ACC Nation (weekend of December 29)

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The guys are taking a break for the holidays, so it’s the Best of ACC Nation this weekend.

Among the interviews featured on the show this week are best-selling author John Feinstein, Wake Forest football coach Jim Grobe, Maryland women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese, Duke golfer Amanda Blumenherst, UVa. lacrosse coach Dom Starsia, ACC commissioner John Swofford and poker star and Georgia Tech graduate Phil Gordon.

Patrick and Chris will return next week with an all new show, but in the meantime enjoy this Best of ACC Nation.

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Around ACC Nation

The ACC Nation guys are on vacation this week, but they figured they could sneak in at least one Around ACC Nation during the holidays. They'll be back next week with a new show (a best of ACC Nation is coming up this weekend) and plenty of new material for the blog. Until then, enjoy the holidays.

Florida State found its offense and the ACC is 1-0 in bowls so far this season.

Bobby Knight will break Dean Smith's all-time win record, but who will break Knight's record? Most likely, Coach K.

There were too many Carolina point guards, now there aren't enough as the Heels get back on the floor.

Good story on Virginia Tech's Branden Ore.

As BC gets ready for Navy, weird is a good word to describe the coaching situation.

And Clemson hoops is getting some respect.

Around ACC Nation

The rape charges against three Duke lacrosse players have been dropped.

Maryland will face American today with a possible new lineup, while Frank Haith is looking for some leadership at Miami.

North Carolina won in Tyler Hansbrough's homecoming. Other winners in men's basketball included Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. North Carolina State and Clemson won on the women's side.

Reggie Ball will appeal his "D" grade in a class that made him academically ineligible, but it won't get him back in Georgia Tech's bowl game.

Jeff Bowden was the first to leave. Now Billy Sexton has stepped down, and there could be more coaching movement at Florida State.

Around ACC Nation

Duke may have silenced some of their critics last night with a win over Gonzaga.

Virginia Tech rolled to victory.

Virginia technically won, but it wasn't pretty.

And Florida State survived against Coastal Carolina.

Boston College introduced its new football coach.

Taylor Bennett will take over for Reggie Ball in Georgia Tech's bowl game.

ACC Nation (weekend of December 22)

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On ACC Nation this week, the Doc is in the house as Patrick and Chris talk with Doc Walker, analyst on telecasts of ACC football games. The three preview some of the top bowl games featuring ACC teams.

Plus, Beth Mowins of ESPN joins the guys to talk women’s basketball as three ACC teams remain among the best in the nation.

Being the holiday season, Patrick and Chris are in the giving mood. They hand out grades to the four schools who recently hired football coaches, and, in the Sound and the Fury, they give presents to several figures around the conference.

That and more on ACC Nation

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A fitting end to the Reggie Ball era

And so this is how the Reggie Ball years will end.
Raise your hand if you're not surprised to hear that the Georgia Tech quarterback was ruled academically ineligible for the Yellow Jackets' Jan. 1 Gator Bowl game with West Virginia.
My hand is up - not because I didn't think that Ball was a smart kid or anything, but because it just seems a fitting way for him to end his time in Atlanta.
Ball is the rare Division I-A college quarterback who started from the first game of his freshman year - I remember seeing him take the field against BYU in a nationally televised ESPN game and wondering aloud how good he was going to be by the time he was a senior.
The answer to that musing was that he was never really going to get any better - indeed, it was all downhill from there, in a manner of speaking.
After completing 51.7 percent of his passes as a freshman for 1,996 yards and 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, Ball went on to have back-to-back-to-back seasons in which he completed less than 50 percent of his throws.
His senior season was by far his worst - he completed just 44.4 percent of his passes despite having a first-team All-American wide receiver in Calvin Johnson to bail him out whenever plays broke down.
His career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 57 TDs and 55 INTs speaks volumes - despite having all the talent in the world, Ball was just not able to translate ability into success on the field.
And now he's not even going to be on the field - a senior quarterback having failed to keep his grades up so that he could lead his team to battle one last time.
Unbelievable.
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

Georgia Tech's Reggie Ball won't play in the Gator Bowl after he was declared academically ineligible. Mark Bradley writes about the strange career of Ball.

Clemson may be missing a cornerback for its bowl game after Duane Coleman was arrested yesterday.

North Carolina State almost pulled off an upset. Meanwhile, what the heck has happened to Virginia, which has now dropped two games to lesser opponents in Puerto Rico? Miami was also shocked yesterday.

There's no Redick or Morrison, but tonight Duke battles Gonzaga.

The new Boston College coach doesn't have a great resume, but he has lots of energy, according to this story. That's something, I guess.

Maryland's defense may not be great, but it's united. That's something also, I guess.

Winter in Boise. There's nothing like it.

An Orange Bowl apperance must be worth something as Wake Forest is moving ahead with plans to renovate Groves Stadium.

Bales leading Blue Devils

Beth Mowins said something to me the other night that, on the surface, seemed strange. The ESPN announcer said that the Duke women’s team had the advantage this season of flying under the radar.

Keep in mind how difficult it is for a team ranked No. 4 in the nation to fly under anyone’s radar, but then consider that, maybe, Mowins has a point.

