ACC Roundup - State Speculation Continues

As the slo-mo search at State continues (slow at least publicly; we have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes), the N&O takes a look at VCU’s Will Wade.

One understated potential draw for Wade is that he’s an ACC guy. He graduated from Clemson and got his start under Oliver Purnell.

Actually, with some vague concerns for Brad Brownell’s job, he might hang on long enough to see if Clemson opens up. It’s not as good a job as State but it is home.

Food for thought.

NCCU’s Levelle Moton’s name is coming up too, at least among fans. He’s done an amazing job at a school which has scant resources for athletics. Could he do it at State?

We’re inclined to think he could and as we detailed before, he would have immense good will as a Raleigh native and Raleigh has been cranking out the talent in recent years. He could be a powerful recruiter.

Here’s a look at five prominent candidates: Moton, Wade, Archie Miller, Gregg Marshall and Kevin Keatts.

Marshall is pretty happy in Wichita. Could anything change his mind? Well, maybe something like this.

Wichita State is 26-4 while Illinois State is 24-5 and the conference bid goes to the conference tournament winner. The runner-up has no guarantee.

Obviously that wouldn’t be the case at State - the ACC is going to get a lot of bids this year.

It’s hard to imagine Marshall not getting one in Raleigh. That could possibly sway him away from a one-bid league.

By the way, speaking of rising stars, ISU’s Dan Muller’s name hasn’t come up. Why?

Check out who his assistant is. Looks like Brian Reese has finally found a place where being a senior still means something, if only because the NBA isn’t sending a lot of scouts to Normal.

Obscure reference alert! When he was a senior at UNC, Reese was supplanted by Jerry Stackhouse. He grumbled that “being a senior” used to mean something at UNC. Dean Smith replied that he was more interested in winning games.

For any of these guys there could be surprise openings. Jim Boeheim told Mike Patrick that he might even retire after this season.

He probably won’t, and even if he does, Mike Hopkins is the designated coach-in-waiting. That deal was under a different A.D. though and, well, things can happen.

We’re not saying things will happen mind you. You just never know though.

Got 15K you don’t need? If so, you could bid on something interesting - Len Bias’s ACC Championship ring from 1984.

It’s being offered up for auction by Heritage Auctions. It’s not something you’ll see every day.

Speaking of the Terps, how is Maryland doing in the weaker Big Ten?

After starting 20-2 the Turtles are now 22-6 and the B-Sun said this: “instead of a historic start, there will be concern about the Terps fading for the second straight year in the regular season. And instead of talk of a Big Ten championship, there will be concern that what seemed like a certain top-four finish and a first-round bye in next month’s tournament is far from guaranteed.”

Good thing there are exciting rivalries with Rutgers and Penn State to compensate.

After his suspension, Miami’s Ja’Quan Newton apologized to his teammates - via Twitter. We’re guessing he already apologized in person.

It still seems incredible, but in a season widely expected to be a disaster, Georgia Tech is still talking tourney. Here’s what Josh Pastner has to say. There’s no point in picking against his remarkably resilient team, but it’s still a long shot. That in no way detracts from what these guys accomplished this season.

So far.

Remember the guy who got kicked out of the Dean Dome for taunting Rick Pitino with a “Pitino, you S-U-C-K” taunt?

Yeah...not so much.

Turns out he just went and sat somewhere else.

Look, it makes no difference to us really. We thought Pitino wildly overreacted. We might have understood if he said “Hey Pitino, your KID S-U-C-K-S” but that was really thin-skinned.

No, what impresses us is that in his press conference, Roy Williams said this:

“I don’t like that. I mean we’re in North Carolina. We don’t have to be like everybody else. We can raise Cain. You can boo, but you don’t have to say the stuff that we as coaches have to put up with.”

“I hope that never happens at North Carolina ever again,”

He didn’t use the word “classy,” but he implied it well enough.

We realize Coach Williams had bigger things to do at halftime than worry about one obnoxious fan, and his involvement here is strictly as a mouthpiece, but the reason why his re-admission bugs us is two-fold: first everyone was told that he was ejected and of course the reason he was ejected was because “we don’t have to be like everyone else.”

It’s like the rest of the mess over there, the fake classes, the head of the Ethics Center being forced to resign for allegedly helping to keep women basketball players eligible (for the record Jan Boxill denies it), the weak self-justifying investigations and subsequent sleazy PR.

Chapel Hill likes to call itself a village and it is.

It’s an athletic Potemkin village.

• Moton's name bandied on social media for N.C. State
• UNC’s Justin Jackson tries to ignore burgeoning hype
• NC State among coaching jobs that might fit VCU’s Will Wade
• Fan who heckled Rick Pitino allowed to re-enter after being ejected
• Perseverance pulled Wake Forest through against Pitt
• VCU's Wade could find a nice fit at N.C. State
• Paul Zeise: Pitt in the NCAA tournament? Sad!
• The revised list: Jim Boeheim's 50 greatest victories, ranked
• What's it like for Syracuse basketball players in middle of court-storming fans?
• John Gillon's buzzer-beater set off a roar rarely heard in Carrier Dome history