Sports Monday
Overdone
Patriotism
Mars Game
The madness extended far
beyond the halfdme show, the
intermittent commercials and
even the ridiculous, overwrought
pregame celebration.
In fact, the lunacy that preceded
Super Bowl XXXVI - soon to be
known forever as the “Patriotism
Bowl” - started with the celebrities
who, for some still-unknown reason,
were asked their championship picks
by ESPN.com.
Take the
esteemed (ahem)
senior senator
from the
Commonwealth
of Massachusetts,
Edward
Kennedy. Why,
Ted, will New
England bring
home a title to
the six-state
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OFF WAIVERS
region for the first time since the Boston
Celtics reigned supreme in 1986?
“This year of all years, a team with
the name ‘Patriots’ has an extra advan
tage that can make all the difference.”
Of course. The logic and wisdom
behind the words of the learned
Kennedy ring so true, no?
Well, if you can’t trust a Kennedy,
surely you’ll acknowledge the wit of
Miss America herself, Katie Harman,
who said she picked the Patriots
because “I’m Miss America, and I’m
feeling very patriotic.”
Again, the intelligence and com
mon sense of a true American repre
sentative like Harman bring a star
spangled glow to my true-blue heart.
But so it went, with luminaries as
important as Carrot Top to those as
respected in their fields as Leeza
Gibbons spouting off their views as to
why the obviously all-American
Patriots would win the Super Bowl.
Although the Pats did come
through with the greatest Super Bowl
win in history, why was there this
commonality in the responses of the
nation’s intelligentsia? More impor
tandy, why did the Super Bowl - at its
heart, only a game - become a pseu
do-symbol of the American spirit?
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the sports
world has responded in various ways,
from publicly appealing for blood
donation to postponing and even can
celling various games and events.
At the World Series, the national
anthem and the seventh-inning-stretch
singing of “God Bless America”
became poignant reminders of the
events that ripped the innocence and
naivete from the United States.
But Sunday, there was something
about the blatant, overdone patriotism
showed at New Orleans’ Superdome
that smacked of overzealousness - or
maybe even exploitation.
Maybe it was the power quintet of
Yolanda Adams, James Ingram, Patti
Labelle, Barry Manilow and Wynonna
belting out a melange of patriotic
favorites while seemingly thousands of
flags adorned the field.
Maybe it was the eerie, endless
march of women dressed in red, white
or blue Statue of Liberty costumes,
replete with fake torch in hand.
Maybe it was the steady stream of
children dressed as the “common
American,” or the little boy in fatigues
who rang a large, faux Liberty Bell.
Maybe it was the soft-focus, over
dramatic reading of the Declaration of
Independence by football greats and
former presidents.
But most likely, it was at the end of
the one moment that actually struck a
chord deep in my heart that I realized
how insulting and ridiculous the out
ward celebration actually was.
While Bono’s raspy voice blared
through “Where the Streets Have No
Name,” an imposing, telling list lifted
from the stage at midfield. The seem
ingly never-ending cloth bore the
names of those killed on Sept. 11.
It was a moment in which the hor
ror of the mindless violence came
rushing back, making me pause and
question my initial skepticism.
But at the end of the song, the cur
tain dropped. And I’ll be damned if a
corporate logo -a red, white and blue
E'TRADE logo, to be exact - didn’t
pop up on the television screen.
After all, nothing’s more patriotic
than online personal financial services.
lan Gordon can be reached at
igordon@email.unc.edu.
Swimming Sweeps State in Finale
By Jamie Agim
Assistant Sports Editor
The last home meet of the season for the
North Carolina swimming and diving teams left
some team members feeling emotionally spent.
Unfortunately for
N.C. State, it had little
to do with the actual
competition.
On Friday’s Senior
Day, both the UNC
Men’s
Swimming
N.C. State ....94.5
UNC 193.5
men’s and women’s teams made quick work of
their Wolfpack coun
terparts. The No. 12
women were victori
ous 179-112, while the
No. 21 men cruised to
a 193.5-94.5 win.
Women’s
Swimming
N.C. State 112
UNC 179
All-American Katie Hathaway’s last meet at
Koury Natatorium was somewhat routine. Her
times in 100- and 200-
yard breakstroke wins
didn’t come close to
beating her own school
records, but considering
the emotion of the
Tar Heel Diving
Team Quietly
Enjoys Success
See Page 7
meet, they might as well have been world records.
“My head was in about 100 different places
Akins, Tech Sting UNC After Half
Tony Akins scored 22 points after halftime
to help Georgia Tech send UNC to a 86-74
loss and the bottom of the ACC standings.
