Do you appreciate Dustin Ackley? No, really, do you? Because he is the greatest baseball player ever to lace them up for the University of North Carolina. Today against Southern Miss, the Tar Heels needed him. Carolina lost an extra-innings heartbreaker to Arizona State on Sunday, so their hopes of advancing to the championship series rest on winning four straight. Today was Game One.

Ackley answered the bell with five straight hits to start the game, finishing 5-6, his only out being a deep fly that was a near-home run. He batted in three runs and crossed the blate once himself, and his 27 CWS hits in three seasons is now an all-time record, besting Stanford's Sam Fuld by three hits. And he's not done. I don't like to make these kind of comparisons, but Dustin Ackley has been as important to Carolina baseball as Tyler Hansbrough was to Carolina basketball. Enjoy watching him, and appreciate that you're seeing the best Tar Heel ever.

Football:

Kenan Stadium plan moves ahead

The University of North Carolina's Board of Trustees approved the
design for a first phase of plans to substantially expand the Tar
Heels' football stadium.

This is good news. A commitment to expand and improve Kenan Stadium is a commitment to make the football program a serious contender.

Countdown to Kickoff #36: North Carolina

If the Tar Heels can improve upon
their 96th-ranked turnover margin and win half of the close games they
lost last season, seven wins and North Carolina's first bowl since 2004
is likely.

Basketball

Tar Heels know pressure will be on to win title

After an uncertain offseason that ended with an unlikely outcome by
today's standards, the Tar Heels are left with an inescapable fact:
They are the clear preseason favorite to win the national title that
has eluded Hansbrough in his first three years.

Baseball

Forbes promoted to Associate Head Coach



Following a stint in Chapel Hill as an assistant from 1999-2002, Forbes
has served as the Tar Heels' pitching coach for the last three seasons
and has helped guide Carolina to three straight College World Series
appearances.

Well, we can't go anywhere but up.

I just have one question: Can Mike Patrick pull any harder against the Tar Heels? In every single sport, he downplays the accomplishments of Heels and touts the opponents as if they are all the second coming. Granted, there wasn't much good Carolina play to talk about tonight, but he is really grating.

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Well, the Carolina bats finally arrived in Omaha, and the Heels came through, winning their third straight elimination game. Starting Saturday, it'll be a rematch of last year's final with the Tar Heels looking to avenge their loss to Oregon State.

I am so proud of this team for their resilience and ability to get the 'W.' Adam Warren looked solid, then a bit shaky, then solid again before handing the reins off to Rob Wooten and Andrew Carignan to seal the win from the mound.

Great job, guys. Keep it up and bring a championship to Chapel Hill.

How great is it to have college sports (and the Heels alive) in June?

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Finally, some starting pitching worth writing home about. Luke Putkonen looked very good on the mound today, save one home run pitch, and the Heels advance to face Rice again Wednesday at 2. The Diamond Heels need to take two in a row from the Owls. That's the rub, but really what they need to do is take one tomorrow, and take one more in the next game. One game at a time. It's a cliche, but it's what needs to happen. So who goes to the mound? Woodard, I'd guess. Good luck, guys.

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Well, the Diamond Heels found a deficit they couldn't come back from last night, falling to Rice, 14-4.  Starting pitcher Alex White had a nice first inning, but then gave up five hits in the second. The Heels used eight pitchers against the Owls, setting a CWS record.

Maybe this is a good thing. The Heels needed to know that their luck would run out some time. There are some deficits you can't come back from, and perhaps the guys were a little too comfortable playing from behind.

Now it will take three in a row to get to the championship series. The Heels can do it, but they need to score early and get more from their starting pitchers. I think that's obvious, but I typed it anyway.

I just watched Con Air. Stupid movie.

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Last night I made one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made about television. It was either watch The Sopranos finale when it first aired at 9 and miss the Diamond Heels' elimination game against South Carolina, or watch the game live, wait til midnight and catch the west coast feed of the Sopranos.

I watched the game. And what a game. Chad Flack came through again like he did a year ago in Tuscaloosa, and Andrew Carignan pitched four strong innings to close out the Gamecocks. What a series it was. The Heels trailed 6-0 in game one before striking it rich late in the game, and came back again to win Sunday. Best of luck to them against Mississsippi State in Omaha.

And what a show. The Sopranos ended in a way that no one expected. I had to live in a cone of silence from 10 p.m. to midnight, but it was worth it. I hated the ending at first, but, the more I think about it, the more I like it. The show didn't wrap things up in a neat little package. Life doesn't work that way either. All of life's storylines don't wrap up in an hour, so a show attempting to depict real life shouldn't do that either.

Now what will I do with Sundays at 9? Wait for Entourage, I guess.

