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Or he just doesn't care? Seems odd that Rashad McCants couldn't make the USA Basketball roster, considering his obvious talents. So, was he a little too selfish for Kelvin Sampson's liking or maybe a little too disinterested in playing in this World Young Men tournament in Canada. C'mon, Sean May made it.

Oh, and did he really call Chris Paul the best point guard he ha's ever played with? I'm told he did. Any help in finding the actual quote would be appreciated.

ESPN has provided the latest fodder for combatants in the ongoing struggle between the Tar Heel and Blue Devil basketball fandoms. In its latest ESPN25 poll, they've rated the best COACHES of the last 25 years -- across all sports. Their "expert panel" has Dean Smith No.1 and Mike Krzyzewski No. 3 (Scotty Bowman is No. 2), while the fan poll has K No. 1 and Dean No. 2.

Turns out Bobby Washington is almost a shoo-in to land at N.C. State after Miami told the talented running back it probably wouldn't admit him because of a suspicious jump in his ACT score.

If Washington ends up in Raleigh, one has to wonder how this affects Ragsdale's star RB, Toney Baker, who is strongly considering signing with the Wolfpack in February.

The question for Wolfie fans: Who would you rather have? And are you confident Baker will say yes to State even if Washington comes in as a freshman this year and is the real deal?

Terry Holland seems to have made another bizarre career choice, as he's reportedly about to be introduced as East Carolina's new athletics director. Not long ago, he was an AD of an ACC school with a much larger budget. I realize he was unfulfilled as a fundraiser for UVa's basketball-arena project. But ECU seems a strange career move, at least to me.

Am I right? Can he help make ECU more than a baseball school -- the billboard outside my window reminds me that's what the Pirates think of themselves -- and do anything that would successfully revive the football program? (Chances are, he won't land Al Groh for this job.) Or is this more about being close to his Clinton home and maybe a beach house as retirement approaches?

Listening to Dan Reeves call the UNC-Virginia game reminds me of how Truman Capote must have felt in the fantastic film, "Murder By Death," where Peter Sellers' character -- who's Chinese and butchers English syntax -- finally drives him to the brink of insanity, and to exclaim: "Say your &@*%#! adverbs!"

At least 4 times, Reeves has referred to former UVa quarterback Matt Schaub as Matt SCHWAB. He's not an investment banker. He's just one of the best QB's in UVa football history. When Bill Dooley butchered names on the air -- like calling UVa QB Bobby Goodman "Benny Goodman" repeatedly -- it seemed somewhat endearing. This just seems disrespectful.

It looks like the Oakland Raiders may have found their next big-play receiver Sunday ... and in the most unlikely place: Ronald Curry.

The former UNC quarterback (and point guard) caught 5 passes for 89 yards and scored his first NFL touchdown, then had an impressive high jump into the crowd. That just demonstrated the amazing athleticism that seems to have gone to waste for a few years in Chapel Hill and a few more in Oakland.

So, forget trying to make him a quarterback, defensive back or kick returner. It looks like, at 25, Curry has found his niche at wide receiver. Is he for real? Should we all go pick him up for our fantasy-league teams?

OK, what color do you get when you mix baby blue with red? Mauve? Indigo? I have no idea, but I suspect we might see it Saturday in Kenan Stadium when a good percentage of the crowd will be wearing red rather than the Tar Heel blue typically found in Chapel Hill.

Will that be the case? Can UNC fans allow it to happen, even those who have given up on John Bunting's team? I suspect many will dump tickets for the right price. But will that be $100? Face value? Or free of charge?

Ed Hardin today makes a compelling case, seemingly an airtight case, for why the UNC-N.C. State football rivalry is hardly a rivalry at all, even after 93 meetings.

One team's up, the other is down. They're never ranked at the same time. They don't play on the final weekend. They're basketball schools. And so on.

But aren't these schools bitter rivals? Isn't that enough to stoke the passions Saturday? Or is bitter too strong a word, one Heels fans reserve for Duke? And is UNC struggling too much these days for either side to get worked up over the matchup?

First off, let me be clear: I have not seen a replay yet that is, in my mind, conclusive one way or another as to whether TA McLendon's knee was down before or after he stretched the ball across the goal line at Kenan Stadium. There weren't many TV angles to choose from, considering one of the great games in this rivalry -- can I call it that, Ed? -- was only televised by a local station.

That said, shame on the Wolfpack message-boarders floating the conspiracy theory that ref Jim Knight reversed linesman Mike Owens' original TD signal because he felt a debt of gratitude to UNC Hospitals after his on-field heart attack several years ago. It's a painful loss, and it's going to hurt for a while, but come on.

Before the ink had dried on his contract, Florida football coach Ron Zook was the subject of a Web site, www.fireronzook.com, calling for his ouster. Today, that site has this proclamation: "It's happening! It's happening! Oh my god it's happening!"

There's also excitement at www.hirestevespurrier.com, where it counts the days since the Ol' Ball Coach left the Swamp: 1025. Now that Zook's been fired with four games left in the season -- another late-game collapse, this time against woeful Mississippi State, was the last straw -- there's a fervor to bring back Spurrier, who didn't exactly deny an interest when asked about it Monday.

No doubt, there aren't many Florida fans who would turn Spurrier away after his previous success at his alma mater. The question is: Will he be offered (probably) and will he accept (I'm not so sure)?

