ACC Teams And The Century Mark

Two parallel media themes emerged during and after Kentucky’s 98-69 thrashing of North Carolina the other night.

The game didn’t truly get out of hand for UNC until midway through the second half. But, with the teams sloshing toward the final buzzer and Carolina’s collapse accelerating, game announcers zeroed in on minor historical landmarks to salvage interest in the proceedings.

The avalanche-type result left TV game announcers Brad Nessler and Bill Raftery and the studio analysts settled on batting around the possibility the Heels could yield 100 points in the CBS Sports Classic.

That would have been the first time an opponent tallied 100 or more points against the Heels since Dec. 2016, when Kentucky won 103-100 in another edition of the annual CBS Sports event.

Over on the Tar Heel radio network, Jones Angell and Eric Montross went with the possibility of a 30-point margin of defeat, the first endured by UNC since a 90-57 drubbing at Tallahassee in Jan. 2012.

That landmark loss is best remembered for coach Roy Williams and all but five walk-ons repairing to the locker room prior to the final buzzer. The Carolina crew, with FSU coach Leonard Hamilton’s blessing, fled to avoid a post-game storming of the court by home fans, but left an impression of, shall we say, unseemly trepidation.

As it turned out, neither of this year’s much-mulled results came to pass, an anticlimactic outcome within an anticlimactic game.

The Wildcats mishandled the ball on their final possession, just shy of possibly securing a 100^th point. Instead UNC scored a breakaway layup that resulted in the final 29-point margin.

As for ACC teams scoring 100 or more points, most everyone has done it recently, four this season.

The longest waits to again shatter the 100 mark are in progress at Boston College and Virginia, which each last did it during the 2008 season. For BC it’s a continuation of struggle and punchless production; for UVa it’s a reflection of Tony Bennett’s close-to-the-vest coaching.