ACC Roundup: League's upper echelon separating itself in good way
Well, the ACC lost the ACC-Big 10 Challenge outright for the first time since 2011 last week, but the ACC's top teams have acquitted themselves very well so far. The bottom part of the league is concerning -- Wake Forest (4-5) and Virginia Tech (4-4) are bad, while Boston College (4-3) and Clemson (5-3) aren't much better and Florida State (4-4) has struggled. Georgia Tech's 6-2 record is deceiving, while Pitt's (5-3) suspension of its best player ensures the Panthers will be fighting to make any postseason this year, not just the NCAA Tournament.
The league's upper echelon is very good, though, and there are now six ACC teams in the AP top 25 this week with three undefeated teams in the top seven: No. 2 Duke, No. 4 Louisville and No. 7 Virginia. With No. 20 Miami (8-1) on the upswing, No. 21 North Carolina (6-2) still figuring things out and No. 25 Notre Dame (8-1) off to a surprising start, the competition for the top four to six teams in the league will be strong. N.C. State (7-1) and Syracuse (5-3) will be in the mix, too. If the league's middle-to-upper tier can maintain its strength, that will mean the best season for the ACC in quite some time -- which will line up with what many predicted upon expansion.
Tyus Jones, Duke: It was just one game, but what a game it was. At No. 2 Wisconsin -- a notoriously difficult road environment -- Jones, who had perhaps been the least-hyped of Duke's three terrific freshmen since the season began -- was spectacular, scoring 22 points on 7 of 11 shooting and adding six rebounds, four assists and just one turnover in 37 minutes. He was steady, poised and he made plays when his team needed him to, making them pay dearly for sagging off of him to concentrate on Justise Winslow and Jahlil Okafor. If he keeps doing that, Duke is going to go from really good to downright ridiculous.
Jerian Grant, Notre Dame: Last year was supposed to be his year, and it nearly was before academics kept him from playing in the spring semester. Well, the senior guard is back with a vengeance, and he played an insane 80 minutes in Notre Dame's two wins last week and scored 42 points, adding 11 rebounds, eight assists and five steals. Grant is a dynamic scorer and his presence alone could lift the Fighting Irish from potential middling ACC team to one that's competing for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Justin Anderson/Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia: They're already two of the best players in the ACC, and last week in two really tough games, they showed why. Brogdon averaged 16.5 points on 63.2 percent shooting, ruthlessly efficient as always, and added a total of six rebounds and six assists. Anderson added 18.5 points on 69 percent shooting, not to mention seven rebounds per game in just 28.5 minutes. Both helped lead their team to two big wins in road games at Maryland and at VCU.
Everyone who was a contributor on a roster led by seniors Joe Harris and Akil Mitchell last year has stepped up their games to make up for the departure of last year's seniors, and boy is Virginia becoming scary in a hurry.
Aaron Brown/Olivier Hanlan, Boston College: Hanlan was a known commodity coming into this season, one of the best players in the ACC on a bad team. But Brown, a Southern Miss transfer, has been a revelation. He can play all three guard spots for the Eagles, and as a senior, he gives them experience they've sorely lacked the last two or three years.
Last week in two wins, Brown averaged 17.5 points on 52 percent shooting, hitting half his shots from beyond the arc. Hanlan averaged 16.5 points on 55 percent shooting, but it was his 24 points on 8 of 12 shooting in a win against a very good Providence team that earned him a spot this week.
Montay Brandon, Florida State: The 6-foot-8 junior guard (yes, you read that correctly) isn't perfect, but he's having a great year so far, playing a ton of minutes due to the injuries at the two guard spots for the Seminoles. Last week in two games, he averaged 19.5 points (only three players averaged more), five rebounds and 1.5 steals. He also didn't turn it over once, and that's a big thing as well for a turnover-prone FSU squad. He's attacking the basket and drawing fouls now, taking better shots that suit his game, and if Aaron Thomas and Devon Bookert can get back healthy and Brandon keeps this up than the Seminoles should right the ship.
Jones and Burnett's accomplishments have already been mentioned, and both were fantastic for their respective teams. But Syracuse's Chris McCullough had yet another nice week, as the 6-foot-10 big man averaged 11.5 points on 50 percent shooting to go with averages of 10 rebounds and two steals in nearly 40 minutes per game against two good teams.
The Cavaliers won two games this week, both on the road against either a ranked team (then-No. 21 Maryland) or a team receiving votes (VCU). They won those games by an average of 14 points, too. The Cavaliers are No. 9 nationally in Ken Pomeroy's offensive rankings and No. 3 defensively, shooting the ball extremely well and defending as stingily as they always have.
Virginia won both the league's regular-season and tournament crowns a year ago, but they were forgotten in favor of traditional powers like Duke, UNC and Louisville when it came to preseason voting. That, as many will learn, was probably a mistake. Virginia is now 9-0 for the first time since 2002.
