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!
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!
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