Fair warning: Big-time North Carolina bias coming up here.
Raleigh has it tough, as far as North Carolina college towns go. First off, it's only a few miles from Chapel Hill, which is universally recognized as a pretty idyllic place to spend your university years. Then there's Durham, Duke's home city, separated from campus by a wall and a good amount of mutual resentment. Durham hasn't had the best reputation over the past couple decades, but it's got a lot going on these days, and it's becoming one of those classic cool-but-also-dangerous cities with a strong youth movement. In other words, it gets a lot of attention. That leaves Raleigh, which has a pretty staid, unglamorous rep as the state's capital. But I'm here to tell you that it's a sneaky-fun city, and while you might get lost in the shadow of the government buildings if you find yourself downtown on a weekend night, the NC State campus is underrated and there are fun places to be in the larger area once you know your way around.
So, there's my essay on Raleigh. As for Lawrence, Kansas? No idea, but doesn't the drone quality of the "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk" chant make you think the town is depressing? Anyway, Raleigh wins. Life is unfair.
With 10:56 remaining in an easy win over Creighton, North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall drove right. As he rose for the layup, Creighton's Ethan Wragge put a forearm into Marshall's midsection. Marshall put out a hand to cushion the fall, but his right wrist buckled as it absorbed the full weight of his body.
The result was a fractured scaphoid — a nightmare for Carolina. Marshall will have surgery to put a pin in the wrist, but he's highly questionable for the rest of the tournament.
Good for you, NC State! I am thrilled that you are thrilled to be in the NCAA tournament. It's not always easy being a part of the Wolfpack, after all, what with all those Dukies and Heels around. Shane Ryan, a Duke fan himself, wrote on the plight of the Wolfpack earlier this season.
1. Brandon Marshall, Will Now Winter in Chicago
Bill Simmons chimes on in on the Bears' big trade acquisition: "When you're an All-Pro WR on a team that's trying to do everything it can to sign Peyton Manning, only you get dumped for two third-round picks right in the middle of the courting process … I mean, that can't be a good sign."
2. Jarrad Page, Bo Knows!
Bill Barnwell dusts off his no. 16 Royals jersey: "It is my duty to nominate former Chiefs and Patriots safety Jarrad Page, who appears to have finished a somewhat bizarre six-year NFL career by signing a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers to play baseball. Page, who apparently impressed the Dodgers in an open tryout, was selected three different times in the MLB draft before moving on to football. Page spent two years playing baseball alongside football at UCLA, and, well, his performance record isn't sterling. In 221 at-bats over two years, Page put up a .195/.270/.285 line while striking out 94 times. Because we grew up in the early nineties, though, we are nostalgic for baseball/football crossover players and want them to return. So yay Jarrad Page!"
3. Evan Turner, Scottie Pippen, Basically
In four games as a starter, the former no. 2 overall pick is averaging 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. He spent the first year and a half of his career doing some interesting things, some silly things, or nothing really at all. But ever since he replaced Jodie Meeks in the Sixers' starting lineup, he's been a powerhouse. Forget Linsanity (you probably already have) (what up, Knicks), this is EVANDEMONIUM.
"The ACC tournament doesn't start until Friday," is a phrase I heard more than once Thursday, the day on which the ACC tournament actually started.
I was especially prone to hearing that sentiment, considering my penchant for complaining about the lack of quality basketball. Still, all good drama needs a setup; those first two establishing acts that make us care about the climax. Even a joke needs a foundation, and it remains to be seen which path this tournament will take.
Before we take a tour of the notable events from Thursday, here are the basics you need to know.
As the ACC tournament kicks off in Atlanta, two teams are in a dog fight for their NCAA tournament lives. The committee is notoriously mum about bubble teams in the week leading up to Selection Sunday, and nobody quite knows where NC State and Miami stand at the moment, but the consensus is that there's work to be done for each. Without one or two wins this week, the pity and consolation of the NIT awaits.
And that's not all they have in common. Both teams finished tied for fourth in the ACC with a 9-7 conference record. Both teams have first-year coaches — Mark Gottfried at NC State, Jim Larranaga at Miami. And both are enduring NCAA tournament droughts — three years and counting for Miami, five years for a State team recovering from the painful Sidney Lowe era.
