Joe Ovies
Joe Ovies is the co-host of the afternoon and evening sports talk show on 99.9 FM The Fan ESPN Radio.
By Joe Ovies
May 13, 2013
The announcement that highly touted basketball recruit Andrew Wiggins will end months of speculation and sign with a school this week came in modern fashion. His coach at Huntington Prep, Rob Fulford, tweeted the news on Sunday night.
No ridiculous hat ceremony? No elaborate television special on ESPN? Not even attempt to top the Harrison Barnes announcement over Skype with Instagram of Snapchat? The low key signing is a throwback. It goes against the preconceived notions that Wiggins was a stereotypical recruit milking the process for attention.
It's a refreshing change of pace.
ESPN senior national recruiting analyst Dave Telep knows Wiggins has shunned the attention throughout his recruitment and explained on 99.9FM The Fan last week that his issues telling people "no" would prolong the decision.
"He's just not like the other guys," said Telep. "I know he's not seeking the attention. I can tell it affected his play in some of the postseason games and we've seen this before when guys carry this
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By Joe Ovies
May 6, 2013
LeBron James was voted as the NBA's Most Valuable Player, but he wasn't a unanimous choice. The centerpiece of the Miami Heat's All-Star trio received 120 of the 121 first-place votes, with New York's Carmelo Anthony getting the lone vote of dissent.
This did not sit well with people and set off an absurdist display of social media mob mentality. Welcome to 2013.
The reaction was more interesting than the actual vote itself since no player has ever won the award unanimously. Folks wanted to out and shame the voter for being contrarian, which lead to a rush of media members claiming they were not the culprit. Frank Isola of the New York Daily News floated on Twitter that a "Miami media guy" voted for Anthony.
Somehow the "Miami media guy" accusation morphed in Dan Le Batard, columnist for The Miami Herald and radio host for 790 The Ticket. Never mind that Le Batard had actually written earlier on Sunday that James was "the
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By Joe Ovies
May 1, 2013
Duke forward Lance Thomas (42), middle, reacts on the sideline with teammates Duke guard Jon Scheyer (30), left, and Duke center Brian Zoubek (55), right, to their victory. Duke University defeats West Virginia, 78-57. Duke will face Butler for the NCAA Division I championship. Duke University faced West Virginia in the second semi-final game of the NCAA Final Four Division I Men's Championships at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis Saturday, April 3, 2010. (Sam Riche / The Indianapolis Star)
The NCAA can't tell Lance Thomas nothing.
Feel free to rock that black diamond necklace, diamond-encrusted watch, diamond stud earrings and black diamond Jesus piece. Let the haters hate. Duke should probably look into giving their 2010 NCAA Championship banner a bedazzled look just to rub it in a bit more.
“The NCAA has found no evidence of a rules violation in this situation based on the information available, and both the NCAA and Duke consider the matter closed,” the university said in a statement Tuesday.
Anyone with basic understanding of how the collegiate organization works and a dose of common sense knew this would be the result. Naturally, that didn't stop folks from pointing out the shadiness of a college student dropping nearly $30,000 at Rafaello & Co. in December 2009 and getting a couple weeks to pay back the remaining balance.
Ty Duffy of TheBigLead.com wrote a boilerplate response to the news, suggesting the NCAA covered for Duke with a nudge and a wink.
"Surely, we can be confident this decision has nothing to do with the program in question being Duke and that season being the year Duke won the NCAA Tournament (which earns the NCAA 10 figures)," he wrote.
"The old [Jerry Tarkanian] quote about Cleveland St/UK found in different era today," tweeted Matt Jones. "NCAA so mad at Duke, they will give Miami an extra year of probation." The popular blogger from KentuckySportsRadio.com went on to say that
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 29, 2013
Tim Tebow was released and Jason Collins came out as openly gay. These items will undoubtedly dominate the news cycle for the rest of the week, but you'll have to pardon my overall disinterest for various reasons.
