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Fascinating Rhythms

By Alvis Dunn

”I do believe in biorhythms. I think some days you’re in a little bit of a funk.”

With those words back in 2000, Tar Heel coach Matt Doherty set my mind to celestial wandering and my most lasting Carolina basketball superstition was born. Birthdays in hand, I began to “run the rhythms.”

That same season, I watched as the fortunes of Joe Forte and the team nose-dived side-by-side with the bottoming out of the biorhythms of key players. Over time, I discovered that calculating the “ritmos” and posting them at www.accboards.com was fun. It also helped me be aware of opponents’ strengths (eventually I began to prepare the rhythms for challengers too). Other fans enjoy playing around with the projections. And I have made some uncanny calls.

So now the whole process is my Tar Heel hoops superstition. And it appears that a number of other folks have made reading the divinations part of their rituals too. Early-season games may get 100 views, while the Dook game this year dialed up over 300. Clearly several somebodies are out there checking in. Of course, some folks also add their two cents, even their own superstitious traditional two cents. A poster known as UNC2003 is compelled to add to every thread that we are “d00med.”

People are counting on me. It’s become part of the karma. It’s how, to quote Woody, I “go where I go and do what I do.” Some people think it’s foolishness; others, too serendipitous. They don’t get it.

For the record, certain categories do seem to be more important to some players. The Emotion arc always seemed most crucial to Raymond Felton and more recently a high intelligence mark bodes well for Danny Green. Rashad McCants quite predictably consistently defied the biorhythmic predictors. It seemed he was from another planet. Planet X, if you will.

By the way, I don’t look ahead, but some trends can be projected. It appears that a team-wide convergence of some sort is in order for late March, early April.

Dunn’s biorhythmic predictions appear about 24 hours before any game at www.accboards.com