The big stories last night were the awakening of UNC and the astonishingly
bad performance of State at Clemson. Less spectacular was Wake's victory
over Tech.
Because of the weather, UNC let the students have the good seats,
and it made a difference. "That's what other teams have that we
don't," Jason Capel told the N&O. Caulton
Tudor has an interesting article on the game, and in it, Brendan Haywood
admits, "Everything's not fixed." But they still must feel good to get the
monkey off their back.
Much like the Duke game, Gary Williams blamed shot selection, but much like
the Duke game, shot selection was dictated by solid defense. The Sun makes the
suggestion that the difficult
travel was responsible, and maybe it was. It certainly didn't help
State. UNC goes to Tech next, so there's a chance to test the theory.
Gary
was a little irritated after the game, but he had the quote of the night
about the people in the Fat Cat seats: ''The people who usually sit in those seats don't move so
fast. I even heard a couple of people yelling at me. That hasn't happened here before.''
Maybe it might if UNC did the right thing and gave the students their props.
What
happened to State? That's the 64 dollar question. It's really hard to
understand how they could lose to Clemson by 17. 1 or 2, sure. But 17? And it's
not like Clemson played
a game for the ages. One possible factor: Clemson is healthy
for the first time in awhile. They have really been hit hard by
injuries, harder than UNC. But still. As Herb says, State
made only 15 of 50 shots. That's pretty wretched.
The other game was
Wake's victory over Tech. Not a big surprise, really, but Wake was the only
road team to win. Road wins are pretty rare in the ACC so far, with Duke winning
most of them.
Bobby is depressed. He says he has "no idea" whether his
guys are playing for him or not. In Jason Collier's priorities, Cremins comes in
at #4.