The first round of the ACC Tournament is in the books. Pitt took the first game over Wake Forest behind Justin Champagnie’s 31 points. He was magnificent, going 13 of 19 from the field, and collecting an additional 6 rebounds.
His efforts were supplemented by four other double-digit scorers, the most notable of which was Trey McGowens. The sophomore point guard was 6-13 for 14 points, and dished out 4 assists. He had a solid game, and his efforts, combined with Champagnie’s and the other double-digit scorers, lifted them over some great efforts from the Wake Forest players.
Chief among them was Olivier Sarr, who had 20 points and 13 rebounds. Isaiah Mucius had 19 points, and point guard Brandon Childress had 17 and four assists in his last collegiate game. But their efforts were overridden by the incredible performances of the aforementioned Pitt players, and the Panthers ended up with an 81-72 victory.
While that one was close, the second and final game of the night had no such drama. Carolina cruised to victory behind the play of Garrison Brooks. Brooks had 20 points and 4 rebounds, and was the biggest part of the Carolina victory.
But he didn’t do it alone, getting help from Brandon Robinson and Armando Bacot, among others. Robinson had 17 point and 6 rebounds, while Bacot went for 12 and 7. And the Tar Heels did it efficiently, shooting 54% from deep. They only made 7 threes, but they only missed 6.
Virginia Tech missed a lot more than 6 threes. To be exact, they missed 26. The Hokies made 10, but jacking up 36 threes is not exactly a recipe for success. Neither is having more points from the bench than from the starters. The Hokies violated both of those rules, and got blown out, 78-56.
So overall, it wasn’t exactly the most exciting Tuesday we’ve ever seen at the ACC Tournament. Let’s hope that Wednesday will be better.
Game 1: #9 Miami vs #8 Clemson
For an 8-9 game, this is a fairly intriguing matchup. On one side, you’ve got Clemson, a team that was 9-11 in the conference. Not so confusing. But when three of those nine wins are against teams that are in the top 15 of the country, the waters start to get a little murkier.
On the second-to-last Saturday of the regular season, they knocked off current #4 Florida State to get that third win. At that point, sitting at 9-9 in the ACC and 15-13 overall, the Tigers snuck their way onto the bubble. They were suddenly the bubble topic in all of college basketball, highlighted on every bubble watch article published that week.
But then they managed to drop games to Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech in quick succession, and their bubble was popped.
The Tigers are up against a Miami team that has been similarly unpredictable, albeit in a different way. Unlike Clemson, who manages to pull off wins against teams they have no business beating, Miami doesn’t have a good win to its name in conference play.
They do have that one impressive win in the ACC/B1G Challenge over Illinois, though. And how did that come about? It happened because Miami got hot at the right time. They scored 51 points in the first half of that game and just managed to hang on.
And while they haven’t matched that glorious level of output again, they have had impressive games. Case in point: 81 @FSU, 85 vs Boston College, and 102 (triple OT) @Virginia Tech. So if Miami can have one of these explosions, it could lead them to a couple of wins in this tournament.
Unfortunately, there’s a good chance they’ll be without leading scorer Chris Lykes. He sustained an eye laceration in the loss to Virginia, and his status for the tournament is uncertain. Without him, it’ll be really tough for Miami to beat Clemson. They’ll need somebody to step up, but a win is tough to see without their nifty little point guard.
The Pick: Clemson 69-61
Game 2: #13 Pittsburgh vs #5 NC State
We’ve already talked about Pitt, so let’s dedicate most of this to the Wolfpack. They’re 10-10 in conference play, and do have some impressive wins to their name. The 22 point win over Duke that brought them back into NCAA Tournament relevancy is the one that jumps out, obviously.
Fun fact: The only ACC team that Virginia has not beaten this season is this NC State team. I’m sure the Hoos would handle them if given another shot, but that’s beside the point.
The point is that NC State can beat good teams, as they have shown previously. After that Duke game, they lost to FSU and to Duke in the second game between those two. And they also failed to defeat North Carolina in the one year in which they should have done it twice.
But the Wolfpack won two of their last three, coincidentally against the two teams that they could have played in this round. They defeated Pitt 77-73 last Saturday, and then blew out Wake by 20 in the regular season finale. So they’re coming in with a good amount of confidence that they can beat Pitt.
And in all likelihood, this game just means more to the Wolfpack. Pitt has already won a game, and in all honesty has nothing to play for. Maybe they could pull off some magic, but it’s incredibly unlikely.
Meanwhile, NC State is in desperate need of a win or two to go dancing. In the end, the fact that they need this more, as well as their superior skill, will allow them to prevail over an already-tired Pitt.
The Pick: NC State 77-65
Game 3: #10 Boston College vs #7 Notre Dame
Yeah, thanks a lot Notre Dame. You could’ve beaten Florida State and Virginia could have shared the ACC title. Instead, you choked away a big lead and the Hoos finished tied for second.
In fact, Boston College also had a chance to help the Hoos win an improbable ACC title. But alas, they blew their opportunity just the same. Oh, well.
Virginia will have a chance to punish one of those two teams in the quarterfinals. But neither of these two teams are thinking about that right now. All they care about is the team that will be standing opposite them in the second round.
And Notre Dame will be up against a team that’s probably not the most confident. Boston College has lost five straight games. They went from 7-8 in the ACC and kind of relevant to 7-13 and an afterthought. It’s tough to recover from that type of downward spiral.
They could have stopped the bleeding two games into the streak against Notre Dame. Their second round opponent narrowly defeated them by one point after a couple of crazy shots in the closing seconds. A different result, and this is a different conversation.
But that was the result, and the losing streak was prolonged, leading to the current predicament.
The only foreseeable path to victory for the Eagles would be if Nik Popovic was able to get the better of John Mooney. Let’s just call that improbable.
The Pick: Notre Dame 64-59
Game 4: #14 North Carolina vs #6 Syracuse
So the Tar Heels have survived their first time playing in the opening day of the ACCT since the conference expanded. And as already discussed, they looked good doing it. The conference tournament represents what could be a new start for the Heels.
Free of the shackles of their conference record, it’s simple for them from here on out. They just need to take it game-by-game, and win five in a row. It’s hard to believe, but they have accomplished that feat this season. Carolina actually started out 5-0, with wins over Notre Dame, UNCW, Gardener-Webb, Elon, and Alabama.
The competition is a tad tougher this time around.
But it’s not as if Syracuse has been blowing anybody’s pants off with their recent play. They lost five of their final eight, one of which came by 13 to Carolina. They ended the season with a loss to a Lykes-less Miami team on the road.
With that said, they have a very solid roster. Hughes, Boeheim, Girard, Dolezaj, etc., make up a good team that has not been able to really put it together down the stretch.
It’s not going to start on Wednesday night. For now, Garrison Brooks and North Carolina will continue their redemption tour.
The Pick: Carolina 78-66