Category Archives: Featured stories

Featured stories, The skinny

Facilities, vision led to Raleigh’s impressive success with All-Star Weekend

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The ultra-successful All-Star Weekend in Raleigh was a testament to two critical factors when it comes to professional sports – facilities and vision.

Raleigh had the foresight to commit to building the RBC Center before it had a hockey team, which was a key reason the Hartford Whalers moved south. Pro teams follow the money, and money often means a swank place to play with friendly rent.

Raleigh’s big mistake, as the weekend also highlighted, was the failure to build the arena downtown. Then-mayor Tom Fetzer led the decision to go to cheaper land at the Fairgrounds, even though the downtown renaissance was already underway. The expectation then was businesses would grow up around the new arena, but that hope has never materialized. Meanwhile, the downtown area was the focus of three days of partying for the weekend.

Also due a heaping amount of credit is Jim Cain, the Raleigh product who was the Carolina Hurricanes’ president at a time when the future of the franchise was no given. Cain’s name hasn’t come up much in the reports on the weekend, but he was essential to what happened this weekend.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman promised an All-Star Game in five years if the Canes hit 12,000 season tickets, and Carolina announced on May 31, 2001, that it had sold 12,309 season tickets. A late push by Harris Teeter, which bought 1,000 season tickets, put Carolina over the goal.

“People don’t have to talk about this franchise anymore as a franchise that doesn’t care about hockey,” Cain said at the time. “We’ve got a great community here, a great fan-base and a great organization.”

The NHL hemmed and hawed on its commitment but finally delivered this weekend. The wait was longer than it should have been but wow, was it worth it.

Featured stories, N.C. State, UNC

No excuse for lazy performance by N.C. State

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The North Carolina game is always a crucible for N.C. State, a test that football coach Tom O’Brien has embraced. But the men’s basketball team produced an embarrassing effort Saturday that highlighted the deficiencies of this Wolfpack team.

State has talent, but that’s not enough. Whether Ryan Harrow is on the bench or not with the flu, there is no excuse, none at all, for lazy play. College basketball players, whether playing their rival in the Smith Center on ESPN or playing Delaware State before a small crowd, should give their all. UNC did that Saturday, and great coaches like Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski get maximum effort from their teams.

That’s not the case with N.C. State. Carolina roared out to a 19-6 lead early in the game thanks to a 15-2 rebounding advantage. That’s simply an outrageous imbalance. One of the rare mistakes the Tar Heels made in the game is they once had six players on the floor, which was comical given that UNC seemed capable of winning this game with only four.

But there were little moments that were telling. Carolina’s Kendall Marshall zoomed right down the middle of the NCSU defense untouched, missed a shot and there were two Tar Heels to rebound. Richard Howell got caught in a double-team, and as ESPN astutely pointed out, not a single Wolfpacker rushed to get the ball. You could see it clearly on the replay – with Howell in trouble, his four teammates just stood there.

State never moved with crisp efficiency on offense, preferring to hope a player could beat his man and get a basket.

And as for overall hustle, you just didn’t see that from State. Harrison Barnes once beat two Wolfpack players to a loose ball. Late in the game, C.J. Leslie made almost no effort for a loose ball as two Carolina players went after it.

The only conclusion you can draw is N.C. State is simply a lazy team. They have some guys who play hard – Tracy Smith, Lorenzo Brown, Ryan Harrow – but not enough. By game’s end, UNC fans were chanting, “Not our rival!” Right now, that’s the case. This was a ridiculous performance from N.C. State, and it’s school, and fan base, deserve better.

Featured stories, UNC

Yelling ‘over-rated’ at Harrison Barnes is a bad strategy for Miami fans

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You think that might be the last time that idiot students yell “over-rated, over-rated” at Harrison Barnes?

It’s the most foolish chant in college basketball. Nothing good can come from it. Do they really think it will do anything but inspire the player, especially one that is used to being the center of attention.

The Hurricane fans yelled “over-rated” at Barnes over and over again as he stood at the free throw stripe with 5:57 to go. He calmly hit two free throws in a one-and-one situation to put the Heels up 63-62.

Then with just 1:04 left, Barnes, who went just four of 11 on the night, swished in a pressure-filled 18 footer from the left side to tie the game at 71-all.

Then with time running down in the shot clock and the game clock, Barnes knocked in a three from right corner to give Carolina a 74-71 victory tonight.

While not living up to the All-America hype, Barnes has consistently come through in late-game situations.

“He’s not afraid to take it,” UNC coach Roy Williams said of the clutch shooting. “He thinks he’s going to make it every time.”

