What an interesting night last night was for ACC hoops, with three games with
three different messages. Well probably more like a hundred. But let's
check it out.
On our board there was a discussion of Maryland based on the Louisville game,
where Maryland pushed around a mediocre bunch of Cardinals. A lot of you
got worried about the Terps, a bit prematurely as it turned out. They're
going to be good, but they're still Maryland. You may remember two years ago,
the Terps were being compared to the Bruins of old - in December. Last
year the new Bruins just destroyed Maryland in the tourney. Our point? They're
going to have to prove it to us before we'll buy the greatness argument.Â
They're talented, but they usually are talented. The question this season
is if they'll step up to it. Last night they
got crushed on the boards in a major way, and
Illinois controlled them pretty thoroughly in a very impressive showing for
new coach Bill Self. Duke of course has them in Greensboro soon for the
ACC/Big 10/1 Challenge.
In a much more positive vein, Clemson, who struggled with the California
All-Stars, came
within a whisker of knocking
off Tommy Amaker's highly regarded Seton Hall last night before losing
79-78. Eddie Griffin blocked a shot to preserve the victory. How did
Clemson get in this position? One of two things. 1) they're much better
than anyone thinks, and 2) Seton
Hall is starting three freshmen and it's their first big road game. No
matter how you look at it, Clemson should be thrilled to have been in that
position. You'll remember what things were like this time last
year.Â
Amaker sat Dalembert down to talk about fouling recently but it doesn't look
like it sunk in: Samuel had 4 last night and severely limited his minutes.
And in Chapel Hill, UNC beat the aforementioned All-Stars,
but not without a bit of struggle. Coach Doherty said that they should
have won by a lot more. However, Capel was sick and Owens is still hurt
and neither dressed. Ron Curry did play; Peppers dressed but did not.Â
Favorite radio moment: Woody Durham says "some athletes you know by just
their first name and Curry is one of those."Â Brendan Haywood had a
monster game, but keep in mind who they were playing.
Also in UNC the
buzz continues over the firing of Carl Torbush, and Jim Donnan of Georgia
and Randy Walker of Northwestern have demurred. Frank Beamer of Virginia
Tech is being coy but also apparently being courted by Alabama. We got an
angry letter from a UNC reader yesterday who was mad because we said Lenox
Rawlings said that UNC revealed themselves as only being interested in winning,
Ronald Curry said it was only about money, and Chuck Amato said maybe Mack Brown
had reasons to leave. She said we should be sued for slander (she meant
libel), but all we did was directly quote those three people. She'll probably
want to sue us again after
we quote Eddie Landreth, who says "UNC fired Torbush because he failed to win enough games and because the school is about to embark on a large fund-raising campaign and university officials want to please the big donors."
Better call your lawyer, Eddie.