Dec 2, 2023; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Reece Beekman (2) drives to the basket past Syracuse Orange forward Chris Bell (4) during the second half at John Paul Jones Arena. | Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
As ACC play begins
Saturday was the opening day of ACC play and the games went pretty much as expected, but with one exception, they were all reasonably close.
Miami beat Notre Dame 62-49, UNC took care of Notre Dame 78-70, Virginia cracked Syracuse 84-62 and NC State knocked off Syracuse 84-78.
Miami-Notre Dame was about defense and Miami’s was better. The ‘Canes pretty much shut down freshman star Markus Burton, holding him to six points.
Just as we thought, as anyone who pays attention probably thought, Miami was just going to be better than the Irish, and they were.
The only surprising thing to us here was that Miami’s bench was so unproductive.
By the way, we’re enjoying the rise of JR Konieczny. Just about everyone left South Bend when Mike Brey did but Konieczny stuck around. He’s really improved and is making a considerable impact. This is one of the best ACC stories of the early part of the season.
We didn’t have a great feel for UNC-Florida State but as it turned out, FSU put a lot of pressure on the Tar Heels, going up by 14. But the Heels put it right back on the ‘Noles, ripping off a 22-0 run with some full court pressure.
RJ Davis is having a great season so far but he’s still taking about a third of UNC’s shots, which kind of makes how to defend this team obvious. Seeing it and doing it are two different things, but if you can cut off or limit a third of UNC’s offense, you’ll be in good shape.
This is more true because, for whatever reason, Armando Bacot seems to be off his feed offensively.
Cormac Ryan returned to the starting lineup but shot just 2-9. Elliot Cadeau is also emerging. He didn’t have a great game here necessarily, but for the season, he’s got 29 assists to nine turnovers.
Virginia pulled away in the first half and led by as much as 33 in the second.
Reece Beekman, perhaps the best defender in the ACC, just shut down Judah Mintz, holding Syracuse’s star guard to just five points, about 15 under his average to date.
Isaac McKneely lit up Syracuse, hitting 6-8 from three point range and finishing with 22.
Beekman also finished with eight assists, by the way.
Ben Middlebrook moved into the starting lineup for NC State but both he and DJ Burns got in serious foul trouble. Middlebrook picked up four fouls in 16 minutes. It took Burns about twice the time to pick up four, but he was productive with 17 points.
DJ Horne racked up 21, Jayden Taylor had 18 and Casey Morsell 12.
Jaeden Zackery paced BC with 20 while Quentin Post had 18.
State basically won this game at the line, hitting 18-21 to BC’s 14-26.
Two games on Sunday as Clemson visits Pitt for an intriguing game and Louisville heads over the mountains to take on Virginia Tech.
We’d say Clemson in the first game and the second...is intriguing. Louisville is obviously improved but Virginia Tech has been erratic. The last two losses have been to Florida Atlantic and Auburn and both are tough. Our guess is those two games toughened the Hokies up and they will handle Louisville okay.
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