Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Duke has to play out West but has an easier road than Heels

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Duke and North Carolina both get to play first round games in Charlotte but the Tar Heels have a much tougher road to the Final Four.

Duke got a No. 1 seed but after playing two games in Charlotte that the Devils should win – against Hampton and either Michigan or Tennessee – they are shipped out to Anaheim to try to get a couple more wins to reach the Final Four. San Diego St., at 32-2, is the No. 2 seed in the West, followed by Connecticut and Texas.

San Diego St. has never won an NCAA tournament game. Connecticut, a young team, had to win five grueling games to take the Big East tournament. Texas has not played well lately, losing three of its last five games.

If Carolina can get through two wins in Charlotte – against Long Island and either hot Washington or Georgia -they’ll get to play closer to its fan base in the regional finals (Newark, N.J.) than Duke. The bad news is that, top to bottom, the East region is the toughest.

The tournament’s overall No. 1 seed Ohio State is in the East region as are Syracuse and Kentucky. Syracuse saw its six-game winning streak end Friday, with an overtime loss to UConn in the Big East semifinals while Kentucky handled Florida in the finals of the SEC tournament finals.

If Washington is the Tar Heels second-round opponent, it could prove to be a tough game. The Huskies, winners of three straight, talk like they still have something to prove after surprisingly winning the Pac-10 conference tournament.

The ACC got four teams in the tournament – Duke, UNC, Florida State and Clemson – with Virginia Tech and Boston College being left out, as was Colorado which was thought to be a lock. Two inferior teams – UAB and VCU – made the tournament ahead of those three teams.

Despite three additional at-large teams being added to the field this year, Virginia Tech is outside looking in for the fourth straight season.

Hokie coach Seth Greenberg understandably isn’t happy about it. “You almost wonder if someone in that room has their own agenda and that agenda doesn’t include Virginia Tech. Just plan and simple,” he said in a released statement. “I totally wonder if someone in that room has an agenda. The explanation was so inconsistent with the result that it was almost mind-boggling.”

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Tar Heels get No. 2 seed in East, play Friday in Charlotte

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NEWS RELEASE – North Carolina (26-7) is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament East Regional and will open play on Friday in Charlotte against No. 15 seed Long Island University (27-5).

The winner of that contest will advance to face the winner of Friday’s game between No. 7 seed Washington and No. 10 seed Georgia on Sunday in Charlotte. The East also includes No. 1 seed Ohio State, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 4 Kentucky.

Roy Williams on 2011 NCAA Tournament selection:
“I am ecstatic about the making the NCAA Tournament field once again. It was kind of hard to enjoy the Tournament last year as it was the only time in 23 years that one of our teams had been eligible to make the field and did not. Tonight our guys were very excited when they saw `North Carolina’ show up early on the selection show. Of course, it was a little reserved because of the fact we had just lost to Duke about three hours before the show came on, but we have to congratulate the Blue Devils for playing so well.

“After we were selected, I looked around and realized that there were only two players in the room that had ever played in an NCAA Tournament game (juniors Tyler Zeller and Justin Watts in 2009). It shows how the culture of college basketball has changed. Two years ago we were the national champions and now after missing just one season we will go into the Tournament with such a young and inexperienced team.

“But I am extremely proud of my team and I congratulate them on the great run they’ve had since mid-January. Not many people would have thought that when we left Atlanta after the loss to Georgia Tech that we would have won the ACC regular-season championship, played in the ACC Tournament final and earned a number two seed in the NCAA Tournament. Now we have to get back to work and play better than we did this weekend in Greensboro.”

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Duke receives No. 1 seed in NCAA tournament

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NEWS RELEASE – Fresh off a victory in the ACC Tournament Championship game, the Duke men’s basketball team found out they would be awarded the No. 1 seed in the West Region for the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

Duke will play its first round game in Charlotte against Hampton on Friday. It will be the first ever meeting between the two schools. The Pirates are 24-8 and defeated Morgan State, 60-55, in the MEAC Championship game. The winner of that game would face the winner of the 8/9 game between Michigan (20-13) and Tennessee (19-14).

It is the 12th time in school history the Blue Devils have been a No. 1 seed and second straight season. All 12 times they have been a top seed have come under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Since 1998 Duke has been a No. 1 seed 10 times. Overall the Blue Devils have a 43-8 record as a No. 1 seed in the tournament with three of the school’s four national championships coming as the top seed in the region (1992, 2001 and 2010).

