2008-2009 ACC Hoops Schedule Released

Full listing on ACCNation

The things that jump out as interesting to me (these don't count possible holiday type tourneys)

Clemson is at Illinois, hosts Alabama, at Charlotte.
Duke at Purdue and Michigan, hosts Davidson.
Carolina has Kentucky and goes to Maui.
NC State goes to Davidson and plays Marquette, plus visits Florida.
Virginia at Syracuse and Minnesota, plus plays Xavier.
VaTech has Wisconsin, at Georgia plus a couple of tournaments.
Wake plays Indiana.

One Week Left...

Clemson is in!
Maryland needs to win 2...
Everyone Else? Just don't lose...

Click here to see standings


Click here to see schedule

Congratulations Clemson, the NCAA drought is officially over. Sunday's stunning come from behind victory at Maryland clinches the Tigers first winning conference record in over a decade. More importantly, the win virtually guarantees a NCAA berth for Oliver Pernell's squad. With a win this week against one of the Techs, or a loss by either Miami or Va Tech, the Tigers will also clinch an opening day bye in the ACC Tournament.

Maryland is now in serious trouble. While a win against Clemson likely would have likely gotten the Terps over the NCAA hump, a win next Sunday against Virginia will not guarantee Maryland a bid to the big dance. Prior to the Collapse against the Tigers, Maryland's had the 55th ranked RPI. If they had held on, their RPI likely would have made it to the top 50. Instead, their RPI has fallen to 64. The loss also puts the Terps in serious danger of playing in the opening day of the ACC Tournament. Since both Va Tech and Miami hold tie-breakers over the Terps, Maryland is going to need a bit of help to avoid the opening round. That may be a blessing though. Maryland needs to beat Virginia, win at least one game in the tournament and pray that there are no tournament upsets that would gain a mid-major conference an extra bid to the NCAA's

For the rest of the bubble teams, it's simple... just don't lose. I still think Miami's RPI gets them in with an 8-8 conference record, but if they finish 8-8 and then do something stupid like lose to NC State, they could be left out. The bottom line for the 'Canes... make it to 9 wins. Va Tech is in a similar position, but given their 62nd ranked RPI, I'm not so sure that 9 wins gets them into the NCAA Tournament unless the 9th win comes against Clemson. For Wake and Florida State, things are much clearer... Time to go on a four game winning streak. An 8-8 regular season finish is not going to get the Deacs or the 'Noles into the NCAA tournament. A ninth win by either team would come in the opening day of the ACC Tournament, and let's face it a win against the likes of BC, State or UVa is not going to impress the selection committee, while a win on day two against on of the ACC's top four teams may be just enough.

Of course the beauty of March Madness is that everyone, even Ga Tech, UVa, State and Virginia still have a shot at making it to the NCAA Tournament. Just win the ACC Tournament, and you won't even have to sweat during the selection show.

Crunch Time...

Coach K seeks 800th win...

Wake needs to win out...
Virginia not a must win for Miami...
Ty Lawson sighting?
Maryland fighting to avoid Thursday at the ACC Tournament and an NIT bid...
Nine Wins not enough for the Hokies...

Click here to view standings

click here to view schedule

With a win in the RBC Center Saturday, Coach K will reach the 800 mark. As a State fan, sometimes it seems like all 799 have come against the Pack. As dismal as the season has become for the Pack, a Duke win would be just more salt in an open wound. I'm sure Gavin Grant does not want the lasting memory from his senior day to be Coach K celebrating #800. All State has left to play for now is pride... or a shot at an NIT bid.

Wake must finish 9-7 in the conference or be playing on the Sunday of the ACC Tournament to make it to the NCAA Tournament. The Deac's RPI ranking of 76 is not going to get them to the Big Dance with an 8-8 record. All three of their remaining games are winnable if you overlook the fact that two of them are on the road. Even if the Deacs fall short, the future looks very promising in Winston-Salem.

Miami is not in dire straits just yet. Their 26th rated RPI gives them a litte wiggle-room, but a loss to Virginia would put them into full panic mode.

Ty Lawson may play against BC... Why? The Heels should be able to take care of BC without their star point guard. Why in the world would you want his first game back to be against Tyrece Rice. If Lawson doesn't re-injure his ankle trying to defend Rice, he's defiantly going to injure his pride trying to stop Rice's scoring.

Everyone has circled the Clemson-Maryland game as being a key match-up. A couple of weeks ago, we thought this game would decide 3rd place in the regular season. While it may still factor into who gets the 3rd seed in the tournament, Maryland finds itself in a fight with Va Tech for the fourth and final opening day bye. Since Va Tech holds the tie-breaker over Maryland, the Terps are going to have to win-out and hope the Hokies lose one down the stretch. Thursday's win at Wake Forest was huge. If I were Gary Willliams, I would still be very worried about the Terps 59th ranked RPI. It has improved in the last couple of weeks, but the 1-5 record against the top 50 is not doing the Terps any favors.

