How I did.

Well, Dear Reader, I am long since returned from R&R and thought I'd provide you an update on how I did running down the things that I miss from the U.S. while I was home.  So here they are in order:

• A well poured pint of Guiness - I had a decent (but not great) pint at Champp's Sports Bar in Pentagon City.  What it may have lacked in quality, I absolutely made up for in quantity.  Thanks to all of YDS's friends who met for many pints and sports bar type food.  Well enjoyed.
• Sushi - YDS's brother in law took him to an excellent sushi bar in Virginia Beach and introduced him to white tuna.  Absolutely amazing, a great restaurant and great company.
• Good mexican food - Had a great meal and great fun with Skippy Jr. at Mexico Restaurant.  There was balloon sculpture and really good salsa, so everyone was happy.
• Good chinese food - Eat Rice carry out near my sister's house.  A nice meal with YDS's sister and her family.
• A nice restaurant (of any sort) - Satisfied this jones by drinking with a dear friend at the The Jefferson's recently renovated bar.
• A great Southern breakfast - McLean's with the author of Greg's Alien.  Salt herring and eggs.  Biscuits and gravy.  If it weren't for the fact that we talked for an hour afterward, I wouldn't have been able to move.
• Rain - It rained a lot while we were at Virginia Beach.  Lots of my favorite misty foggy type rain.  Check and checked well.
• Fall - It was late fall, with a lot of leaves already down, but still fall.  Check.
• A good orthoepaedic mattress - Not so much.  My parents have a decent bed in their guest bedroom, but not great.  I still miss my mattress.
• College football on at the right time of day - Oh yeah.  Although Skippy Jr. did not believe it was a good use of my time. 
• A massage - My parents had a therapist all lined up to greet me the first day I was home.  It really helped unkink after the long long trip.
• Sundays as part of the weekend - This was certainly true, but it wasn't a big deal, because I was on vacation the whole time.  Hee hee.
• A sports bar - The aforementioned Champp's where we happened on the replay of the UNC v. Stanford semi final in women's soccer, which I did not know the outcome of, so it was almost as good as watching live.

So there you have it, Dear Reader, an R&R full of checking off the list.  YDS was pretty successful and had a great R&R.

Life is good.

Harrison Barnes.  Number one recruit in the country.  Makes the only sane decision and signs with Carolina.

Now a prospect is a prospect and some work out and some don't.  So while having this amazing athlete attend my alma mater is a good thing, the more fun thing about this news might be that Coach Rat (Kryshewski or some other such spelling) recruited this kid hard.  Coach Williams only started recruiting him after the Final Four.

And where does he go?  Chapel Hill, baby.  Chapel Hill.

The payback for the Nineties and the early 2000s is on.  And even after two national titles and a 7-2 record over the last nine head-to-head meetings, it looks as though the waters might continue to flow Carolina Blue for a while.

Hark the Sound ...

The sweet sound of victory.

Any season where you beat Dook is a pretty good season.  Now let's see about taking care of BC and/or NCState (especially the Wolfies) and we can call it a good season.

He did pretty well with the Sweet Sixteen...

So let's hope the Bard can keep up his prognostication...

And here are Shakespeare's picks for the Final Four:

Connecticut Huskies vs. the Michigan State Spartans: Will's tip: “the Dog will have his day” (Hamlet, 5.1)......
CONNECTICUT to the Finals

North Carolina Tarheels vs. the Villanova Wildcats: Will's tip: “the Cat must stay at home” (Henry V, 5.1) and the “Heels will kick at heaven” (Hamlet, 3.3)....
NORTH CAROLINA to the Finals

And in the Championship game:
North Carolina Tarheels versus Connecticut Huskies: Shakespeare agrees that this year the Big East has been stronger top to bottom, but says, “I’ll take my Heels” (Comedy of Errors 1.1) and “darkness breaks within the East” (Richard III, 5.3).

2009 NCAA Men's Champion
NORTH CAROLINA TARHEELS

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=397

Have I mentioned that I'm proud of my alma mater?

As reported by ESPN.com:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney09/news/story?id=3987923

North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Connecticut share a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament. Their graduation rates have less in common.

The numbers ranged from 86 percent at North Carolina to 33 percent at UConn, according to a report released Monday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

Louisville was at 42 percent and Pitt at 69 percent.

They play hoops AND they go to class. What a concept!!!

The Bard has a go at Predicting NCAA Hoops

Courtesy of the American Shakespeare Center:

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=397

An American Shakespeare Center Exclusive

People can debate the identity of William Shakespeare, but the one thing we know for certain is that Will Shakespeare was a huge fan of March Madness and famously admonishes basketball fans to "remember March, the ides of March remember!" Now that the Ides of March is past, we have our basketball Sweet Sixteen, and Shakespeare through his friends at the American Shakespeare Center is weighing in on the Bracket to the Final Four and the 2009 national championship.

East Regional
In the East the Pitt Panthers are up against the Xavier Muskteers and Shakespeare says of the Muskets that they are "leaden messengers" (All's Well, 3.2) and thinks the game will "rouse the proudest Panther in the chase" (Titus, 2.2).

As to the other game, where the Duke Blue Devils take on the Villanova Wildcats, Shakespeare tells Coach K that in "despite of the Devils and hell," (2 Henry VI, 4.8), there will be "Wildcats in your kitchen" (Othello, 2.1).

Elite Eight Picks: Villanova Wildcats will play the Pitt Panthers.

