Kay Yow's Cell Phone Ringtone Discovered, Film At 11:00

-- I'm heading to Winston-Salem this weekend in hopes of ending my road game curse. Since I started at NC State as an undergraduate in 2001, the Wolfpack have not won a road game with me in attendance. Those were all football games, though, so maybe the curse won't translate to hoops.

2001 -- at Georgia Tech (L, 17-27)
2002 -- at Maryland (L, 21-24)
2003 -- at Wake Forest (L, 24-38)
2003 -- at Georgia Tech (L, 21-29)
2004 -- at UNC (L, 24-30)

I learned my lesson and didn't go on any road trips during the 2005 season. That turned out to be a good decision, because I'd have hated to ruin the wins in Atlanta and Tallahassee.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my first trip to the Joel.

-- I'm concerned about the implications of this post. It underscores the importance of beating Wake Forest on Saturday and grabbing at least one win in the ACC tourney (only a week away!). I submit that, regardless of what happens the rest of the way, this is not Herb Sendek's best team. That honor still belongs to the 2003-2004 squad.

-- The other day, I was eating lunch at a restaurant near my place of employment and noticed Kay Yow sitting at an adjacent table. She and a couple of assistant coaches looked like they were getting some work done. Planning for Clemson, probably. Or planning 2006-07's exotic out-of-conference road trip (who's up for Jamaica?). I noted with approval that the ringtone on Kay's cellular phone was the fight song.

-- Courtside Times catches up with the NBA's undrafted rookies. Includes a blurb on Josh Powell.

-- More discussion centering on prep pseudo-schools, this time from ESPN.com columnist Adrian Wojnarowski. The article focuses on Terry Holland's quest to once more make freshmen ineligible:

Make no mistake: The system has never been so broken. It's never been so corrupt. And the NCAA has never been less interested in correcting the problem, because if it were, it would listen to Holland, the current athletic director at East Carolina who was an outstanding University of Virginia coach and who has been a longtime street fighter for genuine NCAA reform. He's been talking this forever, but no one listens. He's made his case to the Knight Commission, which acts like unregulated text messaging of high school kids is the 21st century scourge of college sports. He'll keep saying it, because it's never been needed more.

I hate the idea of making freshmen ineligible. Kudos to Holland for seeking genuine reform, but there has to be a better way.

-- I received a note from one of the founders of BracketBrains, as he thought their tool--which predicts the outcomes of NCAA tournament matchups--might be up my alley. And he was right. The link will take you to a page that lets you play with 2005's NCAA tournament field.

-- Better prepare yourself now--Florida State had a large advantage in free throw attempts over Duke tonight. We'll be hearing plenty about this from Duke fans, and I'm sure it will warrant several mentions in the media as well. I think FSU just punched its NCAA tournament ticket, though they need to avoid finishing the regular season 0-2.

-- This USA Today article examines the best defensive linemen in the upcoming NFL draft.

Considering the dearth of top defensive line talent in recent drafts, it may not be a coincidence that more NFL teams moved toward 3-4 alignments. The 2006 draft may finally bring this drought to an end.

The name of that end is Mario Williams of North Carolina State, who is expected to be the first of five or six defensive linemen selected in the first round according to early ratings by NFLDraftScout.com.