Inside the ACC | Court Storm Controversy | RJ Davis 40 piece All=ACC first teams | Bubble Talk

The main ideas from this information are: - Wake Forest's upset win over Duke was a big boost for their tournament hopes, despite some controversy surrounding the court storming. - UNC had solid wins against Miami and Virginia, with RJ Davis having a standout performance. - The ACC bubble teams, such as Pitt and Virginia, are still fighting for a spot in the tournament, but their chances may be slim. - Overall, UNC is seen as the top team in the ACC, with Duke slightly behind, and the rest of the conference falling below them. Welcome to Inside the ACC, I'm Noah Teague from Technician Sports, and I'm joined today by Brendan Lunga of the Daily Tar Heel and Troy Chun of Citrus TV. How are you guys doing today? Doing great. Last day of February, so we are entering the best time of the sports season. Yep, we are about five hours away till March, and that means, like Brendan said, the best time of the year is coming. Should I talk about it? Absolutely. Well, let's go ahead and leap right into some of the basketball, and we'll start with the game of the week this past week. Wake Forest upsets Duke. It's a huge win for their tournament hopes, puts a big gold star that you can put right at the top of their resume, something for the committee to look at, and this might be the win that gets them over the top. Obviously, there is also the court storming, which we can discuss as well, but what do you guys' initial takeaways from this one? Yeah, it's tough to see a great game kind of get ruined almost by something so minor is what happened at the end of the game, but we talked about it last week. This was as close to a must-win game for Wake as they've had all season, and they got the win at home. They outplayed Duke in the second half and did what it needed to do on the bubble and got a big win. This was kind of dampened by their next game, losing to Notre Dame, which we will get into later, but at the moment, this was a massive win for Wake, and as they should do for a big win, they stormed the court, which is what makes college basketball so great and different from the NBA. When you get a much-needed win in a game against a top-10 team, court storming, in my opinion, is 100% justified. I don't care what anybody kind of like Jay Billis wants to say about it. Further issues with what Wake did, sure, there are videos of people on the court before the clock even hit zero, which just can't happen, and there are ways to keep court storming in the game while keeping players safe. Security needs to do a better job of holding off the stormers before most of the opposing players are off the court. Luckily, Philip Halsey wasn't hurt too bad on the play, came back and played his next game. Again, better ways to keep players safe without removing an essential part of the game of college basketball after a big win like we saw for Wake at home against Duke. Yeah, this was an amazing atmosphere on Saturday. Wake packed out the arena as it should, and they played a great game offensively. Hunters Dallas, who we'll talk about a little bit later, but somehow none of us picked him for Performer of the Week. He scored 29 points on 11 of 13 shooting, 5-6 from 3. He's been a revelation for Wake this year. Steve Forbes has always been known to get guys out of the portal. Last year it was Tyrese Appleby and David Williamson. This year it's been Hunters Dallas who's just showed out and he's been one of the best guards in the ACC this year. And again for Wake, it was such a big win, puts them really into the conversation of the tournament field. As we'll mention later, the Notre Dame loss kind of hurt it, but I think Wake still is fine for the most part, and we'll touch on it a little bit later. This win really helps them to get that big win. Steve Forbes has really needed this win for a long time in the last couple of years, and they finally get it, and Wake's tournament hopes, again, are still on the uptick for me. Absolutely. This one was huge. Wake Force is one of those teams who they can hang with anyone if they're having the right day. They have a high ceiling, as you guys have talked about with guys like Hunters Dallas. Their offensive potential is incredible, and we saw them take down one of the two giants in the league. So huge win for Wake. And then just the atmosphere, even before the court storming, Coach Forbes had talked about how it was the best atmosphere, the best crowd that he had seen during his time at Wake Force. And then as far as the court storming goes, it's a whole lot of nothing, right? He got caught up in the field, or the court storming, and it was a very minor injury where he was even playing the very next game. So I don't think we need to go to any extremes like how Jay Billis went on the first take and was saying, arrest all the students, that. The big get off my lawn energy right there from Jay Billis was off the charts there. But no, I don't think there needs to be any kind of overreaction to this. It's a one in a very rare chance that anything happens, and it was something very minor, even what did happen. So no big deal there. Love to see it for Wake Force getting the big time win. Next up, UNC, they handle