Maryland Basketball: 2007 ACC Tournament

ACC TOURNAMENT - FINAL

#10 NC State vs. #1 North Carolina
The Wolfpack have no business winning this game. Then again, I’ve picked against them three times and they keep on winning. Carolina should be able to take them out. They are the better team from top to bottom and, Steve Robinson aside, have a better coaching staff. Just the fact that NC State can win this tournament and make the NCAA’s is why the conference tournaments have way too much influence on the rest of the postseason. Let’s assume for a second that State wins. Florida State can forget about going the Big Dance. And that’s not fair. FSU has played well, not extremely well, but pretty well throughout the course of the season. NC State has played well for one weekend. If the Pack win, why should they go the NCAA’s with a record of 19-14 and a 9-11 conference mark over a FSU team with two more victories and several more quality victories. This is the one problem with college basketball. I would like to see the high level conference do away with tournaments. Get rid of them completely. Play an extra couple of conference games instead. The tournaments only work for small conferences that get only one bid. We all know who the best five or six teams are in each major conference. Those are the teams that should be going. Hopefully Carolina puts an end to this charade today.
Pick: North Carolina 85, NC State 71

ACC TOURNAMENT - SEMIFINALS
Originally posted 3/10/07 at 12:30 p.m.

#4 Boston College vs. #1 North Carolina
The last time these two teams met, Carolina turned it into a track meet. That will be a little tougher to do today with tired legs, but Carolina still has the impressive depth. BC continues to play seven or eight guys to Carolina’s ten. On the other hand, Tyler Hansbrough clearly had problems adjusting to his Lone Ranger/Hannibal Lecter combination face mask yesterday against FSU. I can’t imagine having to run up and down the court trying to breath in that thing. So UNC’s run game will be hurt a bit since Hansbrough gets down the court better than just about any big man in the country. Jared Dudley, who somehow won ACC POY over Hansbrough and Thornton, has disappeared since late February. How about scoring more than 13 points? How about not forcing your point guard to carry you? Save for an outstanding shooting performance from Tyrese Rice, BC doesn’t get past Miami. Rice won’t be able to shoot like that today. Dudley needs a 25 and 12 day or BC has won their last game of the season.
Pick: North Carolina 80, Boston College 72

#10 NC State vs. #3 Virginia Tech
We already talked about the ACC POY struggling the past few weeks. Well, the ACC COY is doing the same. Dave Leitao got a chance to face the thinnest team in the country that was coming off an overtime game the night before, while his team had the last five days off and two of the quickest guards in the nation…and his game plan was to slow the game down? Huh? After UVA got up 10 in the first half, they played stall ball. Why would you do that with SingleReynolds? Let them play, man. Terrible coaching. Although I expect the Pack’s run to end here (No way they beat Virginia Tech three times, right? RIGHT, SETH?), it’s would be very interesting to see how NC State would be treated in the NCAA tournament if they won the conference. Their record and RPI would be no better than the 14 or 15 seeds. How would you like to be a three seed and play NC State in the first round? However, I can’t remember the committee ever putting a BCS team lower than a 12 seed. It’s almost worth rooting for NC State to see what the committee would do with them.
Pick: Virginia Tech 73, NC State 67

ACC TOURNAMENT - QUARTERFINALS
Originally posted 3/09/07 at 12:07 p.m.

Well, at least Maryland made my life easy and these posts much shorter. That’s about the only positive I can come up with. Whether it was Greivis Vasquez confusing the 10-year-old boy in the second row with an actual teammate, Ekene Ibekwe committing dumb fouls (He committed so many he should start out the NCAA tournament with two) or Will Bowers making the unconventional decision to catch rebounds with his face, there wasn’t much to like about the entire 40 minutes. I know I said I’d rather have the Terps lose early than go all the way to Sunday, but I didn’t mean lose immediately. I guess I should have been more specific.

