ACC Basketball News & Notes: Final Week Before Conference Tournament

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One week left before the real fun begins. The last chance for teams to improve their position in the ACC standings. Two teams, Duke and North Carolina have double byes heading into the tournament that is set for Washington, DC. Seven teams are still alive for the last two double-byes. The NCAA Net Ranking still is a source of good news for the league. Six teams are in the Top 50 as of Monday. The Tar Heels and Blue Devils are the only ranked teams. UNC is #7 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Polls. Duke is #9 in the AP Top 25 poll and #8 in the coaches poll.

The ACC Player of the Week is RJ Davis of UNC as he averaged 28 points, 6.5 rebounds, three assists and two steals in home wins over Miami and North Carolina State. In his outing vs the Hurricanes, Davis went for 42 points. His week was also recognized by NCAA.Com as he was given National Player of the Week honors. Davis’ 42-point night vs Miami was the most points scored by an ACC player since BC’s Ky Bowman’s 44-point effort vs Hartford on Dec.31, 2018.

The ACC Rookie of the Week is Marcus Burton of Notre Dame. He averaged 26 points, 4.5 boards, 3.5 assists, and 2.5 steals in a 2-0 week for the Fighting Irish. ND defeated both Wake Forest and Clemson at home last week. For Burton, this is the second week in a row he has won the weekly award. He is still the leading scorer among freshmen players in the ACC with a 17.3 average.

A team that is getting hot at the right time is the Pittsburgh Panthers (20-10, 11-8). They have won 10 of their last 13 league games including five on the road. The Panthers are tied for the top spot in road wins (7) by a Power-5 school. In league play, Pittsburgh is 6-4 on the road. Carlton Carrington is second in freshmen scoring averaging 13.4 a game.

Virginia senior guard Reece Beekman is now the school’s all-time leader in steals after getting three against the Blue Devils last Saturday. He has 223 career steals and is now in the Top 25 in the league in steals with that number. He is currently at #25. He is third in steals in the league at 2.10 and is leading the league in assists with an average of 5.90 a game.

North Carolina (24-6, 16-3) graduate forward Armando Bacot played in game #160 of his college career last Saturday. He matched the mark set by Virginia Khei Clark in 2019-2023. On Tuesday night, Barcot passed the mark when the Tar Heels hosted Notre Dame. He played 26 minutes scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds. The Tar Heels won on Tuesday night by an 84-51 score.

Florida State’s (15-10, 9-10) head coach Leonard Hamilton has 191 career wins in the ACC. He needs one more win to tie for fourth place in league history in wins with Maryland’s Gary Williams. Hamilton will have to wait until Saturday to get there because, on Tuesday night, his Seminoles lost to Pittsburgh on the road 88-73. On Saturday, FSU will host Miami.

Boston College’s (16-14, 7-12) big man Quinton Post recorded a double-double of 30 points and 12 rebounds vs the Panthers last weekend. It was his ninth DD of the season and is the most since Jared Dudley had 10 in the 2006-07 season. Post is tenth in scoring averaging 16.7 a game. He is ninth in rebounding at 7.9 a game.

The ACC Tournament is set for March 12-16 at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. Next week, we look ahead to that event.