Even though my dog in the fight in Boston College basketball has been a non factor in ACC play this year, I still do my best to keep tabs on the conference, and it is clear there are two teams currently going in different directions. While Virginia has been on a steady incline all year as can be seen by them winning the ACC regular season title, both Syracuse and North Carolina appear to be going opposite ways as we begin March basketball.
Earlier in the season UNC was one of the tough teams to get a read on, because they were so inconsistent. The Tar Heels were able to beat Michigan State on the road and Louisville, but then lost to Belmont at home and University of Alabama-Birmingham on the road. Now that we are in the later stages of the regular season, UNC has now run off 12 straight victories and seems primed to make a deep run in both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. The main argument for their inconsistencies was their youth. Majority of the players who receive minutes for UNC are sophomores and James Michael McAdoo (junior) and Leslie McDonald (senior) are the only two upperclassmen who play. While experience throughout a season always makes a team better, the one dramatic difference I have noticed for the Heels is the play of point guard Marcus Paige.
One of the best ACC games this year, that was not Duke-Syracuse, was the UNC-NC State game last week. Not only was this an in-state rivalry game, but it featured amazing performances by two of the ACC's top players in TJ Warren and Marcus Paige. Warren finished the game scoring 36 points and Paige 35 points, including a layup with 0.9 seconds in overtime to give UNC the 85-84 victory. Paige showed me in this game that he could single handily take over a game and as a team enters both their conference and NCAA tournament, one of the most important ingredients for success is point guard play. You don't have to look too far into the past to see a a great example of this when Kemba Walker literally won both the Big East and NCAA tournament for UConn by himself . The one thing UNC also has working in their favor is other players such as J.P. Tokoto, whom I think is the most athletic player in college basketball as can be seen by his dunks, and James Michael McAdoo are both playing their best ball of the year.
Syracuse on the other hand appears to be in a complete free fall. As a BC fan it hurts to know that the Eagles' victory over the then #1 ranked and undefeated Orange, which has been lone bright spot on this dreadful season, maybe tainted as Syracuse has gone 1-4 over their last five games, and their one victory was only by two points. If you look at the scores of these games it is clear that the Orange offense is really struggling. In their last nine games Syracuse has only scored more than 60 points twice and their point totals in those two games were 60 and 62. I know Jerami Grant has been out recently with a sore back, but to me the glaring difference in Syracuse's play has been their inability to rebound, especially on the offensive glass. Watching their loss against Georgia Tech last night made that apparent again as the Yellow Jackets appeared to grab every loose ball. Even BC, who has been dominated on the glass this year in large part due to the lack of a true center, out rebounded the Orange in their victory at the Carrier Dome.
Up until last night's loss it appeared that despite Syracuse's recent struggles that they would still be a #1 seed. Now that the Orange have lost to their second weak ACC opponent in a matter of weeks, their #1 seed status has become a huge question mark, especially with Kansas nipping at their heels. Being a #1 seed would be a huge advantage for the Orange in that they would most likely never have to leave the state of New York until the Final Four. They would play their first two games in Buffalo and the East Regional is at Madison Square Garden, a building that they are very comfortable in playing in. If the Orange plan on reclaiming a firm hold of the #1 seed they definitely must win their regular season finale at Florida State, a team that will definitely be hungry given their tournament bubble status, and make a deep run in the ACC Tournament, which as we all know is not an easy task.
In closing I want to leave you all with a stat that was mentioned on last night's BC-Florida State telecast. The stat was Syracuse is only the second team in the last 20 years to lose 4+ games in a season in which they started the season with 20+ wins a row. In case you were wondering BC fans, the other team to have this happen to them was the 2004-05 Eagles squad who got blown out in the first round of the Big East Tournament to the Kevin Pittsnogle led West Virginia Mountaineers, and got bounced in the second round of the NCAA Tournament by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee coached by Bruce Pearl.
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