NCAA Basketball wake forest Demon Deacons

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The talk of the Atlantic Coast Conference's basketball media day Sunday was the trouble a player could get into if he talked too much.

Or said the wrong thing, or gestured the wrong way, or celebrated excessively, or did anything else that might be considered "unsporting behavior,'' according to a new zero-tolerance policy approved for this season by the NCAA.

Many of the players and coaches gathered at Greensboro's Grandover Resort bluntly said they either did not like the change, didn't understand why it was necessary, or both. The biggest issue: there is too much room left for the wrong interpretation.

Poor Dave Neal. He never stood a chance. Sure, it was senior night in College Park, Mary. And sure, Neal was white hot and having the best night of his career when he decided to try and defend the moving freight train that is Jeff Teague. Teague goes baseline, hops about 30 feet in the air and plants his unmentionables on Neal's face. At least it wasn't Neal's final home game or anything though, right?



Via Shutdown, er, the Dagger.

Ranking the rankings criticizes the critics when the polls come out.

Headlining: Pittsburgh beat Connecticut to kick off the week, led by DeJuan Blair's ridiculous 22-point, 23-rebound effort. It seemed relatively unlikely at the time that the Panthers could manage to jump both North Carolina and Oklahoma, providing that either one of the two won out for the week.

But then Saturday rolled around. The Tar Heels fell to Maryland and Oklahoma, without Blake Griffin for most of the game, coughed one up to Texas.

Conspiracy theorists will tell you that Duke gets more calls at Cameron Indoor than the Lakers do at Staples Center. John Cloughtery, the head of ACC officiating, will probably tell you differently. And it is, for the most part, a conspiracy. But the following video, in which white-hot Duke frosh Elliot Williams takes "a few" steps before dribbling against Wake last night, probably won't help matters, especially considering this was a no call.



I actually missed this call, because I was donning my KFC hat in order to get to the office on time, but grabbed it via the Piler. Personally, I don't think Duke gets too much love at home -- Mike Krzyzewski's best work is usually done on the officials -- but this one was pretty blatant.

Wake Forest was on a very unexpected two-game losing streak heading into today's game against Boston College, following losses to Miami and Georgia Tech. The Eagles, meanwhile, were surprisingly all alone in third place in the league.

But a funny thing happened on the way to a tight battle of teams near the top of the ACC -- Wake drubbed Boston College 93-76.

When your best wins are over bubble teams like Kentucky and Florida State and your conference record is below .500, any hopes for playing in the NCAA Tournament require some big wins. The Hurricanes accomplished that tonight with a second half blow out of Wake Forest, 79-52.

This was a complete decimation of Wake Forest in the final 20 minutes. Miami only held a three-point lead at the half, but blew the game open from the start of the second half. The Hurricanes went on a 25-8 run. Jack McClinton had a huge game scoring 32 points, dropping a slew of 3-pointers and getting to the basket.

Skip Prosser will always be remembered on the campuses of Wake Forest and Xavier for the work as a coach he did in each location before passing suddenly from a heart attack.

Instead of just living on in the memories of players and coaches, there will now be a special day to recognize the work Prosser did with student-athletes. The two universities announced that they will compete annually for at least the next 10 years in the Skip Prosser Classic.

First there was North Carolina. Then there was a brief fling with Pittsburgh that ended quicker than a Hollywood marriage. Wake Forest took over next, and the NTSB is still investigating that one-week crash. Then came Duke, which notched a stay atop the rankings that, like Eliot Spitzer's hotel bills, were charged in hours, not days.

This year, it seems, everybody is getting a shot at No. 1.

Just wait Dallas Academy, that 100-0 score won't last. Your time is coming.

But until then, the most dangerous proposition in sports this side of accepting an Evite from Pacman Jones belongs to Connecticut.

The Georgia Tech Yellowjackets are without a doubt the best team in the country with a 1-6 conference record. They lost to NC State and BC in overtime and Maryland by seven. They have come close, but failed to seal the deal in close games. That changed today in a significant way. The Yellowjackets took down Wake Forest in Atlanta 76-74.

Wake Forest just could not keep Georgia Tech out of the lane, other than continually fouling. The Yellow Jacket's penetration really bothered the Demon Deacons, allowing GT to keep it close despite being not shooting as well and a dismal 3-for-18 from behind the arc.

The most highlighted play of Wake Forest's win over Duke last night was James Johnson's lay-in with .8 seconds left. But the particular play that left me more slack-jawed than anything else was an Ishmael Smith between-the-legs pass to Al-Farouq Aminu with about 12 minutes to go in the second half. I was watching this game in a Winston-Salem restaurant, and it easily led the way on bringing the house down, Johnson's game-winner aside.