After Omar Cook's sensational college debut, we mentioned that UNC at one
point was favored to get him, and also was thought to lead for Eddie Griffin. Of
course they missed on both, and Griffin squarely identified the gap between
where Phil Ford saw the program and where the program actually was by saying
that Ford was "cocky" about UNC's program (he told Griffin that he was
good enough to play at UNC but that his Seton Hall teamates El and Barrett were
not). UNC also could have had Barrett and did have Jason Parker. Just
as a what-if, that might have been as good a class as the
Battier-Brand-Avery class at Duke.
In other UNC news, Carl Torbush has landed
on his feet at Alabama, and congrats to him. He'll do well there, of
course, and UNC may regret letting him go.
And in some happier news, the Heels are in
first place for the Sears Cup. Duke is 17th.
At American, former UVa coach Jeff Jones has
kicked a kid off the team, but the kid is complaining and saying that Jones
never talked to him and that his coach has a grudge. Jones cites multiple
rules violations. And speaking of former (or near) ACC figures, Melvin Whitaker
(remember him?) is
almost back at Mt. St. Mary's. And in a truly amazing job, Lefty Driesell is
building
Georgia State into a respected program. He did it at Davidson, but
that was about 40 years ago. The Lefthander, he does go on.
Down in Tallahassee, where it has been difficult to define winners and losers
lately, the basketball team has had no such problem: they are losing, big
time. So the exam break is a
good time to take things apart and look at them and decide where to go from
here.
Does it make you wonder why they let Pat Kennedy go? Remember how he used to
get a ton of talent together, only to watch them underperform? Well, the
pattern repeats itself now at DePaul.