From Omaha

So now that I’m in the great metropolis of Omaha, with no one to talk sports with and in a smoking room all to myself, there’s nothing better to do after a day’s worth of flying around than to chill on a hotel bed with some chinese food and alternate between the Miami-Georgia games and the U.S. Open.

I know, life is tough.

First of all, the way Tiger looks at his ball after he just missed a putt is on par with the Kevin Garnett glare as a sure-fire way to make mortals pee their pants. Just watch the replay of Tiger’s log putt from just off the 13th green Saturday: when Tiger turns and fist-pumps towards the crowd and looks into the camera, I pulled the covers up over my head out of fear.

But on to baseball: It’s amazing the fear that pitchers have for Miami’s lineup. Every time I watch the ‘Canes, I get more impressed with their hitting. Every time that Miami got a hit against Georgia Saturday, the UGA pitcher would turn around so fast that he’d get whiplash. That’s such a psychological weapon that Miami can bring to bear with their power: every pitch you throw against those guys could get taken out of the park. 

That being said, I also think that’s about all that Miami had going for them Saturday. They were average at best until the ninth inning and then they fell apart. The best thing they have going for them is that they get to face a Florida State team that collapsed on an even bigger scale earlier in the day.

I’ve watched some good pitchers this year, but none with the stuff that Georgia’s reliever/closer Josh Fields. his curve ball i 12-6. That’s a pitch that’s completely unhittable. No wonder he’s a first-round pick.

A different kind of 5k to be raced in Cary

For those who get tired of the tradition kind of 5k where you have to wear running shorts for about 3.1 miles, and feel faily unattracive about it, here might be the perfect race for you. Just got this press release:

One company, SkirtSports (www.skirtsport.com ), and two Ironman Champions, Nicole & Tim DeBoom (2X back to back Ironman Champion), are changing fitness up across the country, just by promoting skirtChasing…yes skirtchasing.

Training for Ironman, Nicole Deboom past a window and thought to herself “why do I have to wear baggy, masculine clothes to be taken seriously as an athlete?”…she went home from her run, scribbled out ‘pretty’ and soon enough she was winning Ironman in her fist every prototype hot-red running skirt. Months later she would launch SkirtSports, a women’s fitness apparel company and be forever knows as the woman who first introduced us to the running skirt design…

Looking for more, this year, SkirtSports launched their national SkirtChaser 5k Race Series…set to make its second stop in Raleigh on April 26th , the event kicks off with an all women’s start (women in skirts), followed by a men’s “skirtchaser” start (led by Tim DeBoom) and concludes with a post race block party, fashion show, dating games, and a $500 prize to the first skirt or skirtchaser to cross the line…A great date night or meet your future mate, the event creates a fun and casual fitness environment, encouraging all top athletes and average Joes to come out and be active. Not to mention, donations will be accepted for local charity, Be Active Kids (www.beactive.org), a local non-profit that works towards education about childhood obesity and healthy eating for preschoolers.

SkirtChaser 5k:
When: Saturday, April 26th, 5PM
Where: Hiberian Pub, Cary
How much: $30-60
Registration: www.skirtchaser5k.com/Raleigh

You heard it here first

That’s right. UNC and Michigan State will match up in men’s basketball during the 2008 ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The game will be played at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions (and host of one of this year’s NCAA Tournament regionals — the one where Kansas beat Davidson).

Link here: http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041508aab.html

Did someone call the showdown? I think they did. Check out this blog’s March 24th post.

-Gregg Found

Relief pitching key in series sweep

After North Carolina starter Matt Harvey lasted only one inning before being chased from the game Sunday, it looked like North Carolina was going to take one on the chin.

But eight innings and five relief pitchers later, the No. 4 Tar Heels were heading back across the state line with their first ever series sweep of Clemson.

The bullpen saw a lot of action in all three games, as seven different relievers appeared and pitched a combined 16.1 innings. The group allowed just three runs and struck out 16 Tigers in the process.

