There'll Be A Carolina Victory

There'll be a Carolina victory - every time the Tar Heels play Michigan State.  What a great win in East Lansing against the undefeated and top-ranked Spartans,* again.

Many if not all the post-game stories included words or sentiments such as  'unexpected' or 'upset' but as we all know, when Carolina wins it's never an upset.  Even against number one on the road, even after a loss to UAB.  Carolina is Carolina.
  
Carolina basketball is a feeling as much as it is a system (a term Dean hated) or philosophy.  That feel extends to fans, too. For instance, five minutes into the game in Birmingham I imagine most Carolina fans knew - as I felt - that we were going to lose.  The Heels came out flat, listless, and disengaged thanks to a combination of (a week off)+ (a little too much post-Louisville hubris)=loss.

But those kinds of games are to be expected from a young team still learning it's way.

Five minutes into the game versus Michigan State I felt - I knew, I tweeted - the Heels were going to win.

Why? Because we looked like Carolina. Carolina forced a terrible shot on Michigan State's initial possession to start the game.  On the other end we immediately went inside, as Dean taught for years, something that worked ALL night.

It was Carolina blue heaven all night.

• The Heels were relentless in feeding the post, as Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, and Joel James were getting lots of touches and making lots of shots.
• When someone missed, Johnson, Meeks, and especially J.P. Tokoto were there for the offensive rebound. Tokoto also seemed to grab every lose ball.
• If we weren't feeding the post the Heels were taking it to the rack.  Nate Britt was fantastic both looking for his shot and getting the ball down low, as was Marcus Page.  And Tokoto.
• Our aggressiveness on offense led us to the free-throw line, where at least for one night the Heels were awesome (especially Britt late, less so for James Michael McAdoo).  

Feeding the post, rebounding, getting to the free throw line - THAT"S Carolina basketball!

And so is winning.

The only item not on that list is lots of fast break points. Though the Heels did not run that much, they did have some impressive and important points in transition. Tokoto's block of a dunk attempt early in the second half, a dunk that would have given the Spartans their first lead of the night, led to an old-fashioned three-point play when Britt threw an incredible diagonal pass to a streaking Page for a huge bucket and one.

Page made huge plays all night.  You can pick among his 3 to open the second half, the charge he took in the first half, the fast break basket from Britt, or his big 3 late.

Later in the half, when once again Michigan State had tied the score, feeding the post Carolina-style won the game for the Heels. Johnson scored 4 straight, then Tokoto scored 6 straight with one hoop coming on an offensive board and another on a one-man fast break, before Meeks went on a one-man 4-point run.

As it was against Louisville every Heel contributed.  Britt and McAdoo got us started with some great shooting in the first half; when they went out with two fouls the Spartans finally tied the Heels after trailing by 10 for most of the half.  McAdoo struggled for most of the night, but in addition to the good first half offensively he had a huge board at the end of the shot clock in the second half and a great block with less than a minute left.

Meeks also had an impressive block late, and his skip pass from the post to Page for Marcus' killer three was a thing of beauty and probably the play of the game.  

Lots of great performances for a great win, a win that was all Carolina basketball right from the start.  

GO HEELS!  

Lost Weekend in Chapel Hill

It's not often when things go better in Fayetteville then they do in Chapel Hill, but that's what happened this Thanksgiving weekend for the staff of Carolina Hellenic Blue.

Thanksgiving in the 'ville was great as all 18 of our immediate family went to my parents house to celebrate, eat, and play foot, whiffle and kick ball games (in person, not video or computer games).

The weekend in Chapel Hill, and the games played there, were not so great.

First, we lose to Duke, which is bad enough, in football. The loss allowed the Devils to advance to the ACC championship game, so beating them would have been doubly sweat. To make matters worse, Carolina should have won that one going away.  The Heels dropped two touchdowns, and dropped an interception on Duke's game winning drive.  Those 3 mistakes doomed the Heels on Saturday.

