Women Finally get a Challenge

ACC/Big Ten Challenge extends to Women

The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten today announced the formation of an annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge for women's basketball, which will span at least four years and will begin in the fall of 2007. The Big Ten/ACC Challenge will match 11 teams from each conference in head-to-head competition traditionally on the first Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after Thanksgiving, following the men's basketball Big Ten/ACC Challenge. More...

Gene Corrigan and the ACC

Charlottesville's Daily Progress has a 3 part series on former ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan. First of the 3 is

CORRIGAN SERIES: Building UVa athletics

During the last 50 years, Gene Corrigan’s fingerprints are all over intercollegiate sports as an athlete, a coach, director of athletics, conference commissioner, NCAA president and finally as a knowledgeable consultant.

Nowhere has his impact been felt more than in Charlottesville where he was first a coach, but later became the man that changed the path for University of Virginia athletics as a bold, progressive athletic director.

He hired Terry Holland, hired Debbie Ryan, hired Bruce Arena - all destined for halls of fame of their own. He started the women’s athletic program at UVa and authored one of the most important papers ever penned at a history-rich university that knows something about important penmanship: The Corrigan Report.

When he was hired away from Washington and Lee in 1971 to become Virginia’s athletic director, Corrigan wasn’t blindly walking in. Years before, he had simultaneously served as the Cavaliers’ lacrosse coach (replacing Bob Sandell), soccer coach, freshman basketball coach, was also the varsity’s only assistant basketball coach and main

recruiter, plus taught three physical education classes a day. Oh yeah, he also sold insurance in his spare time.

So, he kind of knew what he was getting into. Virginia was one of the worst athletic programs in the ACC. It had little money budgeted for sports and little support. More...

Part 2
CORRIGAN SERIES: Notre Dame a new world for Corrigan

Part 3
CORRIGAN SERIES: Spearheaded ACC growth

One of the wisest decisions Gene Corrigan ever made was telling the Atlantic Coast Conference no the first time the league approached him about being its commissioner.

It was in the mid-1960s and the ACC’s first-ever commissioner, Jim Weaver, wanted Corrigan to become his successor. Weaver was a big ol’, slow-talking, owl-wise commissioner. Everybody loved him, especially Corrigan, who worked and learned under Weaver as the service bureau chief in what was then only a three-person conference staff.

Corrigan had gotten out of coaching at Virginia to make more money and to spend more time with his wife, Lena, and their seven children. Because Weaver didn’t like to travel, Corrigan found himself bouncing all over the ACC landscape to meetings with league athletic directors.

Weaver begged Corrigan to stay on, but Corrigan knew he wasn’t ready to become commissioner and opted for the AD job at Washington and Lee, where he had once coached lacrosse, soccer and basketball.

Years passed and so did Corrigan’s numerous roles as AD at W&L, Virginia and Notre Dame, where he finally got the ball rolling by hiring Lou Holtz to coach the Irish football program.

But in 1986, Georgia Tech athletic director Homer Rice called Corrigan and told him that Weaver’s successor, ACC commissioner Bob James, was planning to step down and the league wanted Corrigan to come home.

Corrigan insisted he didn’t know anything about being a commissioner and rejected the idea. After James died the following spring and Rice called again with no success.

The situation changed quickly. More...

Next Fall's ACC/Big10 Challenge games are set

The good news, NC State ends its ESPNU run and has a headline game at 7pm Wed. at Michigan State and isn't up against Duke or Carolina in the time slot. Full release is at
http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041607aac.html

Matchups for the ninth annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge have been determined with the event featuring top college basketball programs playing for conference supremacy and the Commissioner's Cup on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The ACC has won each of the eight Big Ten/ACC Challenges played to date with league teams winning 48 of the 75 games played in the Challenge.

For the third consecutive year, the event will feature 11 games (an increase from nine in the six previous years) from 11 different college campuses and include two telecasts on ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network. ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise the remaining nine games. This year's event will be played on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after Thanksgiving (November 26-28).

This year's schedule will be highlighted by the first-ever meeting between basketball powers Wisconsin and Duke, a rematch of last year's Ohio State-North Carolina Challenge game and first-ever Challenge showdowns -- Georgia Tech-Indiana, Wake Forest-Iowa, Boston College-Michigan, N.C. State-Michigan State and Virginia Tech-Penn State.