So, how about ACC bowl predictions? After a bizarre Saturday on which North Carolina stunned Miami and Maryland beat Florida State for the first time in about 15 tries, the league is out of the national championship running and has one fewer BCS contender. But, the good news is 10 of 11 schools remain in contention for a bowl game with 4 wins or more.

Who goes where? Back-from-the-dead Tar Heels to Boise, maybe? Stumbling State recovers and lands in Charlotte? The Hokies climb all the way into the Gator? Virginia to the Tangerine, er, Champs Sports Bowl? Where do you think your school's going during bowl season, and how confident are you in that prediction? Let us know.

NC State coach Chuck Amato has received some pretty good wardrobe tips from our readers -- I particularly like "the Bro" suggestion, for upper-body support -- on how to turn things around for the Wolfpack.

One person Amato should have turned to for help before going to the media for advice: Dawn Bunting's mystical friend who spread sage all over Kenan Stadium several weeks ago while doing incantations to chase away the losing spirits from John Bunting's UNC football team. That seems to have worked: the Heels went on to beat Georgia Tech, Chuck's Wolfpack and No.4 Miami and have a good shot at a bowl berth now.

Unless she has a no-rivals clause in her contract with Carolina, Chuck should call her up and tell her to bring the incense on over to Carter-Finley. And, while you're at it, Chuck, pass along her number to John Fox in Charlotte and George Small in Greensboro.

One thing that Skip Prosser acknowledged his Wake Forest basketball team had to do better this season was defend. Obviously, scoring wasn't a problem last year. And judging by last night's season-opening 97-76 result against GW, it's still not a problem. But the jury's still out on the 2nd-ranked Deacons' defense, which did manage to blow open 5-point game by surprising the Colonials with some triangle-and-two late.

What's the Wake fan's take on things? A solid win over a decent A-10 school? We have Chris Paul and you don't? Or nagging concerns that the Deacs' D will be their undoing in March?

Let's say right off the bat: We know that you don't care how difficult our jobs are. "Just give me the news and quit whining about how hard life is for you," you're thinking. You're right.

However, you, the reader, may like to read about certain athletes or teams or universities and may like to see certain questions answered. Sometimes it's about strategy, sometimes it's about personnel (and we understand rights to privacy), and sometimes it's about dollars and public institutions. It's not "the media" they should be answering to, it's you.

So here's a little of what's gone on in the last few days:

Who else out there was surprised by how decisively Clemson and South Carolina moved to impose stiff sanctions on their own programs after Saturday's sideline-clearing brawl? No bowl games. Wow.

My guess is so many players were involved and deserving of at least one-game suspensions that they figured they'd barely have enough players for a bowl game, so what the heck?

Lou Holtz was ready to retire, anyway, so that makes South Carolina's call a little easier maybe. But by agreeing to the same penalty, Clemson removed the suspense from a pretty good debate: Who was more deserving of a Continental Tire Bowl invitation? North Carolina or Clemson? And who was more likely to get it?

The loser in that debate was going to get sent to Boise. Clearly, it sometimes is better to stay home.

Are Tigers fans out there feeling ripped off? It could've been a great pre-New Year's party down in Charlotte. Or are you happy to see your school take the high road and show that it values integrity?

It's hard to go anywhere these days without seeing a football coach fired. When I was in Cincinnati last January, they were introducing the new guy that day at UC. Visited Bloomington on Wednesday, and if I were so inclined, could have attended the Gerry DiNardo-is-fired press conference at Indiana.

No such events took place in Chapel Hill this year, which may be a surprise to some and great news to others.

But, down in Greenville, they canned John Thompson before his second season was up and quickly moved to hire Skip Holtz. He's the guy Lou Holtz was grooming to be his successor at South Carolina before demoting his son instead. What do ECU fans -- and others -- think about the Holtz hire? Is this guy still on his way up, a guy who can carry the Pirates to greatness, or at least goodness? Or not so much? Should ECU have waited to see who else would become available during the firing season?

They tease us with tournaments in Maui and challenges against the best the Big Ten has to offer (Illinois and, well, Illinois), then they leave us in the lurch for most of December. ACC basketball is basically on hiatus for a while aside from two intraconference affairs this Sunday. Apparently, final exams are the lame excuse for this down time. That's fine for the student-athletes. But what about us, the viewers ... and sports writers?

The occasional game against a Liberty, a Toledo, a Loyola of Chicago or a Temple -- nice scare for the Deacs, eh? -- isn't going to hold our attention. So here are some alternative forms of entertainment while you wait for Tobacco Road's winter ritual to begin:

UNCG basketball coach Fran McCaffery's latest find from the Philly area, freshman Kyle Hines, is a crowd-pleaser. And he doesn't do it with thunderous dunks. He does it on the other end. Hines is second in the nation in blocked shots, with a 4.2 average going into tonight's game against Guilford College at Fleming Gym. Only Deng Gai of Fairfield is swatting more shots per game.

In upending Southern Miss 79-78 on Dec. 3, Ricky Hickman scored 29 for the Spartans; Ronnie Burrell poured in 27. Impressive. But what McCaffery remembers was a critical Hines block.

"It was one of those things, the timing of it," McCaffery said. "You're watching the game, and they're going to score -- no, they're not. He's blocked it."

North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams was watching a high school recruit's basketball game earlier this week when he ran into a coaching friend who was also checking out a recruit in the same game. The friend was Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer, a football coach once wooed by UNC.

