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.

Former Duke guard Kyrie Irving was named the NBA's Rookie of the Year this morning.

The No. 1 overall pick in last summer's NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers guard received 117 of 120 possible first-place votes to run away with the award. 

Minnesota's Ricky Rubio and Denver's Kenneth Faried finished a distant second and third, respectively, in the voting.

Faried, San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard and New York's Iman Shumpert (formerly of Georgia Tech) received the three other first-place votes.

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.

Andre Dawkins’ father reiterated this morning to N&O correspondent Jack Daly that Dawkins is still a member of the Duke basketball team.

The elder Andre Dawkins said his son has the option of taking next season off to work through any lingering grief from the death of his sister. Lacey Dawkins was killed in a car accident on Dec. 5, 2009, while driving to a Duke-St. John’s basketball game.

Duke junior guard Andre Dawkins could be a redshirt candidate for next season.

Following media inquiries about Dawkins' future with the Blue Devils program, Duke emailed a two-sentence statement concerning the 6-foot-4 guard Thursday evening.

"Andre Dawkins remains a member of the Duke Basketball program," the statement said. "There is a possibility of him redshirting next season but no decision will be made on that until the fall."

As a junior, Dawkins started 14 games last season, averaging 8.4 points and 2.1 rebounds a game.

Rodney Purvis, evil Twitter genius toying with the emotions of N.C. State fans? Duke recruit Rasheed Sulaimon almost went to UNC?

Those secrets were revealed in ESPN's Jason Jordan's report from the Jordan Brand Classic, which is Saturday in Charlotte. Jordan asked several players, including Purvis, Sulaimon and UNC signee J.P. Tokoto about which school was their second choice.

Updated, 1:45 p.m.: Durham court records show that Duke wide receiver Tyree Watkins was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female on Monday, two days before his dismissal.

DURHAM Junior wide receiver Tyree Watkins has been dismissed from Duke’s football team for conduct unbecoming a member of the program, Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe announced today.

No other details were released, by the university, but Durham County court records indicate that Watkins was charged Monday with misdemeanor assault on a female. Watkins was released on a $500 bond and was scheduled to appear in court on June 18.

A reserve wide receiver from Camden, N.J., Watkins played in 28 games over the past three seasons, totaling 24 career receptions for 152 yards.
 

How Duke's 2012-13 basketball roster would look if the season started today (listed numbers are for scholarship-counting purposes, not jersey number):

While North Carolina got a clearer picture of what its roster will look like in 2013, with the early exit of three underclassmen to the NBA on Thursday, Duke and N.C. State are still waiting.

The Blue Devils, on forward Mason Plumlee, and the Wolfpack, on forward C.J. Leslie, are both waiting for their respective pro prospects to make a decision about the NBA draft. The two Triangle teams are also waiting on Kentucky and the fate of a few key recruits. The Wildcats, the prohibitive favorite to win the 2012 NCAA title, are holding all the recruiting cards with the class of 2012.

In his fourth season at Stanford, the former Duke all-American and longtime first assistant to Mike Krzyzewski appears to be gaining traction.