ACC Roundup: A Slow Monday And Bad News From Chapel Hill

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First the bad news: Seth Trimble broke a bone in his left forearm Sunday and is out indefinitely. He’s scheduled for surgery this week. We kind of admire him. He’s stuck it out, worked hard, and gone through

the Hubert roller coaster ride without complaining. We also like his entrepreneurial spirit. It’s a shame this had to happen and least of all during his senior season.

Two early points about Monday’s ACC games: first, the ACC has lost just one game so far, with BC losing to FAU in overtime in its opener. And second, the games on Monday basically stink.

Pitt hosts Eastern Michigan, Stetson is at Miami, Southeast Louisiana visits Georgia Tech and Cal welcomes in Cal State Fullerton.

Pitt had no way to anticipate this, but Eastern Michigan is enmeshed in the NCAA’s gambling investigation and that’s bound to be distracting.

So far, Pitt is 2-0 with no major challenges. All things considered, they should win this one, too.

Jai Lucas is still reinventing Miami, so we can’t go 100% on beating Stetson in any sense. However, Stetson is coming off a bad year, nearly as bad as Miami’s last season. Our guess is that Miami has better talent and Lucas is a rising star.

Trivia: Stetson coach Donnie Jones was born in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966, about a year and half before the Silver Bridge collapsed. This was at the heart of the movie the Mothman Prophecies. He probably has some stories to tell.

Southeast Louisiana lost badly to Ole Miss and narrowly to Louisiana. Georgia Tech has been kind of up and down already, with an overtime win over Maryland Eastern Shore and a blowout of Bryant.

The Yellow Jackets have a potentially dynamic duo with big men Baye Ndongo and Mouhamed Sylla. We have a good sense of the junior Ndongo now, but freshman Sylla is averaging 12 points and 13 rebounds, which ain’t chicken feed. He’ll need to prove it against better opponents, but so far, so good.

Kowacie Reeves is a solid player but we’re not sure how they replace Naithan George, who is now at Syracuse.

Still, they should win here.

Finally, Cal State Fullerton is at Cal. Cal’s not overly promising, but they have more talent than does Fullerton. Stranger things have happened, but we can’t see Cal losing this one.

These games are not particularly compelling at first glance, but you never know until you do. They might be great.

Tuesday night’s games are much more promising, with Wake Forest vs. Michigan, Florida State at Florida, and a potentially great game with Louisville hosting Kentucky.

Monday Night’s ACC Action