The ACC Hoops Bible Is Coming

From the N&O:

His first book, which will be published this summer, may immediately qualify as the bible of ACC basketball.

Working "50- to 60-hour weeks for the last seven years," O'Hara has compiled box scores and accounts for every ACC men's basketball game ever played. That total comes to approximately 14,000 games.

[snip]

The book -- titled "Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Basketball Games" and subtitled "A Complete Record" -- will be printed in three 8.5-by-11-inch volumes, each of about 800 pages.

Holy sweet mercy, this is the best thing ever. I mean, damn, those poor trees, but still--best thing ever. It costs how much? Here, just take my wallet.

More:

The process of settling upon a workable format for the material has been challenging, according to Alff. Box scores and statistical categories have changed substantially over the years. What O'Hara refers to as an "abbreviated box" will be used for most games.

Some games will get extensive recaps, but many won't. O'Hara cited the infamous 12-10 N.C. State win over Duke in the 1968 conference tournament semifinals as an example.

"There's a lot of information on that game simply because it involves so many records that will never be broken," O'Hara said. "It may have been dull to a lot of people there. But from a historic perspective, that was an important game."

You can look at the box score from that State/Duke game here. Duke finished the game with 11 field goal attempts; that ball-hogging Steve Vandenberg had four of them. A rough estimate of possessions indicates that each team had about 15.