By this Author

Grasshoppers owners preparing to buy ballpark

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:20:30 -0400

The owners of the Greensboro Grasshoppers are preparing to purchase the minor-league team’s ballpark downtown, and the Bryan Foundation will soon be out of the baseball business.

Ed Hardin: Magical season so far for Greensboro Grasshoppers

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:31:47 -0400

GREENSBORO — Springtime in the Sally League, and everything’s coming up roses.

At least here in Greensboro.

In what has already been a magical season for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the hardest part of managing it has been waiting for it to end. Not the season. The magic.

Ed Hardin: Florida State can’t seriously be thinking of leaving the ACC

"Ed Hardin ()" — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:53:10 -0400

Florida State can’t seriously be thinking of leaving the ACC, can it? For the Big 12? Really?

Wyndham champion (and expectant father) Webb Simpson says he'll defend title

"Ed Hardin ()" — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:07:06 -0400

CHARLOTTE -- Webb Simpson is coming to Greensboro in August to defend his Wyndham Championship title, he said.

No word yet on how his wife Dowd will feel about that. She’s pregnant with the couple’s second child, and the due date is Aug. 3 -- two weeks before the Wyndham.

Ed Hardin: Wolfpack a trendy pick, but not here

"Ed Hardin ()" — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:00:00 -0400

So here we are in April, and we have it all figured out now. Right.

By the time we meet next April in Atlanta, we still won’t have it figured out. But with everything’s that’s happened in the past few weeks, there’s been a rush to predict next year’s basketball season before this one’s had time to dry in the history books.

Ed Hardin column: Panthers set plans for NFL draft

"Ed Hardin ()" — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:42:23 -0400

The inexact science that is the NFL draft reveals the exact strengths and weaknesses of all NFL teams. And more precisely, it reveals the people who make the decisions.

N.C. A&T hires former S.C. State basketball coach

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:22:57 -0400

GREENSBORO — Cy Alexander is back in the MEAC.

Alexander was named men’s basketball coach at N.C. A&T on Friday afternoon. The man who guided S.C. State to five MEAC titles during a 16-year run there, said he plans to do the same with the Aggies.

N.C. A&T set to hire Cy Alexander as men's basketball coach

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:55:59 -0400

GREENSBORO — Cy Alexander, the former South Carolina State coach, will be the new men’s basketball coach at N.C. A&T after the school’s Board of Trustees meets this afternoon.

Hardin: Face it, auto racing is part of us

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:18:11 -0400

Call it a throwback weekend. Or racing into history. Or motorsports gone mad.

Ed Hardin column: Hoppers will finally raise their flag tonight

"Ed Hardin ()" — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:04:36 -0400

GREENSBORO — The local baseball nine will welcome back an old tradition tonight when the Grasshoppers raise a pennant in a pregame ceremony before the opener against the Lexington Legends.

Well, maybe not an actual pennant. It’s more of a banner.

“I don’t know what it is,” team president Donald Moore said. “It’s a flag.”

Hardin: NASCAR'S Tony Stewart is top driver in young man’s sport

"Ed Hardin ()" — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:23:30 -0400

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart is 40 going on, well 41, and he’s showing his age.

In a sport marketed for the young and young at heart, Stewart is in his prime. He’s entering what has been the traditional fourth turn in racing careers, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, just last week he said he might even be getting better.

Hardin: ACC basketball season ends early

"Ed Hardin ()" — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:08:33 -0400

CHAPEL HILL — For a brief time Sunday, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

But it was only the eye of a storm.

Basketball season ended Sunday afternoon on Tobacco Road. The top-seeded Tar Heels fell 80-67 in an NCAA regional final, two days after State lost to the same team from Kansas, one week after Duke fell hard against Lehigh.

Ed Hardin column: The Pack just might be back

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 05:00:00 -0400

There’s an unspoken storyline that will continue to play out today in St. Louis and beyond.

It means more than a win over Kansas or even another one on Sunday. To the long-suffering fans of N.C. State basketball, it means everything.

The question is one almost too big to fathom.

Has the Pack finally run down Duke and Carolina?

