Tourney Questions
Where the hell was that alleged Miami foul that sent Puke JJ Redick to the free throw line at the end the game on Friday? Can I get a round of "Dook Refs! Dook Refs!"?
Where the hell has this Wake Forest team been all year? Dook had better watch out tomorrow.
Why the hell is Herb Sendek still coaching basketball at any level? I mean, thank God he is - at least that means a couple of almost-guaranteed wins for the Tar Heels every year, but, I mean, really! He's a frickin' joke!
Is anyone else finding the tournament a little less compelling this year with the addition of all these teams to the ACC? I know it's partly me - I've got too many things I'm trying to get done this week/weekend, so I'm not able to just sit and watch. And with my schedule this year I've barely seen some of these teams at all (I'm not sure I saw more than 3 minutes of Clemson before the tournament). Maybe it IS just me....
I heard Jones Angell doing some of the play-by-play on the Tar Heel Radio Network this afternoon during the State-Wake game to give Woody Durham some rest and he was pretty good! I guess he's been doing the women's games and he sounds pretty comfortable with it. He and Montross were a good combination. I don't know how much longer Woody plans on doing this stuff (he can clearly do it as long as he wants to) - Jones might not be a bad successor.
Dipsy-Do Dunkeroo!
While we're taking a break between ACC Tourney games here on North Carolina's unofficial state holiday, take a look at this link courtesy True Hoop of some guy's "Top 10 Dunks of All Time" - some are pretty pedestrian actually but stay for the last two - an unbelievable Dr. J special followed by Vin-sanity's jump over some 7-foot Eastern European for a slam during the Olympics. Awesome, baybee!!
Roadside Dining
After leaving Asheville today, we decided to make the drive home part of our little vacation, so we took the Blue Ridge Parkway up over the Linn Cove Viaduct and around Boone, with a short stop in Blowing Rock to walk around a bit. What we didn't know was that most of the shops in Blowing Rock are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this time of year - perfectly reasonable but unexpected. But the walk was pleasant as always as was the drive. As we got close the the Triad, we realized that grabbing dinner in Greensboro might be problematic given the little basketball tournament that starts tomorrow, so we dropped off I-40 to Old Salem and had dinner at Salem Tavern, one of our favorite places. We've always enjoyed dinner there, maybe moreso after meeting the fascinating owner (Gayle Winston) a couple of years ago.
When we parked at the new Old Salem Visitor's Center to walk over to dinner, I noticed a huge number of BMWs, Mercedes and Lexuses (Lexes? Lexi?) in the parking lot - very odd for a place that should have been closed for the night. As we walked past, we saw a couple of bars set up inside the visitor's center along with a large number of dinner tables and a curtain covering the Krispy Kreme counter, so obviously there was some sort of posh tah going on in the theater. As we walked back to the car after a scrumptious dinner, Jeannette noticed that David McCullough was sitting at a table with his back to the window we were walking past, signing copies of his latest. Guess we'll have to read the Winston-Salem Journal tomorrow to find out what was going on. I'm not sure whether seeing David McCullough or Brad Daugherty today was cooler - I really enjoyed The Path Between the Seas, but I'm pretty sure McCullough couldn't stop Daugherty from dunking on him.
Rebuilding Year My Ass
I'm a little late in posting this - went up to Yancey County Saturday to watch the game with Dad and Mom, before taking a little vacation at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. Dad and I have had the bad fortune to see way too many of the infrequent Carolina losses together over the years so it was nice to be able to catch one of the biggest non-championship games in the program's history. And we didn't just win, we won big. Decisively. Emphatically. Damn that feels good!
I did mention something a few weeks ago about Tyler Hansbrough potentially being the best UNC center ever (and no, I haven't forgotten Sean May in the championship game last year) - after the voting by the ACC reporters this week, I may not be alone in thinking so. Hansbrough was the unanimous pick as Rookie of the Year, was the first freshman picked unanimously to the ACC all-conference 1st team and was the only player not named Redick to get votes as player of the year (keeping JJ from being a unanimous pick as POY may have been my favorite play by Hansbrough this season).
Speaking of excellent UNC centers, I saw big Brad Daugherty at the spa cafe at Grove Park today before we left for home. Brad was always one of my favorite players and was certainly one of the best centers in the NBA before back problems cut his career short. He's not half bad as a basketball color guy either.