2007 Big Ten/ACC Challenge Schedule
(All Times ET)

Monday, Nov. 26
7:00 p.m. ESPN2 Wake Forest at Iowa

Tuesday, Nov. 27
7:00 p.m. ESPN Georgia Tech at Indiana
7:30 p.m. ESPN2 Minnesota at Florida State
8:00 p.m. ESPNU Northwestern at Virginia
9:00 p.m. ESPN Wisconsin at Duke
9:30 p.m. ESPN2 Purdue at Clemson

Wednesday, Nov. 28
7:00 p.m. ESPN N.C. State at Michigan State
7:30 p.m. ESPN2 Illinois at Maryland
8:00 p.m. ESPNU Boston College at Michigan
9:00 p.m. ESPN North Carolina at Ohio State
9:30 p.m. ESPN2 Virginia Tech at Penn State

2007 Challenge highlights:

• Duke (8-0) is the only undefeated team in Challenge play.
• The ACC (.642) and the Big Ten (.616) are the two winningest conferences in NCAA Tournament history.
• First-Ever Meeting: ESPN will televise the first-ever meeting between traditional programs Wisconsin and Duke. Duke has won its previous eight Challenge games.
• Challenge Rematches: Ohio State, a participant in the 2007 National Championship game, will play North Carolina, an Elite Eight team in the 2007 Tournament, in a rematch of last year's Challenge game, won by North Carolina 98-89. Another rematch from last year will pit Illinois at Maryland. Last year, Maryland won 72-66 and also defeated Illinois 76-63 in the 2001 Challenge.
• Unfamiliar Opponent: Georgia Tech and Indiana's first Challenge matchup will also mark the first time the teams have met since 1969, an 87-65 Georgia Tech victory.
• ESPNU Televises Two Games: For the third consecutive year, ESPNU will televise two games, both at 8 p.m.: Northwestern at Virginia Tuesday, Nov. 27 and Boston College at Michigan Wednesday, Nov. 28.
• Since 2000, these two conferences have combined to make 14 Final Four appearances and captured four of the last eight NCAA Championships. In addition, the ACC and Big Ten rank either first or second in all-time NCAA Tournament bids, victories and Final Four appearances.

Senior All-Star Games

I didn't know they still had these things, given the extreme exposure of basketball during the season, but growing up, I always really looked forward to these end of season games where ACC Seniors toured the area, sometimes in small arenas, sometimes in places like Wake's old gym, but looks like these things are still around, giving outgoing players a chance to earn a little spending money and have some fun.

ACC Stars Bring Game UPHS

UNC seniors Reyshawn Terry and Wes Miller have played in more than 100 basketball games in arenas all over the United States. Union Pines High School will soon be joining the list of venues the two have played in during their careers.

On April 19, ACC fans will be able to say goodbye to the UNC seniors and other ACC players from Tobacco Road when a team of ACC All-Stars arrive at Vikingville to play a team of Moore County All-Stars.

Other seniors expected to join Terry and Miller are Tar Heel teammate Dewey Burke; Kyle Visser and Michael Drum from Wake Forest; and Engin Atsur and Bryan Neiman from N.C. State. The Moore County All-Stars will consist of seniors from Pinecrest, North Moore and Union Pines high schools.

The game is being held to benefit the Moore County Magic, a local AAU/YBOA youth basketball program.

"This should be a great game and exciting night for family fun," said Richard Maness, coach of the Magic and local coordinator for the game.

In addition to the game, there will be a slam-dunk contest, a three-point contest at halftime and an autograph session after the game.

The game starts at 7:30 p.m. on April 19 in Union Pines' gym. Tickets are on sale at Union Pines, New Century Middle School and Johnny O's Awards in Aberdeen. Tickets are also available at How You Doin' Pizzeria & Sub Shop and Brats European Bristro, both located in Southern Pines.

A limited number of VIP tickets are available. VIP tickets include reserve seating behind the bench and a reception for the ACC players after the game.

"We expect a sellout," Maness said. "The game will be a good way for ACC fans to see a great night of basketball."

I Still have my Jimmy Black, Chuck Nevitt, and Max Perry autographs from one of these somewhere.

Duke Disappoints...

And most of the country celebrates. From the sound of things, that includes a whole bunch of happy tarheel fans in Winston awaiting the Carolina games. This is why nobody likes Carolina fans!

I think most of us in the ACC enjoyed a nice break from Duke dominance this year. But as a true ACC fan, Duke going out in the first round sucks as bad as Blue Devil free-throw shooting.

