Carolina March :: An Unofficial UNC Tar Heels Blog

The same day Mike Copeland goes down with a torn ACL, the New York Times runs a story on the prevalance of the same injury in teenage girls. It's a bit alarmist, in the "Our children are in danger!" way, but throws out an interesting estimation - that ACL injuries in teenage girls are as much as five times as prevalent in their male counterparts. And naturally they go to Anson Dorrance for an opinion on the whole thing, and he knows where to put the blame:

“[E]verybody’s got a tournament. There’s the Raleigh Shootout, the Surf Cup in Southern California, and ding, ding, ding, they’re everywhere.” Dorrance was animated, his words coming out in a rush. “So now girls are going somewhere every two or three months and playing these inordinate number of matches. And you know what? They’re playing to survive. And the survival is not just the five games in three days. It’s the two or three weeks following. They’ve got a niggling this and niggling that — sprained ankles, swollen knees, aching backs. They were overplayed and they never rested. But part of what’s developing is this question of who’s tough enough, who can play through it?”

It sounded reasonable to me, since I couldn't recall a headline ACL tear on the UNC team, but the very next page brings one up:

When I was with Janelle, I could not help thinking of Amy Steadman, who was going to be one of the great American soccer players of her generation. In her junior year in high school, in Brevard, N.C., Parade magazine named her the top high-school-age defensive player in America, “the best of the best.” She was a captain of the U.S. women’s under-19 team, a future star of the women’s national team. She played for Anson Dorrance at U.N.C., and while I was talking to him one day, he pointed out beyond his office door to a gallery where the uniforms of his all-time greats, including Mia Hamm, were displayed. “She would have been one of those jerseys out there,” he said, referring to Amy.

But by the time I met her, Amy was 21 and had torn the A.C.L. in her right knee four times.

[...]

As Amy walked toward me the first time we met, her right leg was stiff and her whole gait crooked. She moved like a much older woman. If I hadn’t known her history, I would never have believed she had been an athlete, let alone an elite one. She had undergone, by her count, five operations on her right knee. Her mother counted eight, and believed that Amy did not put certain minor cuttings in the category of actual operations. She was done playing. She had been told she would need a knee replacement, maybe by the time she turned 30.

Amy told me about her final operation, recalling that when she came out of anesthesia, the surgeon seemed as if he was going to cry. He looked at her in silence for what seemed like a long time, trying to compose himself. Finally, he told her, “Amy, there was nothing in there left to fix.”

There's also Susan Bush, (two torn ACLs, '00 and '01), Ali Hawkins (last year), Ashlyn Harris (each knee, '05 and '06) and of course, Anson Dorrance himself, back in 1991. Even the coaching is dangerous. And that's just the first few pages of a Google search.

Anyway, the whole thing is a pretty good read. And of course, no mention of ACL injuries and Tar Heels is complete without the story of Jimmy Hitchcock.

It took 21 days from UNC's last game until three players tossed their names into the hat for the NBA draft. It's another 51 until the deadline for withdrawing their name - June 16th. That's two days after the College World Series starts, and two weeks after the Stanley Cup Finals will have ended, if everything goes to seven games. Hell, the NBA playoffs may even be out of the second round by then.

Hence the political talk. Or more accurately, the political as it applies to Carolina basketball talk. Or more succinctly, will Obama's scrimmage effect recruiting?

The cosmic alignment of a) a Democratic primary that stretched out so long the state of North Carolina actually mattered, and b) a presidential candidate young enough to run up and down a gym floor isn't going to come around every year. Or every four years. Frankly, it's going to come around as often as that leap year that's not supposedly a leap year but is a leap year because the year is divisible by 400. Which I suppose would be every 400 years. That's science.

In other words, when the great-great-great grandaughter[*] of Dean Smith is recruiting the great-great grandson of Tyler Hansbrough, then yes, UNC's awesome ability to bring presidential hopefuls in from a pickup game will definitely be a plus. (State will have to resort to reflected post-primary speech glory) Until then, well, with the political activism of your average eighteen-year old I don't think Obamamania is going to be a big concern.

At least their internet access, which is apparently transmitted by telegraph, and for which I'm paying an exorbinant twelve dollar a day for the privlege.

