The ACC Didn't Show Up In the Tournament

Everyone says the Big East is the best conference in the nation. I agree, to a point, but don't think the gap is as big as people think. I mean, the ACC did win 10 of 16 meetings between members of the conferences this year. The ACC did get in as many teams in the NCAA Tournament as the Big East did and they have four less teams. Of course, the NCAA Tournament is where the true value of a conference's strength are measured.

For the ACC, it didn't stack up.

Thursday was fine. North Carolina completely blew away Radford despite not playing ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson. Duke blew up Binghamton and, for a night, put the rest that this was a team that chokes in the dance. Maryland actually pulled an upset by beating the No. 7 seed California Bears. The one stain was that Clemson underacheived in the tournament yet again.

That's a 3-1 mark heading into Friday where three more teams had a chance to flex the ACC's muscle. All three teams that were playing were rated a better seed. All three lost.

Boston College went out and lost to USC pretty handily. While the game was closer than the final score indicates, it wasn't that close. Florida State lost a tough, tight game to Wisconsin in overtime. And the shocker of them all, Wake Forest was pounded by Cleveland State. Yes, a team that was once ranked No. 1 in the nation lost to a team that wouldn't have even been invited to the tournament if they hadn't upset Butler for the Horizon championship.

Seven teams got into the dance. Only three teams remain out of the 32 left. While North Carolina and Duke are nice bets to get to the Sweet 16 and both have the ability to get to the Final Four. Still, it is disheartening for the conference that complained so much in recent years about why they didn't get more teams in.

State Of the ACC Address (Midseason Edition)

The greatest rivalry in college basketball ... and maybe all of sports ... resumes tomorrow. The UNC-Duke game ceremoniously marks the midseason for the ACC season. Everyone has played at least eight games and the standings seem to be settling.

TEAM TO BEAT: NORTH CAROLINA. The Tar Heels have won 7 straight after spotting the rest of the league their 0-2 start. Their offense has been clicking again while their defense has gotten just a little bit better. Still, there is some gleam gone from their pre-conference swagger as injuries have left the team a bit exposed.

IF NOT THEM, THEN: DUKE. Believe it or not, but the Blue Devils are actually deeper than the Tar Heels. Their defense is still dominating ... at times. The key will be their ability to defend and score in the paint. They can get away with this against some ACC teams, but Clemson and Wake Forest exposed this, just as UNC may do tomorrow.

TEAM WHO COULD RISE: Virginia Tech. Va Tech is laying in the weeds at 5-3. They have Georgia Tech, at Maryland, at Virginia and Florida State coming up. Very winnable games. They will need to win most if not all of those to get to 9-3 or 8-4. Their closing schedule? At Clemson, UNC, Duke and at Florida State. Yikes!

TEAM WHO COULD FALL: FLORIDA STATE. The Noles have finally appeared in the rankings, but will it last? They did win at Clemson but don't really have any other impressive conference wins. Coming up, they will have a stretch at Wake Forest, Miami, at Virginia Tech, at Boston College, Clemson, at Duke and Virginia Tech.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: TYLER HANSBROUGH. This is a tough one. Hansbrough is just doing what he always does. He has a sizeable lead in the scoring race and will be chasing down J.J. Redick's ACC scoring mark in a month. Wake's Jeff Teague has a good shot at taking the award away from Psycho T, but it may come down to whose team wins the regular season title.

COACH OF THE YEAR: AL SKINNER. There are a lot of great candidates for this. Roy Williams has had to deal with injuries and expectations at North Carolina; Dino Guadio has taken a young Deacons team to a No. 1 ranking; Leonard Hamilton has his Noles ranked; Oliver Purnell lost some key guys off of last year's team but has Clemson still in the thick of things. But Al Skinner has taken a Boston College team that was picked to finish dead last in the ACC and turned them into a possible NCAA Tournament team. I think that he may need to get them in to secure this award, but what he has done already is amazing. They won at North Carolina and have beaten Va Tech. They will get some publicized run soon as they will face Clemson, Duke and Miami in the next 11 days.

Duke's Greg Paulus Gets Dunked On Again

Here is yet another video of Duke's Greg Paulus getting dunked on. This happened last night as Clemson's Jarai Grant punches it on Paulus (who smartly tries to take a charge while standing under the basket).

This goes near the top of Paulus' greatest hits.

Here are my favorites:
UNC's Danny Green dunks on Paulus
Va Tech's Deron Washington hurdles over Paulus
Paulus flops against VCU
Tea Bag Paulus

Rushing the Court Is Played Out ... But I Don't Want to Stop It

Let me start off by saying that I hate it when college fans storm the court/field after a win. I'm willing to bet that 75% of times fans rush the field of play is unnecessary. However, there is that 25% that I can get with.

Both sides of the argument, to me, happened last night in the ACC.

After Miami beat Wake Forest by 27, it pained me to see the Hurricanes' fans storming the court. After all, Miami brings back nearly all of their NCAA Tournament team from last year while Wake Forest hasn't sniffed the tournament since Chris Paul left four years ago. Yes, they are ranked No. 6 and they had just occupied the top spot in the rankings last month (Miami is currently unranked).

To me, it was unnecessary. The Canes are good enough to expect a win like this.

Now let me talk out of both sides of my mouth. I have no problem with Clemson storming the court after their 27-point win over Duke. Yeah, Clemson is No. 10 and theoretically should expect to beat anyone in the nation in Littlejohn Coliseum. Even No. 3 Duke.

However, Duke had won the last 20 regular season games against Clemson. Clemson hadn't beaten Duke at home since 1997. Remember that this is a Tigers program that has only recently come out of the shadows to matter again (last year was their first tournament appearance in nearly a decade). These same Tigers have spent that time getting kicked in the shin by the top teams in the ACC. They've struggled against the UNCs, Dukes and lost a big home game to Wake Forest earlier this year.

Clemson's history dictates that they don't win games like this.

If anything, their fans were celebrating their arrival. This team has been pretty good over the past four or five years but have seen their team tank once February rolls around. This win proves that they are legit contenders for the ACC crown.

So, I excuse Clemson fans but condemn Miami fans.

I will say this. Back in 1994, UNC-Charlotte (where I was attending) toppled Louisville at the decrepit Old Charlotte Coliseum/Independence Arena/Cricket Arena/Bojangles Arena. Fans stormed the court after that game. A game I missed because I had tickets to a Hornets game (I believe). That was one of my few regrets in my sporting life.

Far be it for me to smack down today's students for having their moment.

The ACC Looks Pretty Fun, Doesn't It?

Two weeks ago, Wake Forest and Duke were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Last night, both lost by 27 points to unranked teams.

Yeah, the ACC is good.

Wake went down to Miami and were blown out, 79-52. Duke traveled down to Clemson and got spanked, 74-47. And with that, the Atlantic Coast Conference is up for grabs.

North Carolina spotted everyone a two game lead ... but now is tied for the lead. They are 6-2 with Virginia coming into Chapel Hill this weekend. That should set up a showdown for first place next Wednesday at Duke.

Clemson's win keeps them with just two losses (like Duke and Carolina). Oh, and Boston College (who beat UNC) is sitting at 6-3 right now. After that is gridlock between Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Florida State and Miami.

The ACC could send 8 teams to the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina, Duke, Clemson and Wake Forest seem like locks. Boston College is looking good. Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami could sneak in right now.

There is still a lot left to play for and not everyone gets to play all their games against Virginia, NC State, Maryland and Georgia Tech.