Entertainment
Horne’s return to NC State played a key role in the Wolfpack’s unexpected Final Four appearance
“Everyone has their own path,” Horne says
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) – DJ Horne had a long road to the Final Four.
The 6-foot-1, 180-pound guard was an undersized, undrafted recruit out of the Raleigh, N.C., base. He was a top mid-major at Illinois State for 2 years after which became a reliable scorer for the Arizona State conference program.
And now he’s a two-time homecoming star: He had his lone season with the Wolfpack and scored the most improbable of goals in the Final Four that brought him back to Arizona State, lower than an hour from his previous college stop with The Sun Devils.
“Everybody has their own path,” Horne said Friday.
“Coming back in spite of everything the traveling and stuff like that, I’d say coming home (to NC State) was stuffed with love and other people showing me respect for my grind and my journey that got me back to where I’m now “.
Horne was a perfect fit for the Wolfpack as it entered Saturday’s match against Purdue in the national semifinals. It was NC State’s first appearance on that stage since winning the Cardiac Pack title in 1983 under the late Jim Valvano. He was an explosive perimeter scorer after going 1-2 with stalwart March Madness star DJ Burns Jr. on the pitch.
And his ties to Raleigh allow him to appreciate the moment as well as anyone can when North Carolina State is in the spotlight and has to fight to share it with nearby Atlantic Coast Conference rivals Duke and North Carolina.
“Taking him back to Raleigh,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said, “I thought it was very important.”
The player now entrusted with this opportunity is a far cry from the one who left North Carolina as a three-star recruit to play for the Redbirds of the Missouri Valley Conference. He made a leap in production there in his second year, averaging 15.1 points in 2020-21 while shooting 44.6% from the field and 42.4% from three-point range, making him an attractive player just in time for the regulations The NCAA cleared the way for players to transfer without having to stay at a new school.
That ultimately led Horne to Arizona State.
“When we brought him in from Illinois State, we saw how productive he was,” said Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley, a former Duke player. “I thought his play would translate, moving up from the mid-tier competition. And he didn’t disappoint. DJ was a guy we never promised anything to when he came on our show, and he fought for it.”
Horne averaged 12.5 points while starting 62 games over two seasons for the Sun Devils, including returning to March Madness after missing two straight NCAA games. Horne also had a great performance in Arizona State’s lone tournament game, passing defender Rondel Walker to create some space and then with 15.6 seconds left, immediately burying three points and leading to a draw and finished with a team-high 17 points in a narrow loss to TCU.
“DJ is a fighter, he believes in himself,” Hurley said. “Like many small defenders, he plays with a chip on his shoulder. Once he gets going and starts shooting, man, you better watch out, he’s a dangerous guy. I think his confidence is growing, his faith is growing.”
At the time, across the country, Keatts was looking for help in the backcourt, rebuilding his lineup after losing the high-scoring duo of Jarkel Joiner and Terquavion Smith. Horne’s rise came at the perfect time. He became a top signing for the Wolfpack, which reached the NCAAs last season.
“Coming in, (Keatts) basically gave me the keys, man,” Horne said.
“He told me right away, ‘We’re going to need you to do this, we’re going to need you to lead, we’re going to need you to be the guy.’ Knowing my game and knowing what I wanted from this year, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.
Joel Justus, the Wolfpack assistant coach who works with the defensemen, said Horne arrived with confidence, boosted by successful seasons at the mid-major league level and then at the power conference level, appearing in 159 college games.
“It’s a completely different day in college basketball because you’re coaching experienced guys,” Justus said. “You are coaching guys who are in a difficult situation. So it’s a much more collaborative experience for both player and coach. … When we brought him in here, we were like, ‘Hey, it’s your first year of pro basketball, you’ve got to treat it like that.’
Horne rose to the challenge, averaging a team-high 16.8 points and producing many strong performances during a nine-game stretch that saw NC State win the ACC Tournament title (first since 1987) and an improbable trip to the Final Four. The highlight was his 29 points in the ACC title game to defeat No. 1 seed North Carolina at the NCAA Regional, then he scored 39 points and six 3-pointers in wins over Marquette and Duke – his second March surge against the Blue Devils , who overtook the 11th-seeded Wolfpack from the southern bracket.
