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Georgia Tech upsets Clemson | NC State versus Wake Forest Fiasco | Coaches on the hot seat
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The ACC basketball season has been chaotic and exciting. There was controversy over officiating in the Wake Forest-NC State game, with multiple ejections. NC State ultimately won the game, but the officiating was heavily criticized. NC State is now second in the ACC standings, while Wake Forest suffered a tough loss. Clemson also had a disappointing loss to Georgia Tech in double overtime, hurting their tournament chances. Georgia Tech's win was unexpected but boosts their resume. Clemson has been struggling recently, losing four of their last five games. Welcome to Inside the ACC. I'm Noah Teague from Technician Sports, and I'm joined today with Brendan Nwonga from the Daily Tar Heel and Troy Jhun from Citrus TV. We are in the middle of a very chaotic and exciting ACC basketball season. Things are really heating up. But first off, how are you guys doing today? Doing great. UNC undefeated in conference play so far, so it's a good day to be a Tar Heel. Yeah, just psyching myself up. Syracuse plays Miami tomorrow. I can't wait for that one. Absolutely. A lot of great matchups coming up in the near future. We will start with looking back at some of the biggest games from this past week, and we'll start with one that had both fan bases up in arms. If you went on Twitter, you would be convinced that both sides had this thing rigged because both sides were absolutely furious with officiating. And that is the Wake Forest-NC State game. Obviously, a very important game for two teams looking to get themselves on the bubble, get themselves in the tournament picture. Ultimately, NC State comes back from a 10-point halftime deficit without their head coach, Kevin Keyes, without their star center, D.J. Burns, to eventually win this one. But I want to turn to you guys and ask about one of the bigger issues in this game, and that was the, let's just call it the very involved officiating. We'll start there. Obviously, it ended up with two players, D.R. and Middlebrook, and their coach, Keyes, ejected, as well as one of Wake Forest's most important players, Hunter Salas, being ejected. What did you guys see in this one? Was the officiating on point? Was it a little questionable? What did you guys see there? Yeah, I mean, from a neutral perspective, it's just a really insane game to watch. It starts, Kevin Parker Jr. goes up, and I mean, he clearly gets fouled. I mean, he really got mugged when he watched the replay, and the refs just don't call it. And Kevin Keyes is clearly upset about it, which I completely understand. But then he comes onto the playing surface during live action, which will get you a technical, really, every day of the week. So the refs are kind of forced to do something there. Keyes gets thrown out of the game, and then you get to near the end of the game, and I mean, this stage was a minute left. States up one, then Middlebrooks converts to an end one, and during the celebration, he bumps into Wake's Hunter Salas, like you mentioned, and that kind of leads to another — people get up in arms, led to two more ejections. I mean, I think the biggest thing that really came out of this was the viral moment of DJ Horn kind of giving the refs the double bird. I mean, Horn had a big game, scoring 19 second-half points. This is really the moment most people are going to remember from his game. I think the refs were really involved, but at some point, they were kind of forced to be. Like I mentioned, Keyes coming onto the playing surface. Middlebrooks and Salas really got into it at the end of the game after the celebration. So, yeah, this is a crazy game to watch. I think most importantly for NCC, they get a big in-state win to keep near the top of the ACC standings, but it really sucks to see a game of this magnitude in the ACC really come down to the officiating. Yeah, especially at near the end with that Ben Middlebrooks end one. That preview took at least five minutes, it felt like. It felt even longer than that. It just kept going on and on and on, and then you just wondered who was going to get teed up, who was going to get the foul, who was going to get thrown out of the game. Just, again, the refs were just super involved in this game. Both teams each shot over 25 free throws in this game. Both teams just were kind of held back by the officiating, if we're being honest, and I think both sides do have an argument to say that they were screwed by the refs. But in the end, NCC came out with the win, and they're 5-1 in the ACC right now. They're second place right behind North Carolina. They're tied with Florida State, but they're ahead of Duke, who's only at 4-1 right now. And NC State, you know, it's kind of just flown under the radar a little bit. They've played some teams, some good teams close. Mainly, they've played Tennessee. They only lost Tennessee by 9. They only lost to BYU by 9. Both those teams in the top 15 in the country. Ole Miss was ranked at one point. They