Rivals.com has 19 players from the ACC listed in their top 100 rankings for the draft tomorrow.  Ten of the 12 teams from the conference are represented in those 19. 

 Two of the guys that will be in the draft are from NC and played at ACC schools….

Dre Moore was a DT at MD for the past four years, but he is actually from Charlotte NC. 

DeMario Pressley is someone the triangle has seen a lot of the past four years as a DT at NCState, but his hometown is just down the road in Greensboro.

Good luck to the NC guys tomorrow. 

And if you want to study up before it all gets under way at 3pm or just see some of the highlights there is more video of the top 200 players that are elidgible for the draft on SI.com…check it out.

They have started early…The anticipation of football season always gets to me and the baseball season always seems to run sooooo long.  I can’t even play fantasy baseball anymore because I feel like it makes it take longer.

After this weekend and the football spring games, it makes this all worse.  Even Marcus and his ACC Football Report has gone on hiatus until June.  So I’ve started a countdown.  127 days until the fall season kicks off on August 28th.

But in the mean time, I’m glad that some NC schools decided to have their spring games since most other schools have already played.  UNC’s got canceled so we have to wait until the fall to see the dazzling technique of Butch and his boys.  I had a hard time deciding which one to go to with Duke, State and Wake all playing last Saturday.  I think that the cure all would be to just have each spring game on a different weekend in April for all of the NC teams.  That way everyone who is going through withdrawal will have four solid weekends of college football to tide them over until next August.

BUT my synopsis of the status of the three ACC teams after last weekend would be:

Duke tried everything to get fans there.  They gave away free food, they had a band and David Cutcliffe did everything in his power short of sacrificing a ram to get people out there.  I don’t know anyone who went, but I do know that the team has lost a combined 400+ lbs before the spring game just getting into shape.  We’ll see how the season will shape up but it sounds like Cutcliffe has done everything in his power to motivate his team.

Oh man, State.  They had the opposite problem that Duke had, with 14000+ fans in attendance.  The biggest thing I was hoping to see from this game was a solution to the QB problem they’ve had ever since #17 moved on to the Chargers.  We have seen Evans at work for 2 seasons so I hope his shoulder gets better after surgery but I really wanted to see Burke, Wilson, and Beck in action.  I have just read over the highlights (or lack there of) from the scrimmage but from the sounds of it, I sure hope the Mike Glennon is the secret weapon that State needs and his recruiting class can turn the whole team around…summer can’t be long enough for them as they are still trying to regroup.

I actually went to the Wake game Saturday.  Call me crazy, but I didn’t really want to go sit through State’s scrimmage and see exactly what I saw last year at the State/MD game…minus Darrell Blackman and Demario Pressley…Skinner is looking better than ever (and even more to some people who saw his photo shoot online earlier this year)….Hodges and McManis looked decent.  The offense spent more time on the field, and I really didn’t see many of the first string D play, so I’m gonna hope that means that they are ready.  Grobe kept his low profile in his old ragged sweatshirt and hat, and blended in with the crowd.  The basketball team was in attendance, and several other players who are elidgible for the draft were in attendance after finishing out their 2007 with the Deacs, including John Tereshinski.

So until these next 127 days are over I will be on the message boards for scout.com trying to squeeze every dollar out of my subscription to the Premium Football page of PackPride.  And watching the highlights for all of the recruits for ‘09.

Two of the ACC’s finest athletes competed in the 2008 dunk contest last Thursday.  James Gist and Deron Washington were the two seniors from the ACC.  They did a great job and Gist even made it to the final round.  In a previous post I included Washington in a dunk contest for all of the ACC.  I didn’t have Gist in my list but he should be, especially after his performance in this competition. 

The Dunk and 3 point Contest is held every spring and select seniors are invited who are not tied up with post season tournament final rounds.  There were 7 seniors who participated, and each had a chance to show 2 dunks in the first round.  The top 4 competed for the title.  The judges for the competition were David Robinson, Emmit Smith and Kellen Winslow Jr.

Washington’s 360 dunk is below.  This was his first dunk of the contest and didn’t get as much love as it should have.  It is more impressive in slow motion than it was in real time.  Washington finished in 6th place, but that finish does not represent his true talent.  He is an amazing athlete and will be a great forward in the NBA.  I see him going more as late in the first round of the draft, even beginning of second round.

