News 14 Carolina - Special Events Blog

Last Day

2008-04-17T18:11:00.002-04:00

What an amazing journey it has been! I feel truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to cover the Pope. I have met so many interesting people, seen old friends, watched veteran journalists and of course seen the Holy Father and the President! I feel very blessed. It's stories like these that allow me to be on the front lines of history and that's why I got into this business in the first place. Thank you all for reading and watching and thank you for your emails. I traveled with a great crew. My photographer Justin Burrows was truly a godsend. His work ethic, diligence, personality and meticulousness truly made me shine. To Eric Bishop who operated our truck and made all our shots visible to the folks back home...he had a lot to carry on his shoulders working with our affiliate NY-1 and it all came off without a hitch. See you back home in the Tar Heel State! Lisa

Day 4 - The Papal Mass

2008-04-17T12:12:00.002-04:00

We did not have credentials to get inside the Papal Mass but we were allowed to stand somewhat near the stadium (We were not close at all, if you are in Charlotte we were basically standing near the convention center...relate that distance to BofA stadium and thousands of people and street vendors, it was all roped off, so we only had a small block we could get access to). Security was everywhere...I just wanted to get near the doors at least so I can catch some of our group going in, but no luck. Members of the Raleigh Diocese were great, they were able to allot tickets for us, but we couldn't get by with the camera equipment. I literally stood on a street corner near the stadium with a sign that read "North Carolina". With thousands passing by, only a few stopped, some were UNC grads and finally we found a few natives. I knew people inside, but that was the problem, they were all inside. After the Mass...they were on one side, we were stuck on another and security was not giving us any leniency at all, which is understandable. It probably didn't help that we were an out of town station, if they were familiar with us and our station, maybe they would've let it slide. I did speak to several people on the phone to get a feel for what they thought of the Mass. Unfortunately many were heading home immediately following the Mass and we are on our way back to the Basilica of the National Shrine. See you at 5pm!

Day 3 - The White House

2008-04-17T12:06:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a crazy day! We began early, departing for the White House at 7:15am. When we got there, we waited...and waited...for nearly 2 hours! We went through security and walked to the press briefing room, which was a lot smaller than I thought. I saw Matt Lauer (NBC) hauling some chairs. I saw Tim Russert (NBC) talking to a Bishop and Chris Cuomo (ABC) filling a backpack. We also met a priest from Spain who was traveling with one of the international stations. He said he was tired of being asked the same question focusing on the sex abuse scandal within the church. Once on the South Lawn, I was completely in awe of the beauty. My photographer was on a riser and I was in a pit with journalists from around the world. One European journalist observing the seating arrangements said, "Only in America would you seat Cardinals with members of other religions." Seeing the President, Pope and First Lady was amazing...a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

Day 2 - The Arrival

2008-04-15T21:07:00.002-04:00

Even though we have credentials, it doesn't allow us access to the venues. It alerts security that we are a legitimate media outlet covering the Pope. Therefore, we were not positioned at Andrews Air Force Base when he arrived. We were, however, right outside of the Vatican Embassy, where he will be staying. Hundreds of people lined the streets there. Many of them Hispanics from San Antonio, Dallas, California and Minneapolis. They held signs, waved flags and sang. They brought drums, tambourines and guitars. They chanted "Benedicto". And then...there were the protesters. The signs denouncing the Bible and those yelling about priests and pedophiles. But, there were more supporters out there than opponents. When he arrived there was a motorcade of Metro police, I couldn't see the Pope at all because there were huge tour buses in the way and tons of people. He arrived moments before our 5 o'clock live shot. We were sharing time with our sister station NY-1 and they wanted to get on live as soon as possible, but it was finally our turn. I met a woman who grew up in Greensboro who lives across the street from the Embassy and she was just so excited to watch. Then was also a guy from Charlotte. He wasn't Catholic but he wanted to try and see the Pope because as he called it, "He's a famous guy, he's a celebrity." I heard on a local station here that Pope Benedict XVI didn't want a large crowd or a big deal surrounding his trip because it was more about faith than him. Too late...one of the gift shops is selling Pope bobble heads.

Day 1

2008-04-14T17:01:00.002-04:00

We left for Washington at 5am. It was a fairly quick trip, we arrived around 11am. The hotel was once a Holiday Inn but now it's very contemporary. We dropped off our gear, picked up credentials and headed to the USCCB. They were hosting a media tour of all the sites. It was a reunion of sorts as I saw former co workers waiting the lobby. We boarded a bus for the Basilica of the National Shrine, it was an amazing church. We interviewed a spokesperson from the Secret Service and the Rector of the church. He was excited about giving the Holy Father a tour of the shrine and also said he was nervous. He said it was an honor to be his tour guide, but hoped he didn't fall on the steps! At the National Mall, we put together our stories...I have to admit it was pretty cool standing in front of the Capital reporting for News 14. It was at that moment I realized how lucky we are to be a part of this historic trip. All the planning and finally...the week is here. Tomorrow he arrives.

First leg - Raleigh

2008-04-12T12:14:00.000-04:00

Today I am anchoring from our newsroom in Raleigh. It makes it easier since we are leaving so early Monday morning, although it only shaves about 3 hours from the trip. We are estimating about 5 or 6 hours. Hopefully it will be smooth drive. I am doing some research today about the last Papal visit to DC. From what I could find it was October 1979. I compared the itinerary and Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting a lot of the same sights Pope John Paul II did. The two may not mirror each other in attitude or behavior but the message is similar.

The White House!

2008-04-11T12:39:00.002-04:00

We just got word today that we will be on the front lawn of the White House with Pope Benedict XVI, The First Lady and the President! I am very excited because not every media outlet has access to this event. There are two Carolinians that I have been in contact with that will also be there, hopefully we can touch base with them as well. It is going to be a crazy day but well worth it. I spoke with the Press Affairs person today and she told me it will be a "nightmare"; a lot of waiting around, a lot of security...but completely understandable. I will be driving to Raleigh today and anchoring there this weekend. On Monday we depart at 5am for DC!

Charlotte Catholic High School

2008-04-10T11:48:00.004-04:00

Today I spoke with students at Charlotte Catholic High School to gage their interest on the Papal Visit. They have been discussing it in class this week, but many say they feel disconnected. Many young people are not familiar with the man formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. One young man said Pope John Paul II was like a grandfather and when Pope Benedict XVI began his Pontificate it was like gaining a stepfather. It was a very eloquent and profound analogy. The teacher, Mrs. Burns, suggested reading a book Pope Benedict XVI wrote entitled, Jesus of Nazareth. The first book written during his Pontificate, it was published last May. For more information on the book, click here.

Coming together

2008-04-08T16:51:00.002-04:00

When we arrive Monday afternoon, we will park at the National Mall. I have only been there once, so I am excited to see it and have it for our background for live shots. I spoke with several people today who are going up to DC so hopefully I'll be able to connect with them while there. It's definitely not like the NCAA where the Carolina fans are dressed in blue! Looks like most of the ticket holders from here will all be in the same section at Nationals Park for the Mass, so that's helpful. Less than a week away...

Three million dollars!

2008-04-07T12:21:00.003-04:00

Washington, DC is footing a three million dollar bill to host the Pope. There will be an elaborate church set at Nationals Park where the Mass will be held on Thursday, April 17th. Placido Domingo will be singing. Still searching for people who may be going from the Triad and Triangle. My email address is on our website.

Sunday

2008-04-06T11:46:00.002-04:00

Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest but the countdown continues. Eight days until he arrives! Today, I looked over his itinerary. I remember back in 2005, being camped out in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Charlotte as the health of Pope John Paul II was failing. He was the only Pope I had ever really known and I learned so much about the conclave of Cardinals and the selection process of a new Pope during that time. I was reading today online, someone had written that Pope John Paul II was probably the most charismatic and active Pope. The article talked about how thousands flocked to the Vatican to see Pope John Paul II but today just as many or even more visit the Vatican to hear Pope Benedict XVI, to listen to his teachings. I wonder what his legacy will be, what impact he will leave on Americans during this visit. He celebrates his 81st birthday on April 16th, some say because of his age, this may be his only trip to the U.S.

Questions to ask

2008-04-05T10:41:00.002-04:00

As more people find out about the trip, many ask me how close will I get to the Holy Father. Probably not close at all. There are about five thousand media coming from all over the world to cover this historic event. My news director, Jim Newman calls it, "...a Superbowl for one person."There will be tight security and thousands of people. Luckily, we have media partners like CNN and NY-1 that can help us with video of the actual events, like the Pope's arrival. Some people have also asked if I will be interviewing the Pope. Not likely. When he's not traveling in the Popemobile, he'll be surrounded by an entourage of security. He has his own Secret Service detail. If I did have the chance to sit down with him there's so much I would ask, I could probably be there for hours. If you could ask the Pope one question, what would it be?

Finding the People

2008-04-04T12:32:00.002-04:00

Today I spent most of the day on the phone and sending out e-mails. I have only been to DC once and finding North Carolinians will not be easy among the crowds! The Charlotte Diocese has been so helpful in providing me with names of people who are attending the Mass on Thursday, April 17th. I spoke with a few of them today and one woman is bringing her children. I can't imagine what an experience that will be for them. Yesterday, I met a man who is the main distributor for the gifts that will be sold at the Mass. He happens to be from Charlotte. The Queen City is definitely going to be making their mark...now, if only I can find people from Raleigh or Greensboro. Anyone have any leads here? Thanks!!

Interviewing Bishop Jugis

2008-04-03T12:42:00.006-04:00

I interviewed Bishop Jugis today. I met him a few years ago, when I first started here in Charlotte. My assignment at the time was to get a comment from him and I had no idea what he looked like. My photographer and I were in a church parking lot and I was scouring the area until I saw him get out of his car. I approached him, unsure if it was him, but asked anyway. He confirmed who he was and knew who I was, as he had been watching News 14 Carolina all morning! From that initial meeting, he always remembered my name. A soft spoken man, full of faith, he is always willing to give an interview and he is very approachable. I've interiewed him several times, on several topics. Today he shared thoughts with me about the Holy Father. He met him twice in 2005 and said he had "great spiritual depth". He also reminded me about what a historic trip this is. Pope Benedict XVI will be celebrating his 81st birthday while in the U.S. and also the 3rd anniversary of his election to the Pontificate. He told me how grateful he is that the Pope chose this special time to share with American Catholics. Please check out the story online and feel free to send your thoughts, comments and reflections.

Countdown to Pope Benedict's Visit!

2008-04-02T09:47:00.003-04:00

Hello and welcome to our special blog detailing the latest information on our coverage of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI! He will be coming to the United States for the first time on April 15th, landing at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington DC. I will be there along with a crew from our Raleigh and Greensboro newsrooms and a team from our affiliate in NY. I am really excited to connect with some of you who may be heading up there and I am anxious to hear your thoughts about his visit. Please feel free to comment and I will keep all of you in the loop. Thanks for reading along and thanks for watching News 14 Carolina! See you in DC! Lisa

PS: There is a link on this blog to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, they are the organization hosting the Pope. You can also check out his itinerary for his trip and we'll let you know where we will be during this historic event.

No Waiting Lines

2008-03-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

I think one of the most interesting things about covering the NCAA tournament is the lack of lines for the women's restrooms. Finally! I'm not sure what it's like in the arena for the fans watching the game, but I have yet to wait in line for a restroom in the media area since I've gotten here.

Aside from that, Duke fans are out in force today. Other teams have a bevy of supporters as well...I'm sure you can see the sea of colors while you're watching the game. News crews are also a bit more stressed out today because there are a lot of restrictions to what we can shoot inside the arena when the games are playing. Plus, the video feeds to our equipment aren't also the best, so there are a lot of worries about video and audio glitches. But, all in all, everyone is very excited about the first round games.

Open Practice Day

2008-03-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

I got up early to get on the media shuttle and head to the Verizon Center to pick up my media credentials. But, the shuttle never came. So, today basically consisted of several trips via Metro to haul all of the equipment to the media center. At least I don't have to go to the gym this week.

Duke didn't start their open practice until after 4 p.m. By then, the seats were filled with a good number of Duke fans. The team practices are free and open to the public, which means it's a great chance for fans to see their favorite players and coaches up close. The cost of a ticket to an actual NCAA game is $237, according to the box office personnel. One family I spoke with spent $700 for the three of them to watch the games over the next few days.

One thing I did notice is that many of the Duke fans live near Washington, DC and have no affiliation with the school except for being a fan of the basketball team. The other thing I noticed is that the basketball players are a LOT taller than me, so I was very thankful that the locker room interviews are conducted sitting down…that actually puts them at my height level.

The television news crews are stationed in a room located right next to the arena, but the lighting in there is terrible. It feels like we're on the set of a horror movie, but I suppose it's better editing in dimmer settings.

The game tips off Thursday evening at 7:10 p.m. and I look forward to watching my first live NCAA game.

Traveling around DC

2008-03-18T22:53:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note before all the March Madness begins:
City blocks in Washington DC are much bigger than the ones in New York City. I tried walking from the media hotel to the Verizon Center this afternoon when I got in. It's about 8 blocks on the map, which I thought would take me about 10 minutes. But, it definitely took longer than that. I'm hoping they have some sort of media shuttle because lugging all that camera gear up and down the Metro won't be fun. And, I don't plan on trying to walk it either.

Media have already started to arrive because I'm seeing camera crews going up and down the elevators with me. Plus, there are a few live trucks set up outside the Verizon Center already. All the fun starts tomorrow morning when we file in to get our credentials and figure out how to operate for the next few days.

I'm also keeping my eyes peeled for any Duke fans walking around the city. I haven't seen anyone wearing the sweatshirts or caps yet, but I'm sure they'll be out in full force tomorrow.

More to come...

Saturday 1/26/08 We Shall Overcome

2008-01-27T01:07:00.000-05:00

Despite an old fashion backyard wompin' stompin' thumpin', John Edwards vows to carry on. You know it's not going to be a good night when a minute after the polls close, the networks declare your opponent the winner.

We rolled into Jillians (Edwards HQ) around noon. Setup wouldn't happened until 2pm but the satellite trucks were already circling. There's two things most important with live coverage. Prime riser location and a short cable run. We got one out of two. In fact, none of the Raleigh tv stations was assigned riser space. It's bad enough when you forget one of us. We're usually pretty good about working each other in, but when you forget all four of us, that's fightin' words.

There were always two comments on my report cards. Short attention span and doesn't always play well with others. You can't expect much if you show up at the end of the campaign trail, but by god we've been here for two weeks. And you know I made sure they knew it. Eventually everything was worked out, but the me and the girl coordinating riser space exchanged the "evil eye" all night long.

Overall, the night went exceptionally well. Usually when you are set and ready to go two hours before the event kicks off, Murphy's Law creeps in and ruins the night. Not tonight. Everything went smoothly. In fact, we even had time to drop Tim's news vehicle off at Goodyear and have his brakes serviced. We were turning heads during the week as we grind to stops throughout the capitol city. Brake pads and two rotors later, he's back in business.

