http://www.greensboro.com/sports/accxtra...2ef4d.html
The reality of the sprawling ACC is that the first few days are more about eliminating teams that don’t belong.
That would still include Syracuse even five years after they Orange joined the league. That would also include Louisville, which has embarrassed itself and the conference almost from the minute it was “voted” into the ACC.
There’s still a club mentality to the league founded in Greensboro in 1953, and each school earns its own keep and its own identity. And the tournament is where the traits are revealed.
In the solemn moment before the UNC-Syracuse game Wednesday night, the tournament paused to honor the memory of Woody Durham, the longtime voice of the Tar Heels who passed away earlier that morning.
As the crowd quieted, only the electrical hum of the arena could be heard. And then a Syracuse fan screamed.
“Let’s go Orange!”
And then someone else decided to act like an idiot.
“We’re not in Greensboro!”
No we’re not. And for some of us, we can’t get back too soon.
The new ACC wants to come back here, which is fine as long as we never have to come back two years in a row.
These aren’t our people. In fact, some of our people aren’t really our people any more.
But we can deal with the idiots until they learn that there’s a certain decorum about the ACC Tournament..........
and the tension began to show about the time Louisville coach David Padgett gave Virginia coach Tony Bennett a no-look handshake on his way out of the tournament.
The 65th ACC Tournament really starts today, and those of us who have watched them all our lives know that.
The tickets aren’t at face value now. The street peddlers have been replaced by the pros, and those without the stomach for the weekend have gone home. That would include the screaming fool from Syracuse.
No, we’re not in Greensboro.
And the Orange aren’t in Brooklyn.