The Dean

For this week's Salute, I decided to honor Dean Smith. The legendary coach turns 81 today and he will always be, in my book, the greatest basketball coach of all time! Now, I know that some of you would disagree with that statement but it's not all just about the wins and national titles. No, it's also about the legacy you leave as a coach. Coach Smith didn't just coach his players. He prepared them to become leaders. He also emphasized the word team and held his players accountable for this.

In addition, he made many contributions to the game of basketball. I mean, just think, if it wasn't for his Four Corners play, we would've never known what a shot clock was. I always chuckle when I think about that because that was the only way the NCAA could stop Coach Smith's teams (and others I'm sure) from doing that play. Another thing that stood out to me about Coach Smith was his passion about desegregation. He was the first to integrate Carolina's team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete. Just in case you're interested, here are some quick facts:

• 96.6% graduation rate among players
• Recruited 26 All-Americas at North Carolina (including Michael Jordan)
• 879 wins in 36 years of coaching (Adolph Rupp had 879 in 41 years)
• 9th highest winning percentage with 77.6%
• Most Division I 20-win seasons with 27 consecutive 20-win seasons from 1970–1997 (30 total)
• 17 regular-season ACC titles, plus 33 straight years finishing in the conference's top three and 20 years in the top two
• 13 ACC tournament titles
• 27 NCAA tournament appearances, including 23 consecutive
• 11 Final Fours
• 2 National Titles
• 8-time ACC Coach of the Year and 4-Time National Coach of the Year
• Member of the National Basketball and North Carolina Sports Hall of Fames as well as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

 So here's to Coach Dean Smith who will always be the Dean of College Basketball!

Info Gathered From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Smith

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2012 Oscar Predictions

As a movie fan, I figured I would make some predictions for this year's Academy Awards. Enjoy!

Best Supporting Actress

Bérénice Bejo, The Artist

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Prediction: It'll be interesting to see how this one turns out as two actresses from The Help are nominated. However, I'm pulling for Bérénice Bejo to win for The Artist.

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn

Jonah Hill, Moneyball

Nick Nolte, Warriors

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Prediction: I'm really pulling for Jonah Hill and Moneyball. He did a tremendous job!

Best Actress

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs 

Viola Davis, The Help

Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Michele Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Prediction: Honestly, I didn't see any of the movies in this category. That said, I'm betting on Viola Davis to win on what could be a big night for The Help.

Best Actor

Demián Bichir, A Better Life

George Clooney, The Descendants

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Gary Oldman, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Prediction: I really think either Jean Dujardin or Brad Pitt will win. On a tangent, I had not heard of Demián Bichir or A Better Life until seeing this category and, after looking at the trailer, I think I'm going to have to see this film!

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight In Paris

Moneyball

The Tree Of Life

Warhorse

Prediction: I'm really pulling for either The Artist, Moneyball, or (even though I haven't seen it yet) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to win. However, it could be a record night for The Help so I think it's the favorite.

So, there you have it! You may have noticed that one of my favorite films, Super 8, was not a nominee this year which is a bummer, but I'll still be watching to see who wins!

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Church

This is one of those "more personal" posts that I will write from time to time. This is also going to be one of the only posts where I am not allowing comments. I think everyone just needs to read this and take it all in! A little disclaimer first: I hope eveyone who knows what I'm talking about here will understand and repsect my opinions.

That said, what is church? Webster's Dictionary defines it as "a building for public and especially Christian worship." I find church to mean more than just that. I think a real church should not only be a place of worship, but a place where you can go and not feel isolated, ashamed, or angry. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world, so this cannot actually happen. This week, a situation arose (not involving me directly) that prompted myself to ask this very question.

For the sake of privacy, I am not going to say what that issue was, but I will say that it has been upsetting to see the events play out the way they have. I will only say the situation involves people basically having to give up something they love to do and having to change their "church lifestyles" so to speak. It hurts you to stop something you love to do. Take my grandma for instance. Due to a condition called macualr degeneration, she got to the point where she could not drive. Several years later, health issues made it too hard for her to work demos (handing out samples in stores) so she had to stop that. After stopping the demo job, she went into a decline both physically and emotionally. The same could be said about my grandpa who became unable to do the one thing he loved the most: gardening. My grandpa loved working out in the yard more than any person I knew! He, like my grandma, went into a decline physically and emotionally after this.

My whole point is this: why take away something that somebody loves if they are still reasonably able to do it? When I saw how my grandparents acted after they had to stop their loves, I could immediately tell a difference in them. It doesn't even have to be an age thing. Just think if you had some kind of condition and someone told you that you had to stop doing something you loved. How would you feel? For me, if I had some kind of ailment that forced me to either alter the way I play clarinet or not play at all, I would be devastated.

