The Showdown on Tobacco Road, Dancing with Hoops, and Baseball's Greatest Vices (3/8/2008)

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Talk about split basketball personalities!  This week on Only A Game, meet a group of students with allegiances to North Carolina and Duke.  Also, A Hopi Indian parlays hoop dancing success into a Hollywood career.

Gearing Up For March Madness with Pat Forde
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College Hoops analyst Pat Forde took over the much-coveted position as the Stanford Tree for a day last week. Forde checks in to discuss his somewhat questionable thought process. He also talks all things March Madness, and gives his take on the frenzy that is NCAA championship week.

Picking Sides in the Duke UNC Rivalry
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There are some great rivalries in sports — Red Sox-Yankees, Ohio State-Michigan, Cowboys-Redskins, to name a few — but perhaps the most intense are the showdowns between the Duke Blue Devils and the UNC Tar Heels. So how could anyone root for both of these teams? With another chapter of the rivalry about to be written, Rachel McCarthy reports from North Carolina on several fans with a case of split fandom.

Favre Hangs Up the Cleats
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Football is serious business in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and for the last 17 years, Brett Favre has been the beloved face of the Packers. His decision to call it quits didn't just shake up a franchise, it shook up an entire state. Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel joins us to talk about how Packers fans are coping, and what the team's chances are without their iron-man quarterback.

From Hoop Dancing to Hollywood
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Hoop Dancing is an important part of the culture and tradition of many Native Americans. The sights and sounds from its World Championship are evidence in the sport's popularity.

Letters
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Bill reads through some listener mail.

A Football Great Retires and More, With Charlie
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Bill Littlefield and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss: Brett Favre calling it a career, a former NBA star campaigning for change in Sacramento, and an extreme dedication to youth tennis.

The Dark Side of the Diamond
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Bill Littlefield sits down with Roger Adams, author of the new book The Dark Side of the Diamond, to talk about the history of vice in America's Pastime. As Adams says, there's plenty to be proud of in baseball's history, but there are also a wealth of juicy, dirty stories that stretch back to the game's beginning.