Daily Swarm

UVA WINS THE "LARRY SHYATT INVITATIONAL"
Clemson just couldn't bring home the W, while UVA keeps their slim tourney hopes alive by beating Clemson in OT. I think they would still need to beat Dook to truly get that bid, but they are not NIT bound yet. Hanging by a thread.

GUESS WHO'S GOING DANCIN????
How about Louisisana-Lafayette. Remember one of those "cupcakes" that other people accused us of playing. The Ragin Cajuns won the Sun Belt Tourney, and will cap another 20 win season with a trip to the dance............ How about another team in the dance we beat early on - try VCU. That's right - turns out our cupcakes were some pretty darn good teams.

LAVIN PICKS 3 ACC TEAMS IN THE FINAL FOUR
During the Ohio St / Indiana game, evidently Lavin picked us to go to the final four, along with UNC, Dook and UK. As much as I would love to see it happen, it ain't. I think there is a legit shot at 2 final four teams, but 3 would be a huge stretch....................... The folks over at Foxsports.com speculate on which conference has the best chance of landing 2 teams in the final four - the ACC again.

ACC TOURNEY PREVIEWS
A lot of good previews of the ACC tourney. This from a Charlotte paper - notice the links to individual temas and other articles............ This from the SC Times/Democrat, looking at Dook's tougher road........... Here's a look at the ACC, again with a focus on Dook, but it's from a Duke sight - what do you expect? But it looks at what will be the last year of its kind in the ACC................. Here's more on the ACC from the Richmond Times Dispatch.............. Here's the latest on FSU's Tim Pickett - looks like he is sore and wearing an air-cast but will probably play............ Here are some fast facts on the ACC tourney and other conference tourney's from Dickey V's ESPN site................ From the Robsonian, here is a look at the all-ACC team choices and misc stuff............... More on the end of the ACC as we know it.......... Here is the Macon Telegraph's look at each team capsule................ Here's even more if that is not enough, from the AJC.

While we are debating the best GT games in history in our poll, the RockyMtnTelegram is trying to list the best ACC tourney games of all time. Check out 1998 GT/Maryland - "1998 first round: Georgia Tech vs. Maryland. The Jackets lost to the Terps 83-65 in senior Matt Harpring's final game. When Harpring was pulled from the game with less than a minute remaining, a loud applause began in the Georgia Tech section, but then it spread to the rest of the Greensboro Coliseum until 24,000 fans from all nine schools paid tribute to Harpring's great career. At the coaxing of coach Bobby Cremins and his teammates, Harpring stood and waved to the crowd. "It didn't sink in at first because I was still pretty emotional about the loss," Harpring said. "But it was a huge honor and a compliment."


VISION PROGRAMS TO IMPROVE FREE-THROW SHOOTING
Interesting story on improving player's vision and the impact of going from high school to college and longer courts impacting free throws.

MILK & COOKIES - THE FUTURE OF RECRUITING VISITS
The NCAA told congress today that they are considering banning paid recruiting visits altogether in an effort to clean-up recruiting. Our own AD, Mr.Braine, was quoted as saying that it would be a "knee-jerk reaction" that could "create more problems". So what would happen if recruits has to pay for their visits? Well, first of all, you will see a LOT less recruiting visits. Second, you will probably see a fall-off in recruits comitting to schools that are not within driving distance of their homes. For some recruits, air-fares will be too much. That means that schools will have protect their home recruiting turf more than ever. Add to that another consideration by the NCAA which would limit the number of official visits a recruit could make from 5 to 3 and things get even more interesting. Coach Gailey has proven his ability to close strong on recruits who visit campus. So it stands to reason that more visits would help GT - taking them away would probably hurt. As always, you never know what will really happen. Could be a lot of noise by the NCAA. We will see what they decide then figure out the impact.

