February 14, 2012

ACC Notebook

Jim Sumner, ACC Columnist

We've heard so much about instant classics and rivalry weeks, that it's easy to shrug it all off as hype.

But it's hard to escape the conclusion that Duke's 85-84 win over North Carolina was indeed an instant classic, one of the most compelling games in that long and fiercely-contested rivalry.

Duke and North Carolina have played 233 times over the years, so it's not surprising that more than a few of those games have gone down the wire. 

Duke won in three overtimes in 1968.  North Carolina's double-overtime win in Cameron in 1995 is an ESPN staple, while Walter Davis' bank shot in 1974 might be the most famous shot in Carmichael Auditorium history.  Chris Duhon won an overtime game for Duke in 2004. Tommy Kearns, Robbie West, Bobby Jones, Gene Banks, Dante Calabria and Marvin Williams all made huge shots with time running out in tight games.   J.J. Redick even saved Duke's 2005 win with a defensive stop.

But Austin Rivers' cold-blooded dagger stands out as unique for several reasons.  It was a culmination of a furious rally that enabled Duke to erase a 10-point deficit in the final 2:35, on the road, against a top-five team.  Rivers is a freshman who had spurned the Tar Heels in picking Duke. 

But most of all was a stark win-or-lose shot in a way that the other great shots in the rivalry were not.  Davis, Banks and Capel sent their games into overtime.  Their shots didn't insure a win.  In fact, Duke lost in 1995, after Capel's bomb.  Kearns, West, Jones and Duhon broke ties.  A miss wouldn't have insured a loss, just a likely overtime.  Other great shots took place with time on the clock.

Not so with Rivers.  With the game clock striking zero, his shot was the ultimate binary moment.  Make the shot and Duke wins.  Miss the shot and North Carolina wins.  No wiggle room.

That's why we'll be seeing that shot for a long, long time.

Required Reading

Florida State and Miami have had lots of pivotal football games.  But Saturday they played a basketball game with ACC title implications.   

A look back at the Duke-North Carolina game.  

Virginia's Joe Harris will try to play through a broken hand.

Stat of the week

22. That's how many rebounds Duke's Miles Plumlee grabbed against Maryland last Saturday.  That's the most by any Duke player since Randy Denton pulled down 25 against Northwestern in 1970.  Mike Gminski, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer and Shelden Williams are some of the Duke big men since then who never pulled down 22 rebounds in a game. 

Stat of the Week 2

5,439.  That's the announced attendance at Philips Arena last Thursday for NC State's 61-52 win over Georgia Tech.  Tech is struggling and Philips is not their regular home court.  But Philips Arena will host the ACC Tournament next month and the folks in Greensboro have to be keeping their fingers crossed.

Looking Ahead

NC State's Scott Wood finally missed a foul shot.  In fact, he missed three against Georgia Tech, ending his streak at 66.

Wood gets a chance to start another streak this Thursday at Duke.  The Wolfpack is 7-3 in the ACC, only a game behind Duke, North Carolina and Florida State, at 8-2.  But they haven't beaten anyone in the ACC they weren't supposed to beat and don't have a signature non-ACC victory; that Texas win looked a lot better back in November.

State hasn't won at Duke since 1995 and they'll be underdogs this time around.  But Duke has wobbled a bit at home this season and State has the big guards who have vexed Duke this year; think Temple.

Following the short trip to Durham, State hosts Florida State Saturday and North Carolina next Tuesday.  A spoiler or a legitimate threat?  We'll know soon.

Keep an eye on

It was a good-news, bad-news kind of week for the Maryland Terrapins.  Tuesday night they edged Clemson 64-62, a rare road win for the Terps.  Terrell Stoglin padded his ACC-leading scoring average with 27 points.

Momentum building.

Then things went downhill in a hurry.  Sophomore point guard Pe'Shon Howard tore up the ACL on his right knee in practice Thursday.  Howard missed the first nine games of the season with a foot injury. ACL surgery puts him out for the season.

Maryland traveled to Duke for a Saturday game with Stoglin being asked to perform double-duty as a scoring/distributing point guard.  Duke won 73-55, holding Stoglin to 13 points, nine below his season average.

Mark Turgeon left no doubt that he was unhappy with all concerned. "Well, they just weren't going to let Terrell beat them. That's the reason [Coach K] has won 900-something games. He is no dummy. They weren't going to let Terrell beat them, and he can't handle it. Then, we get frustrated because he throws out of the double team, and guys aren't making plays. So he gets frustrated. His shot selection wasn't great. It was hurting us. We cut it to four without him, so we took him out. We've got to learn from it."

It's rare to hear a star player called out so publicly and emphatically by his head coach.  Stoglin responded with some (since removed) angry tweets, none of which can be repeated in anything less than an R-rated forum. 

Not a good place for the 14-10 Terps entering the stretch.   Maryland says it's all been handled.  Old news.

We'll see. 

Pet Peeve

I was watching the end of the Harvard-Princeton game the other night on TV.  Princeton was in the final seconds of salting away the upset win, when I heard the most puzzling chant in sports. "Over-rated.  Over-rated." 

What a bizarre cheer. Why would fans want to diminish an upset by suggesting that their opponents weren't all that good to begin with?  I've heard the chant for years and I still don't understand the logic.

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Terrell Stoglin photo courtesy of Greg Fiume/Maryland Athletics; Miles Plumlee photo courtesy of Duke Sports Information