ESPN obviously does a very thorough job covering college football recruiting. Led by Tom Luginbill, ESPN.com has evaluations of players, schools, and conferences. Yesterday, they updated the conference rankings for football recruiting. The results may be surprising:
I realize track/cross country are not on the radar sports for most but track is a sport that makes the ACC as strong as it is. It looks like Duke will have a chance to pick up some Capital One points next year in Women’s Track & Field. This year Duke finished tied for 4th at the ACC Championship meet and didn’t make much noise at the NCAA Championships. Yet it seems that Duke was the leading pick for the top high school distance runners in the country this year. Three of the top four girls in the country have elected to attend Duke. The Meier sisters from Michigan, Hannah and Haley, and Wesley Frazier of North Carolina. This weekend at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals held at NC A&T Wesley Frazier won three national championships (5K, 1 mile, and 2 mile). These three recruits alone could push Duke to great success in the next four years. Maybe even compete with Oregon at the distance events.
Sunday in Omaha NC State at least partially avenged their ACC tournament loss to UNC as Carlos Rodon once again handcuffed the Heels. The difference this time was that the bats showed up as well and the Wolfpack hammered the Heels 8-1.
Rodon was the star, pitching a complete game and allowing only five hits as State improved to 50-14, their first-ever 50-win season. Brett Williams, Bryan Adametz and Logan Ratledge each had two hits of the Pack’s eleven for the game. UNC scored its run in the bottom of the ninth with the game well in hand.
With the loss, the Heels fall into the losers bracket and will face LSU at 3 pm Tuesday with the loser going home. As an ACC loyalist, this correspondent will be rooting for the Heels, but has no problem with State fans who differ with this plan. State also plays Tuesday, but will be on the diamond at 8 pm vs UCLA trying to avoid their first NCAA tournament loss this year and stay in the winner’s bracket. It is still possible the Pack and Heels could collide again before this is over, albeit not in the title series.
Unfortunately future ACC school Louisville fell to Oregon State 11-4 today ending their CWS run. Good season, though, Cardinals fans; looking forward to your being part of the family.
As we noted previously, followers and non-followers of this blog can now get weekly updates of the blog entries. Here is this week’s recap:
Yesterday, we shared the exciting news of the Capital One Cup victory by the North Carolina women. But did you know that not everyone likes the Capital One Cup? Indeed, fans of the Big 10 (remember, the Confidential’s motto for the Big 10 is “first in money and nothing else”) are unhappy that the Capital One Cup (gasp!) assigns different points to different sports. Here is our response to that…
Congratulations to the North Carolina Tar Heels! Their women have claimed the Capital One Cup!
Other than baseball, not much going on in the world of the ACC. At least not enough to get 200+ words out of it. But lumping it all into one blog entry makes more sense than ignoring it. So here it is:
Pitt has given AD Steve Pederson a 5-year-extension. You may recall Pederson as the guy who voted against ESPN’s TV deal with the Big East, and then took Pittsburgh off to the ACC, screwing the Big East a second time. You may also recall Pederson as the guy who seems to run through one football coach per offseason. Somehow, the powers that be must think he is doing a good job overall though.
Good news for the Miami Hurricanes basketball team, as Donnavan Kirk is transferring back to Miami for his final season of eligibility under the graduate student transfer rule. Unlike most graduate transfer, Kirk originally played for Miami. So it is a return to South Beach (OK, Coral Gables).
UConn is not part of the ACC. Yet. But let’s give them props for academically qualifying for this year’s Big Dance. Baby steps.
5-star LB Matthew Thomas plans to stick with his commitment to Florida State. Good news for the ‘Noles and their fans.
The Confidential is proud to add a new link to the sidebar: Laxpower.com. After last week’s very popular article regarding the future of lacrosse, the Confidential stumbled on this website. It has just about everything a lacrosse fan could want.
After trailing Rice 4-1 in the ninth inning, NC State came back to tie the game on Jake Fincher’s double and took the lead for good in the top of the 17th when Brett Williams doubled in Taran Senay. And with that, the Wolfpack punched their ticket to Omaha for the College World Series for the first time since 1968. Ethan Ogburn pitched the last 5 innings and got the win for the Pack, allowing three hits and no runs during that span. And no, this correspondent was unable to stay awake for all of it, giving up during the rain delay and delaying his elation until checking the score this morning.
With the win, the Wolfpack awaits the result of the Chapel Hill Super Regional between UNC and South Carolina, currently deadlocked at 1-1.
Other ACC team results:
Clemson: Eliminated in Regionals
Virginia Tech: Eliminated in Regionals
Georgia Tech: Eliminated in Regionals
Miami: Eliminated in Regionals
Florida State: Upset by Indiana 2-0 in Super Regional
Virginia: Tied 1-1 with Mississippi State in Super Regional
Futures:
Louisville: Advanced to CWS with upset sweep of Vanderbilt
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