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ACC Roundup - Three Games, Three Wins

And two out of three were pretty impressive.

By JD King
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL: NOV 13 Florida International at Miami
 CORAL GABLES, FL - NOVEMBER 13: Miami guard Nijel Pack (24) handles the ball in the second half as the Miami Hurricanes faced the FIU Panthers on November 13, 2023, at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida.
Photo by Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In Monday’s ACC Action, Florida State beat up on Central Michigan, 94-67, Pitt got by Florida Gulf Coast 86-74 and Miami got a real tussle from Florida International, winning by just 86-80.

The game started as expected, with Miami going up 28-11. But who in the world expected FIU to rip off a 42-13 run right after that?

And then the ‘Canes ripped off a 19-0 run, but FIU didn’t give up, hitting a three with just 1:49 left to cut Miami’s lead to 80-76.

It was closer than it should have been but it’s also the kind of game that will make a team tougher.

Good thing Miami was hot - the ‘Canes shot 58.5 percent overall and 61.9 percent from behind the line, and still barely won.

Norchad Omier, normally so reliable, had 11 rebounds but just six points. The other starters all scored at least 17 points.

Is Florida State back?

FSU has won its first two games by identical scores of 94-67. Neither team - Kennesaw State and CMU - are all that great, but 25 point wins suggest improvement over last year’s disaster. The ‘Noles forced 21 turnovers - good - but allowed the Chippewas to hit 52.3 percent - bad.

Are they back? We’ll know soon - the next four games are Florida, UNLV, Georgia and UNC. They may not all be great, but last year’s Seminoles would have lost them all.

Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, Jeff Capel’s Panthers took out the former Dunk City, aka Florida Gulf Coast, 86-74.

Capel has a nice group to work with, particularly freshman Carlton Carrington, Blake Hinson and Ishmael Leggett.

Carrington finished with 19 points, seven assists and four rebounds, while Hinson had 18 points and five boards. Leggett had 17 points and seven boards. Federiko Federiko had nine points and seven boards.

Good - Pitt had just seven turnovers. Bad - the Panthers shot just 18-32 from the foul line. This follows a 55.6 outing against Binghamton.

Still, it looks like this could be a surprisingly good team.

On tap Tuesday - Colgate slides over to Syracuse, NC A&T takes on Virginia and Mass Lowell heads down to Georgia Tech.

Tuesday’s ACC Action

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