Holiday hangover edition.
- First, Duke made some off the court news when Chris Collins decided to take in a few games at the Glaxo Kline Smith Invitational hosted at Broughton High School. Duke recruit Ryan Kelly was part of the tournament as was Duke and NC State target John Wall. Collins was presumably on hand to see both but since it was a recruiting dead period, his presence at all is considered a "no-no." As a result Duke reported the violation and it will be quietly disposed of as one of the secondary variety. I honestly think it is a little silly, much like the couple that have cropped up for Roy during his career. I have no problem if a coach wants to attend a high school tournament just as long as he does not make contact with a recruit there. The NCAA tends to be more puritanitical about such things by barring attendance altogether. In other words, secondary violation can be defined as some defiance of common sense on a minor level.
- UVa-GT played the 2nd ACC game of the season in what is likely a preview of one of the Thursday games in the ACC Tournament. Nevertheless, UVa pulled off the always difficult task of winning a road game in the ACC by four in OT. Sylvan Landesberg did his best Sean Singletary imitation by scoring 26 to lead the Cavs. Both these teams are young with wild inclinations for inconsistency which means UVa will get it's doors blown off by Xavier much the same way they did last season. As for GT...who cares.
- Florida State is 12-2 on the basis of a schedule that would make Jim Boeheim proud. In fact I will go on record right now and state that despite being 12-2, FSU will not make 20 wins by the end of the regular season which even if they beat Texas A&M-CC means they will be no better than 6-10 in the ACC, probably worse.
- January 11th is starting look like a collison between top five teams. Wake Forest remains undefeated with only Radford and BYU ahead of them before UNC comes calling. UNC will have to contend with Nevada, Boston College and College of Charleston prior to the meeting in Winston-Salem. Wake is presently ranked 6th but with UConn's loss to Georgetown, odds are Wake makes the move meaning UNC-Wake will be a high ranking affair.
- NC State barely scraped by against Loyala(MD). That is sad on so many levels. Good thing they have the best football program in the state...oh wait...you can be that with a losing record while the other teams won at least eight games? Who knew?
- Get your popcorn ready for Duke-VT on Sunday...those two playing is always highly entertaining.