Second, later that day the Carolina women's soccer team - the most dominant dynasty in the history of sports, winners of 21 of the previous 31 NCAA championships including last year's title - lost in the elite 8 to UCLA 0-1.  I think the Heels had never lost in the elite 8 in 32 NCAA tournament appearances.

Finally, and third, was Sunday night's shabby loss on the road to UAB. It was a classy move for 'ol Roy to go to Birmingham in honor of his former player and assistant Jerod Haase.  Usually, the big name school does not travel to the up-and-coming one, but Roy is Roy.

What we did not expect was Carolina to play terribly for 40 minutes and lose to the Blazers. Coming off an exhilarating win over Louisville the Heels looked listless and completely out of sync, with no one looking more discombobulated and down right untalented than James Michael McAdoo.  

The Heels looked like a team that had not played in a week, which was the case, and it showed early as no one other that J.P. Tokoto looked interested.  Marcus Page tried, but clearly the UAB defense was focused on stopping him, and they did. 

Without Page we needed at least one or two more guys to step up to help Tokoto, and usually reliable Brice Johnson almost did, Kennedy Meeks and Joel James could not give any sustained effort, and McAdoo had a serious case of Mac-A-Don't.

The lay off and the inexperience of this team, at least the inexperience of this P.J.-less rotation, is enough to cause me to shrug this one off as 'one of those games' that happen early in a season with a team like this one, a team still learning and figuring things out. 

The flip side is, it's hard to shrug off how bad McAdoo played. He not only looked soft when he attacked the rim, but he made terrible decisions - a three pointer, really? - and was inactive; he even had trouble catching the ball or grabbing loose balls or boards.

I don't think it's time to panic, but in a bizzaro world where things go better in Fayetteville we need McAdoo to be McAdoo and help Page, Johnson and Meeks overcome the loss of Hairston and make things right in Chapel Hill. 

GO HEELS! 

A Great Week to be a Tar Heel (after a rough couple of months)

After months and months of dissonance, from P.J.Hairston's mistake filled summer to the latest reminders that the Carolina football program is an embarrassment to the University, some semblance of order was restored to Tar Heel Nation last week. 

Two great things happened.

One, Dean Smith was awarded the highest honor that an American can earn, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More than a great Tar Heel, Dean is a great American. For many, and certainly for me, he embodies everything good about Carolina. Not the basketball program - Carolina.  

To be, rather than to seem.*  Could a guy born in Kansas be any more a Tar Heel?

In recounting why we has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom we are once again reminded why he is a great American. Dean was an active citizen on top of being a successful basketball coach. Sure he graduated 98 percent of his players, won an Olympic gold medal, won two national championships, and did it the right way.  But Dean also cared about the well being of his fellow citizens, and worked to make our country, not just Carolina, better. Whether he was integrating parts of North Carolina, advocating for gay marriage or against the death penalty, Dean knew that to truly be an American one has to be an active citizen engaged in making ours a more perfect union.  

Two, perhaps in honor of Dean Carolina looked like Carolina on Sunday in defeating the defending national champs on a neutral floor.  

What a game! Roy said it after the win but after 4 lackluster games the team seemed to finally stop looking at the bench hoping for Hairston to come in and bail them out (I can't include Leslie McDonald in the same sentence as Hairston; that guy has been in Chapel Hill for 4 years and yet has NO identity or presence it seems). 

The great news is the guy they need is already on the floor in the person of Marcus Paige. He finished strong down the stretch last year, and his progress along with Hairston and James Michael McAdoo was enough to make Heels giddy for this season, at least until the troubles with PJ surfaced this summer. Against Louisville, we saw Paige emerge as a two-headed monster who could dish like Marcus but score like P.J. 

It was fantastic to watch, and exciting to think about how Paige will only get better as he gets stronger. He's already a smart player - of course a Carolina player - and his skills will keep growing. Paige is going to have a monster year for the Heels.

