Wake Forest-Rolesville, who handled Panther Creek in the semi-finals, plays Charlotte Butler for the State 4-AA NCHSAA football title Saturday at 11 a.m. at Carter-Finley Stadium.

With a victory, the Cougars would be the first team from Wake County to win a state championship in 12 years. High school sports experts discuss WF-Rolesville and more in the Outer Loop Sports Show below. Also, Durham Hillside is going for the 4-A championship Saturday morning in Winston-Salem.

Outer Loop Sports Show: December 8, 2010 from Outer Loop Sports Show on Vimeo.

Duke freshman Kyrie Irving is out indefinitely after suffering a toe injury on his right foot in last Saturday’s win over Butler, the school announced Wednesday afternoon.

There is no timetable for his return.

“Kyrie is going to miss an undetermined amount of time with the toe injury,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement. “Our medical staff will continue to monitor the recovery process and he will return to action once it has sufficiently healed. Kyrie is an outstanding player and we are confident that he will bounce back from this setback.”

Irving is averaging 17.4 points per game and ranks in the top 10 of the ACC in six statistical categories (scoring, assists, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, steals and assist-to-turnover ratio).

The injury is a blow to the Blue Devils, but they do have depth in the backcourt. Nolan Smith can handle the ball, and Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry have shown they can contribute, although neither is a point guard.

The fact that N.C. State wound up in the Champs Sports Bowl says a great deal about how this team and the Wolfpack fan base are viewed.

Virginia Tech was headed to the Orange Bowl – that was a given. And Florida State fit the ACC’s No. 2 bowl, the Chick-fil-A. That left the Champs picking third, and looking at a Wolfpack team that is 8-4 overall and 5-3 in league play.

By ACC rules, the Champs could take any team within one game in the ACC standings of the highest remaining team. Maryland, N.C. State and Miami were 5-3 in ACC play, and Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Boston College and Clemson were all 4-4. But Maryland doesn’t travel and Miami is in disarray.  So State, with an exciting quarterback and a program thrilled to be back in the bowl picture, made sense.

By the way, here were the order of selections for the ACC’s remaining bowls:
No. 4 – the Sun took Miami
No. 5 – the Meineke Car Care took Clemson, in part because UNC has made so many Charlotte appearances
No. 6 – the Music City took Carolina
No. 7 – the Independence Bowl took Georgia Tech
No. 8 – the Military Bowl in Washington, D.C., got a boost with an 8-4 Maryland team to pair with East Carolina
No. 9 – Boston College, as always, got shipped to San Francisco for the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

By the way, if you wanted an illustration of why Tom O’Brien left Boston College, this was it. N.C. State, with a big fan base, gets a high bowl and Boston College, as is often the case, gets the left-overs.

North Carolina ended up with an attractive bowl option Sunday when it accepted an invitation to play in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30, in Nashville, Tenn., against the University of Tennessee. The game, at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN, marks the first the Tar Heels have faced the Volunteers since 1961.

Obviously, the Tar Heels drew a tough assignment playing Tennessee in the Volunteers home state, but it sure beats being banished to a lower bowl with little interest. Nashville is reachable for most fans, a cool place to visit, and there will be some energy in the stadium. And to be honest, this is hardly an unbeatable Vols team.

“Our fans have been tremendous this year, setting a school record for average attendance (58,250),” UNC athletics director Dick Baddour said in a statement. “This bowl game is another fantastic opportunity to support this Tar Heel team and recognize the accomplishments of an outstanding senior class.”

Head coach Butch Davis said, “I congratulate our team, and especially the 17 seniors, for the extraordinary job they’ve done in leading our program to a third consecutive bowl appearance. Regardless of the situation, this team fought week after week to make our fans proud. We look forward to representing North Carolina against a talented Tennessee team.”

Carolina (7-5, 4-4 ACC) is in a bowl game for the third straight season, the school’s longest streak since going to seven straight bowl games from 1992-98. The Music City Bowl is Carolina’s 28th all-time postseason bowl game, but first in Nashville, which is hosting its 13th bowl game.

Carolina and Tennessee will be meeting for the 32nd time, and first since a 22-21 UNC win in 1961. The Volunteers lead the overall series, 20-10-1. Tennessee (6-6, 3-5 SEC) won just two of its first eight games this year, but rallied to win four straight and qualify for postseason play.

North Carolina looked like a different team against Kentucky, and you can’t help but be impressed by the Tar Heels’ effort and determination in Saturday’s 75-73 win at the Smith Center.

First of all, Carolina’s defense was much improved over previous games. The Wildcats couldn’t get good shots off in the final four minutes, and that allowed the Heels to grasp control. Justin Watts, as previously mentioned, is emerging as one of the Heels’ best defensive players, and astute fans noticed he was on the floor often in the closing minutes.

It helps UNC that Reggie Bullock is now healthy and in the rotation. Coach Roy Williams subs him in for Harrison Barnes and also used a lineup that had Barnes at power forward (for John Henson) and Bullock at small forward.

Henson had a tremendous first half, but the star of this game was Tyler Zeller. Zeller is playing like an elite ACC player and scored against Kentucky’s burly inside players. It was obvious Carolina fed him the ball on sets in the closing minutes. Zeller isn’t Tyler Hansbrough – yet – but he produced like him on Saturday. His 27 points was impressive enough, but the calm he showed at the foul line, hitting all of his six free throws in the final 90 seconds, was extraordinary.

