clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

ACC Roundup - Louisville Stomps Pitt But Stallings Gets His

A bit of antipathy always livens things up.

By JD King

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Kevin Stallings
Shown here in the ACC Tournament, Kevin Stallings had a few choice words for Louisville fans Tuesday night.
Photo by Lance King/Getty Images

Say what you will about Pitt’s Kevin Stallings, and people have said plenty lately, but you can’t argue this: the man has passion.

Yelling that “I’ll offing kill you” at one of his Vandy players is probably not a great example; in fact, in that case it really worked against him. And what he yelled at Louisville fans wasn’t the smartest thing he’s ever done. But in a way it’s kind of cool too.

If you haven’t heard, after Louisville thrashed Pitt 77-51, fans were taunting the Panthers and Stallings responded thusly: "At least we didn't pay our kids $100,000."

Twice.

You know, it’s been a while since the ACC has had some coaching fire. Oh, Coach K brings it every night and periodically needles people, things have been kind of quiet since the glory days of Norm and Lefty.

Oh, Gary Williams was fiery, but he was a bit of a nut, too, unable to control himself even with his own staff.

And of course Rick Barnes nearly came to blows with Dean Smith, who cagily egged him on, hoping Barnes would deck him on TV and pay the price.

But really, things have gotten too quiet. For Stallings to antagonize Louisville is probably good for the future.

Always remember the genius of Steve Spurrier, who made each and every fan base hate him for his relentless smack talk.

UNC, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Miami, Free Shoes U - they all hated him and they all turned out in droves to see if their guys could beat his.

Stallings didn’t accomplish that much - he’s not as good as Spurrier - but his willingness to go there, to let his emotions take over, promise good things for the conference in the future.

Assuming he begins to win of course.

If he doesn’t, then he’ll just be a crank.

Louisville had a good response to the UK fiasco, giving Pitt a rough time in the Yum! Center.

Louisville took control about six minutes in and ripped off a 17-0 run and that, as they say, was that.

The Cards held Pitt to 34.7% from the floor and dominated the Panthers on the boards, 42-29 (33-25 offensively).

In the end though, there’s Stallings, telling the Cardinal fans off. It reminds us a bit of the old Ivy League athletics joke, often chanted during a beat down to a superior team: one day you’ll work for us.

It’s the final, unretortable word.

That’s pretty much what Stallings had too.

Terrible news in South Bend as Notre Dame’s marvelous Bonzi Colson will miss most of his senior season after suffering a left foot fracture in practice.

Colson, for our money college basketball’s most unique player, is crucial for Notre Dame. There’s no clear Plan B.

However, if Notre Dame falters, someone else is likely to benefit and it could be Clemson. We’ll see how it works out.

In Raleigh, Kevin Keatts is beginning to understand how challenging the ACC really is. It’s the day-in day-out stuff that can grind a team down and he admits his team isn’t as talented as most of his league rivals:

“We have such a small margin for error we all have to be on the same page, and that’s what we have to figure out...My toughest thing is I’ve got a couple of seniors, I’ve got two freshmen, I’ve got two fifth-year transfers. I’m trying to get them to play as a team like Clemson, which has played together for a long time. It’s all part of building a program. Obviously we knew it would be tough in year one. We will continue to improve, and we will get better.”

State gets Duke this weekend and despite recent struggles, State has had a habit of giving Duke trouble.

That’s later though.

On Wednesday there are a bunch of games, including State’s visit to a suddenly less imposing Irish.

But the best games are likely to be UNC’s visit to FSU and the rivalry game between UVA and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

UNC has a lot of experience and resilience but can they stand up to this FSU team? As we saw in Durham it is capable of greatness.

And of course the Cav-Hokie rivalry can be really good, not to mention a fascinating contrast in style.

Miami also visits Georgia Tech, Wake hosts Syracuse and, in another very intriguing matchup, Clemson visits BC.

As we’ve seen already, BC can play with ranked teams. Clemson is off to a good start but we’ve seen that before.

Something has to give.

If you're going to shop Amazon please start here and help DBR
Check out our October '17 t-shirt! || Drop us a line

More From Duke Basketball Report