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ACC Roundup - State, Clemson Break Losing Streaks

And some bad news with the good for NC State

By JD King
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: NOV 23 Arkansas-Little Rock at NC State
RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 23: North Carolina State Wolfpack guard Devon Daniels (24) makes big block on Arkansas Little Rock Trojans guard Markquis Nowell (1) during an NCAA Mens Basketball game between North Carolina State and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on November 23, 2019 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC.
Photo by John McCreary/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In Wednesday’s ACC Action, Florida State smacked Miami 81-59, Virginia Tech popped Notre Dame 62-51, Clemson took Louisville 54-50 and NC State beat Wake Forest 72-67.

State was clearly the better team but Wake Forest continues to do what they never really did during the Danny Manning era: play like an ACC team. We love the effort they’ve shown. They’re consistently the less talented team but Steve Forbes is turning them into a very tough group to beat.

State had an 18 point lead but Wake kept fighting and cut it to a five point defeat. It’s still a loss but Forbes is building a culture and seems to be doing so very well.

Wake Forest might have done better if they hadn’t had 20 turnovers. State’s ball-hawking, so effective earlier, was back Wednesday. However, a bit of bad news: Devon Daniels left the game with what looked like a knee injury. That would be a big hit for State.

We didn't watch all of the Florida State-Miami game but we saw enough to see a defense that was off the charts. It really was superb, at least the part we saw. It reminded us a bit of the old UNLV Ameoba. Miami couldn’t breathe.

In fairness, the ‘Canes are still missing Chris Lykes, and he would make a big difference. But in his absence Isaiah Wong has emerged and he’s a keeper. We really like him. He had 21 against Miami.

Kameron McGusty, who has had his own injury issues, was back and scored 13.

The South Bend Tribune has had a bit of mean fun at Notre Dame’s expense. Here’s the headline, modified and reused: Another chance at a win against a ranked team gets away from Notre Dame.

And the tone is getting downright ominous. Check this out:

“Stop reading if you’ve heard this one before, which means you’re not likely to get to the end of this paragraph, let alone the column. On a night when the Irish needed toughness and needed it from the start, they got so very little of it that a game that some felt might be there for the taking slipped away long before halftime.

“Notre Dame took a 2-0 lead on its first offensive possession. That’s not news. On Wednesday, that was the only time the home team led. In its building. After having won two straight in the Atlantic Coast Conference. After looking for that elusive win over a ranked team. Less than nine minutes after taking that lead, the Irish were in a double-digit deficit. You know what came next.

“Scramble time. Panic time. Shot-missing time. Unable to make the plays time. It’s a lot of the same, old stuff for Notre Dame, which doesn’t have enough toughness or talent to stick with teams above it in the league standings. Those are the haves. Notre Dame’s among the have-nots.”

Needless to say, losing your home town paper is not a good sign.

Prentiss Hubb had 22 of Notre Dame’s 51 points. The Irish only hit 3-18 from three point range which is pretty poor.

Jalen Cone replaced the suspended Tyrece Radford and had just three points, not that it mattered.

Clemson probably pushed Louisville out of the Top 25 - they are currently 25th - with their road win.

The Tigers had lost four straight, dropping one close one to Virginia Tech, then three by a combined 72 points or an average of 24 points so winning this one was huge.

Neither team shot well - Louisville hit just 31.6 percent and 20.8 percent from downtown while Clemson was slightly better at 35.8 percent and 20 percent from behind the line.

It was pretty critical for the Tigers and particularly with this Saturday’s game at Duke. There are no Crazies to be sure, but Duke has always given Clemson a rough time in Cameron.

No games until Saturday but there’s a full slate to talk about Friday.

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