Dave Sez

Five Secrets Of Krzyzewskiville

A poster to the message board at DukeBasketballReport.com wrote up a great article - The Five Secrets of K-Ville and Tenting.

In it, he dispels many oft-repeated myths about Krzyzewskiville and the supposed hardships endured by it's citizens.

Disgust

I'm not a reactionary fan. I'm not one of those guys who feels the need to talk trash and predict national championships after every win and then calls for the coach's head after every loss. I don't like those fans. Actually, I do like to make fun of them, which is why you'll see a lot of jabs here at NC State and Clemson, two schools who seem to harbor lots of those guys.

So generally, I try not to get too worked up over games, particularly losses. These are college kids after all, and I know they want to win, but not all teams can be good.

But today was different. I have never seen a game quite like the one that Virginia played against North Carolina today. If Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage had decided to fire Pete Gillen immediately after the end of that game, I would have applauded. The game was a travesty.

The Cavaliers never tried. Not once. When the score was just 11-3, I told my wife (a giddy Tar Heel) that Carolina was going to win by 30. I was wrong. The lead grew to 31 in just the first half. The Heels nearly pushed the lead over 50 before all but trying to give UVA baskets near the end to make it seem respectable in the box score.

Right off the tip, it was clear that Virginia didn't want to be there. The players were playing at half speed. Point guard Sean Singletary would jog up the court with the ball and then stop just past midcourt, a crime that middle school coaches would scream about. When the inevitable double team came (usually facilitated by another Cavalier idly jogging by, bringing his man within inches of the ball), not one player could be bothered to come to help. Trap, turnover. Trap, turnover. On the other end, two Tar Heel passes were more than enough to produce a dunk or wide-open three. The normally itchy trigger hands of Pete Gillen never signaled for his signature early timeouts. He didn't scream and yell. He didn't yank the starters for five fresh and eager legs. He seemed to care just as little as the players.

Now, let me give some perspective here. To many Virginia fans, North Carolina is the top rival. Sure, some would rather beat Duke and the Virginia Tech rivalry has gained steam in recent years, but the Tar Heels are still public enemy number one. When they come to town, it's one of the few sure sellout games in University Hall. Behind the frenzied crowds, many undermatched Cavalier squads have risen up and upset the mighty Heels. Hell, they actually had a five year home winning streak going against Carolina.

This season, UVA had fallen to 1-6 in the conference after a tough road loss against Virginia Tech. For the Cavaliers, a team that was ranked as high as #19 just a few weeks ago, this game had some urgency. The season was mostly a bust, but an upset over the Heels would give them a glimmer of hope. It would be a second win over a top-ten squad (they crushed Arizona by 18 in November although it now seems like five years ago), the kind of bullet point on their resume that could possibly get the Cavs a bid despite a sub-par ACC record.

So, there was plenty of reason for Virginia to be fired up: an excited crowd, a big rival, a rebound game after a tough loss, a last chance to save the season.

None of that seemed to matter. The team didn't quit; they never even started.

It was a disgrace. It was a disgrace to everyone who's ever pulled on a Cavalier jersey. It was a disgrace to everyone who ever attended the University of Virginia. It was a disgrace to the thousands who paid money to attend the game. It was a disgrace to ESPN, who decided this game was worthy of national attention. It was a disgrace to the Tar Heels, who actually seemed a bit embarrassed by how easy it was. It was a disgrace to the ACC, a conference that prides itself on competition from top to bottom.

If Pete Gillen has any pride left, and after today I wonder, he will resign before he's fired. There is no chance that Virginia can bring him back now. You don't pay a coach six figures to watch him watch his team put forth no effort at all. Teams can lose and they can have bad seasons, but the one crime they cannot commit is apathy. The players are on full scholarships and the coaches are paid well. They have to try.

Today, Virginia didn't try. And for that crime, there is only one penalty. Pete Gillen must go.

Cameron Crazies Punk'd

This is pretty funny, a Maryland fan succeeded in tricking Duke's Cameron Crazies into chanting about their own Myron Piggie scandal (info) during Wednesday's game against Maryland.

The Terp fan pretended to be a Dukie (JerseyKidatDuke) and gave the CheerSheets folks some "inside information" about Nik Caner-Medley. He told them that Nik's girlfriend is named Myra and her nickname for NCM is "Piggie." Convinced, the info made it onto the sheets that the Duke fans pass around before games. During the game, they did chant "Piggie" at Caner-Medley.

Score one for the Terps!

Thanks to the DBR for finding this (and admitting it).

Jacked Up

Last night's Wake Forest-Georgia Tech game was a lot of fun to watch, wasn't it? It wasn't the most beautiful execution you'll ever see, but both teams went after each other with abandon. There's just something fun about watching backcourts full of athletic, aggressive players attack each other. Jack, Bynum, Paul and Gray - those are four damn fine guards. They might all end up in the NBA.

Some people might have been surprised that Georgia Tech triumphed, but really you should be beyond the point of being surprised by ACC results this year. When things get tight like this, you can often determine who's gonna win be asking who needs the game more. Wake wanted the win, but the Yellow Jackets needed it.

A smattering of thoughts about the game:
1. Wake needs to play better defense. Time and again, the Tech guards would beat their men off the dribble (because that's what they do) and Wake's big men never seemed to help out. While it was very polite of Williams and Danelius to waive them on by, it would probably help if they stepped in once in a while.

2. I can't believe the refs didn't call Chris Paul for tripping Jarrett Jack right near the end of regulation. It was right in front of the ref! He stepped on Jack's foot, taking him down Wojo style. Maybe the ref's think Jack routinely collapses into a heap on his own while running up the court.

3. Billy Packer is getting senile. He said over and over that Muhammad had cramps when it was abundantly clear that it was McHenry. McHenry even wears those knee-high socks to make it easier. Packer didn't even pick it up in the replay where McHenry was falling down while Muhammad had the ball and was shooting.

4. Eric Williams' calf cramps were painful looking. It made me queasy seeing his calf all flexed and tense like that. Ugh. By the way, shouldn't he be in better shape by this point of the season? You shouldn't be getting cramps in January. Just think how bad it might have been if he played defense as well!

In the other game of the night, Virginia Tech rubbed out their rivals from Charlottesville like an assassin rubbing out a cigarette. For that matter, they effectively snuffed Pete Gillen's UVA career as well. It's over.

The Cavs actually rallied from 16 down in the second half to get it to a three point game with about two minutes left. Then they proceeded to turn the ball over in three out of four possessions. They lost it one more a few possessions later for good measure. Good teams make plays to win down the stretch. Virginia throws the ball into the stands (or worse, their opponent's hands).

So, who will Virginia get to replace Gillen? The speculation begins. (By the way, I love the idea of Mike Montgomery. The NBA thing isn't working out and he's been on UVA's short list before. He almost got the job back when Jeff Jones got it instead. UVA had offered Rick Barnes and he accepted. Virginia told Montgomery it was over and then Barnes changed his mind, leaving UVA high and dry. They had to go with assistant Jones. Montgomery is a damn good coach and he's proven he can win at an academic school.)

