Without Milton Jennings, Clemson came remarkably close to a road upset of Virginia last night. Clemson’s more balanced attack looks like it will work out well for the Tigers while their disruptive defense was a nightmare for a Virginia team that struggled to hold on to the ball. Virginia, on the other hand, gutted out the tough win thanks to the super-efficient performances of Mike Scott and Joe Harris. Scott scored 23 points on 11 shots with ten rebounds and three blocks while Harris scored 19 points on nine shots, leading the team to 55.8% shooting from the field. Meanwhile, North Carolina managed a 15-point win on the road despite shooting 31.0% on the road in Winston-Salem. Such is the power of effective defense and managing 21 offensive rebounds.

Virginia Withstood Another Close Game To Get A Win (AP/J. Raoux)

Middle-Weight Brawl

• Maryland at Miami at 8:00 PM on ESPN3.com

Miami has a a Sunday date at Cameron Indoor and is riding a two-game winning streak where the Hurricanes have handled their business against the likes of Georgia Tech and Boston College that doesn’t yet qualify as momentum. Miami has been playing well, but a win against a Maryland team that has shown flashes of brilliance with Terrell Stoglin and a talented if underutilized frontcourt is a good start. It’s unclear if Miami has any answer for Stoglin, but it seems certain that Maryland doesn’t have any deffensive answers for the array of firepower at Jim Larranaga’s disposal.

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1. Seth Davis is back with his annual Jigsaw Man column. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, Seth adopts the persona of “The Jigsaw Man” to pick out players who if they switched teams would fill significant voids and does so while speaking in the third person. He tries to avoid picking out obvious targets like Anthony Davis who would make any team better even if they didn’t have a deficiency at that position. We are not sure if we are just getting cranky in our old age, but it seems like Seth is cheating a bit with some of his picks. Stealing players like Terrell Stoglin (the leading scorer in the ACC), Scott Machado (maybe the best point guard in the country), and Mike Moser (a potential All-American and a long-time crush of Andy Glockner and Ryan Greene) seems to be too easy. Obviously, adding the best point guard in the nation would make Duke a better team. So if you are reading this Seth Jigsaw Man (and we know that you are), step it up a little bit next year. Pick someone like Alex Oriakhi who is wasting away on the bench, but could and should be a double-double guy in the right situation instead of picking a potential All-American who is the best player on a top 10 team like Moser.
2. Whenever we hear someone talk about how unsavory recruiting is for top football recruits we hear someone else talk about how it is worse in basketball. We now have found at least one example where it is not. According to some media reports, one five-star football recruit who chose to attend Alabama over LSU was influenced by a promise that the former would give the recruit’s girlfriend a job. Interestingly, according to the NCAA bylaws, this appears to only be an infraction if it was committed for a basketball recruit, but for a football recruit apparently is it ok. The NCAA never ceases to amaze us.
3. Last week, the National Coordinator of basketball officials in Division I, John Adams, posted a memo urging officials to pay a closer attention to sportsmanship and call technical fouls on coaches and players who violate this principle. After the officiating over the weekend, Adams decided that he needed to respond to the criticism of officials. While he did not discuss the atrocious officiating in Philadelphia or the missed goaltending call in upstate New York, Adams did discuss the role of officials in dealing with unsportsmanlike acts. Adams essentially believes that the controversial sportsmanship fouls were correct and hopes that these moves will help rebuild college basketball’s image after a rough past few months. While legislating the trash talking more effectively may reduce some of the unseemly incidents we have seen, we would also like to see Adams work on improving the officiating of all areas of the game.
4. With his team on its way to a second straight solid season and a potential NCAA Tournament bid that it did not get last year, Iona coach Tim Cluess was given a contract extension through the 2016-17 season. Cluess, who came to the school without any prior Division I head coaching experience, is actually in the last guaranteed year of his initial contract. Thanks to a 25-win season to start his coaching career and what appears to be an even better second season, Cluess has a well-deserved contract extension, which should only help him with recruiting although we cannot imagine that any recruit thought Cluess was in jeopardy of losing his job.
5. His team is currently on the wrong side of the bubble, but that did not stop VCU coach Shaka Smart from making a bold proclamation that the “the best programs in the state are in the CAA. It’s really not even close.” When you look at the numbers over the past ten years, the three programs he is referring to (VCU, George Mason, and Old Dominion) have put up much better numbers (detailed in the article) than the the ACC programs (Virginia and Virginia Tech). So technically Smart is correct even if he does come off as untactful, but it is more amusing to hear new George Mason coach Paul Hewitt talk about this when he guided another ACC program (Georgia Tech) right into the ground.