“Our relief pithing has been exceptional all year long, and we sorely needed that to continue at Clemson,” UNC coach Mike Fox said. “We used a lot of guys and had to mix and match a little, especially on Sunday. And those guys responded in a big way.”

The emergence of the bullpen is a big reason why the Tar Heels boast the nation’s best pitching staff. UNC leads the NCAA in ERA (2.25) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.6). It is also seventh in hits allowed per nine innings, at 7.78.

And it has been a complete effort. Established stars like Rob Wooten have lived up to expectations, while the under-the-radar guys like Tyler Trice and Brian Moran have stepped up.

With an already-worn out staff Sunday, the ball was handed to Trice, a senior, to record the last four outs. He struck out three to close the door and get the save, ending the series.

But while the competition at Clemson came to a close, the battles at practice will only heat up more after the weekend.

“You are trying to beat out the other guy on the team and earn innings,” Fox said. “The better each pitcher is on the staff, the higher the bar is set and the more motivated each other pitcher is to meet those expectations. Competition among our staff has been very keen from day one.”

Pushing the Pace

SAN ANTONIO – This Final Four could very well be described as a three-day race before it’s all over because, simply put, almost all the teams have the horses.

North Carolina, known all year for its rapid gallop down the floor off of both missed and made baskets – but still “in control” as Roy Williams likes to say – finds itself in the stalls with a few other certified thoroughbreds that have no qualms about pushing the tempo.

It says something when UCLA, a team with a speedster in Darren Collison, athletic wings and the game’s best outlet passer in Kevin Love, qualifies as the “slow-down” squad of this gathering – shame on them for scoring 70 or less twice during the tournament.

For once, the Tar Heels and their turbo-charged counterparts will face other teams with five forward-minded thinkers on the floor who won’t completely try to shut down the fast break and run deliberate offenses –yes, Wazzu and Texas A&M, we’re talking about you.

UNC-Kansas will be the one true free-for-all of the weekend, and the question has to be asked whether the Jayhawks will try and match the Tar Heels’ pace the entire game.

“You never know what these kind of games are going to be like,” Williams said. “Could be that everybody is hitting on all cylinders, going up and down and it’s pretty. But it can also be an ugly game because of how effective the defenses are.”

St. Mary’s played the speed card against UNC in the first round, only to give up 60 in the first half and 113 for the game. Arkansas didn’t even try to play that game and promptly gave up 108, including 22 fast break points.

As Jayhawk center Darnell Jackson said, “It’s like they score in transition all the time.”

UNC proved it can win the ugly slow-down game against the Cougars, but the Jayhawks must decide whether a more controlled fast tempo-game is the best gameplan tonight. Averaging 80.6 points a game, it would be out of character for them to switch it up too much.

“We’re not going to change who we are going into this. We know the way we play gives us the best chance to score easy baskets and those sorts of things, and that’s very important to our success,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

“What we have to do is make sure Carolina doesn’t do that. So I don’t think I’m not gonna tell our guys, ‘Lets ratchet it down.’ We gotta play, we just can’t let them play the way they wanna play. But we still have to play the way we want to.”

Yet the Tar Heels embrace teams who want the challenge of the 40-minute sprint. With point guard Ty Lawson nearly at full strength, the Tar Heels would prefer to play that way if the Jayhawks are willing to cooperate. Both Williams and his players have said they can win the ugly slow-downs, but they prefer the high-scoring track meets.

So if Bill Self’s squad wants to run with the Tar Heels, he’ll be trying to beat one of the nation’s hottest teams at its own game.

“Definitely, that’s what we like to do, too,” UNC forward Danny Green said. “We like to get up and down. It’ll be a pretty exciting game, us getting up and down the floor – runnin’ and gunnin.’”