One odd note from that game, or rather from before the game. The Hokies (before last night's game) were last in the ACC in both offensive and defensive field goal percentage, yet had a winning league record of 3-2. They are also last in the league in rebound margin. Explain that one to me.

To wrap things up, I'm gonna unveil a little feature I hope to continue throughout the rest of the season. Each Monday, I'll put out a new table showing the teams and their ratings according to various computer rankings, including the RPI. For this first one, I'm using today's numbers, but I'll get on track on Monday and do weekly updates. Each chart will show the current and previous week's ratings so that you can see if teams are moving up or down.

The interesting things in this table right now are the ratings of Clemson and Virginia Tech. The computers like the Tigers, but aren't yet convinced by the Hokies. I can't really explain it, but Virginia Tech's horrendous non-conference schedule (and they lost some of those games) is probably their problem. I can't really explain the Clemson love. I guess they've lost a bunch of close games and none to any bad teams (other than the Hokies). The Tigers' wins over Ohio State and South Carolina are actually proving to be pretty decent wins.

Team	Pomeroy	Sagarin	Greenfield	RPI	Trend
Wake Forest
	68.77 (3)	91.93 (6)	96.769 (2)	.6712 (3)
Duke
	67.14 (5)	93.86 (2)	94.745 (4)	.6693 (4)
Carolina
	70.38 (2)	93.50 (3)	95.465 (3)	.6520 (9)
Georgia Tech
	61.98 (22)	86.12 (21)	84.652 (39)	.6017 (26)
Maryland
	61.16 (27)	85.27 (25)	85.833 (30)	.5992 (28)
Miami
	56.09 (74)	82.06 (48)	82.849 (55)	.5662 (60)
Clemson
	57.74 (53)	81.31 (55)	82.136 (61)	.5668 (59)
NC State
	57.91 (48)	81.23 (56)	81.119 (80)	.5268 (124)
Virginia
	55.20 (90)	80.38 (66)	82.152 (59)	.5740 (51)
FSU
	56.41 (70)	80.38 (66)	80.990 (82)	.5385 (102)
VA Tech
	53.67 (110)	78.21 (101)	78.492 (120)	.5166 (146)

One other note from this table is that it's pretty clear that right now the ACC has five tournament teams. NC State and even Clemson can be seen as lower bubble teams. I'm guessing that if the Hokies keep up their winning (four conference wins already!), they'll get there too.

Roll The Dice

Follow the sequence from this weekend - Duke crushes FSU in Tallahassee, NC State stomps Maryland in College Park, Florida State beats State in Raleigh and then Maryland beats Duke at Duke. It doesn't make much sense, does it? Games seem like they are completely random - a roll of the dice.

It seems that way, but it's really not so random. Sure, FSU, Maryland and NC State are among the most bipolar teams in the country, but if you consider where they were expected to be, last night's results don't seem so crazy. Maryland was picked as a tournament lock, at least the fifth best conference team. NC State was just below that, but a near certain tournament team, while FSU was picked as a strong bubble team. The fact that each team has struggled to live up to those predictions notwithstanding, what we saw last night wasn't that shocking. Frustrating to fans of those teams, sure, but not really shocking.

In that Duke-Maryland game, we finally saw a team pull off what everyone was waiting for against Duke. Maryland put pressure on Ewing, who doesn't have the true point guard skills to handle severe pressure. They also chased J.J. Redick (duh) and challenged Sheldon Williams enough to force Duke to use its thin bench. Under pressure the whole game, Duke got tired. Also, since the Blue Devils rely on those three stars for so much of their offense, a bad game by two of the three (Ewing and Redick) doomed them. It'll happen again, but as Shavlik Randolph gets back in shape, they'll be a bit more resilient.

For Maryland, the hope is that this game springboards them to better play throughout the season. We'll see. One game is not a trend. They have the players and they have the coach. It's time to find out if they have a team.

Aside: I rip on Gary quite a bit here, largely because he's such an easy target. The thing is though, the guy completely baffles me. He does so many things the "wrong" way. We are taught that winners don't complain. Winners don't make excuses. Leaders don't panic under pressure. Leaders don't lash out at others when things don't go well. Gary Williams does all of those things, yet he wins. It's amazing. Just goes to show that there lots of ways to be successful.

One side effect of State's implosion last night which greatly crippled their tournament hopes (they aren't dead yet at all, but they are going to need some more upsets) is that it brought out some good humor. Check this thread about their meltdown over at Pack Pride. It started at 7:36 last night and already has 14 pages.

Even better was the post at StateFansNation.com explaining NC State's offense. The best bit:

Should, however, the defense reject our playbook and choose to play zone, then our offense switches into the patented “Standing Around the Perimeter” (SAP) offense. It is similar in concept to Dean Smith’s famous “Four Corners” offense in that it allows several minutes to elapse without scoring a basket. The only difference between SAP and the Four Corners is that SAP allows the other team numerous possessions.

That's great. JPS is a funny dude.

TV Schedules And The Art Of Whining

I know this may be old news to some of you. I've been meaning to post about it since the story came out, but I'm just getting around to it.

What I'm talking about is Andy Katz's article from a couple Fridays ago about TV's influence on ACC schedules.

It's something I didn't know and it's actually pretty interesting. Once the ACC figures out the schedule, not the dates but who's playing whom, the various television partners bid on the games. It's like a draft, where the UNC-Duke games go first every year. The networks pick and choose in some order (probably stipulated in their contracts) and that's how the schedule is built.

The end result of this is that certain less desirable games, Duke-Clemson is the example they pick, end up early in the season when ratings are naturally lower and bigger games come later when fans are tuned to college hoops. That's why Clemson has opened with Duke four years in a row and Duke and Carolina always play the last game of the season.

Oliver Purnell thinks this is unfair.

"I raised it at the meetings and I raised it with my athletic director the other day," Purnell said. "I understand the importance of the ratings but at the same time there needs to be some equitable competitiveness as well."

And surprise, surprise, Gary Williams has a problem with it too:

"I'm glad Fred [Barakat] said that because I've been in the league for 16 years and I know they do that," Williams said of giving the Duke-UNC games preferred treatment. "The year after we won the national title, Duke-Carolina was still the ultimate game. It's always the last ACC game. It makes every other team in the league look secondary. That's what I object to. Whoever is good should get the publicity. "

Waaa, waaa, waaa. What a bunch of crap.

First, Coach Purnell, what kind of message are you sending your team and your program? That you will always lose to Duke? That's a great attitude. What difference does it make if you play them first or last? Do you know before the season starts who will or won't be injured at different times of the year? Do you know that your team will improve more or less than Duke over the course of the season? No, you don't. You're just whining and blaming someone else for your failures.

Same with you, Gary. I know you like to play up the "woe is me" angle and blame all of Maryland's troubles (real or imagined) on the evil North Carolina schools, but it's really tiresome. Again, who cares when you play Duke?

