Flagrant fouls and the inconsistency with which they’re assessed has become a hot topic of conversation around ACC basketball these past few days.

It’s a topic sparked by 2 specific incidents. One in which a call was made and the other in which it wasn’t, potentially affecting the outcome of a game.

The first happened Saturday when NC State’s Terquavion Smith was sent crashing to the floor by a hard foul from North Carolina’s Leaky Black as he went up for a shot on a drive to the basket. 

Smith remained on the floor for nearly 10 minutes, complaining of elbow and neck pain before being placed on a backboard and transported to a nearby hospital. 

Thankfully, his injuries weren’t nearly as bad as they looked. (He played Tuesday night and helped the Pack hold off Notre Dame.)

Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts would later say that Black did nothing wrong, that his foul on Smith “was a good basketball play.” But because of the optics of a player being rolled out of the arena by EMTs on a stretcher, Black was handed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game.

Now fast forward to Monday.

After Michael Collins Jr. made a tie-breaking basket that put Virginia Tech ahead with 13 seconds remaining, the freshman guard celebrated with an excited fist pump. As he did, however, he inadvertently hit Duke’s Kyle Filipowski in the throat.

“Yeah, he just elbowed me right in my Adam’s apple,” said after the game. “I couldn’t breathe for a minute, but I just needed to throw up.”

By rule, a Flagrant 1 foul is the “result of excessive contact that in nature is categorized as unnecessary or avoidable.” There is no mention of intent. The Blue Devils should have received 2 free throws and possession of the ball.

But after a lengthy review, officials Terry Oglesby, Keith Kimble and Kip Kissinger ruled that a Flagrant 1 wasn’t warranted, presumably because Collins was in the act of celebrating. Duke ended up losing by 3. 

The incidents and their contrasting rulings are the latest additions to a long list of hard fouls that will live on in ACC lore.

Here’s a countdown of the 10 most infamous (along with a few that weren’t called):

10. Derrick Phelps-Danya Abrams, 1994

UNC’s bid for a 2nd straight national championship ended in the 2nd round with a 75-72 loss to Boston College at Capital Centre in Landover, Md. The turning point in the game with 15:53 remaining. Phelps, the Tar Heels’ senior point guard, was on his way up for what appeared to be an uncontested layup when Abrams took him down from behind. He was sent head-first to the ground, suffering a concussion that sidelined him for the rest of the game. 

9. Sparky Stills-Rick Aydlette, 1970

The elbow Maryland’s Stills clocked South Carolina’s Aydlette with 4:52 remaining in their game at Columbia’s Carolina Coliseum was only the prelude to the mayhem that followed. The situation escalated when Aydlette’s teammate and Gamecocks enforcer John Ribock intervened. In the benches-clearing brawl that ensued, Ribock famously slugged Lefty Driesell in the mouth as the Terrapins’ coach tried to restore order.

8. Iturbe! Iturbe! 1995

UNC was well on its way toward a convincing victory against Clemson in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals when Tigers forward Iker Iturbe committed a hard foul on Tar Heels’ star Jerry Stackhouse. Coach Dean Smith immediately took exception and leaped up off the bench pointing at the Clemson center, screaming “Iturbe! Iturbe!” That prompted Tigers coach Rick Barnes to confront Smith, telling him “you coach your team, I’ll coach my team.” An argument ensued and the 2 had to be separated, leading to both being fined by the ACC for their conduct.

7. Kendall Marshall-Ethan Wragge, 2012

Marshall was the point guard and leader of a UNC team that appeared headed to the Final Four until late in its 2nd round NCAA Tournament game against Creighton in Greensboro. The Tar Heels had finally gained some separation against the physical Blue Jays when Marshall caught the defense by surprise with an aggressive drive into the lane. Wragge was late to recover. He tried to contest the shot, but in doing so sent Marshall sprawling to the floor – suffering a broken bone in his wrist that ended his season and UNC’s Final Four hopes. 

6. Kenny Smith-John Tudor, 1984

Marshall’s injury wasn’t the first time a broken wrist to a star point guard derailed the Tar Heels’ chances at a national title. Twenty-eight years earlier, it was Kenny Smith who suffered the injury as a result of a hard foul. UNC was off to a 16-0 start and ranked No. 1 when the dynamic freshman was sent flying in mid-leap by LSU’s Tudor at the end of a fastbreak. Smith returned 4 weeks later, but neither he nor his team was the same. The top-seeded Tar Heels ended up losing in the regional semifinals to Indiana, ending Michael Jordan’s college career.