Maryland is the defending national champion and is the top-ranked team in the country. North Carolina is No. 2 and the team many think will challenge the Terps. Duke, for now, is only the third best team in its own conference, and they lost a great player from last year’s national runner-up in Mo Currie. So, maybe they are a bit under some people’s radar.

Still, anyone who ignores this Blue Devils team does so at great risk. With a 55-46 win over No. 21 Bowling Green in Cancun, Mexico, Tuesday night, Duke has beaten four ranked teams in a row and has yet to lose a game. Or even come close to losing one. The nine-point win over Bowling Green was the first single-digit victory for the Devils this season. Before that the closest win for Duke was 21 against both Vanderbilt and Marist.

Alison Bales led the way against Bowling Green with 15 points, eight rebounds and six blocks. When Duke beat previously unbeaten Vanderbilt earlier this month, Bales had 16 points, nine boards and five blocks. Add that to an 11-point, eight-rebound performance in a win over Rutgers and 10 points, five rebounds and four blocks against Texas and its easy to see that Bales is one of the most important players for this Duke team.

After a breakout performance in last year’s NCAA Tournament, many wondered if Bales would maintain that level this season or regress to the player that some thought had underachieved for most of her first three seasons.

So far, so good this season for Bales.

“I would think she would be the most improved player in the county,” Mowins said. “Ali Bales has just picked up right where she left off.”

Coming into Tuesday night’s game, Bales was averaging 11.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and five blocks a game, all better than last season’s numbers. She’s also shooting 51.9 percent from the floor. But it’s something else that can’t be seen in the numbers that caught Mechelle Voepel’s attention.

“She also developed what I love to see out of a big woman, or a big man - the intelligent floor vision, the ability to pass out of double teams, not to force things when they aren’t there,” Voepel told ACC Nation when the ESPN.com writer appeared on the show recently. “I think that’s a real strength of hers.”

Her defense has improved also, according to both Voepel and Mowins.

“She is such a dominating, disruptive presence on the defensive end,” Mowins said.

Voepel said Bales has learned to use her size advantage – she’s 6-7 – to the maximum. That’s been a major plus on both defense and offense. On defense she is one of the top shot blockers in the game, while on offense she has made herself a nice target for her teammates to find under the basket.

Bales also worked hard over the summer to get in better shape. It shows.

“I think she’s in the best shape of her career which means … at times (last year) when the other four Duke players were running the floor she was still down at the other end,” Mowins said. “Now they can actually get all five players out on the break and run a little bit more.”

Voepel said Bales has improved every year on two or three aspects of her game, something the ESPN.com writer likes to see. Mowins seconded that opinion.

“She has just improved so much, not only from her freshman year to now, but from the middle of last season to now,” Mowins said. “She is obviously playing with a lot of confidence.”

If she continues doing that, and Duke continues routing opponents, they won’t remain under the radar much longer - if they ever were there to begin with.

- Patrick Hite

Around ACC Nation

Green Bay assistant will be the new BC coach, while Miami assistant to take over at FIU.

NC State players don't believe media predictions.

Florida State gets win over High Point in men's hoops, while Georgia Tech got an easy victory.

In women's basketball, Virginia Tech and North Carolina were winners, as was Georgia Tech. Virginia wasn't so lucky.

Wake Forest may not make money off this bowl game, but an appearance in the Orange Bowl may help the Deacons turn a profit down the road.

Virginia Tech's backup quarterback in alcohol treatment program and won't be traveling with his team to its bowl game.

We do it to ourselves, folks

College-sports fans need to take a chill pill - OK, maybe we need to take out a prescription.
You know, so we can get the whole bottle.
We all want our coaches fired - well, maybe not if you're a UNC or Duke basketball fan, or Virginia Tech football fan.
Er, actually it hasn't been that long since Tech fans turned on Frank Beamer - remember that 6-0 start that turned into an 8-5 finish in 2003?
So yeah, even somebody like Beamer isn't above being almost being run out of town.
We all want championships - conference championships, national championships.
But guess what - only one team gets to win the ACC, and only one gets to be #1 in the country at the end of the year.
The odds are a little better that you can win a conference title - though one in 12 ain't exactly great odds.
Winning one of those national titles is a bit harder - you're talking one in 119 for football or one in 330-something for basketball, just for starters.
And since we're all wanting one of those, and all raising money for scholarships, and all raising money for new facilities, ad nauseam, it shouldn't be a surprise that most of the time (the vast majority of the time; 99.9 percent of the time) we fall short.
Which brings us back to how we all want our coaches fired. Sure, I understand that part of the pressure that we've all put on them results in them being paid gobs of money to bring home those titles that we so desperately want. So when they fall short, it's hard to feel too sorry for them - they still get the golden parachute out the door, after all.
No, I'm not defending them - I'm lamenting us.
It's us who keep our schools from being legitimate title contenders the way we want to railroad this coach or that coach after a year or two of not meeting our self-imposed out-of-this-world expectations.
Programs aren't built in a day - unless you're Bob Huggins at Kansas State, who was reportedly out recruiting players before he even knew what school he was going to be working at after being let go at Cincinnati.
It takes a few recruiting classes, a special win or two, a surprise bowl appearance or NCAA tournament run - and then the expectations can go through the roof.
It's gotten so out of whack these days that at my alma mater, the University of Virginia, the fans began talking excitedly about an NCAA tourney berth for this year's team because last year's team went 15-15.
You can guess what might happen next - if the program fails to live up to those lofty projections, the fans are going to grumble, and grumbling fans soon sour, and then ...
We do it to ourselves, folks - that's all I'm saying here.
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

Virginia Tech edged Wake Forest in ACC opener for both teams. It was a win the Hokies needed.

