The ACC Tournament Begins Today

Click to see the 55th ACC Tournament Bracket.

UPDATE:

Florida State, Miami, Boston College and Georgia Tech all advanced to the second round. That sets up games with Florida State vs. North Carolina, Miami vs. Virginia Tech, Duke vs. Georgia Tech and the night cap is Clemson vs. Boston College.

Florida State dropped its game to North Carolina 82-70. North Carolina will now face the winner of Miami and Virginia Tech. Miami dropped their game to Virginia Tech 63-49. Duke faced Georgia Tech, winning 82-70 and Clemson defeated Boston College in the last quarterfinal match-up.

That set up Saturday games between North Carolina vs. Virginia Tech and Duke vs. Clemson. The first semi-final game saw North Carolina defeat Virginia Tech on a Tyler Hansbrough jump shot with .8 seconds left on the game clock. In the other semi-final, Clemson defeated Duke 78-74 in, somewhat of a surprising fashion, by hitting their free throws down the stretch. I heard Coach K say (paraphrasing) "there are games that you loose and there are games that you just don't win, and this is one that we just did not win."

Tournament Recap:

The Tournament final was North Carolina vs. Clemson. This was the third time that the two teams have faced off this year. The first two games ended with North Carolina wins, but not before going to double overtime and a single overtime the second time they played in Chapel Hill. North Carolina was able to pull this one out as well, but by a closer margin than it should have been. North Carolina could not hit their free throws throughout the entire game. A team that normally does not miss, at least not very often, was only 58% from the charity stripe. North Carolina defeated Clemson 86-81.

Carolina vs. Boston College

North Carolina improved its record to 20-1 tonight. This is Coach Williams' 18th season with 20 or more wins. The Tarheels defeated a very young, but good Boston College team. All five Tarheel starters finished in double figures. North Carolina led the entire game, with the exception of 26-25 at the 9:15 mark in the first half, when John Oates banked in a three pointer. A wholesale substitution followed soon after and the Tarheels never looked back. The final score was 91-69.

For more game highlights, click here.

Terps vs. Heels - Ladies' Turn

When the Carolina Tar Heels and Maryland Terrapins met last weekend for an ACC Men's Basketball showdown, the Terps handed the Heels their first loss of the season. This weekend was the ladies' turn on the hardwoods. Could the Lady Terps repeat what the men accomplished and beat the Heels?

In Chapel Hill, #4 Maryland's women's basketball team battled the 3rd ranked Lady Heels for two halves and two overtimes this afternoon. At the end of regulation through the beginning of the 2nd OT, it looked like the Turtles would come out on top. But the Lady Heels kept battling and broke away mid way through the 2nd Overtime to end a 12 game Maryland winning streak and their first loss in the ACC.

Final Score: 86-97 UNC.

Don't Throw The Record Books Out Yet.

After starting as a defensive contest with the score 9-9, the North Carolina Tar Heels went on to score 34 more points before the half, while State missed 18 straight shots and only put up an additional 4 points before the break. So much for throwing the record books out for this rivalry match, NC State couldn't hit a shot and didn't play much like a team. The second half proved better, in-part because of adjustments made by Coach Sidney Lowe, but probably also due to the large lead and lack of urgency felt by Carolina.

State went on to score 49 in the second half, but Carolina scored 50, so the 30 point margin from half was actually increased by 1 at the final buzzer.

Its time for the red coat to go back in the closet for a while and for Coach Lowe and the boys to regroup. I certainly hope we make a better game of it when the Heels come to Raleigh... it can't be much worse.

Tobacco Road: The Red Coat Returns.

Whether you believe the rivalry has renewed or never left, you can't question that its in full force now. The last time rivals NC State and North Carolina met was last year's ACC Tournament. As happened then, you can throw records and stats out the window... these two rivals play each other hard, with the winner often determined by heart as much as ability.

Today State heads to the Dean Dome (or Smith Center for all my Tar Heel friends). And even Jones Angell will have to admit that this first ACC contest is a big game. We might be out matched on paper, and we might not be wearing dark blue like your other Tobacco Road rivals, but we're going to put up a fight until the last whistle blows.

Forget UNC's 16-0 start... this is a historic battle. Its the 212th meeting between the Wolfpack and Tarheels, and like the 211 contests before, it will be a good one. Tip-off is at noon.

Go Pack!

Wins by all of the Big Three

All three Triangle schools won non conference games last night. NC State beat North Carolina Central University 57-29 to win their seventh straight contest. The Duke Bluedevels beat Temple 74-64 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA. This was Coach K's 787th victory, making him sixth on the all time career win list. Duke is currently ranked No. 9 with a 12-1 record overall. North Carolina also won, defeating UNC Asheville 93-81. UNC Asheville has the country's tallest player, Kenny George who is 7 foot 7. George had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. North Carolina is still ranked No. 1 in the polls with undefeated Memphis and Kansas on their heels.



NC State travels to the Dean Dome this Saturday for what promises to be a typical high energy, high intensity, throw the records and rankings out the door Tobacco Road battle.



For information on NC State, click here. For Duke, click here. And for North Carolina, click here.

In other Tar Heel News: 3 UNC Football Players Assaulted (by Women)

Its almost too disturbing and weird to recap, so I'll just link to the N&O article here. Definitely not your typical story of college athletes in trouble. Its sad, really.