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     What in the world is wrong with Roy Williams?  I was appalled just two weeks ago when Roy took the occassion of the passing of a “friend” and colleague, Skip Prosser, to stroke his own ego but as recent events concerning Coach Prosser, Roy and Wake Forest’s 2008 recruiting class come to light, Roy’s statement concerning his friend prove to be more and more about Roy and less about Coach Prosser than ever before.

     While the rest of the college basketball world was touting the excellent recruiting job Skip had done, landing one of the best recruiting classes in the nation, Roy was not calling his “friend” to offer HIS congratulations.  But rather calling his friend’s commitments high school and AAU coaches in an effort to get them to change their minds and attend UNC.  In a surprising twist of irony, Roy was doing the exact opposite of that for which he would soon be praising his “friend”.

     The Carolina faithful had offered a preemptive strike on Roy’s nefarious activities, claiming Ty Walker had wanted out of his commitment to Wake for weeks, but as he points out in his comments to Andy Katz of espn.com, Walker was firmly committed to Wake Forest and Skip Prosser.

“There have been schools trying to get me,” Walker said. “I’m thinking [North] Carolina was the main one trying to get to me. I don’t know for sure, but I heard they were supposed to be offering a scholarship. But I’m going to stick with Wake Forest 100 percent, no matter what happens. No school is going to change my decision. I’m going to stick by it. I figured schools would try to do this and make me decommit to Wake Forest at the last minute. I was ready for it.”

     Besides, had Walker truly wanted out of his verbal commitment, all he would have to do was say so.  There had been nothing signed.  He could have simply reopened his recruitment.  But he didn’t.  Chalk the “Ty wants out of his commitment” rumor to another entry into the Krazy Kurlina Fak Book.

     Its not the first time Roy Williams has tried to steal another school’s recruits, and presumably it won’t be the last but sadly, as “multiple ACC coaches told ESPN.com they didn’t feel right recruiting Walker, Aminu or Woods in light of Prosser’s death and that they were hoping there would be a pact among the ACC coaches that no one would recruit these players, even if they decided to open up for recruitment”, Roy wouldn’t make that pact with his colleagues in the aftermath of his “friend’s” untimely passing.

     Perhaps now that Katz has blown the lid on Roy’s shenanigans, he can pay the proper respect to his friend.  Although I get the feeling that Skip went by the adage “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” when making his phone calls to Roy.

     The college basketball world suffered a tremendous loss this past Thursday, July 26th with the untimely and shocking passing of Wake Forest basketball coach, Skip Prosser.  Rivalries were put aside as the ACC and the nation mourned a brilliant coach, but even finer human being. Duke, NC State and UNC fans briefly turned down the rhetoric to take time to reach out to their tobacco road brethern, Wake Forest University, to express their deepest simpathies and heart felt
condolences. 
     Many coaches also sent their condolences to the Prosser family and Wake Forest University. Former NC State coach Herb Sendek offered “Skip was a gentleman and someone who represented what was good about our profession.  He was the kind of person you wanted your son to play for.” Current NC State coach Sidney Lowe added “My thoughts and prayers are with Coach Prosser’s family and Wake Forest University. I have gained a lot of respect for Coach Prosser both as a person and as a coach. It is a tremendous loss for our conference and for college basketball.”, as well as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s sincere statement “This is shocking. We lost one of the best coaches and best people in our sport with the passing of Skip Prosser earlier today. Skip became a good friend during his six seasons as an ACC coach. He was ultimately respected for his coaching ability, his quick humor and, most importantly, for being a quality person. We lost him far too soon. We send our sincere condolences to the Prosser family and the entire Wake Forest University community”
     Other coaches also joined in to state their support for the Prossers during this troubling time and for Wake Forest’s faculty, alumni and fans. Including Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt “I was sitting with him yesterday in Orlando. He was
just a great person. It’s so sad.” and UNC basketball coach Roy Williams’ taking the occassion to make an ode to himself and his career “I am absolutely shocked and deeply saddened. Today the world has lost not just an outstanding basketball coach, but a great person and great friend. I was fortunate to be friends with him even before I came back to Carolina. Over these last four seasons there have been several occasions on which he was the first coach to call and offer his heartfelt congratulations. I¹ll always remember him calling after the 2006 season to say what a great job we had done after losing all the players from the championship team. That call meant so much to have come from another coach. This April, I heard from a hundred or so coaches after the
Hall of Fame announcement, and Skip was the first to call. But Skip was someone who will be measured in terms of his actions, not just words. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. The world has lost a great person and great family man.”

