The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, March 10, 1971 :: University of Virginia Library

At one o'clock on Thursday
afternoon an accredited conference
official will toss a basketball into
the air, thus signalling the start of
both a game between North
Carolina and Clemson and the 18th
Atlantic Coast Conference
basketball tournament.

For the first time the tourney
has shed its traditional home in
Charlotte and ventured farther
north to an equally neutral but
much larger venue in Greensboro,
N.C.'s 16,000 seat coliseum. This is
also one of the few seasons that the
affair can be termed "wide open"
with no powerhouse team expected
by everyone to take home all the
marbles and a prized NCAA
championship playoff bid.

North Carolina won the regular
season title and, by all rights, would
seem the logical pre-tournament
favorite. Dean Smith's Tar Heels
amassed a fine 11-3 league mark
and beat each ACC member at least
once. Carolina boasts a fine
defense, the league's best bench
strength, and one of the top field
goal percentage figures in the
nation.

Lately, however, experts have
soured a little on the Tar Heels as
their originally tight defense has
sprung a few leaks and as the team
in general has played rather nervous
basketball. A suspicion held by
many is that the 'Heels are a
home-court team and comparative
scores seem to bear this out.
Carolina's three conference losses
all came away from Chapel Hill and
cozy Carmichael Auditorium,
Coach Smith's and the team's "Blue
Heaven."

Clemson, UNC's opponent
Thursday, entered the season
carrying a long losing tradition but
possessing two near 7 footers and
one of the ACC's more astute
young coaches. Tales Locke has
transformed the Tigers in the image
of his old Army teams, strong on
ball control and patient for the
good shot. The Clemsons were able
to emerge victorious in only three
of their fourteen ACC outings,
however, and lost twice to North
Carolina by embarrassing scores.

Any temptation to give the
improving Tigers a chance in this
one should be tempered by the
following generally held opinions.
First, that the Clemson ball control
game has twice failed against the
victorious Carolina press, and
secondly that Clemson just doesn't
have the shooters to trade shots
with UNC. If you still like Clemson,
though, the gamblers are willing to
give you upwards of 15 points.

The three o'clock game will
match Frank McGuire's Bronxish
Gamecocks against. Lefty Driesell's
inconsistent Terrapins. The
Maryland coach has indicated that
South Carolina was his choice as
the best of all possible opponents,
leaving everyone else to rub their
chins and thoughtfully wonder
"Why?"

Maryland did, of course, slow
down 'against South Carolina and
beat' them at Cole Field House in
January but that was during the
Gamecocks' mid-winter swoon (the
one; they usually save for
post-season play) and isn't being
assigned much weight now. Lefty's
team is at its healthiest right now
with Howard White and Jim
O'Brien fully recovered.

South Carolina is the betting
favorite going into the tournament
and this is still another surprise.

USC probably matches up better
with Maryland than with any other
ACC team. On the surface the
Terps have no one to cope with the
moves of Roche or the strong
rebounding of Gamecocks Tom
Owens and Tom Riker.

After a break for both eating
dinner and burying the afternoon's
dead, action continues at 7 p.m.
with a contest between Duke's
surging Blue Devils and N.C. State's
troubled Wolfpack. Duke started
very slowly this season and is now
reaching a peak while State has
more or less messed around the
middle of the standings all year.

The sudden loss of key
performers Ed Leftwich and Bill
Benson has almost left State, the
defending tourney champ, without
a prayer.

Virginia and Wake Forest will
tangle at nine, with more to be
heard about that game tomorrow.
Friday's pairings match the
State-Duke winner and the
Maryland-USC winner.