ACC Basketball News and Notes: Week 2 Gets Underway

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It was a good opening week of hoops for the Atlantic Coast Conference. All of the teams in the league had at least one win with ten of the fifteen teams registering a 2-0 week. As week two begins, the league has three teams ranked in the Associated Press Poll. Duke is at #9, Miami is at #12, and North Carolina is at #20, Four are ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll, and Duke, Miami, and UNC are joined by Virginia. Here is some of the news from the ACC as week two gets going.

The league welcomes three new head coaches into the ranks. Damon Stoudamire is at Georgia Tech, Micah Shrewsberry is at Notre Dame, and Adrian Autry is taking over at Syracuse. The Duke Blue Devils were chosen as the preseason favorite to win the 2024 ACC championship, with Miami, UNC, Virginia, and Clemson also in the mix. The preseason Player of the Year is Duke’s Kyle Filpowski. The preseason Rookie of the Year is Elliot Cadeau of the Tar Heels.

The first ACC Player of the Week is North Carolina forward Armando Bacot. In two wins by the Tar Heels last week vs Lehigh and Radford, Bacot averaged 23.5 points, and 16.5 rebounds, while shooting 60% from the field and 91.7 % from the free throw line. His double-double in the season opener moved him into sole possession of third place in double-doubles in ACC history with 70. The next man on the list is Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan. who has 87.

The ACC Rookie of the Week is Carlton Carrington of Pittsburgh. He averaged 18 points, 7.5 rebounds, and seven assists in two wins by the Panthers. In the team’s opener, Carrington recorded a triple-double of 18 points, 12 boards, and 10 assists in a win over NC A&T. He became the second player in league history to record a triple-double in his first game. The other was Dennis Scott in 1987. He is the first division one player to do this since Chris Thomas of Notre Dame vs New Hampshire on November 18, 2001.

The Florida State Seminoles got a big performance from their defense in their season-opening win over Kennesaw State. The Seminoles blocked nine shots, had nine steals, and forced 17 turnovers. It was the first time since November 17, 2017, that FSU played a game with nine blocked and nine steals in the same game. FSU backed that performance with another solid outing on Monday night vs Central Michigan.

Georgia Tech’s junior guard Miles Kelly is looking to become the first GT player to begin the season with three straight games of 20 or more points since Moses Wright in 2020-21. He is also looking to become the first Yellow Jacket player to start the season with 25 points in his first three games since Dennis Scott in 1989-90. Kelly had a chance to pull this off when Georgia Tech hosted UMass Lowell from America East on Tuesday night. but fell short scoring just 11.

The Boston College Eagles are off to a 2-0 start. A couple of reasons for this lie in the best players for BC coming through. First, Quinton Post had a big-time opening night in the team’s win over Fairfield. The double-double of 31 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four blocked shots helped the Eagles to the 89-70 win. Guard Zackery Jaeden has had back-to-back double-figure games. He had 10 vs the Stags. Then followed that up with a career-high 21-point game on Friday night vs the Citadel. He was 8-of-12 from the field. In two games this season. Jaeden is averaging 15.5 points, four assists, and three steals.

The Clemson Tigers took home the trophy from the Asheville Tournament last week. It was not without some heroics from one of their veterans. Senior P. J. Hall averaged 22 points in the two games of the tournament. He would be named MVP of the event. The Tigers found themselves in an 18-point hole in the second half of the championship game vs Davidson. They would rally and take the game at the end. The comeback was the fifth-largest in school history.

That’s all for this week in the ACC. Next week we will be back with more from the league.