UNC-DUKE RUNNING DIARY

8:06: Heels win the tip. Deon Thompson scores the first bucket. Look out. I thought he disappeared from the team. Like literally. 

8:09: I want you to know that my snack of the night is Cheez-Its. And my drink is Sprite. Got to obey my thirst.   

8:11: The teams made their first eight shots combined. Lot of energy in the building. 

8:13: We take our first commercial with 15:48 to go in the first half. Heels up 14-6. Duke has had three sloppy turnovers on bad passes. Not a good sign for them. Probably nerves. This is the greatest rivalry in sports. 

8:16: Coach K is already playing the bitching game with the refs. Whine. Whine. Whine. That's the Coach K way. (FYI: He did not have a legitimate argument. Big surprise, I know.) 

8:19: Thompson has eight points. Say what? Don't be surprised if he now vanishes. 

8:20: Bobby Frasor knocks down a 3. I have a special place in my heart for him. He's been struggling with his shot. That make me sad. 

8:23: Second commercial. 10:52 to play. UNC 28, Duke 18. Just like McDonald's, I'm lovin' it. This looks like a good place to tell you about my mocking of the Duke Crazies. They chant constantly: Let's go Duke. Let's go Duke. It can get aggravating. So I started a chant to drain them out. Fuck up, Duke. Fuck up, Duke. 

8:25: Where's Erin Andrews? I want Erin on the sideline. Major buzzkill. Speaking of buzzkills, I wish there was a button that kept crowd noise but deleted the announcers. I hate Vitale. 

8:34: Third timeout. 6:32. UNC 34, Duke 33. If this is a heavyweight fight, that round clearly went to the Blue Devils. It seems to me like Duke is playing offense against five chairs. What with all the blow-bys and easy floaters with no defenders around. 

8:40. Fourth timeout. Duke 40, UNC 36. Ellington's off. Tyler hasn't been effective. Doesn't appear like we're hustling. Which is doubly bad because the Devils are hustling their asses off. It doesn't help that they can't miss. 

8:54: Mike Patrick says that Jim Caple made a long shot to win a game in this rivalry. I mentioned Monday that many people probably think this. I assumed the ESPN announcer that's done these games for 10+ years would know the Heels won the game. 

8:55: Oh, it's halftime. The Devils are up 52-44. They killing us. Flat out killing. 

9:12: Singler hits Tyler with an elbow. Probably not on purpose. Situation diffused nicely by the refs. We'll take the two free points. 

9:20: First timeout of 2nd half. 15:26. Duke 58, UNC 56. Duke has missed all five 3-point attempts in the half. Yet it still felt like the Devils won the opening round of the half. 

9:26: One-point game. This could be a classic. My heart is pounding.

9:29: We're reminded for the 16th time tonight that Tyler is 3-0 at Cameron Indoor. He's trying to join Tim Duncan in the 4-0 club as a visitor. 

9:31: Second timeout. 10:16. UNC 69, Duke 65. The last sequence had me standing and clapping. Ellington hit a 3. He's really played well in the second half. Then, we hustled, got a loose ball and scored underneath. Also, Roy was yelling at Tyler and berating him. That was shocking to see. I thought he loved him. 

9:33: Before we get started up again, one advantage the Hells are supposed to have is rebounding. But the Devils have gotten a lot of second chances. Not good. 

9:40: Third timeout. 7:59. UNC 73, Duke 69. Lawson has been impressive in the second half. He's getting to the basket and creating havoc for the Devils. Gerald Henderson sure can jump. 

9:43: Tyler goes to the foul line for the first time. Makes 1 of 2. Magic number to tie the all-time record for makes is now 21. 

9:45: Lawson goes on a 4-0 run. HE IS AWESOME!

9:48: Tyler for 3. Heels up 12. Nothing but net at the shot-clock buzzer. Marcus? 

9:53: Last timeout. 3:42 to play. UNC 87, Duke 71. Two reasons for the 16-point margin. 1) Duke's only made one 3 in the second half. 2) Lawson took over the game. I had the same question as Patrick just now: How many layups has Lawson made in the second half? 

