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ACC Roundup - UNC, Clemson Had Tough Weekends

But UNC’s was worse

By JD King
/ new
NCAA Basketball: North Carolina vs Tennessee
 Nov 21, 2021; Uncasville, CT, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard Zakai Zeigler (5) dribbles the ball with North Carolina Tarheels guard RJ Davis (4) defending during the second half at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

In Sunday’s ACC Action, Virginia Tech hammered Merrimack 72-43, Rhode Island topped 71-65, Florida State popped Loyola Marymount 73-45, NC State got by Texas Southern 65-57, Miami knocked off Florida A&M 86-59, Clemson fell to West Virginia 66-59 and UNC got smacked around by Tennessee 89-72.

First though we got some numbers conflated when we talked about UNC’s defense yesterday, mixing up the win-loss columns.

Nonetheless, UNC has a real problem with defense, as Hubert Davis acknowledged after losing to Tennessee by 17: “The defense that we’re playing collectively and individually, that accountability to guard your guy is not there,” Davis said after the game. “And that’s going to have to change immediately.”

Easier said than done. It’s not like UNC played killer D under Roy Williams and Davis is changing the system. Jury will be out until the Heels show some progress.

Just in a general sense, there was a time when Tennessee beating UNC would have been a major upset.

Clemson’s weekend wasn’t as bad: the Tigers lost to a ranked teams in St. Bonaventure and West Virginia is always tough and the Tigers had chances to win both.

Clemson was right in it despite having 20 turnovers. It was also Bob Huggins’ 904th win.

It’s a bit unusual for college teams to play each other twice in a week but Rhode Island and Boston College did it twice in four days and Rhode Island won both of them.

Sunday Rhody didn’t have too much trouble with the Eagles, pulling away in the first half. It was probably a useful game for BC since they got to work on the things they had trouble with last time.

It doesn’t mean they did them better but they got more reps and it may pay off later.

We saw some comments online about NC State vs. Texas Southern and people don’t seem to understand that the Tigers are a pretty good program. Yes State should win, but it’s not like this is a pushover team.

Dereon Seabron continues to play well with another double-double - his fourth. Currently he’s averaging 20.5 ppg, 10 boards and also shooting nearly 60 percent.

State held the Tigers to 31.3 percent overall but Texas Southern won the boards, getting 47 overall to 41 for State and 18 offensive rebounds to 10.

The other three games aren’t worth spending much time on. They’re all games against lesser opponents that should be easy wins.

The games on Monday are much better. Georgia Tech gets Charleston Southern, Virginia plays Georgia, FSU gets Missouri and Notre Dame gets St. Mary’s.

Monday’s ACC Action

  • Charleston Southern @ Georgia Tech. || 7:00 || ACCN
  • Virginia vs. Georgia || 7:00 || ESPNU
  • Missouri vs. Florida State || 8:30 || Nope
  • The Citadel @ Duke || 9:00 || ACCN
  • St. Mary’s vs. Notre Dame || 11:30 || ESPN2

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