice mix of 3s, jumpers and an offensive rebound put back).

Another total team effort in a game the Heels led comfortably for most of the night.  When Maryland made runs in the second half, each one was answered by a Barnes drive or Zeller shot down low.   We got a little sloppy, but at the same time the Heels were never seriously threatened by the Terps.

So as we head into the last week of the regular season the Heels stand at 12 and 2 in conference, 14-0 at home, and with a nice head of steam.  Without Chris Singleton the Heels will likely be favored at FSU; ditto for their home rematch against the right-wing boobs from Durham. 

Who would have predicted this kind of season in November?

A few notes:

• There's a lot of justified talk about Kendall Marshall's poise, but how about his leadership?  It's easy to forget how quickly he took over this team, and Marshall has thrived as the team leader.  Early this season there was speculation that Barnes, with his Hansbrough-like work ethic, would become the young leader of this year's Heels squad. But this is Marshall's team now.
• John Henson is now 6 for his last 6 at the free throw line.  So it's now official, other than some occasional bad decision making, this guy has no weaknesses.
• Great to see Barnes hit shots early, and I'm also glad that he went to the glass a lot in the second half.
• Maryland played tough, but the real silver lining for Gary Williams' team is the duo of Terrell Scoglin and Jordan Williams. Scoglin hit shots from all over the floor on his way to 26 points, and as impressive as Zeller and Henson were Williams was their equal with 16 points and 19 boards.
• Happy to see Virginia Tech win (for the conference) and happier to see Duke lose (for the greater good).  But neither team looked good to me last night.  Virginia Tech can not run an offense to save their life, and in ACC games at least Kyle Singler looks terrible. If Nolan Smith is not hot Duke seems to have trouble running offense; they seem to be a much worse offensive team then they were last year.  I would love to have time to do a comparison.
• GO HEELS!

Is it hypocrisy or irony?

Got to hand it to the Republicans in the House (and their fellow travelers running for president).

They took the House in November, mainly due to economic anxiety and concerns about unemployment (plus, they had a very motivated base that felt they had to take the country back from a foreign-born Muslim president).  

But since taking office they have spent most of their time squawking about the deficit, or in places like Wisconsin and New Jersey trying to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees - economic liabilities that do not create wealth such as teachers and fire fighters.

Complaining about the deficit is code for two things: cutting taxes for rich people, and cutting programs that help non-rich people.

And the union attack is politics plain and simple.  In the wake of the Citizens United decision that allows unlimited corporate contributions, unions and the role they play in elections - both money and people - have never more important.   You take away unions and you take away lots of power from the Democrats.  It's a reprise of the late 19th century policy to break the backs of Native American culture and resistance by wiping out the bison from the plains. 

No more food for plains Native Americans, no more Native Americans.  No more unions, fewer Democrats.  And without unions, Dems would have to raise money exclusively from the same set of economic winners who are socially liberal but fiscally more conservative.

I wonder if after March 4th, the deadline for passing a spending bill to keep the government open, the focus will return to jobs and the economy.

Besides the hypocrisy of running on jobs and governing on helping rich people pay fewer taxes, there's the irony that if you cut the size of government - local, state or federal - you put people out of work.  Government is not some machine that eats money and automatically prints reports and buys toilet paper and tanks.  People - employees, Americans - do that.  And though corporations are raking in record profits they are NOT hiring Americans (those capitalist bastards!).   

And the only way to meaningfully cut the size of government or spending is to gouge defense, or cut Medicare. Medicaid, and/or Social Security.  Everything else is window dressing, hypocrisy, irony, lying - or a cynical ploy to cut taxes and attack unions. 

The last thing the economy needs is more people out of work.  And that's the bottom line here.  Jobs are more important than deficit reduction and tax cuts.  That should be the focus of the executive and legislative branches of government in Washington and state capitals.  

Finally, one last point.  Dems in the House have done a good job of messaging on the lack of action on job creation by the new Republican Congress.  Of course, the minority party does not get much air time on the news.  I just wish Obama would stop engaging the Rs so much when they repeat their mantra on the deficit.  

