ACC Basketball News & Notes: Countdown to the Postseason

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There is a month left before the conference postseason takes place. Although it has been difficult at times, it does appear that the ACC is going to make it to the finish line on time. To do so, it may mean that some teams probably do not finish their schedules as planned. But everyone will get a chance to play in the ACC tournament come March. What would a notes article be without news on the virus and how it has caused problems with the weekly schedules and teams affected by it. The Monday night Miami vs North Carolina game was postponed. The decision was a mutual one between the two schools. Members of both programs met to see if going forward with the game was a good idea. After that meeting, it was decided that not playing the game was a better idea. Tuesday night’s game between Florida State and Virginia Tech has also been postponed because of positive tests inside the Seminoles program. Wednesday night’s game between Pittsburgh and Louisville is also postponed because of positive tests inside the Cardinals program. it is not clear at this time if any of these games will be played before the conference tournament takes place.

This week ACC Player of The Week is Virginia’s, Sam Hauser. In wins over Pittsburgh and North Carolina State, Hauser averaged 20.5 points and five and a half rebounds. He shot 13-of-20 from the field in both games. He was 5-of-10 from three-point land and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. In the victory over North Carolina State, Hauser tallied 18 points and five boards. In the win over the Panthers, he had game-high 23 points and six rebounds. Hauser has now reached double figures in 15 of 16 games. The Rookie of The Week is Caleb Love of North Carolina. For Love, this is the second time in three weeks he has been named rookie of the week. In a 1-1 week, Love averaged 17 points, four and a half boards, and four assists. In the Tar Heels win over Duke on Saturday night, Love recorded a season-high 25 points and seven assists. In doing so, Love becomes the first Tar Heel player to ever score 25 points and have seven assists vs the Blue Devils.

Georgia Tech’s Jose Alvarado is becoming quite the steals artist. He is third in the nation at 2.93 per game. Alvarado is on pace for the highest steals average since Johnny Rhodes of Maryland who set the steals record back in 1996 at 3.7 a game. In the league, Alvarado is fifth in assists at 4.40 per game, fourth in field goal percentage .531 (95-for-179). third in scoring at 17.6 per game, second in free throw percentage at .872 (41-for-47), and second in minutes played at 37 minutes a game.

Playing after a stint on the sidelines because of the virus can be bad enough. But when the time between games turns out to be three weeks, the results can be somewhat predictable. Just ask Boston College, who after spending the past three weeks off the court because of health and safety protocol, was able to play a game on Saturday vs North Carolina State. They played with only six scholarship players and five walk-ons and the Eagles struggled. After getting off to a 5-0 lead on the Wolfpack, NC State turned things around in a big way. A 37-3 run over the next thirteen minutes sealed the fate of Boston College. The Eagles missed 12 straight shots in a nine-minute span before Jay Heath knocked down a three-pointer with five minutes left in the first half. Heath finished with 20 points for the third time this year and was 7-of-9 from inside the arc.

A milestone was reached by Clemson senior forward Aamir Simms who not only scored a team-high 18 points on Saturday but in the process surpassed the one thousand point mark. He also grabbed 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season in the win over Syracuse, 78-61, Simms is sixth in offensive rebounding at 2.76, 47 in 17 games.

Louisville’s pair of David Johnson and Samuell Williamson became the first pair of teammates to record 20 points and 10 rebounded in the same game. It happened last Monday night when Johnson went for 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Williamson added 20 points and 18 rebounds. The last time a pair of Cardinals players did this was on February 11, 2015, vs Pittsburgh. Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier were the players who pulled this off.

Next week we will have more from the ACC.