ACC Roundup – That Was An Interesting Saturday

SB Nation

If people had questions about the ACC being back, Saturday should have sorted that out.

Aside from the close Duke-Florida State game, Virginia clubbed NC State, 76-61, Wake first slipped by Virginia Tech

81-78, Clemson escaped Pitt 73-68, Georgia Tech got by BC 65-53 and SMU upset UNC 97-83.

It’s hard to understand what happened to UNC’s defense here. The Tar Heels have been pretty good on D all season but SMU and in particular Boopie Miller just killed UNC’s defense.

The Mustangs hit 14 threes (14-27 for 52%) and 60% overall. Miller finished with 27 points on 10-13/3-5 from the floor. He also had 12 assists and no one could stop him. He put a move on Caleb Wilson that people will be talking about for a while. Here’s another view.

Corey Washington had 23 points on 7-10/5-7. Jaden Toombs came off the bench and he hit 5-7/2-3.

After the game Hubert Davis said that you’re not going to win many games when you let the other team shoot 60%.

This game has people revisiting the can-Hubert-coach question. That’s going to be around until he puts it to bed and that hasn’t happened.

Meanwhile, in Raleigh, NC State got just hammered by Virginia. The final margin was 15, but it wasn’t that close.

Whatever Will Wade said after the last game about Darrion Williams, he finished with only 7 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and 4 steals. He shot just 37.5%, too.

Ven-Allen Lubin finished with 7 points on 2-6 shooting and managed just 5 boards. Nobody else shot much better, other than Quadir Copeland, who shot 5-11/2-4 for 15 points.

Collectively, NC State shot 5-2o from behind the line and 18-50 overall. It was a regression and given what Will Wade promised, bound to be a letdown.

With the loss, State is now a relatively pedestrian 10-5 and 1-1 in the ACC.

Wake Forest survived Virginia Tech by three but the Hokies didn’t help themselves. They had 14 turnovers in the first half and 19 for the game. Neoklis Avdalas had 7 on his own while Amani Hansberry had 6.

Jailen Bedford scored 25 on 9-18/5-11 from the floor, but most of the team shot poorly, including former Blue Devil Jaden Schutt, who was 1-6, all threes. Hansberry was 7-9 and Ben Hammond was 4-7.

For Wake, Nate Calmese had 25 while Juke Harris and Tre-Von Spillers both finished with 15.

Keep in mind that Tobi Lawal is still out and he’s their best player. Even so, this was a winnable game for Virginia Tech and they whiffed, thanks in no small measure to the turnover disaster.

Pitt gave Clemson a tough game right after the Panthers gave Miami a very tough game but the Tigers held on, thanks partly to a really nice game from Jestin Porter. He finished with 21 on 8-12/3-6 shooting.

This game was tied 56-56 with 8:46 to play. From there, Pitt stayed close, but the Tigers stayed in control, even though Dillon Hunter had a poor offensive night with just 4 points.

Demarco Minor led Pitt with 17 points. Omari Witherspoon had 14 off the bench.

Georgia Tech was missing Mouhamed Sylla and had Peyton Marshall for just 5 minutes, but it didn’t matter against BC. Baye Ndongo was not very effective at Duke Wednesday, but here, with the lane to himself, he finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds.

Lamar Washington led Tech with 17 points while Kowacie Reeves finished with 16.

Boston College shot very, very poorly with just 4-29 (14%) on threes and 18-66 (27%) overall. Boden Kapke was 61-2 for 13 while Jayden Hastings finished 4-7, but the backcourt of Fred Payne and Donald Hand combined to shoot 3-26.

There’s not much you can say to offense that bad, but is it as bad as UNC’s defense?

On another note, the ACC reprimanded Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry after he had to be restrained after the Irish lost to Cal. Shrewsberry was incensed by a questionable call at the end of the game and it was not a good look.

In the ACC’s statement, the league said this: “Shrewsberry aggressively confronted a member of the officiating crew following the game. The unsportsmanlike behavior that was displayed is unacceptable and tarnishes the on-court play between these institutions. The ACC considers this matter closed and will have no further comment.”

Shrewsberry apologized for his behavior but only to “… to our team, our University and its leaders, to Coach Madsen and his team, and to the ACC, as my actions were unacceptable.”

Notably not included in his apology: the referee he lunged after.

No games until Tuesday when the highlight should be Duke’s trip to Louisville.