They argue that it's unfair that Duke gets the "easy" games first, but on the flip side, is it fair that Duke has to play Wake, G Tech and Carolina in consecutive games? Would you rather lose a bunch of games early or late? Do you really know which game are "easy?"

And then there's Gary's notion that it's somehow unfair that Duke and Carolina is the game that everyone wants to see, as if that's the choice of the teams involved. He argues that the league should pump the top two teams each year (as if UNC-Wake didn't get attention this year and Duke-Maryland didn't several years ago). His quote was "there's nobody better than Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and North Carolina this year. They're the top three." Really? Is that right Gary?

You see the problem here? When Coach Williams said that, he might have been right, but less than two weeks later, he's dead wrong. Duke is #2 in the country. You just can't predict who will be strongest, so it makes sense to play up the established rivalries. The TV networks have no particular marriage to the Duke-UNC game. They want whatever games will get the most viewers, and nowhere near as many viewers want to see a Wake Forest-Maryland game.

So, in the end, this is all just complaining for complaining sake. Duke gets no benefit from this schedule and Clemson and Maryland suffer no harm. I think some coaches just have a reflexive tic whenever they hear the words "choice" and "Duke" in the same sentence. Shut up and coach and maybe you'll find that the networks want you next year.

Ignored Eagles

Boston College, who will be joining the ACC next year, is having a tremendous basketball season. They are one of only three undefeated teams left in Division 1 at 16-0 and ranked #8.

While I'm glad that they are strong and will add a good team to the conference, I still think Boston College is a horrible fit in the ACC. What does the city of Boston have in common with the ACC? Do the people of Boston care about the ACC?

Read this article about BC coach Al Skinner. He's done a great job there and by all accounts seems like a good guy, but no one in Boston cares.

Check this quote about their game last week with Villanova, a strong conference foe:

The Eagles were thankful to draw the second sellout of the season (8,606) to their campus arena Wednesday night and were not overly concerned that it was telecast nowhere in a conference built on TV markets.

Their second sellout of the season in an arena that holds just 8,606? In a city the size of Boston (over 5 million people)? That's disgraceful.

The ACC suits fell in love with the idea of getting the Boston TV market, but they failed to recognize that no one there cares about BC. They already get a ton of ACC games on TV there (including almost all of Duke and Carolina's games), so what's the incremental addition of a few more games involving a team they don't care about now?

Check the sports section at the Boston Herald. No mention of BC at all. The only Eagles are the ones in Philly. The only way to find a BC story is to click on "College" in the left navigation - just below Golf, Soccer and Auto Racing.

Did I mention that I don't like expansion?

ACC Notes - 1/25/2005

I go away for one weekend and the whole conference goes berserk!

OK, that's not exactly true. Things were already starting to get pretty nutty before I left, and honestly, do things ever go like we think they will? Each year, we see teams play a few times early in the season and think we know how good they are and who they can and can't beat. Then, each year, teams go up and down and have good and bad games and we act surprised. The only real surprise is that we get fooled again each time.

All that said, I just can't figure out most of the teams in this league. Outside of maybe Clemson and Duke, is there a team that we know for sure about?

• Duke is undefeated and getting stronger, but everyone, coach K included, keeps waiting for them to start losing.
• Wake has looked great, but got spanked by Illinois and lost to a weak Florida State team.
• Carolina has also looked great, but their big wins over Maryland and Georgia Tech don't look too impressive anymore, do they? In their one game against a top conference opponent, they lost.
• Is Georgia Tech a good team? Sure, B.J. Elder is good, but is he that critical? Losing to the Hokies at home? Maybe the title of the one true "Tech" is up for argument!
• Just how bad is this Maryland team? It's starting to look like Gary has lost this team. They are selfish and fragile. One stat that stood out in that State debacle was that star point guard John Gilchrist had three assists. Maybe he should stop hanging out with Exree Hipp's old posse.
• Is NC State good or bad? Can they only beat old-guard ACC teams? It seems like they always lose to decent non-conference teams. Maybe they didn't realize that Miami and Virginia Tech are in the conference now.
• How good is Miami? They looked pretty tough until they ran into Duke and Carolina, but then that's been the story for countless teams over the years. I say the Hurricanes can make the tourney.
• Has Florida State already had their one good game of the year? Was that Wake game an accurate depiction of their potential or a mirage? I'm guessing mirage.
• What's up with Virginia Tech? Didn't they get the memo? We asked you in for your football money. Don't go beating us in basketball.
• Some things are sane in this world - Clemson is still Clemson. They provided Virginia with their first conference win, just like they did for Duke and Virginia Tech previously. The Tigers are like the school slut in high school - everybody's first time.
• And then there's Virginia. Clearly they aren't going to live up to their early season hype, but can they fight their way to respectability? To near-respectability? They can, but I bet they'll manage to only get on the bottom of the bubble, but then lose a critical late game to fall to the NIT.

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News says that he agrees that ACC isn't quite as strong as people (irrationally) believed it might be, but at the same time, it's deeper than expected. No one thought Miami and Virginia Tech would bring anything to the league, but they've both been surprisingly competitive. Somewhere, John Swofford is smiling a greasy smile.

Well, through it all, the hope and despair, hype and hyperbole, the season is shaping up to be pretty damn exciting. We knew it would be, but as always, it's a little different than expected. There are no sure things this season. Except maybe Clemson.

Ramble On

Leaves are falling all around,
It’s time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I’m much obliged
For such a pleasant stay.

Hope is rambling on from Pete Gillen and the Virginia Cavaliers.

It's a gimmicky article, but well done. And accurate.

Waking Up The Doze Dome

When I saw this article in the Winston-Salem Journal about how Roy Williams wants to spice up the Dean Dome crowd, I assumed he was pushing for more students near the floor. Unfortunately, this article talks more about improving the TVs and piping in music. Um, Roy, that's not what made Carmichael so great and it's not what makes Allen Fieldhouse and Cameron Indoor Stadium rock. What makes a great crowd is a great crowd. By and large, the only way to get a consistently great, loud crowd is to have the students near the court where they can make noise and be seen. They create the atmosphere, not the old-timers with the deep pockets.

The problem at Carolina, and any other school with a modern arena, is that they sold those good seats long ago for big dollars. They can't just take them back without some lawsuits. The only option is to buy them back. That would be expensive, but if any booster program can do it, it's the Rams Club, especially now, while the Heels are winning.

The article does have a great anecdote about Carmichael from a game when Virginia and Ralph Sampson came to play:

Williams is hoping for nights in the Smith Center to be as menacing as one night in Carmichael in the '80s. UNC was playing Virginia and Ralph Sampson and Carmichael was in bedlam before tipoff. The noise was deafening. Nothing could be heard on the floor.

Williams helped Virginia with the starting lineup introductions because he was standing next to the public-address announcer, who couldn't be heard. Williams yelled the names of Virginia's players when announced to Craig Littlepage, a Virginia assistant, so that Littlepage could tap each player when his name was called to go out on the floor. Littlepage, who was 10 feet from Williams, couldn't hear a word Williams said and had to read his lips.

