The Unwritten Rule

I called my brother yesterday before I decided to write this entry to get a clarification on something that I had no idea about. I asked him: "Is it an unwritten rule between men not to hit one another in the groin area?" He quickly replied: "Yes it is an unwritten rule!" With that in mind I decided to move on with this entry and to explain to men who don't already know, why men should not hit other men below the belt.

Two weeks ago Wake Forest, one of the top teams in the country, was playing North Carolina State, a team on the verge of not even making it into the NCAA tournament. Wake Forest is led by their All-American point guard, Chris Paul and NC State is led by the reigning conference player of the year, Julius Hodge. Midway through the first half of their last regular-season game against one another, Paul hit Hodge in the groin out of frustration. Hodge crumpled to the court in pain and began shouting obscenitites at Paul. This small event, led to other small events and showed us how very important karma can be.

After this game was over, Chris Paul was suspended for his first conference tournament game which happened to be against NC State. NC State won the tournament game in an upset as Hodge powered his team past a Wake Forest team missing their All-American point guard. Taking that upset into consideration, Wake Forest lost a chance at a number one seed heading into the NCAA tournament. On the other hand, NC State received an at-large bid to the tournament as a number ten seed. This in itself was huge. If Wake had won at least one game in the ACC tournament they could have been a number one seed and perhaps played their first games down the road at the Charlotte Coliseum. Instead Wake Forest was sent to tropical Cleveland Ohio for its first and second round games in the tournament. To make matters worse, Wake Forest was bounced in the second round of the tournament by West Virginia, a huge upset to many people fillling out brackets.

This was a team many picked to make it to the Final Four and they were sent packing before they even got a shot at the regional. On the other hand, NC State is fresh off two upsets in the tournament to make it into the Sweet 16. Julius Hodge and his teammates will be heading to Syracuse next week to play for a chance to advance to the Final Four. Chris Paul will be sitting at home watching Hodge play in those games next week. Funny how karma works, isn't it?