You'll notice that watching Game 2 of the NBA Finals was not one of the options I considered.

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to watch the Diamond Heels play against the homestanding ECU Pirates.  It's not something I've gotten to do very often: watch my Tar Heels play against my schoolmates. As a graduate student at East Carolina, I had to make a choice: Wear the purple and gold of my current school (and employer), the Carolina blue of my alma mater, or just go neutral and not hurt anybody's feelings.

I wore a green shirt, walking straight down the middle. Oh, I was pulling for the Tar Heels, but I was respectful. I sat on my hands as Tim Federowicz blasted a home run onto Charles Boulevard, and when Reid Fronk put one on the gridiron Pirates' practice field. The Heels won, 5-1, but I think the game was closer than the score, especially win the Pirates threatened in the 8th inning.

It was a neat experience. I pull for the Pirates when they're playing anyone else. After all, it's more fun to be around a school with winning athletic programs. But it was also neat to see a familiar team (the Heels) play on the road in what was a familiar stadium for me. Sure, they got booed, and I expected that. But it was fun to see championship baseball in beautiful Clark-Leclair. Since the Pirates are in Conference USA, we don't often get the big rivalries that ACC fans are familiar with. This was fun. I wasn't torn, but I had to at least act like it.

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    Well . . . I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Presidents Day, Happy Groundhog Day, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, it's been that long since I updated, and I must apologize. Again.


It's just that graduate school, working two or three jobs and trying to help plan a wedding (I did say help, honey) take priority over blogging. That's part of it.

The other part is there are excellent sites like Carolina Water Cooler that sort of do the same thing I did. There are hundreds of people on the Internet talking about the Tar Heels, and I'm just one guy. Adam Lucas is a much better writer than me, with much better access. All I can offer you is my opinion from my seats in the stands, or on the couch. If you wanted my opinion on what's going on, you'd ask for it. So I'm not going to try to do that. I simply don't have the access that some of the other sites do. My whole idea in starting this site was to give you how I felt about what was going on in Carolina athletics. Not that I was going to get the exclusive interviews or get to attend the press conferences. I certainly wasn't going to call high school kids at home and get their top three choices for what school they'll be attending. I was just going to tell you my reaction.

I've fallen down on the job. There are so many things I had to put ahead of blogging, and there are many things I chose to put ahead of blogging. Like the Carolina Hurricanes. I've become a huge hockey fan over the past eight or nine months. It's silly how much I enjoy it, all of a sudden. But anyway. . .

So now I'm just going to give you my experiences as a Tar Heel fan. I'm not going to try to recap every game. I can't. But I can tell you about what I'm thinking as a fan. I'm just an alum who likes  (or liked, at least) to write about my team. So instead of being a Tar Heel writer, I'm going to be a writer who loves the Tar Heels. Some of you will like the new direction. Some of you will hate it. That's okay. Like I said, there are plenty of places to go to get someone's opinion. But I hope some of you will stay, if you come back in  the first place after the long sabbatical.

So, without getting too deep, let's get to a little Tar Heel talk.

• I didn't get to see the win over BC. I heard the last minute or so on the radio. HBG (you remember her? She's now my fiancee, by the way) sprained her foot badly playing racquetball Saturday morning. We went to a bar in Greenville to watch the Canes game and the Tar Heels, but the pain was too much for her. We went to the ER, and spent several hours getting her taken care of.
• I hope the win over BC inspires the team to greater heights. Marcus Ginyard recognized that this team needs a leader, and needs to be confident in its potential. What it is capable of is great things, and they need to recognize that.
• I'm disappointed in the recent play of the Tar Heel women. In the loss at State, it seemed they were content to pass the ball around the perimeter or simply dump it inside to Erlana Larkins. That's an okay strategy, if you're hitting shots. They weren't. It was a nice comeback attempt, but it still goes down as an 'L.'
• I'm excited about baseball season, and hope I get to go to some games. But not at sub-45 degree temperatures.
• There are some great YouTube videos that Tar Heel fans will enjoy. Particularly this musical tribute to everyone's least-favorite announcer.
  
• I'm pumped to get to see Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Carolina Hurricanes on March 2. I told you I was a hockey fan.
• Not one person has signed our 'The Knot' page.
  

So there you have it. Welcome back.


Turner

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I was extremely disappointed in the baseball games Sunday and Monday. The Heels committed too many mistakes in the field and on the bases to deserve to win. Much credit to Oregon State.

But the entire run by the Diamond Heels is to be commended. They got a lot of national exposure and have to be considered part of the national college baseball picture. I think this year is a sign of things to come down the road.

A disappointing ending, but a fun ride nonetheless.

Oh, and I twisted my ankle when I kicked an ottoman Monday night. Whoops.