Coach K 880 And Counting

Is it possible that Duke may be a better basketball team this year over last year and a National Championship? They just might be even with out their best player. Duke had little trouble in giving coach Mike Krzyzewski victory number 880 last night which moved him past Dean Smith and 22 short of the all time record of 902 held by Bobby Knight.

Coach K came to Duke in 1980 and everyone forgets he inherited a senior laden team that won 20 games his first season. I had an opportunity to talk with coach K the Monday after the Blue Devils accepted a bid to the NIT after his first season in 1981. While working for the radio station in Ahoskie we had some Duke fans that wanted to get Duke on the Radio for the NIT since there was no coverage of Duke at all in the Northeastern part of North Carolina.

I called the Duke basketball office and who do you think answered the phone but coach K. The world we live in now you are put on hold for twenty minutes and hear elevator music and about once a minute they break in to tell you how important you are to them to keep holding. After explaining what we wanted coach K put down the phone and went looking for the person we needed to talk to. He came back and said they would be right there and instead of putting me on hold he thanked me for wanting to put Duke on the radio. All together we talked about maybe ten minutes about the 80-81 Blue Devils before the person who could give us the rights to carry the game came on the line. It was probably the most enjoyable ten minutes that I have ever be waiting on a telephone.

ECU yesterday was a perfect advertisement why 6-6 teams should not be in a Bowl Game. Coming into the game the Pirates were giving up 43 points a game and yesterday 51. I have never liked the West Coast offense of most of your passes never crossing the line of scrimmage. Yesterday playing their hearts out for out going coach Ralph Fridgen Maryland was all over ECU short passing game.

In minor Bowl games most of the time the team that wins is the one who feels that they are playing a big named school and has something to prove. ECU proved nothing yesterday. The 51 points was the most ever scored by Maryland in a bowl game. The way the Maryland players played for Fridgen you wonder whether the new AD at Maryland will last.

Tonight the Tar Heels get their shot in the Music city Bowl in Nashville. Of all the bowl games this year this might be the most even game on paper of any that will be played. Kick off is 6.40. GO Heels!

O'Brien Wins 100th

Most coaches when they realize the Gatorade bath is coming do all they can to deflect the flow but last night with just a few seconds left in the Champs Bowl Game N C State's Tom O'Brien stood and took the whole jug as if he enjoyed every drop.

It was his 100th as a college coach and squared his record in Raleigh to 25-25. The former Marines four years in Raleigh have been a road map and in other years when the defense needed Red Shirt players to play, O'Brien has stuck with the plan and let them sit a year and finally the fruits are blossoming. Regardless of whether Russell Wilson returns or not the Pack will be in the fight for the conference crown and if Wilson returns will have a Heisman candidate to tout.

Coach K can move past Dean Smith on the wins list tonight in Greensboro as the Blue Devils tangle with UNC-Greensboro. There have been years when this would be a blow out for Duke but not any more. Duke should still move Coach K up the wins list.

Carolina and State had big wins in basketball last night. I see both improving but whether either finishes with 20 wins is still up in the air.

Today the Nations Capitol will be purple as the ECU Pirates invade RFK Stadium. RFK Stadium over the years was my favorite place to watch football games. I remember twice in my life taking the Carolina Express (train) to Washington to watch the Redskins play.

The Redskins use to have a Carolina Day at RFK and a train left Wilmington and made stops all through eastern North Carolina. Living in Ahoskie we use top get on in Weldon and the entire train was full of North Carolina people on the way to see the Redskins. When the Redskin band would play"Hail To The Redskins" the lower level of the stadium would bounce up and down. Today's world of having to buy season tickets teams no longer allows for such trips as Carolina Day.

The Pirates sold more than three times more tickets than Maryland the home team. It would not surprise me at all if the Pirates don't win by 20 or more. Bowls games are won by teams that want to be there and Maryland does not in Ralph Fridgen's last game.

NFL Playoff Spots Filling

The defending Super Bowl Champions the New Orleans Saints bought a ticket to the NFL playoffs last night by beat Atlanta in the Georgia Dome. There is only one spot left in the NFC and the Packers and Giants are hoping they get in.

Last night Georgia Tech began the Bowl Season for the ACC losing to Air Force 14-7. Today the Wolfpack will try to give the ACC their first victory playing West Virginia in Orlando. The big question of the night will be whether this is the last game for Russell Wilson. My guess is yes this is it.

Wilson having played professional baseball last summer did not sit well with Tom O'Brien showing up for summer camp right off the baseball field. It was nearly half the season until Coach O'Brien quit saying that Wilson was trying to get into football shape. The last home game Wilson walked with the seniors. O'Brien does not want to half to go through Spring Football and all summer without his #1 player preparing for his last season.

Field conditions being the way they are it will be interesting to see if the Coleman Pitt baseball camp is able to hit the field this week. Proceeds from the camp are to help support the baseball program from Post 58 American Legion. Nash Central is the site if it goes on. The biggest problem with moving the dates is the availability of coaches like Billy Godwin of ECU. Once school starts back his focus will be putting a baseball team on the field in the middle of February.

Greg Crudup told me last week during the Nash County Christmas Tournament that fifteen players showed up for the try outs held at South Rocky Mount Community Center and fifteen more were in Greensboro all trying to make the Renegades. They will be a new team in the ABA from North Carolina next season and he is sure that the team will be competitive.