Hitting The Road

I'll be out of town this weekend until Monday evening, so this is it for me for a few days.

Talk amongst yourselves.

I'll give you a topic - Is Julius Hodge the best bad player ever or the worst good player ever?

Discuss.

Fly Away Owls

Time for a little break from college hoops. The SportsProf wrote a great piece on Temple football.

How is it possible to write anything interesting about Temple football, you ask? Well, it's not easy, but the Prof did it. In this essay, he argues for Temple to drop the sport, but the interesting stuff is his stories of going to games with his dad. Maybe I'm just sentimental, but I love this stuff. It reminds me about what sports is really about. It's not about national TV and cheerleaders (well maybe a little about cheerleaders) and pregame shows. It's about watching games with friends and family and just enjoying the sport.

State Satire

This is nice. StateFansNation.com has come up with an exclusive story - evidently Herb Sendek and Lee Fowler each issued public statements of support for other. The statements came within minutes of each other but were apparently completely unrelated. You can read the story here.

Well done, JPS.

Time To Panic

I've written several times in the past couple of weeks about how fans of Virginia and NC State have been prematurely panicking about their teams' chances. It's too early for that, I argued. There's plenty of season left.

Well, now it's time.

Last night's losses, Virginia at Maryland and NC State at Virginia Tech, left them each in deep holes. Deep. Let's get a flashlight and peer down there and see just how far down they are. Is there a chance that hey can scratch and claw back up to the sunlight? Or does Lassie need to go get help?

The Cavaliers are now 0-5 in the ACC. They didn't play a very good non-conference schedule, but did manage one impressive win with an 18 point whipping of Arizona. That big win probably means that the Cavs could garner a bid with a 7-9 record in the brutal ACC. Given that they have already lost five times, a little basic math says that they need to go 7-4 the rest of the way. Here are their eleven remaining games (with f for favorite and 'u' for underdog according to Pomeroy's Ratings):
Home against Clemson (f)
Home and away against Virginia Tech (f, f)
Home and away against UNC (u, u)
Home and away against State (f, u)
Home and away against FSU (f, u)
Home against Maryland (u)
At Wake Forest (u)

There are three scheduled losses in there - the two Carolina games and at Wake. That means UVA must go 7-1 in the rest of those games, even though they'll be favored in only five of them. Looks pretty unlikely, huh? While Virginia might be able to land the two upsets it needs, odds are they won't hold serve in all the games in which they are favored. It doesn't help that starting forward Jason Clark is academically ineligible for the rest of the year (and his career).

Now how about State? State has no good non-conference wins, so I think they need to go 8-8 to get a bid. They are 1-3 now, so that means they need to finish 7-5. Let's look at their schedule:
Home and away against Maryland (u, u)
Home against Florida State (f)
At Clemson (u)
Home and away against UNC (u, u)
Home and away against UVA (f, u)
Home and away against Wake (u, u)
At Georgia Tech (u)
Home against Virginia Tech (f)

That looks even bleaker than Virginia's road. State has only three games left where they will be favored, but yet need to win seven. Time to get in line for those NIT tickets, Wolfpackers! Oh, and since you aren't gonna make the tourney, would it be too much to ask to go ahead and tank those Virginia games? It'd be good for the conference, you know! ;-)

BTW, looking at Pomeroy's predictions, outside of the big four (Duke, Wake, Carolina and Wake), only Maryland is predicted to go 8-8 or better. Miami is looking at 7-9, which put them on the lower half of the bubble, I think. One thing's for sure - all that talk of seven bids looks pretty foolish now. The conference may get only five (don't believe those who would say it will be just four).

ps. Little tip to Herb Sendek and the boys. You might want to work a little on those end-of-game situations. You've put forth of the most horrendous attempts I've seen in the last two losses.

Killing The Sports Guy

You've probably noticed that I link to a fair number of Bill Simmons' articles. I like the guy. He's a great writer and I've been reading his stuff since before he joined ESPN.com.

But.

Man, has the success of the Red Sox and Patriots made him insufferable. If you didn't read his article earlier this week about how the Patriots don't get enough respect, be thankful. I'm not even going to link to it. It was awful. Trite. The worst thing he's ever written, by far.

Fortunately, ESPN had the guts to print a ton of the hate mail he got as a result. Taken as a whole, these sum up my feelings pretty nicely.

Ignore The RPI ... For Now

For the past several days, I've been having a debate with JB34 in the Sports Shack over the RPI and what it means for NC State at this point in the season. It turns out that JB34 is also a writer at StateFansNation.com and today he wrote an article further expounding on his opinions on the matter. Basically, his point is that State's RPI (100) is bad and that is a cause of alarm.

My counter-argument is that he shouldn't be looking at the RPI yet. No one should. Yes, I know it's available and tempting, but that doesn't mean you should pay it any mind.

For a great explanation of why this is, read the words of Ken Pomeroy (who knows a hell of a lot more about this stuff than I do). Ken wrote a three part essay on the RPI and what it is and is not good for. You can (and should) read the three parts here - one, two, three.

The basic reasoning for why the RPI is something you should ignore is that 75% of the calculation comes from a team's schedule. Early (or even midway) through a season, these schedules ratings can have huge variances. By the end of the season, as teams regress toward .500 records, their schedules converge to a much narrower gap. By Ken's measurement the teams with the best and worst schedules over three years varied by an average of only .2140 per year. While it's 3/4 of your RPI rating, teams don't have too big of a gap in their schedules, so eventually, a team's won/loss record comes more into play.

In Ken's own words:

The range of values in the SOS is also part of the reason the RPI is useless early in the year. SOS has a much greater range this time of year, so it does control the ratings. But as the year progresses, everybody’s SOS gravitates towards .500 and winning percentage becomes more important.

Let's take the two teams that JB34 used as examples, Clemson and NC State. To a casual observer, NC State is the better team. To the RPI right now though, Clemson is much better. According to Pomeroy's RPI calculations, Clemson is #39 and NC State is #102. NC State actually has a better record at 11-5 to Clemson's 10-6, so the difference is obviously in their schedules. If you compare those, you'll see that Clemson's opponents have a .5861 record, good for 20th best in the country (this is in large part due to Clemson's loss to undefeated Boston College). NC State's opponents on the other hand have a .5151 record, the 125th best in the country. As the season goes on and State and Clemson play more ACC teams, those schedules will converge until they are very similar.

As a contrast, let's take a look at Pomeroy's power ratings. This rating system takes into account margin of victory, location of the game (actually, the RPI does this now too, to a degree) and when the game was played. These sorts of power ratings, like Sagarin's and Mike Greenfield's, are much more accurate more quickly than the RPI. They really just need a handful of games to get all of the teams connected to be accurate.

According to Pomeroy's Ratings, Clemson is #49 and NC State is #62. This seems much more reasonable to me. It clearly shows that State has some work to do, but there's no way that there are 100 better teams in the country (Greenfield has State at #67 and Sagarin has them at #52).