You can look at the minutes and tell where Roy Williams is going with this team (starters in bold):

31-Henson
30-Zeller
30-Drew
29-Strickland
25-Barnes
16-Bullock
12-McDonald
10-Marshall
9-Knox
8-Watts

That second five provides decent depth with players who will be used in certain situations, but there’s little offense coming from the bench – that group was just 3 of 12 from the field against Kentucky.

Overall, Carolina still can’t shoot from the outside – just 1 of 11 on 3-pointers Saturday – and that’s going to be an issue for this team. The Tar Heels must make up for it with rugged defense and a running game, and that was the formula Saturday for an impressive win over Kentucky.

ACC RELEASE – Boston College senior linebacker Mark Herzlich (Wayne, Pa.) and NC State senior linebacker Nate Irving (Wallace, N.C.), a pair of hard-hitting defensive standouts who each rebounded from life-threatening situations, have been named the recipients of the 2010 Brian Piccolo Award, Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced Friday.

The Piccolo Award has been given annually since 1972 in memory of the late Brian Piccolo to the “most courageous” football player in the ACC. Piccolo was the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1965 and played for the Chicago Bears before his career was cut short when he was stricken with cancer. His courageous fight against that disease was an inspiration to the Bears and the entire football community.

This year’s Award marks the third time two student-athletes shared the award. Irving is the fourth NC State student-athlete to be honored with the Picccolo Award, joining former teammate Toney Baker, who received the award last year, Scott Adell (1991) and Ralph Stringer (1977), as past Wolfpack honorees. Herzlich becomes the first Boston College student-athlete to be honored with the Piccolo.

In May of 2009, Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma in his left thigh. Ewings is an aggressive cancer which attacks both soft tissue and bone. He underwent extensive radiation and chemotherapy in the months following his diagnosis. Once the cancer was controlled, a titanium rod was also inserted into his left leg to stabilize the bone. Once cleared, he began a rehab program to restore his lower body strength. This past summer, probably as a by-product of his aggressive rehab, Herzlich developed a fracture in his right foot. Despite this setback, Herzlich was able to start and compete in Boston College’s 2010 season opener against Weber State. On October 5, Herzlich suffered a broken bone in his left hand, resulting in a cast which has basically made him play “one-handed” this fall.

Still, Herzlich has responded to be Boston College’s third-leading tackler on the nation’s top ranked defense against the run. Herzlich has recorded 54 tackles this year, including 41 solo hits, 3.5 for loss. Despite the “club cast” on his hand, he has four pass interceptions, five pass deflections and one forced fumble.

NC State’s Irving was severely injured in a single car motor vehicle accident on June 28, 2009. Irving suffered a compound fracture of the tibia, a broken rib, a punctured lung and a separated shoulder. The fracture of the tibia required a surgical insertion of an intermedullary nail to allow proper alignment and healing of the bone. Irving faced a length rehab due to the severity of his injuries and the quantity of body parts that were affected.

Due to an extensive rehab program, Irving was able to return to football activities in March of 2010. He has enjoyed a sometimes spectacular senior season as the 2nd leading tackler for an NC State defense which ranks 3rd nationally in sacks and 4th in tackles for loss. He ranks 4th nationally in tackles for loss with 19 and has five quarterback sacks among his 85 total tackles.

It’s only December, but two trends jump out when you are talking about Duke basketball.

The first is that the yearly predictions of how much depth Duke has are once again not true. Early in every season, people talk about how many options Coach Mike Krzyzewski has, but Krzyzewski always shortens his bench as the season progresses. We saw a glimpse of that Wednesday night as Coach K relied on six players and reserves Miles Plumlee and Seth Curry saw their minutes shrink.

The second is that the Blue Devils may be the rare great team in this age of college basketball. North Carolina was just that in 2009, a seasoned team that could compete with some of the ACC’s all-time bests. We’re not saying that UNC team was better than N.C. State in 1974 or Carolina in 1982 or Duke in 1992, but it was a powerhouse that wouldn’t get wiped off the floor by the all-time greats.

Duke could be in a similar situation this year. The ACC is down – North Carolina is not nearly as good as projected, and N.C. State is much better but still has a long way to go. The Blue Devils could easily steamroll the league and win 14, 15 and maybe 16 conference games. Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith are elite college players, and Kyrie Irving and Mason Plumlee are strong in their own rights. The depth on the bench means competition for playing time, which is always healthy.

One always has to be careful when evaluating Duke early on. The Devils are unreal at home, especially when bolstered by a crowd like Wednesday. So there’s a tendency to see these early-season efforts at home and overproject the Devils. But you can’t help but be impressed. Duke looks like a great team for any era in a year in which the ACC in basketball sadly seems to resemble the ACC in football.

Check out the Outer Loop Sports Show online as high school sports experts discuss the football playoffs, including Wake Forest-Rolesville’s big win over Garner and Panther Creek’s high-scoring win over Fayetteville Seventy-First.

Outer Loop Sports Show: December 1, 2010 from Outer Loop Sports Show on Vimeo.