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Inside the ACC - Football schedule released | Blake Hinson owns Duke | Assessing Carolina basketball
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The ACC schedule for basketball and football has been released. The addition of new teams and the double-byes make it an interesting season. Syracuse has a favorable schedule and could make a run in the ACC. SMU could be a dark horse contender. NC State and North Carolina also have favorable schedules. In basketball, Syracuse had a thrilling win against Miami but lost to Florida State. They have been inconsistent and need more consistent scorers. The game against NC State is crucial for them. Welcome to Inside the ACC. I'm Noah Teague from Technician Sports, and I'm joined today by Troy Jung from Citrus TV and Brendan Longo from the Daily Tar Heel. How are you guys doing today? Doing great. We got some ACC hoops and never too early to talk about college football. Yep, let's talk about how weird the schedule looks, but yeah, excited to do that. Absolutely, and with the ACC expanding, adding the double-bys this year, it's going to be a very different ACC schedule. So I'll toss it to you guys. What stands out to you guys about the ACC schedule release this year? Yeah, I had two kind of big takeaways from the schedule release. As you mentioned, the double-by, but one is going to take some getting used to to see Cal, Stanford, SMU in the ACC. I saw a graphic yesterday that was like ACC weeknight games or something like that, and I saw Cal vs. Wake. At first, I thought it was going to be a mistake. It's going to be really interesting to see how this all plays out. Both Cal and SMU play Florida State in their first ACC game. That's a great welcome to the ACC moment. Stanford has to travel across the country for a weeknight game against Syracuse for its first conference game. I'm really looking forward also as well to November 23rd, the first Cal-Stanford, the big game in the ACC, one of the most historic rivalries in college football. And we'll see how each team can fare in its first year in the new conference. I think Cal and Stanford don't have the most difficult schedule. Despite losing to BC in the bowl game, I still have high hopes for SMU. That's one of the biggest things I'm going to be watching for this season. Who are some of the winners from this schedule release? I think Syracuse could make a run at the ACC and could be somewhat of a 2024 version of Louisville. You look at Syracuse and the similarities with this year's Louisville team. New coach and Fran Brown coming in for its first season. New quarterback and Kyle McCord, who has proven himself to be a quarterback in some of these big games. And a bunch of other recruits and transfers coming in, which is the thing we were most excited about when we originally heard about this hire. So you take this team that should be improved from last season, and you look at their schedule, and there's not that many losses there, right? Other than playing at NC State, Syracuse really kind of hit the jackpot. But the schedule, I think, could be top five in the ACC. And just overall, really looking forward to this brand new version of ACC football in 2024. Yeah, Syracuse got extremely lucky by their schedule-wise. But I'm going to look towards other teams in the ACC. What's interesting to me is the early Week 2 games. Some teams are playing even as early as Week 1, as Florida State is playing Boston College on Labor Day. And they're also playing Georgia Tech in Dublin in Week 0. So it's really interesting to me. And Syracuse also has a Week 2 game against Georgia Tech. Some of these teams will have two ACC, maybe even three ACC games under their belt by around Week 5, let's say. And again, it's a really interesting schedule. There's some really interesting non-time games as well. Just some hits. North Carolina is playing James Madison in Week 4. That should be an interesting one, despite James Madison losing their head coach. Syracuse is playing UNLV in Week 5. UNLV is a team that just won nine games. Wake Forest is playing Maryland. BC is playing at Missouri and home to Michigan State. Some really interesting matchups here that I don't think I've really ever seen before between ACC schools and especially BC going on the road to a Missouri team that might make a run at the college football playoff next year. It's an interesting matchup to say the least. But yeah, right now, I think just judging from, we're like seven months away from ACC football games starting, I don't think there's really a clear favorite right now in the ACC. Maybe Syracuse does make a run. I'm just a little bit trying to temper the expectations on them being a very good team. But right now, there's not a clear winner in my eyes, but hopefully things change through the transfer portal and whatnot. But right now, the schedules are just very interesting to look at. It also will take a while to get used to the double fives. Absolutely. I think you guys hit the nail on the head with a lot of those. One thing I was kind of looking for winners in all this, and SMU to me was a big winner. Obviously, they start against Florida State, which if you're going to have a tough game, that is absolutely brutal to start. But after that, the road gets easier as the season goes on. They do have to play Louisville, but other than that, they get Stanford, Pitt, Boston College, Virginia, Cal, Duke. And so I look at SMU, and even in their first year in the ACC where they're going to have to adjust, I think that they could be a dark horse contender. And then the two tobacco road schools in NC State and North Carolina, both have very favorable schedules. And every time we talk of these teams, it seems like they fall flat on their face. So maybe