Remember, this is Carolina. As great as Paige was the win reached the giddy level due to the contributions from the entire team.  There are many to choose from, but I'll start with Nate Britt.

Even in wins, such as the ones over Oakland and Richmond, Britt has generally been pretty bad.  His performance against Holy Cross prompted me to tweet 'that my biggest fear is that Britt turns into Adam Boone.' 

Against Louisville he stopped going north-south a la Boone and aggressively attacked the rim and even displayed a deft touch, too! He's a freshman so we should cut him some slack on his learning curve, but it was great to see him play with confidence and poise against an opponent like Louisville. 

Paige and Britt moved the ball, Carolina style, for 40 minutes as everyone contributed to a great win. 

Speaking of freshman AND moving the ball, how about Kennedy Meeks?  He looked like Sean May in ways ridiculous - he's chubby! - and sublime - look at those outlet passes, soft hands and soft touch around the basket.

We saw Paige coming, and knew Meeks and players like Isaiah Hicks and Britt were touted recruits, but I'm not sure if anyone other than ol' Roy saw Brice Johnson coming on the way he has so far.

He is this team's X factor.  His energy and skill off the bench have been phenomenal - so far.  Johnson appears to have a nose for the ball and scoring, and has become that third guy, along with Paige and McAdoo, that every successful basketball team needs.

If Johnson and Paige keep playing at this level, Britt and Meeks keep growing and getting more comfortable, and McAdoo starts acting like Mac-a-do instead of Mac-a-doesn't, this team will continue to be fun to watch AND make a run at an ACC championship - even without Hairston.

Of course, the Heels could use Hairston and even McDonald if for no other reason that as deep as our front court is (McAdoo, James, Tokoto, Hicks, Meeks, Simmons, Hubert all played and scored versus Louisville) our back court is equally thin (yes, that was walk on, fourth-string point guard Wade Moody getting first-half minutes).

This squad will make some noise nationally, too, and this team will keep being tested as the Heels play a brutal schedule. The Heels still have games against Kentucky and Texas, and at Michigan State before turning to the ACC with new rivals like Syracuse in addition to games versus Duke (overrated in my opinion with a weak front court) and FSU (under rated), etc. 

But this week the Heels showed we have the talent to be Carolina, Dean's Carolina.  Forget Hairston.  With Paige, Johnson, etc. we have enough talent and skill to go win a lot of games and go a long way. 

GO HEELS!

A Few Random Notes

• Kudos to Chapel Hill's Superchunk for, among other things, including the North Carolina state motto, 'to be rather than to seem,' in their song "Your Theme." If you are not listening to "I Hate Music" you are under utilizing the gift of hearing.
•  I was embarrassed to see Carolina send letters to Marvin Austin, Greg Page and Robert Quinn stating that those three should no longer associate with UNC or come back to Chapel Hill.  Did the same letter go to Butch Davis and his staff?  I am not absolving the players from associating with agents, etc. but to single out the student-athletes instead of the coaches and adults in charge is embarrassing.
• Dean is the STANDARD.  The athletic department, especially the football program,  needs to remember that; what would Dean do?

One of the worst days of the year

One of the worst days of the year is inarguably the day Carolina ends its basketball season - if it ends with a loss, that is.

But another of the worst days of the year is the day the NFL season starts in earnest (on a Sunday, like in the old days). This year, recent events and actions make the prospect of football dominating the sport pages even more loathsome than usual.

As some of you know, I stopped following the NFL the year of the big strike, the one when NFL owners eventually fielded replacement players, that strike.  Unlike baseball, which I found out I really missed when it was stopped by misguided owners and labor troubles, I found out I did NOT miss the NFL that much.

I never went back in part because I did not miss football, but also because I was disgusted by the league itself and its' fans.  It's bad enough that the union is so weak that NFL players - abused by a sport so violent that most careers are short (and if you have a long one your body or brain is often severely damaged) - very rarely receive guaranteed contracts from wealthy owners.  Players went on strike in part to push for guaranteed money.    

