Duke and North Carolina were separated by a single game in the ACC standings heading into Sunday; little did Duke know it, but they nearly had a chance to tie the Tar Heels again. However, games against Boston College and Miami, respectively, ended the wrong way for the Devils.
Boston College 80, Duke 74: The same problems that have plagued the Blue Devils all season -- point guard play as well as lack of an inside presence -- came into play again Sunday afternoon.
Wake Forest was on a very unexpected two-game losing streak heading into today's game against Boston College, following losses to Miami and Georgia Tech. The Eagles, meanwhile, were surprisingly all alone in third place in the league.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a tight battle of teams near the top of the ACC -- Wake drubbed Boston College 93-76.
ACC play has officially begun. In their first conference game of the season, the No. 1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels were beaten by unranked Boston College, 85-78.
How the Eagles did it was pretty simple: BC was on fire from behind the arc and clamped down on the Heels defensively. The Eagles also fought on the offensive glass and kept UNC from getting into its deadly transition game. That fact caused the normally poised Tar Heels to take frustration shots and make frustration fouls, which fed the deficit.
This was the first time all season that the Tar Heels have been truly tested. In every other game, they went on huge runs to create distance from their opponents. Of course, those runs are fueled by creating turnovers and getting out on the break and Boston College simply wasn't allowing that. BC kept the Tar Heels in check with a 17-7 run in the middle of the second half and Carolina just couldn't complete the comeback.
The ACC has had an interesting start to the season. You have top-ranked North Carolina just rolling over everyone and flexing their muscle. Duke has looked very impressive for most of the year. Wake Forest and Clemson are still undefeated and climbing the polls.
Still, there have been some bad moments. Miami hasn't looked as good as advertised, Maryland followed up one impressive win by getting blown out twice. Virginia Tech has lost on two buzzer beaters. Then there is the glut of also-rans that litter the bottom half of the league.
Conference season doesn't get into full swing for another week or so and there has already been two league games played. There are some big non-conference game this week (Ga Tech at Alabama, Xavier at Virginia, NC State at Florida, Wake Forest at BYU) but the highlight will be the ACC's top two teams starting conference play.
You'd think that if you held Tyrese Rice to just five field goal attempts that you would be able to handle Boston College. Rice would hit nine of his 12 free throw attempts and helped BC to a 57-55 win over Iowa.
The Eagles nearly gave this one away. They held a 56-45 lead with 4:45 left in the game. So, naturally, BC would score just one point the rest of the way and held off a furious Hawkeye comeback.
The comeback was nearly complete as Iowa's Andrew Brommer had two free throw attempts to tie the game. As Brommer was receiving the ball for a desperation three-pointer to win it, BC's Corey Raji grabbed him with 0.4 seconds left and before he could get a shot off. Brommer would miss the front end of the one-and-one and the game was over.
Brommer is just 3-of-15 from the stripe this year and I don't understand why he was even on the floor at that point of the game. It was Iowa's only missed free throw all night.
Everyone shot bad in this one. Iowa shot just 42%; Boston College shot 38.8%. Rice (15 points) was the only Eagle in double figures.
College basketball is back, ladies and gentlemen! That means it is time for the first ACC Power Poll of the season. Most of this is based on projections, theories and guess-work.
There is always one team that surprises us each year (Miami was that team last year) and one that disappoints us (NC State). Let's begin!
1-North Carolina: There hasn't been a favorite this heavy in a long, long time.
2-Duke: Remember that the Blue Devils were a game from winning the ACC last year. Gerald Henderson is my darkhorse for ACC Player of the Year.
3-Miami-FL: The Canes have a great shot at the ACC Championship and a deep run in the NCAAs.
There will (most likely) be no coaching changes in the ACC this year. There really aren't many of those "one-and-done" guys that other conferences will see leave. So what are the major themes of the ACC's offseason?
-Olympic Games: I must admit that I was surprised that Mike Krzyzewski had his Duke team blazing out of the gate this season. I honestly felt that his Olympic responsibilities would have some sort of effect on the Blue Devils to start this season. Instead, they shot out of the gate and were the #2-ranked team as late as February.