The Carolina women head for Myrtle Beach. The BC women got a win.

Tommy Bowden and Steve Spurrier get into a war of words.

Around ACC Nation

New starters, new result for Miami hoops. North Carolina State faced a bigger challenge than expected, but eventually pulled away from Mount St. Mary's. North Carolina got an easy win. So did Virginia, although its coach wasn't around to see it.

Is Clemson's fast start for real? Grant Wahl writes the jury is still out.

Boston College has completed its interviews for a new football coach.

The ACC is helping Virginia Tech in basketball recruiting. Tech opens its ACC season tonight with Wake Forest.

Speaking of Virginia Tech, we missed this on Friday, but apparently former Hokie Marcus Vick isn't out of hot water just yet from his affair with an underage girl.

Florida State is preparing for UCLA, but right now Bobby Bowden is focusing on other things. Georgia Tech's Philip Wheeler is looking into jumping to the NFL.

The Virginia women woke up in the second half to destroy Cleveland State. North Carolina rolled to a win also, as did Miami.

Former ACC assistant game-plans for Singletary

Was that a blueprint that we saw drawn up and executed by Hampton coach Kevin Nickelberry?
Because it sure looked like one - for future opponents of Virginia interested in keeping the ball out of the hands of star UVa. guard Sean Singletary, that is.
Nickelberry used what almost looked like a football Cover 2 scheme to contain Singletary - using one defender to front him and a second one bracketing him from behind to keep the ball from going his way. And then when Singletary was able to get ball, Pirates defenders doubled him almost immediately to force it out of his hands.
The approach seemed to work quite well in the first half of Virginia's 91-69 win over Hampton Saturday - disrupting any offensive flow that the Cavs had wanted to get going as they limped to the locker room with a narrow six-point halftime lead and a ton of frustration on their shoulders.
"Our goal was not to let them run their offense," said Hampton coach Kevin Nickelberry, a former Clemson assistant who knew going in how much of a load Singletary was going to be for his team.
"I know most of their plays having been in the ACC - so I knew what they wanted to run," Nickelberry said. "We thought if we could keep them out of their flow, like we did in the first half, make them score the way we play, make it ugly, get some charges on Singletary, frustrate them a little bit, that we could stay in the game.
"I think we did a pretty good job in the first half, but we just didn't respond in the second half," Nickelberry said.
After limiting Singletary to one field goal and forcing four turnovers in the first half, Hampton seemed to run out of gas coming out of the locker room - and the junior finished with a season-high 27 points, including going 14-for-16 at the free-throw line.
But even that being the case, Virginia coach Dave Leitao has plenty of room for concern as his team gets ready for the San Juan Shootout next week and Atlantic Coast Conference play coming up after the first of the year.
"Part of my concern this game and all year long will be that you need alternative ballhandlers," Leitao said after the game.
"What they tried to do is to force the action away from Sean. What should not have happened is for the guys who did get it to be stagnant," Leitao said.
"They still had the ability to attack - especially in the whole court, the open court - and I thought in the first half they didn't do that with the kind of confidence that they should have," Leitao said.
Swingman Adrian Joseph and power forward Jason Cain - a 6-11 post player with deft open-court ballhandling skills - were more assertive in helping assist Singletary in getting the ball up the court and getting the offense going in the second half.
Still, Leitao would like to see his team do more in the open court to make plays - and then finish plays.
"Every time the ball was attacked via the dribble, something good - a very high percentage shot - came of it. When it wasn't, when either in the half or full court, breaking pressure, we settled for a jump shot, then that's all we got - whether it went in, or obviously a lot of times it was missed. We were only 6-of-24 from three-point land," Leitao said.
"That's something that we're trying to get them to balance - not just for this game, but overall," Leitao said. "We have the potential for a lot of people to make perimeter shots - but there's a very fine line of telling a shooter to hold up versus encouraging them to shoot. We've got to toe that very fine line to get to the point where we understand that what gets us high-percentage shots and makeable shots."
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

With Carolina's other two point guards hurt, Ty Lawson will do the job solo today. Here's another story on Lawson.

The old and the new work together at the U as Miami prepares for its bowl game. Florida State is also getting ready for its bowl appearance.

Good story on Clemson's Anthony Waters as the Tigers prepare for Kentucky.

Virginia will play four games in six days after the exam break.

Glenn Sharpe of Miami wins the Brian Piccolo Award.

Around ACC Nation

The NCAA is up to no good again, this time trying to get rid of male practice players in the women's game. Check out Mechelle Voepel's column on this on the right side of the page. Here's yet one more item on the subject.

The latest on the investigation into the murder of Bryan Pata.

Tommy Bowden to Alabama? He says no.

Recruiting news out of UVa.

