The North Carolina Tar Heels are the 2009 National Champions.

Thanks for a great year, guys.  I’m going to miss this team.

The North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball team plays for the national championship on Monday, having put away a very good team from Villanova last night.  I’ve been a Tar Heel fan for many decades.  But I’ve never enjoyed a group of players as much as I do this team.  Obviously, the team gets strong leadership and support from a great group of juniors, including Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, and Deon Thompson.  But this senior class–Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, and Mike Copeland–is an historically special group.

How good is this group of seniors?

• They have won at least 30 games three seasons in a row–first time in Carolina history.
• They have won 100 games in three seasons–first time in Carolina history.
• They have won 123 games in four seasons–tied for best in Carolina history.  The senior class needs one more win–just one more–to make them the winningest class in Carolina history.
• Danny Green has played in 122 wins–more than any other player in Carolina history.
• Tyler Hansbrough has scored more points than any player in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference and more free throws than any player in the history of college basketball.
• The senior class has won three regular season ACC titles and two ACC tournament championships.
• They have won four times at Duke.

The only thing this group of seniors has not done is play for a national championship.  They now get to do this on Monday.

About Monday’s game, Danny Green said:  “It’s our last game.  We have nothing else to play for.”

In 2005, Tyler Hansbrough was a senior in high school, signed on to play college basketball for the University of North Carolina.  On April 4 of that year, he sat in the stands as a fan and watched North Carolina beat a fantastic team from the University of Illinois to win the national title.

After the Villanova win last night, Hansbrough said, “I remember watching all the excitement afterwards.  I talked to Marvin and Sean and Jackie and I saw how much winning the championship changed their life. It was exciting to be in high school and know I was walking into that kind of program. I’ve thought about what it would be like to do that myself. A night like that has been on my mind ever since I’ve been at Carolina.”

Monday night is this North Carolina senior class’s opportunity for a “night like that.”

And now it’s time to get very serious about Tar Heel basketball.  

North Carolina plays Oklahoma today, a school that’s been on my personal radar all year.  I don’t think of it as the Hansbrough-Griffin game–more like the Carolina-Griffin game, as Oklahoma has relied on Blake Griffin for most of its offense this year.  Their freshman point guard, Willie Warren, is good but no Ty Lawson. Tony Crocker can have big games (like he did against Syracuse), but Wayne Ellington should be able to keep him under control.  Taylor Griffin brings senior maturity to an otherwise pretty young team.  

Carolina should win this game.  Carolina has more offensive power than Oklahoma, and they’ve been playing excellent team basketball so far in the tournament.  Oklahoma has two players who average in the double-figures; Carolina has five.  Oklahoma tends to turn the ball over, and Carolina is terrific in transition.  However, it will take strong defensive play for 40 minutes and solid games from Hansbrough, Ellington, Lawson, and Green to get past this Oklahoma team.  When those four click at the same time, Carolina can’t be beat.  Thompson and Davis both also will need to play hard underneath, and Frasor will need to bring his high-energy defense.

One interesting stat comparison worth watching in this game:  Hansbrough shoots 86% from the free throw line; Blake Griffin shoots 60%.  Griffin actually gets to the foul line more often than Hansbrough, but Hansbrough makes more free throws.

We’re at that point in the season where every possession matters, and watching a game like this is like watching the final 30 seconds for 2 hours.  It’s exhausting.

And I love it.

You really have to wonder what’s happened to this guy.  Compare the short video below with the longer, more incoherent one below that. In case you’re confused, these are the same person.

Okay, so it was not a screaming success.

Essentially, too much brown sugar made it too sweet, and too much liquid made it too runny.  On this recipe, cut the brown sugar down to 1/4 cup, and add only 1/2 a can of beef broth.

It also was not very spicy, which was fine for some in the house, but I tend to like a bit of a kick.  Next time, I won’t remove the seeds from the jalapeno peppers.

It was a great game, however.  The Cardinals scored 16 points in the final eight minutes of the game to take the lead but allowed the Steelers to score a winning touchdown with 35 seconds left.  The Cardinals had a shot at the win, but a fumble essentially ended the game.

Here’s this year’s Super Bowl chili recipe.  We’ll see how it goes, what needs adjustment, etc., and will make any changes in the next blog entry.  I am cooking this in a slow cooker.

2 medium onions
3 cloves garlic
1.5 lbs lean ground beef
1 lb lean ground pork
3 pieces thick-slab bacon, cooked chopped, plus 2 tbsp bacon fat
1 28 oz. can whole tomatos
1/2 can tomato paste
1 can red kidney beans
1 can beef broth
2 large carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
2 poblano peppers, seeded and chopped
4 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp rosemary
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed 

Saute the onions and garlic until golden.  Add the beef and pork and brown.

Add everything else.

