ACC Roundup - Virginia Tech Moving Up & State Hires A New A.D.

On Wednesday all three favored teams won in ACC competition: Virginia Tech beat Miami, 82-70, Louisville crushed Wake Forest 82-54 and Syracuse topped BC 77-71.

There wasn't that much that was significant about Virginia Tech’s win. It was Miami’s fourth straight loss and the Hurricanes have now lost seven of their last eight, all against ACC teams.

It was a road win for Virginia Tech and that is significant, but it would have been hard to lose this one frankly.

The Hokies did have some unfortunate news here: Justin Robinson went out with a so-far undefined leg injury and did not return. That could be significant.

Chris Lykes snapped his mini slump and scored 19, which is about what he typically gets.

Miami only went seven deep and surprisingly, so did Virginia Tech. The Robinson injury could be a very big deal.

The ‘Canes next three games are Virgina at Virginia, Notre Dame at home and UNC at UNC. The ACC might as well stand for Actively Crapping on Compassion. Keep up or keep losing. It’s true for everyone. In Duke’s Annus Horribilis, aka 1995, ACC rivals took great glee in humiliating the Blue Devils as often and as thoroughly as possible. Same thing for UNC when Matt Doherty ran the program into the ground.

Right now it’s Wake Forest’s turn as Louisville demonstrated anew.

Read this column from the Greensboro paper to get an idea of how awful things are around Wake Forest basketball right now and consider this quote by Chaundee Brown: “I feel like all of us are selfish at times. And all of us don’t compete. One person competes and then the other four are not.”

That’s pretty damning and it’s not like Wake Forest is utterly lacking in talent. We’re not suggesting this but imagine if Rick Pitino took this team over. What do you think would happen? How hard would they play?

And as Ed Hardin points out, both Chris Mack and his assistant Dino Gaudio were once Wake Forest assistants and did well with Skip Prosser at both Xavier and Wake. Gaudio was fired, of course, and Mack simply moved back to Xavier where he worked for Sean Miller before taking the job himself when Miller left for Arizona.

Hiring a new coach is a time of optimism usually but consider this: when Wake Forest hired Danny Manning they probably could have hired Jeff Capel and might well have lured Mack back too. Will Wade was at Chattanooga and would have likely jumped at Wake Forest but that presupposes that his talents were clear that early. Mike White was at Chattanooga and who knows? He might have taken it, probably would have.

It’s increasingly difficult to imagine Manning back after this season. He has a big buyout but the cost of keeping him may prove more expensive. The question then becomes: who’s got next?

If it were us, we’d target Nate Oates of Buffalo, see if Bobby Hurley is sick of the pathetic Pac-12 and also see if a mediocre season means it’s time for Wichita’s Gregg Marshall to head home. Would Wojo be interested in leaving Marquette? Can’t hurt to ask.

A.D. Ron Wellman is highly respected but he’s made two bad hires in a row for basketball and Wake is, first and foremost, a basketball school.

Things can’t go on this way and if the heat transfers from Manning to Wellman, they certainly won’t. No A.D. is going to walk the plank for his coach.

At some point Syracuse’s A.D. will have to replace Jim Boeheim, but probably not while son Buddy is playing for the Orange and on Wednesday, Buddy really was Jim’s buddy as he scored 13 points off the bench. He’s still a skinny freshman but he’s begun to demonstrate his potential.

BC pushed Syracuse and almost took the lead in the second half but Tyus Battle had a huge game with 31 points including 21 in the second half. Ky Bowman and Jordan Chatman both scored 21 for BC. Like John Mooney and Chris Lykes, Nik Popovic has been steadily improving. He only had 11 points and six rebounds here but neutralized Pascal Chukwu, who had just two points and there rebounds.

In a bit of really good news, we think NC State will replace replace retiring A.D. Kay Yow with Army’s Boo Corrigan. He’s got a family history (his dad is former Virginia A.D., former ACC commissioner and Duke grad Gene Corrigan) and a reputation for being innovative and smart. We hope he’s smart enough to hang on to Kevin Keatts.

• From Army to NC State. Why the Wolfpack chose Boo Corrigan as the new athletic director.
• NCAA needs more authority in academic misconduct cases, reform group says
• Debbie Yow rescued NC State, but the future may depend on what Boo Corrigan does next
• Doughty College Notebook: Corrigan back in ACC hierarchy
• Best and worst from Syracuse basketball’s win at Boston College
• Virginia athletics generated more than $106 million in 2017-18
• CLEMSON BASKETBALL: Challenge for Tigers is to keep competing
• Qudus Wahab picks Georgetown
• David Glenn: Boo Corrigan was a record-setting fundraiser at Army
• Five Takeaways: Pitt’s Defense ‘Unacceptable’ in Clemson Loss
• BOZICH | Mack, Zion, Zion, Zion pace ACC mid-season awards