That's my initial reaction. We know how much talent this team has. It seems sometimes they don't. Do they know how to put a good team away? I'm not sure. Maryland is not a bad team. They struggled early, but they've been a good team lately. They're playing their way into the tournament. But the Tar Heels, who must have gotten used to beating teams by 40 and 50 points, don't seem to have what it takes to consistently finish teams on the road.

We know how good they can be. Do they?

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The Tar Heels got a nice win to avenge the earlier upset at the hands of N.C. State. I really liked the way the Heels did not get frustrated early, and kept chipping away, finally overwhelming the Wolfpack with depth. "This is the way we're supposed to beat people with this team," I told myself. Not killing an opponent from the opening tip, but running, running and running. Brandan Wright and Tyler Hansbrough dominated the scoresheet, but Danny Green did a great job of getting to balls and making blocks. He's one of those "Oh yeah" guys. You find yourself saying, "Oh yeah! We've got Danny Green!" Frustrating night for Rey, but nice pickup from Brandan. A good, solid ACC win that takes the Heels to the top of the conference, for now, anyway.

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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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