Barstool at the ACC Tournament

Barstool at the ACC Tournament

I’m down at the ACC Tournament, spreading the gospel of Barstool Sports. I’m armed with my computer, a digital camera, 20-copies of our most recent issue and a media credential that gives me total access. I plan to try to steal the nerve tonic in Shelden Williams’ locker. I’ll be posting several times a day- usually in the morning, in between the morning and afternoon sessions and after the games. I have no idea what I’ll be writing about but rest assured that I am an absolute weasel and will get some good dirt.

Few quick notes from the game which was freakin' awesome from start to finish

• Free throws killed BC. Not only did the Eagles shoot far fewer than the Dukies, but they missed way too many. After yesterday's game Craig Smith said that to win BC needed to be "perfect" including free throws. The Eagles didn’t come close, shooting 10-17. Those misses were crucial.
• Tyrese Rice is a player and could be the difference maker in the NCAA's. I love the Smith-Dudley-Williams-Hinnant-Rice lineup that Al Skinner featured in the second half of both the UNC and Duke games. Rice is fearless, not quite up to the level of Steve Lowery of Villanova but he brings the same type of energy and balls.
• Sean Williams is a hot head but he's another player who has to step up in the tourney. The best part of his personality is that he takes things personally. If a post player scores on him, Williams is hell-bent on stopping the next time down the floor. Williams strolled onto the floor for warm-ups with a toothpick dangling from his mouth and his headphones blaring. I don't think he was very nervous.
• Imagine if BC was still in the Big East? First, how bad would the ACC be? Without BC, it's not hard to imagine the ACC only having three tournament teams and Duke would have rolled through this tournament without any problems. The Eagles legitimized Duke as a serious championship contender. But what about the Big East with BC? There wouldn't be a question that there would be 10 Big East teams in the tournament and BC, UConn, Nova, Pittsburgh and West Virginia would all look like locks for the Sweet Sixteen. Almost a third of the Sweet Sixteen from one conference? Ridiculous.
• In terms of the fight, it happened directly in front of me and the refs were very generous in their technical fouls. I think that Sean Dockery, Lee Melchionni and Jared Dudley could all have been t'd up as well. Dockery was looking to kill someone. Melchionni was his usual goofy self, acting all tough like he isn’t some rich kid from the 'burbs. He ran up to Dudley and started yapping. Dudley gave him a solid shove and Melchionni almost wet his pants.
• Coach K is the most intense person I've ever encountered in my entire life. Just walking onto the court, he looks like he would snap your neck if you cleared your throat. Talked about a guy out of West Point central casting. He looks made to be in a foxhole.
• Robert Novak is sitting near my in the US Airways club lounge. How much if I dump a Coke on his head?
• I wrote the following while I was waiting for my delayed flight: Less than twenty minutes until the selection show and if BC gets below a 3 seed, it's a travesty. I think they deserve a 2 based on their performance the last month of the season but my guess is that they get a 3. I would be really surprised if the Eagles don't roll into the Sweet Sixteen with ease.  Now that I'm back home and know the seeds a few things stick out- one, conference tournament championship games don't matter. You have to assume that the selection committee has the tournament almost completely slotted prior to the conference semifinals. And two, BC's weak strength of schedule hurt its seeding. Al Skinner is criticized for not scheduling any big early season games against power conference teams and it looks like it hurt the Eagles in the end. Plus, the weak ACC certainly didn't help their resume. I'll talk more in depth about BC's opponents and the tournament in general tomorrow but right now if I'm Craig Smith, Jared Dudley, Louis Hinnant and company, and I had just taken a #1 seed to the wire only to find out that I had to travel to Salt Lake City as a #4 seed while the team that I had pretty much dominated in my conference tournament a day earlier was a #3 seed and playing less than two hours from home, I would be pissed and looking to put the hurt on someone.

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Four stories? I wake up way too early, eager to read about BC's win yesterday and all I can find is four stories? That's all the coverage BC's run to the ACC Finals gets in the Globe and Herald Sunday sports sections? Where the hell is Bob Ryan? And people wonder why Boston is such a bad college sports town.

