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Carolina Panthers wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad has had moments of immodesty in his NFL career. Such as after the big game he had personally in a blowout loss to the Raiders a few years ago, when he said, "from the ashes and rubble, I guess you could say a flower grew today."

Monday, as the Panthers were packing up to head home, Muhammad let it slip that "God has blessed me with a lot of talent," while adding a few minutes later: "I want to be paid what I'm worth." Has to make Panthers GM Marty Hurney wonder if Moose is going to be looking for Marvin Harrison money if and when he hits the open market.

Anyway, my point wasn't to pick on Muhammad. Nor the Panthers, who rallied valiantly from a 1-7 start and were one home win over a flawed Saints team away from making the playoffs.

Many thought the Panthers would be dangerous if they made the playoffs, in that they were confident and would've been coming in hot. I think that says more about the NFC playoff entries than it does about the Panthers, who didn't beat a single opponent with a winning record.

So, who will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl? The Eagles look vulnerable without Terrell Owens. The Falcons have dropped two in a row -- how much difference does Vick actually make? Seattle, St. Louis and Minnesota wouldn't have made it were they in the AFC. That leaves Green Bay. I'll put my money on Favre until he gets to Jacksonville.

In the words of the Simpson's Comic Book Story Guy ...

"Worst Championship Ever."

Seriously, can you remember a lousier conclusion to a college football season? Yeah, I remember that Nebraska's blowout of Florida was about as bad as last night's 55-19 rout. But surely it's halftime show couldn't have matched the Tuesday nigh debacle. First, you couldn't hear Kelly Clarkson (actually, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing). Second, who put Trace Adkins in this act? Did his agent lose a bet or something? What a bad fit.

Finally, Ashlee Simpson. Words fail me ... almost. The FCC should have required ABC to run a disclaimer after her performance reading "No cats were actually strangled during the singing of this song. It only sounded that way." Kudos to the Orange Bowl crowd for making their displeasure quite vocal.

By happenstance, the Orange Bowl was played on the same day as the baseball hall of fame voting. Now, I know you young whippersnappers are all wondering, "What's the baseball hall of fame?" Well, once upon a time, before Phil Rizzuto got voted in, it used to mean something. This was a shrine honoring the best ever to play the game. Folks from my generation (30 and above, although I may be one of the few Gen Xers who still cares) still debate the merits of each candidate.

I'm pretty sure that Ryne Sandberg and Wade Boggs deserved induction. I'm just not overwhelmed. And I think it's me, not them. The game has changed so much in favor of hitters that it's hard for stats generated before the mid 90's to mean anything. Sandberg hit 282 career home runs (yawn), he drove in 100 runs twice (wow), and had a career average of .285 (zoiks). Yet I remember most of the 80's, and I can recall when Sandberg was a no-brainer All-Star every year, a special guy at his position, second base, and when Boggs was the greatest hitter this side of Ty Cobb. Now, it seems all so hard to guage. Which is why we need reminders from folks like Jimmy Kimmel, of all people, who takes up the case for Steve "Who's Your Daddy?" Garvey. And count me as a supporter of the Bill Simmons hall of fame pyramid scheme.

While covering Duke's game against Princeton on Wednesday night, I made a joke in the press room that those retro jerseys would soon be on sale at a store near you. According to the guys at Duke Basketball Report, (link to throwbacks is down on the left side of the page) I was actually - for a change - correct.

First they went with those strange black road uniforms. Is black one of Duke's official school colors? I don't think so, but I'll have to check. Now they've joined the retro craze. They're not quite at the level of English Premier League teams, which change unis every season in order to keep merchandise sales humming, but the marketing folks at Duke are certainly finding innovative ways to squeeze revenue out of a few pieces of cotton fabric.

And I gotta confess. The retro look was pretty cool. Although I did worry before the game that I might have to witness Shelden Williams taking the floor in those 1985 shorty shorts. Thank goodness they didn't completely turn back the clock.

Here are a few thoughts from the weekend in sports, with most of them centered around the Duke-Temple game I covered on Saturday ...

