ACC Basketball News & Notes: Duke is on a Roll

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Winners of two in a row, and in first place by a game over the rest of the field, the Duke Blue Devils have it all going in the right direction at the moment. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have maybe the best freshman forward in the country Cooper Flagg on your side. More on him later. Let’s take a look at the ACC.

The Blue Devils (14-2, 6-0) own the second-best winning streak among power conference teams with an 11-game streak. The Louisville Cardinal have a six-game winning streak which is tied for seventh best. The Blue Devils are still the only ranked team in any of the polls. They are #3 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll. Two other schools, Louisville and Clemson, also received some votes.

In the NET Ranking for the week, six ACC teams are inside the top 50. Duke is at #2, Pittsburgh is at #27, Louisville is at #33, North Carolina is at #35, Clemson is at #37 and SMU is at #46. Want more reasons for Duke’s success? They rank fifth in the country in FG percentage defense at 36.5% and sixth in scoring defense at 59.6. Wake Forest is 19th in FG percentage defense at 38.6. SMU is 17th in scoring offense at 84.7 a game and UNC is 31st at 83.2 a game.

Stanford’s (11-5, 3-2) big man Maxime Raynaud leads the country in double-doubles with 13 in 16 games. He ranks fourth in rebounds per game with 11.5. Clemson (13-4, 5-1) forward Ian Schieffelin is 14th in rebounds per game at 10.2. On the offensive side of things, Raynaud is ninth in the country averaging 20.9 points per game. That is the best in the league. California Andrej Stojakovic is 12th in the nation averaging 20.3 a game. That number places him second in the ACC.

Monday night’s win by Notre Dame (8-9, 2-4) over Boston College (9-8, 1-5) saw junior forward Tae Davis score 26 points. It was a point shy of his career mark and was also his fourth game in his last seven with a 20+ point night. Davis was one of four starters to finish the game in double-figures. For the Eagles, Donald Hand continues to be an offensive force as he led the team with 17 points. He was the only Eagles in double figures. The key stat in this one was free throw shooting. BC got to the line six times and made all six while the Irish were 23-of-27 for 85.2%.

North Carolina State (9-7, 2-3) guard Marcus Hill led his team for the third straight game with 20 points and also had a season-high nine rebounds against the Tar Heels last week. He has now scored in double figures in nine straight games and leads the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game.

Pittsburgh’s (12-4, 3-2) success to this point in the season can be found in their backcourt. The duo of Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe have combined to average 33.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 3.5 steals. They have combined for 26 double-figure scoring games with 11 of those with 20 points or more.

If there is one thing that the Mustangs (12-4, 3-2) can do is score. In Saturday’s win over Georgia Tech, SMU scored 50 points in the first half for a 50-19 lead. The 50-point half was the tenth time they have done this season. Now you know why they average 84.7 points per game.

The Miami Hurricanes (4-12, 0-5) continue to look for their next head coach and the team is trying its best to play the rest of the season. One player who is putting his best foot forward is senior guard Matthew Cleveland who over the last six games has averaged 20.6 points, 4.7 boards, 1.3 apg, and 1.2 bpg. He is shooting 53.8% from the field, and 43.5% from 3-point land. He has scored 20+ in five of his last six games.

The assist leader in the conference is Yellow Jackets (8-9, 2-4) sophomore guard Naithan George. He is averaging 6.5 assists per game, which ranks him 13th in the country. He has reached 100 assists in his first two years at Georgia Tech and is the first to do this since Iman Shumpert did it in his first two years.

Now to Mr. Flagg. For the second week in a row, Cooper Flagg swept the weekly awards. It’s the third time this year he has done this. He became the first player in league history to win the award in consecutive weeks and the first freshman to win Player of the Week three times. Last week in the wins over Pittsburgh and ND, Flagg put on quite a show. He averaged 30.5 points, eight boards, six assists, one steal, and one block shot. He shot 18-of-25 from the field, (72%), and from 3-point land, he was 5-of-8 (62.5%). He was also 20-of-23 (87%) from the free-throw line.

On Saturday vs the Irish, Flagg broke the ACC and Duke scoring record with his 42-point game. It included a coast-to-coast dunk that has to be seen. He also had seven assists, six rebounds, and a steal. Against the Panthers, Cooper recorded his sixth double-double of the year with 19 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocked shots, and a steal. Can anyone say #1 overall pick this summer?

Next week, more from the ACC.