Summer Hoops Preview '14
The Picks
Part I: Duke, UNC, N.C. State
Part II: Wake, BC, FSU, Notre Dame
Part III: Clemson, Maryland, Miami, Pitt

Syracuse

Coach: Jim Boeheim (38th season, 920-313 at Syracuse and overall)

2012-13 record: 30-10 (11-7 Big East, fifth)

Postseason: NCAA tournament, 4-1 (beat Montana, Cal, Indiana, Marquette; lost to Michigan)

Projected starting lineup: PG Tyler Ennis, F Michael Gbinije, F C.J. Fair, F Rakeem Christmas, F Jerami Grant

Plus

• Jim Boeheim keeps getting better with age. Few coaches understand how to recruit for their needs better than Boeheim, who has a specific idea of how he wants the game to be played and then he goes out and plugs the corresponding pieces into his 2-3 zone.

GREENSBORO N.C. State didn't win many games in the regular season with its defense.

The Wolfpack won its first postseason game on Thursday with a strong defensive effort against the nation's leading scorer.

Fifth-seeded N.C. State held Virginia Tech's Erick Green to take a 80-63 win in the first round of the ACC tournament on Thursday in Greensboro.

Tyyler Thornton scored a career-best 13 points and Austin Rivers hustled for a clinching three-point play that carried the sixth-ranked Blue Devils to a 60-56 victory over cold-shooting Virginia Tech in the ACC quarterfinals Friday night.

N.C. State compared to the nine other 9-7 ACC teams since expansion:

The last time N.C. State won nine ACC games and didn't make the NCAA tournament was 1966. Press Maravich's second, and final team, went 9-5 in conference play but lost in the ACC tournament final to Duke.

Updated (Sunday, 8:35 p.m.)

North Carolina will go to Atlanta as the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament, just as everyone predicted in the preseason.

The Tar Heels (14-2 in the ACC) took the regular-season title with Saturday's 88-70 win at Duke. The Blue Devils (13-3) will be the second seed in the conference tournament.

Thursday's games
No. 8 Maryland vs. No. 9 Wake Forest, noon
No. 5 N.C. State vs. No. 12 Boston College, 2:30 p.m.
No. 7 Clemson vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech, 7 p.m.
No. 6 Miami vs. No. 11 Georgia Tech, 9:30 p.m.

See video higglights from Duke's 70-65 overtime win over Virginia Tech at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham.

DURHAM – Duke sophomore Richa Jackson injured her left knee in the first half of the Blue Devils' 67-45 victory Virginia Tech on Wednesday.

Jackson, a starting foward for the No. 5 Devils, went down awkwardly out of bounds near the nine minute mark of the first half. She remained on the floor for several minutes and, limping on her right leg, had to be assisted off the court. 

She would not return.

Asked for an update on Jackson, Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said, "I can't give you anything more, but she's hurt. I'm not a doctor. She's out."

Updated 10:41 p.m.

BLACKSBURG, Va. --  Quinn Cook got into the lane to the right of the Virginia Tech basket midway through the second half and found a Hokies’ defender between him and the basket.

Mason Plumlee stood behind that defender and gave a quick point to the ceiling of Cassell Coliseum. Cook lofted the ball over the rim to Plumlee, who finished for an emphatic alley-oop. With that, Duke was up 17 points against the Hokies and in a similar situation to Saturday, when the Blue Devils took their foot off the gas late against St. John’s.

There was no such let-up Thursday.

After LSU's 21-0 loss to Alabama in the BCS title game Monday night, Tigers coach Les Miles stopped short of asking AP voters for a split national title. Even he knew it was a lost cause after his team's uninspired performance against the Crimson Tide.

Alabama, with the first shutout in a title game (BCS, de facto or otherwise) in 20 years, left no room for doubt Monday night in the Superdome — despite a 9-6 regular-season loss to LSU — that it was the better team. And that's why I voted the Crimson Tide No. 1 in my final AP ballot of the 2011 season.

Alabama got its shot at LSU, and lost. I don't think Alabama deserves another shot at the No. 1 Tigers in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

But the AP is not part of the BCS equation nor is it asking its voters which two teams should be in the "national" title game. The AP asks us to rank the top 25 teams in order.

So who's No. 2, Oklahoma State or Alabama?