While I was in the press room at Cameron, I took a look at the tv, which was showing the second half of the UNC-Maryland game. I shook my head and moved up for a closer look, just to make the score I saw was right. I have a feeling I'm going to be doing that a lot with the Tar Heels this season.

In his Sunday article, Jeff Carlton writes about the UNC bench, which has dubbed itself the Four Horsemen. Former Glenn/Reynolds standout Reyshawn Terry made his bid on Sunday to become a fifth horseman. Perhaps, after Death, Famine, Pestilence and War, comes the Secondary Break ...

I hope you'll join me in rooting on Peyton Manning and the Colts next weekend against the Patriots. Why? Because he's on the fantasy football playoff team that Jeff Carlton and I drafted last week. If you don't think winning these fantasy competitions means a lot to sports writers, well then you really don't know how pathetic our lives really are ...

Isn't it amazing how fast we've gone from saying "This could be Herb's best team yet at State" to "I'm not surprised at all that Miami beat the Wolfpack." I'm betting the sports radio call-in lines this week will be jammed with angry State fans, eager to vent ...

Now for a few items from the Duke-Temple game ...

Wow, there are armpit sweat stains, and then there are those two things that were spreading rapidly across John Chaney's light purple shirt on Saturday. Put Chaney, Pete Gillen and Gary Williams together and you'd have enough runoff to power a hydroelectric dam for days ...

... Speaking of sweat, get a load of Lee Melchionni's explanation for why he changed shoes midway through the Temple game:

"I sweat so much that the sweat starts to come out of the soles of my shoes. It makes it slippery. I had to switch my shoes. I couldn't plant any."

Yes, that's right. Melchionni can apparently sweat through his shoes. I really can't think of anything else to add to that nugget of information ...

... Hey UNC fans, remember Keith Butler? No? Back in the fall of 2001, he was a 6-11 recruit being pursued by Matt Doherty, who was desperate at the time to land a big man. Temple eventually landed him and it later came out that Cincinatti had sent a fax to Butler disparaging the other schools recruiting him, incluing Doherty and UNC.
Why all the background? Because after watching Butler on Saturday, it's really, really hard to see what all the fuss was about. He's a backup center on a team whose starting center really isn't very good. Butler put up 2 pts and 2 fouls in 11 minutes against the Blue Devils. In other words Tar Heels, you didn't miss much ...

... Finally, I wandered up onto the concourse at Cameron during halftime and stumbled upon this disturbing site: a grown man, probably in his mid to late 40's, wearing a full Duke uniform - shorts, #21 jersey, and high tops. I'm not sure if he thought he was DeMarcus Nelson, Chris Duhon or Trajan Langdon. I am fairly confident that he would not be mistaken for any of them on the basketball court.

North Carolina senior Jawad Williams had just finished being interviewed by reporters Tuesday -- we should have a link up this morning to a story explaining what Jawad has done with the mask he wore much of last season -- when he decided he wanted to give sportswriting a whirl.

Jawad grabbed a notepad and took up position behind the TV cameras. When there was a lull, Jawad raised his hand and asked Marvin: "Are you suffering from a cold?"

"No," Marvin replied.

"Then why does your voice sound like that?" Jawad asked.

Laughter drowned out Marvin's reply.

So, was that a good follow-up question? Or was that just cruelty toward his 18-year-old teammate who just happens to have an unusually husky voice?

One aside for anyone out there who might be attending tonight's UNC-Georgia Tech game, or who regularly attends games at the Dean Dome: When the little kids are throwing on those oversized Brian Bersticker jerseys and the big shoes and trying to shoot layups during the timeout contests, has it occurred to you that Bersticker's getting more pub now than he did during his modest Tar Heel career?

Hi folks,

I'm here in the media room at the RBC Center (aka "The Big ATM") with a little time to kill, so I figured I'd blog. It's one of the strange quirks of a job that has many strange quirks. Sportswriters usually get to events 1.5 to 2 hours early. We like to beat the traffic, sometimes (like at the RBC Center) we have to fight for a good spot in the media room. And we like to sit around, gossip and complain about our editors.

