This likely won’t end well.

THE STORY EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT
Campaigning in North Cackolack The Effective Way

The old story in our home state is that if Dean Smith wanted to be Governor, all he’d have to do is run, so rich is his cachet with the Tar Heel faithful, who comprise a bigger potential voting bloc than soccer moms and NASCAR dads put together. (Which is good, since NASCAR dads couldn’t get Richard Petty elected Secretary of State in 1996, nor could the soccer moms prevent Mia Hamm from marrying Nomar Garciaparra. ‘Cause that should have required a vote, right?)

With the North Carolina primary coming up next week, one candidate was smart enough to try to tap into that voter base. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL, in case you’ve been living under a rock) showed up in Chapel Hill early yesterday morning to play pickup with Psycho T and his Funky Bunch while Roy Williams watched from the sidelines. Which kind of makes it a coach-observed scrimmage. Which kind of makes it a NCAA rules viola … oh, bother:

“This was a unique situation and not an NCAA issue,” NCAA media relations director Erik Christianson said in an e-mail message to The News & Observer on Tuesday. “It certainly was a great opportunity for the student-athletes to interact with a presidential candidate.”

Dammit - the one time we WANT the NCAA to be nitpicky, overly-sensitive, by-the-books dweebs, they actually recognize a situation for what it is! But realistically, yeah, it was just a pick up game. We can’t blame Obama for using his notoriety to get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity most would kill for. But it certainly didn’t constitute an endorsement or anything, right?

Williams, who watched the play from a chair on the sideline, called out at one point: “You’ve got the future president of the United States wide open.”

Ahem.

TWO STORIES THAT INTERESTED US FOR NO GOOD REASON
It’s Never Too Early to Start Marketing for the Mouse

For those who can’t wait to get their chompers on next year’s season, ESPN released the lineup for the 2008 Old Spice Classic, the in-season exempt tournament at the top of everyone’s wish list, which has no affiliation with ESPN / Disney whatsoever, no sir, no way:

The three-day tournament will be played Nov. 27, 28 and 30 at the Milk House at Disney’s Wide World of Sports and will be televised by ESPN.

Right. Regardless of its corporate synerg-tastic nature, the tournament features an excellent field and will be must viewing: Michigan State and Tennessee are the headliners, along with NCAA giant killer Siena, Valley hopeful Wichita State and a handful of big name teams with unproven rosters (Georgetown, Maryland, Gonzaga, and Oklahoma State). Early season games coached by Tom Izzo, Gary Williams, and Bruce Pearl against scrappy teams? Odds of at least one embarrassing loss for a Top 25 program that weekend are off the board.

Delicious with a Pink Center and a Chimichurri Sauce

Not really college basketball, but we link to it for love of a headline: Najera Gives Nuggets Rare South-of-the-Border Flavor. Somehow, we don’t think Eduardo appreciates his game being reduced to taco seasoning.

ON A SAD NOTE
R.I.P. Will Robinson

Monday saw the passing of Will Robinson, the first African-American coach in Division I basketball, at the age of 96. We mourn his loss, but we must admit that we were unfamiliar with his name until today. (The names of the men who broke the coaching color barrier in professional ranks - Frank Robinson in baseball, Art Shell in the modern NFL, Bill Russell in the NBA - are far more famous, perhaps because of their past exploits as players, perhaps because the media wheels of the professional leagues were well greased long before the NCAA got its act together.) This is unfortunate, in no small part because Robinson - who coached and scouted basketball for sixty years at the high school, college, and professional levels - may have had a bigger impact on his sport than the lot of them.

Before this gets too serious, however, we have to admit that when we hear “Will Robinson”, our inner dork thinks of only one thing: