ACC Roundup – UNC Crushes Notre Dame And Two Close Ones

Much like Tuesday, we saw one blowout on Wednesday and two close games: UNC hammered Notre Dame 91-69, Boston College nipped Pitt 65-62 and Virginia Tech snuck past Syracuse on the road, 76-74.

UNC led from wire to wire and while the Irish were close at 26-23, that was the end of that: UNC just kept pulling away and this was basically over at halftime.

Not surprisingly, Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar had big games. Veesar had 15 points and 12 rebounds while Wilson racked up 22 points on 8-11/1-3 and also grabbed 7 rebounds and passed out 5 assists.

The Tar Heels hit 13 threes to 8 for Notre Dame. The Irish were led by Sir Mohammed off the bench with 14. Jalen Haralson continues his strong freshman campaign with 13 points and 6 rebounds.

Notre Dame has now lost 5 straight: to Cal, Clemson, Miami, Virginia Tech and now UNC. Of those, only Cal was close. Things are not going well for the Fighting Irish.

Pitt had an unfortunate first half and then couldn’t quite make it up in the second to pull off a solid comeback. Boden Kapke hit a three with :22 left to break a 62-62 tie. Brandin Cumming missed one three and then Roman Siulepa stole an inbounds pass and got it to Cummings…who missed another.

And that was that.

It’s a tough loss for Jeff Capel’s Panthers, who now fall to 8-11 and just 1-5 in the ACC. With a new A.D., Capel’s seat may be getting warm, which is really too bad. He’s a good man.

In the final game, Syracuse had a 10 point lead near the end of the first half but couldn’t hold on to it. But the Hokies had a 9 point lead fairly late in the game and couldn’t hold that either.

Virginia Tech did a decent job of controlling Donnie Freeman who was held to 3-14/2-6 for 10 points. He also had 9 rebounds.

Ben Hammond led Virginia Tech with 24. Interestingly, Tobi Lawal, who was out with an injury for several games, continues to come off the bench. He had 16 here and 11 rebounds.

With the loss, Syracuse fall to 12 -7.

Back to UNC for a minute.

The debate over whether to renovate the Dean Dome or build a new barn rages on, but for now, Team Renovate seems to have the upper hand. Ol’ Roy Williams, Tyler Hansbrough and Brice Johnson, among other prominent program figures, have come out in favor of staying in the Smith Center.

The students have largely swung behind it and now there is a petition to renovate.

On Wednesday, UNC officially launched plans for Carolina North and at least for now, there is no mention of a new basketball facility.

This is a really interesting battle because, as this article over at Tar Heel Tribune by Doc Kennedy points out, a lot of people at UNC – and not necessarily the fans – would like to build a flashy new arena to move into “a new era.” If you heard move into the SEC, okay.

The Dean Dome has some issues. We saw years ago that the fabric at the top window was falling down. It lacks modern amenities and the boosters have lifetime deals for the best seats. There’s not really a student section per se, certainly not like there is at Duke, Maryland, Michigan State or Kansas.

Then there’s the nostalgic desire to remain connected to the Dean Smith era. If fans and boosters succeed in getting rid of Hubert Davis, there’s no one left in the UNC family to keep it going. The last whiff, really, was Wes Miller, and he’s currently despised at Cincinnati, so the brain trust in Chapel Hill certainly can’t go there, and certainly not after the poop show they’ve gotten after hiring Bill Belichick. Not happening.

So in a real sense, the fight over Renovate vs. Relocate is really about the post-Smith world, and possibly the post-ACC world.

In other words, it’s a big deal no matter what happens.

No games until Saturday when the highlight is probably UNC at Virginia, assuming travel is possible with the looming and possibly historic winter storm currently taking aim at the East Coast.

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