lost to them by 20. But, you know, NC State is a solid team. They just got a solid win over Wake Forest. Definitely helps out their resume. They don't have the strongest resume right now in the ACC, but this could be a jump start for this team. And I think they are a pretty solid team that's kind of going under the radar right now. Watch for them to maybe rattle off a couple more wins. They've got Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Syracuse in the next couple games. Hopefully they can pull that out at the end. For sure. This was definitely a must-win game for Kevin Keats and the Wolfpack. With them, you know, they did what they needed to do to avoid bad losses so far, especially in the non-conference. But they really haven't had a signature win. And so for them to get to the tournament, the key is going to be stacking up a lot of ACC wins. This is one of those. It's an important quad two home win. It's a rivalry. And so you get both those, you know, factored in there. It's a solid win for NC State. As far as the officiating goes, from doing a little research, it seems like one of Jeff Anderson's partners on the officiating crew was rather inexperienced. And so, you know, there may have been some trust issues between him and his officiating partner. And so, you know, you wonder if that played a factor into it. Ultimately, they, you know, they made the calls that they made. And at some point, you just have to play through it, see what happens. And, you know, ultimately, I think it was the first time since the 1980s that NC State won a game without hitting a three-pointer. And so for them to, you know, go through losing a few players, losing their coach, you know, not hitting a three-pointer, and to still come out, this was about as good as you could have hoped with those circumstances. And then for Wake, man, this is a tough loss because it would have been a quad one win to get a top 75 opponent on the road. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen for the Demon Deacons, but they have already had a very strong start to the season. We'll see where they go. They've already had some nice wins as well. They beat Virginia, which was very impressive. So it's definitely not game over for the Demon Deacons, but this was definitely one that they would have liked to have had. And, you know, you talked about that Middlebrooks foul. If that hadn't been called, you know, or been called differently, maybe, maybe Wake walks away with this win and they would have had a nice piece for their resume. Moving on then to another game that is definitely going to have some tournament implications, and that's Clemson playing in a wild overtime, sorry, double overtime loss to Georgia Tech. You know, it's a home loss against a team that's not all that good. And we saw this last year where the big losses, you know, the ones against not so good teams, Q3 and Q4 games, that's what hurt them last year. And they pick up another one of those losses here. What did you guys see between the Jackets and the Tigers? Nathan George went off at the end of the game. Clemson was up 5 with around 22 seconds left in the game. They had this game in the back. Nathan George hits a 3 with 12 seconds left. Chase Hunter misses one out of two free throws. Georgia Tech goes the other way. Nathan George hits an insane 3-point shot with just 2 seconds left. Freshman finished with 20 points, which is a career high for him. And Georgia Tech, they fought back from what seemed like they were down. Clemson had this game in the back by honestly in the last couple of minutes. And then both teams fought pretty evenly in the first overtime. And in the second overtime, Georgia Tech, their best player, Myles Kelly, just kind of took over. And then George again hit a couple clutch jumpers, really sealed the game for the Yellow Jackets. The Yellow Jackets, quite honestly, reminded me of their football team from last season. They've had some horrendous losses like the football team. But then they randomly beat a team like Duke at home. And then they go on the road against a good Clemson team on paper and beat them in double overtime in what was just a long slog of a game that felt like it was never going to end. And Georgia Tech was able to pull it out. They're 2-4 in the conference. They're 9-8. They're still not a great team per se. Before this Clemson game, they had lost five games in a row, but they had only lost by five to Duke before this game against Clemson. And now they have Virginia coming up tomorrow. It's not a great team again, but I think this win for Damon Simeyer is a big one for him. He already has to win against Duke as well. So the resume is boosting. Right now in year one, it's not looking too bad for Georgia Tech, honestly, compared to preseason expectations. Yeah, and from the Clemson perspective, really just fallen off a cliff lately. They won the National Championship early in the season. I thought they could at best be in that top 20-25 range. They really out-overperformed that for a while, 10-0 to start the season before a loss to a now top 10 Memphis team. But since