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Okay, I'm going to get something off my chest and I believe it merits consideration. Because we are in "the high holy days" as I call this time of March and it's as good a time as any to bring this up.
I'm watching the NCAA basketball tournament. Maybe it's just me but it's DISGUSTING watching so many young men, at the height of their sports careers, who are festooned with TOO MANY tattoos. I've seen some of these guys who have both arms completely inked. Some have tats on their necks.
WHY?!?? What is the purpose of all those tattoos??
These are healthy young specimens, in the prime of their lives, and they are completely destroying the symmetrical beauty of their bodies by marking them up. It absolutely takes away from appreciation of their presence on the court.
Why would anyone do this to themselves? Have they considered that there is something to life other than basketball? I mean, they ARE in college to study matters that will presumably give them fuller and richer lives after graduation, yes? What are those tattoos going to bring about when these young men are having job interviews? Some employers would fast think that these aren't the people they are looking for.
It just looks nasty. It makes the team look cheap. I can't imagine Dean Smith approving of his team sporting tattoos. He would probably have instigated a policy barring anyone tatted from playing for UNC. As bad as things have gotten I think Mike Krzyewski would have eventually done the same at Duke. The reasoning would be sound: "If you don't care for how you look you probably won't care for how you make the team look."
Come on lads, stop doing this. Bring some dignity to the game but more important than that, bring some dignity to yourselves. Covering almost every spare square inch of your bodies with health-destroying ink is not glamorous or cool or really impressive at all. The young people of America are looking at you, more than you know. And they want to be the kind of people that you pose to be.
Don't give those kids reason to "follow the crowd" into self destruction.
"One Shining Moment" is the song that CBS uses in the final moments of their annual coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, to recap the highlights of the road to the championship. All well and good... except that there won't be an NCAA men's basketball tournament this year because of the coronavirus epidemic.
So I, foolish I, took it upon myself to address this curious situation...
...how many of y'all didn't have your NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets thoroughly broken after this weekend?
I'm not much up to speed on sports of late. But watching the agony from brackets getting busted in full gory on my Facebook front page has been pure comedy gold!
Even though I don't have a dog in this hunt (I would have rooted for my alma mater Elon if it had gotten into the Big Dance for the first time) I have to say: from the getgo this has been a weird weird tourney. Probably the most topsy-turvy one in recent memory.
And to the team and student body of Butler University: Congratulations to you for being one of the classiest and best-playing teams that I've ever seen in the history of this tournament! Y'all made a new fan in me... and quite a lot of other people too.
As much as I have to be cheering for Duke, I would not mind it at all to see Butler win the whole thing.
Maybe that has a bit to do with the fact that I'm feeling tonight's game is going to be eerily reminiscent of the 1983 NCAA Championship between "invincible" slam-dunk powerhouse Houston and a scrappy little team from North Carolina State coached by an Italian kid from Queens named Jim Valvano.
This sounds more like a hella big mess than the big dance, if you ask me. The current system ain't perfect, but it's about as nicely balanced as there's likely to be. Enlarging the field to 96 teams would do nothing to enhance the spectacle of the NCAA tournament and indeed, it would more likely as not diminish the passion and enthusiasm of March Madness as a whole.
And in case anyone's wondering: I still hope to see Elon go to the tournament some year. But I don't want to see my alma mater get to it like this.
I am a life-long viewer of WFMY. Yours is the station that I have most associated with well-produced television. Growing up our own television was always tuned to one of two channels: the local PBS affiliate for Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Channel 2. Until the time I was 8 years old I didn't even know that there were other stations that did news, weather and sports. I will always fondly remember Lee Kindard's hosting of The Good Morning Show, Sandra Hughes is one of the all-time most classiest ladies in the history of anything (Lord willing I will finally get a chance to meet her someday) and whenever the weather has taken a turn for the worst or (even better) threatened snow that would cancel the schools, WFMY was there. I still remember people like Arlo Lassen (whatever happened to him anyway?) and whenever I see one of your many talented photojournalists out and about the urge comes over me even to this day to do that "number one" salute with the finger that y'all used to run at the end of each program.