Slow-cook on high for 2 hours, then turn to low for four hours.

Makes 10-12 servings.

A lot of you write in to me and say, “Hey, Tim.  How about sharing your recipe for your famous seven-layer dip?”  I’ve been so inundated with requests for this recipe, that I figured I would finally post it.

Ingredients:

• 1 can refried beans (I use fat-free)
• 1 container Breakstone Sour Cream (I definitely don’t use fat-free)
• Guacamole
• 1 head lettuce, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• cheddar cheese, finely shredded
• Salsa (I use Newman’s Own, Medium)

In a small pan, heat up the refried beans.  While that’s heating up, chop up your lettuce and tomato.

Spoon the heated-up refried beans into the bottom of a glass (transparent) dish.  Let this cool slightly before proceeding to the next step.  Otherwise, you’ll cook the lettuce.

Add a layer of chopped lettuce.  

Add a layer of chopped tomato.

Add a layer of guacamole.  Now, you can, of course, purchase pre-made guacamole, but I prefer to make mine, combining avocados, red onion, cilantro, lime (or lemon) juice, a small amount of chopped tomato (which is a bit redundant in this dish, but you get the idea), about a teaspoon of chili powder, a little salt, and a bit of pepper.  Try hard to keep this layer smooth, and don’t let it smear the glass dish.

Add a layer of  sour cream.  Do this carefully, so it remains a separate layer from the guacamole.  

Add a layer of shredded cheddar cheese.

Top with salsa.

Place two large serving spoons in either side of the dish, and serve with tortilla chips.  And remember:  the name of this dish is Tim’s Famous Seven-Layer Dip.

Enjoy!

It’s funny, but I’ve always considered “Superbowl” to be one word. “Are you going to watch the Superbowl?” “Went to a great Superbowl Party last night.” “The Cardinals haven never been to a Superbowl.” I mean, when you think about it, it’s not a bowl that’s super and, unlike the college bowl games, there’s only one of them. I know, I know, one easily could argue that if Superbowl is one word, then Orangebowl and Sugarbowl and Southerncaliforniastyledcornchipsanddipbowl and all the others should be as well. But somehow, I’ve treated Superbowl differently.

Firefox agrees with me. If you type “superbowl” in a Web form, it puts those familiar red squiggles beneath the word and tells you the S must be capitalized–”Superbowl”–for the word to be legitimate. Microsoft, however, is pretty adamant that “Superbowl” is not a word, even if the S is capitalized. When you type the word “Superbowl,” Microsoft offers two alternatives to correct what it perceives to be your misspelling.

1. Super bowl. As in: “My, what a super bowl.”

2. Superb owl. As in: “My, what a superb owl.”

Personally, I found the latter mildly amuzing. “Are you going to watch the superb owl?” “Went to a great superb owl party last night.” “The cardinals have never been to a superb owl.” Okay, that last one doesn’t work so well, but you get the idea.

Naturally, owls can be superb; I remember seeing a superb owl at Corkscrew Swamp in Florida a few years ago. But that doesn’t make it any less funny. At least, I don’t think so.

One last note: I just ran WordPress’s spellcheck against this post. It allowed “Superbowl,” but not “superbowl.”

Today is November 11.

As I was growing up, I routinely would see 11:11 on the clock.  I would be watching television, reading a book, lying in bed, doing homework … something.  I would look at the clock for the first time in an hour or more, and it would be 11:11.  Not every time, of course, but the time 11:11 seemed almost to haunt me.  Although it’s possible I saw times such as 9:26 just as frequently, it certainly did not seem so.

Step forward to my early thirties.  My wife and I had a new child and a new Honda Civic.  We were driving the Honda Civic on a Maine country road with our new-born in the back.  We approached a two-lane bridge that arched in the center so that you could not see the other side.  I looked down at the odometer–I don’t know why.  We had driven the car 111.1 miles.  I looked up at the approaching bridge and moved the Civic over to the right as far as it would go.  As we got near the crest of the bridge, a truck came at us from the other direction, his left tires crossing the center line into our lane.  Had I not moved over, we may have collided.  Had I not noticed the mileage, I may not have moved over.

The silly thought occurred to me at that moment that all those times I had seen 11:11 earlier in my life simply were preparing me for that day, as if all those clocks were telling me to remember this time, these numbers, which some day would be important.  Silly thought, huh?

It’s Veteran’s day today, so my office is closed.  I’m at work nevertheless, trying to take advantage of the quiet to get some work done.  This morning, after working for several hours, I received an email from a colleague asking whether we could set up a meeting for tomorrow.  I reached for my iPhone to check my calendar.  When I pressed the On button, the iPhone displayed the time in large numbers.  It was, of course, 11:11.

No matter what your politics or how you feel about Keith Olbermann, I would like to hear anyone raise an argument against this plea.