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ACC Roundup - Covid Issues Abound

This season is getting more difficult

By JD King
North Carolina v Notre Dame
Ol’ Roy and Mike Brey probably won’t be this happy before UNC plays Notre Dame this year

ACC Basketball is a lot more fun when it’s predictable, or at least the schedule is, and right now it’s anything but. Take Saturday for instance.

Five games were scheduled and three of them have been directly affected by the pandemic.

Duke was supposed to play at Florida State; not happening. Virginia-Virginia Tech was the marquee game of the day.

Not happening.

Pitt was originally scheduled to play Notre Dame but Corona issues made that impossible so Notre Dame is playing in Chapel Hill instead.

Fans can’t go, bands and cheerleaders are iffy and even photographers aren’t getting much work done.

We’re still watching but this is not really what we would call quality college basketball and it’s becoming increasingly fragmented.

But, as The Rolling Stones once sang, Well then what can a poor boy do except to sing for a rock and roll band?

So let’s look at Saturday’s remaining games.

BC welcomes Louisville in to Conte, Clemson gets some warm weather and a match with still-thin Miami while Notre Dame of course visits UNC for an improvised quickie.

We’d generally go with Louisville - in fact we will - because while BC has certainly competed, they’ve only won twice. So we’ll go with the odds and the talent and take Louisville.

We also think Miami is still too banged up to take Clemson. That might change if they get Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty back (McGusty is reportedly practicing some).

And now the ‘Canes have lost Rodney Miller too, giving Miami one less big presence inside.

So it’s hard to see them pulling the upset here.

Finally, Notre Dame at UNC.

This is a weird one. UNC is at home but that doesn’t mean as much this season. Notre Dame is just 3-5 but the Irish have played a tough schedule and lost to Michigan State, Ohio State, Duke, Purdue and Virginia and it’s not like anyone has blown them out. They’ve been in all those games.

And UNC?

The Heels started 3-0 but since are 2-4. Roy Williams has lambasted his team’s defense, particularly against NC State and Georgia Tech. In that game he changed the lineup as a response to the poor defense he was seeing.

UNC is also not shooting all that well.

On the bright side, Armando Bacot has been emerging as a reliable big but erratic guard play isn’t helping.

And keep in mind that Trey Wertz was injured against Virginia. We haven’t heard his status for this game.

We’ll take UNC here but not by much.

Good news for Notre Dame and Clemson basketball: fans are going to be too busy mourning their respective pastings in the college football playoffs to care much about what happens in their basketball games.

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