eensboro for its first matchup of the ACC Championships. Photo by Fred David.
The No. 19 Cavaliers travel to Greensboro, N.C. tomorrow for the ACC Tournament, where they will begin play as the No. 3 seed after late-season losses to No. 1 and No. 2 seeds Duke and Florida State.
Virginia (21-8, 9-5 ACC), seeks to build off a strong season and establish itself as a national force before the NCAA Tournament begins.
“It’s been a focus of this team ever since the first day of practice,” senior guard Monica Wright said. “We’re going to start with the ACC Tournament, move on and work our hardest to get this program back to the championship.”
Virginia earned the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye in the ACC postseason tournament via its third-place finish in the ACC standings and will face either sixth-seeded N.C. State or 11th-seeded Clemson tomorrow at 8:00 p.m.
The bye, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said, “gives us a week to practice a couple of times but focus on us for a change rather than jumping into a scouting report. It gives us time to relax and rest and get our legs back and not put as much stress on our players.”
The rest will be well-deserved for the Cavaliers, who enter the tournament on a high after an emotionally-charged win against in-state rival Virginia Tech 55-46 last Sunday. Virginia all-time leading scorer Monica Wright notched a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds during her final home game with the Cavaliers, drawing raucous ovations from the crowd.
Following the game, Wright’s teammates in a heartfelt tribute sung her praises as her jersey was retired and a banner was hung from the rafters honoring her accomplishments.
Despite all her achievements, Wright still lacks an ACC title to her name, as the Cavaliers have lost in the second round of the tournament for the past five seasons. Entering this tournament still uncertain about which team it will face Friday, the Cavaliers feel equally confident against both potential opponents.
Virginia defeated sixth-seeded N.C. State (17-12, 7-7 ACC) at home during its only meeting against the Wolfpack 73-60 Jan. 27 and defeated last-place Clemson (13-17, 4-10 ACC) in its only contest against the Tigers 82-60 Feb. 4.
N.C. State, however, enters the tournament after topping then-No. 22 Georgia Tech, and Clemson, though tied for last in the conference, finished its season winning four of its final five contests.
Both squads are “very good opponents and very tough teams,” Ryan said. “We’re looking forward to getting back on the court and getting started.”
Not a bad article. Better than the festering turds over on Bleacher report where your obsessed with defending your “fandom.”
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Let’s just go through a couple things here. To focus on tactics and game dynamics in columns is an admirable goal. Only problem is, you need to be able to ask a coach questions to really focus on tactics. You can speculate all you want, but until you talk to a coach, its challenging to provide some good, original information.
Statements like “I don’t admit to knowing much about Florida State’s personnel and style of play” don’t help your different kind of analysis statement. Go read the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook–its really not that hard.
(As a side point, USC cheats more than Tiger Woods. It says a lot when people love running up the score against you.)
I’ll stand behind your article being pretty good though. I don’t think anyone can be a National Presence with UConn not losing in about 4 years, but thats a minor squabble. You also should have put a quote in after the sentence: “Following the game, Wright’s teammates in a heartfelt tribute sung her praises as her jersey was retired and a banner was hung from the rafters honoring her accomplishments.” When you say person x “sung her praises,” you probably should give an example.
Also, its a little bit confusing about exactly who they are playing. I know you didn’t know that when you were writing it probably, but I feel like you dropped too many names in the first 3 paragraphs.
Finally, part of the process of switching from a fan perspective website to an actual newspaper is that you’re not supposed to comment on your own articles. If someone sends you an email, you can respond to that. But if you take a class in Media Studies, like you say you want to do, they’ll tell you not to comment. Mostly cause people are crazy in comments, and say stupid stuff like “festering turds.” If your looking for a class, I’d recommend MDST 260-something. I’ve taken it, and its a good learning tool.
By the way, you website’s flash stuff is pretty hard to follow. Might want to add a menu somewhere. I can’t figure out where I’m supposed to go.
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Hey look…I was right…your comments got taken down!
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I can’t wait for Selection Sunday.
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