1. Okay, the Deacs finally impressed me. They played defense, they got solid contributions from guys like Downey and Danelius, Williams seems to have figured out his role, and Paul is every bit as good as his press clippings said he was. I think the ass-whipping from Illinois did them some good.

2. Excuse me – 32-32 from the foul line? This is the same team that, for most of this year, hasn’t been able to hit two in a row with any consistency? I hope this wasn’t just an aberration – I’m sure Skip has had them working on their free-throw shooting, and with any luck Saturday was a taste of things to come. If they can hit a high percentage from the stripe they’re going to be pure hell in March.

3. I’ve never seen anything like 32-32 before, although I did ref a fraternity A league game when I was at Wake where the Sigma Chi team hit 27 of 27 against the Kappa Sigs (a game that was played in front of several hundred fans – I try to tell people about hoops back home and I don’t think they really believe me). I’ve joked in recent weeks that I’ve seen intramural teams that could take this year’s St. Bonaventure squad, and while I don’t know if those two teams could have beaten the Bonnies, they would probably have given them all they wanted.

4. The ACC this morning unveiled the league’s new referee uniforms:

Those of us who have been watching ACC hoops as long as I have weren’t the least bit surprised when, at around the 15:00 mark of the second half, the zebras appeared to decide that Roy had lost control of things and needed some help. So within a space of maybe 45 seconds they whistled four ridiculously ticky-tack touch fouls (all off the ball, and none of which would show up on replay, no matter how many camera angles you had to look at) on the Deacs.

The masks were now off – if the Deacs were going to win, they were going to have to do it 5-on-8. The best indicator of what was happening was seen in identical plays on opposite end of the floor. First you have a Carolina turnover and a break (I think it was Downey running out). Heel defender is back, doesn’t go for the block, Downey jumps into him to create contact, makes the lay-up. No whistle, which I thought was the correct call. Refs are terrible about giving offensive players the call when they cause the contact, and that’s not how the rulebook says it’s supposed to work.

Three or four minutes later, same thing the other way. Here comes the UNC player (McCants or Felton, if I recall correctly), exact same play – jumps into Williams, who is mainly standing there but making no play to block the shot. Seriously, you can watch the two replays and they are identical as two plays can be. Tweet – a chance for the three-point play.

</snark>Okay, no, I don’t really think the refs had action on the game (although Bobby Knight has alleged that it happens all the time). But I know that Carolina and Duke get calls in that league that nobody else does. Success breeds respect, I guess, and over time some sort of unconscious expectation sets in. Same as you see in the NBA, for instance – think about the calls that a Michael Jordan got versus the kind of calls a no-name rookie gets. We’ve all seen it, and we’re all too smart to buy the denials by the leagues and officials.

I guess I can hope that Wake enjoys another several years of success and wins a national title or two so they can get some of that ref lovin’ that Carolina and the Dookies have gotten fat on. (And by the way, it ain’t sour grapes when you win, so don’t even pass that quiche down to this end of the table.)

5. State jumped up and bit Georgia Tech, huh? Yeah, I’ve been watching as people wrote the Pack off over the past couple of weeks and wondering who was going to pay the price. State is another team that nobody is going to want any part of down the stretch.