Day 1 wasn't the most exciting day I've seen, but after that Duke game, I think I'll take a little more boring. Duke may yet turn it around and make some noise in this tournament, but I've got to say I'll be surprised. Belmont came to play for sure, and they can flat out play, but Duke looks awful, and Nelson is CHOKING! I'm not sure what the problem is, but it sure seems like a long time since a senior really stepped up for Duke late in the year.
The report cards are out, and overall, the ACC has outperformed the other BCS conferences in academic progress for basketball and football. Information compiled from the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rates indicates that the ACC has the highest average combined APRs in basketball and football. Additionally, five ACC schools, led by Wake Forest, Duke and UNC, were among the top 10 performing schools among BCS conferences.
The APR replaces the graduation rates that were previously used by the NCAA in determining how well student-athletes are progressing academically. As part of the NCAA’s Academic Reform, teams with APR’s of 925 or lower may subject to penalties such as reduced scholarships. Since the current score are only based on three years of data, sports with smaller squads such as basketball have been given a grace period. However, after next year teams like Clemson (894 APR), Maryland (909 APR) and Virginia (919 APR) basketball could be in trouble. In addition to these schools, Virginia Tech’s football team was dangerously close to the penalty-threshold with a 928 APR.
Combined Football and Basketball APR’s of BCS Conferences
.............FB.....BB.....Total
1. ACC_______954.33 946.08 1900.42
2. Big-10____938.64 933.82 1872.45
3. SEC_______943.17 920.83 1864.00
4. PAC 10____933.50 929.40 1862.90
5. Big East__945.25 912.88 1858.13
6. Big-12____931.17 919.67 1850.83
Top Ten Schools among BCS Conferences
.................FB..BB..Tot..Conf
1. Wake__________966 986 1952 ACC
2. Duke__________978 972 1950 ACC
3. UNC___________948 993 1941 ACC
4. Stanford______984 955 1939 PAC-10
5. FSU___________952 980 1932 ACC
6. Vanderbilt____955 974 1929 SEC
7. Northwestern__962 962 1924 Big-10
8. Georgia_______963 959 1922 SEC
9. BC____________976 940 1916 ACC
10.Rutgers_______971 943 1914 Big East
Of course all BCS conferences pale in comparison to the Ivy Leagues combined total of 1974.60. To put things in perspective, Wake Forest’s combined score of 1952 would rank last in the Ivy League.
There are no surprises at the top of the ACC with Wake, Duke and Carolina clearly scoring higher than the rest of the league. A bit surprising are the 7th and 9th rankings for Georgia Tech and Virginia. However, these could be the result of tough academic requirements once in school. State grads often comment on the unusually high percentage of UNC students who graduate in four years, while State students tend to take a bit longer. The running joke was that sure, it's hard to get into Carolina, but once in, anyone can graduate, the opposite could be the case here for Ga Tech and Virginia.
.............FB..BB..Tot..BCS Rank
1. Wake______966 986 1952 1st
2. Duke______978 972 1950 2nd
3. UNC_______948 993 1941 3rd
4. FSU_______952 980 1932 5th
5. BC________976 940 1916 9th
6. Miami_____966 938 1904 16th
7. Ga Tech___959 944 1903 17th
8. NC State__942 947 1889 23rd
9. Virginia__948 917 1865 35th
10.Va Tech___928 934 1862 36th
11.Maryland__944 908 1852 42nd
12.Clemson___945 894 1839 47th
Clemson and Maryland are concerned about possible penalties as indicated in these posts:
Terps Low Graduation Rates Could Cost Scholarships
Low marks threaten scholarships
However, things could be worse. At least they are not part of the BCS Hall of Shame.
......................FB..BB..Tot..Conf
56. Washington State__932 892 1824 PAC-10
57. South Carolina____913 902 1815 SEC
58. Texas A&M_________922 891 1813 Big-12
59. Arizona State_____926 885 1811 PAC-10
60. Kansas State______926 884 1810 Big-12
61. USF_______________910 898 1808 Big East
62. Arizona___________883 924 1807 PAC-10
63. Minnesota_________919 887 1806 Big-10
64. Iowa State________930 852 1782 Big-12
65. Cincinnati________941 838 1779 Big East
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.
