The Atlantic Coast Conference has released its 2009-10 men's basketball schedules.
Defending national champion North Carolina starts off with Florida International in Chapel Hill on Nov. 9 in the first round of the 2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Although that opponent now seems to be up for review.
The Tar Heels will get a rematch with national runner-up Michigan State in the Smith Center on Dec. 1 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and four days later visit revamped Kentucky in Rupp Arena. Two weeks later, Carolina plays Texas in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Duke, which has 17 home games, begins the season Nov. 13 against UNC Greensboro in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils visit Wisconsin Dec. 2 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Duke is also in the NIT Season Tip-Off and in a non-conference affair, meet Gonzaga in Madison Square Garden on Dec. 19.
N.C. State will open at home against Georgia State but the date is not final, either Nov. 12, 14 or 16. The Wolfpack will play in the Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Nov. 20-22 and host Northwestern in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 1. State visits Marquette on Dec. 5 and Arizona on Dec. 23.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Humbling first week in the Football Forecast
Well, since it's all high school games this week, the results from the first Football Forecast of the season is in and what a disaster it was for me.
I should have known not to pick against Fike since the Demons stymied me nearly every week in the first part of last season. At least, if I'm going to be wrong, I should go with the home team, right? Oh well, give the Demons credit for the 14-8 victory at D.H. Conley.
Also surprising to me was Charles B. Aycock beating Bunn. Not that I think poorly of the Golden Falcons but Bunn has just been so tough in recent years. Aycock was able to squeeze out a 39-38 win.
North Johnston let me down since I took the Panthers mostly because they were at home but Clinton Union made itself at home in Kenly with a 41-12 win.
Greene Central at home against South Central was a tough call, too, but the Rams couldn't utilize the homefield advantage in their 10-6 loss to South Central, a result that came in so late it didn't make the print edition of The Wilson Times.
But kudos to guest picker Scott Jones for sizzling to a 10-2 week, followed closely by newbie Natalie Sayewich with a sparkling 9-3 mark. She can thank me for steering her away from taking Elizabeth City Northeastern to beat SouthWest Edgecombe. In this case, southwest trumped northeast.
Good ol' Frank Artis, who finished last in 2008, had a strong night as well, going 8-4. In typically Frank fashion, he accurately calls Fike and CBA wins as well as those by Southern Durham over Greenville Rose and South Central over Greene Central but inexplicably takes Nash Central over Tarboro, which won 39-0. Frank also had Northeastern, a 42-6 loser to SWE.
Tied for fourth with me at 7-5 is The Senior Staff Writer. He had a bad week, too, changing his mind on the North Johnston-Union game and it cost him.
Finally, there's Michael Lindsay who'd better get on the ball if he doesn't want to be ridiculed for being the cellar-dweller after his 6-6 start.
I think we need to find some rookie guest pickers. I can't have people off the street humbling us like Scott did this week. If you're interested in sitting in for a week, shoot me an e-mail at paul@wilsontimes.com
I should have known not to pick against Fike since the Demons stymied me nearly every week in the first part of last season. At least, if I'm going to be wrong, I should go with the home team, right? Oh well, give the Demons credit for the 14-8 victory at D.H. Conley.
Also surprising to me was Charles B. Aycock beating Bunn. Not that I think poorly of the Golden Falcons but Bunn has just been so tough in recent years. Aycock was able to squeeze out a 39-38 win.
North Johnston let me down since I took the Panthers mostly because they were at home but Clinton Union made itself at home in Kenly with a 41-12 win.
Greene Central at home against South Central was a tough call, too, but the Rams couldn't utilize the homefield advantage in their 10-6 loss to South Central, a result that came in so late it didn't make the print edition of The Wilson Times.
But kudos to guest picker Scott Jones for sizzling to a 10-2 week, followed closely by newbie Natalie Sayewich with a sparkling 9-3 mark. She can thank me for steering her away from taking Elizabeth City Northeastern to beat SouthWest Edgecombe. In this case, southwest trumped northeast.
Good ol' Frank Artis, who finished last in 2008, had a strong night as well, going 8-4. In typically Frank fashion, he accurately calls Fike and CBA wins as well as those by Southern Durham over Greenville Rose and South Central over Greene Central but inexplicably takes Nash Central over Tarboro, which won 39-0. Frank also had Northeastern, a 42-6 loser to SWE.
Tied for fourth with me at 7-5 is The Senior Staff Writer. He had a bad week, too, changing his mind on the North Johnston-Union game and it cost him.
Finally, there's Michael Lindsay who'd better get on the ball if he doesn't want to be ridiculed for being the cellar-dweller after his 6-6 start.