After the tournament when news slows down, ACC Fan Blog has a series planned on Duke Hating. But for the moment we'll just leave it at this. For whatever reason, almost all college basketball fans except Duke fans seem to be glowing in this upset. Not that these headlines are biased or even show this joy, but I always like to look and see the slant of stories.

• Not so Sweet 16
• Duke Is Done After First Game of NCAAs
• Duke Fails to Get Out of the ...
• Duke's done
• Early Exit Is No Surprise For This Team
• Blue Devils down and out
• Duke goes down early
• VCU exposes Duke's fall from the top
• Duke can't cut it
• Duke gets sent home early
• One and stunned

To understand why Duke lost this game, you really only need to look at 2 stats. 17 Turnovers to 11 for VCU, and 20 of 32 from the charity stripe. After VaTech lost to state in the ACC tournament, having missed half of their free throws, I heard a line I really like. Sometimes they are free throws, sometimes they are just foul shots. Duke just couldn't hit them when they counted.

But to really understand how Duke ended up in this position, I think it comes down to 2 key factors

1. Greg Paulus is not a point guard.
2. Coach K did not do a very good job this year. He did not adjust his offensive and defensive schemes for the personel he had.
   

• Playing man-to-man against a team you can't guard gave up far too many open, easy shots. He tried a 1-2-2 zone maybe twice, and yes VCU hit 3's against it, but he didn't give it a real chance I don't believe. Paulus couldn't guard anyone in man-to-man. A zone would have also let you play Brian Zoubek some. Against the much shorter team, not getting Zoubek on the court at least a little was a mistake.
• The offensive sets that Duke tried in the second half were awful. They looked lost half the time, took far to many desperation shots, and I'm not sure if McRoberts got the ball down low at all in the last 8 minutes.

I'm sure speculation will start that K's Olympic involvment distracted him from Duke and was part of the cause for this mediocre season. Who knows. Duke will be better next year, although they still have serious point guard issues, but with 3 McDonald's All-Americans coming in, they will be better. But this is sure a dissappointment for true ACC fans.

ACC TV Times for the week

Lot's of games, so little time. Here is what we can look forward to the next few days. Sure wish CBS had done a better job spreading out the ACC games.

Wed.
ETSU at Clemson 6pm ESPNu

Thursday
12:20 Maryland vs. Davidson CBS
12:20 Boston College vs. Texas Tech CBS

7:00 Michigan at FSU ESPNU
7:10 Duke vs VCU CBS
9:40 UNC vs Eastern Kentucky

Friday
12:15 Virgina vs. Albany CBS
12:15 GaTech vs. UNLV CBS
7:10 VaTech vs. Illinois CBS
9:30 NC State vs Marist ESPNu

For those with Time Warner Cable and HiDef, all of the CBS games will be available in HD. Also, start times are estimates. CBS does try to stagger the first games a little, but then gets unpredictable for 2nd games of each session.

The delimna for Triangle based fans is whether you trust that VaTech can win without you watching the end of the game, and you head to to Reynolds for NC State NIT game.

ACC Tournament Prep Kit

Getting ready for my trip to Tampa, so gathered a bit of info that might help others. I'll post some info on getting tickets a bit later.

As noted in

ACC Tournament Tickets Tough this year?

The tournament is in the St. Pete's Times Forum this year.

The ACC has setup a really nice site for the tournamet at
http://www.acctampabay.com/acc/index.cfm

There are open practices on Wednesday, but no team schedule is yet available.



ACC has setup ACCRooms.com for getting rooms in school blocks. No idea if there are still seats in these blocks. I'll be staying somewhere cheap with wifi, and tampa has plenty of that. I've also had great luck of late getting very nice rooms cheap through HotWire and PriceLine, but I did a quick HotWire check for tampa on Thursday Nite and pickings are slim.

You might be interested in checking out the Legend's Brunch. Price is $35 per person.

Like in Greensboro they will have FanFest and Outdoor Tailgate Party.

More info on the Tampa Area.

Based on what I've heard, compared to Greensboro and RBC Center, the Times Forum is a dump, just not a great arena. Here is a bit of info on the arena:

Welcome to the St. Pete Times Forum, Florida's Premier Sports and Entertainment Destination. Home to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the St. Pete Times Forum is the jewel of downtown Tampa. The arena features state-of-the-art technology and innovative design which combine to make this arena one of the finest facilities in North America.

