Duke and Wake lose by a combined 54 points on the road.
- After Wake beat UNC, everyone was ready to crown them ACC Champions. Not so fast my friend. Wake Forest is now 2-3 against teams not named Duke and North Carolina. What is more disturbing, the Deacs followed up a disappointing loss at Georgia Tech by failing to answer the ball at Miami getting dropped by 27. Wake now sits at 4-3.
- Duke got rolled. At one point Clemson took two shots that would have made it a 30 point lead and I am hard pressed to remember a game where a Duke team as highly touted as this one got crushed like this unless they were playing North Carolina. The Heels have done it to Duke at least three times off the top of my head. This was just a butt whipping. Duke had no idea how to deal with the Clemson press and Greg Paulus got dunked over…again. Kyle Singler and John Scheyer apparently never left Durham and my only regret is that I did not listen to Bob Harris lapse into hysteria.
- Don’t look now but Boston College is 6-3 in the ACC and sitting in fourth. The problem for the Eagles is the schedule which looks like this: @Wake, Clemson, Duke, @Miami, FSU, @NCSU, GT. Not the kindest stretch but if they can snare three wins out of those matchups I think the win at UNC will give them enough extra credit to make the NCAA Tournament.
- UNC now controls it’s own destiny for the ACC regular season title. Granted it means winning their last eight games including two versus Duke and at Miami but I think it is doable.
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So, what record wins the ACC? 13-3 or 12-4? I still think UNC has a decent shot to finish 14-2, but if they do, that may be a solid 2 games ahead of the field…
My guess is Carolina at 13-3 will take the crown (OK, it’s my wish, not guess).
Interesting look at the remaining schedules:
http://www.scacchoops.com/ToughestSchedule.asp
Clemson may have the easiest schedule, but this doesn’t factor in HCA, so the fact that they have one more road game than UNC lessens their advantage, IMO. UNC and Wake are pretty even, but I have to wonder if Wake may be at the beginning of a slide, given their youth. Duke’s schedule is murder.
who knows, but two things:
1.) I am happy to see the ACC come roaring back after being down last season.
2.) I am also glad we will be getting Duke’s best shot next week (in Cameron), which should provide a Tournament-like test.
Will be curious to see if either UNC or Duke overlook their opponents this weekend, though UNC has a lot more wiggle room against UVa than Duke does against Miami.
Great to see Dook get crushed. Seeing Paulus on the floor with a dunk over him brought back sweet Green memories. Clemson looked good but I am not putting them in my final four bracket. It will be interesting to see how they play this weekend. I love the league when you can’t count on any team to win. I wonder if Wake will recover and make a run at the end of the season. They have the talent, but lack the maturity or fight to win.
I think the Heels will win the regular season only losing one more. The rotation is set and the players know their roles. Tyler is going to tie up the inside. He’s going to score 20 or the defense will use up two men to try and stop him. That leaves the outside open for Ellington, Green and Lawson. Deon and Davis gives us 6-8 points each and solid D and rebounding. Drew and Fraisor just need to provide solid play that does not hurt us. That easy.
I think Dook and Clemson will fight the Heels for number one in the conference. But Clemson celebrated last night like they won the title. I know its been a long time since they have beaten Dook, but if you are a good team you are suppose to win your home games. Done, move on. Dook is showing signs of weakness. Scheyer is shooting as well as Fraisor but he takes alot more shots. They haven’t got an inside game and if they can’t hit the threes they are in trouble. They still play solid D and Henderson is a good player. I hope they have more trouble with some other teams.
Call me an optimist… I believe the Heels will not lost a game the rest of the season. We are going to sweep Dook b/c they always fall apart the second half of the season. They’ll get beat by Miami b/c the Hurricanes are on a roll right now. The key to the Heels success is Defense. They have to improve on Defense and step up one more notch on offense and they’ll crush anyone that gets in their way.
The Heels will win the title in Detroit. Go Heels!!!!!!
