Dave DeWitt has an interesting breakdown of turnovers
vs. assists, both for ACC teams and their opponents.
Maryland
has struggled a bit of late after a hot start. Whatever it it is
they're not missing a home court advantage. Here's an interesting article on Cole
Field House vs. Comcast Center. Cole is a pit with the students sitting
behind the benches, but like a lot of schools, Maryland is gong to emulate
Cameron and wrap students around the court 10 rows deep. So Maryland has
done it, State has done it, Michigan has moved students closer, Cal's new
arena gave them the best seats too.
The anti-model for this is probably
the Dean Dome. As the great old ACC arenas pass - Carmichael, Reynolds,
soon Cole and University Hall, a lot of tradition is passing too. UNC
should consider yanking the fatcats a few rows back and letting the students sit
up front. They could rationalize it by telling the bigwigs that a) they have to
walk less distance to get to their seats, and b) they can get out to the parking
lot a lot faster and so maybe they could stay until the 5 minute mark.
Speaking of UNC, here's a big
article on Big Brendan's turnaround. It's hard to argue with his
stats. They've been superb recently.
In Raleigh, new millennium, new arena, new attitude, new strength at guard.
Ok, it's not a new millennium until Jan 1, but the rest is true. Anthony
Grundy has been a revelation. Now he's going to get time at point as
well.
Here's a
feature on UVa's Donald Hand. It is hard to remember now that Hand and
Chezley Watson were both pretty much last minute recruits at UVa in dark
times. Now Watson has gone off to play baseball, giving up hoops, and Hand
has established himself as one of the ACC's finest.
Incidentally, this is worth mentioning: despite much laughter at the time,
Justin Gainey, Kenny Inge, and Damon Thornton were all either signed or
recruited by Les Robinson. They were expected to have mediocre ACC careers.
Guess Les knew what he was doing after all, huh?
Wake is trying to snap a down streak, and they picked a tough place to start
with UNC coming to town. But Dave Odom is a strong-willed guy, and he's
working overtime to
get it turned around.