1. Sports Illustrated: Y’all may not know this, but Maryland wants out of its ACC exit fee (which is admittedly a steep $52.3 million dollars). The Terrapins’ most recent legal strategy? Countersue the ACC for — get this — $157 million dollars! What? Maryland challenges that the ACC sent Wake Forest and Pittsburgh representatives to two Big Ten schools to lure them eastward. In addition Maryland notes that the ACC is “confiscating NCAA monies.” I’m going out on a limb (and agreeing with Martin Rickman) that the ACC isn’t going to pony up nine figures, and Maryland won’t fork over $50 million dollars. But this suit certainly looks like a Hail Mary of sorts. Speaking of looks and Maryland, keep an eye out for these “Maryland Heritage” jerseys tonight against Notre Dame. You’ll have to look really closely though.
2. Harrisburg Patriot News: Cool story on Devin Thomas, who’s from central Pennsylvania, and his development as an elite rebounder for the Demon Deacons. Apparently Thomas honed his rebounding skills in high school when he wasn’t the first option, meaning that he had to create his own shots. In the long run, Wake Forest needs Thomas to continue his elite rebounding and further develop the rest of his offensive game.
3. Fox Sports Florida: Ian Miller has really blossomed this year for Florida State. It was easy to predict in retrospect, as many foretold a breakout season for him last year before his injury. What has been a huge surprise is Miller’s knack at sharing the ball. He currently leads Florida State in assists, which is surprising if you watched his first two seasons with the Seminoles. Interestingly enough, Miller also averages the most minutes per game on the team despite coming off the bench.
4. Miami Herald: Apparently Jim Larranaga and his staff got a “crash course” in playing zone from Bernie Fine and Ralph Willard. Fine was a longtime Syracuse assistant under Jim Boeheim (you may remember him from the ESPN-broken scandal that turned out to be false), and Willard coached under Rick Pitino at Louisville and Kentucky (he also was an assistant at Syracuse back in the mid-1980s). So far the defense has been effective. Miami isn’t fouling while still holding conference opponents to low field goal percentages nearly every time out. The team’s offense still has a long way to go, however.
5. Fayetteville Observer: Last year Roy Williams turned around North Carolina’s season by going small. A couple of years prior he sat Larry Drew II, opening the door for Kendall Marshall to start. But those decisions both made a lot of sense at the time, and seemed obvious from an outsider’s perspective. This year, I don’t see a common thread for how to “fix” the beleaguered Tar Heels. Is it Leslie McDonald? (Probably not.) Should Marcus Paige play more off the ball? (Eh. Nate Britt still has a long way to go.) Williams has a problem that the Tar Heels are young and can’t shoot the basketball. There’s just too much pressure on Marcus Paige to put up Player of the Year numbers every night. It might not be fixable.

mpatton (576 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 15th, 2014 at 7:40 am by Matt Patton and is filed under acc, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: devin thomas, Ian Miller, jim larranaga, maryland, roy williams. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.