ACC Basketball News & Notes: Wake Forest Winning Streak Ends

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We began the week with three teams at 3-0 in the league in North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest. Five teams have overall records at 11-3. Then, on Tuesday night, one of those teams dropped out. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end, as they were beaten by Florida State 87-82 in Tallahassee, Florida. The league started this week with 13 of 15 teams with records above .500. As week four continues, let’s take a look at how things are going in the ACC.

On Tuesday the latest NET ranking came out. The Atlantic Coast Conference is the only league with 11 teams in the top 75. UNC is at #10, Duke (#18), Clemson (#23), Miami (#40), Wake Forest (#47), Pittsburgh (#53), Virginia (#54), Virginia Tech (#65), NC State (#66), Boston College (#74), and Syracuse (#75). Three teams are in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll with North Carolina at #7, Duke at #11, and Clemson at #21. Those same three teams are in this week’s USA Today Coaches poll.

The ACC Co=Players of the week are Wake Forest guard Kevin “Boopie” Miller and UNC forward Amando Bacot. Miller averaged 22 points, four assists, and two steals in wins over Boston College and Miami. At the time, it extended the school’s winning streak to nine games which was the program’s longest since the 2008-09 season. For the season Miller is averaging 17.6 points per game and 4.1 assists which has him ranked eighth in scoring and fifth in assists. He is just one of two players in the league to be ranked in the top 10 in both categories. Bacot put together back-to-back double-doubles last week. He averaged 15 points, 13 rebounds, and 2.5 blocked shots in road wins over Pittsburgh and then #16 Clemson. Bacot was also named USBWA National Player of the Week. Bacot now has seven double-doubles on the year.

The ACC Rookie of the Week is Pittsburgh guard Carlton Carrington. He averaged 18 points, five rebounds, and 3.5 assists. This is the fourth time this season that Carrington has been awarded the Rookie of the Week honor. He became the first Panther player to do this since Chris Taff in 2003-04. Carrington has recorded six games with at least 15 points and six assists. He is the only freshman in the nation to average 14.5 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game.

While Notre Dame (7-9, 2-3) has not gotten off to a solid start, things have started to get better for the Irish. The improvement has come at the defensive end of things. In 10 of their last 13 games, the Irish defense has not allowed more than 65 points per game. Over their last six games, ND has not allowed 70 or more points in a game. The last team to go above 70 points was Georgetown back on December 16. On Tuesday night, the Irish defense held Georgia Tech to 68 points in a 75-68 road win. Notre Dame held the Yellow Jackets to 37.5% shooting and got double-doubles from Tae Davis (10 points, 10 rebounds) and J.R. Konieczny (10 points, 11 rebounds).

The Saturday win by North Carolina (11-3, 3-0) over Clemson was the Tar Heels’ fourth Quad I win of the year. As of Tuesday, UNC is one of five schools to have at least four Quad I wins. The others are Purdue with six, Arizona with five, Houston with four, and Villanova with four. The Tar Heels take a four-game winning streak to Raleigh to meet NC State.

Florida State (9-6, 3-1) junior forward Jamir Watkins is the Seminoles leader in scoring (177 points, 12.6 avg), rebounds (88, 6.2 avg), assists (42 1.3 avg.) and steals (21 1.5 avg ). He is looking to become the first player in FSU history to lead his team in these four categories. On Tuesday night in the win over Wake Forest, he had 19 points, nine assists, and three boards. He was also a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line.

One reason for Clemson’s good start could be the play of junior forward Ian Schieffelin who in two games last week averaged 13.5 points, 11 rebounds, 3.5 steals, two blocks, and two assists. He produced a pair of double-doubles last week which were his fourth and fifth of the season. The Tigers (11-3, 1-2) looked to snap a 2-game losing streak Wednesday night at Virginia Tech (9-5, 1-2) but fell short in an 87-72 loss. The Hokies are a dangerous team when knocking down 3-point shots. They are 5-1 this season when they hit 10 or more 3’s in a game. Since Mike Young has been coach, VT is 40-9 when hitting double-digits three-pointers.

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