Tom Talks

The NBA is back, at least for an evening

   Picking up the newspaper and seeing stories about tonight's Bobcats-Lakers game on the front page of the sports section as well as inside reminded me of old times.

   Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Charlotte Hornets were the biggest story in town. When a big-name team came to Charlotte, scalpers rejoiced, fans showed up long before the doors opened and all the good seats at the sports bar were quickly claimed.

   Going to Charlotte Coliseum was a thrill because you felt as if you were part of something. You saw almost everybody you knew and the next morning would replay the game at the office or over lunch or wherever people gathered.

   Charlotte has changed, of course. We gave up on the Hornets not long after they gave up on us. We added the NFL and some sophistication. We no longer were mesmerized because we saw a genuine NBA player in our town.

   Big-time sports are new only once. We can't go back, and there's no reason to.

   But it's fun to see the city excited about the NBA again, to hear fans talking, and to anticipate the game at Time Warner Cable Arena tonight.

   This is the biggest game of the season. It will be interesting to watch the Bobcats, and Charlotte, respond.

Seth joins Evil Empire, turns evil

   I got a tip about Seth Curry's transfer to Duke Sunday, confirmed it with a telephone call and cranked out a quick blog. 

   I don't usually read the comments attached to the blogs I write because I don't have spare brain cells to kill. But something compelled me to read the comments and I'm glad I did.

   Instantly Curry was transformed from a talented basketball player and unpretentious guy to a member of the Evil Empire. Also he won't be able to fix Duke. Also Duke no longer is relevant and everybody knows it. And Roy owns K. And Curry is not a big man or a point guard so ha-ha what does it matter anyway? And the Southern Conference rules. So there.

   I lost 10 to 15 brain cells but the laughs were worth it. Can you imagine the response if the Blue Devils had beaten Villanova and Pittsburgh?

   Welcome to the ACC, Seth. 

  

Seth Curry will transfer to Duke

   A source says that Seth Curry, the highest scoring freshman in the country this season at Liberty, will transfer to Duke.

   The source says that Curry and his family made the decision Sunday.

   Curry is the younger brother of Davidson star Stephen Curry and the son of former Virginia Tech and Charlotte Hornets' star Dell Curry. 

Curry too big for Big South

   Seth Curry, the leading freshman scorer in the country this season for the Liberty Flames of the Big South, says he wants to play in a "higher rated conference."

   In other words, he won't be transferring to UNCC.

   I don't know where Curry will go or whether he will hold a grudge against the schools that failed to recruit him or his older brother, Stephen.

   But his decision should not be construed as a slap at the Big South. The conference, which has its headquarters in Charlotte, has a lot going for it.

   Although Radford was blown out by North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA men's baskeball tournament last week, the Highlanders have talent and should be very good again next season. There is no way to replicate the pace at which the Tar Heels play except by playing it. I spent time around Radford. The team enjoyed the experience, did everything right until the game began, and will grow because of it.

   Winthrop became an NCAA tournament regular under Gregg Marshall. As an 11 seed two years ago, the Eagles upset Notre Dame in the first round. Didn't feel like an upset, however. Winthrop was better.

    The conference has ten schools split as evenly as they can be among North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The geography and proximity creates interesting and intense rivalries.

   If I'm Seth Curry, and I have one chance to get as much as I can out of my sport, I probably transfer, too. But let's not dismiss the Big South as a starter conference. It will be fine.   

  

Has Curry played his last college game?

 I've never asked Davidson guard Stephen Curry (above) if he planned to return for his senior season at Davidson. So I have no idea whether he'll be back. I suspect he will not. He's accomplished all he can on the court. He has taken his team to places neither he nor they envisioned.

Davidson's season, and perhaps Curry's college career, ended early this morning in Moraga, Cal., near Berkeley, in loud, crazy McKeon Pavilion. Although this was an NIT game, the atmosphere was such that you'd think Davidson and St. Mary's were playing for the championship of the world. St. Mary's won 80-68.

Curry scored 26 points, but needed 27 field goal attempts to get them. He also had nine rebounds, five assists and not a lot of help. The other four starters shot 11 for 32, the reserves three for nine. Nobody else scored more than 10.

Curry loves Davidson. That's been evident in every conversation we've had. He's part of something that he'll carry with him the rest of his life.

He'll carry it with him even if he leaves this summer for the NBA.

Although Curry became a national phenomenon after almost leading the Wildcats to the 2008 Final Four, after being discovered by LeBron James and after becoming the face of college basketball and the great hope for underdogs everywhere, he remained the same smiling, courteous, unpretentious guy he had been before his NCAA run began.

Around him, even pessimists dared to hope.

Whatever he does, we'll continue to watch and we'll continue to pull for him.

Good luck, Stephen.

If you took the favorites, your brackets are ...

   If you took the favorites, your brackets are golden. Every No. 1 seed, every No. 2 seed and every No. 3 seed still is playing. Two No. 4 seeds have advanced. So has Purdue, a No. 5 seed, and Arizona, a No. 12.

   By beating Utah and Cleveland State, did the Wildcats prove they deserved a men's NCAA basketball tournament berth? No. A berth is a reward for a successful season, and Arizona's season was mediocre. What the Wildcats proved is that, when they had to be good, they could be.

    They also proved that Cleveland State, which resembled the Boston Celtics of Bill Russell and the Los Angeles Lakers of Magic Johnson in its victory against Wake Forest, is less than a world beater.

   The first four days of the tournament did not yield the drama and excitement we feel we are owed.  I was in Greensboro for the game othat kicked the tournament off. I followed Louisiana State as the players bounced three basketballs across a gray linoleum floor, onto a blue carpet down to the Greensboro Coliseum court. I wondered what the first game, first day and first four days would offer.

