Sports Blog

While 75 percent of the ACC’s teams made their way to Charlotte for pactice Wednesday, three teams chose not to do so. They were Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Duke.
So if this was truly a gathering of all the teams, they’d all be there at the same time at some point. That’s not likely to be the case because by the time North Carolina and Duke arrive Thursday, there could be a team or two eliminated from the tournament.
It has been mentioned several times about the ACC teams (North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, Maryland) that played during the regular season this year at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams made an interesting point Wednesday (on campus in Chapel Hill) when asked about the familiarity with the arena because his team played there. That North Carolina / Davidson game took place Nov. 14.
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s opponent on Friday will have played in the arena 24 hours earlier. So any perception that the Tar Heels might have had an advantage is wiped away because they received a first-round bye. Duke is in the same situation in that regard.

– Bob Sutton

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The Wednesday before the ACC Tournament has the electricity and atmosphere as Tuesday at The Masters or Super Bowl Friday.

The real action will begin with tomorrow’s games and will ratchet up considerably on Friday when the heavy hitters arrive.

That said here are a few things that caught my eye today.

-All-Media Team

Former North Carolina player Jason Capel and former Duke player Mike Gminski are doing part of the television coverage from this week’s games. As a result, they’re both milling around in the media areas today.

Eric Montross, who does color for the North Carolina radio broadcast should be along later in the week.

So far we’ve got a solid front line. All we need are some guards.

- Cummings in the house

The concourse of the Bobcats Arena features cases honoring the high school basketball state champs from North and South Carolina. Cummings, which won the Class 2-A boys’ title last season, has a jersey (J.T. Terrell’s navy blue No. 20 if you’re wondering) and a team picture on display.

The Cavaliers’ reign will end Saturday when the new state champs are crowned. Don’t you think a red Graham girls’ jersey would look nice in there next year?

- Prepare to be sick of this…

If you’re planning on watching this week’s tournament on Raycom Sports (if you’re reading this in the Times-News coverage area, that means you) brace yourself for the song “Shawty Get Loose,” by hip-hop artist Lil Momma with help from Chris Brown and the ever-present T-Pain.

An ACC Tournament flavored remix of the song will be the signature tune of the tournament’s television coverage.

For those of you who have no idea who Lil Mama is, which is understandable, she had a minor hit last summer with a song called “Lip Gloss.” It was terrible.

- Stephen Schramm.

ACC Tournament week is upon us. And while the first games aren’t played until Thursday, there’s a sense that the event is under way by today.

This is the day most of the teams practice at the arena — in this case, Charlotte Bobcats Arena.
This year, all the teams except for North Carolina, Duke and Georgia Tech are listed to be among the teams practicing for these sessions, which are normally one hour long. They’re also free and open to the public.
Florida State will open the practice session at 10 a.m., followed by Miami. Of in-state interest, N.C. State will take the court at noon. The Wolfpack will be followed by Wake Forest at 1 p.m.
So, they’re off a dribbling …

– Bob Sutton

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There are a few interesting matchups (or potential matchups)on a first check of the bracket for the ACC Tournament.
Miami takes a crack at North Carolina State in the tournament’s second game. That’s a chance for the Hurricanes to make up for that terrible finish they had in January in Raleigh.
Wake Forest and North Carolina played only once during the regular season. They’ll get a chance to do it again Friday if Wake Forest can dispose of Florida State.
But some of the intriguing matchups can’t happen unless the teams reach the final. How about North Carolina with an opportunity to pay back Maryland? Can’t happen unless it comes Sunday.
The same thing for Duke, which lost its only meeting with Wake Forest. Those teams are on opposite sides of the brackets.

– Bob Sutton

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Just because the Duke / North Carolina game passed Saturday night doesn’t mean all the the important regular-season business is finished in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Yes, North Carolina is atop the standings — that much was determined. And Duke will be the No. 2 seed in this week’s ACC Tournament in Charlotte.
But two games remain on today’s schedule: Virginia Tech at Clemson this afternoon, Maryland at Virginia at 7:30 p.m.
The outcomes of those games will allow the final spots to be filled in on the ACC Tournament bracket. The last two spots are locked in — North Carolina State will be seeded 12th and Boston College will be seeded 11th.

– Bob Sutton

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Many Duke fans are carrying “800″ placards that were handed out to those entering Cameron Indoor Stadium for tonight’s showdown with North Carolina.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski picked up his 800th victory last week at North Carolina State and the next game came Wednesday night at Virginia. So that was two road games and this is the first home game since the milestone.
But Krzyzewski now has 801 victories, so the placards are already out of date. And without that No. 801, there wouldn’t be a tie atop the standings when these teams tip off in about 45 minutes.

One of the chants directed at North Carolina standout Tyler Hansbrough during pregame warm-ups a few minutes ago: “Tyler travels every time … Tyler travels every time.”
Per usual, Hansbrough doesn’t react and seems to take it in stride.

– Bob Sutton

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North Carolina State and Wake Forest ended up taking a backseat to their Tobacco Road brethren quite often.

Today that might hit a peak.
At least N.C. State and Wake Forest are getting this out of the way relatively early. That clears the way for the North Carolina / Duke clash later.
Wake Forest and N.C. State enter this game in Winston-Salem with a combined 11 consecutive losses (seven for N.C. State, four for Wake Forest).
And here’s another oddity about this one: It’s the final regular-season home game for Wake Forest, but there’s no Senior Day ceremony involving players. That’s because Wake Forest has no senior.

– Bob Sutton

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Unfortunate and tragic, but the Duke / North Carolina game certainly was put in perspective Thursday.
With the news coming out that the Eve Carson, the student body president at the University of North Carolina was killed this week, the basketball game became secondary on campus. Coach Roy Williams and his players weren’t available to discuss the game as scheduled after athletics department officials decided it would be inappropriate to draw such attention toward a basketball game during a time of mourning on campus.
There were more important matters to deal with on campus than talking about a game.
On Friday, Williams is expected to talk about Saturday night’s game, though officials with the team said that Friday’s schedule is subject to change based on what happens on campus.

– Bob Sutton

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This time around, it was Duke’s turn to play the final game before a showdown with North Carolina.
The Blue Devils had a visit to Virginia to take care of before the second meeting of the season with North Carolina, which was awaiting the matchup with an extra day to prepare.
Duke took care of business, keeping the teams tied atop the ACC standings.
Prior to last month’s first Duke / North Carolina meeting, it was North Carolina with the task of keeping focused before worrying about Duke. The Tars Heels had to go to Florida State for a game, which was played a day after Duke had finished its pre-North Carolina assignments.
North Carolina needed overtime to subdue Florida State in that pre-Duke game. The Tar Heels also had Florida State on the schedule thsi week, and they made it a much more convincing victory.

– Bob Sutton

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Maybe Roy Williams was warming up for tonight’s game with North Carolina State when he was apparently seeing red about some comment Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made that got turned into bulletin board material.
The odd thing here is that Williams spent time reference Duke on the eve of a game against North Carolina State.
Now, there’s plenty of red filing into the RBC Center right now in anticipation of the N.C. State / North Carolina game that tips off in a few minutes.

So, for at least a couple of hours, Williams can put Duke out of his mind — and hope for the sake of sanity that he’s not out of his mind by the time he leaves here after spending an evening with the Wolfpack.

– Bob Sutton

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