Edwards came out around 9:30p with his concession speech. He pledged to carry on. How long is the big question. Some believe he can still pull enough delegates to influence the national convention. That's worth a cabinet position.

As for us, we're headed home Sunday. Tim's voice is all but gone. He has the next week off. His vocal cords need it. I'll take Monday then it's back to the old grind. That's the one disappointment about covering a story this big. After it's over, you're back on general assignment, covering city council, crime and the drought.

See ya in 2012.

MB

Friday 1/25/08 Edwards' Last Stand

2008-01-25T23:24:00.000-05:00

We're in the home stretch and talk on the street is John Edwards' campaign is as well. So what keeps him going? Another VP nomination? Cabinet position? Maybe in Obama's White House, doubtful in Hillary's. I applaud his conviction, but it's not cheap running a campaign and there are other avenues to spend money to make an impact on society and the government.

Edwards addressed a crowd of about 100 at the Columbia convention center. This was supposed to be a "get out the youth vote" event, but almost half the folks were over fifty. Edwards reused his line about being the grown up candidate in regards to Monday's debate. Everyone had already heard it so it fell somewhat flat on the crowd. There was nothing new or dynamic to inspire young adults to "rock" the vote. Hard to believe he took this state four years ago with 40 percent of the vote and now he's trailing Obama by double digits. Probably says more about what SC felt about John Kerry than John Edwards.

It's been a great two weeks, but I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. We haven't been eating high on the hog, but we've eaten well. My body fat index is starting to show it.
My hotel bathroom has a three way mirror. Why I do not know, but I'm hear to tell you, there are certain parts of my anatomy I really didn't need to see. I won't mention the chia pet growing on my back. I can grow hair on my neck, back, shoulders and ears, but not on the top of my head. That is a follicle free zone.

Tim's voice still sounds like an old man's who smoked 3 packs a day for 30 years. Our travels together have always been interesting. First time was the ACC tournament in Washington DC. I ended up with pneumonia. I was transported from the MCI Center via ambulance to George Washington University Hospital with my right lung full of fluid. By the way, my worst experience with the American health care system. Fitting it would happen in the nation's capitol. Two years later Tim and I are returning from Camp Lejeune when the engine blows a spark plug. I mean blasted it right out of the engine. We left the truck in Kinston. And now two more years later here we are expected to be live every 30 minutes from John Edwards' watch party and Tim has no voice. We're taking a crash course in sign language.

So our last horrah is tomorrow night at Jillian's in the downtown district. Tim tells me it was jam packed in '04. Obama will be a block away at the convention center. Hillary will be in Tennessee. At least dinner won't come from KFC. I may have to settle for soup and salad. Don't want those love handles becoming pistol grips.

MB

Thursday 1/24/08 Former First Lady

2008-01-25T00:32:00.000-05:00

In my last email I never answered the question as to whether I felt Mrs. Obama would make a good first lady. No doubt she would and I'm a registered republican. She's smart, articulate, gracious and well grounded. Which is in contrast with her husband's main opposition. I'm not bashing Hilary, it's just hard to see the conviction behind the presentation.

Today was going to be a long one. We were in eastern Columbia and Mrs. Clinton was to speak at 11am in Greenville (western SC). In addition to covering her speech, we needed to drive back to Columbia (2 hours each way), file our story by 5pm and light and shoot the ins and outs for our half "Political Connections" show. The temperature dipped into the forties which made shooting stand ups outside the state capitol lots of fun. NOT!

The surprise of the day was security or lack of it considering this is a former First Lady. Don't get me wrong, the last thing I want to do is get poked and prodded with 50 pounds of gear on my back. We showed our media credentials and we were in. Fantastic considering Tim misjudged the driving time and we almost missed the media cutoff point. Once again the photog gods were smiling on us. We arrived with 10 minutes to spare and found a spot on the front riser. GOLDEN!

If there is one word to describe Mrs. Clinton, it's "machine". It doesn't matter how she presents her agenda, in the end it feels like a machine. Just churning it out. I don't doubt she believes in what she is preaching, but I'm sure she hasn't been to the local Wal Mart in quite awhile.

It was nice meeting the former First Lady, even if it was through a camera lens from 100 feet away. She looked great. ABC news approached us afterwards to see if we got another exclusive interview. We didn't even think about asking due to what we believed would be heavy security.

We hustled back to Columbia, uplinked the package and began lighting the capitol. I'm sure a number of people were wondering what the heck this forty year old man was doing running extension cords across the capitol steps to light two palm trees on the front lawn. I think a couple of network boys thought I was nuts as well.

Much like the candidates, Tim's voice is all but gone. A mixture of flu like symptoms and stress from the daily grind of voicing multiple stories. Scratchy as it was he muscled through the ins and outs. We wrapped at 1op, got a late bite at the local IHOP and called it a night. Hard to believe it , but in the last two weeks I've been on the road with the next President of the United States.

This is why I got into the business. Every day is different.

MB

Wednesday 1/23/08 First Lady Michelle Obama?

2008-01-24T00:02:00.000-05:00

Tim and I have rolled onto USC's campus around 4pm. Michelle Obama is scheduled to address a group of students and supports around 5 in the Russell House Building. It's a nice setup, good size room, they've provided an audio feed, but where are the lights? You can't hold a press conference with ambient house lights. So I truck back down to the satellite truck for a light kit. After lighting the room I start shooting b-roll for our package. The one thing you learn early in this business is the mark your spot on the media riser. I did. So imagine my surprise when I went back into the room to discover an attractive young woman standing in my spot. As I began to set up my tripod, she said "you aren't really going to set up right in front of my are you?" She quickly informed me she was with MTV and I needed to move. Maybe if I hadn't been in the business for 16 plus years I would have been intimidated. I wasn't. She called me an "A" hole. Of course it's this A hole who set up the lights that allowed her to capture images on the cheap camera MTV provided her. She would later use this A hole's lights to interview people. So MTV hated us tonight, but ABC News loved us.

Tim and I got an exclusive interview with Mrs. Obama. Apparently ABC has been attempting to get her for months. A case of right place at the right time. I think setting up the lights helped as well. Once the network realized what we had and what they didn't, the bartering began. Of course decisions to share material are made at much higher levels. Like most industries this is a very small business. You never know when you are going to need a tape, battery or dub of an interview. So we've got an IOU from ABC and KMA for MTV.

AH aka MB

Tuesday Evening 1/22 Ushering in the Crowd

2008-01-23T14:10:00.001-05:00

Who could resist seeing Chris Tucker (Rush Hour 1/2/3), Kerry Washington (Fantastic Four) and Usher. We couldn't, so we loaded up the satellite truck and headed 3 hours west to Orangeburg SC. Home of the South Carolina State Bulldogs. The line started forming at 4:30pm for an 8pm event. Little did they know it wouldn't kick off til almost 9. Everyone was excited to see Obama, but underneath we all knew Usher was the big draw. The crowd's reaction was much like the old films you've seen when Elvis or the Beatles took the stage. If Obama is smart, he'd name Usher is VP nominee. The stars were on stage for no more than 5 minutes then they were gone. Obama would speak for about 30 minutes. He's clearly exhausted. He attempted to recite parts of MLK's dream speak, got lost but quickly recovered. The unknown question of the night is will this star packed performance translate into votes. As students filed in, organizers asked the kids to fill out commitment sheets to show up on election day and to make sure their friends did as well. They were less than enthusiastic to do so. Usher can sell tickets, I'm not sure he can sell votes.

mb

Tuesday 1/22/08 The Morning After

2008-01-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

It's the day after the debate and the buzz amongst Edwards supports is "he won the debate". We're in Conway SC, small thriving town west of Myrtle Beach. We're inside an old peanut warehouse. Not too many peanuts being shelled here anymore. Mostly this place serves wedding parties and such. Today there are about 150 die hard Edwards supporters and a couple of fence sitters. We actually found one disenfranchised republican. The highlight of Edwards' speech comes early when he tells the crowd he was the "grown up in the democratic debate".
Edwards would speak for about 45 minutes. We got word yesterday we would be granted a "coveted" one on one interview with John after the mass media briefing. We quickly realized this wasn't going to happen when we followed Edwards to his bus and the doors closed in our face. John, you just lost my vote.

mb

Saturday 1/19/08

2008-01-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

Saturday 1/19/08

I've always said I'd rather work hard for 8 hours than have an easy 2 hour day. This was one of those easy unfullfilling days. It's primary day in Columbia SC and it's raining. The only thing worse than being wet is being cold and wet. We were supposed to get a mixture of sleet and snow. Neither materialized. Just rain. We hit a polling place around two, knocked out a couple of interviews with voters and uplinked our report. Our assignment tonight was GOP HQ. This was the worst place to be on election night. No one goes to GOP HQ except the media and the GOP Chair. In a word, BORING. McCain was in Charleston...Romney and R.Paul were in Nevada, Huckabee and Thompson were in Columbia and Hugh Cort went home to Alabama. Ten hours, 8 live shots and a package later we're looking forward to having Sunday off.

2008-01-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

Sunday 1/13/08 Daddy where ya goin'?

My 6 year old daughter and I are settling in for bed with a best of three round of Uno. News 14 Carolina is on in the background. Gotta get the "bus stop" temperature for tomorrow morning. Jordan overhears a promo about our coverage in South Carolina to which she responds... there are two Carolinas? Okay, we're sending back the Wii and pulling out the atlas.
Yes darlin' there are two Carolinas and daddy is headin' south for the next two weeks to see who has what it takes to become the next president. Tim Boyum will be in front of the lens and I'll be behind it. Twelve hour days, a lot of fast food and two debates. Should be fun. "UNO'. exclaims Jordan. She wins the final round to take the series (obviously). Gotta instill that winning spirit just in case she plans to run for President some day.

MB

Monday 1/14/08 We're Off!

Hit the road at 7am with Pawley's Island, SC loaded in the GPS. 401 south out of Fuquay to 421 through Dunn then I-95 south to the second Carolina. John Edwards is speaking with a group of locals about the environment. He wouldn't want to know the satellite truck I'm driving, a Ford E-350 Superduty with a Triton V-10 engine, gets just 10 miles per gallon.
The rally goes off without a hitch. Mostly seniors who are sold on Edwards. Small press entourage. Not surprising with most of the attention on Michigan and Nevada. Things will pick up tomorrow with McCain and Huckabee rolling into SC.
It's always interesting to see the young people involved with the campaigns. The guy helping me with an audio feed could be the next assistant press secretary for the President. I'm not sure I was that passionate in my twenties. I'm a Generation Xer. I was interested in making money and living the good life, which doesn't explain my career path but that's another blog.
We dined in Mount Pleasant. The Water's Edge. A dozen raw oysters to start with bar-b-que salmon for the main course. I'll have to keep eating egg mcmuffins for breakfast if I expect the company to pick up the dinner check.
It's the night shift for Tuesday. Huckabee is hosting a watch party in Lexington for the Michigan results. Not on the coastline, but I'm sure the seafood is just as good.

MB

Tuesday Night 1/15/08 B-B-Q Huckabee Style

Nothing worse than showing up to a local event and the national media has already taken over. There was a small riser set up for the media at Hudson's Steakhouse in Lexington SC. Mike Huckabee was to speak at 8pm. We rolled in at 4pm to find the boys at CBS News, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC had staked claim to the entire riser. Squeezing in was going to take the diplomacy of a Presidential candidate. This is where networking comes in. I worked with the photog from CNN back in Charlotte in the mid 90s. He knew the photog from Fox news and before I knew it, I was center stage. I love those national guys.

The place was packed by 7pm, Huckabee rolled in around 8. What impressed me most tonight didn't come from the podium, but from the crowd. We met the Ashcraft family from Lexington SC. Jeff (husband and dad) actually lived in Arkansas and was a member of Huckabee's church. When they heard Mike was going to be in town, Becky (wife and mom) finished work and headed straight for Hudsons. She quickly laid claim to a table for four. Jeff arrived an hour later with their two girls ages 5 and 3. They would wait almost 3 hours to see Mike. It was important for them to be there. For their girls to witness what they hope is history in the making. To get politically motivated and involved at an early age. They are blue collar Americana. Working hard to make ends meet, raising their girls in a christian based home and
doing whatever they can to put a man in the White House who will keep their middle class dreams alive. I've taken my youngest to the polls to vote, but that's the extent of our political activism. I admire people like the Ashcrafts. They are the backbone of this country and have the most to gain or lose in this election.

Wednesday 1/16/08 McCain in Spartanburg

This would be an interesting day. We need to be in Spartanburg by 3pm for John McCain, but a winter storm mix had management wanting our satellite truck in Charlotte. First thing you learn in broadcasting, weather is king. We arrived in Spartanburg a little after two to a small crowd of confederate flag waving McCain haters. These folks hadn't forgotten 2000 when McCain called for the flag to be removed from the state capitol. McCain and his wife Cindy arrived via the "Straight Talk Express" oblivious to the boos.
Once again the photog gods were on my side. A prime spot on the riser. This is a theme I hope carries through the next two weeks.
Senator Lindsey Graham got the crowd fired up.... Mrs. McCain mesmerized the crowd with her beauty and elegance, then John....well, was John. Let's just say public speaking isn't his strong point. He had a couple of nice one liners. He was happy to hear SC was suing NC over water. He remarked on AZ suing CA over water. He said AZ was so short of water the trees chase the dogs. LOL
A hour later, McCain and troop were back on the ST Express headed to Greenville.... Tim and I were bound for the queen city. A relatively easy day topped off with a nice dinner at Nikko's sushi bar. With breakfast at McDs and no lunch, we stayed within per diem.

MB

Thursday 1/17/08 Clemson University via Fort Mill

The winter mix brought a dusting of the white stuff in Charlotte. That would be good news for us. No live shots along icy roads. We loaded up and headed to Fort Mill. Ron Paul was to address a group of about.....20. Is it just me or is there something to Ron Paul and Ross Perot looking alike, both coming from Texas, having the same initials and the same following? Someone should get a DNA swab. One thing about covering the underdogs, they are always willing to give you the coveted "one on one" interview. A
2 1/2 minute interview, 5 minutes of "b-roll" with Ron and the (small) crowd and we were off to Clemson for Huckabee, Norris and Flair.
Okay, we were really there to see Chuck Norris and Rick Flair. We'd already seen Huckabee in Lexington. To everyone's disappointment, Mr. Flair did not WOOOOO, but most men in the crowd did when Mrs. Norris took the stage. Walker Texas Ranger introduced her proudly proclaiming...."not bad huh". The crowd ate it up. They also ate up Huckabee jamming with a local band to "Sweet Home Alabama".
It would all end around 4pm, but Tim and I would still have another 8 hours of work to do. An hour and a half to write, edit and uplink our package... a 2 1/2 hour drive back to Columbia... set up lights outside the capitol and shoot ins and outs for the "Political Connections" show airing Friday night...and finally marrying the ins and outs to all the primary packages shot over the past two weeks by our entire news staff. No steak or seafood tonight.

