Hyman said. You should never do sports as an investment. ... If yo

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Dennis Smith Jr. is back to playing like himself. Still, he looked like someone else to the opposing coach.Smith scored a career-high 30 points to help North Carolina State beat Loyola-Chicago 79-77 on Saturday.Torin Dorn added 20 points for the Wolfpack (5-1), who shot 51 percent from the floor.Smith, a freshman point guard, made 13 of 22 shots from the floor and added seven assists. He opened the season a combined 6 of 22 in the first two games.Im much more comfortable, Smith said. Im still finding my way, just like everybody else. Were going to get a lot better.Abdul-Malik Abu broke a 71-71 tie with a tip-in with 3:29 remaining to give N.C. State the lead for good.Smith provided a steal and layup, assisted on a dunk by Abu and made two free throws to keep his team in front.Dennis Smith was phenomenal, Loyola coach Porter Moser said. He was like (Russell) Westbrook the way he was that quick and that athletic. . I mean, hes all that and more than advertised.Terry Henderson scored 19 points for the Wolfpack, who missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final 7 seconds.Markell Johnson stole the ball from Loyolas Milton Doyle after the first, and Cameron Satterwhites heave from just beyond halfcourt missed after the second.Aundre Jackson scored 20 points to lead Loyola (5-2), which led by as many as 11 points in the first half.Ben Richardson had 16 points for the Ramblers, who made 10 of 17 3-point attempts.Doyle had 12 points and Clayton Custer had 11 for Loyola.BIG PICTURELoyola: With their lack of size inside, the Ramblers are going to have trouble defending around the basket just as they did against the Wolfpack. But their spread offense is legit, and they gave N.C. State fits with it. Loyola had clear driving lanes to the basket and open 3-point attempts from all over the court throughout the game.N.C. State: The Wolfpack struggled defensively and got almost no production from their interior players against an undersized opponent. They continue to excel in the open court offensively, but they must improve defensively as conference play approaches. Weve got one guy wearing a blue sock and one guy wearing a green sock, N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said. Two guys trying to guard are not on the same page. Weve got to get on the same page.HIGHLIGHT REELSmith showed his outstanding leaping ability early in the second half. Johnson missed a layup in transition, and Smith rebounded and dunked the ball in one motion to give the Wolfpack a 55-52 lead.HE SAID ITI love my team. The thing I can say most is that in that locker room, they were genuinely upset. They were hurting big-time. They came in here not to come close; they came in here to win. Thats a great sign when youre trying to develop culture in a program. -- MoserINJURIESN.C. State swingman Maverick Rowan missed his fifth consecutive game due to a concussion. Gottfried said Rowan will continue to be evaluated each day, but there is no timetable for his return.Wolfpack post player BeeJay Anya left the game late in the first half after being poked in the eye. He was cleared to return in the second half but did not re-enter the game.UP NEXTLoyola hosts Norfolk State on Wednesday night in the first game of a four-game homestand.N.C. State plays at Illinois on Tuesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Clippers Jerseys From China . Then the Pacers gave Oladipo and his Orlando teammates the cold shoulder. Paul Georges buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter spurred a 21-4 run, finally sending Indiana past the Magic 97-87 in a tougher-than-expected opening night matchup. Wholesale Clippers Jerseys . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. http://www.cheapclippersjerseyschina.com/ . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Cheap Clippers Jerseys . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Discount Clippers Jerseys . Ashley Youngs cross was inadvertently headed by Chester into his own net in the 66th minute, allowing United to claim a third straight league win. "We had to dig deep with our fighting spirit and weve done that," United striker Wayne Rooney said. The Olympics spark hope in many a child of going for the gold. But in financially supporting those dreams, some parents are going for broke.For his 15-year old sons travel hockey team, Tim Richmeier was spending about $5,000 a season: using his tax refunds, halting contributions to his 401(k), and putting travel expenses on a credit card -- including $6,000 hes still paying off. Richmeier said it was a great experience for his child. But after four years, it was a financial relief when his son didnt make the team.I was kind of dreading the upcoming season, knowing Id go deeper in the hole, said Richmeier, a single father in