Posts tagged Duke
Duke Cannon Supply Co. To Donate To U.S. Military & Their Dogs
This Memorial Day Duke Cannon Supply Co., the brand that brought you the “Big Ass Brick of Soap,” will donate a 1:1 product match for every product sold to U.S. Military service men as well as one premium dog treat for their working dogs through the support of the MWDTSA (Military Working Dog Team Support Association, Inc.).
Duke Cannon knows these dogs, along with their handlers from every military service, are deployed worldwide to defend the U.S. at home and abroad, helping to safeguard military bases and activities and to detect bombs and other explosives before they inflict harm. What better way to pay homage to fallen soldiers than by helping those sill serving? The Duke abides.
For more info follow @dukecannon on Twitter and on Facebook.
May 23rd
Grant Hill Talks March Madness, NBA, Kicks, and More
If you are a fan of the game of basketball than you are probably a fan of Grant Hill. From his college days at Duke University to his time in the NBA Hill always gave it his all on the court. If you don’t believe just look at some of his accolades. In college he was a two time NCAA champion, the ACC Player of the Year, and NABC Defensive Player of the Year.
In the NBA Hill made his presence known right away by winning the NBA Co-Rookie of the Year award. He was a seven time NBA All-Star and was part of the All-NBA First Team in 1997.
Besides his great body of work on the court, Grant has helped just as much off the court with community service. Hill has been working with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and Allstate to promote the 2014 Allstate NABC Good Works Team. This is a team made up of 10 college basketball players who have been recognized for their community service and work off the court. Hill is a member of the voting panel with other former student-athletes, coaches and media members to select the team.
Grant was able to chat with me about the NABC Good Works Team program, basketball, and his signature sneakers.
Art Eddy: First off let’s talk about the 2014 Allstate NABC Good Works Team program. Tell how you are helping out with the NCAA and Allstate.
Grant Hill: I am proud to be associated with the National Associate of Basketball Coaches and of course AllState to be a national ambassador for this team. It is the second year of this program. Basically they select a group college basketball players who stand out in their community for their charitable achievements and activities.
We get a chance to honor the ten players who were selected for this team. It is really an outstanding group of men who exemplify and embody what this award is really all about. The great thing for me is that I had an opportunity to see the importance of giving back and making a positive impact on my community while I was at college in Duke. That is something that really stuck with me throughout my career and my life.
To know that there are basketball players all over the country that we had a chance to select from was great. Unfortunately not all could make it, but the ten who did are really exceptional. Just to know that there are other kids out there who understand this I think is really amazing and really important. I am honored to be involved and share it with people like you.
AE: How can fans participate?
GH: You can go to the website, nabc.org or bca.org. There is also a team for women’s college basketball. There will be a program where we honor them at the Final Four this year in Texas. There will be a community project benefitting the city in the Dallas area. We will have an opportunity to get all ten of these honorees together. Certainly you can go onto the website and get all of the information.
AE: March Madness is here. Every sports station seems to always show your iconic moment with Christian Laettner to beat Kentucky. I take it that video highlight never gets old for you?
GH: No it doesn’t. It is funny. You get a chance to relive great moments. Basically that happened about over 20 years ago. It is still one of those plays that I guess people will always remember. It is really just what I think the NCAA tournament is all about.
Those big game moments and great plays on that stage are fun. I don’t have a problem whatsoever. I know that at some point during March Madness I get a chance to see it on television and I am not complaining. (Both laugh.)
AE: What were some of the things that Coach Mike Krzyzewski taught you at Duke that you still take with you in life?
GH: Coach K has taught me that there are so many values that you can take from the game and really apply them in life. There is hard work. There is preparation, discipline, collective responsibility, and pride. All these different things that he stressed makes him a great coach, teacher and a leader. It also translated into great teams.
Certainly all of his teams do not win the championship, but for the most part they play and do things the right way. I think a lot of those values you can take with you. I know I have. It stuck with me. I was a teenager 20 some odd years ago playing for Coach K. I still remember and go back and think about those lessons and apply them in all facets of life.