HEWITT HAS BROUGHT HIS LUCKY CAMEL-HAIR JACKET
If you remember, Hewitt shared that his wife bought him the gold camel-hair sport-coat a few years ago and has nagged him over and over to wear it. He finally wore it - for the Dook victory. His wife gave all the credit to the Jacket when he returned. Check out this blurb from the AP newswire - "ANY LITTLE BIT HELPS: Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt brought a lucky charm with him to the tournament: the camelhair sportjacket that he wore during the Yellow Jackets' upset at Duke last week. Hewitt said his wife, Dawnette, made him bring the jacket, though he didn't plan to wear it during Friday's quarterfinal game against North Carolina. "It made the trip," Hewitt said. "She wouldn't let me leave the house without it. Hopefully it will make an appearance this weekend." ........... On a separate note, this article attempts to rank the ACC coaches and places Hewitt 4th on the list.

POINT GUARD U - AND J.JACK'S LEGACY
Jack is building a serious case to be included in the same breath as guys like Anderson, Price, Marbury, Barry, Best. This article from the AJC is right - ultimately winning big games will create a historical legacy. Jack is the type guy who can do it. You can see it in his game, in his attitude. I like this young man..........This story focus on ACC point guards and there is an interesting quote from Paul Hewit - ""A lot of people pointed to [center] Chris Bosh [now in the NBA] and said he was a big recruit, but Jarrett was our signature recruit. He was the guy we had to get to establish how we wanted to play."

DICKEY, FREDRICK, MORROW TO PLAY IN CHARM CITY CHALLENGE
Looks like 3 of our recruits will be teammates on the "United States All-Stars" at the "Charm City Challenge" in Towson MD on April 4. Here is their complete team. There are 4 teams in the challenge. J.Jack played in last year's challenge and helped lead his squad to victory with 10 points............. Dickey will also play in the Jordan Capital Classic - here is the link...............

Meanwhile, Buck Fredrick's Calhoun celebrated their state title. Buck ended his career as the all-time leading scorer among male players in state prep history (although for some reason this is not certified by the SCHSL). Interestingly, team records credit him with 3,481 points, shattering the state record of 2,992. Guess who had that record? None other than Ray Felton of UNC. Take that UNC. This article talks about these facts and his father's legacy, which is unparalleled in SC hoops the last 20 years. Buck was also finally invited to the Carolina Classic. If you remember there was a dispute because his father / coach did not get the paperwork in on time. Looks like Buck will wear #35 next season. His current number is 20, which was retired for Tommy Hammonds. He picked the number because it represented his team's 3 championships won and 5 straight appearances in the title game. Here is the story where I got some of these facts.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW - MARCO COLEMAN
Guess who just signed a deal with the Broncos? That's right - our old friend Marco Coleman. Marco played with the Eagles last year, playing in 13 games, recording 10 tackles and half a sack. He has had staying power.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW - EDDIE ELISMA
Found this out-of-nowhere reference to Eddie Elisma - "The Realtors play the slum-ping Purefoods on Saturday at the Araneta Coliseum where the Hotdogs are fielding in their third import in Edner Elisma. A Georgia Tech product and the 41st overall pick of the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1997 draft." This is none other than the world famous PBA - not the pro-bowlers association. It is the Philippine Basketball Association.................. That got me interested in finding out more - check out this page at the bottom. Gives you Eddies stats all the way back to his GT days. The guy has played in Italy, Belgium, the ABA, Venezuala, Puerto Rico, Israel - just to name of few. Notice that he has actually developed a longer range shot, hitting upwards of 46% of 3pt shots in a couple of seasons................ Well, it turns out that Eddie came back in the US, playing in the NBDL for the Ashville Altitude - check out the bio. But he has bounced around some more. In October 2003 he was waived by the Boston Celtics. I think this was just a pre-season try-out. As of now, I could not figure out where he is. I would love to see him at least get a drink of water in the NBA.

PEPPER RODGERS TO BE INDUCTED INTO GEORGIA STATE HALL-OF-FAME
Congrats to Coach Rodgers, who will be inducted into the state of GA's sports hall-of-fame.