ACC Roundup

People have used a lot of words to describe Butler basketball over the years, and by that we mean before Brad Stevens got there. Words like tough, smart, defensive oriented. But rebounding powerhouse? That's a new one.

Yet when the smoke cleared in the Bahamas, Butler outrebounded UNC 57-40 overall and, amazingly, 29-14 on the offensive boards, which is as well as anyone has ever done against a Roy Williams team. It helps that the Bulldogs missed 50 shots, true, but UNC has a boatload of guys who could've gotten more defensive rebounds.

Kennedy Meeks is excused; the newly svelte big man had 10 rebounds, which is respectable.

But Roosevelt Jones is 6-4 and outrebounded Desmond Hubert, Joel James, Justin Jackson and Brice Johnson - combined. g

Only Cameron Woods has meaningful size (6-9) but he's even skinnier than the woefully thin Johnson.

Woods got eight offensive rebounds and 13 overall.

Butler also exploited UNC's chronic weakness from three point range: the Bulldogs hit 9-28 while UNC just four, and three of those, not surprisingly, came from Marcus Paige.

But even Paige shot just 5-17, nearly a third of UNC's total shots, and of those, four came in the last 2:07.

What can you say? It's an incredibly impressive win. UNC had every advantage except for character.

Wake had little trouble with Mt. St. Mary's, winning 83-49 and getting plenty of time for the bench players, something Manning is keen on doing.

Mitchell Wilbekin started again at guard, but no starter got more than 26 minutes. The Deacs shot well, rebounded well, passed pretty well and took care of the ball. It's a good game to build on.

Codi Miller-McIntyre wasn't that far from a triple double: he had 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists - in 22 minutes.

Louisville secured Rick Pitino's 700th win (he'd have a lot more if he hadn't spent several years with the Knicks and Celtics), but Cleveland State didn't make it easy: the final score was just 45-33 (hello, Herb Sendek) and Cleveland State was down just 33-29.

Over the final 12 minutes though, the Vikings managed just three more points. In the immortal words of H. Ross Perot: that's just pitiful.

Pitino said that his team won because it played really good defense. Three points in 12 minutes is pretty damn good.

State's developing a reasonable rotation and now a number of guys can step up and score.

Against Richmond, Trevor Lacey had 26 and Ralston Turner 23.

Beejay Anya had three blocks in 20 minutes. For the season, he has 22 or 4.4 per game.

A bit of a surprise to us: Abdul-Malik Abu hasn't really played much so far. He came in with a solid reputation.

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Pitt's trip to Hawaii hasn't been all that great, but a solid win over Kansas State will help: Pitt won by 23.

Pitt shut down K-State Marcus Foster, holding him to seven points and 3-9 from the floor.

Pitt held the Wildcats 32%.

The games against Hawaii and San Diego State were bound to be disappointing, but this is not a bad bounceback.

Virginia Tech beat Miami of Ohio for third place in the Cancun Classic. All things considered, for this team with severe limitations, third place is a real accomplishment.

Right now, the Hokies are starting Shane Henry (6 -8, 190) and four guards who are all about 6-4 to 6-5 and all of them weigh more than Henry. It'll be interesting to see how they handle ACC play because there are a lot of very solid, very powerful big men in the conference right now.

Notre Dame beat Grambling 81-54, but Tiger coach Shawn Walker says his team played harder: "Notre Dame played hard but I think we played harder than they did, longer than they did. We actually challenged them tonight. If they make six 3's instead of 12, I believe we've got a ballgame down the stretch."

If ifs and buts were wishes and nuts, as Fred Goldsmith used to say, but it was still a solid performance by Grambling State U.