The Repairman

[CoachC]

Now I know why you never see PointGuard and Wayne in the same room at the same time. They are both Batman!

[relrel1809]

I say take the Ohio St job. But this is full Buckeye bias here lol. Good luck in the ACC Tourney PG!! Let's knock those Dukies down!!

[PointGuard]

The lead investigator for the NCAA is like a dog with a bone…he just can’t drop it. And my feeling is that since he isn’t finding what he wants, he is going to indirectly punish us by increasing his scrutiny and delving deeper just when we need to be focusing most. As we prepare for the ACC Tournament, he seems to be re-interviewing everyone and poking his nose into every nook and cranny.

My brother, Franklin, finally snapped and told him, “Look, I’m sick and tired of answering and re-answering the same damned questions. If you have nothing better to do, I have. Go find another freakin’ (think he actually used another word here) patsy to harass.” While I couldn’t have said it better myself, the result was that the medusa of an investigation seemed to spasm and grow…writhing upon itself in a fit of energy to find something, anything.

The university's administration and the athletic department staff have grown increasingly distant from me and my staff. Not a good sign. They seem to be circling the wagons without including us within the circle.

[PointGuard]

Florida State (10-18, 3-13) vs Georgia Tech (14-13, 8-8): Any time one of these teams started to pull away, they were reeled right back in. George Tech held a 26-24 lead at the half, but the game was tied at the end of regulation play, 52-52. The OT was tight all the way, but Florida State prevailed. Final score: Florida State-62, Georgia Tech-60 (OT). Florida State won this game by getting to the free throw line 14 more times and scoring 13 more points there than Georgia Tech. Desmond Gaither had a double-double for Florida State, 18 points and 12 rebounds, plus Jason Hester grabbed 13 rebounds. Ashante Morris had a double-double for Georgia Tech with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Miami (11-16, 5-11) vs North Carolina (16-11, 8-8): Miami stormed out to a 15 point lead in the first half and held a 27-21 lead at the break. But North Carolina was able to come back in the second half and steadily pull away. Final score: North Carolina-61, Miami-54. Thaydeus Ford scored 20 and Clyde Gearhart added 16 for North Carolina as they controlled the paint. Eddie Regis led Miami with 26 points.

Wake Forest (13-14, 7-9) vs Maryland (15-12, 8-8): The first half was close all the way and the team were tied at the intermission, 28-28. Wake Forest ran up a 16 point lead in the 2nd half, but Maryland fought back to make it close. Final score: Wake Forest-68, Maryland-63. Larry Lake came off the bench to score 18 and Mike Alston scored 17 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for Wake Forest. Jerry Greer had a double-double for Maryland with 13 points and 15 rebounds and Michael Davis also scored 13 points. Wake Forest hit 40% of their FG attempts and held Maryland to just 33% shooting efficiency.

Clemson (10-17, 7-9) vs North Carolina State (15-12, 8-8): This was the only game that wasn’t close on the first day. North Carolina State jumped out to a lead and never trailed. They led 33-20 at the half and increased their lead to as much as 20 points in the 2nd half. Final score: North Carolina State-68, Clemson-49. Murry Galloway dropped in 26 points and Dion Brown scored 19 for the Wolfpack. Lloyd Wolff had a double-double for Clemson with 10 points and 11 rebounds and Arlon Blackshear scored 10 points also. North Carolina State hit 43% of their shots to Clemson’s 33%.

[PointGuard]

A cold front dipped down from Canada and seemed to focus its fury on North Carolina where the ACC Tournament was in progress. In the morning 6 inces of snow was uncharacteristically dumped on Greensboro, the site of this year's ACC Tourny. Then the temperature plunged into the low 20's making roads treacherous. But this is North Carolina and this is the ACC, so fans risked their lives to get to the tournament. The games went on as scheduled.

North Carolina State (16-12, 8-8) vs Duke (28-1, 15-1): Duke completely stymied North Carolina State defensively, leading 36-10 at the half. Their lead expanded to as much as 30 points in the 2nd half. Final score: Duke-63, North Carolina State-38. Emmanuel Dye had 15, Willie Bennett 13, and Terrence Melson 11 for Duke. Dion Brown had 11 points and Murry Galloway had 10 points for the Wolfpack. Duke held North Carolina State’s shooting to 27% and forced them to make 17 turnovers to Duke’s 8.