ACC Nation (weekend of December 15)

On ACC Nation this week, Patrick and Chris talk with Ned Barnett of the News and Observer about Tom O’Brien, N.C. State ’s new football coach.

Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald joins the guys to discuss UM’s hiring of Randy Shannon as its football coach.

And Friend of the Nation, Luci Chavez, who covers Duke basketball for the News and Observer, breaks downs the Blue Devils to this point in the season.

Plus, on the Sound and the Fury, Patrick and Chris discuss whether or not Roy Williams will someday hold the record for most wins in men’s college basketball history.

That and more on ACC Nation.

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Voepel breaks down the three-headed monster

The three-headed monster of Maryland, North Carolina and Duke will be a tough one for their Atlantic Coast Conference opponents to slay.
But ESPN.com basketball writer Mechelle Voepel thinks it is possible for somebody like a Virginia or Florida State to take one of the heads down at some point in the 2006-2007 season.
"There's a chance somebody might upset one of them - I think that can always happen. Particularly those two teams that you mention - because both of those teams are athletic, and both are well-coached," Voepel told "ACC Nation" last week.
"I don't think that there's any chance that anybody but one of those three wins the ACC, though. There's always a chance, especially on the road, that you could get knocked off - but it's going to be one of those three," Voepel said.
Maryland has fought off two upset bids already this season - holding off Middle Tennessee State in their opener by an 80-76 count and then beating back a game Temple Owls team last weekend in Philadelphia by a 77-66 final.
"That first game was the type of game that a team like Maryland is going to get from now on," Voepel said. "It's the type of game that a Tennessee or a UConn gets. Middle Tennessee has improved their program. They had 10,000 people there. It was probably the biggest game that they've ever played. And Maryland stood up to that challenge - and I think has been very solid since then."
Carolina has also faced a tough challenge - a Dec. 3 home date with Tennessee that it won by 70-57 despite sloppy play (43 fouls, 49 turnovers) on the part of both teams.
"I have to tell you - I don't much care for watching Carolina play," Voepel said. "And I say that not in a way to criticize them - but I don't think they're a team that is that much fun to watch play when they play a game like that. It is very sloppy. That game I didn't think was fun at all to watch. I kind of prefer a team that is a little more disciplined on offense - but by the same token, the strategy that Carolina takes has worked for them, so you have to respect that."
Duke has that kind of discipline - and maybe has the best team that it has been able to put on the court in recent years in spite of the loss of All-Everything forward Monique Currie.
"I always loved Mo Currie as a player - but at times she would either disappear in moments when she was most needed, or she wouldn't necessarily be the most disciplined player," Voepel said.
"I think that the team they have right now is very disciplined - but also up-tempo. They've got so many weapons - and if they get Chante Black back, especially, you're talking about them having as good a frontcourt as any team in the country. And that's saying a lot," Voepel said.
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

No DNA from the Duke lacrosse players found on victim.

Here's the latest on the BC search for its next football coach.

We missed this story yesterday, but, despite the much-publicized brawl at this year's game, Miami and Florida International will play football against one another again next season.

N.C. State has another coaching vacancy. The Wolfpack has fired its diving coach.

You know it's a slow news day when we've already posted about a diving coach being fired and now we post a story on Duke's Martynas Pocius.

Was Staley appearance a harbinger of return to UVa.?

The pregame tribute to Dawn Staley wasn't something that the University of Virginia women's basketball legend didn't expect.
"Any time I come back on the Grounds here at Virginia, the fans are always pouring out the love and the applause - and certainly I didn't think it was going to be any different. We've had some great memories here at Virginia - and no fan that has ever been a part of Virginia history will ever let those days go by without recognizing them," said Staley, a two-time national player of the year at UVa., who brought her Temple team to Charlottesville on Nov. 29 for her second career game against her former mentor, Debbie Ryan.
The Cavs won the game, 71-65 - but it is not out of the realm of possibility that Staley will yet coach a winner in the new John Paul Jones Arena, which is located across the street from her old stomping grounds at University Hall.
The talk is hot and heavy that the 2006-2007 season could be Ryan's last at the helm at Virginia - and that Staley, who recently retired from professional basketball after a stellar 10-year career, is in line to be her replacement.
Staley didn't address those rumors in her postgame interview with "ACC Nation" - but Kansas City Star and ESPN.com basketball writer Mechelle Voepel doesn't view the reports as being all that farfetched.
"I've got to be honest with you - I'd love to see Dawn at Virginia," Voepel told "ACC Nation" last week. "She's one of the all-time wonderful people to come out of ACC sports. Obviously it's her alma mater.
"I don't want to talk about Debbie Ryan retiring until she's ready to do it - but I hope that if that happens, then Dawn Staley's at the top of their list," Voepel said.
Staley's focus for now is on Temple - which is 4-4 in 2006-2007 after a 77-66 loss to top-ranked Maryland on Sunday. The Owls went 24-8 last season and entered the current campaign as the three-time defending Atlantic 10 champs.
They play a style of basketball that reminds those who watch them of their coach - a fiery point guard who was always on the go.
"I approach basketball the same way whether I'm playing or coaching. There's a certain way that you need to respect the game. You have to practice in a certain way, you have to think about it a certain way. You have to study it. And you have to love it - you have to be very passionate about it," Staley told "ACC Nation."
"I know one way to do things - and that's just to work hard. And if you do that, it'll put you on the right path. If you're on the wrong path, it'll give you some discipline and understanding at the same time," Staley said.
Staley later addressed one other set of rumors - regarding a possible return to playing basketball in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics. She ruled out any chance of that happening - saying that her attention is squarely on coaching at this point in her life.
"It's a game that I grew up playing - so it was a natural fit for me to move into coaching, since I had been playing point guard for some time. As a coach, you're playing it from a different angle," Staley said.
Not that being a former national player of the year who led her college team to three Final Fours and her national team to three gold medals is that far back in the rearview.
"I think it gives me instant credibility in recruiting. It gives me something tangible and our players something tangible to look and see and feel and know that I'm not asking them to do anything that I haven't done. And it gives me a character to be able to go in front of them and say, You work hard at this game, you do what we're asking you to do as a staff, and a lot of good things will come your way," Staley said.
- Chris Graham

