ACC Roundup - Last Night Of Cupcakes

In Wednesday’s ACC action, UNC took Harvard 77-57, Wake Forest finally had a serious win, beating Cornell 83-61 and Georgia Tech took down South Carolina Update Upstate 79-63.

UNC won, but once again, Ol’ Roy Williams was not happy with his bunch. UNC continues toas ESPN puts it, “[struggle] in many of the same areas it has throughout the season, taking bad shots, making careless turnovers, failing to secure rebounds and allowing too many open 3-pointers.”

When you see it put that way, how much stock should you put in Kentucky’s win over the Heels?

Just asking.

As Ross Perot used to say, “that’s just sad.”

Tommy Amaker respectfully disagreed, saying that “[t]hey can speed you up with how hard they play defensively in denying and creating turnovers. And that’s something they’ve done so well forever, and we certainly — a few that I thought we just kind of self-inflicted.”

Still, it’s safe to go with Ol’ Roy’s opinion. He’s not joking about suicide yet, but that may not be far off.

One bit of bad news for UNC: Sterling Manley was held out with a knee issue.

Cornell is hardly Harvard, much less UNC, but given Wake’s season so far, they probably don’t care. A 22 point win is a nice change of pace.

Freshman Jaylen Hoard had a big game with 25 points and 15 rebounds. That’s really outstanding.

Life is about to get much more intense for the Deacs, as Danny Manning acknowledged after the victory: “The guys that have been here talk about their experiences too, and it’s going to be trial by fire.

“We knew that going into it, with our situation, regardless of how the nonconference played out. Going into our first conference game, there are only going to be a handful of guys with ACC experience.”

That’s manageable if your players have talent, fundamentals, good chemistry and solid coaching. We’re not sure all those things apply currently.

We’ll see soon. Wake opens ACC play at Georgia Tech, then hosts Duke, then hits Miami before welcoming #18 NC State at home and then heading up to play #10 Virginia Tech and then heading over the mountains to Charlottesville.

That’s a tough stretch for anyone. A bunch of young players may end up asking for their bottle and rattles after that.

When he was at UNC-Wilmington State’s Kevin Keatts went after Evan Cole, who ended up with Georgia Tech after Keatts bolted to Raleigh.

He’s coming off an injury and that can’t help the Yellow Jackets, but he’s reasonably healthy again and scored 16 against SC Upstate for a career high.

In a rare easy game, Georgia Tech shot 58%. The ACC treats weakness the way lions treat lambs and offense has been Tech’s weakness or at least the most serious one. Perhaps a healthy Cole helps. You’d like to think so because things could get ugly fast if the Yellow Jackets can’t score.

With at least one exception (Duke’s game with St. John’s), this is the last night of preseason lameness. There is one game we wish had been scheduled though: Nevada vs. Virginia.

These teams are polar opposites and it would be a lot of fun seeing them try to break each other. We’d especially like to see Nevada play Virginia or Tennessee and see how they fare in a slower game.

On Wednesday, NC State goes to Miami as the clear favorite but has struggled in recent years when it opens on the road (among other struggles actually).

Jim Larranaga has moaned about his team’s defense’s character which is clearly not an issue for the Pack.

State should win with relative ease.

• North Carolina locks Harvard down on defense in the second half, and wins 77-57
• North Carolina locks Harvard down on defense in the second half, and wins 77-57
• UNC forward Sterling Manley will miss Wednesday’s Harvard game with a knee injury
• Wake Forest ready — or not — to enter ACC slate after blowout of Cornell
• The season is upon us as ACC basketball games get our attention in January
• New year, new Nassir Little — by getting back to the old Nassir Little
• Georgia Tech finishes non-conference play with win over USC Upstate
• On the recruiting trail with Josh Pastner in Las Vegas
• Kihei Clark moves from cast to splint on left wrist as recovery continues
• What does Syracuse basketball have to do in the ACC to make the NCAA Tournament?
• ACC Reset: Does ACC title run through Durham or Charlottesville