Things that suck, but in a good way (Warning: sports content)

Something special happened last night: Dook lost for the first time in the ACC/Big Ten (11)* Challenge. Up until the No. 5 Dookies ran into the unranked, but hot-shooting Badgers (who also played some stifling D as well) they were the only team to never lose in the 10 years of this kinda-sorta made for ESPN sporting event.

Even though Dook’s loss, for the first time, handed the Big Ten (11) its first-ever “win” in the challenge (six games to five), I can’t help grinning about it like the Tar Heel I am. The Heels held up their end of the deal, beating Michigan State Tuesday night for the third time in a year, including the National Championship game in April.

I’m also smiling because a guy who works for me was, yesterday, going on and on about how good Dook is and how they’re going to beat on Carolina this year. Somehow, after playing UNC Greensboro, Coastal Carolina, UNC Charlotte, Radford, Appalachian State and Connecticut (#13), Dook was ranked fifth in the nation. I could go on and on about the cake non-conference schedule they’re playing and how brutally tough the Heels’ schedule is (beat #15 Ohio, #9 MSU and playing #4 Kentucky Saturday and #2 Texas in two weeks), but I won’t.

I’ll just let this article ironically speak for itself. And, for some laughs, these two NSFW (unless you have some head phones or a door you can close) videos. In case you’ve never seen this video by Peter Rosenberg, it made the rounds a couple of years ago and, in searching for it, I discovered the sequel.

And laughed and laughed and laughed.

This is why you suck



And part deux, "Dook Fan Stan"



Go Heels!

*When the Big Ten added Penn State in 1990, the school in Happy Valley became the conference’s 11th team. The logo changed, incorporating an “11” around the “T” but the name didn’t change.

Going for four in a row...

Despite my best efforts to avoid talking about sports here, well, there's no way I can't not mention tonight's game between the forces of good - the wonderful, beautiful, marvelous North Carolina Tar Heels - and evil - the loathsome Blue Devils from the University of New Jersey at Durham. If you're from New Jersey and I've offended by my implications of a connection between your home state and Dook, well, deal with it. There's a lot of Garden State license plates in the parking lots in Durham.

During my time in Chapel Hill, the Heels had a pretty good run of luck against the Dookies. There were some thrilling games and a good time was had by all. Earlier in the decade, though, Dook got the upper hand and won something like 15 of 17 games. But, in the last three years the pendulum has swung back and Carolina has taken five of the last seven games including three in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium (the Dookies' home court).

That last number is important because, if Carolina wins tonight, it means an entire class of students at Dook will graduate having spent the better part of a year living in tents to see their team lose four times to Carolina. For those of you not familiar with the Dook camping-out ritual for the Carolina game, many of the students at this prestigious "institution of higher learning" have been living in tents for the past two months to get into the game tonight.

I consider myself a sports fan, but seriously? Two months in a tent for basketball tickets? I've spent three months in a tent, but I had a pretty good reason (mid-January through mid-April 1991). It's almost like the Dookies are trying to prove to themselves and everyone else they're better fans.

They are creative, I'll grant that. More annoying? Absolutely and without a doubt (I dare you to Google "Duke + Speedo Man"). But are they better fans because they suffer for their coveted riser space at Cameron? I don't think so.

In closing, I'd just like to say:

Go Heels!