With eight conference wins it may appear that Va Tech is on the verge of another NCAA bid, however they are in danger of not getting into the dance if they make it to 9-7. Not all ACC won loss records are created equally. The Hokies .451 league strength of schedule is next to last in the conference. The only quality wins that the Hokies have in conference play are the wins against Maryland. Their other six wins are against Virginia (2), BC (2), Ga Tech and Florida State. Combine that with an 0-5 record against the top-50 and a 51st ranked RPI and your looking at hosting NIT games instead of making NCAA plans

ACC Hoops - Feb 19-21

Florida State, NC State, Miami, and Va Tech face must-wins this week or they can start planning to host NIT games. Miami is going to have to make some noise to avoid being this year's Clemson.

UVa and Ga Tech face must wins as well, but instead of worrying about the NCAA bubble, they need to worry about the NIT bubble. Fan-bases barely forgive NIT appearances, but totally missing the post-season is a definite no-no if a coach wants to stick around for a while.

According to Carolina, they do not have a healthy point guard... Seems like I remember Kenny Smith being doubtful for the State-Carolina game one year due to knee surgery. He hobbled his way to 20+ points that night in Reynolds.


With Duke's loss at Wake, Carolina remains the only undefeated team on the road... Duke is the only team to remain undefeated at home in league play.

Carolina's 12.2 rebound margin is impressive. The Heel's are getting rebounds in 65.5% of their defensive rebounding opportunities and 39.9% of their Offensive rebounding opportunities.

Mike Kitts, Tim Nestor, Tony Greene Karl Hess remain the kiss of death for home teams with home teams only winning a combined 27.6% of the games these guys work. At 4-0, Mike Kitts remains the home-team's best friend, followed closely by Bernard Clinton and Brian Kersey who see the home team win almost 82% of the games they work. Overall, home teams are winning 58.5 % of games played.

ACC Hoops - Feb 16-17

First to Worst
Virginia is on track to become only the fourth team in ACC history to follow up a Regular Season Championship with a last place finish. The Cavilers would join the Clemson Tigers who went from a 10-4 record in 1990 to a 2-12 finish in 1991; the 1995 Duke Blue Devils we went 2-14 after finishing 12-4 in 1994; and the 1997 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets who finished 3-13 after going 13-3 in 1996.

Road Warriors
Both Duke and North Carolina remain the only ACC teams who are undefeated on the road in conference play. Surprisingly, the Heels are only 3-2 at home this season. Wake Forest's win at Florida State on Thursday left Miami as the only team yet to win away from home.

ACC Hoops Feb 12-14

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Maryland at Duke looks to be the game of the week. I'm sure Gary Williams has not let the Terps forget what happened when these teams met in College Park. Both teams have had trouble putting two halves together.

Check out the Heel's rebounding margin... 10.8 per game is unreal... of course the 80.0 points per game they are giving up in conference play is pretty hard to believe too.

So far NC State has played the toughest schedule, followed closely by BC. Wake has played the weakest conference schedule with their opponents only winning 42% of the time.

ACC Hoops Feb 9-10

Does Clemson have a shot at breaking their 0-for Chapel Hill streak? They were impressive at UVa, but I don't think the Heels will roll over and play dead for them. Things were interesting down in Death Valley with Ty Lawson in the lineup... without him, who knows. For the Heels to keep the streak going, someone other than number 50 will need to show up on offense. If Hansbrough can hit that mid-range jumper he's been workin on and then start passing to the post, look out.

ACC Hoop Feb 5-7

Rumor has it there’s a big game on Wednesday night in Chapel Hill… anytime Bill Packer and Dick Vitale are working the same game, it’s got to be big. Carolina will give Duke big match up problems in the post, but if Ty Lawson is unable to go, Duke’s ball pressure is going to give the Heels all sorts of trouble. With Lawson in the lineup, the Heels have the league’s best assist-to-turnover ratio. Duke on the other hand is allowing the league’s lowest assist to turnover ratio.

As much as we like to fuss about the officiating and the big home-court advantage in the ACC, the statistics may surprise you. Through 41 games, Home teams are only shooting 1.58 more free throws per game that the visitors. On average, home teams are scoring 5.28 more points than their opponents. So far, Brian Dorsey Tony Greene are bad news for home teams with the visitors winning 80% of the games worked by these officials. However, Mike Kitts is the kiss of death for home teams who are winless in the 3 games he has worked. On the other hand, be happy if Brian Kersey or Raymond Styons shows up to work one of you home games. Through seven conference games, the home teams are winning 83% of the time when Kersey works and through four conference games, the home team is undefeated when Styons works. The summary of officiating stats is available here.