I think we need to find some rookie guest pickers. I can't have people off the street humbling us like Scott did this week. If you're interested in sitting in for a week, shoot me an e-mail at paul@wilsontimes.com
Friday, August 21, 2009
Bruins loss is Rose's gain
Although it sustained a huge loss earlier this summer, the Beddingfield varsity volleyball game served notice it will still be a force. The Bruins stopped Hunt in four games – 27-29, 25-21, 25-20, 25-22 — on the Warriors home court on Thursday.
It was a small measure of revenge for Beddingfield which lost two of three matches to Hunt last season, including the 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference tournament. The squads split the regular-season title in each's last campaign in the ECC.
Now the Bruins are the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference and Hunt has joined the 3-A Big East Conference, which is why they were playing so early in the season, instead of at the end. Hunt lost three key perfomers to graduation – Morgan Ballance, Caroline Moody and Alison Ellis — while the Bruins bid farewell to 2008 seniors Mallory Glover and Shaniqua Clay. But Beddingfield also is without its star player from a year ago, junior Jamie DeRatt. The 2008 ECC Player of the Year will attend Greenville Rose this year, leaving not only Beddingfield volleyball coach Jeremy Howard but also Bruins girls basketball coach Debra Pegram and girl soccer coach Glenn Griffin without a key starter.
Reasons for the move are personal and best to leave it at that. However, I feel a pang of wistfulness considering how much the DeRatt family has meant to athletics in that part of the county over the years. Jamie's older sisters, Barbara and Lindsey, were both standout volleyball and soccer players at Beddingfield.
Their father, Jimmy, was a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker at North Carolina in the early 1970s.
Their uncle, Monte, and father lettered in baseball at UNC. Both were star football and baseball players at the old Saratoga Central High School, whose students went to Beddingfield following merger in 1978. Their grandfather was the football coach at Stantonsburg High, which merged with Saratoga to form Saratoga Central.
The DeRatts have long been part of Wilson sports lore and Jamie was writing her own chapter. We're sorry to see her leave but wish her all the best in Greenville. Rose has gotten itself a rose!
It was a small measure of revenge for Beddingfield which lost two of three matches to Hunt last season, including the 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference tournament. The squads split the regular-season title in each's last campaign in the ECC.
Now the Bruins are the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference and Hunt has joined the 3-A Big East Conference, which is why they were playing so early in the season, instead of at the end. Hunt lost three key perfomers to graduation – Morgan Ballance, Caroline Moody and Alison Ellis — while the Bruins bid farewell to 2008 seniors Mallory Glover and Shaniqua Clay. But Beddingfield also is without its star player from a year ago, junior Jamie DeRatt. The 2008 ECC Player of the Year will attend Greenville Rose this year, leaving not only Beddingfield volleyball coach Jeremy Howard but also Bruins girls basketball coach Debra Pegram and girl soccer coach Glenn Griffin without a key starter.
Reasons for the move are personal and best to leave it at that. However, I feel a pang of wistfulness considering how much the DeRatt family has meant to athletics in that part of the county over the years. Jamie's older sisters, Barbara and Lindsey, were both standout volleyball and soccer players at Beddingfield.
Their father, Jimmy, was a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker at North Carolina in the early 1970s.
Their uncle, Monte, and father lettered in baseball at UNC. Both were star football and baseball players at the old Saratoga Central High School, whose students went to Beddingfield following merger in 1978. Their grandfather was the football coach at Stantonsburg High, which merged with Saratoga to form Saratoga Central.
The DeRatts have long been part of Wilson sports lore and Jamie was writing her own chapter. We're sorry to see her leave but wish her all the best in Greenville. Rose has gotten itself a rose!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Demons, Rams already in midseason form
I haven't watered this blog in a week and I apologize to it and any loyal readers I might still have. A hectic schedule is no excuse for not spending a few minutes a day here.
I spent an hour or so at the Fike High School tennis courts Monday afternoon watching the season-opening match between a pair of teams that might be in Burlington by season's end. The Golden Demons, of course, made the trip last year as they reached the state 3-A dual-team final and Greene Central has won both its 2-A crowns in the past five years.
Fike won Monday's matchup 5-4 against a Rams squad that returns all six starters from last season. Making the Demons' win more impressive was that they did it without No. 1 singles player Mary-Katherine Prince, a three-time 3-A East Regional champion, and junior No. 4 Sarah Flinn.
