Bag O’ Tweets, Feb. 10
It’s late on Friday afternoon and I’m just wrapping this up, so no fancy, shmancy intro. Straight to your tweets.
Remember, you can send me tweets throughout the week to @accsports for inclusion in the Bag O’ Tweets. I’m going to try to get this back to being a regular feature on the website.
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@bbann230
Saw a UNC fan(wearing the hat)at DubaiDesertClassic. Told him tough loss. said he thought he ws safe from that convo here #goduke
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Yes, “here” is Dubai. I also received a tweet from @bbann230 during the game on Wednesday night that said he was following the game on Twitter while enjoying this view from his office.
This tells us two things. First, @bbann230 clearly has a sweet job. My in-laws lived in Dubai for about a dozen years and I was lucky enough to visit once for a couple of weeks. It’s a fabulous place. Although I was there in the winter. Not sure how much fun it would be during the scorching summer months.
Second, just consider this more proof that Duke-UNC is the greatest sports rivalry in America, by a wide, wide margin. Mike DeCourcy made that argument quite elegantly during his conversation with David Glenn on Thursday. This was a Duke fan giving a friendly taunt to a UNC fan on a golf course over 7,000 miles away from the Dean Dome. Think about that.
If you’re somehow still not convinced, then here’s a brief reminder of the kind of drama this series delivers oh so often.
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@TerpsDoug
Games aren’t won in the first half. Missed FT’s, tipped in a late bucket for Dook, terrible D on that last play. Zeller = goat.
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Really? I got a lot of tweets like this one, ripping Zeller for the mistakes he made in the final minutes. I just don’t get it.
To be sure, Zeller made mistakes during the final minutes. The biggest to me were missing those two free throws. The tip-in? That was just a freakish play. You could argue that perhaps he should have stayed on the ground and not tried to leap up to grab Kelly’s errant shot. But it was obviously errant, so what would we think of Zeller if he’d stayed earthbound and Mason Plumlee had leaped over him to grab the rebound? Speaking of Plumlee, it appeared to give Zeller a helpful push on the way up, propelling Zeller out of position and playing a role in the bizarre tip-in.
But what about guarding Rivers? The only criticism I have here is that Zeller didn’t have his hands up. But I can’t fault him for giving Rivers space. UNC was protecting a two-point lead and Rivers is deadly off the dribble. Oh, and Zeller is a seven-footer trying to guard a 6-foot-3 guard – certainly he had reason to fear that Rivers would blow by him. Those who say that Zeller should have hedged out further as the clock got closer to zero seem to think that Zeller had a view of a clock, the way Rivers did. The UNC big man didn’t. And it’s not like UNC’s home crowd was going to helpfully count out the final seconds for the Blue Devils.
As for games not being won in the first half, okay I’ll grant you that. But what happens to UNC if Zeller isn’t awesome in the first 20 minutes, when he poured in 19 points? I just don’t see how you can judge him purely on the last two minutes and throw out the rest of his performance. The two can’t be separated.
Okay, enough Duke-UNC. I know the rest of the ACC is ready to move on.
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@KilroyFSU
Why did Michael Snaer do you like that? You pick him for your all-ACC 1st half team & he goes and has his worst game of the year?
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Yep, FSU fans, the stunning loss at Boston College is pretty much on me. As @KilroyFSU notes, I put Snaer on my Halfway All-ACC team, thereby dooming him to a sub-par performance in Chestnut Hill. He scored 16 points and had seven rebounds, but made just six of 18 shots.
Combine that the Austin Rivers’ other-worldly performance and yeah, I’m having some second thoughts about my selection.
Actually, you know what? I’m NOT going to apologize for including Snaer. I’m not going to let one game cloud my judgment of him. He’s STILL a phenomenal on-ball defender and he’s STILL FSU’s go-to guy in the clutch and he’s STILL shooting over 48 percent (18 of 37) from 3-point range in the ACC. If putting a clutch, two-way player who’s playing his best basketball during the most important time of the year on my halfway All-ACC team makes me wrong, then I don’t want to be right!
(pauses to catch breath)
Still, I will admit my timing could have been better.
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@J_Schneider
You think DOB is transferring? If so, where do you think he’s going?
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In case you’re wondering why @JSchneider’s referring to, here’s the story.
Do I think O’Brien’s transferring? I don’t have any inside information on that. I can see the reasons both for and against. For – O’Brien would just be joining the wave of players recruited by Friedgen who have left since Randy Edsall’s arrival. Edsall changed the offense that O’Brien excelled in – the new offensive coordinator Mike Locksley’s scheme may fit O’Brien’s skill set better than Gary Crowton’s did – and replaced him with C.J. Brown midway through the season. Also, thanks to O’Brien’s advanced academics – he’s on pace to graduate this year – he’d be able to go the Russell Wilson route and play immediately next season after transferring. He’d have two years to play.
Against – O’Brien reportedly really likes Maryland and really likes his teammates. He helped sell recruits on Maryland during this recruiting cycle. He also had plenty of other times to announce a transfer before but hasn’t done so. Why would he do it now?
The answer to that last one may be connected to Edsall’s announcement last week that O’Brien would be limited in spring practice, due to the quarterback’s continued recovery from the broken non-throwing arm he suffered against Notre Dame. If so, you’d have to think C.J. Brown would hold the starter job heading into next fall. Perhaps O’Brien held out hope he’d win his job back but the latest news derailed that plan.
Whatever the case, we should find out soon, according to Jeff Barker, Maryland beat writer for the Baltimore Sun.
For now, let’s assume for hypothetical purposes that O’Brien does leave. First, an acknowledgement. After reading his short piece, I realized I’m in lock-step with Ty Duffy on this.. You can rule out any other ACC school as a destination, including future members Pitt and Syracuse. A school such as UConn would be off the list because it plays Maryland in a non-conference game. O’Brien’s a very bright guy, so an academically strong school would appeal to him. I imagine he’d still want to play on the BCS level. All of those factors would make Vanderbilt – where his old offensive coordinator James Franklin is the head man – the logical location.
If not there? Hey, why not follow in Russell Wilson’s footsteps and go to Wisconsin, where the Badgers could use a quarterback and they run a pro-style offense that would suit O’Brien’s strengths. I’m assuming no spread offenses, which is I why I ruled out Northwestern. Another possibility: Penn State, which needs quarterback help and has a coach, Bill O’Brien, who worked with Tom Brady the past few years in New England.