     Roy sounds as if Skip was a great man because he just happened to be the first to call Roy and tell Roy how great Roy is. He made more self-references in his comments than he made about Coach Prosser himself. I’m almost surprised he left out “Coaching in the ACC is a very stressfull job, I,
myself had a recent bout with vertigo”. He said the word “I” five times, that’s three more “I”s than the previous four coaches combined, and he threw in four career milestones 1) returning to UNC 2) winning the national title 3) the 2006 season and 4) the hall of fame. Though in this case I will vote for the “Hall of Shame”, for using the passing of a colleague as an opportunity to update his resume. But, he did learn from the master.
     With the shenanigans Roy Williams pulled at Kansas and his constant whining about any part of his job that isn’t self-serving, I was already convinced he was the perfect man to lead the UNC basketball program, but this, this is taking the “It’s all about Roy” schtick too far.

You’ll find this and much more interesting stuff at ACCTALK.COM

     I’m off to a good start.  1-0 so far this week following UVA’s blowout of the hapless Tarheels.  I don’t think anyone out there expected any less and you know me well enough to know I would never have picked an UNC upset.

     Now for the rest of the ACC:

 NC State -1.5 @ Maryland.  Maryland is better than we all thought they’d be.  NC State is horrible when favored.  Terps

Miami -17.5 @ Duke.  Suspend every scholarship athlete at Miami and give Duke 30.  I’ll still take the ‘Canes

FSU -6.5 against BC.  FSU’s playing for their life in the Atlantic title hunt, but BC’s playing well.  BC

Clemson -7.5 against GT.  That’s too many points.  Clemson wins but does not cover.  Tech

Virginia Tech -17.5 against Southern Miss.  See above.  That’s way too many points.  Hokies win, but do not cover.  Southern Miss

     Half way through the season and it appears not a lot has changed from the first quarter.  The biggest questions remaining for the season are who can take control of the highly competitive Atlantic Division? Does anyone have a chance at catching Georgia Tech in the pansy, er, “Coast”al?  How long does Larry Coker have in Miami and isn’t it a shame that such a perfect name has to leave that program?  Can John Bunting eat on Dawn’s salary?  And are there tickets available for the Duke/UNC game?

     Five of the six teams in the Atlantic Division have only suffered 1 conference loss, the other, perinial power and defending ACC Champions FSU, has lost two.  In the division, Maryland by far has the toughest road to hoe, as they have yet to play a divisional game, their lone win coming against UVA and their loss to Georgia Tech.  Boston College has the easiest route, their future oponents combine for a 6-9 conference record.  To further mix the division, Clemson lost to BC, BC lost to NC State, NC State lost to Wake, Wake lost to Clemson and FSU lost to NC State and Clemson, it seems like everyone has the tiebreaker on at least one of the other contenders.  Clemson appears to be in the driver’s seat, but remember their coach is Tommy Bowden and GT, VT and NC State remain on their slate.  NC State can look forward to the Clemson and Georgia Tech games, they’ll probably win them, but appear to have three big losses looming in Maryland, UVA and UNC.  Wake may only have one win left on their schedule(UNC) and FSU may only have one loss remaining(BC).

     In the much weaker Coastal Division, only three teams even matter.  UVA has a decent 2-2 conference record, but that’s simply because they’ve had the good fortune of playing both UNC and Duke, speaking of good fortune, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are standing pretty with a 3-0 conference record and both UNC and Duke remaining to be played.  Miami could really help themselves in the coming weeks as they face Duke this Saturday and follow that with back to back contests versus Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, respectively, but will they have enough players available to even field a team?  Will guys have to play both ways?  A three game winning streak could certainly vault the ‘Canes into the driver’s seat in the Coastal and do a lot to alleviate the stress Larry Coker’s feeling right now.  They could also use some help from Clemson.  Virginia Tech would appear to have the roughest road to unseating Georgia Tech, but their remaining schedule boasts a misleading 8-5 conference record, misleading as UVA and their 2 wins against the creampuffs show up in the left hand column.

     That’s enough for the Doggie to draw his conclusions for the Mid-Season Power Rankings(quarterly ranking in these things):

1  Clemson-3-1,6-1 (2)- They’re in first place in the much tougher division.  That’s good enough for me.

2  Georgia Tech-3-0,5-1 (5)- Undefeated in the Conference, 1 loss (ND) overall.  Even if they do have a soft division, that’s pretty good.

