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ACC Roundup - Clemson Makes Some History

What a season for the Tigers so far

By JD King
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL: DEC 30 NC State at Clemson
CLEMSON, SC - DECEMBER 30: Clemson Tigers forward Hunter Tyson (5) and Clemson Tigers center PJ Hall (24) during a college basketball game between the N.C. State Wolfpack and the Clemson Tigers on December 30, 2022, at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C.
Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In Wednesday’s ACC Action, Miami topped Boston College 88-72, Virginia Tech fell to Syracuse 82-72, Clemson took out Louisville 83-70 and Wake Forest ran past Florida State 90-75.

Isaiah Wong led the way for Miami, scoring 22 points on 7-9 shooting. The ‘Canes really didn't have too much trouble with BC. The Eagles did cut the lead to six in the second half but it didn’t last.

Harlond Beverly, who missed most of last season with a back injury, had his first decent scoring game in forever with 15. That’s really nice to see. Jordan Miller added 19. Norchad Omier had another double-double with 13 points and 13 boards.

Virginia Tech has really struggled since Hunter Cattoor went out with an injury and did so again Wednesday against Syracuse, falling 82-72 at Syracuse.

It was a relatively close game at the half, with Syracuse up 43-37, but the Orange pulled away, with the lead swelling to 22 at one point.

Mike Young’s three-point happy offense was weak from the outside again, with the Hokies hitting just 3-19. Grant Basile hit 12-17 but Syracuse mugged the starting guards, limiting Sean Pedulla, Darius Maddox and Michael Collins to just 3-21.

Joe Girard paced Syracuse with 24. Judah Mintz chipped in 12 and Jesse Edwards had 13 points, nine boards and six assists.

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: until Wednesday, Clemson had never been 6-0 in the ACC.

The ACC was founded in 1953. That’s a long time not to have gotten to this point.

As we remind from time to time though, Brad Brownell is a damn good coach.

Louisville may not be a great measuring stick but Hunter Tyson had 28 points and 11 boards. That’s impressive, but he’s having a great year. In his last five games prior to Louisville, he’s had 15/10, 13/14, 31/15, 14/13 and 16/8.

Last year, Coach K praised PJ Hall as “the most improved player on the planet,” but Tyson may be pushing him. And what both have in common is they came to Clemson as less than major prospects. Brownell gets big props for helping them to develop.

Louisville, now 2-15, is still losing, but they are improving and were within six just with just under three minutes to go.

Louisville did go up 16-7, but the Tigers ripped off an 11-0 run to go up 18-16 and never looked back.

So give the Cards props for effort and maybe they’ll continue to get better. It’s a long ways back up though.

We thought Wake Forest would prove to be tougher than Florida State and the Demon Deacons were, winning by 15. The game was tied at 23-23 with 6:42 left in the first half but after that, it was all Wake Forest.

The hallmarks of a Leonard Hamilton team were partly there - FSU forced turnovers - but they couldn’t convert consistently.

On the bright side, highly touted freshman Baba Miller is out of NCAA lockup and played. He was basically depth in this game but he should get better quickly. That’ll help.

Wake hit 55.6 percent from the floor. Andrew Carr shot 8-10, Cameron Hildreth 9-14 and Darius Monsanto was 6-8.

FSU has recovered enough from its early injury woes to go 10 deep, which is much more Hamilton’s style. We’d keep an eye on them in the next couple of weeks.

By the way, FSU is now 0-7 away from home.

No more games until Saturday.

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