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:

The Pack’s schedule isn’t getting any easier and after their loss at home to UNC last week, the fans are still wondering what has been happening to their team in the second half.  Every team goes into the locker room at the half and makes changes to their game to adjust but the Pack has not made the same adjustments and come out with less effort and will to win than most of their opponents in the 2nd half.  We saw it in their game last week vs. UNC, and in games vs. Duke, Maryland, and GT.

With all of that in mind, former coach Herb Sendek is looking a lot better now than he did to the fans two years ago. Mediocre (22-10 record in the ‘05-’06 season, 11-5 in the conference) is now looking appealing compared to their 15-11 record this year (4-9 in the conference).  Sendek has done well for himself at Arizona State and his Sun Devils even upset #7 Stanford two weeks ago. 

Check out this parody below on what kind of message Sendek would send State after all they have been through this year, posted by hpermar.

If you haven’t heard Chris Berman’s quest for the Greatest Sports Highlight being teased on ESPN, then you haven’t watched in about 4 weeks.  They are asking for input from viewers through espn.com to log-on and vote for their favorite.  They have narrowed the field from 100 highlights to 16 and are now having a tournament bracket to vote on those remaining and determine the Greatest Sports Highlight.  I have a lot of favorite highlights from games (mostly college) including Lorenzo Charles’ final shot of the 1983 season dunking after Whittenburg’s airball, but how are you gonna make us pick just one highlight from all sports?  I just can’t see how you can compare the highlights from a Master’s Championship to a National Championship in College Basketball to the NFL Playoffs?  I think they should have had us vote for the Greatest Highlight from all of the major sports and that would even get some sports that aren’t as widely recognized to have their own highlights recognized. 

But all that aside, check out Berman’s greatest highlights posted to youtube from on the set of some of the games and shows he has hosted.  He isn’t exactly making friends…  There are a few posted on youtube now, and they seem to be growing in number.  So here’s a look at Berman’s top three greatest highlights that haven’t been recognized until recently:

Berman respects his elders, and wants to give them their space:

Berman values the equipment in the studios:

I also had up a video of Berman politely asking the production crew to stop moving, but the F-bombs were about to take over so I had to take it off. You can find it on youtube, along with other Berman interviews posted by ampex2000

Friday the ACC football schedules were released.  One of the main reasons I didn’t like the expansion of the ACC in 2003 was the fact that now not all ACC schools will get to play eachother as often.  2008 will be the first season in five years that State will play Duke.  This year is the same as the past four years, with each team missing a few ACC games…this year UNC will not be playing Wake, and there are a few other games that won’t be played again this year since they aren’t in the same divisions.

Here’s what it looks like for the Tobacco Road teams this fall:

Duke:

Aug. 30 JAMES MADISON
Sept. 6 NORTHWESTERN
Sept. 13 NAVY
Sept. 27 UVA
Oct. 4 at Georgia Tech
Oct. 18 MIAMI
Oct. 25 at Vanderbilt
Nov. 1 at Wake Forest
Nov. 8 NC STATE
Nov. 15 at Clemson
Nov. 22 at Va Tech
Nov. 29 UNC

UNC:

Aug. 30 MCNEESE STATE
Sept. 11 at Rutgers
Sept. 20 VA TECH
Sept. 27 at Miami
Oct. 4 UCONN
Oct. 11 NOTRE DAME
Oct. 18 at UVa
Oct. 25 BOSTON COLLEGE
Nov. 8 GEORGIA TECH
Nov. 15 at Maryland
Nov. 22 NCSU
Nov. 29 at Duke

NC State:

Aug. 28 at South Carolina (Thurs.)
Sept. 6 WILLIAM AND MARY
Sept. 13 at Clemson
Sept. 20 ECU
Sept. 27 SOUTH FLORIDA
Oct. 4 BOSTON COLLEGE
Oct. 16 FSU (Thurs.)
Oct. 25 at Maryland
Nov. 8 at Duke
Nov. 15 WAKE FOREST
Nov. 22 at UNC
Nov. 29 MIAMI

Wake Forest:

Aug. 30 at Baylor
Sept. 6 MISSISSIPPI
Sept. 20 at Florida State
Sept. 27 NAVY
Oct. 9 CLEMSON (Thurs)
Oct. 18 at Maryland
Oct. 25 at Miami
Nov. 1 DUKE
Nov. 8 VIRGINIA
Nov. 15 at NC State
Nov. 22 BOSTON COLLEGE
Nov. 29 VANDERBILT

The first sneak peak of the season at the spring games will come in April…State’s Red and White game will be April 19th, UNC’s spring game will be on April 5th but I haven’t seen the date for Duke or Wake’s games yet…Anyone else know the dates yet?…

Check out the full 2008 ACC schedule or check out these links for a more indepth look at the schedules for UNC, Duke, and State.

So Wednesday was College Football Signing Day for the incoming ‘08 classes and it made most of the ACC schools very happy.  Props to Miami and Clemson, who have the #1 and #2 nationally ranked incoming classes with FSU, VaTech, and NC State coming in within the top 20 classes, ranked by ESPN. 