And the coverage is so cookie-cutter. I completely understand that guys like Mark Blaudschun and Michael Vega are great writers and Blaudschun has been covering college hoops for longer than I've been alive...but access to the players and coaches down here is no problem and yet it seems that the Globe and Herald are getting the same canned quotes and stories as everyone else. No mention of Craig Smith getting a standing ovation from the Carolina fans as he walked off the court after conducting his postgame interviews? No mention of those same Carolina fans high-fiving him and urging Smith to "beat Duke!" No mention of the fact that Boston College, as part of the deal to join the ACC, was allotted a 1/3rd share of tickets which works out to a grand total of 675 compared to 1,980 tickets for the other ACC schools (Miami and Virginia Tech received 2/3rd shares)? No mention of Roy Williams telling his players not to foul as BC held onto the ball for almost 30-seconds in the final minute? No mention of the player's private video game area that I've been staking out so I can play Halo with self-proclaimed Xbox fanatic J.J Redick?

Whether you like it or not, BC is the only game in town. There are only two other basketball programs in New England- UConn and Providence- that even play at the same level (real, big-time DI hoops) and there isn't a football program as good as BC's until you leave New England and hit Happy Valley.

I'm off to the pregame shoot-around to talk tattoos with Sean Marshall...

BC owns the ACC Tournament. The Eagles' first two games were clinics. They thoroughly dominated Maryland yesterday and their win today against UNC was never really in doubt, no matter how frenzied the final minutes looked. All of a sudden, BC is looking like a team that could make some very big noise in the NCAA's. I'm still not completely sold on the Eagles being a sure-fire Final Four team but I really liked the squad that Al Skinner had on the floor to end the game. Sean Williams played big minutes today and his presence, defensively, in the middle helps Craig Smith and Jared Dudley immensely. With Williams altering shots and matching up against the opponent's top inside threat- Tyler Hansbrough today, Shelden Williams tomorrow- Smith and Dudley get easier matchups. Dudley is an especially tough matchup for opponents.

If I had to pick a key player for BC and Duke tomorrow it would be Dudley and Josh McRoberts. There isn't a player on the Duke roster who can check Dudley. It will be either DeMarcus Nelson or Lee Melchionni guarding him and neither has the size to handle Dudley in BC's inside flex offense. McRoberts could be a big problem for the Eagles. He was the difference maker when the two teams met earlier this year and BC doesn't have a player suited to McRoberts' skills which are more along the line of a small forward. BC will really need Williams and John Oates to provide solid minutes on defense. They don't need to be amazing but they need to help Smith on the boards.

And I don't think we've heard the last about J.J. Redick's knee injury. It's the type of injury that could feel fine now but tomorrow morning there could be some pretty serious swelling. Sean Dockery is also banged-up. Duke is an aggressive team but they aren't physical. I'm picking BC to win 84-78. The BC players are convinced that they have something to prove and that's the most important thing in conference tournaments. BC will draw off the disrespect angle and they should. BC has been a total afterthought in Greensboro. I don't think many of the typical ACC fans knew how tough BC is. And it should help that BC only played Duke once this year. The Dookies won't be comfortable with the Eagles' offense and the Blue Devils' undersized guards may struggle to handle the more physical Sean Marshall in the post.

And I am officially on the Superfan bandwagon. I may make it official tonight when I get back to my hotel room and build the mandatory shrine to Doug Flutie.

A few notes from today's game. I finally found out how tough it is to get tickets to the ACC Tournament. There is no public sale and hasn't been for about 40-years but I was amazed at the cost to boosters if they want tickets. I was talking to one of Wake Forest's team hosts- their job is to make sure that their "team" gets whatever it needs in Greensboro- and he mentioned that he had four tickets to the ACC. He flat out said that he was a big-time booster to the Wake athletic department and had approached the school about improving his ACC Tournament tickets. Wake came back and told him that he would need to donate an additional $80,000 per year to move up four rows. The athletic department officials literally showed the guy the list of donors and pointed out the people in front of him and how much he needed to donate to move ahead of each one.

Virtually every fan in the lower sections of the Coliseum is a big money donor to their respective ACC school. Luckily for the ACC, it's not at all a corporate crowd. There is real passion so the system works just fine.

However, BC's big money fans need to get with the program. There were way too many instances during today's BC-UNC game when the BC crowd was just sitting down and watching like they were back in Conte. Not all the fans, the "plebe" BC fans behind the basket were up all game but the high rollers were in their seats way too much. That may be BC's biggest problem in terms of creating a real college basketball experience at home. The people who dominate the tickets and best seats at Conte are the big money donors (who deserve good seats) but they are also really apathetic. The loudest fans for the other ACC teams are the ones with the best seats. It's a bunch of millionaires absolutely berating the refs and screaming at the other fans to make some noise.