Disinterest aside, I feel compelled to spill some digital ink on the subjects. Hear me out.
With Tebow, it should be rather obvious since the conversation hasn't changed in over a year. He's a backup quarterback with equally loud groups of supporters and detractors. Those groups provide plenty of eyeballs for ESPN and clicks for websites who publish stories about Tebow, but we're still talking about a backup quarterback who will find it difficult to find another gig after teams filled up their rosters with new backups from the NFL Draft.
The NFL is a cold business and Tebow is just the latest example of reality hitting a once great college player hard.
So why the continued obsession? There were huge investments from fans and pundits on the success or failure of Tebow in the league. At some point, scores were going to be settled with "told you so" boasts from whichever side came out with the correct take.
In much more impactful news, Collins announced in a Sports Illustrated essay that he is "a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."
Collins is not the first actively playing athlete to come out. Earlier this month, Brittney Griner announced that she was gay and the reaction was rather muted since nobody seemed to think
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 23, 2013
The contrast between the 2012 NFL Draft and this year's speculative spectacle is rather stark.
Swap out the the likes of Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson and Ryan Tannehill for Luke Joeckel, Ezekiel Ansah, Geno Smith and Dee Milliner. The sexy skill position players just aren't there, which elevates the grittier positions of need that would typically be selected in the middle of the first round into top 10 territory.
That's not to say the current class coming out is weaker than previous classes. The NFL Draft is filled with tales of players taken in later rounds who went on to have fantastic careers. The 2013 edition just lacks obvious conversation starters like Jadeveon Clowney and Johnny Manziel.
That's why the Darrelle Revis trade was a much needed jolt to the NFL news cycle this week, even if the deal is pretty straight forward. The New York Jets managed to draw another first round pick without much leverage, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers got the best player at that position. It's easy to declare the Bucs a winner in the trade, but that could all even out if the Jets don't screw up their rebuilding job. Considering it's the Jets, that's a big "if."
Locally grown
North Carolina will likely hear Jonathan Cooper's name called in the middle of the first round, while Sylvester Williams is projected to be taken later the same night. Running back Giovani Bernard has popped
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 22, 2013
In a recent issue of The Basketball Times, U.S. Basketball Writers Association president John Akers looked at the influence of the ACC Tournament on journalism and how the 60-year-old event created a region of longstanding sports writers.
Caulton Tudor, Lenox Rawlings and Barry Jacobs are just a few of the writers who cite covering the ACC Tournament as something they aspired to and went as far as to influence career choices down the road. As the influence of the tournament has waned, argues Akers, so has its grip on the younger generation of journalists.
"There are plenty of reasons for concern that the next generation of ACC writers might not be such as lasting one," writes Akers. "Call it a cultural change."
However, it's not the culture that's changed. It's the business.
For starters, the newspaper industry is in its current position because of a failure to adapt to the shifting media landscape. As a result, plenty of young writers who have done outstanding work on their respective beats aren't sticking around. It's hard to when the newspaper keeps putting them on furlough, moves their copy desk to an office in Chicago or simply buys them out. Those who decided to stay and plug away at their paper must deal with vanishing travel budgets and constantly changing corporate visions.
Even the notion of "writer" is antiquated. Folks who want to get somewhere in the sports media game must be multitasking content generators for various
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 17, 2013
North Carolina's PJ Hairston (right) and Reggie Bullock during the Tar Heels' 79-76 victory over Maryland in the 60th ACC Tournament on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Greensboro, NC (Photo by Jack Morton).
The annual postseason roster flux began to settle down with the arrival of the NCAA deadline to declare for the NBA Draft, but your favorite college teams aren't in the clear just yet. Players with remaining eligibility still have until the NBA deadline on April 28.
Confused? Thank coaches who weren't interested in spending a month in limbo while their players worked out with prospective franchises and collected professional feedback. Now players can submit their names to the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee for an initial projection of where they could be drafted and must withdraw before April 16 to keep eligibility. If players do nothing, they can still gather information from outside sources and wait until the NBA's point of no return.