Friday 1/18/08 the Ultimate Underdog

When you are in news, you are approached by all kinds. Case in point... Hugh Cort. It's 2:30 Friday morning and Tim and I were trying to check in to our hotel when we were approached by two men in long coats just in from New Jersey. The big, burly, crew cut guy in the black coat looked like he should speak with a Russian ascent. The portly, all smiles, wavy gray hair guy was Hugh Cort. A psychiatrist and self proclaimed terrorism expert from Alabama. He's dropped $35K just to get into the SC republican primary. That's a lot of palmetto trees. He's dead set on telling us about Osama's plan to detonate 10 nukes in NYC, WDC, CHI and 7 other major cities. We're dead set on getting to bed. A couple of handshakes later it's lights out. Little did we know Mr. Cort would take up most of our Friday.
When you're on the road, 6 hours of sleep is a lot. An early morning conference call informed us another winter storm would arrive over the weekend...we would serve as an uplink truck for our sister station "New York 1" out of NYC and we needed to feed in our 30 minute show ASAP. Breakfast would come late.
As we uplinked the show, Tim asked, what kind of guy spends $35 grand of his own money to join a race he has no chance of winning? Three phone calls later, we're in a local diner watching Hugh Cort court patrons for votes. The Lizard's Thicket is a quaint little place. Waitresses were buzzing with platters of eggs, bacon and grits and I was in the way with my 20 pound camera. I swear one of the old broads forearmed me. I'm not kiddin'.
Hugh is a God fearing, fiscal conservative republican who thinks Osama bin Ladin has 10 briefcase nukes in the US and positioned to strike. Most of the folks seem perplexed. I wasn't sure if it was his Armageddon theory or my camera getting up close and personal. That's what I love about working and living in the south. People here will put up with just about anything. An hour later we had got our ultimate underdog story and Hugh was on the road to Spartanburg to meet up with a Ron Paul rally. With Mr. Cort and his campaign manager (the guy in the long black coat) the crowd grew to 22.

MB

On the road in South Carolina

2008-01-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

From Chief Photographer Mark Barger, who is in South Carolina with Sr. Political Reporter Tim Boyum:

Monday, January 14, 2008:

Hit the road at 7am with Pawley's Island, SC loaded in the GPS. 401 south out of Fuquay to 421 through Dunn then I-95 south to the second Carolina. John Edwards is speaking with a group of locals about the environment. He wouldn't want to know the satellite truck I'm driving, a Ford E-350 Superduty with a Triton V-10 engine, gets just 10 miles per gallon.

The rally goes off without a hitch. Mostly seniors who are sold on Edwards. Small press entourage. Not surprising with most of the attention on Michigan and Nevada. Things will pick up tomorrow with McCain and Huckabee rolling into SC.

It's always interesting to see the young people involved with the campaigns. The guy helping me with an audio feed could be the next assistant press secretary for the President. I'm not sure I was that passionate in my twenties. I'm a Generation Xer. I was interested in making money and living the good life, which doesn't explain my career path but that's another blog.

We dined in Mount Pleasant. The Water's Edge. A dozen raw oysters to start with bar-b-que salmon for the main course. I'll have to keep eating egg mcmuffins for breakfast if I expect the company to pick up the dinner check.

It's the nightshift for Tuesday. Huckabee is hosting a watch party in Columbia for the Michigan results. Not on the coastline, but I'm sure the seafood is just as good.

Sunday Evening, January 13, 2008:

My 6 year old daughter and I are settling in for bed with a best of three round of Uno. News 14 Carolina is on in the background. Gotta get the "bus stop" temperature for tomorrow morning. Jordan overhears a promo about our coverage in South Carolina to which she responds... there are two Carolinas? Okay, we're sending back the Wii and pulling out the atlas.

Yes darlin' there are two Carolinas and daddy is headin' south for the next two weeks to see who has what it takes to become the next president. Tim Boyum will be in front of the lens and I'll be behind it. Twelve hour days, a lot of fast food and two debates. Should be fun. "UNO'. exclaims Jordan. She wins the final round to take the series (obviously). Gotta instill that winning spirit just in case she plans to run for President some day.

Hoppers Season Opener

2007-04-10T06:33:00.000-04:00

It felt more like the start of football season than baseball, and the night ended with a football-like score.

The Lake County Captains beat the Greensboro Grasshoppers 14-8.

People were literally jumping out of planes to see tonight’s season opener at First Horizon Park.

The Black Daggers, a special operations unit from Fort Bragg, kicked off the night parachuting into center field.

It was the first inning jitters for the Hoppers. The captains scored three easy runs, made off of two home runs.

Infielder Jared Goedert of the Captains continued his homerun streak hitting one in the first and another at the top of the fourth. Goedert now has three home runs for the season-- he hit his first this past Saturday against West Virginia.

John Raynor was the first Hopper to get on base at the bottom of the fourth and stole second the next play.

It also took to the fourth for the Hoppers to get on the board, Scott Cousins hit deep into the left field batting Raynor in for the score.

Hoppers scored twice in the fourth with another long ball to left and a sacrifice hit to first.

At the bottom of the fifth Greensboro had two men in scoring position off of two consecutive stolen bases, a walk loaded bases with only one out.

A ground ball hugging the right field foul line hit by Christ Coglan brought in three runs for the Hoppers putting them in the lead for the first and only time tonight. The Hoppers ended the inning with a four run lead over the Captains.

But, by the end of the sixth, Lake County was back in the lead by four runs. The Captains scored seven runs on six hits.

Pitching was the story of the night; the Hoppers went deep into their line up calling out four pitchers.

6,229 people braved the cold temperatures. By the end of the game, the temperature dipped into the low 40s.

Women's Final Four in Cleveland

2007-04-01T00:24:00.000-04:00

We're in Cleveland!!!! My photographer, MauriceGriffin and myself (the 1 and only Terry Brooks) are back covering the Women's Final Four. This time only one Triangle team is here in the National Semifinals. North Carolina is back in the building. Last year theTar Heels advanced to the finals by beating Tennessee in Cleveland in the Elite Eight. This year it's theLady Vols in the Final Four. Revenge vs Unfinished business.

I absolutely love Ivory Latta. I don't mean that in a love way that may be akward, but in the way you love your niece. Ivory is my GIRL! She lights up the room and she lights up a game. By far my favorite Tar Heel of the last four years, any sport. She says she's going to make sure her team is going to be loose when they take on Tennessee. This girl could make the dead smile. I think that the experience of losing the FinalFour last year is going to prepare Carolina for the Lady Vols. Latta will not let her career end with a loss in the national semifinals.

We'll be here to cover the Heels for the duration. Look for my game day blog coming up later...I'm out...

Trade show or carnival?

2007-03-29T14:27:00.000-04:00

It's sometimes hard to remember that the High Point Market is a large trade show dedicated to the furniture industry-- there's this overall carnival feel to it.

You experience it as soon as you hit downtown. Floats are driven around downtown, my favorite has a Mardi Gras theme, complete with a cut out band playing jazz music.

There's a man who walks around town on stilts, he has to be at least 10 feet tall and right next to him is a long line of people handing out bags filled with pens, water and anything else.

People walk around will large billboards on their backs, free ice cream is handed out by High Point University students and there are people shouting out catchy slogans trying to get your attention.

Market even has its own pair of super heroes dressed in masks and capes.

If you see past all of this, you'll quickly realize that this isn't a normal carnival atmosphere.

The Mardi Gras float is telling people to stop by a furniture showroom that specializes in furniture from New Orleans.

If you look close enough, the man on stilts is handing out brochures to visit another showroom.

The bags handed out carry the logos of various manufacturers, even the water is furniture themed.

The super heroes, well the only heroic thing they are capable of is telling you why the company the work for has the best furniture.

This just isn't an outside thing either.

Inside the showrooms bands line the halls playing music next to large beds and bookcases.

Sometimes I feel like I'm back in college when I walk past blank walls, on them are fliers posted to this and that party. In big bold letters the fliers shout out "live music, open bar!"

Look closer, and you'll realize the party has a certain theme be it bedding or couches.

After you get past your first impressions you realize that this is very much a trade show.

Even the popcorn handed out to you isn't regular popcorn, it's popcorn wrapped in a notice telling you that the company that just handed you the free food has the best mattresses at market.

Going bananas

2007-03-28T15:42:00.000-04:00

No I'm not going crazy from working a full shift and then spending my days at market.

I'm talking about furniture going quite literally bananas.

Greensboro-based JT Michael Designs uses banana leaves in their furniture designs. The only thing that I can compare it to is wicker, yet a lot more natural looking and durable.

The collection makes you feel as if you are on the beach.

The furniture is built in China and makes use of one of the largest indigenous trees available in the area, bananas.

The leaves are cut from the trees and set out in the sun to dry naturally. They are then soaked in a solution to make the material flexible. The material is then weaved together to make furniture.

The product can be considered "green" because the product is completely natural and unlike most "green" products the company claims their pieces will last forever.

You can find JT Michael Designs' pieces across the United States and here in the Triad.

Elizabeth Edwards

2007-03-28T15:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry for no earlier posts, major technical issues at the press center today.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Sen. John Edwards, made an appearance at the High Point Market today.

She wasn't here to talk politics, she spoke about cancer and her book "Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers."

She made the appearance at the showroom of a friend of the family.

Before her comments she was presented a a pink ribbon bag from High Point Regional for her efforts in cancer awareness.

Edwards talked about how she receives strength from everyone around her.

She said her book is about getting support during bad times-- she noted that she has gone through some bad times before with her cancer and hinted that she was going through another rough time.

"Get to know the people around you," Edwards implored.

For Edwards, everyone around her weaves a tapestry of support.

Her talk went slightly political only once.

Edwards talked about a time where she went out on a furniture shopping trip with a bunch of strangers. They all met at her house and they carpooled together. When she got back from the trip her husband asked, "why was there a car with a Bush sticker in my driveway?"

Yes, his hair really does look like that

2007-03-27T17:14:00.000-04:00

Donald Trump is known for his pomp and circumstance and his visit to the Triad did not disappoint.

Trump is here because he is launching a personal brand of furniture modeled after his lifestyle.

Members of the press arrived at Lexington Home Brands in Thomasville around 3:30 pm. They stashed us off to the side on a second floor landing overlooking the room below and looking straight on the balcony Trump was going to talk on.

We waited and made small talk.

The room smelled like chocolate and strawberries. I looked below me and there was a table filled with strawberries, the centerpiece was a chocolate fountain.

Ice sculptures dotted the room, an open bar was off to the side with a cocktail shrimp display flanking it.

I got the impression that I was on the set of "The Bachelor" instead waiting for the launch of a furniture line.

Several young ladies strolled the room, dressed in black cocktail dresses, they looked like they could have been pulled straight from last weeks Ms. USA pageant (which by the way Trump owns).

Lexington Home Brands associates were dressed in black suit coats with the Trump crest embroidered in gold on their chests.

The only thing missing was the rose ceremony.

The room slowly filled to standing room only. I would guess there were 150-200 industry people standing in front of the indoor balcony waiting for Trump to arrive at the invitation only event.

Then on cue, the theme song to the "Apprentice" came on over the speakers.

Enter Donald.

The room exploded with cheers and applause.

He strolled easily through the barricaded parts of the room to an elevator, riding it up to the level we in the press were on.

Exiting the elevator he spotted our cameras.

He paused and stood still, turning to face us.

Then came his iconic smile, a "v" for victory symbol and a wink.

Reaching the balcony he waited to be introduced by the president and chief executive officer of Lexington Home Brands.

Trump spoke on furniture, on the area-- but I'll cut to the chase.

The one thing he'll more than likely be most remembered for is his comments about Rosie O'Donnell.

Someone from the crowd asked Trump if Rosie would buy a piece of his furniture.

"We build a very high quality bed," replied Trump. "They're not strong enough for her."

Looks like the bad blood between the two isn't going anywhere fast.

Back to serious matters.

Trump praised the area saying, "It's an amazing place to buy furniture. I think it's the best place in the world to buy furniture, if people don't come here they're making a big mistake."

Media, media everywhere!

2007-03-27T11:33:00.000-04:00

Despite the small amount of coverage you actually see on our news casts at News 14, there are a lot of representatives from the media covering this event.

Nearly 500 to be somewhat exact.

What are these 500 people doing here?

Well besides eating the free food, we're all here for different reasons.

There is the usual cadre of local news people (like myself) who come from local TV stations, newspapers and radio stations.

We're here covering market as an event, lots of people here, how it's affecting the local people, what this means for the area, etc...

There's also people from the wire services. The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg and so on and so forth. They're here for a variety of reasons. Business stories, features, trends, style and on and on and on.

Magazine publications are also here. Magazine writers are here for the fashion, they're looking for the new cool thing that everyone is going to want to have.

Then there's the trade magazines folks, and they are well represented-- I had no idea that there were magazines dedicated to things like light fixtures, rugs and upholstery.

The largest of the bunch, Furniture Today, is actually based here in High Point.

This is their shining moment.

They are here in force writing about the industry for the industry. I've overheard people writing stories on entertainment centers, apparently the new thing is designing them with more cable holes and smaller to handle flat screen TVs.

Oh and I can't forget color, warm purples are all the rage. That's according to "The Trend Curve" published by the International Authority on Trend Forecasting for Home Furnishings.

That's a mouthful and a half.

They're writing about fabrics and textures, dovetailing-- it's mind boggling.

Then there's the rogue agents.

Take for example Ivan Cutler, he's a furniture blogger. He writes about the industry just for his personal blog.

There's also a married couple here who operate a rug blog, that's right folks, they blog about rugs and from my understanding, they have a lot of fun doing it.

Speaking of food, it's lunch time and there's already a long line. More later.

Made in the Triad

2007-03-27T10:59:00.000-04:00

You hear it on the news all the time, XYZ Corp. is shutting down its local plant to move overseas.

You hardly ever hear of a company bringing its overseas operations back to the United States... until now.

The High Point based company Red Egg used to manufacture its entire furniture line in China. Now the company makes four pieces from its collection here in town and will add another four in the near future.

Owner Carol Gregg said she moved back to North Carolina to tap into the quality talent in the area.

"There's a huge quality difference, said Gregg. "We're making real furniture from manufactures who understand how to make furniture."

What makes this transition back to America all the more interesting is that the Red Egg collection is heavily Asian.

The irony for them was that they weren't able to get the diversity they needed in order to satisfy American costumers.

"We don't need that kind of volume," said Gregg. "We can be fashion forward."

In China production runs need to be large in order for the plants to manufacture them. Setting up shop here in High Point allows Red Egg to cater to each client's individual needs.

There is a lot of buzz here about a company making furniture in America again.

Gregg says that people are stopping by her space just to take a look at the line and see what the company is doing.

She says she gained two clients just because her furniture is made in the USA.

