Heels Fall to UK 76-69

Ugh.

Go You Tar Heels!

Beat the kitties.

Have I mentioned how much I love this team?

Welcome To The Final Eight!
Carolina 81 Marquette 61
Next Up: Kentucky

Carolina hoops has a long memory. Many fans saw the Marquette game as a chance for revenge for '77...  That was before my time as a Carolina fan, however, so that wasn't how I saw the game.

Marquette was cold, cold, cold. It's often hard to tell how much of a low field-goal percentage is a consequence of good D, of course. Our D in the first half, especially early on, was obviously very active, and one hypothesis is that it got Marquette out of its rhythm early. But they also missed some relatively open looks, and just seemed cold as ice.

Marquette was overmatched, I'd say. For one particularly salient thing, our frontcourt is just a lot taller and more athletic. The game was, in effect, over from pretty early on, but Marquette never gave up, and that has gained them fairly widespread respect from the Heel-o-sphere.

Congratulations to them on a good year.

Now comes UK.

On the bright side, we don't have to play OSU, which seemed second only to Kansas. On the down side...we have to play Kentucky, so our relatively care-free tournament now turns, from a fan's perspective, into a quasi-moral battle. Nobody wants to see Calipari succeed.

We beat the 'Cats earlier in the year in Chapel Hill by two. Both teams have improved massively since then. Kentucky is currently favored by 1.5 points. My money's on the Heels, partially because of the addition of Marshall at the point, but largely because of our coaching edge. But I haven't seen Kentucky play that many times this year. This one could be a barn-burner...

Go Tar Heels.

Chess Grandmasters Caught Cheating Via Texts

Here.

People are baffling creatures.

(via Metafilter)

If You Dislike d00k, You Are A Racist

Um, is that what this Rob Kirkpatrick fellow is trying to say???

Ralph Nader Please Shut Up

I used to like Ralph Nader. Then friends of mine had significant encounters with his minions. Then he cost us the 2000 election.

Now when he speaks up, I tune out.

Here's his contribution to March Madness: let's eliminate athletic scholarships!

I think something has to be done about college athletics...but Christ, this guy is like a parody of the liberal scold who hates to see anybody having fun...

I promise to think seriously about this issue at some point...but, uh, how about not right before the Final Four?

Michelle Bachmann Will Form Exploratory Committee; Considering a Run for President

As the Mystic might say, LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Hey, maybe the GOP will run a Palin/Bachmann ticket... It'd probably be the first ticket with a combined IQ that doesn't break into triple digits...

Beavis and Butthead to Return

Maybe--just maybe--there is a God...

Japan Quake Damage Estimated at $235 [Billion]
Nowhere Near That of The Iraq War

Just trying to put things in perspective...

[Oops...]

Congratulations to UW and to the Heels

Congratulations to the UW Huskies on a really great game, and on the Heels for pulling it out in the end. Not only could it have gone the other way, I began expecting that it would with about five minutes left.

Go Blue!

Beat them d00kies!

A Break From Current Events

As you may have noticed, I've been taking a kind of break from serious blogging--largely because I've been taking a break from current events. Insomnia + too much work + other stuff + policy/politics/current-events fatigue have pushed me to kind of back away from my normal obsession with world events. I have nothing interesting to say about the revolutions across the Mideast...it's all to big to even process, and I know too little to have any reaction much more articulate than wow. Earthquake in Japan...don't know what to say... GOP attacks on workers and collective bargaining in the U.S....par for the course, but, again, I don't know what to say.

Anyway...  Right now, I'm just enjoying non-stop hoops...

Go You Tar Heels
Whup the Huskies

I hope they win so we can watch them play some more. I know they're probably too inconsistent and too young--and their outside shooting is too weak--to win it all. But I love watching 'em play, and don't want to see the season end yet.

So go Tar Heels, beat the Huskies!

Do not listen to Abject Funk and his pro-UW propaganda...

