ACC Roundup – NC State, UNC Roll To Easy Wins

SB Nation

Fifteen ACC teams were in action on the first night of the 2025-26 college basketball season and things got interesting, particularly in the Triangle with new-look teams in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. First

though, the scores:

UNC 94 Central Arkansas 54
NC State 114 NCCU 66
Louisville 104 SC State 45
Miami 86 Jacksonville 69
Virginia Tech 98 Charleston Southern 67
Syracuse 85 Binghamton 47
Pitt 74 Youngstown State 59

FAU 83 BC 78 (OT)
Clemson 88 New Hampshire 38
Virginia 89 Rider 53
Georgia Tech 56 Maryland Eastern Shore 52 (OT)
Wake Forest 88 American 74
SMU 96 Tarleton 76
Cal 87 Cal State Bakersfield 60

Every ACC team won except for BC. We can’t look at all the games but let’s focus on stuff closer to home, starting with NC State.

Will Wade’s NC State program had a tremendous debut. First, he clearly has a keen awareness of State history and brought back Everett Case’s noise meter, a fun gimmick, and the uniforms are clearly based on the 1970 classics that players like David Thompson and Kenny Carr wore.

These are great signs.

So was State’s overall level of play. As much as we admire LeVelle Moton, NCCU can’t get the same level of players that ACC schools get, and that showed. But State moved the ball well and put six players into double figures. What State basketball should be is electric, and it hasn’t been that in a long time. For the first time in forever, the Pack seemed like what Everett Case built: they get up and down the floor and, at least in Game 1, they played like a real team. This is not a small achievement since only two players are back from last season.

This looks like a team that is solid now and likely to get better. Most impressive.

UNC was also impressive and in particular freshman Caleb Wilson, who started the game with four highly athletic dunks. He finished with 22 points on 8-10 from the floor. Henri Veesaar had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Kyan Evans played the point and did well with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. We didn’t watch this as closely as we watched State, but UNC looked good and Wilson is going to be a pain for everyone.

We didn’t expect much from South Carolina State, but Louisville was up 59-15 at the half. That’s pretty great. SC State hit just 10.9 percent on their threes and 22.8 percent overall.

How much is good Louisville and how much is bad South Carolina State? We’ll have to wait to see, but the Cards looked really good in this one.

Down in Miami, Jai Lucas got off to a winning start. Getting to the line 37 times (and hitting 29) helped. The Hurricanes looked pretty solid but again, it’s early and who knows how good Jacksonville is.

Pitt struggled for a while with Youngstown State before icing the Penguins late. Cam Corhen had 23 points and 12 rebounds. Aussie Roman Siulepa started but wasn’t very productive with four points and six boards, but keep an eye on him. Brandin Cummings had 18 points.

Up in Charlottesville, Virginia fans probably were in shock seeing a Cavalier team score 87 points. Euro import Thijs De Ridder had 21 points (10-14) and 10 rebounds. It was against Rider, but still. We don’t really know any of these guys, so it’s hard to say a lot. We’ll know more about the Cavaliers soon. Still, it’s a solid debut for Ryan Odom and Virginia looks like it’ll be a much more entertaining team than it was under Tony Bennett.

Those are the games we were most curious about, but there’s a lot more to look at, including Syracuse. Donnie Freeman was solid with 20 and Kiyan Anthony had 15 off the bench. Naithan George had eight assists and five steals. And while Baye Ndongo sat out with an injury, freshman Mouhamed Sylla had 14 points and 15 rebounds. Biggest Takeaways From Georgia Tech’s 56-52 Win Over MD Eastern Shore

On Wednesday, the last three teams get going with Florida State taking on Alcorn State, Stanford taking on Portland State and Duke facing Texas.

Tuesday’s ACC Action