There is a downside to all of this. Gregg says that her prices have risen slightly since she brought the line back to America. She quickly added though that she's still within the same price range as she was when she operated out of China.

A bit of a scare

2007-03-26T14:56:00.000-04:00

Oh the irony. An entire event surrounded around things to sit on and you can't.

It's so tempting to sit down on one of the showcase pieces that line the halls of the showrooms here, but sadly you can't.

One scare so far today.

Market affects everyone it seems, even the police and firefighters here in High Point.

I'm told they have to sign up for extra shifts this week.

Walking into one of the showrooms, I hear a siren go by. Naturally as a journalist I'm curious as to what it means. But I resisted the urge because I was going to meet up with a couple of designers to talk about their new line.

Another siren.

Now, my curiosity is getting to me, I walk towards the door and out of the glass window I see the battalion chief's car go by.

Now I knew I had to go.

The incident was only a block up the road. As I got closer I could see a hook-and-ladder and several other emergency vehicles blocking the road.

It was one of those things that looked a lot worse than it really was.

Talking to one of the police officers on site, he said there was nothing newsworthy-- just an electrical outlet in one of the smaller show rooms throwing off sparks.

I asked if such a heavy response was typical, he shrugged and said to me, "It's market."

I think I'm starting to grasp the enormity of this event.

Virtual ribbon cutting

2007-03-26T14:42:00.000-04:00

The High Point Market just isn't about the consumer, it's about business-- a lot of business.

I was just speaking with the IT person here (I was having a bit of a problem connecting to the Internet), the amount of bandwidth High Point uses this one week quadruples, he says they can barely keep up with the demand.

Anyone who wants to be someone in the furniture industry is here this week fighting for exposure. I was told by an industry person, if you want to grab the attention of the furniture industry, market is the place to do it.

That's why one Canadian company decided to "go live" today in High Point.

Tucked away in one of the many spots in the large exhibition halls here, 3Dream.net launched its services with a click of a button.

It might not seem like much, but with some 70,000 people here for the week, and all in the industry you are catering to ,I'm told it's a smart move.

The website plays on the theme of consumer products, allowing people to use the Internet to see how furniture would look in their house.

The launchers say the Internet is the future for furniture, and with their product people will be able to walk into a design studio and see exactly how the furniture they picked out would look in their home.

The point is to take away the stress of going store to store, for example if a North Carolina design firm showcased only products from our state, the designer is able to pull up an entire catalog of NC furniture products.

Just another example of how the furniture industry is trying to adapt.

Seeing green

2007-03-26T12:37:00.000-04:00

A buzz word here is "green," green as in green energy.

It seems that green is everywhere-- you see it in the High Point logo, you see it on the walls, the press center here even has a green motif.

What is green energy? Well, as Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue put it earlier today, North Carolina is going to convert this initiative into green cold cash.

Or better put, turning green into gold.

"Today much of the buzz surrounds environmentally friendly furniture," said Perdue.

Perdue said the government is going to work with local companies to make our state a leader in this movement.

"It starts in the the home," Perdue said.

That means furniture designers are looking at new ways to light rooms and create furniture from recycled wood products for example.

Here the furniture industry is trying to start a new trend by not relying on the consumer.

A lot is invested in this movement already in our state. State leaders are in the process of creating a new work force educated in all things green.

As Perdue said, "We in North Carolina do it best."

News 14 Carolina reporter Adrianne Flores will have more tomorrow morning on green energy.

High Point Furniture Market kicks off

2007-03-26T11:55:00.000-04:00

News 14 Carolina producer John Kunza is covering the High Point Market exclusively on News14.Com. Check in daily for various updates on Market and the events surrounding Market.

Today is the first day of the High Point Furniture Market, or as industry leaders here call it, simply "market."

The day kicked off with a news conference hosted by High Point's Mayor Becky Smothers and Lt. Gov Bev Perdue.

There is a reason why people in the know call this event "market;" North Carolina and the Triad are working hard to make High Point THE capital of the international furniture industry.

Furniture in North Carolina is still big money. North Carolina ranks as a top four furniture manufacturer in the country, and the High Point Market has a yearly economic impact of $1.5 billion on our state.

As Perdue put it, "That's not chump change."

That means everyone from furniture manufacturers to rental car agencies benefit from the bi-annual event. For more information, view News 14 Carolina reporter Stephanie Stilwell story here.

The furniture industry is very consumer-driven and this year everyone here has a hyper awareness about it. Perdue even noted it at the news conference, "I'm a friend of market, maybe it's because I'm a woman and I love to shop."

Industry analysts are noting a slip in retail sales, or as one briefing put it "weakness in retail" and blaming in part "credit anxious consumers."

Perdue says the General Assembly is working hard to keep the High Point Market competitive. Right now, the GA appropriates $1.7 million for the event and that figure is reviewed every year.

There was some talk about the Las Vegas Furniture Market. Some people are concerned that it will take buyers away from High Point.

"Vegas would like to take this away from us," said Perdue. "High Point has to remain the largest and most successful furniture market in the world ... and I will do whatever it takes."

More later.

Tough loss...the road ends here

2007-03-26T01:50:00.000-04:00

Well, it all came to an end tonight with a 31-9 run in the final 10 minutes and overtime by Georgetown. The hard thing for Tar Heel Nation to accept is that Georgetown was the better team tonight. If you had just watched the first half, you might think Carolina had this one sewed up. Although they only lead by a few points at the break, I thought scoring 50 points in 20 minutes of basketball almost assured them a win. Here's how I was looking at it, Georgetown only gave up 57 points per game this season and now they had given up 50 points in one half, there was no way they could keep up in a shootout with UNC. Unfortunately in the long run, the Tar Heels couldn't keep up in a shootout with the Hoyas. Carolina shot 33% in the 2nd half and an awful 7% in overtime.

To tell you the truth, while I had enjoyed this weekend getting to know the team and the players of both these schools, I was dreading heading into the locker room after that tough loss. We first made it over to Marcus Ginyard and I basically had to ask him "what went wrong?" These guys are professionals at this point of the season in dealing with the media, but he was surprisingly honest talking about breakdowns that occurred on both sides of the floor. Then I asked him what Coach Williams had to say and he got a little choked up saying that coach had apologized to them after the game because he didn't think he put them in a position to win, meanwhile Marcus said that wasn't the case and the blame laid on the five guys on the floor. We slowly made the rounds to each of the players and a lot of it was the same old questions like "how do you feel?" I am sometimes guilty of asking those questions too, but I'm just waiting for the day when a player just snaps back with "how do you think I feel, we just lost the game you idiot!" But the guys on this Tar Heel team have too much class for that, they just try to answer your questions as best they can. After pretty much talking to the entire roster we made our way back to the interview room to catch the tail end of Coach Williams presser, he was contrite and very congratulatory to Georgetown and Coach Thompson in particular.

Much has been made about the history between these two teams, but in reality none of that affected this game tonight in the Meadowlands. Two teams lead by two totally different coaches took the court and left it all on the floor...I must say that I felt bad for the guys after seeing the looks on their faces, they were sort of in shock, unable to comprehend the fact that they weren't going to Atlanta next weekend to play for a National Championship.

All that aside, the Tar Heels should be proud of their season, they were a damn good team this year and while I know the goal was to win an NCAA title, I have a feeling they'll be back in the mix next March. Terry Brooks asked me about this on the show, but I have the feeling Brandan Wright might leave after this season, I don't know if this tournament loss will leave a good taste in his mouth. But let me follow that up by saying in no way did he tip his hat in either direction after the game. He said he plans to meet with Coach Williams in the next couple weeks to discuss his future, so we'll keep following it for you on News 14. Thanks for checking in this weekend here on news14.com, it's been fun sharing our weekend with you and I look forward to getting back to Charlotte.

-Tim Baier

Late Night, but a Great Night

2007-03-24T03:16:00.000-04:00

Wow! That's pretty much all I can say about tonight... that was probably some of the best basketball I've ever seen. It all started off with the Vandy Georgetown game that came down to a last second shot by Jeff Green and then followed up by North Carolina's 18-0 run in the 2nd half to beat Southern Cal and advance.

I thought there was a buzz at the arena on Thursday, but nothing compared to the buildup to Friday night's games. There were people from every media outlet you could imagine chowing down on Lasagna and cold cuts at the media buffet. At one table you had Bob Ryan catching up with Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, then at another ESPN's Andy Katz was chatting away on his phone undoubtedly doing yet another radio interview. You guess it and they were probably there...it's pretty fun as a member of the media to see all these people you watch on a daily basis grouped together in the same setting as you.

Ok enough about my celeb sightings... the real story from Friday was basketball and how two teams that were expected to win had to dig down deep and pull out a win in tough games. Going into the Georgetown locker room you could sense relief as they were able to hold off Vandy for just long enough to pull out the one point win. Jeff Green talked about his last second shot saying there is no way he walked and later on Billy Packer agreed with him on the CBS broadcast. He said he was blocked out and couldn't even see the rim so he shot for the backboard...the only problem, he didn't call glass! This Georgetown team is confident in their style of play which sort of seems like an updated Big East style with a little bit of the Princeton game thrown in for flavor. The Hoyas can run the court when they need to, but they seem most at home in their half court offense making the game run at their own pace.

As for the Tar Heels, what can I say, it was a tale of two halves. There's a rule that you aren't supposed to cheer in the press area, and I didn't do that, but man was it hard to hold back when UNC went on that run. First of all, the families of most of the players were sitting right behind me for most of the game cheering the team on and at the same time, if Carolina lost I was headed back to Charlotte, but if they won I would get to see another tremendous basketball game. So I had a little something invested in this one.

After the game, a number of players referenced Coach Williams words at half time as the motivator to get them going. He supposedly told them they were embarrassing their state, their school and their peers and that it was now or never. It obviously worked because in the 2nd half they blew the doors off the arena. Hansbrough was pretty reserved after the game seeing as he put up a less than stellar performance, but his teammates stepped up in his place which meant his lack of activity didn't end up hurting the team that bad. The most telling stat of the game was that in the 1st half Carolina went 2 for 12 from three point land (16%), but in the 2nd half they only attempted two threes opting instead to go inside and that was the difference.

Anyway, it should be a classic match up on Sunday between Georgetown and Carolina can't wait to see it and keep you updated on all that's happening up here in East Rutherford.

-Tim Baier

Hello Friends...from Jersey

2007-03-23T01:01:00.000-04:00

Well day two is now behind us and I'm going to try and give you a quick recap of a what ended up being a pretty busy afternoon. We headed over to the Continental Airlines Arena around 11:30 this morning trying to get a jump on the day. Maurice (pictured earlier) and I managed to talk to a few fans and get a good feel for what practice had in store for us.

We even pulled Billy Packer aside to do a quick interview and I must say while it was pretty cool to be talking to the guy that's called probably the most incredible college basketball games of all-time, he wasn't too excited about Friday's games. He's a very cerebral person and approaches the game with X's and O's in mind, not like most of us as fans do with a certain anticipation. His reasoning was that he doesn't want to lead the fans down a road expecting something that doesn't come true...actually not a bad reason. But to tell you the truth I was expecting him to give me the classic "I've never lost the excitement for the game" line.

The real highlight of the day though had to be meeting Jim Nance... now I'm not the type of person who gushes over celebrities (especially news celebs), but c'mon this guy has taken me to Augusta National every year as one of his "friends." Of course I'm referring to his classic opening line of "Hello friends," listen tomorrow night to see if he says it at the top of the broadcast. I was pretty impressed at the homework he was knocking out on practice day... while he had an entourage that included a few production assistants, he was doing most of the actual work. He and Billy both sat at the media tables watching each team practice for 50 minutes jotting down various notes that undoubtedly will come across the air tomorrow night.

As for us at News 14, once we shot a few elements for stories to run, we went up to feed them from our sattellite truck that Bill Welch so graciously drove up from Raleigh. The only problem being that the arena staff plugged us in at 220 volts when we only needed 110 volts and so whammy smoke started coming out of the truck. We supposedly blew a circuit and somehow Maurice was able to rewire the panels to make the truck work again, but without AC. Of course, this time of the year, who needs AC in Jersey...well it was actually 67 degrees here today.

Anyway, after that was fixed we were cooking and able to get the stories out and fed down to the station in North Carolina. The only other highlight of the day would have to be doing interviews in the locker rooms with North Carolina and USC. First of all you need to know that the "lockerrooms" are tiny at the CAA...and I was amazed that we all fit in there to do the interviews because you had media from all the markets in NC and also a bunch of stations from Los Angeles. The funniest part of talking to the guys was Marcus Ginyard discussing his need for pedicures because he has "raptor toes." Well we ran with that a little bit and got the low down from his teammates, who continue to make fun of his ugly feet. A pretty light moment in a busy day.

Probably the most interesting conversation I had was with Dwight Lewis, a freshmen for USC. He grew up in New Orleans and when Katrina hit, he was forced to move to Texas to finish his senior year. The adjustment was tough for him because he didn't know anyone, but he said he relied on basketball as an escape. Fortunately, USC had been interested in him before the move and he was able to go onto play at Southern Cal. The amazing thing to me was that his family hasn't been able to move back to the city yet because it is all still a mess down there. I know we've seen the news and heard about the problems that took place in the Big Easy, but to actually meet someone who was affected by the storm and is still dealing with it today really puts it in perspective.

Well, I just finished watching some close games from tonight's NCAA action, so if that is any indication of what Friday brings, then let's get it on. UNC seems pretty confident in their level of play these days and I don't think they are taking USC lightly. Ty Lawson said he spoke to Kevin Durant this morning to get the lowdown on the team and Durant thinks they can beat the Trojans. So I'll agree with Kevin and predict a Heels win tomorrow night over USC. Make sure to keep watching because we'll try to keep you updated on the channel and check back often because I'll be updating the blog everyday we are here...good night.

-Tim Baier

Bada Bing...We're in Jersey

2007-03-21T19:07:00.000-04:00

Howdy from the frozen tundra of East Rutherford, New Jersey home of the Sopranos, Bon Jovi and at the moment a lot of melting snow. Actually I can't really complain about the weather because surprisingly it is expected to reach 62 degrees tomorrow, an unseasonably warm day here. I'm going to use this blog this weekend to give you a little insight into our days and also maybe a little behind the scenes stories from the Tar Heels. (by "we" I mean, myself and photographer Maurice Griffin)

So we hit the road today, flying up to Newark from Charlotte...Maurice was nice enough to fly over from Raleigh and then continue on up to Jersey with me. We landed around 2:30, got the luggage and picked up the rental car...and we're off to the Sheraton Meadowlands. Now this is where it got a little interesting, if you ever driven in the New York area, you probably know what I'm talking about, but it is probably only 5 miles from the Newark airport to the Meadowlands but none of the highways are a straight shot, so you spend most of your time wrapping around in circles trying to find the right exit. A little confusing, but managed to make it here to the Sheraton which I must say is a pretty nice spot.