I hope all of this makes it clear just how devoted I am to your station.
So perhaps you'll understand the sentiment when I say that tonight, somewhere in this great wide universe that God created, Charlie Harville is doing a huge facepalm in disbelief.
Why? Because you guys have desecrated the closest thing that the great state of North Carolina has to a High Holy Days.
I'm talking about what happened yesterday afternoon and evening with the severe weather that rolled through the Triad and surrounding area. Yes, there was a lot of damage and destruction. It couldn't be helped. And maybe y'all did what you thought was best to stem the devastation.
But that doesn't change the fact that you broke in before the second half of the Duke and Baylor game of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and showed nothing but weather for the next several hours!
And in North Carolina, that is just about an unforgivable offense. If this had been the finals of the BASS Masters, or the World Series, or even the Super Bowl, this would have been different. But instead you chose to commit a basketball broadcasting blasphemy. HERE of all places! In a state whose motto should be "Play Basketball or Die!"
All the other stations in this area were doing severe weather alerts. The broadcasting footprints of any two of them covers the same area as your market. They had the latest weather updates... but only WFMY had college basketball and even better, Duke college basketball (they are going to the Final Four incidentally, having beaten Baylor 78 to 71... and I had to go to ESPN to find that out).
I'm not going to ask if this would have happened had it been UNC Chapel Hill playing to get into the Final Four. That would just open up another can of worms. Instead I shall leave that particular question as an exercise for the reader.
Look: I think that Eric Chilton, Leigh Brock, Ed Matthews and Grant Gilmore are doing a super excellent job so far as local weather goes. WFMY has always had, and to this day still has, one of the finest meteorological departments of any television station not just in this country, but the world. I have nothing but the utmost respect for your meteorological staff's skill, enthusiasm and terrific on-scream demeanor. And I will still gladly tune in to WFMY for much of my weather forecasting needs.
But this weekend, y'all messed up bigtime.
I'm not asking for y'all to apologize. Just please, bear it in mind next time something like this happens. Even amid something like this, there are lots of people who don't want to be confronted with all of the local stations broadcasting about it, but would rather have an avenue like college basketball in which to escape from their momentary fear. And I am very much sincere about this. There comes a point in any crisis situation when there is too much information and a person needs to be able to take a step back from it. That is what WFMY News 2 could have provided yesterday evening, that literally no other station in this market could have provided at that time.
Just think about what I've said, and consider these thoughts the next time an event like this happens.
The reason is that it is our obligation to keep our viewers, safe during a dangerous situation. When there is a tornado warning, it means there is rotation in a thunderstorm which could reach the ground as a tornado. In this case, the warnings lead to three possible tornadoes and significant damage through our viewing area.
The Federal Communications Commission requires broadcast stations to deliver immediate emergency information during the duration of a warning. Once a warning is lifted, we will return you to regular program or full screen games as the case might be.
Replays of the primetime programs will be available online on Monday. They are usually updated within 24 hours of the initial broadcast of the show. You can find those shows including The Amazing Race and Undercover Boss on the CBS Video Player.
I don't mind saying this: WFMY's statement about this doesn't hold any water.
Maybe once upon a time that dog could hunt. But fercryin' out loud: WFMY has three digital channels now, not just one analog signal! If they sincerely believe they've a legal obligation to broadcast breaking weather information, fine... but WHY COULDN'T THEY SIMPLY SHUNT THE NCAA BASKETBALL BROADCAST TO DIGITAL CHANNEL 2-3?!? I mean, they have 2-3 set up, but they aren't using it for anything. Digital channel 2-2 is dedicated to 24 hour continuous weather, and I have to praise WFMY for that 'cuz it really is a convenience to more people than the station realizes.
But to not be prepared for a contingency like this? By not having a choice of options available to its viewers when WFMY not only can do so but already should have done so?
