ACC Tournament Roundup - Cal Shows Heart, Syracuse Takes FSU And Pitt Got Screwed

A pretty crazy opening day

Tuesday’s opening ACC Action was really pretty good as Notre Dame nipped Pitt 55-54, Syracuse ended Leonard Hamilton’s ACC career (and probably his overall career), 66-62 and Cal played its sixth overtime in the last four days, beating Virginia Tech in double OT, 82-73.

It was a really gutty performance by Cal as Jeremiah Wilkinson and Jovan Blacksher both were injured and Andrej Stojakovic took a pounding as well. He still finished with 29 points.

Turnovers have killed the Hokies all season and they hurt again on Tuesday as Virginia Tech had 18, including one killer late in the first overtime.

Brandon Rechsteiner scored 19 to pace Virginia Tech. Former Blue Devil Jaden Schutt got 20 minutes but didn’t score. Tobi Lawal had 17, but near the end of regulation, he had an astonishing block - and threw it out of bounds.

He had it in his hands and threw it out of bounds. It drives us nuts to see guys do this and this time, it probably cost the Hokies the game, and ultimately helped end their season.

For a really long time, our policy has been to not criticize officials unless the call directly impacts the end of the game. Did that happen in the Pitt-Notre Dame game? Oh yeah.

Notre Dame’s Markus Burton fired a shot that went off to the left side of the rim and Tae Davis went for the tip-in - and Zack Austin was called for a foul.

Was it legit?

Well, if it was, the contact was pretty minimal. You can’t - at least we can’t - say that Austin affected Davis’s shot attempt.

The referees saw it differently though and put him on the line with 0.5 seconds left to play. He hit both and that was that.

Jeff Capel was quite upset, saying that “I’ve been coaching for 25 years. It’s the worst way I’ve ever seen to end a ballgame in my 25 years of doing this.”

They’ll be talking about this for a while.

On the bright side, Pitt held Markus Burton to 10 points on 4-14 and forced six turnovers on the Irish star, which could be a factor in Wednesday’s game against UNC. He’s going to be tired.

In the nightcap, Syracuse dispatched Florida State, building a big lead and then holding on down the stretch.

Eddie Lampkin was 6-7 in the first half but had no shot attempts in the second, which seems like a waste, particularly with the ‘Noles closing fast.

Lucas Taylor had a poor game, shooting 0-7 and fouling out.

Jamir Watkins again led FSU, this time with 16. Florida State hit just 2-10 on their threes but Syracuse was even worse, hitting just 2-14.

On Wednesday, Notre Dame advances to play UNC, Cal and Stanford play on the East Coast for the first time ever, Syracuse gets SMU and Virginia and Georgia Tech renew acquaintances.

Pitt probably wore the Irish down so we’d think UNC would win that one. Cal is bound to have tired legs and who knows if Wilkinson and Blacksher will play so we’d go with a fresher Stanford there.

Syracuse almost beat SMU in Dallas last week but they’ll need to figure out how to better use Lampkin if they want to win this time around.

As for Georgia Tech and Virginia, the game in Charlottesville wasn’t close, with the Cavs wining 75-62. However, we like the Yellow Jackets to gain revenge. They played well down the stretch, other than the last game against Wake Forest, so we think they’ll have enough to pull this off.

Wednesday’s ACC Tournament Action

• Virginia vs. Georgia Tech || 12:00 || ESPN2
• Notre Dame vs. UNC || 2:30 || ESPN
• Cal vs. Stanford || 7:00 || ESPN
• Syracuse vs. SMU || 9:30 || ESPNU