ACC Roundup - Tuesday Ought To Be Fun
This is going to be an interesting night of basketball.
Three games on tap for Tuesday as Wake Forest heads to Louisville, UNC visits Pitt and Georgia Tech buzzes by Notre Dame.
All three interesting in different ways.
Wake Forest and Louisville are both surging. Wake was close to upsetting Duke on Saturday and Louisville has been growing in leaps and bounds. It’s a home game so it’s hard to pick against the Cards here but Wake Forest is a really good defensive team. However, it’s going to be a running game and that probably favors the ‘Ville. So does three point shooting.
UNC visits Pitt after barely surviving Boston College this weekend, and then mostly because BC was stupid in the clutch. Pitt’s a much better team and unlike Hubert Davis, Jeff Capel’s team generally plays hard on defense. Then there’s the question about Jalen Washington’s ankle. He banged it up on Saturday but says he’s fine.
If UNC is unproductive in the paint again, really all Pitt has to do is to make the guards inefficient from the field. There’s a pretty good chance they can shut one guy down. If that happens, Pitt should win. And as we said, UNC has been playing lousy defense. Small stat worth noting: the five guys who get the most minutes for the Tar Heels are all perimeter players. Of those, only Drake Powell is taller than 6-4.
If UNC loses, the Tar Heels will fall to 13-9 and the question over whether to fire Hubert Davis or keep him and gamble that Caleb Wilson will help turn things around will be on. Actually, it kind of is on already.
Just as a side note, it doesn’t look like Indiana’s Mike Woodson will be back next season. That will open up a major job and that may force some schools - UNC, for instance - to move up their time table. Wes Miller has long been seen as a possible UNC coach, but Cincinnati is now just 12-7 - right in Hubert’s zone currently - and have lost six of their last eight. It might be a hard sell now.
Georgia Tech has shown a lot of heart with such severe injury issues and Notre Dame, we think, is a major rising power under Micah Shrewsberry. Their season was disrupted by an injury to star guard Markus Burton, but he’s been back for about three weeks so he should be nearly back to normal, or as close to as you can get after an injury.
Notre Dame is just 9-10 but they’ve won two of their last three convincingly - by 18 over Boston College and 15 over Virginia. We’ll take them here.
By the way, the matchup between Tae Davis and Baye Ndongo should be a lot of fun to watch.
Incidentally, Clemson is now tied for second place. Take a look at the schedule - next up is a visit to NC State, followed by a home game with Georgia Tech. Then it’s Duke and UNC at home, followed by road trips to Florida State and SMU. Notre Dame is next at home, then Virginia and BC on the road before closing out the regular season with Virginia Tech.
For Clemson, assuming they don’t choke against State or Georgia Tech, the Duke game is likely to be everything: it would give them first place in the conference, it would give them a huge resume boost, and it would be payback for last season in Cameron.
If you’ve forgotten, the Tigers were in position to beat Duke when Jared McCain made three late steals and Tyrese Proctor hit two free throws with :01 left on the clock. After the game, Tigers coach Brad Brownell suggested Duke got some home cooking.
Think he’s forgotten about that?
Think again.
Finally, in a sort-of ACC note, if you haven’t seen the Caleb Love clips from Monday night, do yourself a favor and look it up.
Tuesday’s ACC Action
- Wake Forest @ Louisville || 7:00 || ACCN
- UNC @ Pitt || 9:00 || ESPN
- Georgia Tech @ Notre Dame || 9:00 || ACCN
- UNC faces physical Pitt Team!
- UNC basketball’s Hubert Davis discusses Tar Heels ahead of Pitt game
- Hubert Davis rattles off 10 things wrong with UNC basketball’s defense vs Boston College
- How Are Pitt’s Lowe, Leggett Adjusting to Defensive Attention?
- Preview: Louisville Cardinals MBB vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
- No. 25 Louisville puts win streak on line vs. pesky Wake Forest
- No. 21 Louisville puts win streak on line vs. pesky Wake Forest
- Watch: Pat Kelsey previews Louisville v Wake Forest
- After weekend off, Georgia Tech prepares for rematch with Notre Dame
- Georgia Tech visits Burton and Notre Dame
- Georgia Tech vying for second win over Notre Dame this season
- Notre Dame Basketball Preview: Irish Look To Win Consecutive ACC Games vs Georgia Tech