1. Washington Post: John Feinstein takes a look at the ACC’s mediocrity since the additions of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College — despite a 9-0 vote against it from the basketball coaches — in 2004. Since then, the league has slowly become a two-team battle between Duke and North Carolina. Mike Krzyzewski faults the way the expansion was handled because it killed the round-robin for a system that benefits the same teams every year by having fixed playing partners (i.e., it’s fine for Duke and North Carolina because they get tons of exposure already and play each other twice, but Boston College plays Virginia Tech and Miami each year, which isn’t nearly as valuable).
2. Fayetteville Observer: Bret Strelow takes a look at the Duke coaching staff, anchored by three guards who all played together in Durham nearly two decades ago. Jeff Capel has already been a head coach, but there’s little doubt that Steve Wojciechowski or Chris Collins would struggle to find a head job if they looked. The three also have a record of dealing with adversity at Duke, having played in the infamous 1994-95 season when Coach K took most of the year off to recover from back surgery and the Blue Devils finished under .500. Now they’re trying to help a team that’s facing some recent adversity, albeit a whole lot less, achieve its potential this season.
3. Orlando Sentinel: Apparently Florida State felt “optimistic” going into its ACC opener against Clemson. Well, as you probably know, it’s going to be tough to be optimistic coming out of the game now. The Seminoles allowed nearly 80 points and lost by a final deficit of 20 to the Tigers, not exactly the start they were looking for. Now, with no real marquee wins and six losses already, Florida State is almost certainly on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. The Seminoles need to turn things around very quickly.
4. Duke Basketball Report: Strelow mentioned it briefly in his article above, but Al Featherston also talks about the new positioning of Jeff Capel on Duke‘s bench. Capel now sits in the middle of the bench where he can talk to players as they come out or to try to get a feel for the team’s sideline energy. Two players I expect he’ll talk to frequently are Tyler Thornton and Quinn Cook, who Coach K has running the point together currently to help Seth Curry move off the ball where he excels. As the year goes on, expect Cook to see more and more time and Thornton to be used primarily as a spark plug at crucial junctures.
5. Charlotte Observer: The ACC is transitioning both on the bench and on the court. The conference has multiple new coaches for the second time in as many years, while freshman play an important role on most teams trying to replace the departed stars. That transition has shown so far in the loss column, where ACC teams combined to lose an astonishing 50 non-conference games coming out of the weekend.

1. Grantland: It’s no secret that North Carolina and Duke are the top two squads in the ACC. But can Tony Bennett establish Virginia as their perennial challenger in the wake of Gary Williams’ departure? Shane Ryan breaks down Bennett’s pack-line defense, which has been the team’s key to success this season. We’ve talked about it a little before, but the screen-shots are illustrating. There’s never more than one player outside of the three-point line, which keeps more athletic teams from taking advantage of dribble penetration and forces them to beat the Cavaliers from deep.
2. Philadelphia Daily News: Dick Jerardi does a good job describing Mike Krzyzewski‘s career in brief and why he thinks there won’t be anyone else like him. I’d only add that the game has changed significantly since the start of the 1980s, which makes both Coach K’s success impressive and the likelihood of another coach like him even slimmer. He also briefly previewed Duke’s eventual opponent last night (who ended up winning), Temple.
3. Baltimore Sun: Don Markus checks in on Maryland and whether its record is a “true indicator” of the team’s current level. I think it is, but you have to remember the Terps’ opponents too. Mark Turgeon implied that he thought their record was generous. In the end Markus concludes that the Terrapins will be erratic, blowing out opponents or losing by 30 points to similar caliber ones because of their up-tempo pace and questionable shooting.
4. Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State knows it needs to get its act together if it’s going to make the NCAA Tournament. Leonard Hamilton isn’t as concerned with the wins and losses as his team’s performance. Basically, the biggest issue is (like most years) the Seminoles can’t score consistently from anywhere. But they whipped up on Auburn last night to tune up for conference play.
5. Baltimore Sports Report: The Baltimore Sports Report takes a look at the missing pieces of some conference teams. To be short (in my opinion): North Carolina needs a shooter; Duke needs a point guard; Virginia needs a shot-creator in the backcourt; Virginia Tech needs an inside presence; NC State needs consistency; Florida State needs scoring; Clemson needs a second option who can take over the game; Georgia Tech needs a go-to guy; Maryland needs significant contributors aside from Terrell Stoglin; Wake Forest needs rebounding; Miami needs a defense; Boston College needs everything.

Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist and contributor. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. Night Line will run on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s slate of games.

Over the past month, Duke had won five straight games and quietly risen to #3 in the AP Poll and #2 in the RPI without skipping a beat. But home victories over the likes of Western Michigan and UNC Greensboro won’t make fans forget about the Devils’ embarrassing 22-point loss at Ohio State earlier in the year, and it would take a strong road performance to erase those memories. Wednesday night showed the Blue Devils get thoroughly outplayed by unranked Temple in downtown Philadelphia, confirming the suspicion that Mike Krzyzewski’s team could be vulnerable both defensively and on the road heading into conference play. Coach K will need to refine his rotation and strengthen his team’s defensive intensity if they want to realistically compete with North Carolina for another ACC title.

Duke Had Major Trouble Defending Temple on Wednesday Night (AP/T. Mihalek)

Perhaps no team played as difficult a non-conference schedule as Duke, which would suggest that they are well prepared for their old familiar foes when conference play begins this weekend. The Blue Devils played Michigan State, Ohio State, Belmont, Michigan, Kansas, Davidson, Tennessee, and Washington as part of one of the most challenging schedules in the country. But Wednesday’s game against Temple was just their second road game (although it was played on one of Villanova’s two home courts, not Temple’s), and they were dominated in both. At Ohio State on November 29, Duke allowed the Buckeyes to shoot 60% on two-pointers and 57% on threes, amounting to a horrendous 130.8 efficiency rating for the Buckeyes. On Wednesday night, Temple shot 58% on twos and 50% on threes for a 114.7 efficiency. Considering that Missouri’s 126.5 offensive efficiency is the best in the country, it goes without saying that Duke is allowing its opponents to score way too easily in hostile environments.

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Evan Jacoby is an RTC columnist and contributor. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

Huge games in the Big East and Big 12 highlight tonight’s action, along with Duke’s final non-conference test. Here’s your schedule for tonight:

#8 Duke at Temple – 7:00 PM EST on ESPN2 (***)

Will Dunphy Have His Owls Ready To Upset K's Devils? (Getty)

• The Blue Devils have shockingly stayed out of the spotlight for the past few weeks, quietly handling their business in the non-conference. Perhaps the shellacking that Mike Krzyzewski’s team took in Ohio State in November was the wake-up call that this team needed, as Duke has won five straight in impressive fashion since that game. Coach K’s team is ranked 4^th in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted offensive rankings, boasting the nation’s third-best true shooting percentage (60.6%) and eighth-best points per possession statistic (1.16 PPP), amongst many other impressive offensive numbers. As Austin Rivers continues to improve his decision-making and efficiency offensively, Duke gets harder to defend. The freshman is now up to a team-leading 15.4 points per game while shooting 46% from the field and 41% from three. If Rivers can penetrate the Owls’ defense to create good looks for the other Duke guards and himself, Duke will be in good shape.
• Temple is an elite perimeter defensive team, where the Owls hold opponents to shoot 25.6% from three-point range, the fourth-best percentage in the country. Against a Duke team that loves to shoot the three, guarding the perimeter will again be priority number one in this game. In addition, Temple is strong with the ball and their 1.28 assist-to-turnover ratio is a top-30 national number, far better than Duke’s 1.02 ratio. By limiting their opponent’s long-range makes and winning the turnover battle, Temple will seek to gain an advantage at home. Their trio of guards Ramone Moore, Juan Fernandez, and Khalif Wyatt, all at 13.3 PPG or better, will look to neutralize Duke’s own trio in the scoring department. However, their best big man Michael Eric remains out with a knee injury, which could spell trouble against Duke’s 6’10” Plumlee brothers.
• Duke is a seven-point favorite in this game and will be well-prepared in their final non-conference game. But the Blue Devils haven’t played a road game since their blowout loss at OSU, and Temple has the guards to match Duke. With Eric missing down low, Temple is without a key defensive cog, but they’ve been playing without him for over a month. Expect a hard fought game in Philly.