The St. Pete Times Forum features 22,000 seats for the 2007 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament and encompasses 660,000 square feet with three decks and seven separate levels. The arena's footprint includes a multi-level, 1,500 stall parking facility and more than 100,000 square feet of outdoor plaza space, which will serve as the site of this year's ACC FanFest. One entire side of the structure is a wall of glass windows that provide crowd-pleasing panoramic skyline views, particularly from the on-site restaurants, Medallions and Icons.


Since opening as the "Ice Palace" in 1996, the St. Pete Times Forum has become a focal point for the community and one of the most successful and popular performance venues in the country. More than 150 events annually, including concerts, family events, ice shows, the circus and indoor sports call the Forum home. In addition to NHL Hockey, the Forum has hosted dozens of major events, including three NCAA basketball championships.

In the spring of 2003 nearly 60,000 fans jammed the Forum for three sessions of the first and second rounds of the Men's Basketball Championship. The St. Pete Times Forum will continue their longstanding run of hosting NCAA Basketball Championship events in March of 2008, when Tampa will become only the third city to host the First and Second Rounds of the Men's Basketball Championship and the Women's Basketball Final Four in the same year.


Security

The following items are prohibited from being brought into the St. Pete Times Forum at the 2007 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament:

• Alcoholic or other Beverages
• Artificial Noise Makers
• Audio or Video Recording Equipment
• Cameras with lenses larger than 4"
• Bags or Backpacks (larger than 10" x 8" x 14")
• Beach Balls
• Canes,Chains or Sticks of any length (non-medical use canes)
• Cans, Glass or Metal containers
• Coolers (unless they are caring medical supplies)
• Diaper Bags (unless accompanied by baby)
• Fireworks or any Explosive
• Folding Chairs
• Food and Beverage
• Helium Balloons
• Illegal Drugs
• Knives of any size
• Laser Pointers
• Pets (except service animals for the disabled)
• Promotional Items with commercial identification
• Strollers
• Tape Recorders
• Umbrellas

No weapons of any kind will be allowed in the facility. Working tampa police and hillsborough county sheriff officers assigned to work the St. Pete Times Forum, are the only ones allowed to carry a weapon. All others will be asked to return them to their vehicle.

Signs, banners, flags or any other items that would either obstruct the view of a patron or serve as a dangerous projectile or security risk.

Other items that in the judgment of the ACC or St. Pete Times Forum management that pose a safety hazard or diminish the enjoyment of an event by other patrons, shall be prohibited.

When a prohibited item is discovered after a patron enters the facility, the item shall be confiscated and disposed of, the patron may be ejected from the facility, shall be denied re-entry and ticket price will not be refunded.

Standard St. Pete Times Forum entry procedures are supplemental to these security procedures.

Seating Chart

Click Here to view
the event seating chart

Directions (Click Here for Printable Directions)

FROM ST PETERSBURG/MADERIA BEACH:

• Take I-275 North to Exit 44 (Ashley Drive) to Jackson
• Left on Jackson to Morgan
• Right on Morgan to Channelside

FROM CLEARWATER/LARGO/
PINELLAS/PALM HARBOR/TARPON SPRINGS/OLDSMAR:

• Take SR 60 (Gulf to Bay/Courtney Campbell) to I-275
• North on I-275 to Exit 44 (Ashley Drive) to Jackson
• Left on Jackson to Morgan
• Right on Morgan to Channelside

NORTHWEST TAMPA/HUDSON/NEW
PORT RICHEY/PASCO/SPRINGHILL:

• Take Veterans Expressway (SR 589) South to I-275
• Take exit 42 (Armenia Avenue)
• Go south on Armenia Avenue to Platt Street
• Go left on Platt
• Platt turns into Channelside Drive

NORTH TAMPA/OCALA/GAINESVILLE/
TOWN AND COUNTRY/LAND O LAKES/ZEPHYRHILLS:

• Take I-275 South to Exit 45A (Downtown East)
• Go south on Jefferson to Whiting Street
• Right on Whiting Street to Morgan
• Left on Morgan to Channelside

ORLANDO/LAKELAND/PLANT CITY/
DAYTONA/ JACKSONVILLE/POLK COUNTY:

• Take I-4 West to I-275 South
• Take Exit 45A (Downtown East)
• Go south on Jefferson to Whiting Street
• Right on Whiting Street to Morgan
• Left on Morgan to Channelside Drive

BRADENTON/SARASOTA/VENICE/FT MYERS/FT LAUDERDALE/MIAMI/NAPLES/PORT CHARLES:

• Take I-75 North to Exit 50 Crosstown Expressway (TOLL)
• West on Crosstown Expressway to Exit 8 (Downtown East)
• Right on Kennedy Blvd to Morgan
• Left on Morgan to Channelside Drive

BRANDON/VERO BEACH/PALM BEACH/GIBSON:

• Take SR 60 (Adamo Drive) West to Channelside Drive
• Go south on Channelside Drive
  
  

St. Pete Times Forum Address
401 Channelside Drive
Tampa, Florida 33602
813.301.6500

Nobody knows Anything

UVA Wins the league, UNC follows the Florida plan to get ready for NCAA, and Duke plays on Thursday. Who Knew? The answer is Nobody.

