"the rucker of the south"

tonight me and the boys went to durham to watch a basketball game. what I thought was just any basketball game was actually part of the nc pro-am basketball league. blah blah blah, still to me, it was just a basketball game. I did know it was going to be pretty darn cool though because harrison barnes, c.j. leslie, and reggie bullock would be playing. along with many others of the state and carolina basketball team. a little pre-season acc matchup. very interesting, indeed.

and then there I was.

and just walking across the campus towards the gym made my pace quicken in attempts to keep up with my anxious heart. ahead of me was a game that feels like home being played for less people then my graduating class. a game that encompasses my childhood and blurred images cloud my mind: watching games standing on the sofas in my living room and then others on the last row of the dean dome. but always standing, screaming, jumping-around you might say. a game that was my first love. especially ever since I met Joseph Forte during my 5th grade fieldtrip.

I regret to say, it being the off-season and me spending the season five hours away made me forget that a little bit.

being in raleigh and chapel hill gives me this slight pang. if there is one thing I am extremly jealous of about not going to carolina, it's their basketball program. though I do thank you, carolina basketball, for sucking the big one this past year and making it a little easier to be missing all the fun. times like winning national championships and wrecking havoc on franklin street is something I dreamed of, especially since freshman year of high school when they beat Illinois by 5.

my dream of living and bleeding blue never quite came true. and at the time I was crushed. but the day I met athens I quickly had a change of heart and now I'd be crushed without georgia, despite their very lacking, but hopefully on-the-rise, basketball program.

basketball was my world. and yet it still is. driving through the streets of chapel hill in the pouring rain, I was reminded I don't have to choose. I still have the few devout fans in athens, like Julianna, supporting and understanding my jaw-dropped gawking as the starting five jog onto the court. I still have tvs where I can watch games and have an advantage during bracketology coming from this basketball-loving state. I've also found a greater appreciation for the games when I am back in the dean dome.

unfortunately tonight the gym was filled to capactiy and we never got in. but we did get to see brendon haywood and c.j. leslie walk right past us, which was awesome.

and speaking of carolina basketball-- I'm currently reading Dean Smith's A Coaching Life, and really love it. he's got some pretty good insight on life. I encourage every Carolina fan to read it.