Opening Round

In the words of Larry David, the first week of games in the NCAA tournament have been 'pretty, pretty good.'  I'd like to espouse on the entire week - NC State beating Xavier, the other 12 seeds ALL winning, etc. - but of course my twin poles* are Carolina's scintillating win and Duke's equally scintillating loss.

As a basketball game the UNC-Providence tilt was a great one. Both teams made shots and made plays all game. It's not unusual to see ugly games this time of year, with games that are filled with mistakes and missed shots; this was not one of those. Both teams played hard and played well.

For my money, despite my love for Marcus Paige and as great as he was late, this game was won by Brice Johnson.  He competed on both ends of the floor, and in this one his defense matched his always reliable offense. Brice did it all well.  He hit his array of half hooks and put backs, and made two big free throws down the stretch.

On D, he had two massive blocked shots after Bryce "Second coming of Harold The Show Arceneaux" Cotton had willed Providence to a 5 point lead.  And Johnson excelled throughout in executing one of THE cornerstones of Carolina basketball - the wall on defense.  Carolina started playing Cotton to drive, and on the times we did stop him it was often Johnson providing the back line defense.

As great as Cotton was Johnson turned out to be the best Bryce/Brice on the floor.

For a few minutes there thanks to Cotton and Mercer Carolina fans had to confront reliving two of the worst days in our hoops history - the loss to Arceneaux and Weber State in the first round in 1999, and 1979's Black Friday when the Tar Heels and the Devils both lost in the first round.** 

It was a head-scratching display by the Devils, as an ACC team coached by a Hall of Famer looked nervous and scared down the stretch. Conversely, Mercer looked confident and consistently made shots and plays. The body language from Rodney Hood after he was called for traveling said it all.  

This Devils team was weak at the point and down low all season, and both flaws were certainly exposed by the Bears. When Quinn Cook is the brains of the operation, you are in trouble. 

That is probably an overly harsh assessment of Cook.*** Hood and Jabari Parker both played nervously and badly, and when that happens this Devils team is going to lose, simple as that.

Still, kudos to Krzyzewski for his classy visit to the Mercer locker room to congratulate the Bears on their win. It takes a confident and centered man to do that, and I'm sure the players and staff from Mercer were touched by his words and visit.  A very Dean-like mover from a blue Devil.

Some more March Madness Musings
    
I still love Carolina's chances to win 5 more games. They had to play tough and smart to beat Providence, and did.  GO HEELS!

If the Heels don't win it all I hope that Virginia does. If the Hoos do not, I would happily root for Wichita State, where Eddie Fogler used to coach. Their coach, Greg Marshall, seems far too happy with himself (the greatest sin to the ancient Greeks) but it would be a great story.

Here are my round of 32 picks BTW: 
Florida - Pitt will give them a game though, thanks to their new-found offense
Stephen F Austin - riding a winning streak AND the mojo of that four-point play
Syracuse - Dayton will run out of gas
Kansas - Ho hum; Stanford can't hang with Jayhawks
Virginia - Scare from Coastal Carolina will make them better
Michigan State - Ho hum
Carolina - Marcus Paige is GOD
Villanova - No comment on this game
Arizona - See Villanova comment
ND State - These guys our pretty good, SD State untested
Creighton - A little bit better than Baylor
Wisconsin - Much better than Oregon
Wichita State - Chip on their shoulder leads them to win over Kentucky blue bloods
Louisville - They are much better than the team they are playing
Mercer - Call them butter because they are on a roll!
Michigan - This will be a great game that the Wolverines will win late          

*  I can not believe the CBS play-by-play guy used the word 'pollack' to describe Gonzaga's Polish-born center - and to do so while calling the game with Mike GMINSKI! Kudos to the G-man, who is one of the best color commentators in America, for immediately calling him out.

** Who knows, if this was 2019 maybe we would have lost. Or Carolina fans should play 19 in the lottery?

*** I think it's safe to say that Cook easily joins Laettner, Wojo, and Redick on the list of most loathesome Devils of all time.  That guys loves himself and his fellow right-wing boobs from Durham WAY too much, and thus he makes that dubious list.

GO HEELS!

March Madness

An unsatisfying ACC basketball weekend* was salvaged by Virginia smiting the Devils in the championship game AND a pretty good draw for the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament. The tragedy side of my Greek psyche was expecting much worse on Sunday. 

ACC Tournament
It was obviously good to see Duke lose.  Any day that Krzyzewski is sad is a good day for America.  As I posted on twitter over the weekend, Duke is like the Tea Party: some individual alums/members are nice, but as a whole both are bad for the country.

NCAA Tournament  
It is hard to quibble with the selection committee's work on the NCAA tournament. I was very glad to see six ACC teams, including N.C. State, make it. That is second to the Big 12's seven bids (actually they got eight if you count Nebraska though they apparently are in the Big 10 now - who knew? -  which by the way has 12 members, while the Big 12 has only 10 members.  Thanks football!)

Of course, I will quibble a little bit.  I agree with most Americans that BYU did not deserve an invitation to the big dance; they were very bad down the stretch.  Actually Nebraska should not have made it either; their one marquee win was over Michigan State without their two best players.

Colorado and Stanford, two Pac 12 schools, are also more suited to the NIT than the NCAA. If I was on the committee I would have dropped those four in favor of Wisconsin Green Bay, Louisiana Tech (who beat Nebraska I think),  Florida State and probably SMU and Larry Brown.

How could the selection committee pass on Larry Brown?