By the way, the “over-rated, over-rated” chat is even more foolish when it is used against an opposing team. If you win the game, you have minimized your team’s victory by simply winning a game against an overrated team.

For more on the Miami game, please click here.

Featured stories

N&O story remembers how ‘Chopper’ cared about the Canes when few others did

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The most amazing story so far as the NHL All-Star Game approaches is Luke DeCock’s read on Chopper Harrison in Tuesday’s News and Observer. Harrison, as longtime Canes fans remember, was a Triangle radio personality who became an unrelenting fan of the team when it first arrived in the state.  Harrison, 59, is now battling cancer.

He was known for his wild hair and effusive personality, and the Canes loved being on his show and talking hockey. In 2001, he even slept in a sleeping bag on top of the RBC Center, DeCock recalls, in an effort to promote the market’s push for an All-Star Game.

Harrison could be abrasive, but as DeCock points out, “Whatever one thought of his antics at the time, he cared about the Hurricanes when no one else did, a lone voice in a market all too willing to ignore the team.”

Harrison will even be on 96 Rock once again this week as the game approaches. He’s no longer trying to be a radio personality and but is glad to go by his given name, David Martin, and grateful to be remembered as the game approaches.

“I’m not Chopper Harrison anymore,” he told DeCock. “I’m David Martin. I was so into myself when I was doing radio. God has blessed me. He really has. I may have this stupid disease, but he’s blessed me, he’s made me appreciate – it’s like he opened up a door and said, ‘You did it your way, now let me show you what life is all about.’ “

Duke, Featured stories

Krzyzewski says Smith, Singler can handle a heavy load this season

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One of the questions that annoys Mike Krzyzewski, and one that has come up in recent seasons, is whether he expects too much of his star players. Krzyzewski used to play J.J. Redick heavy minutes, even in early season games, and that seemed to take a toll on Redick as the season progressed.

Duke often talks of having a deep, balanced roster, but you see Krzyzewski shorten his bench, and lengthen the playing time for stars, once ACC play begins. That trend has accelerated this season with Kyrie Irving now possibly lost for the year.

Senior Nolan Smith is the workhorse this time, as Krzyzewski pointed out. But in answering a question about Smith’s role, Krzyzewski seemed to anticipate, and address, whether Smith is overburdened.

“Nolan is having a great year. He had a great year last year. He has improved even more,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s got a lot on his plate for us – handling the ball, defending the ball, scoring the ball, leading the team. He’s done all those things at the highest level. He’s having an All-American type of year.”

“I’ve never heard of an All-American being given too many responsibilities. As soon as you do that you are playing defense on your All-American player.

“The great players in our league, not just at Duke, have a lot of responsibilities. And they want it; they prepare for it. They thrive on it. And Nolan has to continue to do that.”

Smith is averaging 33.2 minutes, which is fourth in the league, and Duke’s Kyle Singler is fourth at 33.7. Virginia Tech’s Malcolm Delaney leads the ACC at 37.8 minutes per game. Krzyzewski had high praise for Singler, saying,” Kyle is going to be one of the top five stat guys in the history of four program. He just has gone quietly about getting 20 points and 8 rebounds and being the warrior.”

Krzyzewski scoffed at any thought that Duke expects too much from those two.

“If we lose in March, it won’t be because those two guys are tired,” Krzyzewski said. “It’ll be because somebody was better than us on that day.”

Featured stories, N.C. State, UNC

N.C. State will go as far as Harrow can take it

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There are big games and biggest games and games you simply have to have. Sunday’s contest with Miami was just that for N.C. State at an RBC Center where the disgruntled nature of Wolfpack fans was evident in the swath of open seats downstairs.

State won 72-70 (see box) but had to hang on after coughing up a 17-point lead in the second half. Coach Sidney Lowe is hardly having an impressive effort this year, and a loss Sunday would have been disastrous for Lowe’s tenure. To his credit, his team hung on and played with toughness in the final two minutes.

Miami actually had a 70-69 lead when freshman Ryan Harrow took a tough driving shot that missed badly. But Tracy Smith tipped the ball so hard it ricocheted off the backboard. Then Smith grabbed it, leaned to his right and scooped in a shot with 43.9 seconds left.

Harrow stole the ball at the other end, and C.J. Williams hit one free throw for State with 15.9 seconds left.