By Rachel Carter
Senior Writer
ATLANTA - North Carolina guard Brian Morrison sat
stonefaced in front of his temporary locker at Alexander
Memorial Coliseum. He tilted his head slightly to ask a
reporter, “How many points did he
have in the second half?”
“22.”
He was Georgia Tech’s Tony
Akins, who exploded for 22 points
and four assists in the second half of
Saturday’s men’s basketball game to lead the Yellowjackets
to a 86-74 victory against the Tar Heels in front of 6,550.
The loss dropped UNC (6-13,2-7 in the ACC) into a tie for
last place in the conference with Georgia Tech (8-14,2-7) and
Clemson (11-11,2-7). It also could be a possible derailment of
a two-game stretch where the Tar Heels had been doing things
better.
“I don’t think that is a fair game to measure our improve
ment by today,” said UNC coach Matt Doherty. “We just
played less than 36 hours ago against a tough Duke team and
had to turn around and play an active Georgia Tech team.
“I’m not making any excuses for our team today, but at the
same time, I looked at this game on the schedule early this
year and knew that it was going to be a tough one to play.”
The Tar Heels lost to top-ranked Duke 87-58 on Thursday, but
shot 50 percent from the floor. Against Clemson onjan 27, UNC
hit 55.4 percent of its shots and only turned the ball over 10 times.
It took almost 2 1/2 minutes for North Carolina to make a
basket Saturday after missing its first three shots. Melvin Scott’s
3-pointer was the first of five the Tar Heels would make to
build a 15-9 lead with 12:52 remaining in the first half.
Georgia Tech closed the gap and then took a 18-17 lead on
a Marvin Lewis layup. Tech stretched its lead to as many as
seven before a 16-8 North Carolina put the Tar Heels on top
as the half ended. It was only the sixth time all year that UNC
entered its locker room on top.
As the Yellowjackets entered theirs, Akins had a dismal
line. One of 9 from the floor, 0 of 5 from behind the arc. Six
points. Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt told his leading scor
er to keep his head up.
“Basically, (he said,) ‘Have confidence,”’ said Akins, who
averaged 15.8 points a contest going into Saturday’s game.
“‘Just play basketball. Keep the team together.’”
Said Hewitt after the game: “He’s going to keep shooting.
See MEN'S BASKETBALL, Page 7
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DTH/BRIAN CASSEI.LA
UNC's Caroline Hill topped N.C. State's Loni Worsley 6-1,3-6,6-3 to help the Tar Heels sweep
the Wolfpack 7-0 on Sunday at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. North Carolina is now 3-0.
today,” Hathaway said. “I
didn’t think I was going to
cry at all, but at the begin
ning of the meet, I started
to get a little emotional."
Hathaway was hardly
the only one feeling the
emotion of Senior Day.
“It’s emotional for old
farts as well as other peo
ple,” said UNC coach
Frank Comfort. “I’ve never
taken her great swimming
for granted. We’ve been
fortunate to have her.”
Sophomore Jessi
Perruquet added two indi-
vidual wins for the Tar Heel women (7-2,4-1 in
the ACC), who saw just about everything go
their way.
The only downside to the win against the
Wolfpack (3-4,2-3) was the impromptu “senior
relay” team of Hathaway, Jennie Gardner,
Stefanie Rulis and Molly Sullivan placing a
mere second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
“We went and asked Frank, ‘Do you mind if
we do a senior relay?’” Hathaway said. “But we
weren’t just doing it to win. We were just swim
ming to swim together.”
—iSL_ ,
Hen’s Basketball
UNC .........74
Georgia Tech . .86
DTH/KARA ARNDT
UNC's Jackie Manuel (right) scrambles after a loose ball with Georgia Tech's Tony Akins.
Manuel scored four points in 19 minutes in the Tar Heels' 86-74 loss Saturday afternoon.
The UNC men (5-4, 3-2) were more busi
nesslike in dismantling the Wolfpack (3-4, 2-3).
After being upended by underdog Clemson in
their Jan. 13 opener, the Tar Heels weren’t tak
ing a win against a lesser opponent for granted.
“That loss really hit home and made us real
ize there are other teams out there gunning for
us big time,” said Michael Chenier, who won
the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. “Meets
like this are taken very seriously now.”
Said Comfort: “That (meet) was in the back of
my mind. I was whiny and aggravated this morn
ing with my coaches. I wanted to get started.”
The Tar Heels got the start they wanted.
UNC won 10 of the meet’s first 12 events before
swimming the last two races as exhibition heats.
Sophomore Sean Quinn led the men, winning
both the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes.
