… We’ve been really busy “administrating” the past few days. You have to do that every once in awhile, like getting a haircut or cleaning out the refrigerator. ….. Yes, we were “in the house” when Seth Greenberg took Ol’ Roy to the woodshed for the 2nd time this season, if a one point OT loss is “to the woodshed”. We have thoughts on why it happened …. Meanwhile, if you believe ANYTHING you read in the News&Observer … ARE YOU NUTZ? …. Speaking of nutz … we’ve heard from a few lately.
Our society is full of “factions” … groups of people grouped together by all sorts of demographic elements. Some of those factions overlap. Some involve quite strange bedfellows who share one factional similarity along with many dissimilarities. One faction that we deal with often is our fellow Tar Heel sports fans. Being “one of ‘em” I have the full privilege to whomp’em between the eyes when they deserve it. Many are deserving of such a whompin’ today.
There is no question that Carolina Basketball fans are spoiled. Duh, ya think! Three and half decades of success under The Legend In The Basement and the current success by The Blue Messiah has gotten the home team contingent used to feeling quite sassy about themselves and, like all fans, glomming onto all success for personal validation. Defeats, while still a distinct rarity, are events of extreme unsettleness and a cause for extreme reexamination of just how this universe is ordered. Dealing with the occasional defeat graciously and moving on to the next game has never been exactly “the Carolina Way”.
Of the 150+ institutions that play Div 1-A major college basketball, surely UNC fans have t
o be on the short list for speed in alibi creation. It would hardly be fair to say no other fan base is in Carolina’s league when it comes to alibing a loss, but gosh darn it, we are surely a Final Four alibi team every year. When it comes to alibing the loss of a basketball game, Carolina fans trail only Liberal Democrats following the loss of an election ….. neither can ever accept we just got beat … both have to bellow WE WUS ROBBED! … CONSPIRACY … SKULLDUGGERY … BOO HOO HOO HOO … AAARRGGGGGHH!” …. NOT FAIR!
There were not a whole lot of people who had a better view of the VaTech game than I did … about 12 rows up just behind and above Ol’ Roy. What I saw was a team of very good experienced hard-nosed basketball players playing hard disciplined basketball … making the plays a team must make to win … and essentially out-hustling their opponent. Alas, the team doing all that was not the team I was hoping would win. From his post game remarks, Roy seemed to agree with me. Unlike Orage Quarles the Publisher of the News&Observer, Ol’ Roy accepts responsibility when his team does not perform well. That has a lot to do with why I respect Ol’ Roy a LOT … and have no respect for Orage Quarles and the executive management of the News&Observer.
The bottom-feeding element of the Tar Heel fanbase, and perhaps a few not usually in that motley group, IMMEDIATELY …. BLAME THE REFEREES… OF COURSE! That was an easy choice since Dick Vitale was not 
calling the game. Billy Packer was but Billy isn’t given the power to actually determine game outcomes via his sinister partisanship to the degree that Dick apparently has. ….. If you truly believe that partisan officials determine the outcome of athletic contests (and MANY ACC fans do believe that) then you really should become a fan of professional wrestling, roller derby, or James Bond movies. With very little practice, you can figure out really quickly who is going to “win” in all of those.
The Tar Heels lost to Virginia Tech because Good experienced ball players will beat Great young athletes “some time” … not all the time, but some time. Tuesday night was one of those times. Great AND Experienced) Ball Players will win pretty much ALL the time but that is not a description of the current Tar Heel team.
IF Ol’ Roy chooses to recruit Lottery picks then Carolina will always be vulnerable to occasional defeat by “Good, but not great, well-coached EXPERIENCED teams … like VaTech and like Boston College and George Mason. There is not a single McDonald’s AllAmer on Seth Greenberg’s team nor will there likely ever be.
When outstanding talented young players are flying high, draining threes, and playing racehorse basketball, bet the kids’ college fund on them. When the threes don’t fall and frustration takes over as the opponent controls the pace of play and athleticism is trumped by court-savy … bet on the older experienced whozits.
I am not qualified to say that no VaTech starter would start for UNC. I will say that signing Zabian Dowdell four years ago would not likely have had UNC recruit-nutz in a euphoric tizzy. Four years later Zabian and his senior teammates surgically removed the heart of the UNC team before 21,000 disbelieving fans … and it was still a one-basket game despite an awful shooting night by Ol’Roy’s McDonald’s All Americans.
Keep everything in that game the same but give Ty Lawson two more years of Div 1-A experience and UNC wins. Maybe even just put a David Noel on the floor and Carolina wins … it was a one-point OT defeat. One play would have made the difference.
Ol’ Roy is still rebuilding from the mass exodus after St Louis in ‘05. Put Marvin Williams on the floor Tuesday night in his 3rd year of ACC basketball and UNC wins. But put three freshmen, a sophomore, 
and a quiet, albeit mercurial, senior out there and you take your chances…. when your opponent has a senior-ladened roster.