1. CBSSports.com: Gregg Doyel hits the nail on the head in this column (by the way, Doyel covered the ACC for the Charlotte Observer before going to CBSSports.com and wasn’t exactly close with Mike Krzyzewski over the years) on Duke‘s Cameron Crazies. The one caveat is that he didn’t really offer a solution to the boredom and lack of ownership. For comparison’s sake Coach K offered his thoughts (courtesy of Duke Hoop Blog):
   

   “Our crowd sometimes becomes fans instead of part of the game. Overall, our crowd has been part of what we’ve done. They haven’t come there to watch us play. They’ve come there to compete with us. I think this year it’s more of watching us play and cheering us on. When you do that you don’t really understand the game situations as well. You don’t have a feel for the game. You can’t be as on point. That doesn’t mean we don’t love them. But, this team needs it more and would benefit from that support.”

   I think both Doyel and Krzyzewski are probably right. The Cameron atmosphere was developed as Duke got more talented. It gradually became more and more controlled in the 1990s and eventually morphed to its present state. Other than big games (I’m thinking of Maryland and North Carolina recently) and big-time players, the Crazies don’t seem as connected with the game as in the past. It has started to feel like more of a show. Basically, I think Coach K describes the current issue that led to the problem brought up by Doyel.
   Author’s Note: As a side note, Coach K gave a pretty scathing press conference after Duke beat St. John’s at home. It’s worth a watch.

2. ACC Sports: Adrian Atkinson (normally our North Carolina defensive-charting connoisseur) took a look at Duke’s most used lineups this season. Remember, he’s only using Duke’s conference games so the sample size is fairly small, meaning you should take the efficiencies with a grain of salt. That said, I think his overall conclusions are fairly interesting. Duke’s most effective lineup is Tyler Thornton, Seth Curry, Austin Rivers, Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly. It’s a little surprising to me that this lineup isn’t used more often given the fact that its defensive efficiency is so outrageous. It’s also worth noting that Duke’s defense drops off dramatically by just replacing Thornton with Andre Dawkins. Even worse than that (shockingly) is replacing Ryan Kelly with Miles Plumlee (which leads me to believe that both Plumlees are good defenders at the five, but horrid defenders at the four). Anyways, these numbers are fascinating and worth a look.
3. Fox Sports South: Apparently, Harrison Barnes isn’t a fan of pink shoes. At halftime against Georgia Tech Sunday, Barnes switched from the team’s pink kicks to the normal ones. Andrew Jones makes it sound like Barnes really struggled in the pink footwear, but Barnes was 4-8 from the field with 11 points at the half. More interestingly, Barnes shared his pregame soundtrack and meal. Tunes: John Legend. Food: “I always eat mashed potatoes, rice, spaghetti, chicken and steak […] Two pieces of chicken, one piece of steak, [and the] steak’s cooked medium.”
4. Palm Beach Post: If you told me one ACC coach would get a midseason contract extension I wouldn’t have been surprised. Pretty much all but two coaches appear to be doing strong jobs; Jeff Bzdelik and Jim Larranaga are the outliers (I also would probably hold my horses on Steve Donahue and Brian Gregory until I see them recruit, but that’s different). But it was Larranaga who got himself a three-year extension through 2019. Larranaga looks older than many of his coaching brethren, but he’s only 62. My guess is that the extension came (at least in some part) indirectly associated with the current NCAA investigation of Miami athletics.
5. Charleston Post and Courier: It’s not directly related to the ACC, but former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins is taking a short medical leave that will probably last until the end of the season. Cremins did a terrific job putting College of Charleston on the map the last few years, though his trip to the Final Four at Georgia Tech stands as his career’s crowning achievement. Assistant coach Mark Byington will take over in his stead. The details of Cremins’ medical issues weren’t announced, though it’s reportedly not life-threatening and may be sleep-related.

