In Saturday’s ACC Action, Louisville hammered Memphis 99-73, UNC beat South Carolina Upstate 80-62, UMass thrashed Florida State 103-95, Miami took care of UL Monroe 104-79, Notre Dame aced the Evansville test 82-58, Clemson got by Mercer 70-63, Hofstra punked Syracuse 70-69, Villanova dismissed Pitt 79-61, Cal took out Northwestern State 79-70, Stanford slipped by San Jose State 86-82 and LSU knocked off SMU 89-77.
And then there was NC State and Kansas, which proved two things: a) NC State is a very dangerous team and b) NC State stuff still happens.
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What do we mean?
Well, Kansas won an instant classic, 77-76 in an overtime game that looked right out of March. State didn’t fold. The Pack punched back on every front and while this Kansas isn’t the Kansas a few years ago, it’s still very well coached and entirely capable of beating most teams.
But NC State stuff still happens. And how did it happen here? Simple.
Prior to this game, Melvin Council was 5-27 from behind the line, which works out to 18.5%.
Against State, Council was just on fire, hitting 9-15, or 60%.
Obviously they read the scouting report and assumed he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. But he could.
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Darrion Williams heated up late though, and down the stretch, the game took on a real heavyweight feel.
And State had a chance to win at the buzzer but Williams couldn’t get his shot to fall. Still, this was one of the great games of the season so far. People will be talking about it for a while.
USC Upstate actually led UNC 21-20, but that was about it for the Spartans: UNC had a 17-7 kick to end the first half and any dreams of a shocker faded away quickly.
Caleb Wilson had a double-double with 20 points and 11 boards while Henri Veesaar had 14 and 9. This was a typical exam break game/scrimmage so don’t take too much out of it.
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Louisville and Memphis used to have an intense rivalry but it didn’t carry over to Saturday’s reunion as Louisville won by 26.
Louisville took 35 threes and hit 18. Memphis managed just 3.
Kasean Pryor hit three straight during a run where the Cardinals hit seven straight treys.
Game, set, match.
Watching Penny Hardaway, you got the sense that he was ready to get the hell out of there. His body language was not inspiring.
Memphis is not a great test for Louisville so we’ll have to wait for Tuesday when the Cards visit Tennessee.
Like we said about UNC’s sluggish win, Miami’s victory wasn’t exciting and Jai Lucas was unhappy about his team’s D, saying this: “It’s always good to get a win, but I’m not pleased with how we won. We pride ourselves on being a defensive team and we were not that today. We were non-existent on the defensive end.”
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He’s particularly unhappy about the Warhawks getting 15 threes. Good thing he didn’t play Kansas or Louisville.
Miami is 9-2 now and the schedule is highly favorable in the short term. We’re not saying they will, but look at it and tell us you don’t think they have a chance of winning their next 12 games? Clemson at Clemson is problematic but even so, it’s not like they’re playing the OKC Thunder. It’s doable. Keep an eye on the ‘Canes.
Notre Dame got great games from Braeden Shrewsberry and Sir Mohammed in the win over Evansville. Shrewsberry had 28 while Mohammed had 21 off the bench. Continuing the day’s theme, Notre Dame hit 14-25 threes (56%).
He didn’t have a great game here, but freshman Jalen Haralson is turning into a factor. He’s averaging 14.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Markus Burton’s injury is a shame, but the Irish have some weapons.
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Clemson had a bit of a first half scare against Mercer before roaring back in the second. The Tigers didn’t actually take the lead until close to the four minute mark, but again, it’s an exam game. Most teams are not at their best right now.
The Tigers are now 8-3 after the tough loss to BYU.
Out in the Bay Area, Cal and Stanford both won but like most teams, scheduled weak opponents. Nothing much to see here.
Hofstra is now 2-0 vs. the ACC, tacking the win over Syracuse to the earlier one over Pitt. The Pride took an 8 point second half lead with about 10:00 to play and while the Orange fought back, obviously not hard enough.
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If Cruz Davis wants to finish his career at a major school next season, he’s making a case: he’s averaging 20 ppg and after scoring 36 at Pitt, he got 22 in his ACC encore at Syracuse.
Unfortunately for the Orange, Donnie Freeman is still out.
Speaking of Pitt, this was not a good loss. The Panthers kept up for about 5-6 minutes then Villanova started to pull away. It just wasn’t very competitive. Pitt is now 5-6 and things are not looking good.
Florida State lost its fourth straight and is clearly running into its limitations. Robert McCray can score, but not many others can. And you can overcome that if you play great defense, but FSU isn’t doing that either. You have to go with what you’ve got and right now, Luke Loucks doesn’t appear to have very much. It’s his first year though so don’t read too much into it. Let him build something first.
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McCray also had 11 assists as well.
Finally, we thought SMU could take LSU in a battle of three letter acronyms, but alas! It was not to be. Andy Enfield has a reputation as an offensive mastermind, but you have to play both ends and the Ponies weren’t very good on defense. SMU shot 47% on their threes (7-15) and an impressive 62% overall.
On the bright side, Jaden Toombs, who was out with an injury for most of the early season, is working his way up the rotation. The young big man got 27 minutes here and was 8-10 from the floor.
Two games on Sunday as Maryland Eastern Shore visits the Hokies and Queens drives up from Charlotte to take on Wake Forest.
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Sunday’s ACC Action
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Maryland Eastern Shore at Virginia Tech || 12:00 || ACC Extra
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Queens at Wake Forest || 5:00 || ACC Extra
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