Idols Live Tour

I found out tonight that the 2011 "American Idol" Summer Tour will be making a stop at the RBC Center in Raleigh this July! I had a feeling they would do this because of Garner native, Scotty McCreery, but I'm more excited to know that it's officially coming here.

I want to go not only to see Scotty but really all of them. As I said in the previous post, this is the best talent I've seen in the ten years of the show. The tix go on sale May 13 and Ticketmaster will have a presale May 12. Luckily, I won't be tied up with school those days, so I will definitely be getting the best tix I can find. I can't wait for the tour to come back to Raleigh!

P.S. You can click the pic above to find out more about the tour.

Crunch Time

Courtesy: MJB News Online

We are now just hours away until the Carolina Panthers will get the ball rolling on another NFL Draft. But who will they pick? According to an ESPN article, the Cats have their choice narrowed down to four possibilities: Auburn's Cam Newton, Alabama's Marcel Dareus, LSU's Patrick Peterson, and Georgia's A.J. Green. 

Many believe Newton will be the pick but I'm not sure if this is the right way to go. For one, the Panthers drafted a QB last year in Jimmy Clausen. Carolina needs help in a lot of areas, but I believe defense leads to offense, so I would love to see them select either Patrick Peterson or Marcel Dareus. I have always thought that, in any sport, a team's defense is the key to success. Cam does also have some baggage he would likely bring with him. The main reason for me is the fact that the Cats already drafted a QB last year and they really need to focus on defense this year.

Simply The Best

Durham (right) with wife, Jean, inside the Dean Smith Center

Courtesy: Jeffrey A. Camarati, TarheelBlue.com

I was very sad to hear that long time radio announcer for Carolina athletics, Woody Durham, would be retiring after 40 years in the business. He has called numerous memorable moments in Carolina sports history. Some of the most memorable for me were all of the NCAA Championships. I remember the two in 2005 and 2009 the best and I will never forget them. I'll also remember the countless close games where the Heels pulled out a victory and Woody would get so excited over them.

It will be tough to turn on the Tarheel Sports Network and not hear that distinctive voice anymore. But, as he said, it was simply his time. He also said that he was "retiring from radio not Carolina." He told the media that he would be glad to help out "behind the scenes" at Carolina if he can. I don't think this is the last we've heard of Woody Durham but, for now, congrats to him on 40 great years of covering Tarheel sports!

Take 2

I love how, in the midst of a busy basketball season and school, the guys on the Carolina men's basketball team can cut up and have fun too! Just watch this vid...

Caught 'Reds' Handed

After taking a little break from the Oops Awards, I decided to start back with them this week. I saw this on Twitter and I had to go with it because it's just flat out stupid! Cincinatti Reds pitcher, Mike Leake, decided to drop by a local Macy's store to pick up a few t-shirts. 

However, according to police and store officials, Leake didn't pay for them. He was arrested and booked into the Hamilton County Justice Center on theft charges. The amount stolen added up to a little under $60. Leake gets paid $425,000 for the 2011 season, according to the same article. Really? The man gets paid almost half a million a year and can't even have the common courtesy to pay for $60 worth of clothes? It really makes no sense to me at all! For the full story, click here.

Hello World

I was sitting at home today watching CMT's "Top 20 Countdown" when the music video for Lady Antebellum's song "Hello World" came on. Wow! This was such a powerful video! So powerful in fact, I wanted to share it with you guys right here. Take a look...

New Challenge

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I decided to scrap my 2011 Challenge and have a new one for 2011/2012. I am going to try to go to the Final Four in New Orleans! Right now, things are looking pretty good money wise as the ticket books are relatively cheap and my dad has promised to give me about half of what I need to get them. 

Plus, I will be getting money from day camp and other sources so I should be covered. The only thing is there is a chance that I may not get tickets. With the Final Four, you have to submit an application into a lottery pool of sorts and pay up front. They select applications and those people get tickets. On the bright side, if I don't get tickets, they will refund my money. I'm definitely going to give it a try and, if this doesn't work out, I may either try Stubhub or worst case, pick somewhere else to go and spend the money!

