What’s happened to UNC?
Saturday’s ACC Action went about as we expected: Pitt beat Virginia Tech 64-59, UNC slipped past Georgia Tech 68-65, Notre Dame struggled past Syracuse 69-64, Clemson topped Miami 65-55, Wake Forest managed Boston College 72-66, SMU suppressed Virginia 63-51, NC State popped Florida State 84-74 in OT and Stanford won the grudge match with Cal, 89-81.
Here’s a bit of a shocking stat: UNC got zero points from their bigs for the first 23 minutes. Ven-Allen Lubin, Jalen Washington and Jae’Lyn Withers combined for nine points.
Toss in a goose-egg from Drake Powell, now starting, and UNC has some real issues. They won the game anyway, but we can’t remember the last time the Tar Heels struggled this much inside.
The struggles were magnified by turnovers: Elliott Cadeau had seven on his own and the Tar Heels combined for 18. Seth Trimble and RJ Davis each had 19 points.
As we expected, Baye Ndongo had a big game with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Lance Terry had 22 and Naithan George had 12.
What would Dean Smith make of a team that had such a weak inside game? Even in the Matt Doherty era, UNC had Sean May. This is kind of amazing to see.
Virginia Tech has now lost six straight. We didn’t expect them to be very good this year, but a six-game losing streak is bad news for Mike Young.
It’s nice to see Jaden Schutt get a good game in. The former Blue Devil had 14 for the Hokies, including shooting 4-10 on three pointers.
This game was a struggle. Virginia Tech shot a little better but had 17 turnovers. Pitt hit just 6-28 from three point range. Jaland Lowe had 19 for Pitt but hit just 6-16. Ishmael Leggett had 17 but was just 5-13. He did hit three threes, which the rest of the team matched. We told you they didn’t shoot well.
There were a lot of losing streaks going into Saturday, including Notre Dame’s five straight. We’re not worried about the Irish though. Micah Shrewsberry is building a solid program. There are going to be some struggles, including now, but our strong feeling is he’ll get it done.
His star, Markus Burton, is out though and what can you do? That makes life difficult.
Still had enough for the cold shooting Orange, who shot 0-9 from behind the line and 24-51 overall.
The cold shooting extended to the foul line where Syracuse shot 16-24 (66.7 percent).
The self-proclaimed best shooter in the ACC, Chris Bell, shot 1-5/0-3 for four points. Eddie Lampkin managed five and Lucas Taylor just two.
Things would have been a lot worse if Jyare Davis didn't shoot 8-12 off the bench.
Speaking of losing streaks, with the loss to Clemson, Miami’s is now up to six.
We thought that Miami could be a trap game after the Kentucky win, bizarre as that sounds, but Clemson didn't give in to that. Well, they did for part of the game, but the Tigers didn't tank.
This game had a real turning point: Miami hit a three with about four minutes left that would have cut the lead to one, but it was waved off as a shot clock violation. After that, Clemson ripped off a 13-7 run the rest of the way.
Ian Schieffelin had his standard double-double (15/12) and Victor Lahkin had 12, all in the second half.
Clemson shot just 39.7 percent but Miami loves the three and the Tigers held that to 16 percent (4-25).
Hunter Sallis had a weak game by his standards with just nine points, but Cameron Hildreth had 22 and shot 14-18 from the line.
Elijah Strong had 18 points and Donald Hand had 13 points and eight rebounds to pace BC. Fred Payne had 12 off the bench.
Virginia went the last 10 minutes of the game without a field goal. They were still within range, but at some point, you have to hit some shots.
That’s what TJ Power was brought in for, but the former Blue Devil shot just 1-3.
The Cavs have now lost four of their last six games.
NC State and FSU took it to OT before State pulled it out. Dontrez Styles and Marcus Hill hit for 13 in the extra frame. Styles, the first Triangle player to go from one local team to another, with a stop at Georgetown in between, had a great game with 21 points on 7-13/3-7 from the floor. Kevin Keatts is still tinkering with his lineup, moving Ben Middlebrooks into the starting lineup and bringing Brandon Huntley-Hatfield off the bench. Middlebrooks finished with four points and four boards; Huntley-Hatfield had two and three.
Hill finished with 23.
Finally, on the West Coast, Stanford topped Cal. Masime Raymond had 20 points but just three rebounds. Former Blue Devil Jaylen Blakes continues his stellar play with 20 points and six assists. He shot 7-13/2-4.
Jeremiah Wilkinson, Cal’s freshman who got one vote for ACC Rookie of the Year, shot 2-9 for four points.
Only one game on Sunday as Duke visits Louisville.
