In Friday night’s ACC Action, everyone one, meaning the only ACC loss so far was BC’s overtime bummer against FAU.
On Friday, FSU whipped Alabama State 101-64, Wake Forest topped Morehead State 85-61, Virginia
took out NCCU 81-62, Pitt beat Longwood 78-60, Notre Dame crushed Detroit Mercy 102-70, Gardner-Webb fell at Clemson 97-59, Georgia Tech handled Bryant 74-45, NC State clocked UAB 94-70 and UNC took care of Kansas 87-74.
Those last two are worth talking about.
Kansas started off the game nicely, and led UNC in the Dean Dome at the half, 37-31. The Tar Heels caught up relatively quickly and blew past the Jayhawks, outscoring them in the second half 56-37. That’s what you call a whoopin’.
Caleb Wilson led the way again with 24 points and seven rebounds. He also had four steals. It’s quite early, but Wilson is shooting 75 percent from the floor, which is considerably higher than his free throw percentage (66.7 percent), which suggests he might eventually see a modification of the old Hack-a-Shaq strategy.
UNC looked great. You could argue that Kansas is overly reliant on freshman guard Darryn Peterson and work-in-progress Flory Bidunga, but so what? It doesn’t take away from what UNC did. They were really good. They’re also quite tall up front, which will help a lot in the ACC.
Wilson is also doing his best to motivate the fans, both in the gym and in other places. He’s turning into a leader despite being just a freshman. We’ll say this: his people skills seem to be well ahead of Davis’s.
Like UNC, NC State started cold but got hot after halftime. Despite starting cold, the Pack shot 54.1 percent for the game and 33.3 percent on threes. State held UAB to 16 percent on threes.
What we like about State is that this team, while not huge, is athletic and just keeps coming at you. Paul McNeil and Quadir Copeland had 18 each while Darrion Williams and Tre Holloman had 14 each. Interestingly, five guys off the bench got more minutes than four starters.
We’re getting the feeling that Luke Loucks might be pretty good at this coaching thing. Yes, FSU has only played downstream teams so far, but they’re playing much better than late-era Leonard Hamilton teams and this is a not-so-small but telling stat: as a team, Florida State shot 92.9 percent from the free throw line.
That’s an individual discipline generally speaking, but when was the last time you saw a team shoot that high from the line? Our guess is the staff has something to do with it.
More evidence?
FSU hit 18 threes, a school record.
We don’t want to get carried away, but FSU has scored over 100 points in the first two games and, we’d say, exceeded expectations so far. However, they play Florida next week and soon after that they get a stretch with Texas A&M, Georgia, Houston, UMass and Dayton. That will be revealing. Reality will probably catch up to them soon, but as of now, they look ahead of schedule.
Remember Juke Harris? He was a freshman at Wake last season but he didn’t do all that much really. It’s not that he was bad, but he was really thin and there were guys ahead of him.
Well…he had 29 and nine against Morehead State, and that’s damn good no matter who you’re playing against. He also had those 29 in 31 minutes and shot 10-15/3-5.
Harris is from Salisbury. Wake’s second-leading scorer, Sebastian Akins, who is from Concord, had 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists off the bench. He may not be there much longer.
You can bet Duke’s Caleb Foster, who grew up in the same region, knows those guys well or at least has played against them a lot.
Worth noting: Morehead State had 19 turnovers. Then again, so did Wake.
Thijs De Ridder has been tremendous so far for Ryan Odom’s UVA program. De Ridder scored 20 points against the Eagles, along with five rebounds, after hanging 21 and 10 on Rider in Virginia’s opener. So far he’s shooting 66.6 percent, not as splashy as UNC’s Wilson but pretty damn good. Unlike Wilson, he’s taken a couple of threes (1-2).
Malik Thomas had 12 points and six assist. Upon Onyenso also had 10 points and BYU transfer Dallin Hall had seven assists.
Pitt outshot Longwood from deep 12-30 to 4-20 and that got them past a tough-minded bunch of Lancers. DaMarco Minor (4-7 on threes) had 23 and Brandin Cummings (5-8 on threes) tacked on 19.
Cameron Corhen had 13 rebounds which was far more than anyone on Longwood. It took Pitt until the second half to put Longwood away. They can’t rely on threes forever but it worked here.