EXTRA: Dan Wolken thinks college basketball should push its season back to January (moving March Madness to May) in order to shirk college football and the NFL, attempting to keep casual sports fans from ignoring the regular season. It may be in the NCAA’s best monetary interest, but I can’t see something this drastic happening without a big push. Still it’s an interesting piece.

1. While all season-ending injuries are disheartening, the one that has taken Kevin Parrom out for season is especially difficult after all he has had to endure recently. Parrom as you probably remember was shot while visiting his ailing mother in New York City just a short time before she died, which was a few months after his grandmother passed away. Parrom, who had been showing signs of playing like he used to recently, was dealt another setback as he will be out for the rest of the season after breaking his right foot in Arizona‘s two-point loss to Washington on Saturday. Fortunately, based on the way he appears to have handled several much bigger setbacks in his life we expect Parrom to bounce back from this and be a force for the Wildcats next season.
2. Connecticut got its versatile freshman guard Ryan Boatright back this weekend, but not without more controversy. On Saturday, the NCAA released a statement clearing Boatright to play and also provided a timeline with some of the alleged improper benefits that Boatright and his family reportedly received. The following day while Boatright was playing the attorney representing the Boatright family issued a statement criticizing the NCAA for releasing the information about the alleged improper benefits and threatened the NCAA with legal action. The NCAA then replied with an update to the document (a blue text box in the prior link) that said their previous statement was “factual and in response to numerous public misstatements and the resulting inaccurate reporting by some media”. We are not sure when this will end, but at this point it is beginning to seem petty and would probably be best for both sides to let it fade away rather than trying to get the last word in.
3. There has been a lot of talk about why there has not been as much interest in college basketball this season after many people expected the sport to have a breakthrough season with several potential lottery picks opting to return to college for at least another season. Many pundits have proposed solutions to fix this, but Dan Wolken’s may be among the most interesting that we have heard. In a column yesterday, Wolken proposed that the start of the college basketball season be moved back to January and the NCAA Tournament start in May. Under this proposal, college basketball would not have to compete with college football and would be finished by the time the NBA Playoffs were in full swing. While some fans and some administrators may find this jarring to their established sensibilities it does make some sense and although it may interfere with college finals, which would only affect Duke students according to Dick Vitale, it could be a generate more season-long interest for many fans. At the very least moving back the season so it does not start at the most important time of the college football season would be a big boost. If January-May is too much for administrators, perhaps a season that starts in December after the college football conference championship games could provide a reasonable compromise.
4. The streak is over. Mercifully, Towson ended its NCAA Division I-record losing streak at 41 games as it knocked off UNC-Wilmington 66-61 on Saturday. The Tigers, who improved to 1-22 (bubble team status in the Pac-12), were led by 18 points from Marcus Damas. There are quite a few numbers that will give you a sense of just how bad this losing streak was, but we will now turn our attention to Binghamton, which now has the longest losing streak in Division I at a rather pedestrian 22-game losing streak. We are guessing this will be brought up on PTI much to the dismay of Mr. Tony.
5. Charleston will be without Bobby Cremins for the foreseeable future as the legendary coach has taken an indefinite medical leave of absence to tend to undisclosed medical conditions. Cremins, who has compiled a 579-375 record in his career, is best known for his time at Georgia Tech where he led the school to the 1990 Final Four, but has also made a mark at Charleston where he has gone 125-68 in a little over five and a half seasons and pulled off several memorable upsets over more prominent schools. Cremins will be replaced for the time being by assistant coach Mark Byington. We wish Bobby a speedy recovery from whatever he is dealing with and hope that it is not too serious.

