The Iraqi War

The war in Iraq affects the families of soldiers in many different ways. I have a cousin Joe in the National Guard. This is his second tour of duty in Iraq. Joe is a crew chief of a Black Hawk helicopter. He was in Mosul on his first tour of duty. Joe found out early on in his second tour of duty that his wife was pregnant with their first child. Joe was permitted to come home for the birth of the child. I was amazed that Joe was allowed the opportunity to come home. Joe had not seen his wife at all during her pregnancy. Ten days later Joe went back to Iraq. We found out today that Joe is out of Iraq and will be returning home this month. We all love Joe and are grateful for his service as well as all other U.S. military.

More Final Four

Last Friday I wrote of the Final Four and my thoughts about UNC. So far, it looks like I am correct. UNC defeated Villanova in the semifinal game and will play Michigan State for the NCAA national championship tonight. The Final Four is being played in Detroit this year.

Since the Final Four is in Detroit, it is played in Ford Field. There were 72,ooo people attending the semifinal games on Saturday. This is the largest attendance for a college basketball game.

Michigan State is obviously the fan favorite in Detroit. It appears difficult for the opposing teams hearing all the noise from the crowd. I hope that the noise isn't a problem for UNC in tonight's game. I still believe that UNC will be able to defeat Michigan State for the championship tonight.

Final Four

I am a huge Tarheel fan. I hope they win the title, but it will be tough.

I think that the Tarheels will be able to beat Villanova Saturday. Villanova beat Duke pretty bad last week but Duke is overrated. I also believe that Connecticut will beat Michigan State.



When a team plays Connecticut, they have to play against a 7'3 player. North Carolina doesn't have anyone close to that size. The tallest player UNC has is 6'11 but only weighs about 200 lbs. The best chance against the player is to use your quickness and get the player in foul trouble. The player also insulted Tyler Hansborough at the beginning of the season. Tyler Hansborough is last year's AP National Player of the Year. At the start of the season, Hasheem Thabeet said that Hansborough wasn't really all that good. It will be fun to see that match up if it happens in the championship game Monday night.