   What they offered is a compelling reason to watch this week.

   Three of my Sweet 16 teams failed to make it. I picked Wake Forest and Florida State to advance, not because I love Wake Forest or Florida State but because I was not impressed by the opposition. I should have been, obviously. More painful is my Arizona State pick. I picked Arizona State to upset Syracuse and Oklahoma and advance to the Elite Eight against North Carolina.

  My Elite Eight is Louisville, Michigan State, Connecticut, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Villanova, North Carolina and Arizona State, my Final Four Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh and North Carolina, my final two Louisville and Pitt and my national champion the Louisville Cardinals.

   I don't get to change now. You don't, either.

   Lastly, the two local schools, North Carolina and Duke, play the late games, games that will begin about 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday.

   A lot of us will be dragging at work Friday morning. But if we pace ourselves we'll recover by 7:07 p.m. when Louisville plays Arizona.

Wake Forest needs poise, a leader and perhaps a head coach

   By Friday night, Wake Forest had devolved from a young team full of potential first-round draft choices to a collection of parts. To rally against smart, cohesive Cleveland State, the Deacons needed a leader. They had none. Nobody in uniform led and nobody in a suit did, either.

   I don't know what head coach Dino Gaudio tells his players before games, but they were as inspired against Cleveland State, a 13 seed but a talented 13 seed, as they were in the ACC tournament against Maryland.

  They had the talent to come back in each. But the talent doesn't fit. Players took turns making virtuoso moves and hitting virtuoso baskets. But every time the Deacons attempted to rally as individuals, Cleveland State played as a team. The underdog's 15-point victory was never in doubt. 

   If I'm Gaudio, I move Ish Smith into the starting lineup. He is by far Wake Forest's best penetrator and passer, and he comes off the bench it's as if he tries to compensate for the all assists he would have had he started. 

   Wake Forest is a team without poise. The Deacons tried to make up their 15-point deficit, 11-point deficit or nine-point deficit on every play. 

   Is Gaudio an ACC head coach?

   I don't know. Wake Forest doesn't, either. 

Different times, same tournament

   After driving from Weddington or Marvin or wherever I am to Greensboro and back Wednesday and to Greensboro Thursday, I decided to stay Thursday night. If every driver had promised to leave the left lane on I-85 and I-485 open for faster traffic and use their turn signal, I might have driven back. But I couldn't get that committment.

   I thought that finding a hotel might be rough. I was wrong. The first three I tried -- one downtown and two near the airport -- had vacancies. They all but said, bring friends. You want a room or a floor?

   That's rare at an NCAA basketball tournament regional. With North Carolina and Duke here, along with big schools such as Texas, Louisiana State and Minnesota, hotel rooms in a mid-sized city such as Greensboro should have been claimed. But these are different times.

   Or maybe not. After I left Greensboro Coliseum I found a restaurant near the hotel and ate at the bar. On televison was the Villanova game. I have Villanova going deep into the tournament, as did almost everybody who worked there. The employees pulled out their brackets. One, the chef, had attended Villanova, and said I had his school going too far, that it would gag. I said I had attended Minnesota but picked Texas. Brackets supersede loyalty for most of us but  not the bartender, who went to Tennessee and had the Vols advancing to the Final Four.

   We were all cheering for Villanova to escape it's first-round game upstart American which was trying to upset them.

   Another customer couldn't stand it and finally said, "You're all UnAmerican."

   It was funny the first few times.

No Julius, no rain, only glorious hoops

   I have no complaints today. I have no updates about Julius Peppers. The sun is shining and it will shine all day, regardless of weather. Because there is no better day than today and Friday to be a sports fan.

   The NCAA basketball tournament is the greatest way to end a season that man has devised, and today and Friday are my favorite days f the sports year, better even than Super Bowl Sunday. Brackets are pristine, underdogs primed, favorites ready to take over, fans nervous and thrilled.

   All day we'll scramble from television to computer to courtside. I'm leaving in a few minutes for Greensboro and the LSU-Butler game, and then North Carolina-Radford, Texas-Minnesota and Duke-Binghamton.

   I was waiting when Binghamton got off the bus to walk into Greensboro Coliseum Wednesday. The players were cool and acted confident. They might lose, but they won't back down.  Radford won't, either.

   What happens today in Greensboro will be a snapshot of what happens everywhere else. We'll be on our way to the court for the second half and we'll hear a gasp and a shout and we'll turn around. Gathered around the press room television sets will be writers and TV and radio and NCAA folks and perhaps coaches as we scramble to watch the end of a game from Philadelphia, Kansas City or Portland.

   It is contagious, the watching of games. To immerse yourself in the tournament, and search for  this season's Kansas and this season's Davidson, while trying to protect your brackets, is consuming. So let's get consumed.

   Enjoy the hoops no matter where you are.

   And if you see Julius, tell him I said hey.

Stop being mean to Radford

   Radford was given an hour to practice at Greensboro Coliseum. Fans watched patiently. And then one fan got bored and began to chant, "Let's go Tar Heels!"

   The Radford players ignored the North Carolina fans. They focused instead on their fans. Or fan.

   The Tar Heels and Highlanders tangle in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament Thursday.

   Later, one North Carolina fan began to chant, "Tar!" and another yelled, "Heels." And soon the noise filled the gym.

   "Man, they need to find something to do," says Radford forward Jamar Jenkins.

   Jenkins  laughed. A few of his teammates called for more noise. 

   "Why don't they save it for Duke?" he asked.