I had heard a commercial for these guys last week, and James Worthy is all over the radio shows this morning giving NCAA analysis on sports radio stations in exchange for a minute to do a plug for this site. I'm sort of a junkie for cool business models, plus know a great deal about buying and selling tickets, so I had to find out more about this.
Here is their pitch to consumers. We'll look at it from the final four standpoint. You go to their site, and you can reserve the right to buy tickets to the final four, IF your team goes, for a set price. So, for example, if your team is the Xavier, you could go and pay $11 each for the right to buy upper level final four tickets at face value. So, lets say you want to buy 2 tickets, you'd pay $22, and if Xavier goes to the final four, you'd then have the right to buy 2 tickets at face value. If Xavier doesn't go to the final four, then you lost your $22.
Here is the neat thing about this, it is an options market, where the free market ends up dictating the price. Xavier probably isn't going, so the price is low. Duke is a little higher, with prices ranging from $53 upper, to $75 lower, UNC is $83 to $114. So, if you are a UNC Fan, and you really believe your team is going and you really want to be there, instead of waiting and possibly paying $1000 to scalpers, you pay $114 per ticket now, and when Carolina goes to the final for, you just pay face value for the ticket. It's clearly a gamble, but so is waiting to see and paying the premium later.
So, two brilliant things about this business model. Let's walk through a simple scenario from the companies standpoint. They somehow get 4 tickets, lower-level, to the final 4. Once the brackets are out, they know that they can make those 4 tickets available to fans of 16 different teams. For maybe those 4 tickets get assigned to the east region. So, maybe they make them available to
Eastern Kentucky, Belmont, Oral Roberts, and New Mexico State for $10.
Then the next 4 higher seeds for $20, then 5-8 for $30, and the 1 through 4 for $50 for example. You can see how those 4 tickets, that will eventually end up in the hands of fans for just one team, will generate revenue from fans from 16 teams, and that options revenue could be much more than if they had just sold the tickets on a free market.
The other thing they do is they have created a marketplace where you can buy and sell these options. So, let's say that you go in now and decide to buy rights to 2 lower level UNC tickets for $100. You can then turn-around in their system and offer that option for sale to others for $150. Maybe at this point nobody would pay that, but after the first or second round, when people get more serious about UNC making the final four, the price may go up. And of course TicketReserve takes a cut of each transaction.
Very neat idea.
Found an NPR story on them below:
by
There's been a lot of talk about Appalachian State lately. After winning a football championship, the Mountaineers are having a fantastic basketball season which includes a win over UVA. At 25-6 and a game away from a rematch with Davidson for the Southern Conference's automatic bid, friends have been talking up the program for a possible at-large bid. It was going to be close and depend a lot on what else happens in the country. But, that dream MAY be over. I believe that things will have to fall almost perfectly, no surprise tournamt champions or deep runs by teams that might pull at-large bids for App State to have any chance at this point.
College of Charleston 89, Appalachian St. 87, OT NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Dontaye Draper scored had a career-high 38 points, including eight in overtime, to lead College of Charleston and first-year coach Bobby Cremins into the Southern Conference tournament final, beating Appalachian State 89-87 Friday night.Draper had two of his eight 3-pointers in the extra period to send the Cougars (22-10) into the championship game for the first time since 2000.The Cougars will take on top-seeded Davidson, which defeated Furman 91-68 in an earlier semifinal.Appalachian State (25-7) had a chance to win in regulation, trailing 73-72 with Donte Minter at the foul line with 2.2 seconds remaining. But Minter's second attempt bounced off the rim, sending the game into overtime, where Draper took over.He had a 3-pointer and two foul shots to put the Cougars up 80-76. When the Mountaineers ahead 81-80 after Jeremy Clayton's tip in, Draper drilled his final 3 to put Charleston ahead to stay.When Josh Johnson jammed home the Cougars final basket in the closing seconds, Cremins threw his arms in the air, turned to the large Charleston crowd and leaped in the air in celebration.Draper didn't only excel on offense. He helped hold Mountaineers all-conference guard D.J. Thompson to 2-of-16 shooting. Both of Thompson's field goals came in overtime, the last a long 3 as time ran out.The Cougars and Mountaineers both blew chances to win in regulation.Draper hit two free throws and David Lawrence added another foul shot to give the College of Charleston a 71-67 lead with 43.8 seconds to go.Trailing 71-69 moments later, Appalachian State got the ball back when Marcus Hammond got called for an offensive foul on the inbounds play. Clayton tied things with his inside bucket with 23.7 seconds remaining.Moments later, Minter couldn't convert his potential game-winning free throw.Appalachian State led 35-34 at half despite lead 5-of-18 shooting from the Mountaineers' starters. But 6-foot-8 reserve Donte Minter sparked them with 12 points.Minter's last basket of the half put the Mountaineers ahead 25-17 with 7:24 left. Then Draper sparked College of Charleston's 15-8 run over the next six minutes to close the gap.Appalachian State now has to cross its fingers and see if its record-setting 25-win season -- including victories over Vanderbilt and Villanova -- is enough to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
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.
