February 10 - UNC's FELTON IS BEDEVILED

I am surprised Roy Williams didn't pull a "Donovan McNabb" by vommiting in his own mouth during last night's UNC-Duke game in Durham. Certainly no UNC fan who watched the game could have blamed Roy if a few chunks came up. Why is that? Becasue that game was downright disgusting if you are a Tar Heel fan. As a 30-something with some ties to Chapel Hill, I got to say I would have preferred swallowing some of Joe Roggin's nasty concoctions on Fear Factor then sit through ten more minutes of watching Raymond Felton try to handle the roundball. Lets be frank, Ray Felton is not only one of the most overated players in college basketball today, but he is one of the most overated players to have ever played in the ACC (Steve Wojohowski, Terrence Morris, JR Reid, Julius Hodge and Danny Ferry belong in that discussion). When I checked the box score this morning and saw Felton had eight turnovers, I did a doubletake. Eight? If the over/under was 12, I may have picked the over. It seemed that Felton was throwing the ball away the whole night and I don't want to begin discussing what happened on that last play. Here is a guy - down one - who beats his guy 40 feet from the basket. Rather then driving the lane with five seconds left and either dishing or trying to draw contact, Felton kicks it out to a guy who is range limited. Well, the rest is history. Dave Noel kicks the ball out of bounds and the Heels lose by one. The sloppy finish ruined what could have been a landmark comeback for the Tar Heels. This series has had many memorable comebacks, but down nine with five minutes to go would have probably gotten last nights game into the top-10 rallies in UNC-DUKE history. UNC lost last night for two reasons and they are issues that have plagued this team over the past two years. First of all, the Heels simply don't play good defense, especially on the perimeter. Duke had little trouble getting penetration and once they got insde, they were finding their big men for easy layups. The second key to the game was UNC's carelessness. This team, headed by Felton, simply does not take care of the ball. It seems many Heels would gladly take the chance of risking a turnover so long as there was the possibility that a given pass would end up making its way onto Sports Center. UNC dominated the boards and didn't let Reddick hurt them from three point land. This should have been enough to secure the win, but it wasn't because Felton and crew couldn't keep the ball in play. The Heels are now 2-15 since 1999 against Duke, and now 0-1 when having an advantage in talent.

The Randy Moss watch continues. All morning on ESPN radio I have been hearing theories on where Moss will end up. But here is my question. In today's San Francisco Chronicle, its being reported that Jerry Porter will test the free agent waters. Porter is a nice player who can get deep and has pretty good catch and run skills - just ask Champ Bailey. While he is no Moss, he could be had for much less. For those teams looking for a deep ball threat, why not save the picks, a few million dollars a year and some migraines by focusing your attention on Porter.

I saw the other day that Andre Agassi is going to play some Davis Cup this year. Can anyone tell me why the United States still participates in this charade. This competition has been irrelevant since Johney Mac and Mats Wilander were playing 11 hour matches back in the early 80s. It seems like whenever I catch a glimpse of a US Davis Cup match it is on a clay court somewhere in South America and there are angry seperatists waiving flags in the background. I just read that the US has not won this competition since 95 and has only one title since 1993. Let me get this straight, we have only won one title during the Sampras/Agassi era. What are we - the Atlanta Braves? I guess the excuse is that our top guys rarely play. Well, if that's the case, why send a team at all?

I always thought that guys who went to Michigan were jerkoffs but this is going too far. According to the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Defensive Tackle Larry Harrison Jr. is a suspect in at least 12 cases of indecent exposure that occured near the Ann Arbor campus from August to December of last year. If Harrison could have beat his blocks in the Rose Bowl as well as he beat his meat outside some girls apartment in Ann Arbor, perhaps Michigan would have won the game. I can just imagine coach Lloyd Carr doing a Craig T. Nelson impersonation after the game: "Harrison if you had spent a little less time jacking off and a little more time in the film room, we would have stopped Vince Young and won that game!"

While UNC-Duke grabbed the spotlight last night, there was another other significant game in college basketball. Louisville got absolutely torched by Memphis in a game that was not nearly as close as the score indicated. Louisville star Francisco Garcia was a stunning 1-8 from the field. Someone should tell Francisco that going 1-8 in a nationally televised game is no way to compete for the Wooden Award. The win was significant for Memphis which now sits at 14-10. The tigers still have some work to do if they want an NCAA bid. On tonight's slate, we have NC State fighting for its life agasint the Demon Deacons. With a loss tonight in Winston-Salem, the Wolfpack will fall to 3-7 in the ACC and there is almost no shot Herb Sendek's club will be able to dig its way out of that hole. My guess is that NCSU coach Herb Sendek will not be coaching in the ACC next year. Out in the Pac-10 tonight there is a very important game in Westwood. The Pac-10 is likely to get only four bids this year despite being number two in the conference RPI rankings. Arizona and Washington have bids locked up. That leaves UCLA, Arizona State and Stanford fighting for what I think will be two spots. UCLA and ASU hook up tonight. This is really a must win for UCLA. They are 6-5 in conference and they can't afford to be swept by the Arizona schools this weekend. With a win, UCLA will have swept the season series and this fact will not be lost on the selection committee a month from now.

I sure am glad I am not a Tampa Bay Bucs fan. Not only were the Bucs a putrid 5-11 last year, but they have catastrohic cap problems staring them in the facce. By some estimates, the Bucs are sitting 14M dollars above the expected 05 cap of 85M. Where are these guys spending their money? The Bucs are now in crisis mode, forced to restructure a number of big-ticket contracts (Griese, Rice, Brooks) before the new NFL year starts in March. The moral to this story is the Bucs were awful last year and will have very little flexibility to imporve their team during free agency. This team is just two years removed from a Super Bowl Championship yet the organization looks a lot more like it did in 1990 then it did in 2000. Tom ake things worse, the NFC south is matched up with the competitive AFC East next year. That is four losses for Tampa. To celebrate their demise, I think the Bucs should break out the old all-orange unis and bring back Kevin House and James Wilder to sing some national anthems next year.