Cage Fights at the Epicentre

I guess I will cover a little local MMA. So I do this workout program called CrossFit and it's popular with MMA guys. A couple of guys that go to my gym were fighting this past Wednesday night. I figured I'd give them a little exposure since I know they work so hard. Some of these guys are seeking to make it to the next level. Also this is to inform that MMA is growing and is now alive and well in Charlotte. I will post on here for when the next big fights are scheduled. (I believe one is December 4th)


This first video the guy from my gym won. He also won submission of the night. He will now be turning pro.

This second video the guy from my gym lost. Unfortunately, this was the knockout of the night.

If you want to check out the fight of the night here it is. Almost 11 minutes long, but hey it's free unlike UFC.

Bet you never expected MMA on here. I cover it all!

Tobacco Road Preseason Basketball

Now I am admittedly a Carolina fan. However, I will try to cover most of the teams in the state of North Carolina as well so as not to be biased. If anything it's also good to know your enemy. So whether you are a Tar Heel fan or not I encourage you to keep it here to find out team news. If you want to start with a broad ACC overview check this link out.

Duke

Let's start out with Duke. Elliot Williams is gone and in comes Andre Dawkins to try and replace him. Seth Curry is a new addition along with McDonald's All Americans, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee, who look pretty impressive. Key loss is Gerald Henderson. Coach K this year is starting a video blog on youtube, Duke Blue Planet. His his first entry on the blog is kind of boring but as others come I will pass them along. The first video is of Coach K sitting down on First Take talking about preparing for the season. The second video is of Coach K with Andy Katz talking about the upcoming season and his involvement with the Olympic team. Here is a link to a story about the upcoming season.

NC State

Brandon Costner is the key loss for the Pack. Expectations are for Tracy Smith to pick up his game a notch or two to help produce more offense. Newcomer Scott Wood should help a bit too. I could not find a cool preseason video that I could link about NC State but I did find two good articles that preview the upcoming season. The first is an article by Andy Katz. In it he discusses the Pack's attempts to get back to the program that they were in the past. The second article is about the beginning of the season.

Wake Forest

Al-Farouq Aminu stayed away from the NBA. Jeff Teague and James Johnson were the big losses to the draft. We will see if Ishmael Smith can take over the point. Ari Stewart is the big new addition in Winston-Salem. As you may have heard, Dino Gaudio recently signed a contract extension through the 2013-14 season. I could not find much on them so far. All they have right now are some quotes from their media day from Gaudio and some of the players.

There are some videos that are brand new to each school's website. If they become available, as this usually takes time, I will post them on here.

Carlyle Cup update

With a win tonight in volleyball over Duke, the Tar Heels have taken a 3.5-0 lead in the Carlyle Cup points standings. There have only been four events so far this year between the rivals. Carolina also won both Men and Women's soccer and Field Hockey. Next up is football on November 7th, at Carolina, worth two points. After that it's the second volleyball game on November 21st, at Duke, for the other 0.5 point.

Coach Williams on Dean Smith and upcoming season

ESPN's Andy Katz has a good article about Roy where he talks about his legacy compared to Dean Smith and the upcoming season.

See the whole story here.

If you would like to listen to Roy's media day interview click here. In it he compares this year's team to the '06 team where they both lost most of their players and relied heavily on freshmen.

Ghana wins U-20 World Cup!

Ghana beat Brazil today in a penalty kick shootout 4-3. I must say even though I have lived in Brazil, during the shootout I found myself rooting for the underdogs, Ghana. Brazil had previously won this event 4 times. This has to mean so much for the tiny west African country, to be the first African country to win this event and on African soil (Egypt.) Congrats Black Stars.

Inaugural Nascar HOF Class

Nascar has a very deep rooted history in North Carolina. To honor this history I wish to cover a small part of the people who were part of the first class inducted into the hall in Charlotte. These guys are absolutely huge in their sport.

Bill France Sr

Founded Nascar in 1948. "Big Bill" started out promoting races in Daytona Beach. Was the head of Nascar until 1972 when he turned over the reigns to his son, Bill France Jr. Passed away in 1992.