"His player wasn't as good at basketball as my player was, without question," Williams said Thursday. "But I'm guessing the player I was watching wasn't as good at football as the one he was watching."

Beamer and Williams first met at a speaking engagement in Hilton Head, where they shared laughs over golf and a shrimp dinner. Billy Hite, a classmate of Williams' at UNC, is on Beamer's coaching staff.

Sunday, Williams will coach his first game in Blacksburg. Beamer warned him that Hokie fans are fired up about their first-ever ACC game. The fifth-ranked Heels take a seven-game winning streak to Tech, which has already suffered a loss to VMI.

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?

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.

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.

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.

North Carolina visits Duke next week, as every man, woman, child and domesticated animal between Bayboro and Boone is well aware. Cameron is dangerous territory for lightning-rod players who don't play for the home team. Which is to say J.J. Redick is treated well by the Crazies; Rashad McCants and Julius Hodge ... not so well.

So McCants probably didn't do himself any favors by making that throat-slash gesture on national TV in the second half of Thursday night's UNC win over N.C. State. As Roy Williams noted in the preseason, Duke students are sure to have a field day with his media-day "jail sentence" comments. Now this.

The message boards were pretty active Friday about where the gesture falls on the scale of poor taste. General consensus: not as offensive as Taron Downey's throat slash, but too offensive to be seen in public.

I won't enter that debate, but I will say this: It's hard to find the slightest shortcoming in the way the Tar Heels are playing right now, but at least three questions remain (I'm sure I'm forgetting something) when sizing them up as an NCAA-title contender:

1) Can they win in a tough road environment? 0-1 under those circumstances so far.
2) How will they handle a close finish? Smallest margin of victory so far is 7 points, at Indiana; lost by 11 and 13.
3) Will McCants have a meltdown? He's not as tightly wound as many seem to think, but he can be an unpredictable, at times combustible, personality. The Heels want him to remain unselfish, healthy and happy. And no more throat slashes.

N.C. State coach Herb Sendek hadn't gotten a lot of looks at Marvin Gaye Williams Jr.(his grandparents were big fans) before Thursday night's trip to the Dean Dome. The 6-9 freshman, and future lottery pick, impressed him with a 20-point, 5-rebound outing while recovering from the flu. And, no, Williams still hasn't started a college game.

"I didn't have a chance to watch him extensively in high school," Sendek said after UNC's 95-71 win, "but as everyone knows, there was a lot of speculation if he would even come to college -- and you can see why. He is just an awesome talent, he really is. I don't think there is anything he can't do. What is really eye-catching when you see him for the first time up close is how big he is."

Williams had already shown Tar Heel fans his ability to rise above the rim, though his vogue pose on one breakaway dunk Thursday was new to them. What he hadn't shown off much until UNC's trip to Virginia last weekend is his stroke from 3-point range.

He had five 3's before that rout, but is 6 of 7 over his last two games. He said following the State game that assistant coach Joe Holladay has implored him to look for his shot behind the arc.

They say he's a great listener. So there's your proof.

Sports writers, especially those who vote on Heisman Awards and national players of the year, get some of the strangest things in the mail. Rob Daniels still has his Byron Leftwich bobblehead doll sent by Marshall a few years back. I recently received my Bogut boomerang courtesy of the University of Utah sports publicity office, complete with Australian Andrew Bogut's impressive stats.

Check out this Mike DeCourcy "Daily Dish" on what happened, or didn't happen, when he threw his boomerang in the garbage can. He offers an excellent explanation of why nobody sees Bogut play nor cares how impressive his stats are. Sunday, DeCourcy wrote that the Duke game is important for UNC because the Heels could use a quality RPI road win, much as I'd blogged over the weekend.

We illustrated graphically the ebbs and flows of the Duke-North Carolina basketball rivalry in Tuesday's paper all the way back to 1920. One amazing note, courtesy of the UNC sports information office, that we failed to include in our coverage leading into tonight's game at Cameron Indoor: Duke has had a higher AP ranking than UNC in the teams' last 21 meetings.

My first thought was: Wait. Doherty had these guys up to No.1 for a couple of weeks in 2000-01. Well, the Heels were ranked No. 4 when they beat No. 2 Duke 85-83 on Feb. 1 that season, helping propel them to the top. And they were back down to No. 4 -- after losses to Clemson and Virginia -- when they faced No. 2 Duke again on March 4, a 95-81 Blue Devils win. It was pretty much downhill from there for Doherty.

UNC coach Roy Williams, who befriended Duke's Mike Krzyzewski through their work together on the NABC board of directors, is more than willing to admit Duke's owned the Heels lately (14 of the last 16).

"There's a saying that goes, 'As a coach, you don't want to make everybody else's Christmas nice.' Mike has never been nice to anybody at Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving or Easter. I say that tongue in cheek, but with a heck of a lot of respect."

OK, so it might not have been on the level of the infamous "Heidi" game. But local CBS affiliate WFMY-2 did befuddle many viewers -- some in this office -- last night by breaking away from the Duke-North Carolina game the instant the clock hit 0:00. Never mind that Coach K wasn't even sure the 71-70 game was officially over when the station practically cut Billy Packer off in mid-sentence to switch to their 11 o'clock news.

I was covering the game, so didn't hear about this snafu/gaffe/case of questionable judgment until this morning. I can only hope that WFMY had one heck of a lead story to their news broadcast.

