2009-11-20T14:03:52Z urn:uuid:60a76c80-d399-11d9-b93C-0003939e0af6 CoalEngine CoalSpeak urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2009-11-20T14:03:52Z

Weekend Preview, Nov. 20 Rob Daniels November 20, 2009 Rob Daniels is back to preview Week 12 in the ACC. Maryland (2-8, 1-5 ACC) at Florida State (5-5, 3-4 ACC) Time: Noon. TV: Raycom. Key for the Terrapins: In a meeting of two former backup QBs elevated by injury, the Terps’ Jamarr Robinson needs to demonstrate early accuracy. Key for the Seminoles: Another big day from RB Jermaine Thomas and the OL. E.J. Manuel was superb against Wake Forest, and part of the reason was that he didn’t have to do it all. Numbers Game: If they win today, the Seminoles will be bowl-eligible. Or, to put it another way, their postseason participation streak will live for another year. … Thomas is the first FSU player in seven years to rush for 100 or more yards in three straight games. … WR/KR Torrey Smith is third nationally in all-purpose yardage (192 a game). Prediction: Seminoles 35, Terps 17. North Carolina (7-3, 3-3 ACC) at Boston College (7-3, 4-2 ACC) Time: Noon. TV: ESPN2. Key for the Tar Heels: Remain opportunistic. In each of its three recent wins, UNC has put up pedestrian offensive yardage totals but has prevailed by snagging eight turnovers and giving away only two in that span. Key for the Eagles: Dismiss the standings and enjoy the moment. Clemson will likely secure the Atlantic Division’s spot in the ACC title game, but with one more win, BC will be the first Atlantic team to win at least five conference games in all five years of divisional play. Numbers Game: The Eagles have allowed fewer than 100 rushing yards in four of the past five games. … BC is 7-0 when rushing for more than 70 yards in a game. … UNC will go bowling in consecutive years for the first time since a run of seven straight from 1992-98. … PK Casey Barth has made 13 straight field-goal attempts, eight of which have come in the past two games. Prediction: Eagles 20, Tar Heels 16. Duke (5-5, 3-3 ACC) at Miami (7-3, 4-3 ACC) Time: Noon. TV: ESPNU. Key for the Blue Devils: Generate a downfield passing game. Thad Lewis hasn’t had time to do much more than throw middle screens lately, and the Hurricanes’ speed generally limits yards after catch. So if Duke can complete passes 10-15 yards downfield, it will have a better chance. Key for the Hurricanes: Keep spreading the ball around. Miami is the only team in the league with two or more 400-yard rushers (Graig Cooper and Javarris James) and two or more 400-yard receivers (Leonard Hankerson, Travis Benjamin and LaRon Byrd.) Numbers Game: Miami’s Damien Berry has run for a TD in five straight games. He has seven TDs on 61 carries for the season. … Duke is one of only three FBS teams with three or more 40-catch guys (Conner Vernon, Donovan Varner, Austin Kelly). The other teams are Houston, which has four, and Indiana, which has three. Prediction: Hurricanes 30, Devils 20. Virginia (3-7, 2-4 ACC) at Clemson (7-3, 5-2 ACC) Time: 3:30 p.m. TV: ABC in the ACC region; ESPN elsewhere. Key for the Cavaliers: Pray for rain. The Cavaliers can hang with people in bad weather but tend to get beaten up on fast tracks. Key for the Tigers: Keep it simple. C.J. Spiller doesn’t need to be throwing the ball this week. Anybody with a brain already knows he’s one of the most versatile players in the land. Numbers Game: The Cavs have scored more than 20 points only twice in 10 games. They have scored fewer than 20 in 28 of their past 47 contests. … The Tigers have scored 40 or more in four straight. That’s the first time any ACC team has done that since Florida State began the 1999 season with five. Prediction: Tigers 38, Cavs 10. N.C. State (4-6, 1-5 ACC) at Virginia Tech (7-3, 4-2 ACC) Time: 3:30 p.m. TV: ESPNU. Key for the Wolfpack: Be prepared for a lot of Ryan Williams. Specifically, be ready to use a bunch of defensive linemen. The Hokies will have no need for glitz. Key for the Hokies: Keep it on the ground and keep everybody healthy. The Hokies know they aren’t going to the ACC title game, and they know they’ll get a decent bowl regardless. Numbers Game: Jarvis Williams of the Pack is tied for eighth nationally with nine receiving TDs. Owen Spencer is No. 1 in yards per catch at 24.39 – a shade above Georgia Tech’s Demaryius Thomas (24.36). … The Hokies have held five straight opponents under 170 passing yards. Prediction: Hokies 24, Wolfpack 6. Rob Daniels went 5-1 last week picking ACC games. He’s now 58-25 for the season.