Richard Petty

Born in North Carolina. "The King" won 200 races, had 712 top ten finishes and claimed 126 poles in his career. Won the Daytona 500 seven times. Started 1,185 races. In 1967 he won 27 races, 10 of those consecutively. All the previous stats are records. Just to give you an idea, second in wins, David Pearson, only has 105 wins. Won seven Cup Series championships (tied for most all time.) Raced from the late '50s to the early '90s.

Bill France Jr

Took over Nascar in 1972 until 2000. Under "Little Bill" the sport grew from a southern sport to a national sport. Helped to get TV contracts to cover Nascar races. Passed away in 2007.

Dale Earnhardt Sr

Born in North Carolina. "The Intimidator" won 76 races (7th all time), had 428 top ten finishes and 22 poles over his career. Won seven Cup Series championships (tied for most all time.) Raced for 27 years until his death in 2001.

Junior Johnson

Born in North Carolina. Started out as a moonshiner in NW NC. "The Last American Hero" won 50 races, had 148 top ten finishes and 46 poles over his career. He is credited with many driving innovations in Nascar, including drafting. Raced from the early '50s to mid '60s.

First three drivers inducted into the hall are all North Carolinians.

VERY good and cool video of the selections and accompanying stories. Bit long at 9:31 but worth it.

Tar Heels in the MLB/MiLB

The latest post on Dustin Ackley had me thinking, where are all the other former Tar Heels currently playing? This led me to a search to find the big name players from Carolina, especially from the past few seasons. Click their names to go to their official team websites.

Fox should be smiling

MLB

There are currently four Tar Heels in the MLB.

• Daniel Bard - P - Boston Red Sox (1st round 2006, 2009 debut)
• Chris Iannetta - C - Colorado Rockies (4th round 2004, 2006 debut)
• Andrew Miller - P - Florida Marlins (6th overall 2006, 2006 debut)
• Brian Roberts - 2B - Baltimore Orioles (1st round 1999, 2001 debut) (transferred to South Carolina)

MiLB

By the UNC Athletic Department's count there are 22 Tar Heels in the minors (not including Ackley or White who both signed late). I will go over some of the bigger, more recent names. Just for newer people to baseball, minor leagues go from Rookie leagues to A, then AA and last stop AAA before the big show.

• Dustin Ackley - OF - Peoria Javelinas (Seattle Mariners, AFL) (2nd overall 2009) (linked is a great article about AFL)
• Tim Federowicz - C - Salem Red Sox (Boston Red Sox, A) (7th round 2008)
• Tim Fedroff - OF - Kinston Indians (Cleveland Indians, A) (7th round 2008)
• Mark Fleury - C - Billings Mustangs (Cincinnati Reds, Rookie) (4th round 2009)
• Reid Fronk - OF - Charlotte Stone Crabs (Tampa Bay Rays, A) (7th round 2007)
• Josh Horton - SS - Midland Rockhounds (Oakland Athletics, AA) (2nd round 2007)
• Brian Moran - P - Clinton LumberKings (Seattle Mariners, A) (7th round 2009)
• Luke Putkonen - P - West Michigan Whitecaps (Detroit Tigers, A) (3rd round 2007)
• Kyle Seager - 3B - High Desert Mavericks (Seattle Mariners, A) (3rd round 2009)
• Kyle Shelton - 1B - Kannapolis Intimidators (Chicago White Sox, A) (undrafted 2008)
• Adam Warren - P - Staten Island Yankees (New York Yankees, A) (4th round 2009)
• Alex White - P - has not been assigned to a team yet but is signed (Cleveland Indians) (15th overall 2009)
• Seth Williams - OF - St. Lucie Mets (New York Mets, A) (40th round 2008)
• Rob Wooten - P - Huntsville Stars (Milwaukee Brewers, AA) (17th round 2008) (currently with Peoria Javelinas)

A lot of names I know. That should be a great thing for the University of North Carolina.

Dustin Ackley makes Fall League debut

Tar Heels baseball fans will undoubtedly remember Dustin Ackley. He is kind of hard to forget after three All American seasons, three trips to the College World Series and a career .410 batting average. He departed UNC a year early in this year's draft and began his stint with the Seattle Mariners as a Peoria Javelina in the Arizona Fall League. Ackley went 2 for 4 on Wednesday afternoon with two singles and a run scored. Hard to imagine the guy feels nervous at this level. He really stood out on the college level.