Yow continues recovery; team continues to play

When the time comes, Stephanie Glance will be happy to slide back into the shadows. For now, Glance is serving as head coach for the N.C. State women’s basketball team, but it will be a good day when she returns to her role as associate head coach.

That will mean that the legendary Kay Yow has returned to the team after her latest battle with breast cancer. Three weeks ago, Yow announced that she would be stepping down indefinitely as State’s head coach while she underwent treatment for a disease she was first diagnosed with 17 years ago. She had a reoccurrence of the disease two years ago, and then again this past November.

“The team is responding as well as they can to Coach Yow’s absence,” Glance told reporters in a teleconference Tuesday. “It’s been very difficult for them as well as the staff, but everyone has made a commitment to step up and to do our best to keep things together and to represent Coach Yow and NC State during her absence.”

The team has actually responded very well on the court, winning five of the six games with Glance in charge. But, for now, winning games has become secondary to getting Yow healthy again.

“When she’s out because of a life threatening disease, I think that makes it tough for everyone,” Glance said.

The interim head coach said her boss is doing as well as can be expected, with some good days and some bad days. She will continue with chemotherapy for a while, then some more tests will be run. As for her return, Glance said the doctors and Yow will make the determination after the tests.

“Her approach to this whole thing is just kind of reflective of her approach to life,” Glance said. “She just takes on obstacles and adversity and just meets them head on and she never gets too high or too low in any situation, that includes the wins and the loses.”

Yow definitely has the respect of everyone around the women’s game. She’s now in her 32nd season at N.C. State, having led the Wolfpack to five regular-season conference titles, 10 Sweet 16 trips and a Final Four appearance. The hall-of-fame coach also guided Team USA to a gold medal in 1988.

But it’s her passion for teaching, as much as coaching, the game that has earned much respect from others

“She’s one of those people who got into the game back when there was really no money, there was no prestige in it, there was no glory in the game,” Mechelle Voepel, who covers women’s basketball for the Kansas City Star and ESPN.com, told ACC Nation. “She got into it because she loves to teach. And if you talk to any of her former players, I think, almost universally, what they’ll say is, she’s a teacher as much as a coach. She’s somebody who always wanted to pass on life lessons as much as basketball lessons.”

In a statement released by the University last week, Yow said there are more good days than bad ones, but it seemed she was more concerned about the pressure placed on her staff by her absence.

“My staff has been able to take a great burden off of me,” Yow said in the statement. “At the same time, it has also been a great burden on them. One of the things about the diagnosis is that it happened so quickly. We didn't really have time to talk about it.”

She first met with her doctor on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and had the results of the tests by the following Tuesday. The team was scheduled to leave Wednesday, Nov. 22, for a two-game road trip out west. Yow didn’t go, and her staff had to take over immediately.

Virginia coach Debbie Ryan battled pancreatic cancer in 2000, and, while she didn’t miss any games, she still had to rely heavily on her staff to do a lot of the things, including recruiting, that she would normally do.

“Obviously a staff is hugely important in a situation like this,” Ryan said when asked about the N.C. State program. “I know that I leaned on my staff when I had to be operated on and treated for cancer. So it’s hugely important to have a very good staff in place. I know that Kay does have an excellent staff and they’re doing a tremendous job and I don’t think she has any worries (about who’s running her team). I think she can step out and take care of her health and then step right back in and she won’t miss a beat.”

In the meantime, the Wolfpack staff will continue to lead the team, which doesn’t play again until Dec. 20. Glance said no timeline has been established for Yow’s return, but that everyone hopes it’s sooner rather than later.

Said Voepel, “I think everybody is very worried and concerned and hopeful that she is back on the sidelines, because she is really one of the … I would say one of the icons of the game because people admire her so much for the person she is as well as the coach she is.”

- Patrick Hite

Around ACC Nation

Boston College is eyeing Steeler assistant for football opening. Here's another coach that is in the running for either the top job or an assistant's job with the Eagles.

Maryland is the latest in the D.C. area to fall from the top 25.

Miami was beaten soundly by Mississippi State.

Duke counters Carolina's masquerade.

Georgia Tech needs to improve on the road.

More Carolina coaches are let go by Butch Davis.

Here's more on the Jeff Bowden severance package.

Clemson freshman wide receiver will transfer.