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Kuiper’s 3-Pointer: UNC-Ohio State Denny Kuiper November 20, 2009 Former college basketball coach Denny Kuiper is a recent addition to our staff at ACCSports.com who will be adding his unique perspective throughout hoops season. We plan to rely on his expertise to analyze ACC squads as they take on non-conference opponents and, eventually, each other. Below are his three main points from UNC’s 77-73 win over Ohio State. Wow! The lesson in this game was it is not over until it is over. If this had been a high school game of 32 minutes, Ohio State would have very little positive to reflect upon. North Carolina looked like it was going to win going away, but it forgot the game was 40 minutes long. The Tar Heels got a little casual and sloppy the last few minutes and it almost cost them a win. But, all in all, it was a pretty impressive showing against a top-notch team from the Big Ten. On to the 3-pointer … 1) North Carolina—offensive patience, Ohio State—offensive impatience. I thought UNC was willing to explore and move the defense before attempting a shot. The Tar Heels looked inside to their big men, and I thought their interior passing was very good. For most part, I thought they showed good patience against the OSU zone, taking the shot they wanted, not just the first open shot. But for some reason they got away from that the last 7-8 minutes, which I am sure Roy Williams will remind them of in the future. Meanwhile, Ohio State came out jacking up jump shots, none of which were going in. Most teams like to try to establish an inside game, but OSU, especially William Burford, seemed to be content settling for jump shots. Part of the reason for that may have been UNC’s size but I still think the Buckeyes needed to try to score inside, especially in the first half. 2) Point Guard—Evan Turner, P.J. Hill (OSU) versus Larry Drew II, Dexter Strickland (UNC). Carolina won this duel. Turner had a night to forget, with 10 turnovers and 2 assists. It is probably too early to start questioning Thad Matta’s decision to play Turner at the point, but based on this game much work needs to be done. In fact, the times when Turner did play well (he had 23 points) came when Hill was at the point and Turner was off the ball. Sometimes when you ask a kid to play a different position you take him out of his comfort zone and he starts to think, instead of just playing. It will be interesting to follow the Turner point guard experiment this year. On the other hand, I think Drew is getting better and better. He is not Ty Lawson (who his?) pushing the ball up for floor, but he is not bad. He missed a few free throws down the stretch, but he also made some and a couple of big field goals at the 5-6 minute mark. A key for UNC may be how well Strickland plays the point in a backup role. He made a few mistakes last night, but he seems to understand his role. 3) Marcus Ginyard—Mr. Unselfish. Mr. Team. This young man impresses me a great deal. He came into the game shooting 70 percent and averaging 11 points a game. Last night, he shot 4 for 6, and 3 for 5 on threes. He seems to have no selfish bones in his body. After sitting out last year, and not being able to play on a national championship team, you would think he might be trying to make an impression this year. But he has been all team. What a leader Williams has in Ginyard. And One - Big play of the night. It can happen at any time. Last night I thought it happened in the last 12 seconds of the 1st half. OSU had the ball, down 11, with a chance to take the last shot and cut the deficit down to single digits going into halftime. Instead, Buford shot an ill-advised 3-pointer with about 12 seconds to go and then UNC went down and made a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Instead of being down maybe 8-9, now the Buckeyes were down 14.

