The phrase “hot seat” is now commonly used to describe coaches that are under a lot of pressure to start winning immediately. The implication is that failing to have a sufficiently-good season will lead to termination. In the old days, a coach would get five years to turn a program around. Now, coaches are on much shorter “leashes.” Not literally, obviously. Anyway, who are the ACC coaches on the hot seat headed into the 2013 college football season?
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.
What is the goal of an athletic director at one of the schools in the top several conferences? Is it to win national championships in the revenue sports? Is it to make consistently good showings in the revenue sports? Or is it to have a broad array of athletes participating in non-revenue sports? Well, the Big 10 folks like to talk about how it is the latter. So what if they are not winning national championships, they are offering teams in skee-ball and hula hoops. And all that leads to success in the Capital One Cup.
Or does it?
Last week, we analyzed the last decade of ACC performances in football and basketball. There were some surprises. For example, Boston College in football and Florida State in basketball. But what does it mean overall? How about a ranking of the performances of all schools in both sports? Here you go.
Most sports fans are willing to make fun of a school based on its perceived on-field or on-court performance. Sometimes it is accurate; other times it is not. So, what we set out to do was look at the records of ACC schools in football over the past decade. Who do YOU think had the best record in conference games between 2003 and 2012? Worst? Courtesy of stassen.com, we were able to easily make the calculations.
So, Big 10 fans, you are getting a Maryland team that was 11th in conference wins the past decade. While Maryland has had financial troubles, they were operating under the same system as the rest of its ACC peers. So, good luck with that.
What do you think the rankings would be for hoops? Would it be Duke, North Carolina, or someone else at the top? Who would be at the bottom?
A great day for ACC lacrosse yesterday, as Syracuse and Duke both won… while the traitorous Maryland Terrapins Traitorpins were upset by Cornell. As you can see from the official NCAA bracket, this means that four teams with ACC ties are still alive in the NCAA elite-eight: Duke, North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Syracuse.
It was not easy for Syracuse, who trailed Bryant, 4-0, before rallying to a 12-7 win. Syracuse also had to overcome losing 22 of 23 faceoffs to Bryant’s Kevin Massa. As Syracuse’s official press release noted, “Sophomore attackman Kevin Rice led the Orange with four points (two goals, two assists) and redshirt freshman Dylan Donahue scored a team-high three goals.” Picking up the win in the crease was Dominic Lamolinara. Syracuse will play Yale in Maryland next weekend.
Duke had it even tougher, as the #7 seeded Blue Devils needed two overtimes to dispatch reigning national champion, Loyola Maryland, 12-11. The hero was freshman attackman Case Matheis, who scored with only 1:40 remaining in the second overtime. But there were many heroes:
Brendan Fowler spearheaded the Blue Devil effort by winning 19 of 26 faceoffs and securing nine ground balls. Josh Dionne and Wolf added two goals apiece, while David Lawson chipped in one goal and three assists as the Blue Devils took 61 shots compared to Loyola’s total of 37. Kyle Turri posted 13 saves between the pipes.
Duke will move on to play Notre Dame in Indianapolis next weekend.
And let’s tall take a moment to laugh at the loss suffered by #6 seeded Maryland. The traitors were not only upset by unseeded Cornell, they were thoroughly demolished–16-8. At home. Given Maryland’s inability to manage an athletic department, it is probably a good thing that they do not need to play any more games. It costs a lot to keep the lights on, etc. Oh well. Those Big 10 partial revenue sharing checks will be coming soon enough.
The ACC-B1G Challenge games were announced a few days ago. After looking to see who your school played, the next thought was probably to check out whether any other games were intriguing. And there are several. So let’s just go ahead and rank them for interest.
Gold Medal Games:
1. North Carolina @ Michigan State. Tom Izzo v Roy Williams. That’s a lot of Final Four appearances. MSU always reloads, and North Carolina never stays quiet for long. This one should be a battle in Breslin.
2. Michigan @ Duke. Both teams had good seasons in 2012-2013, with Michigan exceeding expectations by making a run to the title game. Both have a lot of production to replace. Will be a great game though.
