News & Observer | newsobserver.com | 2008 NCAA Men's Bracket

DURHAM — Junior forward Kyle Singler floated a possibility that seems to make sense for Duke’s unusually configured 2009-10 basketball team.

"What we’ve been talking about... is we might be playing a little more zone this year than in years past,” Singler said during an exclusive interview Thursday. “That might not be the way Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] wants to do it, but with the personnel that we have, we are a big team.”

Four players who were expected to be on N.C. State’s 2009 football roster will not be with the team, the school announced Thursday.

Coach Tom O’Brien announced that sophomore cornerback Dominique Ellis is transferring. Three players who signed with N.C. State in February – Tyson Chandler, Raynard Randolph and Bryan Underwood – will not enroll in the fall.

South Stanly defensive end Justin Taylor has committed to Virginia Tech, picking the Hokies over fellow finalist N.C. State.

"He's only played one year of football," said South Stanly coach Luke Little Wednesday. "He's real raw. But everyone who looked at him was just so impressed by the way he hustles, and he's real athletic."

Once people got a look at the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Taylor during spring evaluations in May, the offers started coming in. He went from none to eight in less than a month.

All those packed houses at Carter-Finley Stadium and the RBC Center apparently haven’t gone unnoticed.

Men’s Health Magazine ranked Raleigh as the No. 18 sports-obsessed city in the United States. The ranking of 100 major U.S. cities appears in the July/August issue of the magazine.

Update: The deal is worth nearly $38 million.

North Carolina has signed a 10-year deal with Nike to be the exclusive supplier of athletic footwear, apparel and accessory products to the Tar Heels, the school announced.

This marks UNC's fourth contract with Nike, and it is retroactive to July 1, 2008.

Add Duke's Mike Krzyzewski to the list of college basketball coaches speaking out this summer against what's become known as the NBA's "one-and-done" rule.

Mike Krzyzewski’s reaffirmation to Duke basketball comes as no surprise, but it is another sign that his eventual victory total will stand long after the current wave of big-name college coaches moves on.

At age 62, with 833 wins and likely to coach five more seasons if his health remains good, Krzyzewski easily should overtake his old coach, Bob Knight (902 wins), on the all-time list.

Sports Illustrated's list of the highest-paid athletes offers a light to anyone who has their career path darkened by the economy recently.

Check out No. 17 on SI's "Fortunate 50" list: Stephon Marbury.

True, NBA gigs tend to be difficult to come by but Marbury, who hasn't been a viable NBA player in four years, was paid $18.6 million not to play basketball by the New York Knicks last season. (Note: the Knicks are the same franchise that once paid Larry Brown $18.5 million not to coach.)

OMG! Alert the Wisconsin illuminati, Duke's basketball coach is not leaving for the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I will never leave Duke until I leave coaching," he said. "I'm not going to the Lakers. They have one of the great coaches in the game [in Phil Jackson]. I can't do it as well as he can."

A bit more on Logan Winkles, the latest N.C. State football commitment:

Winkles is also an excellent wrestler, a first-team All-Region choice after going 34-4 in individual matches. He was an area champion and eventually, an all-American.