Catching up in Omaha

Hello, everyone.... Hope your summer has been going well. I've been neglecting my blog but for good reason -- I just finished my last vacation until after the Olympics. I'm in Omaha, Neb., now, about to cover the U.S. Olympic Swimming trials, and spent the flight from Charlotte to Omaha reading the nine straight sports sections I missed and some other stuff.

Anyway, a few thoughts about what's been happening:

-- I knew nothing of Mike Dunlap, the Bobcats' new coach, and was honestly stunned the team hired him. But after reading everything he said the first couple of days, I have to admit he sounds pretty impressive. Of course he inherits a terrible roster by NBA standards, and not much can be done until it is improved.

-- I hope the Bobcats take Kansas forward Thomas Robinson with the No.2 pick Thursday. Robinson is a MAN, and I think he will help both immediately and long-term.

-- The Olympic Swim Trials will be very interesting and several swimmers with Charlotte connections should make the team by the time it's all over. I have written about some of the local possibilities here. Wednesday night could be very big, with Charlotte-connected Ricky Berens, Nick Thoman and Micah Lawrence all with good chances to make it.

-- My most loyal readers probably know I have four kids by now, as they make an occasional appearance in a column. A column I wrote on fatherhood and something really stupid I did appeared on our front page on Father's Day. Here's the link if you missed it.

-- Omaha is quite the hopping place at the moment, as the Swim Trials and the College World Series are going on within a stone's throw of each other. It's a good time to own a downtown parking lot in Omaha.

-- I will be filing regular updates from Omaha about the N.C. swimmers and how they are doing at Trials both on this blog and on my Twitter account, so please follow me @Scott_Fowler if you don't already.