First off, a site note. I, and others, normally comment on games during the week in the “The Week To Be” threads. So, sometimes what I write here is redundant and other times I am just brief because I already discussed a game in that previous thread. Feel free to jump in and say what you want about any games. There are lots of people reading this site these days and it shouldn’t be hard to get a conversation started.
02/13/06 Boston College 59, Stony Brook 47 – Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Can anyone explain why this game happened? There’s really no good excuse for it.
02/14/06 Clemson 89, Maryland 77 – Clemson, SC
A torpedo right in the side of Maryland’s NCAA chances. Kinda like the losses to Clemson last year, huh? The Terps aren’t dead yet, but this one hurts. They need a big win to offset it. At Chapel Hill is their best opportunity. Coincidently, I’ll be at that game, my first live game in a couple of years.
02/14/06 Duke 93, Wake Forest 70 – Durham, NC
Remember when this game meant something? Like, last year.


02/15/06 NC State 86, Florida State 64 – Raleigh, N.C.
A good, solid win for NC State. Honestly, considering how the season has been going and how they took care of things early, this might have been their best win of the year. For FSU, while this loss was expected, they can’t afford too many more if they are going to go dancing.
02/15/06 Virginia 91, Longwood University 56 – Charlottesville, Va.
Unlike BC, Virginia has a pretty defensible position here. They were supposed to be bad this year – Wake Forest bad – so a scheduled win late in the year made some sense. Unfortunately for the Cavs (well, fortunately, but you know what I mean) they actually have outside NCAA chances, so a game like this is bad. Even a win likely hurts their computer numbers.
02/15/06 North Carolina 82, Georgia Tech 75 – Chapel Hill, N.C.
Tyler Hansbrough’s performance in this game will enter UNC lore. Folks will bring it up years for now.
02/16/06 Boston College 65, Miami 54 – Chestnut Hill, Mass
A tree fell in a forest and no one noticed.
02/18/06 NC State 70, Virginia Tech 64 – Blacksburg, Va.
I still haven’t decided – is it good that NC State just keeps on winning or is it bad that they seem to be incapable of winning games comfortably? Which attribute will be more important come NCAA Tournament time? My head says that they are playing with fire too much and are going to get burned, but my heart says that this is a team that just knows how to win. It’ll be interesting to see.
02/18/06 Florida State 76, Virginia 62 – Tallahassee, Fla.
Exactly what the Seminoles needed. Virginia is dangerous and you can’t let them stick around, not in a game like this that FSU absolutely had to have. Andrew Wilson hit seven threes and then headed out to Ryan’s for the Early Bird special and some tapioca pudding.
02/18/06 Maryland 87, Georgia Tech 84 (OT) – College Park, Md.
Whew! Man, those Yellow Jackets are scaring the crap out of teams up and down the ACC. Sadly for them, they aren’t actually beating too many teams. Good thing for the Terps, because another loss would have pretty much eliminated them from NCAA consideration. As for now, they are still alive, but the Machine That Goes Bing! is barely binging.
02/19/06 North Carolina 83, Wake Forest 72 – Winston-Salem, N.C.
Is Carolina now the second best team in the ACC? They sure look like it. As I expected, Wake Forest came out hungry and aggressive in this one. The Deacons actually played pretty good defense for much of the game, but this time it was their offense that deserted them. When the Heels clamped down on D in the second half, as they are making a habit of doing, Wake went cold.
For Wake, it’s hard to think of what they have to play for now. The only game left that might get their attention is their last one, Senior Day with NC State as the guests. I’m guessing they win either that one or Clemson at home to finish the year 2-14.
02/19/06 Duke 92, Miami 71 – Durham, N.C.
Miami did two very good things in this game and one very bad one.
First, they employed a 2-3 zone defense in the middle of the first half and it completely flummoxed Duke. I’m not sure anyone’s dared try that against Redick and company this year, but damn if it didn’t work. Confused, the Blue Devils turned the ball over a bunch and the Hurricanes got right back into the game.
Second, they attacked Duke off the dribble (like everyone does) and then pulled up in the lane to avoid challenging Shelden Williams. Duke’s guards just couldn’t stay in front of the Hurricanes. I actually felt bad for Greg Paulus a few times when Guillermo Diaz turned him into a pretzel.
But they had one problem. I’m guessing before the game, Frank Haith and staff pointed out that Duke tends to rely on their shooting guard for points. Wears number 4. Well, about a minute and a half into the game, J.J. Redick already had 8 points. He hit another three about a minute later. It looked for a while there like he might catch Johnny Dawkins by halftime and then go ahead and get Dickie Hemric in the second. The dude is really, really good.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *