Tom Talks

Peppers still a Panther, for now

    I was in a restaurant Tuesday when the scroll at the bottom of the television screen reached the rumored  Panthers-Patriots Julius Peppers trade.

   Patrons cheered.

   I don't know when Carolina will trade Peppers. The owners meetings' begin Sunday in California. The draft is the last weekend of April, more than a month away. 

   To make a trade, here's what has to happen. The team and city have to appeal to Peppers and the deal the team offers has to appeal to Carolina. Since Peppers wants to play for only four teams, the odds of a deal being pulled off are probably slim.

   But I still think it happens. I've said that from the beginning and have had knowledgable people try to dissuade me. I'm not dissuaded.

   If the Panthers pay Peppers more than $1 million a game to play defensive end for them next season, I'll be surprised.

Peppers for a 2nd-round pick makes sense

   Julius Peppers is worth more than a second-round draft pick. But that doesn't mean Carolina will be able to trade Peppers for what he's worth. The market defines worth, as anybody who has recently tried to sell a house will attest.

   Sources told Vince Carucci, a columnist for NFL.com, that the Panthers and New England are "likely" to make a trade that would send Peppers to the Patriots for a second-round pick. The Panthers deny it. I was unable to reach anybody in the Peppers camp, a small camp, I must say, to confirm or deny the story.

   But it makes sense to me. 

    If the Panthers retain Peppers, they have to pay him almost $17 million next season. If they do, their disposable income will be disposed of. They will have so little money to spend that it would not be a surprise to drive by Bank of America Stadium and see executives and coaches holding cups in front of signs that say, WILL WORK FOR SALARY CAP SPACE.

   The theory to which disgruntled fans cling that Peppers would not be welcome next season in Carolina is false. Management might be perturbed, but they'll take him back. Fans will hold out their adoration until Peppers makes his first sack. Teammates won't care if Peppers wants to play somewhere else.  A year from now, one of them could be saying the same thing.

   The pick to which Carucci alluded is No. 34 overall. It is a gem of a second-round pick, the second pick of the second round. As deftly as the Panthers have drafted the last two seasons, they certainly will believe they can parlay the pick into first-round talent. The Panthers also have a second-round pick of their own, but it comes 25 picks after New England's.

   Will New England interest Peppers? The Patriots play a 3-4 defense, but the idea that he craves a 3-4 is overrated. He wants to live in a different city and experience different things. Perhaps Boston is that city.

   The Panthers deny the validity of Carucci's report. But he didn't make up the story. Somebody leaked it. Somebody who wanted the story leaked.

Too little Billy, too much Arizona

   Six things about the NCAA basketball tournament:

   (1) College basketball is not the same without Billy Packer. Nobody else was willing to criticize the selection committee, certainly not to its face. Problem with the media is most of us want to be liked. Billy doesn't care. He knows people aren't going to like him. His was the sport's one true independent voice. And now it's gone. And CBS really missed it Sunday night. So did we.

   (2) Arizona and Wisconsin should not be in the tournament. San Diego State and St. Mary's should.

   (3) Does winning a conference tournament or, if you're an underdog, going deep into the conference tournament help you this week? It can. But I think those of you that expect Mississippi State or Florida State to go cruising through the brackets are misguided.

   (4) I hated the Final Four I picked for Monday's newspaper. I don't go in with preconceived notions. I'm like the cliche -- I really do take it a game at a time. And then, when I finish, I want to blow it up and start over. I really tried to pick Villanova to beat Pittsburgh and advance to the Final Four. But couldn't make my fingers hit the proper keys.

   (5) Like everybody else, I wish Davidson had received a bid, but the Wildcats didn't come close. They didn't have the credentials. I had hoped they would play Virginia Tech in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. But Duquesne will play at Virginia Tech instead. That game makes as much as much sense as 19-13 Arizona supplanting San Diego State in the big tournament.

   (6) This is one of the great times of the year to be a sports fan. There will be drama and surprises, decimated brackets and trusted employees watching games on their computers at work. Nobody has figured out a better way to end a season. Enjoy it.

  

Seminole refs?

   Don't you get tired of players who hack an opponent and become incredulous when they're called for a foul? Players do it so regularly that if I were an official, and a player went so far as to acknowledge a foul, I might revoke my call.

   Why wouldn't players be offended? Their coaches often are. With 47 seconds remaining Saturday, North Carolina's Ed Davis fouled Florida State guard Toney Douglas. It was as easy a call as an official will ever make. Davis tripped him.

   Yet North Carolina coach Roy Williams couldn't believe the call. He was flabbergasted. He was hurt. Life no longer was fair. What did these officials have against his team?

   I'm neither pro North Carolina nor anti North Carolina. I walked into Time Warner Cable Arena Saturday and a group of people, some of them writers, some of them Charlotte Bobcats employees, were talking about the non-call at the end of Friday's North Carolina-Virginia Tech game.

  I've looked at that play five times now, and I did not see a foul. The beauty of sports is that you see what you want to see. If, however, you believe that officials, the media and the world are always out to get your team, and therefore you, seek professional help.