Phoenix.Competitive youth sports in the U.S. are rising in popularity. The exclusive club and travel teams come with added coaching and intense competition, as well as much higher costs than a school or community team.A survey released Monday by TD Ameritrade of 1,000 parents whose children are involved in such elite endeavors finds most pay between $100 and $499 a month. For one in five, its more than $1,000.Some parents can absorb the cost, but others are working second jobs, depleting their savings or otherwise compromising their own financial well-being to fund the activities. In the survey, 60 percent say the expense has them concerned about their ability to save for the future.Parents largely say they dont regret the spending because of the physical, mental and emotional benefits for their children. But financial and athletic experts suggest parents make a more objective assessment of at what cost the kids are pursuing these dreams.Of nearly 8 million U.S. students currently participating in high school athletics, only 480,000 compete at the college level at an NCAA school, according to the organization. Few from that group will move on to compete at the Olympic or professional level.And parents hoping for a scholarship to offset their sacrifices may be disappointed. NCAA schools awarded more than $2.9 billion in athletics scholarships last year. But a full ride is rare, and a partial scholarship may come to a fraction of what it cost to get a child to that level.The presenting of those numbers doesnt discourage many people, its in the American character to go after it, said Tom Farrey, who leads the Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute. Farrey says the economic hurdles of the elite teams leave many kids behind, and its not always good for those who do participate.Parents are coming from a place of love, they want what is best for their kids, said Travis Dorsch, founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. Unfortunately they are misinformed.Specializing in just one sport early, common among elite team players, leads to greater burnout and an increased likelihood of injury, Dorsch said. And he found that families who made larger financial investmeents in a childs athletic participation led to kids feeling more pressure, less enjoyment and a lower commitment to the sport.ddddddddddddOf the families in Dorschs research, which spanned many income and sport participation levels, more than half invested less than 1 percent of their gross income. But nearly 15 percent invested between 2 percent and 5 percent, and 3 percent invested more than 5 percent of their gross income.Even for those who can afford it, there is stress.Lisa Williams of Wilmette, Illinois, sees the $2,000 or so she spends each season on her daughters soccer team not as an investment in a sports future but in her childs skill set off the field. In her affluent neighborhood there is a certain expectation of excellence and the assumption if your child plays sports that theyll do so on a travel or elite team.Some of it is parent peer pressure, do you want to be the parent who doesnt send their kid to the extra training and the summer camps and the extra clinics? Williams said. You dont want people to think, `Oh, she doesnt love her kid.That pressure is part of a shift in parenting and culture over recent decades, experts say.We tend to get very emotionally invested in the life of our kids in sports, it makes us more vulnerable to making questionable decisions, said Mark Hyman, who teaches in the business of sports program at George Washington University.He notes that many people have an economic interest in parents spending more on sports -- from elite coaches to the facilities that host the tournaments. So parents may be urged to make decisions that are not based on neutral input.The challenge is to recognize sports for kids are great but they are great because they give you these positive lessons they can carry on through life, Hyman said. You should never do sports as an investment. ... If you do that you are almost certain to be disappointed and to turn your kids off sports.Debbie Amorelli of Upton, Massachusetts, says she wrestles with how much she and her husband spend on hockey participation for her 17-year old son, who hopes to play at college. The fees, gear and travel add up to about $10,000 a year. They pay for it using an inheritance from her father, but without it Amorelli says she doesnt know what they would have done.The experiences he is having are priceless, she said. But we keep saying to him: This is essentially coming out of your college fund, this is money we could be putting away.Amorellis son, a junior in high school, may need to keep playing for a year or two after graduation to make a college team. Thats an expense theyre unsure about.We have no idea if this is going to turn into anything other than literally money down the drain, she said. ' ' '