Monday Morning Shootaround: The Regular Season Ends

We had three games yesterday between ranked teams, this biggest of which came in Chapel Hill where Duke was squaring off against UNC for the second time this season. In Tyler Hansbrough's last game in the Dean Dome, the Heels showed how balanced of a team they really are in beating the Dukies 79-71. They put five players in double figures, led by 17 points and 8 boards from the aforementioned psycho and 13 points, 9 assists, and 8 boards from Ty Lawson.

Lawson came in playing with a jammed big toe, which was painful enough to require a shot before the game. But it didn't seem to slow him down, as he make big play after big play down the stretch, including the icer - a three-point play with just over a minute left that opened up a 76-69 lead.

Ty Lawson celebrates after his lay-up and the foul sealed the game for the Heels.
(photo credit: Gerry Broome/AP)

The season may not have gone as smoothly as many in Chapel Hill would have liked, but at the end of the day the Heels are the outright regular season champs in the ACC.

Duke drops to the #3 seed in the ACC tournament, thanks to Wake Forest's win over Clemson. Duke may have lost this game, unable to climb back into it once UNC took the lead in the second half, but the Devils are going to be alright. The outcome was the same, but they are a much better team than they were just a month ago in the team's last meeting. They still have some of the same flaws (lack of a post presence, too reliant on threes, yada yada yada), but with Elliot Williams in the line-up, they are a much more athletic team. He is a better defender than Greg Paulus and Nolan Smith, especially with his size and length. He puts better pressure on the ball on the perimeter, and if you know basketball, then you know one of the easiest ways to slow down a post man is too put pressure on the passer and make entry passes difficult.

One last note about Duke - what a difference a year makes. As a junior, Greg Paulus was starting and scored 22 points, including 6 six threes, when the Devils made their annual trip down tobacco road.

This year?

6 minutes. 0-2 from the floor. As a senior. I understand he is trying to be a good teammate and lead by example, by that has got to be eating him up inside. With all the abuse he has taken in his career, you have got to feel for the guy.

The other two games between ranked teams held less significance. Michigan State beat Purdue 62-51 in a game that really had no effect on anything, other than proving that the Spartans are, in fact, head and shoulders above the rest of the Big Ten (they won the league by four games).

As I mentioned earlier, Wake Forest earned the #2 seed in the ACC tournament by coming back to beat Clemson in Winston-Salem 96-88. James Johnson scored 17 of his 21 in the second half, and Al-Farouq Aminu added 21 and 10 boards. The deciding run came with eight minutes left in the game, as Wake used a 12-2 spurt to turn a 71-69 lead into an 83-71 lead. Clemson is going to be alright, as Wake is just a tough match-up for them. They locked into the five seed, which means that if they can get by Georgia Tech in the first round, they get another date with FSU, who has beaten them twice this year.

The rest of the day's action:

• Alabama 70, Tennessee 67: As I wrote yesterday, Alabama's Anthony Brock hit a buzzer beating three to end Tennessee's hopes of an outright SEC East title. Here is the video:
  
  
  You have to feel good for the kid on this one. The day before, he attended his grandmother's funeral and drove through the night to get to Knoxville for the noon tip. It was his only points of the second half.
• Florida State 63, Virginia Tech 53: Toney Douglas scored 22 points as the 'Noles locked up the #4 seed in the ACC tourney. 12 of those points came in the minutes after Tech had cut the 'Nole's lead to 45-42. The loss just about ended any chance of an at-large berth for the the Hokies.
• Ohio State 52, Northwestern 47: The Buckeyes locked up an NCAA tournament bid and the #5 seed (and a first round bye) in the Big Ten tournament. Northwestern came in with a chance of getting an at-large berth had they won, but they now have to win the Big Ten to make their first appearance in the dance.
• Wisconsin 85, Indiana 61: Joe Krabbenhoft led the Badgers with 19 points as they finished the season winning 7 of their last 9, putting themselves in a great position to earn another trip to the NCAA tournament.