North Carolina (17-11, 8-8) vs Boston College (16-11, 9-7): The first half was a barn-burner. North Carolina came out of it with a 35-34 lead. Boston College overwhelmed the Tar Heels in the 2nd half and steadily pulled away to win easily. Final score: Boston College-71, North Carolina-57. Boston College had 4 players score in double figures: Seth Miles-14, Victor Wilfork-12, Landon Ward-12, and Herb Spears-10. North Carolina had 3 players score in double figures: Ben Evans-14, Thaydeus Ford-12, and Victor Shueller-10. Boston College scored 15 more points at the free throw line that North Carolina and held a 33-24 rebounding advantage.

Florida State (11-18, 3-11) vs Virginia (17-12, 9-7): Florida State took an early 7 point lead but by the end of the half Virginia led 32-23. Virginia then gradually expanded their lead to the end of the game. Final score: Virginia-62, Florida State-38. Virginia had even scoring by its players and was led by Gene Costa’s 10 points. Three Florida State players scored all but 2 of that team’s points: Larry Blackman-14, Desmond Gaither-12, and Stephen Henderson-10. Virginia caused Florida State to turn the ball over 19 times while making just 9 turnovers themselves. Florida State only hit 30% of their shots while Virginia hit 39%.

Our game of today follows in the next post.

[PointGuard]

Game #29; Mar. 10, 2023; Wake Forest (14-14, 7-9) vs Virginia Tech Hokies (17-11, 9-7)

In our only game against Wake Forest this year we won, but not all that easily at home, 78-65. Wake Forest has won 6 of their last 8 games, so is on a roll right now. They have even scoring amongst their starters so we will only key on one person if someone get hot.

The score went back and forth through the first part of the half, but then Wake Forest got extremely hot, hitting from all over the court including 5 of 7 from outside the 3 point arc. They ended the half by hitting 53% of their FG attempts while we could only manage 37%. We also 9 turnovers to Wake Forest’s 4. We dug ourselves a real hole, trailing 48-32 at the half. Emmett Nichols and Terrell London led our scoring with 8 points apiece. John West tallied 15 for Wake Forest.

Wake Forest continued to make us look bad early in the 2nd half. We made a massive run midway through the half cutting their then 20 point lead down to 5 in a 4 minute span.

We continued our frenetic comeback to cut their lead to two points, 69-67 with 4 minutes to play. Both teams hit their shots so we still were within 2 with 2:33 left, 73-71.

Terrell London banked in a shot from 6 feet away at the 2:20 mark to tie the game. Emmett Nichols stole a pass with 2 minutes to go and Mike Wilkerson was fouled as he drove the lane and put up a jump shot. He dropped in both shots to give us a 75-73 lead with 1:54 remaining. Wake Forest brought the ball up and we applied a tight defense keeping them from putting the ball up quickly. When they got a shot away it was off the rim and Willie Horan pulled down the rebound. Chris Hall hit a 12 foot jumper with 1:20 to play to give us a 4 point lead.

Dustin Sanders then fouled their center as he attempted a shot from just inside the 3-point line. I nearly went bezerk on the sidelines and seriously thought about killing Sanders with my bare hands. Both free throw shots went in to narrow our lead to 77-75 with 1:05 to play. Mike Wilkerson sunk a jumper with 54 seconds to go and we were again up by 4. Kevin Jackson stole a pass and tossed it down court to Cederic Dennis for a thundering dunk with 43 seconds remaining to put us up by 6. Following the Demon Deacon’s missed shot, they immediately fouled Chris Hall who swished both free throws to make the score 83-75. Wake Forest hit a 3 with 3 seconds to play, but that was it.

Final Score: Virginia Tech-83, Wake Forest-78. Virginia Tech season record: 18-11.

Scoring leaders: Dennis-21, Hall-15, London-14, Wilkerson-11, Nichols-8.

Rebound leaders: London-9, Dennis-7

Assist leaders: Hall-7, Wilkerson-4, Nichols-4, Richardson-3, Jackson-3

Player of the Game: C Cederic Dennis-21 pts, 7 reb, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Chris Hall-13 pts, 2 reb, 7 assists, 1 block.

