It certainly was an interesting weekend. The ACC discovered that there seems to be a football conference it can dominate. A master, such as he is, continued his dominance over former pupils. An annual autumnal rite is in full swing. And how about that epic battle in Durham, sure to become the stuff of legend? [...]
With the football season right around the corner, this seems like as good a time as any to make my annual football predictions. As always, these predictions are guaranteed to be correct unless they are not. Atlantic Division 1] Florida State- For 16 years the Noles have resided atop ACC preseason forecasts. For most of [...]
On the Outs 03/17/08 Quick, who won the NIT last year? I would have to look it up, too. After Sunday’s NCAA Selection Show, the No Interest Tournament garnered quite a bit more in this neck of the woods. Let the shouts of ‘We’re Number 66’ begin. Roughly twenty-seven hours after Tyler the Good shot [...]
In and Out 03/10/08 It took fourteen weeks and thirty-plus games for most teams, but the primary goal of the basketball regular basketball season has been accomplished: seedings have been determined for the conference tournaments. Well, there has been a little more. The least meaningful of all sports regular seasons finally lurched to an end [...]
Comeback Weekend 03/03/08 There were five ACC games played over the weekend. All five at various points had one team holding a double-digit lead. What made the whole business somewhat interesting is that four of the five managed to lose. Things kicked off in grand style noon Saturday with Duke playing at NC State. Given [...]
A-Line Extra: Hoo Quit? 02/08/08 Determined not to let heavy statewide media coverage of algroh’s dismal football recruiting overshadow them, the Hoo basketball team responded by laying down and showing a near total lack of effort against Clemson, losing 82-51. The thirty-point mauling at the hands of the Tigers was the worst loss ever suffered [...]
The time has come. The suitcase has finally been unpacked from the Miami trip. The coolers have been relegated to their off-season basement location for another year. The used tickets, programs and assorted other detritus from a season that tends to collect on my kitchen table from September to early January has been stashed into [...]
The prognosticators were right after all. Last August, the media covering ACC football picked, in overwhelming fashion, Virginia Tech to win the league’s football championship. While being tabbed the favorite in the post-expansion ACC has usually been the kiss of death, the media, lo and behold, this time got it right. Tech actually won the [...]
And now the Hoos. With Tech’s perfunctory thrashing of a Canes team that showed that while it might be Backless it is not quite spineless out of the way, it is off to Hooville for the first Really Big Game in the long history of old rivals Tech and the Hoos. The winner grabs the [...]
My bags are packed, I’m ready to go. A few hours after this communication is posted, I will be heading out for my first road trip of the 2007 football season. I will be taking the scenic route, traveling from Danville to Roanoke, then setting out Friday morning for South Carolina, collecting fellow travelers from [...]