Miami. They get the elusive win in Charlottesville. And then of course, RJ Davis in that game against Miami had one of the performances of the year, not just in the ACC, but in all of college basketball, dropping a 40 bomb. What did you guys see from the heels this week? Yeah, I'd say these were good wins for UNC, definitely much needed wins. But I wasn't really overly impressed with what I saw. Obviously, every game against Virginia is going to be sloppy. UNC has struggled in Charlottesville, so to pull out the win is nice. You know, I said last week, the first team to score 50 will win that game. And sure enough, the Tar Heels, they won 54 to 44. Cormac Ryan had a big game, which is great to see. He's going to be someone that has to perform in March if UNC wants any chance at a national title. But then on Monday, just kind of really a non-inspiring win over Miami. That obviously does not include RJ Davis. Career high and Smith Center high, 42 points, 7-3, 64% of the field. He was just unconscious all night. And really, the only reason UNC went away from that game with a win, no other Tar Heel had double-digit points. UNC really struggled breaking the press in the second half. It was a two-point game with less than a minute remaining. You know, Miami had a chance to pull off the upset in the Smith Center. So while UNC, you know, they earned two big wins, and RJ all but secured the ACC Player of the Year with that performance, still some concerning things that I'm seeing from UNC that they will need to clean up in the last week of the regular season. Yeah, not really too worried about Carolina. Again, as they went to Virginia, it was always going to be a sloppy game. And RJ Davis actually went 1-of-14 from the Florida game. So to see him pull off that 40-bomb against Miami was just so impressive. For Carolina, I still think that they're comfortably the best team in the conference. You know, there really isn't that much marching between them and Duke right now. But I think Carolina just kind of slightly has the edge right now. And I'm just looking for them in these next three games, seeing if they can really punish their opponents a lot more, get a lot more production besides Davis and Baycott. As Brendan said, nobody scored in double figures outside of Davis against Miami. But really, I still think that they'll potentially still have a chance to take down Duke and Cameron Indoor in a week or so. But Carolina right now, I can see they're right now comfortably a two-seed, but they haven't done enough to really be a separating one-seed right now. Written on paper, they probably should be a one-seed. But realistically, they're still comfortably a two. They still really need to make a case for potentially being a one-seed. And I think that's kind of a conversation that's been brought up a couple times that I've seen. But right now, it's comfortably a two-seed. I think Carolina will be fine by that. They just really need to clean up the little mistakes they have, show why they've been the best team in the conference in these next three weeks. Absolutely. I walked away from this week actually pretty impressed by Carolina. Obviously, they haven't won at Virginia since something crazy like 2012 or 2014, something like that. So to go there and to get that win was huge for them. And then against Miami, that's just your classic letdown spot, and they were able to get the win. That's one of those where, sure, you didn't get the style points, but you just want to walk out of there with the win, and they did just that. To me, this also establishes them as not just the top team in the ACC, but the clear top team. There's really the Tar Heels in their own tier, Duke kind of in a tier below them, and then everyone else kind of fills out under there. But I'm very impressed by North Carolina, and then RJ Davis, like you mentioned, that just about sealed it for Player of the Year. Obviously, guys like Blake Henson had made a little run at it. He's had some big moments. But that performance pretty much closed the door on any backdoor win by those other guys. So congratulations to Davis, and congratulations to the Heels. Next up, the Bubble Watch, so Clemson knocks off Pitt. Hughes picks up a couple big wins over Virginia Tech in Notre Dame. Virginia, let's see, Virginia, they did lose to North Carolina, but they're still hanging on to the bubble. Wake Forest, they unfortunately did take the loss to Notre Dame, but got the Duke win. The Virginia close win was over BC. So overall, what are you guys' thoughts on the current bubble state for the ACC? I'm just realizing that a lot of these teams might just not have the juice to make it as of now. Pitt has a couple big wins. They did beat Duke earlier this season in Cameron Indoor, but they've kind of let, and they were on a hot streak in the middle of this season, but lost to Clemson this past week. They lost, and of course, they got blown out on the road at Wake Forest. That kind of puts a damper on their tournament hopes right now. If they had beaten Clemson, they could have potentially worked themselves back into a next four-out spot. Right now, though, they're just tutoring on that edge. They're not even quite in that spot right now. But I still do think that, as I'll mention later, I