Monday morning point guard
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.
Comments (2)
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I don't have a comment to make about anything specific in your post, but I wanted to let you know that I enjoy reading the stuff you guys put up here. It's very entertaining.
Oh yeah, ACC top three, in order:
1.) UNC
2.) Wake
3.) Georgia Tech
Duke could squeeze into that. UNC looks as talented as they've been since 1992-93 and they also have that same chemistry. They had 11 years between the 81-82 and 92-93 championships. It's been 11 years since the 92-93 season. Coincidence? I think not.
Two teams capable of spoiling it for the Heels? Illinois and Kansas are my bets.
Posted on January 10, 2005 11:41 AM
Kehaar,
Thanks for the kind comments. We're still new at this whole blog thing, so if you have any suggestions on how we can improve, please feel free to pass them on.
As for your top 3, it's hard to argue with the teams you have in there. Maybe the order, but not the teams. Clearly, State is struggling right now and Maryland showed on Saturday it's not in UNC's league. As for Duke? It's hard to get a read on the Blue Devils until they get fully healthy. But for now, you can't put them up there with the other three.
If Elder is healthy, I still really, really like Tech for the NCAA tournament. Why? Because they play tenacious, non-stop defense.
But boy, it's hard to find a chink in UNC's armor either. Whew! They are good. Maybe if someone can force the Heels to play half court for a full game they'd be vulnerable, but I just don't know how feasible that really is.
Posted on January 11, 2005 10:04 AM