It’s a run that harkens back to the Wolfpack’s miraculous run 41 years ago that put 2024 in Wolfpack history alongside 1983 and the 1974 team that won the national championship – a run that included beating UCLA in the Final Four and ending John Wooden’s career A streak of seven championships in a row.
Horne admitted that when he left Arizona State last year, he allowed himself to daydream a little about the possibility of returning to Arizona State and playing in the Final Four. That’s exactly what he did on Friday when the Wolfpack took the court during an open practice, smiling broadly and bobbing his head to the Wolfpack’s music during the celebratory event.
As with everything else, Horne can relish this wrinkle, too.
“I was already planning on coming back here to visit my guys and everything,” Horne said. “But an all-expenses-paid trip and the Final Four couldn’t be better. Just seeing it come full circle and it’s now right in front of my face, I’m ready to take advantage of it.
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Entertainment
LaMelo Ball Charlotte turns heads as she arrives at the game in Scooby-Doo’s “The Mystery Machine.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Say what you’ll about Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball, but there isn’t any denying the 2022 NBA All-Star has a mode all his own.
The Hornets point guard turned heads on Thursday night when he I drove as much as the Spectrum Center for the team’s game against the Detroit Pistons in a colourful Hummer a reproduction of Scooby-Doo’s “Mystery Machine” – only rather more expensive than the one Shaggy and Velma rode in the kid’s cartoon.
Ball, a lover of enormous dogs, promoted the release of his Scooby-Doo x Puma MB.04, which might be released on November 27.
Ball wore vivid, multi-colored Puma shoes during warm-ups after which become vivid orange shoes for the match.
After the Hornets won 123-121 in extra time, Ball said he liked how his rental equipment was dressed up.
Ball, nonetheless, stopped in need of saying he might try to purchase one, joking, “I already have a Hummer, so I wouldn’t even bother.”
Entertainment
Angelina Jolie’s disturbing performance in new interview sparks criticism Years after health problems caused her face to sag
Angelina Jolie promotes her next film, “Maria”, in which she plays the role of the famous opera singer Maria Callas.
However, for some fans, the press was more about Jolie’s health and appearance than her work in film.
On November 21, Jolie sat down with Michael Strahan for an interview on “Good Morning America” to discuss her fear of using her real voice to sing opera for the role and the enjoyment of motherhood. However, in the course of the chat, some fans claimed they noticed Jolie’s face looked different than usual.
One person was cited by Express US for this story he said“It looks rough.”
Another commentator on Page Six he wrote“Ok, I just read that her face looks different because she stated that she developed hypertension and Bell’s palsy, a condition that she said caused her face to droop to one side. I assumed she looked like she had a stroke, in order that explains it.
Debates about Jolie’s sickly appearance erupted when fans noticed visibly large veins on her arms during separate red carpet appearances. Even those that knew her health were still shocked and anxious by her photos.
Jolie first revealed that she had the disease in 2017. In an interview with Vanity Fair she said he said she discovered she had hypertension and Bell’s palsy in 2016, the identical yr she filed for divorce from Brad Pitt.
So when she was diagnosed with the disease, she said she wasn’t sure what could have caused it. “I can’t tell if it’s menopause or if it’s just the year,” said Jolie, then 42. “Sometimes women in families put themselves last until it manifests itself in their own health.”
However, she also said that she is trying to pay more attention to her health. “I actually feel more like a woman because I make wise choices, I put my family first and I am responsible for my life and health. I think that’s what makes a woman complete.”
Last yr, the “Maleficent” star opened up again about her condition, revealing that it was caused by the stress of ending her relationship with Pitt.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, she said he said“My body reacts very strongly to stress. My blood sugar levels go up and down. Six months before the divorce, I suddenly developed Bell’s palsy.
