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Courtesy: Duke Photography
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CHARLOTTE -- Duke once again stands between Clemson and history.
Clemson is a founding member of the ACC, but the Tigers have never won an ACC basketball title. In fact, in the first 54 ACC Tournaments, Clemson has made just one appearance in the ACC title game.
That came in 1962, when Billy Packer was a balding point guard for Wake Forest and big man Len Chappell -- being honored this weekend as a legend of the ACC -- was averaging 30 points and 15 rebounds a game for the Deacons. The Tigers reached the finals by upsetting second-seeded Duke in the semifinals as senior Jim Brennan poured in 34 points to out-shine Duke sophomore Art Heyman.
This afternoon at approximately 4 p.m., the 2008 Tigers will try to earn the South Carolina school its second all-time appearance in the finals. No. 3 seeded Clemson kept its title hopes alive with an impressive 82-48 victory over 11th seeded Boston College in Friday night’s final quarterfinal game -- the largest margin for the Tigers in ACC Tournament history.
But once again, Duke is Clemson’s semifinal hurdle. And -- bad news for the Tigers -- Duke has beaten Clemson 22 straight times, including a 93-80 victory in Cameron earlier this season.
“It’s exciting to play a Duke or a North Carolina,” Clemson forward James May. “We’ll just have to come out with our hard hats on and ready to play. We’re not satisfied with this victory here.”
Clemson’s rare quarterfinal victory was marked by an early knockout punch. After Boston College scored the game’s first six points, the Tigers reeled off 19 straight points to seize control of the game. It was basically over from that point as the Eagles never mounted a run.
“I certainly didn’t expect that margin of victory, but I thought our guys earned it,” Tiger coach Oliver Purnell. “The biggest thing was our ability to apply good, sound full court pressure.”
Purnell said he can’t recall details of Clemson’s loss to Duke on Jan. 19, except he knows how important it is to protect the ball against Duke’s pressure.
“Hopefully, we can take care of the ball better [than in Durham],” he said. “One of the strengths of Duke’s team is to turn the ball over in half court and convert those mistakes into easy baskets at the other end. Your defense has to start with your offense -- those turnovers lead to baskets you can’t defend.”
But Purnell isn’t intimidated by the Blue Devils.
“We’re playing with a lot of confidence,” he said. “We think we can beat anybody in the country.”
Clemson has just 15 ACC Tournament wins (and 54 losses) in 55 seasons. The Tigers have reached the semifinals on 10 previous occasions. Since that 77-72 win over Duke in 1962, Clemson has lost nine straight times in the semifinals. The last one came exactly 10 years ago in 1998 against -- who else? -- Duke. The Blue Devils pulled that one out when freshman guard William Avery drove the length of the court in the final seconds to give Duke a 66-64 victory.
“I haven’t been here that many years,” Purnell said. “I don’t worry about what [happened] to Clemson before I got there.”
When North Carolina won the 2007 ACC Tournament title in Tampa last March, the Tar Heels tied Duke for the lead in ACC Championships won -- each with 16 titles.
Both teams are obviously intent on breaking the tie in their favor this weekend in Charlotte. The top-seeded Tar Heels got off to a good start with a workmanlike 82-70 victory over Florida State in the quarterfinals -- the exact same score as Duke would beat Georgia Tech later that night.
The atmosphere in the Bobcats Arena was very different for Friday’s noon opener than for the first-round opener 24 hours earlier. The arena wasn’t quite half-filled for the FSU-Wake Forest game Thursday and the fans on hand made little noise. But the arena was filled very close to capacity for UNC’s opener -- with about two-thirds of the crowd pulling loudly for the Tar Heels.
The most interesting aspect of the game was Tyler Hansbrough’s struggle to get to the foul line. The most prolific free throw shooter in the ACC this season (and on pace to shoot more free throws than anybody else in ACC history), Hansbrough didn’t get to the foul line in the regular season finale at Duke, then failed to get to the line -- or even draw a non-shooting foul -- in the first half against FSU.
