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ACC Roundup

By DBR Archives

You know how you know when your ad campaign is really capturing the public
imagination? When it starts showing up in unexpected places. So Staples
must be thrilled that their latest campaign is showing up in press conferences.
Take Seth Greenberg, for example, who says that "Nobody said this year
would be easy. There's no easy button in this business."

Someone is going to get a bonus out of this campaign. The idea has
really gotten legs.

Tuesday's
ACC sort-of Action
Boston College at Holy Cross NESN 7:00
School Conf. Pct. Overall Pct.
Duke 4-0 1.000 16-0 1.000
NC State 3-1 .750 14-2 .875
Georgia Tech 2-1 .667 9-5 .643
Miami 2-1 .667 10-6 .625
North Carolina 2-1 .667 10-3 .769
Clemson 2-2 .500 13-4 .765
Florida State 2-2 .500 11-3 .786
Virginia 2-2 .500 8-6 .571
Maryland 1-2 .333 11-4 .733
Boston College 1-3 .250 12-4 .750
Wake Forest 0-2 .000 11-4 .733
Virginia Tech 0-4 .000 10-7 .588

The comment came from this article, about how the
ACC is tougher than expected.

But the reality is, what makes the conference tough is great players and
great coaches and great passion. And of course a deeply ingrained
competitive desire throughout. So yes, everyone is getting better, and
we'd include UNC in that, even though their last couple of games haven't been
great outings.

After two bad games in a row, which they split, UNC
is trying to figure out how to deal with a young team in a tough conference.
Roy Williams says that youth is no excuse, but on the other hand, you can't fake
or teach experience. You just have to play to get it. Confidence
doesn't just happen.

A few setbacks, either in the won-lost column or from a coach's point of
view, are just part of the learning curve.

After last week, with Duke crushing Maryland and then Travis Garrison's woes,
Maryland might be forgiven for losing focus a bit, but to their credit, they
survived a gutty Wake team.

Wake has struggled so far in conference, and part of the blame has to go to
Trent Strickland, who has done something remarkably stupid in (or before) each
of Wake's last three games: against Duke, he missed a dunk when he was
showboating, and the momentum of the game swung dramatically to Duke; against
Clemson, he was given a technical for taunting, and on Saturday, the day before
the Maryland game, he was late for practice and subsequently benched.

Strickland has received a lot of criticism during his career, and this was
supposed to be his year for redemption. He's performed well in many ways,
but he's let his team down three straight games. And he's a senior.

Happy birthday to
the Dean Dome, which is 20 now. Wine and cheese is on the house!

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