Despite hitting their strides against the
Wolfpack, UNC has some fine tuning to do
before heading to Maryland for the ACC tour
naments later this month.
“We’re starting to rest and get our tapered
practices in now," Chenier said. “The majority of
the work is done but the technical stuff can still be
improved on. We’ve got plenty of work to do.”
The Sports Editor can be reached at
sports@unc.edu.
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UNC senior
Katie Hathaway
won the 100- and
200-yard
breaststrokes in her
final home meet.
Tennis Passes ACC Test
By Aaron Fitt
Assistant Sports Editor
The box score made it look like'a blowout.
But the 7-0 score didn’t tell the whole story of the
North Carolina women’s tennis team’s victory against
N.C. State on Sunday at Cone-Kenfield Tennis
Center. For the first time this season, the 17th-ranked
Tar Heels were tested.
“I think it’s very impor
tant, especially before
national indoors, to be
tested a little bit,” said
UNC coach Jen Callen.
“And (State) definitely came out very strong today.”
The top two doubles teams for North Carolina
(3-0,1-0 in the ACC) faced stiffer competition than
they saw in their first two matches of the season, but
they still pulled away. Marlene Mejia and Aniela
Mojzis escaped a late rally to defeat Katrina
Gildemeister and Kristin Nicholla 8-4.
At the No. 2 doubles spot, UNC’s Julie Rotondi
and Kate Pinchbeck had early trouble with their
Track Team
Finds Success
In Arkansas
North Carolina thrower
Sal Gigante (left) and
the rest of the UNC
track and field team
fared well at the Tyson
Invitational this
weekend. See Page 5.
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DTH/KATE MELLNIK
UNC diver Stephen Krebs twists his way to a win in
the 1-meter springboard against N.C. State on Friday.
State counterparts. But the duo went to a finesse
game and won 8-3.
The No. 3 doubles match was the most compet
itive contest of the day. UNC’s Kendall Cline and
Lee Bairos came from behind to take an 8-7 lead,
butjen Jassawalla and Loni Worsley won the next
game to tie the match. In the tiebreaker, Bairos got
her overheads going and Cline came up with an ace
to win the match for the Tar Heels, 9-8 (8-3).
“We started off a little bit slow,” Cline said. “I
didn’t really have a great serving game, so we were
down a break from the get-go. But I feel really safe
with Lee up at net, because pretty much anything
that comes back she’s going to demolish.”
Bairos brought her strong serve-and-volley game
to the singles side, making quick work ofjassawalla,
6-2, 6-0. Mojzis and Pinchbeck also cruised, win
ning 6-0,6-2 and 6-1, 6-0 respectively.
In the longest match of the day, UNC’s Caroline
Hill outlasted Worsley in a three-set marathon, 6-1,
3-6, 6-3. Hill got frustrated in the second set and
See WOMEN'S TENNIS, Page 5
Women's Tennis
N.C. State 0
UNC .........7
INSIDE:
■ Gymnastics places
third in four-team
Maryland event.
Page 5
■ Wrestlers win two
road matches. Page 5
■ Texas tops UNC in
tennis. Page 5
Tech 'D'
Smothers
Lang, UNC
By James Giza
Senior Writer
ATLANTA - A quick glance at the
sheet of paper lying in front of an NBA
scout sitting on press row Saturday
revealed the trio of players that he, pre
sumably, had his eye on.
The players listed second and third
on the scout’s list - Georgia Tech guard
Tony Akins and North Carolina forward
Jason Capel - might have boosted their
stock somewhat with their perfor
mances in the Yellowjackets’ 86-74 win.
But the man at the head of the dock
et, Kris Lang, probably wished he could
have gotten another chance to flaunt his
stuff at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Feeling the crunch from Tech’s phys
ical inside play, Lang was held scoreless
in the second half and tied a season-low
with four points on 2-of-6 shooting.
Lang, who had averaged 17.2 points
in his six previous outings, also was
bothered by foul trouble, which limited
him to a total of 24 minutes.
“We had a hard time getting the ball
in to Kris,” said UNC coach Matt
Doherty. “When we did they jammed it
pretty good.”
Tech coach Paul Hewitt said he sim
plified his team’s defensive scheme to
neutralize Lang, who scored 13 points,
grabbed 13 rebounds and opened up the
Tar Heels’ perimeter game in their win
against the Yellowjackets on Dec. 2.
“Simplifying things made us a little bit
more aggressive,” said Hewitt, who rotat
ed fresh bodies in at a near constant pace.
Six-foot-7 forward Ed Nelson was pri-
See LANG, Page 7
10