Thomas Wolfe Can't Get You Lower Level Seats

The one game I get to attend this entire year, and I miss almost half of it, thanks to the Park and Wait and Stand in the Rain and Finally Ride 45 Minutes Later system. By the time I set foot in the Dean Dome, UNC had a nailbiting 47-11 lead over UNC-Ashville. So if you're looking for scintillating game commentary, this is probably not the place to turn.

It was good to make it back. No matter how many screens and LED displays are added, it's still a place I walk into and immediately recognize folks I went to school with. The crowd was relaxed and jovial - a large margin of victory will bring that out - cheering for Asheville's half court buzzer beater at halftime, and overencouraging the rarely seen backups to shoot. And the campaign to get folks to wear more Carolina Blue has made great strides to bring out that many team colors for an uneventful Winter Break game.

The basketball itself was relatively sloppy, but with a thirty-plus point lead that's to be expected. I'm continually impressed by Hansbrough, Frasor, and Ginyard. (I hadn't realized just how incredibly fast Ginyard is - it's impressive to watch.) As for Terry, well, the guy who did so well at Kentucky had left the building by the time I arrived. There still doesn't seem to be anyone who can step up and hit a three, but when the biggest guy on the floor ends up with eight steals there's not much to complain about.

Of course, the crotchety old man in me hates the Wachovia ads, the less than stellar attempts to pump the crowd with audio clips (The interminable rocket launch sequence before showing one David Noel dunk? That needs to stop. Mia Hamm's celebratory whoop over last year's national championship brings the comedy, though.), and the fact that the pep band sounded awful, but hey, it was good to be back. Although it'd be better with more buses.

Gopher of Christmas Past

I first noticed this during the Minnesota-Arizona State matchup a couple of weeks ago, but didn't think to mention it. The injury-plagued Golden Gophers are a surprising 8-2, due in large part to the leadership of Adam Boone. Boone was granted a sixth year of eligibility after sitting out last season, and it's good to see he's doing well.

Southern Cal

To the East Coasters watching the game: Yes, this is the typical quality of Fox Sports West play-by-play crews. There are a couple of posts that should be written comparing Fox announcers to either West Coast pick-up basketball (a similar emphasis on flash over ability) or Fox News (unapologetic bias towards the home team) by better folks than I.

I only got to see the second half, but this was a game where a previously cohesive Carolina team reverted to the freshmen most of them happen to be. The poor shooting, panicked late-game play and the endless turnovers killed this teams' chances. I don't know if it's a coincidence the second half slide started with Terry's unlucky consecutive fouls - he could be a much more important on the court influence than I (or the Fox Sports crew) have previously considered.

The optimist in me wants to believe this is a good wake-up call, bringing an overachieving team back to earth and providing time to fix glaring problems before the conference season begins in earnest. The errors were ones of exuberance and hustle, rather than tenativeness, at least. It's hard to find the bright side in this performance, however. Here's to the home stretch going better.

Shallow Eagles

Just athought, but now that everyone's panicking over BC's two game slide, has anyone stopped to consider that the Eagles just aren't very deep? When you factor out the minute or so of playing time Neville, Dunlap & Neisler get in the blow-outs - which are fewer than expected for a school scheduling Sacred Heart - they've spent the fall playing only seven players. Maybe that will improve with the return of Akida McLain, but it's the rare team that can make a run for the ACC title with a seven-man rotation, and even with eight you want to have a couple of guys you can stick in for a minute or two.

Cupcakes with Schadenfrosting

State Fan Nation took some time last week out of their schedule of demanding the firing of their basketball coach, football coach and athletic director to complain about the opponents the Wolfpack play. Their point is a good one - your standard Raleigh schedule has more directions than Mapquest - and if more fans demanded this I think they'd be pleased with the results.