you don't want to get too excited about them. But you look at both those teams, they really only have one juggernaut game where North Carolina, they do have to play Florida State, which is going to be tough. At Florida State, NC State has to make the trip to Death Valley, where they haven't won in over 20 years. So both those games are likely losses. But other than that, they both have very favorable schedules. And the winner of that game at the end of the year could certainly be a dark horse to get into the ACC championship. But very, very interesting to look at the schedule, especially with the new teams, with the double bye, like you mentioned, and should be a should be a pretty fun year. Moving on then to ACC basketball. We're going to start with an absolute thriller in the carrier dome with Syracuse knocking off Miami before they get let down and fall to Florida State. But I want to ask you guys, what would you guys see from Syracuse? Obviously hit the crazy shot to beat Miami and then lost it the next time out. I was inside the dome during the Claudia Copeland three point shot. Wild atmosphere, probably the loudest I've ever heard the dome been in my two years, one and a half years at Syracuse. The only comparable experience was when Aranda Gatson caught that last second touchdown against Purdue last in 2022. But this shot, Syracuse had not hit a buzzer beater in seven years, not since the John Dillon shot against Duke. This was a really good game for just back and forth between the two sides. It looked like Miami should have pulled away at the end, but I really think they were lacking Norchad O'Meara, especially they were deeply missing him that game. But Syracuse took him a little bit while to get going offensively, especially early in the second half. J.J. Schalling had the best game he's had in the Syracuse uniform. He had six three-pointers, second 28% three-point shooter this year. He drilled six of them on Saturday. Judah Mintz also had a really good game, close to a triple-double, 13 assists. Amazing as a facilitator, just let up on the scoring and he just let the offense run through him. He helped make work for his teammates. Chris Bell was hitting shots. J.J. Schalling, Malik Brown was making hustle plays as he always does. For Miami, Nigel Pack was also insane. He went on a run in the second half, and Keyshawn George hit some clutch shots as well. Pack equilibrium was good too, but just not a very strong Miami team. Losing this one was a tough one, of course, for the Hurricanes. And then Syracuse just kind of let down against what's an okay Florida State team. It's really the first game where you're like, okay, Syracuse lost this game when they should have won. And Syracuse, in their six losses, have lost by an average of 21 points, which just seems super inflated. Of course, getting dominated by Duke in North Carolina and Tennessee and Gonzaga in the Valley Invitational. None of their losses have been really close. And for the Syracuse team, I still don't know if they have that juice yet. They, I think, are solid enough for an NIT spot, maybe. They just don't have that win on their tournament resume if they want to get into the tournament. And there's not a lot of opportunities left to just get quad one wins. I think there's three opportunities left on their schedule against quad one teams. And if Pitt continues to play well, and if Pitt's won their last two games, that win, those two wins for Syracuse, especially the most recent one, could be a quad one win. But Syracuse, I don't know. They're a little too inconsistent for me. Starling was quiet on Tuesday. I just don't think he can be a second. He's been that second guy behind Judah that Syracuse really needs. They don't really have a consistent second scorer yet. They have the offense, Judah. But then, like, who do you really have to step up and maybe score 15 points a game on a consistent basis? Because Chris Bell, Justin Taylor, JJ Starling, they just don't provide that scoring enough on an every night basis. So Syracuse right now, they're still in a decent spot, if you like. But this game against NC State on Saturday night is a must-have for them. Yeah, it was kind of tough to get a read on Syracuse because, you know, they were winning all the games when they should against teams like Pitt and BC. But, you know, as you mentioned, they were getting absolutely smoked by some of the upper level teams in the ACC like UNC and Duke. So I was excited to see just kind of how UNC would fare against some of the teams that are in the middle of the pack range in the conference. Against Miami, you know, playing, like you said, without the top scorer, no Chad Amir, would have kind of liked to see a little bit more out of Q. Scraped by, they got the Cordier-Copeland buzzer beater at the end. Now granted, I think that Miami was making some kind of ridiculous shots at the end. I can't recall who it was right now, but there was a Miami shooter that banked home a three that was well behind the arc to tie the game with, like, two minutes to go. But like I said, at home, I would have liked to see a little bit more from the Orange. They turned to Florida State, a game they were favoring at home, a chance to really make a statement against a team that is just two losses in the conference right now. And once again, I mean, Syracuse just got blown out by a better team. And this is, again, another lot closer game. The final score would indicate the Orange, I think, was a better team for 35 minutes in that game. But it's just a very, like you said, inconsistent and very undisciplined team. 16 turnovers against Florida State. Every game they played just seemed very sloppy on offense. And against bad teams, you can overcome that because it is a very talented group. But you can't win against