ACC Hoops Roundup (1/8/25)

Ran out of time on Sunday and Monday so we'll do a recap of yesterday AND the weekend.

Duke Ain't Losing

The Blue Devils just had the toughest back to back they'll have in ACC play all year: at upstart SMU and hosting Pitt, the second best team in the conference IMO. All they did was win by 27 and 29. Cooper Flagg was aggressive offensively and recorded double-doubles in both, highlighted with an insane dunk last night (pictured above) that nearly sent a Panther player up to see the good Lord. SMU hung around at times in the first half, but Duke flexed their muscle in the final 20 minutes, outscoring the the Mustangs by 18 to put it far out of reach.

Pitt then came into Cameron with news that starting guard Damian Dunn would be available to return, giving them a full roster for the first time since before Thanksgiving. It didn't matter as Duke dominated with a suffocating performance. The Panthers came in averaging 84 ppg and were held to HALF of that! They posted an ugly 0.72 points per possession and didn't score a single point for the final 7:58 of game action. On the flip side all 5 Duke starters scored in double figures and shot the crap out of it from 3.

Duke has one of the most balanced rosters in the country, led by their star freshmen Flagg and Kon Knueppel mixed with veterans like Tyrese Proctor and Sion James. They're likely going to go undefeated in league play, not because they're far more talented (which they are), but because of how that talent defends. They rank 1st nationally in Adj. Defensive efficiency and 3rd in Effective FG% allowed. It's the 2nd tallest team in the country based on average height with nobody under 6'5" in the rotation, and when you mix that with the athleticism and the willingness to defend that they have, it results in a scary unit to try and score against. I've said it befoer but that's why they're going to be one of the favorites for a national title this year.

Tar Heels Keep Their Season Intact

Going into Saturday, UNC was sitting at 8-6 (1-1) and already starting to feel uneasy about their NCAA tournament resume. They're safe for now after a road win at Notre Dame thanks to late game heroics from Elliot Cadeau and a dominant wire to wire performance against SMU. Back on Saturday in South Bend, Markus Burton returned to the lineup to give the Irish some juice, but it was the Heels that came out firing building a 39-32 halftime lead. They quickly stretched the lead to 11 but Notre Dame responded with a 15-0 run as Burton started to find his footing and the game was within one possession the remainder of the game. Things looked bleak down the stretch, but Cadeau completed a 4-point play with just over 4 seconds left and then survived some horrible full court defense, letting Burton go coast to coast before missing the layup. Ian Jackson was the star of the game once again, saving the Heels with 27 points with no Seth Trimble in the lineup and yet another RJ Davis off day.

Speaking of RJ Davis, it's been a rough start to his 12th season at Carolina. His per game averages are on par with what you'd expect, but if you've watched this season he really looks to be pressing the issue a bit and it's evident in his shooting numbers being way down. After an ugly 2 game stretch, Davis looked like himself again last night and had one his best games of the year in a no-doubt win over SMU. He finished with 26 points on 8-15 FG (3-6 from 3), 5 reb, 4 ast and 1 TO. This is the 8th time this year that he's attempted at least 15 shots from the field, but it was the highest shooting % he's had in such games. It was also only the 2nd time all year he's made over 40% of his 3 pt attempts in a game (he did that a whopping 17 times a year ago). The Heels need this version of RJ Davis back badly, especially with them having to go small more often than ever.

Louisville IS a Tournament Team

I'll go ahead and say it. After struggling a bit post-injury news, Louisville is now on a 5-game win streak and playing the best they have since Thanksgiving at Battle 4 Atlantis. The Cards went into Charlottesville on Saturday in a huge letdown spot, only to run away in the 2nd half with a 20-point road win. Turn around to Tuesday and you've got Clemson coming into town as one of the better teams in the league. No problem. They used a career-high 32 from J'Vonne Hadley and a 14-1 run to end the first half on their way to their 4th straight double digit ACC win. Louisville basketball is fun again!

They're doing it with balanced scoring and a different guy going off seemingly every night. All 8 guys in the rotation got on the score sheet in the wins over UVA and Clemson. Before Hadley exploded against Clemson, it was 4 guys in double figures at Virginia. Chucky Hepburn had 26 against North Carolina. Reyne Smith poured in 27 at Florida State. Terrence Edwards had his stretch of 20-point games too. In just about a 3 week span they've greatly improved their metrics and now sit in the top 40 of both the NET and KenPom, with a 6-5 record in Q1/Q2 games. That's starting to look more like a legitimate tournament resume. This coming Saturday's matchup at Pitt is a MASSIVE, both for resumes and ACC standings.

Miami Might be on Quit Watch...

If they weren't already before. I mean what is going on in Coral Gables? Miami came into the year looking primed for a bounce back with veterans Nijel Pack and Matthew Cleveland returning, an intriguing portal class and a couple potential instant impact freshmen. Pack has once again missed some time with injury, but even with him in the lineup the pieces have fit about as well as an 18-wheeler in a standard home 2-car garage. As stated, there's definitely talented pieces on this team (that are probably due for some positive shooting regression), but they don't play well together offensively and just straight up don't defend.

It's still a top 40 offense from an efficiency standpoint, but the shooting woes have held them back. Some of that can be attributed to the lack of cohesiveness and ball/player movement resulting in tons of contested looks. But it probably wouldn't make much difference if their offense was elite instead of solid, because they rank 287th in defensive efficiency. The only other P5 team in the 200's of Def rating is fellow ACC member Cal.

So since Jim Larranaga stepped down, the Canes have gone on the road and lost to Boston College and Virginia Tech, arguably the two worst teams in the league, to fall to 4-10 (0-3). But if you lose to arguably the two worst teams... doesn't that make you by default... arguably the worst? They're 1.5-point favorites at home tonight against FSU. If they don't win that then I don't know how much fight we'll see out of them moving forward.

Other Nuggets:

• Wake Forest has now strung together back-to-back solid offensive performances after a 77-59 win vs NC State on Saturday in which they shot 54.9% (37.5% from 3). Juke Harris breakout game and Hunter Sallis is back to playing like an All-ACC guard. They're one of the few that can actually still build an NCAA tournament resume, and they've got 3 winnable games before a monster stretch at the end of the month.

• The "supposed to be" pesky newcomers don't have gas in the tank for a full 40. Stanford and Cal both played Pitt/Clemson last week on the road. Stanford led Clemson for much of the first half and was tied with 14:37 left before crumbling down the stretch. On Saturday night at Pitt the Cardinal jumped out to a 22-13 advantage midway through the first before getting blitzed the rest of the way. Cal was similarly competitive early one, even leading Pitt at the half. But they too would go on to lose both games by double digits.