The ACC bowl season (yawn ...)

There isn't an appealing Atlantic Coast Conference-related football bowl matchup among the eight games involving ACC teams this year - which actually doesn't surprise me.
OK, so I should point out that I think the bowl system needs to go the way of checkered blazers and the Heisman Trophy as being anachronistic relics of the past.
But that said, I've been trying mightily to find something in the way of a bowl game involving the ACC worthy of the time that I'm going to have to devote to watching it - and I can't find anything that fits that bill.
Starting at the top ... Wake Forest-Louisville in the Orange Bowl? Nothing against the Cardinals, but my wish here was that Wake would have been rewarded for its dream season with a game with a more traditional power - say, an LSU or Notre Dame.
How about Georgia Tech-West Virginia in the Gator? Er, Tech hasn't been the same since its impressive win over Virginia Tech way, way back toward the start of the season. The Clemson beatdown in October was among a string of uninspired performances that finished out what had looked to be a promising 2006 campaign for the Yellow Jackets.
Which brings us to Virginia Tech-Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Putting my wishing cap back on, I would've loved to have seen Tech playing West Virginia in the Gator - that one would have tempted me to want to buy tickets and fly down to Jacksonville so I could see these two in person.
But Tech-Georgia ... not so much. The Hokies are head-and-shoulders better than the Bulldogs on both sides of the ball - and my guess is that this one will be over shortly after halftime, at the latest.
As for the rest of them ... you can have them, honestly. The only bowl game that matters anymore is the one-game, two-team playoff for the national title that this year pits top-ranked Ohio State against the nation's third-best team, Florida.
The rest of the schedule is filled with overrated exhibitions played by teams who will have had three or four or five or more weeks off since their last game - and thus three or four or five or more weeks of rust to shake off by the time it comes to get back on the field.
If it wasn't my job to have to comment on what happens in them, believe me, I would spend my time on more productive and worthwhile pursuits (cutting my toenails, doodling, making sure all of my Pez dispensers were filled, et cetera.
So if I was you ... well, consider yourself lucky that you don't have to pretend that you care.
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

Miami introduced its new coach. Dan Le Batard writes that the new coach, Randy Shannon, has a support system in place as he takes over the Hurricanes.

Ned Barnett suggested that it wasn't very neighborly for NC State to steal a coach from a fellow ACC member. While we at ACC Nation agree, Barnett has found out not everyone does.

Meanwhile, BC's assistants prepare to coach the team in its bowl game as Tom O'Brien has already left the building.

Clemson's James Davis questions his future.

Roy Williams should win his 500th game tonight. Meanwhile, his mentor will soon drop to second in all-time wins.

Mouhammad Faye is still adjusting to Georgia Tech.

And the Virginia Tech athletics department will make a lot of money from Nike.

Inside the O'Brien saga

What was Tom O'Brien thinking? For that matter, what was Boston College thinking?
The big news of the year in Atlantic Coast Conference football isn't the surprise championship run of Wake Forest - no, it has to be, without a doubt, the departure of BC coach O'Brien to ACC rival North Carolina State.
This kind of thing - one ACC school stealing a coach from another - just doesn't happen.
Which leads us to ask ... why?
It's easy to figure out State's motivation - O'Brien is a top-notch coach who has won consistently as a coordinator (at Virginia) and as a head man.
Why O'Brien would want to leave BC generally isn't hard to figure, either - as great as it is that he has been able to win there, the facilities at BC are below-standard for a BCS school, and you have to wonder about the commitment of the athletics department at the school to football, one, and the commitment of the fan base, two, to college sports in what is obviously a pro-sports town.
On to question three - regarding what BC was thinking letting O'Brien go. And let's not kid ourselves here - they're letting him go, if the talk about how they're interested in former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie (at a substantial difference in pay over what they were compensating O'Brien) has any validity at all.
Perhaps the school was not as impressed as the rest of us were at O'Brien being able to bring in eight or nine wins every year - and they wanted more.
I think we can all identify with that. Can't we?
I mean, that's why I'm writing this story - right?
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

Miami has found its man.

NC State fans are happy to have Tom O'Brien coaching their team. Caulton Tudor writes that OB brings stability to the Wolfpack, but his departure has hurt some BC players.

North Carolina will rely heavily on Booster Club money to pay their new coach. Some think that is a problem.

Calvin Johnson was named the nation's top receiver. Vince Hall is the top player in Virginia.

Florida State won in men's hoops. Miami's Anthony King is out at least three weeks. Duke scored eight points on one possession to beat Vanderbilt last night in women's basketball.

ACC Nation (weekend of Dec. 8)

On ACC Nation this week, Jim Johnson of the Courtmaster.net joins Patrick and Chris to talk about Wake Forest ’s win in the ACC title game and Maryland ’s quick start in men’s hoops, while Mechelle Voepel of ESPN.com discusses women’s ACC basketball with the guys.

Plus, NC State has a new coach and, as a result, Boston College needs one. We’ll talk about the upcoming bowl games and, as always, there’s the Sound and the Fury.

That and more on ACC Nation.

Click here to listen

Around ACC Nation

North Carolina State appears to have its man, and it's not the one you thought. It looks as if Boston College's Tom O'Brien will be the next Wolfpack football coach. Ned Barnett writes that the Wolfpack are breaking an unwritten rule with this move.

