In the first day of ACC/SEC Challenge, the ACC performed far better than it did last year: Syracuse knocked off Tennessee 62-60, UNC took care of Kentucky 67-64, Virginia Tech took out South Carolina in overtime, 86-83, Miami beat Chris Beard’s Ole Miss 75-66 and Notre Dame got by Mark Mitchell and Missouri, 76-71. Duke also beat Florida 67-66 as detailed elsewhere on DBR. On the SEC side of the victory tally, Oklahoma smacked Wake Forest around, 86-68, Texas A&M dealt with Pitt 81-73 and Georgia crushed Florida State 107-73.By our count, the ACC is up 6-3 and that’s way ahead of last season’s disaster.In non-Challenge play, Cal got a nice win over Utah, 79-72. Poor Mark Pope. He’s an acclaimed offensive coach at one of the premier jobs in college sports, yet his Mildcats could only manage 1-13 for threes (8%) and just 23-53 overall (43%).Yet they did some things very well. Kentucky held Caleb Wilson to 5-19 from the floor, but he grabbed 12 rebounds and passed out 6 assists. Henri Veesaar managed 8-12/0-1 from the floor for 17 points. He also pulled down 10 rebounds. Those guys alone combined for 32 points and 22 rebounds and UNC had 22 offensive rebounds to Kentucky’s 8. More notable, of Kentucky’s 23 made shots, just 8 were assisted (34.7%). Whatever problems Michigan State exposed, Kentucky hasn’t solved them yet. In the last 13 minutes, UK hit just two baskets and missed 13 straight down the stretch before Otega Oweh got one to go in with 2:43 to play. In fairness to Pope, he’s missing Jaland Lowe, Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance, and that’s a lot. Nonetheless, we knew whoever lost this was going to catch it from the fans, and in BBN, calls to fire Pope have started. It seems kind of crazy, frankly. First, there are the injuries. Second, he did really well last year. And third, he’s one of your own. Kentucky fans are crazy. Syracuse faced the #13 team in the country without its best player and still won. The Vols didn’t help themselves with 17 turnovers and an erratic offense. Nate Ament had 7 by himself. UT’s starters shot thusly: Ament – 2-10Felix Okpara – 1-6Cade Phillips – 0-1Ja’Kobi Gillespie – 5-12Bishop Boswell – 2-3Good thing Jaylen Carey, Vernon’s little brother, hit 10-16 for 22 points. Syracuse arguably won this game from the line, hitting 13-22 to 8-15 for the Vols. And they did this without Donnie Freeman, their best player. Tennessee has issues, but Syracuse was undeniably impressive. Speaking of injuries, Virginia Tech is currently without Tobi Lawal, probably their best player, and Neoklis Avdalas has been playing hurt. Amani Hansberry came alive with 22 point 10-16/0-1 from the floor while Jaden Schutt got 31 minutes and hit 4-8/2-5. South Carolina is not a great team or anything, but the Hokies overcame adversity in a big way here. That’s going to pay off. With the win over Ole Miss, Miami has now matched last year’s win total of 7. We’re somewhat surprised that a Chris Beard team struggled as much as it did. Miami handed Ole Miss its collective rear end on the boards, 45-29 and the Rebels shot just 34.8%. For his part, Beard was really angry, saying this about his team’s effort: “It is infuriating. It’s concerning. I’ve never been in this personal situation in my coaching career.”Shelton Henderson had 18 to pace the ‘Canes. Former Blue Devil Mark Mitchell had 26 points against Notre Dame, but it wasn’t enough as the Fighting Irish Missouri was sluggish at the beginning of both halves and a three by Cole Certa in the last minute was the difference. Missouri is arguably the better team, but the Irish had enough to pull this off. Cole had 14 and Markus Burton had 18. On the losing side, Wake hung with Oklahoma for the first half, but the Sooners won the second by 16 as the Deacs yielded at home. Tre’Von Spillers, who has played so well lately, had just 6. Omaha Biliew had 9 points but no rebounds. Neither did backup center Cooper Schwieger.The leading rebounder? Juke Harris, with 7. He also had 22 points, mostly from the line (12-15). Former Notre Dame forward Tae Davis had 18 to pace Oklahoma. Wake’s lack of inside play is going to seriously affect their season. They call it Buckyball and it’s supposed to refer to the offense, or so we thought, but Texas A&M defended the hell out of Pitt Monday night. The Panthers fell behind 10-1 and while they ultimately went up 61-57 on a 16-0 run, that was the last gasp. The Aggies built back a 1o point lead before winning by eight. Pitt faced former teammate Federiko Federiko, now starting for A&M. He didn’t do much, but got the win and that’s the bottom line. Pitt showed some heart and that’s perhaps the best thing they can take from this loss. Finally, while Florida State looked decent against weak November competition, reality is setting in: Luke Loucks looks like a solid coach but you need solid players, too, and we’re not sure he has those. Losing by 134 is no good.Okay, okay, it was just 34, but it felt like 134. Georgia outrebounded the ‘Noles 48-27 and held FSU to 27% on threes and 39% overall. Only Robert McCray was really effective, scoring 18 on 7-14/0-2. So Monday is in the bag and the ACC is well ahead. On Tuesday, we see the following matchups: Louisville at Arkansas || 7:15 || ESPNClemson at Alabama || 7:15 || ESPNULSU at Boston College || 7:15 || ACCNNC State at Auburn || 9:15 || ESPNSMU at Vandy || 9:15 || SECNVirginia at Texas || 9:15 || ESPNUMississippi State at Georgia Tech || 9:15 || ACCNIt looks like Tuesday will be the SEC’s night. We’d be seriously shocked if BC won and Tech will need to hit a different level to beat the Bulldogs. NC State could win as could SMU, but that doesn’t mean they will. Links are posted separately today. Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions |
Drop us a line