I keep scratching my head about Clemson, too. They finished with 10 wins in the ACC including one over Duke, yet never seemed to merit much consideration. It is great to have six teams in but the ACC probably should have gotten seven. 

So there is some quibbling over the teams but only a few on the seeding. UCLA probably should not be a 4, BYU should be in the NIT let alone a 10 seed, Kentucky is one of those nightmare 8 seeds, but that's about it.  

The number one seeds, however, seem obvious and just. 

But like many Americans I can not believe that Louisville is a 4 seed.  They seem like a 2 seed the way they have been playing lately.

Louisville is a reminder of the rigor that is the Midwest bracket. I guess the selection committee was not impressed by Wichita State's strength of schedule since they gave them a brutal path to follow if the Shockers hope to make consecutive trips to the Final Four.  
  
Their second round game could be against a Tennessee team that blew out Virginia. Get past the Vols and Kentucky or Kansas State could await. Both K teams are tough outs from tough conferences. If the Shockers go to the Sweet 16 they could see Louisville - who they will likely lose to - and if they make it past the defending national champs would likely see Michigan, another team that made the Final Four last year.

My only real upset pick is North Dakota State over Oklahoma. I have NC State winning two games including over St. Louis in the 2nd round, and George Washington over Memphis.  

I DON'T buy into most of the trendy upset picks.  VCU will not lose to SF Austin, and I do not buy into the Harvard thing.  Finally, I see Syracuse getting their act together enough to beat W. Michigan but lose to Ohio State.  

My bracket is here: http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=407767&invitesource=email&inviteuser=MjUzNDkxA&ex_cid=invite-email-tcmen  You can also join my group, Marcus Paige is GOD, from there. 

TAR HEELS
Unlike last year, Carolina got a great draw in 2014.  Iowa State and Villanova will be tough, but I love our chances of getting another shot at Virginia and going to the final four. Once there I have the Heels beating Louisville - again - then winning one for Dean, whose last game was a loss to Arizona in the 1997 Final Four.  This time ol' Roy will win one for his mentor and take down the Wildcats for the National Championship - or something like that.

GO HEELS! GO DEAN! GO AMERICA!




* The best basketball news of the weekend was attending the Wizards' scintillating win over the Nets of Brooklyn.  John Wall kept the Zards close until Drew Gooden - DREW GOODEN - took over in the 4th quarter and scored 11 of his 21 points to lead Washington to the win. This is a fun team led by a player, Wall, who has really grown as a leader and a shot maker.  It will be interesting to see the Wizards in the playoffs. 

They Just Do Not Get It

No, the title of this post is not about Duke fans.

But I AM talking about crazies, specifically the ones in Kansas, Arizona and elsewhere who even think about passing laws that make it okay to not serve people - in this case gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered - who violate a private business owner's deeply held 'religious beliefs.'

Those laws have been defeated or vetoed after opposition from Republicans in the business community.* However, houses of worship - especially Christians - should also oppose these efforts.  Sadly, most of these folks who vote for these laws, support the lawmakers who think them up, or the business owners who would love legal cover to discriminate THINK they are acting on Christian beliefs.

They're not.

In the run up to Lent - this year western Lent and Easter are in synch with the Orthodox calendar; take that Georgian calendar! - our gospel lessons have been getting us ready and reminding us why Easter is the holiest of holidays for Christians.

One of the themes our priests have been reinforcing the past few weeks has been how we treat other people, or 'the other'.  The message, especially in last week's reading from Matthew 25:31-46, is that we need to treat everyone, to love everyone, as if that person was Christ.  Whether you like them, know them, think they are bad people, if they are Dukies - no matter what - Christ tells us to love them.

To quote the Bible: 'whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It really is eerie how directly antithetical these proposed laws are to scripture. To further quote Matthew: 'for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison (that's right, in addition to never turning anyone down for anything even if they are gay, Jesus says you have to LOVE prisoners!) and you did not look after me.  Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’


Since these laws deal mainly with restaurants the folks who support them want to literally do the opposite of what is written in the Gospel. Perhaps they want to start a new religion, or perhaps start a new organization: Evangelical Christians Against Christ.


Christianity is a simple religion but one that is challenging to get right; one of the things you have to do is love everyone as Christ loves us.

Just as the righteous crucified Christ the righteous among us today do not seem to understand his message. David Green, the billionaire CEO of Hobby Lobby and a financial backer of groups that advocate these discriminatory laws said in a 2012 speech “We have tried to run our business in a way that would be pleasing to our savior."

I humbly suggest that that is not happening, yet.  Mr. Green may want to read Matthew and then rethink his current business model.

* Smart business owners would never support these laws - or more importantly turn away business.  Greek restaurant owners in the south and in inner cities never turned away paying customers just because those customers were African-Americans. It was good business and good karma.  As you may know, Greeks were so well known for taking anyone's money that during the riots in Detroit, Washington and elsewhere Greek businesses were not fire bombed or damaged. The LGBT community uses the same money as the rest of the country.  If you're a for-profit business like a restaurant or a hobby shop, why would you want to act like an anti-Christian AND turn away paying customers?

FYI, David Green was coincidentally born in the same hometown as one of the greatest Americans, Christians, and humans of all time, Dean Smith. Both are from Emporia, Kansas.  I looked up Green's biography on the off-chance that he was a graduate of Duke University.

As for Dean, if you have not yet had a chance to read Duke graduate John Feinstein's excellent column in honor of coach Smith's birthday do that right now!  Of course I take quite a few shots at Duke but Feinstein's columns are almost always great - especially this one.