This means that I'm unable to write about Kentwan Balmer for Niners Nation at the moment, or Connor Barth for any Chiefs fans who happen to be aware he's been signed. Nor can I speculate wildly about the NCAA rules Barack Obama may have brought down upon the Heels by playing a little pickup ball. Or worry about the fact that the Gamecocks are trying to poach Sylvia Hatchell. Come on, you don't want to coach on a court with that giant, maroon state on it, do you?

But if that's not enough to worry about, you can add the fact that UNC's athletic success may not be increasing the university's place in the world. A new study reported by Inside Higher Ed says that male alumni of collegiate teams give more to the university when their former teams win conference championships, but that overal donations are down when football and men's basketball teams are more successful. Of course, as others have pointed out, the school in question is almost certainly Princeton, and probably shouldn't be applied outside of New Jersey. Sorry, Duke.

Hansbrough stays, Lawson, Ellington, and Green all declare for the draft without hiring agents. If I had to handicap the odds of various folks going pro - which I didn't, because who really needs my half-assed speculation - it would have gone Lawson, Hansbrough and Ellington, with Green not even making my radar. I'd bet at least two out of three come back for another year, but then again my analysis has already proven to be pretty close to worthless.

In other news, Johnny Dawkins has accepted the Stanford job, just a month or so after I wondered why he stayed on the Duke bench. Tomorrow's news shoddily kicked around today, that's what Carolina March brings to you, loyal web viewer.

If my referrer logs are any indication, most of my readership nowadays just cycles through Tar Heel Fan, Jackie Manuel Has a Posse and The Fifth Corner looking for word on the players going pro. Well, with my total lack of sources in Chapel Hill, it's only natural to assume I know what's going on - and I totally do. The following players are declaring themselves eligible for the NBA dra-

Hold that thought. I've got to head to the airport to catch a flight to Phoenix. You know, by the time I get back the deadline to declare for the draft (midnight Sunday) will have passed anyway, and it'll be common knowledge by then. So why spoil it for everyone?

(As an aside, I really think the Chapel Hill-Durham area needs a better steak place, because if I never hear about another potential agent meeting at the Outback, it'll be too soon.)

Reyshawn Terry, who's playing basketball for Aris Salonika in Greece, had his car firebombed by "five youths on motorbikes" while driving through a neighborhood partial to the team's rival, PAOK. Luckily, neither he nor his teammate Jeremiah Massey was hurt.

The Heels have tied their best start in school history after sweeping Boston College this weekend to extend their record to 34-7. This matches the start back in 1983, when B.J. Surhoff was playing for the Heels.

The feat is even more impressive when you consider Carolina has no true home games this season, with Boshamer under construction. Their "home" games are all played at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary.

I have an RSS feed set up for the UNC mentions of Fanblogs.com, which means once a month or so I'll see an article the vaguely involves UNC football - typically a list someone has put on a website somewhere about something I couldn't really give a damn about. And for the most part, I'm content to leave it like that.

What I was sent today, however, was coverage of a week-old story about how the ACC is in agreement to play in the as yet non-existent Congressional Bowl, in sunny Washington D.C.. I tossed "Congressional Bowl" and ACC into the magic Google to learn more... and nothing. Oh there were other mentions, but they all reflected back on the same source - an Annapolis sportswriters' blog. Don't these things usually have press releases?

Should it be true however, let me put my expert opinion as a six-month resident of D.C. out there for all your travelling planning. It's cold. Miserably, bitterly, I-miss-California cold. I'll be happy to go and see the Heels, but expect a week of complaints here afterwards about how I can still not feel various and quite important parts of my anatomy. Because again, cold.

(And for why UNC should be bowl eligible, I direct you to Sunday Morning Quaterback's early bit of optimism.

Let's take a moment and pity the poor News and Observer intern who was tasked with the job of calling the parents of various UNC players. You know, just to catch up. See how everything's going. And maybe find out if their kids had shared any life-altering decisions with them. If there was anything that came to mind, anyway.

Ellington's and Lawson's folks wisely ducked the call, while Hansbrough's father let slip a cruicial bit of information that his son had broken his cell phone. Which totally means he staying. Or leaving. Or that there will be six more weeks of winter.

As was to be expected, given the conference's long, storied tradition in the sport, ACC member Boston College is this year's NCAA Ice Hockey national champions. I'm assured by Yankees of my aquaintance that this is a big deal.

