ACC Roundup - Deacs Waking Up, Louisville Loses Fifth Straight

In Saturday’s ACC Action, Wake Forest beat Florida State 68-60, Louisville fell hard at Syracuse 92-69, Georgia Tech survived Clemson, 69-64, Virginia thumped Miami 71-58, Virginia Tech won at Pitt 76-71 and Notre Dame left Raleigh with a 69-57 victory.

But it may have been costly: Nate Laszewski left with a knee injury.

Mike Brey says it’s just a bruise but it’s not clear how long he’ll be out. Notre Dame has a six-man rotation without him and it’s smallish too. So we’ll see how that goes.

They beat NC State mostly without him but not by much. The Irish blew a 17 point lead and rebuilt it. They zoned NC State eventually and the Pack struggled with that.

However, Paul Atkinson finished with four fouls and that’s a very thin margin of error. So we’ll see how next week goes for the Irish.

Wake Forest continues to roll, having knocked off Florida State on the road. Jake LaRavia missed a triple double by one assist.

Best of all for Wake, FSU pushed the Deacs and Wake had to earn it.

Florida State falls to 13-9 and 6-6 in conference which is basically NIT territory. Bit of a fall really.

Louisville went north without suspended captain Malik Williams, who has now missed two games for, essentially, a bad attitude. And after giving Duke a game and losing to UNC in overtime, the Cards got absolutely clobbered. Syracuse had a 26-16 run in the second half which put them up by 27. All the Syracuse starters finished in double figures and the Orange hit 52.2 percent on threes. Syracuse also had a major advantage from the line, hitting 16 to five for Louisville.

Next up for Louisville: Notre Dame on the road. Sure would be handy to have a big man.

We thought that Clemson might handle Georgia Tech without Hunter Tyson, out with a clavicle injury, because the Yellow Jackets are hardly big themselves.

Didn’t happen. Tech led most of the way but Clemson rallied late and was down just four with 1:02 left but they couldn’t pull it off. Either team might have some great wins - Clemson gets a crack at Duke soon - but the NIT seems like a stretch for both at this point.

Don’t look now but Virginia will come into Cameron having won three of their last four. The win over Miami Saturday was the best. Virginia took over early and never let go. Kameron McGusty (21) and Charlie Moore (17) did well but no one else scored more than six points. However, the ‘Canes still shot 54 percent.

Virginia shot 60 percent and 53.3 percent on threes. Now 14-9 and 8-5 in conference, the Cavs will head to Durham Sunday to play the Blue Devils Monday.

Virginia Tech continues to be erratic. The Hokies had a 28 point lead over Pitt, at Pitt, and lost most of it. Pitt can be proud of a nearly epic comeback but it’s a moral victory, nothing more.

Pitt falls to 8-15 but on the bright side the Panthers are still fighting.

No more games until Monday when Duke and Virginia tangle and Pitt and Virginia Tech get an exceedingly rare back-to-back rematch in Blacksburg.

• ACC Standings
• College Basketball Bracketology: Latest NCAA Tournament Projections for ACC Men’s Basketball
• Playing through pain: Not even an injury can stop Clemson’s surging sophomore PJ Hall
• Three takeaways from Virginia’s 71-58 win over Miami
• Virginia rolls past Miami for key ACC win
• Armaan Franklin leads Virginia over Miami and to its first ACC winning streak of season
• Backups lead Georgia Tech in win over Clemson
• Pitt’s inspired second half can’t overcome slow start in loss to Virginia Tech
• Louisville basketball drops fifth straight with 92-69 loss at Syracuse
• Don’t look now, but Notre Dame joins some select ACC company
• Miami Hurricanes’ failure to slow down Virginia results in first losing skid of season