And a dreadful night for Florida State
In Friday’s ACC Action, Miami overcame Georgia 79-68, UNC crushed UC Riverside, NC State blew out Charleston Southern, Pitt destroyed Jacksonville, Florida smashed Florida State 89-68, Pitt clubbed Jacksonville 107-56 and Notre Dame upset Oklahoma State 66-64.
Not many people picked the Irish to win that, least of all after their Thursday beatdown by Auburn.
With one win, Notre Dame strongly suggested that this wouldn’t be like last year’s Louisville team.
Impressively, J.R. Konieczy, who has largely been an afterthought in his Notre Dame career, had his second double-double. He redshirted last year and looks like he might be a classic Mike Brey development project, as picked up by Micah Shrewsberry.
Best of all, Notre Dame had to fight to win this one. It’s huge for their development and confidence and probably underscores Shrewsberry’s coaching ability. the Irish get Maryland-Eastern Shore next at home before a trip to South Carolina. Miami and Marquette are probably out of reach, but they could rip off several wins in the next few weeks if things go well. Huge win for the Irish.
Georgia kept up for a good bit of the first half before Miami took control in the Bahamas, building an 18 point lead in the second half. Georgia cut into that, but there was no comeback.
Miami’s starters all got to double figures but Wooga Poplar got the double-double we’re used to seeing from Norchad Omier with 13 points and 11 boards (Omier had 11 points and six boards).
Minor concern: the bench only managed eight points.
UNC ran out to a 30-9 lead over UC-Riverside then, as Hubert Davis said, took their foot off the gas, allowing Riverside to cut the lead back to 11 by the half.
Armando Bacot racked up 21 points and seven rebounds while Harrison Ingram bagged 10 points and nine boards. Two guys we’ve been paying attention to - Jalen Washington and Elliot Cadeau - both scored 11 points. Washington shot 4-5 and Elliott, who is billed as a promising point guard, had four turnovers to two assists.
It wasn’t a great outing but you started to see the potential.
NC State is best when it forces turnovers and it forced 22 against Charleston Southern. DJ Horne got 18 points. Call him little DJ.
Big DJ (Burns) got 16 points and, somehow, just one rebound.
Dennis Parker came off the bench for 12 points and four boards.
State has a big chance to start the season off with a bang - they have four winnable games before playing Tennessee and then get three more winnable games.
Could the Pack start 11-1? 12-0?
It’s probably time to start keeping an eye on Pitt. Sometimes teams have a special chemistry and the Panthers may have that.
We’re not saying Jacksonville is a great team, but being up by 52 is no accident.
We’re particularly curious about Ishmael Leggett. The Rhode Island transfer has had some eye popping plays and looks like he might be a great fit with Pitt.
In fairness, Pitt hasn’t really played anyone yet - it’s been NC A&T, Binghamton, Florida Gulf Coast and now Jacksonville - so you can’t tell a whole lot of that. But the next four games will be against Florida, Missouri, Clemson and West Virginia. If they come out of that stretch and are still imposing, that’s a good team.
The feel-good stage for Florida State’s revival is on hold for now, because Florida just beat them senseless. How senseless?
It started at 36-4 and Florida State never really recovered. And late in the game, De’Ante Green and Cam’Ron Fletcher both got ejected for flagrant two fouls. Green did this, presumably frustrated and angry, and Fletcher came off the bench.
That was pretty ugly. Well, so was the whole game. Long night for Leonard Hamilton.
There’s only one game on Saturday as Boston College welcomes Tommy Amaker’s Harvard. Those schools are closer together than Duke and UNC are and the rivalry has been pretty good lately.
Also notable: Kyle Filipowski’s twin brother Matt plays for Harvard. He’s not nearly as accomplished but if Harvard wins, Earl Grant will probably be really sick of the Filipowski family.
Sunday’s ACC Action
