North Carolina

Ball State (64) vs. Campbell University (69) 12/14/2025

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Game #149 of 364 41% complete

The nickname of Campbell’s sports programs is the “Fighting Camels.” While camels are often thought of as peace-loving animals, the school’s founder, Dr. J. A. Campbell, admired them for their endurance and toughness in thriving under harsh desert conditions. In the 1920s, he felt these traits symbolized the resilience of the school’s athletes, which led to the adoption of the name.

I missed the opening tap while watching a couple of recruits being led to their seats. Although this may be common at Bible Belt schools, it was the first time I had heard a prayer offered before the national anthem. As a note of trivia, the famous baseball stars and brothers, Gaylord and Jim Perry, both graduated from Campbell.

Dovydas Butka led the way for the Fighting Camels with 22 points and 10 rebounds. The 6’9″ forward from Lithuania continued the trend of overseas players making significant contributions to their team’s success. It raises the question of how recent, more restrictive immigration policies may affect these athletes in the future.

I now present you with more camel pictures.

I read that the university is quite proud of its unique mascot—and rightfully so.

I was very impressed with Campbell’s point guard, DJ Smith. With the score tied at halftime, Smith poured in 17 points in the second half to break the game open. The 5’1″, 155-pound guard played for three teams—Little Rock, Robert Morris, and Bowling Green—while searching for a home before finally settling at Campbell.

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus also stopped by for a visit. I was tempted to sit on their lap and wish for a warm North Carolina day.

Campbell remained unbeaten at home, pulling away from the Ball State Cardinals in the final minutes of the game.

I committed heresy for a UConn fan by eating lunch at the Duke University Golf Club and enjoying a fine steak. I wanted to take a picture of Cameron Indoor Stadium, but parking was a long walk away, and it was simply too cold to make the effort worthwhile.

That evening, I visited Durham Bulls Athletic Park for a Christmas light show. While I was disappointed with the food options, the entire stadium was beautifully adorned with lights. Had it not been for the 15-degree weather and gusty winds, I would have stayed longer than my brief 20-minute visit.

Back to snowbound Connecticut. Happy holidays to all my college basketball junkies—see you in January!

Northern Illinois (79) vs. Elon University (85) 12/13/2025

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Game #148 of 364 41% complete

I needed to use my Breeze Airline credit before the end of the year, so I started searching for a destination they fly to from Hartford. My criteria were simple: I needed to find a place where at least two teams were playing on both Saturday and Sunday. After some searching, the only option that fit was a flight to Raleigh/Durham to watch the Elon and Campbell. I even tried hard to find a third game in North Carolina, but unfortunately, nothing else matched up.

Elon University and Queens University of Charlotte recently announced plans to merge, with a target completion date of August 2026. Naturally, my first question was whether this merger would impact their Division I basketball programs. The answer, for now, is no—unless the NCAA intervenes with a disqualifying rule.

My last visit to Elon was about 20 years ago, when I came with my daughter during a southern college tour. The weather was unusually cold, almost identical to the chill I experienced in Detroit last month. The highways of North Carolina never seem to change—always lined with towering pine trees. As I drove in, I asked the parking attendant where the free parking was. He chuckled and said, “Go straight, and you’ll find all the parking you need.”

In 1999, the Board of Trustees at Elon College voted unanimously to adopt a new identity for the school’s athletics program, retiring the “Fightin’ Christians” moniker and mascot in favor of one more fitting for Elon’s growing national profile and its transition to NCAA Division I. The “Fightin’ Christians”? Is that essentially the same as being called the Crusaders? Today, they’re known as the Phoenix.

Like many mid-major schools, Northern Illinois relies heavily on international players and transfers. Makhai Valentine, a transfer from Missouri State, and Gustav Winther from Denmark led the Huskies with 17 and 15 points, respectively. However, NIU couldn’t hold on to an 11-point lead in the second half and ultimately fell to the Phoenix. Elon scored the last 11 points of the game to seal the victory. Kacper Klaczek, from Poland, led Elon with a game-high 23 points and 8 rebounds.

I sat behind the NIU bench, and the energy from Husky Jao Ituka was hard to miss. Wearing number 10, he was the first to jump off the bench to greet his teammates as they came off the court, and he took on the role of lead cheerleader throughout the game.

Two kids held up a brick every time NIU took a free throw. It was a clever cheer I’d never seen before in all my travels.

If you’re in the mood for a great breakfast, make sure to check out the State Farmers Market in Raleigh. The food is delicious, and the atmosphere really makes you feel like you’re at an authentic farmers market.

