The ACC tournament will be two games, and one day, longer when Syracuse and Pittsburgh finally arrive from the Big East.
The conference athletic directors and basketball coaches settled on a format for the expanded, 14-team tournament as their spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla. concluded on Wednesday.
Amile Jefferson ended months of speculation, and weeks of waiting, by choosing Duke on Tuesday.
The McDonald's All-American forward from Philadelphia gives the Blue Devils a boost in the frontcourt and makes them one of the favorites to win the ACC in 2013.
LSU guard Ralston Turner will transfer to N.C. State, he said Monday. Turner, a 6-6 shooting guard, averaged 10.5 points per game in two seasons at LSU.
Under NCAA rules, he will have to sit out the 2012-13 season but will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried recruited Turner out of Muscle Shoals, Ala. when he was the coach at Alabama.
"I felt like I knew coach Gottfried and I was comfortable with him," Turner said.
The ACC got smashed in the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge last year with eight losses in 12 games. Since winning the first 10 Challenges, the ACC has dropped the past three.
North Carolina and N.C. State will have to restore the conference's honor with road wins over teams projected to open the season in the top 10. UNC will play at Indiana on Tuesday, Nov. 27 and N.C. State will play at Michigan on the same day.
Paul Dee, who was Miami's athletic director from 1993 through 2008 and continued serving the school as a member of its faculty, has died, university officials said Sunday.
Offseason? It was relatively busy weekend for N.C. State basketball and its potential future, and former, players.
• McDonald's All-American forward Amile Jefferson has scheduled a press conference on Tuesday (4 p.m.) at his high school in Philadelphia to announce his college decision. Jefferson, ranked as the No. 25 prospect in the class by ESPN, has N.C. State, Duke, Kentucky, Ohio State and Villanova on his list.
Philip Rivers doesn't get back to N.C. State as often as he would like to but he enjoyed this trip back.
Rivers was the commencement speaker at N.C. State's graduation ceremony on Saturday morning at PNC Arena. On Friday, the San Diego Chargers quarterback was able to show his oldest daughter, Halle, 9, where she spent the first two years of her life.
After an ecstatic crowd of graduates, cheered for star NFL quarterback Philip Rivers on Saturday at N.C. State's commencement ceremony at the PNC Arena, the Wolfpack great was hoping to turn back the clock.
"Wow," said Rivers, the featured commencement speaker. "I gotta tell you, standing in front of the Wolfpack family again, it makes me want to run out of the tunnel at Carter-Finley Stadium just one more time."
Rivers led the Wolfpack to a school-record 11 wins in 2002 and was the ACC Player of the Year in 2003. A four-year starter, he finished his career in '03 as the second-leading passer in NCAA history (with 13,494 passing yards) and with his No. 17 jersey retired.
The Atlantic Coast Conference’s new $3.6 billion television deal with ESPN includes three Friday games each year.
The N.C. High School Athletic Association has worked for years to keep the ACC from televising its football games on Friday nights, which are the traditioal playing night for high schools in the state, but the tide could not be stopped.
Kentucky will pursue a third straight trip to the Final Four, and second straight national title, with at least one former N.C. State guard. There's a chance Julius Mays could make it two.
Mays, who transferred from N.C. State to Wright State in 2010, has a scholarship offer from Kentucky, he said Wednesday.
After a breakout season at Wright State, Mays, who will graduate from the Horizon League school in June, is also contemplating offers from Purdue, Michigan State and Illinois. Under NCAA rules, Mays can graduate and be immediately eligible for the upcoming 2012-13 season.