Leave it to the NCAA to create a timetable that coincides with the spring recruiting signing period instead of the NBA, which has the actual date that matters.
While Miami waits on Shane Larkin and Creighton's Doug McDermott goes through the process of deciding his future, it appears Triangle-based players didn't need the extra days.
Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie announced their intentions to leave NC State and go pro at the end of March. North Carolina's Reggie Bullock threw his name into the draft pool on Tuesday, while James Michael McAdoo and P.J. Hairston announced they'll return to Chapel Hill.
The decisions by Brown, Leslie and Bullock certainly won't sit well with fans and pundits who insist
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 12, 2013
Tyler Purvis (49) grabs a catch during the NC State Kay Yow 2012 Spring Football Game in Raleigh, NC on April 21, 2012.
As if further proof was needed that college football has reached the year-round coverage status of the NFL, Sports Illustrated hammered the point home when it put Ohio State's Braxton Miller and South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney on the cover at the end of February.
The recognizable players were depicted bursting through a collage of college basketball images. The headline read, "March Madness: Let It Rip!" The subheading took a not-so-subtle dig, "Sorry, Hoops. Two More Weeks To Wait."
Spring football isn't a new phenomenon. Alabama fans have packed Bryant-Denny Stadium to gameday capacity to watch a glorified practice for years. As the appetite for football becomes more insatiable, more schools have hopped on the trend and now use the games to shape perception of their programs.
But we're still talking about practice.
No doubt the hardcore fans around the Triangle will head to their respective stadiums this weekend. They'll want to get their first look at highly-touted recruits making their debut and check in with returning players stepping into starting roles. However, there aren't enough diehards in our area to fill out the stands.
Instead of trying to shoehorn a Southeastern Conference culture where it doesn't exist, schools have morphed these glorified practice sessions into carnival-like events as a way to attract casual fans.
Frankly, it's brilliant.
North Carolina will feature food, live music and interactive games around Bell
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 7, 2013
By all accounts, the NCAA Tournament is as popular as ever.
Television ratings for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight were up 13 percent from last year, while an estimated 16 million people watched the Final Four. Thanks to gorgeous spring weather, downtown Atlanta was buzzing with fans. Bracket Town was jammed, the "Big Dance" concert series staged in Centennial Park brought a sea of people and every bar seemed to be shoulder-to-shoulder with fans who couldn't get into the Georgia Dome.
All great for the NCAA and all of their corporate partners. Great for the players and coaches, too. The long road ends with the ultimate competitive fulfillment at the collegiate level for either Louisville or Michigan on Monday night.
Images from the Final Four
So why is it so easy to be cynical about the whole thing? Blame the soulless staging inside giant football stadiums, the bloated field and the untrustworthy nature of the NCAA itself.
The buck
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By Joe Ovies
Apr 5, 2013
Syracuse and Louisville are technically representing the Big East at the Final Four in Atlanta, but they have the full attention of ACC fans. It's all we can do without any teams from the conference making the trip for the third straight year.
It's a preview of sorts for what the conference will finally look like once the realignment dust settles.
ACC commissioner John Swofford understood the changing landscape of college sports when he initially expanded the conference with Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to improve the football brand. Swofford used similar talking points with the subsequent additions of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Louisville.
However, the cliched talk of footprints and academic fits rang a little hollow, since the moves were reactionary instead of forward thinking. Credit to Swofford for convincing his constituents to come off longstanding positions such as full-time membership, but the ACC made moves to survive in a volatile landscape.
Strangely enough, the ACC came out the other side as a stronger basketball conference when it was clearly not the goal. The irony is not lost on Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who used a couple NCAA tournament press conferences to offer his opinion on how officials in Greensboro should best use their strong assets.
"It makes us the most powerful basketball conference, I think, ever," said Krzyzewski. "And I hope our league is able to understand the assets that we've
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