Bottom Half of the ACC Struggles Early

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As No. 24 Virginia Tech took the floor against No. 3 Kansas State Tuesday night, the Hokies were not only playing for a big win for their team, but they were fighting to earn respect for the Atlantic Coast Conference as a whole. After Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, last year’s sixth and seventh place finishers in the conference respectively, each lost by double digits to Atlantic Sun opponents, many experts are pegging this year as a down year for the ACC.

In Eamonn Brennan’s column from November 9, he attempts to rank all 32 conferences in Division-I college basketball. Although the last decade of college basketball has been dominated by the ACC and the Big East, Brennan omits each of these conferences from his top three. Brennan lists Duke, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, and Florida State as potential tournament teams, but he describes the rest of the conference as “pretty mushy.”

Now I don’t know exactly what “pretty mushy” means in sports terms, but I am pretty sure the Deamon Deacons losing by 10 points on their home court to Stetson qualifies as “mushy.” Wake Forest was outrebounded 42-31 thanks to 12 boards from Stetson’s 6-foot-5 forward Ridge Graham. The only Deamon Deacon with over five rebounds was 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Ari Stewart who came off the bench. Given that Wake Forest struggled so mightily facing a lineup which featured only one player above 6-foot-5, Jeff Bzdelik, Wake’s first year head coach, has his work cut out for him.

Paul Hewitt also faces an uphill battle after his Yellow Jackets lost to Kennesaw State, the Atlantic Sun Conference’s eighth place team last year who sported a 7-13 record within the conference. The Owls went up 7-0 in the first 1:31 of play and did not surrender the lead. Georgia Tech certainly expected their talented trio of guards, Mfon Udofia, Iman Shumpert, and Glen Rice Jr., to take over the game, but Udofia and Rice combined for just one three-point field goal made and one foul shot made between them. Hewitt is going to be counting on those players to control the tempo of the game against ACC opponents, and that level of production certainly won’t cut it.

One of the conference’s bright spots in the first real week of action was unranked Miami. The Hurricanes opened up the ESPN Tip-Off Marathon at midnight Monday night in Memphis. They faced the No. 19 Tigers and hung tough until the end, with the contest was tied with 1:42 remaining before eventually falling 72-68. Miami dominated the glass racking up 46 rebounds compared to Memphis’ 27; however, the Hurricanes’ 18 turnovers may have cost them the game.

“If we go back and look at it, of their 19 field goals, there were few against our set defense,” Miami head coach Frank Haith said. “They scored a ton of buckets off our turnovers in transition.”

The Hokies also came up short on the road against a talented opponent this week. National player of the year candidate Jacob Pullen had three fouls in the first half, contributing to Kansas State only leading30-29 at halftime. In the second half, though, Pullen and company proved too much for Virginia Tech to handle. The Hokies had three players injured coming into this matchup, and when three of their starters, Jeff Allen, Victor Davila, and Terrell Bell, suffered through foul trouble of their own, Kansas State pulled away. This game was closer than the final score indicated, but the Wildcats were definitely the dominant team.