Towson (64) vs. UNC Wilmington (75) 03/02/2024

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Game #130 of 362 35% complete

It was very difficult getting a good picture of the arena with this old but gorgeous tree blocking my view.

This is my last game of the year. After 9 years on the road and 130 games later, I would not have guessed that I would have made it this far. I have seen so much of small town America with its museums, zoos and parks. I have met many friendly fans who have taken an interest in my journey. At the age of 66, I am going to keep on going till I can not do it anymore. With NIL money now in the forefront of college basketball and players jumping from one team to another all over the map, my pessimistic nature wonders about the future of college basketball. But I digress.

UNC Wilmington is one of those schools I call “outliers’. There are no close schools by making it difficult to execute my “three school visit” to keep costs down. The drive from Myrtle Beach was one and half hours so I am fortunate to get the UNC Wilmington in with Coastal Carolina. If you look at a map, you can see that the University of East Carolina is the farthest east school in North Carolina and poses the same problem given that I have seen North Carolina and North Carolina State (the two closest schools).

UNC

The Trask Coliseum has to rank as one of the most drab arenas seen by me having mostly empty concourses with the exception of the concessions. Here is one example below. I circled the entire arena but could not find much to look at. I think Mr. Trask needs to hang up some pictures.

I will give a compliment to the parking. It was free and across the street from the arena. One cool happening during the game was having staff throw out boxes of popcorn to the crowd. But once again, I could not grab a tee shirt thrown into the crowd. It has only happened once in my 130 games.

This was a critical game for both teams. UNC Wilmington Seahawks is tied for third in the Colonial Athletic Conference. Towson is in fourth place. I could tell by the crowd reactions that these two teams were rivals. I was sitting in front of a guy who literally complained about each call against his Seahawks. He was probably correct about 10% of the time.

With the win, the Seahawks (21-9, 12-6 CAA) clinched the fourth seed in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament and the double-bye that comes with it. The Tigers head into the tournament as the fifth seed with a record of 18-13 and 11-7.

Shykeim Phillips from the Seahawks led all scorers with 17 points followed by teammate Trazerian White with 16 points. Try saying these names three times fast!

It was odd that there no band or dance team for the home club. A news article said that this was a sold out game but there were many empty seats.

I had to laugh at the rules below. Is it a fact that men get more inebriated than women thus causing an earlier cutoff of alcohol for men?

Once again, the score does not appear. I will figure this out. Perhaps I have a red filter turned on with my iPhone?

I close with picture of the ocean at Myrtle Beach and the mechanical Margarita at Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant.

Fins up till I see you again in November!

Furman (69) vs. UNC Greensboro (57) 01/29/2023

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Game #115 of 362 31% complete

The Greensboro Coliseum is full of history for the ACC and March Madness. Often, the number one seed like Duke or North Carolina gets to play basically a home game here in the first round. I remember UNC defeating UCONN here in 1998 with UNC a number 1 seed and UConn a number 2 seed. I was not too happy with the home court advantage given to the Tarheels.

The arena is much too large for a program like UNC Greensboro that does not draw fans like Duke or UNC does. Black curtains were draped around the upper sections to hide the emptiness. However, the fans were very enthusiastic around me and very much into their team.

I was surprised to see no student section or band. I will assume that they were on break but that seems weird given this is late January. I was very impressed with Furman forward Mohammed Abdulsalam who was 9 of 10 from the floor and 5 of 7 from the free throw line finishing with 23 points.

I have to show this picture of an Alaska Waffle. Ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream makes an awesome combination.

I made a trip to the North Carolina Zoo earlier in the day. This zoo is the largest zoo in the world comprising 2600 acres. As I was walking toward the big cat area, someone came up to me and asked if I worked in the zoo. They said that the cougar was watching me from the time I entered the area. I went over to him, and he snarled at me a few times. Not sure what emotions I brought forth from this animal, but I am an animal lover!

Arkansas State (51) Vs. Appalachian State (63) 01/28/2023

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Game #114 of 362 31% complete

The trip from the Wake Forest game to this game took about an hour and a half. I was overjoyed to see that I would make it in time for the opening tip but to my dismay, I saw the dreaded parking garage. The garage was about a 10-minute walk after I found a spot on the top floor. I entered the game with about 10 minutes left in the first half. I was very impressed with the arena, as I was not expecting something that big.

As I walked to the arena, I heard loud rap music blaring through the air. Next to the arena, there was a frat house with occupants on the roof with speakers greeting guests as they entered the arena.

The ride from Wake Forest was mostly uphill. I could tell that we were hitting higher elevations because my ears started popping. As evidenced by this board in the arena, I was 3,333 feet about sea level.