It is February, and as Colin Smith, a vice president for Raycom Sports, notes, that's sweeps month. So affiliates want to get to their local news as quickly as possible. Raycom and the stations who carry its basketball broadcasts have an unwritten agreement that if the game goes more than 10 or 15 minutes past the two-hour programming window, they can drop off as quickly as they feel necessary.

In this case, it was 15 minutes over when the game ended. So no replays of UNC's final possession: Did Felton blow a chance to drive to the basket? No postgame wrap-up or ACC scoreboard. And, at least in this market, no so-called terminal break, which means something to advertisers if not to most of us.

"We give them the ability to leave our telecast as quickly as possible without interfering with the integrity of the broadcast," Smith said.

You be the judge.

I'd planned on blogging about the tight relationship between UConn coach Jim Calhoun and UNC's Roy Williams, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Instead, I direct you to a story by Doug Doughty, esteemed UVa beat writer for the Roanoke Times, who has finally gotten Pete Gillen to explain his unusual philosophy on timeouts after 5 1/2 years of trying.

"Some legendary coach who shall remain nameless lent me 4,125 timeouts," said Gillen in a thinly-veiled reference to former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. "So, I have a few more left than most coaches. You are who you are and that's just our style."

Smith was fairly judicious with his timeouts. Perhaps in his honor, Pete only called two when the Heels visited Charlottesville last month. Or, perhaps, he knew the timeouts wouldn't help in a game the Cavs ended up losing by 36.

Speaking of nostalgia, Savannah State closed out its basketball season last night at 0-28. That takes me back to Curtis Hunter's final season as N.C. A&T coach when I covered an Aggies team that started the year 0-25. They won at Norfolk State to end the streak before I had a chance to do a retrospective on the 1991-92 Prairie View team that was the last to go winless for an entire season.

Savannah State might be a cautionary tale for any Division II program that is making, or thinking about making, the jump to D-I. Like Winston-Salem State, the Tigers of Savannah would like to join the MEAC, A&T's league. Savannah State's athletics department operates on a $2 million budget. Successful MEAC programs are in the $6 mil-$9 mil range.

OK, this has been bugging me since last night, when the folks at the Dean Dome treated us to R.E.M.'s frenetic classic "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" on '80s Retro Night.

There's one lyric in the song that has always stood out to UVa grads because it seems to be an obvious reference to their alma mater:

"Watch O'Neill crush rush, uh-oh, this means no beer Cavalier. Renegade steer clear!"

Colleague Rob Daniels tells me R.E.M. passed through Charlottesville some time in 1984-85 and threw in the lyric as a reference to then-president Robert O'Neill's ban on alcohol on campus, er, Grounds. That included fraternity houses.

That's consistent with what I'd been told years ago. But when I check lyrics Web sites, only one that I can find has that version. Nearly all others have this as the line:

"Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear!"

What that's supposed to mean, I have no idea. It's not what I hear when the song, off the "Document" album, is played, so I'd never given it any thought.

Does anyone out there know the real deal on R.E.M.'s lyrics? Perhaps they did alternate versions. Perhaps UVa people twisted it to their own advantage. Or maybe it's like Jimi Hendrix's line, "Excuse me while I kiss the sky," which many hear as "kiss this guy."

Anyway, seemed appropriate to me they'd play this while the Cavaliers were in town. I suspect Norwood Teague, UNC's associate AD for marketing & promotions, had something to do with the song choice. He used to have the same job at Virginia.

Not all Retro Night tunes were so solid. The copy desk cut this from my "Sights and Sounds" note: The musical selections from the '80s ranged from the quirky to the catchy to the outstanding (see above) to the ridiculously bad ("Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club).

And who picked out the outfits for ESPN's Len Elmore and Mike Patrick? Don't remember any afros that big in the 80's or jackets that plaid (except maybe on Wimp Sanderson or Norm Sloan).

I expected to see a "Live from Cassell" blog from Jim on Thursday night, or Friday, at least. But since he probably had to tend to his young daughter, we'll let it slide.

So I'll second an observation UNC's David Noel made Friday. The Tar Heels were fortunate to get their trip to Blacksburg out of the way early this season, as in mid-December early.

At the time of UNC's 85-51 rout, Tech didn't have Coleman Collins or football tight end Jeff King in the lineup. That's a lot of muscle -- those two accounted for 22 rebounds and 21 points in the Hokies' 67-65 upset over Duke. Without them, the Hokies even lost to VMI in December. Clearly, they're a more confident team now, one that's in a four-way tie for fourth place at 6-6 in the ACC.

No doubt J.J. Redick has become a respectable player on the defensive end. But he was too often victimized by Carlos Dixon's quickness. Seems to be the type of matchup that does not favor Redick, who committed four fouls. In one night!

If Clemson is to do the unthinkable later today -- beat North Carolina for the first time ever in Chapel Hill -- it's best they don't think about that big 0-50 record, which dates back to a 50-20 UNC victory in 1926 when the Heels were called the White Phantoms and played in the Tin Can.

But, best not to think about such details today if you're the visitor. Call it ignoring your limitations.

That is contrary to Roy Williams' philosophy, which he bases on a great Clint Eastwood line in his favorite Dirty Harry movie, "Magnum Force."

