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ACC Roundup - Not Rough Competition, But The ACC Swept Wednesday Night

Louisville is still struggling but at least the Cards won

By JD King
/ new
NCAA Basketball: Coppin State at Louisville
 Nov 15, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals guard Ty-Laur Johnson (4) dribble against Coppin State Eagles guard Ryan Archey (10) during the second half at KFC Yum! Center. Louisville defeated Coppin State 61-41. 
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

In Wednesday’s ACC Action, Virginia Tech rode the Camels 60-44, Boston College got past Richmond 68-61 and Louisville grounded Coppin State 61-41.

Rick Bozich asks the obvious question: is it progress?

The answer: sort of.

Louisville did win by 20, but this is one of the weakest teams in college basketball. If Kenny Payne’s Cards had blown it, fans would have blown a collective gasket.

Last season, Louisville just didn't pass well at all and in this one, they had just seven assists and 15 turnovers.

And they didn’t shoot well either at just 39.3 percent.

But they did rebound well and a win is a win and let’s face it - this would have been a devastating loss.

Less than 11,000 people showed up and the Yum! Center holds twice that.

What’s up with Koron Davis? He had a lot of buzz as a JUCO transfer but he hasn’t played yet. All Payne said was that he was “not in trouble.”

Things get real for the Cards on Sunday as they take on Texas in New York. They could probably use Davis then.

No big surprise that Virginia Tech beat the Camels. It’s a classic buy game and the whole point of a buy game, assuming you’re not Georgia Tech, is to win them and hopefully work out some bugs.

Biggest surprise: Sean Pedulla had a bad outing.

Second surprise: the Hokies shot just 37.9 percent and hit just 4-19 threes. But the defense was good and that’s not always Mike Young’s strength and defending the Princeton offense isn’t always easy.

So mixed bag here but all in all, positive for the Hokies and most of all Lynn Kidd who had career highs of 24 points and 15 boards.

Speaking of the Princeton offense, Richmond runs it which makes the Spiders a pain in the tuchus but BC handled it reasonably well. Didn’t shoot that well - 37.3 percent - but cleaned up on the foul line, hitting 17-19 for 89.5 percent and that free throw margin of nine is almost exactly the margin of victory.

Quentin Post and Prince Aligbe both had double-doubles with Post getting 17 points and 10 boards, including four offensive, while Aligbe matched him exactly on boards and put up 15 points.

It’s early of course and the Eagles have only played Fairfield, the Citadel and now Richmond, but they’ve won those games. They have a chance to go to 6-0 before playing NC State and if things go very well, they could go into the St. John’s game undefeated. And if they win that - and St. John’s has some issues - they could go into the New Year without a loss.

That’s a lot of ifs, but could you imagine saying that about BC last year?

Thursday’s games are bit more interesting as Auburn plays Notre Dame in the Barclays Center and Wake Forest takes on Utah in Charleston. Notre Dame is likely to get its clocked cleaned but Wake Forest and Utah should be interesting.

0-2 Texas Southern plays at Virginia, but you can’t have everything.

Thursday’s ACC Action

  • Texas Southern @ Virginia || 7:00 || ACCN
  • Auburn vs. Notre Dame || 9:00 || ESPN2
  • Utah vs. Wake Forest || 9:00 || ESPNU

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