3  Boston College- 2-1,5-1 (3)- The easiest remaining schedule in the division means they’ve played the toughest schedule so far

4  Virginia Tech- 2-2,4-2 (1)- Despite embarrassing losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College, they’re still better than Wake and NC State

5  Wake Forest-2-1,6-1(6)-  Think the ACC isn’t weak this year?

6  NC State-2-1,3-3 (9)- Nothing like playing up (and down) to the competition.  State can beat anyone, State can lose to anyone.

7  FSU-2-2, 4-2 (4)- They beat Miami

8  Miami-1-1, 4-2(7)- With only two conference games for both Miami and Maryland, you’re forced to go with tradition, but this is likely to change in a hurry.

9  Maryland- 1-1, 4-2 (8)- Could very well rise, but they haven’t played enough Conference games to tell yet

10  UVA- 2-2,3-5 (11)-  They suck, but they beat Duke and UNC

11  UNC- 0-4, 1-6 (10)-  They suck, but they beat Furman

12  Duke- 0-4, 0-6 (12)-  They suck, and they have beaten absolutely no one

     Wake Forest bounced back from a heartbreaking loss to Clemson the week before to defeat NC State in Raleigh for the first time in many years.

     It could be argued that NC State handed Wake the game.  An Andre Brown fumble late in the first half resulting in a safety and a broken play that resulted in a last second touchdown for Wake turned the tide of the game, but the truth of the matter is that NC State was forced into the mistakes and while they controlled the statistics, Wake played mistake free, well executed football and won the game.

     Jim Grobe prepared his team and they continued their stellar season, qualifying for post season play at the midway point of the season.  We tip our hats to the Demon Deacons.

     If this week’s choice isn’t obvious, you’ve had your head under the sand.  Larry Coker’s Miami Hurricanes embarassed the University and the Conference, and most likely sealed their coach’s fate in the process.

     The Miami faithful, never ones to put too much pressure on their program in regards to conduct are outraged by the incident, not so much that they engaged in the brawl, but that they did it while they suck.  If the Hurricanes were 6-0 at this juncture, Larry Coker would be sitting pretty and the incident would be swept away as “our boys protecting our house”, but with the house up for foreclosure Larry Coker is gone.

     We have a pretty good weekend in ACC football to look forward to this week.  Conference title contenders, in-state rivals, the stage is set for some exciting games.  Excluding the Florida Schools.  All three, FSU, Miami and Southern Florida appear to have cupcake wins this weekend.

Virginia Tech -2.5 @ BC.  Both teams have played sporadically this season, but Tech is coming off of a loss and Frank Beamer will have his Hokies ready to play.  After overtime games against Clemson and BYU the home field advantage doesn’t appear to be that big for BC.  Take the Hokies

Clemson -44 against Temple.  Yep, the Owls are horrible.  Take the Tigers who will be ready following their near upset last week.

NC State -4 against Wake Forest.  Was Wake brought back down to earth following their heartbreaker against Clemson?  Will NC State suffer from their semi-annual post-FSU hangover?  With Daniel Evans at the helm for the Pack, I don’t think so.  NC State.

UNC +2.5 against South Florida.  UNC is bad and getting worse.  South Florida was a bowl team last year.  Take USF.

FSU -23 against Duke.  That’s all Duke’s getting?  Take this one every time.  FSU

Maryland -4 @ UVA.  Virginia ain’t getting any better.  Maryland’s not playing as bad as everyone expected.  Take Maryland.

Miami -28.5 against Florida International.  The Canes are suffering through one of their worst seasons in over Twenty years.  But they’re not this bad.  Take the Canes.

     At least I was 3-3 last week.  This week’s going to set the stage for me and from here on out, I will not be wrong.

     OK, I’ve heard a lot of people say how good ECU looked in losing to West Virginia a week ago, personnally, I didn’t see it.  Sure they battled the Mountaineers with a lot of heart, but their play was sloppy and about that performance, a 27-10 loss showed me that they should roll over the Virginia Cavaliers.

     But they did, spanking UVA 31-21.  Virginia is bad, as evidence by the thrashing to a mid-level Conference USA squad.  Al Groh better get this ship righted or he will be out of a job following this 2006 campaign.

     I’ve had serious doubts about Wake all year.  Even their victory over UConn did little to convince me that Wake was as good as their record indicated.  Amazingly, it took a loss to Clemson to change my mind.

     Clemson’s a good football team, and kudos to them for making that miraculous fourth quarter comeback against to Deacs, but Wake Forest controlled most of the game and only a fluke special teams play allowed the Tigers to come away with a victory.

     I have a feeling that, with Wake’s continued solid play and NC State’s resurgence, the Wake/NC State game may qualify as next week’s “Game Of The Week”