There were several different organizations that predicted finish order for the ACC. Most of them look pretty much like this.

1. UNC
2. Duke
3. BC
4. FSU
5. GaTech
6. UVA
7. VaTech
8. Maryland
9. Clemson
10. NCState
11. Wake
12. Miami

How is it really looking?

(As Of March 1)
School	Conf.	Pct.	Overall	Pct.
Virginia	11-4	.733	20-8	.714
North Carolina	10-5	.667	24-6	.800
Virginia Tech	10-5	.667	20-9	.690
Boston College	10-5	.667	19-9	.679
Maryland	9-6	.600	23-7	.767
Duke	8-7	.533	22-8	.733
Georgia Tech	7-8	.467	19-10	.655
Clemson	6-9	.400	20-9	.690
Florida State	6-9	.400	18-11	.621
NC State	5-10	.333	15-13	.536
Wake Forest	4-11	.267	13-15	.464
Miami	4-11	.267	11-18	.379

They got the bottom mostly right, but not much else. I won't even attempt to disect what went wrong, but can you imagine a year that the ACC Tournament is more wide open. You'd think Carolina would be the favorite, but they are completely lost at the moment. Anyone think Duke CAN'T win it? They've owned the tournament of late. Virginia, Maryland and GaTech are all hot. BC and FSU each have game changing stars capable of Randolf Childress/John Gilchrest type tournaments. And while it is easy to write off Clemsons early season run as a mirage because of scheduling, but it really was more than that. If they somehow regain some confidence, they are deep enough to make a 4 day run. And while Miami is down to 7 players and Wake just simply bad, the wolfpack might have at least a one game suprise left in the tank.

I've been to the ACC Tournament for at least 15 years in a row. Most years of late, I've shown up for NC State games and maybe caught one or two others, and spent the rest of the time enjoying the scene and friends outside the arenas. This may be the year that the basketball is too compelling to miss. Tampa, here we come.

Defending Roy...Too Many Players

I'd never really noticed how GroupThink works in sports media before the last week. Carolina is having a great season, especially for anyone with realistic expectations for what you can do with this level of youth. But you know sports talk radio, they've got to find a negative. Carolina's had a few surprising losses. Virginia Tech domintated them, but somehow the loss at Maryland, maybe the hottest team in the country, has suddenly sent the media on a search for the fatal flaw in the tarheels.

Not sure where it started. I'm guessing that it was one writer with influence, but all of the sudden, you can't read a story or turn on the radio without another expert telling you that Roy Williams is blowing it. He's playing too many players. You can't win playing 12 players. Players are too busy worrying about their playing time, they never have time to get in a groove, they never get used to playing within their lineup.

After the Maryland game I didn't hear too many saying these kids made dumb mistakes, need to work on better defense, or that crucial misses at the line are what cost them the game. No, somehow everyone KNOWS the problem with the tarheels is that Roy Williams is playing too many players.

One talk show host, 850theBuzz's Adam Gold even went so far as to say that Coach K with Roy's players would win more games and possibly a championship. I don't believe that for a second. In fact, if you follow it through, looking at K's past behaviours, here is what would happen to the current tarheel team under K

• Forget Tyler Hansbroughs continued development as a true post player. K has a long history of mis-handling white post players.
• 3 of the 12 players getting significant minutes now lose all playing time and get ready to transfer.
• Ellington probably leaves because he doesn't yet play defense to K's standards, so he never gets into the games.
• K goes down to playing 7 players, kills the running game, and they lose to a running team in the sweet 16 because they are too fatigued to compete.

I believe what Roy Williams is doing right now is not only the right thing, but is a dream of all coaches. I can't tell you how many coaches have started seasons with pronouncements that they are going to run, press, and play 10 players ever game. The problem is, none of the other coaches ever have the guts to do it. They always pull a K and gradually reduce to just playing 7 players. I'd even argue that Roy isn't going far enough, and should be playing truly 2 separate lineups that swap every few minutes, at least for the first half of games just to wear people out.

