ACC Morning Five: 02.28.12 Edition
Posted by mpatton on February 28th, 2012
- Augusta Free Press: I don’t know how a StateFansNation post ended up on a newspaper’s website, but oh my does Chris Graham go off on the ACC here. Seriously, I’ve read my fair share of bitter editorials on message boards, Twitter or just personal conversations, but the conspiracy theorists rarely make it past “[Duke or North Carolina] got the benefit of several 50/50 calls” in newspapers. Apparently, Graham got tired of it after watching his home-state Virginia and Virginia Tech teams cheated out of a second half lead and “runaway,” respectively. There’s no doubt that it’s frustrating to be a fan of ACC teams outside of Duke and North Carolina: The two have historically dominated the league and the media coverage. But to say the ACC is a “stacked deck” is a little extreme. I’ll leave you with Graham’s closing thoughts:
But we never really do anything that will actually have an impact – like, I don’t know, boycott en masse the season tickets of our favorite schools, to send a message with our wallets and pocketbooks that if the ACC is going to keep shoving the same crap down our throats and telling us to like it, well, then, eff you, we don’t like it.
We’ll keep filling up our arenas and root like hell when we play each other, because at least then we’re on equal terms, and then when Duke and UNC come to town, we’ll fill the seats up then, too, on the off-chance that the refs won’t foul us out down to our walk-ons if we get a big lead, and we can rush the court in celebration of a win over the hegemons of Tobacco Road. [emphasis added]
As long as we keep acting like the sheep that we are, change in the ACC ain’t never gonna happen.
- Raleigh News & Observer: Speaking of “the hegemons of Tobacco Road,” Bubba Cunningham (North Carolina’s new athletic director) is in favor of a 128-team NCAA tournament. I hate the idea not because it will destroy the Big Dance like some critics say (it won’t; but it will dilute the value of winning a bid and possibly destroy the lesser postseason tournaments). My problem is that you’re adding an unnecessary round of games. That’s more travel; that’s more blowouts; that’s more fatigue. The Tournament would survive, but would the couple of upsets be worth an extra round of games? Every year we decry the bubble as the worst in years. Nearly every team is given an fair shake. Why add a round?
- Gobbler Country: Below is a screenshot of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo. Take note of the first four chapters: The first starts innocently enough “On this perfect day…” The next three though? Not so much.
Nietzsche Wrote The Definitive Philosophy. Gobbler Country Wrote The Definitive Case For Seth Greenberg. (photo credit: Amazon.com)
That level of confidence was the feeling I got reading the title “The Definitive Case For Seth Greenberg.” Jokes about the title aside, I totally agree with Gobbler Country here. Greenberg shouldn’t be fired. He shouldn’t be on the hot seat. He made Virginia Tech basketball far more relevant than in the years before him. He’s done it with class and the program appears to be improving. Last year he brought in a Top 25 recruiting class. Things are trending upward even if this year is a rebuilding year.
- Fayetteville Observer: Bret Strelow took a shot at his All-ACC Team entering the final week of conference play. He also dropped some very valuable advice for voters: “[The All-ACC Team is] going to have a Carolina blue tint, and I’m fine with that, as long as voters don’t go overboard. And overboard means including four North Carolina players.” Skill-wise, North Carolina might have four of the five best players in the ACC. But all-conference implies a level of importance or dominance that can’t come from a team that may not even finish first.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Carroll Rogers does a great job profiling Paul Hewitt, who is still judging himself by the same standards he did at Georgia Tech. Now he’s trying to make the Big Dance at George Mason. Hewitt sounds content with his new gig, though that $7.2 million dollar buyout certainly makes the new job sweeter.
