Twenty Years From Now...

...the indelible moment of this game will be Rashad McCants, lying on the ground with the largest beatific smile imaginable, oblivious to everything around him.

Twenty minutes from now, my housemates will have all of my belongings out on the front lawn.

More comments after I have time to enjoy this. I'll leave you with a song for Roy.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

I noticed something while watching that damn commercial again -- at the end, the little security box is signed "Coach K." Now, I know you can pretty much sign anything on a credit card without complaint, but really, "Coach K?" Can even he not spell his own name?

Uncertain Principles excerpts pregame coverage and discusses a certain coach who went to four Final Fours without cutting down the nets. And can't sign a credit card, apparently.

UNC's 5-0 in Final Four games on the Mississippi river. They're 3-0 in Final Four games in Missouri. Just thought I'd point that out.

These Illini, Why Must They Fight?

8:00 am I awake. Weber grill has mysteriously appeared in my room overnight.
8:30 am Housemates awake. Possibly because every stereo in the house starts playing various Carolina fight songs simultaneously.
11:00 am I return from lab. Contents of the refrigerator have been replaced with Orange Crush.
12:00 pm The only cups remaining in the house are plastic UNC ones.
1:00 pm A giant First in the Nation Bicentennial banner mysteriously appears on the side of the house.
1:30 pm My car magically sprouts Illinois window flags.
3:30 pm The housemates' cars bloom with Tar Heel car magnets.
6:00 pm All is quiet. Too quiet...

Confused? All is explained here.

I Predict a Riot

Chapel Hill: Cold Weather Doesn't Chill Fans' Enthusiasm



East Lansing: About 60 Spartans fans arrested after loss

Champaign: Police thank Illini fans for celebrating responsibly

Someone really needs to explain the whole concept of celebrating to the Big Ten.

A Bastard Illini Roommate: You know, if you like, you can go set the front yard on fire. Apparently, it's what you Carolina people do.
Tar Heel March: It was a controlled fire in the midst of a joyous celebration.
Another Bastard Illini Roommate: There were four of them.
Tar Heel March: Four controlled fires in the midst of a joyous celebration. Harmless.
Second Bastard Illini Roommate: Three people were hurt. And a bicycle.
Tar Heel March: You're from a city that shoots firearms in the air after Bulls victories. Shaddup.

(In case you were keeping score, the Champaign and Chapel Hill celebrations had the same total number of arrests.)

Two Big Ten Teams Down

I was nervous coming into this game, I admit. There was both the recent history of dissappearing shooters in the Final Four, and the intensity let down after we cut down the nets a month ago to consider, and last week's games didn't instill a tremendous amount of confidence. The early play didn't help -- poor rebounding on both ends, and the uncharacteristic outhustling we're shockingly disheartening. The Illini roommates, siding with the conference over the house (the bastards), had begun the mockery, and frankly, UNC was lucky to only be down five at half.

Luckily, there was Jawad Williams. He couldn't have picked a better time to come out of his slump. Before you know it, the roommates are discussing matchup problems, we're taking bets on which player Felton would feed the alley-oop to next, and the competition was on to see who could get the most incomprehensible hometown cell phone call.

As for Illinois? I'm quite confident in our backcourt defense -- David Noel stepped up and spelled Jackie Manuel really well tonight, so we've got a number of guys to throw at Head, Brown and Williams. Inside? Williams v. 5.0 and Powell both came up big, and I think Sean May will be the difference for the team. Unsurprisingly, I'd give the edge to us.

But first of all, I've got three orange-clad housemates, with their smarmy Illini looks, their beady Illini eyes, and their little Illini dog, too. Things must be planned.

Priorities

Roommate: The Pope died this morning.
Tar Heel March: Who do you think that favors? Carolina or Illinois?