He shared this philosophy with reporters a couple of weeks ago when asked how much freedom he gives point guard Raymond Felton on the floor. I thought I might save this for a later story, but when you read it, you'll agree it works better as a Roy Williams monologue than as a quote in a Felton feature. Plus, at least one local blog enthusiast has been pining for more blogosphere "access" to the people we cover, so for his sake, enjoy ...

RW: "The first Dirty Harry movie was about some weirdo, but the second one was about some bad cops, and the chief of police was also a bad cop. And 2 or 3 times throughout the course of the movie, Dirty Harry said, 'You have to know your limitations.'

"And at the end, the chief of police, who was a dirty cop, got a bomb put in Clint Eastwood's car. And Clint Eastwood started walking toward the car and the chief of police walked toward his car, smiled, got in his car and turned his ignition and it blew up because Clint Eastwood had put it in his car.

"Clint turned around and said, 'You've got to know your limitations.'

"And that's the way I coach basketball. I give them all the freedom they can have, but, by golly, they better be able to do what they attempt to do. We get them to understand their limitations and then give them all kinds of freedom."

I should point out, Roy does NOT put a bomb in their cars if they fail to understand their limitations.

Wallburg's Madison Hedgecock wasn't so much wowed by the Hula Bowl experience, or the hula girls, when he went to Maui last month to showcase his game for NFL scouts as he was by the celebs he saw while there.

If you catch my story in Friday's News & Record on Hedgecock's trip to the NFL Scouting Combine, you'll notice a passing reference to the "highlights" of his Hula Bowl voyage. Unfortunately, space limitations wouldn't allow me to digress and elaborate on his celebrity sightings in the newspaper.

But there are no such space restrictions in blog world, so for the curious, I'll elaborate here. Hedgecock, who played fullback at Ledford High and North Carolina, ran into beach volleyball star -- and swimsuit model -- Gabrielle Reece at the Maui airport baggage claim. He also saw Yankees manager Joe Torre (a good guy, even if you hate his employer as I do) and country singer Randy Travis, whose music Hedgecock said he enjoyed when he was in elementary school. He also added that Travis' wife is from Kernersville, but our fact-checkers haven't verified that claim yet.

It'll be interesting to see how far Hedgecock's blocking skills and all-around toughness can carry him in the NFL. Even if he's not drafted -- and he probably will be -- he can look to fellow Ledford grad Brad Hoover for inspiration. Hoover was undrafted but has become an invaluable member of the Carolina Panthers, as a ball-carrying and blocking fullback and as a big hitter on special teams.

Well, the obvious answer is yes. North Carolina just beat N.C. State the first time in three seasons that Rashad McCants wasn't in the lineup. If his mom's doubts hold up, the Tar Heels will have to win Sunday at Maryland without him because of what tests have shown to be an "intestinal virus." Clemson just won at College Park. But, with Maryland, who knows?

I'll be examining the adjustments UNC will have to make without McCants -- or with its star guard at less than full strength -- in the News & Record this weekend. Stay tuned. The school has been unusually silent when asked for health updates this week. But McCants' mother, Brenda Muckelvene, gave me a few insights this afternoon.

Here's the N&R note that may or may not be posted elsewhere online Friday:

McCANTS "DOING BETTER": The mother of Rashad McCants said she expects the North Carolina junior to miss his second straight game Sunday at Maryland because of an intestinal virus.

But, after speaking with him Thursday, Brenda Muckelvene is confident McCants is making significant progress.

"He will be fine as soon as he works it out of his system," she said. "He’s doing better."

McCants, who is the Tar Heels' top scorer (15.8 ppg), played sparingly Saturday against Clemson because of an upset stomach. He did not make the trip to N.C. State on Tuesday night. It was the first game McCants missed in his college career.

"He’s really been bothered by this since the night of the Duke game" Feb. 9, coach Roy Williams said after UNC's 81-71 victory over the Wolfpack. "So he's tried to fight through it."

Team trainer Marc Davis said in a statement released by the school Tuesday afternoon that doctors had no timetable for McCants' return. Muckelvene said Thursday she doubts he’ll play against the Terps.

"I don’t think he needs to rush," she said. "That's what happened last time."

I'd be curious to know how much attention the typical college basketball fan pays to postseason awards/honors voted on by media types, i.e. ACC player of the year, All-Americans, all-freshmen teams.

I know the fan interest is intense on matters that affect their teams -- BCS standings in football, NCAA tournament seedings in basketball -- but how long does an ACC player of the year stick in our memories? I know preseason POYs are quickly forgotten, unless it serves the purpose of illustrating how big a disappointment someone's season was. Take Raymond Felton last year or Chris Duhon the previous year.

These all-this-and-that teams are fun for debating purposes, at the least. It certainly is for sports writers, anyway. Neil Amato of the Herald-Sun and I racked our brains trying to come up with more than three players for the five-member ACC all-freshman team while in College Park on Sunday. After Marvin Williams, Sean Singletary and DeMarcus Nelson, we hit a wall.

Radio man Woody Durham pointed out to Roy Williams after UNC's win over the Terps how amazing it is that the Heels hadn't had an ACC player of the week all season -- that honor is bestowed by the league office, I believe. I'm not sure he was implying an anti-Carolina bias at Grandover, but he seemed a bit perturbed.

Well, that streak ended. Raymond Felton was POW after averaging 15.5 points, 8.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds in wins over N.C. State and Maryland. He hit the game-winning basket against the Terps.

