The Daily Gus: February 5th

The top two teams in the ACC, Duke and Wake Forest, both traveled to difficult venues for a regular run of the mill Wednesday night showdown. The old quote goes "You can't take a night off in the ACC, you must lace them up every night," blah blah. Although it may be true. Duke and Wake got absolutely punished. Duke goes to Clemson and shoots poorly? 3 of 13 from three and drops their first one to the Tigers in 22 games 74-47. A 27 POINT LOSS?! A tough road game for Duke, but Clemson just is not the same team at Littlejohn. They used two separate runs to extend their lead and were helped out by Trevor Booker's 8 of 10 shooting for 21 points. Now, who knows if Clemson is any different this year than any other season when they jump out to a gaudy number of wins without playing anyone. One thing is for certain, don't play 'em at Littlejohn. Wake Forest on the other hand is so confusing. They look great at home to Duke and UNC; they look great on the road to Clemson. But then they play at Georgia Tech and then Wednesday night at Miami and get sent home crying both times. Jack McClinton hit six threes for Miami and the 'Canes punished them 79-52. A 27 POINT LOSS?! Yes, both Duke and Wake go on the road, play no defense and shoot poorly. The recipe for getting lambasted in conference games. Maybe the ACC is the toughest conference in America; I still am not fully convinced, but when your two best teams go out and get crushed like the other night that speaks volumes for the depth of the league.

Shoot-Around
- Win of the night which may go completely unnoticed? Bobby Maze had two points in the second half; a midrange jumper with 5.4 seconds left to give Tennessee a two-point lead. That was it. Tennessee's 74-72 victory in Fayetteville against Arkansas. Tennessee has now won two in a row against similar teams, Florida and Arkansas. Although the Razorbacks dropped to 1-6 in the SEC, the fashion which the Vols got this win could really springboard them back into some prevalence. Wayne Chism had 22 and 9 and UT placed four guys in double figures. The issue at hand is whether or not Tennessee will be able to find enough scoring from players other than Chism and Tyler Smith. The athleticism will always be there for the Vols and apparently they don't mind playing on the road now. 3-0 on the road in SEC play and they are just a half-game behind Florida in the East (with a current advantage in tiebreaker).

- Luke Harangody goes for 28 and 14 for his 11th straight double-double as the Irish went on the road to play a fellow 4-5 Big East team. No doubt they finally got it under control? Bzzz. Cincinnati beats Notre Dame to drop them to 4-6 in the league and left Mike Brey really scratching his head. Deonta Vaughn had a season high 34 and Larry Davis had a career-high 21 to give the Irish their sixth straight loss. Notre Dame ain't playing any defense, they have given up 90 points three times during the streak. If Dame doesn't figure things out quick, there is no possible way they can even think about an at-large berth. They are not going to be able to convinve the committee that a 12-loss overall, 10-loss Big East team deserves a place. There is no substitute for winning games.

- Everybody got in on the action in Lansing Wednesday night. Michigan State had lost two straight home games, a shocking development which Tom Izzo certainly had to be questioning the ability and desire fo his squad. All that uncertainty was quelled when they jumped out to a 42-16 lead over a really good Minnesota team and held them to 17.2 percent shooting in the first half. The Spartans shot over 50% for the game and held Minnesota to 28.8, as the Gophers high scorer had 11 points. Durell Summers had 21 for Michigan State on 8 of 10 shooting and they also outrebounded Minny 38-21. An all around impressive performance for Michigan State as they remain atop the Big Ten.

- So much for Anthony Grant to Georgia. VCU got thwarted at UNC-Wilminton Wednesday night 81-72 by a team that is 11th in the Colonial and has shown no signs of life all season. Eric Maynor went 0 for 11 from distance and the Rams allowed UNCW, who starts five guards, to remain even with them, 32-32, on the glass. This VCU team is mental and has underachieved all season long. Unfortunate that Eric Maynor may go out prematurely...Speaking of head-scratching CAA games, Northeastern goes to William and Mary for their third Virginia road trip in two weeks and suffers a tough loss, 68-63 to W&M. William and Mary slowed down the game to an absolute crawl and held Matt Janning to ten points for the game.