think that a good run from them at the end of this year could propel them into the field, good run in the ACC tournament, potentially. As for a team like Syracuse, yeah, I know they won two games. They looked pretty good offensively in both those games. But again, it was against Notre Dame, almost blew that game. I guess Virginia Tech, it's a good, solid win. But to Virginia Tech, they've been kind of the most forgettable team in the conference this week. And some message to delusional Syracuse fans I've seen, we're not making it. No matter what, I mean, only the ACC tournament is the only way they're getting in as of this moment. And as for Wake Forest, really weird loss against Notre Dame, this Notre Dame just a couple days ago. And after the big win at home against Duke, classic letdown spot, of course. But it's against one of the weaker teams in the ACC, you kind of expect better. Salas followed up an amazing performance with a 2 of 11 shooting night, and only seven points. Wake is still, I think in my eyes, pretty comfortably in the field right now. But they're still hanging on, they still need to prove a lot. They still probably need to prove a lot of things. Clemson, they asked Clemson at the end of this year, at the end of this year, on March 9th, at the end of their last game of the season, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, you have to win those games. Don't wanna let down in those spots, especially. And as for a team like Virginia, barely winning against Boston College, and of course, losing to North Carolina. Virginia is not comfortably in the field this week, as we said they were a couple weeks ago. I still think they're a 10 seed right now, but a couple of more bad losses from Virginia could propel them out of the field, despite being the third best team off record in the ACC. If a big game against Duke this week, you can win that game. You can probably safely say you're in the field, but again, Georgia Tech, last game of the year. It's kind of scary, if you drop that game, it's a lot more questions than answers for Virginia heading into the ACC tournament. So right now, I think Virginia and Wake Forest, you could say they're in right now, but like I said, Wake Forest had that bad loss in Notre Dame. Class letdowns could happen, and you cannot let those happen, especially at the end of this year with the ACC conference schedule winding down. Yeah, the way I look at the ACC right now, I think there are four categories. Clemson has kind of worked themselves into the lock category with Duke and UNC. I think ACC should 100%, unless something kind of catastrophic happens, have at least three teams in the tournament. And then Wake and Virginia are truly teams on the bubble. Both teams in right now, according to Joe Linardi, Wake has the potential to enter the locked conversation in my eyes when they play Clemson next Saturday. If they win that game, I think they're in. Yeah, and then Virginia, I think they too can work themselves into lock category with a win against Duke on the road on Saturday. But if they lose that game, I think they have to win every game in which they are favored the rest of the way, which includes beating Georgia Tech, which as you mentioned, Troy, is not an absolute guarantee. And then I think at least one game in the ACC tournament. Syracuse and Pitt, I think are in the long way to go categories. I don't think they necessarily have to win the ACC tournament. They gotta win pretty much every game from here on out and probably make the ACC championship to be in the tournament. And the fourth category is everybody else that needs to win the ACC championship if they wanna be in the tournament. That's kind of how I see it right now. If I had to make a prediction, I do think all five teams in the lock and bubble categories will make the tournament for the ACC. Absolutely, there's a lot of teams that are right there, just kind of teetering. I do think that Clemson is just about a lock. I can't say it officially. I don't totally trust Brownell still, but they have done a lot this year. So they should, assuming they don't have a complete meltdown, should make it in there. They have some good wins. I think the same about with Wake Forest as well. Even with the Notre Dame loss, they have had a really strong season. And as long as they don't completely embarrass themselves, they should also be in. And I think Virginia should also probably, they're still in the field. I think they should still be tracking towards getting in there. Obviously, they've had some tough games. They had a very tough stretch early in January, which that very much hurt them, where they got blown out by Notre Dame, blown out by NC State, which you hope that that won't come back to bite the cavaliers, but it could. But I do think that Virginia, they should be making it in there. They have a lot of talent still. They're one of the best coach teams still, even if it's very painful to watch them. The other teams to watch with Pitt, I think they still have an outside shot. They have Boston College, Florida State, and NC State left for the regular season, which is not a lot of great opportunities. But that should be three wins for them. If they can then make some noise in the ACC tournament, that