In the office debates over ACC coach of the year, we haven't talked much about Roy Williams. It's gone from favoring Miami's Frank Haith to Va Tech's Seth Greenberg to Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, who normally can't be credited with overachieving. But what about Roy? Going from 19-11 and slightly dysfunctional to 24-3, No. 2 in the country and a title contender with the same group (and sometimes without Rashad McCants) is pretty impressive.

I get a vote, and I admit, I'm reconsidering.

UNC coach Roy Williams said Monday that Rashad McCants would have to make it through "several" practices before he plays his next game. Before that, he wants him to work up a sweat in shootarounds early this week.

It doesn't appear likely McCants will be back for the Tar Heels' ACC quarterfinal against either Maryland or Clemson at noon Friday. They're 4-0 without him so far. We might find out if they can win three games in three days short their dynamic scorer.

Before Monday, McCants had done some casual shooting, before games and before practices. But they weren't exactly workouts.

"When we have a shooting practice, at the end of it, everybody's sweating," Williams said Friday. "He sweated about as much as Humpty Dumpty out there. ... He has not had a shooting workout, a rebounding workout, a ball-handling workout."

Speaking of working up a sweat, Williams almost worked himself into a lather on his radio call-in show Monday night over the ejection of his son, Scott, from Sunday's game against Duke. He's "ticked" about it.

At the end of the first half, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski overheard a fan _ the UNC coach's son, it turns out _ yelling at him: "You've got (official Larry) Rose in your pocket!" He didn't take kindly to it and reportedly had a security guard eject the fan/coach's son from the Dean Dome.

I suspect the Roy-Coach K relationship has taken a turn for the worse.

I'm not going to lie to you. I really, really want Old Dominion to be assigned to the same subregional site as UNC, which I'll be covering in the NCAAs. The Monarchs (28-5) are a fun team and a mid-major with upset potential.

Most importantly, they have Drew Williamson, a player gifted beyond the obvious statistical measures. He just does whatever is needed to win. It's what he did at Cummings High in Burlington, when he led the Cavaliers to state titles in basketball AND football. And he's doing it now as an ODU sophomore. The Monarchs' point guard had zero turnovers in 91 minutes in the CAA tournament, which they won Monday with an overtime win over VCU. No worries about at-large bubbles now.

"We needed to win," he told ESPN.com's Pat Forde. "We didn't want to leave it up to anybody."

Sorry to have let work interfere with my blogging from the ACC Tournament, but, hey, that's what they pay me for. I think.

Anyway, Mike Krzyzewski just finished his Duke-Virginia postmortem in the press hangar, er, room. The last question, from Doug Doughty of sister paper Roanoke Times, was: "This was probably you're last game coaching against UVa with Gillen as its coach. Your thoughts when shaking his hand for the last time?"

"I hope not," K said before professing his respect for Gillen's time and success in college coaching. It's been a pleasure, in other words.

While Maryland has probably been the ACC's biggest disappointment this season, Virginia has basically been the league's biggest disappointment the past 3-4 years. Really, it's been all downhill since Gillen recruited Elton Brown, Jermaine Harper, Keith Jenifer and Jason Clark coming off an NCAA trip and 20-win season.

Gillen is highlighting his team's injury problems right now. Sorry, not good enough.

CBS analyst Billy Packer was not warmly received by the MCI Center crowd Friday when he was introduced as this year's winner of the Skeeter Francis award that honors a media member's longtime outstanding coverage of the ACC. Booed rather lustily, really.

Carolina fans don't like him. Duke fans don't like him. I knew that. But, wow, were Wake Forest fans even booing their famous alum?

I think what the crowd wanted was to see recently retired News & Record sports writer Larry Keech get the award. I know I did. LK (he likes to call folks by their initials) made the trip. I'm sorry to see him leave empty-handed. Maybe next year.

Had some time to ponder the NCAA field on the 6-hour drive back from D.C. yesterday _ should be 5 hours, but that's another story _ and here are a few of the things that stand out:

There are surprisingly few teams left out that have a gripe. Indiana? Only Big Ten shills even tried to make a case for the Hoosiers; there are a surprisingly high number of those folks out there. I would have put DePaul in ahead of Iowa, which, let's face it, benefited hugely from AD Bob Bowlsby being the selection committee chair, even if he wasn't in the room when Hawkeyes talk was going on.

Washington as a No.1. That stunned a lot of people. The majority opinion in the MCI Center press room seemed to favor Wake as a No.1, giving the ACC 3 No.1 seeds. After Arizona's loss to U-Dub, I thought Oklahoma State should've gotten the 4th No.1 -- the Cowboys lost late in the year to Nebraska but beat Kansas twice and then won the Big XII tourney. Frankly, I'd never given the Huskies much thought. Obvious East coast bias. They are #3 in the RPI and 26-5. Worthy I suppose, but ...

They're going down before getting anywhere close to St. Louis. Wake Forest ought not gripe too much about being a No.2 seed. Yes, Gonzaga or Texas Tech will be tough in the Sweet 16, but they're basically the top team in that bracket, as far as I can tell.

Louisville is in the same regional. Yes, the Cards deserve better than a 4-seed. No, they shouldn't be a 1-seed. Perish the thought. I've seen them as overrated all year. I'm thinking a legit 3-seed, though. What they've done is win, much like Kentucky has. After seeing the Wildcats early in the year, I've been surprised they've won as much as they have. Credit Tubby. (And make him a nice offer, Craig Littlepage.) Or question the strength of the SEC.