The problem with this loss was obviously the seeding fallout for next weekend. The Terps lost today, they would have been a four. If they lost Saturday, they probably would have been a three. Now, there’s the real possibility they are a five seed. In NCAA terms, that’s the kiss of death. If you are a Maryland fan, you really have to root for Maryland to fall to a six seed. Although it won’t matter who they play or where they’re seeded if that Maryland team shows up again this coming weekend.

Anyway, I’m too busy to write a huge synopsis for the quarterfinals. Here are the winners. And if Thursday was any indication, no team is safe.

#9 Florida State vs. #1 North Carolina
I’m actually kind of happy FSU won. I’d like to see them make the tournament. Not for Leonard Hamilton’s sake, but for Al Thornton. Good player, fun to watch, always seems to bring the A game. As long as FSU stays close to Carolina and picks up one of those “quality losses”, they should be in. They have the required 20 wins and a victory in the tournament. That should be good enough.
Pick: North Carolina 85, Florida State 78

#12 Miami vs. #4 Boston College
Miami will now return to playing lousy and order will be restored. Boston College really misses Sean Williams, it just took them a couple of weeks to figure that out. By the time Duke and UNC were done with their track meet wins over them, it finally dawned on Al Skinner that it may be time to teach someone else on his team to play help defense. Of the four top seeds in the ACC, BC is by far the weakest, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they go one and done. Not in this tournament. In the next one.
Pick: Boston College 75, Miami 62

#10 NC State vs. #2 Virginia
Apparently, Duke’s invitation to the Duke Invitational was lost in the mail. Look, we all know that Duke is not the same team they normally are. For that matter, neither is Maryland (based on the last 15 years, not necessarily the last two). But it appears that when Maryland goes bad, we can at least figure out why. When Duke loses, it’s as if their coaching staff just sits there stunned. I know that classless Steve Wojochwiowrammalammachiminski’s job is to teach the players to slap the floor. What exactly do Johnny Dawkins and Chris Collins do? I don’t think these stiffs move all game. Does Ratface slip them percocets before the game? The problem with Duke, for the millionth time, is lack of depth. Duke, despite Big White Stiff’s best attempts, is a perimeter-oriented team. You can’t have guys like Screamin’ Scheyer play 44 out 45 minutes and expect his productivity to be there in crunch time. It’s getting to the point where it would be better to throw in anybody for a couple of minutes. Hopefully they won’t figure this out until next season. Enjoy that eight seed and the first round game against Arizona. As for this game, NC State should be too exhausted to keep up with the Fightin’ SingleReynolds.
Pick: Virginia 83, NC State 68

#11 Wake Forest vs. #3 Virginia Tech
The Deacons finished off Upset Thursday by giving Georgia Tech fifty different chances to win the game. The Yellow Jackets took advantage of none of them. If any of the lower seeded teams can win this tournament, it’s Wake Forest. Their guards can occasionally get hot from outside and keep them in games. It happened yesterday, but won’t happen today.
Pick: Virginia Tech 78, Wake Forest 67


ACC TOURNAMENT - 1ST ROUND
Originally posted 3/07/07 at 4:06 p.m.

Like last year, I’m going to make the ACC tournament just one big, enormous post. I’ll just keep adding the new material to the top and deleting the previous day’s post. Also like last year, I’ll keep most of the ACC analysis short and save most of the good stuff for next week. Away we go.

#12 Miami Hurricanes (11-19, 4-12 ACC) vs.
#5 Maryland Terrapins (24-7, 10-6 ACC)
St. Pete Times Forum – Tampa, FL
ACC Tournament – First Round

Going back and looking at last year’s ACC tournament post, I was struck by two things. The first was how little confidence I, or anyone else, had in Maryland winning two games in a row to save their season. The second was that the overall difference, in terms of ACC record and seeding, between this year and last is very small. The Terps were the conference’s sixth seed last year with an 8-8 record. Now they are the fifth seed. Yet here we are, arriving in Tampa with no worries about an NCAA birth, even if Maryland tanks in this game. There is no ceiling for this team while there was no floor for last year’s version. It’s amazing what a late season run can do for you. If it weren’t for momentum, the difference between this year’s Terrapins and last year’s Terrapins are two games.