But what made things worse for me was the average fans' reaction to the games played by replacement players.  Fans showed up to watch those scabs play.  It didn't matter who was playing, violence is violence, football is football.  Once players saw that, the union caved and since then things have gotten worse for players.  Seasons got longer thus more hits were absorbed, the game got more and more violent, and players bodies and minds kept getting abused.

Which of course brings me to the NFL's recent settlement with 4,500 former player who had sued the league over inadequate or callous medical care.  Mike Wise covered most of this ground in an excellent column in The Washington Post on August 29th.  For $650 million the NFL was spared having it's own players, it's former employees, take the stand and testify that coaches and doctors lied to them about concussions and other serious injuries.  

No guaranteed contracts, no lifetime health insurance, no concession that football is such a violent sport that ONE PLAY can ruin someone's body and/or brain for a lifetime.  The NFL is a rouge league that mistreats and lies to it's employees every game. 

I honestly wonder how long that business model will continue.  Last month's settlement bought the NFL some time, but the issue of medical abuses to former and current players will not go away.  

Another thing that probably won't go away is the love of violence and gambling, the twin factors that keep NFL fans glued to their TVs  on Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday, ...).  Besides the banal abuse of the players, that sentence includes the other 3 reasons I don't like the NFL; the trident of gambling, violence and TV that reenforce some of the worst aspects of American culture.  Those three ills are hard to beat, and sports like baseball or hobbies like reading can't seem to compete.  

America is worse for our love of football.

And Carolina is worse, too. In fact, college football is probably worse than the NFL. Professional teams are in it to make money, plain and simple.  But college and universities are supposed to have higher aspirations, which of course is the most naive statement anyone can blog about college sports.

Carolina, of course, should and used to be different.  But the recent scandals there have tarnished a school once known for doing things - everything - the right way, a school that used to take it's cues from Dean Smith.

Now it takes it's cues from ESPN, and in doing so Carolina has acted like just another low-life college whose goal is to fill up stadiums and make money, NOT to educate student athletes.  

I wish Carolina would have had the nerve to drop football for a year completely.  I know, we wouldn't have been able to hire someone named Larry Fedora!, but doing so would have restored Carolina's moral leadership. More importantly, it would have reminded the world that sports are secondary to academics, and restored same balance - at least at one campus.

In addition to chasing dollars, college football probably abuses players even more than the NFL. There are no restrictions on hitting in practice, for instance, and worse medical care.  

However, college football and all its abuses are easy to fix. Two reforms, making freshman ineligible and only playing 8 games a season, with one or two playoff games, would practically solve all the problems with the college game.

For the NFL, hopefully the entire league will go out of business - or MAYBE the league will change or evolve into a flag football league or something. Malcolm Gladwell predicted that in 20 years the physical abuse suffered by NFL players will be deemed socially unacceptable by our civilized society. I just hope a society seemingly dependent on violence, gambling and TV will eventually get there.

Of course, there are other reasons to not like football:

• It's corporate, corporate, corporate. From the NFL playing the Super Bowl in a neutral site so it can cater to fat cats/corporate sponsors not real fans, to the Chic-Fil-A Beef O'Brady's National Bank bowls, to college players banned from profiting when the school sells THEIR jerseys, abusive corporations or cartels are in charge of both the NFL and college football. The bosses make the real money; the workers do not. 
• Football has plays like the blitz. Baseball has plays like the sacrifice. When a game is tied, football has sudden death overtime; baseball has extra innings. The goal of football is use an offensive attack to penetrate the other sides defenses; in baseball, it's to be safe at home (all that is courtesy of George Carlin).
• A team named the Redskins represents the capital of the free world, in 2013. The same team that refused to sign African American players until 17 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier insists on burnishing that racist legacy by keeping the most offensive nickname in sports.  A team owned by a guy who seems completely oblivious about the nickname and that legacy.  
• Ray Lewis.