1. Raleigh News & Observer: Calvin Leslie had a career night. But once again it felt like NC State’s lack of depth killed it down the stretch of an 86-74 loss to North Carolina. The Wolfpack did it up for the end of a chapter in their rivalry with the Tar Heels, bringing back the old noisemeter from Reynolds Coliseum with an electric crowd reminiscent of the glory days. My favorite tradition was the Technician distributing satirical “Daily Tar Hell” papers in Chapel Hill. But in the end, North Carolina won its twelfth straight in the series, led by Kendall Marshall who finished with 22 points, 13 assists and no turnovers.
2. Washington Post: Suffice it to say John Thompson, III, didn’t like Kevin Anderson‘s boycott of Georgetown sports until the schools start playing each other in basketball again. He’s got way too many golden quotes to bring up here. The gist is that Thompson feels threatened but isn’t about to bend on anything. He also clearly disagrees very strongly with Anderson’s handling of the situation, even implying that Anderson doesn’t know what he’s doing. This will certainly be interesting to watch. My guess is that things get quiet now, but I also wouldn’t hold my breath for a Georgetown – Maryland home-and-home series in the next couple of years.
3. Orlando Sentinel: One difference in the stagnant offense showcased by the Seminoles early in the season and the inconsistent-but-generally-superior offense they’re sporting now is the addition of Ian Miller. He’s probably the team’s most effective scorer because he almost never turns the ball over, which is why he’s putting up double figures from the bench. Leonard Hamilton said, “We’re confident that when Ian goes in the game, we aren’t losing much. In fact, we might be gaining something.” I’d have to agree.
4. Duke Basketball Report: Barry Jacobs took a minute to look at graduate school transfers, a hot topic for the NCAA. Coaches don’t want players to move around at will because of the turmoil, but it’s hard to argue against a player who’s graduated going on to pursue his or her next degree at another institution. Regardless, this year the ACC has eight graduate transfers with two each at Boston College and Florida State.
5. Keeping it Heel: [Author’s Note: Before I get to the premise of this article (which I agree with), I want to point out the errors in why coaches left. Skip Prosser was not Wake Forest’s last coach; it was Dino Gaudio, who was forced out because the athletic department didn’t like the direction of the program. Oliver Purnell left Clemson voluntarily because he got a Godfather contract at DePaul (the ultimate retirement contract). Frank Haith also got a raise both money-wise and relevance-wise by moving to Missouri, which he would’ve certainly taken regardless of NCAA investigations (penalties from which will follow him to Missouri if he’s implicated). I also don’t know why it’s relevant to the rankings that North Carolina beat three Big Ten schools in 2005.] Moving onto the rankings, I agree that Jason Williams’ rankings differ from my own. I’d put the Big Ten on top, the Big 12 second (even though I’m not sold on Missouri or Baylor, but the fact is that both teams have earned their rankings), the Big East third and then it gets tricky. Even right before conference play kicked off, I would’ve put the SEC well before the ACC. But I think the gap is narrowing as the SEC teams beat each other and leave Kentucky alone at the top.

EXTRA: John Adams, Czar of NCAA officials (or coordinator depending on how official you like titles to be) checked in on the NC State ejection situation. His tone makes it sound like he disagrees with the ejections, but thinks the media and fans are taking them too personally. He’s probably right, though I think fans have a right to be upset too. Karl Hess should have given his statement right after the game. He shouldn’t have let two fans get under his skin. It’s part of the job of an official.

