South Carolina Gifts

Loss of Charles is tough to take

South Carolina repeats as NCAA baseball champions. Former Georgia golfer Erik Compton rides his third heart to a Nationwide Tour victory. Tiger Woods emerges briefly looking like a cartoon villain with his new beard.

But the news item of the week that resonated most personally was the heartbreaking loss of one of the principle characters of my generation.

Lorenzo Charles wasn't the biggest household name in the storied annals of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, but he played a pivotal role in my life and the lives of other college basketball fans. His premature death in a bus crash in Raleigh, N.C., this week was a kick in the gut.

I was a freshman at Virginia in 1982-83 when the Cavaliers and Ralph Sampson were among the biggest things in college basketball. It seemed preordained that this would be the year the Hoos claimed the rightful titles of ACC and NCAA champs that had cruelly eluded them.

ACC basketball was never better than it was in that era of Sampson and Michael Jordan and Len Bias. Its characters both on the court and on the bench were mythical. Its postseason tournament rivaled the Masters Tournament as one of the most coveted tickets in sports. To be amongst all that as a young student was heady stuff and a major distraction to academic pursuits.

You can imagine the excitement when I scored an ACC Tournament ticket on the very top row of the old Omni in Atlanta for the 1983 championship game.

The general consensus was that Virginia would win the title game thanks to a pesky Wolfpack team that eliminated the biggest perceived threat, North Carolina, in the semifinals. N.C. State -- which had been hobbled midseason when Dereck Whittenburg broke his foot in a January game against Virginia -- didn't seem worthy of the berth and was likely headed to the consolation NIT bracket once the Cavs dismissed them.

But there was a wild card in play that season that you could easily see even from the top of the Omni with your back against the rafters. The league experimented with a new 3-point line that curved well inside the top of the key at an absurdly short 17 feet, 9 inches. It was a boundary Virginia largely ignored since it had a 7-foot-4 behemoth inside with a soft touch that was mostly lethal to opponents as the Cavs were preseason No. 1 and sitting No. 2 in the final week of the regular season.

Nobody, however, took greater advantage of this rules anomaly than the Wolfpack. With its three-guard lineup of sharp shooters Whittenburg, Sidney Lowe and Terry Gannon, N.C. State made 12 of 22 3-pointers in Atlanta that day and won the title 81-78 and the automatic NCAA berth that went with it.

South Carolina SC: Retail news | Goodwill opening store in North ...

Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina skeleton to open its fourth Grand Strand store in North Myrtle Beach in September.The store will be in the former Bi-Lo in the North Village Shopping Center, 3336 U.S. 17 in North Myrtle Beach. The 26,000-square-foot store will have a drive-through to drop off donations as well as a 2,000-square-foot Job Link Center that offers free practice services, including access to computers for pursuit searches as well as assistance with putting together a resume.The new store will create about 50 jobs.Goodwill additionally has stores in Conway, Little River as well as near the intersection of U.S. 17 Bypass as well as S.C. 544.Revenue from the store will go to support Goodwill's mission of on condition that practice training as well as pursuit placement services to people with disabilities as well as other disadvantages to employment.CONWAYGullah shop plannedA Gullah shop skeleton to open this month in Conway.Ultimate Gullah is setting up at 900 Third Avenue with skeleton to open July 15.The gift shop will sell S.C. sweetgrass baskets, African baskets, dolls, jams, jellies, soaps, spices as well as art.Hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday as well as by appointment or for special events Saturdays as well as Sundays.MYRTLE BEACHEye core to openAn eye doctor's office is fasten the lineup at The Market Common.Distinctive Eyewear Vision Center is under construction next to the Piggly Wiggly as well as skeleton to open this month. Dr. Lauri Baldwin will perform eye exams as well as sell designer eyewear with brands such as Affliction, Juicy Couture as well as others.MURRELLS INLETBarber shop movesRubio's Barber Shop has moved from Garden City Beach to Murrells Inlet.The 15-year-old shop, owned by James Rubio, moved to 12078 U.S. 17 Bypass Suite B in a shopping core next to Home Depot. Rubio said he moved to get into a newer shopping core with higher visibility that additionally is easier for customers to access.Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Fri! day.

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