Andrew Carter, Joe Giglio and Laura Keeley, The N&O’s three college beat writers, took a quick break Thursday to share some of their insights, opinions and favorite moments about the NCAA tournament:

Q: All 3 teams start Friday. How many make the Sweet 16?

Andrew Carter: One. Duke. North Carolina will have a difficult time against Villanova and even if the Tar Heels advance, it’s unlikely they get past Kansas, which basically will be playing a home game in Kansas City. N.C. State can’t be counted on to win two win consecutive games against mediocre competition, let alone the likes of Temple and Indiana. If Duke doesn’t make it to the Sweet 16, it’d be a disappointment.

Laura Keeley: Just one Triangle team survives for a second trip. Gonzaga is the only No. 1 seed I have losing this weekend in my bracket.

Joe Giglio: Just Duke. With a better seed or matchup, either N.C. State or North Carolina could have, but it’s hard to go against Kansas in their home state or Indiana, which is basically just a better version of N.C. State, against N.C. State.

Federal Capital Partners, which acquired the first phase of the West Village development in downtown Durham late last year, announced Wednesday that it has taken a controlling interest in the project's second phase with a $5 million investment.

Phase two, which includes 212 apartments and 104,000 square feet of commercial space, is owned by a partnership that includes Duke basketball stars Christian Laettner and Brian Davis. That group will retain an equity interest in the project.

In December, FCP acquired West Village's first phase, which includes 241 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail and parking, for $35.25 million. FCP's partner in that deal is Greensboro-based Bell Partners.

West Village was developed by Laettner, Davis and Tom Niemann, a Duke business school graduate. Their company, Blue Devil Ventures, led a $170 million revitalization effort in Durham that converted an abandoned tobacco factory into a mix of restaurants, offices and apartments.

The title alone of this new ESPN special should cause some screeching or at least some serious eye-rolling among local Tar Heel fans: "The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky" airs Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. on ESPNU.

The 30-minute program, which is based on a premise set forth in Gene Wojciechowski's book of the same title, features former players, coaches and basketball analysts who argue that the 1992 overtime thriller between Duke and Kentucky was the last great game in men's college basketball.

Duke won the game 104-103 on a last-second shot by Christian Laettner.

There's insight from members of both ’92 teams, including Laettner and Grant Hill, as well as Kentucky’s Jamal Mashburn and John Pelphrey. Then-assistant coaches Mike Brey, Jay Bilas and Billy Donovan add their eyewitness accounts, while basketball analyst Len Elmore, who called the game for CBS, rounds out the discussion of the legendary game that propelled Duke to its 2^nd straight National Championship.

Photo from ESPN

Patience has never come as easily to Christian Laettner as, say, intensity.

And so while Laettner loved a lot of things about running his own basketball academy for the past couple of years in Jacksonville, Fla., he never completely had the serenity required to nurture high school players.

As a result, Laettner contacted Chris Lauten, a former Duke manager who now works in the front office of the NBA’s Development League. Lauten eventually put Laettner in touch with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants’ ownership after the Mad Ants fired their head coach and promoted an assistant to replace him in early January.

Former Duke basketball stars Christian Laettner and Brian Davis were both in attendance this morning at a Washington court hearing to defend themselves against contempt charges.

Laettner and Davis were not cited for contempt.

But they were ordered by the District Court judge, Beryl A. Howell, to hand over documents and sit for depositions over the next month, said Ugo Colella, an attorney with the firm Patton Boggs who represents the plaintiffs.

Colella’s clients are among several creditors trying to recoup money from Laettner and Davis, the athletes turned real estate developers behind Durham’s West Village development.

Colella asked a judge to find Laettner and Davis in contempt after the duo ignored a $671,309 judgment and requests to show whether they have assets to satisfy the judgment.

Davis and Laettner were served Thursday evening by the U.S. Marshals office, according to court records.

Colella said neither spoke at today’s hearing. They were ordered to pay $500 for the cost of being served, as well as to pay Patton Boggs attorney fees in the case.
 

A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that former Duke basketball stars Christian Laettner and Brian Davis must pay NFL linebacker Shawn Merriman $3.765 million and give him ownership stakes in the duo's projects in Durham, Baltimore and Atlanta.

Merriman, who currently plays for the Buffalo Bills, has accused Laettner and Davis of failing to abide by terms of a $3 million loan and a settlement reached in federal court in 2009.

The latest judgment, filed Dec. 13 in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, gives Merriman a 10 percent membership interest in the West Village Condos Partnership in Durham, the West Village project in Atlanta, and a project in Baltimore.

Merriman's capital stake in the Durham and Atlanta projects will be $800,000 each. In Baltimore, it will be $1.4 million.
 

Former Duke hoops star Christian Laettner told the N&O earlier this month that he and partner Brian Davis expect to fully settle all the outstanding claims against them.

Among the people who was surprised to hear that was Aaron Bailey, a Raleigh attorney who represents a client seeking to get back $1 million that he gave to Laettner and Davis as part of a failed attempt to purchase the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.

A superior court in California ruled in October that Laettner, Davis, Grizzly Holdings Acquisitions LLC and Ball Street Ventures LLC owed Leonard Simon $1,006,187.21.

A notice of foreign judgement was filed with the Durham County District Court in November.

Bailey says his client has yet to receive a dime from either Laettner or Davis and has not heard a word about when he may get paid.

"Laettner and Davis confessed final judgment, conceeding that they personally owe more than $1,000,000.00 to my client," Bailey said. "But since then, they have not taken one shining moment to repay it."

Laettner did not immediately return a call asking about the judgement for Simon.

In addition to saying that he and Davis are in the process of settling all outstanding claims, Laettner said earlier this month that the duo would be allowed to invest money in the final phase of the West Village development in Durham.

Late last year, Laettner and Davis, facing foreclosure, turned over control of the West Village tract that includes the Chesterfield to their lender, Select Capital Management of Rock Island, Ill.

Former Duke University basketball stars Christian Laettner and Brian Davis have turned over control of the property where the final phase of the West Village project in Durham is to be built.

The deed to the property, which includes the Chesterfield building, was transferred to the lender, Select Capital Management of Rock Island, Ill., in November in lieu of foreclosure.

Laettner and Davis have faced lawsuits from lenders who claimed the pair defaulted on at least $4.5 million in loans related to the unfinished portion of the West Village project.

The final West Village phase calls for the Chesterfield building to be turned into 157 apartments, almost 70,000 square feet of offices and ground-floor shops.

Davis and Laettner won two national championships while at Duke and Laettner then went on to a 13-year career in the NBA.

The completed portions of West Village -- a mix of offices, apartments and restaurants -- has been an important success story for downtown Durham.

About 90 percent of the office space in West Village was leased in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a survey of Triangle office space by Highwoods Properties.

Christian Laettner's Vitamin Water ad led me to "The Shot" on YouTube, which got me lost in a bunch clips uploaded by CBS and the NCAA of old NCAA Tournament games.

The extended clip from the Duke-Kentucky game leads to a great trivia question: How many current Division I head coaches were involved in that classic Duke-Kentucky game?