ACC Roundup - Down Goes ‘Cuse! Down Goes ‘Cuse! Down Goes ‘Cuse!

You know your night has gone wrong when the uniform shows up with the coach’s name misspelled.

To be clear, Bubby Boeheim doesn’t coach Syracuse but his dad does and he’s reasonably well know we’d say.

Still, his uniform was spelled Boheim.

Didn’t much matter - Buddy only played six minutes and didn’t do much.

Unfortunately, neither did most of his more experienced teammates.

After the game, Boeheim (the coach) pretty much said his team sucked against UConn. He said it in as nice a way as Jim Boeheim can - he recognized their flaws and understands what his guys can and can’t do - and honestly seemed more sad than anything else, almost resigned.

Watch his presser. He’s almost mournful about his post play. He says his best players tried to to do much. Only freshman Jalen Carey gets much praise.

It’s worth remembering that Frank Howard is out currently but even so, Syracuse could have done better here.

For UConn, it was a huge win for new coach Danny Hurley, who was incredibly pumped up, more so than most of his players. He admits to being an emotional guy - couldn’t really deny it - but after this win we saw huge passion from young Hurley. If his team picks it up, look out.

Contrast his program 3-0 and it’s early but clearly with momentum and optimism - to Danny Manning’s.

With consistent defections - some to the NBA, some by their own volition and some perhaps encouraged by Manning and staff - Wake Forest is starting over again.

So far, Danny’s Deacs are 13-19, 11-19, 19-14 and 11-20.

This year, when his roster should be coming into its own, other than early NBA departees, Manning started three sophomores, a freshman and a junior.

The junior, Brandon Childress, has not been a great player so far and he’s the only one with more than one year of experience with the Deacs.

Long-time coach Phil Martelli knew what he was dealing with: “We were older in the second half, we were just older than them. And I thought that. I thought that if we could come at them, a young team like Danny has, is going to have a tough time holding up against it.”

Baby Deacs better grow up fast.

Virginia Tech, still without the suspended Chris Clarke, wasn’t great against Ball State but at least the Hokies won. Nickel Alexander-Walker, one of the ACC’s Canadian imports,

VT let a 16 point lead nearly evaporate before waking up. An average early game. Nothing special, no apparent slippage.

Ty Outlaw, coming back from last year’s knee injury, played 16 minutes and missed both of his threes. Kerry Blackshear played 25 minutes and held the carnage to three fouls.

Two names from the past on the Ball State roster: Tahjai Teague, whose cousins Jeff and Marques should ring some bells, and Ishmael El-Amin, who’s father helped UConn wrest the 1999 title away from heavily favored Duke.

The ACC has stunk it up the last couple of days so we saved the best for last: Jeff Capel’s Pitt moved to 4-0 with a win over Central Arkansas.

True, that’s not exactly Kentucky (hehe), but Pitt is light years ahead of last season: the Panthers have won by 16, 39 and 26.

Only Troy was less than a double digit win (nine).

Pitt had some adversity in this one as star freshmen guard Xavier Johnson got two fouls in the first 3:12 (the second was a technical).

Still, Pitt rolled on.

This is a young team which is gaining confidence from its coach. It’s something Wake Forest might take note of.

On Friday, Virginia Tech plays Northeastern, Wake tries to bounce back against CSU Fullerton, Coppin State gets to get frustrated by Virginia, Tennessee Tech visits UNC, Vermont heads back East and stops at Louisville, and Syracuse will see Oregon and Bol Bol in the Garden, which could be really, really interesting. There’s almost no chance that Paschal Chukwu chases Bol Bol around. Can the 2-3 limit a 7-3 three point shooter?

The mind boggles.

There’s no question that Duke’s Zion Williamson has gotten most of the attention so far but Bol is just as interesting. and his development could prove fascinating.

• Pitt basketball moves to 4-0 after pulling away from Central Arkansas
• ECU set for ACC road trip
• Connecticut upsets No. 15 Syracuse behind Adams and Gilbert
• Miami basketball signs two players to letters of intent
• McFarling: Long-shot Radford takes down Notre Dame with help of long shots.
• WOODY: Radford’s Highlanders hit high note at Notre Dame, then get back on the bus
• Morning tipoff no problem for Virginia Tech against Ball State
• How James Banks can help Georgia Tech this season
• UNC basketball signs two ‘big-time’ additions for next season
• SU suffers first loss as Connecticut shoots lights out at MSG
• Boeheim on Frank Howard: ‘We hope he’ll be back in a week, two weeks’
• Three things to know about Coppin State ahead of Friday’s matchup with Virginia
• Virginia basketball notebook: Cavaliers using early season games for fine tuning
• What hand injury? NC State’s Braxton Beverly off to a fast start despite surgery.