After getting settled in we headed over to the Continental Airlines Arena (where UNC will play Friday night) and tried to get inside to shoot a standup, unfortunately security said we couldn't get in today because they were setting up the floor. Spent some time talking to the guys in there and they showed us there security camera shots of the arena. It was actually pretty cool because they had a joystick that let them control the cameras and zoom in on areas of the floor. One of the crew from the CAA told us they had brought in the floor just for the NCAA regionals and didn't use Seton Hall's usual floor or the one the New Jersey Nets usually use. It's interesting that Seton Hall isn't the host even though they play their games here, this week it's Rutgers who will be welcoming in the teams for the East Regional.

Anyway, without access to the arena we were forced to head out to the parking lots to shoot a couple quick standups to essentially let you, the viewers, know we were here and ready to cover the weekend. It was pretty cool to stand up on the top level of the parking deck looking in one direction at Giants stadium and the other at New York City.

So then we headed back to the hotel to edit the short stories and send them via the internet back to the station in Raleigh. I am still amazed by the technology and how we can send broadcast quality video over the internet for tonight's Sports Night. Anyway, here's a picture of Maurice editing (the camera phone let me down on this one).

So we are off and running...the busy time doesn't get underway til tomorrow with open practices and press conferences with the teams. I'm looking forward to it and I'll try to bring you interesting stories that don't quite make the air on Sports Night or elsewhere. Can't wait for the 60 degree weather to hit tomorrow...until then...good night.

-Tim Baier

Temptation

2007-03-20T09:34:00.000-04:00

Basketball during Lent

Last year during the ACC and NCAA tournament, I wrote about the free "all you can eat" popcorn, soda and chocolate ice cream bars for the media . So what was I thinking when this year I decided to give up chocolate for Lent. Lent of course symbolic of the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. ( I had to look it up on the Internet to make sure I was clear). I'm a practicing Catholic not a devout Catholic so sometimes my recollections of Sunday school are a little cloudy. Well, the devil we know as the NCAA upped the temptation this year. They've thrown in "all you can eat" Reese Cups, M&Ms and my all time favorite, Snickers. What's a chocoholic to do. It's bad enough I have to remember to eat fish on Friday, which by the way was overlooked thanks to Jim Connors (another Catholic boy) who talked me into a pork pulled sandwich at "Pig Pickings" across the street from the "Joel". I can hear Father Mark now, "that'll cost ya three Hail Mary's, two Our Father's and an extra contribution to the collection plate. So it's popcorn, potato chips and soda for me. Not so bad considering the fasting endured some 2000 years ago.

See you on Sunday Father Mark. I'm bringing the checkbook.

MB
3/16

Have One for Me

2007-03-20T09:27:00.000-04:00

Alcohol Free Tournament

When I signed up for this event, no one said it was alcohol free. No doubt the parking lot at the "Joel" will be overflowing with fans and suds before tonight's game against Michigan State, but unfortuately, the company has an issue with employees working while impaired. And yes, at times my work appears as though I'm under the influence, but that's due more in part to the gray matter between my ears and not the amber ale in a long neck bottle. So what sporting event could a guy throw back a cold one or two and seemingly blend in? You guessed it before I could type out the acronym. NASCAR! Grown men with country twangs, driving a circle at 200 mph, jones'n for a title cup from a cell phone company that no longer exists. (Sprint bought Nextel two years ago). The "600" in Coca-cola 600 doesn't stand for the number of miles driven, it's the number of port-a-johns needed to dispense of all the golden flow. In fact, the aluminum recycling program from the "600" and the UAW 500 is said to be the second largest revenue source for the state of North Carolina after tourism. Talk about your pot of gold, or in this case "pond" of gold.

All kidding aside, please drink and drive responsibly. Keep this in mind tonight after Carolina serves up Michigan State.

Happy St. Patty's Day

MB
3/17

How "Sweet" it is...

2007-03-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

The expression "the gloves came off" is now "the mask came off". And when it did, it spelled doom for Michigan State. Tyler Hansbrough, despite the still recovering broken nose, beat the Spartans at their own rough and tumble game Saturday night in Winston-Salem. His 33 points and 9 rebounds pushed the Heels to an 81-67 victory and into the Sweet 16.

Psycho T did have some help. Ty Lawson was spectacular. Feeding Hansbrough off dribble penetration, taking it to the rack himself or knocking down a three. Reyshawn Terry, whose status was up in the air due to illness even up until tipoff, was barely a blip on the radar until exploding late in the 2nd half to hammer the final nails in Michigan State's coffin.

Have to single out the defensive job Marcus Ginyard did on MSU's Drew Neitzel. Ginyard, Wes Miller and Lawson all took turns guarding him. Sure Neitzel shot lights out most of the way, en route to a 26 point night. He was nothing short of spectacular. But midway through the second half, Ginyard took the ball from him, it went back down the floor and Lawson drilled a three. The beginning of the end. Neitzel was worn down, the Heels superior depth finally doing him in.

The Heels are headed to the Meadowlands in New Jersey. How "Sweet" it is.

Jim C.

First round action from Winston-Salem

2007-03-16T19:39:00.000-04:00

Bobby Knight's latest visit to Winston-Salem was short and sweet. While combative and entertaining during his Wednesday press conference, Knight seemed rather subdued during his team's NCAA ouster at the hands of Boston College on Thursday. Especially in the latter stages of the game, the General sat relatively motionless, almost resigned to defeat. For some reason, I was expecting fire and brimstone.

After Michigan State made relatively easy work of Marquette, the Tar Heels took the LJVM Coliseum floor and broke out to a 22-3 lead on Eastern Kentucky. Did I mention the game did not tip off until 10:06pm? The only thing worse than having to work a game that won't end until midnight (and won't allow you to finish interviews, writing, editing & blogging until 4am) is having to endure a blowout. Fortunately, the Colonels came to the Joel with the intention of leaving their mark. Their character was revealed as they whittled a 27 point deficit to four. The Heels collected themselves and eventually ran away with it, but at least it was entertaining. Special kudos to Tyler Hansbrough for delivering big in the second half. The new mask seems to agree with him. Reyshawn Terry was superb playing in front of his hometown crowd. And Marcus Ginyard (who turned an ankle during the game) was a calming influence whose 2nd half defense allowed the Heels to finally open up a large lead....and keep it.

Roy Williams informed the team after the game that his sister passed away Wednesday night following a lengthy illness. While not entirely unexpected, the Heels coach was clearly and understandably shaken. He says the funeral will be on Sunday and that he plans to coach the team Saturday night against Michigan State.

Our condolences and best wishes to the Williams family.

VCU vs. Duke: First Half impressions

2007-03-15T20:14:00.000-04:00

It's just before tip, I'm in my seat and it seems like everybody from the VCU campus is in there's, too. About 500 VCU fans are sitting right acrooss from me. Game time.... Paulus with a 3, Henderson is fouled first time he touches the ball. Both of those 2 need big games to handle VCU's 3 guard attack. Wow, a big slam by Henderson ties the game 5-5. Big jam by McRoberts now, and VCU is missing a lot of outside J's. They can't stay with Duke if that stays constant. Here's my thing -- they're quicker than Duke, some screen and rolls would open things up for the Rams. Another big alley oop to McRoberts. Duke's rolling, out to a 16-5 lead and it looks like I'll be home on Sunday. Noticing the refs hair, if you're watching the game, he makes Jimmy Johnson's hair seem lively. Ashley the intern just remarked that VCU can't make a basket. It's 18-7, so I'd have to agree. I'm going into my Billy Packer mode -- just harp on one point. VCU's not playing well. At the halfway point of the first half, it's Duke 22, VCU 10. McRoberts just went coast to coast. You know he's done that this season. Did VCU watch any tape? Okay I'm out of Billy Packer mode. Duke's up 9. Maynor, the kid who singlehandedly beat George Mason in the CAA finals hits a floater. If he can wake up, maybe this game won't be as boring in the second half, because if it stays at this pace, Duke will not only win but win by 18 or more. Jesse Pellot-Rosa just nailed a 3. It's back to a 6-point game. Rams showing life. I'm giddy only because no one likes a blowout. Duke's in the bonus, but Paulus misses the front end of a 1-1. There's 6 minutes left in the half. VCU has to keep their hands to themselves the rest of the half. Free throws could push the Devils advantage back above double digits before the break. Maynor fouled makes both -- 3 point game. VCU has clawed back into the game thanks to a stagnant offense and some ugly possesions for the Devils. McRoberts got the ball poked away from behind and there was a phantom foul called. About 75 percent of the building started booing -- so much for this being a pro-Duke crowd. Everyone not wearing a Duke sweatshirt is rooting against the Devils -- Butler fans, ODU fans... Pocius slam AND 1. The first "refs you suck chant of the night"... good times. Under 4 min TV timeout, Duke is up 35-29. Unfortunately I cannot complete the statement that coach K just called the ref, but he called him... well I'll leave it out so they won't pull my blog out, but it's funny to the folks on press row and within earshot. Just trust me. B.A Walker just nailed a 3 making it a 3-point game. The crowd breaks out a V-C-U chant and the Madness has arived. Jamal Shuler just tied it up with a 3 and the building just went berserk. 3 seconds on the clock in the half, shot clock running down, Paulus a desperate 3 pt attempt... poor foul call. Official checks the replay monitor... Paulus makes 1, misses, 1 makes 1. It's Duke 40-38. The inbound play is tipped away with 2.4 seconds left. Coach K yelling at the refs... I mean classic. The half ends with a turnover, and K leaves the court and one of the refs says don't talk to me. It's 40-38 at the half, and we've got a game!

-Terry Brooks

Davidson vs. Maryland final thoughts

2007-03-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

The 2nd half looks like a continuation of the first with some GREAT BASKETBALL! Curry opens with a 3, another great reveverse and later an assist. He's directly responsible for 7 of the 'Cats first 9 points in the second half. Maryland's defense and sloppy passes by the Cats are leading to easy dunks. Gist and Jones have one apiece in this half. At the midway point, it's 60-59 'Cats. Maryland's Bambale Osby is crashing the boards and setting some mean picks. He is just everywhere. He just threw an alley to James Gist... awkward but effective. Thanks to a couple of turnovers and made buckets, Maryland is now up 6 points with 6:35 to play. Davidson needs a bucket in the worse way. Curry on cue, 69-66 now. If this article seems like a glowing endorsement of Stephen Curry, it is. The kid just went to the hoop as the defender thought he would pull up from deep. It's 71-68 at the 4:00 TV timeout. Not to sound too contrived, but this is what March Madness is all about -- small schools hanging with big schools. We're into the last four minutes and it's anybody's game. This is a weird observation -- Davidson's band director is actually playing the trombone. This is the kind of stuff you notice during long timeouts. MIKE JONES for 3. It's now 75-68 Terps. Curry with a bad pass leads to a turnoover. That could be it. Curry gets the offensive board and gets fouled. That's 5 fouls on Ibekwe with 1:12 left and the score 75-68. Both free throws good, 75-70 Terps. Gary Williams is sweating but not to an obnoxious degree. It's just a 5 point game. Is there a glass slipper coming??? Big Dave Neal just made 2 clutch freebies for the the Terps. Curry just took 2 big threes and both missed. The 'Cats look done and Maryland fans are on their feet. Davidson fans look dejected. 44 seconds left. Vazquez 1 of 2 free throws. Will, the Canadian, misses a 3. It's all over but the singing. This was a great game to start it all off. Davidson seemed to just run out of gas. As a guy who graduated from a Southern Conference school, I'm more than appreciative of the effort and the guts. Curry just fouled out and the kid got a STANDING OVATION. They have three more years of the kid at Davidson and that should mean three more years of the 'Cats being the team to beat in the SoCon. Props to the freshman. Thoroughly entertaining game. Crowd chants, "He's a freshman." Yes he is. Let's get ready for Duke at 7:10 vs VCU.

-Terry Brooks

Davidson vs. Maryland thoughts

2007-03-15T13:47:00.000-04:00

Davidson's going to need to keep knockinng down outside shots and not get outphysicaled by a tough Maryland, and yes, I know outphysicaled is not a word, but I call it like I see it. The game started with Ebekwe taking it right at the rim to start the game 2-0. Curry missed his first couple for Davidson... he better heat up fast. There he goes -- Curry from deep, 8-4 Wildcats. I'm loving DJ Strawberry's leadership. He's constantly talking to teammates and he's on the refs but in a respectful way. One of the Canadaniens just knocked down back-to-back 3's... I love it. 17-17 tie right now. McKillop waits until the last second to make subs, a move that makes sure Williams can't respond... the little things baby... love it! Back and forth game, just what I expected. Davidson's not afraid of the Turtle. Davidson just ran off a 10-0 run, highlited by a Curry 3 and a mean reverse dunk that puts the 'Cats up 35-27. Now it's the Terps turn. Maryland makes an 8-0 run... MIKE JONES... two bombs ties the game 35-35. Curry just made a beautiful pull up 3 on a the break. I'm about to cheer on press row...41-39 'Cats. Parrish Brown makes the final basket of the half, a fitting 3 that makes the score 44-43 at the half. This is a great game!

-Terry Brooks

Duke and Davidson in Buffalo for the NCAA Tourney

2007-03-15T08:42:00.000-04:00

From Terry Brooks:

What's up everybody? Before we get to the Blue Devils and Wildcats let me take you through my journey here to the home of the Bills and Sabres. My photographer Gavin MacRoberts and myself (the1 and only Terry Brooks) got to Buffalo Tuesday at 5:03. The airport looks a little smaller than RDU but the rental cars are right next to baggage claim. Gets you out in a hurry. We get to our hotel the Hyatt Regency and it's got a really nice lobby. We check in and find out that a couple of teams that are competing in the college national swim tournament are staying here as well. Who knew? Off to the arena to give you faithful viewers an establishing shot. That's TV talk for a shot that lets you know we're here. After we wrap, problem...The laptop won't feed. We try and try but nothing....We come up with Plan B...Believe me there's always Plan B in TV...I'll do a phoner with Jim Connors during Sportsnight...Not to talk down to anybody, but a phoner is a phone interview. Just making sure we're all on the same page....The phoner goes great. We talk about the weather...about 50 degrees lower than Raleigh....and I give my take on both Duke and Davidson games....Duke has to show up against VCU...Davidson can stay with Maryland because of Stephen Curry's shooting....After that we eat at the home for buffalo wings...Hey we're in Buffalo why not....So we go to the Anchor Bar...This is the place where it all started....anddddddddd....I was not impressed...Maybe I ordered the wrong ones but buffalo wings in buffalo were about a 'C'. Enough of my menu let's move on. Wednesday arrives and we get to the arnena at a little after 11 to setup for the week..camera, editors, computer, everything you need to make you feel like you're right here in Buffalo...12 gets here and it's time to go into the lockerroom and interview Davidson players. I look over the media guide and see 2 guys went to the same high school and that it was in Quebec....QUEBEC!!!!! How did Davidson get not 1 but 2 Canadiens on the same team in the middle of NC...I had to find out..The story ran on Sportsnight last night and I'm pretty sure you can find it on News14.com.....Anyway that was interesting.....Curry gets off the podium and he looks like he's 14 or 15 year's old and this is the kid who's second in the nation among college freshmen in scoring...WOW...He reminds me of another babyfaced assassin Randolph Childress...Same kind of game, same kind of school boy look, but will drop a dagger on you in a minute...We wrap with Davidson and get our stuff back to the station...Duke's on at 3:45...K hits the podium and turns on the charm....The national writers drool...and he leaves American Express applications for everybody.....That's just a joke....It's a blog....Just a blog....While K's on the podium the lockerroom's open and we wind up turning a story on Gerald Henderson....My impression of the Duke players...They are extremely hype for the VCU game....People are openly picking against them and questioning whether this is going to be the team that breaks the 9 year streak of Sweet 16 apperances...Let me tell you Josh McRoberts and especially DeMarcus Nelson look like they're ready to go to war and will not be taking any prisoners...For all the talk about whether or not the dynasty is dead in Durham I really think people have awaken the sleeping dog if you will...Objectively I believe I'll be here for the entire weekend because if the feelilng that those players translate to the floor on Thursday it's going to be a long day for VCU...Duke 74 VCU 60....Davidson scares Maryland, Gary Williams sweats through his jacket, but the Terps knock off the Wildcats...80-75.

