And the winner takes home the trophy
November 11th, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Navy | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The 2011 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic trophy. (Huntington Ingalls Industries)The winner of Friday night’s Quicken Loans Carrier Classic basketball game will walk away with its first victory of the season, some bragging rights (we won at sea!) and a very unique trophy.
The 86-pound trophy – you read that right, 86 pounds – is the result of eight weeks and some hard work by a creative team of 30 workers with Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. A group of them traveled to San Diego for the Michigan State-North Carolina game, with the trophy securely packaged for the cross-country trek.
LaMar Smith, a graphic designer with the Newport News, Va., shipbuilder, came up with the idea for the trophy. He wanted to incorporate the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson – the game’s host – into the design and have the carrier’s signature look – the ship’s tall island house, or superstructure – as the focal point. “It works well in a trophy,” Smith said. And in honor to the ship itself, the team designed the Vinson’s hull number – 70 – into the trophy.
The team fashioned the trophy with 17 pieces of quarter-inch-thick pewter and placed it atop a teak base, stained in red mahogany and finished with a lacquer coat and fashioned with a pewter cutout of the ship itself. “Pewter looks good,” noted engineering designer Paul Evans, who took 3-D scale models of Vinson’s island and sketched the patterns for the mold.
Pattern maker Lance Pruitt helped make the full-scale wooden model the team used to create the pewter trophy. Despite the trophy’s heavy weight, Pruitt said, “it actually is hollow inside.” It will require more than a pair of hands to carefully move the trophy and present it to the winning team. No predictions, however, whether the winners will haul the trophy onto their shoulders or above their heads in celebration.
A flight deck, transformed
November 11th, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Carriers Navy Navy secretary Veterans Day | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
The Tar Heels of North Carolina hit the court to practice on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson on Thursday in preparations for Friday's Carrier Classic basketball game.//Gidget Fuentes
Organizers of the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic game and ESPN were thrilled Thursday that a Pacific storm might hold off any rain until well beyond the basketball game’s tip-off at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time Friday on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in San Diego. A rainy forecast had threatened to force the season opener between Michigan State and the University of North Carolina to the hangar deck below.
But by midday Thursday, throngs of journalists converged on the flight deck on a comfortably balmy day for pregame activities that included a press conference with team officials and organizers and the first practice by both teams on the pristine but outdoor hardwood surface. In recent days, workers assembled the basketball court and surrounded it by bleachers lined with green plastic seats. Bright lights and a pair of huge high-definition screens flanked the makeshift arena built atop the hardened steel deck that’s launched and recovered thousands of fighter jets and combat aircraft over the ship’s nearly 30-year career.
Half of Carl Vinson’s sailors off the ship and away for scheduled leave, and fewer than 800 of ship’s company got the free tickets to attend the game, said the skipper, Capt. Bruce Lindsey. “It’s been a very busy…two years,” Lindsey told a packed press conference held in a tent near the ship’s bow. “We are preparing to go on our third deployment in three years.”
But preparations for the game, and its accompanying festivities for the teams, dignitaries and fans, haven’t interfered “one iota” with the ship’s training or operations, Lindsey said. In fact, he said, it’s provided real training for some members of his crew, including those in supply.
Vinson's flight deck is the host court for the UNC-Michigan State game that will air Friday, Veterans Day, on ESPN. (MCSA Dean M. Cates/Navy)
Still, the transformation of such a formidable warship into a sports arena was something to marvel.
“It makes it look much smaller,” said Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment (AW/SW) Robert Sanders, who joined other sailors in the bleachers for a break to watch the teams practice. Just off in the distance, beyond the ship’s waist, lights dotted the San Diego city skyline as dusk neared. “Honestly, if the island wasn’t here, it would seem like we’re sitting in an arena,” he said.
Sanders, a 16½ year veteran, was among the initial skeptics among the crew when they first heard that their ship would host an NCAA basketball game. “You heard about it, but you’re like, it won’t happen,” he said. Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment 3rd Class (AW) Blas Manzanares couldn’t quite picture “going from flight operations to a basketball game.”
Both sailors plan to attend the game. Sanders will bring his wife. “My wife is real excited. She’s a huge basketball fan, he said. “She just wants to be in the same realm as the president.” That’s where Manzanares hopes he will find himself. “I’m going to try to get his handshake,” he said, quite confidently.
Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Equipment 3rd Class (AW) Josh McNeese sat with them in the bleachers and just took in the whole scenery. McNeese has a ticket and is excited for the game to begin. “This is actually going to be my first big event,” he said.
For other fans, like Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the game marks a new forum to commemorate “a celebration of service.”