So, forget about the RPI for now. It matters, but it's not accurate yet. Check back in the last couple of weeks of the season to see where things are. Meanwhile, just hope your team wins. Remember that the RPI is just one of several criteria the selection committee uses and if your team takes care of business and gets to at least 7-9 in the ACC, they'll probably get a bid.

Strawberry Out

Maryland sophomore DJ Strawberry tore his ACL in practice this week and is out for the season.

That's tough news for the Terrapins, as Strawberry is one of those glue guys - he does a little of everything. He's probably their best defender and, as the sixth man, brings a ton of energy off of the bench. You wonder if this Maryland team has what it takes to handle all of this adversity (the recent losses plus this). The thing is, I think Gary Williams thrives under difficult circumstances, which is why he goes out of his way to point out problems even when they don't exist.

Scalped!

Let's see here - huge win over rival in most hyped game of the season on Saturday. The next Saturday, another big out-of-conference game that sure to get a ton of national attention. And in between, some little conference road game against a lower-tier team. Nothing to worry about right? Wrong.

Seemingly in an attempt to make my Rest Week post look dumb mere hours after I posted it (which actually isn't too bad for me), Wake went down to Tallahassee tonight and lost to a team that previously failed to beat Texas A&M - Corpus Christi and Florida International.

It was actually a very entertaining game. In the first half, Von Wafer did his best Tim Pickett impersonation, lighting the Deacons up for a career high-tying 25 points. (aside: did you know that Von's first name is actually Vakeaton? It's a Swahili name meaning roughly "Yeah, boy! That's what I'm talkin' about!") Behind Wafer's hot hand, FSU broke out to a 19 point lead before settling down to a 14 advantage at the break. After taking 13 shots and hitting 9 for his 25 in the first half, Wafer evidently grew a mustache at half-time, because his teammates could no longer find him. He took only 3 second half shots and finished with 30 points.

Wake slowly whittled the lead down in until they finally tied it at 65 just after Adam Waleskowski fouled out by committing a charge and then screaming "bull shit" at the ref for a technical and his fifth foul. It seemed at that point that Wake had the momentum and would take over the game, but they never could.

Al Thornton took over where Wafer left off, scoring most of his career high 26 points late to fend off the Deacons.

The game seemed set for an incredible conclusion when Taron Downey was fouled while attempting a game-tying three pointer from 25 feet with just four seconds left. Downey swished the three, giving him a free throw for the win. Now, I should mention here one of the incredible sub-plots of this game. You might recall that Wake went 32-32 from the line against Carolina on Saturday? Well, to this point in tonight's game, they were 18-18 from the line, for 50 consecutive free throws, an NCAA record. 50 in a row! As a point of comparison, JJ Redick, who is now officially the best free throw shooter in college basketball history, set the ACC record with 54 in a row a couple of years ago. So Wake as a team, had nearly matched the efforts of the best shooter ever. Incredible.

Back to the game - Downey at the line for the win. 50 free throws in a row. Downey missed it. Overtime.

In overtime, it became the Todd Galloway show. Galloway, the diminutive Seminole point guard, averages less than 6 points a game and hadn't hit for double figures since November. Well, all he did was score nine straight points at a critical juncture in the overtime to give the Seminoles the win. Galloway finished with 21 points, a career high. If you're keeping track, that's three different Noles with career highs tonight.

All in all, it was a pretty damn fun game to watch. There were a ton of dumb plays down the stretch by both teams, but there were enough big shots to offset that.

I guess it's not Rest Week after all. There are no rest weeks this year.

Rest Week

I'm sure it's accidental, but it seems like after a week of intense games, this week is a rest week. There are only a couple of games between teams at the same levels. Most of the games pit top teams against bottom-feeders.

The games of likely interest are Virginia at Maryland tomorrow night and NC State at Maryland on Sunday. If Maryland loses to UVA tomorrow night, then that Sunday game becomes the season for them.

The other game to keep an eye on is Duke at Miami. If the Canes are for real, then they should be able to give Duke trouble down there.

Tue 1/18/05 WAKE @ FLA.STATE Leon County C.C., Tallahassee 7:00 PM espn2 
Wed 1/19/05 NC STATE @ VA.TECH Cassell Col., Blacksburg 7:00 PM RSN 
Wed 1/19/05 DUKE @ MIAMI UM Conv. Ctr. Coral Gables 8:30 PM ESPN 
Wed 1/19/05 N.CAROLINA @ CLEMSON Littlejohn, Clemson 9:00 PM RJ split 
Wed 1/19/05 VIRGINIA @ MARYLAND Comcast Center, College Park 9:00 PM RJ split 
Sat 1/22/05 WAKE @ Cincinnati Myrl Shoemaker Center, Cinci 1:00 PM ABC 
Sat 1/22/05 VA.TECH @ GA.TECH Alexander Mem., Atlanta 4:00 PM RJ 
Sat 1/22/05 DUKE @ FLA.STATE Leon County C.C., Tallahassee 6:00 PM ESPN 
Sat 1/22/05 CLEMSON @ VIRGINIA U-Hall, Charlottesville 7:30 PM  
Sat 1/22/05 MIAMI @ N.CAROLINA Smith Center, Chapel Hill 8:00 PM RJ 
Sun 1/23/05 NC STATE @ MARYLAND Comcast Center, College Park 6:00 PM FSN

Myth Busting

I was minding my own bidness, eating my lunch and catching up on my reading for the day, when I came across this article in the Asheville Citizen-Times about Duke's season. The storyline was nice, about how Duke was making due with less this season, when I read the following:

Early in the ACC season Duke (13-0, 3-0) is once again undefeated and ranked among the top teams in the country, albeit with a cast that includes more walk-on types than high school All-Americans.

(emphasis mine)

I almost choked on a french fry.

Are you kidding me? Let's count the McDonald's All-Americans on Duke's roster - JJ Redick, Daniel Ewing, Sean Dockery, Shavlik Randolph and DeMarcus Nelson. Sheldon Williams was a shoo-in before he was kicked off his high school team for an alleged sexual assault (he was a top-ten recruit). So, that's five McD's All-Americans and one more virtual one.

That's only one fewer than NC State (1), Virginia (0), Virginia Tech (0), Miami (0), Georgia Tech (0), Wake Forest (2), Clemson (0), Maryland (2) and Florida State (2) combined.

So, while Duke's team is doing a great job this year, let's not forget that they should be good with the players they have.

Cancel The Riot

A brief summary of NC State's ACC season so far - Oh my God! We suck and Herb sucks and we're going to miss the tournam ... oh wait, nevermind. Everything's cool.

The Wolfpack's win over an apparently disinterested Georgia Tech squad put them back on track for the most part. You wouldn't really expect them to sweep Duke and Tech at home, so they are OK. On the other hand, now it's the Yellow Jackets' fans turn to ask what's wrong. That's the way it's going to be all season. There are a lot of good teams in the ACC and almost all of them are going to have some stretches where they lose a tough game or two (or more) in a row.