"Especially in the Fall League, you are seeing the best guys out here," Ackley said. "And it's just a great opportunity to see the best players in every organization. You are not always getting the best [competition] in college."

The plan right now is to develop Ackley in all three outfield positions and some time at DH. I will continue to follow Dustin Ackley as he progresses through the minor leagues. Keep it here for updates.

"He'll probably be on a faster track than most, just because of his track record and the maturity he has," Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said.

Keep up the good work Dustin!

Panthers vs Buccaneers

So this week the Panthers will get another breather to try and find their game. The Bucs are truely a pathetic team. Will the Bucs get their first win of the season? Or will the Panthers continue to improve? (As marginal as that improvement may be.)

The Bucs' schedule has included a few lousy teams such as the Bills and the Redskins. The Panthers so far have played teams that have jumped out of the gate a little stronger, including one loss teams Eagles and Falcons. On offense the teams are almost statistically identical. They both hover around the high 20s in the major statistical categories. This leads one to believe that as poor as the Panthers have played, they have done a little more against better teams. The main difference is in the defensive categories. Here the Bucs still rank in the mid to high 20s and even up to 30th in points allowed per game. The Panthers (some how) rank 2nd in the league in pass defense. The Panthers are also 15th in yards allowed per game. Let's take a minute to consider a few things before we assume both of these areas are bright spots.

Let's consider the reasons why the pass defense is ranked so highly. First, the rush defense for the Panthers is horrendous. So why throw when you can run? Second, the Panthers have only played one good quarterback all season, Matt Ryan. I exempt McNabb from this because he did not play the full game. Other QBs faced include Campbell, Kolb and Romo. None of these guys are ranked inside the top 15 in QB ratings. This week the guy under center is Josh Johnson, who ranks almost dead last in QB ratings. The Panthers should not be tested again by a QB this week but I still wait to see what will happen to the pass defense when a good QB comes to town.

Josh Johnson

As for the decent ranking in yards allowed per game. As many fans can attest by watching the games, the opposition's offense usually has a very short field to drive. The Panthers' defense has the 29th worst starting field position in the league. Hopefully our offense can work on not turning the ball over this week.

A few issues I wonder about when watching games:

• Why do the Panthers not use Steve Smith more? We have to get the ball to him as much as possible and it seems we are not trying as hard as we should be.
• Where is Peppers? He showed up a little bit last week but we need him there every down. If he shows up that makes the other D line guys' jobs easier.
• Why can our defense not stop a runner? It seems the only guys out there making plays are Davis and Beason.
• Why does our secondary seem so incompetent? I know that the lack of pressure up front does not help their job but still, they seem to give up plays left and right.

If we see success this week in these, and other, facets of the game I wonder if the success can be carried on to future games.

Each week the Panthers have been able to improve a little bit in parts of the game. Not hard considering they came out of the gate looking like a high school team. I expect that the overall superior talent of the Panthers should get them a win this week. I think the Bucs' game plan will be to run against the Panthers defense. I believe this for two reasons: one, to get the ball out of Johnson's hand as much as possible and two, the Panthers' running defense is not that strong. If the Panthers are able to coral the Bucs' running game I predict that the margin of victory for the Panthers will be slightly higher. If the Panthers can run effectively that will open up Smith. Everyone knows this but it seems to never happen. Keep the Bucs from running and the Bucs are helpless. Should be a boring game but hey, here's to hoping the Panthers start to turn it around.

Carolina OVER Tampa Bay 20-13

Give me the ball!

Players to watch on Tampa Bay:

Barrett Ruud - LB - top 5 in tackles (49)

Jimmy Wilkerson - DE - one of top sackers (5) also has 2 FF

Aqib Talib - CB - tied for second in interceptions (3)

Clifton Smith - kickoff returns, is near top 5 in average (28.1)

Let me know what you think (please!)

The Beginning

I thought one day that I should begin a blog covering teams that I love in North Carolina. The inspiration for this comes from my love of sports and my home state. I saw some very serious blogs covering major sports teams and thought that I would enjoy doing the same. I aim to use practice to perfect the art of blogging, as I am new to the movement. I feel with time I will be able to better grasp the concept and create a higher quality blog.