Posts from the Virginia Basktball Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that one of the ACC's biggest offseason stories would be (again) looking into expanding the conference basketball season to 18 games. For the third straight season, the current system of scheduling has been a talking point.

Last year, Virginia won a share of the ACC regular season crown with what was, statistically, the weakest schedule in the conference. This past season, Virginia Tech played UNC, Duke and Clemson just once apiece ... and that may have cost them an NCAA Tournament bid.

Now, the ACC may look into expanding the season from 16 to 18 games.

The Big East, Big Ten and Pac-10 all play the 18-game schedule and it hasn't hurt them come tournament time. The ACC is currently in a tournament funk (getting bids and winning games) and losing those bids to teams from those conferences.

Some say that adding the two extra games actually hurts the conference's RPI because it means those bad teams have to play more games, too. True, but one of the reasons the ACC continues to sit near the top of those RPI standings is because their "bad" teams are usually better than the other league's "bad" teams.

The College Basketball Invitational was created because, apparently, there was such an interest in non-NCAA tournament events that the N.I.T. couldn't contain it (obviously, I'm being sarcastic).

So, while the NCAA and NIT fields have been set, the CBI got to look through the rest of the clearance rack and pick off sixteen teams for their own little dance.

Tuesday: Richmond at Virginia, Houston at Nevada, Brown at Ohio, Rider at Old Dominion
Wednesday: Cincinnati at Bradley, Valparaiso at Washington, Miami-OH at Tulsa, Utah at UTEP

The winners of these games will face off next Monday. The semifinals will take place on Wednesday, March 26th. Then there will be a best-of-three championship series taking place the following week. Most of the games will be on Fox College Sports ... a network most people don't get. And even if they did, they're probably not watching this.

Look, I'm all for letting these kids extend their collegiate careers. Really, I am. But this is dumb. Credibility is shot when you invite a 13-18 Cincinnati team.

Yes, UNC beat Duke last night to win the ACC Championship. Still, there is a lot to play for on the final day of the regular season. There is seeding in the ACC tournament and bubbles to try to fly off of for a few teams.

Maryland at Virginia. The Terps are sitting at 18-12 and squarely on the bubble. The Cavs have been the league's doormat for most of the season, but have suddenly gotten a little hot. This is a must game for Maryland as a loss would be devastating for their NCAA hopes. A win makes them the #5 seed in the ACC tournament and a matchup with the last place NC State Wolfpack (who have lost eight straight).

Virginia Tech at Clemson. The winner of this game will be the #3 seed -- the loser is #4 (the #3 avoids UNC until the title game). This is so important to Virginia Tech's (18-11) tournament hopes. Right now, they are on the outside looking in. The biggest complaint against the Hokies resume is that they haven't beaten anyone important. Winning at Clemson would fulfill that. Of course, there is that little thing about ... winning at Clemson.

It can be done (Charlotte did it), but can Tech do it? Their biggest road win was at Maryland a few weeks ago.

It is senior week in the ACC, as many home courts will say goodbye to their four year (or five) players. Many people feel that if you actually get to senior week, it just means you weren't good enough to get to the NBA. Maybe that's true, but there is nothing wrong with topping out as an ACC player.

Thanks for the memories.

Sean Singletary, Virginia: Singletary is one of the ACC's best leaders. Last year, he (along with JR Reynolds) led the Cavs to an unprobable ACC championship. Even as Virginia is struggling this year, Singletary is playing like a Player of the Year candidate.

DeMarcus Nelson, Duke: Nelson has followed a long like of athletic Duke swingmen who emerge into a major leadership role. Only Nelson had to do so sooner. Due to an uncommon young era of Blue Devil basketball, he has been forced into being the steadying influence for a couple of years. He's got it all: scoring, rebounding, great at finding teammates and a pretty good defender. On a team of shooters, he's the guy that can break his man down and get easy baskets. An All-ACC player.

James Gist, Maryland: Gist is one of the best big men in the conference. Once just an athletic forward, now he can score from a variety of places on the court. He's still deadly in the paint, as as scorer, on the boards and as a shot blocker.

