6:05 p.m. EST – Obama scheduled to arrive soon

Captain Bruce Lindsey just came over the ship’s intercom and told the crowd to make it to their seats for the arrival of the president.

President Barack Obama should be here within 15 minutes.

Obama likely will be speaking with ESPN writer Andy Katz right in front of our seats.

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5:45 p.m. EST – About an hour left to tipoff

With just more than an hour left until tipoff, the MSU men’s basketball team is slowly trickling onto the court.

Media have to be in their seats in a few minutes, for the president’s arrival.

Former Spartan and NFL running back TJ Duckett is in attendance and loving the weather aboard the carrier.

Duckett helped point out former North Carolina and current NBA player Vince Carter.

Mario Lopez also is an early arrival in terms of celebrities.

Former Spartan and current NBA players Jason Richardson and Shannon Brown also have been spotted in the crowd of military personnel and the two schools’ alumni.

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4:45 p.m. EST – USS Carl Vinson rocks out

The flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson is rockin’ as people start boarding the ship for the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic.

The Navy Band Southwest’s The Destroyers rock band played anything and everything; from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Montell Jordan to Pat Benatar and were as tight as any of the bands to play those bands’ hits. They even made sure to appease the MSU athletics department with their performance of “Moves Like Jaggar” — which plays on the public address system at every MSU event this season.

The Navy members make up the full-time band, which practices all week and plays shows 2-3 times a week, mostly on high school recruiting tours.

Fans of both teams — including MSU Athletics Director Mark Hollis’ wife Nancy — and Navy members were dancing to the beats near the court.

Bassist Peter Mattice said the band has a lot of fun with the job.

“We’re just playing as people come in, try to get them excited,” Mattice said. “It’s a unique job, but fun.”

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3:30 p.m. EST – Logistics issues might crop up abroad USS Carl Vinson

Logistics continue to pose problems for the set up of the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic.

We’re less than fours hours from tip-off and volunteers and ESPN workers are hustling around attempting to finish the setups. Secret Service is everywhere waiting for the president’s arrival.

The court-side media seating has yet to be labeled, and concessions stands to be opened for those thirsty and already on board.

Concessions also only have a reported 4,000 hot dogs for food and that’s really all they have — that works out to less than one food item per person in the 7,000 people in attendance.

The line for general admission is extremely crowded right now, waiting for the gates to open.

The wind also seems to be picking up, not a good sign for the team’s shooters.

2 p.m. EST – Morning update

We were up bright and early this morning, on our way to the carrier at 5:30 a.m.

Our car was sniffed by an adorable German Shepard, then we waited for 15 minutes to be escorted to the media parking lot.

After a nice quarter-mile walk to the security point, we got back to the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson. The base was quite calm and peaceful so early in the morning.

We lined up our computers and bags in the media room for the Secret Service to go through in preparation for the president. We were kicked off the ship from 7:30-10 a.m., so we made our way to breakfast and back to the hotel for showers.

Back to the base at 10 a.m. and it took until 11 a.m. to get back up to the media workroom. MSU had its shootaround just prior to us arriving and North Carolina currently is on the court on the partly overcast day.

The current estimated weather for tip-off at 7 p.m. EST is 68 degrees with a 10 percent chance of rain.

Thursday

10 p.m. EST – Both teams practice before tomorrow’s game

The North Carolina and MSU men’s basketball teams wrapped up their shootarounds at about 9 p.m. EST.

A few things stood out as the teams worked out.

One is how much bigger UNC is than MSU. Each respective Tar Heel starter has a couple of inches on his Spartan counterpart, and each has an NBA-ready body.

Luckily for the Spartans, today also was UNC’s first time shooting the ball on top of the carrier, certainly a different feeling for shooters.

At the beginning of the shootarounds, both teams were missing many shots, but as it went on the players became acclimated.

MSU senior forward Draymond Green said the outdoor court wasn’t a major issue.

“(Playing on the ocean is) different, but it’s a great experience,” Green said. “Trying to get used to (the wind and lights), but I don’t think they’re bothering us, I know they’re not bothering me.”

Meanwhile, Green said yesterday’s tour of the carrier didn’t make him want to enlist, but he’ll continue to show his support for the military.

“No, I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I don’t know how they do it. I got in one of those beds yesterday; I hit my head getting in, hit my head while I was in it and hit my head getting out. So I mean you definitely have to take your hat off to them, but hey, they love what they do, just like we love what we do.”

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6:45 p.m. EST – B. Taylor to sing national anthem

Just checking in from the USS Carl Vinson. We were waiting on deck, checking out the floor and general setup, when rehearsal for tomorrow’s pre-game festivities was going on. Hip hop singer B. Taylor sang the national anthem, which he will do again tomorrow night for the actual event.

