Olympic image, message endure

Carlos and fellow U.S. sprinter brought plight of blacks to world's attention.

Doubts shadow sprinter

Jan Boxill, a former UCLA basketball player and now a philosophy lecturer at North Carolina, teaches a class in ethics in sports. One of her Carolina students was Marion Jones, the basketball and track star who went on to win five medals at the 2000 Olympics. When Boxill turned on the TV last weekend, she saw her former student again. Jones had just completed a winning anchor leg in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. She was still out of breath when a microphone was poked at her along with a question about her ties to a California nutritional supplement company now at the center of a national steroid scandal.

Japanese a big hit for MLB

Robert Whiting is crisscrossing the country like a baseball Paul Revere declaring, "The Japanese are coming." But as he sits at a table in the Brownstone Hotel he looks more sleepy than alarmed.

Bonds may foster era of asterisk

It was a feat for Barry Bonds to hit 660 home runs and tie his godfather, Willie Mays, at No. 3 on the career home run list, but this milestone makes you wonder what's under it. Was Bonds' achievement about the talent he inherited from his father, Bobby? Was it about the mentoring he received from Mays and his own long hours of practice and weightlifting?

In the end, the Devils cracked

Duke lost 79-78, yet this wasn't a Duke loss as they typically -- and rarely -- occur.

Tech defies its critics once again

No one knew, but by now we all should have: It would be close and it would be Tech. The pattern is clear. In this NCAA Tournament, Georgia Tech will stop its fans' hearts, but it won't stop playing.

The next time someone says Saint Joseph's doesn't play anyone, tell them they play Jameer Nelson and Delonte West. With those two guards on the court, it doesn't matter who's on St. Joe's schedule. The Hawks will beat you if you're Boston University, Drexel or Delaware.

The Hawk will never die, as the school slogan goes, but no one thought it would ever live like this. The Saint Joseph's Hawks, a smallish team from a small university, is the object of gargantuan attention. First, with their long unbeaten run and their quotable coach, the Hawks captured the attention of Philadelphia newspapers and radio and TV stations usually more interested in the city's professional teams.

Marcus Melvin stood in the N.C. State locker room explaining what it was like for his college career to end on a miracle comeback by Vanderbilt when coach Herb Sendek came in and sat down on a bench. He stared at the play-by-play recap in his hands. It was the official record of what happened, but it read like fiction, science fiction. It was something from "The X-Files" with the "X" being the crossed arms of a referee signaling an intentional foul on Melvin.

TV monitors in the TD Waterhouse Centre's media interview room were showing Duke beating Seton Hall when they were switched to the in-house channel. The screen filled with an empty dais and two nameplates of stars soon to appear, Julius Hodge and Marcus Melvin. Finally, at least in Orlando, N.C. State's best players got someone outside North Carolina to tune out Duke and give them national attention. Sleepy-eyed Melvin doesn't care much for fame, but Hodge, who once described himself as "Jules from Harlem on his way to stardom," is definitely ready for his closeup.

When he arrived here amid clear skies and temperatures in the high 70s, N.C. State coach Herb Sendek quipped, "It's great to be here in Orlando. I just wish the weather could be a little nicer." Maybe he wasn't joking.

Sherrill not ready to pack it in

N.C. State's Scooter Sherrill is known for the gold tooth that glitters when he smiles, but now attention has moved from his head to his foot, specifically his left ankle. As Sherrill took the floor for a shootaround Thursday at the TD Waterhouse Centre, fans, media, coaches and even fellow players watched and wondered about State's outstanding defender and potent 3-point shooter.

It's one of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams' quirks. During games, he spends time with his back to the court as he lambastes his captive reserves about what the guys on the floor are doing wrong. All that lecturing was not for nothing Sunday. Forced to play two lightly used subs, Williams saw one, Mike Jones, bury a key 3-pointer and the other, Mike Grinnon, hit two crucial free throws to help complete a wild overtime win over Duke for the ACC Tournament championship.

Perplexing collapse

John Gilchrist scores a career-best 30 points as the Terps rally past the stunned Wolfpack.

Duke looks vulnerable

Duke is truly a royal team at the ACC Tournament. Year after year, it wears the crown. But now there's court intrigue. After a record five consecutive tournament championships, Duke is vulnerable to a coup.

'Ronnie Franchise' sails off into sunset

The captain did not go down with the ship. Ron Francis, the leader and the face of the Carolina Hurricanes, abruptly stepped off the listing hockey team Tuesday to join one that can yet go places, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Fans could mutiny over this, but whom would they mutiny against? Obviously, there is no one in charge.

It was to be a game in which North Carolina's future played Duke's present in a struggle to break the pattern of the past. The future lost badly. The pattern remains intact. Carolina meets Duke, Duke wins.

Pack sticks together, stays with plan

SALEM--Three minutes into N.C. State's game against Wake Forest on Saturday, Julius Hodge drove to the basket, fell hard and stayed down. The Wolfpack's faltering season seemed to collapse, too. State had lost two in a row. Senior guard Scooter Sherrill was out with a badly sprained ankle, and now Hodge, State's one indispensable man, lay face down on the hardwood.

On Wednesday night, Duke played basketball. Georgia Tech played something else. Maybe Ron Francis, the Carolina Hurricanes captain who sat behind the Duke bench, recognized it. Tech's guards and forwards moved like skaters, except they made the surface look like a trampoline.