Saturday was a bad day for the ACC: Clemson lost to in-state rival South Carolina, and badly, but not nearly as badly as #18 Miami was beaten by Eastern Kentucky.
Saturday's ACC Action |
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Teams | Times | TV | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Louisville @ W. Kentucky | 12:00 | FOXS1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Syracuse @ Villanova | 1:00 | FOX | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ohio State @ UNC | 1:00 | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Citadel @ Virginia Tech | 1:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
USF @ Florida State | 2:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vanderbilt @ Georgia Tech | 2:00 | ESPN3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Oakland @ Pitt | 4:00 | FULL CT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wake Forest @ Florida | 5:00 | FSN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Purdue @ Notre Dame | 5:15 | BTN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NC State @ West Virginia | 9:30 | ESPN2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Friday's Results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eastern Kentucky 72 Miami 44 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
South Carolina 68 Clemson 45 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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At the half, Miami was down just 27-25, but a 22-2 run ended it like a train ends a car at a railroad track crossing: suddenly, mercilessly and with a grating finality.
Jim Larranaga was about as merciless about how his team played, saying that "[i]t's one thing if you miss shots but we didn't share the ball very well. Because of that we didn't defend at all. We gave them everything they wanted -- no matter what."
Is is sadness or contempt for his team's play or both? Either way, it's harsh, but possibly deserved. Of Miami's starters, only Sheldon McClellan topped seven points and three starters provided just five.
Miami shot 29.3% and hit just 12-18 from the line, lost the rebounding battle 37/26 and 11-8 and had 14 turnovers to the Colonel's nine.
Just a horrible outing.
Clemson's wasn't that dissimilar.
Like Miami, Clemson's game was a two-pointer at halftime, although the Tigers were up, not down.
And like Eastern Kentucky, South Carolina blew it open in the second half, outscoring Clemson 40-15.
Like Miami, Clemson's center was essentially useless: Landry Nnoko played 10 minutes and had four fouls, one board, one turnover and no points.
For Miami, Tonye Jekiri at least had six boards and two free throws, but he's had some huge games on the boards this year. This game was way off what he's done previously.
Clemson shot marginally better than Miami at 29.8% but shot just 5-28 from the floor in the second half.
Losing to Big South teams was bad enough. Losing this way to South Carolina is not going to help Brad Brownell's cause, and that's too bad because the guy can coach. Clemson needs to keep the faith.
Saturday's a big day with 10 games on tap. The best ones: Ohio State at UNC (the game is actually in Chicago), Syracuse at Villanova and State at West Virginia.
There was a time, and not too long ago, when you knew that UNC would win that game. Now? Not so much.
It's pretty much a tossup. Small trivia item: Ohio State point guard Shannon Scott is the son of UNC great Charles Scott, often mistakenly called Charlie (that was not his idea, by the way).
Scott says not to worry about it, he's pulling for his son and Ohio State. But after the game, he'll pull for UNC again.
Like this game, in a "normal" year we'd expect Syracuse to be right in it with Villanova, and maybe the renewed rivalry with an old Big East foe will make Syracuse up its game. But the truth right now is that Syracuse is just not very good and Villanova is very good indeed.
And for some reason, Jim Boeheim actually scheduled a December game on the road.
All in all, it's not looking good for the 'Cuse.
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State is one piece away from being a really good team and that piece is an inside guy. State has Beejay Anya, Kyle Washington and Lennard Freeman, and all three are averaging about 20 minutes per game. If one guy could step up and be consistent, State could be a Top 25 team.
Sort of forgotten among State's transfers is Terry Henderson, who left Morgantown for Raleigh and who obviously knows what West Virginia likes to do.
Louisville, we're quite sure, will have noted that Eastern Kentucky just beat the snot out of
As for the rest, Vanderbilt at Tech should be an interesting game. We'd give Vandy an edge in coaching, but it's a game Tech could win, but probably won't.
In a year or two, Florida would be a huge opportunity for Wake Forest, but we don't think this team is up for a road upset just yet.
We'd take Pitt over Oakland but who the hell knows with Florida State and Virginia Tech? Those games could go either way. It's weird to think of the Citadel beating an ACC team, but it could happen.