On an exciting Saturday of ACC play, everything pretty much went as expected. Virginia Tech’s surprising slide to the bottom of the conference continued at the merciless hands of Terrell Stoglin, while Clemson found a little more consistency in its defeat of Wake Forest. The North Carolina State – Virginia game was as close as expected, and included the expected Cavaliers win, while Duke came away with its win against St. John’s despite a surprisingly close game thanks to the Herculean efforts of Moe Harkless (30 points and 15 rebounds). Duke won the game with its increasingly refined and balanced offensive attack, but the fact that game remained close speaks to the Devils’ troubles on defense.

Rivers and Duke Survived St. John's Upset Bid in Cameron Saturday

Taking Care of Business

• Miami at Boston College at 1:00 PM on ESPN3.com
• Georgia Tech at North Carolina at 6:00 PM on ESPNU

Boston College and Georgia Tech are the two worst teams in the conference. Virginia Tech and Wake Forest have similarly bad records, but each team shows flashes of potential that makes each squad seem a little less damned than their bottom-of-the-standings compatriots. Though Miami hasn’t shown it yet, the emergence of Kenny Kadji and Shane Larkin means that the Hurricanes can put at least five very good players on the court. This team is still figuring things out, but it’s unclear if Boston College’s team even understands the concept of basketball. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech is going to have a hard time matching up with North Carolina. Defense appeared to be an early strength of Georgia Tech, but since the beginning of conference play, the Yellow Jackets have been the worst defensive team in the conference while still managing to remain thoroughly underwhelming offensively. The simplest recipe for beating the Tar Heels has been an effective perimeter attack paired with aggressive ball pressure, and unfortunately for Georgia Tech, these are two things that this team can’t actually do that well. Daniel Miller is a good enough defender in the post to effectively handle either Tyler Zeller or John Henson, but it’s unclear who takes whichever player Miller doesn’t guard. Worse, on the offensive end, Miller is limited, and against the North Carolina frontcourt, he might really struggle to score. Miami and North Carolina are clear favorites, but Boston College already has a pair of surprising conference wins, and somehow Georgia Tech has beaten North Carolina in the past four match-ups. Hard to hang your hat on either of these fun facts, but it’s at least something.

Last night, Miami slammed a terrible-looking Georgia Tech team. The key with this game was the once again the sterling play of Kenny Kadji who has emerged as one of the clear breakthrough players of this season. The Hurricanes played defense and Georgia Tech’s attack basically degenerated into Glen Rice, Jr., and Mfon Udofia chucking shots like they were the only two players on the team. One day both will get hot simultaneously and the pair will annihilate some hapless team. Most days these two take all the shots, however, Georgia Tech will lose.

The Meanest Rivalry in the ACC

• Duke at Maryland at 9:00 PM at ESPN

Could This Be the Scene in College Park Tonight?

Luckily, the Blue Devils don’t have to play at a hostile Cameron Indoor Stadium, and that’s one of the most underrated bonuses of Duke’s yearly schedule. Year in and year out, the most hostile conference venue for Duke is not in Chapel Hill, but rather in College Park. The Terrapins fans are ferocious at home and their hatred for Duke seems to reach beyond the confines of mere rivalry. For the Blue Devils, this is a tough follow-up after the hard loss at home to Florida State, but there is no doubt that Mike Krzyzewski will have his team ready to play. Maryland hasn’t shown they can play the kind of defense needed to stop Duke, but Terrell Stoglin is the exact kind of player who has the skill set to take advantage of a Duke defense that is softer on the perimeter than in years past. Duke wins this game on paper, but if Stoglin gets hot or the crowd gets really into it, this could be a tough road trip for Austin Rivers and company.