Georgia Tech has to be upset about its draw. Nearly won the ACC tourney to get a 5-seed. That's nice. But the Jackets will have to be Louisville in the 2nd round after a brutal 1st-round matchup with a solid GW team. Either GT or L'ville knocks off Washington. (That advice is not for office-pool purposes, of course.)

Regional in Syracuse. Ugh. Can't we please put these regionals in warmer, less desolate towns? At the least, can we at least not put North Carolina, the team I cover, in this regional? I was hoping for Austin.

Syracuse as a popular pick to beat Duke in the Austin regional. If they meet, I might agree. Just not sure they'll get that far. Gerry McNamara hasn't been completely healthy and is not shooting as well as past years. My friend Russ is a diehard Syracuse fan who studies them a little too closely, and he uses expletives to describe the Orange's season. That's good enough for me, forget their Big East title. I might even pick Vermont to knock them off in the first round. That could be my Tom Brennan bias coming through though. Or maybe I'm wondering why a team with an RPI of 26th is a 13-seed.

Back to the Syracuse regional. Trouble for the Tar Heels? Yes. Villanova in the Sweet 16 would be a tough perimeter matchup. Roy Williams dreads the possibility of seeing Kansas, with a bunch of guys he recruited, in the Elite 8. More likely, the Heels will see UConn, which will be much tougher the second time, especially with Rashad Anderson back.

Illinois is the best team in the field, no doubt, but Oklahoma State in the regional final will be big trouble. Good thing it's in the Chicago suburbs. The Illini will win it all, even if Dee Brown was on a recent SI cover.

Roy Williams was asked Tuesday about the firing of former Tar Heel Buzz Peterson as Tennessee's coach earlier this week. He responded that Tennessee isn't exactly the best coaching job in the world.

He also has seen reports that missing the NCAA tournament four straight years isn't the only reason Peterson was canned.

"They've got to make their own decisions," Williams said, "but I read in articles it's because of attendance and concessions and souvenir sales. And a basketball coach has to handle his team, he's responsible for making the product good enough to put people in the stands, he has to work with the media and he has to work with the alumni.

"But I really didn’t know that the basketball coach was responsible for how much dadgum popcorn was sold."

Recalling his days as a high school coach, Williams revealed a trick of the concession trade: We used to put more salt in the popcorn to sell more Cokes.

I assume that worked with pretzels, too, causing many a fan to say: "These pretzels are making me thirsty."

Sorry, I can't let the day go by without at least one Seinfeld reference.

How come I'm the only one that went into the NCAA tournament unaware of UW-Milwaukee's upset potential? Everyone, I mean EVERYone, is bragging about how they picked Bama to go down in the first round. Not me.

After the first day, the one thing that's clear isn't necessarily that UWM is a great team. It's that the SEC, as suspected, isn't very good this year. Alabama, LSU are done. Florida almost lost to Ohio. Kentucky almost lost to the Colonels of Eastern Ky. I wasn't completely caught unaware: I only had two of those teams going to the Sweet 16 and one, Kentucky, going to the Elite 8 (in my fictitious, just-for-fun bracket that was not compiled for gambling purposes).

Roy Williams cemented the pressroom legend status of Durham Herald-Sun Duke beatwriter Bryan Strickland on Saturday.

Two days earlier, Strickland asked for his thoughts on a colleague in the building tying Dean Smith's record for NCAA tournament victories. The Tar Heels coach apparently misheard the question. He thought he said overall victories and told the media how impressive it was that Mike Krzyzewski had won 100 games in one week. Or maybe the questioner meant Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt.

In any event, Williams was thrown. Later, he quipped, "Just don't let the guy in the blue shirt ask any more questions."

Saturday, someone else asked about Coach K's 65 tourney wins. Williams scanned the room.

"I was just looking for my man in the blue shirt," Williams said, adding when he spotted Strickland: "Darker blue, huh? I'll tell Mike you're wearing his colors."

For those who think Roy might get uptight at tournament time, that exchange shows he doesn't stop looking for punchlines in March.

This certainly isn't the Charlotte Coliseum. First off, the media work room in the Carrier Dome isn't nearly as cramped. We're on a football field and have 150-foot high ceilings. I'm sitting at the 15-yard line while N.C. State practices on a basketball court on the other side of the curtain.

Wolfpack fans in town for the regional might flashback to a very nice football victory here a few years back.

Chased out of Greensboro by a tornado (or at least there was a warning and scary cloud formations), your intrepid News & Record crew landed in Syracuse late last night during snow showers that tapered this morning.

Cab driver tells us she's only been to the Carrier Dome twice: once for a Pink Floyd concert and once to a Syracuse intrasquad football scrimmage.

"You couldn't lose that one," Rob Daniels cracked.

"Coach P could," she shot back.

First pot shot at Paul Pasqualoni, who was relieved of his duties after the '04 season. But it probably won't be the last.

As for concerts, we'll be seeing the Fixx on Saturday night at Armory Square. I'm fired up. For some odd reason, nobody else seems to be.

This is a very Jim Young thing to do, but the Blue Devils are back in Durham and so is Jim, yet the show must go on.

So I'll offer a little pregame analysis on UNC and Wisconsin, who tip off in the Syracuse bubble in about an hour. I've already picked the Heels to win in print, by a 72-65 score if I recall correctly, and I'm not going to contradict myself now. That would be bad for business. But I certainly could see a scenario by which UNC stumbles over its own talented feet.