could be a sixth team for the ACC. Past that, I just don't see anybody else making it. It's probably ACC championship or bust for the likes of Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and anyone else. But overall, I think the ACC is in a good position. They have a lot of chances to make some noise. And ACC always shows out in March. So despite whatever, when already any of them are saying, I think that the ACC should be still tracking comfortably to get five, six teams in the tournament. So next up, we're gonna go over our performers of the week. Obviously, we mentioned that none of us have Hunter Salas, but I think it is important to shout him out for an absolutely incredible game against Duke. But who do you guys have for your performances of the week? Yeah, I'll start with the easy one. I'll go RJ Davis against Miami. Not much more needs to be said about it. We kind of talked about it already. But the best game we've seen so far in the ACC, Davis absolutely carried UNC to the victory on Monday against Miami. He scored over half their point. Really all that needs to be said, ACC player of the year. I think this game absolutely locked it up for RJ. And he's gonna be the key piece for UNC as we enter into March. I'm gonna go with Judah Mintz. Judah's been a little inconsistent this year. I don't think he's taken a step that he could have had the potential to have from last season. He's essentially almost been the same player. But on Tuesday, we got the best version of him. Playing over 40 minutes, he scores 29 points, 10 of 17 from the floor. 8 of 8 from the free throw line. He dishes out six assists and has three steals. You saw a lot of the upside attacking the basket. Pretty easily making some really fantastic layups. And again, super efficient from the free throw line, which him getting to the line as much as he does, he should be making all of his free throws, which he did on Tuesday. And I think he's certainly the X factor for this Orange team. Whether we get the best version of him driving to the lane and scoring at every attack he does. Or becoming a distributor, kind of in the background, setting up his teammates like Starling and Bell. I think if we get a little bit more of that balance between those two versions of him, he's a really dangerous player. And especially moving forward for an Orange squad that's really kind of found a groove offensively. Absolutely, both players had phenomenal performances. And it's pretty tough to argue against Davis especially, but for my player of the week, it is Marcus Burton from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Who we haven't gotten to talk about them a whole lot, but Burton had an absolute monster game against Wake Forest. He was the reason they were able to pull that upset off. He was a force on both ends of the court, 31 points off of 9 of 15 shooting. A lot of that was coming inside the paint driving. He also did a great job at the line, 11 for 11. But defensively, that was where I noticed that he also had a huge impact. Racking up four steals, which as an individual player, that is incredible to have that. He did pick up four personal fouls in the process, but he was an absolute monster. Did some good work on the boards as well. So an all-round stat-stuffing game for Marcus Burton, and he leads the Fighting Irish to probably one of their two best wins, along with the win over Virginia. So hats off to him, what an incredible performance for Burton. Next up, our buying stock, what teams do we think could have their stock profile rise a lot during the ACC tournament? Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with Clemson, because even though I think they locked up a spot in the tournament, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a run and won the ACC tournament. Tony, I know you like to say, no, we should never trust Brad Brownell. But Clemson has now won six of the last seven. Could argue they're one of the hottest teams in the ACC right now, after beating UNC earlier this month. Joseph Gerrard, PJ Hall, both been playing really well. And this Clemson team, they make a run in the ACC tournament, which I think they will. They can rise, I think, as high as a three seed in the NCAA tournament, and enter that sleeper conversation for the national championship. So they will be a team that I'm watching out for the most, and one that I think can really improve their stock and their outlook nationally, if they make a deep run in the ACC tournament. I'm gonna say Pitt, and we kind of really were down on Pitt after they had started this ACC play, one and seven. But then they go on to run a game, and I know they beat Duke, and they've been kind of on a roll since. They were on a five game winning streak at one point, beating a team like Lake Forest, beating Virginia on the run at John Paul Jones Arena. Blake Kimson's been a first team all ACC player, and when he's on, he is on. Of course, he had that 41 point performance against Louisville. And I think Pitt really has the chance, because I think they're not a bad team on paper, as well, because they have guys like Carleton Carrington, Ishmael Leggett, Jarlon Lowe's been a really underrated freshman guard in the ACC this year. They had that pretty deflating loss