ACC Roundup - UNC Eludes Wolfpack Yet Again

State fans didn't get long to savor the victory over Duke: UNC came to town and beat the Pack for the 17th time in 18 games and to, we're guessing thoroughly irritate State fans who have not yet achieved Triangle parity.

Not for lack of trying.

State impressed Duke obviously and unleashed a late comeback which nearly worked. You could say the Pack lifted a Paige from UNC's book, but that would probably be cruel.

After his heroics against Louisville, Marcus Paige - arguably the best Iowan UNC has ever recruited - took it up a level.

Still fighting plantar fasciitis, which is limiting his practice time and presumably his endurance, Paige shot 6-9 and 5-5 from deep. Toss in 6-6 from the line, nine assists and four steals, and he had a huge game.

In the battle of the previously tremendously overweight centers, Kennedy Meeks had 15 points and ten rebounds, while Beejay Anya finished with three rebounds, one assist, one turnover and three points.

Afterwards, State's Mark Gottfried said that

"I didn't think in the first half we had the movement, the quickness. We just seemed to be going slow motion in my mind. The second half we came out and played basketball. ... But we didn't do it for 40 minutes. We did it for 20 minutes."

At 3-2 in conference, State has a nice stretch of winnable games coming up. If it goes well, they'll be in the (still-early) conversation for a bid.

Notre Dame went to Hotlanta without Zach Auguste and came out with another win, beating Tech 62-59.

Tech is now 0-4 in the ACC, but look at how close that is to being at least 3-1: double overtime to Notre Dame by seven, one point to Syracuse, seven to Wake Forest and three to Notre Dame the second time around.

That's really close. It's probably not going to stop speculation at Georgia Tech about Brian Gregory's future. So far he's 52-58 with one winning season.

Is it fair? Probably not. Inevitable? Certainly.

The situation with Zach Auguste is still not clear. He sat out, as we mentioned, but the reports yesterday that he was out one game and not suspended don't yet appear to be reconciled. CBSSports.com reports that he has an "uncertain future" with the team.

We don't expect that Leonard Hamilton will be in trouble at Florida State, at least partly because no one much cares whether basketball does anything or not, but the Seminoles are struggling.

Not having Aaron Thomas has to hurt - the Seminole star was ruled ineligible for the year after a win over Central Florida and since then, other than a miracle win over Florida, Florida State has no wins of consequence (North Florida, South Florida and Stetson were all wins but not impressive), Florida State has only a win over Virginia Tech to show.

Pitt won't go on the list either.

The Panthers are struggling as well, but pulled it together enough to beat the 'Noles.

When was the last time you heard this? A walk-on came in and got 16 points and 12 boards. That's pretty impressive for Aron Phillips-Nwankwo, for anyone, really. The kid has only played five minutes this year.

Remember Michael Ojo? He caused a bit of a sensation last year in Cameron because of his sheer size. His head alone was twice the size of most of the other players.

He's not much of a basketball player, but he's a massive man, as big as anyone you're likely to see.

So when he came off the bench when FSU's Jarquez Smith and Cameron Wright got into it, you have to think that a lot of people were ready to run the other way.

We read somewhere that Ojo, who is 7-1 and 292, has 4% body fat. How does that even happen? How can you be that massive and have no body fat? It's surreal.

For the last six years, Harvard has had a Vulcan mind-meld on Boston College. It's become a rite of passage for college basketball, like Charlie Brown and the football: BC's going down to Harvard. Again.

Well not this year.

BC won in overtime and did it on the back of a three-game losing streak.

Harvard screamed trap and Tommy Amaker's team still almost won. Olivier Hanlan was clutch in overtime, hitting two key shots to help BC secure the win.

Dennis Clifford had 13 points and 10 boards to help the Eagles to the win.

It does nothing for BC's ACC record, but finally beating Harvard has to be a huge relief for Boston College.