ACC Country

Good game at the FedEx Forum this evening and Tennessee takes out Memphis and will assume the top spot in the polls come Monday. Credit the Tigers for taking Lofton out of the game for the most part, but the Vols found a way to win in spite of Lofton’s abysmal performance. Oh, and if Memphis could hit free throws, they win the game. Nothing drives me crazier in sports than a basketball team that can’t make free throws on a consistent basis. Memphis is a good team, but I’m still not sold on them getting to the Final Four. Elsewhere, Kansas goes down to OK State. UCLA rallies in the second half to get past Oregon, sporting some of the UGLIEST unis college hoops history, with the black lettering on black jersey. Just abominable. Someone seriously needs to do something about that crap in Eugene – no excuse for the Ducks to have unis in two sports that are offensive to the eyes.

And Duke with a HUGE, losing-streak killing, emotional rebound victory over Big East powerhouse St. John’s at Cameron. This is surely the victory that will put them over the top with the tournament committee in a month. Oh, and K has commented that Henderson will indeed need surgery on his wrist after the season. So much for not commenting on injuries like other teams. Rumor is that other Duke injuries include:

* Paulus playing with a concussion from over-flopping and banging his head off the floor
* Scheyer playing with a sprained jaw from his intense game faces
* Taylor King playing with a bruised tailbone from sitting on the bench too long

What a tough bunch of guys! How do they persevere?

In other news tonight, the Canes fell behind early, but roared back to defeat the Caps 6-3 to extend their Southeast Division lead. Matt Cullen led the charge with two goals, and Eric Staal and Joe Corvo pitched in with a goal and two assists each in perhaps the Canes’ best offensive showing of the year. Corvo showed what he can bring to the power play, anchoring Carolina’s blue line for FOUR PP goals, including notching the final goal of the night after cheating in and cleaning up a loose puck in front. Erik Cole and Andrew Ladd also scored for the Canes, who are now 5-1-1 in their last seven outings, the loss coming to New Jersey, who visits RBC on Tuesday.