So that brings me back to my original point: what is church? In my mind, it should be a place where people from any background or with any ailment is surrounded with loving people who care for them. I feel this is happening in this case but I think there could be some more love displayed. The church should not be a place where people are judged, isolated, or humiliated. It should also be a place of equal opportunity for everyone regardless of age or physical condition.

I'm not trying to insult or offend anyone but, this is simply how I believe the church should be. I've already heard "the facts" regarding the issue at hand and I wish to hear no more. I simply want to communicate to everyone my opinions on this issue and I hope a sensible conclusion will soon be reached to satisfy all involved.

Please pray that this will happen!

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Ready To...Fall?

In the spirit of the season, why don't we have a little college basketball oops? This week's winner is a good one. A commentator for the Dayton/Xavier game, James Bates, had a little problem while doing an intro for the game: his stool broke! Amazingly, after being helped up, Bates continues with his intro spot!

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Power Trip

I've cooled off enough to write sensibly about this but I'm still fuming from what happened during the NC State/Florida State game Saturday. If you don't know what happened game referee, Karl Hess, walked over and motioned at two fans sitting behind the scorers table. Hess then takes it upon himself to eject the fans from the game.

Those "fans" were Wolfpack greats, Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani, who played for the Pack in 1989 and have their jerseys hanging in the rafters. This has created a firestorm from all ACC basketball fans and neither Hess nor the ACC have provided any real response to the incident. John Clougherty, the Director of Officials for the conference, released this statement as his apparent "response" to what happened:

"Under Rule 10, when circumstances warrant, an official has the authority to request home game management to eject fans when the behavior, in the officials' judgement, is extreme or excessive. It's unfortunate in this instance that ACC protocol of communicating directly with the home game management was not followed, and instead, a building security officer was solicited. We will re-communicate this policy with all officials to ensure proper protocol is followed." 

I'm appalled by what happened. I had thought about going to the game but I'm glad I didn't because I lost my cool big time. I was even more upset over this than the game itself. Traditionally, if there are raucous home team fans, the referees will give a warning to the home bench. If, after the warning, the behavior continues or gets worst, the referees will assess a technical foul to the home bench. I have never seen something like what Karl Hess did before in my entire life! To be honest, I've never liked Hess in the first place. He's always come across as an egotistical jerk to me for a long time and his actions in this game just solidified my opinion of him.

Now, on to the ACC itself. John Swofford, John Clougherty, and the rest of the conference "big wigs" should all be ashamed of how these events played out. In my opinion, the ACC showed a tremendous lack of leadership, integrity, and character while handling this situation. I think the conference, in order to "redeem" themselves in a sense, should force Hess to make a public apology for his actions and then suspend him. The ACC is in a downward spiral and, with incidents like this, it's quickly becoming the worst conference in America!

UPDATE: The ACC released a so-called "public reprimand" of Karl Hess Monday via their website. You can read it here but it's not really worth your time. Still no punishment, still no answers, and still the same opinion of the ACC!

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NC State/Duke Game Response

You know, I thought I wouldn't have to do another one of these this quickly but, here I am again with a response to the NC State/Duke game. First off, congrats to the Wolfpack! They played their hearts out and the score was no joke in the first half and most of the second half as well. However, foul trouble and some questionable calls caused huge problems for them. I'm not going to sit here and complain as much as I already have about the officiating but I do want to complain about the reaction after. 

ESPN posted a story on Facebook saying: "'It’s not how you start, but how you finish.' Thank you for the lesson, Duke" Okay, yes I know, it was a big deficit but I don't think Duke is the only team in NCAA history to make a comeback. And let's not forget that this comeback took place at Cameron. It would have been more impressive on the road.

Another knock I have on ESPN was apparently they said "NC State Wildcats" in their story but later changed it. I know people make mistakes but, come on. "Wolfpack" has been the monkier of NC State probably since the school's formation in 1887. So far, I've seen absolutely zero credit to State for what they did leading up to Duke's comeback. Let me put it this way: Duke didn't deserve to win neither this game nor the UNC game last week. Enjoy it now because Duke is going nowhere in the NCAA Tournament!

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Roadside Assistance

Okay, this is just flat out dumb. A 59-year-old fugitive is back behind bars after make a pretty idiotic move. The man, who was wanted in Georgia for violating parole on murder and escape convictions, was traveling down a Wyoming highway when he ran out of gas. Now, let's pause for a second. What would you do if you were in his situation? One thing you probably wouldn't do would be call the sheriff for roadside assistance, right? Well, that's exactly what he did! When the highway patrol found out about his outstanding warrant, they took the man into custody where he is now awaiting extradition to Georgia.

Just like some of my other Oops Awards involving criminals, all I have to say is: wow!

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