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.

March Madness has been taken to a new level. Now there are just too many tournaments. Old Dominion should just say “no thanks” to the new CollegeInsider.com tournament. Does this make ODU the best of the rest, of the rest, of the rest?

This is like John Travolta doing Battlefield Earth. Just because they offer it doesn’t mean you have to take it.

Lets face it, if your not good enough for the NCAA or the NIT or even the CBI, than maybe its time to pull the plug on the season. Just think if all goes well, the Monarchs will win a tournament nobody has ever heard of. Or the Monarchs season will officially come to an end after losing to Ocala Cosmotology College. Even Digger Phelps knows the Fighting Flattops are the champions of the Central Florida Vocational Conference.

I guess ODU has Lefty Driesell to thank for this latest honor. Lefty was on the selection committee and put a good word in for the hometown team.

Sure there are some positives about seeing the season continue. The young players get more experience. ODU can write in the program that the team made the post season again and the most important reason of all, we all get to dance one more time to “Ice cream and Cake!”

The big winner in all of the looks like the C-B-I. With teams like St. Johns, Stanford and Nevada, the C-B-I actually looks like a decent tournament.

So while the rest of the nation is gripped with the excitement of the NCAA tournament, ODU will be scaling the mountain top of the C-I-T. Look out Flattops, here come the Monarchs!

Congratulations to the Kings Fork boys and the Princess Anne girls for winning the Virginia State AAA basketball championships.

WAVY-TV was the only station from Hampton Roads in Richmond for the exciting games.  So stay tuned to WAVY.com and our newscasts for the best coverage.

So we have two teams in group AAA trying to win state titles on Friday.  The Princess Anne girls and the boys from King’s Fork.

I just got back from PA.  Talked with Darnell Dozier, their head coach.  He seems to think his team has a pretty good shot (shocker, right).  Their opponent has a good outside game, but PA should be too strong inside.

Haven’t talked with coach Josh Worrell at King’s Fork, but I’d imagine they’re pretty confident as well.  The thing about the Bulldogs is that they have a lot of size.  You hear a lot about JaQuan Parker, their guard, but inside is where they dominate.  That’s what they were able to do against Booker T. Washington in the Eastern Region championship game.

I do not know enough about the teams they are playing to give a prediction that is worth anything.  In fact, most of my predictions are worth nothing anyway.  But, I’m not betting against either team.

Btw, good luck to Syracuse tonight.  They’re going to need it against UCONN.  And it’s back to the dance for the Michigan Wolverines.  Can I hear a WOOT!

Very few people in their lifetime will have as big an impact on a city and university like Dick Price. His passing Monday night left a huge void on the Norfolk State sports scene.

Dick Price made a name for himself as a great coach. But he was much more than a coach. He was a teacher and leader and a role model. The best coach is someone who inspires and takes young athletes to higher levels. The best coach is someone who shows young athletes the secret to success. The best coach is someone who elevates athletes, teams and programs to great heights. Dick Price did all of that.

A child of Norfolk’s Lamberts Point, Dick Price began his coaching career at NSU in 1964 as head track coach and an assistant under former football coach Bill Archie. Price was elevated to head football coach in 1974 and promptly coached the Spartans to 3 straight CIAA Championships between 1974 and 1976. His track teams won two division 2 national championships despite not having a track.

Price retired from coaching in 1983 and remains NSU’S winningest football coach with a career record of 62-41-4. Fifty-three of Price’s former football players entered the ranks of professional football.  Price became the school’s athletics director in 1989, a post he held until 1999. The school’s current football stadium, which opened in 1997, is named in Price’s honor.

Price won numerous awards for his storied career as a coach and administrator. In 1979, he was named the Virginian Pilot’s “Sports Figure of the Decade.” Price is a member of the NSU Athletics Foundation Hall of Fame, The CIAA Hall of Fame, The Hampton Roads African American Sports Hall of fame, and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

1n 2003, Price became the first ever black president of the Norfolk Sports Club.

Current Norfolk State Athletic Director Marty Miller first met Price back in 1964. Miller told me yesterday that there was nothing Price would not do for the University and that he was a true Spartan. A true Spartan that made a huge impact on thousands of lives. Dick Price was priceless for the University and will be greatly missed