ATLANTA – The first round of the ACC Tournament is in the books. Here are a few random notes to cap off the day’s coverage:
- Attendance was expected to be down given that the first public sale of tickets since 1966 took place, and it looked like it. The upper sections were largely empty for a lot of the day, and even some of the lower sections weren’t as packed as usual.
- It was a good day for Miami in award announcements. Before the opener, Jack McClinton was presented with the 2009 Skip Prosser Award, given to the top scholar-athlete in men’s basketball. Also, at halftime Adrian Thomas was presented the Bob Bradley Spirit & Courage Award. Thomas has had two season-ending injuries during his career, so what once looked to be a promising college career was slow to get off the ground.
- Miami head coach Frank Haith is hopeful that the Hurricanes will get an NIT bid. If they do, Haith said there is a conflict with their arena, so they will have to go on the road to start off.
- Maybe finishing last is a blessing in disguise of sorts: Georgia Tech’s win over Clemson makes the No. 12 seed 4-3 all-time in the ACC Tournament.
- A month ago, Clemson looked to be in great shape. They were 6-3 in the ACC after blowing out Duke a week earlier and then getting their first win at Boston College. They looked very much like a team capable of at least playing on Sunday this weekend. But the Tigers finished the season losing three of four, then bowed out to a Georgia Tech team that simply wanted it more. There’s a feeling that this team hasn’t been playing Clemson basketball of late, and its 7-8 record since it started 16-0 might be one indicator of that.
“We are going to talk about when we were a good team,” said head coach Oliver Purnell. “It is just up to us to believe in ourselves. We have to flip that switch at some point. It has been long enough, so let’s turn that thing back and play some good basketball and win a game.”
- NC State head coach Sidney Lowe said that Farnold Degand didn’t play for disciplinary reasons, and did not elaborate further.
- Lowe added that he felt a couple of players settled for three-point shots instead of being patient and trying to get the ball inside. That was certainly noticeable in comparing the first few minutes to later parts of the game, as part of the Wolfpack’s 21-8 lead came from some patient offense that included baskets from Ben McCauley (14 points on 7-10 shooting). Brandon Costner never got going, scoring just five points and going 1-5 from long range.
“When we were patient, they got it inside and made things happen,” said Lowe. “Even if it came back out for a shot, we were pretty good.”
- With the season over at 10-18, Virginia head coach Dave Leitao tried to go down a positive road in being reflective. With one of his seniors, Mamadi Diane, by his side, he expressed hope that the experience there off the court helped him as well as on the court. On the basketball side, one thing he talked about was the inexperience in the backcourt, which is never an easy thing to overcome.