1. Duke Magazine: This is a very, very good profile of Mike Krzyzewski by Bridget Booher. She covers his love for gardening, his hiring at Duke, his surgery and his future retirement. The article looks at the challenges Krzyzewski has faced as a coach, and the solutions he and his family came up with to deal with them. How many articles are you going to read with an A Farewell To Arms reference today? I wish the article talked about his Olympic coaching, but this is definitely the must-read article of the day.
2. Fayetteville Observer: Stephen Schramm and Bret Strelow picked their mid-season ACC awards. First, I agree completely that player of the year is a two-man race between Mike Scott and Tyler Zeller. Scott holds the edge because of his relative importance for the Cavaliers, but Zeller is definitely gaining ground. For coach of the year I think Steve Donahue is a legitimate choice despite his team’s struggles. The Eagles are demolishing expectations despite being inexperienced, unathletic and untalented (that’s a little harsh but only by a little). I would give a little more love to Bernard James for defensive player of the year, though I think John Henson and Jontel Evans are strong candidates as well. For most improved, Mason Plumlee and Richard Howell also probably deserve mentions.
3. Mobile Press-Register: Tommy Hicks checked in with Mark Gottfried about his new job at North Carolina State, sandwiched near Duke and North Carolina. Gottfried compared the intensity to a hypothetical situation of Alabama having LSU 20 miles away and Auburn 10 miles away. If he was being historically accurate, I think NC State is more like Auburn (minus the Cam Newton experience).
4. ACC Sports Journal: Rivalry games are funny things. They’re built up and built up, but in the end it’s one win or one loss and takes no longer than any other game. That’s what Duke and North Carolina are trying to deal with right now. Coach K used footage from Duke’s wins over UNLV and Kentucky from the early 1990s (en route to national championships) to try to teach sustained effort. Meanwhile Roy Williams tried to move past the disappointing loss and on to greater tests.
5. Orlando Sentinel: “You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not smashing it.” That’s the adage Mike Bianchi used to describe former Florida State athletic director Dave Hart, who hired and stuck with head coach Leonard Hamilton. It still blows my mind that, even this year, Seminole fans have called for Hamilton’s job. Sure hindsight is always 20/20, but Hamilton has Florida State with its best chance to win an ACC regular season title for the first time ever. That’s pretty good.

1. Florida Today: Well, you can tell this article was written early yesterday (an evening article would probably look the exact opposite of this). Overlooked largely because of Duke’s epic comeback against North Carolina was the Seminoles’ equally epic defeat to Boston College. The same Florida State that knocked off Duke on the road and North Carolina by more than 30 couldn’t handle the lowly Eagles. But the thesis from this article remains: Florida State has a very favorable schedule to take at least a share of the ACC title. It was even better before Leonard Hamilton’s team went and coughed up a free road win in Chestnut Hill. Now the questions are about the Seminoles going forward. Are they the team that lost to Boston College and Clemson, or are they the team that beat Duke and North Carolina? Was this game a product of losing focus, or was it a brutal regression to the mean?
2. Hampton Roads Pilot: Mike Scott continued his under-the-radar quest for ACC Player of the Year with a record-tying 9-9 shooting performance over Wake Forest. Scott finished with 19 points in a rout of the Demon Deacons, and boy was it a rout. Virginia led 40-19 at the half (after shooting a ludicrous 70.8% from the field). That lead only got bigger, moving to 56-23 early in the second half before they coasted.
3. Sports Business Daily: Well, the verdict is in. ACC schools will reportedly be making one to two million dollars more a year than currently after the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the league. The extra money will push the ACC towards being more competitive with the Pac-12, Big 10 and SEC in that regard. This should at least table the “conference expansion won’t make more money” argument for the time being.
4. Wall Street Journal: Speaking of money, the Wall Street Journal took a look at the richest schools and conferences based on NBA earnings (for players drafted since 1985). North Carolina and Duke top the list, as the only schools whose alumni NBA salaries surpassed the $800 million dollar mark. Surprisingly, Arizona was third on the list. Even more surprisingly Georgia Tech is seventh. I would have guessed Duke and North Carolina on top, but I never would have suspected Georgia Tech cracked the top 10 (ahead of Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA).
5. ESPN and Yahoo Sports: Speaking of the Tobacco Road rivals, Austin Rivers hit a pretty big shot last night. The ESPN story is an interview with Doc Rivers, who got to attend the game. It’s worth a watch just to see the pure excitement on the elder Rivers’ face as he jumps up and down hugging his daughter after the shot falls. For a more conventional recap, I suggest Pat Forde’s write-up from the Dean Dome. I’m not sure any story can do the last two and a half minutes justice, but his piece attempts to do so.

