Welcome and greetings to Atlanta, the site of the 2009 ACC Tournament. Still wondering why this tourney is never in Greensboro anymore, its true home. What is it with the tourney these days.....Tampa Bay, D.C., Atlanta? Why isn't it either in Charlotte, at least, or Greensboro, preferably. Hmmmm.....moving on now......
BeeCee, by putting Dave Leitao and UVA's season out of it's misery last night, earned a chance to go 2 for 2 vs. Duke this year. And I'm not so sure that will happen. BC won a yawner of Virginia last night, 76-63. Tyrese Rice, had strangely only 9 points last night. And the hero of the Round I against Duke, Reggie Jackson, who had 24 the first meeting, only had 2 vs the Hoos. Rakim Sanders led BC with 25 to lead all scorers. So will Skinner's Squad pull off an upset again? No, they wont. Because the debacle at their place was the beginning of our current starting lineup (Schy, G, EMail, Kyle, Lance), and Paulus was still starting at that time (not to knock him or anything). Scheyer has since then flourished at the point. We have improved dramatically, Elliot has been a revelation for us, and we are playing some of our best ball right now. Never mind the UNC game, we played them very close, we just could not make plays and finish the deal. I'm fine with it. Almost a week of rest going into this game will do some good too. I have feeling this team could be poised to make a run in March. This guy thinks so too. This could be the year we exorcize our recent postseason demons. An ACC tournament title would be nice, although we would most likely have a LOLson-less? UNC in our way for the championship, providing we win our first 2.
B.C. should not provide a obstacle too formidable to get by if we can just focus and play our game. The first meeting, we got off to a good start, but we pretty much played no D and pissed the game away in the finall 22 minutes. What was a 12 point lead 2 minutes before the intermission turned to a skinny 5 point halftime lead. All downhill from there, we had a chance at the end, but it didn't happen. An interesting stat from that game is that we only had 3 points produced from the PG position that game (Nolan, Greg). And Elliot did not leave the bench that game. That will be different this time around. Tyrese Rice, for being the electric scorer he is, has averaged a rather pedestrian 13.3 pts his last 3 games (by his standards, at least). Stopping him would be great, but BC rolled, even with only 9 from him last night. Rakim Sanders, the star of last night needs to be contained as well. I wonder if Elliot will guard Sanders or Rice.....My guess is Rice though, he has been their best player all year. BC's frontcourt hasn't been too imposing this year, except for combo forward Joe Trapani impressing ocassionally. Next to Trapani is Josh Southern, who plays the 5 for these guys. Another F, Corey Raji will also see time. Will Duke come out and put BC away? We definitely can, but BC will be gunning for us again. G needs to rebound from his tough game at UNC, and Elliot needs to play some D on Rice or Sanders. I see Duke rolling, with some resistance though.
Duke 77, Boston College 69
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