I don't know what's worse now: that WFMY didn't broadcast the Duke/Baylor game, or that it seems to have lacked the creativity that digital broadcasting technology not only allows but in fact demands.
There is absolutely no reason for making this entry, other than because Lord only knows when the next time will be that I get to do a post like this one :-P
"No Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or TwitPic!" That's the dictate being sent to sports fans and students of Southeastern Conference member schools if they want to attend athletic events. Under its newly adopted media policy, the SEC has informed its schools that "Ticketed fans can't produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event."
It's effectively a ban on all so-called "social media". Per the new regs, a fan could get ejected from the premises simply for using his iPhone to take a picture of himself at a Gators football game and sending it to his friends on Facebook.
So what's behind this boneheaded move? The $3 billion contact with CBS for the next 15 years, giving that network exclusive media rights to cover SEC games. In other words: if you go to an SEC event, you and your cellphone are potential competition to a multi-billion dollar broadcast television corporation equipped with the latest cutting-edge high definition technology.
This isn't entirely unheard of, but for a collegiate athletic conference to crack down on the fans themselves is certainly new (and treacherous) ground to tread. Not to mention darn near unenforceable.
...are the most screwed-up brackets that I've seen in a way long time.
I'm beginning to see some merit to Dad's suggestion: take the top 64 teams, and apart from the teams that deserve to be #1 seeds, pick numbers out of a hat and pair 'em up randomly.
I still haven't given up hope that someday, I'll live long enough to see Elon University go to the Big Dance. Along with witnessing firsthand a real tornado, it's one of my aspirations in life :-)
Mario Chalmers (now and forever a Kansas folk hero after his 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime) and Darrell Arthur of the Jayhawks have their one shining moment...
Kansas 75, Memphis 68 in overtime. That was the most thrilling and pure crazy NCAA Men's Basketball Championship I've seen in a way long time! Kudos to Bill Self and his team on a spectacular win.
Congrats also to the Tigers of Memphis for coming this far and driving to deliver what will go down in history as one of the all-time greatest NCAA finals ever played.
And after that game I think we all need a good drink...
A longtime friend was banned for life from a sports restaurant last night after breaking-bad on UNC-Chapel Hill, which lost bigtime against Kansas in the semifinal of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The Jayhawks won 84 to 66. Not once did Carolina take the lead, and at one time they were down by 28 points. Apparently my friend could not contain his relish at the Tarheels going down so hard.
Another friend is reportedly going to burn his "lucky underwear", which he had worn during every UNC game for the past few seasons.
I've already warned Lisa to expect some long, sad faces tomorrow at school. Whether there will be more depression among the students or her colleagues, remains an open question.
And after reviewing both semifinals last night, I've my own guess as to who'll win between Kansas and Memphis tomorrow night. But at this point, it doesn't really matter. I'll just be tuning in, knowing that I can expect a great basketball game.
9:31 p.m. EST: One of the announcers has just said that this game "is over" already, with 7 and a half minutes left in just the first half! Kansas 38 and UNC 12.
Someone who shall remain anonymous has told me that Davidson did better against Kansas than the Tarheels are doing tonight.
9:44 p.m. EST: 40-19, Jayhawks still in the lead with just over 3 and a half minutes in the first half. Carolina is starting to show some pepper here.
9:51 p.m. EST: Kansas 44, UNC 27 at the half. Kansas might have burned much of their juice too early in this game and Carolina is still gaining some traction. All the same, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the Tarheels locker room right now.
10:20 p.m. EST: 15:54 in the second half, Kansas with 54 and 40 for Carolina. If both teams stay consistent, this could turn out to be one of the better second halves of a basketball game that I've seen in awhile.
10:30 p.m. EST: Tarheels on a roll, although Kansas still leads 54 to 46 with 12:16 left. I think the Jayhawks might have become more than a little over-confident after having led by 28 points earlier. With that much time left and the lead trimmed to single digits, Carolina can still pull this one off.
If they do, although I'm not much of a Tarheel fan, they will have earned my respect bigtime for this one.
