ACC Basketball

ACC Basketball News & Notes: Duke Clinches Tie for Regular Season Title

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As the Atlantic Coast Conference wraps up its regular season this weekend, all that is left to decide is who plays when and against who? That’s because for the first time since 2010 the Duke Blue Devils are the ACC regular-season champions. On Tuesday night, in his final road game as head coach, Mike Krzyzewski led his team to at least a share of the conference crown. It is the 13th time under coach K’s watch that the Blue Devils have at least shared the title. The 86-56 win at Pittsburgh was the coach’s 201st road win, an ACC record. Krzyzewski’s overall record on the road is 272-154 at Duke. Two of those losses came at Pitt since the Panthers joined the ACC in 2013.  The Blue Devils took care of business early, as they raced out to a 13-point lead before the game was four minutes old. They will be the #1 seed heading to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. for the upcoming conference tournament. But before they make that trip, there is one more home game for the coach and his team. On Saturday night, Duke will take the court in coach K’s final home game riding a seven-game winning streak and playing host to none other than North Carolina.

Another team that is looking good for next week’s tournament is the Miami Hurricanes (13-6). Their win at Boston College on Wednesday night puts Miami into the quarterfinal of the tournament. The victory also made head coach Jim Larranaga the winnest coach in program history (221). He was tied with former coach Bruce Hale at 220. Miami can become the #3 seed in the tournament if they beat Syracuse on Saturday and Duke defeats North  Carolina. Isaiah Wong was huge from deep as he knocked down five of his nine three-point attempts, and finished with 27 points. Wong was one of four Hurricane players in double figures. Meanwhile, for Boston College (6-13), the loss at home assures them of a first-round game in Brooklyn possibly against North Carolina State.

If the Wolfpack (4-15) are going to survive and advance vs BC, then their defense must improve. On Wednesday night they got steamrolled on the road by Wake Forest 101-76. The win by the Demon Decanos (13-7) guarantees them a top-5 spot in next week’s tournament for the first time since 2010. They also matched a program record with win number 13. They reached the 100 point total for the first time this season. Dallas Walton gave Wake Forest a double-double of 20 points and a career-best 12 rebounds. Daivien Williams had a career-high of 28 points as Wake shot 56% in the first half, and 65% in the second half to cruise to the win.

It has been quite a while since Virginia Tech (11-8) has defeated Louisville (6-13) on the hardwood. In fact, you have to go all the way back to February 13, 1991, to find a Hokie win over the Cardinals. That streak was snapped on Tuesday night as Virginia Tech ended the 17-game losing streak to Louisville with a 75-43 win at home. Virginia Tech was on fire from 3-point range as they hit 12 of them. Justyn Mutts was a stat sheets stuffer as he had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds to go along with six assists and two block shots. After the Cardinals scored the first basket of the game, the Hokies went on a 12-0 run and never looked back. Virginia Tech has won nine of their last ten and locked up at least the number seven seed for next week.

Justyn Mutts not only gets it done on the basketball court, but he also excelled in the classroom. He was named the ACC Basketball Scholar-Athlete for 2021-22. He is the first Virginia Tech Honoree to win the Skip Prosser award which the honor is named after. The award was established in 2007 and is given to the top junior or senior student in their sport. Mutts is a senior class finalist and has already earned his undergraduate degree in psychology and his master’s degree in agricultural and life sciences. He is working toward his third degree and his second master’s in educational psychology. Mutts ended his career at Wake as a 1,000 point scorer.

Having home court during the regular season was not all it was cracked up to be. Home teams this season have a 74-62 record for a 54.4%. If things hold through the final day of the season on Saturday, it would be the lowest win percentage since 1987 (53.6%) and the fifth-lowest in league history. 30 of this season’s conference games were either one-possession games or went to overtime.

Next week we look ahead to the ACC Men’s basketball tournament.

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