Tought times for the ‘Canes
Tuesday’s ACC Action went about as we expected with one exception. Miami lost its seventh straight, this time to #1 Tennessee 75-62, NC State got by Coppin State 66-56, Syracuse clubbed Albany 102-85 and Cal lost at home to Cornell 88-80.
The surprise?
Winless Coppin State gave the Wolfpack some trouble, staying close for the first half and into the second. Ultimately State pulled away, but the Pack never really blew out 0-10 (now 0-11) Coppin State.
It’s possible they were looking ahead to this weekend’s trip to Kansas but still...they let Coppin State hang around longer than necessary.
Meanwhile, Miami lost its seventh straight, falling to Tennessee in the Jimmy V Classic, 75-62. Jim Larranaga says he’s seeing some improvement, but he’s clearly frustrated too, saying this after the game: “In the first half we had a terrible last seven minutes. We were awful. It was like we never practiced together before. It was like we just met each other at the last time out. It didn’t look like our team. Everyone was shooting off the bounce, no passes, no assists, bad shot selection. When you do that, it’s really demoralizing and hard to play good defense when everybody’s mad we took such a bad shot.”
Looks like there’s a lot of work ahead for the ‘Canes.
Syracuse scored a lot against Albany. Donnie Freeman led the way with 24 points in 22 minutes and the Orange shot 63 percent, but Adrian Autry was not happy with his team’s defense as Syracuse gave up 51 points in the second half.
Autry mixed things up a bit, bringing super freshman Freeman off the bench. Despite the absence of JJ Starling, who is out with a hand injury, Syracuse shot 40 percent on threes (6-15).
You don’t see this too often: Cornell was playing an ACC team, on the road, and had a 52-29 lead. Well, Cal hasn’t really adopted to ACC basketball yet - how could they have? - but it’s still embarrassing. Fortunately for the Bears, they came back and tied the game 74-74- with 3:51 left.
That was about it for Cal though - Cornell outscored the Bears 14-6 down the stretch to claim its first win against an ACC team since 1951.
It’s no knock on Cal really. They haven’t been a great basketball school for a long time and they’re going to take some knocks as they join the ACC. We’ll see how they handle it.
Three games on Wednesday as Dartmouth visits Notre Dame, Pitt hosts Eastern Kentucky and UTEP heads to Louisville.
Wednesday’s ACC Action
Dartmouth @ Notre Dame || 7:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra
Eastern Kentucky @ Pitt || 7:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra
UTEP @ Louisville || 7:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra
