Before March was mad, the ACC was already basketball crazy.
Since 1955, the granddaddy of all conference tournaments has put one heck of an exclamation point on the end of the season, the twist ending to an Oscar-worthy film. Even in an era when six bids out of the league are as routine as Billy Packer ripping apart mid-majors or Mike Krzyewski having a colorful conversation with the referees, the ACC tournament still matters.
And in 2009, the ACC tournament has a to-do list the size of Barack Obama's.
March started days ago. The Madness started Wednesday night.
On an evening where bubble teams could've punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament and boosters could've started humming bars of "One Shining Moment," teams turned down invitations like they were to a wedding without an open bar or the People's Choice Awards.
A memo, fellows. This isn't an invitation to a candlelight dinner with Randy Johnson. "Big Dance" doesn't mean you're cutting a rug with Mark Madsen or waltzing cheek-to-cheek with Mike Tyson.
We just wrapped up our second week of classes at Virginia Tech and it's great to be back. They unveiled a humble memorial located on the drillfield in front of Buruss Hall, the centerpiece building on campus. Banners scrawled with support and sorrow line our corridor walls, as well as Plexiglas-encased instructions on how to react should a catastrophe occur. There hasn't been any directly visible increase to on-campus security, which is relieving to see. Walking to class for the first time this semester I halfway expected to see a police officer at every entrance nosing through randomly selected backpacks, which of course is totally unnecessary. It was pretty refreshing being able to casually move from class to class again.
The town as a whole has generally tried to move forward as best it can, but we haven't had that breakthrough, triumphant moment since returning. That moment comes tomorrow; our first football game since the shootings. As any returning Hokie could tell you, football is the backbone of our fall semester. Your weekly planner had better damn well have "Kickoff" in bold red lettering, unless you're really not interested in going to a 66,233 person bash. Lane Stadium has the reputation of being one of the loudest stadiums in all of sports, but Saturday is going to be one for the books. We've been waiting for this day for four and a half long, sobering months and we will certainly be heard.
If there's anything this town needs right now it's a couple of blocked punts and maybe Xavier Adibi running back a pick for a touchdown. VT is the clear favorite to take the conference in a weak ACC this season, but the expectations for this team exceed simple wins and losses. They're playing with their heads up, trying their best to embody that lunch pail mentality. Win or lose, this season will be successful if only to give us the breath of fresh air we were all so much in need of.
It's already been more than a month since the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, though measured in news cycles, it may as well have been a year ago. In a classy move, the New York Yankees have taken a large step to help those affected by the tragedy. From the New York Times:
The Yankees will contribute $1 million to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which helps the families and victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech last month. Charles Steger, the president of Virginia Tech, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight at Yankee Stadium as part of a pregame ceremony.
In some cases, it's easy to look at a public donation and wonder if it's being done more for P.R. purposes than altruistic reasons, but you have to take someone seriously any time they start writing checks with two commas. A million bucks is a lot of dough (even if it is just one start by Roger Clemens ...) and I'm sure those who will receive the money appreciate it no matter where it's coming from. But I'm curious ... just how soon will the Red Sox be announcing their donation of $1,000,001?
In addition to the Virginia Tech decal on his car, Virginia native Denny Hamlin will wear a VT logo on his helmet to honor the victims of the tragedy that hit close to home:
"It's a big deal for me and Elliott [Sadler] and Jeff and Ward [Burton] and those guys that are from Virginia. It means a little bit more us than probably anybody else.
"Everyone feels it and I've obviously been a Virginia Tech fan for a long time and have talked to [head football coach] Frank Beamer before. Oddly enough, I just got a bunch of stuff in the mail from [him] the day after all that happened. It's amazing what the world's coming to. We've still got to press on and keep in our hearts the memories of the families of the victims."
"Being from South Boston, Virginia, Virginia Tech has a lot of people that go there from the South Boston area. There are some people that I do know that are going to school there; more so I'm friends with their parents or my parents or my in-laws are friends with their parents and that kind of a thing. I don't believe I know anyone that was killed or injured. It's hard to get your hands around something like that; to think that something like that could happen.
"Blacksburg is just a stereotypical sleepy town that is just a nice place to live and a nice place to raise kids. It's kind of scary, really. It could happen anywhere at anytime. I just don't know what there is to say... it's awful. It's an awful deal, no question and hopefully they can start the healing process."
NBC thought it was introducing its new Today show personality, former Giants running back Tiki Barber, during a slow news week. The network thought Barber would do some light features, gab a little bit with Matt Lauer, and ease into his new role as a broadcast journalist.
Tiki wasn't ready for this -- and there's no way he could have been. ... NBC certainly would have been better off letting him sit out the road trip. That's not a knock. This probably isn't how he wanted to start his career anyway. And he'll learn. He'll learn not to blink so damn much. He'll learn to do some actual reporting. (He sat in a bar and asked kids how they felt. Nothing new.) And he'll learn, say, to come a little more prepared for a simple question about the atmosphere in Blacksburg. His response, "It was almost weird." I would hope so, Tiki. At the very least, Tiki has the look down. He looks damn good in a beige trench coat. The rest will come eventually.