State made an impressive defensive stand on the other end. Lowe wisely put Scott Wood on the Canes’ Malcolm Grant, who had hit all five of his three-pointers and had 23 points in the game. Grant tried to shoot but Wood cut him off, so Grant made a wild drive and Smith stepped in. Grant’s only chance was a tough pass inside a teammate could not handle, and the horn went off with the ball loose.

What was interesting about this game was who did play, and who did not. The debate over point guard, where Lowe had stubbornly clung to Javier Gonzalez, is over. Gonzalez, a scrappy kid with marginal skills, got only nine minutes and Harrow played the critical minutes in the stretch. C.J. Leslie, the talented but erratic freshman, played just 14 minutes against the rugged Canes front. And freshman Lorenzo Brown, who had started most of the season, gave way to Williams in the starting five but still played 22 minutes.

The team that finished the game – Smith, Harrow, Williams, Wood, Richard Howell – is probably State’s core five going forward. If the long injury to Smith helped in any way, it is probably that Howell gained critical experience and State saw what Leslie can, and cannot, do.

The official attendance was 15,222, but empty seats are a sure sign of a fan base that is losing faith. N.C. State got a win it coveted against a Miami team that is better than some might think. Harrow learned some hard lessons – like the wild shot he took toward the end – but State has to keep the ball in his hands. He was just 2 of 10 from the floor Saturday but had seven assists. Heck, when Gonzalez played, it seemed like months would go by without him getting seven assists.

When you watch N.C. State, you get the sense that Smith is one of the league’s best players, but that this team will go as far as Harrow can take them, and no further.

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny

Wake woes continue as 0-16 ACC season possible

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Wake Forest bottomed out in the ACC Tournament again last year and then in the NCAAs, prompting athletics director Ron Wellman to fire Dino Gaudio and hire Jeff Bzdelik. Given Wellman’s brilliant hiring record, it was easy to assume he saw much beyond the 36-58 record he had as the head coach of Colorado for three years.

Bzdelik did not inherit the ’74 Wolfpack by any means, but the disaster unfolding in Winston-Salem is beyond expectations. Wake fans who saw the team early shook their heads at the talent on the floor, and what has unfolded meets those concerns. The Deacons are now 0-5 in ACC play and 7-13 overall, and the only surprise from their 83-59 loss to Duke Saturday in Winston-Salem is they kept the game as close as they did.

All of this could point to a winless ACC mark for Wake, which has happened only five times in league history. Here are those previous five:

1987: Maryland 0-14, 9-17

1986: Wake Forest 0-14, 8-21

1981: Ga. Tech 0-14, 4-23

1955: Clemson 0-14, 2-21

1954: Clemson 0-14, 5-18

Note team has ever gone 0-16 in conference play, which Wake has a shot at this season.

The question has been raised as to whether Wake could be the worst team ever in the ACC, and the answer to that is a definitive no. Clemson’s lousy records in the league’s early years speak for themselves, and the ’55 squad allowed 73.7 points per game and allowed 93.3. The 1981 Tech team was truly terrible at a time when the league featured giants at UNC and Virginia. Tech scored 55.7 points and allowed 71.5 in an era in which teams often slowed the pace.

The view here is Wake Forest’s Wellman remains the best athletics director in the ACC, and his ability to turn around the football program and develop nonrevenue sports is remarkable. But Wellman rushed the decision to hire Gaudio after the death of Skip Prosser, and so far, the hiring of Bzdelik is off to an ominous start.

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny

Yow: Wolfpack program will be reviewed

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N.C. State’s loss to Duke Wednesday night highlighted the problems with the basketball program, which was why Thursday’s talk shows were full of discussions about the future of Wolfpack basketball.

Athletics director Debbie Yow, in her first year with the program, told The Fan’s Adam Gold and Joe Ovies that the program would be reviewed at the end of the season.  Yow said “our focus” is to give full support to the team as the season unfolds.

“After the end of the season, when all the games are played, there will be a review, of course,” she said.

Speculation about Lowe’s future is now reaching such proportions that it was a strong topic of conversation Thursday afternoon on Taylor Zarzour’s show, which is now based out of WFNZ in Charlotte. Charlotte is hardly a big N.C. State town, so the fact that this was a center of conversation says how widespread the unhappiness is with Wolfpack fans.

Yow, of course, is an experienced administrator who knows how to say the right thing. But the fact that she is openly saying there will be a review is telling. Do you think Duke athletics director Kevin White is going around saying Mike Krzyzewski “will be reviewed” after the season.

Of course not. As noted here earlier, Lowe could be driving this team toward a losing season, and that won’t wash with Wolfpack fans – or Yow.