-Jesse Baumgartner

The Road Ends Here

Alright, it’s time for yours truly to weigh in on the sights, sounds and feel of being here in San Antonio. Let’s not waste any time:

-I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: big-time basketball games in football arenas are not coo. There’s a whole half of the Alamodome that is just empty because of the game. Acoustically it’s not as loud, and the feel of basketball just isn’t there as much as it would be otherwise. The Spurs have a very young basketball arena here and they’re not in town. Let’s use that one

-Here’s the updated list of “big names” we’ve seen out and about down here: Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Michael Beasley (Kansas State), Oliver Purnell (Clemson), James Gist (Maryland), DeMarcus Nelson (Duke), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State), Deron Washington (Virginia Tech), John Thompson III (Georgetown), Wes Miller (Loves to still hang around with UNC), Gary Williams (Maryland), Mark Few (Gonzaga)

-The Riverwalk is one of the coolest downtown attractions a city could have. I love it. It still feels kinda like Disney World to me, except bigger. And real. Kinda surprised no one falls in the river more often, what with all the bars, cramped passageways and fan spirit floating around. Let’s hope I’m not the first to fall in.

-UNC put on an impromptu dunk contest at the end of its “open practice” yesterday, which is really just a showcase for the fans to watch a bunch of light shooting drills. Danny Green almost pulled off a sweet between-the-legs dunk (DTH photographer Lauren Cowart got a great shot of it) but my two awards go to the underrated dunkers on the team who proved themselves yesterday: Quentin Thomas and Patrick Moody. They can throw it down. Tyler Hansbrough, not surprisingly, didn’t participate. Not a bad idea after a Kansas player fractured his kneecap dunking during practice earlier in the day.

-Last but not least, if you have a chance to go to a Final Four, you gotta go. Especially if it’s in San Antonio or New Orleans, which I’ve heard are the best two spots for the Dance. Regardless of the games, it’s just a blast walking around town and seeing how a city pulls everything together for one weekend.

-With that said, my recommendations for a couple of sneaky good cities that should host future Final Fours (in the NBA arena, of course): Phoenix and Orlando.

-Gregg Found

A couple more things

-So as not to unfairly knock Michael Beasley, he’s here as a Naismith Award finalist – he just got an early start.

From the Alamo

Time for an overdue blog post from San Antonio. It would’ve been up earlier in the day, but we’re cheap and don’t want to pay for wireless down at the Alamodome.

Not that we’re on a StarWatch or anything, but it’s hard to miss some of the people who come walking right by you. Here’s our “We’ve seen them” list so far.

1) Virginia Tech’s Deron Washington, spotted while out to dinner on the Riverwalk Wednesday night. He’s in town for the college slam dunk contest that was held yesterday.

2) Kansas State’s phenomenal freshman Michael Beasley, seen at the Marriott hotel last night while we were walking through on our way to dinner. Now, why he’s there on a Thursday night when his team isn’t in the Final Four and he’s not playing in the college All-Star game is anyone’s guess. We’ve heard of things called school and class that normally take place during the week…….

3) FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, Clemson coach Oliver Purnell, Maryland’s James Gist

4) We’re pretty sure Georgetown coach John Thompson walked by yesterday, although he was a lot shorter than I thought. He has a pretty distinctive face though.

5) This morning, Oscar Robertson was in the lounge of a different Marriott.

6) Michigan State coach Tom Izzo taking a riverboat ride down the Riverwalk with his family yesterday while we were eating lunch.

-We hit up the Alamo yesterday, and I was pretty impressed. I guess I wasn’t expecting much, so that helped. But the buildings were fun to walk around in, and there were plenty of plaques with famous speeches, letters and such that were interesting to read. Plus, there are plenty of snowcone stands nearby.

-I just witnessed Kevin Love make a full court shot to wow the crowd on hand. I’ve never seen anything like that – he was JUST off on several other attempts. He barely takes a running start and basically just throws a chest pass to the other end of the court. Then he sat down at half-court and threw up a shot that was just short – incredible strength. Ben Howland had plenty of nice things to say about the Oregon native during his interview session outside the locker room, including that he calls Love “The Big Fundamental.” We’ll see if that one sticks at the next level. It’s not The Big Aristotle, but it’s something.

