ACC Basketball News & Notes: Conference Play Gets Underway

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We are about to continue with the second portion of the college basketball season. Conference play is what’s next for everyone in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The road to the league postseason tournament is now on. This year, the ACC Tournament will take place at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC on March 12-16. The conference finished with over 100 non-league wins. Included in that win total were nine victories vs teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. As of last Friday, six teams were ranked in the top 50 of the NET rankings. The ACC is one of three conferences to have at least three in the top 50. Clemson at #13, Duke at #17, North Carolina at #26, Virginia at #35, Pittsburgh at #37, and Virginia Tech at #49.

The league also welcomed some new blood into the conference in the form of transfers. All told, 51 transfers are now in the ACC. That number includes 11 intra-conference transfers. Clemson, North Carolina, and Syracuse were tied with two players who transferred from one ACC school to another. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets came within a game of winning the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. After winning their first two games in the event vs UMass and the host school Hawaii, the Yellow Jackets were defeated in the championship game by the University of Nevada.

Boston College has a new 1,000-point scorer on their roster. Junior guard Claudel Harris joined the club after knocking down seven 3-pointers and scoring a career-best 29 points in a win over Lehigh. The Eagles are ranked #30 in the country in free throw percentage at 76% (152-of-212). Big man Quinton Post is tied for #23 in the country in double-doubles with five in 12 games played. He is also tied for #28 in the nation in blocked shots with 26 in 12 games. Post is #29 in the country with an average of 2.17 a game.

When it comes to playing defense, no one does it better than the Duke Blue Devils. In their last 11 games, they have held their opponents to under their scoring averages. They are #29 in the nation in turnover margin at 3.7 a game. Their opponents have turned it over 139 times while the Blue Devils have done it 98. Senior guard Jeremy Roach is tied for #26 in the country in assist-to-turnover margin at 3.27 (36 assists to 11 turnovers).

One of the reasons why the Clemson Tigers are off to such a good start is the play of PJ Hall. He is #20 in the nation in field goals with 86 made in 152 attempts. Hall is tied for 45th in the country in points with 229 (86 FG, 38 FT). The team is #28 in the country in field goal percentage at 49% (327-of-668). The Tigers are #42 in the country in field goal percentage defense at 39.577 (262-of-662).

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are getting better as we turn the calendar to January. They have had to get used to a new system and style of play under new head coach Damon Stoudamire. It is starting to look like the early season bumps in the road are going away slowly. In their first game in Hawaii against UMass, the Yellow Jackets went to work on the offensive glass getting 10 of them to help in the win. They lead the league in offensive rebounding and are 17th in the nation with an average of 14.6 a game.

In a win over Stonehill College recently, Miami junior forward Norchad Omier recorded his fifth double-double of the year. The 20-point and 18-rebound effort was the best since an 18-point, 18-rebound game by Ebuka Izundu on November 13, 2018, vs Stephen F. Austin. He is #48 in the country in rebounding with 108 (30 offensive and 78 defensive). The five double-doubles tie him for 23rd in the country with five in 11 games.

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