10:03: Uh, guys. We're up big. We just rushed two possessions and fouled a 3-point shooter. 1:29 to go. UNC 92, Duke 84.

10:12: Tyler makes two foul shots. Magic number is 19. 

10:14: Tyler makes one foul shot. Magic number is 18. 

10:15: UNC 101, Duke 87. FOUR YEARS IN A ROW. 

THE TINA CURSING CORNER

When I arrived home Wednesday morning, I noticed the interior light in my mom's car on. I turn it off and tell her when she wakes up. "Oh, fuck. Now, it's not going to start. ... Fuck. Motherfuck me." (It started.)

The mail comes. "Look at all this bullshit." There's some Best Buy coupons. Mom looks at them. The coupons are good from Feb. 13 to Feb. 16. "It's only for three fucking days." (Of course, it's for four days. But I wasn't going to tell her that.) 

Mom thinks the FBI woman agent on 24 almost has what it takes to be like Jack. "She could be a badass if her fucking boss didn't have her using her conscience all the time." 

FOUR CORNERS

A closer look at The Gene Pool World.

-- A couple weeks ago, Liam asked me: "How long do you stay here at night?" I responded pretty late sometimes. Then, I decided to chart my leaving time for two weeks. Keep in mind we're usually done during the week at 11:15, 10:50 on Saturdays and 10:15 on Sundays. Here are the results: (The day listed is the day of the shift.)

Jan. 29: 12:41 p.m.

Jan. 30: 2:31 a.m.

Jan. 31: 12:52 p.m.

Feb. 1: 11:50 p.m.

Feb. 3: 3:19 a.m.

Thursday: 1:03 a.m. 

Saturday: 11:30 p.m.

Sunday: 1:03 a.m. (Not a misprint.) 

Monday: 12:25 a.m.

Tuesday: 2:08 a.m.

-- On Saturday night, I went to Bruno's for the first time this year. I met Greg. We had a couple of Red Stripes and some cheese fries. So good. 

-- The police were called to Carolyn Dr. on Wednesday. Two cop cars showed up. One parked right next to Tina's car. What was the big emergency? Drum roll please. A stray dog. 

No one knew the owner or where the dog came from, and there were four neighbors huddled in the street deciding what to do before calling the cops. One of the cops ushered the dog into the back of his patrol car and drove off. Crisis averted. Crisis averted. 

The other cop asked me if I had seen the dog earlier. 

Me: Nope. 

Cop: Damn. We're getting nowhere with this. (Ah, the crazy life of a Harahan cop.) 

-- Favre retired. This time probably for good. And we'll all remember his final game, right? Three interceptions against the Dolphins as the Fish clinched the AFC East. Oh, memories. Brett, I won't miss you. Good riddance. I fart in your general direction. 

PARTING SHOT

Marcus has a new way to dismiss the troops at the end of a shift.

Marcus: Instead of Do goobs, it's now Do blogs.

THE DAILY TOP LIST 

My five favorite shows that got the axe.

5) Teachers.

Charming show about high school teachers created by a co-executive producer of Scrubs. Lasted six episodes. You might say it flunked out. 

4) Pushing Daisies.

Murder-solving show featuring a guy with the ability to wake the dead for one minute. Wonderful production value. Created by a co-executive producer of Heroes. Critically acclaimed but not high ratings. ABC replaced it this spring with two hours of Lost instead of one.  

3) Stella.

Off-the-wall comedy that requires a certain sense of humor. Comedy Central replaced it with the Mind of Mencia. Which, uh, was not funny. 

2) The Class.

Nice complement to How I Met Your Mother on CBS Mondays. Took off on the fourth episode and kept rolling through a full season. Not renewed because CBS execs must be brain dead. They replaced it with The Big Bang Theory, which I like to describe as almost funny. 

1) Journeyman. 

Awesome sci-fi time traveling show. About seven times in the 13 episodes, I declared an episode the best one. But it just kept getting better. NBC replaced it with My Own Worst Enemy, which then got cancelled after 13 episodes.