Three things ultimately got me on this kick: two of my friends went to this year's Final Four in Houston, UNC is already the favorite to win it all next year, and my love of college basketball in general. Plus, I've always wanted to go to New Orleans and what better way than to go where great Final Fours have been held before (including UNC's 1982 and 1993 NCAA title runs). Even if Carolina doesn't make it, I would still be excited to go and experience it all first hand. I'll keep you guys posted on what happens with my new challenge!

Right For The Job?

NC State hired Mark Gottfried, former Alabama head coach and ESPN analyst, to lead their basketball team. But is he truly right for the job? Did Yow want someone else and just settled for Gottfried? I, for one, think so. I really didn't see this coming especially after AD Yow sent out a letter yesterday basically saying they were back at square one.

This is, in my opinion, not a good hire. Everyone keeps saying how great Gottfried is because he was an assistant on the 1995 UCLA Championship team and he took Alabama to a #1 ranking. This is true, but he was only an assistant on the team and that #1 ranking was reached during the '02-'03 season; not to mention they lost and did not win a national championship. They didn't even get into the Final Four. That stuff happened a long time ago. Not to bash Sidney Lowe but he was on a national championship team as a player and look what happened.

I'm also not very happy because Gottfried is, well, kind of old. State, in my opinion, needed a young coach with energy like Shaka Smart to lead. In additon, everyone seems to have forgotten the fact that Gottfried left Alabama under a "controversy" that he seemed to not want to come clean about during his press conference yesterday. In my opinion, if a coach has experienced "controversy" in their career, they should talk about it.

Now on to the way the search was conducted. I believe they should have kept the students in the loop of what was going on, especially when AD Yow sent out the letter. She sent it to all Wolfpack Club members but not to students? That was not professional at all. I even think that, given the situation they were in before this happened, they should have even surveyed students about what they wanted in a coach. It wouldn't have been hard to do that. The school sends out tons of surveys over the course of the year, what's one more? I'm not one to immediately bash something but this I can't help. I'm in complete disagreement with this hire. I personally don't think he has the "it" factor and is definitely not an A-list coach. As a commenter said on WRALSportsFan.com, " We certainly didn't hit the home run. We may have even hit a foul ball."

Dwindling Hopes

When Sidney Lowe resigned as head coach at NC State, Wolfpack fans were excited about the possibility of getting a new coach to lead them. That excitement is dwindling by the second as Arizona's Sean Miller, Texas A&M's Mark Turgeon, Memphis's John Pastner, Texas's Rick Barnes, and now VCU's Shaka Smart have all turned down the job. And even though my pick, Brad Stevens, hasn't officially turned down any offers that we know of, you may as well mark him off the list as well.

Who's left? According to Sporting News, some of the only viable candidates left are Wichita State's Gregg Marshall and Cincinatti's Mick Cronin.* Wait what? You've got to be kidding! As one of my friends said on Twitter, "If NCSU hires Marshall/Cronin they will lose recruits and possibly some current guys." I agree. NCSU needs a coach who can attract fans to come out to the games, these two don't cut it. It looks like there may be more disappointment in NC State's future.

*UPDATE: Apparently, both Cronin and Marshall have turned down NCSU as well, according to media sources. Sources also said that NCSU pursued Ben Howland of UCLA but he, once again, turned them down.

G_D Update

As you recall, my last post was on the use of "G_D" in an Cultural Anthropology class presentation. At first glance, one would take it as censorship of God but one commenter cleared things up for me and I want to post it here so things can be cleared up. The commenter said:

"I believe the reason God was spelled like that is because in Jewish tradition, I think, people revered God's name so much that they wouldn't even spell it out because it is so holy. Also, there are no vowels in Hebrew. So it is also a way to hold true to the Hebrew language while writing in English by leaving out the O. I had a Jewish friend like God like that, I never asked her why though but I believe that might have something to do with it. Also, David Crowder writes God like that too."

Thanks for clearing that up! I was kind of confused as to why this was used because I had never seen it before!