Senior leader Tracy Smith is finally back in the lineup to help out the three freshmen that have led the way for N.C. State and the Pack is excited about the prospects.

“We’re coming off a good showing,” Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said of State’s 76-54 win over San Diego. “Last game we had Tracy Smith back and obviously we’re excited about that.”

Smith has been out for all but three of State’s games because of a knee injury but he scored 16 points against San Diego and looked in midseason form.

Smith had been concerned about coming back too early but with only one nonconference game left Wednesday against Elon, the Pack needs him for the ACC run.

“He was a little hesitant to give it a try even with little slight discomfort,” Lowe said during his weekly media teleconference. “It’s a matter of him going out and understanding that there will be some discomfort but that the injury is gone.”

Smith told Lowe during the game that he felt great and wanted to stay in the game. As a result Smith played more minutes than Lowe originally anticipated.

So far, so good, Lowe said. “We’ll see if there is any further discomfort,” he said.

Despite more consistent play from a number of players over the last few games, UNC coach Roy Williams isn’t sure if his Tar Heels are ready for ACC play.

“You don’t ever know if you’re ready until you get out there and play the games,” Williams said, adding that the Heels have done what they can to prepare by playing a good schedule and playing good teams on the road.

“I would have like us to have played better in some of those games,” Williams said, especially pointing to the loss in Greensboro against Texas. “We did some nice things in the Texas game but we needed to win that game.”

The Heels led the Longhorns by seven with less than six minutes to play but ended up losing by two.

“We didn’t finish out the Texas game. You always have that in the back of your mind, wondering if you’ve gotten rid of that completely,” Williams said during his weekly media teleconference.

But Carolina’s defense has improved of late and that’s resulted in a pair of blow-out victories. “I don’t know that I’d say we’ve turned the corner by any means but we are getting better,” Williams said.

Williams said the work ethic, desire, efficiency, intensity and concentration is all there and gotten better during the season. “As long as you have those things, you have a tremendous opportunity to improve,” he said.

“We’re a work in progress but we’re excited to start ACC play.”

The Heels travel to 8-5 Virginia Saturday for a noon tipoff.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made some important points on his television show Sunday afternoon. Speaking of Kyrie Irving, he noted that the Blue Devils had to be thinking about the team they are without him, not the team they could be with him. If you heard it, it was clear Coach K isn’t expecting Irving back any time soon, if at all.

So Sunday night’s game with Miami was a great preview of what this Duke team is trying to be. The Hurricanes aren’t great but they are athletic and tenacious on defense. The Blue Devils are clearly more skilled, but the gap between Duke and the rest of a weakened ACC isn’t the gulf that it was with Irving. As Krzyzewski pointed out in his show, Seth Curry and others will have expanded roles now, on offense and on defense.

Nolan Smith remains a star, as he showed in Duke’s 74-63 win in Cameron. Smith scored 28 points, but 13 game in a first-half stretch that was the difference in the game. Smith has a great 3-point shot, even from well behind the college arc, and he simply blew Miami out in that stretch.

But how Duke develops beyond the established pair of Smith and Kyle Singler will be fascinating. Curry looked overmatched on defense Sunday. Ryan Kelly from Raleigh looks much stronger than a year ago and could start to become more of a factor on offense. Same for Andre Dawkins. What’s evolving is more of a halfcourt team that plays rugged defense and depends less on fast breaks.

That’s not a bad formula at all – Duke rode it to a national title last year. But the Devils had three playmakers in 2010, with Jon Scheyer the third. Right now, it’s Smith and Singler – and a player to be named with Irving on the bench.

Following North Carolina’s 103-54 drubbing of his team, Saint Francis coach Don Friday sounds like a fan of the Tar Heels. He praised the way he and the team were treated off the court and even on the court. He said the Tar Heels have “classy kids” who’ll knock you down and then help you up.

Saint Francis is a young team that had little chance to win but any time you score more than 100 points and win by almost 50, it’s impressive. Coach Friday said Carolina just had too many bodies that wore them down with an aggressive, trapping defense.

Without any air of cockiness, UNC coach Roy Williams matter of factly summed it when he said, “we’re more gifted than these guys are.”

Eight Tar Heels scored in double figures. John Henson and Dexter Strickland led the balanced scoring with 13 points. Reggie Bullock and Leslie McDonald dropped in 12 points, Zeller had 11 and Justin Knox, Larry Drew II and Harrison Barnes added 10.

For more on the Saint Francis game, please click here.

The return of Tracy Smith sets up a conference stretch for N.C. State that will be among the most interesting in recent memory.