then, losses to Miami, UNC, Virginia Tech, and now Georgia Tech, four of their last five. And to be fair, at home, you just cannot, if you're going to be a tournament team and compete for the ACC, you just cannot lose to a team like Georgia Tech at home. P.J. Hall had another huge game, 31 points, 17 rebounds. He's in the running for ACC Player of the Year. Ian Sheflin, 20 points and 15 rebounds of his own. But yeah, this team has just really had cement shoes recently right now in the ACC, falling down to ninth and well out of top 25 consideration. You look at their schedule and you see games upcoming against Florida State and Duke, two games I would be surprised if they could maybe pull out a win with how they're playing right now. I think this roster is just too talented to not pick themselves back up. I think they should comfortably make the tournament by March. But I mean, if I'm going to be honest with you, I'm starting to feel a little worried after a loss at the hands of Dayton Absolutely. I'm a little more pessimistic on the Tigers with their outlook. You know, we saw last year they dropped games like Louisville and South Carolina and Loyola Chicago, who are all terrible teams. And the fact that this is a recurring issue that they couldn't get this fixed where, you know, they're clearly the more talented team. You saw that over the non-conference and yet they lose their focus. They let these teams hang in there. And it really seems to be a big issue with Brad Brownell. And we'll talk about potential coaching moves later. But I think this game, you know, it pushes them further and further towards the hot seat. And, you know, it's a really bad look for Clemson. The committee is not going to look kindly on this when they're figuring out, OK, who's going to get those spots for the NCAA tournament? And, you know, you talked about their stretch. Obviously, there's a big opportunity to get an important win at Florida State. They go to Cameron to play Duke. They have UNC looming. However, these are all opportunities that pile up on the losses. And, you know, you don't want to let a team beat you twice. Right. But there's a real chance this Georgia Tech loss hangs over them and they start to let this snowball. And next thing you know, they are solidly deep in the standings, you know, maybe, maybe in the top half of the league. We'll see. But it's it's a very tough look for Clemson. I don't think this team makes the tournament. I'm going to go ahead and call it now because of the way that they're starting to fall apart and the schedule is going to get harder. It's looking rough for the Tigers. But shout out to Georgia Tech, you know, in the early stages of Stoudemire's time here in Atlanta. You know, you just want to see some signs of life, some progress. And that's what we're seeing. So congratulations to the Jackets on what's a really big win that they can take. And, you know, those schools are pretty close. So I'm sure that Tech fans will be happy to rub it in to the Tigers a little bit throughout the year. Next up, Miami and Florida State. It's the Miami team that, you know, last year was in the Final Four. There was a lot of high expectations. Could they contend for the conference? Meanwhile, Florida State had a rough year. Yet these two programs seem to be going in opposite directions. They met in Florida State, ended up taking this one 84-75. And you look up, Florida State hanging in there, top three in the ACC. Is this more about Florida State being a really good team this year and just kind of figuring out in conference play? Or is Miami just not it this year? I'm going to say that Miami's just kind of underachieved what they are right now. This team, with a core group that's led by Nigel Pack, Matthew Cleveland, North Chad O'Meara, Luka Poplar, and Bensley Joseph in their starting five, that team is way too good to be just three and three in the ACC right now. It's just like, this is essentially almost the same core they've had last year when they made the Final Four, except Isaiah Wong. But you know, this is still a team that is so really solid. I think that realistically, if they played up to their potential, they're one of the best teams, they're one of the top best four teams in the conference. It just hasn't really been that way, though. And they were held without a basket for the last three minutes against Florida State. And credit to Florida State this year, 5-1 in the ACC. Leonard Hamilton continuing to show that he can coach, and he's getting a lot out of his depth players, specifically Cam Corn at 16 points off the bench. Florida State plays all of their available players on their roster essentially every game, and they're getting some good performances off the bench. Miami just randomly losing three out of four. They lost, of course, at home to Kenny Payne and Louisville recently. But I think Miami is a good team. I think they can pick it up. But tomorrow when they take on Syracuse, these are two teams that are just kind of hanging around the bubble right now in the ACC, just kind of middle of the pack. But a win for either of these teams tomorrow, we'll mention later, could be big for their season. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm going to agree. I think it's more about Miami right now. I hesitate to say they're a bad team because, you know, they've shown flashes. They went against Clemson and went against Virginia Tech. But then there's some games where you just don't really know, like, what's happening, right? 9-point loss Wednesday at FSU. You mentioned the 9-point loss to Louisville last week. The reason I think Miami can pick it back up is because offensively, the pieces are there. You know, Norchad O'Meara, top 10 in the ACC in scoring. Matthew Cleveland, top 15. Miami is second in the ACC right now in scoring behind UNC. But defensively, you just cannot expect to be giving up 80-plus points for every game and win. You know, they rank 11th in the conference in scoring defense. So that's the problem. Obviously, you know, they lost some guys from last year's Final Four team. But I mean, if they could find a way to turn it around defensively, I still think the team can make some noise in the conference. And as for Florida State, I think, you know, they're a good team. But shockingly enough, you look at the stats, they really haven't been doing very much great. You know, the bottom half of the ACC in offense and in defense. But right now, they're just playing some good basketball for consecutive conference wins. Will this pace keep going? I'm honestly doubt just because, as I mentioned, you know, they're really not doing anything particular elite that would excite me to say that this is a team that really can compete for an ACC championship. They're just playing really as a collective unit. I think that could take them a long way. Sure. This has been a very surprising result, to say the least, with Miami with the way that they've fallen apart kind of here in conference play. You know, they lost to Louisville earlier, now losing to Florida State. You know, it's definitely looking rough for the Canes right now. I think if you look at this game, one of the big issues that they had is they never could really get the three ball going. Poplar was three of nine, Pack was three of 11. And so, you know, you look at these guys, yes, they're hitting shots, but it's coming at such a high volume that it just wasn't efficient enough. And Florida State, you know, they may not be doing anything great. However, they're able to play smart basketball and they're able to get through, you know, and do just enough. Every time Miami started to make a run, Florida State definitely had an answer, especially in that second half. And the big thing that stood out to me was they opened the half with a run to get a nice lead. Miami, yes, they fought back and they kept it close, two, three point game for a lot of the rest of the way. And then Florida State shut down the Canes in those final few minutes. They really closed well. And when you see something like this, it shows that the team, they're learning how to win, which I think is something that they lacked last year. You know, just the way that they, you know, they had so many losses that it just kind of got in their heads. This year, they're in the right headspace. They're playing much better. So shout out to Florida State. I do think that they definitely get some of the credit for this as they've really turned things around this season. So next up, moving on to some potential coaching moves. I think we can all agree that Kenny Payne probably not getting a year three at Louisville. Outside of him, what are some potential moves that you guys could see happening in the ACC coaching-wise? Yeah, I'm going to go, I think I'm going to say the popular answer here and go with Jeff Capel. Pitt has looked really, you know, not great to start the season. I mean, they're playing for last right now with Louisville and it's six years with Pitt, only one winning season, which was the tournament appearance last year, but still not much of a resume to hang your hat on. Besides Capel, I don't really see anyone else going. Most of the coaches near the bottom of the conference are new. So I just don't foresee anyone else getting the boot besides Capel and Payne. Yeah, I think it's mainly just going to be Capel who might get the boot besides Payne. Seeing this year, Pitt's just not been a good team. It's the team that made the tournament last season and they had a really talented freshman in Garlington, Carrington, but right now they're just in a really bad slump right now. And they've also played against good teams like UNC and Duke, but they lost twice to Syracuse. Their only winning ACC play so far was against Louisville. And in their last game against Syracuse, they just looked flat out awful shooting the basketball. Their best player in Blake Hinson has just been on a really bad cold streak as of late. He averages above 18 points per game, but he's just been inefficient in his last, I would say in his last six games, ever since the game against Purdue-Fort Wayne where he shot two of 10 from the floor and it just has not been a fun time for Hinson since then. And when your