Ben McKeown

Saturday. 5:51 pm. Just got back into Charlotte from Raleigh, where I’d returned yesterday to attend the Wakefield girls basketball banquet.

The weather here is just annoying. On Friday, I sat outside on this nice little patio near the hotel, chatting with a photographer friend of mine from the N&O. I was in shorts and a t-shirt. The sun was loitering perfectly mildly in the western sky and the temperature was hovering somewhere in the high 70’s. Today, though, it’s hardly much warmer than 40 and the sky is this awfully melancholy gray. Every now and then, a few lonely raindrops fall and just affirm that today’s weather sucks. Again, another reason why March is my least favorite month.

Thank goodness, then, for the game tonight.

UNC will be playing Louisville in the Elite Eight. For the first time in the tournament, I’m genuinely worried that this might prove to be quite a tough game for the Heels. The Cardinals are coached by a pure hall-of-fame legend in Rick Pitino, and I would in no way put it past him to hold Carolina to a very close contest. That being said, however, if UNC plays their best, they are absolutely, in my mind, the best college basketball team in the country and I doubt they can be beaten by anyone. And moreover, UNC has been playing their best basketball of the year in this tournament and the final scores have shown it. Friday the Heels won by 15, their lowest winning margin so far in the NCAA’s, and they really didn’t play very well at all. Hopefully the game against Washington State will be only a little dip in their performance this postseason. Pitino and Louisville, however, will certainly put this theory to the test.

Tonight’s game starts at 9. I’m assuming that the Bobcats Arena is going to spread some sort of buffet for the media again somewhere around 7. Friday it was barbeque, salad, chicken - your typically hospitable North Carolina dinner. I expect tonight will be the same. I’m not particularly looking forward to hanging out with all the sportswriters and other photographers, as many (and I really mean many) of them are just a little too proud of themselves. I enjoy a bit of solitude before games where I can get pumped, if you will, much like I would if I were playing myself. A healthy amount of adrenaline flowing through my veins really helps my performance.

For now, I think I’ll chill in the room for a few more minutes. It’s too cold outside to really enjoy the streets of Charlotte (though in the warmth, it really is a nice place to explore) and I’m not feeling heading to the arena quite yet. When I get there, I’ll try to grab a few photos of the goings on in the media compound.

Incubus is playing in my head… Light Grenades… Time to start getting excited. One more win and I’m off to San Antonio. One loss and I’m back in Raleigh for what seems like much of the rest of the summer. I’d love to visit Texas.

The two hours of sleep is killing me. Good news: UNC won quite convincingly. That’s one game down, one more to go before I can travel to San Antonio

I have lots to discuss. I’m planning on finding a good coffee shop in downtown Charlotte tomorrow morning and spending a while writing before I head back to Raleigh for the Wakefield High School basketball banquet tomorrow night. Just as a bit of a trivial teaser… Some famous sports and non-sports people I saw tonight (other than the players and Roy):
- Dick Enberg
- Jay Bilas (though I see him at Cameron all the time)
- Eric Montross
- Pete Gillen
- Bruce Pearl
- Sean May
and…
- Paul Simon (who the hell knows why)

In the morning, I’ll bring you a ton more tidbits as well as possibly some photos of the behind the scenes. I’ve learned and experienced a lot of new stuff so far. I’m enjoying sharing it.

Now, though, sleep. Peace.

It’s 10:56 am as I write this. I’m sitting inside Raleigh’s Stonewolf Coffee (my coffee shop of choice nowadays). My friend Ryan suggested I start a bit of writing documenting my photography trip through the NCAA Tournament. That’s what I’m doing. Thanks for the suggestion Ryan.

I actually started shooting the tournament two rounds ago. I’m working still with WRAL.com, shooting UNC games. The first two rounds took place in my town of Raleigh at the RBC Center, so travel was obviously a cinch. UNC beat both Mount St. Mary’s and Arkansas easily. Really really easily. Scarily easily.

I relished working in the even more high-pressure, high-profile environment of the NCAA Tournament. The press rooms were abuzz with media chatter. Photographers, writers, videographers, bloggers, etc. all drifted about with a “this-is-important” demeanor that made the whole situation quite exciting. I brushed shoulders with Jim Nantz, Billy Packer, John Thompson, Eric Montross, Woody Durham, Patrick Ewing, and Roy Williams all in one day. Though I’m not usually one to gawk at celebrity, there was a part of me that really took pleasure in this.

Today at 7:27, UNC tips off against Washington State. If they win, they’ll play the winner of Tennessee vs Louisville (can’t wait for that game). I’m trying so hard not to get my hopes up, but every ounce of me wants so badly to fly to San Antonio for the big event. I need UNC to win two games. Just two.

For now, after I finish my coffee (got two hours of sleep last night) I’m going to hop in my dark green 1997 Toyota 4Runner with my 20D and 40D, my 12 inch G4 Powerbook, and my newly shaved head to drive to Charlotte, North Carolina where at the Bobcats arena, I’ll be silently - while remaining outwardly impartial - pulling hard for the Heels to beat Washington State. More to come.

“We Not Me”: How the Wakefield Girls Went 31-1

It’s hard for me to find the right words to describe the project that I just finished this morning. Working on it was intensely meaningful for me on a skyscraper’s worth of levels. I’ve made friends, made progress, learned about everything from photography to the importance of family. Truly, the production of “We Not Me” has been an experience of immeasurable significance for me. As a result, I’m quite excited to release the final product.

There is deep, undeniable importance in community. We are community. Be it the result of a relationship with just one person or with billions of others, there is hardly a way of escaping this fact. Even in complete solitude, we struggle many times to “live with ourselves,” which, it could be argued, is a form of community. And in order to operate in any way effectively, we must recognize and embrace our inevitable proximity. The best and most successful communities flourish because of this collective understanding. Ultimately, we each must also recognize at some point that our own success depends greatly on the success the group as a whole. If the group fails, we all fail individually.

I guess that one of the reasons that I love basketball is the fact that this concept is acutely evident in this arena. A basketball team must embrace the aforementioned philosophies wholeheartedly in order to succeed on any level. In high school - a place where the struggle to fit into the community is as intense as ever - this need to embrace community is even more obvious.

The girls basketball team at Wakefield High School has done just this. And they’ve done it in a way that is truly unique. I’ve covered a lot of sports, played for a lot of teams, and I’ve never seen it done quite so perfectly. Their familial approach to things is in a word, beautiful. Graciously, over the past month or so, they allowed me to follow them around with a camera and a minidisc recorder so that I could document this beauty.

To the girls… thank you so much. I’ll forever appreciate what you’ve taught me.

To everyone else… if you like what you see, please feel free to make a comment on the main story page at WRAL.com. Ultimately, if you’d like to see more of this kind of intense and in-depth storytelling, let them know. Personally, I think that it takes more than a few minutes with a person/group to really gather the truth. I’ve been able to extract immensely more in my month with the girls than I could’ve ever gotten in just a few minutes of questions/answers and photo-taking.

Along those lines, and on a more societal note, I think that our very own community needs more of this kind of journalism. We’ve gotten way too used to loud, obnoxious, 30 second “news” stories. There is rarely any value in these (non)information power-punches. Truth is inherently deep and difficult. The pursuit of the truth should be equally thus. If you agree, let them know.

Peace and family.

PS. Very special thanks to the following people: Nathan Clendenin, Dane Huffman, Anna McKeown, Kaitlin McKeown, and Danielle Blackburn. You all helped so much.

UGH. More on this sometime soon. 72 to 47 is not fair.

(Graphic from wral.com)