ACC Roundup - A Seminole Moment In Miami

All Danny Manning could really say about Virginia's devastating win at Wake Forest is summed up by this: "It was just a slow, steady beat-down."

Oh heck, here's this too:
"You get the No. 2 team in the country coming in here and we didn’t bring it tonight. That’s on me. I didn’t have them ready to go. At the end of the game, [Virginia’s] got the game in control and they’re still flying around defensively, they’re still getting deflections, they’re still blocking shots, they’re still getting out on the break. That’s what the No. 2 team in the country does."

Yeah, but being held to 34 points at home and losing by 36 to a team missing a brilliant point guard and its most athletic and best shooting player - that's more than a beatdown.

That's a problem.

Wake managed just 15 points in the first half and was embarrassed in the paint, 22-8.

On top of that, Danny Manning's irritation with junior Devin Thomas resurfaced a bit after Thomas acted immaturely on an out-of-bounds call. Manning sat him down for the last 7:30 of the first half.

Thomas played just 15 minutes, finished 1-5 from the floor and had two point, four rebounds and five turnovers.

They have to live with each other at least a little longer this season and next if Thomas plans to return and Manning is willing to tolerate his overly emotional performances.  We're honestly not sure we'd bet on that.

Manning is a guy who knows the game from top to bottom, from guard to center and back again. Thomas is a 20-year-old who has trouble listening and controlling his emotions.

We've seen this movie before. Jeff Bzdelik was clearly more tolerant than Manning is likely to be in the long run.

To be clear, this hasn't really been talked about, but it's hard to not notice.

We'll just say this about that: Every one who has been around Manning the coach and Manny the player agrees that he has a brilliant basketball mind. You'd have to be a fool not to want to tap into that even if, as Coach K said of Bob Knight, you have to learn to ignore how he's trying to tell you and concentrate on the actual message.

For a guy like Thomas, Danny Manning should be a blessing. It doesn't seem that he is, at least not from the cheap seats.

In the Charlottesville paper, Jerry Ratcliffe has this great lede: "Well, that was two hours of Wake Forest’s lives that the Deacs will never get back."

Michael Jordan didn't do it. Len Bias didn't do it. Randolph Childress, Jason Williams, JJ Redick - zip, no, nada.

In what may be the most amazing accomplishment of the ACC season: FSU's redshirt freshman Xavier Rathan-Mayes (herein known as XRM) scored 30 points - in the last 4:38 of the game.

That's 26 straight points, 8-10 and six treys in there.

He had five points in the first 35:22 of the game.

That's freakish. We were amazed when Jason Williams ran off 17 straight against UCLA; this is nearly double that.

Whatever else you can say about his game, whatever holes it may have, a performance like that will get him talked about as a legitimate NBA prospect. It's simply astounding and quite possibly unprecedented. We're not even sure that anyone keeps track of a stat like that. 

Miami still won, but not by much, 81-77. Angel Rodriguez had 25 for the 'Canes. Sheldon McClellan added 18, while Tonye Jekiri added 12 points and 11 rebounds.

These two teams have interesting opponents this weekend, both at home: FSU plays Louisville, still putting things back together after Chris Jones got booted, and Miami hosts UNC.

We'll be fascinated to see what XRM does, and to see which UNC team shows up.