In ACC news, the NCAA came down hard on Florida State over their academic fraud case. Ten teams will lose scholarships, and any game a cheating athlete played in will be wiped from the books. FSU was also placed on probation for four years.
| ACC Saturday Action! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | Times | TV | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NC State @ Miami | 12:00 PM | Raycom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech @ Boston College | 12:00 PM | Raycom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maryland @ Virginia | 3:30 PM | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The best news from their point of view is that only one football scholarship was taken away. However, Bobby Bowden's chances of becoming the winningest coach of all time will probably take a big hit.
Florida State has to identify all the events which were affected and report them and has 90 days to comply.
In basketball news, the final weekend of the regular season is here and the standings will be sorted out presently. State goes to Miami, Georgia Tech heads up to Boston College, and Maryland buses over to Charlottesville.
B.C.'s path could be a lot easier if Iman Shumpert is held out.
This will be overlooked to a large extent, but it's amazing that State has caught Miami in the standings, really. If they pass them, that's a great year for the Pack, a team that really started with one effective guard, and Courtney Fells could just as easily be called a small forward. They've overcome a lot. Part of that is due to the improvement of Javi Gonzalez, who has become an effective point guard.
Maryland still has a shot at a bid, but they can't keep losing, and certainly not to Virginia. This is Senior Day for the 'Hoos, of course, and for Mamadi Diane, it marks the end of a disappointing year. They'll probably play Boston College in Atlanta, and that's probably a quick out.
But check out what Diane's dad, Mori, said to the Post. If you believe him, the perception of Dave Leitao as a real jerk is believable:
"Mori said Leitao has been 'demeaning' to Mamadi and said his repeated calls to Leitao have gone unreturned. Mori emphasized that the pattern has continued throughout four years -- even when Mamadi was playing well.
"'I don't know why. I called him and left a message, telling him a foot operation did this for him and I need to talk to you about what's going on with him,' Mori said. 'He has not spoken with my son the whole year. He has not greeted him, not addressed him. It's like Mamadi does not exist.'"
Leitao declined to respond. Tunji Soroye had his Senior Day last year, so he won't do it again, but it's his final home game as well. Again.
Former State coach Herb Sendek has really excited Arizona State fans, but the Sun Devils are finishing on a down note, having lost three straight, including one to Johnny Dawkins' Stanford squad. Despite no real size, Dawkins has gotten the Cardinal to 17-11 in his first campaign. See if this quote from the Herbster rings a bell: "I don't think we played well in any category. We struggled to score. We struggled to make shots. Even the most open shots of the night seemingly hit the rim and clanged out. To a degree, we allowed that to spill over onto the defensive end."
UNC's going to lose a lot of players this season, but that may or may not include Wayne Ellington.
|
| </center><br /> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </center> |