#17 Marquette at #9 Georgetown- 7:00 PM EST on ESPNU (****)

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1. Soaring To Glory: Five expectations for Boston College in the upcoming year. To make a long story short, the Eagles will get better and win more games (especially next season). Favorite expectation: “Victories in ACC game(s)”. I love it because it’s vague. If it’s just one game, are the rest moral victories? Halftime victories? The possibilities are endless. I do agree the Eagles should get much better as the season goes on. I’m not sure whether that’s worth two ACC wins, though the bottom of the conference is certainly weak enough.
2. Independent Weekly: Looking for a rant about Duke pasting Pennsylvania? You’ve come to the right place. Clearly, Adam Sobsey is tired of guarantee games that largely finance smaller athletic departments (seriously, check out Grambling State’s schedule starting with nine of 10 games on the road). Oh, it also has Star Wars references.
   

   At one point, Penn head coach Jerome Allen (a former four-year star player for the Quakers in the 1990s) could be heard calling a defensive set to his charges. He may have been saying ‘double flex’ or something like that, but mixed into the minor din of the sedate New Year’s Day crowd at Cameron, it sounded for all the world like he was shouting, ‘Boba Fett! Boba Fett!’ And indeed it would have taken a hired gun, a clone specimen, a rogue bounty hunter from the Dark Side, to give the Quakers a fighting chance last night. But, of course, Duke is the Evil Empire, right? Krzyzewski (and Calipari et al) have already recruited all the Boba Fetts. They go by names like John Wall and Austin Rivers—very obviously aliases. Some of them, like the Plumli, are even clone specimens.

3. Testudo Times: This article reads like a giant exhalation. And Maryland fans should be very pleased with the team’s December performance after a rocky start. Additionally, Pe’Shon Howard‘s return and Alex Len‘s debut give Mark Turgeon two more talented players to introduce into the rotation. The most interesting thing about the duo’s addition is the team’s new tempo. Without Howard and Len, Turgeon’s team looked like one of his past teams and was significantly below average in adjusted pace. Against Albany the Terrapins picked up the pace significantly, adding seven possessions (which would place them near the top of D-I). Keep an eye on this team’s style of play going into conference action.
4. Fayetteville Observer: Check out the key players for each ACC team as the conference looks to improve on a lackluster start. Personally, I totally forgot about Florida State’s Ian Miller (who failed to academically qualify last semester); he scored 17 in the Seminoles’ loss to Princeton.
5. The Sporting News: Old, wise coaches — Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams made the cut (and Gary Williams would’ve certainly made it had he not retired) — choose to avoid non-conference road games. To be clear, the coaches’ success probably plays an important role in being able to keep respect while avoiding the crapshoots that are road games. Invites to the NCAA Tournament are mainly about conference performance (for power conference teams at least).

GIF of the Day: Miami struggled to put UNCG away last night. This guy had a lot to do with it.

Awesome UNCG Alley-Hoop Against Miami (Mocksession)

