Hit up TarheelDaily, or scroll on down to the article. After you check it out, if you want to discuss my opinions, email me. I will also appear on WXYC FM 89.3 Chapel Hill for Sunday Night SportsRap during the Spring of 2005 on Sunday Nights between 9-10PM. Also, be sure to check out my weekly music show, 'Fifteen Feet and In' which can be heard at www.wxyc.org. Enjoy the article.....BD

"March in the Hill"

Look who’s back in the mix with some March banter...Bret Dougherty gets sleek and mean this mean around Chapel Hill, and he takes on a few heated arguments and a few sights in his latest TarheelDaily.com column.

March 25, 2005

Alright, alright...Look who's back in the mix.

That's right...This chief blogga has been turning it out, but the THD editorial staff has asked me to make a comeback on the web column tip...So, here I am, ready already to hit on a few things that have been bugging the hell out of me over the week.

Best Ever?: Maybe it was the gold buttons on the blue blazer that set me off... But I found myself in a argument with a young buck in a gold-buttoned...gold buttoned!...blazer and pair of wallabies on West Franklin this past week over whether or not this year's Carolina team is the best ever.

I quickly rattled off six teams in succession over the past thirty years that I thought would easily beat this team..."'77, '82, '84, '87, '93, '95". Yet the argument did leave me with a slight sense of doubt, wondering if this year's Carolina basketball team could hang with one of those past six aforementioned teams.

So, I asked a former Carolina basketball player, who refused to be quoted on this one...(he'd kill me if I give you a clue)...not only the question of whether or not this year's team could have hung with the teams of his decade, but whether or not the teams from the past could have kept up the running pace of this year's Tarheel squad ?...(See, no clues here, kid.)

Quickly, the shout of "No way!" made me blink, and it led him into a heated venting that had his arms flailing like a sorority girl hearing a Beyonce tune at 1:30AM. But after calming down, he added.

"Listen, it's a different game now, and a totally different era. Yes, they have the speed, but I think we would kill them on the team play, the half-court sets, and on the height issue...I mean c'mon Marvin Williams is 6'8", how are you going to stop that height?"

If you're following that argument, the big-man issue may allow you to stick your jab into the open hole. However, the 2005 Carolina team's speed combined with the ability to lay lumps of points on the board and the fact that this year's team goes eight men deep with versatility and athleticism leads to a very solid argument that these guys could easily be one of Carolina's four best ever...if not the best ever.

However, there's one qualification with this selection before you bring this argument into He's Not Here or the Park Avenue Country Club...They need a post-season banner!

Take Off the Shades: Each and every March, thousands of ball junkies get heated over their local NCAA feeds, and 95% of those conversations lead into dissertations over the quality of CBS's announcers.

And if one of those announcer debates is with Carolina fans, you can rest 99.8% assured that a barrage of verbal missiles will be launched in the direction of Billy Packer.

People...You have to take off the "Johnny Carolina" shades on this one...Packer is the best analyst in college basketball?Period.

Personally, there never has nor will there ever will be a basketball analyst...not just college basketball...like Al McGuire. If you're able to listen to his prime vintage years of '78-81 with the Packer-Enberg trio, and even after Packer left NBC, Brother Al's commentaries are untouchable.

However, with that said, there was an element of that trio that Packer learned from that tandem, and perhaps it's from his knowledge of the game and the knowledge of letting the game call itself. Packer knows when to pause with his game calls. He knows ebbs and tides of the game, and he doesn't blow his thoughts with volume and emotion on every positive play.

More importantly, he doesn't "jock-sniff" coaches, players, and referees while making his points. Taking a national perspective on the broadcast, Packer is not only not bashful about expressing his points, but he is also not afraid pull a punch with his commentaries about the actors on stage...That makes him rare, rare...very rare.

Yes, Packer's knowledge of the game can be taken as a snobbish approach to hoops, but that is because he actually "balled" in the McGuire-McKinney-Case basketball wars. Stemming from that era, his knowledge and of the game and its history is unassailable.

When you hear his voice along with the velvet smooth tone of Jim Nantz, you know it's "Big Game" time.

Take off the blue tinted Revos, and enjoy an Emmy Award winning broadcast. Packer respects the game.

Round The Hill: Yo, Melvin, four years in the Hill, and you're still not hittin' with your style. Quit going against the grain, because those dark Jordan XIII's are booty... Here's the scoop...When half of the team wears black and half of the team wears white, you end up looking scrubby like the 'Cuse.

And anutta' thang! I'm sorry, but you young'ns have to understand. The dark shoe doesn't go with the clean Julian argyle style short. Those unis are too sleek and too clean for that trendy $&!#! Now the color-combo of the "White/Grey/Uni Blue" Jordan XIII's,...That's speed son. Go with 'em!

To the Chi Psi fellas, who got eyejammied on the front cover of ESPN.com this week, atta' way to run ESPN Page 2's Jim Caple on the town...Those my boys.

Seen in the Hill: J.R. Reid ordering a double cheese on pita at Hector's...Don't worry about that 'Dream Job', big man...Those cats are "posers" anyway...And to the guy firing the "L" in the back corner of Hector's, I told you that I would get you...What's up with the "Ghetto Trustafarian" look? You can't 'bogart' an "L" like that during that time at night.

Damn girl!...You used to be so fly, and now you're sweatin' Jason Kapono in Charlotte at Blue...What the hell happened to you?..

Fresh and Clean,

BD

Bret Dougherty is a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and current graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bret is a host of WXYC FM 89.3 SportsRap, and hosts a music show on WXYC called 'Fifteen Feet and In'. Check in at his website, www.bretdougherty.com, and feel free to contact him at bret.dougherty@gmail.com.

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