UNC players to NBA?

2007-03-11T16:05:00.000-04:00

Just talked to Ty Lawson in the lockerroom after the Heels ACC Championship. He says he's almost positive he's coming back next year and so is Wayne Ellington. He said he hasn't talked to Brandon Wright but believes he should go if he's projected as a high draft pick. Lawson also said he has no idea what Hansbrough will do.

Lawson was funny because he said Coach Williams told him he needs to stay and has things to learn so he plans to stay. Pretty funny.

We'll see if things change if they were to win a national championship!

The biggest thing that I'll take away from after the game in the lockerrooms was NC State. It was not a depressing sad scene in there. While they are upset they lost, I think this is really something the team feels they can learn from and come back as a strong team next year.

Should be fun!

45 minutes til game time...

2007-03-11T12:03:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are. One team expected, another well, not expected. It's 45 minutes til game time and I'm enjoying a little sandwich while typing this here old blog. Went to save my seat and a few of the players are out shooting around. Wes Miller seemed real relaxed talking with a couple friends. He should be relaxed though, he's in his senior year and this will be his last ACC tournament although it's his first in the championship game.

Conventional wisdom is Carolina will cruise to a victory. They are far superior in talent, depth, and rest. However, conventional wisdom means that NC State shouldn't even be here. A #10 seed never won a game little alone got to a championship game like this. Five days ago NC State though it's season would be over Thursday night. Now they have a chance to get into the NCAA tournament. Bottom line is they have nothing to lose in a lot of ways and can just play.

Should be fun!

UNC vs. NCSU by the numbers in the tourney

2007-03-10T20:07:00.001-05:00

North Carolina and N.C. State have met five times previously in the finals. North Carolina holds a 3-2 edge, winning in 1968 as the top seed, in 1975 as the second seed, and in 1997 as the third seed. N.C. State won in 1959 as the No.1 seed and in 1987 as the sixth seed.
* North Carolina most recently won an ACC Tournament in 1998. N.C. State most recently won an ACC title in 1987.
* Since N.C. State upset UNC to win the 1987 tournament championship under head coach Jim Valvano, the Wolfpack has played for the title three times without a win (1997, 2002, 2003), while the Tar Heels have competed for the title 11 times, winning in 1989, 1991, 1994, 1997 and 1998.
* This will be the first ACC Tournament championship game in which the coaches are both alumni of the schools they direct. Sidney Lowe played at N.C. State from 1980-83, and Roy Williams attended North Carolina, played on the junior varsity, and graduated in 1972.
* Sidney Lowe could become the third coach to win the ACC Tournament in his first year as a head coach. Duke's Vic Bubas, an N.C. State alumnus, won in 1960 and UNC's Bill Guthridge won in 1998.
* ACC Tournament finals have not been kind to the top seed since 1980, when Georgia Tech joined the league. During that span No.1 has reached the championship game 17 times and posted a 8-9 mark. North Carolina has done especially poorly under such circumstances. The Heels are 1-4 playing for the title as the top seed, losing in 1987, 1988, 1993 and 2001. Their sole victory as the top seed came in 1982, when they won both the ACC and NCAA titles. Duke won the ACC Tournament last year as the No.1 seed.
* North Carolina and N.C. State have met four times previously in the ACC Tournament at venues outside the state of North Carolina. They played twice in Atlanta, in 1983 and 1985. The Wolfpack won in '83 en route to the title, the Heels won in 1985. The schools also played twice in Landover, Md., in 1981, when UNC won on its way to the championship, and in the 1987 title game.
* Teams from the state of North Carolina have now met 29 times in 54 years for the ACC championship. Such matchups occurred 13 times in the league's first 16 years of existence, and 12 times in the 20 years since UNC and N.C. State met in 1987.
* N.C. State has been in three of the last six finals - 2002, 2003 and 2007. During that span, UNC did not reach the finals. The Wolfpack lost to Duke in '02 and '03.

Rival game anyone?

2007-03-10T19:47:00.000-05:00

If you like rivalries then this ACC championship is one you don't want to miss. NC State continues to play Cinderella in the ACC tournament. They are now not only the only #10 seed to win an ACC game but the lowest seed to ever reach the ACC championship game. State was looking at no postseason or NIT, but now with one win it can reach the NCAA tourney. Carolina could be playing for a #1 seed in Winston-Salem.

This is the first time since 1997 the two teams have met. UNC won 64-54. UNC last won in 1998 and NC State hasn't won since 1987. They just happened to beat UNC by one that year.

NC State coach Sidney Lowe unveiled the red coat for the first time against UNC in Raleigh and won during the regular season. He's won again every game in the tournament with the coat and you better believe he's going to wear it again on Sunday.

Engin Atsure reinjured his hamstring and we hear from his teammates he's hurting. Looks like State will have to play zone because there's very little chance anyone can keep up with UNC's Ty Lawson. Can NC State slow the game down and pull off the greatest upset in ACC tournament history? Or, will UNC manhandle the Wolfpack like it did Boston College on Saturday? UNC had 16 offensive rebounds which matched Boston Colleges defenseive rebounds. State cannot turn over the ball like they did on Saturday or Carolina will make layups and dunks and run away with it.

Interesting day behind the bench again too. Roy Williams slapped the padding on the score table and it echoes loud. The ref came over and warned Coach Williams, but coach was mad at his players and not the refs. The ref said though perception is he's mad at the refs and he needs to watch it.

Pretty interesting. More writers are writing about things the coaches, refs, and players have said than normal because this time we're sitting behind the benches instead of across the way. Intersting to see if that ever happens again!

UNC cheering for NC State?

2007-03-09T21:38:00.000-05:00

Just watched NC State pull off yet another upset. This time at the expense of #2 seed Virginia. And you won't believe it (or maybe you will) but UNC fans were standing and cheering for NC State. Let me repeat that. UNC fans were standing and cheering for NC State. Oh, and NC State wasn't playing Duke.

NC State just won't lose. They have a will to win and just seem to be able to turn a switch at halftime. And how about Raleigh native Bryan Nieman. The kid doesn't get a ton of playing time and he drills two huge three pointers! Keys in the second half were shutting Singletary down to two points in the second half until garbage free throw time came. They were also lights out shooting halfway through the second half after a miserable first half. Can Wake Forest shock the ACC as well? Man, I would almost hate to be a higher seed right now.

Sitting behind the bench continues to be an incredible learning experience. While there are always questionable calls and arguments and whining will happen, I have to give the refs credit. No matter who the coach is, the refs are always very patient and listen to every gribe by every coach no matter how ridiculous it is! Interesting watching too because you think of the coach running the team but during timeouts assistants often talk as much as the head coach in the huddle. All the refs call the coaches by their first names too like they hang out.

Roy Williams was relatively quiet and calm today, but his team played pretty well.

The one thing I've noticed this tournament is a large number of traveling calls so kids take the lesson and keep that pivot foot on the ground!

Wow, I need to catch my breathe and see if Wake can pull off another double overtime victory! Until the next buzzer....

Cinderella anyone?

2007-03-09T01:49:00.000-05:00

It's 1:51am and we're still working. Guess that's what happens when you have an AMAZING day of hoops! Are you kidding me? All four low seeds win! Oh wait, NC State/Duke goes to OT. Oh wait, Wake Forest upsets Georgia Tech in double overtime as a Yellowjacket shot bounces and bounces just out as time expires. WOW!! The game didn't officially end until 12:55am. It's now the highest scoring game in ACC tournament history. If you want to see what a bunch of people who normally look put together on tv not so put together you should be in the television work area right now. We are in rough shape but happy to have been here to see such an amazing day. Who says the first day isn't fun? Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Boston College are all coming off last game losses so watch out for perhaps an upset or two again if those teams haven't practiced well this week. When NC State is running on all cylinders they are a very very competitive team, but you just have to wonder how much it will hurt they are just 6-7 players deep if they do pull out another upset. How does Wake Forest respond to an emotional double overtime 12:55am victory? That will be keys tomorrow. With UNC it's an early, first game. Will they be ready and intense to play and how will the mask affect Psycho T? All interesting questions that will be awesome to follow tomorrow. Good night, well good morning. Can't wait to be back in a few hours?

Behind the bench...

2007-03-08T23:31:00.000-05:00

Sitting behind the bench is one wild experience! We normally sit opposite the benches and this was an eye opener to say the least. We are literly 10 feet or less from the players and coaches. It is fascinating at what you hear and see. During the Miami/Maryland game, I sat behind Gary Williams. I have never seen the "F" word used as a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective all in one sentence! He is incredibly intense. At one point, one of the referees screamed back, "I can't make up rules for you". Even more interesting as Maryland was losing he made one player switch from red to white shoes. They must have all got new shoes, because just before halftime Williams was yelling at the equipment manager to have every player in a different pair of shoes for the second half. Just an interesting tidbit to say the least!

In the Duke/NC State game there was another funny moment when NC State forward Ben McCauley got called for an offensive foul when he knocked down a Duke guard. McCauley came back down the court and looked at coach Lowe as he was playing defense and said "he's too tiny, he flopped". Of course tiny to him is probably 6'3, 220lbs!

It's a really neat experience to sit behind the benches though so I'll probably write more about it later. Quite a day with two upsets and it's only Thursday!

By the way if you didn't see my story yet, plenty of tickets available. It was pretty full inside by the end of the day, but scalpers we're seriously 2 for 1 sales on the tickets and selling them way below face value.

Anyone can win...

2007-03-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

Anyone can win. That's the theme today for sure. Not only in most cases is it true, but the fans and players believe it themselves. That, within itself, is a strange thing to say about the conference. Typically, there are plenty of good teams but more than two or three that could win? Not usually. ACC commish John Swofford said yesterday he could argue 9 teams from the ACC should make the NCAA tourney. He's obviously a homer, but there's a lot of truth to it. Conventional wisdom around here is 6, maybe 7. That's the beauty of the conference tournament. Pride is not only on the line but so is making the national tournament as well as seeding for teams like North Carolina. Think about it. If UNC wins, they likely get a #1 seed and will stay in North Carolina for rounds 1 and 2. There's a big belief that Clemson and Florida State will be playing today for a spot in the NCAA tournament. Can't get much more on the line for a first round conference game. How about Duke and NC State playing the first round? There is definitely a lot more excitement and buzz about these first round games than in the past. Now, you just have to get people off the beach and into a dark arena? This is truly a test to the pure heart ACC fan, because it is gorgeous here in Tampa! As I sip on my complimentary hotel coffee, it's definitely a good morning. Then again, it's the ACC tournament and if it was held in Siberia, I'd be feeling the same. Take that sunshine! But hey if it's here might as well enjoy it right!

Life is good!

2007-03-07T18:08:00.000-05:00

It's 6:00pm and it's 72 degrees. Slap me now, I know! What a truly marvelous and amazing weather day here in Tampa, Florida. I'll be honest though, if you took away the warm weather, palm trees, and ACC Tournament it's really not that great of a work trip. Okay slap me again!

We're here and it's a pretty good set up. All you hear about from anyone and everyone is the weather. This is clearly one huge vacation for the fans that are coming.

Let's get right to the juice though shall we? I am dumbfounded by all the people selling books and books of tickets out front. Never have I seen books for sale at the end when teams are losing and leaving let alone at the very beginning of the tournament. A scalper out front told me an NC State alum sold him 40 books of tickets! He had a hundred in his pocket and I know because I saw the books myself. We talked to another guy who had two books and had a last minute issue and couldn't use the tickets he bought. He says he's likely going to sell them for less than face value!!! What makes it even worse for these guys is scalping is legal in Florida!

This is the first time ever for the ACC tournament in Florida. Tampa officials held a special press conference with the ACC commissioner. I'm told by ACC officials no other venue has done that. Both sets of officials are playing up the venue. Swofford says it was necessary to be fair to other schools to move the tourney around especially now with two teams in Florida. It's key they want to push the ACC in Florida for recruiting and tv markets which may still be related to the football issue and expanding the ACC.

The problem is when the tourney is closer to North Carolina, fans from teams that win will drive and pick up tickets from fans of teams that lose. Problem is, it took us 10 hours to drive here and a flight isn't short or cheap and hotels and everything is expensive here. Will there actually be open seats at an ACC basketball tournament final? Wow are ACC officials a little nervous and while everyone is putting on a happy face, I can tell you first hand there are plenty of tickets to be had and the scalpers say they expect it to remain that way.

2007 ACC Tournament

2007-03-05T17:10:00.000-05:00

News 14 Carolina Reporter Tim Boyum will have all the behind-the-scenes action from the ACC Tournament March 8-11 in Tampa, Florida. Stay tuned for his blog coming soon!

Duke in the ATL

2006-03-23T11:34:00.000-05:00

It's been an interesting trip to Atlanta. I got the word on Monday that I would be going to Atlanta to cover Duke. I was on the way home from Dayton, OH where UNC had just lost in the second round. Jim Connors asked if I wanted the Duke beat for the rest of the way. I jumped at the chance. The biggest problem? I had to get ready to leave by Tuesday. Just enough time to run some various errands and of course wash clothes. Did I mention I left Dayton at 4am? Sleep is not a necessity during March Madness.

Tuesday my photograper, Gavin MacRoberts, and myself drove from North Carolina to the ATL. The drive was simple enough. Nothing worth noting except Gavin has over 3,000 songs on his MP3 player. I wonder how long of a road trip you'd have to take to go thorough 3,000 songs? Anyway we arrived safe and sound.

Wednesday we pick up our credientals at the Georgia Dome and our satellite truck operator arrived from Charlotte. Mark Smith is a laid back guy. We also have a crew from our Time Warner station in Austin, Texas working out of our truck but it has not gotten too hairy as of yet.