Speaking of millionaires telling people to make some noise, Coach K pulled his patented "Look at me, I'm Coach K and even though you're all adults who hold down fulltime jobs, you will stand up because I tell you to" move. It's classic K and the Duke crowd doesn't dare not stand up and cheer. Coach K is a very, very, very intense guy and if I was a Dukie booster, I would probably do whatever he said. He stares into the crowd and looks like he's ready to jump the security barrier and slap someone silly if they don't cheer.

In terms of BC's NCAA seeding, the Eagles should be no lower than a #3 regardless of tomorrow's outcome. Here are my top 16 teams in no particular order. A bunch of these teams are still playing in their conference tournaments but these teams should all grab one of the top four seeds in each region.

Duke

BC

North Carolina

UConn

Villanova

Gonzaga

Ohio State

Memphis

Texas

Florida

Illinois

George Washington

Pittsburgh

Tennessee

Kansas

Iowa

I'm off to track down Baldwin and have some drinks...

The big news at the start of yesterday's evening session was the FBI warning about a possible terrorist attack. Obviously, any news you get here is like a game of telephone, especially when that news involves some suicide bomber attacking the ACC Tournament in freakin' Greensboro, North Carolina. But when the news was first being reported to the media, it sounded like Al Qaeda was encamped in the parking lot and slaughtering tailgaters. My initial thought was "Sweet, I'm going to die in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the last thing people will remember about me is that I wrote about some soon-to-be Superfan's scrotum."

The terror alert inside the arena was eventually lowered after the official FBI statement mentioned Al Qaeda using "blonde hair Muslims." The North Carolina State Police quickly detained Jimmy Bob Muhammad, the only blonde haired Muslim in North Carolina.

But once I figured out that I wasn't going to die in Greensboro, I focused on the hoops. First, the Duke-Miami game. Miami should have won this game. Duke looks tired, tight and unfocused. Basically, the Blue Devils have J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams and that's it. And that led me to this question: Is Coach K a poor recruiter?

Obviously, K is a great recruiter when it comes to getting kids to Duke but does he get the right kids? Greg Paulus is basically a white Sean Dockery which means he's a decent, pass-first point guard but anyone who thinks he's suddenly going to morph into Bobby Hurley is crazy. He doesn't give Duke much more than Dockery does.

Josh McRoberts has loads of talent but the people I've talked to down here are convinced that he hates doing the whole "school" thing while at Duke and will declare for the Draft. I didn’t even know that he played yesterday. He did nothing. The only time I notice him is when he throws down a wide open dunk and all the Crazies wet themselves. If he only stays this one year, he was a waste of time unless the Dukies win the NCAA's.

Can anyone name another Duke recruit? No, because they all suck. If you're Duke and you have the game's most recognizable coach, a great hoops tradition and a famous league (and arena) to play in, you should be recruiting players ready to contribute right away. Duke is competing for the NCAA title every season but three of this year's top five recruits never leave the pine. And Duke is desperate for bodies. Lee Melchionni is a vital part of the team for god's sake. You're telling me that there wasn't some high school senior out there who could bump Mr. Emotions from the lineup? It makes no sense to me.

Now to the best team in Greensboro, your Boston College Eagles. Unbelievable game last night. Total domination. And it was basically like a game at Conte for the Eagles- half the arena was empty so BC felt right at home. Prior to the game, I ran into the BC band. Two quick things. First, the band does a "We Are BC" chant before the game. Hysterical. Second, I managed to piss of the entire band. After they pretended to be a sports team and finished all their chanting, I approached and asked them if they were actually the real BC band or did the school have to hire a local band again? Icy stares. I was pretty sure that I was about to throw down with the tuba players. So, I guess that the BC band down here is, in fact, the real BC band.

I don't know if I've ever seen BC play better than they did yesterday. The game was over halfway through the first half. Even thought the Terps would get within 14-points in the second half, BC's offense was just too smooth and too structured to give Maryland easy and quick transition basket. Louis Hinnant was great. He controlled the clock and BC rarely took a shot with more than ten seconds on the shot clock.

And the Cali kids- Craig Smith, Jared Dudley and Sean Marshall- were all great. Smith is an absolute beast. All three are much bigger in person but Smith is just massive. He can play in the NBA, no doubt. Dudley was great and Marshall hit the shots he needs to for BC's offense to be at its most effective.

I think BC beats UNC tonight in an arena that will be 90% Carolina blue. There are literally maybe 500 BC fans down here. The bigger problem with the ACC's asinine ticket policy is that it gives the other ACC fans the impression that the Eagles' fans won't travel to support the team which in this case is ludicrous. If I were a UNC fan and saw how few BC fans had shown up, I would be convinced that the ACC should have never expanded.

