ACC Roundup - Heels, Cavs Prevail

We don’t want to knock Luke Maye because frankly we admire him. He was seen by many, including us, as a marginal recruit. Yet he’s turned himself into a big factor for UNC.

Against BC, he finished with 32 points and 18 rebounds. That’s a monster game.

Yet it came against BC, a team with no meaningful big men.

In games with formidable talent, Maye isn’t quite as productive (we mean points here - he’s rebounded well consistently). Virginia held him to six though and FSU to 14 on 6-14.

Again, we’re not knocking him. We’re just saying he tends to do better against lesser competition. We’ll see how things go from here.

Against UNC, BC could only manage 23 rebounds to UNC’s 58. And UNC shot 50%. There’s no easy way to get past that. You could take Maye’s 18 away and UNC still outrebounds BC 38-23.

BC got 15 points and 13 redounds from its frontcourt, numbers Maye dwarfed by himself. Not surprisingly, BC got most of its production from guards Ky Bowman (21 points, five assists), Jerome Robinson (15 points) and Jordan Chatman (10 points).

Overall, UNC was just vastly better than they were at Virginia or Florida State.

Syracuse didn’t get destroyed by Virginia and actually got some bonus points for a very late rally that earned some incredulous stares from Virginia coach Tony Bennett when his team made some critical mistakes late that threatened to allow Syracuse to get back into it when they should have been done.

Three games on Wednesday as Notre Dame visits Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech heads down to Winston-Salem to take on the Deacs and Louisville jets to Tallahassee to challenge Florida State.

They’re all interesting in different ways: can Notre Dame continue winning without Bonzie Colson and possibly Matt Farrell?

The Hokies have been off since playing in Rupp and Wake is getting better. That’ll be fun to see.

And finally, Louisville is still trying to find a post-Pitino identity while FSU has been playing at a high level although not winning in conference yet.

Here’s a weird stat: of the eight teams playing Wednesday, including Duke, only Notre Dame is above .500.

• Ratcliffe: More aggressive Hunter gives ‘Hoos a boost against Syracuse zone
• What we learned: Three takeaways from Virginia’s win over Syracuse
• Orange can’t solve No. 3 Virginia defense, loses 3rd straight
• Best, worst from Syracuse’s road loss to No. 3 Virginia
• No. 3 men’s basketball survives Syracuse at home
• U.Va. plays smart again in victory over Syracuse
• Wake Forest freshman can build off 20-point performance