against Lake Forest recently, and of course, losing to Clemson a couple nights ago. And the schedule isn't that strong in my eyes, but I think if they went out those last couple of games, which I think they definitely could, they could get a decent spot in the ACC tournament where they could match up with a team like Duke in the quarter finals. And I think that if Pitt wins that game, their stock can increase even bigger than it already is. I think that Pitt's kind of being slept on as a team that can make a run in the ACC tournament right now, and I think they have talent. I think if Blake Kimson gets hot, I think this Pitt team could go pretty far, could go honestly pretty far. Maybe a Virginia Tech type run from 2021, I don't know, but I think they do have the capabilities, and I think Capo's gotten better as a coach this year, they've gotten better as a team overall as the season's gone along. After a really slow start, so I think we should be buying stock into the Pitt Panthers, making a decently enough deep run in the tournament, in the ACC tournament. Absolutely, and for both teams, it'll be very important both to make the tournament, but also for seeding to have good runs in the ACC tournament. I'm gonna go off the beaten path here, and I'm gonna go with the team who is not gonna be playing in the NCAA tournament, but they are a team that is on the rise, and that is Boston College, which I know, it sounds crazy, it's Boston College, they suck at everything, right? But I think they really have an opportunity to make some noise, and it all starts with their star big man, Quentin Post, who he has been a force for them this year, 16 points per game, eight rebounds per game, and he's a very dangerous player, where not only can he score inside, he can shoot the three ball very well, shoots it at about 43%. So very excited to see him on an elevated stage. You look at the rest of their team, Jayden Zachary, their guard is very talented on both ends. Very good distributor in basketball, also averages two steals per game. So watch for the Boston College Eagles, who they have quietly been getting better as the season is going on. They had a very close game with Virginia, who they put up 68 points on them, which sounds like just kind of an average amount, but against Virginia, that is impressive. Virginia is a team that will hold you in the 40s, even the 30s in the case of Miami, so very interested to see what Boston College can do. They also have a pretty manageable stretch at the end of the season. Obviously, they have to play Pitt, but then they get Miami and Louisville to end the season, so they could be heading into the ACC tournament with some momentum. And a chance to maybe win two or three games in the ACC tournament and set up some momentum for next season. Next up, we have our all-conference first team ACC teams. Who do you all have for this? I'm going to go with some pretty easy picks. RJ Davis is definitely one, he's going to be the conference player of the year. That should be a pretty easy one. PJ Hall, who's arguably going to be an All-American this year and would be the ACC player of the year if RJ Davis didn't exist. Then we got Hunter Salas, the other guy, I think he's been, again, really good, really elevated this Lake Forest team and Seahawks, which is a great buy for a guy that really played at Gonzaga. Then for my fourth pick, I'm going to go Blake Henson. I just think that he's been the X-Fact, he's one of the more important players for a team in the ACC this year. And him for Pitt, he just elevates this team. And I think that, despite his age, I think he's really improved his NBA draft profile, ironically enough. And if he can really continue to be, and if he can, again, if he gets really hot at the end of this year, I think Pitt has the potential to make a run in the ACC tournament. Maybe not get into the actual NCAA tournament, but NIT is a possibility for them. And I think, again, Henson, when he's hot, he's hot. He's one of the most dangerous players in the conference. And my fifth spot, I wasn't sure where to go to. I guess Armando Baycott, classic pick. He's what UNC has wanted inside the past couple of years. Just a leader, does everything, he does everything so well inside. I don't know if it's been his best season, but I think it's still been really good for him. A lot of good ACC big men. I think Baycott just stretches in for the fifth spot, because I think there's honestly could be a lot more candidates. I mentioned Quinton Post, I mentioned North Chad O'Neill. Those guys just missed out, just because I guess I prefer experience for a guy like Baycott, who's been just a steady presence for Carolina the past couple years. Yeah, like you mentioned, I think four guys, two guards, two forwards are close to locks for all conference first team. RJ will be there, no questions asked. I also like Salas, Hall, and Henson to be there as well. That's the last spot. Like you said, that's why I think it's up for debate. If I had a choice, I would go with North Chad O'Meara. Maybe it's the recency bias, because I just watched him tear up UNC on Monday. But you look at a number, six and points per game, second and rebounds per game, second and field goal percentage, defensive end, ninth and