I follow the recruits, and signing day chaos because it is cool to see who will be the key players in the next few years and because it is all over the boards and headlines.  But to be honest, I don’t give the rankings much thought beyond that because they really have no indication of how teams will finish next year, or even that these guys will do well in the college football world.  Take Jim Grobe and his Demon Deacons, as an example.  Has he ever gotten the top recruiting class in the nation?  Nah.  Not even close.  But yet he takes his team to a BCS game in 2006 and in 2007 they are back in a bowl and finishing in the top of the ACC.  I think that Signing Day has gotten way out of hand.  The high school athletes now come to expect the attention and feel like they can get away with what they want if they are signing with some of the big names in college football.  It gets the recognition that the Pros are getting- a camera at the High School waiting for their response, the kid picking up their future team’s hat to wear after committing, and all this for a 17-year-old…

But check out this hoax from earlier this week-Kevin Hart from a High School in Nevada called a press conference at his HS gym on Wednesday to announce where he will play football next fall.  He had two hats in front of him, Oregon and Cal, and after giving credit to the coach for recruiting him he made the big announcement that he will attend the University of California.  On Wednesday, I felt bad for Hart because rumors were flying that someone had set him up and even sent fake recruits so that he believed he was being recruited.  But the news came out later this week that he staged the WHOLE thing.  Can you believe it?  Is the pressure that great that the players now have to make up stories of being recruited and take them to that level?  When news of the recruit committing at this school assembly reached Coach Telford of Cal, it was the first time he had ever heard of Kevin Hart, much less that he was going to play on his team at Cal.  I am embarrassed for his High School that went through the whole charade, and for his family that he put them through it all.  The whole instance was being investigated by Nevada’s Interscholastic Athletic Assocation and law enforcement, and the Reno Gazette-Journal reported later on Wednesday that Hart admitted to making it all up.  The Reno Gazette-Journal Prep Sports blog goes into the story more in depth.

Kevin Blackistone agrees in his Fanhouse blog that college signing day has created athletic monsters and believes that the media has created this beast.  What do you think???

I got to visit the new museum at the Ernie Williamson Athletic Center on Wednesday this week and it was amazing.  It finally opened to the public on Monday.  You can take a self guided tour of the museum from 10am-4pm on weekdays and it is open at special times on game day.  There had been about 150 people there that day I went, just in and out and they were expecting it to be crowded Thursday night for the BC game.  

To start the tour you can go in to see a short video, but it wasn’t working on Monday.  My favorite part was the floor painted up like the Tar Heels’ Court, with footprints in different places around marking key shots with the game and players’ name who made the shot.

Take a look at the video below to see what the rest of it was like!

From the Clemson/UNC game Sunday evening:

• In the bonus:  Clemson Students—-I wish I had a picture of the students from the game last night, I’ve heard more people talk about their shirts than the actual game.  They had a picture of Oliver Purnell on the front and it said: “We’re down with OPP- Oliver Purnell’s Posse”.  Now that was a fashion statement, and it got that song stuck in my head: “You down with OPP- Yeah, You know me.”  You can sort of see the students’ shirts in the background behind KC Rivers in the pic.  State students are also sporting new shirts this year that look like Sid’s red blazer on the front, with a Block S on the lapel and on the back they say “Fear the Blazer”. 

• Double Bonus:  Oliver Purnell—-Who could have missed Purnell’s blazer….It looks like Sid Lowe is starting a fad for the ACC teams when they play UNC.  And

  Roy didn’t miss it either, his first thoughts when he saw Lowe wear his red jacket:  “About the same thing I did when I saw Oliver [Purnell’s] orange one yesterday. I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m glad I’m not wearing that one.’” Purnell is in the grey blazer here.

Ohio State was out for blood yesterday….literally.  But Wake’s men’s soccer team ended up beating Ohio State in the College Cup Championship game.  The tournament was played right in our back yard at SAS Soccer Park in Cary and it was Wake’s first NCAA title in men’s soccer.  Wake has 7 other national titles: 3 in men’s golf, 3 in field hockey, and 1 in baseball in the 50’s.

Both teams played very aggressively leading to lots of fouls and blood.  Wake’s capitan, Julian Valentine, was kicked unintentionally by Ohio State’s Roger Espinoza, gashing his face with his cleats and leaving Wake playing a man down for a few minutes.  If you look in the pic below, Valentine is #4 at the bottom- and you can see his battle wound.

The Buckeyes had 10 shots in the first half, but the Deacs’ defense gave them none in the second half.  Ohio State is known to have one of the best defenses in the nation, and they looked like the best team in the nation in the first half.  But towards the end of the second half they had to replace injured left back, Tim Gabel, with a freshman that Wake’s leading scorer, Cody Arnoux, was able to dominate. 

6 teams from the ACC played in the tournament, but only Wake and Virginia Tech made it to the quarterfinals and they went head-to-head in the semifinals.  Wake pulled through beating VT 2-0, getting sweet revenge after losing in the semifinals last year to California-Santa Barbara in penalty kicks.

One of our own homegrown athletes, Raleigh native, Zack Schilawski, scored the game winning goal.  The sophomore Forward/Midfielder led the Cary High School soccer team in scoring all 4 of his years there, and was the capitain of the team his Sophomore-Senior years of High School.  While he was at Cary High he was named All-North Carolina, All-Region and All-South his sophomore-senior years.  In his freshman year at Wake he played in all 25 games last season.  In his freshman year at Wake, Schilawski had 6 goals and 4 assists and was named to the ACC All-Freshmen team.  This year he had 9 goals and 4 assists…and he got to end the season with a National Title in the place he started playing soccer…Cary NC.

CONGRATS DEACS!

There have been so many football teams from NC in the running for the ACC Championship in the past few years that Swofford and his crew decided to move the Championship game to Charlotte to bring it closer…I’m relieved that now UNC and Duke won’t have that far to travel…

Starting next year the Championship game will be in Tampa Bay for 2 years, then travel to Charlotte for 2010 and 2011.  Check it out

Picture courtesy of: theacc.com