Think back just two nights ago to the frustration NC State had against Wisconsin's patient swing offense and disciplined defense. And the Wolfpack is a team accustomed to playing at a deliberate pace. For the Heels, seeing the shot clock repeatedly go below 10 seconds is worse than watching "Ishtar" over and over and over. This could lead to a force-the-issue, force-shots mode.

We saw it in the ACC Tournament. Could happen again against a team like Wisconsin. But Villanova might have been the Tar Heels' big-scare game. Sean May and Marvin Williams could have huge days against the Badgers, and they could win by 12-14, which would feel like a blowout.

That would keep us on track for Illinois-Carolina in St. Louis. That's the matchup I'd like to see from a basketball purist's standpoint. Who's the best? Let's see for ourselves. So that had me in the odd position of being an Illini fan last night against Arizona. What a comeback. Or choke. However you prefer to look at it.

Dining at the Kitchen K in downtown St. Louis tonight, we thought we spotted Arizona's Lute Olson walking in wearing a red-and-blue sweat suit. He was about the right height, had the same white hair. Then he turned around -- not him.

Where there's a Final Four, there's also a coaches convention. From D-I to D-III, they're all here, except Fran McCaffery, of course. He's back in Greensboro saying so long to his UNCG players.

It hasn't exactly been a who's who of college coaching, at least not yet. In the airport, I saw coaches from such powerhouses as Samford, Fort Valley State and St. Xavier University. I did have a brief word with Terry Holland in the hotel lobby tonight. I didn't ask how well received Ricky Stokes has been as his new basketball coach at ECU. Call it tact. From what I hear, not everyone's thrilled.

Now that UNC's semifinal tipoff with Michigan State is about 44 hours away, it's time to give serious thought to who's going to win this game. I mentioned on Dave Glenn's radio show (The Buzz in Raleigh) that I'm not entirely sold on the mental toughness of Roy Williams' team, especially without Raymond Felton on the floor. Hope that doesn't anger the Heels' faithful. It's just that they don't look entirely convincing in the tight finishes.

I'd love to read some thoughtful predictions, hopes and fears, from UNC followers before Saturday's game. Basically, I'm asking you to help your neighborhood beatwriter, who is still very up in the air about this Heels-Michigan State matchup. Feel free to post here.

Oh, and, I read a great piece in the Chicago Tribune on my flight to the STL about how Urbana is the forgotten community in Illinois' great run. Everyone talks about the team from Champaign. The Illini's sports arenas are in Champaign; most of the university is in the smaller town of Urbana. That burg deserves some attention, too, the paper writes. OK, so they're running out of things to write about on Illinois.

Speaking of which, Southwest Airlines had a huge Illini fan in the cockpit today. As we flew over Champaign-Urbana/Urbana-Champaign, he told his passengers, "If you look out the left side of the plane, you might see Assembly Hall. Go, Illini, rah, rah ..."

This truly is one of the great days on the sports calendar, with the cozy juxtaposition of baseball's Opening Day with the NCAA basketball final.

For the first time in my life, baseball season has snuck up on me. When the Red Sox and Yanks played an actual, meaningful game last night -- well, not as meaningful as last October's games -- I did a double-take. Is it really here?

Guess I've been distracted by the Tar Heels' tournament run, which has kept me fairly busy.

But between a visit to the Gateway Arch and to The Ed, as they call the dome here, I did watch some baseball, and it was great. Even a few innings of Royals v. Tigers.

As a Phillies fan, I wasn't too thrilled about the signing of Kenny Lofton, who's 10 years past his prime. But glad to see the Phils' tiny park has even turned him into a home-run hitter. A big day for Pat Burrell, too.

Now, I'm guessing Lofton is a UNC fan tonight, seeing as how Illinois bumped off Arizona, a team for which he once played, after the Illini had trailed by 15 with four minutes left.

I haven't checked my work voicemail lately, but I appreciate the lack of hate mail I've received so far for picking against the Heels. It really almost came down to a coin flip. If Felton stays on the floor and May feasts, I think the Heels will probably win. But the Brown-Williams-Head triumvirate is so solid, and I don't expect them to shrink in the big game.

My biggest fear is that a game being billed as one for the ages turns into a blowout. That's a fear that a run of Super Bowl routs put into me.

We'll know in a couple of hours. Then we turn our attention to the NBA Draft watch and baseball -- a lot of baseball.

First, off, today I checked the messages left on my voicemail while I was in St. Louis. Four of them were UNC-related, two jabbing me for picking Illinois in the final. I thought there might have been more of these -- I think it's the first time I've picked against the Heels in print (we don't predict scores in the regular season) since I had Texas beating them in the second round last year. So I figured I might catch some grief.

But it's not like I called for an Illinois blowout. I thought it would be 85-82 or something very close. Just gave the edge to a team that had won 37 of 38 games, whereas I wasn't totally sold the Heels would make all the right decisions and big plays down the stretch.

I stand corrected, but I don't think there's any need to apologize for my pick.

Now, to a question Heels fans are pondering: Are they better off without Rashad next year? While the media might be better off without him -- he cultivated an enigmatic image as soon as he arrived in Chapel Hill and, this year, only talked to reporters right after games -- I don't agree that the team would be better with him in the NBA. The N&O's Caulton Tudor slams that theory today.