This column is my first from my tree stand. I was waiting for a deer to come by and thinking about the Texas-UNC game later…and I decided to see if there was a decent Blackberry app for doing blog posts. I discovered that there are several such apps, so I can now share my atypical thoughts on the first ever basketball game played in Cowboys Stadium.
First of all, let me tell you that I am an unashamed dyed-in-the-wool Tar Heels fan. I read a biography of Dean Smith when I was 8 years old (summer of 1976). I followed the 1976-1677 Tar Heels team with great enthusiasm and cried my 9-year-old eyes out when Al Maguire and his Marquette team beat Carolina in the final. As a West Pointer, I get a little conflicted, and I am sure that most of my fellow Carolina fans would say that my hatred for Coach K lacks the proper amount of vitriol, but I just can’t go all in. My buddy Brian’s dad was Coach K’s roommate at West Point…and Brian went to Duke…and Coach K let Brian brings girls to dinner at his house as a first date. After hearing that Coach K served as a wing man for a kid half his age, based on a long friendship started at my alma mater, I can’t hate him as much as some of my brethern. My buddy Kinky, who has an entire basement full of Carolina gear and memorabilia, including some beautiful carolina blue seats from Carmichael Auditorium, can’t understand, or even fathom, this.
So about the game – as anyone that was reading my stuff back in March will tell you, I do not like Rick Barnes at all…and I am not crazy about Roy Williams, either.
Here is my main problem with both these guys, and lots of other guys as well – they almost never win a game they are supposed to lose. To me, that should be the single most important factor when measuring greatness in a college basketball coach. Anyway, Barnes and Williams are horrible at it. They win most of the games they are supposed to win, but that is it. On very few occasions have they ever inspired a team to rise up and beat a better team. By the way, other current coaches on this list include Calipari, Pitino, Donovan, Howland, Weber, and about 100 more I don’t have time to name.
Something historically special might happen during this game. Do not miss it.
You have one coach (Williams) that is notorious for losing every game he is supposed to lose, and another coach who has a horrible track record coaching in big games. Did I mention that both teams are ranked in the top 10 and that the game is taking place in Jerry Jones’ new football stadium?
It’s tough for me to say, but I think Williams’ near 100% success rate at losing when he is the underdog will supercede Barnes’ penchant for losing big games.
But you definitely want to be watching this one. These are two really good teams that should get up for the challenge and show their skill. Then, when you account for the fact that both coaches might be trying to give the game away, it should be riveting right until the end.
I think there are only 2 options: Carolina in a squeaker, or Texas in a route. You know Barnes will absolutely self destruct trying to coach his way to winning a tight game with this much hype around it. But I think Texas just has some freakishly good athletes and they are going to physically bully Carolina…I mean “knock them down and take their lunch money” kind of a bully. Games like this should go a long way toward toughening up Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller, so it’s not all bad news for my fellow Tar Heels fans. If those two guys can keep progressing and both stay in school, there might be another historically great team wearing Carolina Blue in the next couple of years.
When you factor in 2005 and 2009, that would have to be just about the best 10-year span in college hoops history that did not involve John Wooden, right?
Enjoy your day. I am hunting in a snowstorm, just about my favorite thing in the world that does not involve my wife and/or kids, so I know I will enjoy mine.
Since I might not get to blog about it beforehand, here is tonight’s NFL pick. Gimme Dallas at +8 …and they won’t need any of the 8. Just a hunch – Dallas wins outright.

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I have basically said what I thought I needed to say about this year’s tournament, but as I was going back over my notes, there are a few things that have not made it to the blog yet, so I thought I would throw one more article out there.  How’s that for a short intro…no B.S.  Here are the final thoughts:

1.  I Think Gus Johnson’s Act is Getting Tired Already.  For starters, I love Gus Johnson.  When he is doing a game, and it is getting more and more exciting with each passing moment, and he is getting more and more out of control with each passing moment…it probably does not get any better than that in the current sports landscape.  But Gus, can you please reserve that kind of behavior only for moments that deserve it?  When a team trailing by 19 goes on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 14 points with the other team’s 2 best players on the bench, we don’t need you acting like something exciting is happening, or even ABOUT to happen.  Seriously, doing that kind of thing is not only starting to cheapen what you bring to the table, it is starting to grate against people.