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ACC Hoops February 2 - 3

While it looks like Duke and Carolina are going to go best two out of three to determine who gets the opening round NCAA games in Raleigh, there is a five-way tie for the fourth and final opening day bye in the ACC Tournament. Look for a little bit of separation as Maryland plays at Georgia Tech and BC travels to Clemson. State, Miami, Florida State and Virginia need to win, or start planning to Host opening round NIT games. Although Ga Tech is in that massive tie for fourth, keep in mind that going into conference play, they had a losing record which they will need to win at least ten conference games to have a shot at a NCAA bid.

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ACC Hoops is more important than anything.... period.
Don't believe me? John Edwards hinted at his true reason for dropping out of the presidential race during an interview on ESPN's broadcast when he said that there was nothing better than taking in a Carolina game. He went on to mention that had he stayed in the race, he would have been at a debate last night instead of the game... Therefore, ACC Hoops is more important than running for President of the United States.

Want more proof? During Green Night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Cameron Crazies made it quite clear that winning an ACC game was far more important than the environment. For those of you who missed it, the Duke student section was decked out in green t-shirts last night to commemorate “Focus the Nation” – a national teach-in intended to engage millions of students and citizens around global warming solutions. The Cameron Crazies were given green t-shirts emblazoned with the Green Devil and the slogan, “Bleed Blue. Live Green.” It was actually quite colorful until halftime. With the Blue Devils down by nine at the half, many of the Cameron Crazies, sensing bad karma, tossed away their green shirts. The result was a 55-26 second half that propelled Duke to a 20 point win over the Wolfpack.

Out of Nowhere?
Ga Tech senior Matt Causey seemingly came from nowhere to win a share of ACC Player of the Week honors with Duke’s DeMarcus Nelson. His 30 points off the bench against Va Tech were the third most points ever scored by a non-starter in ACC history. Prior to the Carolina game, many ACC fans had never heard of the Gainesville Georgia senior who started the season as Tech’s third-string point guard. Causey started his career at Georgetown and transferred to Division II North Georgia after the 03-04 season. In his two seasons at North Georgia, Causey averaged over 23 points per game before transferring to Tech after the 05-06 season. Causey who had to sit out last season due to his transfer, has said it was a dream just to be on the team at Tech… Tech fans need to be careful not to pinch Causey before mid-March...

Spin Doctors in Training…
OK, I’m finally smart enough to realize that Media Relations staffs aren’t the most objective group in the world. Through their magic, 5’-8” players magically become 6’-1”, and that four-game losing streak your favorite team is on is actually a good thing. I just had to laugh at this blurb on Clemson’s Website.

The Clemson men's basketball team will play host to Boston College on Saturday
night at Littlejohn Coliseum. The game between the Tigers and Eagles is
scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. tip and will be broadcast live exclusively on the
Internet via ACC Select.

Time was, a school would be embarrassed when a prime-time conference game that had some meaning in the conference standings wasn’t shown on TV… not even ESPNU, but I guess a game shown live and exclusive on the internet is better than following it on GameTracker… So far though, I haven’t seen a positive spin on the $9.99 a month it costs to catch your favorite team on the web..

Will the real Ty please stand up…
I’ll admit I am not the biggest Carolina fan in the world… Just the mere though of “Go Heels” could cause my NC State diploma at self-destruct, but it’s sad to admit that I know the Carolina Roster better than the guys getting paid to know it. During ESPN’s broadcast of the Carolina – BC game, Brad Nessler and Jimmy Dykes kept referring to Tyler Hansbrough as Ty Hansbrough. It’s not the first time I have heard that reference this year. I think I also heard it during Brent Musburger and Steve Lavin’s call of the Maryland. Unless I am mistaken and the Carolina Media Guide and Game Notes are wrong, there is only one Ty on Carolina… Suffice it to say the real Ty is a slightly better ball handler.

ACC Hoops - January 29-31

All the games are huge this week. Neither Miami, Wake, Florida State, Virginia nor State can afford to lose.


Virginia can't seem to catch a break. After the OT loss to Ga Tech, they have to face a ticked off Maryland squad... How do you shoot 54% from the field and lose by nine? I'm sure Gary Williams has reminded his team about the 22 reasons... make that turnovers that were key in the Terps loss to Duke.

The NC State - Duke game will be the first Raycom game shown in HD this year. I suspect that has something to do with the game being carried by ESPN2 outside of the ACC market area. As for the game, keep this in mind State's offense is not very efficient, only scoring 1.032 points per possession. Combine that with Duke allowing a league least 0.971 points per possession and forcing over 20 turnovers per game and you have a recipe for a long night for the Wolfpack.

