NCAAs go swimmingly for ACC powers
Mar 22, 2009
Please spare us the whining about the unfairness of it all, about the ACC’s supposed tilt toward Duke and North Carolina in everything from officials’ calls to scheduling. And don’t dare repeat the tired complaint that the conference as a whole does not get the respect it deserves come NCAA tournament time.
If one thing was demonstrated the past few days in the first two rounds of the NCAAs, it’s that the ACC remains very much a two-team men’s basketball league, with everyone else nibbling at the periphery of power.
True, top-seed North Carolina and No. 2 Duke had a bit more trouble than expected downing Louisiana State and Texas, respectively, in the friendly confines of raucous Greensboro Coliseum. But the result was predictable -- the 13th consecutive year one or both of the ACC’s premier programs advanced at least to the Sweet 16.
Of 27 ACC teams that got that far since 1997, 17 came from either Duke or UNC or both. During those 13 seasons, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils combined to win 12 ACC tournaments and finished 11 times with at least a piece of first place in the league.
As for the rest of the ACC, Maryland’s first-round defeat of California was the only 2009 victory by any of the five entrants from beyond the US 15-501 corridor. Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, and Wake Forest all lost to lower seeds in their NCAA openers, making short work of the ACC and its much-boasted prowess.
That follows the sorry showings of 2007 and 2008, when only UNC survived the second round.
The NCAA defines an upset as a win by a team seeded at least five places lower than its opponent; by that measure FSU and Wake fell especially hard. To be fair, Florida State battled into overtime before losing to Wisconsin. The Demon Deacons, the league’s second-place finishers, simply melted, following a panicked performance in the ACC Tournament with a comparably hapless effort against 13th-seeded Cleveland State.
That left it to first North Carolina, then Duke, to salvage the ACC’s postseason reputation. UNC’s advance to the Sweet 16 was its third straight. The Tar Heels improved to 30-4, their third consecutive season with at least that many wins, new heights for a superior program. The Blue Devils, 30-6, returned to the Sweet 16 after a painful two-year absence that left others questioning the program’s elite status.
“It just shows how far we’ve come, because in previous years we have wilted,” said Duke senior David McClure, who tapped out a key rebound in the final seconds, a stat that goes unrecorded, to help seal a 74-69 win over seven-seed Texas. “As much as we even all wanted to keep the last two years out of our minds, it’s obvious that it’s going to be there. We were playing for the moment, definitely, but it means a lot to this group to make it to the next stage.”
The Tar Heels did their part in the opening session of the Triangle invitational, putting away No. 8 LSU, the SEC’s regular season champion, 84-70. UNC broke the game open in the final eight minutes after surviving several scares. The worst moments came early in the second half when a 13-3 burst by the Tigers erased a nine-point halftime deficit, allowing them to grab a 42-41 lead at the 17:04 mark. Two seconds later, coach Roy Williams called timeout.
“He knew we were playing terrible,” said senior Bobby Frasor. “That was embarrassing, the first few minutes. He really got on Tyler (Hansbrough), he got on Deon (Thompson), he got on Danny (Green). He’s usually calm and collected, but he ignited a fire in us.”
The details of the victory were ultimely less important, and less likely to be remembered, than the fact Ty Lawson returned to propel UNC’s offense, and backcourt mate Wayne Ellington continued to emerge as an all-around force. Each had 23 points against LSU, highs for the team. They combined for 10 assists, four steals, four rebounds, and two turnovers.
Pre-game chatter concerned Lawson’s uncertain status due to a toe injury that kept him sidelined through the ACC Tournament and the NCAA opener against Radford. UNC has been plagued over the years with inopportune injuries and illness entering NCAA play. As recently as 2005, Carolina contended with a mysterious virus that limited the participation of shooting guard Rashad McCants as postseason play began. Those Heels went out in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament -- as did this year’s squad -- only to reel off six wins en route to the NCAA title.
The ’09 Heels learned during the pre-game shootaround that their floor leader would start. Lawson got into the offensive flow slowly, scoring a single basket in the first half. His toe woe caused him to struggle throughout the game on defense, not a particular strong point, anyway. But, once an adhesion cracked painfully in his toe, scaring him momentarily, Lawson wound up playing 31 highly productive minutes.
“It took me a moment to feel it out,” Lawson said of the pain caused by the broken scar tissue. “The second half I didn’t even worry about it. I did what I normally do.” Afterward the toe was “real sore,” he said, and already swelling, a potential problem when UNC faces No. 4 Gonzaga at Memphis on Friday.
Duke advanced to play on Thursday at Boston against No. 3 Villanova, which lost to muscular Texas on a neutral court in early December.
The Blue Devils led virtually all the way against Rick Barnes’ Big 12 club, and seemed to have matters well in hand when Kyle Singler hit a pair of free throws with 7:09 to go, building a 64-54 edge. That matched Duke’s largest advantage of the game, fueled by scores on six straight possessions. But those were followed by one point in six possessions as the Longhorns stampeded to a tie at 67-67 with 1:44 left.
The teams traded scores before the Devils closed with five unanswered points on a combination of grit, hustle, savvy, and aggression. Three of those points came on free throws by Gerald Henderson, who led all scorers with 24 and contributed two of his six rebounds in the final, frantic 11 seconds.
“Down the stretch I just rode him,” a “real happy” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his primary offensive creator. “We were going to sink or swim with him. We’re swimming.”
