Former ACC Associate Commissioner Fred Barakat, who was ESPNU's analyst on the Florida State-N.C. State basketball game Tuesday, also has a couple of things cooking as a consultant for both ESPN and UNC-Greensboro.

Former ACC Associate Commissioner Fred Barakat, who worked as ESPNU's analyst on the Florida State-N.C. State men's basketball game Tuesday night, also is keeping busy as a consultant for both ESPN and UNC-Greensboro.

One doesn't think of ethereal-voiced goddess Emmylou Harris as a sports enthusiast. But she is -- the 2001 concert movie "Down From the Mountain"
outed Harris as an obsessive baseball fan who carries around a pager to
send her up-to-the-minute scores. Harris would like nothing better than
to catch a Durham Bulls game while she's in town this week to sing at the NC Museum of Art. She won't have time for that, but she's going to plenty of other games on this tour.

"I've already been to Yankee Stadium, plus games in Toronto, San
Francisco and Washington," she said during a recent phone interview
from New York City. "It just depends on when we have a day off that's
not a travel day. I'm a Braves fan, which has been a little frustrating the past few years. But that's part of baseball."

Harris has never played baseball herself, except for the occasional
game of wiffleball with her kids: "I was not very athletic in school. I
was more into going off into the woods and trekking around, so I was a
bit of a tomboy that way. But team sports, I was not into. I had one
daughter who was an amazing volleyball player, so I drove the team
around during junior high and high school. I applaud sports for women
and regret not getting into them."

For more, see the rest of the interview
from this past Friday's paper; or click through to see an interview
with Harris from 2004, discussing a range of stuff including long-ago
college days in North Carolina. Her Wednesday night show in Raleigh is,
alas, already soldout.