ACC Basketball News & Notes: The Conference is Moving Ahead

Read Time:3 Minute, 9 Second

Like everyone else in the world of college basketball, things are changing from week to week even minute to minute. There is really nothing anyone can do about it, it’s just the way things are set up for now. As of this writing, the Atlantic Coast Conference has seven games that will need to be rescheduled. Which at the moment is not a large number of games to take care of, but as they say, stay tuned. Of the 17 league games that have been played, nine of them have been determined by five points or less. Last weekend, four of the five games were won by the road team. This gives the road teams a 10-7 record to date. Here is some news from the ACC.

The freshmen who are playing in the league this year are making an impact. Four of them are in the Top-10 in freshmen scoring among Power-5 conferences. The leader is Duke sensation Paolo Banchero at 17.1 a game, NC State’s Terquavion Smith is fifth at 13.8, Notre Dame’s Blake Wesley is eighth at 13.3 a night, and fellow Blue Devil Trevor Keels is ninth at 12.7. Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Armando Bacotis is third in the country in double-doubles with nine. He is also 10th in the nation in field-goal percentage at 53.7%. Wolfpack Defeon Seabron is eighth in double-doubles with eight. Youth is being served in this league for sure.

Georgia Tech (6-6, 0-2) is starting to find the range from 3-point land in recent games. The Yellow Jackets have made 18 in their last two games, after 20 in the four games prior. Tech is 18-for-46 (39%) over their last two contests. In their first two league matchups, they are 15-for-40 (37%). Georgia Tech also boasts the league’s leading scorer in the conference in Michael Devoe with an average of 21.2 points per game.

Wake Forest (11-3, 1-2) has a couple of guys that are filling up the basket lately. In road games last week against Louisville and Miami, junior forward Jake Laravia averaged 17 points seven rebounds and five assists. For the season to date, he is averaging 14.5 points, six boards, and three assists. Laravia is second in field goal percentage at .607. He is getting help from the league’s number two scorer in Alondes Williams who is at 20.1 points a night. That average places him 19th in the nation.

Virginia Tech (8-5, 0-2) got a big game from senior forward Keve Aluma who went for a season-high 25 points and 10 rebounds in a road game at Duke. The double-double was his third of the season. Aluma is 12th in scoring in the league at 15 a night and is 15th in rebounding at 6.38 a game.

The ACC Player of the Week is Miami’s graduate guard Kameron McGusty who went for 17.5 points, nine rebounds, and four assists last week as the Hurricanes stayed atop the league standings at 3-0 and 11-3 overall. He recorded a double-double in a win over NC State of 20 points and 11 boards to go along with a season-high five assists. Against the Demon Deacons, he went for 15 points, all in the second half with eight rebounds.

The Freshman of the Week is Florida State’s sophomore guard Ferri Odukale who is 13th in the league in assists with three and a half a game. The Seminoles have been hurt by the virus having had two games already postponed.

That is all for this week. Next week we will be back with more from the ACC.