How hard is it to pivot on this?  "Well, reducing the deficit is an important issue, but my number one concern is putting Americans back to work.  Therefore, I urge Republicans in Congress to work with me on getting that job done first, THEN working on cutting spending."   See how I slipped the word job in there?

Or, "The last thing we need is more folks unemployed, so I urge my colleagues in Congress to only cut programs that DO not cause lay-offs or job losses in the public sector."

See, it's easy!

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!

Another visit to the White House

I was fortunate to represent the Sierra Club this afternoon at the White House's unveiling of their 'America's Great Outdoors' report.  

Hard to objectively assess the event.  Though I'm a semi-cynical 48-year old it was still a genuine thrill to visit the White House and be in the same room as the President of the United States, especially this President.   

It wasn't as exciting as my last visit, when the President signed the omnibus lands bill into law and added more than 2 million acres of new public land to America's great - and protected - outdoors - but it was still a great time.

The ceremony itself was relatively short, probably 20 to 25 minutes.  But the President gave a great speech.  And for a lobbyist it was awesome; a chance to talk with senior Administration officials from all the federal land agencies, environmental grant makers, and coalition partners from conservation and environmental organizations (including my next door neighbor John Kostyack from NWF, which meant that wo residents of the 3800-block of Alton Place NW were in the White House today; that may not have been the first time that happened since many of our neighbors are reporters).

Anyway, it was a great day for a great event celebrating America's Great Outdoors, an initiative the Sierra Club has been very active in ever since it was announced in April 2010 (the link is to the report the Lands team delivered to the Obama Administration in August 2010).  

I liked the White House so much I almost left my coat in the coat check room - on purpose - so I'd have an excuse to go back tomorrow.  I tweeted that from the event and did not hear a thing from the Secret Service.  So much for the Patriot Act - "Mr. President, the tweet is coming from inside the White House!"

Carolina - Hellenic Tie In

The visit to White House is also part of a plan to win Carolina it's third national championship in seven seasons.  

As I mentioned above, the last time I visited the White House was in March 2009, one week before the Heels romped to their 5th national championship.  That summer we also went to Greece.  We also went to Greece in 2005, when Roy Williams won his first and Carolina's fourth championship.

I'm not taking any chances this year.  I went to the White House today, and Ariadne* and I are going to Greece for a 5-day visit during her spring break (and a conveniently-timed Congressional recess) in March.  So if the pattern holds and we win our 6th NCAA championship in a month don't thank Roy or Harrison Barnes or John Henson - thank this blog.

* To show Evan some love - and put a cherry on top of the Carolina-Hellenic sundae - I am taking him and his cousin Paul to the Carolina-BC game in Chapel Hill this weekend.

AmeriGO HEELS!

Oh well

Not the greatest game last night for the Heels, but a win is a win and Carolina is now 19 and 6, and 9 and 2 in the ACC.

 The bad news: 

• for the second straight game the Heels got good looks, good looks that they missed.  We jacked up 27 threes last night, making only 5 for a 19 percent clip;
• the 27 threes were a symptom of impatience on offense.  When we attacked Wake's zone we did well, making almost 48 percent of our 2-point shots.  

The good news:

• only 8 turnovers.  Part of that is Wake's do-nothing zone, part of it is improved play by Barnes, and Marshall's steady running of the offense.  Besides the low number, I was heartened by back up point guard Dexter Strickland's ZERO turnovers in 31 minutes (or the same number of jump shots he hit);
• the Heels played some pretty good defense last night, holding Wake to 38 percent shooting;
• when Harrison Barnes was aggressive, which he generally was in the second half, he looked great; he's clearly been working on his dunking/explosiveness.  Barnes also had 4 assists last night;
• despite missing some shots from outside Leslie McDonald had a nice overall game;
• and almost best of all, Jon Henson was fantastic on defense.  He left quite a few points on the rim in the second half last night, but defensively he was fantastic.

Go Heels!

Can't stop watching the Barnes dunk

Lots I could be doing - it's actually a nice day for once here in DC - but nothing beats watching this over and over again.