ACC Roundup - Liberty Freaks Deacs Out

Tuesday Night’s ACC Results

• Duke 88 Michigan State 81
• Syracuse 71 Iona 62
• Boston College 73 Sacred Heart 53
• Florida State 87 George Washington 67
• NC State 95 Bryant 72
• Liberty 79 Wake Forest 66

Wednesday Night’s ACC Action

• UC Santa Barbara @ Pitt || 7:00 || ACCNE
• Bucknell @ UNC || 8:00 || ACCNE

ACC Standings

The saddest thing you’ll see today, at least as far as sports goes, is this picture of the Wake Forest bench after losing to Liberty, at home no less, to fall to 0-2.

It’s frankly a bit pitiful and upsetting to see these guys so distraught but it’s not as if anyone outside the locker room is responsible for the mess they’re in.

Let’s ask this kindly: how the hell did this happen? This is a team with some real talent - Bryant Crawford, Chaundee Brown, Doral Moore, Mitchell Wilbekin, Donovan Mitchell - it’s not Duke or Kentucky level talent but other than freshman Brown, Ithey’ve competed well in the ACC.

Crawford, who has been emotionally erratic and visually so during his career, said that his team may be “afraid of success...We started going away from what was working and then we regrouped at halftime, came out strong, cut the lead, had some success on the defensive end and we just shied away and let them get comfortable again.”

How bad was it? So bad that the Liberty bench taunted Wake fans over not getting Bojangles biscuits. Wake fans responded by taunting Liberty about being a religious school.

Woods was equally blunt: “They made more effort plays, they wanted it more than we did, from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. Right now everybody on our team, we all, collectively, do not have a want to rebound. We don’t have a want to play defense, and that’s our issue. We have to fix it.”

Next up for Wake Forest is the Paradise Jam, relocated to, you guessed it, Lynchburg, thus giving Liberty fans a chance to shout “now go away or I shall taunt you again!”

Here’s a measure of how the loss has gone over - not well, obviously.

The mood in Raleigh is pretty much diametrically opposed. The Wolfpack’s pressure on the NCAA convinced the association to reverse its ruling and Beverly can play again.

Voila!

He didn’t have a big impact but that’s not the point. It’s just more good news for State.

The Pack thumped Bryant - the university, not Crawford - and the players are buying into Kevin Keatts’ system.

State forced 27 turnovers - that’s impressive even against Bryant. And keep in mind that Malik Abdul-Abu is still not playing as he rehabs from a knee injury.

Up in Syracuse, the Orange rolled over Iona behind 28 points from sophomore Tyus Battle.

Paschal Chukwu, who sat out last season with an eye injury, is coming on. He had 10 rebounds, five points and three blocked shots. He’ll be useful.

He could possibly advise Marvin Bagley on goggles after the Duke star caught a finger in the eye against Michigan State.

BC knocked off Sacred Heart 73-53 and sounds like maybe Wake Forest should have tried to pick up Deontae Hawkins.

The grad student transfer took over the locker room before Jim Christian got back at halftime and laid down the law for his younger teammates. So now BC has a great backcourt and a solid leader too. Hawkins finished with 22 points and eight rebounds while Ky Bowman racked up 14 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

Terrance Mann had 17 to lead FSU over GW. We need a correction here: we thought everyone had already played. FSU had not; this was their opener.

Seven-foot-four Christ Koumadje had 14 points and seven rebounds. Oh and five blocks.

Not surprisingly, GW was held to 38.1% and also had 19 turnovers. That’s a lot to overcome.

Unicorn has become a funny basketball term. Does UVA have one in Jay Huff? Tune in Friday to see how he does against VCU. He could be one of the better stories of the year.

SACS, the accreditation agency, has said it won’t look at the inconsistencies between what UNLV-CH told them and then the NCAA.

Good news, kids: lying and cheating pays off!

• Liberty upends ACC foe Wake Forest, 79-66
• Liberty upsets Wake Forest for first ACC win since 2008
• NCAA reconsiders ruling, clears NC State's Braxton Beverly to play
• Ben Lammers does whatever it takes to protect the paint
• Expectations high for two FSU basketball freshman
• Does Virginia basketball have its own unicorn with Jay Huff?
• Roy Williams 'cautiously feeling better' about Joel Berry's return
• Pitt basketball: Shamiel Stevenson is a 'high-major freshman' — talented but young
• The Morning After: Examining the wreckage after Pitt falls to Montana in home opener