ACC Country

An entertaining day of sports kicked off early with the Heels hosting Virginia Tech at the House that Dean Built, with Carolina looking to avenge last year’s ridiculous sweep at the hands of the Hokies. And the Tar Heels wasted no time establishing their dominance, pushing the lead to double digits five minutes in and just obliterating V-Tech by 39. The scary thing is that Carolina turned the ball over 19 times and still led by 47 at one point late in the game. Alex Stepheson played his best game of the season, shy of a double double by one rebound, and contributed several blocks to a stellar defensive effort from UNC. Stepheson has all the tools to be a force down on the block, particularly defensively and on the boards, but he tends to lose his focus from time to time. That can, and likely will, be corrected. If he can add a more consistent offensive game, the kid will be All-ACC the next two seasons.

Speaking of All-ACC, I guess that Hansbrough kid is pretty good. Would’ve been nice to see him get a tenth rebound for the double double, as well, but 23 and 9 when everyone else is chipping in is more than plenty. Ellington had perhaps his most efficient outing of the year, and it’s always good to see Graves and Copeland get minutes and contribute like they did today. The Heels go across the way to the RBC Center to deal with State on Wednesday, who you gotta assume will be angry given the beatdown they were ont he receiving end of last month in Chapel Hill.

Speaking of the RBC Center, there was a doubleheader in Raleigh today, with the Wolfpack hosting Clemson late afternoon, and the Hurricanes and Panthers in the evening. Clemson (gasp!) made free throws down the stretch to hold off State, and then the RBC crew had less than two hours to convert the hardwood to ice, leaving the rink in less than stellar conditions for the Southeast Division showdown later on.

In the nightcap, the Canes found themselves down 4-2 with 15 minutes to play, with starting goaltender Cam Ward on the bench after allowing three early goals. After Nathan Horton beat John Grahame on a penalty shot to extend the Cats’ lead to two, the Canes stormed back with goals by Eric Staal and Trevor Letowski, who has at least temporarily assumed injured captain Rod Brind’Amour’s slot centering for Samsonov and Ladd, to tie the game. And then newly acquired “puck moving defenseman” Joe Corvo hit Ray Whitney with a gorgeous pass that the Wizard slammed home for the game winning goal, extending Florida’s long-running misery in Raleigh, and maintaining the Canes’ division lead with the 5-4 victory.

After the hockey game ended, out of curiosity alone, I flipped it to TNT to check out NBA All-Star Saturday Night, and I was pleasantly surprised. I tuned in just in time to see the dunk contest, but was privileged enough to get two gems from Barkley before the festivities began.

Charles on seeing Terrell Owens showing up: “Hey there’s T.O. I’d go say hi, but I don’t wanna make him cry.

Then on Kenny Smith drinking cranberry juice: “Is that cranberry juice? [Yes.] So that’s what it looks like without vodka.”

The dunk contest was lots of fun, with Dwight Howard stealing the show with a windmill jam after catching it off the BACK of the backboard, dressing up as Superman and catching a bounce at the free throw line and soaring thru the air with a KILLER two handed throwdown, and then capping it off with an insane bounce, catch, off the backboard jam that can’t get onto YouTube soon enough. Gerald Green gets honorable mention for the cupcake candle jam in the first round. Very good stuff.

Oh, and Memphis averts disaster in Birmingham by rallying somehow to beat UAB to remain unbeaten. HUGE game next weekend at the FedEx Forum when the Vols come to town. And Duke visits Winston-Salem tomorrow in what should be an interesting game. I’ll check back in later in the week. Eric will probably chime in tomorrow or Monday with his thoughts on the weekend.