Weak atmosphere at Carolina basketball game

Maybe it was because final exams were going on and most of the fans wanted to be quieter so that they didn't disturb students who were trying to study. More likely, it was because Carolina was facing weak and overmatched Presbyterian.

Whatever the reason, I now understand why Roy Williams has gotten worked up about the "performance" of the fans in one or two press conferences.

I understand why the risers, right, populated by the students, were barely half full considering it was the second day of final exams at UNC. What was the excuse for the other fans who aren't students?

I went to a home game for the first time in years, the Heels' 103-64 romp over Presbyterian on Saturday night, and the atmosphere was far from what it should be for a college program that is a perennial national power.

I remember when I was a kid going to games in Carmichael Auditorium, it was loud no matter who UNC was playing. Whenever the fight song was played by the pep band, everybody stood and clapped until it was over. When my sons and I did that Saturday night we were in the small minority.

It was hilarious in a very sad way that, on the ribbon board (left), they had to prompt people -- fruitlessly, I might add -- to make some noise. It was dead. Polite applause was the norm.

Heck, it seems like (at least for games that are early enough for my 11-year-old son Scott to watch) my living room is more lively than that arena during a Carolina game than it was Saturday.

People started leaving with 12 minutes left and, when there was an official time out with a little more than 8 minutes left, you would have thought that a fire alarm went off. What? It was a surprise to these "fans" that it was that one-sided. If you're going to support the program, why do you leave with that much time left?

How long had it been since I'd been to a home game? The last game I attended, they didn't play "Jump Around" at the beginning of the game. And there were video displays that I'm used to seeing at Carolina Hurricanes games on the big screen but hadn't seen at UNC games. Some really nice ones, though, about Carolina-basketball history because of it being the 100-year anniversary.

Maybe the crowd does get loud for the big games, but Sam Cassell's wine-and-cheese comment definitely was accurate regarding the crowd for the PC game. Maybe it's the fact that it costs $50 a ticket and, on top of that, $10 to park. Maybe its because the Smith Center is so big. Whatever it is, it's pretty sad what has happened to the atmosphere at home games.

We had decent upper-level seats on the first half seats, left, but saw enough empty seats that we grabbed some better lower-level seats, below, for the second half.

The actual game was fun as the Heels rolled even without Marcus Ginyard and Dexter Strickland. That allowed Justin Watts to get his first career start and Marc Campbell to get 14 minutes, much more than he usually gets.

The assist-to-turnover ratio for the backcourt was impressive. Larry Drew had a fine game and, even though it was a weak opponent, you've got to like his numbers: 12 points, 9 assists, 3 steals and 1 turnover.

And the big guys did what they should against a team such as PC and produced lots of points: Ed Davis, above, with 20 and Deon Thompson with 19.

That's when the Heels didn't forget about them, like when they hurled up bad 3-point attempts three straight times down court in the first half, prompting Roy to take out all five guys who were on the court.

A nice win in a tough time with exams going on. Hopefully Marcus and Dexter will be back and ready to go against Texas. UNC is going to need them.

I'll be back in town for the Dec. 22 game against Marshall. I almost feel obligated to go so that I know somebody actually is going to stand up and cheer!

Now I know where those '70s disco bands got their instrumentals

Fifteen days later than planned because of the wonderful insurance company, I finally have the MRI on my left leg to determine if I have a femoral stress fracture. My follow-up visit with the doctor is Monday and I'll finally know what's going on with that.

It is my first MRI and it's pretty weird even though it only is on my leg.

I lay down with a pillow under my head and under my lets and they slide me into the machine, feet first. I can see why people who easily get claustrophobic can have issues with MRI machines. Luckily for me, I only am in the tube from the chest down.

Not knowing any better, I figure it would be like an X-ray and that I'd just be there for a minute or two and be done.

Not quite. They tell me that I'll be there for a while and I think it is about 25 minutes. To say that it's boring would be an understatement.

They tape my feet together so that my legs don't move and give me earplugs because the machine is so loud.

The sound from that machine is some combination of an EBS test, the loudest hair clippers you've ever heard and very bad disco rhythms.

