GREENSBORO - Because the four top seeds get byes, the opening day of the ACC tournament often gets a lukewarm reception from the media and fans.
Beginning at noon today, there will be four games at the Greensboro Coliseum that don’t showcase the best the ACC has to offer.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of reasons to tune in today as Wake Forest’s Jeff Bzdelik coaches in his first ACC tournament and Sidney Lowe may coach N.C. State for the last time.
Here are five things to watch today:
With one game left in Jeff Bzdelik's first season as Wake Forest head coach -- barring an upset of Boston College, a team the 8-23 Demon Deacons lost to by 16 points on Sunday -- he described it Monday as the "most challenging year in all my years of coaching."
Wake Forest became the first ACC teams to lose 15 conference games, and Bzdelik said the losses were the least of Wake's problems, starting with center Tony Woods' offseason arrest and dismissal from the team. It wasn't difficult to read between the lines and see major changes coming this summer.
N.C. State will open the ACC tournament against Maryland on Thursday at the Greensboro Coliseum. UNC, the No. 1 seed, and Duke, No. 2, have the first day off.
The Wolfpack finished the regular season at 5-11 in the ACC and as the No. 10 seed. The Terps, No. 7, have won eight straight against the Wolfpack, including an 87-80 win in College Park on Feb. 20.
GREENSBORO -- Duke senior Jasmine Thomas drained a 3-pointer midway through the first half on Friday and dropped to the floor grabbing her left knee.
Her shot through the net, the top-seeded Blue Devils were surging over Wake Forest in their opening game of the ACC women’s basketball tournament. Thomas, near tears, limped off the court and headed to the locker room.
By the time the team’s leading scorer returned, her knee wrapped in tape, the Devils (27-3) had pulled ahead on a 13-0 run and were well on their way to a business-as-usual 79-50 victory over the Demon Deacons (15-17) at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Staff writer Ken Tysiac held a live chat on UNC-Duke, N.C. State and other ACC hoops topics. Here's a replay of the chat.
GREENSBORO – In the second game of the ACC women's basketball tournament, No. 9 seed Wake Forest rallied in the second half to knock off No. 8 seed Virginia 74-68 at Greensboro Coliseum.
The Demon Deacons (15-16), who trailed 32-27 at halftime, advance to the quarterfinals, where they face top-seeded Duke on Friday at 3 p.m.
For the second season in row, the Deacs moved into the second day of tournament play. This time it took a collective effort as four players scored in double figures, senior Brittany Waters leading the way with 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
Although Duke finished 3-9 on the football field last season, the Blue Devils were No. 1 in the ACC in the classroom by a wide margin, according to the All-ACC Academic awards announced this morning.
Duke led the conference with 13 All-ACC Academic selections. Clemson was next with six, and Virginia Tech had five.
To be eligible, athletes needed to have at least a 3.00 grade-point average for the past semester and to have maintained at least a 3.00 GPA throughout their college career.
North Carolina had four All-ACC Academic selections - fullback Curtis Byrd, offensive tackle James Hurst, tight end Zack Pianalto and offensive tackle Michael Ingersoll. N.C. State had one selection - quarterback Russell Wilson.
updated: 11:22 p.m.
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina forward John Henson can sense his perimeter teammates are getting frustrated that their shots aren’t falling. “So I always kind of joke around and say, ‘As long as you’ve got it by March 13 – Selection Sunday – we’ll be fine,’’ he said.
It’s a good quip, but after watching UNC’s outside shooting performance during its 78-64 win over Wake Forest on Tuesday night, it also has some truth to it.
The 19th-ranked Tar Heels (19-6, 9-2 ACC) managed to make only 5 of their season-high 27 3-point attempts, marking the third straight game they have shot worse than 19 percent from beyond the arc.
In the end, UNC had little trouble picking up their seventh win in eight games because they were playing the Deacons (8-18, 1-0), a team that came to the Smith Center ranked dead last in nine statistical categories in ACC play, and second-to-dead-last in six others.
Tentative ACC nonconference football schedules for the 2012 season likely will not be much different from the 2011 slates that were announced Monday by the conference.
N.C. State will revisit what went wrong against Clemson the last time before it plays the Tigers on Thursday, Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said.
State collapsed against the Tigers in a 60-50 road loss on Jan. 25. Up 19 points in the first half, the Pack limped to the finish, scoring only 16 points in the second half.