some of these top teams by just handing the other teams the ball so consistently. Like you mentioned, I think this kind of dashes any hopes that Syracuse had of making the big dance. And I agree. I think this NC State game at home is a must win for the Orange. Yeah, it was definitely a very roller coaster ride of a week for Syracuse. I think that win, though, over Miami, it was huge for this program because not only do you get a win over a pretty good team still, you got a very iconic moment. And that's the kind of thing that you can build off of, even if it's not going to an NCAA tournament. You can use that to kind of motivate your team the rest of the way, put it into recruiting, and maybe make your late season push with that in the back of your head. But I think it was a great win there. Obviously, the letdown against Florida State, I think that's a little bit to be expected after such an emotional win. So for me, it's not as big of a concern just because it's college basketball, that kind of thing happens. But we'll see what happens this upcoming week. They have a really big game. I do think they beat NC State and get themselves back on the right track. They're a talented team with Judiments and JJ Starling. They're going to give more teams trouble moving forward. And I'm excited to see how this team grows, especially offensively. Moving on then to our next team, and that is North Carolina. How good do we think the Tar Heels can be? I think it's pretty clear they're far superior to last year's team, even with several of those pieces back. But how good could this team be? Yeah, I think this is by far the best Carolina team that I've seen as a student here. The 21 team made it to the National Championship. But other than that, they were kind of a little bit disappointing for much of that season. They were on the bubble for a very large portion, if not for that one-month span from beating Coach K and Cameron to the National Championship game. Obviously, if you don't make a running attorney this season, the regular season really doesn't matter. I think right now, this is the best team in the country. Now the only team in the Power Six with an undefeated conference record. UNC is just blowing out every team they play. And it's a mixture of both offense and defense. I mean, they have the top-scoring offense in the ACC with the top-scoring player in the conference, R.J. Davis, who I will talk about more in a little bit. And defense is looking like one of the best units in the country for the last couple weeks. I'm a little bit cautioned because the ACC has not been that great this season, and UNC has yet to play a conference foe in the top 25. Obviously, that will change once they play Duke in early February. But right now, this is a well-oiled machine, and Carolina is making good teams look absolutely silly right now. Yeah, Carolina is just lagging right now. And I just think that the difference that they've hadātheir role players are contributing just really well. Harrison Ingram is the third-leading scorer on this team. I did not expect him to be this good of a player to complement Baycott and Davis. Cormac Ryan has been a really good transfer. There are guys like Trimble and Withers in Washington and bullshit that you can play off the bench. Elliot Cadeau has been one of the better freshmen in the conference, and it's not just because he can't just score. He's only averaging seven a game, but he's averaging around three assists a game, and that's just his game. And this Carolina team, again, is just a really well-rounded squad thatāI don't think there's a lot of teams in the country that are more well-rounded than the Tar Heels. Now, when I go to say that they're the best team in the country, I don't know yet, but they are the most consistent team right now. Their losses have been close, and they've been to really good teams, and they've beaten good teams like Oklahoma, like Tennessee, like Clemson. And this team, again, is just super solid. R.J. Davis, I've never seen him play this good than he has in the past. This Carolina squad is just really good. I don't really see that many losses on their schedule, maybe outside of those two Duke games they have. And if they beat Duke, then we might have to put them in the conversation of the number one team in the country. I don't know if I can put them there quite yet, but they are very close to. Absolutely. You know, looking at Hubert Davis, man, the first two years, I think there were some question marks. He has done a remarkable job this season. Hats off to him. I think he's got to be up there as possibly, if not the national coach of the year, at least the ACC coach of the year, just with the job that he's done. The thing that's really impressed me is this year, it seems like everyone is fit into their roles just right. You found the right role for Baycott, for Davis, for the new transfers as well with Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram. So, very impressed with the way that Hubert Davis has taken all this talent, meshed it together. You get an Elliott Cadot, a five-star to buy into being, you know, you can see it as a role player, but it's a very crucial role in taking all that talent and making it very, he's making it all work with everything he's got right now. And I think they're definitely a top tier team. Expectation is the final four. Right now, if I had to call it, I think they're meeting UConn in the national championship because this team has been absolutely incredible. Next up, one of the crazier games that we've seen all season, Pittsburgh walks into Cameron Indoor, wins there for the first time since 1979. Blake Hinson, absolutely incredible performance. What did you guys see in this one? at a place that's really impossible to win at. Blake Hinson, he's