ACC Roundup – NC State, FSU Pull Off Surprises

In Tuesday’s ACC Action, NC State surprised Clemson on the road, 80-76 in overtime, Florida State pulled an impressive upset over Miami, 65-63 and SMU thumped Wake Forest, 91-79.

Will Wade said State would need a big win to offset the home loss to Georgia Tech and they got it at Clemson, where the Tigers had won 14 straight home games. They had also won 14 straight ACC games, which is really impressive.

But State ripped off a 12-2 run in the first half and put the Tigers behind the 8-ball. Clemson was under a lot of pressure and had six turnovers in a 6:22 stretch. Neither team shot overly well but State had 7 turnovers to Clemson’s 13 and got seven more points at the foul line than did the Tigers.

Ven-Allen Lubin racked up 22 points on 9-12 from the floor.

This was a gut check for State and the Pack passed the test. It was a huge resume win and will put them back on track for the post-season.

We picked Clemson and Miami and both lost. In the latter case, we probably underestimated the power of a rivalry game.

While Miami was solid early, Florida State was ahead for most of the second half.

Never far ahead mind you and behind a couple of times, but still, the ‘Noles didn’t fall off late as they have done on occasion this season and Luke Loucks got his first ACC win.

What we like about where FSU is now is that this team does not have that much talent and certainly not a major post presence.

However, for our money, Loucks has done something that his predecessor Leonard Hamilton struggled to do almost annually: under the new guy, Florida State has an offensive identity.

This is a team that moves the ball well and finds open shots. Loucks looks like he’s a guy who will only get better at that. He needs better players, but once he gets them, this will be a fun team to watch. You heard it here first.

This game was tied 63-63 with :01 left when Miami’s Tre Donaldson fouled Robert McCray, who hit both.

McCray had 20 to lead FSU and Chauncey Wiggins had 10. Shelton Henderson led Miami with 19 while Malik Reanu had 16.

SMU built a nine-point halftime lead and cruised to a relatively easy win over Wake Forest in the Joel. Cooper Schweiger and Omaha Biliew combined for 8 points and 4 rebounds in the loss, which wasn’t hard to see coming against massive bigs Samet Yigitoglu and Jaden Toombs.

Wake has two basic offensive problems: 1) a lack of size and productive big men, and 2) an offense that is overly reliant on Juke Harris, Myles Colvin and Nate Calmese. Harris finished with 27 here, Colvin had 17 but Calmese had just 4.

Tre’Von Spillers moved back into the starting lineup and had 19. In the three previous games, he finished with 4 (Miami), 7 (UNC) and 6 (FSU).

Clearly he can be a helpful player, but he’s 6-7 and 215 and bigger guys will abuse him in the paint.

In his return to Lawrence Joel, Boopie Miller had a modest game with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists.

The discussion about what to with the Dean Dome rages on and prominent figures are beginning to weigh in. Ol’ Roy Williams has already stated his preference is to renovate the Dean Dome and now he’s joined by Brice Johnson and Tyler Hansbrough.

Speaking of UNC, struggling Notre Dame visits Wednesday while Pitt and BC, both 8-10, square off in Boston. And in the nightcap, Virginia Tech and Syracuse go at it in the Dome.

Tuesday’s ACC Action

  • Notre Dame at UNC || 7:00 || ESPN2
  • Pitt at Boston College || 7:00 || ACCN
  • Virginia Tech at Syracuse || 9:00 || ACCN
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