*Also, in case anyone was wondering, K-Love rocks the classic black/white Adidas low Superstars for the casual look during interviews. He left them in the locker room later, and I was standing next to them trying to compare sizes – I’m about a 12, he’s a …. 20 maybe?

-The Alamodome is MONSTROUS. The media area is literally a sea of white tables sitting right on the football field. 2/3 of the arena is cut off, leaving the last third for the court and stands. On all sides of the dome are huge conference rooms for interviews and such. I feel sorry for some of these players – they must feel like boxes being shipped around. Here we go to the solo interview room, then to the locker room, then to the CBS photo shoot, then to the players-only press conference….. I’m sure they’ll get over it though.

-Memphis’ Pierre Niles had writing on his shoe for #15 Andre Allen, who was suspended for the Final Four.

-Jesse Baumgartner

Scouting the Jayhawks

Things start getting pretty serious in the Final Four. You have to figure coaches from both teams are poring through scouting reports looking for any advantage they can get. Let’s break down UNC’s Final Four opponent:

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-No. 1 seed Kansas: 35-3 overall record, 13-3 in the Big 12

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-Beat Texas to win the Big 12 Tournament

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-Edged Davidson 59-57 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament

Best wins:

Beat Southern Cal 59-55 on Dec.2

Beat Oklahoma 85-55 on Jan. 14

Beat Texas 84-74 on Mar.16

Key losses (only losses):

Lost to Kansas St. 84-75 on Jan. 30

Lost to Texas 72-69 on Feb. 11

Lost to Oklahoma St. 61-60 on Feb. 23

Top Scorers

#25 Brandon Rush – 13.1 ppg

#00 Darrell Arthur – 12.7 ppg

#15 Mario Chalmer – 12.7 ppg

Who to foul

#24 Sasha Kaun – 54.1%

#32 Darnell Jackson – 68.3%

#00 Darrell Arthur – 69.6%

Who not to foul

#25 Brandon Rush – 79.0%

#3 Russell Robinson – 77.5%

#4 Sherron Collins – 75.9%

Any three-point shooters?

#25 Brandon Rush – 43%, has shot most threes on team

#15 Mario Chalmers – 47%, has shot second most threes on team

#3 Russell Robinson – 32%, has shot third most threes on team (and more than half his shots are threes)

#4 Sherron Collins – 36%, has shot fourth most threes on team

Any shotblockers?

#00 Darrell Arthur – 49 blocks on the season, about 1.3 per game

#24 Sasha Kaun – 49 blocks on the season, about 1.3 per game

Anything else?

Their top seven guys score all their points; after that, no one averages more than three points per game

Not a great free-throw shooting team – just 70 percent combined and no one over 80 percent.

But an extremely good three-point shooting team – 40 percent from deep as a team.

They go eight deep (of at least 11 min per game) but could go up to 10 deep

One of the best teams in the country at steals, averaging almost nine per game

-Gregg Found

Goes to show the power of recruiting

So usually when you look at a team’s roster, even in this day in age, you see a lot of local kids. Arkansas had a lot of guys from Arkansas, Washington State had guys from Washington, Michigan State has guys from Michigan.

Not the case for North Carolina and Louisville. In fact, out of all 10 starters of tonight’s game, TWO are from the same state, and NONE are from either North Carolina or Kentucky. Check it out:

North Carolina

-Marcus Ginyard = Virginia

-Deon Thompson = California

-Tyler Hansbrough = Missouri

-Ty Lawson = Maryland

-Wayne Ellington = Pennsylvania

Louisville

-Terrence Williams = Washington

-Juan Palacios = Colombia

-David Padgett = Nevada

-Andre McGee = California

-Jerry Smith = Wisconsin

That’s recruiting nationwide  – and sometimes even beyond.

-Gregg Found