Ignore the RPI and its bearing on the NCAA tournament and choose your opponents based on this simple rule: Good teams improve by playing good teams. Yes, you play in the ACC, but wouldn't it be nice to not entire the conference season having no idea if your team is any good? Beef up the schedule and either the Wolfpack will win more games, impress more people, and go farther in the tournament, or they'll be sub .500 squads, and the firings you're rooting for can commence. (Personally, I label the former of these scenarios Option Sendek and the latter Option Amato, but come up with your names if you like.)

Demands for heads to rolls from the rank and file fans doesn't produce much in the way of results. (Especially when you also want the guy in charge of firing to be fired as well. He's not particularly likely to agree with your assessment.) Focus on demanding better games. Skip the military schools and hit up the major conferences. You'll end up with either better teams or better coaches.

Does the Lack of Handy and Grouchy Foretell Further Expansion?

A Georgia Tech sportsblog has reframed the discussion of ACC football in mushroom-housed terms. The insights are quite, well, insightful, but the rumor of Mack Brown being told he'd never be paid as well as the basketball coach rankles a bit.

The story sounds apocryphal, but even taken at face value, it runs up against the harsh reality that colleges don't have that much control over coaching pay. The best Google can tell me eight years after the fact, is that Mack Brown was getting $165,000 from the university at the time of his departure, while Dean Smith was earning $137,000 in 1996. Now I don't doubt Smith was recieving more money overall - Nike had spent years and quite a lot of cash trying to stamp their logo on the previously Converse affilated basketball team (and Adidas branded soccer teams) but such money is distressingly outside the university's control. Expecting the university to subsidize a shoe company's decisions is much too much too ask.

I'm happy for Mack Brown, and no longer resent the manner in which he left North Carolina. (And to be clear, I didn't begrudge him the Texas job, just the poor way he informed the players, and the self-aggrandizing phone call during the Gator Bowl.) But to ascribe him leaving for a more prestigious football job to laziness on the athletic department's fault is, well, lazy.

(Oh and as a comparison, here's Roy Williams' paycheck. Outside compensation is only getting worse, and it's probably the most distasteful aspect of college basketball. A close second? The kids out there actually executing these coaches' visions not seeing a dime.)

Defining Dominance Down

Tomoprrow morning, a bunch of overprivileged idiot students are going to wake up and realize they stormed a basketball court to celebrate beating Virginia Tech.

It's a heartbreaking loss for the Hokies, but following the 67-65 upset last year it's really looking like Virginia Tech has Duke's number, doesn't it?

Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

I believe I've found the one underhyped thing in all of college basketball -- the annual North Carolina - Kentucky basketball game. Sure, every year there's the obligatory mention of the two winningest programs facing off, but considering it's a yearly matchup between two top programs who:

• Do not share a conference.
• Are not close to one another geographically.
• Don't have a traditional rivalry.
• Aren't paired by a television-created corporate-branded synergy meeting.

...it's a pretty rare event indeed. Both programs deserve praise (and get it from unlikely sources) for keeping the game on the schedule five years running, and it's always been an good game to see, even in the early years of less than stellar UNC performances. (And good for Doherty for keeping a game on the schedule that wasn't about to increase is job security.)

As for the game? I need to reevaluate my expectations for this team. I need to reevaluate my expectations of how I was going to change my expectations. The team played well, and deserves better than the compliments they got for the Illinois game. They reminded people that they're not solely a team of freshman, and that the old hands made a championship squad for a reason, not just to haul gear for future NBA stars. And Reyshawn Terry may prove to be that guy yet. I've always assumed this team was tournament bound, and I'm beginning to think that's nowhere near enough of a challenge for them.

After all, a fair number of these kids have had their gear hauled by a future NBA star. What's to stop them?

A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings and Bowl Lineups Change

One of the BCS computer polls has an interesting widget where you can change history and see the effects on the polls. If the Tar Heels had just managed to slip by Georgia Tech, Wisconsin, Louisville, Miami, and Maryland, they'd be chasing Texas for the title. History is built on the littlest of things.

(But seriously, take a gander at the chaos caused in the Top 5 if you change the Northwestern/Arizona State result.)