Brownlow's Twitter Mailbag: Caleb Love, Canes and more

By Lauren Brownlow, WRALSportsFan columnist/reporter

Here we are again, another week gone in the off-season as ACC football creeps ever closer. But the Canes' Playoff run is still in full swing (for now), and Caleb Love's attempt to find an offseason home was thwarted. We'll get into questions about that, plus about the future of sports media and what I like (or don't like) about the writing process.

So let's get right into it!

That's definitely already starting to happen, although I do think schools might push back *some* against the independent, school-specific media people. But more often than not, those people tend to be former media members, so that helps in terms of getting credentials. The sports information directors often know someone before they start a Substack or whatever. Because a lot of people are being let go from traditional media outlets and having to make it on their own. Times are tough out there, and reporters are having to leave jobs that either don't pay enough or jobs that let them go to go it on their own. I know plenty of individual writers who have done quite well with a Substack, but freelance work isn't for everyone.

This question was obviously sent in before Game 2, but it was answered well by Canes fans. I didn't pick this question to answer it exactly, though. I'm actually devastated that I missed the 6-overtime game. That kind of game feels like a game I was meant to have either watched or covered. I always found myself at the marathon games, so much so that because I was at the 20,000-inning NC State-UNC baseball game, I've been dubbed the cause of these marathons. Let me assure you, if I had such power, I would use it for literally anything else. It took me a week to recover from that.

Since I missed the first marathon, I almost got excited when overtime hit again on Saturday and it looked like we were in for another one. But this one was over before it really began. I feel ... weirdly let down, and not just because the Canes lost. And I'd like to get into that, too. The Canes now find themselves in an 0-2 hole. I know that while most Canes fans have been super enthusiastic about the direction things are going (obviously!), there's concern about the postseason. I'll say this: whether it's hockey or basketball or football or whatever, each postseason is its own entity. Remember when Peyton Manning couldn't win a Super Bowl? I mean, could he have played against his own defense instead? And every year, even then, was different and different circumstances contributed to the Colts' downfall.

The same applies here. Every year has been a bit of a different situation for the Canes, and as Roy Williams used to say, the other team wants to win too. If your team is supposed to be a team of destiny but runs into another team of destiny, is it really a fail? It will no doubt hurt fans to get this close to the Cup Finals and fall short (if the Canes do), but sometimes you run into a hot goalie and a team that can't lose on the road for whatever reason and it's just too much to overcome. But it might not be, and they might get right back in it. If they don't, though? Not a fail. Not a success, either, if the ultimate success is winning it all. But nothing to be concerned about.

This wasn't fleshed out very well as an actual question, but I know what Hal meant: Caleb Love and his Michigan transfer. I think we're all so used to seeing high-profile transfers now that when one doesn't work out (for whatever reason), it almost feels like there has to be more to it. But there have been others that didn't work out before and there will be more again. In case you all missed it, basically Love was set to transfer to Michigan but it turned out he didn't have enough transferrable credits and would have had to take too heavy of a course load at Michigan before the fall semester to make it work.

Love will no doubt still find a good landing spot as a lot of teams are looking for a point guard. So if that's what you're asking about, I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up at a different Big 10 school (maybe Illinois) or Memphis or Missouri. I thought he'd end up at Missouri to begin with. If you're asking about ... well, the weirdness of the situation, let's talk about it. Every school has different rules about which credits they will and won't accept. Michigan is one of the top schools in the country and while UNC is also up there, they may just have different things that they require. I think it's honestly that simple, but I can totally see why it seems weird. I can't remember a recent high-profile transfer that failed for this reason. But my guess is a lot of guys check this kind of thing BEFORE they announce where they're going if they think it could be an issue. Love must not have thought it would be, but it was.

As always, best of luck to Love in wherever he ends up. It'll be the best outcome for all involved, I think. And UNC fans should still buy him a beer for the rest of his life if they ever see him out and about.

Oh man. This is a tough one to answer because are we counting the part where I come up with all the great one-liners or metaphors? Where the stuff swirls around in my brain before I attempt to vomit out a cohesive sentence that sounds as great as what I'm thinking? If so, then YES. I like THAT part of writing. What I don't like is the crippling anxiety of having to sit down at a keyboard, looking at that blank, stark white screen and the moment of sheer panic that creeps in, wondering how you will ever write anything, much less two sentences. And that part of it has only gotten worse as I've dealt with long COVID. There were months I couldn't even open my laptop. It was all just too much. But I had a lot of great thoughts stewing around in my brain and hopefully one day, I can successfully regurgitate all of them onto the paper.

As for writing, say, a feature story? They're my favorite, but also the most challenging. I will usually go about it this way:

1. Get an idea
2. Request/conduct interview
3. Observe subject throughout; take notes about reactions, etc.
4. Transcribe all of my interviews and intersperse observational notes
5. .....write

Step 5 is the hardest step. Because to write a killer feature, you need a killer lede. Do you all KNOW how difficult it is to write a great lede? Journalism school at UNC made me feel like all my ledes were terrible, and that haunts me to this day. Is this too cheesy? Did I lay it on too thick? Did I wait too long to get to the point? DOES THIS LEDE HOOK THE READER? WON'T SOMEONE TELL ME THE ANSWER, PLEASE?!

And for me, I can't start the meat of my writing process (cutting and pasting quotes and observations throughout in the order I think makes the most sense, trying to get my transitions right, etc.) until I have my lede. So I don't particularly enjoy staring at my laptop screen with the cursor blinking mockingly at me as I doubt my ability to write a check, much less an article. But I do enjoy the process before that and the final product (usually).