ATLANTA— The ACC Tournament notebook …
The sight of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on tape on the big screen at the Georgia Dome elicited a chorus of boos from roughly 90 percent of the arena.
The ironic part? Krzyzewski was putting in his two cents worth on the value of sportsmanship in the ACC.
Krzyzewski entered the tournament with 597 career wins. If he gets three more in Atlanta and his third straight tourney crown, he’ll have 600 even.
And, of course, there will be a few more boos.
In terms of ACC wins, Krzyzewski has 524 heading into the tourney. He’s still 350 behind UNC’s Dean Smith, who used to prompt the same sort of enthusiastic receptions from ACC fans that now greet Coach K.
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GETTING PERSONAL: Solomon insisted there was nothing personal between himself and UNC counterpart Joseph Forte, even though the two exchanged hard looks and heated words a few times Friday.
“It wasn’t me playing Joseph, it was Clemson playing North Carolina,” said Solomon, who is a bit miffed over not making the All-ACC first team. Solomon (19.8 ppg) was the only one of the league’s top five scorers to be denied a first-team berth. He was exiled to the second team.
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WILL HISTORY REPEAT? The last time North Carolina was the No. 1 seed for the ACC Tournament prior to this season was in 1993.
The Tar Heels were eliminated in ‘93 by an underdog Georgia Tech team, which is, of course, their semifinal opponent this afternoon.
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NOT SINCE MIKE: While the Tar Heels have won 15 ACC tourney titles and have won eight crowns as the No. 1 seed, they haven’t won as the top dog since 1982 when Michael Jordan was a freshman and current coach Matt Doherty was a sophomore.
Doherty’s junior year, the Heels lost to N.C. State in the semifinals. His senior year he lost to Duke in the semis.
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COOL CURRY: UNC point guard Ronald Curry had a career-high 10 assists in the Tar Heels’ 99-81 win over Clemson.
Nine of those dishes came in the first half. His last assist came with 18:52 remaining in the game.
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GEORGIA ON THEIR MINDS: After beating Clemson, the Tar Heels are 7-2 in ACC tourney games in Atlanta.
In their last tourney appearance in Georgia, at the Omni in 1989, the Heels beat Duke in the finals.
Doherty had a great game against Clemson in the ‘83 quarterfinals, scoring 28 points.
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TURNAROUND TIME: It was a nearly impossible mission for Clemson to play in a late game Thursday and then return to the Georgia Dome to play the Tar Heels in Friday’s noon game.
But Clemson coach Larry Shyatt, surprisingly, found no fault with the set-up.
“We have to protect the rest-time of the No. 1 seeds for the semifinals,” said Shyatt. “Whoever is No. 1 is our best, and it’s important to protect our best.”
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I’LL BE BACK: Asked if he would make himself available for the NBA draft, Clemson junior Will Solomon indicated that he’ll be back with Shyatt next season.
“I’m a Tiger,” said Solomon. “And I’m thinking right now, that I’ll stay a Tiger.”
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STARTLING STAT: If it’s a close game, put your money on Georgia Tech. After nipping Virginia on Friday, the Jackets are 8-1 in games decided by 10 or fewer points and 5-1 in games decided by five or fewer points.
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CENTER OF ATTENTION: When Virginia’s Travis Watson fouled out Friday, he became the ninth opposing center this season to foul out while guarding Tech’s All-ACC first-teamer Alvin Jones.
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HEWITT CAN DO IT: Tech coach Paul Hewitt won his 17th game of the season yesterday, tying Roy Mundorf for the most by a first-year coach of the Yellow Jackets.
Don’t remember Mundorf? Don’t feel bad. His big run was in 1927.
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Hurry up and wait: How fast-paced were the Georgia Tech and Virginia offenses during the second half of Friday’s quarterfinal?
Television timeouts are scheduled every four minutes in college basketball games — the first dead ball after 16 minutes, 12 minutes, eight minutes and four minutes.
The only problem with that? The Jackets and Cavs scored at such a break-neck pace in the second half that the clock didn’t stop for long stretches. The under-12 stoppage came at the 6:40 mark. The under-8 timeout took place at 3:58, and the under-4 came a minute later at 2:56.
“I hope everybody enjoyed a great college basketball game,”Hewitt said.
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uglier moments: As hectic and thrilling as the second half was, with 15 lead changes between the squads, the first 20 minutes were forgettable.
Georgia Tech led 26-24. The Jackets shot 27 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 12 times. Virginia played just as bad, shooting 34 percent and turning it over 10 times. The squads also combined to shoot 3-for-20 from the 3-point arc.
“You’ve got guys out there scrapping and fighting for their lives,”Hewitt said. “I felt we took good shots, it just wasn’t going down.”
While Hewitt was relieved to head into halftime leading by two, Gillen knew his squad had missed out on too many opportunities.
“I though a big part of the loss, even though we were only down two, was the first half,”Gillen said. “The first half we really struggled. We couldn’t finish layups, we were charging, missing power layups in traffic — 27 percent …”
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WHOOPS: The problem of playing in a dome in front of 40,083 fans? The extra sets of eyes that get to watch every mistake you make.
When Virginia’s Stephane Dondon airballed a free throw with seven minutes to play against Georgia Tech, the crowd noise swelled with the “air-ball, air-ball” chant.
Dondon nonchalantly wiped his hands off on his shorts, you know, to get the extra sweat off. He missed the next one, too, but not as badly.
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foul from the free-throw line: Hewitt’s squad didn’t do itself any favors from the charity stripe, either.
The Yellow Jackets shot 9-for-21 from the foul line, an astonishing 42.9 percent. It got so bad that Hewitt couldn’t bear to watch in the final minutes. He looked off into the distance of the Georgia Dome, watching Jon Babul shoot two critical shots late in the game on the giant video screen.
“I was changing my luck. I had looked at the last couple and they didn’t go in,”Hewitt said with a laugh. “Then Jon made the first one and I realized he’s a good foul shooter, it has nothing to do with my luck.”
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