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Brick: Early Signing Period Breakdown Brick Oettinger | Mailbag November 20, 2009 Brick Oettinger, basketball recruiting analyst for the ACC Sports Journal and ACCSports.com, weighs in with his views on the Class of 2010 now that the early signing period has finished. Rob Harrington and I just finished my team rankings for Prepstars.com. So far ACC schools have landed seven of the top 20 classes nationally. North Carolina was No. 2 (behind No. 1 Memphis) and Duke followed at No. 4. N.C. State is at No. 6 but this assumes that verbal commitment Luke Cothron stays with the Wolfpack. If you take him out of the mix, State’s ranking obviously would drop. Then I think there’s a bit of a qualitative gap. I have Wake Forest at No. 14, Florida State at No. 15, Maryland at No. 16 and Virginia at No. 19. Here’s a closer look at the ACC’s top four classes. 1) UNC Harrison Barnes, WF (No. 1); Reggie Bullock, WF (No. 14); Kendall Marshall, PG (No. 21). Most likely all three of these guys will be McDonald’s All-Americans. The major needs this year – point guard and outside shooting – have obviously been filled. 2) Duke Kyrie Irving, PG (No. 4); Josh Hairston, BF/WF (No. 29); Tyler Thornton, PG (No. 86). The key guy is Irving, of course, who is a terrific player. I thought Josh Hairston at the end of the summer was playing his best ball. Because he didn’t play well at some early events I think people dropped him down below where he should be. Some other recruiting analysts don’t have him in the Top 50. 3) N.C. State Ryan Harrow, PG (No. 17); Lorenzo Brown, WG/PG (No. 26); Luke Cothron, BF (No. 36) If Brown had qualified out of high school he would have gotten consideration for the McDonald’s All-American game last year. Harrow I would vote to be a McDonald’s All-American this year. He was terrific in Vegas at the end of the summer. Before that I hadn’t been quite as enamored with him. 4) Wake Forest Travis McKie, WF/BF (No. 45); J.T. Terrell, WG (No. 58); Melvin Tabb, BF (No. 80); Carson Desrosiers, BF/C (No. 104); Tony Chennault PG (No. 107). I think Terrell’s capable of proving us all wrong. When he’s hot he can score on anyone and put up big numbers. But he’s also erratic. BIGGEST GETS You have to start with Barnes and Irving. I think they are clearly at the top of the list in terms of talent. When you factor in needs, you have to include Harrow for N.C. State. Lord knows they needed a top caliber point guard and he is one. BIGGEST MISSES Will Barton (No. 8) – Maryland tried to get in on him but he picked Memphis. Fab Melo (No. 15) – Florida State went after this big man, but he opted for Syracuse. Tobias Harris (No. 16) – Georgia and Maryland were part of a group of schools that finished behind Tennessee in this race. Jelan Kendrick (No. 19) – Georgia Tech was in the mix, but he joined Barton in Memphis’ huge class. UNDERRATED Rion Brown, WG/WF (No. 39 ) Most of the scouting services didn’t have this MIami recruit in the top 50. They have him somewhere in 50-100 range. In Philadelphia at the Reebok All-American Camp, he put on a show. He’s a fine athlete with a very good 3-point stroke and just about an automatic mid-range jumper. OVERRATED The one I’ve got a lower than a lot of other analysts is Desrosiers. I’ve got him at No. 104 and I’ve seen at least one scouting service that put him in the top 40. I saw him play him several times over the summer. He did have a big game in Vegas I didn’t see. He has good skills. He’s 6-10 and he runs the court well. But he’s not a great athlete. He’s also in need of considerable strength to be an effective inside player.

