ACC Basketball & NFL Playoffs Begin! Saturday open entry

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The first full Saturday of Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball begins today!

The first Saturday of a full slate of conference games used to be one of my favorite days of the year…but I don’t have the same excitement I once felt – probably due to equal parts of (a) growing older, (b) dealing with 20 years of basketball irrelevance, and (c) the ACC’s dearth of quality depth. Of course I am confident that Mark Gottfried is in the process of re-energizing all of us for more excitement in the future.

As we highlighted in this fantastic entry yesterday – the conference is off to a slow start this year (link to N&O article)

The ACC has gotten off to such a slow start that even one of its biggest advocates, ESPN announcer Dick Vitale, is down on the league.

“What has happened to the once PROUD ACC?” Vitale wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday. “UNC and Duke NEED HELP from their partners.”

Despite Vitale’s pessimism and the gloomy forecast, there will still be an ACC season.

For those of you that those that share my perspective and vantage point of Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball, you will enjoy the following.

Please use this entry as an open thread to discuss all of Saturday’s sports happenings. For more targeted conversations we highly encourage you to check out or robust message forums (linked here) where we manage to have some great conversations without a lot of the immaturity that usually plague internet message boards.

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50 Responses to ACC Basketball & NFL Playoffs Begin! Saturday open entry

  1. WeAreCured 01/07/2012 at 5:48 PM #

    I guess a free education and a platform to reach the NFL weren’t enough for him to throw a little attention State’s way.

  2. LRM 01/07/2012 at 6:29 PM #

    BJD, NBC has the Super Bowl. Oops, I mean “Big Game,” since I’m probably breaking trademark laws by saying “Super Bowl.”

    Clemson laying it to FSU right now.

    I don’t read too much into them saying their high school over college; in fact, I think it’s kind of cool they give some love to their hometown. This place is gonna meltdown if Wilson ever starts in the NFL…when he says Wisconsin.

  3. Alpha Wolf 01/07/2012 at 6:32 PM #

    Jackasses like Dick Vitale seem to constantly forget that the media constantly saying crap like “NC State can’t compete with the two schools down the road” and “they should be happy with Herb Sendek, he’s as good as they’ll be able to get” *REALLY* helps recruiting, which is the lifeblood of any program.

  4. JEOH2 01/07/2012 at 6:35 PM #

    would I be wrong in saying that we want The U to win tonight since we play them twice and UVA once?

    Also…someone needs to go into Gottfried’s Wikipedia and change the picture and our record…haha

  5. Wufpacker 01/07/2012 at 6:54 PM #

    ^ I’d normally say yes, but UVa looks to be our only non-Duke/Carolina shot at a top 50 win…losing to Miami at home would give them a hit in the RPI dept.

  6. Wulfpack 01/07/2012 at 6:59 PM #

    My God FSU and Va Tech looked terrible today. Those are *supposed* to be two of our contenders. Not happenin’. As it stands today, UVA and NCSU may be the only squads with a realistic shot of making the tourney sans the blues. I’m pulling for UVA. We need all the good wins we can get, and it is looking like those opportunities will be few and far between.

  7. Gene 01/07/2012 at 7:38 PM #

    No easy wins for us in the ACC. As bad as the bad teams are, they can just show up once in awhile and show us up.

    I hope we can stay focused for 40 minutes and not have collapses.

  8. tuckerdorm1983 01/07/2012 at 8:06 PM #

    all the teams in the ACC are completely able to serve us an asskicking especially if we go AWOL for 10 or 15 mins. The only way we are going dancing is to out tough the other teams. We could easily get beaten by the bottom 3 teams in the league (providing we are not one of them and I don’t believe that).

    As for pulling for anyone. I will pull against any ACC team that is above us in conference rankings with the obvious exception of those light blue bastards sons of bitches over in chapel hell may they rot in hell sorry no good cheating aw shucks 10000 tons of crap fair weather fans that are gonna suck in football and I hope the NCAA drops the A-bomb on those arrogant bastards. (sorry I get a little carried away)

    if both teams are above us in conference rankings then I pull for the top ranked team

    if both teams are below us, the I pull for the lowest ranked team.

  9. BJD95 01/07/2012 at 8:17 PM #

    Very good performance from Yates, I’m sure Super Mario is proud of his teammates (even the Hole). Very lackluster performance by a UVA squad that is clearly the #3 (in terms of overall body of work).

    I’m not sure there’s really much difference between teams 3 through 11. Bosston College, though. Yikes.

  10. LRM 01/07/2012 at 8:23 PM #

    ^I disagree about it being lackluster. The whole second half has been hard fought. I think more than anything it serves as an example of what we can all expect from so-so league play this year.

    UVa came up huge on D on that final possession.