best players are that inefficient from shooting from downtown, Syracuse shoots at around 28%. Hinson on here has shot 39%, which isn't bad, but if you just take into account the last five games, it's just been really off. Again, it's just been inefficient for him. Pitt just hasn't been great and Syracuse really punished them from the outside and just from the jumper in general. And with this Pitt team, it's just, you know, this team is, again, a lot better than I think the record shows, but it just hasn't really come to fruition. And when you have teams like your next game against Duke, you have Miami a couple of games too. I don't see getting anything any better for Pitt. Again, this is a team that I thought was at least good enough to contend for the top six in the conference this year. Like Pitt football too, there's been a lot of parallels, honestly, between some teams in the ACC compared to football and basketball. And Pitt, I thought they were going to be a sleeper, but right now they sit second from bottom in the ACC, which just isn't going to cut it. And I think Capel, who's in year six at this point with only one tournament appearance, he should probably be considered getting the boots soon. I would kind of be surprised if they kept him another year. Yeah, I'm right there with you guys with Capel or Capel and he is, you know, he's really struggled there. You know, like you talked about, the NCAA tournament results just aren't there. However, that's the same case as well with Brad Brownell, who I think this is the year that he finally goes. And he's been at Clemson since 2010, one of the longest tenured ACC coaches. So it's kind of crazy to say like, oh, he'll be out. But with the way this team is playing, things are falling apart mid-season. If they continue to slide and miss another tournament, that's going to be three tournament appearances in 14 seasons, which at the end of the day is just not going to get it done at most programs, especially one like Clemson, where their basketball tradition may not be super rich, but as an athletic department, they do have very high standards with the way that their football program is, the way that their baseball historically is, as well as other sports like softball, soccer. So Clemson knows a thing or two about winning. And to see a program as big as men's basketball not do well, I don't think they're going to sit tight with these results. You know, oftentimes Brownell has gotten them to the bubble. He's gotten them some NIT wins, some things there, but it just hasn't resulted so much. And he hasn't done much once he's actually gone to the NCAA tournament. So unless Brownell really gets on a run and can get them back to the tournament, I don't see him coming back next season. You know, there's always going to be one coach somewhere that usually gets the boot that's a little bit of a surprise. That's who I'm going with, Brad Brownell. So then moving on next to our most impressive performances of the week. I'll start with you, Troy. Who impressed you the most on the hardwood this week? Got to mention, we've already mentioned him. It's Nathan George, the freshman from Georgia Tech who put up a career-high 20 points. Of course, he had a couple big threes at the game, tied the game against Clemson, and then in the double overtime, hit a couple of shots to put Georgia Tech in front for good. He looks really solid as a freshman so far, only averages around 8 points per game. But in his last two games, he scored 17 points against Duke and 20 points against Clemson on pretty efficient shooting. Myles Kelly is the best player on that team. But Nathan George, again, is only a freshman, will only continue to get better, and I'm keeping my eyes on the 6'3 Canadian because the last two games against two pretty good teams on paper have really impressed me so far. Yeah, I'm going to go with someone on the other side of that game. Normally, I wouldn't pick a player from a losing side, but I just have to mention P.J. Hall's 31-17 game one more time. Now, this is a guy probably second or first ACC player of the year standing. He had a game high in points and rebounds against Georgia Tech, just absolute domination down low for Hall. The Yellow Jackets really had no answers. Obviously, took two overtimes to accumulate those stats, but an incredible game nonetheless, and I think the most impressive performance of the week, regardless of the result. Absolutely. Both those players had such a tremendous game. For me, it's got to be Hunter Salas against Virginia, where both these teams kind of fight in fraternity position. Can they make it in? Can they not? And Hunter Salas really showed out against Virginia. Tony Bennett, his teams always have tough defenses, and Hunter Salas was able to break through that. The thing that really impressed me, though, was his efficiency. He shot 8 of 13, including 5 for 8 from three-point land. That is like Curry-esque numbers right there, so very impressed with Hunter Salas, the way he was able to just play very efficiently. He also really racked it up defensively, rebounding-wise, and for a guard, that