UNC Basketball: So Close

You could almost smell them, right? Like an early morning at Grandma’s house, that intoxicating smell wafting from the kitchen of layers separating and dough rising impossibly; coaxing and calling you out of your warm bed to come to the kitchen to see exactly what was going on in the oven. In the past, biscuits were a staple on a weekend visiting the grandparents; usually accompanied by some manner of breakfast meat or freezer jam, those inscrutable stacks of fluffy layers promising a good start to the day’s adventures.

These days, it’s fallen to me to make the biscuits. Visiting my grandmother hasn’t exactly been feasible since the world ended, so I’ve been left to fend for myself on the weekends in the breakfast bread department. The recipe, handed down to me in an offhand kind of way, is just vague enough to doom me. They come out of the oven, little pucks of buttermilk dough, smelling just like I remember. The taste is there, as well; it’s butter and flour and buttermilk, hard even for me to mess up. Only one problem; the damn things just refuse to rise. The smell, the taste, even the texture is there. I can come so, so close. Unfortunately, close isn’t good enough for biscuits.

The Carolina men’s basketball team blew the doors, rusty hinges and all, off of the Louisville Cardinals last night. It had been a long time since the team from Kentucky had played, sure; but even longer since the Heels absolutely shellacked someone like that. Day’Ron Sharpe played like a man possessed, tallying 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Kerwin Walton continued to hurt the opposition from long range. Just a week ago, Carolina as a team was only able to muster 48 points in a losing effort against Virginia; last night, in case you somehow haven’t heard, the Heels won by 45. The final score was 99 to 54 in favor of the team from Chapel Hill; 100 is the magic number. This is the closest the Heels have been to biscuits in over two years.

A blowout victory is delicious, there’s no denying that, and perhaps even more so because these types of wins have been scarce for a while. Biscuits would have been gravy (if you will), but in the end the effort fell just a little bit flat. The taste is still there, though, and that’s the most important part.