Anyway, I've been struck by how much negativity there is circulating around Wolfpackland these days. I probably should be used to the high-strung nature of some State fans by now, but it still amazes me at times. Cruising the message boards, listening to the radio, and just talking to folks, I get the impression that tonight's game is make-or-break for State and that if the Wolfies lose tonight, the season's over and Herb will be fired.

My feelings on this? State probably needs to win one of its next two home games, either tonight against Duke or this weekend against Tech. You don't want to start the ACC season 0-3 with two home losses on the ledger and no strong non-conference wins to lean on.

And I wouldn't be surprised if one of those wins comes tonight. I think Duke has a definite quickness advantage on the perimeter, but as State has shown in the last two years, it can play at a very high level at home. And as the Blue Devils have shown consistently this season, they have trouble starting strong in games. If Duke sputters out of the gates this time, the crowd will get into the game and the Wolfpack can feed off their energy.

That's why I'm picking State, 68-62. But please, please don't wager any money based on my alleged expertise.

Roy Williams isn't a civil engineer -- doesn't even play one on TV -- but if he were, the UNC coach says he'd design a better road system in the Triangle so Tar Heel fans can get to their 7 p.m. games on time.

He says he could've said hello to all 13 fans who showed up early enough for pregame warmups Wednesday when Georgia Tech visited. Many seats were unoccupied until the second TV timeout. Not exactly a Cameron Indoor atmosphere at the start.

"It's a fun team to watch even when we were ugly like tonight," Williams said after the 91-69 victory. "It's still a fun team to watch. I think the crowd is getting better, and we want to be THE best place."

But, as Jim noted, that's why us reporters get to the games 1.5-2 hours early. That, and to grub Boston Market chicken, gossip and complain about our editors.

I send out this message in the hopes that the mysterious Brandon, the caller who left angry voicemails on my phone the last two days, calls back and leaves his number. At the end of his diatribe - during which he accused me of having a strong anti-Duke bias - Brandon said he'd be happy to talk more with me, and that I had his number, which he'd left in his message.

Actually Brandon, you didn't leave a number.

So I'll use this blog to answer your complaints, as well as those of another caller.

The bone Brandon wanted to pick with me had to do with my Thursday story, headlined "Duke hits the road - finally." In the story, I made the point that the Blue Devils' upcoming game at N.C. State a would be Duke's first real road test of the season, since the other three games away from Cameron were all on essentially neutral floors.

That's all. I wasn't saying that Duke was ducking anyone, wasn't saying they didn't have a right to be ranked where they were. I was only saying that Duke had gone almost two months into the season without a true road game.

Apparently this touched a nerve with Brandon. He wanted to know 1) Why I didn't pick on UNC? and 2) what did I have against Duke?

Here's my simple explanation. One, I don't cover UNC, so I wasn't going to address their schedule in my story. Even if I did, the Tar Heels have played at Indiana and at Virginia Tech. I know, hardly impressive foes, but they still qualify as road games.

Two, in the article, I quoted Lee Melchionni and Mike Krzyzewski, both of whom said there were no concerns about how Duke would handle its first game in front of a hostile crowd. I also made note that the RBC Center had been a tough place to play, because the Blue Devils had lost their the last two seasons. After Sean Dockery said Duke might have been overconfident coming into last season's meeting in Raleigh, I wrote that overconfidence wouldn't be a problem with this season's team, and then had a quote from Krzyzewski to back up that assessment.

So why, exactly did that tick people off? I'm not really sure. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

Now, as for my blog last night predicting an N.C. State victory, I'll readily eat my deserved crow on that. Everything happened as I thought it would - Duke with a slow start, State playing at a high level at home - except for the part where the Blue Devils clawed back in the game and the Wolfpack had no response.

I said in my Thursday story that Duke would know a lot more about itself after its experience in Raleigh. Here's the knowledge the Blue Devils gained: they've got other weapons aside from the big three, and they've got plenty of mental toughness, regardless of the number of players on the bench.