We’re not sure how much is expected out of Notre Dame, but they’re doing well so far. Against Detroit Mercy, Braeden Shrewsberry had 19 points and shot 5-8 from deep. Markus Burton had 13. Sir Mohammed had 10 points, six rebounds and six assists and Carson Towt, who is becoming a bit of a fan favorite, had 11 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
In general, it left people in Notre Dame’s orbit feeling pretty good about the program. A good sign: the Irish had just seven turnovers.
Candidates for the All-Name team from Detroit Mercy: London Maiden, Orlando Lovejoy and Legend Geeter.
The Tigers had four players in double figures, but the best news was Carter Welling coming off the bench for 14 points and 11 boards. Nick Davidson had 18 to pace Tiger scoring.
Clemson forced 16 turnovers good for 22 points. It’s not exactly a major opponent, but Clemson is showing signs of life, which is good news.
Finally, Georgia Tech hammered Bryant 74-45. Kowacie Reeves had 18 to pace the Yellow Jackets. Baye Ndongo had 10 points and seven rebounds, Mouhamed Sylla had 10 points and 11 boards while freshman Akai Fleming had 14 off the bench.
It wasn’t much of a game really. Tech was up by 17 at the half and Bryant is not much of a measuring stick, other than getting blown out, unlike Maryland Eastern Shore earlier in the week.
Still, so far the ACC has only lost one game, which is good, and some teams have shown some surprising potential. So who’s up Saturday? Take a look:
Saturday’s ACC Action
- Delaware State at Syracuse || 1:00 || ACC Extra
- Western Carolina at Duke || 1:30 || CW
- Providence at Virginia Tech || 4:00 || Peacock
- Montana at Stanford || 4:00 || ACC Extra
- No. 25 UNC men’s basketball’s second half offense surges in rout over No. 19 Kansas
- Halftime analysis: Three takeaways from No. 25 UNC men’s basketball’s first half against No. 19 Kansas
- UNC makes early statement in taking down Kansas
- Rapid Reaction: UNC sets the tone for the season with an 87-74 win over No. 19 Kansas
- Put Caleb Wilson among nation’s top freshmen as well after UNC’s win vs. Kansas in early blue-blood battle
- Pack Defeats UAB in Friday Night Showdown
- Wolfpack Surges After Cold Start, Cruise Past UAB 94-70
- NC State overcomes slow start against UAB. What we learned from its win
- Florida State Seminoles men’s basketball defeats Alabama State, moves to 2-0 on the season
- Jones Leads Seminoles’ 3-Point Barrage In 101-64 Victory Over Alabama State
- FSU basketball tops 100 points for second straight game in blowout win over Alabama St.
- Steve Forbes Shares His Thoughts Following the Morehead State Win
- Recap: Juke Harris’s 29 Points Pushes Wake Past Morehead State
- Harris sets career highs in points, rebounds to lead Wake Forest 81-65 over Morehead State
- Eagles Lean on Lattimore, Can’t Close Gap Against Virginia
- Virginia 81-62 North Carolina Central (Nov 7, 2025) Game Recap
- Pitt Uses Long Ball To Remain Unbeaten
- Capel, Minor and Cummings Speak After Pitt Defeats Longwood
- Pitt shoots 40% from three to beat Longwood 78-60
- Longwood puts up a fight before Pitt pulls away
- Analysis: Pitt lives by the 3, beats Longwood behind barrage of deep shooting
- Panthers find their mark from beyond the arc, using 3-pointers to pull away from Longwood
- Notre Dame men cruise past Detroit Mercy 102-70
- 3 thoughts off a wipeout win from the Notre Dame basketball team against Detroit Mercy
- Shrewsbury scores 19, five others in double-digits as Notre Dame takes down Detroit Mercy 102-70
- Welling’s double-double; Davidson’s 18 Points lead Tigers’ 97-59 win
- Clemson Cruises to Easy Win Over Gardner-Webb
- What We Learned From Clemson Basketball’s Win Over Gardner-Webb
- Reeves’ 18 points helps sent Georgia Tech past Bryant 74-45
- Georgia Tech 74-45 Bryant (Nov 7, 2025) Game Recap
- Reeves’ 18 points helps sent Georgia Tech past Bryant 74-45