Bernie Kosar still wants the Miami job.

Duke actually trailed at halftime, but the Blue Devils eventually put away Holy Cross last night. Maryland also won last night.

Around ACC Nation

Here's an interesting twist in Miami's search for coach - former UM quarterback Bernie Kosar is now, apparently, a candidate.

North Carolina State, meanwhile, wants Navy's Paul Johnson.

Butch Davis is already the man in Carolina, now he's working on his staff.

BC's Tom O'Brien says he's not going anywhere.

And Tommy Bowden's contract won't be extended at Clemson after the team fell apart down the stretch.

Everyone involved with the Wake Forest football program is feeling pretty good right now.

Is it too early?

Sitting at the North Carolina State-Virginia basketball game Sunday, I kept thinking that the game was just too early. The calendar had, after all, just barley flipped from November to December, and the ACC football title game hadn’t even been over a good 24 hours. And yet, just three days into December, here I was watching two ACC basketball teams play a conference game. Too early.

And it wasn’t the only ACC game either. Georgia Tech was busy losing to Miami on the same day. Two teams - North Carolina State and Georgia Tech - that are relying heavily on inexperienced players to carry them far this season had to hit the road for ACC games, and both came out on the wrong end of the score. State fell to Virginia, while Miami upset Georgia Tech.

“It’s a disadvantage playing against any conference team this early, whether you’re an experienced team or not,” State coach Sidney Lowe said after his team’s game. “The ACC, it’s a battle, it’s a war. If you go on the road it’s tough. But I don’t want to make excuses for our guys.”

Excuse or not, it seemed very early to me for a conference game. But maybe it was just me. So, I asked Dan Bonner, who worked the television broadcast of the State-Virginia game for Fox Sports Net, if he thought it was too early.

“The difference between the old days and now is not the earlier start of conference games, but the earlier start of the season itself,” Bonner said. “Thirty years ago, practice started October 15 and the first games were played during the first week in December.”

Bonner should know because he was playing in the ACC then. Bonner played for UVa. and remembers some early conference games.

“My freshman year, we played Duke on December 4 and Maryland on December 8, both home games, respectively, our second and third games of the year,” Bonner said. “Sophomore year, we played at Wake Forest in our third game of the year on December 8. Junior year, we played Duke on December 8 in our third game of the year. During my senior year at Virginia, we opened the season at home on December 2 - won a squeaker over Washington and Lee - played game number two on December 4 at home against Kent State - we murdered them by way - and then played at NC State on December 7.”

Bonner makes a good point – from an historical perspective, the games aren’t really that early this season, and, in terms of when they fall on a team’s schedule, the conference games are actually later this year. In other words, the four teams that played games on Sunday had more game experience before they entered conference play than teams did three decades ago.

“Starting the season during the first week in November is really early and is, in my view, at least a slight disadvantage to younger teams,” Bonner said. “But starting ACC play in early December is par for the course in the history of the ACC and is no more an advantage or disadvantage now than it was in the 1960-61 season when Virginia played Maryland in its first game of the season on December 3, and then played at North Carolina in its second game on December 6.”

Point well taken. But it still seemed early.

- Patrick Hite

Around ACC Nation

A big weekend for North Carolina's women's teams. The Tar Heels won the soccer national title and beat Tennessee in women's basketball.

Wake will face Louisville in the Orange Bowl. Here are the other seven ACC teams in bowl games this season.

The men's ACC basketball conference schedule got under way yesterday, with Virginia beating North Carolina State and Miami upsetting Georgia Tech. Florida State pulled an upset of its own, while Maryland blew a lead and fell to Notre Dame.

And Miami will talk to Greg Schiano about the Canes' football coaching job

The impossible dream
I said this summer on one of our "ACC Nation" football previews that it looked to me that Wake Forest could easily start the season 5-0 - and then from there, who knows?
I have to admit that I never in a million years would have expected Jim Grobe's team to go from that 5-0 start that I foresaw to an 11-2 finish that would land the Demon Deacons in the Orange Bowl.
And that's before factoring in that the two players that we focused our interview with Grobe on back in August - quarterback Ben Mauk and tailback Micah Andrews - went down in the opener and Week 3, respectively, with season-ending injuries.
"We're a football team that will really appreciate being in the Orange Bowl," said Grobe, whose Wake program won its first conference title in 36 years with its 9-6 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday in Jacksonville.
"We don't take anything for granted. I can tell you that they're really, really excited to be in a BCS game. Sometimes teams take playing bowl games for granted, but we're one team that will be truly excited to still be playing football," Grobe said.
The Deacs were getting ready for the offseason this time a year ago - after entering the 2005 campaign with expectations of a possible bowl berth, Wake stumbled to a 4-7 finish.
Now they're preparing for Louisville, the Big East champ, who finished the 2006 regular season 11-1 and were sixth in the final BCS standings.
"We know we have our work cut out for us," Grobe said of the Cardinals. "I've seen them on TV. They're very explosive on offense and they're a very good defensive football team. They're very impressive."
Not as impressive, in my mind, as Wake Forest - which you have to put on the short list of the most overachieving teams in college-football history.
- Chris Graham