There was one point last night where it did appear that the Pack season might implode. Tech had whittled the lead from 15 to 3 in about two minutes. State looked rattled, but Ilian Evtimov hit a HUGE three-pointer. Disaster averted. That shot was ice and may prove to be the biggest shot of the season for the Wolfpack. Lose that game after leading the whole way and their confidence might have been shot beyond repair.

State's next four games are against Virginia Tech, Maryland, Florida State and Clemson. Time to make a move.

This weekend's Game Of The Century
Wake was very impressive in dispatching Carolina in the big game of the weekend. The first half was a different style than I expected, with a lot of bruising frontcourt play, but things opened up a bit in the second half. The big subplot of the game was Chris Paul outplaying Raymond Felton. I was in the Felton-is-better camp until Saturday. I really liked the way Paul stepped up and hit big shots to derail several Tar Heel attempts to get back in it. While one game shouldn't determine which player is better, I'm gonna let it in this case because they are so close in my mind.

By the way, I've never seen a player get so mad when the refs correctly call a foul on his behalf than McCants did in the second half. I was very confused and thought that they had called it against him, fouling him out, until he stepped to the line for his free throws. Think he was a bit frustrated by his afternoon? In his defense, he scored 19 points in limited, foul-hindered minutes.

I think the Wake and State victories were good for the conference. The top four ACC teams were showing signs of running away from the pack (no pun intended) and Carolina was stepping away from the other three in that top group. Those wins erased those perceptions. The conference does have depth.

Hokie Hi
Congrats to the Hokies for their first conference win. A home win over Clemson is one of those rights of passage in the ACC. In all honesty, winning a game with a steal and breakaway dunk is about as cool a manner as you can do it. Too bad no one saw it, because, you know, it was a Clemson - Virginia Tech game.

A few random thoughts:

- Engin Atsur is not the kind of player you normally think of as a defensive stopper. He's not particularly quick, he's a jump shooter and he's European, but he played some great D this past week, shutting down JJ Redick on Thursday and Jarrett Jack (with some help) on Sunday. An impressive week for the young Turk.

- After watching him play a few games, I've wondered what happened to Ilian Evtimov's patented drive. Last year, he would plant his left arm in his defender's chest and drive all the way to the hoop, holding his man off the entire way. He never got called for it, for some reason. Now I know what happened. He sold it to JJ Redick on eBay.

- If Lee Melchionni continues to sprint around the court, hugging and jumping on teammates after every and-one or to help them up when they've fallen, he'll quickly rise the charts of most-hated-Devils. He's nowhere near the Wojciechowski, Collins, Hurley level yet, but he's right there with Greg Newton.

- You know how it's said that great players make the difficult look simple? Julius Hodge isn't quite great (but he's very good), but somehow he manages to make everything look difficult.

- Daniel Ewing may be the most under-appreciated player in the league. He does everything for Duke this year. He runs the offense, brings the ball up the court, scores and plays great defense. I think he's more valuable to that team than JJ Redick.

- If archaeologists a million years from now were to dig up the skulls of Sheldon Williams and Jarrett Jack, they'd think we were some race of super foreheads.

- Virginia's Sean Singletary is an extremely talented young point guard, but he has no idea how to play a structured game. He looks like he's played on a playground his whole life. He can make the beautiful, difficult passes and shots, but can't execute a basic chest pass or hit an open jumper.

- Woody Durham's getting old. I heard him call a play this way in Saturday's game - "And the ball goes out of bounds off Williams ... for Wake." So, I'm thinking, did the ball go off of Eric Williams who plays for Wake? Or did it go off of Jawad (or maybe Marvin) Williams and the possession is now Wake's?

- Yoni points out (via the ACC Hoops blog) that Wake's 32 made free throws without a miss was pretty unlikely. In fact, the odds of Wake, a 65% shooting team hitting 32 in a row is 0.000103%. Reminds me of Ken Pomeroy's post about Kansas missing all of those free throws in the Final Four a couple of years ago.

Great Guard Years

This is hardly an original observation - that the ACC has a great collection of point guards this year - but the N&O still wrote a pretty decent article about it.

The most interesting part is the sidebar where Caulton Tudor ranks the best ACC point guard years. I think he is undervaluing this year's crop. I also think he's missing a year in the early 90s when Hurley was still around, but Travis Best and Cory Alexander were at Georgia Tech and Virginia.

Worlds Apart

Shadoe Adams of Bellows Free Academy-Fairfax, a high school in Vermont, hit a game-winning three in a big game against Milton the other night. Adams' clutch three-pointer was a bit unusual in that it came in the second quarter of the game. That's right, the second quarter of a 5-2 win. I didn't mistype that. In what was likely the most boring high school basketball game since Dr. Naismith nailed up the peach baskets, the final score was 5-2. It seems that Vermont high school ball has no shot clock (bet that'll change soon!) and both teams were content to just stall.

As Milton's coach Jim Smith said, "We had a shot go off the rim that would have tied it. We were one possession away to tie the game. We have not been in that position for quite some time." Atta boy, coach.

On the opposite coast, and in a whole other basketball universe, the University of Redlands, a Division III school, recently beat La Sierra University 172-107. One hundred and seventy-two points. It seems that Redlands plays a style of ball where they shoot as soon as they can, preferably a three-pointer, and then employ a full-court press. If they can't get a steal by the time the opponent reaches their end of the court, they give them a layup and race back the other way. Their goal is to trade twos for threes and wear their opponents out. Redlands substitutes in entire five-man squads every few minutes to keep up their relentless pressure. Think Loyola-Marymount on speed.

Check out the box score from that game. It's the most bizarre I've ever seen. A few things to point out:

• Redlands took 89 three pointers and made 35.
• Redlands played 21 different players.
• 15 different Redlands players scored.
• Amir Mazarei played just 11 minutes and scored 23 points.
• Not to be outdone, Carson Sofro scored 34 points in just 13 minutes. That may be the craziest stat line ever - 34 points in only 13 minutes!

It's one of the great things about basketball. There are many, many different ways to play the same game. I can't think of any other sport where you could have such wildly different results using (nearly) the same rules.

One thing I do know, of those two style extremes, I'm positive which one I'd rather play in and/or watch!

Props to the posters at the Sports Frog for uncovering these.

Knockout

The NC State - Duke game last night was a slugfest. As I wrote yesterday, it was a very important game for State. They'd lost three in a row and the next game is against Georgia Tech. If they are going to compete in the upper tier of the ACC, they need to beat one of the elite teams at home. Duke is presumably the weakest of the four elite teams and right now, Duke is thin with Shavlik Randolph and Reggie Love out.

But State couldn't do it. They played great early and built a little lead, but they couldn't put the Blue Devils away. It was like trying to kill Mike Myers. Duke kept coming back and coming back and eventually they overwhelmed the Pack.