is very impressive. He ended up with 9 total rebounds, 8 of those on the defensive end of the floor. Very impressive, added on a steal and a block, so it was overall just a very impressive game from Hunter Salas and the way that he was able to really keep Virginia on their toes on both ends of the floor, so shout-out to Hunter Salas in helping the Demon Deacons get a big win over Virginia. Next up, we got the games to watch for next week. There should be some good ones, especially in the state of Florida. I'll start with you, Brendan. What is your game of the week for next week? Yeah, the game I'm most interested to watch is Florida State traveling to Syracuse on Tuesday. We mentioned Florida State, how well they're playing late, but Syracuse has really, I think, been the most interesting team in the ACC this season. They've comfortably beat teams that are near the bottom of the ACC, like BC and Pitt, by double digits, and they've also had blowout losses by 20-plus to teams near the top of the ACC, like UNC Duke and Virginia. I think this will be a test for both teams to see how legit both of them really are. JMA Dome has been a tough place to play. Cuse has lost just one game at home this season. So this will be a chance for Florida State to earn another big win to go even higher in the ACC standings, and this will be a chance for Syracuse to finally earn a top-tier ACC win. So we're excited to see how this one plays out for both teams and who can really stake their claim in the top half of the conference. I am looking forward to that game, but I'm going to also look forward to Syracuse's game tomorrow against Miami. Again, like I mentioned before, these are two teams that are kind of on the surface right now, don't really have big signature wins yet, and a win for either team could really make or break their season. I'm really interested to see how Syracuse matches up against Norchad Omeer, because they don't have any hemoclouds out for the year. Malik Brown will probably have to take that assignment, and we'll see how they handle against, honestly, a double-doubled machine. But Syracuse, again, it's a big game for them. They have a big confidence booster against Pitt after their embarrassing loss to North Carolina. I'm really hoping for a big J.J. Starling game. He had a great game against Pitt. I'm hoping that Syracuse really amps up their defensive pressure against a really solid Miami, a really good Miami offense. You've got to find ways to handle a guy like Omeer down low. I'm just really excited to see just how they match up and see if they can get that big signature win, because it hasn't felt like they've gotten a signature win at home in the last couple years, except maybe the NC State game last year. But really, an important game like this is so important, especially since it's relatively still early in conference play, still a couple months left in the season. I'm really just excited to see how Syracuse matches up against a really good Miami team and see if both teams can really play up to their potential. Absolutely. This is a huge week for Hughes. If they can go 2-0, that'll be really big, not just for the ACC standings, but potentially making a tournament push. We'll see. For me, I'm sticking with the Florida State theme. I have Florida State hosting Clemson in a game that obviously was great on the gridiron. I think it'll be just as good in basketball. These are two teams that are going in opposite directions, like we've talked about. Clemson, I think, is on the downhill right now, and this is a huge opportunity for Leonard Hamilton to really announce that he is back, that his team is back to playing well. It's going to be a home game, and that play should be rocking. They get up for Clemson, and so if Florida State can pull this one off, really announce themselves as a true contender for tournament spot, it would be huge for the Knolls. It's also a must-win game, though, for Clemson. Obviously, this would be a tough game for them to lose. It's one that, for the season, they were probably counting as a win, and so for Clemson, you need to stop your skid before you play even better teams like Duke and then Carolina. So, very important matchup, but one thing that I realized, just kind of looking at the standings, if Florida State wins this thing, they're 6-1 in the ACC. Who would have thought that they could have actually climbed up to that high this season? It'd be a remarkable win for them and a signature win to put on their resume, but obviously, Clemson is going to bring it. They're going to have their A game, and I'm really looking forward to this game because it's two teams that are very motivated and should be a great matchup, but that'll wrap it up for us today. Obviously, a lot going on in ACC basketball, even if there's not necessarily the top-heavy talent that we've seen in the past, only maybe one or two true title contenders, but it is a very entertaining league. There's a lot of parity this year, so definitely keep it locked in, stay tuned the rest of the season, and appreciate everyone for tuning in. We'll be back again next week.
