Category Archives: Sports Opinion

Is Harrison Barnes a Deserving Preseason All-American?

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An experienced player like Nolan Smith should have made the Preseason All-America team over North Carolina freshman Harrison Barnes (above), Matt Levenberg writes.

“Personally, I don’t like putting freshmen on [the preseason All-America] team before they put on the uniform,” Dick Vitale said in Jay Bilas’ latest column.

Many people, including myself, agree that Harrison Barnes does not deserve to be the first freshman ever to reach the preseason All-American. The preseason All-American team should be an honor based on one’s prior accomplishments at the collegiate level.

The Associated Press voters must have gotten caught up in the recent impacts of standout freshmen John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, who were voted to the first team and second team (in the postseason, notably) respectively last season. It is important to remember these two players are outliers. Many highly touted recruits fail to live up to expectation.

Rivals’ No. 1 recruit from the 2008 class was center B.J. Mullens who committed to Ohio State. After once scoring a total of 108 points in two consecutive games in high school, Mullens averaged only 8.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in his only year as a Buckeye.

Jrue Holiday, the No. 2-ranked recruit in 2008, averaged only 8.5 points per game in his only year playing for UCLA. Both of these two players have been selected as first round picks in the NBA draft following their freshmen season, but neither came close to warranting All-American consideration.

This is not a knock on Barnes, but a knock on the voters. How can voters justify listing Barnes as one of the top five players in the entire country before he steps on the court? In the ACC alone, there are better candidates for the All-American team than Barnes. Two of these candidates are entering their senior seasons and have excelled at the collegiate level already.

Blue Devil guard Nolan Smith played a crucial role in leading Duke to the national championship last season. Smith averaged 17.7 points per game in the NCAA Tournament including a key game-high 29 points in the Blue Devils’ win over Baylor to reach the Final Four. Coach K called Smith the team’s “unsung hero” for his performance down the stretch.

Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney joins Smith, a preseason first team All-ACC selection, on the list of players more deserving of being selected to be an All-American. Delaney, the reigning ACC scoring champion, averaged 20.2 points per game last season and 18.1 points per game during his sophomore campaign. Delaney is also the leading returning scorer from a power conference this season. Although Delaney does not have Smith’s postseason experience, he still has accomplished as much on an individual level as any player in the country. It is unfair to Delaney that he will graduate without the honor of being selected to a Preseason All-American team while Barnes received this honor before playing a single game as a Tar Heel.

GRAND-AM Racing and McDreamy too: The full story

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Laura Keeley, a columnist for The Chronicle’s opinion pages, had the chance to travel to Alton, Va. for the Bosch Engineering 250, a race on the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal. Charlie Lee, The Chronicle’s design editor, also made the trip last Saturday and brought a camera to photo document the experience.

Porsches. Pastel polos. Poodles. Premium Beer. Patrick Dempsey.

Quick: name that sporting event.

No, it’s not a golf tournament at Pinehurst. It was the Bosh Engineering 250, a GRAND-AM sports car race in Alton, Va this past Saturday.

As I alluded to in my preview post last night, GRAND-AM racing is not your typical motorsports experience. While NASCAR may own the company, the atmosphere and the fans could not be more different.  Don’t come looking for the redneck South, complete with American pickup trucks and cheap beer. Instead, you will find expensive sports cars accompanied by men and women who look like they are headed to a golf tournament, not a motorsports race.

This is not your NASCAR crowd. Nor is this the setup you would see at a NASCAR event.

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GRAND-AM sports car racing…and McDreamy too

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Laura Keeley, a columnist for The Chronicle’s opinion pages, had the chance to travel to Alton, Va. for the Bosch Engineering 250, a race on the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal. Charlie Lee, The Chronicle’s design editor, also made the trip last Saturday and brought a camera to photo document the experience.

What do you think of when you hear the words “sports car racing?” Well, if you are like me, you think of NASCAR and the redneck festival that is a NASCAR race (never been to one? You are missing out on a true life experience, my friend). So when the sports editor, Gabe Starosta, pitched the idea of someone going to this race last Saturday and writing a column about it, I jumped at the chance. As Charlie and I navigated down one-lane backroads the entire trip, I was fully expecting GRAND-AM racing to be NASCAR’s similarly appearing younger cousin, or something like that.

