First of all, a
big welcome back to Wake's Steve Lepore, who blew out his Achilles tendon in
the ACC Tournament last spring. He'll be back on the court as of Sunday.
Incidentally, Wake
is probably ahead of schedule.
With exams still ongoing, most schools are idle this weekend, but State and
Maryland are playing NC
A&T and Florida, respectively.
A&T - there's not much to say. It's Christmas fodder. We are
impressed, though, with the job Curtis Hunter has done there, and would be
interested to see what he could do on a bigger stage. We like the discipline and
heart his teams have.
The game is in Reynolds, and not only is Norm Sloan to be on the bench, Mrs.
Sloan will be singing the national anthem, which was once great fodder for State
ridicule. Here's more from theN-O
Now Maryland-Florida is interesting. Neither team is at the level it is
used to lately (here's
more on Maryland in that regard). Florida has a ton of injuries, and
Maryland has a soft interior, so far anyway. Both teams like to run like
hell, and like to play aggressive defense. It should be fun.
Brett
Nelson is recuperating from a foot problem and hot-shot Euro recruit
Christian Drejer is still out. On the other hand, they do have freshman sensation Matt Walsh, who has shown
a real flair for the game.
Nelson is mired in a slump (try 26.3%), partly due to his foot no doubt, but
if he's not getting his normal percentage now, he'll make it up later.
That's why they call it streak shooting. Today? We're guessing not, but
you never know.
Matt Bonner could make things interesting for Maryland, since he'll pull at
least one big defender out away from the basket (assuming they don't zone, which
they very well might if Florida struggles to hit shots again).
Anthony Roberson is doing pretty well, too, by the way, and Durham's Mario
Boggan, who at 6-6 and 300+ is just huge, could be a matchup problem, too. And
we're still waiting for David Lee to bust out.
Anyway, this should be a fun matchup. We'll be watching! Here's
another link.Ok, here's another.
In Charlottesville, Jermaine Harper
has been reinstated after boozing and cruising. Though we admire the
principle behind the Sheridan Rule (Dick Sheridan, former State football coach,
said if you were in trouble, you were automatically in the wrong place at the
wrong time and therefore suspended) we also basically believe in giving
second chances, so here's hoping he learned from his mistake - and understands how serious it was.