You ever camped out before?  It can be fun.  But, it probably won’t be for the media (including us) that will be camped outside Mike Vick’s Hampton home tonight.  I hear the ABC in Richmond brought the s’mores.

As the 24-hour news cycle attacks this story, it has been somewhat difficult for us in the sports department for one main reason: nothing is changing.

Sure, Mike will now serve out his sentence from home.  But, that does nothing to clear up his NFL future.  The commissioner, Roger Goodell refuses to say anything new until Vick’s sentence is fully up.  Of course, individual NFL teams are not commenting on their interest in Vick.  From a sports angle, nothing is different now than it was 19 months ago.  When nothing is new, it’s hard to make news.

But we do, mostly with speculation.   Outside of maybe, possibly, and if, there’s not much more we can add.  Will the NFL  let Vick come back? Probably.  Could Jerry Jones take a chance on him? Maybe.  What about the Steelers? Possibly.   Other than that, we can’t add much.

The silver lining for us is that soon, everything will change.  After his release, he will be reinstated.  The Falcons will be forced to trade or cut him.  Then, Vick will start negotiating with teams.  He will receive offers.  Vick will fly around to different camps.  Finally, he will pick a team.  Then, he’ll try to make that team.  Vick will suit up in a game.  And so on.  Then we will have some actual sports news to talk about.

Please, get here soon.

Is it too late to call 911? Or should the  next phone call be to the local morgue!

Did we really witness the final Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill this past weekend? Was the likable Cristie Kerr the final champion to stroll the grounds of the River Course? If so, what a shame! For 7 years, the worlds greatest female golfers graced our local links giving local golf  moms a great Mothers day to enjoy some exciting golf. How about the nearly 15 hundred volunteers who gave up their time to help make a successful tournament. What about the thousands of dollars pumped into local charity’s? How about the little girl who plays golf with her mommy or daddy and has dreams of one day playing like Lorena Ochoa? That little dreamer just lost a chance to see her role models.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard one of the golfers tell me how much they like the tournament at Kingsmill. Take a vote amongst the players and almost all of them will say the Michelob Ultra Open is their favorite on tour. I’ve always wondered if that was thier canned line they use at each venue, but take a close look at what Kingsmill and everything that Williamsburg has to offer and it’s easy to understand that the ladies mean what they say. Yes the tournament staff throws a first class event. They should be very proud.

The Hampton Roads sporting scene has scene it’s share of professional teams come and go and yes now the latest to join the list may just be the Michelob Ultra Open. No decision has been made about the tournaments future, but the warning signs are not good. Bad economy. A new and frugal owner for sponsor Anheuser-Busch. Did I mention the bad economy? How much exposure does $2.2 million dollars buy for Michelob Ultra?

I guess we’ll know soon enough if the LPGA is coming back to Kingsmill or professional golf will follow so many other failed ventures here in Hampton Roads. Remember the Norfolk Nighthawks, the Roadsters or even the Mariners. (The Roadsters were professional fast pitch softball! Give yourself some extra credit if you remember the Roadsters!) Now I’m not comparing the LPGA to fast pitch softball, but when fans see their favorite sport come and go, it hurts.

I think most of the media covering the LPGA over the weekend feel the tournament will not return to Kingsmill. I’m not one of them. I think it will be back. If not, bring on the Senior Tour!

What compels a fighter to enter the octagon? Is it glory? Is it for the love of pain? Whatever the reason, it takes a special breed to agree to such violence. Sure there are rules in Mixed Martial Arts, but really once that bell rings, make no mistake about it, it’s a brawl.

Nearly 5000 fans saw 10 fights this past weekend at CageFest Xtreme All-In at the Ted Constant Center. Most of the nights fights didn’t make it out of the first round. Even the main event was quick. Kyle Baker defeated Drew Fickett with a tap out just 1:37 in the first round.

The crowd seemed to enjoy the quick action, quick results from some of the undercard.  The women’s fight between Stacy Grant and Linda Cunningham went the distance. Grant won by decision.

While going the distance prolongs the excitement, fight fans love to see fights won by submission. You know the arm bar, leg bar and the choke. Virana Brown from Richmond was choked out by Robert Conner. Brown told me after the fight that his time out was “peaceful.” Brown said he felt refreshed after regaining his senses.

It’s easy to see how this type of fighting is not for everyone. And it’s also just as easy to see the appeal of man to man combat. Fight promoter Ricky Piece says he can’t wait to bring MMA back to Hampton Roads. And that’s good news for local fight fans.

Tiger Woods is human after all! He finally hit a tree.

It seems that when Tiger misses the fairway he’s often wide right or left in the jungle, but he almost always manages to escape with a great shot. But not on Sunday on the final hole of the Masters. Tiger’s second shot was a low screamer that bounced off a Georgia white pine and into the other fairway. With one swing of the club, the worlds greatest golfer now  looks a lot like all of us other duffers! I mean really, everybody hits trees! It just seems that Tiger Woods never connects with wood when it matters most. But we saw him do it on golf’s grandest stage.

Of course it didn’t really matter at that point. Tiger was not going to win his 5th green jacket.

Funny thing was, Angel Cabrera hit a tree on the 18th and final hole and still went on to win the Masters. Unlike Tiger, Cabrera’s shot ricocheted off the pine and back into the middle of the fairway at 18. He would get up and down to save par. As if saving par at 18 after hitting a tree wasn’t lucky enough, Cabrera then sat back and watched as Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell struggled with their own demons. Cabrera would shoot par, par in the sudden death playoff to win his second major championship.