The Arkansas State coach went ballistic a few times during the game, going at the refs and sometimes his own players. The assistant coaches had to hold him back from killing someone.

I have only known Appalachian State through its football program, incurring huge upsets of national powers. The Mountaineers had a 17–14 victory over 6th ranked Texas A&M in 2002. The Mountaineers also shocked the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines in 2007. The football team has won three national championships in its division.

Appalachian State led for most of the game against the last place Red Wolves in the Sun Belt Conference. This was the ninth loss in a row for Arkansas State.

I was hoping to catch dinner in Boone after the game. The roads were a nightmare which seems obvious when a basketball game happens on a Saturday night in a small town. I caught dinner on the road a couple of towns over. I swear I was on Candid Camera when the waitress brought over chicken noodle soup instead of tomato basil, gave a me a big glass of water when I haven’t even touched my first glass and finally gave me a bill from the wrong table. The restaurant will remain nameless.

North Carolina State (79) vs. Wake Forest (77) 01/28/2023

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Game #113 of 363 31% complete

This game was extra special for me because I was able to take a self tour of the campus. My daughter graduated from Wake in 2011. Some of the buildings brought back some good memories. Of course, I had to buy a Wake shirt. I visited the Collins dorm which was her home for freshman year. The campus with old buildings is reminiscent of the IVY leagues schools here in the northeast.

One of the major differences between a major p5 game and a mid-major school is the pre game festivities. Wake puts on an impressive show. I was shocked to see the Deacon mascot ride a motorcycle onto the court for the player introductions.

With North Carolina down the road in Raleigh and being a major ACC rival, there were quite a few fans from NC State. This was the 168th meeting between the two rivals. I was sitting next to three young enthusiastic fans who took an interest in my Operation 351 mission. As the game progressed, I slowly turned into a Wolfpack fan and cheered along with them.

Former Deacon Mugsy Bogues made an appearance to participate in a half time presentation. He was waving and smiling towards the cheering Wake fans.

So I need to talk about Wolfpack player D.J. Burns. To date, I have never heard of this gentleman. In all my Operation 351 travels, I have never seen a player so dominate the game as Burns did today. At 6’9″ and weighing 275, he was fed the ball every play and bulled his way to the basket scoring with whirling moves and quick footwork. Burns ended up 31 points and nine rebounds and was basically unstoppable down the stretch.

Burns is receiving the ball in the above picture.

The hallways of the arena were filled with Wake memorabilia. Two notable displays were a tribute to coach Skip Prosser who died of a heart attack in 2007 in his office after jogging on the Wake campus. Also honored was Tim Duncan who is perhaps the best-known Wake graduate.

Damari Monsanto led Wake with 24 points with many long range three pointers. Tyree Appleby from Wake also put on an impressive show with 19 points. The transfer from Florida has been compared to Alan Iverson in looks and style of play.

Wake Forest led for most of the game and had a 10-point lead in the first half. The Wolfpack whittled the lead down and took the lead with minutes left in the game. Although the ACC is having a down year, it was fun to watch a heated ACC conference game.

The final score above did not include a final three by Wake that was added late.

St. Louis (74) vs. Davidson (70) 01/27/2023

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Game #112 of 363 30% complete

This is the first of a four game trip to North Carolina. It is always difficult finding a good location for a hotel that result in minimal time on the road. The trip to Davidson from Asheboro took about an hour and a half but tolerable because it was mostly highway. I always stick with Marriott and Hertz on my trips to build up the points.

The student razzing during the visitor’s introductions is lame. They turn their backs to the court and yell “Sucks”. Some are reading a newspaper to feign indifference. Perhaps I am tired of this routine because UConn students do the same routine. BTW if I hear ‘sweet Caroline” one more time, I will explode.

The arena is adorned with red seats and a huge scoreboard. I do have a problem with the configuration of the building. All the food and activity is in the front half of the building. You are not able to walk around the arena and visit memorabilia or sample various food items. It is my pet peeve but I do look forward to my circle walk round the court at halftime.

Stephen Curry played for Davidson from 2006 through 2009. He is considered a god here. I saw many fans wearing a “30” shirt with G.O.A.T on the back. He set the single-season NCAA record during his sophomore year for most three pointers made. As you can see, his jersey was given an extra shade of red.

I was curious to see the play of St. Louis guard Yuri Collins. He led the NCAA in assists in the 2022 season. His coach sang his praises earlier in the year on a college BB podcast. He was a passing wizard during this game, making passes that defined imagination. He was a general out there at crunch time and scored when a big basket was needed. I would love to see the Knicks pick him up.

