In which The Daily Tar Heel documents hooliganism

Dan Groot is a midfielder for the Terrapin men's lacrosse team. For some reason, despite his Upstate New York origins, he is a Tar Heels basketball fan.

After Carolina cut down the nets Monday in Detroit, Groot said he wished he could celebrate on Franklin Street. 

Unfortunately, Groot has a busy week getting ready for a weekend date with Johns Hopkins. But thanks to The Daily Tar Heel, he can watch the rumpus from the comfort of home.

Franklin Street: The Celebration from The Daily Tar Heel on Vimeo.

Almost as fun, and no fear of rubber bullets. Phew.

But the real reason I point this out is that The Daily Tar Heel seized a unique opportunity with this video.  It's exactly the type of content that thrives on the web.

In the olden days, you could read a story about the celebration on Franklin Street, sure. Here we get to see it with our own eyes. 

It's a really cool thing. It's the future. And it's comforting to see that at least these college kids get it.

Can the Spartans save Michigan? Um, no.

Finally, a beacon of hope in these bleak times.

No, it's not Michigan State. It's Newsday's Arthur Staple, and he's calling out the pandering locals and cheesy carpetbaggers.

Detroit is suffering. But the Spartans run to the final four will not save the motor city from the army of hybrid Toyotas and incompetent CEOs that have besieged the region's economy.

Take it away, Arthur:

It makes for a nice story that Michigan State is winning in this tournament for the downtrodden state of Michigan, which had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, 12 percent, in February.

General Motors has the tallest building in town, and it probably isn't filled with happy employees these days.

But let's not get too sentimental. Izzo makes more than $1.8 million a year -- more than UConn's Jim Calhoun who famously got into it with a muckraker earlier this season regarding his $1.6-million salary, with Connecticut hit hard by the recession. No one's railing against Izzo's salary in the current climate, only praising the Spartans for lifting the spirits, if not the incomes, of the jobless and homeless here.

It's a dangerous story, and a disingenuous one.

I don't know why people write this stuff. Does it make for too good a story? Are they too lazy to find something better? Or worst of all, can they actually believe this nonsense?

Maybe it's a mix of all three. In the meantime, I'll just make sure to wait until 9:21 p.m. to tune into tonight's championship game.

Lord knows what kind of poignant poppycock CBS will pull out for a pre-game puff piece.

Break Griffin

My efforts in this space will concern the NBA, future employer of Oklahoma's Blake Griffin. That is, of course, assuming the super Sooner can survive the NCAA tournament in one piece.

Draft scouts have fallen for Griffin, the consensus cream of the 2009 lottery crop. But Thursday it was Griffin who went head over heals, courtesy of Morgan State forward Ameer Ali.

I witnessed the bizarre body slam from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., where initial confusion gave way to indignation from Sooner fans. Thankfully, Griffin was unharmed.

Credit the officials for immediately issuing Ali a rightful ejection. Clearly, this was not an incidental inversion like the DeJuan Blair v. Hasheem Thabeet tango from earlier this season.

But I can't completely blame Ali for his WWE-worthy suplex. After all, the Bears had no other answer for Griffin, who shot 11-for-12 from the field and finished with 28 points and 13 boards.

Still, for Griffin's sake, I hope no one in the association was taking notes.