In Saturday's ACC action, Kansas destroyed B.C., 85-60, Maryland survived Charlotte, 76-72, Florida State got past LaSalle, 81-76, and State somehow let Presbyterian hang around before winning 50-43.
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| ACC Standings | ||||||||||||||||
| Boston College | 1-0 | 1.000 | 10-3 | .769 | ||||||||||||
| Wake Forest | 1-0 | 1.000 | 10-3 | .769 | ||||||||||||
| Florida State | 1-0 | 1.000 | 12-4 | .750 | ||||||||||||
| North Carolina | 0-0 | .000 | 14-0 | 1.000 | ||||||||||||
| Miami | 0-0 | .000 | 13-1 | .929 | ||||||||||||
| Clemson | 0-0 | .000 | 12-1 | .923 | ||||||||||||
| Duke | 0-0 | .000 | 10-1 | .909 | ||||||||||||
| NC State | 0-0 | .000 | 10-3 | .769 | ||||||||||||
| Virginia | 0-0 | .000 | 10-3 | .769 | ||||||||||||
| Maryland | 0-1 | .000 | 9-6 | .600 | ||||||||||||
| Virginia Tech | 0-1 | .000 | 8-6 | .571 | ||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | 0-1 | .000 | 6-6 | .500 | ||||||||||||
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Does anyone understand this team? Presbyterian is pretty pathetic, although they gave Wake a game, and have Georgia Tech coming up. If they give them a game too, maybe the 1-18 Blue Hose should apply for membership.
Wake gets a bit of a pass, given the fact that expectations for the Deacs have been minimal and the whole situation with Skip Prosser's death, but State? There's no reason why Presbyterian should make State sweat. The Pack has won six straight, which is obviously a good thing, but also a mixed bag. The win over Davidson was a solid win, and so was Seton Hall, but South Carolina State, Cincinnati, Western Carolina, and Presbyterian are meaningless and three out of four of them were ugly.
N.C. Central is up next, and if State doesn't start showing up, a massive upset could be in the works.
Maryland built a 21 point lead over Charlotte but almost gave it all back as the 49ers came back and nearly won the game, 76-72. Still, it was likely an important game for the Terps, as they a) played very well for at least part of the game, and b) overcame a near disaster. Teams have to grow up sometime and it's not too late for Maryland.
Charlotte started their comeback when they went to a triangle and two, focusing on Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes. Turnovers ensued! But the Terps held, and so they move on to the next challenge, which will be Holy Cross, and then back to the ACC, with a trip to Blacksburg.
Florida State beat a mediocre LaSalle team largely because they were perfect from the foul line at 20-20 in the second half led by Uche Echefu, who was 11-11.
Good thing, because the Explorers came to win. FSU didn't get a second-half lead until there was 1:56 left in the game.
So three great escapes. They're all wins, though, unlike B.C.
So much for our notion that B.C. might be able to give Kansas a game, or that Kansas might punk out as they have several times under Bill Self. Kansas just took B.C. to the cleaners, 85-60.
Going back to Thursday's losses by Virginia and Virginia Tech, it hasn't been a great few games for the conference. You can't argue too much with wins, but look at it this way: the conference has gone 3-3, with three ugly losses and three ugly wins. Toss in the weak bowl game results, and all things considered, it's as bad a week as the conference has had in a long time.
Record-wise, the conference is doing okay - only Maryland, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech have mediocre records - but realistically, right now, it's a mediocre performance.
Incidentally, Virginia is the second team lately to take perks away, as Dave Leitao locked his team out of their locker-room, and took away various other perks, something Gary Williams also did recently.
On Sunday, there are three games, as Presbyterian travels to Tech for a tough road game the day after a tough road game, Duke gets Cornell as noted elsewhere on the site, and UNC and Clemson tangle in Littlejohn.
That has the potential to be a great game. Clemson has a chance to find the heart it lost last season, and has matured into a much better team. UNC is bloodied and their bench is seriously weakened. If it were a Dean Smith team, you would want to bet on them, but as good a coach as Roy Williams is, it's not the same and we wouldn't just expect UNC to overcome hardships the way they used to. Not to say we're predicting a win for Clemson - we're not, although we think they have a chance. But predictions of going undefeated, as Wayne Ellington says they're shooting for, well, it's a bit early for that sort of thing.