Video of the Week:

1. Tallahassee Democrat: Ira Schoffel hits a home run with this profile on Leonard Hamilton. It’s lengthy, but totally worth the time it takes to read. It’s really unfortunate that it will be buried by Duke – North Carolina previews today. Schoffel spent time with many of Hamilton’s friends and family from his days in Gastonia, North Carolina. He may not look it, but Hamilton is the second oldest coach behind Mike Krzyzewski in the ACC. The FSU head coach has had a really inspirational journey from Gastonia to Tallahassee. Even above and beyond the high school story, Hamilton’s coaching resume is very impressive too. Before the year I said Bernard James might have the best story in college basketball, but I might have been wrong. His coach may have him beat.
2. Raleigh News & Observer: Lame title aside, this is a terrific piece on Austin Rivers from Jack Daly. Rivers went from being a walking cliche — the talented but selfish son of an NBA coach — when he arrived at Duke to something far more compelling once he took the court. Sure, he’s made mistakes. But he’s also Duke’s best offensive weapon. His critics jumped on his early season struggles and have tended to alter the criticisms instead of the narrative as his game improves. It’s clear he has a chip on his shoulder, but I haven’t heard that chip really expressed openly until this piece. He talks about trying to succeed in the shadow of Doc Rivers and the wealth of expectations and dearth of praise (at least at the college level) for his achievements. Daly finishes the piece with a perfect quote from Rivers:
   

   People always ask what makes me hungry now: I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t done anything yet. I had a great high school career, I was No. 1 – I don’t care. No one cares about that anymore. At Duke, I haven’t won a national championship, I haven’t won an ACC Tournament, I don’t play in the NBA. I haven’t done anything. I have everything that can motivate me.

3. CBSSports.com: Continuing the Duke – North Carolina rivalry trope, Brett Friedlander sat down with several former and current Tar Heels to talk about why they chose the school in Chapel Hill over the one eight miles south in Durham. Former Tar Heel big man Eric Montross seems to hit the nail on the head, calling the decision a “gut feeling” of one school over the other. Whether it’s North Carolina’s adjacent museum, the banners, or meeting Michael Jordan — Tar Heel players walk away from visits just knowing… On the flip side I suspect many players who choose Duke feel the same about Cameron Indoor and its many banners overhead as well. The atmospheres are undeniably different, but the two team’s histories share an excellence.
4. Chicago Tribune: Miami is quietly building an NCAA Tournament resume now that Reggie Johnson is back in the line-up. The Hurricanes have won five of their last six games and four straight including the overtime win at Duke. That said, the “surprise” part of Miami’s bid foundation (for me) is that it’s taken this long to take hold. Certainly Johnson’s injury didn’t do Jim Larranaga any favors, but if you asked me which new coach was doing the worst job at the start of conference season, I wouldn’t have hesitated calling out the former George Mason coach. Miami still has a lot of work to do. I think it splits with Florida State and avenges a home loss to NC State. If the Hurricanes take care of that business, they’ll have 11 conference wins with the disclaimer that the ugly first half of the season was without Johnson (really 10 wins and a solid performance in the ACC Tournament could do the trick, but better safe than sorry).
5. Fayetteville Observer: In honor of Duke and North Carolina, Stephen Schramm sat down with @thedevilwolf, one of the best trollers in the business. If you follow ACC basketball much on Twitter, you probably know his handle (but not his name). In addition to timely trolling, he’s also good for insightful comments during games and over on Duke Hoop Blog. Schramm also mentioned another mysterious Tobacco Road Twitter celebrity, @TarHeelWire, who disappeared suddenly after nearly two years of constant tweeting on North Carolina athletics when more and more people sought the identity of the man behind the handle.

