For millions of fans, this is the best time of the year. Sports enthusiasts love the month of April, when Major League Baseball playoff contenders often start slowly giving pretenders hope, while the NBA and NHL produce nail-biting series right on the Heels of the NCAA basketball tournament and spring recruiting. And don’t forget what […]

I’ve found another reason to be proud of Durham. Even when it comes to college sports in this area, I don’t think the younger generation is interested in history as much as we were, talking about the truly good old days with our friends at Sutton’s or at dinner with the family. My book “Game […]

The betting lines have gone crazy over a renewed Tiger Woods. Fresh off the comeback that pal Michael Jordan called the greatest of all time, Woods winning the Masters has vaulted Tiger into the favorite’s role for every tournament he will tee it up in for the rest of the year. I’m not sold, even […]

My friend Eli Evans still loves Carolina basketball. Earlier this week, I visited a dear friend at his apartment in New York City. Eli Evans, one of UNC’s most distinguished alumni, is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and may or may not have recognized me. Now in his early 80s, Evans was president of the student […]

Saturday is the first big test of the Mack Brown magic. No other coach could have shaken Carolina football out of the apathy that had finally overcome the program in Larry Fedora’s last two losing seasons. The alumni and fan base had moved on from anger to the annual excitement of another basketball season. Kenan had […]

The ACC has kicked butt lately, and it could have even done better. The Atlantic Coast Conference has been emailing out chest-puffing newsletters the last couple of years, largely because it has a lot to crow about in the two marquee sports, football and mens’ basketball. The league has won three of the last six […]

Replays in college basketball aren’t playing well. What a tremendous Final Four and national championship for Virginia, perhaps the most fortunate team to ever cut down the nets. And while nothing can take away the Cavaliers’ title, their good luck has re-stoked the argument over video replays. One of the most controversial foul calls in college basketball […]

Virginia atoned for a heartbreak it really didn’t deserve. Yes, the Cavaliers were the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 a year ago, but when you study that 20-point loss it wasn’t such a shocking upset that put UVa on the path to redemption. No question, it was embarrassing to lose to […]

It was Michael Jordan who first voted for the argyle trim. I spent some time with old friend and Chapel Hill icon Alex Julian over the weekend, and he recounted the story about how he redesigned the Carolina basketball uniforms almost 30 years ago.  Dean Smith decided the bell-bottom warm-ups and the style of unies the […]

Can’t you feel that Final Four buzz in North Carolina? Not. For the second straight year, no college basketball team from our state graces the Final Four. Before that, Duke (in 2015) and Carolina (2016 and ’17) were there and all three advanced to play on Monday night, each winning once. It’s only half the […]