Gary Williams figured it would take 10 Atlantic Coast Conference games before a league favorite emerged.Williams, part-time soothsayer and full-time head coach, and his Maryland Terrapins solidified their grip on second place in the ACC with Sunday's 92-71 home victory over toothless North Carolina. The Terps play host to fourth-place Virginia Wednesday before heading to first-place Duke Saturday.
Go ahead and count 'em: That will be 10 conference games for Maryland by week's end.
"Our team is interesting," Williams said following the UNC victory.
"We were just in the locker room with the players. [Winning] was a great feeling obviously, but we weren't getting carried away. We know what is ahead of us. We'll enjoy this and just go from there."
The ACC continues to be a jumbled, entertaining mess.
The Terrapins (16-6, 6-2 and Blue Devils (19-4, 7-2) are the only teams in the league with two losses. Five others -- Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Florida State and Georgia Tech -- trail by either one or two games in the loss column.
The defending national champion Tar Heels (13-10, 2-6) have dropped six of their last seven games, with a victory at N.C. State on Jan. 26 being their only victory since Jan. 13.
With a young and inexperienced roster -- seven of UNC's top-10 players have logged less than two years in college -- Tar Heels coach Roy Williams has been forced to scale back his playbook.
"To say that we are struggling would be the biggest understatement of my life, but it makes no difference," Williams said Sunday.
"Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We best start playing better."
Many believe the ACC is particularly competitive this year due to the departure of UNC star Tyler Hansbrough and quality guards: UNC's Ty Lawson, Wake Forest's Jeff Teague, Florida State's Toney Douglas, Miami's Jack McClinton and Duke's Gerald Henderson.
No matter the reason, or reasons, the ACC is a free-for-all.
"There is tremendous parity in this league from top to bottom," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "There might be seven or eight teams that can win the league."
Duke is the current front runner, by one-half game.
The Blue Devils, who play at rival UNC Wednesday, beat Georgia Tech and Boston College in a span of 48 hours last week.
Duke's three perimeter players -- Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith -- combined to score 54 of Duke's 66 points in its 66-63 win over BC Saturday. The three players entered the game as the NCAA's highest scoring trio at 53.6 points per game.Duke has been the most consistent team in the ACC this season and is the most likely candidate to
"Our schedule is one of the top five in the country and we have had a couple poor games, and you know, we are not going to define ourselves by poor games; we are going to define ourselves by the full body of work," Krzyzewski said.
"We are just in a situation where a lot of people like to define us by whatever we don't do well."
Duke played well against BC.
The Blue Devils held the Eagles to 2-of-14 (.143) from behind the three-point line, the seventh time this season Duke's opponent has shot less than 20 percent from behind the arc. They also improved to 16-2 when out-rebounding their opponent, holding a 31-27 edge on the glass.
The Terps, meanwhile, have won six of their last seven games and eight of their last 10. The only losses in that stretch are road losses to Wake Forest, in overtime, and at Clemson. The Terrapins are 11-1 at Comcast Center this season and 8-2 since Jan. 1.
"I'm not surprised because I know how hard we've worked," senior forward Landon Milbourne said Sunday.
"We deserve the right to do that. We worked so hard in the preseason and we're working hard now. We're not changing anything, even though we're getting wins, we're not getting complacent. We're coming out to practice every day and we're working just as hard as we worked the last day."
One team to keep an eye on is Virginia Tech (18-4, 5-3).
Malcolm Delaney, the ACC's leading scorer, registered 20 of his game-high 30 points from the free-throw line, tying the school record for free throws made in a game, as Virginia Tech beat visiting Clemson 70-59 Saturday.
The Hokies, playing less than 48 hours after beating UNC Thursday night, missed their first 10 shots and hit just 30.6 percent for the game (15-for-49).
Still, they won for the fifth time in their past six games and remained a perfect 12-0 at home this season.
"We win ugly games. That's our team," said Delaney, who made 20 of his 23 foul shots against Clemson.
"I'm pretty sure if you look at the stats in the ACC, we're not at the top of the offensive stuff. But we're a scrappy team and we like playing. We also play good defense and we hit some free throws. Good teams win these types of games."
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
it's always interesting that coach k wins as many games as he always does when he continues to treat players the way he's treated kids like Joey Beard, Chris Burgess, Elliot Williams and lately; Andre Dawkins. Dawkins was on fire early in the Duke season, knocking down threes in spectacularly consistent fashion but then , all of a sudden coach K decided to bench him for no reason that he will reveal; choosing instead to play scrubs like jordan davidson and Brian Zoubek ahead of him. If whatever the kid did was so bad that youre punishing him this way then why keep him on the team at all? Certainly you dont think you're helping morale by having him sit there and be humiliated, do you Coach K? What lie[s] are you telling his parents when THEY ask why isn't he playing more while sheyer and singler and smith are allowed to make mistake after mistake and not even be PULLED from a game, this kid[dawkins] surely must have shot somebody. well coach when ya get back to the dance and ya cant score more than 55 pts just glance at the three point marksman dawkins and blame yourself once again, for playing your FAVORITE players and not your best players or even the players who play TOGETHER the best. i've been with the Blue Devils since '78 and i'm still there but grow up coack. do you wanna win or just look good losing?
Dont blame K for Dawkins playing time! Since his sister died in that car crash on the way to see him play he has been a basket case. Hes an 18 year old kid that is hurting right now, and needs some time to mature. Hell be a starter next year! Great shooter. I would like to see him get 10 min or so a game!