No. 4 Duke at No. 2 Wisconsin, 80-70. Oh, Duke doesn't play true road games because they can't win them, huh? Well, (A) that's irrelevant, mostly, since the NCAA Tournament isn't played on the road anyway and, (B) um, how about now? It's just one game, of course, but they methodically dismantled a very good Wisconsin team at the Kohl Center last week. The largest lead Wisconsin had was 6-2. They got within striking distance, sure, but no closer as Duke made sure to take back control every time.
Right now, Duke's mix of dynamite freshmen with unselfish upperclassmen willing to lead is working quite well, as four Blue Devils scored in double figures. Duke's thin rotation worked out just fine: all eight Blue Devils who played score a point. Oh yeah, and they averaged 1.29 points per possession against a team that's traditionally among the nation's best defensively.
The Yellow Jackets got a really nice win at Northwestern last Wednesday -- Northwestern is not very good, but Georgia Tech hasn't won a ton of road games period in the last few years under Brian Gregory and that win brought them to 6-1 on the season, the only loss coming by two to Marquette. Aaaaaand then hope came crashing down in the form of a 59-54 loss to a team called USC Upstate. It used to be USC-Spartanburg, but they changed their name in 2004 to denote a more general direction. The USC Upstate Spartans compete in the Atlantic Sun in a gym that seats 818 people. Their athletic director is N.C. State's former athletic director Lee Fowler, so in that way, it's kind of perfect.
Devin Thomas/Madison Jones, Wake Forest: Yes, a tie is kind of a cop-out, but they're on the same team. Thomas is Wake's mercurial big man, super talented when he's on and just way off when he's off. He was off this past week, not able to get anything to fall around the basket (he was 5 of 16 shooting) or at the foul line (4 of 10), averaging seven points. He's capable of getting double-doubles but managed just 6.5 rebounds in the two games, nearly picking up as many fouls (4.5) and having too many turnovers (3.5).
Jones, meanwhile, has one of the higher turnover rates in the ACC in spite of being a junior and playing almost exclusively point guard this year. He's always been turnover-prone, but while he did manage to have more assists (six) than turnovers (four) in two games, he also picked up six fouls. Oddly enough, the only game he shot well (Minnesota) was the only one he had a ton of turnovers (four) while he had a 4-0 assist-turnover ratio against NC State but fouled out in just 20 minutes and was 0-of-4 from the foul line. Essentially, Jones is a guard who can't make free throws (52.1% in his career) or three-pointers (he's 2-of-13 in three seasons).
(Your annual reminder that the hashtag #goacc, necessarily in all lowercase, is a way of facetiously and self-deprecatingly poking fun at the league and its general weirdness. In this context, it could mean a particularly bad non-conference loss, a good win followed by a horrible loss or even a particularly odd and not-so-great stat line.)
No. 5 Louisville-Indiana, Madison Square Garden, Tuesday, 9 p.m.
Louisville's defense is a well-oiled machine, forcing turnovers and contesting every shot with its length, but the offense hasn't always been consistent, shooting just 28.1 percent from 3-point range and 59 percent from the foul line. Indiana's defense isn't anything to write home about, but if the Hoosiers can hit shots and Louisville can't, it could at least be a close one.
No. 21 North Carolina at No. 1 Kentucky, Saturday, Noon
Last year, the up-and-down Tar Heels began the season by losing to unranked opponents (Belmont, UAB and Texas) while beating ranked opponents (Louisville, Michigan State and Kentucky). There was rarely any in-between. It's not that simple this year, of course, and this isn't the best matchup for UNC, as Kentucky's interior defense is insane, allowing less than 30 percent shooting from TWO-point range. The Tar Heels will have a chance if they can hit some jump shots and Marcus Paige can figure out what's wrong with his shooting form, but those are big ifs..
Florida State at No. 25 Notre Dame, Saturday, 8 p.m.
It's the second conference game of the year already! Somehow! The Seminoles got a nice win on Saturday at home against UCF -- nice because it was a win, and it was convincing at that. They are a different team without both Aaron Thomas and Devon Bookert, and they at least got the former (who's also their best player) back. Meanwhile, Notre Dame is 8-1, ranked and red hot. On paper, it's an easy Notre Dame win. But games are never played on paper.
Wofford at N.C. State, Sunday, 4 p.m.
The Terriers' only two losses this season are at Stanford and at William & Mary (by four), and Wofford makes 44 percent of its 3-pointers, which could be dangerous against an N.C. State defense that's good on the interior but can give up some looks from beyond the arc. This is the type of game that N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried loves to schedule to help bolster his team's RPI, but it helps to win the game, too. This one could be sneakily difficult for the young Wolfpack.
Louisiana Tech at Syracuse, Sunday, 4 p.m.
Speaking of sneakily difficult, Syracuse -- a team that was already reeling at the start of the season with the loss of most of its production from a year ago -- has now lost two straight (both to good teams) and could use a win. Louisiana Tech won't make it easy, though. The Bulldogs haven't beaten anyone of note, but they're 7-1 and don't make things easy on either end of the court.