Instead of getting 11th seeded, 11-16 (4-12) Georgia Tech like they did in 2006, the Terps get 12th seeded, 11-19 (4-12) Miami. Considering what happened in the previous meeting, this is probably the one team that Maryland wanted to avoid in the first round. We all know that Maryland had their worst performance of the season against the Hurricanes back in January. The question is, can it happen again?

Many are going to say that this current Maryland team, the one that has won seven in a row, can’t possibly shoot 23% and collect only nine assists over the course of 40 minutes. This Maryland team could stink it up and still do much, much better than two months ago. But I’m not so sure. Miami seems to do this to teams. They have a knack for making every contest ugly and low-scoring, which allows them to stay in the game. They are very similar to the NC State teams from Little Herby’s prime, except with even fewer scorers. I would feel much more comfortable facing perimeter-oriented Wake Forest or the paper-thin Wolfpack in the first round than a physical Miami team. As lousy as Maryland played in their 63-58 loss to the Canes, a lot of credit has to go to Miami for making them play so terrible. It’s almost impossible to shoot 23% on your own.

Maryland must do a better job of rebounding than they did the first time. Miami scores a good chunk of their points off second and third chance put backs. The fact that someone named Dwayne Collins, who may or may not be an actual player, got 14 points and 12 rebounds, tells you how poor Maryland was on the glass. Another minus-12 rebounding margin will spell doom for the Terps. With the suspension of Denis Clemente, the Canes still only have two players that Maryland should be concerned with. Jack McClinton is their scorer. His 16.8 ppg come with an asterisk. He usually puts up 20 shots per game to get those points, so his shooting percentage is not great. Brian Asbury is a legitimate rebounding force, collecting six per game. Control McClinton, box out Asbury, and keep a weather-eye out for Maryland killer Anthony Harris, and this game shouldn’t be close. But I said the same thing about their first meeting. We all know how that turned out.

Obviously Maryland is in the real tournament regardless of how well or poorly they play in this game. However, if Maryland has any hope of continuing this run, they must beat Miami and must do it convincingly. The Terps must keep this momentum going in to next weekend.

Maryland 77
Miami 60

Elsewhere in the first round…

The overall record for the regular season ended at 56-28. Let’s keep adding to it this weekend.

#9 Florida State vs. #8 Clemson
The game that everyone is waiting for. If you like mediocre basketball or if your name is Joe Lunardi. Really, it’s hard to get excited about this. Florida State has been kept on life support by narrowly beating Miami in overtime. The Noles have been on-again, off-again all season, going all the way back to November. Clemson has been on-again, off-again just once, the only problem being that the off switch was flipped in mid-January and Ollie Purnell has been scrambling in the dark to find it again ever since.

In my opinion, if the season ended before this game, Clemson would be in and FSU would be out of the tournament. I see most experts are going the other way. Something about FSU’s 19 wins must impress them when last year the same win mark left Maryland out in the cold on Selection Sunday. In any case, seeing as this is a patented play-out game, both teams must have this game, and possibly their next one as well, to hear their named called for the NCAA’s. I guess I’ll go with the team that doesn’t have Leonard Hamilton as its coach.
Pick: Clemson 80, Florida State 75

#10 NC State vs. #7 Duke
Gee, what is there talk about here? I can’t think of anything! I guess I have to weigh in on Hansbrough-gate. By now, every media member who could find a camera has given you their opinion. So despite the fact that I’m not plagiarizing, my opinion is certainly not going to sound original, no matter what it is.

To any unbiased observer, and that does not included Billy Packer, the foul committed by Gerald HenderScum was clearly intentional and flagrant. Did he mean to break Hansbrough’s nose? I doubt it. Did he intend to commit a hard foul and drive Hansbrough hard to the floor? I think so. HenderScum certainly deserved to be suspended, along with the likes of previous thugs Tony Skinn, Keith Jenifer and Nehemiah Ingram. In fact, if it were up to me, he would be suspended for the entire ACC tournament. Although I have a feeling Duke won’t be around long anyway.

