Losing sucks, but I dont think it hurts the season we've had at all (it's not over yet). Most preseason predictions had us at either 7th or 8th. We finished in a tie for 3rd. That's awesome if you ask me. I would love to have finished 10-6...but 9-7 will do. No matter what anyone tells you, we are in the NCAA tourney right now. If we lose to Virginia, we are STILL in. If we beat Virginia, I think we prevent them from having any chance of getting in. I think the Virginia game will be tough. They have Adam Hall back, and he's playing well. However, I still think we should take this, which would more than likely set up a match with Maryland in the 2nd round. We've played them tough this year, and I'd love to see us pull this one out. It can happen.

As for the Wake game...It wasn't our worst game of the year, but we didn't play well at all. Wake shot a little better than us: 45% to 42%. But the biggest difference were the fouls. They had 37 foul shots to our 15. That's 22 shots. We lost by 12 points. I think that's where the difference came from. I'm not blaming the refs at all. Most of the fouls were fouls. I'm just starting to think that refs need calm down with the whistle blowing. It seems that if you touch a guy in the low post, then there's going to be a foul. This will sometimes hurt the ACC in the tourney when they get refs that dont call those ticky tack fouls and they'll get roughed up a bit. It also hurt us on the defensive end in the last 10 minutes. I think Melvin, Collins, and Evtimov all had 4 fouls at one point. When that happened, they couldn't play as hard on the defensive end, allowing for easy baskets on the inside and a lot of offensive rebounds. It was sad, because we really couldn't do anything about it. Other than the last 10 minutes, I thought we played great defense on Songaila. He might have gotten his double double, but he didn't shoot too well to get it, and he had to work to get his few points in the 1st 30 minutes of the game.

Grundy didn't have a great game, but he still managed 18 points. He hit a big 3 late in the game to tie it at 58, but then got cold after that. I would have liked to see him drive a little more late in the game when we needed a bucket. He also got fouled a couple times on his drives earlier in the game and nothing was called. Archie and Evtimov didn't have great offensive games, and Archie got picked on in the defensive end. I think that's why he didn't play a lot in the 2nd half, because Hicks was having his way (as was Boone last Sunday). Scooter did alright, but I would like to see him less-hesitant. He passed up a couple open 3s in the second half that I would have liked to see him knock down.

Julius Hodge wrapped up rookie of the year honors. His performance was similar to the Virginia game, except in that game he hit a bunch of threes, in this game he showed his ability to take his defender off the dribble and finish or get fouled. He is head and shoulders above the rest of the ACC freshmen. His stats might not show that, but he can create his shot against any defender, he can step out and knock down the three, and he can go down low and finish and grab rebounds. He's a great ballhandler and a great defender.

Since league play is basically over...I'll do my All-ACC picks over again:

1st team:
Jason Williams
Michael Dunleavy
Juan Dixon
Darius Songaila
Anthony Grundy

2nd team:
Josh Howard
Carlos Boozer
Lonny Baxter
Travis Watson
Roger Mason Jr.

3rd team:
Tony Akins
Ed Scott
Steve Blake
Chris Wilcox
Chris Duhon

Freshman Team:
Julius Hodge (ROY)
Jawad Williams
Ed Nelson
Ilian Evtimov
Daniel Ewing

The Freshmen team will be tough. I think you can argue Elton Brown and Anthony Richardson could also be on that. I was a big Vytas Danelius fan until yesterday. He really didn't show me a lot at all. I've seen him play a lot this year, and he's a good rebounder, but most of his points come off putbacks or wide open layups. However, he might find his way on the team. Ilian Evtimov might not make it either, but I see either Elton Brown or Richardson taking his place.