As If I Needed More Reasons to Hate Dook
I don't know whether I was more pissed off at Billy Packer or the Rat at the end of the Dook-Carolina game Sunday - I was more pissed at both of them more than at Gerald Henderson, although attempts to portray him as anything other than a thug are laughable. Packer's strident cries that this was all an accident and that they should play on were juxtaposed against incessant replays that showed over and over again that the foul was intentional and flagrant and against a crowd that was ready to tear every Dookie in the building apart limb by limb. The fact that they did not is a tribute to the way the refs worked this and the fact that they came to the right decision. Packer's not only a Wake Forest homer, he's a charter member of the ABC (Anybody But Carolina) club so it was certainly not a surprise that he was so defensive about whoever was playing UNC. It reminded me of nothing more than listening to Keith Jackson desperately trying to explain away Ohio State coach Woody Hayes hitting a Clemson player in the 1978 Gator Bowl. All the while the replays are clearly showing Charlie Baumann running down the sideline and Hayes reaching out to try to cold-cock him. I always figured Jackson was motivated by love of the game and dislike of controversy, but Packer was just hatin' as he usually does.On some level, it was just Dook being Dook. There's no other team that is more consistently thuggish while maintaining some fiction of being "classy" (whatever the hell that means) and while being all sensitive and crying at the drop of a hat (can't forget McRoberts bawling on the bench after fouling out against UNC in the first game - that was almost as good as Bobby Hurley crying on the sidelines after King Rice help him to one assist against 10 turnovers). There have been a couple of Dook players that Carolina fans managed to not despise. It was hard to find Grant Hill haters even in Chapel Hill and Mike Gminski always seemed to be a decent guy. As Wayne Ellington's best bud, Gerald Henderson might have gotten a pass but now he'll no doubt be up there with Christian "the Stomper" Laettner, Bobby "Crybaby" Hurley, Wojo and Chrissy Collins. Lordy do we hate those guys - and now Henderson gets to join that dubious fraternity of whiny Dook thugs. Heh.
I purposely held off on reading Will Blythe's book on the Carolina-Dook rivalry until the last couple of weeks and managed to read the final chapter between the women's victory in the ACC Tournament at 3 and the start of the men's game at 4. Excellent read and a great lead-in for a classic game! As if I needed justification for hating the evil that is Dook.
Labels: Sports
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home