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State lost a close game to Virginia Thursday but it probably didn't seem as important as usual to freshman Abdul-Malik Abu, who was friends with the three students murdered in Chapel Hill Wednesday.
From everything we've read they seem like they were really fine people. It must be surreal to lose them in the morning and play basketball that evening.
State was almost there: the Pack cut Virginia's lead to 47-45 on a Trevor Lacey three with :43 seconds left. But Virginia hit free throws with :07 left and it was a four-point game.
Anthony Barber hit a layup and State fouled Malcolm Brogdon with :02 left and that was it.
The Pack falls to 14-11 and has now lost five of the last six games and six of eight since upsetting Duke in early January.
Here's great news for Wake Forest: the Deacs had to struggle to beat Miami - and did.
As Codi Miller-McIntyre said afterwards, "[T]his was a game we would have lost a month ago."
Konstantin (Dinos) Mitoglou is a guy worth keeping an eye on. He hit six of seven threes and it's not the first time he's gone off this season. He's kind of skinny still, but by next year he should be much stronger. And when he is, he'll be a real pain in the ass.
Mitoglou missed all of his shots that weren't threes, but when he's stronger he won't be doing that. As we said, keep an eye on him. He could be one of the most improved players in the conference next season.
Like State and Miami, Pitt's tournament hopes took a hit Wednesday with the loss to Louisville.
Louisville had a 22-2 run and Montrezl Harrell scored 28 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had five blocks to pace the Cards.
In Boston, or close enough anyway, Syracuse toyed with BC before beating the Eagles down in the second half and winning 70-56.
To add insult to injury, Syracuse fans, who are basically like Kentucky fans who live near Canada, bought up enough tickets to outcheer BC fans.
Michael Gbinije led the way with 21 points and seven rebounds. Rakeem Christmas was held to seven points but did grab 10 boards.
Kaleb Joseph and Trevor Cooney combined for 29 points from the backcourt.