Gist’s dunk is not on youtube from last week,  but I put a dunk below from regular season.  He finished in the top 4 for the dunk contest.  He is a strong candidate for the draft and will definitely go in the first round.

The winner was Sonny Weems from Arkansas.  I think his most impressive dunk is the one below.

Don’t worry if you missed the contest.  They have shown it all weekend, and I am sure that they will continue showing it.

So do you think that the ACC is now regretting their decision not to recruit Davidson’s Stephen Curry?  You know Virginia Tech is… The Wildcats are headed to the Sweet 16 tonight at 7:10pm and the Hokies are headed back to Blacksburg after Ole Miss knocked them out of the NIT last night.  Stephen originally wanted to go to VaTech but he wasn’t offered a scholarship.

Stephen Curry has shown his true colors in the tournament and has been shooting 49% and 45% from the 3 pt line.  The kid is a baller and has averaged over 30 ppg in the past 3 post season games.

Curry is originally from Charlotte and his dad was Dell Curry, who played at Virginia Tech in school and went on to play for the Charlotte Hornets.  He is currently the Director of Basketball Relations for the Bobcats.  Both of the Curry men are not the only atheletes in the family.  Stephen’s mom, Sonya Curry, played volleyball at VTech.  His younger brother, Seth, currently plays basketball at Charlotte Christian and will be playing at Liberty next year.  To see how big of a fan he is of his older brother, check out WCNC’s interview with Seth Curry from yesterday.

Tony Kornheiser talked to Stephen on Monday on PTI and even asked about his feelings towards Virginia Tech and if any of the ACC teams have expressed regret after not recruiting him.  Check it out-

Can’t show/see highlights from the day’s game until 11pm SportsCenter, due to the stupid rules?  Problem solved.  Only Penn Holderness can bring you the best highlights of from the tournament by using dolls.

Since the NCAA won’t let highlights be shown if a game in that tournament is still in progress.  With the help of his little girl’s dolls he gave the play by play.  Several other blogs have posted the highlights including ACC Nation and AOL Fanhouse and even the boards like Scout’s PackPride.com.

Check out some of the highlights:

I was in Winston Salem this weekend for Easter, and anytime that I am there I love to stop by Groves Stadium to see the progress on Wake Forest’s Deacon Tower.  Check out what I saw on Saturday:

The front of Deacon Tower underconstruction.  This is the side people will see when the come into the parking lot/stadium and the view from Deacon Blvd.

This is the view from inside of the stadium.  They are starting to tear out the bleachers in the middle section to put up black folding seats.

Can you believe the progress?  It looked smaller than NC State’s Vaughn Towers which were finished before the 2005 season, to me.  But it seems like Vaughn Towers doesn’t have any of their operations below the stands, and Deacon Towers starts down below.  It is set to be ready for the home opener this season on Sept 6 vs. Mississippi.  And the final product should be more like this:

For more pics of what it is supposed to look like check out the master plan.

One of the things I look forward to at the end of the NCAA basketball season is ESPN’s College Slam Dunk and 3-point competition.  It should be in the coming weeks, but I can’t find the exact date.  It is usually a good showing from some talented college seniors. 

 Even though I have still into the NCAA tourney (dispite what you may think since none of my teams are still playing), I started thinking about the competition.  If the ACC had one of their own Slam Dunk Competitions for everyone (not just the seniors), here is how I would expect it to play out:

UVA and BC would have to forfeit.  (It’s cool guys, just call it a season and hit the recruiting trail for 2009.)    Anthony King could rep Miami, but his highlights on youtube are not as spectacular. Other honorable mentions include: Jason Rich (FSU), and Alex Stepheson (UNC). With someone from each of the rest of the ACC represented they would rank below-

Jermis Smith (GT) 

Demarcus Nelson (Dook)

 Gavin Grant (NC State)

Then there would be a log jam at the top for:
James Mays (Clemson)

LD Williams (WF)

Bombale Osby (MD)

And the Winner would be-Deron Washington (VaTech), who might actually be in the contest this year, since he is a senior. And if he is, we know the ACC will be well represented.

So 4 are in the NCAA, 3 in the NIT, and 5 are left hoping to see post season action in 2009.

