Once again, the talk of the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball coaches on their weekly teleconference centered around a general agreement of balance in the conference this season. While some may have thought that then-No. 6 Wake Forest was edging away from the pack, the Demon Deacons dropped their first conference game to then-No. 19 Clemson on Sunday, 55-41.
"[The win over Wake Forest] obviously came at a big time for us," Tiger head coach Rick Barnes said. "We needed something like that to happen to us... The players have been great. They've always believed in each other."
Even though Barnes' team was a preseason pick to be in the bottom third of the conference, the Tigers are currently in fourth place, following a three-way tie for first among the Demon Deacons, North Carolina and Georgia Tech.
"I think what has happened [in the ACC] is that a year ago there was a real division in the league," Barnes said. "But now I think on any given night anybody knows anybody can win. I'm not surprised because I think everybody's improved from a year ago, especially the lower half of the league."
The Tigers have been a cellar-dweller in the ACC for many years, but especially after his team produced nearly 30 points below its scoring average for the season against a tough Clemson defense, Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom admitted that the Tigers were the real thing.
"[Clemson] really took it to us," Odom said. "I give Clemson all the credit in the world. I think their staff really prepared them very, very well. They took it to us defensively and they were effective offensively. It was a very draining game and from my standpoint a very disappointing game.
"Yet we look at the caliber of competition they've played and realize that Clemson is a formidable team and one that I think the rest of this league had better get used to having to deal with on a yearly basis."
The NCAA had just recently released its mid-year statistics, and for the seventh straight year, the field-goal percentage in men's basketball games has fallen. The three-point shooting percentage also dropped to an all-time low. Different coaches had various theories on the reasons for the decline in shooting percentage.
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, somewhat jokingly, blamed the falling percentages on the lack of scholarships for men's basketball. Men's teams are only allowed to enroll 13 scholarship players, while the women's teams have 15 scholarships to give out. When the NCAA passed legislation to reduce the number of scholarships for men's basketball to 13, Krzyzewski was instrumental in leading the fight against the changes.
"I think lack of scholarships [contributes to the drop in the field-goal percentage]," Krzyzewski said. "I'm being somewhat facetious, but you can look at a whole bunch of things. In our current situation, with all the injuries, not even being able to have enough players does not create a good practice environment for our kids...
"I think the scholarship thing really hurts college basketball because it doesn't give you opportunities to put out as good a product if you have any situations develop academically or health-wise. I think that's bad for the kids who are healthy or who are academically eligible because it doesn't produce good practice environments or development opportunities."
Krzyzewski was quick to add, however, that he had nothing against women's basketball--even citing that his own daughter plays basketball. Barnes, however, believes better defenses have created lower percentages.
"I think that people really believe that defense wins basketball games," Barnes said. "And I think people have learned to defend the three-point line better. There's more players out there, there's obviously a great deal of parity in college basketball. At this level, there aren't many easy [shots] on any given night."
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