I was prepared to come on this page and rip Ratface Cheney a new one for allowing this type of thuggery to occur, since clearly he ordered the foul. If he hadn’t ordered it then he would have come out in his press conference, like a man, and suspended Henderson himself. Instead, he came out like a…uh, like a…well, like a rat, and used the infamous “Isaiah defense”. “The game was over, why are the starters in” excuse doesn’t work here considering that Ratface was calling timeouts with 30 seconds left, had several of his starters in the game and the play in question occurred because of a missed free throw that was a direct result of Ratface telling his team to foul to prolong the game. But I assumed that once again, the media would let him slide because he is the Great and Powerful Ratface. He cannot be questioned. Not even when Corey Maggette accepts money from an AAU coach. Not when Christian Lattener stomps on a Kentucky player’s chest. Not when Just Jumpers Backne picks fights with every ACC player he can find.

However, and this is very stunning, the media is finally doing their job. They are coming down very hard on Ratface for this inexcusable foul and the unforgivable “blame the victim” defense. So I’ll save space doing the media’s job because they did it themselves. The only question is why Ratface is allowed to coach while John Cheney was suspended for his thug’s nearly identical incident two years ago. I would like to see someone, especially the ACC, stand up to this asshole and throw him out for the ACC tournament. This is a great conference, and we don’t need the likes of his ugly ass polluting the sidelines ordering his band of nerds around. Let’s just file this incident away so we can pull it out the next time that anyone mentions Ratface and “class” in the same sentence.

The person that should really be suspended is Packer. Actually, he should be fired. Actually, he should have been fired a long time ago. I don’t know – and this is not an exaggeration - of one college basketball fan that likes Packer. He’s a moron, an old curmudgeon, a total boob. He’s been screwing up on air for the past 25 years. How does he continue to not only have a job at CBS, but be allowed to call the premier event in college basketball? How can CBS allow him to keep his job when Packer looks at 10 replays of this ugly affair and thinks that HenderScum was actually going for the ball when the ball wasn’t even in the picture at the time that HenderScum tried to pile drive Hansbrough into South Carolina? How is this possible?

Packer is very similar to Bill “The Sports Dork” Simmons. Neither is well-liked. Neither knows what they are talking about. Neither should be holding down a steady job. At least with Simmons people will voluntarily go to his webpage to see which new and exciting way he’ll insult Peyton Manning or Derek Jeter each week. But no one voluntarily says “Man, I hope we have Billy Packer calling our game today…wouldn’t that be great! He’s the best!” I literally get squeamish hearing his voice. From his pro-Duke 2001 Final Four broadcast, to his mid-major debacle last year, to another pro-Duke defense last week, he just continues to be on the wrong side of every issue. CBS, there are hundreds of color commentators out there who are infinitely better that Packer. In fact, you already have the best color commentator in the business at your network. Please, please put Bill Raftery on site at the Final Four. Heck, put anyone but Packer at the Final Four. Get rid of this clown already.
Pick: Duke 71, NC State 63

#11 Wake Forest vs. #6 Georgia Tech
Paul Hewitt appears to have saved his job by stringing together a couple of nice wins. Tech appears to be a tournament lock at this point, regardless of the result in this game. Skip Prosser will probably spend the next couple of months, and next season, on the hot seat. I doubt the Deacons get rid of him this year, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him go after another poor season next year. Prosser’s career is starting to resemble Dave Odem’s. Odem had access to Tim Duncan for several years and couldn’t get the Deacs to the Final Four. He then went through several terrible recruiting classes before being relieved of his job. Prosser had access to Chris Paul, failed to get Wake to a Final Four (or even out of the second round in 2005), and is now staring at back-to-back atrocities. Next year doesn’t look much better for Wake. Nor for Prosser’s job security.
Pick: Georgia Tech 84, Wake Forest 68