Sights & Sounds of the ACC Tournament

The ACC Tournament is my basketball mecca each season. Truthfully, my team has not played well in it recently and I usually end up disappointed. But watching tons of quality basketball over a long weekend is a high for me. I have been fortunate enough to have attended parts of 11 tourneys, mostly in North Carolina (exceptions are Atl in '01 & DC in '04). I have seen UNC win it only twice ('91 & '94). Nonetheless, the excitement is there every year.

It is hard to communicate how intense this tournament is for the fans, especially those in North Carolina. I do not think the players & coaches value it as much as the fans & media, with Duke the only real exception. Except for the Big East tournament, I do not think any other BCS Conference tournament is anywhere near as exciting and intense as the ACC. Great basketball combined with emotional highs and lows make for good drama every season.

With that, here are some observations:

• Decent crowd on Thursday, especially the early session. Credit to Wake Forest fans for buying the tickets outside and supporting their Deacs. I cannot believe I just said that.
• Clemson lost a heartbreaker yet again. You could feel the lead and the game slipping away. Most of the Clemson athletics people looked like they had been punched in the gut.
• FSU was flat. So was Ga Tech. Virginia Tech played hard, but just lacked the buckets they needed late.
• Props to UVA fans for making the trip. The Cavs made the game with Carolina in the quarters very close and rather ugly to watch. Combined sixty-some-odd free throws in the game. Look out for Virginia next season.
• NC State - what was that? Their fans knew it too, they never got into the game and just seemed sick the entire time.
• Semifinals were both good games. Wake put up a valient effort, but came up short and seemed to run out of gas against Duke. BC vs UNC was a battle that everyone enjoyed.
• What a terrific final. Emotional, back-and-forth game with great plays by both teams. I think Redick showed why he is the Player of the Year. He was so clutch.

The Greensboro Coliseum is outdated. Badly. 32 urinals and 8 stalls total for the men's restrooms upstairs. There were lines all weekend, even during normal timeouts. The concourse is not wide enough and food options are sometimes found in only one booth in the entire arena. Only souvenir cups were sold for $5 a piece, which is unreal. The arena was freezing every day but Friday when it felt like hell. Somehow parking was not an issue. Overall, much worse arena than MCI Center in DC, but a better atmosphere.

Other observations: the drummer for the Miami band was one of the best I have ever seen in a pep band. Boston College has dumb cheers. The Wake Forest band apparently had a guy kicked out by the refs during Friday's game (I missed it). To be on the dance teams for FSU & Miami, you have to actually be able to dance; This requirement is foreign to most other ACC schools (Clemson surprisingly is an exception). And, the Miami dancers all had huge butts. How do I know? I sat upstairs and could still tell that they all had back. During the late game Thursday night, a dance off/striptease broke out between a Maryland girl upstairs and another downstairs. They fought for videoboard time and attention for the entire second half. High comedy. Not sure about this, but did some schools do away with student tickets? I never saw sections that were definitely college kids; I know UNC's were on the last two rows downstairs.

Ok, that about does it. If you ever have the chance, go to the ACC Tournament. It is in St. Petersburg, FL next year. Quite a long drive, but I plan on making it. NCAA thoughts coming up next.