A 16-year-old student athlete collapsed at a pool party with his church youth group. The coroner says food was lodged in Jeremy Sailem’s airway.

I’ve been a basketball junkie nearly all my years.  Player, fan, collector of memorabilia.  Basketball is one of the loves of my life.

For this warm weather guy, the only thing that makes winter tolerable is a comfortable spot in front of a warm television set, watching Atlantic Coast Conference teams go at it on the court.

And as I watch the NCAA brackets, I’m hoping for a golden moment every ACC fan wants.

A third game this season between Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

  The Atlantic Coast Conference runs deep in my family.

    Both of my daughters will be graduates of Clemson University.  My brother-in-law was a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill.  I grew up in Orange County, North Carolina, home of UNC.  My family’s farm is a short drive from Duke University, and I have been a Duke fan most of my life.

    But my wife and I are graduates of North Carolina State University, and the Wolfpack family has suffered a terrible loss with the passing of Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame coach of the NCSU women’s basketball team. 

    This past Saturday she died of cancer at age 66.  She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987.  The disease recurred three times.