And because the entire arena is against BC, I'll admit that I am very pro-Superfan right now. I have numerous family members who have gone to BC so I do have some connection to the Heights but I'm definitely feeling strangely protective of the Superfans. The fans from the North Carolina schools are so smug I would love to see Boston College win the title and shut them up. I think we should have Ted Kennedy come down and accept the trophy just to see how many heart attacks there would be inside the arena.

Time to hit the arena. I like going early and hording as much free media food as possible. If you found my backpack, you would assume that it belonged to a 9-year old who was running away from home. It's filled to the brim with Kit Kats, Milky Ways, cans of soda and bags of potato chips. If something is free, I'm taking as much as possible. That's my creed.

And one more quick thing- what was the over for the BC-Maryland game? I ask because when the score became 63-47 (110), a group of fans started going crazy. I'm guessing that 110 is too low for the over but the only time you see a random groups of random guys celebrating a random moment in a hoops' game is when something won them money.

My picks for today's games

Duke 79

Wake Forest 66

BC 75

UNC 70

NEWSFLASH- I found Superfans. All 15 of them. In terms of the level of commitment to find Superfans in Greensboro, I would say that I've easily eclipsed Woodward & Berstein's effort in uncovering Watergate. But alas the Superfans down here are a blah bunch. The first two guys I found- mid-30's, boozing- were probably terrors back in the day. But they were two against a world of Wolfpack, Tar Heel and Duke fans. Unfortunately for the Superfans, those guys were the best of the bunch.

I can forgive the elderly Superfans for their lackluster tailgating- they're just happy to be standing upright. But I have to call out one soon-to-be Superfan. Walking through the fanfest, I spotted four college-age kids in Superfan t-shirts. Bingo. I figure these guys are going to pick up the slack, sack up and pretend their Northeastern students for the weekend. So, I approach, explain that I am Jamie Chisholm from the world famous Barstool Sports. I expected them to drop to their knees and kiss my feet. No dice. Instead, the second I pulled out our newest issue, these guys acted as if Barstool was Gary Glitter's photo album from his trips to Southeast Asia. Instant revulsion. Pussies.

I tried to explain that it was really just like Maxim but apparently these guys stopped reading magazines after their subscription to Highlights ran out. But I persevered and asked if I could take their picture with the issue of Barstool. One of the guy's girlfriend was having none of that and literally walked over, took out a pair of scissors and cut off the kid's scrotum. Get ready, Superfans, that tool is coming to the Heights next year. Hide the Mike's Hard Lemonade!

Just to spite the castrated kid and his life-hating girlfriend, I dropped off a dozen copies of Barstool in the BC section. Viva la Stool!

I guess I was a little quick in ripping on the Superfans for their sparse showing down here in Greensboro. Apparently, the ACC screwed over the Eagles when BC joined the league. BC will have significantly fewer tickets than the other ACC teams this year and next. It's a ridiculous policy. Instead of allowing BC's critical alumni base get a feeling and appreciation for a tournament that won't be crossing the Mason-Dixon line until at least 2011, the ACC has virtually guaranteed that BC's fan base has no way to see the Eagles in action until 2008.

A quick scan of the crowd gives a good idea at how dumb the policy is. There are Superfans here, but they are few and far between. I would guess that BC has two sections of seats, one upper and one lower, and I'm pretty sure that neither is filled exclusively with Eagles' fans. By comparison, Wake Forest has at least six sections of fans. The Eagles' game tonight against Maryland might as well be in College Park. Not only are the Eagles way down on the list of the fans' favorite "other" team but half the gym will be clad in Maryland red. And if BC does get by Maryland and meets up with UNC, seriously expect 90% of the gym to be in Carolina blue. With NC State out, all the local UNC fans will buy the Wolfpack fans' remaining tickets.

I do have a good excuse as to why I've been so late with the updates today. I have a lot of friends on the ESPN crew down here and I ended up agreeing to work as Doris Burke's stage manager. What exactly does a stage manager do? I'm still waiting to find out. During the today's first session, I believe that I did exactly one thing that a trained chimpanzee may not have been able to do- I tracked down Ilian Evtimov's protective foot brace. It was really the crowning achievement of my life, getting to hold some Bulgarian's sweaty foot brace.

