As the ACC race begins to take shape.
In New Year’s Eve ACC Action, Virginia beat NC State 70-67, Wake Forest took out Syracuse in the Dome 81-71 and Georgia Tech knocked off Notre Dame 86-75.
We thought that Notre Dame was better defensively and that would carry the day but it didn’t happen.
The Irish fell behind by 19 at the half and they did make a game out of it but there was not enough fight in the Irish.
Georgia Tech got 21 points from two bench players - Duncan Powell and Javian McCollum. Powell has been up and down but he had 13 against Duke and 21 vs. Notre Dame. He might end up being a bit of a surprise.
Tae Davis, who has really been coming on, racked up 27 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Braeden Shrewsberry had 12 points and Princeton transfer Matt Allocco, filling in for the injured Markus Burton, had 15.
Virginia got some measure of revenge for last spring’s loss in the ACC Tournament. Remember this? NC State had a miracle run last year and this play started it.
There were no miracles Tuesday. The Pack had a 10-point first-half lead and pushed it to 14 in the second half, only to see Virginia come back. Andrew Rohde hit a jumper to tie it up at 48-48 and from there, Virginia surged. It’s been a while since we said that.
In the end, State just didn't have a consistent offensive threat. Of course you don’t need to have just one. The Princeton Offense, for example, is designed to overcome more athletically talented opponents with lots of backdoor cuts and balanced scoring.
But State doesn’t really have either, or at least didn't Tuesday, so it’s a bit of a conundrum for coach Kevin Keatts. Jayden Taylor had 14 while Marcus Hill and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield had 12 each.
Ben Middlebrooks sat this one out with an illness.
Maybe he could have helped with Elijah Saunders, who ate them alive inside, hitting 7-9 for 22 points.
It is to too early to call TJ Power’s transfer a mistake? The former Blue Devil has yet to score more than five points in a game. He’s also lost his starting spot and his minutes have dwindled. He has played just seven minutes in the last two games. His shooting is his strength and in particularly three point shooting. That’s really fallen off: as a Blue Devil last season, Power shot 35.7 percent from behind the line. So far this year, with more opportunities, that’s fallen to a striking 22.9 percent.
Wake won for the first time in whatever they’re calling the Dome now. We doh’t remember the name but it’s a step down from the Carrier Dome.
Anyway.
Syracuse couldn’t hit the broad side of a Dome, shooting just 5-22 (22.7 percent) on their threes and 21-56 (37.5 percent) overall.
Chris Bell, the self-described best shooter in the ACC, only took one shot and whiffed. Donnie Freeman, a highly promising freshman, scored just seven points, showing 2-7/0-1.
Jaquan Carlos and Lucas Taylor, who spent two years at Wake Forest, led the Orange with 16 each.
Wake hit 47.4 from three point range and Hunter Sallis led the way with 23 points.
It’s obviously quite early still, but Duke, SMU and Clemson are the top three schools in the conference standings.
As you probably know, six former Florida State players sued their old coach Leonard Hamilton. Here’s a closer look at the case and its implications. A couple of take-away points: first, the only defendant here is Leonard Hamilton and second, no one seems willing to come to his aid.
In other words, well-heeled FSU boosters could probably take care of this if they wanted to, but apparently they don’t. Florida State folk turning on their long-time friends? Can you believe it?
By the way, we’re not sure we’ve seen it put this way anywhere yet, but the programs at FSU, Florida, and Miami are all facing serious problems at the same time.
Four games on tap for New Year’s Day, as Miami heads north to take on BC, Cal flies east to challenge Pitt, while Stanford also hits the East Coast for a bit of culture shock at Littlejohn. In the nightcap, so to speak, UNC visits Louisville in what could be a fascinating game. Why?
Because we’re not sure that UNC has steadied itself and though Louisville has injuries and other issues, they seem to be improving. That one should be fun.
Wednesday’s ACC Action
