ACC Roundup

Of all of Saturday's ACC games, the one which stands out the most to us, at least in a positive sense, is Wake's win over Richmond. Over the last couple of years, the Bzdelik era basically, Wake would've tossed this game away.

Not this time. Down late, Wake forced overtime and in overtime played Big Boy basketball and won by 10.

Toss out the Tennessee game for the moment as an aberration and look what Wake has done lately: the Deacs gave Kansas a highly competitive game before losing, beat USC on the rebound, and finally overcame Richmond after some previous disappointing losses to the Spiders.

And before you dismiss Richmond, remember that this team gave UNC a very difficult game recently.

Codi Miller-McIntyre continued his hot play, hitting for 26 including nine in OT. Devin Thomas had 19 boards. We might also mention that Tyler Cavanaugh is getting 18 minutes per game and averaging 8.3 ppg and pulling down 5.2 boards. That's fairly productive.

Virginia, alas, appears to be in a rough patch. Having lost quite badly to Wisconsin, the 'Hoos made it a double-dip embarrassment to the Cheese State with a loss to Green Bay.

The losses to VCU and Wisconsin were at least losses to powerful teams, but Green Bay? Two of Green Bay's wins are to teams not in D-1. Virginia fought back from a 13-point deficit, but how did that even happen? Tony Bennett's gotten leeway because of injuries and some bad luck, but he has a track record now and part of that record includes the amazing late loss to Miami in the ACC tourney a couple of years ago, the total domination by Wisconsin and now a loss to Green Bay.

It's a baffling loss, and not a good one at all.

Now Clemson's foray to Arkansas, that was a worthy and possibly useful loss.

Clemson is defending beautifully to date and has to be regarded as one of the best defensive teams in the country. Though they lost, the Tigers held Arkansas to just two baskets in the last 10 minutes.

In Brad Brownell's first visit to Cameron, we remember really clearly seeing the frustration on Nolan Smith's face as he realized there was no getting away from Clemson defenders. He was bounced around like a pinball.

Clemson is slowly turning KJ McDaniels into a star. In this game, he scored 27 points, pulled down 11 boards and had two blocks. He's just getting better and better.

According to the boxscore, Joel (pronounced Jo-El, Krypton-style) James is still starting, but Kennedy Meeks is coming on fast. Since getting mocked by Roy Williams after the Richmond game, Meeks has scored 13, 7, 15 and 12 points. And pair those points with 12, 6, 7 and 8 rebounds and some keen passing (Meeks had seven assists against Louisville), and we'll be seeing a lot more of him.

Against UNC-G, Meeks played 15 minutes and had the 12 points and eight boards mentioned above.

Brice Johnson is also coming on fast and finished with 14 and six boards.

UNC had no trouble in this game, winning by 31.

The Heels have been erratic to be sure, but UNC is waiting for young players like Meeks, Johnson, and JP Tokoto to become consistent, so perhaps that's to be expected.

State had some issues with Long Beach, but the Pack ultimately put the 49ers away behind yet another strong game from TJ Warren.

Anthony Barber had a solid game as well with 19 and likely pushed Tyler Lewis into further irrelevance: the talented but small guard got just five minutes.

Georgia Tech played a weaker opponent heading into exams, but Brian Gregory said that the Yellow Jackets might have played their best game of the year.

Interestingly, Solomon Poole started ahead of transfer Trae Golden at the point.

Other than Syracuse taking 36 three point shots, there's nothing to learn from the Syracuse-Binghamton game, but Notre Dame's narrow win over 5-4 Delaware suggests continuing issues. This Notre Dame team was pitched as an experienced and battle-scarred team. So far there's not a single win that's impressive.

Maryland's experiment with Dez Wells at the point may be at an end: Mark Turgeon is considering starting 5-9 Varun Ram. Maryland's point guard woes continue. Maryland fans may be running out of patience with Turgeon.