3. Indiana @ Syracuse. A rematch of a March Madness game that went for the Orange. A lot of new faces in 2013-2014, but a lot of star power will be back and new to both campuses.
4. Wisconsin @ Virginia. The first one to 40 wins? Don’t expect a lot of points in this one. But this is still a darn good matchup.
Silver Medal Games:
5. Notre Dame @ Iowa. Any time ANY Fighting Irish team comes to town, it is a big deal. A nice regional battle too.
6. Penn State @ Pittsburgh. A battle for Pennsylvania. This one should be close too–Penn State has experience coming back.
7. Miami @ Nebraska. The Hurricanes invested in their program by hiring a dynamic coach. Nebraska is investing in its facilities. A better game on the gridiron, but one to keep an eye on anyway.
8. Florida State @ Minnesota. Both teams fell short of expectations last year. A lot of new faces.
Bronze Medal Games:
9. Northwestern @ North Carolina State. This game might be underrated at #9. But until the Wildcats make a Big Dance, it is hard to take them seriously on the hardcourt.
10. Illinois @ Georgia Tech. Still waiting for that Georgia Tech team to turn the corner. Illinois fans may feel the same way.
11. Boston College @ Purdue. Not exactly the old Patriots-Colts battles featuring Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. It is what it is.
12. Maryland @ Ohio State. Big 10 fans will be rooting for Ohio State. ACC fans will be rooting for Ohio State. Not much of a “challenge.”
Participation Ribbons:
Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest are left out of the challenge. We’ll give them participation ribbons even though they are not, obviously, participating.
Listening to ESPN Radio on the way home from work and heard that the schedule for next season’s ACC-Big 10 Challenge had been released.
Here’s the lineup:
Tuesday, December 3
Florida State at Minnesota
Illinois at Georgia Tech
Indiana at Syracuse
Michigan at Duke
Notre Dame at Iowa
Penn State at Pittsburgh
Wednesday, December 4
Boston College at Purdue
Maryland at Ohio State
Miami, FL at Nebraska
North Carolina at Michigan State
Northwestern at North Carolina State
Wisconsin at Virginia
Admittedly NC State does not have the most attractive draw. This is only right after the debacle of 2012/13; however I do believe the coming year will see a less star-laden but more focused Pack. Meaning, of course, this game is winnable, especially at Raleigh.
However there are some great matchups here. Duke/Michigan and UNC/Michigan State, of course, but also the Battle of Pennsylvania, Pitt/Penn State; Syracuse/Indiana looks huge; and the first Challenge appearance of the Irish, Notre Dame/Iowa.
There is even a game in which I might end up rooting for the B1G team; er, go Buckeyes?
Current and Future members of the ACC were well-represented at the Sunday selection show for the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse tournament, as 5 of the 16 teams in this year’s tourney can lay claims to the ACC.
The #1 Overall seed, Syracuse, will officially join the ACC in just a few short weeks, and will be sure to bring the Big East Championship trophy (the fourth in as many years) with them to the eastern seaboard.
Despite losing to Syracuse in the Big East Tournament Semis, Notre Dame claimed the #2 overall seed and was closely followed by ACC Champion, North Carolina (#5), Big Ten-bound Maryland (#6), and Duke (#7). The tournament match-ups are after the jump. Read more…
The April 16, 2013, deadline has come and gone, meaning that anyone who decides to go pro between now and April 28, 2013, will make that decision as a point-of-no-return. That will not stop folks from doing so, but the consequences will be a bit sharper. At this point, those eligible for the NBA draft are what they are. There are a number of ACC players that will be among the players drafted. Who are they?
First of all, who are the early entries from ACC schools so far? CBS Sportsline has a nice list going. Here are the players from the ACC schools on the list:
Second, where will these kids go? Well, here is where Chad Ford slots these guys, and other ACC draft-eligibles, in terms of overall NBA talent:
A few other players to note. These guys are all still undecided: Shane Larkin of Miami is at #30; Rasheed Sulaimon of Duke is at #48; and CJ Fair of Syracuse is at 71. The decision should be tough for Larkin, but fairly easy for Fair. You want to be pretty certain you get a first round contract if you are going to leave.
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