In Saturday's ACC action, State shook off the blahs long enough to beat up on South Carolina State, 74-49, and Florida State lost to Butler, 79-68.
State didn't play a perfect game, but they did play better than they've played recently. Sidney Lowe is tinkering, limiting Courtney Fells to four minutes and getting a lot of guys in and out of the game. A loss in this one would have been disastrous, so good for State for winning.
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| ACC Standings | |||||||||||||||||||
| Boston College | 1-0 | 1.000 | 7-2 | .778 | |||||||||||||||
| Duke | 0-0 | .000 | 9-0 | 1.000 | |||||||||||||||
| Miami | 0-0 | .000 | 9-0 | 1.000 | |||||||||||||||
| Clemson | 0-0 | .000 | 8-0 | 1.000 | |||||||||||||||
| North Carolina | 0-0 | .000 | 8-0 | 1.000 | |||||||||||||||
| Virginia | 0-0 | .000 | 7-2 | .778 | |||||||||||||||
| Florida State | 0-0 | .000 | 9-3 | .750 | |||||||||||||||
| NC State | 0-0 | .000 | 5-3 | .625 | |||||||||||||||
| Virginia Tech | 0-0 | .000 | 5-3 | .625 | |||||||||||||||
| Wake Forest | 0-0 | .000 | 5-3 | .625 | |||||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | 0-0 | .000 | 4-4 | .500 | |||||||||||||||
| Maryland | 0-1 | .000 | 6-5 | .545 | |||||||||||||||
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Florida State lost to Butler, but no shame there: Butler is an outstanding team, and an FSU win would have been an upset. Plus Florida State started a forward and four guards and their two freshmen big men only got a combined 18 minutes.
For the 'Noles, this could be a really useful game if they approach it right. At some point, however, they're going to need some more size.
On Sunday, UNC is off to Piscataway for a tiff with Rutgers, the school which spawned Dick Vitale (assistant) and Bill Foster (head coach). Can't say they don't have tradition!
Also on Sunday, Wake Forest hosts Bucknell, which is a brilliantly coached team, as we saw a couple of years ago in Cameron, and Virginia Tech is at Old Dominion. Old Dominion is also more than ably coached and probably more dangerous for Tech than Bucknell is for Wake Forest. We'll be somewhat surprised if Tech wins, although they are showing signs of life lately.
After Ohio upset Maryland in College Park, they went to Lawrence, where Kansas promptly ripped them a new one, 88-51, which underscores how bad that loss was for Maryland.