ACC Roundup - Louisville Wins, Notre Dame Loses Jackson

Wake's renaissance is going to have to wait. The Deacons were 8-3; now they're 10-9.

Since a great effort against Xavier on December 22nd, Wake beat a poorly coached LSU team and a limited State team.

Otherwise, Wake has lost to Louisville, Duke, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, UNC and now Miami.

Wake Forest has lost four straight games and with Virginia, Notre Dame and Clemson coming up, things don't get easier anytime soon.

The game was tied 48-48 when Miami took over for good, almost doubling Wake's output (29-15) the rest of the way.

We don't think anyone expected Wake to be a top-tier team, but we did think they'd be improving and competing.

Well, not lately.

It's a challenge for the team obviously but it can't be easy for Danny Manning, who has a history of winning. Building that with the Deacs is taking some time.

And the honeymoon appears to be over as main beat writer Dan Collins has grown a bit harsher in his My Take on Wake column.

One wonders about the fans, who were not very kind to Manning's predecessor Jeff Bzdelik.

Georgia Tech competed well with Louisville, a team that's playing fairly well itself. Unfortunately, Tech still had a problem closing the game out.

In winning time, Tech made too many mistakes to succeed.

First, Marcus Georges-Hunt fouled Anas Mahmoud with the score tied and just 1:02 left. Then Tadric Jackson made a foolish turnover. After that, it was just a question of hitting free throws.

After the game, Georgia Tech's Nick Jacobs summed up the ACC's competitive  DNA succintly: "We've got to find a way to dig in deep. Losing five games in the ACC, I can't put into words how bad it is."

Boston College was pretty competitive with Notre Dame in the first half, down just five points at the half.

The second half was a different story as Notre Dame lapped the Eagles, outscoring them 42-20.

It was even more impressive as the Irish suffered a key injury in the first half when point guard Demetrius Jackson went out with a hammy injury.

The baby faced assassin Steve Vasturia took over at point and did just fine.

Coach Mike Brey praised Vasturia and also reserve Rex Plflueger,who played well too.

Notre Dame held BC to just 28.6% And this is fairly spectacular: the Irish hit 25-27 from the line.

No word on how serious Jackson's injury is.

Pitt struggled in the first half against Florida State, falling behind by 10, so coach Jamie Dixon let them have it at halftime.

"I really got into them and challenged them. It's probably the most vocal I've been in the 13 years," Dixon said afterwards. "I made it very clear that we were going to win."

It worked: Pitt won the second half, 41-29 and headed back to the snowy north with a 74-72 victory. Sterling Smith and Jamel Artis had 16 each for Pitt.

Pitt won despite shooting just 39.3% to FSU's 53.7%. However, Pitt also hit 30 points from three point range to FSU's 18 and doubled the Seminoles free throw points, 16-8.

On Sunday, both Virginia and Virginia Tech are at home.

Because of the epic snowstorm we all went through in the East, the Virginia-Syracuse game was moved to Sunday and the Virginia Tech-UNC game was moved up to 3:00.

All four teams have issues.

UNC's is consistency and effort. Virginia Tech's is health - effort is definitely there. Virginia has not reached its potential on a regular basis and the defense is not up to recent standards. And Syracuse has depth concerns, NCAA woes hanging over the program and inconsistent inside play.

Obviously the Tar Heels are vast favorites, but three point shooting and intensity can neutralize a lot of advantages. If the Heels are lackadaiscal, Cassell is a very dangerous place to visit.

And in Charlottesville, watching the defenses should be really fun. Syracuse really limited Duke's penetration in Durham and we'd expect that to be the case at Virginia as well. But Virginia can break you on defense when it's right. That should be fun to watch.