Wednesday Notes: Watch Out For Akron

-- If you missed the Hurricanes' stunning win on Monday (or merely care to relive the finish a few hundred times), highlights are available on this page.

-- Small college football note: Ivan Maisel and Pat Forde talk about what they're looking forward to in the MAC in 2006. Says Forde:

Which MAC team pulls the annual upset of a BCS conference school? It happens every season -- last year it was Ohio shocking Pittsburgh. This year, with more home games against I-A opponents and more BCS-level teams on the schedule than ever, there are a number of possibilities. Two jump to mind: Iowa had better be ready when Northern Illinois interrupts the Hawkeyes' Big Ten focus with an Oct. 28 visit, and NC State is forewarned for its Sept. 9 home game against Akron.

(Emphasis mine.)

And if Maisel is to be believed, the Zips return 18 starters, including a pretty good quarterback. The warnings really aren't necessary, though. Marcus Stone's poor play against Middle Tennessee State was all the notice I needed. Akron is much better than MTSU (but the Blue Raiders did have Draconian Lentils going for them), of course, and the Zips will get us early in the season when the defensive newcomers are still figuring things out.

-- Stanford sophomore Tim Morris is transferring. NC State is one of the schools to which he sent his release, meaning NCSU can contact him now if the school is so inclined. See some of Morris's numbers here and here. That 2006 O Rtg is not pretty. He's a guard but doesn't appear to be much of a three-point shooter.

-- While I was looking through the news, I found this story about a guy who played briefly for Everett Case and had a rough go of it in Raleigh:

He was recruited by N.C. State, and he read about their being a basketball powerhouse as well as having high academic standings. The coach was the famed Everett Case. It took him 16 hours to get to Raleigh in his six-cylinder Ford.

Once there, he found that the South had won the Civil War and that Yankees were not welcomed. He tells of a professor in a history class.

"All of a sudden he pointed a finger at me," writes Cole. "It was only about four inches from my nose and he loudly proclaims, 'The South won the war.'"

At one point he received an "A" on an essay only to discover a student said he cheated on his homework. The student who filed the charge against Cole told him later that the teacher had asked him to file the charges.

Cole said he completed his freshman year and one week after the hoop season ended he was kicked out of school.

"Cole, I like your hustle. That's why it was so hard to cut you."