ACC Roundup - Virginia Takes Out Its Frustrations On Wake Forest

When you see that the Virginia-Wake Forest score was 68-45 you might think well...all in all not too bad.

Only thing is Virginia, still smarting from the Duke game, went up 25-3.

After that Virginia only outscored Wake 43-42 but when you go down 25-3 in the first 11 minutes that’s pretty much ball game.

Virginia held Wake Forest to five points in the first 8:47. That’s pretty amazing by any standard.

Hey look, Virginia gets all the calls: the Cavs got 21 attempts to Wake Forest’s seven. And if you haven’t been paying attention, Virginia’s Jay Huff is coming on fast lately: he had a nice turn in Durham and against Weak Forest, Huff had an eight point personal run. He finished with 12 points, two rebounds and two blocks. He’s not the toothpick he was when he got to Virginia and is now an agile 7-1 guy with three point range. Keep an eye on him. He could make a huge difference for UVA down the stretch and in post-season.

Speaking of rising big men, Mfiondu Kabengele had another terrific game for Florida State in the Seminole’s win over Clemson. He had 17 points, sure, but he may be the second most athletic player in the ACC and is likely the most athletic big man. He could be turning into something really special.

For FSU, losing three of its first four ACC games was devastating. This is a highly athletic team and one that should never have lost to Pitt or BC. Losing to Clemson would have put the team in crisis mode.

Now, FSU travels to Miami, hosts Georgia Tech then to Syracuse, then Louisville and Wake Forest at home, followed by road trips to Georgia Tech, Clemson and UNC. They should be favored in most of those.

We expect that Florida State will beat Georgia Tech and the Yellow Jackets lack offensive firepower but have proven very sticky on defense.

That came through again as Tech beat Notre Dame 65-63 at Notre Dame.

Jose Alvarado and Abdoulaye Gueye are back and that helped Tech immensely.

In fact, Gueye dunked with :52 seconds left and then Alvarado iced the game with two key free throws with :08 left.

We have to say Josh Pastner is exceeding expectations and for the second straight year. Now we’ll be interested to see what he does if and when he gets some significant talent on board.

The Irish are not used to being at the bottom of the ACC but on a bright note, John Mooney is emerging as a star. He had 22 points and 14 rebounds in this loss and is now a player to build around.

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