been really struggling really in ACC play. He's just not been consistent in shooting the basketball at all. In the previous game before Duke, he went four for 17 and two of 11 from three against Syracuse. He's only 12 points and he's just been a really below average shooter. But in this game against Duke, eight of 10 from the floor, seven of seven from three. He was lights out. And then, of course, after the game, there's that picture of him just standing on the school reciprocal right in front of the Cameron crazies. I don't know how much people understand that that's monumental to do. And just to shut down all the best student section in the conference, Blake Hinson was big for Pitt. And as for Duke, there's just so little bit more inconsistencies that you've seen from this team. This team is still really good, but you feel like they should be better than 14 and four. Those two games earlier in the year, losing on the road to a not very good Arkansas team and losing also on the road to a not very good Georgia Tech team might come back to bite them later on this season. And then you lose to an underwhelming Pitt team. They beat Louisville by 15 a couple days ago, but the final score doesn't say how close that game got. In the middle of the second half, Duke was only up by as many as, I think, three. So Duke still has a lot of things they need to really clean up. And I don't know if this team can beat Carolina as they are right now. They're just not as well-rounded as Carolina is. Both teams are on, I would say, pretty equal experience, but I don't know. I just need to see a little more consistency from Duke, be able to close out and finish games, get guys like Mark Mitchell a lot more going because he's played really well ever since conference play started, and also get Tyrese Proctor more involved in getting back acclimated into the lineup. But Duke right now, I just cannot see them quite getting over the hump this year, especially in the ACC right now. Hinton went seven for seven from behind the arc, which tied an ACC record for best three-point shooting percentage in the game, topped the record for a game in Cameron Indoor. Duke got the deficit to one with a little over a minute remaining, but Jalen Lope kind of put in a dagger with a three-point shot in front of Filipowski, and then free throws sealed the game. Hinton jumping on that press table, probably my favorite moment in the entire basketball season so far. But big picture, I think this says much more about Duke than it does Pitt. Panthers, even though they kind of followed up with a win against Georgia Tech, still not a good team. This was their first ranked road victory in over a decade. It doesn't matter that Jeremy Roach and Mark Mitchell wasn't playing this game. If you want to compete for a national championship, you can't be losing at home against Pitt. It was just a surprising game for a team that has the second-best assisted turnover ratio in the ACC. Duke had the same amount of turnovers as the Fifth, got out-rebounded by seven boards to Pitt. Just a really sloppy game from a typically very disciplined team. Again, having lost it to Georgia Tech and Pitt is worrying at this point in the season, but if you turn this around and you beat Carolina in a couple weeks, I'm sure the Cameron Crazies don't really care about any of this. So again, just really looking forward to that game coming up on February 3rd. What a story with this game. Jeff Capel coming back to his old team after playing at Duke several years later, coming back and winning in Cameron as the opposing side. That's going to be quite the feeling for him. But heck of a win by Pittsburgh to get their season really back on track. They had kind of fallen to the bottom of the ACC, so getting a win like that will hopefully be able to kick-start their mid-season comeback. Hopefully they can build off of this type of win. And then for Duke, man, it is disappointing. There's no way to go around it. There was national championship expectations. There was talk that, oh, John Shirey's just going to keep this thing rolling. Well, this thing has hit a slump, and it is not good for Duke. You can't lose games like this, like you mentioned, Brendan. And so really, Dukes, they're going to have to find ways to not just win their games normally. They've got to defend home court because you cannot lose games at home in the ACC like that if they want to be a serious player this year. But Duke right now, they're on front watch for me right now. So moving on, let's talk about the best performances of the week. Who do you all have for this week? Yeah, I'm going to go with R.J. Davis versus Wake Forest. This man, R.J., is really just looking like an alien right now. 36 points against the Deacons, his third 30-point game of his career, second this season alone, and the 36 at a new career high. He had 30 with, like, 40 minutes remaining. UNC was up big, and it was unclear whether he was going to be able to break that career high. But in the final minutes, he sunk two threes to put him over the top, put the three goggles over his eyes. We're looking at a guy averaging 21 points per game, now over a point more than P.J. Hall, who's second in the ACC. R.J. is second in three-point field goals per game, now has the UNC record with 16 consecutive games with multiple three-pointers. I think he has cemented himself as the favorite for ACC Player of the Year, and I think he should be second in the running right now for National Player of the Year behind Zach Eaddy. But just seeing this transformation from R.J. in his senior year has been incredible. It seems like this new system and losing Caleb Love really allowed him to kind of spread his wings, and he's quickly becoming one of, if not the best guard in the entire country. Yeah, I'm going