That the Wolfpack played poorly without Smith is undeniable. State was 6-4 with the  senior forward on the sidelines, and coach Sidney Lowe constantly talked about how losing Smith slowed the team’s progress. Smith was terrific Saturday in his return getting 16 points in State’s 76-54 win over San Diego.

The Pack has Elon Wednesday in Greensboro and then the steady run of ACC games begin. First up is Wake Forest in Raleigh, followed by games at Boston College and Florida State and home to Duke. This run will be an enormous test for Lowe, who has to integrate Smith back into a young team. And State enters the new year with its rotation undetermined.

For example, who is the point guard? Senior Javy Gonzalez remains the starter, but he played only 18 minutes Saturday and contributed four points and two assists. Gonzalez is nothing more than a backup on a good ACC team, but Lowe has stayed with him so far. That leaves Ryan Harrow coming off the bench, and he had 21 minutes and 12 points Saturday. Sure, that’s lesser competition – what can he do against Duke? Or more significantly, what will he do against mid-level ACC teams like Boston College?

Assuming Smith is fully healthy, Lowe has to create a consistent playing rotation, and fast. This is still a team trying to figure out its parts. State appears to have the talent to be an upper echelon ACC team, especially in such a down year. But a poor ACC performance would be disastrous for State, which has yet to make the NCAA Tournament under Lowe.

Even though North Carolina led for much of the Music City Bowl, with the injuries, penalties, miscues and bad breaks, it never seemed like a game that was meant to be.

But it was. When all was said and done, the Tar Heels had defeated Tennessee 30-27 in double overtime tonight.

Down 20-17 with only 31 seconds to go, UNC’s Todd Harrelson, who made one catch all season long, made a remarkable high-wire catch near midfield and was roughed up by Tennessee defender Janzen Jackson who launched airborne leading with his head. The penalty moved the ball down to the 37.

A TJ Yates pass to Dwight Jones got it down to the 25 yet a very late hit by Tennessee’s LaMarcus Thompson was not called. Carolina instead had to spike the ball with 16 seconds left.

A run by Shaun Draughn moved it to the 17 but the Heels had trouble getting to the line to stop the clock in order to set up the field goal. The officials first announced that the game was over but upon review it was determined that, while some of the field goal team was on the field, there was a second left when Yates spiked it. There was a penalty for too many players on the field but kicker Casey Barth still was able to drill the 39-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.

Tennessee was called for a penalty – it’s unclear if it was for roughing the kicker or for a player throwing his helmet in disgust but it could have been either. The Vols luckily won the overtime toss because had Tennessee been forced to go on offense first, the Vols would have started from the 40 yard line. Instead, Carolina started on offense at the 12 and a half. Three plays later, including one where Tennessee was charged for another personal foul (facemask), Yates snuck it in from inside the one to put Carolina up 27-20.

The official inexplicably waited to see if Yates had the ball in the middle of the pile. Since Yates reached the ball over the goal line it shouldn’t have mattered. It was a touchdown as soon as the ball crossed the plane.

Nevertheless, Yates – fortunately for the Heels – still had the ball. Tennessee was able to score on a Tyler Bray to Luke Stocker TD strike on second down.

With the score tied at 27-27, the Vols went right back on offense. Four plays into the Volunteers’ series, UNC linebacker Quan Sturdivant reached high for an interception, setting the scene for Carolina to go on offense from the 25 only needing a field goal.

Draughn bumped outside for a 16-yard run to the nine and then he ran it to the six. Carolina opted to go ahead and try the short field goal on second and goal from there. Barth drilled it for the improbable win.

Draughn, a senior, who ran for 160 yards, was named the game’s most valuable player. Senior defensive back Deunta Williams wasn’t as fortunate as he broke his ankle in the first half. That was a big blow as Bray had more luck throwing after Williams went out. Defensive lineman Donte Paige-Moss was also banged up and missed some action but came back to block a Tennessee extra point by Daniel Lincoln, allowing Carolina to later tie the game with a field goal.

Tennessee fans – and they were in the vast majority by virtue of the game being in Nashville – littered the end zones with cups and cans and beer on several occasions late in the game and in overtime, including at the game’s end.

The Tar Heels led 7-0 early, then led 10-7 and led 17-14 into the fourth quarter. But penalties disrupted them, injuries slowed momentum and every break seemed to go Tennessee’s way until late. Carolina finishes the eventful, tumultuous season at 8-5.

Poor officiating

The Heels committed 11 penalties for 92 yards. Three of those penalties came on a late-game drive with Carolina trailing 20-17. At least one of the calls, an intentional grounding call on QB TJ Yates, was questionable. No, the ball didn’t make it to the line of scrimmage as the officials pointed out but two players were hanging on Yates. In that circumstance, he shouldn’t be expected to get it to the line of scrimmage.

