In Sunday’s ACC Action, Virginia Tech hammered Maryland Eastern Shore 82-53 and Wake Forest smoked Queens 111-73. Neither was a surprise, obviously.
Neoklis Avdalas, who played hurt for a while, seems to be better now. He scored 16 here and has 46 in his last two games. Amani Hansberry seems to be settling in nicely well too. He had 12 here with 9 rebounds. So far, the West Virginia transfer is averaging 16.3 points and 7.8 boards. Once they get Tobi Lawal back, whenever that ends up being, the Hokies will be very tough.
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Incidentally, former Blue Devil Jaden Schutt moved back into the starting lineup after some terrific recent games but he wasn’t that good Sunday, finishing with just 6 points.
Meanwhile, down in Winston-Salem the Demon Deacons took care of Queens with a 38 point beatdown. Myles Colvin had a monster game with 33 points on 11-13/7-8 shooting. Wow! He also had 8 rebounds.
Juke Harris had 13 points, 5 boards and 3 assists while Omaha Billiew had one of his better games for Wake with 16 points.
Good shooting night for the Deacs overall: Wake hit 17-33 threes (52%), 36-58 overall (62%) and 22-24 from the line (92%).
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Both of these teams have marginal NCAA prospects at the moment. At KenPom.com, Wake Forest is #42 and Virginia Tech is #60, so both will have to do well in the ACC regular season.
Thing is, either or both could.
No games on Monday but on Tuesday there are some good ones. Louisville visits Tennessee, FSU plays dangerously Dayton, Clemson and South Carolina go at it and East Tennessee State visits UNC.
That last one might sound ridiculous, but keep a few things in mind: first, UNC has been erratic, particularly against lower-level teams.
And second, while a lot of you won’t know this, ETSU has a great basketball tradition. They have sustained success under a number of different coaches. And third, current coach Brooks Savage sat on Wake’s bench with Steve Forbes and is very familiar with what Hubert Davis does. Davis has no chance of being equally familiar with ETSU.
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Speaking of Davis, our operating theory about his erratic performance as UNC’s coach is that he lacks sufficient communication skills to get the best out of his players. Here’s some more supporting evidence.
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Caleb Love – finished his career as a valuable asset for Arizona and played under control, unlike his time in Chapel Hill. Currently with the Portland Trail Blazers.
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Elliot Cadeau – starting for#2 Michigan, where he’s averaging 9.7 ppg and 6.1 assists.
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Ian Jackson – he’s had some trouble fitting in at St. John’s, but he’s gotten the message from Rick Pitino and to underscore his commitment, he cut his famously long hair for a “fresh start.” The important this is that expectations are clear and he’s trying to reach them.
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Walker Kessler – left for Auburn and was soon in the NBA.
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Jalen Washington – scoring has almost doubled at Vanderbilt and he’s getting 18 mpg, up from 15 for Davis.
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Tyler Nickel – left after one season and is now averaging 15 at Vandy as a senior.
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Kerwin Walton – his stats haven’t changed all that much, but he’s become much more reliable at Texas Tech.
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Ven-Allen Lubin – his role was really confusing for UNC last year and he’s been much more consistent at NC State. New teammate Darrion Williams said this about Davis: “I think their coach did Ven wrong. And then he did Kerwin Walton wrong — my old teammate at Texas Tech — when he was there. So yeah, I just don’t like the guy.”
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Cade Tyson – This one is really damning. At UNC last year, Tsyon lacked confidence and couldn’t get off the bench. He only got 2.6 minutes a game, aka garbage time. Now? Try 35.7.He shot 40% for UNC; he’s shooting 51.3% for the Gophers. He’s averaging 21.1 points for Minnesota. Barring someone recovering from injury, going from 2.6 ppg as he averaged at UNC to 21.1 – an 18.5 points per game increase – doesn’t happen very often.
There are others, but when you look at these players, and how things have gotten better for them, ask yourself, what changed?
The main thing that has changed is they are no longer being coached by Hubert Davis.
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