2.  Roy Williams is a Solid Division I Men’s Basketball Coach.  That’s it.  Sorry, but that’s all you get from me, Roy.  You had a team with a legitimate shot at being one of the truly special teams in NCAA history, and you coached them to losses against Boston College, Wake Forest and Maryland.  Granted, you had a little bad luck with Marcus Ginyard going down for the year and with Tyler Zeller being an absolute moron, but you absolutely do not get a free pass for losing to those 3 teams when they don’t even have one player that can start for your team.  You will notice that I have given you a free pass for losing to BC in the ACC Tournament, because Ty Lawson was a spectator and you had already pissed away any chance at real greatness your team had.  Don’t get me wrong, as a huge Tar Heels fan, I like that Roy has kept the magic going…I like the recruits he keeps getting (although an argument could be made that Dean Smith is about 95% responsible for every recruit that comes to Carolina)…and I like the assistant coaches he is able to attract.  But I have never, not one single time in his entire tenure in Chapel Hill, seen him elevate a team beyond its potential.  Not once was there a Tar Heel team that we thought had Sweet Sixteen potential and he took them to the Final Four.  Sure, it’s kind of difficult when you have Final Four potential just about every year, but can we please stop treating this guy like he is one of the top coaches ever?  He just took a team that could have easily been regarded as one of the best 3 or 4 teams in NCAA history and turned them into just another National Champion.

3.  I am Starting to Turn the Corner on Tom Izzo.  Michigan State exceeded their ceiling under the guidance of Tom Izzo.  The mere fact that this happened during the 2008-2009 season puts Tom Izzo on a better “historically great” footing than Roy Williams.  I think Izzo might just be the real deal.  Anyone who has been following the blog knows that in order for me to think a coach is the real deal, he has to elevate his team on a regular basis…not merely meet expectations but exceed them.  And that is EXACTLY what Michigan State did this year.  I am not ready to put Izzo up there with the all-timers yet, but I am suitably impressed with his coaching this year.  To add to his legacy even more, some of his former assistants are starting to make some noise.  Look at what Tom Crean has done and continues to do.  Everyone knew it was going to be a down year for Indiana, but no one knew how bad until the roster started to take shape…a member of the Indiana baseball team, an equipment manager, and a couple of guys that I think I recognized from my local pickup game Sunday mornings at the Indy JCC were all getting minutes as the season progressed.  That team went 1-17 in conference and was competitive in a lot of those games, and they never quit or gave up on one single game along the way.  Crean is a good one…and if he continues to coach his players to exceed their capabilities year after year, he will one day be mentioned with the all-time greats, like I think his mentor Tom Izzo might be as well, based on his performance and the performance of his team this year.

That’s it.  Just a few thoughts that were swimming around my head at one point during the last few weeks of the college basketball season, at least enough so that I thought enough to write them down.

There you have it.  My NCAA notepad for the 2008-2009 season is officially empty.  Well, I think I feel a blog post coming on that is kind of a cautionary tale to Kentucky about their recent hire.  They can ill afford any kind of violation or investigation, and the NCAA is going to send a message very soon that they are going to come down hard on people that bend the rules.

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We Have Seen This Kind of Thing Before. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is beginning to look an awful lot like the NFL in the early 1990s.  Back then, you just knew that one of a handful of teams was going to taking home the hardware every year:  San Francisco, Any Team in the NFC East Not Named Philly or Phoenix (read HERE for more info), Green Bay, Buffalo, Houston or Pittsburgh.  They were the teams that had the best chance to win because they spent the most money.  Well, it’s kind of like that in college hoops right now…in fact, it has been that way for a good long time.  In fact, let’s look at the most valuable college basketball programs, according to Forbes Magazine.

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