The Tar Heel All-American finally made it to the line with 16:08 to play in the second half, when he drove the lane, collided with FSU’s Ryan Reid and got the block call as his shot went in. That three-point play seemed to open the floodgates -- Hansbrough ended up shooting 10 free throws in the second half against the Seminoles (hitting eight).
“I really wasn’t focused [on getting to the line],” the UNC standout said. “If I get the ball inside, the way we attack, I think it just happens. It’s not a situation where I constantly try to get fouled. It just sometimes happens.”
The strong second half by Hansbrough (he had 14 of his 22 points after the break), coupled with a strong overall game by sophomore Wayne Ellington (19 points) was enough to help UNC overcome a second straight strong performance by FSU’s Jason Rich -- who set an FSU single-tournament record by scoring 44 points in two games.
The win improved UNC’s ACC Tournament record to 81-37 -- a half-game better than Duke, which improved to 81-38 with its victory over Georgia Tech. It also marks the 42nd time in 55 ACC Tournaments that UNC has reached the semifinals. Duke reached the semis for the 38th time.
HOKIES MAKE THEIR CASE
Finally, a bubble team that played like it wants to make the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia Tech saw its NCAA hopes slipping away in the second half of the quarterfinals against Miami Friday, but the Hokies made a ferocious surge -- a 16-2 run that turned a 41-42 deficit into a 58-44 lead. Seth Greenberg’s team controlled the final minutes to win 63-49.
Virginia Tech dominated the boards with a 51-25 rebounding advantage and harassed Miami into a 31.6 percent shooting performance -- including a 4-of-17 game for All-ACC guard Jack McClinton.
“They’re an NCAA Tournament team,” Greenberg said. “That was a great win and a great chance to play again.”
The Hokies get to play again against No. 1-ranked North Carolina, which routed Virginia Tech 92-53 in Chapel Hill on Feb. 16.
“We all remember what happened that first time,” junior A.D. Vassallo said. “We’re not worried about making the NCAA -- we’re playing in the ACC Tournament. All I know is we’re playing Carolina tomorrow at 1:30.”
Sitting beside Vassallo on the podium, Greenberg muttered, “Man, that’s a good answer.”
The Virginia Tech coach stressed the opportunity inherent in that matchup. He didn’t sound like he was afraid of a repeat of February’s 39-point rout.
“We’ve come a long way since that game,” he said. “They’ve come a long way too.”
Greenberg hinted that his youthful team -- that uses three freshmen guards and two freshmen post players in its eight-man rotation -- might have come farther.
“When I look at the first game and look at our team then ... I can’t even tell they’re the same basketball team,” Greenberg said. “That was an embarrassing situation. But I’ve said before, that game was also a cleansing loss.”
Virginia Tech has won five of six games since the embarrassment in Chapel Hill -- the only stumble, a one-point loss at Clemson.
NCAA SPECULATION
Behind the scenes at the ACC Tournament, the media and school officials are engaged in a never-ending debate about the NCAA Tournament chances of the league’s 12 teams.
This year, the debate was fairly simple -- North Carolina and Duke are bidding for high seeds in the NCAA field, while Clemson and Miami appeared to be safely in.
But could the ACC get a fifth team?
It didn’t take long to pop Maryland’s NCAA bubble -- the Terps’ collapse in Thursday night’s first-round loss to Boston College mirrored Maryland’s late-season collapse overall. After it was over, even Coach Gary Williams conceded that his team was headed for the NIT for the third time in four years. Unlike his two most recent NIT appearances, this time Williams wants to play -- to give all his youngsters a little more experience and to give senior James Gist a more positive end to his career.
FSU coach Leonard Hamilton made a pitch for his team’s NCAA chances after the Seminoles beat Wake Forest in the first round. Realistically, Hamilton understood that the ‘Noles needed something dramatic to attract the attention of the selection committee. Friday’s loss to North Carolina almost certainly added Florida State to the NIT field.
That left Virginia Tech, playing in the ACC Tournament’s second quarterfinal game Friday as the last team with a chance to play their way into the field. There was a lot of debate as to whether a victory over Miami would be enough ... or whether the Hokies -- without a previous victory over a top 50 team this season -- would need to add a semifinal victory over North Carolina to make its case.
