Worst winter sports season of my life?

Just when I think this winter-sports season might get better around the corner, I get hit by figurative bus.

With a win over Wake Forest going into a six-day break, I figured that maybe the Tar Heels would possibly start finally meshing and figuring it all out.

Guess again. With only a hint of an inside game to go with hideous shooting and poor defense, the second half was another rough one.

This is the worst Carolina basketball season since the 2001-02 team went 8-20. That season began in the following manner: I took my oldest son Alex to the season opener at the Smith Center and assured him that since the Tar Heels were playing Hampton, this would be a fun game and an easy win.

The Tar Heels lost that one 77-69, then proceeded to lose the next home game to Davidson 58-54. That was the last time they had lost back-to-back home games before the 82-69 loss Wednesday to Wake Forest after narrowly losing to Georgia Tech 73-71 on Saturday.

As painful as the 8-20 season was to endure, at least my Carolina Hurricanes made me smile by winning the Southeast Division. Then they put together an incredibly stunning run to the Eastern Conference title before falling to a much-better Detroit Red Wings club in the Stanley Cup finals. I was fortunate to be able to cover many of the Canes home playoff games that season.

No smiles have been provided by the Canes this season since they have the worst record in the league. As if the losses on the ice aren't enough, there's word that GM Jim Rutherford has asked Ray Whitney and Nic Wallin to waive their no-trade clauses. Yeah, I see the fire sale coming.

My Tar Heels are sadly enduring a "bridge season." And my Hurricanes already are looking ahead to the future by preparing to trade older players. Already, Rod Brind'Amour, right, has given up the "C" to Eric Staal.

Seemingly the only remaining question is whether this will be the worst winter sports season of my life.

I hope it isn't worse than 2002-03.

That season, Matt Doherty's last as coach, the Heels were 19-16, 6-10 in the ACC, went to the NIT and lost five games in a row at one point. That was, by the way, the last time the Tar Heels dropped at least three consecutive games before Wednesday's loss to the Deacons.

The Canes that season? They finished in the same pathetic position this season's Hurricanes find themselves: Last in the league.

And a Cubs fan is supposed to count on baseball season to help me rebound from my sports winter of discontent?

Amazing result in Massachusetts

The result of the Senate race in Massachusetts is stunning on so many levels.

It wasn't that surprising by the time that election week arrived because of polls predicting Scott Brown would win, but how this played out was just another reason I never get tired of following politics.

What stunned me is how Scott Brown can even be a viable candidate given that he posed nude in Cosmo (left) in his 20s.

It's fascinating and frustrating when you consider that a woman candidate would be treated very differently if she had posed nude in a magazine. And I'm quite sure that she never would be elected to an office as high as the U.S. Senate. The double-standard is inexcusable.

Yes, there was a female porn star who "ran" for governor of California but it obviously was a joke candidacy.

Any time a Republican wins a political race in the liberal bastion that is Massachusetts, it is a surprise, but it's clearly not the landmark victory GOP folks will try to spin.

When you have a pro-choice candidate who is to the left of the majority of the Republican party and he doesn't mention the party in his acceptance speech, he clearly is not a typical GOP guy. Obviously, he embraces the label of independent more than the label of Republican.

In a sense, he's gone from posing as a porn model to posing as a Republican.

It wasn't so much a big win for Republicans as it was a big win for opponents of the Democrats' approach to health-care reform.

Brown campaigned as an opponent of the Democrats' approach. And when he takes his seat the GOP will have 41 Senate votes, which will make it tougher for the Democrats to get the health-care reform legislation passed.

The blame game already has started, with Martha Coakley's people suggesting the Democratic party didn't support her campaign enough. From reports I've read and seen, though, it's apparent that Coakley didn't work nearly as hard on the campaign trail as Brown.

So  now in the Senate, we'll have a comedian and a guy who posed nude. Yeah, Capitol Hill isn't that much of a circus, is it?

Congestion at marathon starts

All of us who have run big marathons have dealt with massive congestion at the start of those races. Some races deal with it better than others.

A couple of months ago, I signed up for the March 21 Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, N.C. I liked it because it's a trail run (much of it is on the American Tobacco Trail) and its mostly flat (good for me because there are only very small hills where I live.) Part of the appeal was racing back in my native North Carolina but I also liked running a small marathon.

But I realized earlier this week that race officials plan to start the marathon and the half marathon at 7 a.m. and that the first three miles of both courses are the same. Luckily, those miles are on a two-lane road and not on the trail. But with the field limit of 800 in the marathon and 2,500 in the half marathon, it is a bit alarming that you could have 3,300 runners on a 2-lane road for the first three miles.

I've run megaraces such as the Chicago Marathon, the New York City Marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon and the Boston Marathon. Boston is the only one of those that starts on a two-lane road, but it does wave starts and has strictly enforced corrals. All the others start on very wide streets to help relieve the congestion.

I expressed my concerns about this on the race's Facebook page and was happy to hear that they are thinking about staggering the starts of the two races. I sure hope they do! 

I hate using early energy in a marathon fighting crowds and going around slower runners. At the same time, runners faster than me aren't happy to have to get around me!