ACC Roundup - Yellow Jackets Pull Another Upset

Is Josh Pastner emerging as a potential ACC Coach of The Year?

It’s really early, but he has the Yellow Jackets playing way better than anyone expected.

They continued that Thursday with a surprisingly easy win over Clemson.

We think this Clemson team has the potential to be pretty good and Brad Brownell is an outstanding coach.

His team defends as well as almost any in the ACC.

Yet Tech handled them and won easily despite a pretty limited offense. Tech turned the tables on Clemson with a shut-down defense, holding the Tigers (thought we’d slip that one in) to 36.7% from the field.

Ben Lammers led the way with his eighth double-double, scoring 23 points and snatching 10 rebounds.

Elijah Thomas, a transfer who was supposed to help the Tigers, had four points and two rebounds off the bench.

So far he’s averaging 8.5 ppg and 2.7 rebounds.

The most likely Coach of the Year candidates so far are FSU’s Leonard Hamilton and Notre Dame’s Mike Brey.

The Irish won again Thursday night, on Bonzi Colson’s birthday, to move to 4-0 in ACC play.

Notre Dame got out of the Midwest in February - every ACC team must love road trips to Miami - and won 67-63.

Colson had a lousy birthday from the floor, shooting just 2-11 but he grabbed 11 rebounds.

Matt Farrell had 15 and Steve Vasturia, the baby-faced assassin, had 10.

Davon Reed had 21 points to lead Miami.

The ‘Canes wore throwback Jerseys to the ‘60s era and earlier in the day, announced that VCU transfer Michael Gilmore had been booted from the program for not meeting standards.

So now the question is: when do Miami and Notre Dame meet?

As it happens, next week.

Notre Dame visits Virginia Tech this weekend while Florida State treks up to Chapel Hill for a visit with the cheese and whiners.

If they both win - which is by no means certain - then the two would square off on Wednesday night in Tallahassee.

In Raleigh, Mark Gottfried had bit of a ridiculous blowback over his post-BC comments.

When a reporter said most fans wouldn’t see a loss as an improvement, Gottfried - fairly calmly - fired back: “Don’t care. Don’t care if you do. Hell, I don’t really give a shit if anybody does. We got better tonight.”

Well apparently some fans did, uh, care. They complained to A.D. Debbie Yow, who issued an artful e-mail. In a nutshell, she turned it into a positive, suggesting that fans caring was a good thing and that the team will probably play better soon, so thanks for being there.

It’s not exactly Valvano-esque, is it?

• Notre Dame rallies past Miami, remains unbeaten in ACC play
• ACC basketball power rankings: Seminoles arrive at the top
• Notre Dame comes back at Miami to stay atop ACC
• Triangle teams chasing Florida State
• Basketball: Georgia Tech Takes Down Clemson 75-63
• Jackets Capture 71-67 Victory Over Boston College
• Irish Outlast Miami to Remain Unbeaten in ACC
• Georgia Tech gets scoring help, defeats Clemson
• Roy Williams 'extremely disappointed' in defense at Wake Forest