World's Spotlight Coming To North Carolina

Next weekend the Carolina Hurricanes host the NHL All Star game. The finest hockey players from around the world will converge on Raleigh culminating Sunday with the world broadcast of the All Star game.

The very best that The Carolina Hurricanes can say is that they are a small market team who has managed in their brief history to win the Stanley Cup and played for the championship another time. Now as host of the All Star game this really puts the Carolina Hurricanes and Raleigh in high cotton. In my opinion Carolina has the best NHL franchise is the South and hosting the All Star game is the NHL's answer that they probably are.

The NHL converged on the South 25 years ago and Carolina is about the only place that can draw a crowd on a consistent basis. When the place is rocking the RBC Center is one of the loudest in the NHL. Even though you may not have a ticket the Convention Center in downtown Raleigh will host the Fan Fest next weekend . If you have ever been to an ACC Fan Fest then you know that is better than the games because it is free and you get the feel of what being inside the arena is like on game day.

Greensboro is not going to let Raleigh get all the attention next weekend as the Coliseum will be hosting the US National Figure Skating Championships. That is a eight day event which kicks of on the 22nd and runs through the 30th.

The women's skating events are the biggest night's in Olympic coverage as far as viewers watching. Women skating there is a beauty to it. I can't say the same for the men skating unless they are part of a team.

North Carolina gets national TV coverage in something other that basketball starting next weekend and it is all at our backdoor.

We are getting into the flow of the ACC basketball season and there are some opinions that we can now make.

Duke is the best but they are going to be pushed a lot more than they want to be without Irving in the Lineup. Carolina is better with Marshall in the lineup but they have one problem. He can't at this point play 40 minutes and he has to be replaced to rest. It's that time he is out they Carolina looks average. After all the hoopla that Came from State with the signing of C J Leslie. This team looks like every other Sidney Lowe team, Not very good.

Those of you that follow Rocky Mount Gryphon basketball you might think back to last season and at this same time that team was bumbling along and then there was lightning in the bottle and changed the whole season. This years team is still looking for someone to say "follow me boys". This team has just as much talent as last when it is all stirred in the pot with the right ingredients.

The only things the girls are missing is that big girl in the middle who can be a show stopper on defense. They play good defense, which is their biggest asset being an average size time. One player Tia Hudgins who is probably the best athlete in the conference boy or girl. They also have the next division one player from Rocky Mount in J'Kyra Brown who is still hampered by her knee surgery last year. If she stays healthy she will be fun to watch her last two years at Rocky Mount. Timisha Walker is the third member of the big three. She is consistent every time out and doesn't mind being third fiddle on this team.

Merrifield Enters Whitfield Hall Of Fame

You know when Bernie Capps is not at his usual table at the end of the gym in the doorway watching for injuries during basketball games something important must be up. Tonight it was a former Rocky Mount High athlete and Wake Forest baseball Player entering the George Whitfield Hame of Fame.

Whitfield the legendary coach who won nearly 1000 high school and Legion games as well as coaching in various colleges in North Carolina held his 38th annual enshrinement at Goldsboro High school and one of the 18 inductees was Bill Merrifield former Rocky Mount Gryphon. The Gryphons won the State Baseball Championship in 1980 Merrifield's senior season. He then went on to Wake Forest where he became the ACC player of the year in baseball. Rocky Mount was well represented of those watching a Gryphon enter a Hall Of Fame. Those there included former football coach B W Holt.

I would love to have been there tonight as my former high school football coach Al Vaughn of Ahoskie was also enshrined. Vaughn lead Ahoskie High to two State titles in the 60's and 70's in football and was also the American legion coach in 1963 when Ahoskie played for the State title lead by Jimmy Hunter and the Coombs Brothers Freddie and Francis.

My favorite Al Vaughn story is during the 1963 Legion Finals Hunter was pitching against Siler City and about the 7th inning he walked the leadoff batter. He then proceeded to hit the next batter and loaded the bases by walking the next batter.

Vaughn called time and walked out to the mound and when he came back and sat down on the bench did not say a word. Nine pitches later Hunter now walking to the dugout and Vaughn came off the bench yelling" I told you that you could do it". Vaughn ran over to coach third base and all of the Ahoskie Guys asked Jimmy what did he tell you. Jimmy Hunter said "all he said was I'm tire of you messing around now. I want you to throw nine fastballs and come sit down beside me on the bench" and he did. He struck the next three batters out.