I like Barber and think he'll be fine on Football Night in America, but it's unseemly for NBC to send him out there if he was as unprepared as Duerson indicates. The Virginia Tech tragedy wasn't the right time to put a novice on camera.
Several memorials have been made around campus so I decided that today I would visit some of them and do some personal mourning. My dad flew in around midnight yesterday and stayed with me all day today so I thought it'd be best if we went by ourselves. We first went to the VT logo staked against a tree on the drillfield, shown on the right here.
I walked right up to it at first, but it was like jumping straight into hot water. Realizing I was going to have to ease myself in I stepped back 10 feet or so to look at the site as a whole. Many were gathered around either signing the multiple pieces dedicated to those lost or silently paying respects. Eventually I approached a second time and began reading what people had written. Some of the most heart-wrenching words I have ever read were hitting me by the minute. Most were students and families briefly reminiscing over favorite moments together, inside jokes, and their favorite activities.
NASCAR has received permission from Virginia Tech University to display the school's logo on race cars for the next three weeks, in a tribute to the victims of this week's shootings at the Blacksburg, Va. campus.
Chairman Brian France:
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their family members, their friends – and the entire Virginia Tech community. We wanted to make a simple, but strong, gesture of remembrance. We are grateful the university gave us clearance to display their logo."
The logo will be displayed against a black background on the "B-post" – the area just to the right of the driver's side window net – of cars competing in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series events at Phoenix International Raceway (Friday and Saturday), Talladega Superspeedway (April 28-29) and Richmond International Raceway (May 4-5).
Additionally, trucks competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event April 28 at Kansas Speedway also will display the logo.
First and foremost I want to thank everyone for the myriad of support that has been submitted in the comments section of my two previous posts this morning and last night. It blows me away how many people from so many different colleges have sent their best from campus. Even more people have related on a more personal level and it really does help hearing so much from you guys. I'm starting to realize how big of a deal this is for everyone in this entire country and not just our humble town.
Today marked the first day of public mourning for many at Virginia Tech and I was in attendance for both ceremonies.
The convocation turned into a terrific showing of Hokie spirit, as the 10,000-seat basketball arena was filled to capacity, including seats covering the parquet. The rest of us were directed to Lane Stadium to watch on the big screen. (See my photos.) Governor Kaine and President Bush both gave terrific speeches and were very well received, but the cap of the evening came from Nikki Giovanni, who is a professor at Virginia Tech. She ended strongly:
"We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies! We will prevail, we will prevail! We are Virginia Tech!"
When news of the Virginia Tech shootings rocked the country yesterday, concerned sentiment instantly rippled through a large segment of NASCAR fanbase.
On Monday afternoon, I was able to reach Speegle, currently a junior in the university's liberal arts and human sciences college, via email and confirm her safety:
"I appreciate everyone's concern. I am safe, as are all of my very close friends. They still haven't sent out any sort of list of the ones killed/hurt in the shootings, but as you can imagine we are all anxiously waiting. This is just scary beyond belief for everyone here... just praying for now for everyone and just sitting tight. Thanks again for your concern."
Even though it's been well over a year since Kahne and Speegle broke up, I wasn't surprised at all by the outpouring of concern from NASCAR fans--nor am I astonished by the sympathies being expressed in the Fanhouse by all sports fans.
A tragedy like this shatters the emotions of the entire country, not just those who attend or have students at VT or on other college campuses. Making a personal connection helps to hasten the healing process.
Fans looking for first hand account from campus should check out blogger Fanhouse blogger Nick Dallamora, a VT student who is blogging through Hokie eyes:
March started days ago. The Madness started Wednesday night. 
We just wrapped up our second week of classes at Virginia Tech and it's great to be back. They unveiled a humble memorial located on the drillfield in front of Buruss Hall, the centerpiece building on campus. Banners scrawled with support and sorrow line our corridor walls, as well as Plexiglas-encased instructions on how to react should a catastrophe occur. There hasn't been any directly visible increase to on-campus security, which is relieving to see. Walking to class for the first time this semester I halfway expected to see a police officer at every entrance nosing through randomly selected backpacks, which of course is totally unnecessary. It was pretty refreshing being able to casually move from class to class again.
It's already been more than a month since the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, though measured in news cycles, it may as well have been a year ago. In a classy move, the New York Yankees have taken a large step to help those affected by the tragedy. From the 
In addition to the Virginia Tech decal on his car, Virginia native 
NBC thought it was introducing its new Today show personality, former Giants running back Tiki Barber, during a slow news week. The network thought Barber would do some light features, gab a little bit with Matt Lauer, and ease into his new role as a broadcast journalist.
Several memorials have been made around campus so I decided that today I would visit some of them and do some personal mourning. My dad flew in around midnight yesterday and stayed with me all day today so I thought it'd be best if we went by ourselves. We first went to the VT logo staked against a tree on the drillfield, shown on the right here.
NASCAR has received permission from 
When news of the 
