ACC Roundup

Beejay ate his Wheaties. Or maybe it was his spinach. Or maybe he just has stayed away from Cookout long enough to make a difference.

Whatever it was, the slimmed down Anya went on a shot-blocking spree that was remarkable, swatting away 10 for the game, including four on one possession.

Anya has lost 65 pounds since last season though he's still at nearly 300. Imagine what he can do if he's in prime physical condition. He's not even starting at this point.

You have to give it to State coach Mark Gottfried. Since he arrived, there's only been one season (his second) when he wasn't basically starting over. He's managed to keep State competitive when no one thought he could, and this year, he's got a pretty nice array of talent.

Including, apparently, a shotblocker.

Syracuse might have liked to have borrowed him for the Cal game.

The Bears had little trouble with the vaunted Syracuse zone, winning 73-59 and holding Syracuse to 37.1% from the floor.

The idea that Rakeem Christmas can be an offensive force? It worked against Hampton and Kennesaw State, but not so much against Cal: he was limited to eight points.

By the way, one of the real benefits of Tyler Ennis at point last season was that he didn't shoot a lot but drew a lot of attention which left lots of easy threes for Trevor Cooney, at least early.

With rookie Kaleb Joseph also happy to shoot, Cooney will get less chances and less brilliant passes.

Through three games, Cooney has taken 26  shots and Joseph 18. It'll be interesting to see how it works out between them.

Syracuse is starting Tyler Roberson and Chris McCullough at the forward spots, replacing CJ Fair and Jerami Grant.

Onto the how-about-that games: Miami moved to 3-0 with a 20 point win over Drexel. Angel Rodriguez has moved in and taken over the team, which is a huge asset for the 'Canes.

Rodriguez had 24 to lead Miami, while Manu Lecomte added 15.

So far, Texas transfer Sheldon McClellan hasn't been a major force. He had five against Drexel; against Florida he had nine. He did have 19 against Howard in the opener, but that's not much to go on.

More interesting: Tonye Jekiri is showing signs of being a vastly improved rebounder.

Miami is now 3-0. The win over Howard isn't a big deal, but it was still a 35 point win.

Remember last season's opener? Miami lost to St. Francis in overtime, and then needed another overtime to beat Georgia Southern. The team struggled with offense all year .

So far this season, there's a 35 point opener (and Howard is roughly equivalent to St. Francis as an opponent), a win over at Top Ten Florida and a 20 point pasting of Drexel.

Illinois is coming up on Dec. 2, and that'll be a test, but otherwise, Miami has a real chance of playing Virginia on Jan. 3 as an undefeated team.

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Also highly impressive and a bit of a surprise: BC knocked off New Mexico.

This after struggling with New Hampshire and losing to UMass, including a 21-5 run BC couldn't stop.

Some schools really have an identity and tradition as basketball schools. Think Duke, Kentucky, Gonzaga, BYU, UTEP.

New Mexico is like that. The Lobos might not be great every year, but there are standards there. New Mexico expects to win, expects to be good.

So we're a bit surprised that BC, in serious rebuilding mode, pulled this off. It would be a solid win regardless, but given how far BC has fallen, it's really impressive.

Dennis Clifford has struggled with injuries while at BC, but had a nice rebounding night with eight.

Olivier Hanlan led the way with 20. Aaron Brown had 16. Patrick Heckmann added 11.