austinklee

According to Google Analytics I have had as many as 40 people read my blog in one day.  Out of the 6,000,000,000,000 people on the planet 40 choose to read this blog.

I am very thankful for you 40 people.  That means that 40 of you think that the things I write about are good enough to read.  I am overwhelmed by this.  I know that 40 doesn’t seem like many, but when I think about it…it really is.

You are 40 people with jobs, kids, school, holidays, family responsibilities, church activities, and…well – a LIFE!  And you choose to spend part of your life reading this blog.

So, thank you for being part of the 40.  I am thankful for you.

It was a big weekend for the Tar Heels on the recruiting front. The Heels signed Harrison Barnes from Ames, Iowa. Barnes is the number one High School senior in the country and we should all feel proud that he chose Carolina over Duke. Yes, you heard that right, Duke loses another big time player to the Tar Heels.

Today’s game tips at 4:00 pm from the Smith Center against Valparaiso. This is the Heels third game of the season and third in a row at home. They will be traveling to New York to complete the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament at Madison Square Garden later this week with back to back games.

Valparaiso is 0-1 after falling to Ball State in their season opener. Rewind to last year for the previous meeting between the Tar Heels and Valparaiso. It was an ugly game of turnovers and poor shooting that started out with the Tar Heels down 9. (It pretty much scared the pants off of me.) But the Heels were ultimately victorious in the House that Michael built (The United Center).

Look for the Tar Heels to continue to develop on the offensive end of the floor. The guys are still getting used to playing big time ball. Some are coming from High School, where they may have been the best guy in their conference and now aren’t even the best person on their team.

Rebounding has been a big point of emphasis with Coach Williams and for good reason: We are so big that we should get EVERY offensive board and put it back. There is no reason we can just go up and get the ball every time. The Heels will be playing over a lot of zone defenses this season as the majority of teams will be outsized and will rely on zone to help stop Tar Heel penetration.

Defensively the Heels look strong. Size helps with that, and of course Marcus Ginyard is a MACHINE in the backcourt defensive set. He really sets the tone on defense and has (as expected) risen to be the leader of the team this season.

Valparaiso had 6 players see their first action as Crusaders against Ball State. So, they haven’t had much time to gel in real game action. Look for the Crusaders to come out with something to prove, but give up the ghost quickly as they are overmatched in size and talent. The Crusaders are picked to finish 8^th in the Horizon conference, which does not bode well against a thoroughbred ACC team like the Tar Heels.

Game time is 4:00pm! GO HEELS!!

I went through all the major points about the Heels yesterday, so I will spare you all of those details.

Tonight the Heels welcome the NCCU Eagles, recently of the MEAC, to the Dean Dome.  Tip is at 9:00pm, a little late to have a watch party this early in the season.

Look for the Eagles to try and spread out the Heels and try and beat us with mismatches.  We are a very tall team.  (We have a 6’10″ small forward if that says anything.)  As with the FIU Panthers from Monday night, the Eagles will trot out their new coach, LeVelle Moton, in his debut game.  Coach Moton has been an assistant with the Eagles for the past 2 seasons.

This should be another easy win for the Tar Heels.  Let’s look to see less turnovers and a much improved assist to turnover ratio from Dexter Strickland tonight.  (He had 5 turnovers and 1 assist in 11 minutes against the Panthers, giving him a .2 assist to turnover ratio.)

As of now, there are no major injuries to report.

The Eagles return 1 senior and 4 juniors from a squad that lost their first 18 games last season.  I am sure they are hungry to get off to a better start this season, but that will not start tonight.  (Or the next game either.  The Eagles head to Miami to take on the Hurricanes on Saturday.)

GO HEELS!

This season kind of snuck up on me a little bit.  My apologies for not getting a preview sent out!

The first game of the season was last night again Florida International University.  FIU brought with them a new coach, Isaiah Thomas.  (Yes; the very same Isaiah Thomas that beat us in the 1981 National Championship Game.)

