ACC Roundup – Miami Impressive In Win Over Stetson

SB Nation

In Monday’s ACC Action, Pitt got by Eastern Michigan, 78-66, Georgia Tech took out a stubborn Southeast Louisiana, 70-60, Miami hammered Stetson, 102-61, and in the late game, Cal trounced Cal State Fullerton,

93-65.

Miami started slow and for some reason, Tre Donaldson came off the bench and until he did, Miami struggled. The ‘Canes didn’t catch up until they took the lead 23-20 with 8:44 left in the first half.

After that though, it was all Miami, and it was hard not to be impressed. The Hurricanes outscored Stetson 79-41 the rest of the way.

Miami is an impressive team. Three point shooting is a weakness, but Jai Lucas has them running and scoring a lot so it’s not that big of a deal. It will be later when games grow more tense, but they’ll win a lot of games this way. With three seniors in Donaldson, Malik Reneau and Ernest Udeh, and freshman Shelton Henderson, it’s an interesting team to say the least

Georgia Tech didn’t have an easy time with Southeast Louisiana, but the Yellow Jackets won and are now 3-0.

Freshman Mouhamad Sylla had his third double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. We’re not sure what’s going on with Baye Ndongo, but he missed the first game with an injury and presumably he’s working his way back into prime shape.

Alternatively, Damon Stoudamire might be trying to do what he did last year and move Ndongo out of the paint. It would make sense, because we don’t know that Sylla can play away from the basket, but last year Tech couldn’t make it work. If Ndongo has developed his perimeter game, it might work, and it’s possible he has and just needs to get back in game condition. We’ll see. If not, Tech has a problem.

Pitt didn’t have too much trouble with Eastern Michigan, even though Brandin Cummings was out with a lower body injury. He’s listed as day-to-day.

Pitt ripped off a 22-4 run in the first half and took a 45-32 lead into the half and never looked back. It was a solid win but as noted previously, it was over a program that is in serious turmoil (three former Eastern Michigan players are involved in a gambling scandal).

We’re keeping an eye on Roman Siulepa. An Aussie, he’s reportedly highly athletic. He had 11 points and 5 rebounds in this one. Three other starters finished in double figures.

In the nightcap, Cal hammered Cal State Fullerton, as expected. Chris Bell, the self-proclaimed best shooter in the ACC (he said this when he was at Syracuse), was 4-13/1-5 for 15 points. Dai Dai Ames had 24.

Fullerton was held to 39.1% from the floor. No offense to schools like Campbell and Elon, but this was more or less that, except that Campbell and Elon are probably far better than Fullerton.

So Monday’s games were basically a snore. Tuesday? That’s a whole other story.

On Tuesday, ACC teams have some tough games lined up. Wake Forest plays #6 Michigan in Detroit, Florida State plays defending national champs Florida in Tallahassee and Louisville hosts Kentucky.

There are other, less compelling games as well: UNC welcomes Radford in, Clemson gets Morehead State, BC gets the other Blue Devils from Central Connecticut, Notre Dame faces off with Eastern Illinois, SMU will see Murray State and Virginia squares off with Hampton.

Unless there is an upset in those games, the only interesting thing going in is how UNC will deal with Seth Trimble being out with an arm injury.

On to the real games.

Does Wake have a shot against Michigan? Presumably, but Michigan will be favored and should be. A solid game by the Deacs would be a plus but we’re not expecting a win.

We can’t see FSU winning at Florida, but maybe Luke Loucks is a prodigy. They just don’t appear to have the talent to pull that off, so it would have to be something else. If you had Coach K or Dean Smith or Rick Pitino, you could imagine it, but Loucks just doesn’t have the track record to bet on.

It’s been a minute since the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry has been much fun, but this year it should be. Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey have brought huge jolts of energy to their respective programs and both have recruited well. This one should be fun.

Tuesday’s ACC Action