Well, I've come in from my daily exercise and I'm watching basketball and there's plenty of it to watch. How about George Mason-they just stunned UCONN( can you believe George Mason in the Final Four?) and the Carolina women squeezed by Purdue to advance to the Elite Eight. The Duke women player later tonight. More on the Women's teams as their tournament progresses( could be three ACC women's teams in the final four) but I do have some thoughts on the Men's side now that the ACC is done.
Only four ACC teams received bids to the NCAA tournament and I thought that was right. In my mind the ACC was at best just an average league. Way back in November, Duke was everybody's favorite to win it all. They were number one at the start of the season and in the final poll, Duke was still number one and entered the tournament as the top seed. Duke's ranking at the start of the season was based on the fact that J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams were returning for their senior seasons. You put those two all-americans together with returning seniors Sean Dockery and Lee Melchionni plus a highly regarded and hyped recruiting class and Duke was the pre-season darling. But as I watched this team throughout the season there was something that just wasn't right. Redick and Williams were great. Dockery and Melchionni though struggled. The top ranked recruting class, except for starters Greg Paulus and Josh McRoberts did a lot of sitting. Sophomore DeMarcus Nelson hurt his foot and there you go. It's hard to say that a team that went 32-4 was dissapointing but an average ACC helped Duke appear more dominant than they were. Redick and Williams carried Duke, Paulus and McRoberts improved but McRoberts was never the force that you'd expect from someone labeled the best high school player in America. If he's smart, he will come back to Duke for another year. I mean who would you rather have LSU freshman Tyrus Thomas or McRoberts. After seeing Thomas the last two games, I think the answer is obvious. I know the NBA drafts on potential, but lets face it, McRoberts is not ready. I wrote after Duke's win over Florida State back in February that Redick looked tired and that in previous seasons, he had tired down the stretch. That could have well been a factor in his 3 for 18 performance in the loss to LSU. Coach K said several times his team did too much J.J. watching and many times it was J.J. and Shelden watching. And Duke basically had no bench. Three members of the highly touted freshman class barely played. At Duke you earn your time in practice and those guys must not have shown much because they did their best work at the end of the bench cheering. Redick played a lot of minutes and frequently he was still in the game late even in blowouts. He and Williams had great careers and in Redick's case his ACC scoring record will last for a while, but losing in the Sweet 16 is not what was expected at the start of the season. Next year Coach K will have to be at his hall-of-fame-coaching best.
Before the season, I thought Carolina would be pretty good. I thought that because Roy Williams is the coach, they had good recruits coming in and the ACC was going to be down. I think that Carolina achieved more than most thought but again an average ACC helped. It was called a young team, but still a senior, David Noel, two juniors Reyshawn Terry and a 23 year old Wes Miller, a 20 year old freshman Tyler Hansbrough and another freshman Bobby Frasor started (in todays college basketball that's not that young.) They had a deep bench and Roy Williams used it. When I saw the Duke-UNC game in Durham, Carolina just didn't win the game, it was the better team. Its' bench and athleticism bothered Duke and it was then that I was pretty sure Duke wasn't going to win the National Championship. But that game was to be Carolina's last hurrah. Something happened to them after that. Boston College beating them in the ACC tournament wasn't that surprising but they were lucky to beat Murray State in the first round of the NCAA and then with a trip to the Elite Eight theirs for the taking, they bombed against George Mason. For the first time in a long while UNC played like many thought they would at the start of the season. However George Mason has proven to be a pretty good team, have they not..All in all it was a better than expected season. A successful UNC season. It appeared that Roy Williams had a much better time with this team than last year's Championship team. Next year the power in the ACC should be shifting back to Carolina. This years team had excellent chemistry, you could tell this team liked each other and they played together, but with what is being called the best recruiting class ever coming in and with so many returning players, Professor Williams will have to do a lot of lab work to come up with another good chemistry mix (that or have one or two transfer.)
N.C. State was a mystery. They were on their way to one of State's best regular seasons in years until the bottom dropped out at the end. Ilian Evtimov's foot injury really hurt them. Evtimov wasn't a great player but he was good. He was their leader and the foot injury kept him from practicing and did you notice how much Engin Atsur struggled without Evtimov. This was a veteran team that just lost it in the end. When you live by the three pointer, you can die by it and State just couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at the end of the season. For State at one time 21-5 to finish up at 22-10 is a huge downer. I understand why many State fans aren't happy. Herb Sendek in my mind is a good coach, a good man, but even after ten years his teams can't get over the hump. Five straight NCAA tournament apperances is great and a lot of schools would love that, but four exits before the Sweet 16 is not so great and of course State fans remember Championships of the past and let's face it, those BCA titles at the start of the year really aren't that memorable. Still State's program is solid and you can't tell a Herb Sendek to go if he's not ready, he's done a good job(not great but good and at Clemson, they'd name a building after him but State's tradition and Clemson's are in different zip codes.) They will have talent next year, you know who's coming back (medical redshirt Brandon Costner is supposed to be a player) but will the angst of the Pack nation continue to grow with each defeat? If this year is any indication, i don't think there's any question.
The year is over for the ACC. The league was average at best, but this runs in cycles. Next season here's to hoping the league will be better and stronger. Maybe I'll prefer that big Maryland-Ga. Tech game over a Lifetime movie.
Whew. Really didn't mean to write all this. Gotta get back to the tube. Except for the ACC flaming out, it's been a fun tournament.
