ACC Roundup - A Night Of Close Shaves For Almost Everyone Who Played

Dec 8, 2022 - 1:00 PM

The acronym is FAFO and it’s a warning. The last words are “around and find out”. The first one?

Well, some people use something that’s often considered a vulgarity. Scott Drew and Hubert Davis would say “fool around and find out”. And several ACC schools nearly did against inferior opponents.

Well, “inferior” at least on paper.

Boston University had no business keeping up with Notre Dame and for a good bit of the game, the Irish played that way. But the Terriers nearly came back late, ripping off an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five and reducing Notre Dame to late game management and putting the game away on the line.

Good thing, because Notre Dame went the last 5:41 without a single basket.

Cormac Ryan was key for the whole game but especially down the stretch. However, he finished with four fouls which underscores what a thin team the Irish really are: Mike Brey only used two players off the bench, prevailing 81-75.

Miami had an even more exhilarating brush with disaster against Cornell: the Big Red took Miami right down to the wire. They got a career high 35 from Isaiah Wong and needed all of it.

The ‘Canes seemingly had the game in control but Cornell broke bad near the end, turning Miami over repeatedly and scoring 17 of the game’s final 24 points.

A bit closer than you’d like to see ideally, but won the frenetic race, 107-105.

That was the case in Death Valley too, where Towson played Clemson so tough that ESPN was putting out upset warnings. And remember, Towson played in Raleigh last night. That was pretty impressive considering normal fatigue and a second long bus ride.

The game was tied 66-66 with 4:44 left before Clemson finally got some separation. PJ Hall is getting back to his lofty standard of play: he had 22 points on 10-17. But Hunter Tyson had 20 points, 14 boards and four assists. That’s a great night by anyone.

And Alex Hemenway, who has largely toiled in anonymity while at Clemson, deserves some props: he’s starting now and doing okay. He had 15 here including 3-4 from behind the line.

The guy is a poster child for sticking with it. Clemson, 80-75

On some level, Jeff Capel has to be thinking: dammit, Stackhouse got me again.

Capel and Stackhouse were in the middle of one of the great Duke-UNC games, the double OT thriller in 1995 that saw Capel carve his name into legend with a running halfcourt shot to put the game into double overtime.

UNC won then and Stackhouse pulled this one out, too.

Pitt had a nice comeback to take the lead with 14.4 left only to put Vandy on the foul line with 1.1 left. Tyrin Lawrence hit them both and then Pitt got the ball back.

And in fairness, they almost pulled off a great play.

Someone - we think it was William Jeffress - came up out of the lane to meet the long pass from Vanderbilt’s end of the court and dumped it quickly to Jamarius Burton for a three point attempt.

Really, it was a well-designed and clever play.

Only Jeffress - we think it was Jeffress - forgot about Liam Robbins.

You may remember him from the Stackhouse freakout the other day - he was the player that was T’d up, setting Stackhouse up for a spectacular meltdown/ejection.

If Jeffress had made it a little difficult for Robbins to get to Burton, he might have gotten the shot off, but that didn't happen: Robbins blocked it at the top of the key. It’s been quite a week for that guy. Vandy, 75-74

The most impressive game of the night was Virginia Tech’s 28 point win over Dayton.

This doesn’t look like a vintage Dayton team but Dayton is generaly a solid program and Anthony Grant has done well there.

The Hokies started pulling away after about 10 minutes and that was it. The train left the station. The toothpaste was out of the tube. Fill in the standard third cliche to finish the rhetorical flourish yourself.

Mike Young has a talented and experienced team that’s going to be tough for anyone. Virginia Tech, 77-49.

No word yet on the status of NC State big man Dusan Mahorcic who suffered an apparent knee injury, but State got a good commitment from 7-1 promising young big man Isaiah Miranda. He’s a four-star recruit and says he’s coming to State because he wants to work and State’s program is built on hard work. He sounds helpful.

No games on Friday, but a good slate on Saturday, including a match between faded powers Syracuse and Georgetown, Loyala Chicago playing Clemson, a struggling UNC hosting Georgia Tech and, in one of the most bizarre games in ACC history, 0-8 Louisville goes down to Tallahassee to take on 1-9 Florida State.

ACC Standings

• Notre Dame looked good, then it didn’t, before beating Boston U.
• Game 9 Preview: Boston Shipping Down to South Bend
• Hall, Tyson lead Clemson in 80-75 win over Towson
• Clemson outlasts Towson
• Clemson hoops holds off Towson for fourth straight win
• Brownell’s Tigers top Towson
• Wong scores career-high 36 as Miami Hurricanes survive 107-105 shootout against Cornell
• Cornell’s comeback falls just short in 107-105 loss to Miami
• Miami sneaks past Cornell, 107-105
• McCoy: Virginia Tech’s Basile Pours It On UD
• Virginia Tech Trounces Dayton Behind Grant Basile’s 23 Points
• ‘Excited’ Basile shines for Virginia Tech in rout of Dayton
• ANALYSIS: Five takeaways from Dayton’s 28-point loss at Virginia Tech
• Basile, Pedulla lead Virginia Tech past Dayton 77-49
• Postgame Reaction Following Pitt’s Loss to Vanderbilt
• Pitt Falls to Vanderbilt on Last-Second Foul Shots, 75-74
• Sloppy effort against Vanderbilt results in disappointing road loss for Pitt men’s basketball
• Pitt AD Heather Lyke explains department’s approach to NIL, tampering