Miami Hurricanes men's basketball coach Frank Haith, a native North Carolinian, could definitely relate to our discussion about childhood ACC tourney memories.
"This is the greatest tournament in the country, the crowd, the fans," Haith told the Wilmington Star-News. "Obviously growing up in North Carolina, Friday afternoons in high school, when the TVs are turned on and the teachers aren't teaching but we're watching the ACC tournament, obviously it's very special."
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Matt, you asked about App State's tournament chances the other day. This is from Joe Lunardi's chat todday:
Jeb (Lenoir,NC): What do you think of Appalachian's chances of getting in? Is there a legitimate hope if enough bubble teams or is it a lost cause?
Joe Lunardi: (2:46 PM ET ) Appy State's best hope is to be this year's Air Force or Utah State. Actually the Mountaineers have a better profile than either of those two from a year ago.
Well, neither Appy or NC State got in (no suprise about the Pack, of course). I really hoped the 'Neers would slip in, however.
By most accounts (the Florida ones, at least), the first ever Sunshine State ACC Tourney was a success. Johnnie Swofford even says so!
From Joe Henderson's Tampa Tribune column (www.tbo.);
"When the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament began Thursday, we must admit it was hard not to think of everything that could go wrong. That's our job as professional cynics, and bringing this event here was fertile ground for disaster scenarios.
"You consider the history of this tournament, and then pile on a passion that is difficult to translate if you haven't grown up with it. You plop that Tobacco Road mania in the middle of Suntan Alley for four days and nights, a place unfamiliar with all the fuss … it could have been bad.
"But it wasn't.
"It was tremendous.
"It was an economic success.
"It was an esoteric success.
"Such civic pats on the back are standard procedure after a big event leaves town, and frankly, they aren't always merited. This time, though, they are.
" 'At this point in time I don't know what [could be improved] about what they did here,' ACC Commissioner John Swafford said. ..."
Nonetheless, it will be great to have the tourney back in N.C. next year. Still, congrats to Tampa.
Yeah, there are two types of ACC tournaments, and they are not the ones your team wins and the ones your team loses.
They are the ones in North Carolina and the ones outside North Carolina. The Maryland fans up here didn't even know what "The Big Four" meant.
People who grew up with the tournament in North Carolina understand the big deal much more than ACC fans who didn't grow up in North Carolina.
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