ACC Roundup

Duke-Michigan State was Tuesday's marquee game for the ACC, but not the only one.

Florida State has a sort of tradition of blowing a couple of early games. This year one of those will be Northeastern.

Just 11-21 last season, the Huskies went to Tallahassee and hit 60% from three point range, where they racked up 27 points.

FSU's famous defense was on hiatus as Northeastern managed 53.8% overall from the floor and racked up 18 assists on 28 baskets.

Virginia wasn't perfect, according to Malcolm Brogdon, but still won easily over South Carolina State. Brogdon and Justin Anderson both scored 17 to lead the way.

Maryland refugee Charles Mitchell has made a clear and immediate impact for Georgia Tech, averaging 20 ppg and 9 rpg. Just as impressively, though, Quinton Stephens, who was not much of a factor last season, is averaging 22 ppg and 5 rpg.

Against Alabama A&M, Mitchell had 12 points and 14 rebounds, while Stephens had seven. Transfer Demarco Cox had 13 on 6-8 shooting.

Most impressive, Georgia Tech had 20 offensive rebounds.

As far as we can tell, Travis Jorgenson didn't play; Josh Heath got the start at point guard.

Three games on tap for Wednesday with the most interesting by far being Wake Forest at Arkansas. The Razorbacks were 22-11 last year and head coach Mike Anderson is trying for a revival of Nolan Richardson's 40 Minutes Of Hell and overall Old Southwest style of frantic, high pressure basketball.

There's sort of a split on that because basketball in what is called the Old Southwest - Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas for our purposes - split between the slow, careful play of the Ibas and Big 8 cohorts, and what Richardson found on his side of town in El Paso and which also took root in junior colleges in the region.

It didn't make a big impression on white fans at first. There was a derogatory acronym some of you may remember and the showdown between Adolph Rupp (a Kansas product, remember) and Texas Western really underscored the different approaches and the coming demise of the Iba school. No one much likes that kind of basketball anymore.

Speaking of the historic matchup between Texas Western (now UTEP) and Kentucky, that happened at Maryland's old Cole Field House.

Among the many things the Terps have little respect for, you can now count history: Maryland is going to turn Cole into an indoor practice facility for football. It's a legitimate historic site, and Maryland should know better.

The other games are pretty lame: Notre Dame should smoke Coppin and Liberty at Virginia Tech. There aren't any guarantees in that game, but given the new energy Buzz Williams is providing, we'd think Tech could win.