Spread the love

By Sonny Jones

Here’s what Me Thinks on a Friday morning:

• ME THINKS … The high school spring sports season in Bladen County isn’t shaping up to be as impressive as basketball season. Of course, the bar was set high as the four varsity basketball teams won 63.3% of their games. After less than a week, Bladen spring sports teams are 4-6-1 going into Friday’s play. Long way to go so we’ll see how it plays out.

• ME THINKS … North Carolina doesn’t HAVE to win Saturday against Duke to get into the NCAA tournament, but a 20th regular-season win would help its cause. With a loss, the Tar Heels would need a couple of wins in the ACC tournament. You’d expect UNC to be pumped playing against its biggest rival with a possible NCAA tournament bid on the line. You also can imagine the Tar Heels laying an egg.

• ME THINKS … If, before the season, you had Pittsburgh playing at Miami on Saturday for the ACC’s No. 1 tournament seed on the final day of the regular season you’re either Nostradamus or a liar. I’d go with the latter.

• ME THINKS … The XFL’s conversion rules after touchdowns will be adopted in mostly every league within at most 10 years based on entertainment value. There are no kicking for an extra point after a touchdown. A team can go for one extra point from the 2-yard line, two extra points from the 5 or three extra points from the 10. You may chuckle now, but everyone was laughing when the American Basketball Association used a 3-point line in its inaugural season of 1967-68. Look at the game now.

• ME THINKS … Treasure every moment. Lost two former colleagues this week from my 34 years with The Fayetteville Observer. Lorry Williams arrived in the newsroom a few months before me in 1987 as a news reporter and left about two years ago as executive editor. She was only 59 and had battled cancer for the past two years. She was as fine of human being as there ever was. Former photographer Steve Aldridge was already on staff when I joined the sports department of The Fayetteville Times. Great eye for memorable pictures and fun to talk to. He had health issues for the past few years. Two well-respected members of a once-great newsroom back in the hey day of the publication. May both rest in peace.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

• 1987 — Mike Tyson adds the WBA heavyweight crown to his WBC heavyweight crown with a unanimous 12-round decision over James “Bonecrusher” Smith in Las Vegas.

POTATO PICKS TO WATCH TODAY

• PGA: Puerto Rico Open, 10 a.m., GOLF

• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Louisville vs. Wake Forest, 11 a.m., ACCN

• MLB: Washington vs. N.Y. Mets, 1 p.m., MLBN

• PGA: Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2 p.m., GOLF

• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Notre Dame vs. N.C. State, 2 p.m., ACCN

• NFL: Scouting Combine – Defensive backs, special teams, 3 p.m., NFLN

• WOMEN’S LACROSSE: Boston College at North Carolina, 4 p.m., ESPNU

• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Duke vs. North Carolina, 6 p.m., ACCN

• PGA CHAMPIONS: Cologuard Classic, 7 p.m., GOLF

• NBA: Brooklyn at Boston, 7:45 p.m., ESPN

• ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Virginia Tech vs. Miami, 8 p.m., ACCN