This is the time of year when, without any waning of my love for college football (though, this year, my college football love has waned like a space-age waning machine), I start to see visions and dream dreams:
Tobacco fields east of the fall line, lying fallow, frost-topped, and like to endless out into the dusk; the white concrete of I-40 through RTP, crowded and hurtling on the edges of rush hour; the Uwharries in winter, gnarled as an old man’s knuckles; the smell of cured brightleaf pervading Winston-Salem; the steel and glass of Charlotte’s skyline, lit up triumphal; the climbs and turns of certain roads across the Blue Ridge.
In the air of all these places, holding them together, are exuberant voices, the squeak of rubber soles sprinting and stopping and cutting on hardwood, and the bounce of the ball. All this is what I think of first when you say ‘ACC Basketball,’ even before I remember all the courts where I’ve watched the games, even before I think of Greensboro Coliseum or the LJVM. (And yes, I’m one of those dreaded Big Four snobs.)
So I’m especially honored to be debating the great sportswriter Dan Collins about his new book The ACC Basketball Book of Fame, over on his blog. The idea of me debating ACC basketball with Dan is a bit like the idea of me playing basketball against David Thompson, but I’m having fun doing it.
Please feel free to jump in and share your thoughts on the ACC’s greatest, and be sure to check out Dan’s book.
Dixie Babble 