ACC Roundup

In Saturday's ACC action, UNC thumped Georgia Tech 89-60, Pitt nipped Syracuse 65-61, Louisville survived Miami 55-53 and Notre Dame had no trouble with Boston College, 87-70.

UNC opened up with a flash of the old Four Corners, in memory of Dean Smith. It was a nice touch, made even nicer when the play worked, Marcus Paige said afterwards that he was really nervous it wouldn't work.

Sign of the times: most of the young Heels had no idea what it was. It's not a complicated concept but it's new so Roy Williams had to teach it to his young charges

After the demoralizing loss at Duke, no doubt it was a relief to pound the Yellowjackets.  UNC was up 14 at the half and then went on a major run (21-3) to put it out of reach.

Despite the big win, Ol' Roy carped about the crowd, saying that

"I’m a little disappointed more of our crowd didn’t have more savvy [in not recognizing the Four Corners], but I felt like they were asleep most of the day anyway, so it was about all right. It’s not intended to be criticism, but it’s criticism.  We need some daggum help. We’re going on the road and people are screaming like banshees or something and today it was like every time I yelled at a player, they turned around and looked at me. I yelled at a player Wednesday night, they never knew I was over there fricking yelling. They thought I was doing exercises. If you want to act like I’m chastising the fans, tell them to come in and invest. Come and invest. We need some help when we play back here. … Don’t sit over there and feel like we have to entertain you."

In case that wasn't clear, UNC's coach is telling his fans that they need to be more like Duke fans.  Which is awesome.

We're guessing he won't have much trouble when Duke heads over there.

In a related and sad note, like his great friend Dean, former UNC coach Bill Guthridge is dealing with aging and having some serious memory issues.

Check out the picture of Tyler Roberson on Syracuse.com: with a butterfly stitch on his left eyelid and cotton up a bloody nostril, he looks like he's been in a heavyweight fight.

Sounds about right for how Jamie Dixon likes his teams to play.

Still, up by 11, Pitt had to fend off a big Syracuse comeback.  Syracuse was down just 61-60 with the ball when Rakeem Christmas got called for an illegal screen.

Christmas had 20 points and 10 boards for the 'Cuse; Chris Jones had 19 to pace Pitt.

At times the ACC seems to be entirely too polite and corporate, so when something hostile  happens it's a bit of a welcome surprise.

Not a brawl, mind  you, just something to spice things up.

So it was in Louisville where Montrezl Harrell, whether accidentally or on purpose, spiked a ball off of Tonye Jekiri's face.

After a lengthy review, the zebras gave Harrell a technical.

Then when things got fun.

Miami coach Jim Larranaga told the officials that Jekiri had a technical, according to Rick Pitino.  Larranaga said after the game that he had originally thought that Jekiri had a concussion but that the trainers determined it was a severe headache which kept him from starting the second half.

In his post-game comments, Pitino said he was fine with the call but not with the long delay.  And then he went off on the concussion comment:  "So I called (Louisville football coach) Bobby Petrino -- this is no joke -- I said, 'Get a hold of that Miami doctor because, in 15 minutes, a kid went from a concussion to playing and totally healthy.' We're sending a plane down to hire that doctor for football. We will never have a concussion ever again. He was back 3-4 minutes later. He walked all the way over there to tell him he had a concussion, then he was back in the game."

So Miami-Louisville just became much more interesting. We can hope for an ACC Tournament encounter.

Also interesting: Syracuse honored former star Roosevelt Bouie at halftime, or tried to: his name was spelled Bowie on the framed jersey the school gave him. 

This'll go under the radar, but BC's Dennis Clifford, whose career has been derailed by injuries, had 17 points and six rebounds in the Eagle's loss to Notre Dame.

Oddly, the big man has had 12 games where he scored six points each, including the first seven of the season and he's averaging 6.8. He seems to like sixes.

Notre Dame put six players in double figures and nearly made it seven.

Back in Raleigh, State had a bit of a tussle with Virginia Tech before pulling away and winning 69-53.

Ralston Turner, probably unbeknownst to most of us, has been having arthitic pain in his knee.

Anyone who's ever dealt with Uncle Arthur knows it's incredibly difficult (yet, fiendishly, the only real way to fight is to keep the joint active).

Turner led State with 18 points as State moves to 16-11 overall.

More interestingly, State joins a logjam at 7-7 in conference play: State, Pitt, Miami and FSU all are 7-7; Clemson is not behind at 7-8.

Virginia, Notre Dame and Duke are all but assured ACC Tournament byes. UVA still has just one loss, Notre Dame is 12-3 and Duke 11-3 with a potential tie-breaker going Duke's way.

Louisville and UNC are not too far behind at 9-5, and Duke has a potential tie-breaker with both, as of now (that could conceivably change in Chapel Hill in the rematch).

Non-factor Syracuse is at 8-6 but will not participate in any post-season play.