1. For a freshman who had minimal impact in his one semester on the court Khem Birch is making quite a bit of news. Birch, who decided to transfer from Pittsburgh at the end of the fall semester, has released the list of the schools that he is considering: Florida, UNLV, Gonzaga, Washington, Xavier, and New Mexico State. Birch also attempted to clear the air on his departure saying that he “didn’t think it was the best place” for him and that his departure was not due to disagreements with Jamie Dixon or what people around him were telling him to do. One school that is noticeably absent from Birch’s list is Missouri after there were rumors circulating that the school had “tampered with” Birch before obtaining a release based on tweets from Jeff Goodman (#1 and #2) earlier in the day. Frank Haith denied these allegations, but it is interesting that Missouri was mentioned as a leader for Birch on December 19 and now they are not even on his list.
2. Pat Forde published an excellent column yesterday on St. Louis coach Rick Majerus discussing the program he inherited and how he helped build it up into the borderline top 25 team that it is today as well as his difficulties dealing with the declining health of his mother. Surprisingly one thing that Forde did not touch upon was Majerus’ health including the cardiac surgery he had over the summer in Salt Lake City. Outside of that missing element this is a good review on Majerus and the St. Louis program in case you have not been paying close attention to Majerus after his stint at ESPN. If the Billikens continue to perform at the level they have so far this season, this will be the first of many pieces on Majerus that you will be seeing in the coming months.
3. Those of you who remember the 1994-95 Duke season will remember the name Pete Gaudet. A long-time assistant to Mike Krzyzewski, Gaudet took over midway through the regular season when Krzyzewski took a temporary leave of absence to deal with back issues. Gaudet guided the Blue Devils to a 4-15 record, which included the memorable double overtime loss to North Carolina, during his temporary stint as head coach. Duke eventually had the NCAA assign these wins and losses (mostly the latter) to Gaudet. St. John’s appears to be taking the opposite approach with Mike Dunlap, who is acting as an interim coach while Steve Lavin, as the NCAA and Big East have advised the school to continue adding the victories and losses under Lavin’s name even if Dunlap is coaching. We are not sure how the NCAA will handle this at the end of the season, but we imagine that there are large groups of people in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Lexington, Kentucky, who will not view this favorably even if it is only temporary.
4. It is a little late for Christmas, but we think that Connecticut will be happy with a belated $4.5 million gift from Peter and Paula Werth towards the construction of a new basketball practice facility. The donation puts the school halfway to its goal of raising $30 million for the new facility. This isn’t the first major donation that the school has received as you may remember the Burton family donating several million dollars to the school then sending a scathing letter to the school demanding their money back before eventually agreeing to let the school keep the previously donated money. The Werths made their family fortune through Chemwerth, which manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients that are sold to pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Interestingly, neither Peter nor Paula attended UConn, but all three of their children did and the Werths have been season ticket holders for football and both men’s and women’s basketball. We are assuming that they will get their season tickets comped by the school from now on.
5. Since this is the last Morning Five of 2011 it is a good time to look back at the past calendar year and look forward to the coming year. Luke Winn recaps the past year by ranking the top 10 stories of 2011 and as usual is right on the money. We are sure several people will argue that “Jimmertime!” should be higher on the list, but when we believe that when we look back on this year in 20 years at least three of the four stories above it will definitely be more memorable (perhaps not #3). While Winn is looking back, Seth Davis is looking forward to the new year and offers up 10 bold predictions for 2012. As you would expect these are not as detailed as Winn’s recap stories since they are basically just educated guesses, but Davis does make some predictions that will certainly get a few fan bases worked up.

1. Washington Post: Virginia Tech‘s kicker was arrested and charged with breaking and entering into an on-campus residence before pulling a gun on those living there (also known as the far more serious crime of “home invasion”). How does that relate to the basketball team? Well… the resident was Dorenzo Hudson. Allegedly, Hudson’s roommate stole “a large amount” of marijuana from the defendants. Regardless, this is the type of story that decidedly does not go away or end well. We’ll certainly keep you posted on any forthcoming details.
2. Wilmington Star News and Charlotte Observer: Continuing with the bad news, Torian Graham de-committed for the second time (only hours after re-committing) to NC State yesterday. Graham, a consensus top-50 recruit from Durham, said “something came up” but did not elaborate on the story. It should be noted that Graham has a history of transfers (he’s also on his third high school), which certainly points to potential academic eligibility issues. From comments Pack Pride got from Graham later in the day, it sounds like he still wants to play for the Wolfpack (which certainly supports the academic theory).
3. Five-Star Basketball: For some more positive NC State hoops news, Adam Zagoria and Harrison Sanford are both very impressed with Mark Gottfried‘s first recruiting haul. Even without Torian Graham, the class is shaping up to be one of the best NCSU classes in years — especially if the coaching staff can land Amile Jefferson or Ricardo Gathers. Specifically, Jefferson was very positive in his review of the Wolfpack. Gottfried’s staff is also trying to expand its scope to the national level and is looking at a very talented group of 2013 targets from all over the country.
4. Wenatchee World: Tony Bennett took over for his father, Dick Bennett, at Washington State and was very successful. But Virginia is his first time building a program from scratch, which takes more effort from the coach as well as the players: “There’s no substitute for experience. It was that way with those guys at Washington State — [Virginia players] took their lumps their first two years. And the previous group before that just had to scrap and claw for any bit of respectability.” Well after a hot start, the Cavaliers are back in the Top 25 for the first time in four years.
5. Hampton Daily Press: David Teel takes a crack at the 18-game conference schedule once Pittsburgh and Syracuse arrive by looking at Mike Krzyzewski‘s model. Coach K wants the conference to move to one permanent rival with four “rotating” home-and-homes and the eight remaining teams played only once. While I agree with Tell that Duke and North Carolina are obvious (and essential) permanent rivals, but Wake Forest and NC State? That’s not to say the two schools don’t have a rivalry, but I’m not sure it’s at the “duh” level of the Tar Heels and the Blue Devils (in fact, NC State’s rivalry with North Carolina is much more heated). While I like the added diversity of Coach K’s proposition, I think it’d be a shame to lose games like North Carolina-NC State or Duke-Maryland (seriously, can you imagine if Duke didn’t have to play in College Park every year and vice versa). I vote for keeping the number of permanent partners the same.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the absent Morning Five yesterday. I hope a double-dose of links will help ease the pain.