NFL Super Bowl-Up For Grabs

Before the NFL season kicked off most people might have said yes the Cowboys have a chance to become the first team in NFL history to play the Super Bowl on their home field. A new billion dollar stadium on display Jerry Jones openly talked of the Cowboy chances. It only took one preseason game to give Cowboy fans a look at the over rated Cowboys who never got any better after that.

So the race is wide open for who ever wins the Super Bowl. New England and Atlanta have the best records heading into the final seven days but is there any team in the playoffs scared of either team. New England can be an offensive machine when they are in the groove and then lose at Cleveland. Why I feel this way I do not know but Atlanta is the San Diego of this years playoffs. One and Done.

The Bears and the Steelers are right behind the leaders in their leagues. Jay Cutler is a four interception game waiting to happen. Put a little pressure on him and he loses any concept of fundamentals. Since Big Ben's return from his suspension their offense has been stale.

Philadelphia and Michael Vick's come back is a bigger story than Brett Farve's. Lost in all the Vick clamour is the best player in football is DeShawn Jackson. Kansas City got better under the pressure from San Diego when they had their quarterback Cassell on the field.

The defending Super Bowl champs New Orleans is playing as good as anybody. Remember the Ravens kicked New England's butt at New England last year. They just might wind up there again this season.

There may be a team in the playoffs with a losing record with St Louis or Seattle. Neither scares the Panthers who is close to the worse in the league. Indy still trying to get in a far cry from last year when they laid down in a game and gave away an undefeated season. Jacksonville isn't dead yet. The only question for Jacksonville is how are they still alive.

Green Bay and the Giants, one probably will not make the playoffs depending on the Atlanta -New Orleans game tonight. Green Bay would be one team I wouldn't want to play while as long as Eli quarterbacks the Giants they always have a chance to lose.

If you think you know who is going to win the Super Bowl, your are a good guesser. Just six weeks to go before we know who wins the Super Bowl but we must add this disclaimer this year. Weather permitting.

Clock Mixed Up

I know as a youth it was great to get a snow day out of school. The older I get the less I enjoy the snow due to the realism that without punching that clock pay days are slimmer than expected.

Here we are in the mist of a major snow storm on a Sunday the day after Christmas. Church has not been cancelled yet but I find it hard to believe that it will go on. Good news for school children that school has already been closed for tomorrow. No two hour delay school is closed all week. For a kid I wonder whether snow days has the same effect on them when they are already of vacation? I like the kids am on vacation this week but unlike those who want to slide down a hill all I am planning this week is nothing. The more the snow mounts the less I am planning to do.

As for today give me Direct TV and the NFL and snow cream and I will be in hog heaven. Those of you that venture down a hill on a sled have at it.

This week the "Rocky Mount Telegram" has been high lighting their all area fall teams. Andrew Morales in soccer and Tia Hudgins in Volleyball have represented Rocky Mount High School on the front covers on the days their sports were the main attractions. Good for them they deserved the honor as area player of the year.

Have fun today playing in the snow but Monday will get here and the slip slide begins as people get to back to work. Be safe!

A Special Christmas

I want to wish each and everyone a Merry Christmas. This is a time of families coming together to celebrate the birth of out Lord and Savior.

It has become our tradition to head on Christmas Eve to our oldest daughter's Steph's home in Raleigh to share Christmas with our grand children Madison and Landyn. We exchanged family gifts Friday evening and left this morning to the jolly old Saint Nick.

There are years when Christmas has more meaning than others and this has been one for my family. Thanksgiving weekend we spent the holiday weekend in Ocean Isle where the temperature was mild enough that we could walk and enjoy the beach. Morgan was taking snapshots and for her Christmas present to her brother in law Jared she gave him snap shots of him playing on the beach with his kids.

Tough guy Jared had tears in his eyes looking at these pictures. It didn't take long until we all had tears. You see Jared leaves in February for Afghanistan. 2010 Jared rejoined the Marines and his division moves out in less than two months.

This Christmas has been like no other for my family. We need to celebrate every Christmas like we have this one. We all have a new meaning of what Christmas is for. Celebrate the birth of Jesus and celebrate life with our families.

I hope that your Christmas has been as good as ours!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Spirit

Here we all are on Christmas Eve at no other time of the year do we enjoy life more. Everyone other than when they are trying to steal a parking place away give just a little where at other times we live in the I need, I need world.

We watch our athletes and enjoy their performances. We forget sometime the sprained ankles the bruises they endure to perform at the high level that we expect. This fall we have seen two of our local performers go down with life threatening injuries.

Terry Pittman at Red Oak Middle while practicing to do his sport better. Colt Brake while in the middle of a game went down with an injury very much the same as Pittman. I hope you have either seen the story of Colt's return home Wednesday or read it.

There is good news for Terry that he is also home for the holidays. He has been in the back ground mainly because he is in middle school where Colt is a high schooler. Both of these young men have endured what we all hope never happens to anyone at any time ever again.

Colt will be returning back to the the Shepard Center in Atlanta in early January and Terry is headed there also for the first time.

Many have stepped forward in Christian ways to help both to have a little better life. Then there is the non injuries that happen to us. This week during the Holiday Basketball Tournament many may have seen Tanika Hudgins in attendance. Just a decade again she was one of the great athletes in Gryphon history. Today she has been stricken with MS. She was there with family in tow following little sister Tia on the basketball court from a wheel chair.

We know not what our future brings. We need to live life as if there is no tomorrow and treat our fellow man better than being just some one annoying me. We should thank God for what we have and during this season of joy try to spread the joy every day not just the days around Christmas.