Quick ACC Basketball blog

Maryland looked like an NIT team in their loss to Virginia on Saturday.  And they looked very very tight for most of the contest as the weight of this game took it's toll.  Their 7-9 record means that unless they win the ACC tournament, or perhaps if they advance to the final, they will not make the NCAA tournament again this year.

Boston College won yesterday, on a last second shot by Rakim Sanders, to secure their ninth ACC win. Their conference record and wins over Carolina and Wake make them a lock.

Obviously, the big story for me is Duke at Carolina on Sunday. But the biggest game in terms of the NCAA tournament is Virginia Tech at FSU. Tech needs a win to get to 8-8 in conference, and have another marquee win to add to the resume.

If Tech loses the ACC will have three teams at 7-9 - Miami being the third - who have to use the conference tournament to play themselves into the big dance.  And the tournament is stacked with top level teams including Carolina going for their third straight ACC championship.

The ACC is the best conference in the country this year, so one or two 7-9 team may get in simply for surviving conference play.  Right now the ACC only has six teams in (Carolina, Duke, Wake, BC, Clemson, and FSU) and deserves at least eight, so two of those 7-9 teams could get in especially if they win at least one game in the ACC tournament.

Duke has played better of late, avoiding their patented late season swoon of the last couple of years, but I feel great about the Heels' chances today.  Despite the emergence of Elliott Williams the Devils have no one who can stop or slow down Ty Lawson.

They also don't have anyone who can stop Tyler Hansbrough.   Look for both Tys to have big days today, especially Hansbrough. Psycho-T looks like a nice guy but seems to really hate the Dukies.  I think Gerald Henderson knows one reason why.

It will be an emotional day as Hansbrough, Danny Green and Bobby Frasor play their last game in Chapel Hill.  Hansbrough is one of the all time greats, in both college and Carolina basketball, and I and millions of other Heels fans will miss his play and his pure Carolinabasketballiness.

But even if they cut down the nets this year that class will always be special for their 2006 run. Easy to forget that Carolina went into that season with four freshman - those three plus Marcus Ginyard - and not much else.  Of course, that 'not much else' including two of my favorite Heels of all time - David Noel and Reyshawn Terry - who led the young Heels to an improbable run that year. 

How lucky are we as Heels fans to be able to watch those back to back classes, first May-Felton-McCants (with Manuel, Williams, Williams in there too) then Hansbrough-Green-Frasor (with Lawson-Ellington right behind)?

Of course, this year isn't over yet.  Here's to seeing each class end their runs the same way.  Go Heels!

Two Quick Merow-Manuel Notes

• Alison won the raffle for a new MacBook at our school's auction last night. Cool news for the one member of our family you regularly uses our old desktop computer.
• So far Ariadne has heard back from one of the three schools she applied to, and it was good news as she was admitted to St. Andrews in Potomac.  She's very excited to be admitted, but also excited about a school that has a modern dance department.  We should hear from Edmund Burke and The Field School, her other two schools, early next week. 
• Finally, though I voted for Anoop Desai, this week I would vote for Barack Obama since he overturned the Bush ban on stem cell research.  And said he said wanted to strengthen the endangered species act . . .