to go with Judah Mintz. Like I said earlier, he was very close to a triple-double, had 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 13 assists. He didn't have a good shooting day. 3 of 11 from the floor, only 0-2 from three, got to the line 5 times, but again, it wasn't those 13 assists, it was him turning into a facilitator on the floor. I think Syracuse, honestly, their best version of Syracuse is when Judah Mintz is like that. He doesn't need to rely on constant traffic into the lane as the only source of offense for the Orange. If he's facilitating like that, if he's getting guys open with corner threes just outside the arc really, Chris Bell, Justin Taylor, J.J. Starling, it's the best version of this Syracuse team when Mintz doesn't have to do too much on offense. He was impacting the game so much, of course, he made that pass to Copeland, it was quite honestly just an insane pass, essentially across the court to Copeland, who was able to catch it and shoot and make that three. Just a really impressive performance from Mintz, really, really solid. I just hope that he can turn in more games like that because I feel like if he wants to really be an NBA player, especially a first-round pick, he needs to have more kinds of performances like that against Miami. For sure, absolutely incredible performances. For me, it's got to be Blake Henson. Going into Cameron Indore, we already talked about that a little bit, but the way that he was not just racking up points, ended up with 24 total points, but he was perfect from three. Absolutely just a monster when you can shoot seven for seven in Cameron Indore Stadium. Ultimately, he was 80% from the field. He also got it done on the boards as well with eight rebounds. I was very impressed by Blake Henson. That is one of those dog performances that you just look at and you tip your hat to because that is not something you see every year. We might not see a performance like that in Cameron for a decade because what a night. Seven for seven from three, that number right there is just unbelievable to me. We'll see if Blake Henson can keep it up, if he can replicate not that level of success, but even just half of that would be awesome to see from him. Hats off to him. What a night for him. Jumping up on the table, that gets you some extra points right there. Finally, we've got some games to watch for this upcoming week. What are the games that ACC basketball fans should have their eyes on this week? I talked about it earlier, NC State against Syracuse inside a dome on a Saturday night. Again, these are two teams that have the same record, 13-6. They have identical records in ACC play. NC State is 5-3, Syracuse is 4-4. Both these teams, like I said, they don't have a major win on their resume right now for the NCAA tournament. They're trending on NIT Waters right now, but this game, I don't think it would be a Quad 1 win, but it would be solidly a Quad 2 win. Both games are as important to winning Quad 1, Quad 3, and Quad 4 games. Syracuse, of course, won the matchup inside the dome last year in a very exciting game. It was Syracuse's only ranked win last season. Of course, NC State isn't as good as they were last year. They don't have De'Quavion Smith. Syracuse doesn't have Dusty Edwards, but it still has DJ Burns. I think Burns should be a menacing side for the Orange. They don't really have anybody that well to match up against a guy like Burns. If Naheem McLeod was healthy, I'd be much more comfortable facing Burns, but I feel like Burns is going to have a field day against a much smaller Malik Brown. For the Syracuse team, I really think that they just need to limit their turnovers. They need to play their game. I want you to facilitate a lot more this season. NC State is not as good of a three-point shooting team as they were last year. Syracuse can shoot the three if they want to. They can shoot it really well. If Chris Bell and Justin Taylor wake up, I feel like those guys are going to be the difference makers, shooting from behind the arc. Both of these teams just kind of need it. NC State needs it. Syracuse needs it. This win would make both sides breathe a little more. They feel like their tournament chances are still a little bit higher than they were yesterday. Both of these teams really need it. It's definitely the most important game of this week for me. It's going to be close to the game at NC State for UNC's toughest ACC test to date. This will determine if UNC can remain a top three team come that game against Duke. I think UNC wins it. I just don't think the Noles have enough firepower to keep up with the heels and make up for the Seminoles' lackluster effort on the defensive end of the ball. This is going to be a huge game on Saturday for both teams and for the entire makeup of the ACC standings. Absolutely. Both of those games should be very entertaining games. For me, it's going to be Virginia Tech and Duke with the way that both these teams are trending in opposite directions. Virginia Tech obviously is very up and down for most of the season, but they've won a couple straight. Now, if they want to work themselves onto the bubble, winning against Duke would be absolutely huge. It will be at Castle Coliseum, which will play into the Hokies' favor. And then for Duke, you cannot let things start to spiral worse than they are. Castle, it's a loud place. Their fans are very passionate. It's going to be tough for Duke to walk in there and to get a win, but I think this one should be very entertaining. I think Duke does just barely squeak by, but Virginia Tech has a chance to get a signature win, and I would not be surprised at all if they did it. But that'll wrap things up for us today. Thank you to everyone for listening, and we'll be back again next week. Thank you.
