Belated basketblog from Greensboro
Even Gary Williams had a take on the Virginia game football officiating yesterday: "The touchdown was legit."
There you have it. Can we move on now?
The Terps were picked to finish sixth in the ACC yesterday by 64 sports reporters (not including me, or Eric from the Post. We're not allowed to vote).
Of course, one of the many topics of conversation was the new bench decorum rules that will be implemented this year, and one of the best guys to ask about it is Gary. He shared this little tidbit with us -- he's only had one technical foul "in this country" in the past two years.
He got T'd up two summers ago in Kuwait, but claims it was a setup. (It was.)
"It was funny," he said. "The guy rips off his referee shirt and has a Duke T-shirt on underneath. Oh yeah, it was great."
Priceless.
So was part of his response to a question about the Duke student body.
"I know Duke has a great tradition with their student body," he said. "They work hard at it. They have those six o'clock practices before their eight o'clock game where they go over their cheers just to make sure they have them right. It's great preparation."
Krzyzewski was at the table next to Williams talking about how he doesn't color his hair (hahaha).
More from media day (and Ralph Friedgen's press conference) tomorrow.
Comments
The Terps ranked 6th? Better than I thought the media would rank them. NC State 3rd? BC 8th? Wow! That's 2 suprises. Heather, from what you've heard, is NC State that good, is BC that bad?
Posted by: UT Cal | October 22, 2007 7:43 PM
UT - Seth Greenberg said he thinks NC State is going to be one of the top teams in the country. I talked to Gavin Grant, he said they're going to be much better. Haven't looked that closely at BC yet.
Posted by: Heather D | October 22, 2007 8:09 PM
Heather,
Who does the scheduling for Terps football? Why is it that when we have a big Thur. nite game, we seem to have a game the previous Sat. We got hammered by WVU and did the same thing last year w/ our Thur. night game. Va Tech has big Thur. night games, but always seem to be smart enough to adjust the schedule so that they have 11 days to prepare.
Posted by: allen | October 23, 2007 3:24 AM
These are some of Gary's comments regarding the sideline rules.
"The "common sense" portion of the rule leaves plenty of gray area. Maryland coach Gary Williams drummed up a scenario in which a coach could earn a technical foul in the first half by yelling at officials, then pick up another technical foul -- and an ejection -- after halftime for something as minor as retrieving a warmup shirt that one of his players left near the scorer's table.
"You say, 'Well, they won't do that,' " Williams said. "Well, that guy wants to work the NCAA Tournament."
Plus, Maryland's Williams pointed out that coaching boxes don't have the same dimensions at different arenas throughout the country.
Posted by: Corn T | October 23, 2007 8:17 AM
UNC
Maryland
Duke
NCST
UVA
BC
UNC
1 Lawson
2 Ellington
3 Ginyard (really a SG)
4 Hansbrough
5 Deon Thompson
Alex Stepheson (PF), William Graves (SF) Danny Green (SF), Bobby Frasor (SG), Quentin Thomas (PG), Michael Copeland (PF), Marc Campbell (G)
Maryland
1 Hayes
2 Vasquez
3 Milbourne
4 Gist
5 Dupree (starter by ACC play)
Osby (C), Bowie (G), Tucker (SF, G), Burney (PF), Walker (PF), Gregory (F), Neal (F)
Duke
1 Paulus
2 Scheyer
3 Nelson
4 Singler
5 Thomas
Zoubek (C) Henderson (SF), McClure (SF), Pocius (SG), Smith (SG) , King (SF)
I hate everything about Duke, but I think it is a stretch to look at that roster and say it is not talented.
To me, they are clearly right with MD as the 2nd best team in the conference.
Paulus was horrible pretty much most of the year, but he did come on towards the end… before the VCU guard sliced and diced him.
Scheyer isn't Reddick, but he is a capable scorer.
Nelson is a decent athlete, and is willing to play defense.
Singler is apparently really a SF, but he was a Top5 player in his class.. Figures to have trouble rebounding, defending against true post players, but scoring should not be a problem.
Thomas isn't a true Center, but Duke will be looking to get the ball up and down the court in transition…. In that roll he will be ok.
They could really use some positive minutes out of Zoubek off the bench……. They have plenty of wings/guards off the bench to rotate in, but we all know that K only goes 7-8 deep.
Against MD, they really will have trouble matching up.
Don't see how they deal with Gist, Dupree, Osby, Burney, and Walker.
Milbourne and Tucker should at least equal Nelson and Henderson at the 3.
Paulus and Hayes is interesting at the 1…..
Scheyer and Vasquez at the 2 are conflicting styles… Scheyer is a better shooter, but gives up several inches to Vasquez, who is much better at creating. Scheyer was hesistant in clutch situations last year, where Vasquez clearly relished a leadership roll.
NC State
1 Gonzalez (Freshman)
2 Fells
3 Grant
4 McCauley
5 Costner
JJ Hickson (C, Freshman), Horner (F, Soph), Tracy Smith (PF, Freshman) , Lewandowski (C, Soph), Harris (SF, Junior), Johnny Thomas (SF, Freshman) Albritton (G, Senior) Marques Johnson, (rs-fr G, transfer Univ of Tenn) Farnold Degand, (Soph, G, transfer Iowa St)
Lots of size, especially with Hickson off the bench… the guard transfers will help.
Haven't looked at their schedule much…. Depending on who and where they play teams in conference, could be elevated in the standings… but talent wise, no better than 4th.
UVA Starters
1 Singletary
2 Jeff Jones
3 Mamadi Diane
4 Adrian Joesph
5 Mike Scott
Harris, Calvin Baker (W&M Transfer), Mikaluasakas, Farrakan
There is some talent here, and Singletary as a Senior should not be discounted... probably enough to go the NCAA's if things break right.. but not a real threat to anyone.
Boston College
We are playing them twice, Al Skinner always has a quality, physically tough team.... its not out of the realm that we go to Boston and win, but road conference games are always a battle.
1 Rice (Junior)
2 Sanders (Freshman)
3 Roche (Soph)
4 Spears (Soph)
5 Southern (Freshman)
Oates (Senior) Raji (Freshman), Kaba (Soph), Haynes (Junior)
Posted by: Chris | October 23, 2007 9:41 AM