Duke: Cherokee Parks' school-record 10 blocks Saturday against Virginia bested the mark held by Mike Gminski, who recorded nine blocks on three different occasions. Parks doubled his previous season-high of five rejections and now stands sixth overall on Duke's all-time block chart with 58 in his career . . . The Blue Devils sported new Nike sneakers for their tournament appearance -- a unique combination of blue and black. "Ugly" was the general consensus in the Coliseum as well as the Duke locker room.
North Carolina: North Carolina head coach Dean Smith collected his 800th win in UNC's 86-84 overtime victory over Wake Forest in the semifinals. Smith is only the third man to win as many college basketball games and, with his ACC tournament championship win on Sunday over Virginia, stands 75 games behind Kentucky's Adolph Rupp for the all-time college win mark and 27 in back of Winston-Salem State's Clarence "Big House" Gaines.
Smith should capture the record during the senior campaign of this year's freshman class: Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace and Jeff McInnis . . . Wallace overslept by 10 minutes Sunday morning before the championship game and consequently lost his spot in UNC's starting lineup. His roommate in Charlotte was senior Pat Sullivan, who is sitting out the 1993-94 season to return for a fifth, redshirt year. Wallace sat out the first 10:34 of the first half as punishment
Virginia: The last time UNC and Virginia met in the ACC championship game, current UVa head coach Jeff Jones was on the Cavalier roster. Jones and UVa lost that 1982 title game to a Tar Heel squad led by James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan, which went on to win the national championship.
N.C. State: North Carolina State printed a glossy, cardboard cover for its media game notes. The cover depicted a silhouette of the Wolfpack's Todd Fuller, Bryant Feggins and Ricky Daniels along with the words "1993-94 Wolfpack Post Season" in bright red letters. That postseason lasted all of two hours, courtesy of a 73-66 loss to Clemson in Thursday's play-in game. By Sunday morning, a media relations representative with a cruel sense of humor had placed a large stack of the covers -- sans any notes -- in the press room.
Wake Forest: With his Demon Deacons leading 81-78 and 11 seconds remaining in the semifinal game against UNC, Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom sent guard Charlie Harrison after Carolina's Derrick Phelps to foul the UNC point guard. Odom hoped to keep North Carolina from tying the game with a three-pointer.
"Harrison fouling intentionally was my call," Odom said. "I told him and he executed it, and it went exactly as planned except for the result."
Phelps made the first free throw, and unintentionally missed the second high off the back of the rim. He captured the rebound, though, and fed Dante Calabria for an off-balance floater that banked in to tie the game and send it to overtime. UNC won the contest on a Stackhouse power move in the paint with five seconds left in overtime.
Florida State: FSU's Kirk Luchman received an apology Friday night from UNC's Dean Smith, who earlier in the week had called the Seminole freshman center "Mr. Choke" on his radio show. Smith's original comment came in response to Luchman's statement that he believed UNC was a team which would back down when challenged . . . FSU head coach Pat Kennedy matched wits with his opening round foe, UNC's Smith, when his Seminoles joined the Tar Heels as the only schools to skip the hour-long, Thursday workout at the Coliseum. Both schools practiced at a private, off-site location. It was standard procedure for North Carolina, but an unusual move for FSU. Carolina won the game, besting the Seminoles' four-guard offense 83-69.
Georgia Tech: The sixth-seeded Yellow Jackets turned in what was, perhaps, the most unimpressive performance of the tournament with its embarrassing 74-49 opening-round loss to Wake Forest. The Yellow Jacket cause was hurt by the injury to forward James Forrest, who played a team-high 31 minutes although he was not fully recovered from a sprained ankle. Drew Barry contributed 27 minutes despite limping on the foot he broke exactly one month earlier against North Carolina.
"I think I jumped the gun on them," head coach Bobby Cremins said. "I probably shouldn't have played Forrest and Barry as much as I did."
Georgia Tech was the surprise of the tournament last season, upsetting Duke and North Carolina on the way to the 1993 ACC crown. In typical Tech fashion, they followed that performance with a first-round loss to Southern in the NCAA Tournament.
Clemson: The Tigers' quarterfinal loss to Duke marked the last ACC game for Clemson head coach Cliff Ellis, who announced earlier in the year that he would step down at the end of the season.
"I would have liked to have won [in my last game,]" Ellis said. "Clemson has never won an ACC title -- in fact, Clemson hasn't won many games in this tournament. I would have liked to finish it with a win, but regardless, it was going to come to an end within the next 48 hours."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wished Ellis the best following the game and told him to win the National Invitation Tournament this spring, from which the tough Tigers are likely to receive a bid.
Maryland: The Terps' phenomenal freshman center Joe Smith has picked up a new nickname. Earlier in the year, Maryland's school newspaper had a nickname contest for the superstar and "Sweet Pea" was the winner -- but it just didn't stick. Smith's Maryland teammates have taken to calling him "Beast," a moniker more in line with his style of play. Smith had 25 points and 12 rebounds in Maryland's opening round, 69-63 loss to Virginia.
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