“It’s about honoring the people who have served and are serving today,” said Mabus, who visited the ship Thursday afternoon. He will be there in the crowd for the game Friday during his three-day visit to San Diego that will include the Saturday christening of the Navy’s newest resupply ship Medgar Evers, which is being built across the bay at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard. Carl Vinson’s role as the host for a nationally-televised game honoring veterans also puts the big spotlight on the naval service. “This is America’s ‘away’ team,” said Mabus.
Dive for that loose ball!
November 9th, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Life at Sea Marine Corps Navy Photos Veterans Day | Posted by Bill McMichael
When the Navy agreed to hold an NCAA basketball game on the flight deck of the carrier Carl Vinson, one probably could have gotten decent odds against the prospect of rain in San Diego on Veterans Day. Now there’s an 80 percent chance, and it’s looking like the highly anticipated North Carolina-Michigan State game could get bumped downstairs to the much smaller hangar deck. That’s bad news for some ticket holders — just about all of them military personnel — because only 4,000 or 5,000 of the 7,000 who could attend topside would be able to squeeze into the hangar deck.
On top of that, an entire basketball court and stands had been erected topside. Workers are now feverishly assembling a second court on the hangar deck, my colleague Gidget Fuentes tells me.
But really, now: Who needs a wooden basketball court? The players are playing for veterans. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to let them play on the non-skid-covered deck, like sailors at sea do?
Sailors and Marines participate in a "3 on 3" basketball tournament in the hangar bay aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), on March 2, 2003, during fund raising efforts to support the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society. Kearsarge was in the Persian Gulf, operating in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. // U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Alicia Tasz.
That stuff is ROUGH.
It would make for some interesting play-by-play commentary over what might appear to be a reticence to dive for loose balls …
Quicken Loans Carrier Classic unis unveiled
November 1st, 2011 | Basketball Carrier Classic Carriers Morale Naval Base San Diego Navy Photos Sports Veterans Day | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Michigan State and North Carolina men’s basketball teams will wear school-color camouflage-style uniforms to honor the military during their Nov. 11 Veterans Day clash aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in San Diego. On Monday, the Spartans showed off the camouflage-patterned unis they’ll wear — white with a light green pattern and bordered with the school’s traditional dark green.
Michigan State's basketball uniform for the Nov. 11 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic. // Photo courtesy of Michigan State University
North Carolina’s design, unveiled Oct. 26, will feature a deep blue camouflage pattern over the traditional Carolina blue.
UNC's uniform for the Nov. 11 game. // Photo courtesy of the University of North Carolina.
The back of UNC's uniform. // Photo courtesy of the University of North Carolina.
Neither team will have player names on the back of the jerseys. Replacing the names will be “U.S.A.”, as shown on the right:
“I think the uniforms are pretty cool,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “They definitely put the spotlight on our military, and that’s what this is for.”
That Carolina blue on the UNC uniforms ought to play well with the sailors in the joint military crowd of roughly 7,000. Frankly, it could almost work as a new Navy working uniform pattern … a prospect the fleet, given what seems like near-constant seabag changes over the recent past, no doubt hopes does not materialize for at least a couple more years …
San Diego carrier could host big-time men’s hoops game
January 26th, 2011 | Basketball Carriers Morale Navy Photos Sports | Posted by Bill McMichael
Possibly coming next season to a flattop deck near you (if you’re stationed in San Diego):
Michigan State and North Carolina square off in the 2009 Men's Final Four basketball tournament. // Andy Lyons, Getty Images
That’s right: If you’re in the right place at the right time next fall, you could be watching a choice early season matchup between traditional men’s college basketball powers North Carolina and Michigan State aboard a Navy carrier. Will it happen? According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said Monday, “It hasn’t been announced yet, but we’re supposed to be playing Michigan State in San Diego on an aircraft carrier on Veterans Day next year.” But nothing’s been set as yet. Said Naval Air Forces spokesman Lt. Aaron Kakiel, “We’re aware of their desire, but nothing has been confirmed. We’re waiting on a formal proposal.”
And way too early, he said, to name which carrier might host the game. Something about operational schedules and national security rings a bell …
The game would probably be played outside, as the flight deck seems like the only feasible area where a full basketball court and temporary seats could be set up. (The hangar is probably just too tight of a space, even with all sliding bay doors open.) The paper points out that an aircraft carrier flight deck is 1,092 feet by 250 feet, while a college basketball court is 94 feet by 50 feet. Extra space is needed on all sides for benches, media and space to dive for loose balls — not to mention a lot of seats.
Presumably, the teams would bring in a wooden floor. Sure would hate to dive for a loose ball on a flight deck!
If it happens, the paper pointed out, the game would be played on 11/11/11.
Stay tuned …