Yes great drama at this years Masters. I’m still trying to get over seeing Tiger hit a tree.

Our hometown hero’s have been getting a ton of press lately. Most of it has not been good.

A gun possession case against Virginia Beach native Plaxico Burress was adjourned until June. The state of New York is trying it’s best to throw the former Green Run star in prison. As if the embarrassment of shooting yourself in the leg isn’t punishment enough!

And then there’s our other source of NFL pride from the Peninsula. Newport News native Michael Vick will be let out of jail to return home to Norfolk this week for a bankruptcy hearing in a Norfolk courthouse. The notorious Vick of dog fighting fame was once the highest paid player in the NFL and now he’s bankrupt! The press will have a field day with each and every move Vick makes from here on out.

Vick and Burress will command a ton of national attention. That’s what happens when a star falls from grace. But what about the good guys? How come their good deeds don’t get as much attention? You know, good guys like Alonzo Mourning. The pride of Chesapeake is a true class act. He saw his jersey number retired in Miami. Zo was the first to be honored by the Heat. Zo won the NBA Championship along with an Olympic gold medal. He even defied the odds when he battled back from a kidney transplant. Alonzo Mourning is a true credit to Hampton Roads, but his latest news will get a fraction of the attention of Vick and Burress.

Same for LaShawn Merritt. The Portsmouth native continues to make public appearances following his 2 gold medal win at the summer Olympic games. His message last week to a group in Virginia Beach was loud and clear, “make good choices.” Vick and Burress could learn a great deal from Mourning and Merritt. It’s a real shame the efforts of both Mourning and Merritt don’t get as much attention as that of the dog fighter and gunslinger!

In case you haven’t heard, it looks like the University of Virginia has a new basketball coach.

His name is Tony Bennett, he is 39 years old and for the last three years he has been the coach at Washington State.

People say he is one of the top young coaches in the country, in fact a couple of years ago he was named the AP College of the Year.  In his first two years he took the Cougars to the NCAA basketball tournament twice.  This past year he only won 17 games.

He is expected to be introduced on Wednesday.  Hope he can do the job.

Fans that follow Old Dominion basketball know the name Anthony Grant.

The VCU coach has been a thorn in the Monarchs side since he came to Richmond three years ago from the University of Florida.

But now he is being wooed back to the Southeastern Conference by the University of Alabama, and it may be an offer Grant just can’t refuse.

An annual salary of 2-million dollars or more, which would be quite a raise from the 800 thousand he’s getting from Virginia Commonwealth.

The Birmingham News is reporting the Alabama job is Grant’s for the taking, but he has to make the decision soon.

If so, he would be the first African-American men’s basketball coach in Alabama history.

Before the tournament began, I said I had no confidence in any of my picks this year.   Ah, the power of negative thought.  Within the first three games, I’ve already lost two.  BYU and Butler were winners in my bracket but losers in reality.  Reality bites. 

Now, I’m looking at the rest of it and wondering, “How bad can this get?”  I have Gonzaga in the final four, beating UNC on their way.  I broke my own final four rule (you must know at least one player on your final four team).  I’m starting to think I had some sort of medical issue when I was filling this out last night. 

As I type, Cal is down by 10 to Maryland.  Of course, I picked Cal.  Berkley.  Cal Berkley.  This is terrible.

What’s worse is, this is my job.  I’m supposed to know not to pick Gonzaga, and BYU and Cal Berkley. I hope my boss is not reading this.

Anyway, I guess this is what makes the tournament fun.  Nobody knows, or at least I don’t know what’s going to happen.   Time to start rooting really REALLY hard for Pittsburgh.  Because, everyone knows, it’s all about picking the champion.  Everything else is just kids stuff, right?

Sports Director Bruce Rader gave us the news on WAVY News 10 at 6:  Virginia Tech is matched up against Duquesne in the first round of this year’s NIT men’s college basketball tournament.  I was gleeful at the news, for I graduated from this small university overlooking the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh.  The Dukes own a rich basketball tradition from long ago.  The won the 1955 NIT Tournement, and had strong teams in the 1960’s and 70’s.  But soon after my graduation in 1984, Duquesne basketball hit the skids.  Three years ago the Dukes won just three games.

Five players shot at Duquesne University September 2006 (AP photo)

Shortly before the 2006-2007 season began,  a mass shooting on campus wounded five Duquesne players, including current senior guard Aaron Jackson.  This happened seven months before the tragedy that struck Blacksburg, when a gunman killed 32 and wounded numerous others at Virginia Tech.  Dukes coach Ron Everhart is also a Hokie, and was co-captain of the 1984-85 team.  “Obviously, both places have seen their dark times with the shootings and having to endure adversity, ” Everhart told reporters Monday night. 

So, while my team is enduring a renaissance among the warriors of the hardwood, both schools share a tragic bond that transcends what will happen when the two match up Wednesday night.  Both schools have dealt with something that outweighs any final score.  They have come back from flashes of violence that have become all too common in the 21st century.    

The 65 team NC-double A basketball tournament field is set, and it is a Big East Bonanza.

Three of the 4 top seeded teams are from that conference. The other is from the ACC

Louisville, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Conn. are selected as the top seeds.

The tournament starts later this week, and wraps up with the national championship game April 6^th in Detroit.

A lot of folks say the Big East was the strongest conference in the country this year; some say this year’s conference is the strongest in college basketball history.

And I guess the selection committee agreed.

This is a record number of number one seeds for one conference.

Who do you think will make the final four?

Add it to the comments below.