Press room is packed tonight? Why, because Virginia has a horde of reporters that cover the Cavaliers. I'm guessing it has something to do with the geography of Virginia - a lot of towns with papers close enough to cover one of two major programs within the state. Certainly it can't be due to the wild popularity of Virginia basketball...

... I know the chants for the head of Pete Gillen are growing stronger and that the Wahoos have lost three of four heading into this one, but I think there are some matchups that could make this game interesting. Specifically, Virginia's Devin Smith, who missed two of the Cavs' losses with an ankle injury. Smith's a bruising forward with the skills to play on the outside. In other words, a matchup nightmare. Looking down Duke's roster, it's hard to figure who will guard him. I'm curious to see what sort of plan K cooks up.

Elton Brown could - conceivably - cause problems for Shelden Williams down low, but to do that he'll need to use his bulk more aggressively than he has in past games against Duke.

I would expect Duke to attack UVA freshman point guard Sean Singletary immediately, with lots of pressure defense. Singletary's been miserable lately, making just 7 of his last 33 shots. Expect the Blue Devils to make every effort to shatter his fragile confidence.

As for a prediction, you'd certainly have to go with Duke. But as it has been with everyone the Blue Devils have played recently, it's going to be close...

Oh, and here's one other thing. Shavlik Randolph's in uniform tonight. He probably won't play much, but expect his appearance on the floor to be greeted with wild cheers from the Cameron faithful. The emotional lift may be worth a few points.

Folks, I am deeply sorry it's taken me four days to get back into the blog state of mind. Hopefully you were able to stay strong in my absence. I promise - well, no, that's a bit to strong - I'm pretty sure it won't happen again.

Anyway, I got an interesting email at the end of last week. It came in response to this quote from Mike Krzyzewski after Duke's win at N.C. State.

"I really love my team," Krzyzewski said. "They're not Laettner or Brand, but they make plays."

I didn't think much of it, until I got this email the next day.

"Just tell Coach K, he has no reason to compare his team with Laettner or Brand. The team he has now will be just as succesfull. How would he like it if his team compared him with Dean Smith, saying he is no Dean Smith but still knows how to win games. He really should retract that statement, that was very tacky. By the was I am an avid DUKE fan.
Tell him to be proud of the team he does have and forget about what was instead of what is."

Maybe the reader's being picky, but then again, I remember how annoyed I got with Rick Pitino back in 1992 when he would go on an on about how his team didn't have much talent but by gosh they just knew how to win. Translation: "If it weren't for my brilliant coaching, this team would be in Nowhereville."

I don't think that's what K was getting at with his comments. But the reader's reaction does point out the fine line coaches have to walk when making public assessments of their time. Talk about how talented your team is, and you run the risk of them believing their own press clippings. Poor mouth your team too much and you seem disengenious. Do as K did and try to praise your team while trying to temper talk about its talent, and you run the risk of getting a reaction like the above email.

In short, as a coach you're pretty much going to tick someone off regardless of what view you take. Sort of like being a journalist, only with a lot more pay.

Sean May and his North Carolina basketball teammates were lifting weights at the Dean Dome on Thursday when he noticed in the mirror a vaguely familiar-looking guy in a beret -- yes, a beret -- strolling past him.

Turns out it was Michael Jordan, the school's most famous basketball alum. Foul weather ruined Jordan's golfing plans in Pinehurst, apparently, so he decided to drop in on Dean Smith instead.

He dropped in on Roy Williams' Tar Heels, too, to tell them to keep doing what they're doing -- which is winning, mostly.

"Just for him to come down and show his support, it meant a lot to this team," May said. "He just made us feel us relaxed and comfortable."

Rashad McCants, whose dad called him the "next Jordan" in his baby book when he was a toddler, wasn't available Friday to talk about Jordan's visit, unfortunately. But one thing's for sure: Jordan didn't delight the Heels with stories of great UNC-Miami ACC battles of old, seeing as how, until tonight, there have been no such meetings between the two schools.