  11. Texpack 01/07/2012 at 8:49 PM #

    Career Playoff Wins
    TJ Yates 1
    Tony Romo 1

    That was a good old fashioned butt kicking by the Texans. Now it’s on to Baltimore. Sucks that the kickoff will be about 30 minutes after I finish the Houston Marathon. No pre-game meal of Frito Pie next week.

  12. BJD95 01/07/2012 at 8:51 PM #

    Admittedly, I watched more of the NFL game. But what I saw wasn’t impressive.

    The Lions are off to a pretty fantastic start. Should be an entertaining evening of football.

  13. Gene 01/07/2012 at 9:27 PM #

    “So what’s up with Manny Lawson?”

    Don’t know, but there was a guy on the Lions offense, who referenced his elementary school. Just food for thought on the non-college reference.

  14. redcanine 01/07/2012 at 10:25 PM #

    Brees is sharp as ever. I love watching him play.

  15. BJD95 01/07/2012 at 10:25 PM #

    Tulloch, thankfully, said “North Carolina State University” like the decent human being I’ve been told that he is.

    And the Saints have woken up.

  16. stillapackfan 01/08/2012 at 12:37 AM #

    Howler…where in the world did you read we are the most balanced team in the ACC? How so?

  17. WeAreCured 01/08/2012 at 2:48 AM #

    I don’t know of any publication or actual journalist that has said State is the most balanced team, but all 5 starters average double figures in scoring and are within a few points of one another, so they are balanced offensively.

  18. BJD95 01/08/2012 at 8:21 AM #

    Perhaps my favorite thing is that good or bad, win or lose…what we do on the court actually looks like basketball. That’s a good, very necessary foundational step to take.

  19. Dogbreath 01/08/2012 at 10:57 AM #

    One thing I’d like to see returned to ACC basketball telecasts is the tradition (from the 60s to late 80s at least) of the PA announcer calling the starting lineups. It conveyed sportsmanship, yes, but also added context and plot to the game. I still remember every starting five from all eight teams, for every year from 83-89. As they called your point guard, he’d hustle out to midcourt to shake his opponents hand, and they flashed his stats on the screen. Position by position you would evaluate your guy against their guy. In every game, after they went through the lineup, you’d get your game face on knowing you had advantage at a couple of matchups, and tuned in on that subplot. The players had personalities and there were villains and heroes.

    Can’t even tell you one starter for UVA now, let alone the starting five for Duke.

  20. Dogbreath 01/08/2012 at 11:05 AM #

    For old time sake…

    “it’s snowing outside, but it’s steaming inside of Reynolds coliseum for today’s matchup between the top two teams in the league standings, the NC State Wolfpack and the visiting Duke Blue Devils. I’m Bob Rathbun alongside my partner Billy Packer. We’re gonna take it down to the floor where CA Dillon is standing by to announce today’s starting lineup.

    ‘Ladies and gentleman welcome to William Neal Reynolds coliseum for today’s matchup of the NC State Wolfpack and the Duke Blue Devils. And now the starting lineups, for State, at guard a 6’0 sophomore out of Hialeah Lakes, FL, number 13 Chris Corchiani. For Duke, at guard a 6’3 senior out of Mercer Island, Wa, number 14 Quin Snyder. At the other guard, for State, a 6’3 sophomore out of Hagerstown, MD, number 21 Rodney Monroe. For Duke, a 6’4 junior out of University Park, IL, number 3 Phil Henderson….’ ”

    And so it went, one by one. Corchiani/Snyder, Monroe/Henderson, D’Amico/Smith, Brown/Ferry, Howard/Brickey.

  21. 61Packer 01/08/2012 at 12:46 PM #

    I’d rather have the teams introduced separately like it was almost always done and in fact is done at the RBC Center. Visitors first, home team last.

  22. choppack1 01/08/2012 at 2:23 PM #

    Dogbreath that was 1989 right?

    That was a great squad. Avie usually started at the 5 spot. Kelsey came off the bench. We played a lot of 3 guard offense. And man, Reynolds was a special place to watch those games.

  23. ancsu87 01/08/2012 at 8:34 PM #

    For all those wondering what will come out of the NCAA investigation in of UNC-BS the wait is over. Here is a link to a news report which tells me that they will get a slap on the wrist. It is rare to get a 6th year and the fact that it is this particular player … well it tells me nothing will happen other than already self-imposed penalties.

    http://acc.blogs.starnewsonline.com/27741/unc-fullback-ramsay-granted-a-sixth-year-of-eligibility/

  24. TruthBKnown Returns 01/08/2012 at 10:16 PM #

    ^That doesn’t prove anything (IMO).

  25. ancsu87 01/08/2012 at 10:42 PM #

    I hope your right and I am wrong. I just found that ruling strange and did not expect it. Basis the injuries it is not very often one gets the 6th year. To me it was almost like they were giving it to him for the 9 games he sat out due to the academic issues.

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