“Kyle Singler and John Scheyer apparently never left Durham and my only regret is that I did not listen to Bob Harris lapse into hysteria”
I had listen on the radio and actually the radio Dookies handled it very well and professionally. One could tell though, that all the sharp objects and rope needed to be removed from the proximity of Bob Harris. They kept talking about the fact they had never seen a Duke team look uninspired and how long ago since they had taken such a beating……..etc.
You have to wonder if Miami has the typical “letdown after the big win” this weekend. Not that losing to Dook would be a letdown for them, but you hope they can get focused quickly enough to give the Dookies a good run.
I am still aghast at how poorly Dook handled Clemson’s press. Not only did it force some key turnovers early, but it really took Dook out of their offense. I hope the Heels learn something from watching that tape…
Clemson was like a diiferent team last night, defensively, compared to the way they played in the Smith Center. But Duke does not have a “press buster” like Ty Lawson…very few teams do.
Duke didn’t look uninspired to me, and I wouldn’t say they “failed to compete” like I’ve heard attributed to the Duke coaches. They were beaten by a team that played better. They could not bring the ball up. So add that to their existing lack of post scoring and the Duke team now has some real gaps that teams can exploit. Clemson just mapped another route to defeat Duke and the Devils are going to see a lot more full court press the rest of the year.
Clemson did have a personality transplant compared to their game at Chapel Hill. The cameras kept showing the sports psychologist sitting behind their bench. Maybe Pernell should lock him up for the rest of the year.
Wake 2008-09 = UNC 2006-07
good call Dan
Wake is taller and perhaps more athletic, and more experienced than that Carolina squad, which routinely had three freshmen on the court at once. Talent wise, that might not be a bad comparison. I think Wake might have a bit more talent and a bit more experience, though.
Here is the list from least to most experienced in the ACC as ranked by Pomeroy. Some of this is liable to change and might even be subjective. For instance, if Chas McFarland gets bench, you are replacing junior minutes most likely with sophomore or freshman minutes. If Ed Davis plays more, the same happens at UNC, so take this with a grain of salt.
12. BC
11. Virginia
10. Florida State
09. Wake
08. Georgia Tech
07. Maryland
06. Virginia Tech
05. Clemson
04. Duke
03. NCSU
02. UNC
01. Miami
The big break comes between Virginia Tech and Clemson, and FSU and Wake, with those above and below these marks being more closely bunched in terms of experience. Florida State and BC are getting significant payback on young rosters. NCSU is not getting much for its experience in terms of wins.
Looking outside the ACC, Notre Dame is about the most experienced in the Big East and Georgetown is about the least, but both are in late winter swoons. Top 25-ish teams that have more experience than UNC to watch for are:
1. Marquette.
2. San Diego State
3. UConn
4. Gonzaga
5. St. Mary’s
6. Davidson
7. South Carolina
8. Rhode Island
9. Temple
10. Texas
11. Villanova
If Wake is sort of the standard for youth that we are looking at, here is a list of teams younger than Wake that may be in the tournament:
1. Kentucky
2. Tennessee
3. Georgetown
4. Butler
5. Kansas
6. Ohio State
7. Florida
8. BC
9. FSU
I’m not worried about the Virginia game this Saturday. You can’t beat somebody with nobody, and nobody is who Virginia has. In about eight weeks, they won’t have a coach either.
You have to like Dook against Miami, if for no other reason than, as I suspect Dook knows, if they lose their season is over. It’s one thing to get beaten on the road by a top-ten conference rival. It’s another to get beaten at home by a team no one is mistaking for a powerhouse. This game is pivotal to Dook’s fate.
One thing yesterday’s results bring to mind is the obvious but often overlooked fact that, while we have our deficiencies, so do our rivals. Lawson may not be Dudley Bradley on defense, but at least he can get the ball up the floor (often in two or three seconds). Can Dook? We’re about to find out. And Kyle Singler is more versatile than Wayne Ellington, and perhaps a slightly more consistent shooter. But when he’s off, where do they turn? Zoubek? Miles Plumlee? Yes, Henderson is good (elbows aside), but he can’t carry a team. Hansbrough can, and has.