When you look long term is where you can really see the value of this type of system. If your main rival is Duke, and you expect over the years to sometimes have the need to out-recruit them, think about this. If you are a kid trying to decide between UNC and Duke, which looks better

1) Team where only the best 7 or 8 get major playing time. Team where it is pretty easy to get in the doghouse and disappear for a month at a time. Team where McDonald's All-Americans like Crawford Palmer, Kris Humphries, Chris Burgess, Joey Beard, and Jamal Boykin realize they aren't going to play and leave.

OR

2) Team where 10-12 players get important minutes every game. Period.

Is Maryland the ACCs best chance?

I'm not sure there is a hotter team in the country than Maryland right now. We can expect the talking heads to start talking up Gary's team as this years "Florida" soon, especially if they get hot in Tampa. I'd love to see Maryland go deep into March, but can you really trust them? I can't count the number of times they've disappointed me in the 1st or 2nd round when they should have had easy wins. I'm not sure I really even believe they won a championship, just seems hard to fathom sometimes.

Expectations aside, they are playing great right now, they are probably the most entertaining team in the league, and despite a great effort from Duke to claw back, Maryland owned Cameron last night, and if I'm not mistaken, Maryland has taken 5 of the last 7 against Duke.

Bracket Prediction Update 2/27/07

These are somewhat meaningless with a couple of important weeks of good games to go, including the all-important conference tournaments, but let's take a look at the latest predictions of ACC teams making the field of 64.

ESPN's Bracketology

UNC #1 in Winston against Delaware St. then Nova/Stanford winner.
Duke #5 in Spokane against West Virginia then Nevada/Penn.
UVA #4 in Buffalo against Holy Cross then USC
VaTech #4 in Buffalo against Vermont then Syracuse
BC #6 in Columbus against Xavier then Pitt.
Maryland #6 in Lexington against ODU then Memphis

As expected, GaTech, FSU, and Clemson NIT bound.

CollegeRPI.com

UNC #2 in Winston against Sam Houston then Texas/Notre Dame
Maryland #4 in Buffalo against Holy Cross then Kentucky
VaTech #6 in Winston against Illinois then Georgetown
BC #8 in Lexington against ODU then Ohio State
UVA #6 in Buffalo against Missouri St. then Memphis
GaTech #9 in New Orleans against Oregon then Florida
Duke #3 in Columbus against Penn, then Mich. St.

The suprise being GaTech in, and Duke a #3, which might not be that unrealistic, especially with a win in Chapel Hill Sunday.

Want some more fun and get a head start thinking about filling in your brackets, check out Bracketville, which has full history of the brackets and game results for every year since 1985 when the tournament went to 64 teams.

Duke/UNC not in HiDef, but tourney will be

Not sure how many people have Hi Definition TVs, but I'm addicted to mine. Getting spoiled by NFL and ESPN games in HD, I generally get irritated by watching most NC State games on Raycom because they aren't hi def. I was doubly irritated for the Duke/UNC game this week. Even though I had the DVR set to record on WRALs HD feed, of course the Raycom ACC network feed wasn't hi def. What makes it worse is the rest of the country was watching the game in HD because ESPN covered it, but it was blacked out in acc territories. But, looks like Raycom is slowly investing in the future.

From the Charlotte Observer:

Raycom/Lincoln Financial will announce next week that ACC basketball is going high definition.

For the first time, the men's ACC basketball tournament -- which begins March 8 in Tampa -- will be broadcast in HD on the syndicated network.

Technical problems have kept the network from switching to high def before now.

Ken Haines, Raycom's president, said Friday that affiliates aren't set up to receive syndicated programming in HD. They get their network programs in HD, but aren't set up to receive feeds from other sources.

Raycom's move will make it one of the first college basketball networks in the nation to offer HD events.

Of the 35 stations that get ACC basketball from Raycom/Lincoln Financial, about a third will be equipped to receive the HD feed by tournament time. That includes WBTV (Channel 3) in Charlotte as well as other major markets, including Greensboro and Raleigh.

"We're looking at adding some regular-season games next year," said Haines. "I don't know how far away we are from doing all the games in HD."

Costs are part of the problem. While it is more expensive to do HD games -- cameras, a high-def studio truck and other equipment must be added -- there is no increase in ad revenues.

"It costs a lot more to produce in HD than standard definition. We haven't found anyone willing to pay more to be broadcast in HD," Haines said.

-- Mark Washburn: mwashburn@charlotteobserver.com