In Wednesday night ACC action, UNC filleted Clemson 77-55, and Virginia Tech took its shiny new ranking to Tallahassee and left it there, losing to the 'Noles, 82-73. And developments at B.C. promise to have a major impact on the conference race as well.
Atlantic Coast ConferenceIn Death Valley, the Tigers died offensively, shooting a measly 33.8% from the floor and a truly wretched 26.3% from the line. They were outrebounded 39-32. They did manage to take the ball away from UNC 20 times, but obviously didn't convert as well as Oliver Purnell might have liked.
There are still some good stats for Clemson - 12 blocked shots against a highly athletic and bigger team - but as Purnell noted, if you stink it up from the floor and the line, you can forget it. Trevor Booker had eight of those. The rookie grew up a big UNC fan, but ended up at Clemson. If he can do stuff like that consistently, he's going to be something else.
In Tallahassee, Virginia Tech kept Al Thornton under control for 20 minutes. But in the second half, he erupted for 27 points. But in spite of his poor first half, FSU went up 39-23. Tech managed to get within one in the second half at 52-51, but never got the lead.
Unlike Clemson, FSU went 31-34 from the line for a team percentage of 91.2%, a brilliant performance by any standard.
In Boston, meanwhile, B.C. has dismissed big man Sean Williams and Akida McClain permanently. Both players had been in trouble before, as you may recall. McClain is no great loss, but Williams is a major, major hit. He has become a shotblocking machine and B.C. built their defense around him. Given how much B.C. has let kids get away with in recent times, one has to wonder what finally pushed them over the edge. Al Skinner is a fine coach, but he has been way too tolerant of misbehavior.
This derails a fun matchup in Clemson Saturday, where between Trevor Booker and Williams, we could have seen a 20 block game.
This also puts a lot of pressure on Jared Dudley, who has been playing through a stress fracture, and who will inherit a lot of the burden.
State has a real problem with depth, and Sidney Lowe has sought out a football walk-on: Darrell Davis has gotten back to hoops after a solid high school career where he scored over 1,300 points. He's 6-5 and athletic, and should at the very least help in practice.
In a football-related note, FSU has rehired Chuck Amato, who of course was recently let go by the Wolfpack.