In Sunday’s ACC Action, Vanderbilt took care of Wake Forest 98-67, Pitt pounded Penn State 80-46, NC State beat up on Ole Miss 76-62, SMU sent Central Arkansas home 99-82, Purdue Fort Wayne shocked Notre Dame 72-69, Clemson clipped Cincinnati 68-65, Miami beat North Florida 105-67 and Cal clobbered Columbia 74-56.
Remember Tyler Nickel? He only lasted one year with Hubert Davis and then one with Mike Young at Virginia Tech. He’s now at Vanderbilt.
He scored 26, hitting eight threes. Keep in mind this
game was at Wake Forest. The Commodores managed 64% in a game that had some questioning Wake’s effort.
Wake also shot just 32.2% overall and had 20 turnovers. Not at all impressive.
Vanderbilt, by the way, is still undefeated but Wake falls to 9-4. Keep in mind the Deacs nearly got Michigan in November, losing by 1 in overtime. This is one of the worst performances in the Steve Forbes era. Ramifications incoming.
As for Vandy, this is arguably the most impressive team in the country so far. Mark Byington is really doing a great job.
Pitt freshman Roman Siulepa had an athletic rep but he hadn’t really had a major outing – until Sunday anyway, when he racked up 28 against Penn State on 10-16/5-6 from the floor. Omari Witherspoon came off the bench for 15. Pitt just smoked Penn State. Penn State coach Mike Rhoades called the loss “embarrassing,” which it was bound to be.
When we last saw Will Wade, he was muttering that “it’s not kindergarten anymore” and that his team wasn’t tough or smart.
He’s probably a lot happier after the win over Ole Miss, which was basically over at halftime when Stat had a 45-26 lead.
Last time out McNeil scored an astonishing 47 against Texas Southern; this time was more modest with 19. Even so, that’s 69 points in the last two games. Wade says he’s worked hard for his success, so good for him.
Darrion Williams had an atrocious game with 1 point, missing all of his 8 attempts.
Even so, it’s an encouraging game for State.
Clemson survived another near collapse, losing most of a 27-point lead before escaping the Bearcats, who cut the lead to just 1 with :05 left to play.
The Tigers were up 38-11 and you’d think that would have done it, particularly after the collapse against BYU in the Garden.
Still, a win is a win is a win and the Tigers had a grueling December. We’ll be interested to see how they are after some Holiday R&R.
Playing without Markus Burton is tough, but you’d still think the Irish could handle Purdue Fort Wayne. Just spitballing, but we’re pretty sure they’re the first ACC team to lose to a team with a Mastodon mascot.
Freshman Jalen Haralson got 21 points and 9 rebounds. Braeden Shrewsberry finished with 13. Corey Hadnot had 29 points to pace, uh, the Mastodons.
This is a bad loss and will not go down well with the fan base or local columnists, for that matter.
Shelton had another big game for Miami with 20 points and Tre Donaldson had 21 to lead the Hurricanes past North Florida. However, despite the big win, Miami had trouble controlling Kamrin Oriol, who racked up 29, including 20 in the first half. That was probably disappointing to Jai Lucas but overall Miami played well, including forcing 20 turnovers.
SMU struggled with Central Arkansas for the first half before ultimately pulling away in the second for a 17-point win. The Mustangs backcourt of Boopie Miller and Jaron Pierre combined for 44 points, with Miller getting 23 and Pierre 21.
Is defense a concern? The Bears shot 46% on threes and 48% overall. In the end, it’s a holiday game with all the disruptions that implies, but SMU could have done better.
Cal held Columbia to 16 first-half points. The Bears let up in the second half which is not ideal, but on the other hand, this was Cal’s ninth straight win.
Both Cal and Stanford get the ACC better now and we’ll just say it: some ACC teams are going to have miserable trips to Northern California this winter. The trip is long and difficult and you’ll play twice in a weekend. It’s not going to be a fun trip. Louisville will be there on December 3oth and while they should be favored, they’re vulnerable without Mikel Brown.
With the holidays nearly upon us, everyone will be off until after Christmas except for Virginia. The Cavs play American on Monday.
Monday’s ACC Action
- American at Virginia || 6:00 || ACC Network
- Former Hokie, Tar Heel sparks No. 13 Vanderbilt at Wake Forest
- Vanderbilt dominates Wake Forest on the road | main takeaways
- Wake Forest no-shows against Vanderbilt
- Wake Forest Basketball Gets Outclassed at Home, Falls in Blowout Defeat
- What went wrong in Penn State basketball’s ’embarassing’ loss to Pitt
- For Penn State Basketball, a ‘Discouraging and Embarrassing’ Loss to Pitt
- Will Wade on NC State’s win over Ole Miss: ‘It was one of our better performances’
- McNeil Jr. scores 19 as N.C. State tops Ole Miss
- NC State men’s basketball buries Ole Miss before halftime to finish non-conference slate
- Rapid Reaction: Ole Miss Basketball Falls to Will Wade, NC State in 76-62 Loss
- Recap of Clemson men’s basketball barley surviving Cincinnati
- Despite Close Cincinnati Win, Brad Brownell “Proud” of Clemson Basketball’s Efforts
- Notre Dame basketball should be beyond what happened Sunday at home
- Micah Shrewsberry Notebook
- Corey Hadnot II, Purdue Fort Wayne upset Notre Dam
- Miami preps for ACC slate with blowout of North Florida
- Donaldson, Shelton lead the way for Miami in 105-67 win over North Florida
- SMU outlasts pesky Central Arkansas in overdue homecoming
- Miller scores 23, Pierre 21 and SMU pulls away from Central Arkansas in second half in 99-82 win
- Dai Dai Ames scores 21 and California defeats Columbia 74-56
- Dai Dai Ames, Cal improve to 12-1 with solid win over Columbia
- Cal Beats Columbia for Ninth Straight Win
- Men’s Basketball: Cal Turns Up The Defensive Intensity In Win Over Columbia, 74-56