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.
Virginia Tech doesn't just mean football anymore. Old habits are hard to break, and I kept thinking that this team just can't be for real. I'm not ready to give them a title yet, but by this point, they've proven they are a solid team for sure.
Wyoming NewsVirginia Tech upsets No. 4 North Carolina in overtime
Bryan College Station Eagle, TX -
4 North Carolina 80, OT: CHAPEL HILL, NC - Zabian Dowdell scored a career-high 33 points and Deron Washington blocked Ty Lawson's shot in the final seconds ...
Hokies surpass North Carolina
Virginia Tech Wins at North Carolina
(more)
Brent, who will hopefully post some insights soon points out, if Duke wins tonight, we have a 4 way tie for 1st
| Boston College | 9-2 | .818 | 18-6 | .750 |
| North Carolina | 8-3 | .727 | 22-4 | .846 |
| Virginia Tech | 8-3 | .727 | 18-7 | .720 |
| Virginia | 8-3 | .727 | 17-7 | .708 |
| Clemson | 5-5 | .500 | 19-5 | .792 |
| Duke | 5-6 | .455 | 18-7 | .720 |
| Georgia Tech | 5-6 | .455 | 17-8 | .680 |
| Florida State | 5-7 | .417 | 17-9 | .654 |
| Maryland | 4-6 | .400 | 18-7 | .720 |
| NC State | 3-7 | .300 | 13-10 | .565 |
| Miami | 3-8 | .273 | 10-15 | .400 |
| Wake Forest | 2-9 | .182 | 11-13 | .458 |
Who would have thought the womens game would be bigger than the mens.
| Top-Ranked Duke Wins At No. 2 North Carolina, 64-53 | |||||||||||
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I made the trip from Raleigh to Atlanta for the NC State vs. GaTech game. Some things never change. Atlanta traffic is still the worst in the world, tickets are cheap because Atlanta doesn't care about college basketball, and Wolfpack coaches always seem to do something dumb in Alexander Memorial.
I got to the game about 40 minutes early and there were tickets everywhere. Ended up getting a 4th row corner seat for $15, but didn't use it. The building was half empty so you could sit pretty much anywhere and I sat with some friends. The first 19:58 looked very much like a continuation of the Carolina Game. Controlled tempo, break-aways when they were there, and remarkable shooting from 3. But, a 3 quarter court 3-ball to end the half was a bad omen, and the State fans in the building knew it.
Horner was hurt in the first half and completely screwed up our already thin rotation. Those extra minutes, extended partying after the UNC game, and Tech's pressure defense finally started taking its toll. Engin at times was really laboring to get up and down the floor, and EVERYONE started making mistakes. Turnovers came much quicker than shots.
Over the year, with Sidney's improved offensive scheme, the one thing that I thought was behind us was the dreaded drought. I guess I jumped the gun on that one. The second half is a bit of a blur, but it seemed like from the 16 minute timeout to the 12 minute timeout, nobody scored. I noted the drought, but wasn't too worried because Tech wasn't scoring either. Then Tech started putting up the points, while the wolfpack field goal drought stretched to something like 11 minutes.
Then the coaching mistake. Every time I go to Alexander, I remember one of my earliest games there. Herb Sendek and his staff were early in their tenure and were all really young. Locked in a close game coming down to the end, tech has the ball coming out of a timeout. State is playing unbelievable defense. Turns out it really was unbelievable, because State had 6 men on the floor, gets a technical, goes on to lose.