Gotta love the BCS
The BCS has spoken.
It's message - I'm outdated.
This is the only thing that we can conclude from the fiasco that is the end to the 2006 college-football season.
Voters in the Harris and coaches polls decided that they didn't want an Ohio State-Michigan rematch - with all due respect to Florida, that's why the Gators were given the title-game spot with the Buckeyes.
You want proof of that? You need to look no further than the computers - which had the Wolverines and Gators tied for second behind Ohio State.
It was the leapfrog maneuver that the voters in the Harris Poll and coaches poll used to move Florida ahead of Michigan that put the 12-1 Gators ahead of the 11-1 Michigan team.
Somehow, some way, Michigan got worse on Saturday despite not having played a down.
That, or Florida's 38-28 win over Arkansas wasn't as sloppy as it appeared to be to me.
I don't know, blowing a 17-0 lead and regaining momentum only when your opponent fumbles a punt inside the 3-yard line doesn't come across as noteworthy to me.
But I digress.
This is what the BCS gives us, ladies and germs - endless debates over the merits of this one-loss team or that one, ruminations over whether hot two-loss teams like LSU or Virginia Tech might not be getting the short end of the stick ...
Alas, the idiots-that-be in charge of college football seem to think this is what passes for an end to their season.
My message to the BCS - nothing personal, but drop dead.
- Chris Graham

Around ACC Nation

Wake Forest used some razzle dazzle to win the ACC title game over Georgia Tech yesterday in Jacksonville. It was the first conference title for the Deacons since 1970. Wake will now go to the Orange Bowl, while Georgia Tech most likely will return to Jacksonville to play in the Gator Bowl.

We'll find out for sure today, but here are ESPN's projections for who will be where this bowl season.

Duke rallied to beat Georgetown, while North Carolina had enough to top Kentucky.

The North Carolina women's soccer team will play for another national title today. There were two ACC teams in the men's soccer semifinals, but there will be none in the finals. Both Virginia and Wake Forest went down yesterday.

Around ACC Nation

North Carolina is headed back to the women's soccer championship game, but Florida State came up just short. Meanwhile, in the men's tournament, the semifinals, featuring both Virginia and Wake Forest, were postponed until today.

The ring's the thing, and it will be decided today in Jacksonville as Wake Forest plays Georgia Tech for the ACC football title. The coaches at Wake and Tech should be familiar with the Jacksonville area. But what happens to the loser of today's game?

Can North Carolina come down from its high after beating Ohio State?

Maryland's back, although Gary Williams isn't sure where they went.

Duke needs Greg Paulus to recover from his slow start as it prepares to play Georgetown tonight.

Clemson and South Carolina take their rivalry to the basketball court.

Here's another candidate for the Miami football job.

Butch Davis, meanwhile, has already started cleaning house at Carolina.

Around ACC Nation

North Carolina is headed back to the women's soccer championship game, but Florida State came up just short. Meanwhile, in the men's tournament, the semifinals, featuring both Virginia and Wake Forest, were postponed until today.

The ring's the thing, and it will be decided today in Jacksonville as Wake Forest plays Georgia Tech for the ACC football title. The coaches at Wake and Tech should be familiar with the Jacksonville area. But what happens to the loser of today's game?

Can North Carolina come down from its high after beating Ohio State?

Maryland's back, although Gary Williams isn't sure where they went.

Duke needs Greg Paulus to recover from his slow start as it prepares to play Georgetown tonight.

Clemson and South Carolina take their rivalry to the basketball court.

Here's another candidate for the Miami football job.

Butch Davis, meanwhile, has already started cleaning house at Carolina.

No 'Challenge'
OK, ladies and germs - we can stop calling it a "Challenge."
The ACC once again cleaned the floor with the Big 10 - winning the annual ACC-Big 10 Challenge by a final count of eight wins to three.
That sounds impressive enough, sure - but then consider that of the three Big 10 wins, Northwestern beat Miami by one point, and Purdue beat Virginia by two on a shot with 1.2 seconds left.
This wasn't a Challenge - this was Democrats taking the House and the Senate. This was the Yankees taking all five from the BoSox.
It's getting to be Notre Dame-Navy, to be honest.
So perhaps we can count on the doofuses-that-be who run the NCAA tournament-selection committee to come around on the issue of giving our league some props.
As Maryland coach Gary Williams pointed out to me earlier this year at ACC Operation Basketball, of the previous seven times that the ACC won the Challenge, it received fewer NCAA bids than the vanquished Big 10 in five of those years.
What do we have to do to prove ourselves vis-a-vis the Big 10? I ask aloud.
I know, I know - we could win all 11 games one year.
Alas, maybe next year - if there is a next year.
I don't know, I'm the Big 10, I don't want another drubbing.
- Chris Graham

ACC Nation (weeked of Dec. 1)

On ACC Nation this week, David Scott of the Charlotte Observer joins Patrick and Chris to preview the ACC football championship game featuring Georgia Tech and Wake Forest .

Dan Bonner talks ACC hoops with the guys, and Patrick caught up with former UVa. star Dawn Staley in Charlottesville this past week. Hear his interview with the five-time WNBA all-star.

Plus the Sound and the Fury, Around ACC Nation and more.

Click here to listen