A shout out the to the restaurant 23 Magnolia in Asheboro. The blackboard inside stated that their fried chicken was voted the 57th best in the country. I concur.

St. Louis proved the better team tonight thanks to Yuri. I forgot to shoot the final scoreboard so I will leave you with a picture of the mighty Davidson wildcat outside the arena.

Colgate (74) vs. North Carolina State (77) 11/13/2021

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Game #99 of 358 28% complete

I visited the Quail Ridge bookstore in Durham on Saturday morning. I always try to visit an independent bookstore on my trips and buy a book to support them. This store however did not need my help as I waited in line behind customers holding baskets of books. I recommend this bookstore with its well organized shelves and friendly help ready to serve. At the risk of inflicting guffaws from my readers, I admit to purchasing an autographed copy of Nicholas Sparks book The Wish. Yeah I like his books so think what you want. :).

I recommend lunch at the Italian restaurant Amedeo’s before any NC State game. Right down the road from the PNC Center, the walls are adorned with NC State memorabilia from all sports. The pasta deluxe dish filled me to the brim along with a bottle of Peroni.

As had happened in the past, my perceived time of the game taken in the past from the NC Sate web site was an hour earlier than the actual game time (1PM vs. 2PM). Not sure if the time was changed or I messed up. So when I drive up to the PNC at about 12:30, the parking lots are almost empty. I did see some ushers gathering on the outside so I figured I was in the right place. The usher kindly informed me that the game time was 2PM so the gates will not open till 1PM. So what does one do after eating a heavy pasta lunch? You walk several times around the arena to kill time getting your steps in till the gates opened.

I will give the PNC two Operation 351 awards.

Award 1 – Best Bar in an Arena

This bar was way too high class for a basketball/ hockey arena but definitely a pretty slick site at a college basketball game.

Award 2 – Most Humungous TV Screen

The TV screen on the scoreboard was like watching a 100 ft TV in your living room. The image was sharp and enticing to watch vs. the live game itself.

I do want to say that the PNC did lose some points by not providing a program. No excuses for a D1 school to not provide a program, free or otherwise.

So now for some basketball. After almost witnessing an upset yesterday by Brown at North Carolina, my hopes for another upset today almost came to fruition. Colgate, like Brown yesterday, gave the ACC powerhouses fits. It was not prudent of me to cheer out loud for the underdogs at these two games but I gave under the seat fist pumps when Colgate continued to hang on right to the end..

The crowd was somewhat muted throughout the game perhaps in shock at the thought of losing. It came down to the last play when a NC State player Manny Seaborn was fouled on a very questionable call. The two foul shots put them up by two. After Colgate threw a long pass down the other end of the court, a Colgate player fouled, sending the Wolfpack back to the line. A replay review confirmed that the foul occurred before time had ended. The NC State player missed the foul shot. Colgate then attempted a three quarter court shot to win the game but was not even close. I was hoping to see a replay of UC Riverside’s upset over Arizona State.

Since this was an afternoon game, I had Saturday night free. My name on the Duke waiting list proved fruitless as tickets to Coach K’s last go around make tickets tough to find. I also considered going to the Carolina Hurricanes hockey game but tickets were over a $100. Not too much of a hockey fan to justify the cost. So perusing the web for Saturday night events in the Raleigh/Durham area, I came across the perfect scenario for a Jimmy Buffet parrothead like myself. The play Escape to Margaritaville was playing at the DPAC. Having seeing it once before made no difference. I ended siting in the upper balcony next to the president of the local parrot head club so I unabashedly sang all the lyrics out load with the rest of her crew. Till next time!

FINS UP!

Brown (87) vs North Carolina (94) 11/12/2021

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Game #98 of 358 27% complete

Operation 351 is back on the road. Absence does make the heart grow fonder as the sound of sneakers squeaking in the gym, the sound of the pep band warming up and the sight of those bright lights when I enter an arena for the first time bring forth a deeper appreciation and gratitude for the chance to reconnect with my journey.

My life like many of yours was filled with changes and curves this past year, I am now a proud grandfather of a cute kid named Jack. Our family was fortunately unscathed by the ravages of COVID. My travel plans are made more difficult with canceled airlines, COVID restrictions and an apprehension of catching COVID even though I am triple vaccinated. There is a new normal out there undefined and ever changing. What will college basketball look like in 10 years? How will the United States with its increasing polarity and angst survive as we march forward with an uncertain future facing climate change and dangers to our democratic society? I vow never to bring politics into this blog but I am very nervous for my children and grandson.

I have vented enough.