Hardin: Under the bright lights, N.C. State finds its team

"Ed Hardin ()" — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:16:41 -0400

Completely out of the blue, here comes the Wolfpack.

This, of course, is how it should be.

N.C. State isn’t rolling into the Sweet Sixteen as some upstart Cinderella from nowhere. And as unexpected as its arrival is, even to those who will tell you now they saw it coming, State’s re-entry to the national stage isn’t some wild card from some far-flung league.

Ed Hardin: Marshall’s wrist injury casts huge cloud for Heels

"Ed Hardin ()" — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:27:16 -0400

GREENSBORO — A festive day ended on a somber note Sunday when the news swept through the Greensboro Coliseum and out into the parking lots.

Kendall Marshall had fractured his right wrist.

Hardin: NCAA tourney fans all atwitter about Henson's wrist

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:16:21 -0400

GREENSBORO — The wrist has its own Twitter account.

Sort of. Fame is fleeting.

For the past few days, the injured wrist of John Henson has become its own entity: @johnhensonwrist.

Henson is a follower.

Joel Fleishman, a Tar Heel forever

"Ed Hardin ()" — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:29:46 -0400

GREENSBORO — Joel Fleishman was the manager of the 1957 North Carolina Tar Heels until the day he died.

Of all the things he was to all the people who knew him, Fleishman was the most loyal member of the North Carolina basketball family the program has ever known.

He wasn’t just a manager. He was the manager.

Sedgefield to change greens to Bermuda

"Ed Hardin ()" — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:13:12 -0400

GREENSBORO — Sedgefield Country Club will close its golf course in May to begin changing its greens from bentgrass to Bermuda.

The change will make the greens faster and is likely to make the scores higher in the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship in August.

The work is expected to take eight to 10 weeks.

Hardin: NCAA penalties give UNC a black eye

"Ed Hardin ()" — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:58:40 -0400

Shame, shame, shame.

The clumsy attempt by the University of North Carolina to win a national title in football ended ignominiously Monday when the school was slapped with a three-year probation by the NCAA for major violations.

UNC's Hairston hopes slump is over

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:42:30 -0500

ATLANTA -- Greensboro's P.J. Hairston played 15 minutes today for North Carolina, made a 3-pointer in the second half and felt like he was finally coming out of what he called “the slump.”

Hairston had missed 39 of his previous 47 shots before Friday's game against Maryland.

Ed Hardin: It's clear ACC blew the call on Hess

"Ed Hardin ()" — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:48:50 -0500

ATLANTA — Insurrection.

Three weeks after the ACC reprimanded referee Karl Hess for tossing two former N.C. State players from the stands in Raleigh, the officials fired back Thursday.

UNCG hires search firm to find men's basketball coach

"Ed Hardin ()" — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:43:50 -0500

GREENSBORO — UNCG has hired a firm to aid in the search of a men’s basketball coach, athletics director Kim Record said today.

Record said the school used Academic Search, a firm out of Washington, whose senior consultant David Braine, the former AD at Georgia Tech, led the effort. Record said there are no plans to make an announcement until the current season is over.

Hardin: Duke's Austin Rivers delivers against UNC

"Ed Hardin ()" — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:00:00 -0500

CHAPEL HILL — Austin Rivers broke the hearts of the Tar Heels, and Duke stole the game.

Rivers, a freshman in the game of his life, pulled up from no-man's land with the game in his hands and nailed a 3-pointer as time expired in one of the most dramatic shots in the long and dramatic history of the Duke-Carolina series.

The first game is always special for ACC fans

"Ed Hardin ()" — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:00:00 -0500

Tonight is like a holiday in this state, an event removed from all the other events of February, a celebration of basketball with nothing riding on it but the game itself.

Duke vs. North Carolina. The first game.

Hardin: Gottfried, Pack let one get away

"Ed Hardin ()" — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:00:00 -0500

RALEIGH — The game ended with the new coach stripped down to his shiny cuff links, and the crowd incensed over everything real and perceived. N.C. State lost 86-75 to Indiana as another chapter of Wolfpack basketball lurched into another December.