EXTRA: Troy Machir over at Ballin’ Is A Habit put out his 2011-12 All-Hair-Team, and the list starts with Mike Scott and his many cornrow designs. No other ACC players make the cut (though Miles Plumlee‘s high and tight makes a defensive cameo).

There is no doubt that the way the Seminoles are playing right now, they are underrated. The defense is good, but let’s be totally clear, the reason that Florida State is on a crazy five-game winning streak that includes a dominating win over North Carolina and a win over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium isn’t because of their defense (well, I mean, partly obviously, but roll with the rhetoric). Florida State is winning because of what appears, at this moment, to be one of the more unstoppable offenses in the ACC. I know that probably sounds wrong, but it’s true. Right now, Florida State has the fourth-best defense in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In conference play, the best defensive efficiency numbers belong to Virginia and North Carolina, which isn’t too surprising. More surprising? Third place is North Carolina State. In conference play, the Wolfpack have been better defensively than the Seminoles. Leonard Hamilton‘s team is still playing pretty well defensively, but despite their reputation, Florida State’s win streak is due to torrid, red hot offense.

Don't Sleep On Florida State's Defense Or They Will Put You To Bed (AP Photo / S. Cannon)

Duke owns the best offense in conference play, but Florida State actually has had better offensive execution than every other team in the conference. In fact, Florida State has played better offense than North Carolina in conference play. That might seem crazy to you, and you might be thinking that I have gone off the deep end, diving into a pool of stat-wonk Kool-Aid, but if you don’t trust efficiency stats, just check out shooting percentages. Since the beginning of conference play, Florida State has shot 41.2% from beyond the arc, easily the best mark in the ACC. Here is a quick list of field goal percentages from the Seminoles’ last four games.

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Matt Poindexter is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after Saturday’s Duke-Florida State game in Durham.

Before the season started, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi pegged Leonard Hamilton’s Florida State team as an 8-seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. Then talented Seminole forward Terrance Shannon suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, and a 5-0 start was followed up by a 4-6 stretch that featured an inexplicable home loss to Princeton and a blowout loss at Clemson to start ACC play. A week into January, the team that many expected to sit near the top of the ACC was instead 9-6, with their best victory a home win against Central Florida. The Seminoles have some more impressive wins today. First, FSU handed North Carolina by giving the Heels one of the worst beatings of the Roy Williams era, leading for all but the first 39 seconds of the game and winning 90-57. Then, a week after beating UNC, FSU’s Michael Snaer hit a last-second shot to snap Duke’s 45-game winning streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Why the sudden change?

According to Hamilton, the drastic improvement over the past few games is due to more experience and better point guard play. In his postgame press conference on Saturday, Hamilton said that many were confusing his team’s age with experience. Though already 26 years old, star forward Bernard James’ pre-Seminole basketball experience consisted of a few years as an enlisted member of the United States Air Force and one season at Tallahassee (FL) Community College. Many of James’ teammates are also upperclassmen, but played limited minutes behind Derwin Kitchen and Chris Singleton until this season. His juniors and seniors, Hamilton feels, are only now catching up on court time.

