To bring you Tar Heel or ...or Wolfpack...or Blue Devil...basketball. I thought Indiana was b-ball crazy, but North Kak takes the cake in this department. At 9PM EST, the crawl on the local CBS station reads:

"Criminal Minds" and 'CSI NY" (yes the biggest franchise on TV) will be seen between 2:05AM and 5:00AM so that we may bring you UNC vs. Miami basketball. Please set your VCR or DVR to record during between 2 and 5am.

Smack in the middle of prime time TV. Mind you, this is not because of the writer's strike; this is par for the course in North Carolina. One of the CSIs, relegated to dead time like a rerun of "McMillan and Wife" I was FLOORED the first time I saw this occur on my screen, do you hear me?

In Indiana where I'm from, for IU basketball, a local Indianapolis station, WTTV Channel 4, carried the games unless they were on national TV on the weekends. Period. Not here. Slap it on in prime time; the number 1 show in the nation can wait. And I guarantee you if they ever dared cut a game off, it would be the Civil War II(or The War of Northern Aggression as they call it here.) at the TV station.

I've had a rough 24 hours, personally and professionally. I was reflecting on the whole experience early this morning, and a story I'd read about the Duke women's basketball player Abby Waner came to mind. (I'd like to think this was Divinely imparted, given the mood I was in beforehand.) From GoDuke.com:

"GD: On your shoes you have “Next” and “Play” on them. What is the meaning of that?
AW: Last year, right before the Michigan State game, I had been really struggling and I was carrying every mistake and every missed shot with me. One of my friends told me that it’s just all about the next play. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake that play; it’s about what you’re going to do the next play. That really helped me to move forward from each mistake and each missed shot instead of carrying that with me and creating mistake, after mistake, after mistake because my mind wasn’t in the right place."

Thus, when she's tempted to lapse into negative self-talk, a quick downward glance snaps her out of it. I plan to take this simple philosphy with me from now on. I think in any situation at work or in our personal lives, too often we hang on to the baggage of disappointments and it holds us back from seeing the good ahead. When tie all our energy up in holding grudges, anger, disappointment,etc is it any wonder we have none left for success?

Taking inspiration from a Blue Devil may seem counter to what I posted yesterday. But truth is everywhere if you take time to find it.

So, what do you say?

Check ball, and.....

Next Play.

P.S. And even though I don't know you, thanks Abby.