ACC Roundup - Pitt Pulls Off A Major Upset

When we looked at the Pitt-FSU game we put forth two contradictory ideas:

1. Pitt’s front court wasn’t enough to overcome Florida State’s athleticism
2. Florida State, historically, is not the smartest program in the world

As it turns out, 2>1.

Back in the early days of Coach K’s Duke program, Duke, lacking the athleticism of some ACC rivals, neutralized it by getting to the line as often as possible where, obviously, no one was guarding them.

Pitt did this against Florida State, getting to the line 46 times and hitting 38.

The Panthers held FSU to 34.5% overall and 9.1 from deep.

Mfiondu Kabengele, so terrific against Duke, fouled out in just 11 minutes. Terance Mann also fouled out but got 27 minutes. Trent Forrest and PJ Savoy both had four.

We didn’t see how Pitt could neutralize the athletic advantage FSU had but Jeff Capel remembered his Duke training and lore.

After the game, Capel said that “If we fight and we can play with some semblance of intelligence, we’ll have a chance. There are teams we’ll play against that are more talented than us. That’s the reality. But that doesn’t mean they’re better teams.”

On Tuesday, Notre Dame visits a UNC still smarting from the Louisville slugging, NC State goes to Winston-Salem to see just how bad Wake Forest really is and Virginia and Virginia Tech play for the first time ever as Top Ten teams.

That game could be really interesting. Virginia Tech is highly ranked but can they overcome a team like Virginia?

Two player reports: first, Miami’s Dewan Hernandez was denied eligibility recently but he still hopes to play and NC State’s Markell Johnson, who took a hard fall against Pitt Saturday, may or may not be available for the Wake Forest game.

• Dwayne Sutton, Trey McGowens named ACC Basketball Players of the Week
• A look at memorable duels in the Virginia Tech-Virginia basketball series
• Virginia-Va. Tech as a top-10 matchup is a tribute to Tony Bennett and Buzz Williams
• UVA and Tech are atop the college basketball world thanks to their defensive tenacity
• McFarling: It’s a UVa-Tech matchup we’ve never seen before
• Tech and UVA top-10 basketball meeting a first in rivalry
• Incompetent sniping, officiating doom No. 11 FSU basketball vs. Pitt
• Trey McGowens leads Pitt to 75-62 upset of No. 11 FSU
• Pitt basketball: 5 observations after 3 ACC games
• It’s official – This Pitt basketball team belongs to McGowens and Johnson