During the last summer, I developed an application on the my desktop using Microsoft EXCEL and ACCESS to facilitate finding games near each other on consecutive days or the same day. I built a database of my remaining arenas to visit along with their longitude and latitude. I built a spreadsheet matching each arena with all the other arenas to calculate the distance. I input the home schedule of each team and run an SQL query to find games to visit find teams within 120 miles of each games playing within 3 days. It is probably not the most technological way to do it but it works for me. I relied on my IT skills from the nineties to accomplish this. Here is an example of one page of the report:

The home team and away team are the two teams playing the games. HOME and AWAY are not the best names. Just consider them team 1 and team 2. Game Date is the date team 1 is playing. Game date 2 is the date team 2 is playing. Both dates will be the same if they are playing on the same day. The distance is in miles between the two arenas for the two teams. By sorting the report by date, I match my open dates to dates where I can take advantage of multiple games on one trip. I have a more detailed write up on the construction and implementation of this application if anyone is interested.

As many of you who have started traveling again, air traveling now is a hit or miss affair where you are at the mercy of the airlines. I was due to arrive in Raleigh around 9:30AM on Friday 11/12. Given that the UNC game was not until 9PM, I had the whole day planed to visit the UNC and Duke basketball museums and partake of some local breweries. However, my connecting flight from DC to Raleigh was rescheduled to 9:45 PM which would not work. I saw a bunch of us trying to get standby for the next flight a few hours later. I wanted to be certain of making the game. I canceled the rescheduled flight from United and booked an early afternoon flight from Delta. (I need to speak about this to United!) All was well as I arrived in Raleigh around 4PM. My day was short circuited but my main goal for seeing the UNC game was accomplished.

I decided to head over to the Franklin Street area on campus and visit the TOPO or the Top of the Hill restaurant. About 12 years ago, my daughter and I ate here after a campus visit. She decided to go to Wake Forest but it was a fun trip. Many fans in the place were adorned in the UNC blue colors. I will say this about the UNC fans. You take first place in most fans who wear the team colors to a game.

I purchased pre paid parking after look at all the options. I have two rules of the road concerning parking:

  1. Never park in a campus parking garage. You will take forever single streaming out of the exit.
  2. Never use the campus shuttle system to get back to your parking spot. There were hordes of folks that night after the game waiting for the buses.

I prefer an open parking lot that may be not too convenient to the arena but close enough so I do not get a coronary waking to the game. I chose the 700 Hibbard Drive lot. I had no trouble getting in or getting out.

Ahh the Dean Dome! A classic on anyone’s list who is into college basketball. The first step inside gave me the impressions of a arena much bigger than I thought and a wave of Carolina blue on all the seats. Sitting up in section 213, I had plenty of room with open seats around me to spread out and take it all in.

Brown gave the Tar Heels all it could handle this game. Their disciplined offense gave UNC fits but talent and size usually wins the day with the Tar Heels coming out with a seven point victory. Kudos to Tar Heel point guard RJ Davis whose three pointer kept the Brownies at bay. He has a deadly pure jump shot which is a joy to watch.

That’s a wrap for now. I close by presenting a cool beer bottle consumed at the Atlanta airport. I wonder if every NFL city has the equivalent.

Southern Wesleyan (48) vs. Western Carolina (108) 01/25/18

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57 of 351  16% complete

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I avoid see Division 2 teams play Division 1 teams like the plague. It is never a contest and most always results in blowouts like it did tonight. However I do have extenuating circumstances which made for an exception.

As I stated in a earlier post, my wife miraculously agreed to seeing a second game on our North Carolina trip. If you look at the map, UNC Asheville and Western Carolina in Cullowhee are fairly close to each other. If I did not do Western Carolina this time, I would have to make a separate trip and go to great lengths on that trip to see a second team probably in Tennessee or South Carolina. Make sense?

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I won’t talk about the game much because it was tough to watch. Western Carolina had superior height and quickness over the the Division 2 club. I will note that Western Carolina sets the record for most cheerleaders in Operation 351 so far with a grand total of 23.

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I knew that this was trouble when I saw the upper level seats covered with black cloth. I wondered why Western Carolina would schedule a D-II club late in January. A little research brought up the fact that this game was originally scheduled on 12/8/17 but was canceled due to snow. What made it worse that Southern Wesleyan was not even a good D-II team. They were 1-9 in their league and 2-17 overall.

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Here is a little sad news. The Western Carolina mascot is the catamount which was declared officially extinct this week.

http://www.wcax.com/content/news/Catamount-officially-declared-extinct-470983003.html

Here is a picture of one:

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That’s all for now.

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Next game : UNC Wilmington at Northeastern 02/03/18