10:42 p.m. EST: Under 8 minutes to play and UNC has whittled the Jayhawks's lead down to just five points.
I haven't seen an NCAA Tournament semifinal game this hard-fought since the Duke/UNLV "rematch" in '91.
10:53 p.m. EST: Kansas coming back, now with a 12 point lead.
FINAL UPDATE 11:06 p.m. EST: Kansas wins!! Jayhawks 84, Tarheels 66!
Gotta give UNC credit: they did a remarkable job in coming back from such a wide deficit. In the end, Kansas really did recover from their bought of cockiness and regained solid ground in a matter of minutes.
So it'll be Memphis versus Kansas on Monday night. Hmmm... that's gonna be a tough one to call. Guess I'm just gonna have to watch and see what happens. But my heart is leaning more toward Kansas right now.
"Trees will tap dance, elephants will ride in the Indianapolis 500, and Orson Wells will skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner before State finds a way to beat Houston."
-- Dave Kindred writer for The Washington Post April 4th, 1983
It became, and remains to this day, the defining sports moment of the modern era.
It was twenty-five years ago tonight, on April 4th, 1983, that North Carolina State won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in what has become regarded by many as the single greatest basketball game ever played and one of the biggest upsets in the history of athletics.
It also produced some of the most memorable sports images to be ever televised or photographed.
What can be said about that game that hasn't already over a quarter-century? Nobody was expecting the Wolfpack of NC State to take down Houston. Guy Lewis's Cougars - dubbed "Phi Slamma Jamma" - boasted Hakeem Olajuwon and Clive Drexler. The entire team was already playing like NBA pros. They were ranked #1 in the nation. And after crushing Louisville in the semifinals of the 1983 NCAA Tournament, the Houston team was practically being laureled by most sports reporters as national champions even before tipoff. Writers like Kindred of The Washington Post were stepping all over themselves trying to describe the inevitability of Houston taking it all.
But nobody cared to tell any of this to a scrappy team from Raleigh, North Carolina that had been nicknamed the "Cardiac Pack". Nor did it seem that anybody thought to pass the word along to a certain Italian kid from Queens.
Long before the start of the 1982-83 basketball season, North Carolina State's head coach Jim Valvano was telling his players that they possessed a lot of talent, and that they had the potential to bring home a national championship. Valvano believed it. The team believed it too. In spite of a rough regular season, the Wolfpack persisted and won the 1983 Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
And then NC State went to the Big Dance. The Wolfpack kept winning. Against Pepperdine, UNLV and Virginia the 'Pack achieved victory only within the last minute of each game after trailing for most of the time. And it wasn't long before everyone started to stand up and take notice of NC State and its sensational coach...
So it was that events converged on a showdown in Albuquerque, New Mexico - appropriately enough at The Pit, legendary for its hostile design - on the night of April 4th. Jim Valvano's North Carolina State versus Guy Lewis's Houston. Cardiac Pack against Phi Slamma Jamma. Irresistible Force meets Immovable Object.
The whole world was watching. Including a certain young boy in north-central North Carolina, who had been cheering for State since he could remember and was tuned-in to the game on WFMY along with his family. And truth be known, as much as we have always been faithful NC State fans, we were wondering how they could pull this off, too.
Most of y'all know how this went, and if you don't or if you need a refresher tonight ESPN Classic is running a half-hour special about the 1983 NCAA Championship game. In the final minute Derek Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe brought State within sight of victory by bringing the score to a 52-52 tie (after gaining a comfortable lead at halftime only to watch Houston sap away at the margin). State's Thurl Bailey passed the ball to Whittenburg, who with seconds left in the game threw what became the most televised air ball in history.
The ball was short, and that would have been the end of it for State. Except that sophomore Lorenzo Charles swooped down from seemingly out of nowhere and slammed a dunk with two seconds left before the buzzer.
The final score: North Carolina State 54, Houston 52.
The Pit went wild with pandemonium! To say nothing of what was going on in countless homes and restaurants across the country. Millions of people had watched the impossible: Phi Slamma Jamma had been defeated at its own game.