First off, let me give hat tips to Ryan of Thrice Fortnight and Basketball Prospectus' Ken Pomeroy. Ryan submitted a comment to something I wrote which led me to KenPom's statistical analysis. In turn, I pulled out the pencil, paper and calculator to review the stats myself.

It is about the current ACC basketball season. Statistically, it is one of the wildest seasons ever. Heading into Thursday's action, there have been 56 conference games played. Of that, 25 of those games have been decided by three points or less ... or gone to overtime (which is considered as being decided by one possession). That is an astonishing 44.6% of games.

According to Basketball Prospectus, since 2000 there have been 20.8% of all NCAA games that have been decided by three points or less or gone to overtime.

This puts the ACC on the cusp of historic territory. No conference this decade has had more than a third of its games fall into the nailbiter category.

North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson will miss a third straight game with a high ankle sprain. He will sit for Tuesday night's game against Virginia and it is unknown when he will play again.

Senior Quentin Thomas has been starting in his place with mixed results. At times, he's looked pretty good. At other times, he is very erratic and turnover prone. Junior Bobby Frasor is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in December.

Thomas had been backed up by Marcus Ginyard ... the Tar Heels' starting small forward. Now comes word that he won't play against Virginia either. Ginyard, who has been nursing a sprained left big toe, twisted his ankle in the first half against Clemson on Sunday. There is a possibility that he may suit up, but it is doubtful that he'll play.

That means that North Carolina has no other real options at point guard. Sophomore transfer Marc Campbell could be a possibility. Campbell has played in just twelve games this season (all of 20 minutes), mostly in garbage time. He has scored five points and dished out two assists all season long.

Normally, being a bit short against the last place team in the ACC isn't a big deal, but Virginia's point guard is some guy named Sean Singletary ... who is one of the top scorers in the ACC.

What a day of college basketball! Especially in the ACC. The three remaining unbeaten teams in ACC play all took the court on Saturday. Only one survived.

One of the teams that didn't was top-ranked North Carolina who saw their trouble spots all hit a perfect storm today against Maryland. They weren't hitting from the perimeter (they missed 18 of their 25 three-point attempts) and weren't tight with their defensive assignments. It hurt them against Clemson and Ga Tech, but they left both places with wins mainly because their outside shots were hitting. Today, they weren't. It was like watching the Georgetown game all over again.

On another point of the Triangle, Gavin Grant stole an inbounds pass and scored a layup with two seconds remaining to give NC State a 79-77 victory over #24 Miami. The win was the first in conference play for the Wolfpack who looked horrific in their first two ACC games and gives the Canes a two-game losing skid.

"I'll say the same thing I've been saying," said [Va Tech head coach Seth] Greenberg, whose team won by a point against Maryland in its previous game. "It's one stop, one rebound, one roll of the ball. That's the difference between having a good ride home and questioning everything you're doing."

And what a streak ender it was! Tech's Deron Washington hit a lay-up at the buzzer ... in overtime ... to give the Hokies the 70-69 win.

Tech hasn't had much success against Virginia. Virginia had won 29 of the last 37 meetings between the two. In the 40 years between wins at Charlottesville, the VT-UVa series has only been held on the Cavs' turf nine times. From 1974 to 2001, the series was typically held at neutral sites like Richmond, Norfolk, Roanoke and Hampton.

People who woke up 25 years ago today saw on their news' sports segments what may be the biggest upset in college basketball history: Chaminade beating Virginia. This was before we had umpteen sports channels and our TVs actually went off the air late at night (remember the flag, the national anthem and then the color bars?).

This was Virginia ... the #1 team in the country who had Ralph Sampson, who was working on his third straight player of the year award. This was Chaminade ... an 800-student NAIA school from Honolulu. Just a week or so before this game, Virginia had just beaten Patrick Ewing's Georgetown squad in the "Game Of The Century". They had just beaten Akeem Olajawon's Houston team in Tokyo ... yes, Tokyo ... with Sampson out sick.