Coach K is the best. I am fortunate that I had a chance to play for him. He is still going. Coach is still continuing to contribute to the game. He still is having an impact over the span of 30 years at Duke University. It is pretty remarkable.
AE: Your first year in the NBA you showed the league what you could do. You won NBA Co-Rookie of the Year. What was your initial impressions about the NBA after your first year? 
GH: At first it was interesting. There were certain things about the game early on that I realized were easier than I had anticipated. There also were some things that were more difficult. After a year under my belt and having the time to reflect after my rookie season I had an idea of what I needed to improve upon.
I had some confidence now. I can play at a high level. I can make the All-Star games. I was hungry like most young players to get better. After success early on you are still trying to prove yourself. After my first year I was still trying to prove myself. I locked myself in the gym. I worked on my game and I felt like I came out better the next year.
AE: Do you have a favorite all-time moment from your playing days in the league?
GH: It is hard to choose from. I feel like my career was separated in a few different careers. It was like two or three careers in one. In the 90s, which included my time at Duke from 1990 to my time in Detroit up to the year of 2000 were just amazing. I certainly couldn’t have dreamt up anything better. Four years in college and six years in the pros, All-Star games, and all of that.
From the adversity of my time during the Orlando years, being hurt, and thinking that I might not be playing ever again. At the end there were some really neat years in Phoenix. Maybe because it was more recent I would say I enjoyed my time in Phoenix. I had a new opportunity. I was appreciative of going through the fire and going through adversity.
Even though I was a different player it can be just the opportunity to play. Sometimes you can only appreciate things until they are gone. They were almost gone for me. My whole career was great. It had its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change it for one minute. I was just grateful that I was able to play and play for as long as I did.
AE: You had some cool signature kicks during your time in the NBA. Did you have a favorite?
GH: Not really. Maybe my first shoe might have been my favorite just because it was the first one. It really took off and did well. Those were fun times. I was real fortunate. A lot of things that I have dreamed of happened for me and happened right away. That seems like a whole lifetime ago. That was almost 20 years ago.
It was cool to have your own shoe. It is cool now for my kids to look back and see that I had my own shoe.
Mar 24th
Seth Davis tells MANjr why fans need to check out the Campus Insider App
A new mobile app launched by Campus Insiders takes fans deep inside college sports with game highlights, interviews and a behind-the-scenes perspective of the trending stories of the day, from on-camera hosts Bonnie Bernstein and Seth Davis, as well as top college analysts, former coaches and special contributors.
Campus Insiders is the online destination and leading digital content syndication source for college sports fans. The app is free and now available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It provides an interactive user experience that enables college sports fans to access the same content available at CampusInsiders.com, along with the insight and perspective of Campus Insiders’ stable of experts, including broadcasters Bonnie Bernstein, Seth Davis and the nearly 100 Insiders from college campuses across the country.
The Campus Insiders app features breaking news and video alert, video on-demand, filtered by sport, and daily original programming, including live programming (starting this Fall) featuring Bonnie Bernstein and Seth Davis.
I had the great pleasure to speak with Seth Davis about the Campus Insider website and app, college football and basketball, and much more.
Art Eddy: Tell me about your new project “The Seth Davis Show.”
Seth Davis: It is a really exciting project for me. Took a long time to come up with the name of the show. We got really creative and outside the box and came up with “The Seth Davis Show.” It is for this new all-digital sports network called Campus Insiders. The future is hear. This is all digital. The website we have is Campus Insiders dot com.
The way this model works is instead of getting you to come to us, we are going to come to you. Whether it is through Twitter, there are literally hundreds of websites out there that are distributing content. As name of the network indicates it is based on insider access and information. The network is partnering with IMG College, which owns the broadcast rights to many FBS schools. We are going to be talking to people who are at these schools all the time. My role on “The Seth Davis Show” is to do more long form sit down interviewing, which is what I enjoy.
AE: I love the idea about how Campus Insiders gives you the all access feel to campuses around the country. What type of guests can we expect to see coming up on your show?