(Of course technically, BC Hockey is not a member of the ACC, as they are the only school in the conference with a varsity ice hockey squad, which would make for a dull and rather predictable conference season. So while it really goes down as a win for the Hockey East Association, with basketball already over and football not looking too swift, the ACC will take what it can get.)

Of all the NCAA losses, I probably remember the aftermath in 1995 the most. The entire campus had been incredibly cheerful in March - everyone had a skip in their step, a song in their heart and a beer in their hand. And as soon as UNC dropped the game to Arkansas, the weather changed, the temperature dropped, and everybody failed their Chemistry test that the professor really shouldn't have scheduled on Monday to begin with. It was my first experience with how the basketball team suffuses the atmosphere of the campus - I think it was a good two weeks before the place came back to life.

Anyway, a friend who had made the trip to Seattle e-mailed this around after the fact. This is what losing can do to the mind of a UNC college student:

Mr. Fiddle-Fiddle and His Trip To Seattle

Once upon a time there was a funny old man named Mr. Fiddle-Faddle. He was a funny old man indeed, for his back was so crooked that he had to walk with a stick. His beard was so long that he had to throw it over his shoulder like a continental soldier to keep from stepping on it. His voice was so old he had to hold up one of those little electronic jobbies to it in order to be heard. When he spoke his voice sounded just like a robot. When he would pass by the sandlot, all the little children would run and frolic about him and get him to talk so they could hear his robot voice. Mr. Fiddle-Faddle would speak to them and wave his cane high in the air. Then all the little children would jump him, beat him up, and take away all his money. Then they would dance away with it, scampering off to buy drugs.

After several weeks of this sort of treatment, Mr. Fiddle-Faddle became quite indignant. (Vocabulary word I: indignant) "I am awfully tired of them kicking my rear end every day and taking away all of my money to buy drugs. I think I will follow the Tar Heels on their Final Four trip to Seattle" And so, one bright shiny day, Mr. Fiddle-Faddle gathered all of his things into a small kerchief and began the journey to Seattle. (Vocabulary word II: kerchief)

Once he arrived in Seattle, Mr. Fiddle-Faddle was very happy. "I am so terribly happy to be here!" he exclaimed. "Now I get to see Carolina beat the flahookey out of Arkansas." But then Mr. Fiddle-Faddle became very sad. He realized that he did not have any tickets to see the game.

"I know!" Mr. Fiddle-Faddle exclaimed, "I will sell all of everything I have to the scalpers in order to get a ticket to the game." (Vocabulary word III: scalpers) So Mr. Fiddle-Faddle took out his old tattered kerchief and sold everything that was in it in order to get a ticket.

It wasn't long however, before the children noticed that Mr. Fiddle-Faddle had stopped coming past the sandlot. "He must have gone to Seattle to watch Carolina play basketball!" they said. "Let's all go to Seattle too so we can listen to his funny, funny voice and get his tickets and sell them for beer." And so they did.

Heartbroken, Mr. Fiddle-Faddle lay in a gutter with his back more crooked than it had ever been before. "My tickets are gone! Oh, woe is me! How will I ever see the Tar Heels play Arkansas now?"

As he was saying this, a certain basketball player named Dante overheard the poor man's story. Dante came around the corner and said, "Oh sir, I have pity on you. It is a shame that you cannot go to see the game." Dante pulled out a rubber mask and a basketball uniform. "Take my place on the court tonight. I've played at so many other games that I can't even count them on my fingers and toes! Dress up to look like me tonight, so you will have the opportunity to not only see the game, but to play in it as well."

So Mr. Fiddle-Faddle gleefully put on the uniform and went out on the court. Disguised as Dante, he was able to score 2 points, an achievement of which he was proud to his dying day.

And that is the reason why Dante and the whole Carolina team played like s**t on Saturday and royally got their a** kicked. (Vocabulary word IV: s**t) (Vocabulary word V: a**)

THE END

It was so bad that when ESPN sideline reporter Rebecca Lobo asked Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer how she planned to get her team to settle down and handle the pressure better, VanDerveer said something you just never hear coaches say unless they're being sarcastic, which VanDerveer was not.

"God, Rebecca," she said, "I have no idea."

VanDerveer said her team was "so discombobulated. Their pressure is causing turnovers that I haven't seen all year. We're just not playing with any offensive flow at all." She excused herself, saying, "I better go in there and talk to 'em."

The ambush interviews as a tem heads to locker room are an absolute horrible innovation, but every once in awhile, televsion gold happens.

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