Cullen Jones wins gold: Suck on that, Frenchie!

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N.C State alum Cullen Jones and his mates in the pool pulled off a tremendous upset Sunday night in Beijing, besting the French in the 400 M Freestyle Relay to win gold.

Jones becomes the second black swimmer ever to win a gold medal in Olympic history (Anthony Nestor of Surinam was the first), the first black American and the first to hold or share a world record.

By sheer luck I happened to watch the race unfold live. Amazing. The final leg swam by Lezak was nothing short of incredible. At the final turn with just 50m to go, it looked like the French were going to take it in a walk. But Lezak kept churning as the Frenchman faded in the final 25m. I found myself cheering out loud when we claimed first place.

It was a dramatic win, and one that keeps Michael Phelps' hopes for 8 gold medals alive. But perhaps more importantly, it served notice to the French swimmers who had talked a great deal of smack leading up to the event:

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Alain Bernard: "The Americans? We will smash them."

Le Scoreboaurde, le biatches!

video HT: Awful Announcing, via 850 The Buzz's blog

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So...would it be unpatriotic to root for Turkey?

Against the U.S., no less?

That's the scenario Wolfpack fans will face as former Pack guard Engin Atsur leads the Turkish National Team against Team USA tonight at 8:00 in an exhibition game. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Atsur is one of my favorite players in the last decade or so. He engineered one of the best, most memorable conclusions to a State basketball season in recent memory in '06-'07. Never was one player more crucial to its team's success than he...with him, it seemed State couldn't lose...without him we looked like, well, a lot like we did last season.

So forgive me if I pull for the Turks--and Atsur--to hand it to Team USA tonight. I really have no connection to any of the pro players that will make up the squad, couldn't give a crap about the NBA to begin with, and the fact that the team is coached by Coach K doesn't really help matters much, either.

After this game, then I'll get behind Team USA as much as I can get behind overpaid, apathetic pro players coached by a coach I don't really care for...but tonight, I'll be rooting for Atsur.

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