Dave Sez

Head Of Cabbages

Several years ago, I read somewhere about how to properly pronounce the last name of Maryland guard Saruna Jasikevicius. It said that it rhymes with "head of cabbages," which is about right.

Well, ole Cabbage Head was on the telly again today looking pretty much like he did last time I saw him in the 2000 Olympics. Back then, he was draining threes left and right and nearly led Lithuania to a titanic upset, missing a three at the buzzer. This time, the upset took, with Jasikevicius leading the way with 28 points, including about a million in a row in the fourth quarter to erase a small US lead.

Seeing Jasikevicius and former Wake star Darius Songalia on Lithuania got me thinking about the ACC presence on the floor. Lithuania had those two players and the US had three, Tim Duncan (Wake Forest), Stephon Marbury (Georgia Tech) and Carlos Boozer (Duke). Those two ACC Lithuanians however played for a total of eight years, the same as the three US players. Useless info? Sure, but it's interesting.

BTW, the US does have a huge contingent on the US bench with Larry Brown and Roy Wiliams from North Carolina and Oliver Purnell from Clemson. Given how their team has played though, that is hardly a compliment to the conference. No, I'm not really blaming the coaches, but you can't really say they've done all that great either, can you?