Some interesting things have happened in Isaiah’s life in the mean time: He won a couple of NBA titles with the Pistons and then tried coaching and being GM of some NBA teams.  Somehow he also found enough time to sexually harass at least one employee and, according to Magic Johnson, develop a severe case of homophobia.

As a side note to this game, Isaiah is pretty much a baby.  Earlier this year he pitched a fit because the 2K Coaches vs. Cancer planners made FIU play Carolina instead of Ohio State.  (Note to Isaiah: Get yourself a string of 20 win seasons and several NCAA Final Four appearances and then you can pick who you play in the early tournaments.  Until then, SHUT UP!)

Carolina wiped the floor with FIU last night 88-72.  Deon Thompson poured in 20 points and snagged 10 rebounds to lead all Tar Heels.  Ed Davis and Marcus Ginyard added 13 and 12 respectively.

Overall the Heels shot 56% from the floor while holding FIU to 37%.  This is a testament to the size of the Tar Heels.  As I watched last night I noticed that we were contesting EVERY SHOT.  This is a much welcomed departure from last year’s tendency to just try and out-score everybody.

There are a few things to remember about this year’s team.  We are young and we are tall.  We will make mistakes.  Last night we had 26 turnovers, which allowed FIU to put up some points they wouldn’t have probably scored on our defense.  We will get creamed in conference play if we continue to turn the ball over.

Tomorrow night the Heels take on NCCU in Chapel Hill.  Look for that preview tomorrow!  I hope you all are as excited about this edition of Carolina Basketball as I am!

Let’s get some game watch parties going ON!!  Feel free to send this to anyone and everyone and point them to my website!

I am a huge fan of the North Carolina Tar Heels and for the past couple of seasons I have provided my friends and family with game previews.  These previews are part reporting and part opinion and can help the casual fan get up to speed with the happenings in and around Carolina Basketball.

I will use some of my real-estate here on my website to provide those updates to all.

Welcome to College Basketball season!  GO HEELS!

I try not to inject my political views here on the blog, but this morning, I am overwhelmed with something that should cross all party lines.

In my view, with last nights vote, the United States moves one step closer to global irrelevance. No longer are we the country of freedom, standing as a beacon for ingenuity and creativity.  We are now becoming a people whose basic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, given in the Declaration of Independence is being eroded.  In my mind, the ability for me to choose my own health care, my own doctors, and my own need for coverage is part of my right to life.

The United State House of Representatives last night passed a new version of a “Health Care Reform Bill” in the face of massive disapproval from the majority of the people in the United States. (In a November 2 poll Rasmussen put the number at 54%)

Why would the do this?  There are only two options:

1. They have determined that we are not smart enough to make our own decisions and they, like the parent of a 3 year-old, want to save us from ourselves.
2. They don’t care what we the people of the United States of America think, because it really isn’t about our well-being, its about gaining power and control over 1/6 of the economy.

I understand that there are people who cannot afford to purchase health insurance.  I also understand that there are people that have Cable or Satellite television, Cell phones, Magazine subscriptions, eat at restaurants, buy nice clothes, and take vacations; AND who cry that they cannot afford health-care.

My point is this: When you are elected to REPRESENT a group of people, you must do exactly that.  Your job is to be a reflection of those people.  You must put aside your political aspiration, and your own wants and desires and truly represent your constituents.

If we had a congress that did that, then that bill would have lost by a score of 235 – 183 with 17 members abstaining.

If you are a part of an organization, you represent that organization to everyone you meet.  Are you doing a good job being a reflection of the mission and values of the organization you represent?

I was probably ten or eleven the first time I had Dippin’ Dots.  We were on a family vacation to Tennessee to visit family and my parents took me and my brother to Opryland USA, a now defunct amusement park in Nashville, TN.  We were walking around the park riding rides and eating over priced food when we happened upon a little cart selling ice cream pellets.  They were described in the graphics as “Ice Cream of the Future” and besides the fact that it looked cool it was the future of ice cream so we HAD to have some.