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After a weekend where Florida State proved it was for real and Virginia Tech showed they weren’t a lost cause against in-state rival Virginia, we get a thoroughly un-sexy Tuesday night match-up between a pair of teams who have been underachieving. It’s not glamorous, it probably won’t be pretty, but the game should at least be competitive.

The Only Show In Town

• Miami at Georgia Tech at 9:00 PM on ESPNU

Udofia and Georgia Tech Need a Win Tonight

Fun fact about Georgia Tech: they have won exactly one game in the past month, an increasingly perplexing win over what appears to be a good NC State team. This bright spot, for what it’s worth, still resides in the shadow of underwhelming losses to Mercer, Fordham, Maryland, and Clemson. Still, star Glen Rice, Jr., has generally played well, and plans to give him a greater share of the point guard duties is good news for a team that requires Mfon Udofia to stay on the court for far longer than he needs to.  Meanwhile, Miami has underperformed, even with the return of Reggie Johnson (who looks good when looking at tempo-free stats, but significantly worse on the court). Although the Hurricanes only have a single ACC win against woeful Clemson, this team looks like it is slowly but surely getting better. Despite this, Jim Larranaga‘s team seems to have a traveling problem: Miami is 8-1 at home and 1-7 on the road. Granted, somehow Miami has managed to play true road games against the likes of Purdue, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina already, but even so, teams have to prove they can win on the road before they’re taken seriously. It’s a little late in the season to be slowly getting better and if Miami wants to bust out of the conference’s bottom class, taking care of fellow cellar-dwellers on the road is a simple necessity.

Georgia Tech is in the middle of a very disappointing season. It’s 6-10 overall, and conference play hasn’t made anything better (the Yellow Jackets are 1-4 in the ACC). But Glen Rice, Jr.‘s play is anything but disappointing. Sure, he’s a little inconsistent. But the swingman is Brian Gregory‘s best offensive player by a mile. He’s their best scorer and “creator and distributor.” The numbers actually back up the assertion, as Rice has the highest assist rate and lowest turnover rate of any starter. His playmaking abilities are why Gregory is planning to play Rice at point the next couple of games — versus Miami and North Carolina.

Brian Gregory is Looking to Glen Rice Jr. to Run His Offense.

Just for an idea of how important Rice is for Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets are 1-7 when he has an offensive rating of less than 100. The only win was against Georgia. When his offensive rating is above 100, the Yellow Jackets are 5-3. Two of those losses were a very close loss to Duke and an even closer loss at Clemson. The moral of the story is that Georgia Tech this season is only as good as its best player. I like the move by Brian Gregory to shake up an offense that hasn’t put up 20 points in the first half in its last three games. If nothing else Rice should have the ball in his hands a lot more often, which can’t be a bad thing.

(h/t: Fox Sports South)

The Hurricanes won their first ACC game despite allowing the Clemson Tigers to shoot 47.4% from the field, losing the offensive rebounding and the turnover battle. How do you win against a team that took more shots and nearly shot 50%? Well, you just have to shoot better than 50% yourself. In a dazzling offensive performance, Miami shot 51.9% from the field, made 9-of-20 three-pointers and converted 13-of-14 free throws. Miami may have gotten fewer possessions than Clemson, but they certainly made the most of the shots they got. Miami’s primary four guard rotation of Malcolm Grant, Durand Scott, Trey McKinney-Jones, and Shane Larkin all managed at least three assists and two steals. These aren’t huge numbers, but when you have four guys on the perimeter who are such capable play-makers and ball-hawks, it’s going to really help your team win. Another thing that will help your team win against Clemson? Holding Andre Young to 0-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Too Much To Prove

• North Carolina at Virginia Tech at 9:00 PM on ESPN

What Does Roy Have In Store For Us Tonight?

