ACC Basketball News & Notes

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ACC Basketball News & Notes

The college basketball season is now a month old. For the Atlantic Coast Conference, the end of November means the ACC-Big Ten Challenge is underway. Here is a look at that, and others things happening in the league.

Heading into this week challenge, the ACC held a 12-5-2 advantage over the Big Ten. The two ties took place in 2012 and 2013. The Duke Blue Devils have won more challenge games than any other team. They took an 18-for-20 mark into their game vs Indiana. The losses for Duke came at the hands of Wisconsin in 2009, and Ohio State in 2011.

The Florida State Seminoles have shown a flair for the dramatic in the early season. For the second time in the past three games, the Seminoles rallied from a three-score deficit to win with less than four minutes to play. In their latest escape, Trent Forest hit a short jumper, then intercepted a cross-court pass to seal Florida State’s 73-72 win over Purdue.

The Virginia Cavaliers are off to another 7-0 start. It’s the third straight season that head coach Tony Bennett and his crew have done this. They recorded win number seven in the Challenge as Kyle Guy led four players in double-figures with 18 points. Virginia took care of Maryland, 76-71 on the road.

The Syracuse Orangemen used the three-ball to get a win over Ohio State. In their 72-62 win, the Orangemen knocked down a season-high eleven three’s. It’s the most from behind the arc since they dropped 15 three-pointers on Georgia Tech. In the ACC tournament on March 4, 2016, Tyus Battle went for twenty in the win over the Buckeyes.

In Boston College’s win over Minnesota on Monday night, the Eagles received a huge second-half performance from big man Nic Popovic. His 9-for-9 second twenty minutes outing is one field goal shy of ranking second in the ACC in field goal percentage. Popovic is shooting .615 from the floor and is one of four Eagles averaging in double-figures.

Xavier Johnson of Pittsburgh is the first freshman to score in double figures in his first seven games. He is also second in the conference in assists (5.6), 11th in scoring (16.9), seventh in free throw shooting (.850), and eighth in assists-to-turnover ratio (1:95:1).

The ACC has been a regular in the AP poll for some time. They own a streak of 998 consecutive weeks of having at least one team ranked in the poll. This dates back to December 19, 1962, when it was a top-10 only poll.

Since the league began play in 1953-54, at least one school has been ranked in all but two of the 1,109 weekly AP rankings.