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1. Morganton News Herald: It’s time for the second installment of the “Birth of ACC Hoops” from Roy Waters. This week’s edition looks at basketball success mainly outside the “Big Four” from North Carolina. Lefty Driesell had a lot to do with it. He put Maryland on the map, but things never quite came together with his best team in 1974 being left out of the NCAA Tournament after a 103-100 overtime loss to eventual national champion NC State in the ACC Tournament championship game.
2. Charlotte Observer: Who wants to talk about Roy Williams and the Tar Heels’ early exit at Florida State again? Well, before passing too much judgment, you should know that Luke DeCock talked with the NCAA’s national officiating coordinator, John Adams, to discuss the end of that game. From the sound of things, Williams and FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton may have tried to call the game, but both lacked the authority to do so. Why that wasn’t abundantly clear (I think an official was nearby both of them during the timeout), I don’t know. I do think the precedent makes sense. For one, a forfeit goes down in the record books as a 2-0 loss, but more importantly, all sporting events should be played till the buzzer. There’s no mercy rule in college athletics; nor should there be one. It’s one thing in a situation like the Cincinnati-Xavier brawl; it’s another because of an impending court rush. I said it yesterday: if you’re worried about your players, have them sit on the bench. The worst thing that could happen is a drunk, belligerent fan could spill beer on someone. Anyway, hopefully this article puts the story to rest for good.
3. Roanoke Times: Mark Berman thinks Virginia Tech needs a spark plug. I think it needs a win. We’re probably talking about the same thing. This team has talent, but Seth Greenberg attributes its early league struggles to the “absence of a ‘high energy player'” (for the record, I think Dorian Finney-Smith could totally be an energy guy, but the question is whether he can do it his freshman year). I think the team will get some more energy if they put together a win. Unfortunately, the Hokies’ next game is at North Carolina, who is still reeling after the beatdown administered from Leonard Hamilton’s squad. Don’t be surprised if Virginia Tech plays better though (and Erick Green should be back in action).
4. Fox Sports South: Andrew Jones takes a quick look at the top four point guards in the ACC. The members probably won’t surprise you, but I guarantee the top slot will catch a lot of people off guard. Durand Scott, Erick Green, Kendall Marshall and Lorenzo Brown make up the list in descending order. That’s right, Brown gets the top spot because Jones based his criteria on play-making, scoring and defense. The two matchups I’m most excited about looking forward: Brown vs. Marshall and Dexter Strickland vs. Austin Rivers.
5. Daily Press: The ACC is in chaos. Florida State seems to have turned things on after a 20-point drubbing from Clemson, but like the rest of the league there’s a lot of variance in the Seminole performances. Same goes for Virginia Tech, Boston College, Clemson, NC State and even North Carolina. The league may not be anywhere close to the best conference in basketball, but it sure is interesting from night to night.

Now, in the cool light of Tuesday we open up with a conference where Boston College and North Carolina have the same ACC record and we can answer the big question of the weekend with a firm nod: Yes, this is real life. The question that remains is simple: Which teams are for real? Florida State made a ridiculously impressive statement against North Carolina on Saturday, but the Seminoles had been maddeningly inconsistent up to this point. Meanwhile, Maryland has looked like a brand new team after Pe’Shon Howard and Alex Len joined with the team, though ironically, it’s been the play of neither that has been the most impressive.

Terrell Stoglin Takes 36.8% of Maryland's Shots. That's A Lot.

The Gut Check

• Maryland at Florida State at 9:00 PM on ESPNU

Florida State may have pounded North Carolina, but they looked abysmal against a really rough-looking Clemson team. Florida State should be able to hammer Maryland without much difficulty at home, but the Terps have been full of surprises and this match-up has a number of pivot points that could make things really interesting. While the Seminoles have a sterling defense, they are (and have been for the past few years) curiously weak on the defensive glass. This is a problem because Maryland’s James Padgett‘s reign of terror on the offensive glass shows no sign of slowing. Padgett easily remains the best offensive rebounder in the country and his efficiency in the post, particularly on second-chance points, can be a deadly weapon. For Leonard Hamilton‘s squad, the strategy will be the same-as-it-ever-was: Pressure the perimeter to force turnovers and try to bait the team’s worst offensive players into taking too many shots. Sadly for the Terrapins, the shot-happy-but-accuracy-challenged tandem of Nick Faust and Pe’Shon Howard seems pretty susceptible to falling right into this trap. More good news for the Seminoles? Maryland doesn’t force many turnovers, which has been Florida State’s weakness all year long. Will it come down to  a shootout between Terrell Stoglin and a newly confident Deividas Dulkys? Stoglin shoots more than anyone in the ACC, but if anyone is prepared to match fire with fire, the Dulkys that we saw on Saturday was far from gun shy.

