Upon Further Review

Column from Monday’s edition …

I requested my credential for Sunday’s Wake Forest vs. Boston College matchup about a month ago.

My initial reason for wanting to make the trip to Winston-Salem was to see two of the top guards in the country - Wake’s Jeff Teague and BC’s Tyrese Rice - go head-to head.

Wild upsets and unpredictable final scores over the last several weeks in the Atlantic Coast Conference gave me yet another reason to attend … simply, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

In the end, the Demon Deacons rode the hot hands of Teague and freshman Al-Farouq Aminu and pulled away late to end a two-game losing streak. The performance resembled the Wake squad head coach Dino Gaudio expects.

Unlike the loss to Miami, the Deacs got back to taking higher-percentage shots and showed the ability to adjust on defense against the Eagles’ 3-point threats.

If Wake’s youth doesn’t bite them, it remains a team that should be scary in March.

As for BC, I couldn’t help but think “what if?” down the stretch of Sunday’s game. The home team held a slim, 64-61 lead when Rice went out with an ankle injury for about three minutes. Without the senior guard on the floor, the Eagles looked out of synch as Gaudio’s squad went on a 7-0 run to create separation.

Rice and his teammates never really got back into a rhythm. Over the final 12 minutes, Wake outscored its visi-tors, 29-15.

So, what if Rice doesn’t go out? I don’t think BC wins, but I think the final margin is much closer than 93-76.
There are more complete guards in the league than Rice, but he may be the most valuable to his team as far as making BC click.

Speaking of MVP and honors of the sort, this is a tough year - at this point at least - to nail down all-ACC selections.

If I had to pick a first and second team at this point, it would look like this.

First team: Jeff Teague (G, Wake Forest); Jack McClinton (G, Miami); Tyrese Rise (G, Boston College); Gerald Henderson (F, Duke); Tyler Hansbrough (F, North Carolina).

Second team: Ty Lawson (G, North Carolina); Malcolm Delaney (G, Virginia Tech); Toney Douglas (G, Florida State); Gani Lawal (F, Georgia Tech); Kyle Singler (F, Duke).

Player of the Year (to this point): Teague. He’s the only player in the top five in the ACC in three major statistical categories (20.9 PPG, 3.8 APG, 2.1 SPG). Plus, he’s on a team in the top tier of the league.

Still, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see a few of those players from that first team (or maybe even some from the second) eventually emerge with top player honors.

Freshman of the Year: Sylven Landesberg (G, Virginia): This youngster is a virtual lock at 17.9 PPG.
He may be the only true lock of any kind in this topsy-turvy league.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.