The Good:

• UNC has a challenging road ahead, but it will make for some good basketball.  They will def have home court advantage being right down the road in Raleigh, but not an easy path to San Antonio.  A few teams that could give them a run for their money: Louisville, ND, Tennessee.  The one team that I questioned in the east region with UNC- Washington State.  What a weak 4-seed for that strong of a region.
• Duke should be grateful for their #2 seed over Xavier.  I thought that Xavier would end up as #2, because they finished as A-10 Conference Champions, 14-2 in the conference and 27-6 overall.  Duke had a tough loss in the ACC semifinals of the tourney to Clemson, and a few other questionable losses during regular season, but overall the strength of Duke’s schedule was harder and contributed to the rankings.
• Clemson, a top 25 finish in the AP poll is a great way to finish the season.  They made the ACC tournament interesting by stoping Duke’s run for the championship and giving Carolina a run for their money.  I think they have a good shot at making it to regionals to face Kansas.
• Miami has shown a lot of heart this season.  Picked to finish last in the ACC, Frank Haith has coached his team to a 4th place finish in the conference with the help of Jr. guard McClinton who was named to the First Team All-ACC.  I would have picked Haith to win coach of the year, but he finished 2nd behind Greenberg.  They will have a long road from Little Rock to Houston with St Mary’s, who lost in the semis of the WCC tourney but made a good run of the regular season beating Gonzaga; followed by Texas in Texas.

The Bad:

• How is the NIT gonna pick FSU over Wake AND GT?  They were all tied at the end of the season for 7th place in the conference, finishing at 7-9.  Now GT missed some opportunites but they did win key conference games including their matchups against Wake, Clemson, and BC.  But really, Wake?  Not only is Wake more fun to watch with Teague and Smith as their athletic and quick guards, they beat FSU twice during regular season, and upset #2 Duke at the end of the year.  They lost to GT twice during regular season play, and then to GT in the ACC tourney, but I was the most surprised to see them  missing from the NIT brackets.
• Can someone pull out their violin for Seth Greenberg?   His pity party started yesterday after their tough loss to UNC, and his phone call with ESPN today just fueled his fire.  All I have heard since 7:00pm tonight is how shocked everyone is about VaTech getting cut from the NCAA tourney. You know what?  I am not shocked.  I don’t think they should be in the tourney.  The only big win VaTech had was vs. Miami on Friday. They finished 19-13 overall.  Tech had a great season, after being picked to finish 10th out of 12 in pre-season polls and Greenberg was able to motivate his players to finish 4th in the ACC and even play UNC close.  But the powers that be do not look at strength of conference when considering who is getting in (which is probably a good thing for the ACC teams this year considering the way they played as a whole).   The Hokies will be just fine.  Greenberg will take his 2008 COY trophy, and they will take their #1 seed in the NIT and ball out in the post season if they are really that good.
• Maryland, well let’s just say they blew their promising start to the season, and were lucky to finish .500 in the conference.

The Ugly:

• All I have to say is: Wake, GT, State, UVa, and BC have a lot of work to do leading up to next year.  Wake has some good 5stars coming in next year and look promising.  State and BC might want to start soon for next year.  Like tomorrow, 5am- see you in the gym.

Beyond Ugly:

• Coppin State. 16-20 overall, 7-9 in the conference, MEAC Champions.  Seriously?  That Cinderella’s fairy godmother hit them with the whole ugly tree, not just the ugly stick.  They are making ugly history though, being the first team with 20 losses to make the tourney.

I heard a crazy stat this week that the combined average of fouls for both teams in the Duke/UNC rivalry is 40 per game.  It seems kinda high, but when Duke played at Chapel Hill in February this year, Duke had 24 fouls and UNC had 26 for a combined 50.

When I saw this picture on the Wake boards this afternoon I thought it was a nice example of the kind of fouls we have seen in this hallowed rivalry game.

And don’t worry guys, no pressure tonight.  Just the regular season champs on the line….

Last year most of my time trying to watch the NCAA games online was spent yelling at my computer for not only being slow loging-in, but also the slow stream.  I couldn’t even watch the game because someone was texting me with the latest scores and big plays five minutes before I would see it online.

Well, apparently if you sign up now, you can still have VIP access through NCAA March Madness on Demand which promises quicker access to the games.  I am skeptical of the promise, but regardless I will be on NCAA’s site starting March 20th.  And I will be screaming at the computer again- either for the slow stream/lack of game seen online or for the first #1 upset by a 16 seed.

 Sign up for the VIP access at NCAA March Madness on Demand powered by CBSsports.com.