FanHouse LenElmore

"Chippy" is a term that's thrown out a lot these days. It refers to a sporting contest that gets a little heated without getting violent. Wake Forest, the nation's top-ranked team, and Virginia Tech, a classic "look past" opponent for the Deacs, took that adjective to an entirely different level on Wednesday night in a fantastic ACC battle.

Virginia Tech led by 10 at the break, and as much as 13 throughout the second half, and while there were pendulum-like momentum swings throughout the final 20 minutes, the mistakes made by the Demon Deacons down the stretch resulted in a 78-71 loss to the Hokies. The biggest issue surrounding those mistakes, and something that will be addressed frequently over the next few days, is probably Jeff Teague, who failed to take charge late.

While basketball fans love stats, none really want to hear about boring numbers like graduation rates, grade-point averages and surveys.

College coaches care about those things, which is why they have the Knight Commission meetings. The Knight Commission has been striving for academic reform in college athletics for decades and, over the past four year, punishing programs who fail to meet certain academic and graduation requirements.

Well, as he was sitting and listening to these numbers flow ... Georgia Tech head basketball Paul Hewitt coach got tired of it. He flipped on his mic and had at it:

"While I like to see everyone who reaches college earn a degree," Hewitt said, "we need to find more effective ways to achieve our goals. I do have a problem with putting numbers out there, saying 'Meet these numbers or else. You're turning education into a race."

"I'm getting tired of coaches getting beat up," Hewitt said, "when I think we are doing a very responsible job."

He kind of has a point. Hewitt also said that these pressures on coaches to keep their athletes' grades up may/has forced some of them to steer those students to easier courses. The ACC has discussed this issue in their conference meetings.