Duke will be making its 16th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 35th in school history. The Blue Devils have a 94-30 (.758) all-time record in the tournament with a NCAA-record 77 (77-22) of those wins coming under Krzyzewski.

When playing in the state of North Carolina during the NCAA Tournament, the Blue Devils boast a record of 30-4, including an 8-3 record in Charlotte. The last time Duke traveled to Charlotte for the NCAA Tournament was 2005 when they defeated Delaware State and Mississippi State as a No. 1 seed to advance to the Sweet 16.

This will be just the fourth season Duke has been placed in the West region. The Blue Devils are 2-3 all-time when playing in the West region. The last time was 2008 when Duke lost in the second round to West Virginia. The Blue Devils also were in the West Region in 2003 when they advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Kansas in Anaheim, Calif., the site where Duke would play if advancing to the Sweet 16 this season.

This season Duke is 30-4 overall, the third straight 30-win season for the program. The Blue Devils are just the sixth program in NCAA history to win 30 or more games in three straight seasons. On Sunday Duke defeated North Carolina, 75-58, to claim its third consecutive ACC Tournament Championship.

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Duke gets on top early, uses threes and defense to stop UNC

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You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit in the wind. You don’t pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger. And you don’t get down early to Duke, which defeated North Carolina 75-58 in the ACC tournament championship game.

I’m not sure I’ve seen Duke any more excited to beat Carolina. Nolan Smith, the tournament MVP who led all scorers with 20 points, said it was almost like winning the national championship.

The Blue Devils defense cut off the passing lanes and Smith seemed to never get tired hawking Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall, who had five turnovers. “We had a freshman point guard who did not play well today,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Nolan Smith forced us to start our offense 45 feet from the basket. Kendall didnt feel like he could get past him.”

Duke was the better team overall and especially the better three-point shooting team (nine threes vs. two for UNC) but the officials amateurish effort kept Carolina from making any comeback. A kind Tyler Zeller of UNC said, “The refs let us play and I don’t think we adapted to it as well as they did.”

With just over nine minutes left, Duke’s Kyle Singler barreled into Justin Knox, nothing called. Two seconds later Miles Plumlee lost the handle on a shot but UNC’s John Henson was called for a foul. If you have the game on tape, I urge you to try to find the Henson foul.

Carolina had a chance to cut the deficit down to 10 points but Duke defender Miles Plumlee, two feet from the basket mind you, moved into – that’s moving forward into – a driving Justin Watts and Watts was called for a charge.

With less than five minutes to play, Nolan Smith used an arm to get Zeller off of him. The foul was called on Zeller and Smith hit two free throws.

With less than four minutes to play, Duke’s Seth Curry reached in on a driving Leslie McDonald to tip the ball. McDonald managed to keep control but officials, obviously not having seen the Curry tip, called McDonald with double dribbling.

The officials also dampened Carolina’s spirits in the first half when they waved off a Dexter Strickland dunk, calling him for a charge. That call was wrong on so many levels. First, Singler was too close to the basket to draw a charge. Second, Strickland actually went to the left of Singler and hardly even touched him. It certainly wasn’t enough contact for a charge. The basket would have cut the Duke lead to five. Instead, the game never got closer.

For more on the game, please click here.

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny

Chaos on Wolfpack sideline can’t continue

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You can watch Sidney Lowe on the sidelines and know exactly why he won’t return as N.C. State’s head coach.

On any given possession, Lowe is out on the court yelling at his offense. Go here … cut there … watch this … It’s looks like Lowe’s players don’t know what to do, and Lowe is trying to coach one play at a time.

By comparison, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and UNC’s Roy Williams usually watch from their seats, trusting that their players are well-schooled enough to know what to do. Sure, Kryzewski and Williams get emotional, and that’s when the TV cameras catch them,  but if you really watch them, you’ll see that most o the time, they are watching attentively – not yelling.

UCLA’s John Wooden was like that, too. Wooden’s view was coaching was to be done during practice, and it was his job to prepare the players for the game. Once the game started, his role was essentially done. You didn’t see Wooden screaming on the sidelines – instead, he was famous for watching calmly with his rolled-up program in his hand.

By comparison, Lowe’s teams seem perpetually confused. And while you might think it’s unfair to compare Lowe to Krzyzewski, Williams and Wooden, the fact is other ACC coaches – Frank Haith, Tony Bennett, for example, and even Gary Williams – are much more composed on the sideline.