Now we might get to find out. With bubbles popping in conference tournaments across the nation, Virginia Tech MIGHT be in at 19-12 with a No. 59 RPI and 1-6 record against the RPI top 50. But the only way for the Hokies to be sure of making the NCAA field is to defeat No. 1 North Carolina in the semifinals.
“Whether we’re in or not, I don’t know,“ Greenberg said. “I don’t get a vote. But I believe, in my heart of hearts, that we’re an NCAA Tournament team. We beat a team that’s going to be in the tourney. If anybody watched that game, I would hope they would say our team deserves to be in too.”
There’s just as much speculation going on at the other end of the standings. Duke is a hot topic -- specifically, can the Blue Devils still win a No. 1 seed? A connected issue is North Carolina’s status -- are the Tar Heels guaranteed a No. 1 seed? Are they assured of the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament? Can Duke edge out UNC for the East Regional spot in Charlotte? Will Duke even go to Charlotte?
There’s no clearcut answer to any of these questions, but there’s plenty of room for debate. Here’s my take on those questions:
- Duke has an outside chance to win a No. 1 seed, provided the Blue Devils win the ACC Tournament. Lose in Charlotte and Duke is almost certainly a No. 2 seed in the NCAA.
Even winning the ACC Tournament doesn’t guarantee the Devils a No. 1 seed. Going into the weekend, the NCAA selection committee was trying to pick four No. 1 seeds out of five candidates -- UNC, UCLA, Memphis, Tennessee and Kansas. Duke and Texas were just a step back with a chance to knock off a higher-rated conference rival in a conference tournament.
The committee’s choice is complicated by a debate over selection criteria. Several committee members have suggested they want to reward the “best teams” rather than the “most deserving teams.” That’s a subtle distinction, but it could have major implications. For example, Tennessee actually has the best overall resume of the five No. 1 candidates, while Kansas has the worst. But quite a few basketball experts -- many consulted by the committee -- think the Jayhawks are a better team than the Vols. Do they get picked ahead of the Vols?
The point is that the competition for the four No. 1 seeds in fierce and the performance of the top candidates in postseason tournaments could be the deciding factor.
- If the bracket was released Friday, North Carolina would be the No. 1 overall seed and would get the favorable placement in Raleigh for the first two rounds and Charlotte for the regionals.
The problem for the Tar Heels is that Tennessee would also prefer to be in Charlotte (over regionals in Detroit, Houston and Phoenix). The higher ranked (by the committee) of the two teams will be sent to the Queen City.
If the committee were to rate the two teams on paper accomplishments, Tennessee might get the edge. The Vols are No 1 in the RPI against the nation’s No. 1 schedule (UNC’s is second in the RPI with the fourth best schedule). Tennessee has 11 top 50 wins to UNC’s nine.
So why is UNC ranked No. 1 in both major polls? That’s because most experts think that the Tar Heels are a better team, especially with point guard Ty Lawson returning to good health. And, as noted, the committee will favor “the best” team over the “most deserving”.
Still, what happens if Tennessee storms through the SEC Tournament, while UNC loses in Charlotte? There’s no easy answer, but that’s the only scenario that COULD cost the Tar Heels a return trip to Charlotte in two weeks.
- Duke has virtually no chance to going to Charlotte as a No. 1 seed. But the Blue Devils could very well wind up in the Queen City if Tennessee does pass UNC and get the No. 1 seed in Charlotte. Were that to happen, Duke would be the likely No. 2 seed in the region.
- Don’t look now, but it’s possible that Duke will start its NCAA race in Washington, D.C., rather than Raleigh.
The problem is Georgetown can’t compete on its home floor at the MCI Center in Washington. Where does the committee send the Hoyas, a likely No. 2 seed? The next closest site in Raleigh -- beyond that, Georgetown would have to go to St. Petersburg or Little Rock. It makes sense to put the Hoyas in Raleigh and send Duke to DC.
There’s also a train of thought that after the ugly scene in Charlotte in 2005, the committee doesn’t want to put Duke and UNC in the same building again.