According to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke“Bell’s palsy is a neurological disorder that causes paralysis or weakness on one side of the face. It occurs when one in every of the nerves that control the facial muscles becomes damaged or stops working properly, which may cause the facial muscles to droop or sag.
Entertainment
“The Honorable Shyne” is a hit. This is why I wanted to tell this story. — Andlandscape
One of the primary reasons Andscape culture author Justin Tinsley and I were tapped to co-executive produce was our backgrounds as music journalists. The documentary chronicling Moses “Shyne” Barrow’s rise to fame, imprisonment, and re-emergence as a political leader suits firmly into our wheelhouse, as his best rap years got here within the early 2000s – right at the center of our hip-hop fandom. I donated my time helping with the documentary, which was a top ten show in its debut week on Huluas a likelihood to help tell the story of hip-hop. I got here away from the project with an understanding of a man in conflict, at odds with himself and his past, and wanting to forge a path forward.
Shyne’s story illustrates the American dream: a poor black immigrant comes to America and from nowhere becomes one in all the largest rap stars. It is also a story about how the American criminal justice system and music industry chew up and spit out so many young Black people. To carelessly follow Shyne’s story is to consider him as just one other young black man who fell into a bad situation and never recovered. After all, his rap profession was effectively derailed when in 2001 he was sentenced to ten years in prison for the 1999 shooting at Club New York in Manhattan. But what inspired me about Shyne’s story was his refusal to let this devastation define him.
In 2021, I hung out in New Orleans with former No Limit rapper McKinley “Mac” Phipps, who had just been released from prison after spending 21 years in prison for a murder he denied committing. As I listened to Shyne’s story, I considered Mac. Both were avatars of a system that tested rap as much because it tested individual men. Mac’s story was about how hip-hop lyrics may be used to accuse someone within the face of overwhelming evidence of their innocence. Similarly, Shyne’s trial created a sensation about hip-hop’s relationship to violence in a city hungry for head on a plate.
Both Shyne and Mac emerged from prison as completely different people than once they entered. In Mac’s case, it was the period of time he spent at home, during which he transformed from a teenage rapper into a man after 20 years spent in confinement. For Shyne, his transformation got here from faith when he converted to Orthodox Judaism in prison. When I have a look at people like Shyne and Mac, I wonder how they’ll survive being locked in a cage, and their answers are inspiring.
While Shyne’s rap stories are what drew me to this project, it’s his journey as a man that makes me proud to help tell his story. And we actually get to see that journey after he raps the ultimate bars of his rap profession.
Shyne got here to the film wanting to discuss his lowest moments – the time after his release from prison in 2009, when he lashed out, frustrated at seeing a latest crop of rap stars emerge within the void left by his absence. He was rudderless. As rudderless as anyone may be who has lost a decade to a prison system that wanted to destroy him. And much more, since it was closed when the superstar’s fame was on the tip of his fingers.
The raspy-voiced rapper could have let these mishaps define him, but that is where Shyne’s story resonates with everyone, whether or not they’re a rap fan or not. Shyne’s second act, the one through which he finds purpose in community and family, where he uses his innate charisma and true genius to turn out to be a political leader and motivational speaker.
I cannot discuss Shyne’s reappearance without mentioning Sean “Diddy” Combs. Combs, the disgraced hip-hop mogul who signed Shyne to his label Bad Boy Records and helped launch his profession, is the elephant within the room throughout the documentary and in Shyne’s life. So lots of the artists who emerged under Diddy – from G Depp and Mase to The Notorious BIG – suffered terrible consequences. Shyne’s name was all the time on the list because he spent ten years in prison. And yet, Shyne’s approach to healing and moving forward is as inspiring as his ability to overcome what he sees because the sabotage of his life and profession.
These are lessons I didn’t expect to learn from the stories in regards to the hip-hop star from my childhood. These are inspiring moments that can be of interest to those that haven’t yet turn out to be inquisitive about the Brooklyn, or somewhat Belizean, rapper featured within the documentary. These are the points that make me proud to be a a part of telling Shyne’s story.
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