NC State had the best all-around player on the floor in Julius Hodge. They had the most athletic player on the floor in Cameron Bennerman (and man did he have a nice dunk!). They had the greater number of three-point shooters (although Duke has better ones in Redick and Ewing). State had the deeper bench (or so it seemed). But none of that mattered, because Duke was tougher. Much tougher.

I think that's one aspect of Duke that people around the country just don't get. ACC folks know it, but much of the country doesn't. The stereotype of Duke is that it's a snooty private school with pampered, talented players. They are pretty and skilled, but they are soft, like the bad guys in so many teen movies - Duke is Billy Zabka. But that's wrong. One of the main reasons that Duke always wins is toughness - mental toughness. It's something that Krzyzewski instills from the moment freshmen step on campus. They learn to expect to win and it shows in games like last night. State wanted desperately to win, but Duke couldn't imagine losing. When things went poorly for Duke, they fought back harder. When things went poorly for State, they panicked and pressed.

BTW, I think State fans can stop talking about the refs protecting Duke. Julius Hodge was extremely lucky to not get a technical foul for hitting Daniel Ewing in the face with the ball. I can't remember ever seeing a play like that, where the player with the ball used it as a weapon while the ball was still in play! It should have been at least a technical, and an ejection was not unwarranted. It really was no different than throwing a punch, and that would have been an ejection. If nothing else, it showed that Ewing had beaten Hodge. The game wasn't over yet, far from it, but Hodge was already beaten.

All that said, I don't think it's the end of the world for State. It's a long season and there are many games left. They may not be able to finish in the top four of the conference, but they can still make the NCAA tourney, and that's really not a bad goal this year.

Funky Weather
I haven't seen much mention of it on the news, but there is some really strange weather on the Eastern Seaboard these days. It seems that the sky is falling in locations as far apart as Tallahassee, Florida and College Park, Maryland. The phenomenon has been reported in Charlottesville, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina as well.

Quote Of The Week (Mars Division)

"That wasn't for my pleasure; it was for yours." - Rashad McCants, describing to the media his impressive stuffing of Theodis Tarver's dunk attempt in last nights UNC - Georgia Tech game.

Fire Calipari

I have no connections to Memphis State University, or the University of Memphis, or whatever its name is now. I don't root for them, I don't follow them and I don't even really follow their league. But I have a problem with their coach, the unctuous John Calipari. Always have.

Well, now ol' Calamari has hit a new low. On a team absolutely riddled with scandal and underperformance, he has apparently decided to play a player who was just arrested for beating up his girlfriend. It sounds like there isn't too much question of his guilt and it also sounds like he gave her a pretty good beating. It's sick.

It's possible that by gametime tonight (and it's on ESPN, so you can check), Calipari will come to his senses. Or more likely, someone who has some authority over there will put the squeeze on him, and he'll decide not to play a guy who just beat up his girlfriend, a former Memphis basketball player herself.

This article in the local paper does a good job of expressing the outrage everyone should have about this.

To me, this should be the last straw. If the Memphis AD had any guts, he'd indefinitely suspend both the player, Jeremy Hunt, and Calipari. Hunt could join the team only if evidence comes out that he was wrongly accused. I wouldn't ever end Calipari's suspension.

Update: It's only fair to report that Calipari released a statement today that Hunt would not play or even suit up tonight. Thanks to Yoni for pointing this out. I stand by my views though, as Calipari shouldn't have taken a day to come to this conclusion. Also, I admit a little bias here. ;-)

Blue Heaven

This just in - Carolina is good. Very good. They took Georgia Tech apart and basically ended the game in the first half. They were flying all over the court, tipping passes, blocking shots (McCants alone had three gorgeous blocks), getting out on the break, making the extra pass, hitting the open shot - they did it all. The starters were good and the bench was nearly as good. There's already a thread in the Sports Shack about this game.

The thing was, although the Heels won easily, Georgia Tech really didn't play too poorly. Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum were aggressive and attacked the basket, but Carolina's defense held solid. This is a game that the Heels might not have won the last couple of years. In fairness, Tech (and they still qualify as just "Tech" for a few years. The Hokies need to earn equal billing, at least during hoops season.) was missing BJ Elder and Ra'Sean (my spell-checker suggested "Roseann") Dickey, but that's not why they lost. Those guys would have helped, but they were gonna lose this one no matter what. The Heels were that good.

Game summaries here (News & Observer), here (Inside Carolina) and here (Georgia Tech Sports Blog).

On the other end of the happiness spectrum, you have what happened in Charlottesville last night. Cavalier fans were already in a tizzy after getting shellacked in their first two conference games. I paid a visit to TheSabre.com the other day and four out of five posts were about how bad Pete Gillen is or who the next coach should be. Those Chicken Littles clearly didn't realize that getting whacked by Wake, UNC or GT is nothing to get too worked up about this year (ask Maryland). But getting served by Miami on your home court, even after Devin Smith returned from injury, well ... maybe the sky really is falling. You can read a bit about the hand-wringing in Hooville here. (By the way, the Gillen-sucks-who-do-we-get-next thread percentage is like 90% now - thesabre.com)

On the flip side, everyone is learning what I've been hinting at for a while now - Miami is good. They have three guards who are quick and aggressive and are going to score on folks. The three Hurricane little guys (Anthony Harris, Guillermo Dias and Robert Hite) outscored UVA's backcourt (TJ Bannister, JR Reynolds and Sean Singletary) 62-10. For the season, Hite is #2 in the league in scoring, and in three conference games, Diaz has scored 68 points. Them boys can play.

The Hurricanes may not do as well as the last Florida football school in their first ACC season (FSU won the regular season that year), but they are clearly better than their preseason billing when they were picked to come in last. Right now, I'd say they are in line for an NCAA bid - ahead of UVA, NC State and FSU. Actually, FSU isn't even in line any more. Which brings me to the other game last night ...

Clemson beat Florida State in Tallahassee last night. You may recall some time ago that the Seminoles were thought to be the sixth best conference team - a surefire NCAA tourney team. Well, not any more. The tournament committee looks at several factors when evaluating teams for at-large bids: strength of their non-conference schedule, how well they did against top-50 teams, how well they played in their last ten game, and did they lose any games at home to Clemson. Oops. Looks like any slim hopes the few Seminole faithful had are now gone. Hey, spring football is just around the corner!

There is one big ACC game tonight - NC State hosting Duke. Caulton Tudor wrote a piece in the N&O yesterday saying that the game is a must win for the Pack (and his article has gained some attention, from both Yoni at the College Basketball Blog and, oddly enough, the Modesto Bee (maybe I was wrong about folks out West not knowing who NC State is). I'm gonna have to agree with Tudor here, to a point. I think State can recover from a loss, but they really could use the win. It means a ton to them, but I have to think that Duke would just be happy to get the win. There's a difference between need and want.

The Devils have built up a little cushion and they are really just waiting until they get Shavlik Randolph back. A loss on the road to State wouldn't kill them. For the Pack, another tough loss might torpedo their confidence and get the wolves howling at Sendek. It's a brutal conference this year and you can't afford to get in too deep of a rut.