Other notes: We are calling this game THE COMEBACK! Down by 20 points with 10 minutes to go, we just completely blitzed the Demon Deacons during the final 10 minutes of the game, hitting shot after shot and applying a withering defense. I couldn’t believe what we did in that 10 minutes, outscoring Wake Forest by 25 in that short period of time.

I was on top of the world.

[Wayne23]

Love that kind of comeback- except when the other team does it to me.

[CoachC]

I make those kinda comebacks just to be totally gassed at the end and lose by 1.

[Wayne23]

Yeah, that too.

[PointGuard]

We have a mini-celebration on the bus going back to the hotel, but everyone realizes we’re only to the semifinals at this point and the top 4 teams in the conference are left standing.

When I get to my hotel room, I find a message on my phone. It’s from Denny Starwick, the lead NCAA investigator. He says he’s in town to watch the tournament and asks me to call him at his hotel as soon as I get this message. I’m confused by this since it seems highly inappropriate, but call him nonetheless. Denny answers and asks me to come over to his hotel because he wants to talk to me. I reply, “Hey, I’ve got a team in the middle of the conference tourney and need to maintain my focus. Why can’t this wait?” In his typical asinine way, he simply responds, “Look Spencer, just get over here!” Swearing under my breath, I just say “Alright.”

I scrape snow and ice from the windshield of my rental car that was in the hotel parking lot, swearing out loud at this point. His freakin’ hotel is clear across town. The roads are in terrible shape, since the south just isn’t prepared for snow removal and the temperature dipping down to the low 20’s has also created areas of ice on the roads.

Following a few minor skids this way and that en route to his hotel, I finally arrive and go to the room number he provided. I knock…it seems to take an eternity for Denny the Jerk to answer the door. No greeting, just a hand gesture for me to enter. We sit down at a table in his room. He goes to the mini-refrig and takes out two bottles of liquor, handing one to me. I say, “No thanks.” He glares at me and says, “Come on, take it. I want a drink but don’t want to drink alone.” I give him an icy stare, but finally plop a few ice cubes in a glass, open the bottle and pour the contents of the mini-bottle into the glass.

Denny takes a long, slow drink of his drink, elicits a long “ahhh” before finally starting the conversation. “OK, let me get right to it, Spencer. The NCAA is pushing to get this investigation finished. I really think there are more things to look into so I’m not happy at all that I’m getting this kind of pressure. It’s unusual, and I’m not sure if it’s coming from your school’s administration, team boosters, or the ACC, but it’s crap. Anyway, not much I can do about it. But I just wanted to tell you to your face that I don’t think there is ANY way that you could have recruited the talented players you did, particularly at the 3 previous low-prestige schools, without some cheating. And yeah, I haven’t uncovered what you did yet, but if the NCAA wasn’t putting a damper on this investigation, I’d eventually dig up the dirt.”

I look at him incredulously, letting him vent his invectives. After he seems to be done, I clear my throat, lean forward toward him and say, “OK, Starwick, you’ve had your say, so here’s mine. I know there is nothing that I or anyone else can do to change your pre-suppositions and what has become your march toward a conclusion you are bent upon deriving. But…I’m looking you straight in the eye right now and telling you for a last time…there was no cheating, there were no short-cuts taken, there were no promises given that went beyond the rules, there were no bribes, no gifts, no girls, nothing. And I don’t give a damned if you continue this investigation to the ends of the earth. You’re not going to find anything. Go ahead and butt your head against the wall all you want. Now, I took your liquor, but you can see it’s still in the glass. I don’t want it. I don’t want a damned thing from you.” Standing, I finish with, “I’ve got a team to prepare for its next tournament game,” and walk out of his room.

Getting to my car, I sit in the freezing rental car for several minutes trying to get control of my emotions. I finally start the car, turn on the heater, and make my way gingerly through the parking lot and onto the road back to our team hotel. It’s now super-late. I turn the radio up high to ensure I don’t get sleepy on the way back. The roads are icy, but fortunately there are few other cars on the road. I come to a split in the road. Not knowing the route well, I head to the left but at the last instant realize I should be taking the route to the right. Not wanting to go the wrong way and have to figure out how to get turned around, I make a quick correction.