Vote T.J.

Do you have a vote for the ACC Player of the Year Award?  No?  I figure most voters probably are not going to come and read a blog focused on baseball cards, but you never know.  Outside of baseball, my next favorite sport is college basketball.  I moved to North Carolina about eight years ago and told myself I was going to remain a neutral observer during the college basketball season.  I really did not like Roy Williams growing up in Missouri, so throw neutral out the window.  Add in that I decided to get a Masters Degree and thought the $40K a year to go to Duke might be a steep price for a fourth grade teacher and you've got an NC State fan. 

This year has been a down year for basketball in Raleigh.  The Wolfpack lost three starters on last year's NCAA tournament qualifier to the NBA and Rodney Purvis transferred to UConn.  That left the cupboard rather bare with former sixth man T.J. Warren and Australian center Jordan Vandenburg being the majority of returning talent.  There is also Staats Battle who won the ESPN NCAA Name Tournament two years ago.  School did not hang a banner. 

The team is 9-9 in conference and is probably playing as well as many State fans could have hoped for in a tough league.  The real story this year has been T.J. Warren who morphed from former sixth man to leading the ACC in scoring, field goal percentage, and steals.  If you love basketball and have not had a chance to check out T.J, or Tony Buckets, in action I highly recommend taking in part of the ACC tournament this coming week.  For a sneak preview, here are three of T.J.'s most recent games:


Versus Boston College: 42 Points with 13 rebounds



Versus Pitt: 41 points. 



Versus UNC: 37 points