GREENSBORO -- N.C. State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox had 2nd District Congressman Bob Etheridge at her side Friday so she could chat up the university's new projects and seek some help in Washington.

In return, Fox had to hear advice on how well Wolfpack basketball star Julius Hodge was playing and whether Coach Herb Sendek ought to step up the passing game.

"Like I even know what they're talking about," Fox said, laughing.

Basketball isn't the only game of skill being played at the four-day Atlantic Coast Conference men's tournament, which ends today.

The event's patrons -- many of whom wield enormous power in state government, business and education -- are working the arena. Drawing on friendships forged here, lawmakers will seek political donations, corporate CEOs will push for legislation and university leaders will lobby for appropriations.

The deal-making isn't so crude that checks are handed over or legislation debated. This is more subtle, the kind of lobbying done with backslaps and Bud Light, over talk about the game and whether the Tar Heels could've pulled it out.

"It's all relationship-building," said Mark Fleming, a lobbyist for the UNC system who helps many lawmakers get tickets to the tournament. "It's a very good opportunity to build those relationships."

North Carolina's big public universities, Carolina and N.C. State, are out of the tournament, but the championship game today between Maryland and Duke should still bring plenty of networking.

Weeks before the games begin, some state lawmakers begin making calls, trying to get tickets. State Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight scored eight, from both UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU. The co-speakers of the state House and other state lawmakers also got tickets, along with several North Carolina lawmakers.

When Fleming gets a request, he considers the asker's worthiness. Two weeks ago, he was approached by both a freshman state lawmaker and a co-chairman of a legislative appropriations committee. Fleming passed both requests on to NCSU and UNC-CH, but he let them know who was the more important guest.

It's illegal for registered lobbyists such as Fleming to talk about specific legislation without reporting it as a lobbying expenditure to the state. But there's still plenty of general chitchat.

"We occasionally talk politics," said UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser, who spent all day Friday at the tournament sitting next to powerful state Sen. Tony Rand.

"I don't think it's appropriate to take advantage of their presence," Moeser added, pausing as he exchanged hugs and air kisses with supporters before the Carolina game began.

Gamesmanship

Peaches Gunter Blank, chairwoman of the NCSU Board of Trustees, said she does whatever's needed at the tournament. A year ago, she printed up red-and-white buttons and handed them out.

"I love it," she said. "I like sports. I like supporting our university. I like networking."

For Chancellor Fox, the tournament is business. During a series of parties, she has to thank big-time donors and think of how they can help in the future. She has to chat up all the lawmakers.

"It's social-slash-education," she said. "It's a high concentration of those who are generous to the university."

Jim Cleveland, a retired real estate developer and University of Virginia alumnus, got hit up Thursday night at a party at the Virginia hotel. He was having a good time, dining on cheese and fruit, when the university's development officer started talking to him about raising his generosity to a higher level.

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