Carolina Hoops Makes the Academic Final Eight 2011

Here.

Dang, I hate having Princeton in our bracket!

Ah, well, we won it all back in 2009...when we won that other tournament as well...

d00k Sucks (cont.)

This is the kind of BS you have to put up with when you play d00k. No other team in the country would have gotten this call--Singler leans into Dex at the last instant, there is virtually no contact, Singler flops...and the momentum shifts to d00k and never shifts back. K-rat works the refs relentlessly, and they give d00k calls like this with astonishing frequency.

Just one more reason why everybody hates d00k.

d00k Sucks

That is all.

Heels Fall to d00k in the 2011 ACC Tournament
or:
d00k Sucks

Argh. A very painful game to watch. Carolina never really showed up today. As in their other two tournament games, they came out listless and got down big. This time, they couldn't climb back.

One could lament many things about this game, but a lengthy discussion, of, say, d00k's ubiquitous (illegal, bullshit, game-altering) hand-checking might seem churlish at this point... So see previous discussions of that...  The loss is unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. For all their virtues, these Heels have a lot of growing up to do, and routinely getting down by double digits in the first 5 minutes of games is something they're going to have to get past if they're going to move it to the next level.

This may very well be my favorite Carolina team ever...but they're certainly not the best Carolina team ever, nor even close to it. They're great kids, they're exciting to watch, and it's been great to see them improve...but they never quite got all the kinks worked out. However, like last year, there are simply no great teams in college hoops this year, so the championship is largely there for whoever manages to survive the tournament. It's not impossible that these Heels might suddenly get over their immaturity, but not likely...  Still, it'll be fun to get to watch them for a couple more games...

Cry 'Havoc,' and Let Slip the Heels of Hoops
or:
Carolina vs. d00k in the 2011 ACC Tournament Final


After getting down big to Miami yesterday, the Heels came back to tie in the final seconds, and won in overtime. They've been down big and come back many times this year, and in both tournament games so far. (At Cameron, they went up big and let it slip away, though...)

d00k will be ready for this game, and they're unlikely to let the boys back up if they let themselves get down. Carolina is the more athletic and exciting team, d00k the more mature and polished one. We'll need McDonald and Barnes to hit threes, and we'll need to control the turnovers. Oh, and somebody is going to have to keep Nolan Smith and Seth Curry from putting up 60 combined points this time...  We own the paint, and there's not much they can do about that; the Plumli can't hang with Zeller and Henson; but they've got the superior backcourt. Anything could happen in this game, but, if I had to bet money, I'd put it on Carolina.

Go Tar Heels

and, as always,

Go to Hell d00k.

Big Government Watch: Japan's Strict Building Codes Save Lives

At the NYT.

 Needless to say, the invisible hand would have, uh, mumble mumble mumble...

Zeller Wins Prosser Award

Meant to mention this earlier, but forgot in the excitement of the game.

This is primarily an academic award, and, IMHO, a real honor given what a great guy Prosser was. IMHO, the ACC's slide in hoops is partially attributable to Prosser's untimely death.

Congrats, Tyler, this is a notable accomplishment.

Carolina Over Miami In Round 2 of the ACC Tournament

The Heels were down by 19 in the second half, and behind for the entire game--but Tyler Zeller hit a shot with about 0.05 0.0 seconds [it went in after the horn sounded] left to give Carolina its only lead.

Hey, if you're only gonna lead for 0.05 seconds in the entire game, those are the 0.05 seconds you want to lead for...

Extraterrestrial Life?????????????????

!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carolina Handles Duke 81-67

After the last game, it was hard to enjoy our double-digit lead through most of the second half. But this time there was no collapse. The Heels were in firmly in charge almost the whole game.

Congrats to dook...er...Duke, that is...on a good game. Nolan Smith is a baller, and that's a fact. I love to watch that guy play.

Congratulations to the North Carolina Tar Heels, 2011 ACC Regular Season Champions!