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ACC Roundup - ACC Tournament Plans, A BC Transfer And A Hiring Suggestion For The Eagles

A busy day considering no games were played

By JD King
NCAA Basketball: Boston College at Minnesota
Dec 8, 2020; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Boston College Eagles guard Wynston Tabbs (10) drives to the basket as Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Both Gach (11) guards him during the second half at Williams Arena. 
Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports

In ACC news, if all goes well, there will be men’s and women’s ACC Tournaments this March. They’ll just take place with very few fans.

The only people who will be allowed to enter are family members of players and staff and invited guests.

So odds are if you give massive amounts of money to an ACC school and ask to go, you might be able to. The rest of us will just have to watch on TV.

And of course it’s not at all clear how many teams will play. Teams like Virginia and Florida State with certain bids to the NCAA Tournament, might opt out. And not to pick on Boston College, but with three wins and about that many scholarship players currently available, and an interim head coach, BC might opt out too.

Of course, the ACC Tournament is a big revenue producer so the conference is likely to push schools to turn up anyway. Even so, there could be new Covid issues that prevent a team from participating. It’s all in flux and will be until it’s over.

Speaking of BC and Covid, we’ve kind of pulled for Wynston Tabbs. He showed potential as a freshman and fought hard to overcome a serious knee injury, finally returning this year.

Unfortunately, Tabbs didn't take the Covid protocols seriously and was suspended for the rest of the season and now he’s decided to transfer.

BC of course is in the market for a new coach after firing Jim Christian. A number of names have been mentioned and BC has a philosophical choice to make: do they hire a young go-getter and hope he succeeds and they can keep him? Do they go for an experienced and proven guy who’s in the market for a new job? Or do they just accept mediocrity and hire an average coach who will be okay but not great?

A bunch of names have already been floated but we’d like to suggest one we haven’t seen. What if there’s a guy out there who was unfairly fired from a school that has a tough time competing at a high level? Where he nonetheless recruited very well and won a lot?

Are we referring to Al Skinner?

No. That ship has sailed.

But we can think of someone who was fired a few years ago and then latched on as an assistant to a first-time coach who needed an older presence on the bench. He’s helped turn that team into a title contender and he’s still got some good years left if he decided to start over.

We’re referring, of course, to Michigan assistant Phil Martelli.

Previously at St. Joe’s where he competed against Big Five rivals Villanova and Temple, not to mention his A-10 opponents, Martelli had a solid and occasionally great program.

On the downside, he’s 66 but that’s not as big of an issue as it used to be. We’d certainly give him a good look.

Steve Forbes got his first ejection as an ACC coach Wednesday. Here’s an explanation from him about just what happened.

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