ACC Basketball News & Notes: Clemson on Top in the Early Going

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Having won their first seven games of the season, the Clemson Tigers find themselves on top of the ACC. They are also ranked in the AP Top 25 poll for the first time since 2008. They are one of 14 teams across the country that have not lost a game as of this week. Three teams did win MTE titles in November. Clemson won the Ashville event, Florida State won the Sunshine Tournament, and Miami won the Baha Mar Tournament. Conference play has begun so let’s see how the first week’s news looks.

Besides the Tigers, three other teams found a spot in this week’s AP Top 25 poll. North Carolina at #9, Miami at #15, and Duke at #22, The USA Today Coaches Poll has UNC at #10, Miami at #15, Clemson at #20, Duke at #21, and Virginia at #23. The conference has seven wins over AP Top 25 teams. Overall, the ACC has a 70-29 record in non-conference games. In the first-ever ACC/SEC challenge, the two leagues split the 14 games played at seven apiece. The seven ACC wins were done by an average of 12.6 points. Four of the wins were against nationally ranked teams. The Tigers went to Alabama and snapped the Tide’s 19-game home winning streak, which at the time was tied for the nation’s second-longest active streak in Division I.

Georgia Tech (4-2, 1-0) has this week’s ACC Rookie of the Week. Baye Noongo had a big game at home vs Duke. He scored 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor, took down five rebounds, and blocked four shots in the 72-68 win over the Blue Devils. The Yellow Jackets are tied for third in the league in offensive rebounding with 234 in six games for an average of 39.0.

The ACC Player of the Week is Clemson’s PJ Hall. He averaged 21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.5 blocks in helping the Tigers to road wins over Alabama and Pittsburgh. In these two games, Hall shot 60% from the field (15-of-25), 54.5% from 3-pt land (6-of-11), and 70% from the free throw line (7-of-10). Hall is the top scorer in the league at 21.4 points a game. He is third in FG percentage at .561% (55-of-96).

Pittsburgh (5-3, 0-1) sharpshooter senior forward Blake Hinson averaged 24.5 points and 5.5 boards in two games last week for the Panthers. He went 16-for-28 (57.1%) from the field and was 11-of-19 (57.9%) from 3-point land. Hinson has already scored at least 20 points four times and is averaging 20.5 a game which has him third in the scoring race. His 30 three-pointers lead the league and he averages 3.75 a game. His percentage of 42.3% is fifth in the league (30-for-71).

Notre Dame (3-4, 0-1) may be off to a slow start but one player that is not is junior guard J.R. Konieczny. He has recorded double-digit points in four of the Irish’s last five games. He leads the team in scoring over that period. He averaged 12.2 points, shooting 46.5%, included in that number is 9-of-23 from three-point range.

North Carolina (7-1, 1-0) senior guard RJ Davis has scored 84 points in his last three games and 107 over his last four. That is the highest three and four-game totals as a Tar Heel. The 84 points are the most ever since Tyler Hansbrough’s 85 in 2008-09. Davis is fourth in scoring at 20.3 a game. He is first in free throw percentage at .946% (35-of-37) and seventh in minutes played at 33.5 a game.

Wake Forest (4-3) has balanced scoring in their first seven games. They have four players averaging 16 or more points a game. They are the only Division I program that can make that claim. Hunter Sallis (19.1), Cameron Hildreth (17.9), Kevin Miller (16.4), and Andrew Carr (16.0). Sallis is fifth in the league in scoring.

That’s all for now in the ACC. We will be back next week with more news from the league.