What's Another Number?

At my alma mater, Syracuse University, 44 is a magic number. It is Jim Bown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Larry Csonka. The city changed its zip code to include "44" and the student phone exchange prefixes begin with 44.

Today, this Syracuse grad turned 44 with very little fanfare. I was in Clemson and got a call from the kids in the morning, singing "You're growing old, you have gray hair...and dirty underwear."

I didn't tell any of my crew, and despite a couple of odes to me on Twitter and Facebook, nobody noticed. I don't make a big deal about other people's birthdays (or any of the Hallmark holidays) so I don't expect any well wishes in return. It's not the roadmap to a healthy relationship (or maybe it is, I'm still figuring that all out).

The last day of February is just another day on the calendar, or as I learned today, Dean Smith's birthday. But he's 82, much closer to the median age of a Fox News viewer than I.

I did spend my day in Clemson with a great lunch at The Esso Club and a late dinner at 356 Sushi. In between was a very mundane win for North Carolina over Clemson. It was a pretty typical day on the road and never felt like a special day.

It's just another day and another year removed from my youth, never more evident than on a stop-over on a fun college campus. And it's a number that reminds me I haven't changed the world in any meaningful way.

Biggie Smalls kicked in the door, wavin' the four-four. I went quietly into March 2013.

Backtime Dateline: Chapel Hill

It was an 18-hour hit & run in Chapel Hill, enough time for a nice dinner and an IPA at the Carolina Brewery on Franklin Street, and then a noon matinee at the Dean E. Smith Center.

The headline today wasn't that East Carolina was in town to play the Tar Heels, but rather that their coach, Jeff Lebo brought his team where he starred over 20 years ago. It was so long ago, that Roy Williams was the #3 guy on Dean Smith's staff.

It's a good look for Lebo to go scorched earth on the dome in his advanced age. I can relate. Who loves ya, baby?

East Carolina didn't put up much of a fight for most of the game, but finished with a barrage of 3's to close within 4 before a tough 93-87 road loss. They scored 61 2nd Half points, so (North) Carolina's going to have to work on some D.

I hadn't done a Carolina hoops game in Chapel Hill in quite a while. I've been there for football, women's basketball, and women's soccer (they just won their 21st NCAA championship) since my last game at the Dean Dome. My homecoming wasn't quite as noteworthy as Lebo's.

That's because I had my one brush with the law in Chapel Hill in December 1995, in the aftermath of a house party hosted by some members of the women's swim team. I can't blog any further without a lawyer present.