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Under the hoop in the ACC, size doesn't matter

Boo-hoo, they cry. The Cavs will never compete for an ACC title - let alone a national one - until they get a true center, a 6-11, 7-foot monster who can swat shots and dominate the paint.

Oh please. If there's one thing I've learned in college, it's that size doesn't matter.

In basketball, that is.

Fans and media alike keep wondering if the Cavaliers have the size to match up with the behemoth centers of college basketball. My question is perhaps more simple: Where are these so-called behemoths, exactly? Size can be wonderfully helpful for a basketball team, but it is by no means an absolute necessity.

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    Look at the two teams who played for the national title last season, Michigan State and Florida. Neither squad had anyone taller than 6-9 contributing in any sort of meaningful way. The Spartans relied on a handful of talented wing players and a heaping dose of senior savvy and swagger, while the Gators loaded up on rabid shorties and - as Pete Gillen might say - came at you in waves, like the ocean.

    You know Mateen Cleaves and Mike Miller and Morris Peterson, but can you name a single post player from either one of those two teams? The answers, respectively, are 6-8, 240-pound bruiser Andre Hutson of Michigan State and 6-8 rebounding fiends Donnell Harvey and Udonis Haslem of Florida. Nary a true center was found anywhere near the court.

    This season, it's more of the same. Three of the nation's top five teams depend down low on a muscular power forward masquerading as a center: Duke (6-9 Carlos Boozer), Michigan State (Hutson and 6-9 Zach Randolph) and Kansas (6-9 Nick Collison).

    But what about the ACC, the land of giants and fire-breathing, 7-foot monsters? Well, this isn't your father's ACC anymore. It's not even your older brother's. Gone are skyscraper types like Ralph Sampson and Tim Duncan. The best inside players in the conference are, by and large, built like two-story duplexes: somewhat tall, but mainly just wide and sturdy.

    Throughout the ACC, teams are proving that height does not necessarily translate into success. Duke, Maryland, Virginia and Wake Forest - four of the conference's five best teams - rely on post players 6-9 or shorter. Georgia Tech, Florida State and Clemson have 7-footers (or near 7-footers, in the case of Tech's Alvin Jones), but are these really the teams you want to emulate? They're the worst trio in the conference.

    What this means for the Cavaliers is obvious: A 7-foot center would be great, but don't stress too much if you can't find one. Men that tall are awfully rare, and talented basketball players that tall are even rarer. And getting stuck with a stiff like Matt Christensen or Brian Bersticker is worse than missing out on him in the first place.

    Wail all you like about Virginia's burning need for a true center, but in the meantime, give me Travis Watson, all 6 feet, 8 inches of him. From what I've seen throughout college basketball, he'll do just fine.

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