Duke and Wake Forest put on a remarkably intense game in Cameron Sunday night, but it was marred by an excess of roughness.
Sunday morning we linked to an article from the N&O which asked the question: is the ACC overly physical? After this game, we’d have to say yes. And while we’ve always refrained from criticizing individual calls by the officials, in this case, due to poor game management, things came close to becoming dangerous. Both Mason Plumlee and Kyle Singler took very hard hits on drives to the basket and either of them could have sustained serious injuries, and indeed, Singler’s status is still not clear. But it didn’t start there.
As usual with Wake Forest, the leading provocateur was Chas McFarland. The announcers called him "chippy," but here are couple of better choices: jerk and nasty.
There’s a reason why anger follows wherever McFarland goes: he generates it. ESPN highlighted the flagrant hit by Gonzaga’s forward Elias Harris, but didn’t show the things McFarland did to provoke it. Last year, TV showed the Clemson students pummel him when he went into the stands. It seemed outrageous, but as is so often the case with McFarland, things don’t happen in a vacuum.
Between Duke and Wake, we expect a tough, hard-fought game. We don’t expect to see the sort of junk McFarland pulls. Consider: as a big inside player, how often have you seen Brian Zoubek get seriously irritated by an opponent? Tyler Hansbrough? Deon Thompson? Dexter Strickland? Gani Lawal? Solomon Alabi?
