This just in – Carolina is good. Very good. They took Georgia Tech apart and basically ended the game in the first half. They were flying all over the court, tipping passes, blocking shots (McCants alone had three gorgeous blocks), getting out on the break, making the extra pass, hitting the open shot – they did it all. The starters were good and the bench was nearly as good. There’s already a thread in the Sports Shack about this game.
The thing was, although the Heels won easily, Georgia Tech really didn’t play too poorly. Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum were aggressive and attacked the basket, but Carolina’s defense held solid. This is a game that the Heels might not have won the last couple of years. In fairness, Tech (and they still qualify as just “Tech” for a few years. The Hokies need to earn equal billing, at least during hoops season.) was missing BJ Elder and Ra’Sean (my spell-checker suggested “Roseann”) Dickey, but that’s not why they lost. Those guys would have helped, but they were gonna lose this one no matter what. The Heels were that good.
Game summaries here (News & Observer), here (Inside Carolina) and here (Georgia Tech Sports Blog).
On the other end of the happiness spectrum, you have what happened in Charlottesville last night. Cavalier fans were already in a tizzy after getting shellacked in their first two conference games. I paid a visit to TheSabre.com the other day and four out of five posts were about how bad Pete Gillen is or who the next coach should be. Those Chicken Littles clearly didn’t realize that getting whacked by Wake, UNC or GT is nothing to get too worked up about this year (ask Maryland). But getting served by Miami on your home court, even after Devin Smith returned from injury, well … maybe the sky really is falling. You can read a bit about the hand-wringing in Hooville here. (By the way, the Gillen-sucks-who-do-we-get-next thread percentage is like 90% now – thesabre.com)
On the flip side, everyone is learning what I’ve been hinting at for a while now – Miami is good. They have three guards who are quick and aggressive and are going to score on folks. The three Hurricane little guys (Anthony Harris, Guillermo Dias and Robert Hite) outscored UVA’s backcourt (TJ Bannister, JR Reynolds and Sean Singletary) 62-10. For the season, Hite is #2 in the league in scoring, and in three conference games, Diaz has scored 68 points. Them boys can play.
The Hurricanes may not do as well as the last Florida football school in their first ACC season (FSU won the regular season that year), but they are clearly better than their preseason billing when they were picked to come in last. Right now, I’d say they are in line for an NCAA bid – ahead of UVA, NC State and FSU. Actually, FSU isn’t even in line any more. Which brings me to the other game last night …
Clemson beat Florida State in Tallahassee last night. You may recall some time ago that the Seminoles were thought to be the sixth best conference team – a surefire NCAA tourney team. Well, not any more. The tournament committee looks at several factors when evaluating teams for at-large bids: strength of their non-conference schedule, how well they did against top-50 teams, how well they played in their last ten game, and did they lose any games at home to Clemson. Oops. Looks like any slim hopes the few Seminole faithful had are now gone. Hey, spring football is just around the corner!
There is one big ACC game tonight – NC State hosting Duke. Caulton Tudor wrote a piece in the N&O yesterday saying that the game is a must win for the Pack (and his article has gained some attention, from both Yoni at the College Basketball Blog and, oddly enough, the Modesto Bee (maybe I was wrong about folks out West not knowing who NC State is). I’m gonna have to agree with Tudor here, to a point. I think State can recover from a loss, but they really could use the win. It means a ton to them, but I have to think that Duke would just be happy to get the win. There’s a difference between need and want.
The Devils have built up a little cushion and they are really just waiting until they get Shavlik Randolph back. A loss on the road to State wouldn’t kill them. For the Pack, another tough loss might torpedo their confidence and get the wolves howling at Sendek. It’s a brutal conference this year and you can’t afford to get in too deep of a rut.
This has been a fun season, hasn’t it? And there’s a long way to go. The storylines of today won’t be the same ones a month from now.
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