ACC Country

Brand New Season

February 21, 2008 at 12:17 pm | In ACC basketball | 1 Comment
Tags: ACC, Duke, State, UNC

On Sunday evening, the Duke Blue Devils had a comfortable two game lead in the race for the ACC regular season title. Approximately 75 hours and 80 minutes of basketball later, that lead has vanished, the first part of it Sunday night at a raucous and emotional Lawrence Joel Coliseum, the second at a, well, verbal BankUnited Center outside of Miami. The Dukies’ bread and butter went stale on Sunday, only shooting 28% from beyond the arc in the loss to Wake. Wednesday was a different story, as the Devils jacked up 37 threes, hitting 15 of them. But Duke was unable to put the clamps on Dwayne Collins or Jack McClinton, and the Hurricanes built a 20 point lead in the second half, before leaving the door open for the Devils with clock management that would make Herm Edwards squirm. But just like their conference lead, time ran out on the Dukies on Wednesday night. But hey, Duke’s got injuries, too.

Carolina finds themselves tied for the conference lead again after its convincing victory over State at the RBC Center on Wednesday, a game far less competitive than the 84-70 final would indicate. The Pack gave Carolina all they could handle for a half, more than you can say about their first meeting this season, but the Heels ROARED out of the gate in the second half and literally took State’s will to win away from them. I think Marcus Ginyard is still dunking as I type this. Another solid outing for Carolina, which is beginning get healthy with Ty Lawson expected back Sunday for Wake Forest. Most interesting note of the game was Mike Patrick comparing Hansbrough to WOJO, and Jay Bilas – Duke grad – promptly putting Patrick in his place over that ridiculous comment. Wojo was given a defensive player of the year award for slapping the floor. Hansbrough is going to win the Naismith Award for putting up 32 and 12 when his star point guard is on the shelf. There’s no comparison, Mike Patrick. Dickie V can talk again, you can let him take care of all the Duke gaga again. Carolina moves to 10-2 in the conference with 4 games to play. And suddenly that rematch in Durham on March 8 just got a hell of a lot more important.

Bad, bad loss for State, as this game was pretty much their season. The rumblings are beginning to get a little louder among the unhappy Wolfpack fans, but there isn’t going to be any changes in Raleigh anytime soon. The Pack should play the season out with some pride, make a run at the NIT and see what they can do there. Then look ahead.

I’m out for now. I’m sure Eric will have plenty of thoughts on the fallout from tonight’s games, since he actually was able to see the Duke/Miami game. I’ll be back sometime tomorrow with the Eye Wall, as the ‘Canes lost a heartbreaker on Tuesday and now look ahead to a huge slate of division games this weekend.