Now I love Sidney Lowe. But, from a head coaching standpoint, and from a college standpoint, he's still a newbie. I havne't seen replays on this, don't know what the commentators said, but would love to. It appeared that a State shot hit the rim, but the shotclock didn't reset. As Lowe realizes it and starts trying to get the refs attention, with the clock running down, Atsur throws up a desperation shot. Regardless of whether or not the clock should have reset, once that shot went up, it was no longer a correctable error. But Lowe can't let it go, keeps trying to talk to the ref, and a bit later walks out onto the court during play, forcing the ref to call a T. 2 points we really didn't need to give up at that point. The game was over at that point.
CBS Sportline writers are always stirring the pot to piss people off. But no way Duke misses NCAAs.
If K's crew has more L's than W's in ACC, NCAAs might not call
Mike Krzyzewski has an amazing number of philosophies on life and basketball, many of which apply to both. Of them all, the one that stands out most at this moment is to never get too high or too low and always focus on moving forward.
I agree with that philosophy.
So I'm forgetting Duke's loss to North Carolina.
That's old news, and it's time to focus on moving forward.
"We don't have time to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves," is what freshman Jon Scheyer said after Duke squandered a double-digit lead in the second half Wednesday to lose 79-73.
And you know what?
He's exactly right. That the Blue Devils have dropped three consecutive games for the first time in nearly eight years isn't as much of a concern as is the fact that Duke's remaining schedule isn't favorable for a team needing victories to ensure an NCAA Tournament appearance.
In other words, if Duke isn't careful it could spend Selection Sunday on the bubble.
It's a wild proposition, I know, this being Duke and all. But the reality is the Blue Devils awoke Thursday owners of a shaky 18-6 record that includes as many ACC wins (five) as ACC losses (five) with only seven regular season games remaining.
The remaining games are:
• A non-conference road game at St. John's (Feb. 25)
• Two ACC home games against Georgia Tech (Feb. 18) and Maryland (Feb. 28).
• Four ACC road games at Maryland (Sunday), at Boston College (Feb. 14), at Clemson (Feb. 22) and at North Carolina (March 4).
Now let's take an honest look at the remaining schedule, guess how things might unfold.
The non-conference game: Duke is superior to St. John's, a team that is just 14-10 after holding on Wednesday to edge South Florida. Granted, the Red Storm have beaten Notre Dame and Syracuse at home. But they shouldn't beat Duke. So pencil this in as a win.
The ACC home games: In a normal season it'd be easy to also pencil these in as wins, but this isn't a normal season. Duke has already lost at home to Virginia Tech, Florida State and North Carolina. So also losing to Georgia Tech and/or Maryland isn't impossible, particularly given the Blue Devils have already lost at Georgia Tech. Regardless, be generous and put both these games down as wins, too.
The ACC road games: This is where things get tricky. It seems silly to suggest Duke could lose all four, but the truth is the Blue Devils haven't beaten an NCAA Tournament-caliber team on the road to date. They lost at Georgia Tech last month and at Virginia last week. So asking Duke to win at Maryland, at Boston College, at Clemson or at North Carolina is asking it to do something it hasn't done all season. Still, for argument's sake, take the Blue Devils to steal one of the four, perhaps at Maryland (where a 15-loss Miami team has already won).
(Deep breath)
So the assumption here is Duke sweeps Georgia Tech and Maryland at home, wins at St. John's and loses three of its four ACC road games. Add it up and that's a 22-9 overall record, 8-8 in the ACC, which would likely place Duke anywhere from fifth to seventh in the ACC.
Under that scenario, I suspect the Blue Devils will be fine. But anything less than 3-3 in the remaining six ACC games means Duke will end the regular season with a losing league record, and history suggests a losing league record greatly diminishes the chances of making the NCAA Tournament.
Consider: In the past eight seasons 12 ACC teams finished with 7-9 league records, or one game below .500. Only two of those 12 (16.7 percent) made the NCAA Tournament. In the same span six ACC teams finished with 8-8 league records, or at .500. Four of those six (66.7 percent) made the NCAA Tournament.
Bottom line, 8-8 is probably good enough.
But 7-9 just might not be.
So that's what's facing Duke heading into the weekend. And it's a good thing the Blue Devils have a coach who tells them to always focus on moving forward, because pulling this off will take every bit of focus they can muster.