1. Run The Floor: In case you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of defensive charting. Michael Rogner has charted the defensive work of Bernard James, John Henson, Josh Smith and Anthony Davis. Putting on your ACC goggles, you can also check his piece over at Tomahawk Nation that ignores the non-Seminole players. The findings are very interesting. Basically, without Chris Singleton, the Seminole defense is elite with James in the game and above average with him on the bench. With James on the court, Leonard Hamilton’s squad allows only 0.75 points per possession, but with him on the bench it allows 0.91 points per possession. That’s a gigantic difference. For comparison’s sake, Henson “only” affects North Carolina’s defense by 0.11 points per possession.
2. Durham Herald-Sun: James Michael McAdoo is off to a relatively slow start for North Carolina this season, and Roy Williams thinks it’s his lack of aggression to blame. Against UNCG, “Williams turned to the bench and said that if the 6’9″ freshman didn’t dunk the ball next time, everyone on the team would run sprints while he sat McAdoo on a lawn chair and served him lemonade.” McAdoo’s talent is undeniable, but his transition to the college level has been far from smooth.
3. Washington Post: Coaching legend Larry Brown made another short stop (zing) to visit his former player, Mark Turgeon, at Maryland’s basketball practice recently. Despite playing for North Carolina, Brown called Maryland a “special place” with a “special coach.” The only coach in history to win an NCAA championship (1988) and an NBA championship (2004) also gave some advice to Turgeon.
   


4. Basketball Prospectus: Drew Cannon evaluated Kendall Marshall as the 70th best basketball player in the country during the offseason, which was substantially below where pretty much everyone else places the unique North Carolina point guard. But Cannon realized that “[he] was evaluating players in terms of ‘how many wins would this player add to a randomly assembled team of college players?’ while everyone else was evaluating players in terms of ‘how many wins will this player add to his team?'” It’s an important distinction to make, and a valuable one. I still think he had Marshall a little undervalued (and most have him overvalued), but it certainly provides some food for thought (also, don’t be surprised to see some more content this week in a similar vein).
5. CollegeHoops.net: It’s probably not surprising that three ACC teams are in the Top 25 this week. What may be surprising is which three teams made the cut. Instead of Florida State, Virginia‘s hot start earned the Cavaliers the conference’s third spot in the AP and Coaches polls. This raises the question of which team is actually better. Florida State has played a tougher schedule, and definitely has the athletic advantage on defense. But Virginia’s offensive and defensive numbers are a little better at the moment. This debate will definitely be something to keep an eye on moving forward. The second half of today’s links is after the jump.
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1. Tobacco Road Blues: Adrian Atkinson (@FreeportKid) drops all sorts of interesting stats on North Carolina throughout the day. He’s also taken the torch from Luke Winn and David Hess by charting North Carolina‘s defense through the first quarter of the season. To put it mildly, the findings are fascinating. First and foremost, Harrison Barnes is a horrendous defender. Barnes is allowing opponents to shoot over 50% from the field. Shockingly, Dexter Strickland is second worst in field goal defense. Not surprisingly John Henson dominates the category, holding opponents to 24.3% (!) from the field. The final surprise for me was how dominant Reggie Bullock was this year compared to last year. Atkinson admits that there’s probably a little luck at play here, but Bullock has the highest stop percentage (at 71.8%). I also think it’s important that Bullock guards the perimeter, leaving Henson and Tyler Zeller free to get in position for rebounds (so nearly every missed shot leads to a stop). I think we will do a more in-depth post looking at the defensive styles of the Tar Heel defenders to try and explain some of these numbers (specifically Barnes and Bullock), but check out Atkinson’s piece first.
2. ESPN (or full Insider article): Speaking of Barnes’ struggles, is his draft stock slipping? Chad Ford thinks that Barnes is in danger of slipping, and his argument makes sense. Barnes is living on his jump shot this season (taking one dribble or less). He has turned the ball over too much and generally hasn’t tried to get to the rim with regularity. Combine that with the defensive numbers mentioned above, and it’s a little surprising Barnes hasn’t fallen already.
3. Fayetteville Observer: Moving down the road to Duke, the Blue Devils only have one game in the next 17 days. Just for comparison Duke started the season playing eight games in 18 days. In addition to giving the team a rest for finals, the break should give Mike Krzyzewski a chance to really work on all of the big picture things that were too big to tackle in between games. The primary issue is defense: “‘The coaches stressed that defense has always been part of the Duke standards,” Thornton said. “This year we haven’t really lived up to those standards, so Coach talked to me, Quinn (Cook) and Seth (Curry) and said it starts with us. From now on, we don’t care who we’re playing, we’re going to get after them.”
4. Gant Daily: Before the season, Florida State had a lot of hype, but so far the Seminoles have struggled to live up to all of it. Michael Snaer is still really excited about their potential though. Florida State’s three-game losing streak, which came during a gauntlet stretch of four games over a week, showcased the team’s offensive struggles, most of which come from turning the ball over too often. If the Seminoles can protect the rock and crash the defensive glass more, look out.
5. Soaring To Glory: Boston College‘s recent start-to-finish win over Stony Brook and the competitive loss to Providence has renewed a sense in optimism in the team. The Eagles’ dominant stretch against the Seawolves came in the five minutes before the half, when they extended a three-point lead to a 17-point advantage. The Eagles also played well for much of the game against Penn State and Boston University (read: they had slim leads in the second half) before falling apart in the second half. It’s too early to make a definitive generalization, but the trend definitely looks positive for Steve Donahue’s squad.

