ACC Roundup - UNC, Pitt Impressive

And post-Tony Bennett UVA is undefeated

In Friday’s ACC action, UNC beat American 107-55, Florida took care of Florida State 87-74, UVA handled Villanova 70-60, Boston College nipped Temple 72-69, SMU fell to Butler 81-70, Penn State hammered Virginia Tech 86-64, Georgia gave Georgia Tech a headache 77-69 and Pitt clobbered West Virginia 86-62 in the Backyard Brawl.

It wasn’t really a suprise that Jeff Capel’s team crushed West Virginia. The team had a lot of off-season turmoil with the fall of Bob Huggins and a new coach in Darian DeVries. He’s a good coach, or at least he has been, but he walked into a tough situation. It may take a while to get things back on track.

Damian Dunn had 23 points for Pitt while Guillermo Diaz Graham had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Pitt is now 4-0, which is a decent start.

UNC started slow against American but roared to life eventually and ran away with the game after that.

The three-headed backcourt of Elliot Cadeau, Seth Trimble and RJ Davis had 18, 13 and 13 points respectively. Cadeau finished with eight assists and four steals. Cadeau has been a much better player earlier than he was last year.

Jalen Washington had a big game with 18 points in 18 minutes.

To be clear, Villanova today is not the Villanova of Jay Wright’s time there, but the Wildcats are still a Big East team and it’s a good win for Virginia.

Isaac McKneely hit all six of his three point attempts to lead Virginia. TJ Power had three points in 15 minutes. Dai Dai Ames has moved Ito the starting lineup for Andrew Rohde but Rohde had a nice game off the bench. Villanova is now just 2-3 and Kyle Neptune may be on the hot seat if things don’t get better soon. He’s in his third season and barely at .500 overall.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech got clobbered by Penn State and Jaden Schutt didn’t have a great game, finishing with eight points on 3/7 overall and 2/6 from behind the line. Mike Young generally prefers a guard-oriented team but that assumes good ball handling. Well not this time: Virginia Tech had an atrocious 24 turnovers. That’s just not going to work.

Nobody’s putting Damon Stoudamire on the hot seat just yet, but losing to Georgia is a bad career move at Georgia Tech. Baye Ndongo was just 4-12 and Naithan George was just 3-14. Lance Terry had 20 off the bench. The Yellow Jackets shot just 26.1 percent from behind the line but at least there they were far superior to the Bulldogs who managed just 3-18 (16.7 percent).

Florida State had their annual grudge match too, welcoming the Florida Gators to town, only to lose by 13.

FSU didn’t shoot well at all, hitting 27-70 (38.6 percent) and 7-20 (35 percent) for threes. The ‘Noles even struggled at the free throw line. Jamir Watkins has emerged as Leonard Hamilton’s most (only?) consistent offensive threat - he finished with 19.

Remember Elijah Strong? We were intrigued by his late emergence in high school. Now a sophomore and in much better condition than he used to be, Strong shot 11-19 for 25 points and had 13 rebounds. Donald Hand had 17 points and six rebounds. If those guys can keep that sort of production up, BC may surprise some people.

Temple has fallen off in recent seasons but the Owls are a basketball school from a basketball town and that counts for something. At least it’s a confidence builder.

SMU stayed close to Butler until about halfway through the second half when the Bulldogs got rolling. Jahmyl Telfort had 17 points in the second half to spark Butler.

Chuck Harris came off the bench for the Mustangs and hit 21 points. A journeyman with stops at Miami, Louisville, and UMass, Matt Cross finished with four.

On Saturday, Wake Forest plays Xavier in the Skip Prosser classic, Youngstown State plays at Syracuse and Notre Dame squares off with Georgetown.

Saturday’s ACC Action

• Wofford @ Duke || 12:00 || ACCN
• Wake Forest @ Xavier || 12:00 || FS1
• Youngstown State @ Syracuse || 1:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra
• Notre Dame @ Georgetown || 1:00 || NBC

• UNC basketball’s Drake Powell wows Tar Heels with Michael Jordan-like block vs American
• UNC rolls past American with strong second half performance
• UNC Men’s Basketball Explodes in 2nd Half to Blow Out American
• UNC lets loose: 3 takeaways from the Tar Heels’ decisive home victory over American
• No. 10 UNC men’s basketball dominates American, 107-55, powered by 64 point second half
• Clayton scores 25 points as Todd Golden’s No. 20 Gators win at Seminoles
• Gators head into enemy territory, claim in-state rivalry victory over Florida State
• Florida Gators Pull Out Win Over Rival FSU, Stay Undefeated
• Among firsts Virginia is yet to experience in post-Tony Bennett era: A loss
• Virginia overwhelms Villanova with 3’s and defense
• McKneely sparkles from beyond the arc as men’s basketball takes down Villanova
• Villanova Falls to Virginia in Baltimore, 70-60
• McKneely, Virginia outplay Villanova in Baltimore
• Virginia Tech Men’s Basketball Falls To Penn State 86-64
• Baldwin Jr., Hicks both score 19 as Penn State breezes past Virginia Tech
• Ace Baldwin Jr. leads Penn State past Virginia Tech
• Ace Baldwin Shines in Homecoming as Penn State Beats Virginia Tech
• Elijah Strong’s double-double carries Boston College past Temple
• Late scoring drought costs Temple in tight loss to Boston College
• Elijah Strong explodes for career high as Boston College beats Temple
• Beyond the Box Score: Men’s basketball wins a tough test against SMU
• Butler’s loss to Austin Peay was a wake-up call. Friday’s win over SMU is a sign of hope.
• Butler coach Thad Matta on the Bulldogs commitment to stopping SMU’s fast-paced offense
• Butler uses second-half runs to pull away from visiting SMU
• Georgia beat Georgia Tech 77-69 in the 200th series meeting that dates to 1906
• Georgia edges Tech 77-69 on Friday night
• Asa Newell and Georgia basketball push past Georgia Tech for rivalry road victory
• Live Game Thread: WVU travels to Pittsburgh for Backyard Brawl
• Pitt men’s basketball | Panthers hammer West Virginia in Backyard Brawl
• Postgame Reaction from Pitt’s Rout of West Virginia
• Pitt dominates West Virginia in Backyard Brawl beatdown