Final obstacles

Although they held a groundbreaking ceremony last month an obstacle or two still remains between the Nets and their long discussed Brooklyn arena. Nets President Rod Thorn admits that there are still tenants on the land included in the project's footprint. The state of New York will likely unconstitutionally kick those folks out of their homes via eminent domain. (The law of the land now allows the wealthy and powerful to remove the less fortunate, forcibly if necessary, from their homes when convenient and/or fiscally beneficial.)

Also, the NBA Board of Governors, which rapidly approved the sale of the Charlotte Bobcats to a group led by Michael Jordan, despite his reputed gambling issues, is still investigating the Russian oligarch, billionaire nickel baron Mikhail Prokhorov, who intends to buy the Nets and finance the move to Brooklyn.

Going to the playoffs, get a Tar Heel!

The NBA contenders and playoff bound teams have been stockpiling University of North Carolina Tar Heels.


Among the fistful of Tar Heels acquired by playoff contenders, Antawn Jamison stands tall.

It started with the Boston Celtics off-season signing of Rasheed Wallace and the Orlando Magic's marquee addition of Vince Carter. It peaked with the deadline deal made by the Eastern Conference leading Cleveland Cavaliers for Antawn Jamison. In between, Jerry Stackhouse joined the Milwaukee Bucks, who are surging through the East, 15 and 2 in their last seventeen. Late blooming center Brendan Haywood was traded the Dallas Mavericks, who have climbed the Western Conference standings from middle of the pack, to neck and neck with the Denver Nuggets for the two seed. One other Tarheel who was not moved this year, but figures to make a big impact for a contender, is Atlanta's Marvin Williams. Williams has been steadily filling out physically and rounding out his game. The Hawks mix of veterans and youth make them a dangerous match-up for anybody.

But which Tarheel does the Clarion Content expect to have the biggest impact came playoff time? Can we count Vince Carter's impending mega-flop? No? Guess we will go with Antwan Jamison then, who appears to fit nicely along side LeBron in Cleveland.

Stepping away from infamy

The New Jersey Nets took one giant step away from infamy when they won their ninth game of the season last night. Now they can do no worse than tie the 1972-3 Philadelphia 76ers for the worst mark in NBA history. The Detroit Pistons, who have been coming apart at the seams since assistant G.M. John Hammond took off to the Milwaukee Bucks, were the victims.

For perspective, while 9 and 73 might be a historically bad season, at least the Nets will have some company. Had they gone 8 and 74, they would have been all alone at the bottom of the bottom. If they can some how sneak to 10 and 72, nobody but their own die-hard fans will remember just how awful and ugly they were. For the record they lost their first 18 games and hit the midway point of the season 3 up and 40 down.

How's your bracket?

If your bracket looks like that of the Clarion Content's sports editor than you are probably already finished in your office pool. Well, a local Durham reader and Duke fan alerted us to a story about a boy who is doing just the opposite. A seventeen year-old student at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, Illinois hit both of the first two rounds of his NCAA Tournament bracket 100% correct. His name is Alex Herrmann. Young Mr. Herrmann is autistic. His bracket is on CBS Sportsline. Experts estimate the odds of picking the first two rounds of the NCAA bracket perfectly at over 13 million to one. ESPN's website is currently hosting 4.78 million 2010 NCAA tournament bracket entries none of which got 100% correct.

Nice work, kid.

This is how we do it

An example to children and athletes everywhere, New England Patriots defensive end Ty Warren is turning down his $250,000 off-season workout bonus and returning to college instead. Warren is attending classes at Texas A&M. He says that he has his eye on the potential 2011 NFL lockout. He doesn't want his kids to look at him as a man without a degree, unable to earn a living without football.

Warren says he plans to take five classes this off-season. He has said he is working out every morning, dropping his kids off at school and then heading to school himself. This is the first time in Warren's eight NFL seasons with New England that he will not attend their off-season workout program. Warren is on pace to graduate next Spring.

Read the whole story here at espn.com.

Duke worries

The redoubtable Jon Scheyer

The Clarion Content is an unabashed supporter of Duke basketball and Coach Mike Krzyzewski. We root for Duke. At the beginning of the season the Clarion Content thought, like many other Duke supporters and members of the sports media, that Duke was a good team, but by no means one of the very best Duke teams in Coach K's illustrious history.

The Blue Devils proceeded to have a remarkable season, going 28-5 and sharing the ACC regular season title. The Blue Devils look like a lock for at least a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament, and possibly even a #1 if they can win the ACC tournament final today. Does this mean that they are better than we and the so-called experts thought at the beginning of the season?

For the Clarion Content, the answer is no. This has been one of Coach K's very best coaching jobs. He has gotten the maximum out of this squad. Nolan Smith has developed wonderfully. Kyle Singler has adjusted to his new role. Brian Zoubek has grown by leaps and bounds. But in our view, the heart and soul of the team has been guard Jon Scheyer. Scheyer has been a stalwart all season, he carried the team through the early stretches of the schedule while Singler was adapting to his new position. Scheyer leads the Duke team in both minutes and scoring.

We wonder, however, as the NCAA tournament is about to begin, is Jon Scheyer wearing down? Our answer is an unqualified yes, and that response is at the core of our thinking that says this team is what we thought it was. We would be very surprised to see Duke get past the Elite 8. We would not be shocked by a loss in the Sweet Sixteen.

Scheyer, who has been playing 36 minutes plus per game since the beginning of the season, has continued to get those minutes and more over the final ten games of the year. Unfortunately, his scoring has dropped a bit, and worse his shooting percentage has fallen dramatically. This is frequently a sign of fatigue, wear and tear, tired legs, especially in a terrific, high percentage shooter like Scheyer.

Going into today's ACC final against Georgia Tech, Scheyer had averaged about a point per game below his season average over the last ten. But that was misleadingly augmented by an outstanding performance in the first UNC game. Scheyer has actually failed to reach his season average of points per game in five out of the last eight contests. Worse, only twice in the last ten games has Scheyer matched his season long average for field goal percentage. Scheyer's field goal percentage over the last ten games is a troubling 34.6%. In four of his last eight games, Scheyer hasn't hit even 30% of his field goals.

It is an ominous sign for Duke that their best player, their glue guy, is worn out. It is one of the main reasons why the Clarion Content thinks Duke will be long by the time they are playing the Final Four.

NCAA Tournament expanison

Although the Clarion Content is tepidly in favor of expanding the NCAA basketball tournament, the best quote we have heard about whether or not to expand was actually from a voice opposed to expansion.

"Isn't this whole thing a window into society? We've diminished so many other things. We've diminished test scores. We've diminished admission policies. We diminish so much for reasons that are not accentuating excellence and performance."---Davidson Head Coach, Bob McKillop

Wonderful insight, coach. Yes, this thing is a window into society. It is another reason the Clarion Content has been toying with a theory we like to call, "Is America the new Soviets?" An equally fascinating trend, that is occurring at the same time as the one Coach McKillop pointed out, this faux-inflation that is really devaluing, is the belittling of second place: win or be considered a failure. Neither of these trends is healthy for American society. Sports is but the place where they are most evident. It is symbolic of a cultural erosion that is weakening American society.

Mets omen

Left-handed Braves prospect Jason Heyward is getting rave reviews...

We are going to say no, no this was not a Mets omen, but it is hardly unfair to have the worrisome nagging thought. The Mets played Game One of spring training today, coming off an extraordinarily injury filled year. Pitcher Elmer Dessens took a ball off his right knee and had to leave the game.