ACC Roundup - Deacs Waking Up

Wake Forest added to a great Hawaii trip by beating UCLA 80-77.

Unfortunately, Wake Forest got 42 foul shots to just 14 for UCLA, and as Duke fans know, that's supposed to be inherently suspect. We can't have that sort of thing. Shooters of the world, unite! All you have to lose are your....bricks?

Something like that anyway.

Wake is still missing the injured Codi Miller-McIntyre but  coach Danny Manning did reinstate Cornelius Hudson and Rondale Watson. But Bryan Crawford had the flu and sat out.

Either UCLA hated Hudson and beat him half to death or he had a clever time drawing fouls: Hudson took more than a third of Wake's foul shots (38% in fact), hitting 11-16.

Or maybe it was just an interesting mismatch that went Wake's way.

UCLA's Steve Alford had a bit to say about the free throws. Read this and then we'll do a translation from CoachSpeak:

"I thought our guys competed. This was a team that was plus-12 on the backboard. We beat them eight. We hold them to 40 percent shooting. Forty-two free throws to 14. I've been doing this 25 years. I've been on the short end of a lot of things. I've never had an experience where I've had a team get outshot 42-14 at the free-throw line. That was the difference in the game."

Okay, again and in everyday language!

"We kicked their ass. We outrebounded them. They couldn't hit a damn thing. 42 free throws. I've been doing this for 25 frickin' years people. How the ****did they pull that off without the refs giftwrapping the game for them? That was the difference in the game! Wake Freaking Forest? Are you kidding me?!

Wake has to be feeling good. Yes, they lost to Richmond, but that's like France losing to the Germans. It happens on a regular basis.

Despite considerable adversity, Wake Forest is 3-2 with wins over Indiana and UCLA. Danny Manning's tough love appears to be working.

Holy cow, Virginia topped 80 points - for the fourth straight time and that's five out of six now.

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Dick Bennett is at the mailbox now sending some sedatives down to Tony. Virginia scoring 81.8? The Slowdown Cavs?

Believe it or not, UNC is just barely outscoring UVA at 82 ppg. Roy Williams would run to his own funeral. Up until recently, Virginia wouldn't run to cross a freeway. Maybe it's Bizarro World.

Malcolm Brogdon had 23 points, four rebounds and three assists to pace the Cavs.

Syracuse got some news that somehat overshadowed the game with Charlotte in the Bahamas: the NCAA gave back one scholarship per year over the next four years.

Short timer Jim Boeheim had no comment.

In the actual game, Duke transfer Michael Gbinije racked up 26 points and hit six threes to lead Syracuse over Charlotte.

Good news, Syracuse fans! The Orange finally beat an NC team again. The Orange did beat Wake last year, but that wasn't much of a challenge.

Pitt continued its tradition of playing weak non-conference games, taking on (and demolishing) Cornell, 93-49.

Look, everyone does it, but Pitt does it as often as possible and that's pointless.

Pitt held Cornell to 49 points and 30 % from the floor - and it held a pretty good backcourt to just eight points.

Clemson beat Rutgers, 76-58, but too late to discuss here.

Some pretty cool games on Turkey Day although Notre Dame and Monmouth seems like a, well, turkey. The Yellowjackets can stake a claim with a win over Arkansas. Same for BC if they could somehow pull off a win over Michigan State.

Most interesting though is a Big East reunion between Syracuse and UConn. That has the potential to be really fun.