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Monday’s ACC Portal And Player Movement News - Joe Girard And Matthew Cleveland Stay In The ACC

Just with new teams

By JD King
/ new

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NCAA Basketball: Florida State at Miami (FL)
 Feb 25, 2023; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles guard Matthew Cleveland (35) celebrates his game winning basket against the Miami Hurricanes during the second half at Watsco Center. 
Rhona Wise-USA TODAY Sports

We haven’t updated player movement for a couple of days so let’s start at the top: former Syracuse guard Joe Girard is off to Clemson. That’s going to be really interesting.

Girard, it’s fair to say, never really lived up to expectations at Syracuse. We expect Brad Brownell will find different ways to use him.

Also on Sunday, Florida State’s Matthew Cleveland announced for Miami. That’s a guard-friendly program so he’ll get a chance to star. Great move for both parties, if not the ‘Noles.

Leonard Hamilton won’t be happy about what Cleveland told ESPN:

“I picked Miami because they made it known from the beginning that I was their main priority. They reached out to me as soon as my name was in the portal and they stayed super consistent with me. I also picked them because of the way they play. Having played them four times now, I can really see myself thrive in that system.

“And probably the biggest reason is that all the transfers that they’ve gotten have been All-ACC selections and they’ve won, and I want to be the next.”

Louisville picked up Southern Cal’s Tre White, who left after his freshman year. White averaged averaged 9 ppg, 5.1 rpg and 1 apg. He got 26.7 mpg too, but the Trojan backcourt is going to be really crowded now and he might be wise to move on. From here it looks like he’ll help the ‘Ville.

Penn State’s Kebba Njie is following his coach Micah Shrewsberry to South Bend. He’s a 6-10/240 lb. big and that should help a lot. He played in every game for Penn State last season and he’ll know the ropes for Shrewsberry’s first Irish team.

Shrewsberry got an old-fashioned recruit when high school Cole Certa chose the Irish this week.

In a bit of ACC alumni news, former Demon Deacon Ismael Massoud, who took the March joy ride at K-State this year is off to Georgetown where he’ll play for new coach Ed Cooley.

And to stretch the form a bit more out of shape, Damon Stoudamire made what looks like a smart hire when he picked up former George Washington coach Karl Hobbs. He doesn't need a consligiere like a lot of former NBA coaches do - Stoudamire was doing alright when he left Pacific - but Hobbs has a long history. He played with Patrick Ewing in high school, then played at UConn for Jim Calhoun, where he was later an assistant coach, helping UConn to two national championships.

More recently, he was an assistant at Rutgers, where he helped build a very solid program.

It’s a smart hire.

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