I’ve known Charlie Wilkins since my freshman year in high school at Westminster High in 1990-91.  Actually, it started that summer before, when I was invited to attend the Lions’ basketball summer camp.  Charlie was there with head coach, Richard Katz.  With the help of some of the older players, they tutored the young players and incoming freshmen on the basics of the game.  There wasn’t much contact with the bigtime varisty coaches at the time for me, I was a mere freshman and I was okay with that.  But I couldn’t help but feel that with Coach Katz and Charlie, there was something special that I would eventually become a part of.

Unfortunately, I never got to play directly under the coaching of Coach Katz and Charlie, for they moved onto coaching the girls after my freshman year.  I did manage to be able to work with Charlie and Coach Katz after my high school graduation when I was asked to help coach the girls’ team in 1997.  For 7 years, I coached side by side with Charlie and felt his magic.  The way he not only dealt with the team and players, but just how he managed to captivate your attention, without seeming to have to try.  There are too many memories to write about and they are all jumbled at the moment because of the emotion of the past week so it would be difficult for me to portray any memory in good detail at this time.

Many times, we take what we have for granted and don’t always realize what we have.  Thinking back now, I can see so many more occasions where I can remember how Charlie was and just how simply wonderful it was to be able to coach and be friends with Charlie.  Back then, it may have just been another day.  Now, they are memories to be cherished and even learned from.

For those who managed to cross paths with Charlie, they may understand what I’m about to proclaim.  My father and grandfather are the 2 greatest men I know.  My father does everything for me and my family and never hesitates.  He has even taught me many things just by his actions, no words needed.  My grandfather risked his life and the lives of his entire family to bring them to a better world.  He only was able to enjoy this new world for a couple years before he had to leave us, but I remember his greatness despite being only 6 years old.  Charlie, he ranks number 3 in my book of great men.  Even now that he has passed on, he is still remembered, loved, and still is great.

I have used those 5 letters in the word great a lot in this posting… and yet, somehow, I still feel I have not conveyed my message well enough.  But for someone like Charlie, I’m not sure that there are any amount of letters in any combination that can really tell the full story.

Here is Tiffany’s nephew, Ian.  Doing one of those things at a random Chinese restaurant.  See for yourself below.

Video taken by Nokia N82.

Starting with some funky changes to our hotel reservations (which ended up with us staying at the Monte Carlo for free) to having my sister-in-law show up there with her entire family (4 kids all under 10!), it was quite an adventure.  We did have some great eats at Mandalay Bay for their Sunday Champagne Brunch and I had a $13 hamburger.  Add all that with the strange blowout of a championship game between Michigan State and UNC and it was definitely a trip to remember.

On a side note, I actually had 3 of the 4 teams picked in the Final Four this year… amazingly enough – including having both teams in the championship game picked.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the winner picked, but I like Roy Williams and UNC, so it wasn’t much of a loss on my part.  I’m not even a big Mich. St. fan, but just the fact that I had chosen them on a whim and they were such a big underdog, that I had to go and cheer for them, just that one day.

I did a lot of research and it seems that the best bang for my bucks will be the Asus EEEpc 1000HE.  The MSI Wind and the HP Mini as well as the Lenovo S10 crossed my mind.  It was a tough choice, but too many reviews online stated that the 1000HE had a better build and better overall performance.  I will do a review after we have received it and “broken it in”.

The Final Four has proven me wrong again, however I did pick Michigan State to win the whole thing and they look like they have as good of a chance as any of the other 3.  My pick of PITT being one of the #1′s to survive was wrong however, although I did have ‘Nova playing against them.

We have decided on the Luxor for our hotel, Tiffany (my wife) has never been there and it is definitely a unique experience.  We’ll see how this weekend plays out.

The HD has a QHD AMOLED display capable of 16million eye-popping colors.  But the key to the HD monacker is the full 720p video recording at 24 FPS and the ability to playback at that same quality.  Add in the Symbian OS features, wi-fi, 3G, Samsung Touch-Wiz full touch UI, and an apparently great construction quality mix of plastics and metals, the HD has definitely raised the bar as far as convergence devices go.

I could go on and on about the phone, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the official release brings us in terms of UI speed and quality of camera.  As it is right now, it is definitely exciting.  Check out the video below for an indepth view for the Omnia HD.  Not in english, but the most complete look at the phone and features I was able to find at this time (unless I can get my hands on one myself!).

Many people have said that the Big East could easily beat each other up and not be able to handle the rigors of the tournament after such a grueling regular season and conference tournament which even saw a 6 overtime game between Syracuse and UCONN.  But that has only made those Big East teams stronger.  Now, it looks like the Final Four could be all #1 seeds, which would basically be a Big East tournament with UNC added into the mix.  Should be fun.

I will be in Las Vegas for the championship game, and the way this is turning out, that should be a doosy!

I am also looking at selling several of my old cellphones in hopes to save up some money.  Looking forward to the influx of new technology in the mobile world that is supposed to be coming this summer and through the year’s end.  I guess you can say that the influx happens every year like that, but this year seems extra special because of the major advancement in technologies and the fact that many of the major world corporations are incorporating these new technologies into their devices sooner instead of later.  More to come on which device lands in my hands or pockets next!

The biggest surprise is that there is no real surprise so far.  The only seed higher than a 5 to get this far is number 12 Arizona, and one would hardly call them Cinderella.  They have been proving everyone wrong so far (including me).  Many people were upset that they were selected for the tournament with an at large bid while other schools with more impressive records did not get the chance to “dance.”  But with 3 starters who could potentially be NBA players next year, they are proving the naysayers wrong.

With so many non-upsets, this weekend of basketball action should be a great one.  Instead of seeing David vs. Goliath, we are going to see the clash of the titans.  Unless one of the top seeds loses in blowout fashion, the word upset should be thrown out of this year’s tournament dictionary.  I also had quite a few upsets selected in my brackets and am unfortunately one of the many who expected the unexpected.  This year, the unexpected (which is that there are minimal upsets – kinda funny when you think about it that upsets are expected) happened.

I will have to agree with Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio and commend the NCAA basketball selection committee for their fine work this year.  When there are virtually no upsets and when we enter the second weekend with no Cinderella stories, the selection committee did their job well in handing out the at-large bids and their seeding of the teams that made it into the tournament.

This video taken by a Sony DSC-N2 digicam.