In Raleigh last night, Damon Thornton returned
for NC State, solidifying the inside with his defense and rebounding.
State crushed Asheville 87-66. He got a round of applause, sort of, but
even State fans seem
somewhat dubious, if not embarrassed. Eddie Biedenbach's team is now
0-13, which is pretty bad.
UNC is making the trip out to LA to
play UCLA, and taking reporters from most every paper in the state. Well,
apparently not the Herald-Sun, which we hear is stiffing the readers again by
using a cheesy AP story. Nice move, guys. Last year UCLA killed UNC up
front. The frontcourt is better this time with a healthy Lang and Peppers more
aware, and
also on the bench, but it still figures to be a good game. Lavin of
course is under
enormous pressure.
Maryland, meanwhile,
is playing mighty Norfolk State. Now there's a toughie! Steve
Blake thinks the
Terps are coming around.
That's hardly the case for FSU, where
the what-ifs are piling up very fast.
And Clemson, though
they lost in Puerto Rico to Bob Bender's Washington and also to Cincinnati,
should come out of that with some confidence, since they are clearly vastly
better than last season.
Meanwhile, Duke, UVa, UNC and Maryland will be interested to know that Robert
O' Kelley thinks
Wake is going to undefeated in conference. Since it's only happened about 5
times, good luck.