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Crothers: Playing For … Pride? Tim Crothers | Mailbag November 20, 2009 In the dismal moments after Virginia’s 14-10 loss to Boston College last Saturday which dropped the Cavaliers’ record to 3-7 and erased the remote possibility that the team could become bowl eligible, the assembled media quizzed some of the players about how they would motivate themselves for the last two games of the 2009 season. “It’s going to be extremely difficult to do,” said Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell. “Right now, we just have to play with some pride, and not give in.” Said Cavaliers linebacker Bill Schuatz, “We’re going out there for pride right now.” Ugh. We’ve officially reached that distasteful stage of a football season when losing teams start regurgitating the old cliche about “playing for pride,” and sportswriters enable them by printing that dreck. You can’t miss the tipping point. In the ACC it happens right about the time that teams realize they aren’t even good enough to qualify for the frigging GMAC Bowl. Of course, in this roadkill of an ACC football season, Virginia is only one of the league’s teams currently doomed to the pursuit of pride. Maryland, N.C. State and Wake Forest have also reached this circle of football hell. Duke is likely to join these prideseekers next week. All of this pride prattle leads to some obvious questions: Where the heck was your pride, Virginia, when you went belly up against William & Mary in the first game of the season? Same goes for you, Duke, against Richmond in your opener? And Maryland? Proud Maryland. Did you leave your pride in your other pants against Middle Tennessee State? No ACC coach knows more about playing for pride than Virginia’s Al Groh, whose teams have prided themselves on prideplaying a bit too often in recent years. Earlier this week when Groh was asked about his ’09 team playing for pride, he said, “You know, I’ve never said that. I think perhaps players say that because they’ve heard it or it’s the answer to a question. ‘Now that you guys aren’t playing for the championship, are you playing for pride?’ I thought we were playing for pride every week.” Exactly. What else should these guys be playing for? The meal money? The chicks? Are there really some games when they just don’t give a damn? (Note to reader: After reviewing what I’ve written so far I feel compelled to acknowledge that this column is not going to win me a Pulitzer, so from here on out, I am just writing for pride. I’ll try to finish out as strongly as I can despite having nothing left to write for.) I’ve got an idea to give the ACC’s bottom feeders something to play for besides youknowwhat. It’s called “relegation.” It’s an idea borrowed from European soccer. I hereby propose that the team that finishes last in the conference should be stripped of its ACC epaulets and demoted for the following season to say, Conference USA. That team would be replaced in the ACC by the champion of C-USA. Imagine at the end of this season, if the league sent Maryland packing and called up SMU. Or just think how much potential angst next week’s Duke-Wake Forest game might have if they were battling it out to avoid a season full of road trips to Tulsa, El Paso and Hattiesburg. After one season the relegated ACC team could earn its way back into this league by winning the Conference USA championship, but it’s entirely possible that at some point we might never see Virginia again. That’s the fun part. With that in mind, don’t you think that Jameel Sewell would be playing for a lot more in these last two games than pride? Tim Crothers is the author of The Man Watching: A Biography of Anson Dorrance, the Unlikely Architect of the Greatest College Sports Dynasty Ever and he is the co-author of Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court,” the autobiography of Roy Williams.

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CoachSpeak: Running Up The Score John Bunting | Mailbag November 20, 2009 Former UNC coach John Bunting shares his thoughts on running up the score and the hot seat.

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The State of Recruiting In: Georgia, Nov. 19 Adam Van Brimmer | Mailbag November 19, 2009 Georgia Tech still has ground to cover to catch Georgia in in-state recruiting.

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2009-11-19T14:56:22Z

The ACCSports.com Podcast Presented By FanDemon.com, Nov. 19 Joe Ovies | Mailbag November 19, 2009 Joe and Jim are back with another edition of the ACCSports.com Podcast, presented by FanDemon.com Brace yourself folks, Harrison Barnes is still discussed. Don’t worry, though. It’ll be the last time in a while … we think. Jim tries to figure out if there’s a way for Duke to put a positive spin on losing out to UNC for Barnes. They also ponder how future recruit announcements will top Barnes and Skype. Finally, yes, some football is discussed, including who the ACC coach of the year should be and who’s on the hottest seat. Enjoy. Nov. 19 ACCSports.com Podcast If you want to listen to this podcast on your iPod, just click here. You’ll have to wait a bit - about a minute - and stare at a blank screen before the interview is ready to play on iTunes. Just be patient. The wait, as always, will be worth it. You’ll also need to use this link if you’re using Internet Explorer 6.0 or lower.

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Meet BC FB Recruit Chase Rettig Beth Mechum November 18, 2009 BC QB recruit Chase Rettig will come cross-country to play next season.

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ACC Football Commitment Lists: Coastal Division, Nov. 18 Jim Young | Mailbag ACCSports.com November 18, 2009 Sometime it’s news when there actually is no news. That’s what we’re telling ourselves here at ACCSports.com. Today we present you the updated Coastal Division commitment lists that actually have, umm, no updates. I’m not pointing the finger at Miami, which has been a consistent contributor to the commitment lists this fall. But the rest of you out there in the Coastal need to get cracking. Key: # Indicates that the player originally signed with school in 2008, but did not qualify at the time. % Indicates that the player originally signed with school in 2009, but did not qualify at the time. ^ The first star number is from Rivals.com. The second one is from Scout.com.

urn:uuid:1225c695-cfb8-4ebb-aaaa-80da344efa6a 2009-11-18T10:36:57Z

Behind The Numbers: To Run Or Not To Run Rob Daniels November 18, 2009 Georgia Tech and Duke have taken two very different paths to success this season.