Good Week

It was a very good week for the Manuels, the Heels and the Greens.

Eighteen Manuels - the whole brood - got together in Fayetteville this weekend for Thanksgiving. Our parents, the four siblings, our spouses and the eight grandkids got together to give thanks. We even emulated the Kennedy's and played our own Thanksgiving Day football game. David and Kate Kushner and Ariadne and me, squared off against Johnny Manuel/Nicholas Stamatos, Paul Kushner, Evan Manuel and Michael Stamatos. Despite our advanced age and advancing waistline David and I held our own against that younger team.

I'll post some photos of the weekend soon, though I did not take as many as Cleo did.

Carolina Football

The football theme continued on Saturday afternoon when David's brother, Keith Kushner, a former place kicker at Duke, gave us four tickets to the Duke-Carolina game at Wallace Wade Stadium. The Heels looked pretty good, and were especially great on third down, in winning 28-20 and defeating Duke for the 17th time in their last 18 meetings (the one Duke win was Evan's first college football game, BTW).

T.J. Yates looked good for most of the game (though he had a hard time consistently finding Hakeem Nicks most of the game) as did Shaun Draughn (until he got tired late in the game). Despite two more turnovers the Heels moved the ball most of the afternoon on their way to 28 points.

Duke also did not have trouble moving the ball, at least until they got inside the 20. Carolina's defensive philosophy, as I understand it, is to give up the short stuff but to then close quickly on the receiver. Duke took advantage of that most of the game but once the field got shorter, inside the 20, and Carolina had less ground to patrol Duke had trouble making plays and getting into the end zone. And Duke's quarterback, in contrast to Yates, was generally terrible on third down and near the end zone.

Carolina finishes 8 and 4, and will play in a bowl game for the first time in years. Coach Butch Davis seems to be a great recruiter and motivator, but I'm not crazy about his defensive philosophy and his late game management. But despite those complaints, he clearly has Carolina pointed in the general direction of the good-ol'-days of the Mack Brown era of the early 1990s.

A few more quick observations from the Duke game:

• Wallace Wade is a quaint old-timey stadium, in a horse shoe, but the Duke football operation seems rinky-dink to me. Terrible concessions, the bathrooms were portable trailers, and the area around the stadium is cluttered with suburban architecture, not the signature Duke gothic style (I've always kind of liked Duke's gothic look, even if it is a knock-off of Princeton).
• The crowd of 35,000 was probably 55 percent Carolina fans. There were enough Tar Heels in the stands for the call and response "Tar" "Heels" chant.
• We sat in front of one of the most obnoxious Dukies I've ever had the pleasure to be a around. Lots of put downs of state schools with the stereotypical triumphant elitism thrown in. We also sat behind a guy wearing a 'Wade Wacko' hat - as opposed to 'Cameron Crazies.' Though some were obnoxious, you have to hand it to loyal Duke football fans. Their team has stunk for years, but there is a fan base there.
• Finally, I don't know why Duke fans feel so smug and elitist - Hansbrough has eaten Duke's lunch in Cameron for three straight years, their women's soccer team comes close but we still dominate them in that sport, and the football team has lost to the Blue Devils once in a generation. Third-rate athletics, second-rate education, first-rate tuition. Oh, and Richard Nixon went there too. Give it up Dukies (but thanks to Duke grad Keith Kushner for the great seats).

Heels In Hawaii

The Heels looked fantastic in winning the Maui Invitational last week. They rolled over Chaminade without Hansbrough but with a very active Danny Green, easily dispatched a semi-legit team in Oregon behind Hansbrough, and dismantled a very good 8th ranked Notre Dame in the final by 15 points.

Hansbrough and Lawson in particular excelled against the Irish. Hansbrough displayed a few new moves: he hit a little twisting fade-away baseline jumper, blocked two shots, and took two threes as part of the offense, hitting one. That was in addition to his regular relentless on the boards and his trips to the free throw line.

And Lawson was simply faster and more aggressive than anyone on the Notre Dame squad. He was dominant and confident.

That's what impressed me the most about the team's play - the whole team looked dominant and confident. Everyone who played looked great. Deon Thompson was aggressive on the glass and confident with his stroke; Danny Green made shots from all over the floor and above and under the rim; Bobby Frasor was off against Oregon but was in the flow and confident against Notre Dame; Will Graves is getting more minutes as a result of Ginyard's injury and looks to have improved his game so he's not just a jump shooter; freshman Ed Davis already looks comfortable running Roy's system and is long and strong on the boards; ditto Larry Drew II, who looks way too poised to be a freshman. Both Davis and Drew II are sons of NBA players and have already displayed a high basketball IQ this young season.

The only Heel not feeling it, in my opinion, is Wayne Ellington. He hasn't found his groove yet but I'm quibbling. The Heels looked fantastic last week in Hawaii. Bring on the ACC!

Panathinaikos On A Roll

Finally, it was a great week for the Greens.

In the UEFA Champions League, Panathinaikos won a huge road game at InterMilan. Inter dominated Pana in their first game in Athens a month ago, but the Greens got great play from their goalie in winning 1-0 on Tuesday. It was Pana's second impressive road win in a row, coming on the heels of a 3-0 thrashing of Werder Bremen earlier in the month.

Panathinaikos got off to a terrible start in the Champions league, but the two road wins have them in second place in their group, behind InterMilan. They can clinch a place in the next round of the Champions league if they win their next game at home versus Cypriot squad Anorthosis (who tied InterMilan at home last month).

And last weekend the basketball team defeated arch-rival Olympiacos, led by former Hawk Josh Childress, 86-69. The Greens were led by my man Dimitris Diamantidis and former Maryland Terrapin Drew Nicholas. Panathinaikos is loaded this year, with Diamantidis, Nicholas (who was a star in Turkey before moving up to the Greek League), former Houston Rockets guard Vasilis Spanoulis, former Grizzlies bench warmers Antonis Fotsis and American Mike Batiste, and another former Terp, Euroleague and NBA vet Sarunas Jasikevicus.

Wizards Wisps

So the Manuels, Tar Heels and Panathinaikos had a great week. The hometown Wizards did not.

As you know by now, the Wizards fired head coach Eddie Jordan after a 1 and 10 start. Under new coach Ed Tapscott they've already doubled their win total, and stand at 2 and 12.

Tapscott seems like a good guy; I've liked his studio work in analyzing the Wizards. But he hasn't coached a team since leading American University in the 1990s. So we'll see, but this team will not be very good until Arenas returns or they somehow find a real point guard (not Stephon Marbury, BTW). As Eddie Jordan pointed out before getting canned, Washington is starting it's fourth string point guard in Dee Brown.

As readers of CHB Blog know, I've had issues with Eddie Jordan. It took him years to give Haywood the minutes he deserved. Last year B-Hay finally played 30 minutes a game, had a career year, and the Wizards' defense improved enough to make the playoffs despite Arenas missing most of the season.

One issue he never fixed was perimeter defense, something the Wizards have had problems with for years. But as one unnamed NBA scout once said, if your best player doesn't play defense no one else will.

But despite those problems and issues, firing Eddie Jordan was a bad move and unfair. Jordan led the 'Zards to the playoffs four years in a row, even last year without Arenas. Despite his only passing interest in emphasizing defense, anyone who got the Wizards into the playoffs last year must know something about coaching.

Without Haywood and Arenas, or a serviceable point guard, this team is simply not that competitive. Maybe they should have been 4-7 instead of 1-11, but that is not Eddie Jordan's fault.