There's plenty of hoops-related material to chew on down below, so I wanted to take a quick break from that to provide you with some of the highlights from our early-morning excursion into North Carolina. And if you don't care, trust me, I don't blame you. Feel free to skip; like I said, the hoops is just down the page.
-- Remember last night? You know, when I was complaining about having to wake up so early for my flight? Here comes more complaining: The Indianapolis Airport, usually calm and serene in the early hours, was a mess this morning. It wasn't a mess on the level of Chicago O'Hare, or Atlanta International - but a mess is a mess. It didn't help that, while fully ensconced in my early morning zombie-like state, I dropped my boarding pass somewhere near the security checkpoint. Nearly missed our flight, and wouldn't that have been fun?
-- OK, so I should stop complaining. Know why? Well, we're currently in the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center, which the IDS was nice enough to pay for and which is an exceedingly comfortable hotel. And the flights were comfortable too. And I'm going to Cameron Indoor Stadium later. And I'm (kind of) getting paid to do this. Alright, I really will stop complaining. For good.
-- I had my glazed-over eyes peeled for IU types heading down to the game this morning. The only one we saw? That's right - Mr. Ryan Tapak. He was traveling with a pretty nondescript bunch; no telling if they were athletics support staff or just some fans and friends of his. Either way, it'll be interesting to see how many of the IU faithful - former players or not - make the trip to Durham tonight.
-- Oh, and those friends I told you about last night? The ones who were planning on making the last-second trip? Chickened out. Figures.
-- Chapel Hill is far, far nicer than Durham. Durham sort of feels like the ugly Southern inner-city, while Chapel Hill is its beautiful, pastoral neighbor. Disclaimer: We haven't made it to Duke's campus quite yet, so that could be a whole different story. We'll reserve judgment for now. But Matt's trek for shaving cream has already turned into a negative review for downtown Durham.
-- One last tidbit of relevance: Just off the plane terminals in Raleigh-Durham there is an ACC store with all sorts of apparel celebrating almost every ACC team, especially the teams in the nearby area. But two most prominent items in the store's front window were a blue Duke hooded sweatshirt and - get this - Duke Lacrosse t-shirts. Depending on your sense of humor, it was either hilarious, or incorrigible. I'll leave that sensitive decision up to you.
