A Holiday Edition of the ACC Basketball News & Notes

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We hope that everyone has a great Christmas holiday. The ACC will be working through the holiday as the non-conference portion of the schedule comes to an end and league play takes over. The league is closing in on 100 non-league wins as the week begins. Four teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the week. North Carolina at #11, Clemson at #18, Duke at #21, and Virginia at #22. These four teams are also ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll for the week.

There were four Top-10 matchups scheduled for this week with ACC teams. On Wednesday night, two of those games went the way of the league. Duke defeated Baylor at Madison Square Garden, and North Carolina defeated Oklahoma. The ACC is now 10-3 against the Big 12 this season. On Thursday night, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets began play in the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Your ACC Rookie of the Week comes from the Yellow Jackets. Baye Ndongo earned the award for the second time in three weeks. In an overtime win last Saturday at MSG, Ndongo went for 12 points and 19 rebounds in a win over the Penn State Nittany Lions. The 19 boards tied for the most rebounds by a freshman, and is the second most by a league player this season. He is tied for fifth in freshmen scoring averaging 8.8 a game The ACC Player of the Week is Duke’s sophomore center Kyle Filipowski. In a win over Hofstra, Filipowski went for 28 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, and three blocked shots. No Division 1 player has put up those numbers since the 2010-11 season.

The Boston College Eagles (8-3, 0-1) are getting the kind of inside play from their big man Quinton Post that could make them a dangerous team come league play. He is tied with UNC big man Armando Bacot for double-doubles with five. He is posting career highs in points with 19.7, rebounds with 8.7, and assists with 3.4.

Speaking of the Tar Heels (8-3, 1-0), senior guard RJ Davis has been on quite a six-game run. He has scored at least 20 points in those games. He is the first UNC player to do this since Garrison Brooks did the same thing in seven straight games in 2019-20.

Bench play can be a big advantage for those teams that have it. Last Sunday, the Syracuse Orangemen (8-3, 0-1) got that kind of production from four members of their bench. Sophomore forward Quadir Copeland had 15 points, sophomore center Maliq Brown with 13, sophomore guard Kyle Cuffe JR. with eight, and junior forward Benny Williams with eight in the win over the Oregon Ducks in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-3) have been getting balanced scoring since the year began. They are the only school in Division 1 to have four players averaging 14.9 points per game. Hunter Salis at 17.7, Kevin Miller at 17, Andrew Carr at 16.6, and Cameron Hildreth at 14.9.

It has been a rough go of it for Notre Dame (4-7, 0-1). On Tuesday night, the Fighting Irish lost at home to the Citadel by twenty points. On the bright side of things, freshman guard Markus Burton leads all freshmen in scoring in the league at 15.8 a game. His numbers rank him fifth in the nation in scoring. Burton is one of three freshmen in the country to be averaging 15 points and 3.5 assists.

Florida State (4-5, 0-1) is the other team that is below .500 with their record. Some good news may have arrived for the Seminoles in the person of junior guard Primo Spears who made his debut last Saturday. He played 25 minutes and scored 10 points coming off the Seminoles bench. In his first two seasons of college hoops, Spears averages 14.4 points a game.

Next week we will be back with more from the ACC.