Midwest Regional
In the Midwest, the Louisville Cardinals take on the other Wildcats, and though Shakespeare thinks that out west Arizona is "the king of Cats" (Romeo and Juliet, 3.1), he says quite clearly that in choosing between the two teams he "would the college of Cardinals" (Henry VIII, 3.2).

In the second game, the Michigan State Spartans battle the Kansas Jayhawks, and in this one Shakespeare says his favorites are "bred out of the Spartan kind" (Dream, 4.1) and are "of more delight than Hawks" (Sonnets: XCI).

Elite Eight Picks: Louisville Cardinals meet the Michigan State Spartans.

South Regional
The Oklahoma Sooners meet the Syracuse Orange, and despite Syracuse's valiant six-overtime win against Connecticut, Shakespeare is emphatic: "Give not this rotten Orange to your friends," (Much Ado, 4.1) and urges bracketeers to choose Oklahoma with this advice: "Sooner, Sweet, for you." (Othello, 3.2).

In game two between the North Carolina Tarheels and the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Will has no patience with the underdogs from the Northwest - "Down, down, dogs!" (1 Henry IV, 2.4) - and that for those of us who love the ACC "our grace is only in the Heels" (Henry V, 3.2).

Elite Eight Picks: The North Carolina Tarheels will meet the Oklahoma Sooners.

West Regional
In the West, the Connecticut Huskies go against the Purdue Boilermakers, and here Shakespeare gets downright nasty in with Purdue - "You shames! you herd of Boils" (Coriolanus, 1.4) - and predicts that "what's to come is strew'd with Husks" (Troilus and Cressida, 4.4).

In the second game, where the Memphis Tiger plays the Missouri Tigers, Shakespeare predicts unhelpfully that "Tigers must prey" (Titus Andronicus, 3.1), but tells us later that Memphis will "triumph upon my Missouri" (Shrew 4.3).

Elite Eight Picks: The Memphis Tigers to play Connecticut.

And here are Shakespeare's picks for the Final Four:
Villanova Wildcats versus Pitt Panthers - Will's Tip: "Deep Pitt" (Titus, 2.3) ...
PITTSBURG

Louisville Cardinals versus Michigan State Spartans -- Will's Tip: "The Cardinal's not my better in the field." (2 Henry VI, 1.3) ... MICHIGAN SATE

UNC Tarheels versus Oklahoma Sooners -- Will's Tip: "the Heels of worth" (All's Well, 3.4) ... CAROLINA

Memphis Tigers versus Connecticut - Will's Tip: "The empty Tigers" (Romeo and Juliet, 5.3) ... CONNECTICUT

NEXT WEEK: Check the ASC's site for Shakespeare's prediction of the national champion.

I like the way ole Will thinks!

One more dig ...

And then I'll quit, I promise.

But Adam Lucas of TarHeelBlue.com nails it:

The biggest fallacy about this whole Carolina-Duke rivalry is the 8-mile thing, as if proximity somehow indicates similarity. It's like assuming East and West Germany must be comparable since they were close to each other.

Duke fans believe spending 196 hours in a tent indicates passion and devotion. Carolina fans believe 196 hours in a tent indicates a telling lack of other social engagements.

The undergrads inhabiting Tent 1 in Krzyzewskiville staked their claim on Dec. 26, 47 days ago. Added over four years of college life, that's 188 days--over half a year--in a tent to watch four losses. The good news is that all that time in a tent did enable them to have a great view of history: Carolina's 101-87 victory was the first time an opponent surpassed 100 points in a regulation game at Cameron since the Tar Heels did it in 1983.

Duke has 6,340 undergrads. Assuming a fourth of them are seniors, that makes a class of 1,585 that will graduate in May without ever seeing a home victory over Carolina.

The rest of the article (http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/021209aaa.html) is good too. Now I'll go back to leaving Dookies alone.

Too good not to share ...

Thanks to TarHeelFanblog reader: “Yo mama sleeps with Teague” for this.

Oh and thanks to 101-87.

Who's House? Heels' House!

I promise not to blog to much about sports, but my Tar Heels are 17 and 0, baby, and for all the things going poorly in my life at the moment, sometimes you got to just enjoy a sports team that you care about whomping up on everyone else. Especially NC State. LOL.

My Redskins are out (remind me to tell you why I am still a Redskins fan). But the Packers are playing well and the Plowboys are done as well. I'm ambivalent about the Patriots going all the way. It would be interesting to watch but folks from Boston are hard enough to take without 19 and 0 to brag about. JK Uncle Lance and Aunt Lolly!!

Welcome to my Blog

Hello cyberspace! I haven't done a blog before, but I like to write, so I think it's a bit of a natural fit. What I hope to do is just post kind of frequently with real short comments that come to my head. It might end up being about soccer, about college football or basketball, about the Redskins, about politics, about pop culture. Depending on how comfortable I get with this thing, it might also be about what really is important to me, like my son, my job, my relationship with the X.

Anyway, I don't know, so I won't try to guess.

Today, I actually have a chance to watch my beloved Tar Heels play football. My sweet son is thankfully sleeping peacefully (what will I do when he does finally give up his nap???). They are hanging in against NCState, which is nice to see. This team under new coach Butch Davis has only been blown out once this season and that was against South Florida who was #3 in the nation at one point. That's the big difference between the team last year and the team this year. Last year they'd play well in the first half and hand with some really good teams, but end up getting tired or discouraged and get blown out. This year, they seem to be able to weather mistakes and deficiencies in the first half and make the other team work in the second half. The half time adjustments are also solid and suggest that Butch Davis is a wee bit smarter than John Bunting...