It was very surprising to see so much criticism directed at Roy Williams for having the North Carolina bench depart to the locker room before the buzzer at the end of Saturday’s Florida State game. There are a lot of things to criticize about North Carolina’s performance, but this simply isn’t one of them. Despite Leonard Hamilton making it abundantly clear that North Carolina went to the locker room early at his urging, Internet commenters have been quick to throw around “bad sport” and “sore loser” labels. This is silly. Williams gracefully accepted Hamilton’s suggestion and the bulk of the North Carolina staff and players were able to exit the area without incident. Somehow, this has been interpreted as a disservice to the remaining North Carolina players who were left to face the rushed-court alone. Of course, this is patently ridiculous. In situations where a rush is imminent, off-duty police officers and event security staff generally have the responsibility of making sure that the visiting team is safely escorted to the locker room without incident. Generally, there aren’t enough of these staffers to adequately escort the entire team’s staff. By limiting the number of folks who needed escort to the five remaining North Carolina players, the security staff had a much more manageable, though still difficult task (the players left on the court still got bumped and pushed by over-exuberant and misguided Seminole fans). The move seemed sensible, safe, and agreed upon by both teams. It allowed for a safer rush. What’s wrong with this?

Leonard Hamilton Thought He Made Himself Clear

At the “neutral” site loss to UNLV, the court was rushed by excited Runnin’ Rebels fans, an undeniably exciting moment that was somewhat marred by a few boisterous fans knocking over members of UNC’s training staff. If you were Williams and you saw a way to avoid a repeat of a similar incident offered by your opponent’s coach, wouldn’t you take it? It was an odd thing to see, but all things considered it feels like the right and mature move by the leaders of both teams. The worst part about this little incident is how it takes the spotlight away from the impressiveness of Florida State’s thorough domination of the Tar Heels. It just seems odd to me that there’s so much to-do over how North Carolina left Tallahassee and not enough talk about how the team never even bothered to show up in the first place.

Let’s be clear about something right from the start: Yes, Deividas Dulkys probably had the best game of his life, but even if he had performed at 40% of the level he managed Saturday, Florida State would have still won this game against North Carolina. The eight made three-pointers? Yes, that’s fluky and it contributed to the massive margin, but the Seminoles would have won the game even with an average shooting night by Dulkys. For the sake of a conversation that goes beyond me marveling at the transcendent performance by the Lithuanian guard, let’s put aside his monster game and imagine that Florida State just won by say 14 points. That’s still an impressive win and it’s worth pointing out that this is the kind of win we have been expecting from Florida State all season even if not by this margin and not against this opponent.

Deividas Dulkys Was Otherworldly In FSU'S Victory (AP Photo / S. Cannon)

The Seminoles’ hallmark is defense, and the defense has mostly been there all season. The signature of the defense is fairly simple, a locked-down perimeter, a tough interior, and scads and scads of forced turnovers. North Carolina shot 4-of-21 from the three-point line, a figure that’s significant because it demonstrates two things about the Florida State offense:  how good they are at defending the three and how skilled they are at baiting opponents into trying to take it. Remember, North Carolina, coming into Saturday, shot a lower proportion of threes than all but a handful of teams in Division I. Baiting Kendall Marshall into trying at least five perimeter shots should be on any teams to-do list when it comes to beating the Tar Heels. In general, the defense played Marshall very cleverly, defending physical and close when he had the ball, forcing seven turnovers while giving Marshall a lot more space off-ball, leading to relatively inefficient catch-and-shoot opportunities. It was a perfectly scouted and well-executed defensive plan that’s honestly not too different from the sterling defensive performances the team has been putting on all season.

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