Now on to Duke and the Blue Devils first practice. J.J. Redick did not miss a free throw out of 20 attempts that I watched, saved one that was knocked off course by someone else shooting. Shelden Williams seems to be looking forward to his matchup with LSU's Glen 'Big Baby' Davis. Although Shelden downplayed it when addressing us media types. No shyness with Big Baby however. This kid is a sound bite waiting to happen. I don't think he's met a mic that he didn't like. Needless to say, an outspoken athlete, I love the kid. Davis and Williams will bang each other all night, the key is how will the refs call it. If it's a tightly called game I think that favors Davis because he can put the ball on the floor and draw contact. If they let them play physical that clearly favors Shelden because he can go after blocks without having to worry about a whistle.

Coach K on the sidelines during practice is very similar to his game approach. He rarely smiles and has a look of seriousness almost the entire time. Let's just focus will not be a problem when Duke and LSU tip off.

Stay tuned to News14 Carolina for more blogs, my live chat Thursday noon to 1, and all the highlites from LSU and Duke's Sweet 16 game on Sportsnight at 10. It's a halfhour of sports the right way!

I'm out

Terry

Update from Jim Connors

2006-03-19T18:02:00.000-05:00

George Washington could talk the talk, but in the end, could not walk the walk, not against Duke anyway. Totally outclassed by the Blue Devils. Duke seemed to put it's foot on GW's throat from the opening tip. The freshmen, Greg Paulus and Josh McRoberts, made up for a subpar showing Thursday against Southern. Shelden Williams did as he pleased. JJ was lights out. Onto the Sweet 16 for Coach K and the boys.

Duke was so dominant that it seemed to suck the life out of the Greensboro Coliseum...not even the partisan Duke crowd could muster up much concern over the outcome. This despite the fact that the Colonials had come from 18 down to beat UNC-Wilmington. There would be no comeback on this day. The Devils made it a point, as Sean Dockery told me in the lockerroom, to "show no weakness". The highly touted Colonial press was never a factor. Paulus and McRoberts took great care of the ball.

Duke was up 11 at the break...then Sean Dockey and JJ Redick hits threes to open the second half.....and Duke never looked back.

Onto Atlanta for the Devils, possibly for me as well. Although my wife and kids wouldn't mind seeing the travel stop. It's been pretty rough on them. I appreciate their understanding..and sacrifice.

JC

I hope the Wolfpack can swim

2006-03-19T10:57:00.000-05:00

It started raining Friday afternoon and really hasn't stopped. I guess it's good for the Texas wildfires, but bad for carrying a tv camera around. I may need a boat to get out of here.

The Pack were giving all of the right answers in their pre-game news conference. I know most of this stuff is canned, but you could tell some of them believed it. I particularly liked the part where the players said they had to play pack basketball, and not worry about preparing for the Longhorns. They didn't have enough time to prepare. They all seemed relaxed and again confident. Let's see if the team can pull off another upset this year.

I'm off to the game.

That's A Wrap

2006-03-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

It's been real, I've had fun, but it's time to call it a tournament. It's back to the old "news" grind for me. In fact, while Duke was validating their 1st seed sending GW back to DC, I was editing a "Healthy Carolina" story for air Monday morning.

So the Devils are headed to Atlanta, I'm headed to Fuquay and hopefully anyone reading this at this hour is headed to bed.

MarkB

Wolfpack play tight D in Big D

2006-03-18T11:58:00.000-05:00

All the talk coming into this first round game was about Cal Forward Leon Powe. The Wolfpack proved they were the story Friday night holding the 6'8" forward to 14 points. The Bears' 52 points was a season-low. It was all about defense for the wolfpack.

There were some definite stars in this game. Sophomore center Cedric Simmons put the team on his back the first half. His determination and grit kept the pack in the game. Near the end of the game, the seniors took over. When Cal's Omar Wilkes hit a three pointer as the shot clock expired (in what all will call the luckiest shot ever), Tony Bethel came right back down the floor and hit a three of his own. This extended the pack's lead back to four. Then, with 32 seconds left, Cameron Bennermann hit the eventual game-winning three pointer. Final score 58-52.

As the team left the court, they couldn't contain their excitment. Screaming and jumping up and down. It was great to see this after the past month this team went through.

Other notes: This is the 4th time in 5 years the team advanced to the second round of the tournament. This was also only the 4th time the pack came back to win after trailing at half. It was the first time they won after trailing with less than ten minutes to play.

Go Pack!

Kudos to the Sideline Shutterbugs

2006-03-18T11:09:00.000-05:00

After reviewing my last few entries, I'm thinking I should have spent the extra money on those courses at OU. Dangling prepositions, punctuation and spelling. My grammar not be so well. You'd a thunk I was a basketball player. "Now that was uncalled for." That was other voice I periodically hear inside my head. Or maybe it was Grandmother Barger from the rolling hill in Wisconsin. Does Wisconsin have rolling hills? How would I know? I was born there but never raised there. Boy, my therapist will double her fee after this tournament.

By far, Friday evening was the easiest day yet. Of course it was an off day so deadline pressure was minimal. Three packages, a live shot for news and a live half hour sports show later, big "G" was once again in my rearview mirror. On the road by 11:30p I rolled in the ole homestead at 12:30a.

These past two weeks have given me a greater appreciation for the guys and gals that do this fulltime. I was a sports shooter in Oklahoma City from '95 to '96. I went to Superbowl XXX, the All-Star game in Arlington, Mickey Mantel's funeral in big "D", the AAA World Series, the CHL National Championship, and the College World Series to name a few. It was a great ride. Now at 40, I prefer to watch the action from the armchair.

There's a lot of comradery behind the scenes. Need a battery, no problem. Feed your story to a station in New Jersey, no problem. Hold my microphone because I can't reach inside the media horde, no problem. Don't get me wrong, this game is just as competitive as the one on the court, but just like all games, we have to interact with each other off the court as well as on the court.

It always amazed me after a pro football game, after players pounded each other for four quarters, the opposing teams would embrace with great big smiles and talk about how the family was doing. In the end, we are all one big family. Just remember, don't turn your camera light on during the interview, keep you mic flag out of my shot and we'll all get along just fine.

MarkB

Game Day for the Wolfpack

2006-03-17T13:06:00.000-05:00

We are 6 hours away from tip off. I went to the team's practice yesterday. You would think the team would be tight after limping into the tournament with 4 straight losses, but that's not the case. They were joking around and having a good time. Most importantly, they seemed confident. They hope to be back in midseason form when they were nationally ranked. During the shootaround, they were hitting three's left and right. If they can do that against Cal, they stand a really good chance of advancing.

As far as fans, most haven't arrived yet. Those at the practice were with the band or boosters. I'm really hoping the fans turn out to support the team.

It appears much of the media decided to hope off the Wolfpack bandwagon. I've only seen one other station from NC here in town. Apparently, they decided to spend all of their resources on the other Carolina teams. That's disappointing because this team is tight and has a lot of heart. If they can get back to midseason form....they could make a run in this tournament.

Hopefully, I'll be writing more good news after the game.

Glamour and Glory?

2006-03-17T11:47:00.000-05:00

Friday March 17th

Oh, the glamour of covering the NCAA tournament. Sixteenth seed holding their own against the renowned No. 1 seed. A buzzer beating shot sending the game into overtime. And of course the upsets. How did Oklahhoma lose to UW Milwaukee? My wife's a Sooner, my oldest daughter is an Okie, and I've spent half my life in Oklahoma so by default, I'm an Okie too. I graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma. I was accepted at OU, but they wanted me to repeat a bunch of courses I had already taken. I'd spent enough money on higher ed. UCO class of 90 rocks. By the way, I was born in Wisconsin. Go Panthers or Badgers or Packers. See what happens to a young man when he's ripped from his home state at 6 months old.

So a B.A. in Broadcasting and 15 years later, I'm shoulder to shoulder with about 50 other photographers and millions of dollars in equipment to help bring you the glamour and glory. What they don't tell you in journalism school is you will be sitting on folding chairs in a flourescent lit room rolling on a feed of the game and you are not allowed on the floor during the game.

The good news, it's all the popcorn, soda, Milkyway bars and ice cream you can eat. Now that's what I'm talking about. The NCAA does provide a daily meal, but they could sure take a few tips from the ACC. I'm hear to tell ya, the desserts alone at the ACC tournament are to die for. I've never seen such a variety of cheesecake, and I was born in Wisconsin.

So if I'm just rolling on a feed, how do I justify the expense of sending me here? It all comes down to the locker-room. That's where the combat begins. Everyone is jockeying for position. It's like a ballet, but chaotic. Sometimes the only shot of a player's face comes between a press pass dangling from a reporter's neck and a MP3 player in the clutches of a hand still greasy from the free popcorn. God forbid if you turn on your camera light before a player finishes a question. That quickly gets you into the sportcaster's Hall of Shame.

The funniest thing to watch is the press core corralled around an empty chair hoping JJ Redick will grace us with his presense. He didn't after the Duke Southern game. After waiting on Sheldon Williams to slowly get dressed and with only four minutes left in the locker-room, we finally got the sound we needed for our story. It was put to bed at 2am. I went to bed at 4am.

Oh the glamour and glory.

MarkB

Hwy 421

2006-03-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

Thursday March 16th

The "Bus" may have retired in Pittsburg this year, but this bus is still a truckin'. The company was good enough to offer a hotel room in the big "G", but I'm the bus driver for a 4 year old little girl in Fuquay Varina. Every morning we are up by 7am and off to school by 8, so that means I'm hauling it back home every night on Hwy 421.

Funny how you get to know a road when you drive it over and over again. I did the same for the ACC tournament. You start noticing the same abandoned cars. I can't help but wonder how these folks are getting by without their "wheels". If my "school" is down a bus, it's a mad balancing act between school, track practice, taekwondo, etc. And by the way, who's idea was it to hang a white rag out the driver's window to indicate your car has broken down? It seems pretty obvious to me. Maybe this prevents preditory tow trucks from hauling off a car while some photographer, driving home late from a basketball tournament, pulls over for a quick road side break because the gas stations are few and far between on Hwy 421.

P.S.

Props to the folks at Wendy's in Siler City for cooking up a batch of hot fries at 1am.
French fries and a frosty. Is there anything better at 1am?

MarkB

The first day in Dayton

2006-03-17T11:20:00.000-05:00

Today seems to be our businest day here. As a photographer I'm responsible for setting up the Satellite truck to feed video back to North Carolina, I then have to go inside the arena to set up the equipment to record off the NCAA video feed they are providing the media. The set up is not bad making sure that everything is working properly is usually where it can be tricky (you have to rely on others to make sure that there equipment is working properly). Back in North Carolina as part of my preparation I made a call the arena officials and the gave me an ideal where to park the Satellite truck and what the rules are, so I was not blind coming in. Terry and I grab bite to eat at the hotel (when you are on road trips carbs are your friend since you don't know when you may eat again) and we are off to the University of Dayton Arena. We arrive early and get a prime parking spot. Then we are off to the inside of to see where the media is stationed at. After getting our credential we go through what seems like a maze, but the good thing is that the NCAA has large blue signs everywhere; I follow the TV media signs, a right, then a left, then another right, down a hill and half way down the hill on the left is the TV compound (it cozy so everybody has to be understanding of one another). So after a five minute scope of things we head back to the truck and start the journey of transporting our record equipment. Actually on the outside I notice that they have a better parking spot for the Satellite truck so I decide to move while doing that Terry is transporting the equipment inside(teamwork is the only way to suceed). Once re-positioned I transported the rest of the equipment inside. Once inside we begin what can be the most nerve racking part of the whole trip: setting it up. With most photographers when we have to set up equipment for any type of recording or live event we like to get there as early as possible. Our first real assignment is not for a good two hours but I'm treating like it was going to happen in 10 minutes. I really believe that in order to have things go come off smoothly you must be in an intense almost panic mode. Where do we plug in for video and audio, is it connected right to our equipment, is our equipment set up right, are we getting proper video and sound? These are just some of the questions you keep going over and over in your mind until you have tested it numerous times and find no flaws. We get that done just in time for the practice to start.

Mission One is complete:
Now that the Satellite truck and record equiptment is set up and working properly, we now move to our second half of the days getting the teams interview and open practice. The good thing about us is that the Tarheels are last on at 4:30, so that gives up time to rest. Oh yeah Davidson (another North Carolina team) is in the Dayton bracket as well and they are first up. So after we get some interviews from them and few shots of the practice we feed that back to the station along with a report from Terry being here in Dayton. So it's 2pm and we have a couple hours of down time. Lunch is in order so we go and grab that. In the news business it can be a situation where you have a long day but the busiest part will be the end of the day this is one of those days. We know that both of our stories will have to be shot and edited in the a small window of time (like three hours) oh yeah along with live shots.

Mission Two:
As we are waiting I start seeing that Carolina Blue show up in the back areas of the arena. I know that it's close. The I look out in the hallway from the coumpound and see a very tall kid in blue with braids walking down the hill to the locker room area. It's showtime THE TARHEELS are in the building looking for a repeat of last year. I gearing up to shot the fans, very tall people who make dunks, jumpshots and the game of basketball look effortless. Terry and I make our way through the crowd to the sea of Carolina blue. I never realized that there were so many Tarheels fans in Ohio. I think it's the colors that got them hooked (having a basketball dynasty doesn't hurt either). That 90 minutes of shooting went really fast for me, by the time I was done it looked had been practing with them. Off to the compound and put the stories together. That part went like a blur too Terry wrote and I cut the stories went outside; set up the live shot for the first story did that one at 8pm turned right back around and did it another story on the team with another live shot for the sports show. We are done by 11pm. Found a meal and was back in the hotel by Midnight watching my eyelids at 12:45.

Reflection:
All in all the day went smoothly so I'm feeling good because this was the busiest day of the weekend. I just have to remember not to get lax because the games start tomorrow and that is when we cover the reason why we drove nine and a half hours. It's work but it is exciting.

Maurice

The Life of a Photog at the NCAA's

2006-03-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

Up until know you have heard the sportscasters point of view(no disrespect to Jim or Terry). When your responsible for getting all that happens at your tournament site back North Carolina for viewers to watch you have a little different perspective so let me allow you to step into my world.

Sunday-Tuesday:
After the selection show I found out I was traveling to Dayton with the Tarheels. I had traveled before but with traveling sometimes that is your first time going to that place so you are a little nervous because you have never been there before and don't know what to expect. I previously was a resident of Dayton so I had a little more comfort since I kind of knew the area. Now it gets interesting, Terry and I are taking a Satellite truck (which means driving). For the next two days I'm making sure the Satellite truck is serviced and getting everythingwe need plus the "just in case" supplies as well. The plan is simple The Tarheels play on Friday (and Sunday if the win Friday) we travel up Wednesday, set up and do a couple of stories on fans and practice Thursday,cover the games and reaction the rest of the weekend.

