Nov. 26, 2007

November 27, 1972
NC State opens the 1972-73 season with a 130-53 victory over Appalachian State, coached by former Clemson and NC State coach Press Maravich. Not only is that the most lopsided win in Wolfpack history, it's the first varsity game for sophomore David Thompson, who makes his debut with 33 points and 13 rebounds. He would top 30 points in each of his first four games. When he's limited to a 29-point, 12-rebound performance in his fifth game, against Wake Forest in the Big Four Tournament, several newspapers would report his performance as "disappointing." The 6-4 Thompson, a native of Shelby, N.C., finished his ACC career as a three-time ACC player of the year, a three-time consensus first-team All-American and with a career scoring average of 26.9 points a game.

November 29, 2004
Miami's Anthony King sets a new ACC single- game record with 13 blocked shots in an 84-68 victory over Florida Atlantic. That's one more block than the old record of 12, which was shared by a trio of players - Virginia's Ralph Sampson, who did it against Army in 1979, and Maryland brothers Derrick (vs. James Madison in 1987) and Cedric Lewis (vs. South Florida in 1991). King also has 10 points and 11 rebounds in the Florida Atlantic game to complete the "Triple-Double".

November 30, 1956
Duke beats future ACC member Georgia Tech, 71-61, in the first game ever played in Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The circular arena, also known as "The Thrillerdome" is now the second-oldest ACC arena still in use - behind Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium.

November 30, 1981
North Carolina graces the cover of Sports Illustrated's pre-season basketball cover. To celebrate its pick as the projected No. 1 team, the magazine pictures Tar Heel coach Dean Smith with four returning regulars from the previous season's NCAA runnerups - James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty and Jimmy Black. Four months later, freshman Michael Jordan would hit the game-winning shot as UNC edged Georgetown in the national title game to give Smith his first national championship. Jordan would finally make his first Sports Illustrated cover, along with Perkins, two years later as UNC became the magazine's pre-season No. 1 pick for the 1983-84 season.

December 1, 1954
Virginia's Buzzy Wilkinson scores 48 points in a 110-63 season-opening victory at Hampden-Sydney, the most ever for an ACC player to that point. Although Wilkinson's record would be broken just 10 days later by Wake Forest's Dickie Hemric, the Cavalier star would finish his career with the highest scoring average in ACC history - 32.1 points a game.

December 1, 1965
Sophomore Billy Jones becomes the first African-American to play for an ACC team when he comes off the bench in Maryland's 65-61 loss at Penn State. The 6-1 guard is scoreless against the Nittany Lions, but scores his first basket in the Terps home opener against Wake Forest three days later in an 87-66 Maryland victory. Jones was one of three African-Americans who played freshman basketball in the league in 1964-65, but the only one that made the jump to the varsity in 1965-66. His freshman teammate Pete Johnson was redshirted and joined Jones on the Terps' varsity in 1966-67. UNC freshman walk-on William Cooper (whose daughter would start on UNC's 1994 women's national championship team) dropped basketball to concentrate on academics. Jones, bothered for most of the 1965-66 season by a groin injury, averages just 2.8 points as a sophomore (although he would be in double figures as a junior and a senior). Jones also became the first African-American to play in the ACC Tournament when he scored two points against UNC in the first round of the 1966 event in Raleigh.

December 1, 1985
No. 6 Duke defeats No. 5 Kansas, 92-66, in the championship game of the inaugural preseason NIT in Madison Square Garden. Senior David Henderson scores 30 points, hitting 12-of-14 shots from the floor, and is voted the MVP of a final four that included three teams that would reach the postseason Final Four in Dallas.

December 2, 1955
Maryland beats Virginia, 67-55, in the first game ever played in Cole Field House. The College Park arena, which would remain in service through the 2001-02 season, is the only ACC facility to host a Final Four. Cole Field House was the site of one of the most famous games in college basketball history when Texas Western, with five black starters, upset Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA title game

December 2, 1961
North Carolina opens the 1961-62 season with an 80-46 victory over Virginia on Woollen Gym on the UNC campus. It's the first career victory for UNC's new 30-year-old head coach, Dean Smith, who would wind up with more wins (879) than any coach in ACC history.

December 3, 1954
Maryland edges South Carolina, 53-49, in Columbia, S.C., in the first ACC basketball game ever played. The two teams set the stage for what was to come in the league with a dramatic game that featured 13 ties and 31 lead changes. Maryland holds the ball for the final two minutes with the score tied before guard Kenny Young scores the go-ahead basket on a driving layup with 20 seconds left. After a Gamecock miss, Young adds two clinching free throws. Future NBA coach Gene Shue leads the Terps with 19 points. The Terps would follow up their inaugural win one night later with a resounding 81-41 victory at Clemson.