January 26-27 ACC Hoops

MY Picks
FSU, BC, Clemson, UVa, Duke

Where’s Billy?
By our count, Billy Packer has only worked one ACC basketball telecast this season. Love him or hate him, Packer is a big part of the fifty years of televised conference games that makes the ACC special. The former Wake Forest point guard has been a color commentator for ACC basketball telecasts since the 1972 when he teamed with the late Jim Thacker to form the legendary Thacker – Packer broadcast team for C. D. Chesley. Growing up in Winston-Salem, I can vividly recall the old ACC intro, a music piece fittingly called “Championship”, followed by “Hi, I’m Jim Thacker along with Billy Packer” and then the “Sail with the Pilot” intro music for Pilot Life Insurance. Back in those days, you knew it was a really big game when former Wake Forest coach Horace “Bones” McKinney joined Thacker and Packer on the ACC broadcasts. Somehow, the combination of Steve Martin and Jason Capel just don’t compare.

Lucky 7’s
Time for Maryland coach Gary Williams to head to Vegas. By now, it’s old news that the Terp’s stunning upset of number one ranked Carolina was the seventh time a Gary Williams coached team has beaten the nation’s number one team. Did you know that since Williams’ arrival in College Park, the Terps have appeared in seven Sweet-Sixteens? Not only that, seven of Williams' former Maryland players have been picked in the first round of the NBA draft. That’s 7-7-7. Now this is just downright strange. A Maryland win against Duke combined with a Houston loss to Marshall will tie Gary Williams with Houston coach Tom Penders for seventh in wins among active Division I coaches with 597.

Who drew up this schedule?
My college degree is in Parks and Recreation Management (NCSU ’89), so I know a thing or two about drawing up schedules. Maybe it’s the obsessive compulsive in me, or my college training, but I like to see a bit of symmetry in athletic schedules. You know, true round-robins, alternating home and away games, a couple of days between games, etc. Whoever is in charge of drawing up the ACC Hoops schedule should seriously consider taking a sports scheduling class. For starters, four of Clemson’s five ACC games have been at Clemson. It’s nice to be at home, but now the Tigers will play five of the next seven on the road. During that span, Clemson will make two trips to the Triangle, and two trips to Florida. Ok, so you don’t mind the long road trips, how about quick turnarounds? Wake managed to get four home games in each half of the season, but they paid for it with two quick turnarounds. The Deac’s hosted FSU on Sunday afternoon and then traveled to Clemson for a Tuesday night game. Later in the season they will host Maryland on a Thursday-night and travel to Atlanta for a Saturday afternoon game. The one time that Duke has a quick turnaround, they have a Thursday home-game against NC State, followed by a Saturday home-game against Miami. I know TV drives a lot of the scheduling these days, but there need to be some rules in place to prevent these quick turnarounds unless both teams are playing on short rest. Even then, the home-team is always going to have a big advantage.

Trivia.
What seven number one teams Gary Williams has beaten as a head coach?

Which seven Williams-coached Maryland teams made it to the Sweet-Sixteen?

Who are the nine first round draft picks that Gary Williams has coached?
Seven played for Williams at Matyland.

Who was the play-by-play team for C. D. Chesley’s first live weekly ACC Telecast in 1957?

January 22-24 Hoops Schedule

We all knew it was just a matter of time before Duke found its way back to the top of the ACC standings. As the week starts they are alone in first place with a record of 3-0. The Blue Devils are lighting it up on offense, scoring 83.3 points per game (4th in conference) while leading the league in Field Goal percentage at 49.5% and 3-pointers made per game at 8.33 per game. Equally impressive has been the Blue Devil defense. Duke leads the league in scoring defense, 67.3 points per game and in steals at 11.0 per game. In addition, Duke is second in the ACC in 3-point field goal percent defense at 28.2% and second in turnover margin with an average margin of +3.67 per game.

With the two game suspension of Va Tech Freshman Jeff Allen, the ACC has sent a clear message regarding inappropriate contact with officials. Allen was ejected for making contact with referee Zelton Steed with 4:32 left in the game against Ga Tech. Allen who had just been whistled for his fifth foul walked past Steed and intentionally stuck his elbow out to bump Steed in his mid-section as he was reporting the foul to the scorers table. Allen, was immediately ejected from the game by Steed. I saw the contact and ejection as it happened and could not believe what had happened. Does anyone recall a player being ejected for contacting a referee? Fortunately the league took quick and decisive action.

NC State's 3-point field goal explosion against Miami Saturday night has propelled them to second place in the ACC in 3-point field goal percentage at 44.4 %. Overall, State is only shooting 41.6% from the field. Before Saturday's 11-18 barrage, the Pack had converted a respectable 9 of 27 from beyond the arc in league play. State's 3-point shooting is about the only team stat to cheer about. So far the Pack is in the bottom-third in the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, scoring margin, filed goal percent defense... I could go on, but it just gets more depressing.