ACC Roundup - Louisville Hits A New Gear

First a bit of sad news: former Tar Heel Neil Fingleton has died.

Fingleton, who was the ACC’s biggest player ever at 7-6 (he’s now listed as 7-7). The Daily Mail reports that he died of heart failure.

We’re not trained to know exactly why, but people who are very tall often have significant health issues. For some people, the pituitary gland causes real problems but there are other issues as well.

If you’ve watched the Game Of Thrones, you know Fingleton played Mag the Mighty, a giant.

Figures: he was the tallest man in the European Union.

Louisville ran over Syracuse on Sunday, forcing 16 turnovers the Cards turned into 27 points. Louisville also held Syracuse to 35.7% from the floor.

Worse still, the ‘Ville shot 57%. It was just a thorough beating.

Louisville aside, Andrew White has been struggling: he’s just 8-36 from deep in the last four games and when Syracuse was threatening, having cut the lead to 11, he blew a three.

That was a last gasp for Syracuse and perhaps for its NCAA hopes as well. 17-13 is just not that impressive.

Tyler Lydon had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Tyus Battle had 20. Donovan Mitchell had 25 to pace Louisville.

John Gillon hasn't missed a free throw in almost a month: his last miss was on January 28th. He’s now made 47 straight. Surprisingly, he actually shot better last season: at Colorado State he hit 87.9%; so far this year he’s hitting 86.5%.

Any way you cut it’s impressive.

Georgia Tech pushed Notre Dame but not hard enough to keep the Irish from winning their fifth straight. Bonzi Colson had 20 points and 11 rebounds for Mike Brey’s team. Matt Farrell tossed in 17.

Ben Lammers had 12 points and 10 boards for the Yellow Jackets. Josh Okogie added 14.

Georgia Tech falls to 16-13 and farther from the bubble.

On Monday, UNC visits Virginia for a rematch of a recent blowout and Miami visits Virginia Tech for a fascinating match between two of the ACC’s guttiest teams. We’d rather watch the second than the first simply because both teams have responded to adversity magnificently.

The N&O has a column up on Dennis Smith and his legacy at State which, Joe Giglio points out, is hard to grok.

• Smith’s legacy at NC State difficult to define after one season
• Why UNC’s Roy Williams should be ACC Coach of the Year
• Wake Forest's Dinos Mitoglou gets by with help from Greek friends
• Syracuse basketball press works in short term, but isn't long-term solution
• Rick Pitino on how Louisville became latest team to shut down Andrew White
• Syracuse basketball struggles with Louisville's matchup zone, switching defense
• John Gillon hasn't missed a free throw in nearly a month, climbing the ACC's record books
• ACC Basketball: Louisville suffocates Syracuse with elite defense
• The Morning After: North Carolina 85, Pitt 67