UNC Tarheels Caught in Snowmageddon

It's been a long time since we used four images in one entry! But, the third major storm to hit the mid-Atlantic region, which has been called 'Snowmaggedon' by none other than President Barack Obama, has dumped 26.5 inches of snow in Baltimore, Md.,12.5 inches in Staunton, Va., ( a city in the Shenandoah Valley) and 10.5 inches in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., some four hours south of Washington, DC.

The storm reached as far south as Mount Airy, NC, the real-life Mayberry where Andy Griffith hails from, which reported at least three inches of snow there.

Coincidentally, this was the weekend when both the University of North Carolina's women's gymnastics team and the Tarheels' men's basketball team, coming off a heart-breaking loss to Virginia Tech by a 74-70 margin in Blacksburg, Va., (which also got plenty of snow) were both headed to College Park, Md., to compete in their respective sports with the University of Maryland Terps.

The gym meet, scheduled for Friday night, was postponed, but the UNC basketball team's plane successfully arrived at BWI Airport yesterday afternoon. So, the ACC has decided to go ahead with the UNC-UMD basketball game at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.

One DC-area tweeter said that there were 1,100 car crashes in the metro area plus there were 155,000 residents without power. The Fruit of the Spirit Baptist Church in northeast DC had a roof collapse due to the snow. NPR reported that a snowball fight arranged through a Facebook group met in Dupont Circle where hundreds of people actually showed up to hurl snow at each other.

The BBC reported that empty-shelved grocery stores in suburban communities like Arlington, Va., and Bethesda, MD., made residents think what it must have been like during food shortages in the former USSR!

But, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouir) in a rare non-political tweet said she was able to buy onions at a DC area grocery store today, which effectively made her day.

Another prominent Democratic politician House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in attendance during Georgetown University's home game with Villanova, which the host Hoyas won 103-90.

A tweet from a Hoyas Twitter page complimented the Georgetown fans who made it to the game at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, DC:

"A terrific effort by the Georgetown students getting here. Some drove, some walked to the Rosslyn Metro station and some just walked."

But, the most startling story I came across on Twitter was that of the UNC Men's basketball team. The defending NCAA champions have had a very harsh year as it is. They are now 2-5 in the ACC and in serious jeopardy of not making the NCAA tournament in March. Assuredly, they probably wish Ty Lawson, now a rookie with the surging Denver Nuggets in the NBA, could rejoin the team in time for the ACC tournament in Greensboro, NC.

This weekend though, the 'Heels problems were off the court. According to the Twitter page http://twitter.com/unc_Bball, the team's entrance to their hotel in Beltsville, Md., was blocked in. Then, the team was holed up in their hotel room wondering just how much snow would fall.

They would then cancel their scheduled team practice at 11 a.m. today, even though the hotel is only five miles away from College Park. The 'Heels got the cooperation from University of Maryland officials so the game could met its scheduled 2 p.m. tip-off on Sunday afternoon.

The good news is that the team was finally able to dig their team bus out from the snow a short while ago, and they will hold a practice this afternoon, some five hours later than they had initially hoped.

Assuredly, their fans back in Chapel Hill, NC, will be hoping that the team can improve its play on the court in spite of all the distractions.

But, there is one game that will not be played in the DC area. The Washington Wizards have called off their home game with the Atlanta Hawks tonight. It's the NBA's first postponement since Decemeber of 2006.

SIDEBAR: Of course, since Washington, DC, is first and fore-most a political zip code, one has to wonder if the Sunday talk shows will be affected. I, for one, would love to see the likes of Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), both of whom I follow on Twitter, defend the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gays and lesbians serving in the military on tv as they have done in Congress. The measure initiated by President Bill Clinton in the first term of his office is considered to be a political failure today. To me, nothing is more ironic than watching members of one political party defend a policy failure developed by their rival political party. If that is not funnier than the "Cathy" strip in the Sunday comics page, I don't know what is!

UPDATE: In spite of everything they endured, the Tarheels lost to the Terps by a 92-71 margin in College Park, Md., on Sunday afternoon!