ACC Roundup - The Conference Says Goodbye To Dean Smith

Clemson and Miami had a Sunday night chance to enhance a March resume, but only one could do it and it was Miami.

The 'Canes beat Clemson 56-45, ending a three-game losing streak and moving to 16-8 and 5-5 in the ACC.

Miami's Tonye Jekiri had six points, 16 rebounds and five blocks. Sheldon McClellan had 19 and still-new Ivan Cruz Uceda, who sat out a good bit of the season, had 10 points and five boards off the bench.

The ACC is now pretty firmly separated into three tiers: the top tier are teams which will make the tournament - UVA, Notre Dame, UNC, Duke and Louisville. The middle tier is full of teams which might make it, Syracuse aside - Clemson, Pitt, Miami and NC State.

All of them have work to do but none are completely out.

The bottom tier has Florida State, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, BC and Virginia Tech.

With some solid wins, Miami is probably at the top of that heap.

Also in that tier is State, and the Pack hosts Virginia Wednesday. The Cavs will come south without Justin Anderson, who will miss several weeks with a broken finger. That gives State an opening, but can they take it?

Sunday's ACC news was understandably dominated by the passing of Dean Smith.

For ACC fans of other schools, for decades he was the guy you loved to hate.

Yet over time, and especially after his retirement, that bitterness mellowed as we came to see more of the man and less of the coach who beat everyone consistently.

The man was pretty good too.

We have a lot of links from today and yesterday and Al Featherston's piece too, which we can't improve on, so for now we'll just stop with John Feinstein's column.

Feinstein likes to see himself as a pugnacious tough guy, but some of his best work comes when he is sentimental and not looking to pick a fight. He doesn't really want to be known as a softie, but that's in there too.