BONUS I: Mike Krzyzewski won Sports Illustrated‘s Sportsman of the Year. Here’s his acceptance speech. It’s worth the time.

BONUS II: Yesterday, I linked a great profile of Virginia’s center Assane Sene, but made the mistake not to mention the new documentary that follows four Senegalese players including the Cavalier big man. See the trailer below:

1. CBS Sports: Virginia Tech‘s Blacksburg campus was under lock down yesterday after a gunman killed two people before taking his own life. It’s been five years since the horrific shooting that shook the campus as well as the nation. If any small solace can be taken from the tragedy, it’s that Virginia Tech was uniquely well-prepared for dealing with this kind of emergency and the lock down and subsequent search for the shooter went about as well as could be expected. This is obviously a story bigger than basketball, but Seth Greenberg, aside from being stuck in his office for most of the day, seemed calm and unworried during the lockdown once he made sure his daughter, a student and cheerleader at Virginia Tech, was also safe.
2. Sports Illustrated: Luke Winn is at it again with his power rankings. For those interested in North Carolina, Winn breaks down the results of Tyler Zeller‘s second half possessions against Kentucky, as well as Anthony Davis’ second half possessions against North Carolina. The frustrating thing for Carolina fans will be the confirmation that yes, Zeller gets the ball in great position, but he often squanders it.  For Duke’s power ranking commentary, Winn shares an interesting Mike Krzyzewski anecdote from the Sportsman of the Year profile and somehow ties it to Austin Rivers.
3. Testudo Times: Pe’Shon Howard‘s recovery is going much quicker than most expected. The school posted a photo of Howard with his cast off and reports have him practicing with the rest of Maryland‘s team. The folks at Testudo Times are, in fact, incredibly optimistic about the recovery of Howard, speculating that he might play as soon as December 23. Howard, a sophomore point guard, could provide a great lift for this team. In his freshman campaign, the guard showed a real talent for distributing the basketball as well as hitting three-pointers. Last year, Howard famously hit a buzzer-beater to lead the Terrapins to victory against the College of Charleston.
4. Soaring to Glory: Boston College was the only ACC team to play last night and though they walked away with a loss against Providence, there is reason for hope. The Eagles finally started to look like a team playing with a consistency and chemistry that hadn’t been evident in past games for more than few minutes. Despite the loss and the ugly-looking statistics, I find myself agreeing with the author that this was perhaps their strongest team performance to date.
5. Sun Sentinel: Kenny Kadji has been effective coming off the bench for the Hurricanes. The Florida transfer isn’t starting, but he is averaging plenty of minutes at center, where Miami has been missing the excellent Reggie Johnson as he recovers from an injury. The 6’11” sophomore’s strong play has been an early highlight for a team that too often relies very heavily on guards Durand Scott and Malcolm Grant to carry the load. Kadji is one of three transfers who join Miami this season.