login | Register

Snowflakes: ACC Hoops

* What a great win for Wake Forest Sunday night. The Demon Deacons topped #2 Duke 86-73 to provide the fans in Winston-Salem and first-year coach Dino Gaudio with their best moment of the season. Of course, last summer turned tragic for the entire Wake family after the untimely death of Head Coach Skip Prosser. His long time friend and assistant Gaudio took over the program during those trying times and has done a quality job. Not only are the Demon Deacons 16-8 on the season, they have a monster recruiting class (Top 5 in the country) coming in to join talented youngsters like James Johnson and Jeff Teague. Wake Forest now has a small chance to make the NCAA Tournament after winning three in a row, but it will probably take a win at North Carolina to achieve that goal. Even if an NIT bid is what the future holds, it’s been quite an accomplishment by the players and coaches to get in the upper half of the ACC after such a tumultuous offseason.

* It’s a pretty easy analysis to see where the Duke Blue Devils could be vulnerable in the postseason. Likely the ACC Champ and a #1 seed, Mike Krzyzewski’s club must avoid the lethal combination of struggling to defend formidable post players and not shooting well from 3-point range. In both losses this year, they have been dominated inside by Wake’s James Johnson (24 points/16 boards) and Pitt’s DeJuan Blair (15 points/20 boards). Additionally, they shot under 30% from beyond the arc in those losses. Duke shares the ball and makes three pointers as well as anyone in the country. It will be interesting to see what kind of matchup the Blue Devils draw in the middle of the Big Dance. That opponent’s big man and perimeter defense could be the difference in the Final 4 or going home earlier than expected for Duke.

* Two weeks ago, N.C. State looked to have a decent shot at making the NCAA Tournament as they stood at 15-7 overall. However after three straight losses, the NIT looks like the postseason destination for the Wolfpack. One reason for their struggles has been the digression of Brandon Costner. The sophomore forward averaged 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds a game last year, and those totals landed him on the vaunted All-ACC freshman team. This season, he is only getting 9.3 points and 4.9 boards a game and doesn’t seem to be quite the same player. Freshman J.J. Hickson is leading the Wolfpack in scoring and rebounding (15.3ppg/8.8rpg), so Coach Sidney Lowe has some young talent in his program. If he can get Costner going again, the Wolfpack will start to move in the right direction.

                                                                         

related tags

Sports,
North Carolina,
Urban,
Tribal Fever,

Related Dispatches