And Jim Valvano could not control himself: he leaped from his seat and began a frantic rush up and down the court, looking for somebody, anybody, to give a hug to. It has became the most iconic moment in the history of college basketball, and one of the most famous ever in sports.
Here it is, courtesy of YouTube: the final glorious moments of the 1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game... and the first wild moments in the birth of a tradition that would come to be known as "March Madness":
It's hard to believe that it was twenty-five years ago today that all of this happened...
And it's even harder to believe that this month marks fifteen years since Jim Valvano was taken from us at the all-too-young age of 47, after a year-long battle with bone cancer.
Jim Valvano was one of my all-time personal heroes, for more reasons than I can possibly relate in this space. And it's one of the greater regrets of my life that I never got to meet him. Valvano was always larger-than-life and after the Wolfpack won the championship in 1983 he became an inescapable presence. He went on David Letterman's show and even appeared along with friend Dick Vitale in one of the final episodes of The Cosby Show (Valvano was one of the "V and V Movers" in the episode where Cliff is trying to move a grandfather clock). After his time at NC State, Valvano also became a well-respected commentator for ABC Sports and ESPN.
But in spite of all of his new-found fame and the thrill of victory, Valvano never lost sight of the things that mattered most. And his animated personality never diminished, even after receiving the prognosis in 1992: "Hey doc, you forgot to use the flash", Valvano joked the moment he saw the cancerous dark tissue on his x-ray.
It was a humor that Valvano maintained during the length of his battle. During his speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, he dismissed a teleprompter's notifying him that he had 30 seconds left to wrap things up. "They got that screen up there flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen," Valvano said on live televison. "I got tumors all over my body and I'm worried about some guy in the back going 30 seconds?"
The day he passed away, a lot of people cried. Including me. And I've always wanted to go pay my respects to the man and all the good things that he stood for.
So since this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the greatest moment of his career, yesterday afternoon I set out for Raleigh...
On a good day, it's about an hour and a half's driving time between Reidsville and Raleigh. I like going there, but given how gas prices have been soaring lately it's become harder to justify going out that far. But this is something that I'd made the choice many months ago to do, and as it happened I had some free time yesterday to make a short day trip for this.
I left Reidsville at 12:30 yesterday afternoon. For early spring it has been unusually cool this past week, and I had to wear a long-sleeve shirt and jacket. My route had me getting onto Interstate 40 in Burlington, then heading east toward Raleigh. I stopped at the new Lowes Foods in Burlington (the one near the new shopping center with the Target and Best Buy) and found just what the occasion required: a single red rose, adored with lilies. The girl at the register said that my wife was "going to love this!" I had to tell her that "actually it's going on a gravesite", and I shared with her what I was doing.
"You're driving all the way from Reidsville, as high as gas is? That's sweet!" she told me.
I got onto I-40 just after leaving Lowes Foods. And according to the directions I pulled off the Internet, it would be another fifty miles before I left the interstate. But it turned out that the directions were off a bit, and I ended up bewildered somewhere in Cary (I think it was Cary...). I stopped at a gas station and asked for directions toward Glenwood Avenue, and the guy told me to take a right and keep going and "it's only two miles away."
I never found Glenwood Avenue. But I can't help but think now that maybe it was providential, because I wound up driving through the campus of North Carolina State University. After going through downtown Raleigh on New Bern Street, I stopped at a pharmacy and asked if anyone knew where Oakwood Avenue was.
"Go back down New Bern, take a right onto Raleigh Boulevard, and then a left right there at Oakwood. You can't miss it," a woman told me. She also asked "Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"A cemetery," I told her.
"Okay well you'll definitely see that," she replied.
Finally, at around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, I arrived at Oakwood Cemetery...
Founded in 1869, with a large amount of acreage devoted to thousands of Confederate veterans who are buried there, Oakwood is easily one of the most magnificent and beautiful cemeteries that I have seen in this part of the country. It is also wonderfully maintained, and the staff there was glad to help me find the spot I was looking for. "Jim Valvano is buried up there. Take a left and look for a large black marble marker," one of the groundskeepers told me.