I promise there's basketball later in this post, but I have to start off with the fans. Because Wednesday night at the RBC Center in Raleigh, while N.C. State and Miami were playing for their tournament lives, the Wolfpack faithful taught us all the three most important lessons about comedy.
1. Brevity = soul of wit.
To understand this one, you need to know three quick facts. First, Reggie Johnson is a Miami center who was recently suspended because his family received "impermissible travel benefits" from a team representative. Second, Reggie Johnson returned for last night's game against N.C. State. Third, Reggie Johnson is a big dude. A big, heavy, chunky dude.
When the games ended Thursday night and I considered the results, my stomach sank. The world craves variety, but the unavoidable, incorrigible ACC had reeled me in again.
If you've read Grantland'scollege basketballcoverage over the past two weeks, you probably think my official title is "junior ACC correspondent." Today, I had actually planned to write about the Spartans of Michigan State, whose easy 69-55 win over Wisconsin served the usual Tom Izzo narrative of a team peaking at the perfect moment.
But how can I avoid the real story? My hands are tied! What can I possibly do when the ACC, like some kind of insane nocturnal mailman, just delivers night after night after night? I heard the knocks on the door, and I tried to ignore them. I promise I did. But this conference can't be stopped. Dormant for so long, the teams of the ACC finally have their revolution, and man are they seizing the day.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Thursday.
The Comeback Kids have done it again. Trailing by 20 with less than 12 minutes remaining, no. 4 Duke rallied to beat NC State 78-73 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Once again, it's a tale of pluck and resilience befitting a school filled with so many rags-to-riches students — the downtrodden, lowborn souls yearning outside the gates of power — who never stopped believing in themselves and their ability to climb within the system. O, Duke, you beacon of the little man, you shining symbol of mobility! Lady Liberty is your virtuous maiden, Uncle Sam your protecting angel!
Not to be outdone, no. 21 Florida State kept pace at the top of the ACC by coming back from an eight-point deficit with just 1:29 left and beating Virginia Tech 48-47 on Michael Snaer's late 3. The struggling Hokies got more bad news after the game when they found out that their legal status as a basketball team had been revoked by President Obama to save money.
Sports fans can be a savage lot. When it comes to cruelty, is there any group more relentlessly inventive? Chanting in unison, they pick at the heart of the enemy. But in my book, there's one chant more brutal than any other. It's worse than insulting someone's family, worse than hurling the most unspeakable epithet, and worse than mocking a personal handicap. This one cuts the deepest.
The 12 schools of the Atlantic Coast Conference came into league play in various states of ripening or disrepair. Virginia was riding one of the best starts in team history and had surprised everyone by cracking the Top 25. North Carolina had survived a shaky start and was finally starting to look like the national title hopeful we'd imagined in November. Duke had gone the opposite direction, as the luster of early wins faded in the face of recent humiliations. Florida State spent its first 14 games learning that great defense might not quite be enough this year, while others, such as Maryland and Wake Forest and NC State, made strides that will either prove to be omens of rebirth or ignes fatui, false lights in the dark.
When the first six games had passed, most of the questions still lingered. Here are some quick (and not so quick) thoughts on each.
Sports analysts love talking about "distractions." These intersections between athletics and real life — arrests and contracts, marriages and divorces, births and deaths — offer ready-made narratives that are easy to spout and difficult to deny. In the postgame rundowns, winners are more heroic and losers more forgivable. Write it down now: As Kobe’s mileage continues to catch up with him this season, someone will blame his natural decline on Vanessa’s strip-mining of his fortune.
In college sports, there may never have been a more wrenching distraction than the Jerry Sandusky scandal unfolding in State College, Penn. But Syracuse, the top-ranked basketball program in the country, is also reeling from sexual abuse allegations.
Five titles for the book about the Alabama-LSU game:
"The Questionable Classic"
"Czar Nicholas Comes Unglued"
"The End Zones Were Not Breached"
"The Foster Debacle"
"Catch the F*&%ing Ball, Michael Williams"
Or maybe it should have something to do with soccer. Over the weekend, Twitter was afire with living room pundits comparing LSU-Bama to the beautiful game, and their words were not flattering. These analogists, diametrically opposed to anyone who believed the long defensive standoff was a sign of something epic, were peeved at the pace of play and wanted more scoring.
