ACC Tournament semifinals: UNC stinks (no really...they smell bad)

More ramblings from day 3 at Philips Arena

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What most Tar Heel fans thought would be an easy passage to the ACC championship game proved a little more difficult on Saturday afternoon. With Carolina forward John Henson out with a sprained wrist and his replacement, James Michael McAdoo in foul trouble very early in the game, NC State looked poised to dash everyone’s hopes for a Duke UNC ACC championship (if Duke beats FSU in the second semifinal game today, that is - at half time it’s looking far from guaranteed with FSU up 33-31). State had a lead as large as 7 points early in the second half, but Carolina came back to tie it up. It stayed that way right down to the buzzer, with UNC up by 2 with 1.2 seconds left. State just couldn’t pull off that miracle. UNC won 69-67

See? I can write like a sportswriter.

But just because I can write like a sportswriter doesn’t mean I want to. What I really want to say is, GODDAMN THAT WAS A CLOSE AND EXCITING FUCKING GAME. Also, Ramses the Ram is very, very stinky. He did a lot of his dancing right beside me, seeing as I’m at the end of press row right next to the UNC band, and by the end of the game that ram stank.

Here’s the thing: for a team with national championship hype, NC State shouldn’t have given UNC that much trouble, even with one of their star players out. On the up side, State’s performance proves definitively to me that they deserve a place in the NCAA tournament, which their defeat of Virginia on Friday is widely thought to have earned them.

UNC Coach Roy Williams agrees that NC State ought to be in the tournament. At the post-game press conference he said “If I was on the NCAA tournament committee I’d fight very hard for NC State to be in the tournament. There’s no doubt in my mind they’re one of the best 68 teams in the country.” He also refused to answer any questions before his players, Kendall Marshall and Tyler Zeller, had been addressed. “We need to get them back in the shower,” he said. “They smell bad up here.”

I’d love to stick around and see the end of this Duke FSU game, but I’ve got beer to drink! See ya tomorrow for the championship game.