Feb 9 - Carson's Candidacy

I want to say congrats to Ron Borges of the Boston Globe. He has been a vocal critic of Harry Carson's Hall of Fame bid in recent years and he has succeeded once again. Carson came close this past weekend, making the final six, but his candidacy was not strong enough to get him over the hump. Carson certainly hurt his own candidacy by telling the Hall that he didn't want any part of being inducted after being passed over in years past, but I suspect that Borges played a role in the snub as well. The argument posed by Borges is basically as follows: Carson was a good player who played on a great defense. He backs this up by pointing out that Carson failed to make the 1980's all-decade team. The linebackers on that team are Taylor, Singletary, Tippett, Ted Hendricks, Jack Lambert, John Anderson and Carl Banks. Now I don't know what John Anderson is doing on that list and Jack Lambert is more of a 70's guy, but Andre "I'm a karate man so I bruise on the inside" Tippett was an 80s guy and he gets absolutely zero hall of fame consideration. Moreover, if you take a look at the annual all-NFL teams from the 80s, Carson didn't make a single one. NOT A SINGLE ONE! The inside backers who were making those teams include guys like Karl Mecklenberg, EJ Junior and Shane Conlon. In fact, one year, Carson's teammate Pepper Johnson made all-NFL team while Carson went un-recognized. Mecklenberg made a few of those teams and like number 56 for the Patriots, he couldn't find Canton with a map. Carson is revered in New York because he is a well spoken guy who was a part of two championship teams. But the bottom line is that the writers who covered him during his career didn't consider him elite and at least some of today's Hall voters agree. The surprise is not that Carson can't get in, its that he has gotten this far.

So the big game tonight is Duke and UNC - perhaps the biggest rivalry in College Basketball. I say perhaps because this rivalry has definitely lost something since 1998 regardless of what some clown on ESPN might say. Why has it lost something? Because UNC really hasn't been all that competitive since Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison went to the NBA after their junior years in 1998. You want some facts to support this theory? How bout this: Since 1999, Duke is 14-2 against UNC, including 2-0 last year. Since 1999, Duke has a championship and two other appearances in the Final Four. Duke has played in all six tourneys since UNC's dynamic duo left and has made the regionals each year. That means the "Sweet Sixteen" for you new schoolers. In the same period, UNC has missed two tourneys, been eliminated in the sub-regionals three times and has thus only made the regionals once - in 2000 when they went all the way to the Final Four and ended up losing to Florida. Its time for UNC to get some payback. They have a distinct advantage in talent this year and they should be able to wear down a Duke team that is barely five deep. Things would be a bit different if Luol Deng were playing for the Devils tonight, but as it stands, Duke has no answer for Marvin Williams and the Devils are dead if Sheldon Williams gets in any foul trouble. I think a hot hand from Reddick could keep the Devils in the game and I don't see Duke getting blown out on its own court. But this is the best UNC team in a long time and its time for them to exact some revenge. I am looking for a high scoring game - UNC 85-78.

Here is a name to watch out for next year - Julie Mancuso. She is a 20 year old alpine skier who just enjoyed ten terrific days at the World Alpine Championships in Italy. Mancuso got on the podium twice with bronze medals in both the Super G and Giant Slalom. On top of that, she added a pair of fourth place finishes in the Downhill and the combined. National team member Lindsey Kildow is better known then Mancuso, but Julie is coming on strong. She was a dominant junior skier and it now looks like she is going to be a real player on the world cup circuit. She could be a big name at the Turin Olympics next year.

Anyone watch that Illinois game on ESPN last night? That was not Illinois' finest hour. It was the worst I have seen them play this year and it happened to come against a very poor Michigan team. I still think Illinois is a very solid candidate to make it to the Final Four, but I see a lot of similarities to the great Illinois team of 1989 that lost in the national semis to Glenn Rice and the rest of his wolverines. That Illini team was athletic as hell and they could get up and down the court. But this team, like their brethren from 1989, is incredibly soft inside. And while Illinois has three guards who do a great job stepping into lanes and picking off passes for easy layups, they can be taken off the dribble on the perimeter. Michigan was getting penetration all night and that is not a good sign for Illinois.

The clock finally struck midnight for Boston College last night. That should not have come as a great surprise to anyone who has actually sat down and watched them play. They are a nice team led by a couple of real solid college players, but Notre Dame on the road is a tough game. That was a huge win for the Irish, especially coming off a heartbreaking loss on Saturday at the Carrier Dome. At 14-6 with a win over a top-5 team, Notre Dame can now breathe a little easier. The same cannot be said for the University of Texas which is now in a bit of a precarious position. They lost last night to an average Colorado team and are now 15-7 and 4-5 in the Big 12. They finish with four tough games: At Texas Tech, at home against Mizzou and Oklahoma and then they finish at Stillwater against Oklahoma State. Their next three games are against Baylor, A&M and Kansas State. They lose one of these games and they got some problems.

In the ACC last night, Georgia Tech finally got BJ Elder back and they managed to get a win at Clemson although it didn't look too pretty. Elder is a key guy on that team and I would expect the yellow jackets to begin playing a little a better. They have been pretty mediocre since Elder went down, but this team could be dangerous coming down the stretch. Maryland won an important game last night as well. They went into their game with Virginia Tech at 4-5 in the conference and possessing only two real good wins on the season (GT and at Duke). A loss would have been put them in a precarious spot but Nick Caner-Medley had a nice game shooting the ball and the Terps rolled. They will try to sweep the season series from Duke when they play in College Park on Saturday.

The Pac-10 got some good news today when it was announced that offensive guru Norm Chow would be heading off to Nashville to call plays for Jeff Fischer and the Tennessee Titans. Under Chow's watch, USC produced two Heisman winners and two national championships. Granted, USC is still loaded with talent, but at least this opens up the possibility that Pete Carroll will get more involved in play calling and as a Patriots fan, I know that is not a very good sign for USC. With Carroll at the controls, SC will probably have trouble covering four touchdown spreads against UCLA and Oregon next year.