It had already started to rain by the time I approached Raleigh. It had begun to fall even harder. The rain was washing the pollen out of the air and from the surfaces, leaving a sickly yellow residue to drain away. By this time the thermometer in my car was registering an outside temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
And finally, in the Cedar Hill Section of the cemetery, there it was...
The groundskeeper wasn't kidding: Jim Valvano's grave is positively big. But it's not necessarily ostentatious. One of the things that I thought when I saw it for the first time was that even his grave marker, in its own way, spoke volumes about the man that it served to honor.
I took those photos from one of the little roads that criss-cross the cemetery. By the way, if you ever visit Oakwood please be very careful and alert, because the driveways within the cemetery barely accommodate one vehicle, much less two at a time. And the only entrance to the place is large enough for one car at a time, period. So as you approach the entrance on Oakwood Avenue, be aware of any cars trying to leave the cemetery too.
Along with the rose that I'd bought on the way, I had something else that I wanted to leave at Valvano's grave...
It's, I guess it's called a "graveside note": something that I created in Photoshop yesterday morning. At the top of it is a color photo of Valvano surrounded by his players, taken moments after North Carolina State won the national championship in 1983. And then there was something that I wrote that was inspired by Valvano's words at the ESPY Awards, and which are also engraved on his tombstone:
Dear Coach V, You made us laugh. You made us think. You made us cry.
And you made us proud.
On the 25th anniversary of your greatest victory, from all of us who will remember that night for the rest of our lives ...
Thank you.
I then placed the note and the rose on Valvano's grave...
The rain was falling harder by then. I finished up with my personal honoring of Valvano's memory, and then started to leave. Here's one last picture I took...
And then I said my goodbye to "Coach V" and left. I felt immensely satisfied that I was finally able to do this, and honor the memory of the man who inspired so many with both his witty humor and profound wisdom.
I know of no better way to wrap this up, than to post the video of Jim Valvano's speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, along with perhaps the most famous words he gave from the podium that night...
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
It ain't looking good for the Knight household though: this year the NCAA honchos have put the three teams we have the most affection for in the same region! Duke (my longtime favorite Atlantic Coast Conference team along with N.C. State), Georgia (Lisa's alma mater) and Baylor (where Lisa's brother is attending) are all playing in the West. In fact, if they both come out of their first games intact it's going to be Baylor and Georgia playing each other! And then of course whoever wins that will be sent home by the Blue Devils, but anyway...
Unfortunately, Elon is not in this year's tournament. Again. Someday before I die, Lord willing I will see the Phoenix make it to the Big Dance. And then like Gonzaga was a few years ago (yeah they're in it this year again too) all the sports commentators will be going "Elon?! Where the heck is Elon?!" and I'll be able to smile and laugh about our little school getting a few seconds of footage in the "One Shining Moment" video that CBS Sports always runs after the championship game :-)
This may be the dumbest thing that I've ever heard from the world of sports journalism: a few weeks ago the National Collegiate Athletic Association implemented new rules for live blogging at NCAA-sponsored sporting events. The whole thing got started when a sports writer was thrown out of a college baseball game for providing an online chronicle of the action as it happened. The NCAA screamed about "infringing" on the rights of the broadcast partners.
In the wake of the uproar, last month the NCAA established some... strange... regulations for live blogging by professional sports reporters at college athletic events:
Football - Three posts per quarter and one post at halftime
Baseball - One post per inning, including extra innings
Basketball - Five posts per half, two posts in halftime, two posts per each overtime
Not only that, but each blog must display the NCAA logo (what the... %@#&?!?!?) and all blog posts by credentialed journalists must be submitted to "the NCAA Blog Central" (?!?!?).
Naturally, sports writers are having a field day with this lunacy.
Check out Kara Ratliff's story at WebProNews (a website that I heartily recommend) for the skinny on the NCAA's bizarre blogging policy...