5. Grayson Allen’s trips, 2015-16

Listed separately, Allen’s fancy footwork would fill at least half this list. Instead, we’ll go with the greatest hits approach and include his entire body of work all in 1 place. First he swept the leg of Louisville’s Ray Spaulding as he lay on his back on the floor. He received a flagrant foul for that one. Later in the season, he took down Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes with a subtle back foot as the Florida State guard ran past him, a transgression that only warranted a stern warning from official Tony Greene.

His pièce de résistance early in the next season when he clearly stuck his foot out to upend Elon’s Steven Santa Ana after being beaten on a baseline drive. Allen received a technical on the play, then had a very public meltdown on the bench before being handed an “indefinite” suspension by coach Mike Krzyzewski that turned out to be only 1 game.

4. Battle of the Blues, 1961

Art Heyman and Larry Brown were friends from Long Island and planned to room together at UNC. Their friendship ended abruptly, however, when Heyman changed his mind and flipped to Duke at the 11th hour, reportedly because of a run-in between his father and Tar Heels coach Frank McGuire. The bad blood boiled over when the old friends met in Durham in February 1961. Duke was leading by 5 in the final seconds when Brown committed a hard foul on Heyman. The epic benches-clearing brawl that followed turned out to be the spark that ignited the Duke-UNC rivalry into what it has become today.

3. The Laettner stomp, 1992

Christian Laettner’s shot heard ’round the world against Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA regional final would never have happened — and Duke wouldn’t have won its second straight national championship — had the Blue Devils’ star been ejected for his blatant stomp on Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake. The 2 players made contact as Laettner scored from close range with just under 7 minutes remaining in regulation, sending Timberlake to the floor. As Laettner turned to go back down court, he deliberately planted his foot down on his opponent’s chest.

Replay was not in use back then, so Laettner’s only penalty was a technical foul. He’s lucky, because with today’s rules and technology, he’d have been sent to the showers with a Flagrant 2.

2. David Collins-Wendell Moore Jr., 2021

Speaking of Flagrant 2s. … Clemson’s Collins was given 1 for the scariest hard foul on this list. He undercut Moore in an effort to prevent the Duke forward from executing a breakaway dunk and extending what was already a 7-point Blue Devils lead. Moore was already in full extension when Collins made contact with him and was out of control as he crashed to the floor onto his back.

Collins was ejected. Before leaving, he walked over to Krzyzewski and apologized. He was also suspended for a game. Fortunately, Moore wasn’t seriously injured. He actually returned to the game in the 2nd half.

1. Bloody Hansbrough, 2007

Collins’ foul on Moore might have been the most dangerous. But this one involving Duke’s Gerald Henderson and UNC star Tyler Hansbrough is by far the most famous.

It happened with 17.5 seconds remaining in what would end up as an 86-72 Tar Heels victory at Smith Center. Hansbrough had just rebounded his own free throw miss and was about to go up for a shot when Henderson jumped in and delivered an elbow to his face. The blow broke Hansbrough’s nose, turning his face into a bloody mess. But that didn’t stop him from getting up and trying to go after Henderson before being restrained by teammates. Henderson was ejected and suspended for 1 game while Hansbrough wore a mask during UNC’s postseason games.

4 hard fouls that weren’t called

Bloody Montross: It’s unclear how exactly UNC star Eric Montross got the cut that needed stitches to repair during the Tar Heels win against eventual national champion Duke in 1992. But everyone who saw it remembers the sight of the hulking big man, with his flat top haircut, standing at the free throw line late in the game with blood trickling down his cheek.

Buddy’s sucker bunch: Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is famous for his curmudgeonly demeanor. But it was his son Buddy who infamously lost his cool during last year’s ACC Tournament in Brooklyn when he sucker punched Florida State’s Wyatt Wilkes in the stomach after battling for position underneath the basket. Boeheim wasn’t called for a foul, but was punished with a 1-game suspension after the fact.

Paul’s jewels shot: Wake Forest’s Chris Paul boxed out NC State’s Julius Hodge on a missed shot that was eventually rebounded by the Wolfpack. As the 2 separated, Paul inexplicably wound up and punched Hodge in the groin, sending him to the floor writhing in pain. As was the case with Boeheim, official on the floor apparently didn’t see the cheap shot. But the ACC office did. Paul was suspended for the Deacon’s opening-round game in the 2005 ACC Tournament.

Undercutting Buck: Maryland was the top seed in the 1980 ACC Tournament and appeared on the verge of giving coach Lefty Driesell his long-awaited league championship. Buck Williams had inside position for a tip-in of teammate Albert King’s miss that could have given the Terps the victory. But just as he got his hand on the ball, Duke’s Kenny Dennard undercut him, throwing him off balance. The Blue Devils got the rebound and held on for a 73-72 win.