The high light of the entire enshrinement is the baseball clinic held tomorrow when just about every coach that knows anything about baseball will be there. The morning speaker is Fisher DeBerry the former Air Force football coach and Charlie Long of North Carolina Wesleyan will be teaching as well.

18 people go in the Hall and all most everyone would be recognizable to everyone. Rocky Mount stands tall tonight as a home town hero Bill Merrifield is one of those honored.

Not such good news in basketball as Hunt Wins on a tip in with 1.5 seconds to play beat the boys 64-62 Hunt out rebounded the Gryphons 38-24 so it was only fitting that a rebound wins the game. The girls cruise J'Kyra Bown has 26 as the Lady Gryphons go to 2-0 in conference play beating Hunt 72-48

The Camera Is Always Watching

We live in a society now-a-days that you are on a security camera just about everytime you move. You can't go any where without being watched not even to a ball game.

I get The Rocky Mount Telegram at home but it is the afternoon after I get home from work before I get a chance to read the Paper. Most of the time I have already seen the headlines before I sit down to look at the paper because I go on line and see it first there.

This past Friday night the Telegram cameras were shooting snapshots as they call it the Fan Cam of the Nash Central – Rocky Mount game. I had a chance yesterday to go through all 57 shots in which I ran across one of me and David Hahula had gotten a close up of me.

I can tell you right now it was way to close. I think it is the worse picture I have ever seen of myself.

This picture replaces one which I have considered my worse photo. Way back during my days as a hotshot disc jockey in Ahoskie I was asked by Robinson Studios in Ahoskie if they could do a portrait of me and put it in their window as advertisement. Everyone knew me so if Tony gets his pictures from Robinson why shouldn’t I kind of a deal.

If you have ever been to the picture show in Ahoskie the theatre is called the Earl. Robinson Studio was in the entrance to the theatre. If you were standing in line inside the entrance you could look over the pictures that Robinson had on display.

As a 19/20 year old hotshot disc jockey I had hair that flipped up around my collar and a mustache. I went by his studio one afternoon and for the next five years I had to look at that awful photo. Every time I went to the movies I had to look at that thing. As time went by Mr. Robinson died and hopefully that photo is lost in the city dump somewhere in Hertford County.

We all have our bad days and apparently I was having one looking at that photo. Since seeing that photo I am having flashbacks of seeing that photo in the lobby of the Earl Theatre. The only difference is I see the photo that David took there instead of the old one.

We all think we haven’t changed one bit over the years. When we look at ourselves in the mirror we see ourselves as 16 year old and not the haggard old people we really are.

That old picture from Robinson Studios hopefully has burned and there is no evidence that it exists any more. I might as well go ahead and give the Telegram warning. As soon as they removed that Fan Cam pictures and replace them with another game I will be going into their archives and try to hack that entire set of pictures. That picture has got to go. I have spent the last thirty five years trying to live down that portrait at Robinson’s. I don’t have 35 more to live this one down.

I don’t need anymore reminders of getting old and what I look like on my bad days. I say that hoping that I look better than that most days.

Undefeated No more

Duke showed everyone in their two home conference games that they were not quite as good as they had been playing to that point in the season. Last night Duke catches a Florida State team that plays well and Duke not quite so good shooting threes and a twenty five game win streak is over.

That win streak was part of a national championship for the ACC. We all are screaming that the ACC is down this year but if you look at basketball in general the state of basketball is terrible.

The NBA I can't stand to watch the regular season when no defense is played and not many players display fundamentals that are required in basketball. A Ten year old watches the NBA and see them do the slam dunks and thirty foot three point shots and want to be just like Kobe.

College players who show that terrific athletic ability are snatched away sometimes without ever playing college basketball. The watered down college basketball of today doesn't have time to teach fundamental basketball.

Boston College's Reggie Jackson lit up the Pack for 29 points Tuesday night carries the ball every time on his move at the top of the foul line on his patented move to the basket. Why does the NBA want to look more like the Globetrotters than real basketball? TV! The amount of dollars being spent in filling up twenty four hours a day air time has lead us all to want our 15 minutes of fame.