While the officials ultimately got several key calls right, they not only took too much time but there were tough calls both ways. However, Carolina seemed to have to overcome more of the bad calls or the no calls.

Coming off watching Kansas State lose to Syracuse in great part due to an unsportsmanlike penalty where a player was flagged for saluting the fans after a score, viewers of this game must have wondered why no similar calls in this game.

After each of his four touchdown passes, brash freshman QB Tyler Bray made a slashing celebratory motion. Tennessee receiver Gerald Jones not only danced after a touchdown, he made a double salute motion to the fans. Later, Vols receiver Da’Rick Rogers, after a score, made some weird belt buckling motion. While in each of these instances the players “drew attention” to themselves, which was the explanation why the Kansas State player was flagged, not one flag was thrown.

Twice Tennessee converted big first downs on plays where offensive linemen should have been called for moving early. Meanwhile, on top of the questionable grounding call mentioned earlier, Carolina was called for a mysterious illegal shift. The announcers assumed it must have been because the fullback was rocking a bit as another player was in motion. Whatever – not much of an offence. If they were calling them that closely, the early motions on the Vols offensive line could have been called multiple times but was never called once.

When Tennessee’s defense was called for offsides, it worked to the Volunteers advantage because the officials, again inexplicably, called the play dead. It should have been a free play and Yates knew it as he was honing in on a receiver for what could have been a big gain. But whistles blew it dead.

Another controversial play that I suspect officials got right, even though replays didn’t show it clearly, was when UNC’s Dwight Jones presumably stepped out of bounds, came back in and caught the ball for what would have been a critical first down late in the game. Officials called illegal touching.

For any ABC fans reading this article, I urge you to watch it on replay before you dispute what I’m writing. I have the game taped and I have gone back and verified everything I’ve written.

After Duke destroyed UNC-Greensboro yesterday to notch Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 880th coaching victory, surpassing Dean Smith’s 879 wins, the former UNC coach released this statement: “I congratulate Mike on this milestone victory. I am sure he would want to share the credit for the wins with all his players and staff. I enjoyed competing against Mike’s teams throughout the many years I was at UNC. I wish him continued health and personal success.”

Here’s video of Coach K celebrating with the fans and players after the win.

No one wants to finish a season with a 51-20 loss but it stings even more for East Carolina fans who braved the treacherous road conditions to drive up to D.C. only to see their Pirates not only lose big in a bowl game but finish the season below .500.

The way the Pirates defense has played much of the year, it really wasn’t much of a surprise to see Maryland rack up the points. But the Pirates, who averaged close to 40 points a game this season, had little to no offense and QB Dominique Davis looked his worst this season.

With so many bowl games, there are bound to be teams that go with a .500 record but it’s really a shame after the overachieving season the Pirates had to lose more games than they won. I know it’s a reward and it’s a financial plus I suppose but it might be better for most 6-6 teams to stay home and leave it at that.

ECU senior linebacker Dustin Lineback said, “We were picked to win two games. Memphis and Marshall – and we did that plus some. It’s alway down to lose the last game, we didn’t want that. But this team is a great team. In the future, the sky is the limit.”

Ruffin McNeill certainly brought excitement and more wins that most predicted. We at capitalsportsnc.com predicted that the Pirates would win four games but we did say that five wins was doable and that if ECU got to six wins McNeill should be considered for conference coach of the year. After that kind of final loss, maybe not but the future does look bright for the Pirates.

Also, word from my sources indicate that the rotund McNeill will have some sort of weight-reducing surgery before next season but I haven’t heard any official word on that. If he does get his weight under control, the future will look even brighter for ECU.

North Carolina seems to be peaking just as the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule is about to begin. The Heels appear to be 10 deep, especially evidenced by Leslie McDonald’s 14 points and Justin Watts’ 10 points in last night’s 78-55 win over Rutgers.

But there are at least three troubling trends. First, the free throw shooting is poor at 64 percent. Compare that with the 2009 team that shot 75 percent and the 2008 team that shot 76 percent.

Second, Harrison Barnes has not settled in as the star Carolina needs him to be. He’s shooting just 36 percent from the field, which is second worst on the team, even though he has more minutes played than any other Tar Heel. Against Rutgers he hit just three of nine shots.

Finally, John Henson seems to still be bothered by a thumb injury. He managed seven points and four blocked shots against Rutgers but he seemed limited and appeared to favor the hand.

Still, the team has survived with strong play from Tyler Zeller and Dexter Strickland, and good bench play. Against Rutgers, the Carolina bench outscored the Scarlet Knights bench 38-13.

The Heels have one more nonconference game before opening the ACC schedule at surprising Virginia, 8-4, Jan. 8.

For more on the Rutgers game, please click here.