If Ol’ Roy gives in to the recruit-nutz and only pursues Top Twenty “Lottery Picks” then his teams will alway be young … always be un-seasoned … always vulnerable to being defeated on “off-nights” by seasoned well-coached veteran teams. But when they are “on” they will be fun to watch for sure!
Marquee programs like Carolina, and Duke, who choose to play “two-year turnover” Lottery Pick Roulette will ALWAYS be vulnerable to what happened in The Dome on Tuesday … or in the RBC a few days earlier. Or with George Mason last March.
Dean Smith retired when Stackhouse and Wallace left after only two seasons. He saw the future of Lottery Pick Roulette and it did not suit his style of team development. Ol’ Roy sees it. Ol’ Roy knows the either-ors of the business in 2007. Many of our fans do not. Good thing for Carolina basketball that Ol’ Roy is in charge.
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Last Saturday night “something” happened at “a party on Gettis Street in Derm”. An 18 y/o Duke coed says she was sexually assaulted in a bathroom of the party house by one of the 50 other attendees. The person who she says assaulted her was “in his late teens, early 20s, about 6’ tall, wearing a gray sweat shirt and jeans … and a do-rag.” ….
That’s about all you would know if you relied upon the News&Observer for your news. Fortunately fewer and fewer people are doing that these days … and for plenty of good reasons. You Cannot Trust The News&Observer.
The same primary print media that used SECOND COMING TYPE to bellow out
RICH WHITE LACROSSE BOYS WHO LIVE IN EXPENSIVE HOUSES RAPE HONOR STUDENT & SINGLE MOTHER OF TWO
… decided not to tell their ever-dwindling readership that the police report also listed the accused sexual assaulter as “a young black man”. Nor did Publisher Orage Quarles and Editor Melanie Sill feel their ever-dwindling readership should know that the 18 y/o Duke coed was “white”. NOR did Orage and Melanie allow their reporter to include that “the party at Gettis Street in Derm” was being hosted by an African-American Fraternity.
I suppose one could accuse these arrogant hypocrites of “situational ethics”. Except these journalistic jackasses hold themselves far above any/all level of accountability to the Triangle community or to their readers.
Prehaps race, ethnicity and inflammatory rhetoric should be eliminated in any news stories … but to emphasis inflammatory elements only when it suits the newspaper’s ideological interests is beyond shameful. If this blatant hypocrisy infuriates you, do realize that Orage Quarles and Melanie Sill (A UNC J-school alum by the way) could care less what you think. Apparently a young black man in Durham being accused of sexually assaulting a white college coed at a black fraternity’s party is not that newsworthy to the people who run the News&Observer. … but the assessed tax value of Reid Seligman’s house IS.
I would caution you not to blame the reporters. They are merely employees. They neither set “policy” nor enforce it. If you have issues with the News&Observer … confront Publisher Orage Quarles or Editor Melanie Sill. They are “in charge”.
Oh … its been almost a week and no reports of pot-banging sympathizers or pontificating Duke faculty gangs caring much at all about “a Duke coed saying she was sexually assaulted by a young man wearing a do-rag at an off-campus party”.
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Where did Alan Bristow and Bimbo Coles play college basketball?
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Eddie Feigner was THE KING … along with HIS COURT, Eddie barnstormed the world for 40+ years as the GREATEST fast-pitcher softball pitcher EVER. A dozen BLSays readers reported facing Eddie Feigner when he brought his show to their town. Only Prince Albert reports he actually got a loud foul off of THE KING.
Sitting in the “lower level” along with The Family Long & The Internet Legend on Tuesday were two note-worthy local luminaries. THE MAN @ Governors Club hisownself … Kirk Bradley. I had not seen Kirk in several years. We, of course, discussed all the BIG NAME coaches who do NOT own lots at Governors Club. At my suggestion, Kirk is going to set aside a square foot of land off the 13th fairway and put up a sign saying “Yo, Shineolas, A Big Name Coach Just Bought This … Guess Who?” … it’ll drives the loonies even loonier, not that any of the goggle-eyed gang could ever get past the security guards out front. ….
Also sitting right near us was the woman who once had THE WORST JOB IN AMERICA – Anne Denlinger. God luv her … Anne was once Superintendent of Derm County Schools. That has to rank down there with skunk proctologist as WORSE JOB EVER! I hope Anne and Bob The Banker are enjoying retirement … SHE EARNED IT!
Dave Glenn has a great interview w/ Jay Bilas on his WRAL Sports Blog … check it out.
Jim The Weasel Black, North Carolina’s most notorious slimy politico, took “the perp walk” Thursday pleading guilty to one of the long list of disgusting felonies he perpetrated against the citizenry over the past 8 years. Hopefully he will get at least some time dancing the “70 year old slimy weasel tango” at the Graybar Hilton. Hey Weasel, save room for Mikey Nifong in the shower room. …. The sorry no-account N&O could not allow the headline “Black Guilty of Felony” … instead they said “Charlotte area Optometrist Admits Mistake” ….