Whether Lowe simply hasn’t prepared the players, or they haven’t paid attention in practice, does not make any difference, since the outcome is the same. State seems poorly prepared for games, and Lowe is constantly trying to direct the team rather than let it flow.

That responsibility falls to him. Lowe’s tenure at N.C. State has not worked, and that’s too bad, but that’s the way it is.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

It’s a redux as Carolina comes back behind Barnes

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During the Tar Heels 92-87 overtime win over Clemson in the ACC tournament today, North Carolina fans must have felt they’d seen this picture before. The Tar Heels were turning the ball over and the opponent was hitting threes to get out to a big lead.

Carolina turned it over four times by the time the first TV timeout came around and trailed 14-3. The Tar Heels trailed by 10 at the half, after getting down by as many as 14 points. But the Heels clamped down a bit in the second half to get the game close down the wire.

Harrison Barnes, who scored 40, hit his sixth triple with 1:22 left to bring the Heels within a bucket at 73-71. Then Tyler Zeller scored to send the game into overtime. Barnes tallied 14 points in the overtime period to lead Carolina to victory.

“In the second half we got more aggressive, the defense was better and Harrison made a bunch of shots,” said UNC coach Roy Williams. “We’ve got to be more aggressive ourselves and not let the other team be the aggressor.”

It’s been fun for fans of basketball to see the comebacks the last two days but you have to figure that the Heels won’t be able to do that again in the finals of the ACC tournament or in the NCAA tournament.

For more on the game itself, please click here.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Secretary of State’s investigation continues despite agent’s death

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The sports agent at the center of the NCAA’s investigation of the UNC football program has died but the investigation will continue.

Gary Wichard, 60, died from diabetes and pancreatic cancer at his home in California. Wichard was a friend of former North Carolina associate head coach John Blake, who resigned last year when details of the scandal began to emerge which included revelations that Blake accepted funds from Wichard.

Just last week, a NC Secretary of State’s office executed a search warrant on a bank account belonging to Wichard. A spokesman from the office said that the investigation will continue and that there are “other avenues” to explore.

As an aside, after looking at the only picture of Wichard that seems to be out there, you’d think he was younger and in better shape than a 60-year-old man with diabetes and cancer. Makes his death even more shocking.

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny

Bad toes hampering Duke’s season

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If Duke fails to defend its national championship this spring, the Blue Devils can blame bad toes and bad timing, so says NY Times Sports Blogger Viv Bernstein, referring to Kyrie Irving’s early-season toe injury and Nolan Smith’s injury during Duke’s 87-71 victory over Maryland in the ACC tournament Friday night.

It was a tough day for Duke despite the win. Irving practiced Friday for the first time since injuring his big toe Dec. 4 and it doesn’t appear he’ll be back soon. Then Smith went down with a toe injury with just less than seven minutes to go tonight. He injured the second toe on his left foot and it’s not yet known if he will be back Saturday to play Virginia Tech, who survived a final shot by Florida State that was ruled late.

“To make a run in this tournament, in the NCAA, you need your players, there’s no question,” Krzyzewski said. “Nolan’s been the player of the year in our conference. It’s not just losing a player, it’s losing an outstanding player if we don’t have him.”

As for Irving, he’s in a new phase of his rehabilitation. “He’s progressing very well. There’s no timetable on him, though. He’s not going to magically appear tomorrow or anything like that. He hasn’t done anything with the team, but it’s coming along great.”

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

One fan’s observations from the ACC tourney

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Greg Pierce, who volunteers with the Raleigh Sports Club, attended the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Friday afternoon and relayed this information from his Blackberry.

. The scalpers did not get the message about the economy and availability of tickets. Scalpers were asking up to $30 above face value.
. The only tickets available @ the box office were NCSU upper deck section. They were one of several schools that did not sell their allotment.
. The crowd was 98% UNC. It was a very subdued atmosphere until “Blue Steel” came into the game. That instance along with the game winning shot were the two loudest moments of the game.
. Approximately 25% of the crowd chose not to stick around for the BC/Clemson game. If UNC had not won the tournament attendance and atmosphere would have taken a severe hit for the semi-final and final games due to the large presence of UNC fans.
. Roy Williams’ decision to go to a three-guard line-up was the key that ignited the run. UNC was able to match up better with Miami’s athleticism.
. Miami’s athleticism created 20 turnovers and 12 steals. Miami playing it’s second game in two days started to look a little fatigued when UNC began to make its run.