April 5, 2009
can you give me a jump start
4/5/09
Oh, gracious - a wonderful, whopping huzzah to my beloved North Carolina for getting past a very rough Villanova team, and it's on to the finals tonight against Michigan State.
And a ripping, stinky QUEEF to those furthering the bullshit narrative that somehow MSU is "America's Team" and that Detroit somehow "needs" them to win because of the economic meltdown that they, apparently, are suffering worse than anyone else. Spartans' Win Gives Detroit Emotional Bailout the headlines say; "This smells very much like destiny" oozes a similar story. Even Tom Izzo, whom I usually like a great deal, said, "We are the blue-collar team, and this is the blue-collar city."
Give me a fucking break - if Danny Green doesn't do it this evening, I'd like to metaphorically jank my chamomile-tea nutz in your grille whilst you wax lachrymose about Michigan's sorry state of affairs. Has this tournament really been so boring that you need to paste this sorry metaphor on MSU, or is it just that you don't like that Tyler Hansbrough's dad is a doctor?
Do you know whose fault it is that Michigan is a disaster? Michigan! (No offense, Sean M.) It's a state that singlehandedly defines what NOT to do in a modern, flexible society. It is the antithesis of how to survive: its economy is entirely dependent on one product, a product they don't even make very well. As taxpayers, we've been forced to come to Detroit's rescue, and even then, the corporations can barely muster a plan to save themselves.
To dismiss North Carolina in this equation is terrifically unfair: the 2nd biggest banking center in the country is in Charlotte, and the downturn has decimated the city. We're right behind Michigan in unemployment. But North Carolina did something Michigan didn't: we made a conscious decision about forty years ago to divorce ourselves from a one-product economy. Sure, there's still tobacco around, but NC is now about as diversified as a state can be: research, medicine, energy, Web 2.0 - hell, Carrboro leads the country in sex toys.
As for NC not being "blue collar" enough, please explain what the hell you mean to Danny Green and his brothers. Tell that to a young Roy Williams in Spruce Pine, NC. I dare you to say it to Deon. Oh, and you may also want to ask well-known elitists from glitzy hometowns, folks like Raymond Felton, Joe Wolf and Byron Sanders.
Here's why you should root for Carolina tonight: we play hard, we play smart, and we play together. We try to deflect glory by pointing out the people who helped us. We are intense believers in family. No matter how flashy the circumstances, we try to stay cool, act like we've been there before, because we have. We are gracious, but we will come at you with everything we've got. I dunno, in a perfect world, that sounds like America's team to me.
1911 Heels comin' at ya
guess the best offense is a good defensive.
Photo credit?
This isn't gonna pre-empt "24" tonight, is it?
;-)
:-) No offense taken. On the current state of Michigan, I couldn't agree with you more. On the storyline being attached to it all - meh, that's what press people, coaches, etc do to create a storyline and rally the troops...especially when the other team beat us by 35 just a few months ago in the same venue. On whom to root for tonight, yeah, we're just going to have to disagree on that one.
Go Green!
I don't think you're wrong on facts Ian, but maybe you got a little shirty in tone. As someone who loves the city of Detroit as a home away from home, I think it's awesome that the final is happening in Detroit and that MSU is in the final.
And when you're patting North Carolina on the back about its economic diversity, remember that it was built when the government was in control of some of the most obnoxiously regressive politicians this country has ever seen. For one thing, Jesse Helms undeniable power in Congress has meant that North Carolina always got plenty of pork.
I will still root for UNC personally because of family connections. But you have to know that this is an emotional boost for Michigan when things are indeed looking dire.
Reminds me in tone of the Yankees making it to the World Series after 9/11. Destiny's team, America should be rooting for the Yankees, how could the Arizona Diamondbacks stand in the way. I am a lifelong Yankee hater and was very glad that Curt Shilling and Randy Johnson and company didn't get that memo.
I think it is cool to have a Michigan team in a final held in Michigan, but wouldn't take it any beyond that. There's all kinds of rich storylines for UNC. Hopefully they let some of those out as well.
You gotta turn that narrative around and have fun with it. This isn't MSU being the state of Michigan's last, shining hope. This is UNC snuffing out the state of Michigan's last, shining hope, terminator-style.
Did you say "queef" out loud??
leaving for chapel hill in an hour to hopefully paint the streets blue! go heels!
I drank the Kool Aid and am now a UNC fan. And if the boys pull it out tonight I will win my bracket pool. So thanks to you Ian or I would have went with Pitt.
Go Heels!
I got a little misty-eyed talking about Carolina and the game this morning with my children at breakfast. Ethan said, "Mom, please tell me you're not going to cry about a basketball game!" I told him it's not about the game, but the love I feel for the school. I hope he goes to a college that still makes him feel that way almost 20 years later. At least in this forum, I know most of you understand.
Megan, that photo is from Wikipedia - and I have to say, I thought I'd seen pretty much every old photo of NC basketball, but never seen this one. I didn't even know it existed. Love it, though.
Although it does lack the homoerotic tone of this one from Ohio:
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Don't get too upset by the press trying to hype up the game, they are just trying to get the previously uninterested to watch. Don't forget, we've ended MSU's season 2 of the last 4 years, a fact that no one is talking about. MSU is a fine team and a good story, but I think UNC has the better team and coaches.
I like how focused our team has been, you could tell the players are more relieved than excited to advance. To me, that shows they expect themselves to go further each time. They don't care about the implications of the game, only the game itself.
May the best team win. *e-handshake*
And for those who think Detroit is a shithole (because it is), take solace in the fact that parts of it will be burned down no matter what the outcome. Because Michiganders are classy folk who know how to celebrate/commiserate in style.
Sean M's comment made me laugh out loud.
Ian, no live blogging the game? I'm shocked.
I'm so proud of our Heels!
GOOOOO HEEEEELS!!!!!! It's soooo good to live in Durham right now! Duck Fook!!!
jj here, ian, been meaning to write all day. to say we rock. and by the way, new yorkers watching this game may remember a post-9/11 series where new york lost to arizona because....they were f-in better. as was carolina. as they usually are. was thinking of lucy watching her boy tyler, smiling....and getting ready to love the next batch all over again, as hard as it may be at first.
GO HEELS!!!
ps who are your top 5 carolina players of all time? mine are:
1. george lynch
2. jimmy black (sentimenal favorite, my first unc love)
3. phil ford
4. ty lawson (moved from 5 to 4 tonight)
5. antawn jamison
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!