University of North Carolina Athletics
All ACCess BACCstage Pass: Mick Mixon
March 9, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 9, 2000
By Chris Boyer
TheACC.com
Throughout the 2000 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament, we will take a look at the league, the personalities, and the tournament through the eyes of those behind the scenes, behind the cameras, and behind the keyboards in Charlotte. It will be first-hand account of the nation's premier college basketball conference event through the eyes of those who plan it, cover it, and see it up close. We are giving you a set of BACCSTAGE Passages.
Mike Dunleavy, Duke's Mr. Versatile, has just been cleared to play at this year's ACC Tournament after a bout with Mononucleuosis, and is on the floor with his teammates at Wednesday evening's relaxed-but-brisk team shoot around. What the Blue Devil Freshman doesn't know is that he has an unsolicited second opinion waiting for him up in press row of the mostly-empty Charlotte Coliseum.
"I am here covering the tourney for the New England Journal of Medicine and the case of Michael Dunleavy and mononucleosis," says the straight-faced man in the bleachers, "and I have decided I am not going to let him play."
ehind us, a Blue Devil slams home a jam and ignites the few hundred Cameron Crazies who have pilgrimmaged inside the Coliseum for the shoot around.
"To me, the spleen looks like it is really enlarged," continues the tie-clad impersonator, "and I don't think he should risk a laceration and a medical emergency. Now I haven't told Coach K yet, but I am going to tell him after this shoot around that he just can't risk it."
"In fact, a ruptured spleen would probably be the worst scene at an ACC Tournament since the time they ran out of Dove bars in the media room in Greensbor a couple years back," the psuedo-medical expert conjtinues, not missing a bea. "That was more of a panic situation, an emergency really. These hungry reporters were just screaming for their ice cream, and there was none there. Very ugly."
In reality, Mick Mixon may have been one of those hungry media-type, because as he drops the Medical Journal persona, he reveals that he is actually the play-by-play man for the Tar Heel Sports Network. He sits here in the Coliseum covering his 11th consecutive ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.
Surprisingly, the radio veteran hasn't seen a whole lot of changes in the ACC or its tourney in his time covering it. "To me I don't think it has changed much during my time. Different teams have taken turns being center-stage, like and Duke and North Carolina have had their share, but Georgia Tech has some nice runs, Wake Forest and even N.C. State has sprung a few upsets. It may not have the suspense it once had, because more than one team is going to get a bid in the NCAA Tournament anyway, but it really has become a Southeastern institution, if not an American Institution. This is till the way this league crowns it's champion."
"Now the dynamics of the league of changed. A lot of it starts with the coaches. If you look at Bill Guthridge, Herb Sendek, Larry Shyatt, and Steve Robinson, you have got four excellent coaches, but you have got guys who may have a little more cerebral approach to the game, and they may not have the showmanship as the Valvanos and Dreisell's. The league may just lack a little personality right now."
What are the stories outside of the games at this year's tournament?
"Obviously there is a lot of talk about the Bobby Cremins situation, and I think there will really be some attention paid to Virginia when they arrive. With their win over Maryland, and the emergence of Adam Hall around the league, they will be interesting. Hall is being recognized as a guy with overwhelming physical skill, awesome defense, and pure athleticism. And, Pete Gillen is one of the bright coaching stars in our league and he is one of the guys that does have charisma."
The growing number of early entries into the NBA draft and the seeming shortage of star power in the conference has not affected the quality of the tournament this year or in the recent past according to Mixon.
"I really don't think it has affected it at all. It is not just an Atlantic Coast Conference problem, it's a national problem. The old clich? is that it has taken the focus of the attention from the name on the back of the jersey to the name on the front of the jersey. The onus is going to switch over to the institution to decide how they are going recruit superstars and how many they will want on their team."
Mixon holds a similar non-threatened view of the increased television coverage the conference and its tournament has received over the years, "The league has definitely gotten a better deal than television has. As a radio man, I think television coverage has enhanced our broadcasts. I have a monitor next to me just about every broadcast, so I can look to that for replays and information. In fact, it has probably raised the bar a bit, because we need to make sure we have at least as many mic placements as the TV broadcast, we need to have knowledge of the teams we are covering, and many people now watch the game while they are listening to us, so we need to be honest. In the past if I said Smith had the ball and Jones really had it, you could sort of finesse that, now you have to correct yourself because everybody can see you just made a mistake."
An employee of the Tar Heel Sports Network, Mixon somewhat defends the practice of radio "homerism".
"I think sitting in the play-by-play chair, it is incumbent upon you to bring a little more excitement when the team you represent is doing something well. If you do that well, your analysts can do his job with as little favoritism as possible. But, if either guy constantly harps on something like the officiating or anything that can show a bias, we can quickly lose our credibility. It's like the Boy Who Cried Wolf."
Mixon likes the comraderie of the event as much as the basketball. "The first couple days of the tournament are always my favorite, because you get to see some of your old friends and is as much a reunion as it is work along press row. But I don't think people realize how much work really does go into it, especially because we have to broadcast so many games with teams we don't cover. All of us work hard on radio row to make sure we know enough about all of the teams to give a full, thorough and accurate call of each game."
"We also really have to pay attention to our health. In one of my first tournaments I got a sever case of influenza, so I was shivering, my teeth were chattering. It was one of the longest weeks of my life. Press corps is not necessarily known for our healthy habits, so we need to be extra careful during a week like this."
So here and now, in his eleventh year of covering the ACC Tournament, what is the biggest challenge Mixon will face this week?
"Creativity and originality are becoming a lost art. So many of us get the same interviews at the same time from the same athletes or same coaches. Plus the Sports Information Directors do such a good job at providing so much good stuff, that if you are not careful you will just report what's been provided to you. I regret that because I think journalism is a great career and there are some bright minds in the field, but creativity is just becoming de-emphasized."
All that said, the 41-year old still believes the tradition is what makes the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament so special.
"This tournament really occupies the social conscience of this state. When I was a boy, I would literally smuggle a radio into school so I could listen to tournament games, and when your team lost, it was devastating. There were people who went through unbelievable gymnastics for tickets. So I think the tradition of it is what makes it great."
