The two teams in the conference that wear orange and blue have officially taken over. The conference doesn't belong to North Carolina and Duke this season, it is Syracuse and Virginia that have taken the ACC by storm. Both are teams refusing to lose aside Virginia's four point loss at Duke. This week was a great one for the ACC with the thriller in Syracuse and Virginia's gritty win at Pittsburgh yesterday.
In what might be the best ACC game of the season, CJ Fair and Jerami Grant's Orange withstood an incredible effort by Jabari Parker, Amile Jefferson, and of course, Rasheed Sulaimon. When Sulaimon sunk that three at the buzzer in front of the largest on-campus crowd in the history of college basketball, 35,446 people went dead silent. Duke, who at this point was playing without Jabari Parker, had quieted the loudest college basketball venue in the country. And an exciting overtime followed topping off an incredible game. A few things to note about the game is that Parker picked up his fourth foul halfway through the second half and fouled out on an offensive foul. He finished one rebound shy of yet another double-double. CJ Fair and Jerami Grant were sensational. Fair finished with a game-high 28 points on 12-20 shooting while Grant finished with a double-double of 24 points and 12 rebounds. He shot a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line. Also not to be at all overlooked was the 14 points and nine assists from Tyler Ennis, who also shot a perfect 8-8 from the stripe.
The day after Syracuse proved their dominance in the conference, they are the unanimous number one in the country after Arizona's loss at California, Virginia went to Pittsburgh and defeated a tough Panther team at an incredibly tough place to win. This game was the complete opposite of Cuse and Duke. They scored half as many points, but the defenses in this game were incredible. It was like watching a pitcher's duel in baseball and like Syracuse's win over Duke, went down to the buzzer when Malcolm Brogdon's three gave the Cavaliers the 48-45 win. Joe Harris and the Virginia defense held Lamar Patterson to just 3-14 shooting and 10 points. Any team that wants to learn how to contain Patterson, one of the conference's best players, they will watch this tape repeatedly. And finally after this win Virginia cracks its way into the top-25, currently sitting at 20.
There were only two other teams besides Virginia and Syracuse to win both of their games this week and they were North Carolina and Maryland. Finally something good to write about both of these teams. For North Carolina, their wins at Georgia Tech and at home against NC State give them four wins in their last five games, bringing them up to the middle of the pack in the conference. Marcus Paige had a great game against the Yellow Jackets with 19 points, seven assists, and five rebounds and followed it up with a solid game against the Wolfpack on Saturday. But it was James Michael McAdoo's 16 points and 13 rebounds that really helped the Tar Heels defeat rival NC State.
For Maryland, it was Dez Wells buzzer-beating three ball that helped the Terps beat Miami at Comcast Center Wednesday night. In the game Wells picked up two fouls in the first three minutes which limited his first half minutes where he was held scoreless. In the second half he dropped 21 points to give him the game's high and none were bigger than the last second three. Maryland did their best impression of their 2001 loss to Duke in which the Blue Devils scored 10 points in the last minute. With 1:30 left the Terps led the Hurricanes by nine, but missed three straight front-ends of one-and-one free throws, allowing Miami to tie the game with seven seconds left before Wells hit his three. Following the 74-71 win over Miami, the Terps did something they have struggled mightily with season, they won on the road. Maryland was again led by Dez Wells, who came off the bench for just the second time in his Terps career. His 19 points and zero turnovers were crucial in the win for the Terps. If Maryland wants to stay relevant they will need to keep winning the games they are supposed to win, they'll face North Carolina (see below) and Florida State this week.
Florida State hurt themselves big time this past week losing both of their games, first at NC State and then at home against Clemson. They dropped to the bottom half of the conference. With the win over the Seminoles in their only game of the week, Clemson helped keep themselves in the top five of the conference behind just Syracuse, Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Duke. Clemson has a must-win home game against Georgia Tech before they travel to the Carrier Dome on Sunday.
This coming week on paper looks like a slow week in the ACC with only one matchup between two of the top five teams in the country. So here are the top two games to pay attention to.
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