Last night two Assisted Living Centers took their fight against Alzheimers to the court for a basketball tournament at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Durham.

Joe Winston, a Social Worker at Carver Living Center organized the tournament complete with food and a raffle to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association.  The two teams that competed were from Grace Healthcare and Carver Living Center.

Carver was the winner of the tournament and together the two groups raised over $200.

Check out the video to see the team members and why they put on the tournament!

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:

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.

If Miami makes the NCAA tourney this year, NC State will be the only ACC team that didn’t make a post-season appearance in a Bowl game for football or the Tourney for NCAAs.  Check it:

Teams that went bowling-

Boston College: Champs Sports Bowl

Clemson: Chick-fil-a Bowl

FSU: Music City Bowl

Georgia Tech: Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl

Maryland: Emerald Bowl

UVa: Gator Bowl

Va Tech: Orange Bowl

Wake- Meineke Car Care Bowl

Teams that didn’t make Bowls:

Duke- either a #1 or #2 seed in NCAAs

Miami- Currently at .500 in the ACC, they have BC at home on Wednesday and will be at FSU on Saturday.  They will finish at .500 at the least in the conference and with key wins against Duke and Clemson at home they are on their way to the dance.

UNC- #1 seed in NCAAs

And that leaves us with…NC State…so it looks like a team has it’s work cut out for itself next year…

It’s March and the Madness is on!

The conference games at this point in the season are anything short of dull.  And with Selection Sunday being two weeks away the ACC is cut-throat.  The biggest complaint I ever hear from ACC fans is that the conference teams beat each other up so bad in conference play that it hurts their record and they keep eachother away from top seeds in the NCAA tourney, if not their chances to get in at all.  All I’ve heard on ESPN is talk about the PAC-10 this season and I hate to be the one to point this out but their conference play is not nearly as strong, and neither are their non-conference schedules.  Analysists have been saying that the ACC will only have 3 teams dancing this year, but I am willing to bet that 6 ACC teams will make it to the big dance.  Even though the ACC has had a down year over all, they are still a strong conference and playing each other (specifically Dook and UNC) only makes them stronger…and this is who it will be:

1-UNC (duh)- They had this locked back in August…and we thought UNC was playing well when Q was running point, it’s only gonna get tougher for their opponents now that Lawson is back…

2-Duke- Came up big after a close game at State on Saturday, had State followed through and won Duke would not even be considered to be a 1 seed…they still have a chance at being a #1 in the NCAA’s, but need to win the ACC tourney to be sure to secure it.

3-Clemson- If they beat the Terrapins tonight in College Park, they will definintly secure their chances

4-Maryland- Their key win was in Chapel Hill (which was the first time MD has ever won in the Smith Center), they have Clemson at home and then play at UVa, I give them a chance to finish 9-7 in the ACC

5-Miami- They still have to play BC at home, and then at FSU, but barring any major catastrophies (which could include BC’s PG Rice) they will finish .500 at the least.  They have a good overall record (20-8) but have no really key wins over big teams outside of conference play and the W over Duke late in the season.  They need the two wins to seal the deal, and it would help to make a good run of it in the ACC tourney.

6-Virginia Tech- Clemson, MD, and VaTech are all neck-in-neck in the conference standings, each with 8 wins.  They have Wake at home, then play at Clemson.  I think this team needs to win the next two games to make a good run for it.  They had a tough sechedule to start the season against #22 Butler and #14 Gonzaga that gave them early losses, but they have been able to turn it around in conference play.

cartoon courtesy of: