Chuck Amato's strength as N.C. State's football coach was recruiting. He was especially wired into the state of Florida. Second-year Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien came from Boston College, but he hasn't stopped recruiting in Florida.
James Washington, a running back from central Florida, committed to O'Brien and the Wolfpack this week, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The paper also has a list of recruits from the state to major colleges.
Georgia Tech suspended cornerback Jerrard Tarrant after he was arrested and charged with rape and sodomy stemming from an incident that allegedly occurred in late April on the Tech campus, according to the AJC.
Tarrant, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound redshirt freshman, emerged from spring practice as a potential starter at cornerback.
The long and distinguished career of former N.C. State basketball coach and AD Les Robinson ended with the month of June. Robinson had served as the AD at The Citadel since leaving his alma mater in 2000.
A true gentleman, Robinson was as personable and likeable a person as there ever will be in college athletics. His winning percentage as the coach of the Wolfpack in the 1990s certainly didn't match his popularity among his professional colleagues.
The AP ran a story about Robinson's retirement, which ran in today's print edition, but Ken Burger of The Charleston Post and Courier wrote this column earlier in June after a roast for Robinson.
Here's one item from Roy Williams that will amuse both UNC and N.C. State fans:
"When I was coaching at Kansas, Les was the athletic director at N.C. State. He called me one day about being the new basketball coach of the Wolfpack. I told him he had to be crazy, that the N.C. State people would run him out of town for bringing a UNC guy in to coach the Wolfpack. He just grinned and said, not as long as you win, big fella, not as long as you win."
If the U.S. wins the gold medal in basketball, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are brilliant. If the Americans lose, like they did in 2004, then it's Coach K's fault. That's how Caulton Tudor sees the predicament the Duke coach faces next month in Beijing.
To a large degree, Tudor's right. Any time the U.S. loses in the Olympic (1972, 1988, 2004) there's plenty of blame to go around with the coaches (John Thompson and Larry Brown) bearing the brunt of the two most recent failures.
North Carolina baseball coach Mike Fox, who led the Tar Heels to their third straight trip to the College World Series earlier this month, is Baseball America's National Coach of the Year.
Fox is the first UNC baseball coach to receive national honors, according a news release from the school. The Tar Heels finished 54-14 this season, and eventual national champion Fresno State ousted Carolina from the CWS.
UNC has won 11 CWS games over the last three years; Fox is one of only six men to play in Omaha (with the Tar Heels' 1978 team), then coach there.
That ESPN's Andy Katz ranks UNC No. 1 in his college basketball top 25 comes as a surprise to no one. But look down to No. 8, it's another ACC team and it's not Duke (No. 6).
Katz is agog for Miami ... and yes, it's a basketball poll.
Katz writes:
The Hurricanes should be a top-10 team in the country and a top-three squad in the ACC. There really is no excuse if they're not. Jack McClinton might be one of the top guards in the nation next season. Dwayne Collins is a legit scorer in the post. The role players were all solid last season. And Miami has the experience of going to the NCAA tournament and winning a game.
N.C. State fans will note Katz' choice at No. 12. Speaking of former Wolfpack basketball coaches, John Groce is the new head coach at Ohio.
Noticed a "Clemson, Wake chasing QB recruit" headline on SI.com's Fan Nation the other day. It's recruiting season in football so it's not unusual for the AJC to run a story about Justin Wray, who is being pursued by the Tigers and Deacs.
The kicker was the first reader comment:
Clemson and Wake Forest in competition for a player as the lead article
on FN??? I think I'll have another cup of coffee and go for a walk.This belongs on FN ACC.
Tomorrow: UTEP and New Mexico State interested in same tailback.
There could be a strong UNC flavor in the first round of the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft.
In addition to first baseman Dustin Ackley, fellow rising junior Alex White also is seen as a possible first-rounder.
"Obviously, they have to play well next season and continue to show the same general potential to the pro scouts," said Carolina coach Mike Fox. "But everything at this point looks very positive for them."
For the third time this decade, the ACC had only one player taken in the first round. It also happened in 2000 (Georgia Tech's Jason Collier) and 2004 (Duke's Luol Deng).
Those seasons were also the smallest overall draft classes for the ACC. Only two players were drafted in 2000 (Duke's Chris Carrawell was the other) and four total in 2004.
Note the relationship between small draft classes and the conference's strength the following season. In fact, each season after the ACC has had one first-round pick, a conference member has won the national title — Duke in 2001 and UNC in 2005.
Here comes the obvious point — that's good news for you, UNC.
N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said he had an inkling all along that J.J. Hickson might be drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland was the first NBA team to schedule a workout with Hickson, a 6-9 freshman forward who led the Pack in scoring and rebounding last year. Lowe, a former NBA head coach and assistant, went along with his player.
"I kind of thought that's who it would be after that workout," Lowe said today. "They were very thorough and J.J. did very well. I was able to talk with some of their people personally rather than do it on the phone.