Virginia Tech has yet to win a conference game despite playing both lowly Boston College and Wake Forest. North Carolina is coming off a nationally televised beatdown which is the worst loss of Roy Williams’ career. One thing is certain about this game: Both teams should be playing as hard as they can. While it’s easy to expect a dominant Tar Heel bounceback, the Hokies have a couple of things going for them that makes this a tough match-up for North Carolina. UNC’s slumping three-point attack will be tested against a Hokies’ defense that’s even better than Florida State at defending the perimeter. Virginia Tech’s opponents have managed a meager 26.2% from long range. A lot of this has to do with the personnel that Seth Greenberg can put on the wing. With a number of quick, long forwards like Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarrell Eddie as well as two 6’5″ guards in Dorenzo Hudson and Robert Brown, the Hokies are one of the few teams that can match up with Harrison Barnes, Reggie Bullock, and P.J. Hairston without much trouble. Even worse for the Tar Heels, Erick Green is the exact kind of player (quick guard with a long-distance touch and play-making abilities) that is easily capable of hanging thirty on North Carolina. That said, Virginia Tech hasn’t proven anything this year: In every big game the Hokies have played, they’ve lost. You could say that they’re due a big win or you can say the lack that intangible mental toughness. Either way you see it, the Hokies will have a hard time dealing with the post presence of Tyler Zeller and John Henson. Virginia Tech’s biggest guys aren’t all that big, not all that skilled, and frequently suffer from foul trouble. It’s a tough matchup for any team, but if Carolina can get the ball inside on offense and prevent an Erick Green-based perimeter onslaught on defense, UNC takes the first step out of the shadow of Saturday’s brutal loss.

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1. BC Interruption: Let’s get started with the most important story of the weekend. Boston College has an ACC winning streak! I’m not sure whether this says that the Eagles are better than I expected (probably true), or that Virginia Tech and Clemson are much worse than I originally thought (also likely), but it sure does make ACC play more interesting. Oh, and by the way, Virginia Tech fans don’t need to worry about the bubble this year. Just for those keeping score at home the Hokies already lost to Wake Forest, Boston College and Florida State; the bad news is they play North Carolina, at Virginia, at Maryland and against Duke for the next four conference games. Seriously, that’s a very possible 0-7 start to conference play (though I’d put the over/under at one). Not good. But congratulations to the Eagles, who are a remarkable 2-1.
2. Searching For Billy Edelin: The other conference shake-up of the weekend came out of Tallahassee, where the Seminoles took the Tar Heels behind a woodshed and clubbed them for two hours to the tune of a 90-57 final score. At the heart of the Florida State offense was an unconscious Deividas Dulkys. Dulkys is a better shooter than people give him credit for (truthfully, I just assumed he couldn’t shoot because he’s on Florida State). The Lithuanian is actually one of the better shooters in the conference, and proved it with an 8-10 performance from the three-point line. He may not do it again, but Florida State fans will remember Dulkys’ career performance for a long time.
3. Raleigh News & Observer: Speaking of the beatdown, the other story (or diversion, in my opinion) from Tallahassee was Roy Williams taking his players off the floor before the end of the game to avoid potential injuries during the court rushing. Leonard Hamilton says it was his idea. That left five walk-ons to face the masses of Seminole faithful streaming onto the court solo. Obviously the move drew a lot of criticism. It also drew this awesome photoshop.
   
4.  Washington Post: Maryland‘s poor attendance has been documented this year. The same is true of the athletic department’s financial woes. Mark Turgeon is going to be a huge part of trying to overcome the department’s huge deficit over the next few years ($2.8 million this year alone). If he wins, people will come. It’s no coincidence that the basketball team’s revenue has declined since 2006. The school is also investigating outfitting the Comcast Center for concerts or adding ad ribbons between the upper and lower decks. I still think the most important thing is to start winning games. If Turgeon gets this program back in the upper echelon of the conference, the team should make much more money.
5. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Speaking of guys who should be getting more attention, Mfon Udofia is playing much better in Georgia Tech’s recent games. Glenn Rice, Jr., gets most of the press because he is a better scorer and has name recognition, but Udofia may be more important. His current role is to “just be the coach on the floor, pretty much.” He’ll need to be more consistent if the Yellow Jackets want to make a run at finishing somewhere in the middle of the conference.