But because I basically sit with Doris the entire game, I have to wait until after the games to write. I will say this- Doris is nasty at her job. I know that some guys get freaked out when a woman is talking sports but Doris is legit and then some. Of the people on camera for ESPN talking hoops at the ACC tournament, Doris is easily the most knowledgeable. It's win-win for me. I sit courtside and talk hoops with Doris and get paid too. This is like a paid vacation now.

On to the other pressing things, the Duke scrub huddle. I've been watching Duke for years and this tradition baffles me. Basically, as Coach K is giving the starters their final instructions the scrubs, many of whom never, ever play, get in a little huddle of their own and get all rowdy, chess club style. I simply don't understand it. But I'm nothing if not determined so I will track down some Duke scrubs tomorrow and raise the issue to them.

As I was saying yesterday, I wanted to come up with my pre-Texas Western All-ACC Tournament teams. There are tons of goofy white players at this tournament and they deserve recognition. Here is my pre-Texas Western All-ACC White Guy Team.

G- J.J. Redick, Duke (whiter than Snow White)

G- Engin Astur, NC State (floppy haired white guy by way of Turkey)

F- Nik Caner-Medley, Maryland (really, a player from Maine is white? Who would have guessed?)

F- Tyler Hansbrough, UNC (may be too good to be pigeon-holed as just a white player)

C- Josh McRoberts, Duke (throws down better than Billy Hoyle)

Bench

G- Greg Paulus, Duke (Wojo white)

G- Bobby Frasor, UNC (gigantic white forehead recognizable from outer space)

F- Ilian Evitmov, NC State (whitey by way of Bulgaria)

F- Andrew Brackman, NC State (6'10" white dude who just happens to be a nasty pitcher for the Wolfpack baseball team)

F- Jason Cain, Virginia (his 'stache must drive the girls crazy in Charlottesville)

The first day of the ACC Tournament is over, thank god. I love college hoops but sitting in a gym for about 11-straight hours and watching the likes of Clemson, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech starts to take a toll after a while.

I noticed a few things while I was trying to remember why I thought the Hokies were going to be a NCAA tournament team. First, I love spotting girls just out of college in the crowd who are doing their school's cheerleading routines from their seats. I think it's like the scene in Wedding Crashers when Vince Vaughn calls a lower back tattoo a "bull's-eye." Nothing says "I used to do unspeakable things in college and if you can look past my Lily Pulitzer outfit, I'll pull out the nine iron and ball gag" like a chick doing a cheer routine from her seats. I was staring holes through one Virginia Tech fan. I thought she was going to file a restraining order during halftime.

The second thing I noticed was that down here in the South, every female from about age 14 to 40 looks and dresses the same. Even the camera guys get confused. Like every other arena in America, the Greensboro Coliseum finds hot girls in the crowd and puts them on the jumbotron. But since it's impossible to tell if some of these women are in junior high or Depends, the camera guys are always messing up. There were a couple of times tonight when a hot girl would show up on the screen, all the guys would be straining their necks to get a good view and then the girl would open her mouth and without fail there would be about $15,000 worth of orthodontia staring back at you. Thousands of heads would simultaneously whiplash towards the floor.

Finally, I'm pretty convinced that the fans of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Duke would be perfectly happy if the ACC consisted of just the four schools from Carolina. Those four schools dominate the crowd, especially UNC, and if a North Carolina school is playing a non-North Carolina school, the other NC schools swing their support to their instate brethren. The obvious exception is Duke. Everyone hates Duke.

Coming tomorrow- a quick preview of the Friday's quarterfinal games, turning back the clock  and naming my  pre-Texas Western all-ACC teams, a look at the best scrubs in the ACC, breaking down Duke's infamous scrub huddle and detailing Coach K's filthy mouth. I'll be spending most of tomorrow with ESPN's sideline reporter, Doris Burke, but I'm still planning to post a bunch of times tomorrow.

Getting ready to watch Lee Melchionni emote...

The Jamie Chisholm Cheerleader/ Dance Team Rankings are officially retired. The Florida State Golden Girls dance team is so ridiculously hot that it would insulting to even include them in a list with the other ACC cheerleaders/ dance teams. I honestly felt bad for the Wake Forest dance team. The Deacons brought a whopping four girls to the tournament. FSU had a full squad of almost 20 girls. And the Wake dancers weren’t even in the same league. The difference in the quality of the girls was about as dramatic as the difference between the strippers at the Glass Slipper and Centerfolds. A sportscaster from Tallahassee sitting next to me put it best after watching the less than toned Deacons’ dancers take the floor: "We have a name for girls like that in Tallahassee- band members."

