ACC Roundup

To be clear, it’s not like NC State has paid anyone of consequence so a five-game winning streak doesn’t really mean that much. Seriously: Maine? UMES?

It’s not impressive.

What is impressive though is that Kevin Keatts seems to have taught his team an identity. State is going to be scrappy and hard nosed. If it’s four guards a forward, well fine. That’s what they’ll go with.

You’re going to get effort and that’s a lot better than what we saw under Herb Sendek, Sidney Lowe or Mark Gottfried, all of whom had terrible stretches where their teams either seemed indifferent or worse, where the chemistry was actively hostile.

So State’s win over St. Peter’s isn’t that big of a deal except that it’s...pretty normal.

Again, keep in mind the opponents were weak, but State has won games by 50, 46, 51, 19 and 28 for an average margin of 38.8.

State has some limits right now but Keatts is clearly building. How far can he take this team? You have to think they’re listening and buying in.

The next three games are Mercer, Wisconsin and Vandy. We’ll know more soon.

Clemson is in the islands for the Cayman Islands Classic and after beating Georgia moved into the finals.

Marcquise Reed has played well this trip (24 points/nine rebounds) as has Elijah Thomas.

The Tigers will get Creighton Wednesday night for the championship.

After the disastrous loss to Radford, Notre Dame is now 4-1 following wins over W&M and Duquesne.

It was a tight game into the second half before Notre Dame broke it open.

Mike Brey prefers to rely on experience so TJ Gibbs, Rex Pflueger, DJ Harvey and John Nooney are are starting. and all have experience.

Well not PRentiss Hubb. He’s a freshman and he’s playing more than anyone except for Gibbs and Pflueger

On Wednesday, some interesting games around the conference: Jeff Capel can move Pitt to 6-0 with a win over the Billikens of St. Louis. Louisville is going over to Tennessee to test Rick Barne’s bore-athon style. Sominex in the lobby!

Colgate is a traditional padding for Syracuse so big whoop.

Creighton is well coached and a basketball school that would love to stick it to Clemson.

BC gets a Final Four team in Loyola and Sister Jean should be there so that’s nice.

Finally, Virginia gets Middle Tennessee which could be - we don’t know about this year, just based on history - could be a scary opponent.

As for Georgia Tech, seriously? That’s pretty lame.

• ACC basketball rankings: Syracuse slides to seventh in the conference
• Duke is dominant, but the ACC Power Rankings are not that simple
• Pitt Basketball: What have we learned so far?
• Syracuse basketball’s Frank Howard practiced this week, a return against Colgate up to Jim Boeheim
• Three things to watch as the No. 4 Virginia men’s basketball team plays in the Battle 4 Atlantis
• Clemson Hoops Advances In Cayman Islands Classic
• N.C. State cruises to another easy win at home