This has been a fun season, hasn't it? And there's a long way to go. The storylines of today won't be the same ones a month from now.

Two-And-A-Half Beeeellion Dollars

This just cracks me up. Don King is suing ESPN for defamation because of an unflattering "SportsCentury" piece on him. I'm not sure how to do a non-unflattering report on Don King, but I guess that's beside the point.

The really funny part is that he is suing for $2.5 billion in damages! $2.5 billion!

I liked this part too - "King, wearing a garish American flag tie and two flag lapel pins, then quietly stepped back and let lawyer Willie Gary answer questions."

BTW, his attorney, Willie Gary, is a piece of work himself. Check his humble website here, and be sure not to miss his understated video.

Only in America.

Quote Of The Week - 1/12/2005

"Personally, I felt like tonight that those guys weren't that good, to be honest with you. I only can see it through my eyes. I felt we should have won the game." - Maryland guard John Gilcrhist after last night's game when Wake Forest won by 15. Wake was up by 21 at the half and held leads as high as 29 points.

NCAA Encourages Cheating

This new NCAA idea of penalizing schools for not graduating players is a bad idea. Bad.

Let's think it through, shall we? The NCAA inherently distrusts it's participating schools, right? I think the one trillion page rulebook kinda makes that clear. OK, so we know that the schools aren't to be trusted.

And now what we're gonna do is severely penalize them if they report graduation numbers that aren't sufficient. Losing scholarships naturally implies losing more games. Losing more games means losing out on bowl and NCAA tournament money. Losing games also means fewer tickets and merchandise sold. Ergo, losing scholarships means losing money - lots of money.

On top of that athletic directors and coaches who preside over programs that lose games, fans and money very swiftly lose their jobs and reputations.

All very bad penalties, right? There would be lots of pressure to avoid those penalties, I'm sure.

Now, what could schools do to avoid those sanctions? Graduate more players, right? And how hard is it for a school to keep players eligible, whether said players go to class or not? Very easy. It's as simple as changing some letters in a computer.

So on one hand, you have severe penalties that cost games, fans, money, jobs and careers. And on the other hand, you have a very simple changing of grades by institutions that the NCAA already doesn't trust.

What could go wrong?

Big Money To Get Paid

Virginia tight end Heath Miller announced yesterday that he will forgo his final year of eligibility and enter the NFL draft.

Miller set pretty much every ACC season and career record for tight ends. He was a unanimous first team All-American this year and won the Mackey award as the nation's top tight end.

Miller redshirted his freshman season (he was a quarterback initially), so he is already in his fourth season at UVA and is on track to graduate in May.

Earlier, Miami's Frank Gore and Roscoe Parrish and Clemson's Justin Miller announced that they too would leave college early and enter the draft.

Forgetting State

You may have noticed that I have a tendency to poke fun at NC State fans from time-to-time here. The reason why is simple - it's so easy! For one, I live and work near Raleigh, so am surrounded by State fans. The Pack faithful are also by-and-large very rabid and extremely sensitive to any perceived slights. It's like growing up as the younger brother to the high school class president/football star/homecoming king. They never feel they get their due and are quick to point that out (as well as make sure you know that Mr. Perfect has a hairy mole on his back). To sum up, they are a fun bunch to needle.

So, I ran across a new site today, a blog for NC State sports, and it had a very interesting read about an incident that happened this weekend during the UNC - Maryland game. The ESPN announcers, Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale were talking about NASCAR and North Carolina (the state, not the school) and Nessler came out with this quote, "Other than Duke and Carolina basketball around here…and Wake…Tobacco Road in general, (NASCAR) would be the biggest thing."

Notice something missing?

Jeff certainly did, and had this to say about it:

Nessler forgot us. Period. Would he ever forget Duke, Carolina or Wake? Obviously not.

Put quite brutally – After NINE YEARS of opportunity to re-establish NC State as a meaningful participant in the college basketball landscape, Herb Sendek hasn’t even made enough of an impact to pop in the mind of ESPN’s lead college basketball play-by-play commentator when he was discussing a topic that directly related to NC State as he sat 20 miles from our campus.

Now, before you State fans jump down my throat for daring to attack one of the Pack, note that I think Jeff wrote a great piece here. He did a good job of both showing that State fans are sensitive and then explaining why that is. He wasn't whining, he was justifying.

It's true - State doesn't get the national attention that Carolina and Duke do. I'm not so sure that a casual sports fan in, say Utah, knows that there is an NC State and that it's different than North Carolina. It's not really State's fault - Carolina has the simpler name, the longer success and the greater alumni. People just know them (and Duke) better. It's not a conspiracy, it's what happens when one school has more success than the other over a long period of time.

I understand State fans' frustration. I feel for them. Maybe some day they'll get Mr. Perfect in a headlock and give him a big ol' noogie on national TV. Then everyone will know their name.

No Tark In Hall

The SportsProf has a nice article up debating Doug Gottlieb's article on espn.com about the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Gottlieb's beef is that certain coaches, including Eddie Sutton and Jerry Tarkanian belong in the Hall (and unfortunately, he denigrates John Wooden and Pete Carril to make his point). Of course Gottlieb likes Sutton, he played for him at Oklahoma State, but Tarkanian? The Tark was a snake who bent every rule there was and thumbed his nose at the NCAA while doing it. Sure, he won a ton of games and an NCAA title, but it's a whole lot easier when you cheat. By Gottlieb's reasoning, Ben Johnson should be Track and Field's Hall of Fame. I mean, sure there was that whole steroids thingy, but he did win a gold medal and set a world record while doing it, right?

Tarkanian may well have been a great basketball coach (I think he was), but he was a lousy person and a terrible role-model for student-athletes.

As for Sutton, it's a bit tougher call. He has also had a great coaching career, but he was part of a pretty serious scandal at Kentucky. He seems to have moved past that though, and I'd be inclined to let him in. I think that's really the point that Gottlieb wanted to make with the whole article, but he threw Tark in there as a smokescreen. I think his reasoning was that if they can let Tark in, they'd have to allow Sutton.

So, what do you think? Should NCAA troubles keep a coach out of the HOF?

The Second Coming?

Ralph Sampson hasn't been the greatest father in the world. He's had to pay some fines for non-payment of childsupport, an indefensible crime in my book.

But, it looks like he did pass on some good genes to his kids. His son, Ralph Sampson III, is a freshman in Alabama. He's 6'10". A 6'10" freshman! He played his first game the other night and scored 18 points to go with 18 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

Pretty impressive. With that name, size and game, you can bet that he'll be getting whole mailbags full of recruiting letters for the next several years.

For those to young to remember his dad, think Kevin Garnett, but five inches taller. He was very athletic, could run, jump and shoot, and of course, he was (is, I guess) 7'4".

If Ralph III has anything close to his dad's talent, and it sounds like he might, he won't play a minute of college ball.

Nervesmiffs already has a discussion thread going here.