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ACC Roundup - Syracuse Wins One For Pride

The season shortened, Syracuse is happy to pick up any available wins. Louisville is somewhat more than that.

Rakeem Christmas put pressure on Louisville on both ends of the court.
Rakeem Christmas put pressure on Louisville on both ends of the court.
Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

People are going to talk about this year's Duke-Carolina game at Duke for a long time, but it wasn't the only ACC game of the evening.

No Thursday Games
Schools Conf W-L Conf PCT W-L PCT
Virginia 12-1 .923 24-1 .960
Notre Dame 11-3 .786 23-4 .852
Duke 10-3 .769 23-3 .885
Louisville 8-5 .615 20-6 .769
North Carolina 8-5 .615 18-8 .692
Syracuse 8-5 .615 17-9 .654
Miami 7-6 .538 17-9 .654
Clemson 7-7 .500 15-11 .577
Pitt 6-7 .462 17-10 .630
NC State 6-7 .462 15-11 .577
Florida State 6-7 .462 15-12 .556
Wake Forest 4-10 .286 12-15 .444
Georgia Tech 3-11 .214 12-14 .462
Virginia Tech 2-11 .154 10-16 .385
Boston College 1-11 .083 9-16 .360
Wednesday's Results
Syracuse 69 Louisville 59 (OT)

Miami 76 Virginia Tech 52

Florida State 69 Boston College 60

Duke 92 UNC 90 (OT)

Far from it.

Syracuse and Louisville went to overtime in snowy upstate New York, with the Orange winning by a dime in overtime, 69-59.

Rakeem Christmas had a sensational outing, scoring 29 points and missing just three shots, one from the floor (9-10) and one from the line (11-13).

Michael Gbinije had 18 while Tyler Roberson added 13.

Syracuse won with just nine points from Trevor Cooney and Kaleb Joseph and only three shots (and none made) from its bench.

Louisville missed the defense of Chris Jones, who is currently suspended, but sounds like Rick Pitino doesn't much care: "We missed him a lot but it's his selfishness that hurt the team," Pitino growsed afterwards. "I'm not one that believes in suspensions and game suspensions. I believe in punishment where you get up in the morning, lift weights, curfew at night. This was not a decision by me. It's all cleared up. He could play the next game if he does what the assistants tell him to do. If he doesn't, I don't care if if he sits all season. I could care less. If he doesn't do the right things, he can move on and try to go to Belgium somewhere."

Ouch.

We really admired the early job Buzz Williams has done at Virginia Tech. With a small, shallow roster and not that much high-end talent to boot, his team has been competitive in games where it was asking a lot.

Didn't happen that way with Miami.

The 'Canes won by 24, moved to 17-9, and should be firmly in the discussion for NCAA bids.

Tonye Jekiri didn't really have much competition inside, but 15 points (6-8) and 15 boards, and for a kid who hasn't really played that long, he's come a long way.

Sheldon Williams was 7-10. Miami shot 51% to 34.8% for the Hokies.

Boston College was probably so happy to get out of Boston that no one cared about winning or losing: just a bit of warmth and sunshine. Who could blame them? Boston roofs are collapsing under the weight of the snow. Anyone would want to defect to Tallahassee. It must seem like paradise about now.

Well, except for the outcome.

Olivier Hanlan had an amazing first half, scoring 23. Florida State slowed him down in the second, with the brilliant guard scoring just nine to total 32.

Good thing he had a big night: he and Aaron Brown accounted for 47 of BC's 60 points.

Devon Bookert led FSU with 18.