Before I go on with a few Duke-Miami thoughts - just an hour or so before Duke-FSU starts - let me remind you that if you feel compelled to respond to whatever I'm writing - or whatever Jeff Carlton's writing - just click on the word COMMENTS below. I know, I know, it's not that obvious. I'll speak again to our web geeks about it. Anyway, we know you're out there reading us, based on the page view results we're getting. Don't be afraid to chime in, if you'd like.

Sorry I couldn't have posted this under a "Live from Coral Gables" header. Believe me folks, that hurt me more than it hurt you.

But watching the game on television, at home, gave me a refreshing change of perspective. For one thing, I got to hear the announcers - which sometimes isn't a plus, I know - but in this case was helpful.

In particular, I liked Mike Patrick's comment after Lee Melchionni buried another outside shot that Miami appeared all too willing to let him shoot.

"It's like people don't really believe Melchionni is capable of doing this,'' Patrick said.

The tv folks were also able to train cameras on the crowds, searching for local celebrities who'd scammed tickets to Miam's version of The Big Game. We saw A-Rod, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway taking the game in. I was hoping against hope that a slightly dazed Ricky Williams would be spotted, with his face buried in a bag of Cheetos, but alas.

Speaking of the celebs, what was up with A-Rod gabbing away on a cell-phone? Why is it, any time we see an athlete at a game, they seem to be paying almost no attention to what's actually going on in front of them? If A-Rod wanted to chat on the phone, couldn't he have done that at home, saving on the cost of a ticket and his cell-phone minutes? Not that saving would be high on his list of concerns.

I think local boy Frank Haith has obviously gotten a lot accomplished in a short amount of time, but he's going to have do some masterful work to really turn Miami into a place that loves its college hoops. I know where he can start though - can that NBA arena sounding, Michael Buffer wanna be on the P.A. Listening to a guy blare out "Gaaaa-ry HAM-ilton!!! And Guillermo DEEEEEEEEE - AZ!! just ain't what college hoops is about.

What's that? You want to read something about the game itself? Well, to me, all things began and ended with Shelden Williams. I remember thinking earlier this year, when he struggled against Michigan State's Paul Davis, that teams with a big, strong post defender could afford to guard Williams one-on-one, by playing behind him. Well some time between then and now, things have changed. Because that's what Anthony King, the ACC's second-leading shot blocker by the way, tried. And he got toasted by Williams for 30 points, on 11-of-12 - yes, you read that right - shooting. Wow. And you wonder why teams are giving Melchionni open shots. Something's got to give if they want to give defensive help to whomever's guarding Williams.

One other Williams note: I don't know what happened early in the game between them, but after one Williams bucket - during which he also drew a foul - he threw a glare at King that looked one step short of felony assault. Williams has always seemed to be a bit of a soft-spoken, gentle giant away from the court, but on the floor I'm starting to picture him more as David Banner: You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

A lot of people ask me, "Jim, what goes on in a sports department between 5 and 6 p.m. that magical time after most writers have finished their assignments and before the copy desk is scrambling to put together the paper?"

An excellent question. For those in the News & Record's upper management who might be reading, let me just say that nothing but hard work is being done during that time.

What? You don't believe me? Hey, I worked up a good sweat today discussing the genius that was George Lazenby. Lazenby, for the vast majority of who don't know, played in one James Bond movie, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Then he disappeared from the public eye.

Except for those of us who know better. I was able to stun and amaze - and frighten - my colleagues by revealing Lazenby's connection to sports. He is married to Pam Shriver, former doubles partner of Martina Navratilova.

But wait, there's more! Check out his bio on imdb.com, the greatest website known to man. My other favorite, aside from his marriage to Shriver, is the last nugget of info at the end of the bio. You just can't make this stuff up.

Got a couple of helpful emails this morning from you regarding the story I wrote for today's paper about the mysterious Lee Melchionni cheer.

First, Glen Cook reveals what he believes to be the origin of the strange style of the chant, which I compared to the sound of "1500 hyperactive tree frogs."

