ACC Roundup - UNC Courts Renewed Disaster?

In this week's poll, the ACC holds four of the Top 10 spots: Virginia is #2 and getting at least some #1 votes (2 AP, 1 USA Today Coaches Poll), Duke is #6, Notre Dame #8, and Louisville #10. UNC is moving up at #15.

Miami and NC State got votes, 13 and 5 respectively.

Florida State, a school right behind Duke, UNC and the departed Maryland, has fallen on harder times lately.

From 2008-09 to 2011-12, FSU went to the NCAA tournament.

The last two years, it's been the NIT for FSU and at this point, Florida State is without Aaron Thomas, its best player for the rest of the season, and barely above .500 (10-9).

So beating Clemson, and breaking a losing streak, meant a lot more than it might ordinarily mean.

Not that it was easy. Florida State seemed in control only to see the Tigers storm back, cutting the lead to one with just :23 seconds left.

But FSU hit a free throw and a basket to put the game away.

Next up the 'Noles go to UNC on Sunday. We'd expect UNC to win, but the Heels have been erratic enough to give anyone a chance.

Speaking of UNC, you'd think after the immense scandal they've just been through that they'd have better sense than to hire someone who has any link to, or even any allegations about, any shady business at all.

You would think wrong.

After this year's disastrous defensive performance, Larry Fedora has hired former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik to be his new defensive coordinator.

That would the same Chizik who was accused of running a program which fixed grades and bribed players.

Not surprisingly, Chizik denies the charges and Fedora, also not surprisingly, says the NCAA didn't prove anything, saying that "the NCAA, I know, reviewed all those allegations and couldn’t substantiate any of it. And so we’re very comfortable with his background and where he’s at."

That would be the same NCAA which investigated a supposed academic scandal at UNC and found absolutely nothing, and the same NCAA whose investigators were humiliated by some State students with a free afternoon which they took to discover the sources of a plagiarized paper.

The same NCAA which lacks subpoena power.

But the allegations are in black and white and nothing new.

You'd think that UNC, coming off of a major scandal, perhaps the worst academic fraud scandal the NCAA has ever seen and if not certainly the worst in a long time, would bend over backwards to avoid the perception of business as usual. You'd think they'd look for coaches without so much as a hint of stench.

You might think that, but then again you might believe in the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy or the Carolina Way.

Pretty clearly, UNC, having tried to minimize the scandal at every turn, is ready to get back to business as usual.

Viewed in that context, hiring Chizik is of course the essence of the Carolina Way: minimize, rationalize and do whatever it takes to compete.

In the past, all that was done quietly and the university propagandized about how it was different, how the Carolina Way was special and unique.

Most of that'slong since in ruins; the Chizik hire may complete the job, not to mention any meaningful rehab.