Boy was I wrong.

Instead of an endless field of RVs and pick up trucks full of beer-bellied men drinking cheap beer, we saw rows after rows of ridiculously nice sports cars – BMWs, Porsches, Corvettes, Mustangs and more – with men in polo shirts drinking imported beers as their wives held their cute expensive designer lap dogs. Needless to say, my initially expected stereotype was shattered quickly.

Oh yeah, and I met Patrick Dempsey, aka Dr. McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy, because he is a driver on the series. Gabe failed to mention that in the pitch. No big deal.

Below are some of the pictures Charlie snapped throughout the day. To get the full story of what exactly GRAND-AM racing is  (and to hear about what Patrick Dempsey and I chatted about!), tune in tomorrow night when I post the full story. You won’t want to miss it.

No large grandstands here. In fact, you can’t see the entire 3.27 mile track from any one vantage point.

Charlie and I decided this was “country club racing.”

Shots like these only furthered that notion.

A certain Dr. McDreamy’s car…



Top 10 worst reasons for Kyle Singler to return to Duke

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Joe Drews’ column today listed some (pretty good) reasons that Kyle Singler should come back to Duke next year — jersey retirement, the chance to win a second national championship, etc. I’m quasi-uniquely qualified to aid Singler in this decision, seeing how I actually decided to turn down NBA millions an awesome job on Wall Street traveling the world a chance to live in my old room at my parents’ house and return to Durham for four years of medical school after finishing my first four years at Duke.

So as the junior forward continues his decision-making process, I thought I’d make a different list — the top 10 worst reasons for Singler to return to school:

  1. The chance to go out on top!
  1. Joe Drews says you should come back.
  2. You won’t have any time to do artwork in the League because you’ll be too busy playing video games.
  3. Maybe we’ll get someone better than Jay-Sean and Flogging Molly for Last Day of Classes next year.
  4. Duke’s locker room is probably nicer than most NBA locker rooms.
  5. You’d have the chance to play in the CBI Tournament in Kansas City next year. You’ve always wanted to go to Kansas City!
  6. Jeff Bzdelik might be Wake Forest’s basketball coach next year. You’ve always wanted to meet a guy whose last name started with the letters B and Z in succession.
  7. New Ruth’s Chris location near Southpoint!
  8. You’ll have a chance to learn even more of the secrets of Twitter from Twitter King @Ndotsmitty
  9. Two words: Loop Milkshake.
  10. Two more: Cosmic Cantina. (This actually might be a good reason to return to school, considering that it was one of the key factors motivating me to come back here for med school.)

Anyway, here’s some real advice for Singler: Surround yourself with people you trust, listen to them and then do what’s best for you. Congratulations on the national championship, and good luck with whatever choice you make.

Schadenfreude: Arceneaux Edition?

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Last night, North Carolina lost in the ACC Tournament and was semi-officially eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. It’s okay if you didn’t watch, since Thursday at the ACC Tournament only kind of counts.

Two nights ago, coincidentally, Weber State lost to Montana in the Big Sky Conference final, behind a 42-point performance for the ages from Montana’s dishwasher-turned-superstar Anthony Johnson. (It’s not okay if you didn’t watch. Seriously, do not continue reading this blog post until you watch the highlight.) Unfortunately for Weber State, the Big Sky Conference regular season champions, that loss cost them a berth in the NCAA Tournament. However, due to a change in the NIT selection process prior to the 2006 season, any team that wins its conference in the regular season but fails to earn a place in the Big Dance is automatically selected for the NIT. So Weber State has that going for them, which is nice.

But here’s what’s also nice: Way back in 1999, a former JUCO player named Harold “The Show” Arceneaux turned in one of the most memorable performances in NCAA Tournament history as 14th-seeded Weber State upset third-seeded North Carolina. Arceneaux scored 20 of his 36 points in the second half, all while wearing a spectacular purple-accented 90s uniform.

Wouldn’t an NIT loss to Weber State just be the perfect end to UNC’s season?