SD: Even though college basketball is my bailiwick as you know Art, we are going to be very football heavy, especially at the start. I have already interviewed Bob Stoops and Will Muschamp, Mack Brown and Steve Spurrier. I talked a little basketball with Billy Donovan when I was in Gainesville, but I will be talking to Larry Scott the PAC-12 Commissioner.
It is going to be a college sports type franchise, type of show, but I reserve the right to go off topic. I happen to live in Los Angeles. I have moved here with my family. If I happen to be able to grab a movie star here or there, or a pro athlete or a pro coach here or there, the bottom line is I call it smart conversations with interesting people. There are no rules, so you can’t say the rules apply because this is a brand new concept of distributing content. So there are no rules and we are going to have a lot of fun.
AE: Besides the great work you do for CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated which is a lot already. Can you tell me how you got involved with Campus Insiders?
SD: Well the guys who are running Campus Insiders, Jason Coyle, Josh Wine, Crowley Sullivan; these are guys that not only I know, but everybody knows. They have been around the block a lot. They have been in the industry a lot, so I always have maintained a running dialogue. I am also managed by IMG, so this is really important to IMG and IMG College to get into this digital space.
There are certain things that I do well and there are certain things that I don’t do well. Campus Insiders you look at me and you look at Bonnie, (Bernstein) we are very opinionated people, but we covered college sports a long time. We are not necessarily looking to say the single most inflammatory thing we can say all the time. I certainly have very strong opinions. Just ask my wife. (Laughs)
What I try to deliver for Campus Insiders is the same thing I try to deliver for CBS. It is the same thing that I deliver for Sports Illustrated, which is journalism. Hopefully high quality journalism that is fair, that is balanced, that is informative and opinionated. By the way it should be entertaining. I am cognizant of the fact that this is sports. This is not the war in Afghanistan we are talking about. This is supposed to be fun. When I go into these interviews the first thing I say to these folks is let’s have some fun here. It is a foreign concept to these college football coaches. It is having fun at work. It is not supposed to be fun they think, but for the thirty minutes that we are in front of this camera it is okay to have fun.
AE: With college football in sight, what are some of the things we as fans should look out for on Campus Insiders?
SD: For me, it will be the more long form interview type. The answer really Art is I am not sure. That is what is exciting about it. I come out of the TV world. I have a show on the CBS Sports Network during the college basketball season called “Courtside.” It is on every Wednesday at 7 o’clock. You are locked in.
When you are in the digital space you are not so quite locked in. If we want to do Tuesday this week instead of Monday or do we want the segment to be 12 minutes instead of 35 minutes. We are kind of throwing things against the wall and seeing what works. We want to be high level in terms of our presentation and our information. You are getting good information. It is being presented in an opinionated and fun way, but it is also authentic.
I don’t think you are going to see people, and I am not denigrating other anybody, but I don’t think you are going to see me and Bonnie screaming at each other. We may debate or argue, but I would like to think of it as high level, smart, fun conversation between two people who don’t take themselves too seriously.
AE: I enjoy your work at CBS Sports as you cover NCAA men’s college basketball. You went to Duke. Is it hard to not be a homer when breaking the games down?
SD: (Laughs) You know what, it is not hard at all. I get this question a lot. They are like the Yankees man. A lot of people say to me is it hard to be critical of Duke. First of all there is not that much to criticize. What are you really going to say about them? The answer is it is much harder to praise them.
I wish it wasn’t this way, but I am cognizant of this because everybody knows that I went to Duke because folks like you bring it up to me all the time. If I am inclined to praise them I find myself not doing it that much. It is hard for me to say good things about them because people say he just saying that because he went to Duke.
Well I say the win a lot. They don’t really cheat. Coach K is the USA Basketball coach. There is really not a whole lot of bad things you can say about them. That doesn’t mean I will not criticize them. When I put on my suit and tie, when I get behind my desk I am a journalist, an analyst, and an expert. That is how I deal.
I would be less than honest if I said when I watch Duke, do I want to see them win. Of course I do. I went to that school. It is in my blood. I really do believe that the vast, vast majority of readers and fans understand the difference between those two things. It is just the one percent who ride me on Twitter, but that is the kind of age we live in now. (Laughs.)
Aug 28th