The ACC would not have these big TV contracts if they were not winning and being exciting. Who wants to watch a 42-40 basketball game. Because the ACC has traditionally been one of the best every year in basketball the powers like Duke and Carolina have been able to get the best of the lot while everyone else had to settle for the guy who can tear the rim down on his slam dunks but is not sure which end of the court he is suppose to do it on.

The show is more important than winning. The high lights will feature ringing rattling slam dunks instead of assist like the one last night by Duke's Kyle Singler laying on his back and throwing a perfect pass to a team mate for a layup. TV doesn't see that as worth showing on Sportscenter. It takes those type plays to win games the so called in the trenches play. The in the trenches plays just don't make good TV highlites and when TV doesn't show it the younger generation never finds out how important that is to your teams success.

What is gone from any kind of basketball is everytime you move there is a purpose. You screen for the man you threw the ball to. Today it's give me the ball and let me shoot. I'll back up to midcourt if I have to, to get open. I will miss most of the time but when I finally make one it will bring the house down.

I don't think the ACC is any worse than any other conference. What has happened to basketball is what has happened to our world. We have seen basketball played as an art but not any more. It's entertainment! The quality of basketball just isn't there any more. That is just like the world isn't it. I can no longer pull up to a gas station and someone comes up to me and checks my oil and fill my gas tank. Basketball no longer can fill our gas tank.

How'd BC get Into The ACC

Last night trying to watch the NC State/BC basketball game in front of a sitting room only crowd of maybe 4,000 I am wondering how in the world BC got into the ACC?

They can't get enough people to go to football games, nobody wants them in a bowl game. Last night basically battling for first place I had more people in my living room than were at the game. I was a lot louder than they were.

This has nothing to do with whether their teams are good or not BC is just not a division one level fan base school in sports. Nobody in Boston cares about them. Not even their students.

Now turning to the game. If I was not already convinced Sidney Lowe has to go last night put the ribbon on the package. Tied 60-60 with 3.55 to play State calls time and and precedes to let the shot clock run out and they take a desperation 35 footer which leads to two straight three point buckets by BC, game over.

I don't care how heralded your freshman class is if the coach can't coach the Pack is headed back to 6-10 in conference play. If you can't beat a team that has lost to Yale and Harvard at home how are you going to beat anybody else on the road.

Now this is not to say the BC is not a good team because I think they are ok but if you are going to lose the close games because you get out coached there just aren't many wins left for the Pack.

When they win they will win by 10-15 points but don't count on winning many that come down to five points or less.

The Carolina Panthers get their man in Ron Rivera from the San Diego Chargers. Rivera who has a Super Bowl ring as a player and as a coach will be defensive minded. We all saw this year and certainly since Jake Delhomne decline his last couple of years that with a running game you need a quarterback that can get you a first down on third and 4. The Panthers have not been able to do that at least the last three. I know this sounds crazy but Vince Young might work at Carolina a team that relies on running first and passing last. I can't believe I would even think of that as poor a worker as Young is. A lot of wasted talent because he thinks he good and lazy.

Rivera May Headup Panthers

The Carolina Panthers are in search of their fourth coach in the brief history of the franchise. There is a short list of teams in the NFL that have never played in the Super Bowl. The Panthers are one team not on that list. Jerry Richardson and family have made it policy that when they pick head coaches they want defensive minded people.

They started with Dom Capers who got the Panthers in the NFC championship game. Today he is is heading up the defense in Green Bay. The only disaster for a coach was George Seifert who won two Super Bowls on the coat tails of Bill Walsh who lasted but three years and his last season lost his last 15 games as coach of the Panthers. John Fox came on board who like Capers had been a defensive coordinator before moving to Charlotte. Fox is the winningest coach in the short history of the Panthers.

It would be no surprise at all if Ron Rivera the defensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers who's defense was #1 this past season winds up the Panthers head coach. Panther management has always looked to the defense first and the old saying defense wins championships.

What happened to the 44-41 national championship game last night. Auburn kicks a field goal to win it 22-19 over Oregon. I think Cam Newton proved last night that he is a Vince Young clone who is not that accurate passing and will struggle in the NFL.

Does anybody know whether Oregon wore the same color uniform more than once this year. If I am sitting in the stands and my team comes out to warm up I want to be able to recognize them as they come on the field to cheer for them. I think it is great that an Oregon alum owns one of the major sporting goods companies but a new uniform every week is ridiculous.