In fact, I think that you can’t even refer to the Golden Girls as a dance team because they are really so much more. The Golden Girls are pompoms, spandex and impure thoughts all rolled into one unbelievably hot, gyrating package. The best part is that the entire arena stops when they take the floor. It’s like the national anthem is playing, except it’s way, way more exciting. All the high and mighty media members strain not to give in to the Golden Girls but their sway and swaying is just too much. And forget about the crowd. Every male over 8 has his head on a swivel and his mind in the gutter.

But alas, the Florida State hoops team shat the bed against Wake Forest, giving away a game that likely would have guaranteed the Seminoles a spot in the NCAA tourney. The loss isn’t good news for FSU’s NCAA chances especially considering the conspiracy theory that everyone down here is talking about, including the coaches and players.

Apparently, ACC officials, coaches, in particular Leonard Hamilton of FSU, and players are convinced that Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive are in cahoots. The theory goes that Tranghese, out of spite for the losses of Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech, and Slive (one theory for his involvement is the building ACC/SEC battle for dominance in the south) are working together to keep the lower-ranked, ACC bubble teams, primarily Florida State and Maryland, out of the big dance and pushing other committee members to invite the Big East and SEC’s bubble teams.

I think the ACC conspiracy theorists are way too paranoid. Yes, Slive is a member of the selection committee but Craig Littlepage, the AD of Virginia, is the chair and there is no Big East representative. FSU may not make the dance but I doubt that Mike Tranghese is sitting in Madison Square Garden making threatening phone calls to selection committee members and selling them on Rutgers making the tournament. He doesn’t have to do it- Syracuse’s Big East Tournament run virtually guarantees the Big East eight teams- UConn, Villanova, Pitt, West Virginia, Georgetown, Marquette, Cincinnati and ‘Cuse- and there is still a chance that Seton Hall slips in.

Back to hunting for the elusive Superfan...

My first reconnaissance mission to find Superfans at the ACC Tournament was a complete waste of time. After circling the entire parking lot...sorry, the Wake Forest cheerleaders just walked by and broke my concentration- they were nothing special...back to the Superfans. I walked the entire parking lot, bypassing all the RV’s adorned with confederate flags and strolled past numerous NC State, UNC and Maryland tailgate parties, hoping that I would find some Superfans. No dice. In a parking lot with about 5,000 cars, I didn’t stumble on any Superfans.

Figuring that BC fans are so scarred from the Getsapo-esque tendencies of the BC campus police that they are terrified to linger outside for more than a few minutes, I headed to the ACC Fan Fest. Lots of Screamin’ Deacons. Lots of Cameron Crazies. No Superfans. So I headed inside- also casually dropping copies of Barstool all over the concourse (Viva la Stool!)- and made my way to BC’s section. And I finally found my first two Superfans. Combined age- 340.

Not the strongest showing by the Superfans so far.

I understand that BC doesn’t play...sorry, Wake Forest band just walked by- it was March of the Nerds...back to BC. As I was saying- I understand that BC doesn’t play until tomorrow night but if Superfans are waiting until tomorrow to get here, they’re missing out. It’s a balmy 60° outside which feels more like 90° considering how miserable it’s been in Boston recently and perfect drinking weather. If the experience of the Big East Tournament is all about being in New York City, then the experience of the ACC Tournament is all about being in the South and acting like it.

I’ve already gone on the record in the pages of Barstool Sports about my love for the South. The moment I stepped off my plane this morning, I felt liberated. The South is just different. I feel guilty that I’m not sitting outside right now, sucking down some Busch Lites and questioning J.J. Redick’s sexuality...sorry, some more Wake Forest cheerleaders just walked by and were talking about how a few years ago they had to get changed in the area that I’m sitting- I love college girls...back to questioning Redick’s sexuality.

If tailgating is the number one activity at the ACC Tournament, questioning Redick’s sexuality is a very close second. I’m putting the over/under on the number of Brokeback Redick signs at 7.5. And those will be the tame ones. Two years ago, at the last ACC Tournament in Greensboro, the Redick signs would have been classified as hate crimes in Massachusetts.

One game down- Miami over Clemson- ten to go.

Jamie Chisholm Cheerleader/Dance Team Rankings as of 2:15 PM, 3/9/06

1. Clemson- solid all-around, good mix of girls, something for everyone
2. Miami- may just be ten strippers from South Florida
3. Wake Forest- a few stars but the total package isn’t impressive