I've seen Fike play so many tough matches the past two seasons but those usually come when the air is brisk, the leaves are falling and there are pumpkins on every porch. It was kind of strange seeing that intensity when everyone looked like they had either just come back from the beach or were getting ready to go. It was also spooky watching Fike play without Prince, who was out of town. She has been such a constant for the Demons since she arrived on the scene in the fall of 2006.
And Flinn, who was nursing a sore shoulder, has become a mainstay in the second half of the Fike lineup. Lee Matthews' lineup has been nearly written in stone for the past two seasons so it took a moment to adjust to the revamped order for Monday's match.
But one thing was familiar — the sight of senior Connor Allegood alone on the court as Fike's last singles player. I give Connor a hard time about making a habit of going to third-set tiebreakers whenever I cover a Fike match but she was in midseason form after taking the first set from Greene Central's Samantha Taylor, who has tennis in her blood, and then losing the second. But Connor determinedly won the tiebreaker, one of three on the day for Fike, and it proved to be a good omen.
Fike will have a likely tougher road in the 3-A East this year with traditional 2-A power Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons moving up a classification. But the Demons have experience in big matches and could well find themselves back in Burlington. Don't count out Donald Clark's Rams who certainly will benefit from Cardinal Gibbons' move as well.
Before you know it, October will be here and these teams will be playing some really exciting matches, if Monday was any indication.
I spent an hour or so at the Fike High School tennis courts Monday afternoon watching the season-opening match between a pair of teams that might be in Burlington by season's end. The Golden Demons, of course, made the trip last year as they reached the state 3-A dual-team final and Greene Central has won both its 2-A crowns in the past five years.
Fike won Monday's matchup 5-4 against a Rams squad that returns all six starters from last season. Making the Demons' win more impressive was that they did it without No. 1 singles player Mary-Katherine Prince, a three-time 3-A East Regional champion, and junior No. 4 Sarah Flinn.
I've seen Fike play so many tough matches the past two seasons but those usually come when the air is brisk, the leaves are falling and there are pumpkins on every porch. It was kind of strange seeing that intensity when everyone looked like they had either just come back from the beach or were getting ready to go. It was also spooky watching Fike play without Prince, who was out of town. She has been such a constant for the Demons since she arrived on the scene in the fall of 2006.
And Flinn, who was nursing a sore shoulder, has become a mainstay in the second half of the Fike lineup. Lee Matthews' lineup has been nearly written in stone for the past two seasons so it took a moment to adjust to the revamped order for Monday's match.
But one thing was familiar — the sight of senior Connor Allegood alone on the court as Fike's last singles player. I give Connor a hard time about making a habit of going to third-set tiebreakers whenever I cover a Fike match but she was in midseason form after taking the first set from Greene Central's Samantha Taylor, who has tennis in her blood, and then losing the second. But Connor determinedly won the tiebreaker, one of three on the day for Fike, and it proved to be a good omen.
Fike will have a likely tougher road in the 3-A East this year with traditional 2-A power Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons moving up a classification. But the Demons have experience in big matches and could well find themselves back in Burlington. Don't count out Donald Clark's Rams who certainly will benefit from Cardinal Gibbons' move as well.
Before you know it, October will be here and these teams will be playing some really exciting matches, if Monday was any indication.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
A hectic week brings no change to sports department
It's been a hectic and sad week here at the Times with 15 co-workers being laid off for economic reasons. However, I should point out that none of those layoffs came in the sports department so we will be able to continue to bring the best sports coverage we can possibly bring to our readers.
I have been asked to serve as interim co-editor with Lisa Batts and if I can handle the double-duty the way Tom Ham handles his multiple fantasy league baseball teams, we'll be in good shape.
The 2009 high school football preview will be out Thursday, Aug. 20, a day before area teams kick off the regular season. With NCHSAA realignment now a reality, there will be lots to discuss in the preview. We are planning on providing the same coverage of high school football (as well as other sports) that we have in the past — redesign or a.m. delivery notwithstanding. That means Between High School Football Fridays and our weekly game previews and Football Forecast (The Hammer knows I'm coming for him this year!)
Can you believe the season will start in just two weeks?
I have been asked to serve as interim co-editor with Lisa Batts and if I can handle the double-duty the way Tom Ham handles his multiple fantasy league baseball teams, we'll be in good shape.
The 2009 high school football preview will be out Thursday, Aug. 20, a day before area teams kick off the regular season. With NCHSAA realignment now a reality, there will be lots to discuss in the preview. We are planning on providing the same coverage of high school football (as well as other sports) that we have in the past — redesign or a.m. delivery notwithstanding. That means Between High School Football Fridays and our weekly game previews and Football Forecast (The Hammer knows I'm coming for him this year!)
Can you believe the season will start in just two weeks?
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