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.
Updated 6:10 p.m.
ATLANTA — After Mark Gottfried was hired by N.C. State in April, and throughout the first half of the season, the coach repeatedly said that his team had a "long way to go."
But there was the Wolfpack on Saturday in Atlanta going back-and-forth with North Carolina, the best team in the conference, in a classic ACC game and just seconds away from a spot in the ACC championship game.
Kendall Marshall's bank shot, with 10.2 seconds left, provided the difference for the top-seeded Tar Heels, who advanced to the title game with a pulsating 69-67 win.
ATLANTA — N.C. State picked up another win in the ACC tournament on Friday. The question now is will it be enough to get the Wolfpack into the NCAA tournament?
With 19 points and 14 rebounds from C.J. Leslie, N.C. State knocked off Virginia, 67-64 in the quarterfinals on Friday in Atlanta.
N.C. State (22-11) will face top-seeded North Carolina on Saturday in the semifinals. It's the first time the two have met in the ACC tournament since the 2007 championship game.
ACC Tournament: Quarterfinal Round (WRAL) - Games resume today at noon and continue through tonight. UNC plays first, Virginia plays at 2, and Duke plays at 7. Florida State gets the 9 o'clock game. Regular CBS afternoon and evening programming will either air at the regularly scheduled times on WRAL2 or on WRAL overnight. Go here to try to figure all that out. The Friday night shows you'll want to plan for are "Undercover Boss," "The Mentalist" and "Blue Bloods."
Portlandia (6:30pm, IFC) - A marathon of all episodes from Season 2 leads up to tonight's season finale at 10. In the finale, Peter and Nance wait in an endless line at a new brunch hot spot. Stars Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen (right) and tonight's finale guest stars Ed Begley Jr., Tim Robbins and Kyle McLachlan.
Who Do You Think You Are (8pm, NBC) - Retired NFL player Jerome Bettis investigates his family roots. He travels to Kentucky and tracks the triumph and tragedy of his great-great-grandfather's life.
Shark Tank (8pm, ABC) - Pitches include body jewelry and a "Rent-a-Grandma" business.
Grimm (9pm, NBC) - An arson-related homicide investigation brings Nick and Hank to the world of Portland fire dancing, and the case threatens Nick's relationship with Juliette.
ATLANTA — Miami's opening-round game of the ACC tournament with Georgia Tech was supposed to be a means to an end. For about 25 minutes, it looked like the end of Miami's NCAA tournament hopes.
Instead, the Hurricanes exploded in the second half for a 54-36 win in an ugly game devoid of any redeemable artistic quality.
ATLANTA — N.C. State needed to beat Boston College to get another shot to boost its NCAA tournament chances and Scott Wood made sure the Wolfpack took care of business on Thursday.
Wood's 22 points led the Wolfpack to a 78-57 win over the last-place Eagles to set up a much-needed matchup with fourth-seeded Virginia today in the quarterfinals.
The third win of the season over Boston College, No. 242 in the RPI, did nothing for N.C. State's NCAA hopes. A win over Virginia, No. 42, would help the Pack, which has an 0-8 record vs. top 50 teams.
ATLANTA — Veteran ACC official Karl Hess will not work any games at the ACC tournament, ACC head of officials John Clougherty said Thursday.
Hess was invited to work at the tournament but declined because he did not want to be a distraction, Clougherty said. Hess is working the Big East tournament instead.
Hess' absence is not a form of punishment for the incident at the N.C. State-Florida State game on Feb. 18, Clougherty said, but the three officials who worked the first game on Thursday — Jamie Luckie, Mike Eades and Bernard Clinton — each wore a small piece of white tape on their left sneaker with the initials "KH."
Update, Friday: I had someone at WRAL look over this post on Thursday to make sure everything looked right, but I still heard totally different information about Thursday night shows on WRAL's 11 p.m. newscast. So ... if you taped a bunch of stuff last night and your Thursday shows weren't there, just set the DVR to tape the same block again tonight. The info for catching tonight's shows (overnight Saturday into Sunday am) should be correct.
*******************************************************************
The first round of the ACC tournament starts today at noon on WRAL, and while most of us are excited about the beginning of our annual "Great Cocktail Party," others will lament the preempting of CBS soaps, games shows, and talk shows.
The good news is that you can still see the shows on TV; the bad news is it's a tiny bit complicated (a less complicated alternative is CBS.com).
Read on for information on caatching shows missed on Friday...
ACC Tournament: First Round (WRAL/ESPNU) - Games begin at noon and continue through tonight. At noon we have Maryland vs. Wake Forest and at 2:30 it's N.C. State vs. Boston College. Regular CBS programming will either air at the regularly scheduled time on WRAL2 or overnight on WRAL. Go here for a breakdown of the logistics of catching all these shows (daytime and primetime) either on TV or online. The Thursday night shows you'll want to plan for are two new episodes of "Big Bang Theory," "Person of Interest," and "The Mentalist."
American Idol (8pm, Fox) - Eliminations begin tonight. New this season: a version of Garner's Scotty McCreery singing Tim McGraw's "Please Remember Me" will be played each week when a contestant is voted off. Scotty, the winner of last year's "Idol" contest, will most likely return to the show in person at some point this season.
30 Rock (8pm, NBC) - All new comedies on NBC tonight, starting with "30 Rock." Kenneth's new job pits him against Liz while Jack squares off against his teen nemesis, the sly Kaylie Hooper.
Saving Face (8:30pm, HBO) - This Academy Award-winner for Best Documentary Short debuts tonight on HBO. Read more about it here.
Awake (10pm, NBC) - As he continues to navigate his two versions of reality, Michael investigates the murder of a homeless person, with a mysterious man with short stature soon materializing as a suspect. Meanwhile, the accident that shattered Michael's life comes into clearer focus.
Archer (10pm, FX) - Archer's dead financee, Katya, miraculously reappears -- in Krieger's lab.
ATLANTA — With all of the talk about the NCAA tournament, and whether N.C. State will be in or out, and potential ACC tournament games with Virginia or North Carolina, the Wolfpack does actually have a game on Thursday.
N.C. State, the fifth seed, plays No. 12 Boston College on Thursday at 2 p.m., which senior C.J. Williams said, is the primary concern of the Wolfpack players.
"We are worried about Boston College," Williams said. "Boston College beat Florida State. Other people want to talk about other things but we have to worry about them and not look ahead."