But this July and August will see K's commitment to the Olympic squad hit the highest level. After finishing a pretty good season at Duke and looking towards bigger things in '09, he must go to Beijing and deal with a volatile and thankless job.
If Team USA comes back with the gold, everyone will just say it was because there were better players this time around and the program was more focused. If they don't win it all -- God, help them.
-UNC's Main Men: The Tar Heels were a horrible 12 minutes from getting to the National Championship game this year. If everyone comes back, they could be the favorite to bring home the title.
With the ACC regular season over and done, it's time to go back and give a few awards for the season.
Player of the Year: Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina. Only Antawn Jamison, Tim Duncan and Horace Grant have led the ACC in both scoring and rebounding in the same season over the past 25 years. All three of those guys went on to win the Player of the Year in the ACC (two won the national award).
Coach of the Year: Dino Gaudio, Wake Forest. Va Tech's Seth Greenberg or Miami's Frank Haith may win it (and they would deserve it). But Gaudio came into such a tough situation with a team that hadn't been very good lately. Sure, the magic of the win over Duke was dampered a bit with the ensuing four game losing skid, but this was a big year for
All-ACC Team: Hansbrough, Tyrese Rice (BC), DeMarcus Nelson (Duke), Sean Singletary (UVa) and Greivis Vasquez (UMd). Either this was a great year for guards or a poor year for big men. Either way, Rice and Singletary have been the lone reasons to pay attention to either of their teams. Vasquez, a sophomore, has really stepped into his leadership role at Maryland. Nelson fills the customary senior swingman spot on this team. Just like Vasquez, Nelson's leadership has meant more to Duke than his abilities ... and that is saying quite a bit!
In the second half, Rice was forced to create his own shots off the dribble and added another 12 points. However, he looked a bit tired and struggled to get his shot off against a taller Marcus Ginyard.
Still, Rice's 46 points is the second most points scored this season (Houston's Robert McKiver went for 52 points earlier this week), the second most points scored in BC hoops history (the record is 49 set back in 1964) and is the third most scored by a player against the Tar Heels (Duke's Dick Groat poured in 48 against the Heels in 1952).
Through all that, the Eagles had a 58-40 lead just minutes into the second half. But ...
Two major developments are coming out of Chestnut Hill, MA today. One is the fact that North Carolina guard Ty Lawson has finally come back into the lineup for the first time in a month. He didn't start (Quentin Thomas did) but did come in and play a few minutes in the first half.
The other is Boston College's Tyrese Rice. Rice scored 23 points in the first seven minutes of the game ... and has 34 points in the first half. Rice has hit eight three-pointers thus far (again, it is halftime) and set his career high -- for an entire game!
North Carolina ... one of the best scoring teams in the nation ... has just 40 points at the break.
The odd thing is Lawson is having to guard Rice when he's on the floor. Lawson hasn't played since Super Bowl Sunday when he injured his ankle in the opening minutes against Florida State. Now he's asked to guard on of the best scorers in the ACC ... but when he's feeling it offensively.
Boston College leads the #2 Tar Heels 54-40 at the half.
Onion Peels is a recap of last night's action and an unofficial Bill Raftery blog. 
Wake Forest was on a very unexpected two-game losing streak heading into today's game against Boston College, following losses to Miami and Georgia Tech. The Eagles, meanwhile, were surprisingly all alone in third place in the league.
ACC play has officially begun. In their first conference game of the season, the No. 1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels were beaten by unranked Boston College, 85-78.
The ACC has had an interesting start to the season. You have top-ranked North Carolina just rolling over everyone and flexing their muscle. Duke has looked very impressive for most of the year. Wake Forest and Clemson are still undefeated and climbing the polls. 
You'd think that if you held 
College basketball is back, ladies and gentlemen! That means it is time for the first ACC Power Poll of the season. Most of this is based on projections, theories and guess-work. 
There will (most likely) be no coaching changes in the ACC this year. There really aren't many of those "one-and-done" guys that other conferences will see leave. So what are the major themes of the ACC's offseason?
With the ACC regular season over and done, it's time to go back and give a few awards for the season.
