ACC Roundup – NC State Gets A Great Win At SMU

What a game by Quadir Copeland

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Virginia dismissed Pitt 67-47 and NC State slipped by SMU 84-83.

And that was one of the best endings of this ACC basketball season.

SMU led for most of the game but the Pack caught up and passed the Mustangs with 10:57 to play. State built an 11 point lead but SMU wasn’t ready to roll over at home.

State was still up 84-81 with :59 to play. Boopie Miller hit a layup with :22 left to cut the lead to 84-83.

Quadir Copeland was fouled with :15 left and went to the line for two

clutch shots…and missed them both.

The stage was fully set for a healthy dose of NC State stuff…but it never happened.

Miller drove again but Tre Holloway blocked him from behind with :01 left on the clock.

Just amazing stuff.

Other than those two foul shots, Copeland had a tremendous game. He hit his other four foul shot attempts and, remarkably, had 16 assists and 0 turnovers. That’s hugely impressive.

Darrion Williams led State with 25. Jaron Pierre had 23 to pace SMU.

This was a huge game for State and their tournament resumé now looks to be back on track.

Speaking of back on track, Virginia appears to be as well: they Cavaliers have been shaky for a few games, blowing a 16 point lead against UNC, letting Notre Dame take them to double overtime and then allowing Boston College to push them far more than should have happened.

Three point shooting has been off too: Virginia hit 8-27 against UNC, 10-29 against Notre Dame and 4-23 against Boston College.

Against Pitt, it was 11-31.

You might think wait, they hit 10-29 against Notre Dame, right?

Right. Just keep in mind that was a 50-minute game.

And Virginia’s defense was good too, which isn’t something people haven’t always said about Ryan Odom’s first Virginia team.

Pitt had 17 turnovers in this one and 12 of those were on steals. Pair that with poor shooting and poor rebounding and you’re in Dean Wormer territory: turnovers, bad shooting and bad rebounding are no way to go through life.

It was a good recovery game for Virginia, because the Cavs were struggling. However, even while they were struggling, they were (mostly) winning. And now Virginia is 19-3 and tied for third place with…NC State.

Badabing!

Now attention will turn to this weekend’s first Duke-UNC matchup in the run-down Dean Dome. Well, didn’t they say it needs renovation or replacement? By definition, isn’t that run down?

UNC, as you may have noticed, avoided disaster Monday night against Syracuse, giving up 26 points out of a 32 point lead before fighting back.

You may have noticed that the NCAA is apparently investigating Texas Tech after the loss to Kansas.Why do we mention that?

Because of this video, posted by a frustrated, degenerate gambler, where he suggests that UNC must be (his sentiment) throwing the Syracuse game. We didn’t realize that UNC was still up 24 with 4:57 left to play. Of course, even if the Tar Heels conspired to let Syracuse beat the spread, the Orange still had to hit the damn shots.

It seems unlikely to us, but he makes a reasonable case. You can make up your own mind. It’s just as likely to be mediocre coaching and communication. Warning: lots of NSFW language here.

The strange thing about the wave of point shaving allegations we’ve seen lately is this: now that players can be paid, how can gamblers give them enough money to make it worth their while while not setting off alarms within the sport, gaming commissions and law enforcement? Something doesn’t make sense.

One thing is probably certain: even if UNC did throw the Syracuse game (and again, we don’t think they did), the intensity of Saturday’s game, and the attention it will draw, makes any such behavior highly unlikely.

Three games on Wednesday as Notre Dame visits Louisville, Georgia Tech visits Cal and Stanford hosts Clemson.

We can’t see Notre Dame winning unless Louisville just stinks it up completely and it’s hard to imagine Stanford prevailing over this Clemson team. But Cal over Georgia Tech?

That could happen. And as far as Clemson goes, a lot of the ACC teams that make the California trip find it more challenging than they expect. Toss in travel and sleep adjustments and passionate crowds and it’s not all that easy to win both games.

Wednesday’s ACC Action