Dream Journal: Killstreak

I am playing Call of Duty, the video game. Wreckin' shop on the other team. The M60 has 200 in the extended clip, and I use every single bullet, mowing down enemies in bunches.

I can't be stopped. 10 consecutive kills without a death. 15. 25. 50 kills!...

UFO KILLSTREAK it says on the screen. A flash fills my vision.

Before I can even think to ask what's happened, I'm inside a UFO, the old-school kind from the 1950s flicks. Saucer-like with a lot of bulbous lights and rotating parts. It's like I am  the UFO. Every inch of my surface is an eye. Nothing can hide from me.

I fire the plasma cannon at the feet of three soldiers, vaporizing them. I can hear their screams from a mile away. Floating death machine. And now, I am not just over an urban war zone, but a downtown, filled with civilians.

I start feathering the cannon trigger. Buildings are crumbling, people go flying as if they were launched... What am I doing? I keep thinking, as vehicles and gas lines explode in my wake.

But I keep firing. We play to win the game.

 

 

Double Trouble

The ACC is supposedly having a subpar year. They've had several consecutive 'down' years. The conference's last couple of down seasons even ended with the title. The Big East usually is mentioned as the new standard in college hoops.

But it is no surprise when super conferences get six-plus teams in the tournament. With that many teams, there will be years when they all are pretty good. The problem is, that only gets you to the Sweet 16, at best.

And except in rare cases, no one cares about the regular season. History is packed with trivia; there isn't room for all that stuff. All people will remember fifty years from now, if anything, is who won it all.

There are a number of freshmen and sophomores in the Atlantic Coast Conference who will make noise this season, and next. Two of the fastest-rising stocks are UNC's Harrison Barnes and John Henson. They are already very good young players. Both have the potential for much more.

Henson is "Marcus Camby 2.0" as one game announcer described him: grasshopper-proportioned limbs, a small forward's leaping quickness, the hunger to keep you from filling your basket. He's even developing a few post moves, including a running flip shot that somehow goes in.

Barnes was on all the high school all-star lists. He disappeared for the first third of the year, reminding me a bit of Kobe Bryant's Laker debut. He took too many save-the-day shots and passed at the wrong times. He wore a I know I'm good; I just need one more shot look for a while... then it started to click for Barnes. He has that court vision that (my estimate) only about 5% of college players have--the ability to adjust in mid-dribble. Barnes is going to be one of the best players in Carolina history... assuming he stays.