ACC Roundup - Wake Nips UNC And Louisville’s Revival May Be The Story Of The ACC Season

Louisville is red hot

In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Louisville hammered SMU 98-73, Virginia crushed Boston College 74-56 and Wake Forest slipped by UNC, 67-66.

For UNC, it’s a critical loss. The Tar Heels are now 12-8 and after a nice rally, their tournament hopes are fading again.

Cameron Hildreth led the way with 20 points and six rebounds while Hunter Sallis had 14 points and nine boards.

UNC’s backcourt was their best hope and while Elliot Cadeau (14 points and nine assists) and RJ Davis 21 points on 8-16/3-9 from the floor) did okay, Ian Jackson wasn’t impressive with seven points on 3-11/1-7 from the floor.

Seth Trimble shot 2-8 for four points.

And the big men were weak again: Jalen Washington had six points, three rebounds and two blocks. Ven-Allen Lubin had six points and seven rebounds while Jae’Lyn Withers got three points and one rebound.

Efton Reid had 12 points against NC A&T and 14 against USC Upstate, both in November, but he really hasn’t been a major offensive presence.

He had 12 points and six rebounds. Tre’Von Spillers also had 12.

The big difference here was at the foul line, where UNC shot 6-10 but the Demon Deacons got to the line 27 times, hitting 21. That’s a big break, obviously.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the weak inside game, UNC put up about half of their shots from behind the line. Unfortunately, they only hit 25 percent from there.

Quietly, Wake Forest is one of the hotter teams in the league. The Deacs are now 15-4 overall and have won six straight. Those wins aren’t over the best ACC teams around, but Wake should be confident when Duke visits Saturday and has several days to prep for the Devils.

Last note: UNC hasn’t won in Wake Forest in the last four years.

We weren’t sure what to expect from Louisville and SMU, but what we really didn’t expect was Louisville taking a 50-27 halftime lead.

We did think that Chucky Hepburn would do a number on Boopie Miller and he did, holding Miller to 2-12 for just seven points. Hepburn also had 10 assists.

Remember when Louisville was struggling with three point shooting? Yeah, those were good times.

The Cards hit 19-42 here to SMU’s 6-18. That’s a 57-18 advantage from outside. Reyne Smith has started clicking from outside and he set a Louisville record with 10 made threes.

Louisville is surging and confidence is sky-high: they haven’t lost since losing to Kentucky on December 14th and they have a reasonable shot at going undefeated for the rest of the ACC season. Why not? The road games left are at Georgia Tech, BC, NC State and Notre Dame and the toughest home games will be Wake next Tuesday, Florida State and Pitt.

It’s doable.

We’re not sure how much confidence Virginia has but the ‘Hoos broke a five-game losing streak against BC and did it convincingly, winning by 18.

We caught Andrew Rohde when he was at St. Thomas and he was impressive. He struggled last season but lately he’s been really good and was again against BC with 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and no turnovers.

Isaac McKneely broke out of a shooting slump and hit 7-10/6-9 for 21 points.

Former Blue Devil TJ Power, who has seen his minutes go way down lately, got 12 here. He only scored two points, but you can’t score if you’re not on the floor.

Chad Venning has been really solid lately and was again for the Eagles with 14 points on 6-11 from the floor. He also had five rebounds.

It escaped us that Donald Hand was playing his dad’s old school: he finished with just five points in 22 minutes before being effected for a flagrant 2.

Fred Payne had 17 off the bench to pace the Eagles.

BC has a five-game losing streak of their own and a potentially fascinating next game in Chapel Hill.

Who's the pressure on in that one? It’s not Boston College.

Four games on Wednesday as Syracuse visits Clemson, the Techs get it on in Atlanta, FSU flies out to Cal and travel buddy Miami gets set to lose at Stanford.

Right now, Louisville, Clemson and Wake Forest are all doing quite well and so we’d take the Tigers here.

Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech seems like a toss-up but the Yellow Jackets were missing a ton of guys last time out. If that’s still the case, they’ll probably lose again.

FSU has never been a great road team and while they’re better than Cal, it’s a long, strange trip for the ‘Noles. We’ll take Cal here.

And of course Miami has fallen and can’t get up so until they can, we’ll pick against the ‘Canes.

As of now, Duke, Louisville, Clemson and Wake Forest seem to have solid shots at NCAA bids. Anyone else has work to do.

• Recap: Wake Forest Extends Winning Streak with 67-66 Win over North Carolina
• Hildreth scores 20 to help Wake Forest beat UNC 67-66, win 6th in a row
• Tar Heels enter danger zone: Three takeaways from UNC basketball’s loss at Wake Forest
• SMU Struggles Against No. 25 Louisville in 98-73 Loss
• No. 25 Louisville overwhelms SMU 98-73 in first game in 4 years as a ranked team
• Reyne Smith, Chucky Hepburn set school records for No. 25 Louisville
• Louisville blasts SMU, 98-73, on record-setting night
• Bottom-of-conference win over Boston College ends men’s basketball’s losing streak
• Boston College men’s basketball falls against Virginia in ACC matchup
• Five takeaways from UVA basketball’s much-needed dominant win versus Boston College
• Beat writers agree Syracuse will fall to Clemson
• Syracuse men’s basketball: what to watch for vs Clemson
• Short-handed Georgia Tech looks to halt skid vs. Virginia Tech
• Virginia Tech Men’s Basketball Turns Attention To Georgia Tech, Clemson
• Cal welcomes Florida State and takes aim at consecutive ACC victories
• Florida State wants to make most of long trip, starting at Cal
• West Coast Noles: How FSU men’s basketball is preparing for week-long California road trip
• Stanford earning respect in new league as struggling Miami visits
• Homestand Starts with Miami
• UM basketball coach Courtney answers critics as woeful 4-14 Hurricanes head to Stanford