ACC Roundup - Sloppy Basketball And Weak Competition

24.11.2024 16:00

Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis brings the ball upcourt

We’re not sure that anyone other than Jaylen Blakes and Hunter Sallis distinguished themselves Saturday

In Saturday’s ACC Action, Georgia Tech fell to Cincinnati 81-58, Wake Forest beat Detroit Mercy 67-57 and Stanford nipped Herb Sendek’s Santa Clara, 71-69.

The highlight of Stanford’s win was former Duke guard Jaylen Blakes hitting the game winner. Coming right after Jeremy Roach did it for Baylor, it was pretty cool.

That was great and we’re thrilled for him, but while Stanford is 6-0, why were they in a tight game with Herb Sendek’s 2-4 Broncos?

So far, Stanford has played Denver, Cal State Fullerton, Northern Arizona, UC Davis, Norfolk State and now Santa Clara. It’s hard to tell what they have because they haven't really played anyone of note.

However, and keep in mind that it’s been against weak competition, Maxine Raynaud has been terrific so far: he’s averaging 21 ppg and 12.2 rebounds. For his part, Blakes had 10 assists and eight points against the Broncos.

We thought Baye Ndongo and Naithan George would make big jumps for Georgia Tech bu not so far, or at least not consistently. In the loss to Cincinnati, Ndongo had just five points and six rebounds. He also had three assists.

George was better in this one with 13 points on 5-9 from the floor but he had just one assist.

Tech shot just 5-20 from three-land and 21-59 overall and of those, only eight were assisted. Cincinnati, #18, is a very good team but we thought that the Yellowjackets might have a better effort. Sadly, they didn’t.

With the loss, Georgia Tech falls to 2-3.

Meanwhile, Wake Forest got by Detroit Mercy. Mike Davis, who once coached Indiana in the national title game, most likely saw his career end last season when the Titans finished 1-31. Currently, he’s an assistant to Penny Hardaway at Memphis, and given how erratic Penny has been there, it’s not going to help Davis much.

Mark Montgomery is the head man at Detroit Mercy now and, at 3-3, he’s already tripled the wins from last season.

Wake shot out to an early lead at 12-3 and never looked back. Hunter Sallis had a big night with a season high 31, hitting 12-18 from the field.

Impressively, Wake had just five turnovers but they gave up 48 rebounds to Detroit Mercy. Also nice: 16 assists on 24 shots. It could have been better, but it ain’t bad.

Efton Reid didn't play but we’re not sure why. Update - he had a migraine.

It’s a busy Sunday as Miami lines up for more probable punishment, this time from VCU, FSU plays hapless UMass, Cal plays almost equally hapless Sacramento State, BCU sees ODU in the Cayman Islands and undefeated Pitt gets the highlight with Wisconsin.

Sunday’s ACC Action

Miami vs. VCU || 12:30 || ESPN+
FSU vs. UMass || 3:30 || ESPN2
Sacramento State @ Cal || 4:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra
Pitt vs. Wisconsin || 5:30 || Nope
ODU vs. Boston College || 7:30 || Nope

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