A concert is planned for after the game that will last about 20 minutes. Featured acts will be Five for Fighting and Billy Currington.
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6:00 p.m. EST – Captain gives glimpse of USS Carl Vinson’s background, day-to-day operations

Captain Bruce Lindsey has seen a lot of incredible things at the helm of the USS Carl Vinson.

But Lindsey said the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic is “right up there at the top.”

The Carl Vinson is a nuclear-powered, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1982 and cost $3.8 billion to construct.

Read on.

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5:25 p.m. EST – Public Affairs Officer: Court originally planned for hangar never finished

The weather is looking better than it did early in the week, which is definitely a good thing. While just having a casual conversation with a Public Affairs Officer, or PAO, on the way to the food court, he said the court originally planned for below deck was never finished.

He also said he thinks it would have been logistically impossible to fit the 7,000 people expected to be aboard the USS Carl Vinson for the game in the hangar anyway.

The PAO said he has heard the rain is supposed to hold off until Saturday morning and go further south into Mexico. We will see, but so far, it looks like we should be rain-free, although some cloud cover is expected.

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5:15 p.m. EST – Sailors attending tomorrow night’s game reflect on historic event

Most of the sailors attending tomorrow night’s game, being from the south, will root for North Carolina tomorrow night, but they all acknowledged it was a very exciting event.

The game’s preparation made the use of the carrier a little complicated, Carl Vinson Flight Deck Operator Issac Paddock said.

“A stadium for one, where the aircraft land is just way out of the ordinary,” Paddock said. “We can’t go to our usual spots. We work here, we feel we should be able to go anywhere, but all of a sudden you can’t go there. But that’s cool with us. It’s good for the Navy, good for morale, because a lot of young guys come in and don’t see cool things like this at first and get discouraged.”

It’s obvious after talking to the sailors how much a game like this actually means to morale. All of them are extremely excited to be at the game and around the festivities.

“It shows that the nation takes a great interest in the military because there’s a lot of stuff that’s good,” Paddock said.

“A lot of people don’t know much, or see us totally open to outside events. So having a game on the flight deck shows the rest of the civilian world that we’re just like you guys, we just work in the military. We go to war when we’re asked to, but at the same time there’s always a down time where we relax, have fun. It’s just like any other day with us.”

Paddock is from Dayton, Ohio and will root for North Carolina.

Matt Moeser is from Pleasant Ridge, Mich., and graduated from Michigan. Moeser will root for MSU and support the Big Ten, but he’ll be intimidated by one guest — President Barack Obama.

“We’re all about honor and tradition here, so when someone senior like that comes, it makes you a little on edge, nervous,” he said. “Not that something bad will happen, you just don’t want to get caught off guard by him. From what I’ve understood, he’s a pretty nice guy and go through the crowd and shake hands; pretty intimidating, but awesome.”

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3:40 p.m. EST – Press conference wraps up

The Quicken Loans Carrier Classic press conference just wrapped up aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

MSU Athletics Director Mark Hollis, men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo, North Carolina Athletics Director Dick Baddour, head coach Roy Williams, Carl Vinson Captain Bruce Lindsey, Navy Chief of Information Dennis Moynihan and Morale Entertainment Group Director Mike Whalen all spoke to the media.

All seven of them stressed the event is for the troops and denied the fact it is anyway a gimmick.

“There’s no gimmick to this, we don’t need the extra exposure,” Izzo said. “Roy and I talked about that. Truth to it, right away we were both on board. Where we playing, Iraq? Lake Michigan? It didn’t matter. It was the mission that was more important than the details.”

The entire press conference was light-hearted and full of jokes between Izzo and Williams.

At one point, a jet flew over the press tent, Izzo joked the planes were from Duke and Michigan and asked the Navy officials if they could make the plane any quieter.

Lindsey said the operation of the carrier was not affected at all to make this game happen, and that most of his sailors on leave came back to volunteer to help make the event a success.

Whalen said there possibly are games set for 2012 and 2013. The game next year likely will feature the men’s and women’s teams of UConn and Arizona. However, Arizona might have problems with officials from the Pac-12. Whalen said MSU is signed on for the 2013 game.

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7:21 p.m. EST – Rehearsal for tomorrow’s events wrap up

Just checking in from the USS Carl Vinson. We were waiting on deck, checking out the floor and general setup, when rehearsal for tomorrow’s pre-game festivities was going on. Hip hop singer B. Taylor sang the national anthem, which he will do again tomorrow night.

Also, there will be a concert after the game that will last about 20 minutes. Five for Fighting and Billy Currington will perform to cap off a what should be a pretty exciting day.