After my Father shelled out $314.17 for four tiny bowls of Dippin’ Dots, we were all mystified at the little frozen ice cream balls that magically turned into regular ice cream in your mouth.

I am now almost 29 years old.  Dippin’ Dots has been the “Ice Cream of the Future” since 1988.  When is the future going to arrive?  It now costs $532.78 for four tiny bowls of Dippin’ Dots.

I went with my wife and three others tonight to see the new Hillsong United movie.   Near the end of the movie one of the members of Hillsong United makes a statement that really struck me.  I will paraphrase: “We are told that we are the future but don’t forget we are the present, too.”

Those of us born after 1979 have always been told that we are the future and we seem to keep waiting for the future to get here before we will help the hurting, before we will feed the hungry, before we will deny ourselves and take up the Cross of Christ.  We put off until tomorrow because we are the future.

As if to say, “We are the future and when the future comes, then we will act.”  All the while forgetting that we are living in the present.  Without action now we will not be ready to lead when the future comes.

Just like I wonder about Dippin’ Dots ice cream, hurting and broken people around the world and in your backyard are asking, “When will the future arrive, we need someone to love us, too.”

I had lunch yesterday with Benj Miller at eyespeak we had a great conversation about the changes that his company has gone through over the last couple of years and I was invited to write a guest post for his company’s blog.

I like what eyespeak is doing for their clients and how Benj really buys into the importance of clear internal as well as external communication.  Organizations need to follow the example set by eyespeak and work on their internal communcation as hard as they do on their external communication.

Check out my post here.

I am on the board of a small non-profit organization where I have helped to initiate a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter.  I have also taken on the added responsibility of creating a new monthly e-newsletter to be distributed to our support base.

As those of you in the social media space know, this is a major undertaking, especially for an organization that has no paid employees.  I am blessed to work for a President that supports social media.  He came up with the idea to pay for a virtual intern to assist remotely us as we move forward with our social media and newsletter.

After an initial selection process we narrowed the field to four candidates and asked them two questions:

1. How and why do you see your particular skill set significantly improving an aspect of ChooseAneed.org?  (And, what is that aspect.)
2. What specific goals would you like to accomplish as a ChooseAneed Virtual Intern?

One cadidate’s response was a fairly lengthy critique about how we are approaching social media.  He went into great detail about all the things we are doing wrong and I got the impression he was more interested in “saving” us from ourselves than contributing to the mission of our organization.

As I read through his responses I agreed with some of them.  To be sure we are not perfect in social media.  (I kind of think that it what I like best about social media: It is Imperfect.)  Many of his suggestions were things that we had already discussed prior to receiving his response.

Then I looked back over his resume.  I was stunned.  He graduated from college five months ago and experience in social media management or strategy is not on the resume.  In fact, his work experience doesn’t include any experience in the social media arena.

It is obvious that he has passion for social media and it is obvious that he wants to work with Chooseaneed.  However, he hasn’t earned the right to answer our questions in that manner.

If he was a business major with a computer science minor, had some experience working in the social media space (outside of his own accounts) then he would have a little more permission.  If he was John Saddington, Tony Steward, or Carlos Whittaker then he would have earned that right.

I have learned (yes, the hard way) to temper my comments and wait until I have earned the right to make a critique.  I want to hire him, I see a lot of me in him.  He’s bright, ambitious, willing to challenge the status quo, and eager to participate.  I hope we hire him so I can help channel that energy and teach him some of the “soft-skills” he will need to really make a huge impact in a future organization.

Do you ever offer an opinion before you have earned the right?  Have you ever been on the receiving end?  How does it feel?

If you are a business leader that is resistant to social media you will want to see this video.  The partner in charge of the Atlanta office of my old firm sent me a link to this video because he knows how much I believe in Social Media.  He gets it…do you?

This video found at Socialnomics.