DURHAM — The U.S. men's basketball team that will compete in Beijing at the Summer Games in August will be announced on Monday in Chicago, national team coach Mike Krzyzewski said on Tuesday during a press conference.

The team has 12 spots. Two positions that are the most up for grabs, according to comments made last week by national team managing director Jerry Colangelo, are point guard and another forward spot.

New Orleans Hornets star Chris Paul, a product of Wake Forest and Winston-Salem native, is contending for one the point guard spots.

• UNC, Duke, Wake Forest preview

The ACC lost one underclassman to the NBA Draft. That's the fewest since the parade of juniors started to leave the college ranks 25 years ago.

Theoretically, that means the ACC is poised for a great season with, at the very least, a chance to send more than four teams to the NCAA Tournament, which it did in 2008 despite being the No. 1-rated conference by the RPI.

The league will certainly have a national power to fly the flag in UNC, the prohibitive favorite to win the national title in Detroit on April 6, 2009. And the face of college basketball in UNC senior Tyler Hansbrough, who'll become the conference's all-time leading scorer and UNC's leading rebounder before the tournament begins.

=> Read more!

John Strollo, who coached Duke's offensive line the past two seasons, joined Pete Lembo's staff at Elon on Monday. Strollo will coach tight ends.

Strollo's college coaching career began at Washburn University in 1983. The former Boston College football letterman has also coached at Maine, Cornell, Lafayette, Massachusetts and Northeastern.

Back when he still sported a mop of long hair, Duke basketball star Kyle Singler suited up with future NBA Draft lottery picks Michael Beasley and Kevin Love at New York's famed Rucker Park for a basketball documentary.

As if playing at Rucker didn't already give the 2008 ACC Freshman of the Year a truckload of cool points, he also got to be associated with Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

In "Gunnin' for That No. 1 Spot," Yauch, better known as MCA, followed the nation's top high school seniors back in Sept. 2006. It debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

That flash of strawberry blond hair dunking on the fastbreak towards the end of the clip is Singler.

A Duke alum, not a golfer from that West Coast private school, leads the U.S. Open after 18 holes. Kevin Streelman shot a 3-under 68 at Torrey Pines on Friday to share the top of the leaderboard with fellow unknown, Justin Hicks.

Ol' Whatshisname from Stanford shot a 72, one shot over par and four off the first-day lead.

Streelman had a chance to take the clubhouse lead by himself but bogeyed his last hole, the ninth. He'll tee off with the second group today at 10:11 a.m. from the first tee.

=> Read more!

Don't laugh. It's happening under first-year Duke football coach David Cutcliffe, who signed on 22 new Duke football season-ticket holders during a May 22 visit to his old hometown of Knoxville, Tenn.

Is the former Tennessee offensive coordinator trying to turn orange Volunteer fans into Blue Devils?

"Absolutely," Cutcliffe said Thursday during an interview at his refurbished office at the Yoh Football Center.

"Is that awesome? Isn't that great? We're going to set a record for season ticket sales. If you don't get on this year, you're really going to be out of luck next year."

=> Read more!

Former Duke linebacker Ryan Fowler finds himself askew with the NFL's performance-enhancing police. Fowler, who plays for the Tennessee Titans, has been notified by the league about a possible suspension.

Fowler has been linked with convicted steroids dealer David Jacobs, who died of an apparent suicide last week.

Fowler's attorney, Peter Ginsberg, is not real happy about the NFL's course of action.

"Ryan has never tested positive for any banned substance," Ginsberg said. "There apparently are unsubstantiated accusations that have been made by an admitted felon without any corroboration and the commissioner apparently has seen fit to use those accusations to threaten my client's career."

DURHAM — He didn't get to Durham until 3:45 a.m. on Friday, but Boston Celtics managing partner Steve Pagliuca was determined not to miss any more of the Duke fantasy basketball camp than necessary.

Pagliuca, who attended the Celtics' Game 1 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in Boston on Thursday, flew to North Carolina after the game.

=> Read more!

In case David Cutcliffe didn't realize the priority of football at Duke, perhaps he did after perusing today's article about the plan for temporary women's bathrooms at Wallace Wade Stadium.

The good news for Duke football fans of the female persuasion is there will be pimped-out port-a-trailer potties that are air-conditioned and complete with an attendant. Associate Duke AD Chris Kennedy went as far as to call the water closets "the gold standard."

The bad news for Cutcliffe is the plans to renovate Wally Wade were shelved until 2009 because the campus needed new walkways. The former Ole Miss coach better hope the Duke Chapel doesn't need a new coat of paint next summer.

Money for campus paving over the football stadium — just like the SEC, right coach?

Duke will play James Madison in its first football game on Aug. 30 at 7 p.m., according to the ACC early-season television schedule released Tuesday.

That'll be first outing for first-year coach David Cutcliffe and the first look at what he has promised will be a productive, exciting offense.

Duke also plays Northwestern on Sept. 6 at 7 and Navy on Sept. 13 at noon, in an ESPNU-televised game. Last year's Duke-Navy game was a wild one ending, 46-43 in Navy's favor.

ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski, no relation to Duke's Wojo, said Kevin White may have left Notre Dame on Saturday for Duke but he has been powerless Under the Golden Dome since 2004.

White didn't want to fire football coach Ty Willingham in 2004, the school's trustees did. They did and White has been searching for a way out ever since, Wojciechowski writes.

Of course, White won't have to answer to a board of meddling trustees at Duke, just the captain of the castle.

Staff photo by Chris Seward

Duke president Richard Brodhead

Duke AD Kevin White

White on improving Duke football

• Photo gallery

DURHAM — Duke's new athletics director Kevin White couldn't be happier to trade one tradition-rich private school for another.

"We're not excited, we're euphoric," said White, 57, who left Notre Dame to replace Joe Alleva.

Alleva took the same job at LSU in April. The hire still must be approved by the Duke Board of Trustees. White said he will officially begin June 16 but expected to make one or two trips back to Durham during that time.

=> Read more!

Staff photos by Ted Richardson

DURHAM — At the end of a recent two-hour workout, former Duke basketball standout DeMarcus Nelson is soaked with sweat. And that was after just one of three workouts he'd do that day.

This is how Nelson, 22, prepared for a recent successful stint at the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando and individual team workouts beginning June 4:

=> Read more!

Notre Dame athletics director Kevin White is expected to be named the new Duke AD, two sources confirmed for The News & Observer late Friday night.

Duke has been searching for a replacement for Joe Alleva, who left Duke for the same post at Louisiana State in April.

White, 57, could not be reached for comment.

White has fronted the Notre Dame athletics department since the 2000-01 academic year. One of his marquee accomplishments was successfully negotiating a renewal of the unprecedented television contract that the Irish football team has with NBC. The current deal expires in 2010.

=> Read more!

CHAPEL HILL — Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis and cornerback Leon Wright were cited for underage possession of alcohol on 1700 E. Franklin Street in Chapel Hill on Wednesday morning at 1:51 a.m., according to police reports.

Lewis and Wright, both 20, were given Breathalyzer tests at the scene and both registered a .03 blood alcohol level. Since both are under 21, they were issued the citation for underage drinking.

A Duke spokesman said that the school wouldn’t comment on the citations and that Duke football coach David Cutcliffe would handle the matter internally.

=> Read more!