Veterans Day Tribute: The Carrier Classic

I know this is a couple of days late, but thank you to all of the veterans out there. Michigan State and North Carolina's men's basketball teams thanked them in a very unique way as well. They played a college basketball game on top of an aircraft carrier docked in San Diego Bay. The name of the ship:  the USS Carl Vinson. This is the same ship that deposited the body of Osama Bin Laden into the sea in May. The crew will ship out at the beginning of the year, but got a treat on Veterans Day. The president and first lady were in attendance. Obama delivered a pregame speech on the court, greeted many people, and watched the enitre game from the first row. The scene was spectacular. It took 10 days to assemble the court, stands, and everything to make the event happen. Cleanup is supposed to take 5 more days.

The game featured the number one team in the country, the North Carolina Tar Heels, who had their top seven players returning from the year before. To make them an even stronger candidate, they had the 6th best recruiting class in the nation according to rivals.com. Michigan State is no slouch though. They have the 20th best class in the nation, but lost most of their top players from the back to back Final Four seasons. Last year, they were an early exit in the NCAA tournament. Michigan State started hot and dominted the glass, but North Carolina rallied. The Tar Heels went on a big run at the end of the first half and start of the second to pull ahead by 20. Michigan State cut the deficit in the end, with the final score being: North Carolina 67, Michigan State 55.

Afterwards the players from both teams met at midcourt and met Obama. They all agreed to hand out their camouflage jerseys to the veterans in attendance. Even more fitting was the name on the back of all the jerseys, USA. Following that, the Foo Fighters nad Billy Currington performed for the 7000 servicemen and women in attendance. It was a great event and meant alot to the crew members, veterans, players, coaches, and fans everywhere. The players even admitted that it took a long time to get focused. There was one scary moment when Michigan State forward, Brandon Dawson, slipped on the Quicken Loans (the sponsor for the event) sticker in the middle of the floor. He appeared to have a serious knee injury at the time, but played a few minutes in the second half. Hopefully he will be okay.

Michigan State has a very interesting first two games of their schedule. They played the number one team, North Carolina, in the first ever Carrier Classic. Then they will travel to Madison Square Garden to face the number six team, Duke (North Carolina's biggest rival). Duke's coach, Mike Krzyzewski, can pass  Bob Knight for the most wins ever by a division one men's basketball coach. He is currently tiede with Knight at 902. North Carolina has a much easier task in playing UNC Asheville.

This event had much hype and certainly lived up to it, even if it was not that great of a game. Fans and veterans alike hope that it will happen again next year. Roy Williams, North Carolina's coach, said "I've enjoyed every possible thing about it. Hopefully I'll be coaching another 10-15 years, but I think it's going to be hard to top this." What a way to honor the veterans on 11/11/2011.