Road games

For the second Saturday in a row, a Carolina Hellenic blue football team goes on the road for a big game.

Last Saturday, Greece played well but lost 0-2 to Switzerland, in Basel, in a make or break 2010 World Cup qualifying game. Greece extended their bad week on Wednesday when they only came away with a tie in Moldova. So hoping for a tie and a win, they only came away with 1 point and are now tied with Latvia for second place in their qualifying group.

The Hellenes need to win their final two home games and hope that the Swiss end with a tie and a loss in their last two games.

Carolina's game today at UConn is a similar 'make or break' style game. Since it's not an ACC game it's not technically make or break, but a road win over a quality Huskies team would be huge. It would give the Heels proof that the hype is real, that this is a quality and substantive team. And two, it would give the team loads of confidence. It's easy to forget that until last season's win at Rutgers, the Heels had not won a game outside the state of North Carolina in years.

GO HEELS!

CAROLINA AND HELLENIC HOOP NOTES

• I've always loved, and always will love, Michael Jordan. Despite the Nike branding, the failure to help Harvey Gantt, etc. etc. he's MICHAEL JORDAN. As a North Carolinian I thought it was pretty cool and eloquent to have N.C. State's David Thompson present him (how silly is that idea though?; it seemed awkward as a device to have one other Hall of Famer on the stage with you). But I was not crazy about his speech. It was all over the place, and was a little short in the grace department.
• The baseball hall of fame ceremony is much cooler. I think that owes to two things. One, the players on the stage, literally behind and welcoming the new inductees. But most of all, the fans in jerseys and caps in the audience. Just having it outside reenforces baseball's pastoralness, but also makes it a more welcoming ceremony. Leaving aside Jordan's speech, the entire ceremony was underwhelming and not impressive.
• Finally, the Greek basketball team is cruising through the first and second rounds of the European basketball championships in Poland. Greece is 4-0 after defeating a Dirk-less German squad yesterday.