   Players and coaches, meanwhile, would be better served if they saved their indignant responses for the marginal, questionable and flat-out mistaken calls. Like fans, some believe that officials are out to get them.

   But I don't think Roy can make that case. I have never heard the phrase, "Florida State refs." I have, however, heard the phrase, "Carolina refs." and I don't think the Carolina they were talking about was South or East, Western or Coastal. 

   I also don't think the last words of the officials before they left their locker room at the Georgia Dome Saturday was, "We can't let those Seminole fans don't intimidate us."

      

The perfect NIT game

   Virginia Tech played an exceptional game against North Carolina. But the Hokies still don't have the credentials to get into the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Coming close is exciting, but it won't get you a bid.

   I wrote this Thursday, but it's worth writing again. The next game the Hokies should play is on campus against Davidson, Stephen Curry going against the school that declined to recruit him, beneath the jersey of his father Dell.

 

Same old Syracuse

   By now you know about Syracuse's six-overtime victory against Connecticut early this morning. The numbers were incredible -- minutes played, walk-ons becoming important, dramatic shots and dramatic near misses.

   But you know what else I took away from the game?

   It's the same old Syracuse.

   Every season, Syracuse wins games it shouldn't, loses games it shouldn't and features a especially obnoxious guard with an old-school haircut.

    Obnoxious is acting as if every basket you hit is special.

   Especially obnoxious is jumping onto the scorer's table to yell after you hit what you think is the game winning shot, but isn't.

   I commend the Orangemen for playing what so far is the game of the year.

   Alas, real life is about to beckon.

Arizona State wins, N.C. State does not

   As N.C. State blew a lead and a game Thursday against Maryland in the ACC tournament, Arizona State was beating Arizona 68-56 in the Pac-10 tournament.

   The Sun Devils are coached by Herb Sendek, formerly of N.C. State. Sendek had a few things working against him when he led the Wolfpack. He refused to admit that beating North Carolina was more important than beating, say, Maryland. He used big words when he didn't have to. And he didn't own a tomato red N.C. State blazer.

   His system was unusual. He filled his lineup with wings who could shoot, pass and go to the basket. He failed to become a fan favorite in Raleigh. He was an outsider and remained an outsider, even when his team won.

   Despite his success turning a mediocre Arizona State team into a winning one, N.C. State fans do not complain about letting Sendek get away. They wanted him to leave. Yes, he won games. But those victories did not come against North Carolina or Duke.

   Fans are, however, complaining about Sendek's successor, Sydney Lowe. A Wolfpack player has a bright moment and disappears to the end of the bench. Stars sit. Scrubs became temporary stars. But  instead of building on their momentum, they sit for a half or a game or a week. N.C. State is the only team in the ACC tournament whose players still are wearing name tags.

   Maybe Lowe, who does own a red blazer and who did play ball for the Wolfpack, eventually will figure it out.

   As happy fans of the Sun Devils will attest, Sendek already has.

ACC blog 4

   I don't write headlines, except for blogs. But I think I have a gift for it. You read "ACC blog 4" and, even if you lack interest in the subject how do you not dive in?

   Two games so far in the ACC men's basketball tournament, and the lower seed has won each.

   It's contagious. DePaul, which was 0-18 in the Big East, upset Cincinnati in the first round. of its tournament. 

   Baylor, 5-11 in the Big 12 Conference, played Kansas, which finished 14-2, Thursday. Baylor upset the Jayhawks 71-64.

   Georgia Tech, the DePaul of the ACC, upset Clemson 86-81. The Yellow Jackets were more poised, worked the ball for better shots and never gave in to the Clemson pressure.

   The Yellow Jackets finished 2-14 in the conference, Clemson 7-9. Clemson beat the Yellow Jackets twice, 14 and by eight. And then came Thursday's upset.

   So Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt did a great coaching job Thursday in Atlanta. Or he did a poor job all season.

   Or maybe it's simply tournament time, and if there weren't upsets, if we didn't say, "Clemson lost" or "Baylor won" or "DePaul beat somebody," we'd be less likely to sneak out of work to watch.

ACC blog 3

   I still think Clemson comes back and beats Georgia Tech. I think Clemson's K.C. Rivers is on the verge of doing what he does, hitting that pretty three, going to the basket, and helping lead his team. With little more than 15 minutes to play, the Tigers trail by three.

ACC blog 2

   My first ACC blog was horrible, But if you're a fan of competitve basketball, so was the first game. Virginia Tech handled Miami 65-47. Miami didn't have a player in double figures. The Hokies shot 23 free throws, Miami 10.

   At the ACC basketball tournament, there is no such thing as Hokie refs. Virginia Tech was much more aggressive. It earned those free throws.

   The only way the Hokies make the NCAA basketball tournament is to beat North Carolina Friday. If they fail, theyl go to the NIT.

   You want to know a great first-round NIT match-up?

   Davidson at Virginia Tech. Stephen Curry plays against the school that declined to recruit him, alma mater of his father and mother, beneath his father's retired jersey. I-77 would be full of cars bearing Davidson bumper stickers and flags making the 2 1/2 hour drive north.

   That's the rare NIT match-up most of us would pay to see.