Cook writes that the chant "comes from a song by Tenacious D. Titled "Lee"."

The only thing I know about Tenacious D is that actor Jack Black is the front man. So I'll have to take your word for it, Glen. If you happen to have an audio file you can email me, please do so, so I can confirm this.

The second email, from Larry Osborne, pointed out a small typo that made its way past me, my editor and the copy desk. In a sentence midway through the story I wrote this sentence:

"The three mostly knowledgeable Crazies -- Ed Venit (Viking guy), Jeff Kovacs (mullet man) and Pasha Majdi (really loud guy with the blue cowboy hat and cape) -- were contacted."

That was meant to read "most knowledgeable Crazies." Sorry about that, guys.

Things just got considerably more quiet in the press room, now that Dick Vitale has headed off to a pre-broadcast meeting. Say what you will about Vitale's announcing style, he is at least, an authentic guy. He really, really - I mean really - loves his hoops. And he'll gladly talk about it with anyone - a guy on the college paper, an usher, a fan. And he always return calls to his cell phone. So you'll never hear a harsh word about Dicky V from me.

But on to the game. Something tells me it's going to be a close one. Here's how I described it to a friend earlier this week. People are reading too much into Duke's No. 2 ranking and too much into Maryland's recent troubles. The truth about both teams is probably somewhere in between. I've got imagine that - for this game at least - the Terps will play their backsides off. And keep in mind that before their recent Florida blowouts, Duke had been playing a lot of tight games. I think they'll revert to form tonight.

So what's my prediction? I think the Blue Devils pull out a close one. For whatever faults this Duke team has, it has consistently played a high level late in games. That will be the difference tonight. But keep in mind, this information is for entertainment purposes only. And keep in mind that I earlier predicted N.C. State would beat Duke, so my prognostications are basically worthless.

It's sad irony for Virginia coach Pete Gillen that it was the excitement he'd created, reviving UVa's program and getting the Cavs to the NCAA tournament in 2001, that got plans rolling for a new, 15,000-seat basketball arena across the street from decrepit U-Hall. It's that half-completed building that will likely be his downfall.

UVa AD Craig Littlepage said this week the school needs its basketball teams on an upswing to keep the donations coming in for the $130 million project and to sell tickets in an arena with nearly twice the seating capacity of U-Hall. Mostly, that means the UVa men can't be losing at home to Miami and losing at home to Wake by 19 and to UNC by 36 -- Saturday's loss to the Heels could've been a lot worse, by the way -- and going a fourth straight year without an NCAA trip.

Gillen has six years left on a 10-year contract, but that deal has reportedly been restructured, so a buyout might not be as costly as it once would've been. Especially when the implications of moving into a new arena in 2006 are weighed against it.

Visiting coaches have offered public support after beating Gillen this year, but their words are sounding more and more like eulogies.

Take Roy Williams, for instance.

"He's one of the gentleman in the coaching profession," Williams said after the Heels' 110-76 drubbing of Gillen's team Saturday, "and not only is he one of the gentleman, he's a guy that everybody respects a great deal and that does a great job of coaching. You can look at his record year after year after year, and what he's been able to accomplish at Xavier, at Providence and here. It's a very difficult time period for him."

While injuries have played a big part in Gillen's current woes, and his past disappointments -- remember how good Majestic Mapp was before his knee surgeries? -- something's not right with the program when you've had 14 players leave with eligibility remaining in seven years.

A few weeks back, Jeff Carlton - who worked in Danville and Charlottesville, lo many years ago - seemed suprised when I wrote about the horde of Virginia press that descends on Tobacco Road for games.

Tonight is further proof of my assertion. Look, I know Virginia Tech is hot, but I still didn't think the press room would be packed at Cameron, and that I'd be stuck in the very back corner. Why? Because as far as I can tell, every paper in Virginia with a circulation over 20,000 sent a writer down to cover the game.

Not that I'm complaining. Just making a note. Off to cover the actual game now. I'm curious to see how the upstart Hokies handle the Cameron environment in the opening minutes.