I'm now convinced that I've found where the bad 1970s disco bands got their background instrumentals: Sticking a microphone in a room with an MRI machine. The repetitive sound was strikingly similar, which might be the real reason that they tape my feet together: So that I don't move them to the beat. At least the sound changes over the 25 minutes to provide some variety, kind of like the way disco songs vary slightly.

Because my head isn't in the tube, I am able to enjoy the stickers with disclaimers and other labels on the side of the machine. That is unfortunately light, quick reading as compelling as reading sewer regulations.

I suppose my time in the MRI machine probably beats being forced to watch all 48 minutes of an NBA game since I don't have to endure a time out every 15 seconds at the end.

Can't wait until Monday's visit to the doctor!

College football's postseason system is a joke

Thank goodness they actually have an NCAA champion in men's basketball, women's soccer and field hockey instead the joke of a system used to determine a champion in the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

You won't catch me call it a national championship when the process that leads to picking the two teams is a  bogus, skewed sports version of bad politics.

The only NCAA national championships in football are in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision and in the smaller divisions. The winner of the BCS championship game is just that: The BCS champion. And that team -- either Texas or Alabama -- will likely finish No. 1, but don't call that team the national champion.

Granted, it's a huge improvement from the old days when the two perceived best teams ended up playing in separate bowls and pollsters decided who finished No. 1. But it's still a corporate sideshow that serves the sponsors, the coffers of the conferences and the schools, but certainly not the players or the fans.

I'm reveling in yet another women's soccer national championship for North Carolina, the Tar Heels' 21st (20 NCAA titles and one AIAW title), to go with the field-hockey title by UNC a couple of weeks earlier. But I realize that no matter how good my Heels were in football, they'd never have a shot at playing in that trumped up championship game at the Rose Bowl.

The only ACC team that likely would have ended up in the BCS championship game had it finished the regular season undefeated is Virginia Tech. That's because the Hokies began the season highly ranked and, in that scenario, would have defeated Alabama. I suppose that would have put the Hokies up against Texas in the BCS title game.

The weakness of the ACC was underscored by the ACC championship-game teams -- Clemson and Georgia Tech -- losing their final regular-season games to SEC teams not even at the top of their conference -- South Carolina and Georgia.

Given that weakness, no other ACC team would have had a shot at playing in the BCS title game. Instead, it would have been left out of the big game just like unbeatens Boise State, TCU and Cincinnati.

Once you get past the BCS title game, the bowls games long ago shoved tradition aside when most prostituted their names for corporate dollars. Even before that happened, the magic of the sort of run like the one by Hickory High in "Hoosiers" never was possible.

Sure, the George Masons of the college-basketball world know that the chances that they will win a national championship are remote. But they at least know that they have some control of their destiny instead of the helpless feeling faced by most college-football teams.

N.C. State's 1983 team probably would have been consigned to a lowly bowl or stayed home under college-football's system instead of being given the chance to make an incredible run to the national championship.

The bowl games are so insignificant that teams routinely change coaches before a bowl game. The only time that happened in college basketball came when Bill Frieder, left, took the Arizona State job before the 1989 NCAA tournament. Michigan athletics director Bo Schembechler wanted a "Michigan man" coaching the tournament. His replacement, Steve Fisher, coached the Wolverines to the national championship.

North Carolina already has had its football banquet and given out team awards even before it plays a Charlotte bowl that has nothing but a corporate name. A tournament-bound basketball team never would have a team banquet before the NCAA tournament.

The Alabama-Florida game essentially was the national semifinal and the BCS championship game won't be played until Jan. 7 -- 32 days later. I'll guarantee that they never will have the national semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament one day and wait 32 days to play the final. Thank goodness!

While the NCAA basketball tournament committee tries to make sure there is balance as they are placing the teams in the field, the BCS bowls pick teams as if it's a fantasy-football draft.

I'll turn my attention to the FCS tournament, thank you. William and Mary is two wins away from a national championship and controls whether it makes it to the championship game. No computer or polls have anything to do with that.

What a concept!