None of this is to say we have a clear shot. There are three remaining games capable of producing indigestion: at Dook, at Miami, and at VT. I would be delighted if we won all three, and we might well be favored in all three, but it’s a tall order. If we pull it off, I have to think we’re a No. 1 seed no matter what happens in the ACC Tournament.
I don’t guess Eric Boateng ever turned out, but you wonder if Duke could use Jamal Boykin or Taylor King, or dare I say it, Josh McRoberts? Pocius has been there forever and I don’t think he is ever going to do a whole lot at the guard position.
William,
I agree that this year’s Wake squad was slightly more experienced that the ’07 Heels, but I think the talent and mindset between this year’s Wake team and the ’07 Heels is comparable. We swept dook that year and turned around and got upset by teams we should have had no problems beating because our heads got too big. Wake is having the same issues and I suspect much of that is due to their believing their own hype.
Well, two of those losses in 2006 by UNC were to BC, who ended up in the Sweet 16. We probably will always struggle with BC and Maryland on the defensive end I am told because we have trouble defending the flex offense.
We really didn’t have any terrible losses that year, except maybe at Virginia, but they ended up 7-9 and went to the NIT that year. They lost at USC in California, but that was another talented young team, albeit not as good as we were that year. For Wake to lose to Miami is not so bad, it is more the way that they did it. The loss to GIT was probably worse than any of UNC’s losses that year.
I think the 2006 team was the greatest coaching job that I have ever seen at Carolina. Older guys might point to the 1971 coaching job by Dean Smith or the 1977 coaching job by Smith when he had so many debilitating injuries on the squad.
I did see on the Wake Forest boards that some of their fans were complaining because they said Gaudio only recruits athletes, not basketball players. This happens a couple of weeks after I saw some UNC fans complaining on another board that Carolina only has Roy Williams-approved basketball players, but not enough great athletes to win it all.
Here is a Wake guy who feels like his team is using inexperience falsely, as an excuse:
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=192&f=1118&t=3897103
William,
I agree the 2005-06 team was an amazing coaching job and I had no complaints that year. I was referring, however, to the 2006-07 team that got swept by VT and lost at State, MD and GT.
My mistake! But, I guess that makes me disagree even more, lol.
Wake Forest isn’t even close to the 2007 Tar Heels, except for in experience, maybe. The 2007 Heels finished number one in the power rankings, had very few lucky wins, and every game they lost was close. Probably the 2007 team’s worse performance was at VPI where they fell behind by about twenty, somewhat similar to this year’s BC game, but the 2007 squad almost made the greatest comeback in Carolina history in the last 3 minutes.
I would have loved to see that 2007 team play Florida. Their tempo would have given us fewer problems than Georgetown’s and the 2007 team played much taller, because Brandan Wright was ready to go from day one, while Ed needs a bit more seasoning. Carolina also had a better defense than Florida that year, with Reyshawn Terry and Marcus Ginyard shoring up the defense.
I am not sure that the 2009 Heels could beat the 2007 Heels five times out of ten, if you could somehow arrive a game through a hyperspace portal.
I see what you are saying about the “bad” losses by the 2007 team, but most stats guys see very close losses as being coin flips more or less. Wake simply got beaten down by a so-so Miami team and lost to the last place GIT.
UNC’s worst loss in 2007 was to so-so NC State in a rivalry game on the road. I believe that everyone else we lost to was in the NCAA tournament. Gonzaga, Georgetown, the two Techs and Maryland were all pretty good that year.
I had so much fun after dook lost. I know (I am not friends with) several dook fans. I They couldn’t even argue with anything I said. It was so much fun! If we defend dook like that, they have abosolutley no chance what so ever. I’m not worried about UVa (should I be?) the Heels should be raring to go. Wake and dook were both over rated. My pre-clac teacher was all certain that Wake was going to sweep it this year. She was wrong. GO HEELS!
P.S.: Is it true that Tyler is NOT engaged? I’m not celebrating yet…ok I am. But can you blame me?