ACC Roundup - Clemson’s Latest Near Miss & Sad Senior Days At State & Pitt

Clemson’s season of near-misses taunted the Tigers again with a 76-74 loss to Florida State.

FSU was up 75-74 with :09 left when Jonathan Isaac blocked a Shelton Mitchell layup.

Trent Forrest got the rebound, was fouled and hit one of two. Clemson’s Marcquise Reed missed a jumper with :04 left and that was that.

Clemson has now lost seven games by 14 points, eight games by 19 points and 10 games by a total of 27 points.

Leave it with just the seven games for now: had they pulled those off, Clemson would be 21-7.

It’s been a brutal season for the Tigers who fall to 14-14 with the loss. k

Not so for the Tar Heels. Despite losing Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, both of whom were really solid players and it was reasonable to expect UNC to suffer in their absence.

Well not so much.

The Tar Heels have had an outstanding season. And one of their most bizarre problems over the last few seasons, a real struggle to hit threes, appears to be over as Justin Jackson has become an elite sniper.

UNC cruised past Pitt Saturday 85-67.

In his post-game comments, Kevin Stallings sounded both resigned to his team’s fate and also cogizant of how much tougher the ACC is than was his old league, the SEC:

"We've got a lot of challenges. We're not sitting here at 4-12 because we're the deepest, most talented team in the league. We have some challenges."

On rebounding, he said “they do it to everyone...they would be better tomorrow at getting it than we are and they were better yesterday at getting it than we are.”

He has a point: in his final home game, senior Sheldon Jeter fouled out in 17 minutes. He just wasn’t big enough to deal with UNC’s inside bruisers.

By the way, here’s more detail than we’ve ever seen on the unusual relationship between Stallings and Jeter.

Things are winding down for BC. At 9-20 there is no realistic hope for post-season play. The only path is to win the ACC Tournament and that’s really a pipe dream.

Virginia Tech beat the Eagles 91-75 in a game that saw Justin Bibbs score seven points in two plays.

Virginia Tech shot really well, hitting nearly 70% - 67.4% overall and just a shade under that at 66.7% from three point range.

Keep in mind that they did this without Chris Clarke. We admire Miami’s heart but Virginia Tech is not far behind.

After the game, BC coach Jim Christian said this: "That's the difference in the game. They're playing to win and we're not. We're not shooting the ball with the confidence to win it and we're not getting the stops. Simple as that."

A.D. Brad Bates is leaving the school after the academic year is over and will join Collegiate Sports Associates, a search firm.

Will his successor fire Christian? We think that would be a mistake. His teams have shown signs of improving and some heart too. He’s also demonstrated a niche of finding under appreciated players like Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman.

More importantly though: if you fire a guy without giving him a chance to really build a program, you’re going to end up worse off than you were before.

He’s only had three seasons and he inherited a disaster. His record at Ohio and Kent State suggest he’s capable.

In Raleigh, State’s dismal season went through an unhappy Senior Day.

Like the rest of the year, things didn’t go according to plan: Beejay Anya’s mother was late.

He and Mark Gottfried both had some reflections on their relationship after the loss to Virginia.

Virginia had lost four straight games, something we hadn’t seen from a Tony Bennett team in a while.

Kyle Guy had 19 for the Cavs who hit 11-16 from three point range.

Although Collegiate Sports Associates is headquartered near Pinehurst and headed up by former NC State A.D. Todd Turner, current State A.D. Debbie Yow is going with Parker Executive Search out of Atlanta and is paying $90,000 for the service.

We’re not positive about this but we’re pretty sure that Yow handled her last search by herself.

How important is the ACC Network?

Florida State’s Stan Wilcox, who used to be an associate A.D. at Duke, says that it could end up providing $10-15 million per school per year.

The ACC is doing really well in football and basketball and has a huge footprint on the East Coast.

Where does that leave Notre Dame?

We’re not sure anybody knows exactly since it’s a private school, but in 2011 Forbes said that Notre Dame football generated $64 million in revenue.

We have no idea when or if the revenue is important enough for Notre Dame to join the ACC, but it can’t join the Big Ten, which is a bonus.

There is a significant wild card in all of this and that’s ESPN’s status. Television is in a state of complete uncertainty and cable/satellite bundling model is widely expected to at some point fade away.

Disney, ESPN’s corporate overlord, realizes that a free-standing streaming service is absolutely essential for its future.

No one knows exactly what that will look like but the ACC’s new deal and the focus on the digital side means that it will be in the vanguard wherever change goes, and that’s probably a pretty good position to be in.

• No. 8 North Carolina thumps Pitt, 85-67, on senior day
• Tar Heels clinch share of ACC regular-season title
• Stephen Schramm: Wolfpack loses, says awkward goodbyes
• How Kevin Stallings and Sheldon Jeter overcame their rocky past
• Virginia Tech sizzles from field in win at Boston College
• Update: Cavaliers snap four-game losing streak in Raleigh
• Jeff Capel's ALS diagnosis has made son Jason realize "how fragile life is"
• John Gillon hasn't missed a free throw in nearly a month, climbing the ACC's record books
• UNC's Justin Jackson makes late push for ACC Player of the Year
• Virginia Tech basketball: Five reasons the Hokies can make a run