Wedesday:
We are off to Dayton from Raleigh, oh yeah it's about nine and a half hours of driving. Here's the fun part you have to drive through the hills of Virginia and West Virginia with a very large and bulky Satellite truck. If that was not enough it's very windy. You have a lot time to think about you plan of action for the weekend. This was first trip to the NCAA tournament but from Terry's and others at the station the setup would be easy. The NCAA set everything up so all we have to do is plug our equipment into there's and they will do the rest. So after developing a plan in my mind I still had eight and a half hours left to drive. I play a little game with myself to make the drive a little less brutal. I break it down in segments, this is how my segments went, make it to Virginia (stop and have lunch), then through the tunnels to West Virginia, then over the toll road, then to Ohio and we are there.
News Fans:
No matter where you go if you are driving a large vehicle with large writing on the sides you are bound to run into a news fan or two and this trip is no exception. In Virginia at lunch we met Libby, Libby was an attendant at the Travel America truckstop, she met me and Terry at the gas pump asking us the usually question, where are you from, where you going, and why are you going there? After a five minute conversation with her Terry and I went inside for some lunch. About half way through our lunch we see Libby walking towards us she grabs a chair from the next table and sits down near us and starts a converation. Terry and I just looked at each and went with the flow, it was a little awkward but she was harmless (I think she was a little sweet on Terry).
The rest of trip went fine I did have a pleasant surprise when we stopped for gas in Ohio. I notice that there was a McDonald's across the street, remembering that it was St. Patrick season I have always loved Shamrock shakesfrom my childhood. The McDonald's in the south don't sell them so I had to go in and grab one,they even had them in three different sizes. Terry was laughing at me because I probably looked like a giant kid enjoying my Shamrock shake, truth be told I was a little kid for at least 10 minutes. Two hours later we are in our hotel room getting some rest because Thursday will be a long day, which you can read in my next blog.

Maurice

Jim's recap from Greensboro

2006-03-17T07:07:00.000-05:00

Hey there. It's 4am Friday and my Thursday still isn't over yet. Had to give out props for the great basketball we saw Thursday in Greensboro. And to everybody who checked in on the live web chat. What a day (and night).

After Wichita State laid waste to Seton Hall, Winthrop nearly showed 2nd seeded Tennessee the door. If not for a rather fortunate, timely shot by a guy who had not made one the entire second half, the Eagles might still be alive. At the very least, they earned some respect.

Best game of the day, hands down, UNC Wilmington versus George Washington. Needed overtime. Back and forth..big time shots. Looked like the Seahawks had it in hand midway through the second half. But to GW's credit...they fought back and eventually outlasted UNCW.

Duke survived, but did not look good against Southern. Shelden Williams and JJ Redick looked good...29 points apiece. But those freshmen who were the toast of the town in last week's ACC tournament were MIA last night. They know it. I expect a better effort Saturday against GW. They'll need it.

Until next time.

Jim C.

Day 2 in Dayton

2006-03-17T00:20:00.000-05:00

Okay let's be real. You guys know I'm from the south. Snow just ain't my thing. Yet the snow seems to follow me when I cover the NCAA Tournament. Last year in Syracuse it started to snow just before my first live-shot, and tonight in Dayton just before my live-shot it started snowing. I don't know what to do myself.

Moving on. UNC held it's open practice today and it was what you would expect, a glorified stretching session. The Heels did not run a set, or show anything that might be of consequence that could be scouted for their first game against Murray State. The highlite of the night was the final four minutes of practice where the Tar Heels put on a display for the fans. Dunks, dunks, and more dunks! Reyshawn Terry's hops are ridiculous!!! That kid can jump out of the gym, but David Noel is still the best dunker on the team.

Speaking of Noel he is clearly the unquestioned leader. It seemed that he picked up some leadership qualities from Sean May and Raymond Felton. Noel has told anyone who would listen all season that the Heels would be okay. A #3 seed in the NCAA tournament, yeah I'd say that's okay. Noel, a senior, has taken the young boys under his wing and shown them the Carolina way. Not that he's a slouch on the floor, but Noel's biggest asset may be his will. The Durham native has willed Carolina to the Big Dance and says Carolina is just getting started. UNC gets started officially tomorrow in the NCAA Tournament, check News14 Carolina for all your coverage.

Like a 2 cent light bulb, I'm out.

Terry

Jim Connors back in Greensboro

2006-03-16T08:09:00.000-05:00

Back in Greensboro for the second time in three days. The 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be hard pressed to match the ACC Tournament that went down last week.

Duke hit the practice floor Wednesday. While the crowd was solidly in their corner...there were a few folks in the stands sporting powder blue colors who suggested the only reason the Tar Heels were in Dayton, rather than Greensboro, was due to politicking by one Mike Krzyzewski. Naturally, Coach K insisted he wields no such power.

While Duke is heavily favored, it's hard not to feel for its opening round opponent, Southern University. Thanks to Katrina, the Jaguars have had no gym to call their own this season. Given what they've been through, don't expect them to roll over for Duke.

Keep checking out News 14 Carolina on TV and the web. We're just getting cranked up.

Let the games begin!

Jim Connors

Terry's Arrived in Dayton with UNC

2006-03-15T21:38:00.000-05:00

After a nine hour drive News 14 Carolina has arrived in Ohio. What did I learn today? I had no idea that there were so many mountains in West Virginia. My photographer Maurice Griffin and myself caught quite a few looks on the highway. Apparently seeing a News 14 satellite truck and Escape following behind will make people take notice. People were very nice everywhere we stopped. (You can't beat the south.) We even heard a couple of fans say go Heels.

Carolina begins practice at University of Daytona Arena tomorrow. We will be there and you can tune in for our first reports from Dayton at 1 on News 14 Carolina. And you can catch all the local NCAA coverage you can handle on Sportsnight at 10. It's a half hour of sports the right way!

See ya

Terry

Wolfpack in the Big D

2006-03-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Dallas, Texas. I just arrived here a few hours ago getting ready for NC State to play California in the first round of the NCAA tournament. For those who follow the pack, what a difference a year makes. If you'll remember, last year the team played in the chilly conditions up in the NE during its Sweet 16 run. This year...much warmer. That being said, the welcome is the exact opposite. While in Syracuse, the red carpet was rolled out for NC State. There were signs everywhere and everyone wanted to know about the team. In Dallas, workers at the team hotel didn't even know they were coming. I guess that's what you get in a big town.

Anyway, it's exactly 2 days until game time. I'm interested to see the fan interest in this team following the disappointing end of the season. A month ago, everyone thought the pack would be a high seed. Now, they're an underdog again in the first round. But then again, the team did well in that role last year. Let's just hope they can make California look like UNCC and Texas like UCONN.

I'm off to go meet the team as they arrive at their hotel. At least they'll be one person there welcoming them.

NCAA Tournament blogs

2006-03-14T12:47:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who visited our blog for the ACC Tournament. Stay tuned for coverage from the NCAA Tournament with blogs from reporters Tim Boyum, Shawn Flynn, sports anchors Jim Connors and Terry Brooks, and photographers Mark Barger and Maurice Griffin. Also, don't miss more online chats - on Thursday (3/16), chat with Jim Connors from 6pm - 7pm. And on Friday (3/17), it's another chat with Terry Brooks from 6 pm - 7 pm.

One word describes it all

2006-03-12T15:38:00.000-05:00

Duke wins 78-76

2006-03-12T15:16:00.000-05:00

A last-second heave by Boston College missed just to the right as Duke beats the Eagles 78-76 to win the 53rd ACC Tournament Championship. Greg Paulus missed his second free throw, so had the 3-pointer gone in, BC would have won its first ACC Championship. When the ball was in the air, a pin drop could be heard throughout the coliseum, but when it missed to the right, the crowd erupted in cheers with a few groans mixed in.

Craig Smith and Tyrese Rice both colapsed to the floor knowing they came up just short. While most Duke players ran to each other and to their bench to celebrate, Duke's Sean Dockery went to first Smith and then Rice, helped pick them up off the court and congratulated them. He gave Rice a hug, and I thought it was a tremendous show of good sportsmanship, especially considering what had transpired earlier in the day between Paulus and Hinnant.

J.J. Redick led the way for Duke with 26 points and Louis Hinnant surprisingly was BC's top scorer today with 20 points.

Final stat leaders:

Boston College
Points - Louis Hinnant - 20 pts
Rebounds - Craig Smith - 10 rbs
Assists - Craig Smith - 7 ast

Duke
Points - J.J. Redick - 26 pts
Rebounds - Shelden Williams - 8 rbs
Assists - J.J. Redick - 4 ast

Here is your 2006 ACC All-Tournament Team:

First Team
J.J. Redick, DUKE**
Jared Dudley, BOSTON COLLEGE
Craig Smith, BOSTON COLLEGE
Shelden Williams, DUKE
Tyler Hansbrough, UNC

**Denotes Tournament MVP

Second Team
Greg Paulus, DUKE
Louis Hinnant, BOSTON COLLEGE
Josh McRoberts, DUKE
Reyshawn Terry, UNC
Eric Williams, WAKE FOREST

Duke on verge of championship

2006-03-12T15:12:00.000-05:00

It would be the progam's 16th ACC Championship.

Duke is 79-37 all-time in the ACC Tournament, including a 29-15 mark at the Greensboro Coliseum. Duke has advanced to the tournament championship every year since 1998 and has a 24-2 record in that time span including a 22-1 mark the last seven years with six ACC Championships. Coach K is 41-15 at the ACC Tournament. (GoDuke.com)

MVP: Redick or Smith?

2006-03-12T15:06:00.000-05:00

Craig Smith has 19 points for Boston College and Redick has 26 points for Duke.

One minute remaining here in Greensboro. Whichever team wins, their star will earn MVP honors I'm sure.

J.J. breaks yet another record

2006-03-12T15:03:00.000-05:00

J.J. Redicks 3-pointer at the 2 minute mark in the second half broke the mark for the most career points in the ACC Tournament.

Duke/UNC lead apparel sales

2006-03-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

People all around Greensboro say despite the fact that Duke is having a better ACC Tournament, Duke and UNC gear are both selling a pretty even rate. The edge might go to Duke if they beat BC. Some fans say they are holding out to buy "ACC Champions" t-shirts. I asked about N.C. State gear and how well it was selling because the other day I was told N.C. State was in third. When I asked how State stuff was selling though, one vender just pointed to a big pile of Wolfpack t-shirts and said, "Umm, those are all the N.C. State shirts right there." While the Duke and North Carolian gear was dwindling, they were having a tough time selling the State stuff.

BC handling ball better this half

2006-03-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

In the first half, BC committed 9 turnovers that Duke turned into 14 points. BC meanwhile only score one point off of Duke turnovers.

This half, they are doing a much better job of protecting the basketball. That means Duke is having to work a lot harder on the offensive end to score.

Thanks to some tic-tac-toe passing a minute ago on the interior, BC now holds a 63-61 lead with 5:13 left to play.

Duke playing well against BC's Smith

2006-03-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

Craig Smith had not scored a point here in the second half until he was fouled and made the basket a few seconds ago. He will go to the line after the TV timeout, but the combination of Shelden Williams and Josh McRoberts has worked well for the Devils.

It is now a 6-point game as BC makes a run of its own.

Duke making run

2006-03-12T14:34:00.000-05:00

Ignited by Josh McRoberts and now J.J. Redick, the Duke Blue Devils are running away with the ACC Tournament Championship right now thanks to a 17-3 run. Redick just hit yet another three and jogged down the court with his arms in the air. It's the loudest I have heard the Greensboro Coliseum thus far this tournament.

The Devils are up 10 points now at 57-47 with 11:45 remaining.

Things get chippy in Greensboro

2006-03-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

A shoving match broke out between Boston College's Louis Hinnant and Duke's Greg Paulus. Some unsportsmanlike fouls will be given out, and the refs talked with both coaches to get things under control.

Duke 35, Boston College 31

2006-03-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

Halftime stat leaders:

Boston College
Points - Jared Dudley - 10 pts
Rebounds - Craig Smith - 6 rbs
Assists - Louis Hinnant - 3 ast

Duke
Points - J.J. Redick - 10 pts
Rebounds - Three tied with 3 rbs
Assists - J.J. Redick - 3 ast

Raising 'Em Right

2006-03-12T14:06:00.000-05:00

The following four pictures are of fathers who are raising their kids to love the same sports teams they do. I'm sure all of these kids were born with basketballs in their cribs.

2006-03-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

John Goodman with son Max. Max's favorite player is Eric Williams.

2006-03-12T14:03:00.000-05:00

Tony Hartnett with sons Joe (left) and Adam (right). Joe and Adam's favorite player is J.J. Redick.

2006-03-12T14:00:00.000-05:00

David Jones with son Eli. Eli's favorite player is Ilian Evtimov.

2006-03-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

Rick Jaklitsch with son David. David's favorite player is Mike Jones.

Ahh, now this is what I'm talking about

2006-03-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

Now THIS is what I like. It may not be as pleasing to the eye, but you can't argue with the kid's passion. He is up at every timeout waving his sign like a Cameron Crazy, Class of 2020.

Read the "Kinkos" post for more.

Duke doing better job on 'D'

2006-03-12T13:29:00.000-05:00

Coach K has said the problem with his team is that they foul too much on defense. With only 6 minutes to go though in the second half, Duke has only 5 fouls and one of those came on the offensive end because of an illegal screen. Not only that, but J.J. Redick took a charge, so the Blue Devils are heeding their coach's words and trying to keep the Eagles off the foul line.

For BC, they are going to have to get more people involved that just Smith and Dudley. Everytime Smith gets the ball down low, the taller McRoberts is right there behind him with help coming if he needs it.

Duke dominating inside

2006-03-12T13:22:00.000-05:00

Duke is doing to Boston College what BC did to both Maryland and North Carolina; they are dominating the paint on offense and forcing BC into turnovers around the perimeter on defense.

The Duke lead is 8 points at 22-14 and both Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick have 6 points for the Devils.

Why Kinkos is ruining sports arenas

2006-03-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

You see signs like this one at arenas all over the country. I love that kids like the one pictured above have so much team spirit, but I miss the signs you used to see -- the ones on poster board that had imperfections but that you knew the kid holding it took a long time to make.

Nowadays you see all these picture-perfect signs that probably set Dad back a few dollars but didn't take anytime for the kid to make. Usually I can care less what the actual signs say, but I love the fact that a kid spent all day making it. Now I'm robbed of that because of signs that take two seconds to make but look better on SportsCenter.

Championship time is here

2006-03-12T12:55:00.000-05:00

This is how Greensboro looks today for the ACC Championship. Duke fans definitely make up the majority here and they are LOUD, but Boston College has a few surrogate fans made up mainly of Carolina and Maryland fans. Look at the pictures above and you should get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Will Duke capture it's 16th ACC Tournament Championship or will Boston College win one in its first year in the league? We have 40 minutes to decide it... here comes the tip.

Championship Sunday: Boston College vs. Duke

2006-03-12T00:49:00.000-05:00