My Caniac peeps – and gracious party hosts for the week – Katy and Heather took me to The Eye on Thursday afternoon.  Now keep in mind that The Eye (the Hurricanes official team store) is located at the RBC Center, and unless you have other business at the RBC Center, it is so far out of the way that there really isn’t a reason to stop by there unless you are specifically shopping for ‘Canes gear.  Which is what we were doing.  So… being middle of the day in August, the three of us and the girl running the register were the only ones in the place.  Not having the ability to get to The Eye routinely, I took my sweet time going thru the place, making sure I didn’t miss anything.  After probably 20 minutes of browsing, I finally settled on everything I was gonna get, and we made our way to the register.

As we made it to the counter, a middle aged fellow walked in the door and asked the cashier how to get to the offices.  She told him to go out the side doors adjacent to the arena concourse and sent him in that direction.  Katy’s at the register, and I watch the guy leave.  As he leaves out those doors, another fellow walks in, and he looks REALLY familiar.  Heather sees my face, turns around to investigate, and she quickly turns around with the same look on her face.

It’s RON FRANCIS!!

He walks over into the kids’ section like any other customer… except for the fact that he’s RON FREAKING FRANCIS, Hockey Hall of Famer and the greatest Hurricane to ever lace up the skates.  Dude, grab whatever you want and leave.  You’re RONNIE FRANCHISE!!  But no, he walks back around the corner toward us with this innocent “Yeah, I’m Ron Freaking Francis” smirk on his face, and while the three of us are totally starstruck, I somehow manage to spit out an “Afternoon, Mister Francis.”  He smiles and says, “Hi, how are you guys?”

We all answer at the same time, probably like 12 year old girls, and I know I stuttered that we were “good” probably three times.  Ronnie shakes my hand, pats Heather on the shoulder, and says, “Thank you for supporting the Canes.”  And he walked off toward the back of the store, as we stood there in total shock.  Most random and awesome brush with greatness ever.  I’m still giddy about it.

Anyways, here is Pun over at 3menandablind guy…and a humorless Yankee fan, with a special blog regarding the possible new Cubs owner. Take it away, Pun!

Don’t give up on us, all these topics and more will be hitting ACC Country soon!

And on Sunday night in Omaha, it was not Carolina’s night.

While the Tar Heels were eliminated earlier this evening 6-1 at the hands of the upstart Fresno State Bulldogs, in all actuality, they lost their shot at the CWS Final by dropping their first meeting with the Bulldogs last Tuesday.  Stuck in a position where they, thanks to the weather, had to win three games in three days to advance, a loss in any of them meaning elimination, the Diamond Heels used everything in the cabinet and simply ran out of gas.  They gave us a helliva ride though, with exhilarating last at bat victories on Friday and Saturday courtesy of home runs by Tim Federowicz, that of the grand slam fashion, to eliminate LSU and Chad Flack to force a decisive game with Fresno on Sunday.

But nothing went right for Carolina Sunday evening.  Every ball that was well hit seemed to go right to a Bulldog fielder.  Every well hit ball Fresno hit found the hole.  The home plate ump made some questionable calls.  And our pitchers were gassed.  You can only use Alex White so many days in a row before he’s not effective as usual.  Same with Rob Wooten.  But Carolina had no other choice.  And when it came right down to it, the Heels’ bats needed Jobu and some rum, because they seemingly left men on base every inning.  Credit Fresno – they were definitely the better team tonight, though I don’t think they were the better team period, if that makes sense.

Should be a fun final, but Georgia is playing excellent baseball right now and I think they take it – probably in two.

The decision of each comes as a surprise to me, and all for differing reasons. Green’s flabbergasting decision to even put his name into the NBA draft gave me no confidence that he was getting good information from his advisors. Ellington testing the waters wasn’t much of a surprise, but the delay in withdrawing led me to believe that he was comfortable with his standing. Regarding Lawson, I’d always presumed he wanted out of school, and of the three, he seemed to be the only one in the first round – which comes along with the all-important guaranteed contract.

But Carolina announced today that the entire trio would be returning to school for the 08-09 season, joining National Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough and making the Tar Heels the definitive preseason favorite to win the National Championship. In fact, the Heels now return everybody from last year’s ACC Championship and Final Four team except Q and Alex Stepheson (graduating and tranferring, respectively), plus welcome incoming freshmen Larry Drew, Ed Davis, and Tyler Zeller, all of whom are ACC-ready. That gives Carolina the depth to go 10-deep; no matter which way you do the math, the Heels are LOADED, perhaps as much or moreso than ’07 Florida, ’99 Duke, and ’94 UNC.

Mind you, the latter two did NOT cut down the Final Four nets.

Personally, I see ZERO reason the team doesn’t have One Shining Moment in Detroit next April. Lawson is as explosive a PG you will find in Division I, Frasor is a smart player who can spell Lawson, and if injury finds Frasor again, Larry Drew should be capable of running the offense in spurts. When on, Ellington is among the smoothest shooters in the land, and the progression of Will Graves was among the more surprising stories for the Heels last season. (That and being down 28 in the Final Four, of course.) Hansbrough is 300 types of awesome and needs no more billing than that, and freshmen Davis (a banger) and Zeller (more versatile) should learn a lot from the NPOY. The question will be whether Danny Green will get the starting nod over senior leader and defensive stud Marcus Ginyard. Personally, I say you start with a small lineup with both Green and Ginyard, and bring Deon Thompson off the bench. Marcus has proven to be an excellent rebounder from the 3 spot, and Green, while a valuable asset off the bench, has earned the starting nod. Besides, this is the lineup Roy went with down the stretch in games, so why not start it that way, as well?

I know I’m insane, but this team shouldn’t lose a game this season. ZERO.