steals. It's close and definitely could go to a guy like Armando. I think he deserves that last spot for what he's done for this Miami team. In an otherwise disappointing year for Miami, he's been by far their best player. And I think, in my opinion, the third best forward in the ACC. Absolutely, I think you guys hit the nail on the head. There's four pretty much locks, like you guys mentioned, with Davis, Salas, Henson, and Hall. And then that fifth spot is very much up for grabs. I wrestled with a lot of different candidates for this. Thought about Baycott, thought about Post, thought about O'Meara. But I ended up going with a guy who has been probably the best defender in the ACC. One of the best defenders in the entire country. And that's Virginia's Ryan Dunn, who, his stats, they don't pop off immediately. They don't stand out as, wow, this is an all ACC player. But if you just watch him play, he has that ability to lock up any player in the country. He's a projected first round pick. He's the type of player who you just want on your team, because he makes plays happen defensively. Very excellent on the wing. Does a great job both blocking and stealing shots. One of the most efficient players by the metrics defensively. Offensively, his game is lacking a little bit. He needs to put some work in there. But that's everybody that plays in Virginia. But for Ryan Dunn, he is, in my opinion, the defensive player of the year. And when you have a player that great on defense, it's hard to ignore that. And so for me, that is who I'm going with for the fifth spot on my all ACC team. Next up, the games of the week. We're coming down the stretch. What are the top games for ACC basketball fans to watch this week? Yeah, I'm going to go with two games this week. And that is the two triangle rivalry matchups that we'll see on Saturday and Monday. NC State travels to UNC first on Saturday. And again, I think we'll be much closer than people might expect. State has played UNC really well recently, and I think that will continue. And then Duke travels to Raleigh on Monday in a place that is never easy to play, especially in a rivalry game. So I'm looking forward to both these contests. Anytime these three teams meet, they're going to get a good game. I know Duke and UNC is coming up next week, but we have two North Carolina rivalry matchups to enjoy this week. Yeah, I'm going to go with Virginia and Duke this upcoming Saturday. It's a big game, really, for Virginia. It's not really a must win as of right now, but I think a loss by a lot could pummel Virginia down a lot in the field right now. Like I said, they're probably around a 10 seed right now, but a loss could drop them to last four in, potentially. Even though I think that even if a big loss like that, I don't think they'll be totally in trouble. It's a good Duke team, and you shouldn't be that punished for losing to a really good captain team in the country that's not doing well. Captain team in the country like Duke. But Virginia just really needs to show why they're in the field right now, and I still think they really need to get a really good win. Because right now, honestly, on their resume, they don't have a great win over a great team, per se. It's a really good team. They beat Texas A&M earlier, but A&M's kind of disappointed this year. I feel like a win's really huge for them. A loss doesn't totally hurt them, but depending on how much they lose, they could just pummel it even further down the field. That's not what you want, especially at this point of the year with March beginning. Only two games left, and you don't want to look ahead to the ACC tournament. You want to focus in now against a really good team like Duke. So give me this game. I really just need to see anything from Virginia, especially offensively, but I doubt we'll see that coming, especially in a rapid environment like Cameron and Dorr. Absolutely. The Virginia-Duke game should be one of the best of the season, potentially. I can't get there with the two NC State games. It's an NC State team that is going downhill fast. If y'all remember back in the day when Mark Godfrey was at NC State, his last season, Carolina hung a 50-point, I think it was 51-point win. That's the kind of game I'm expecting. And then maybe they'll keep it under 40 against Duke. I don't know. But for me, my game of the week is a CW special. It's a game that is going to be critical for the bubble watch, and that is Wake Forest at Virginia Tech. Obviously, Virginia Tech is the long shot to make the tournament at this point, but Wake Forest hopes are still alive, but they're going to have to show something probably after that Notre Dame loss. This will be a critical game for them. It'll be in Castle, which is obviously a very tough place to play, very rabid fans in there. So it'll be a challenge for the Dekes, but I do think that they can get it done. I think it'll be a very competitive game. We've seen a lot of great games on the CW. It always brings chaos. So definitely want to check that one out. And then for Virginia Tech, you're mainly playing for pride at this point, but they're a team that has shown that they do not quit. They've shown that they have the power to hang with good teams. Obviously, we saw their 30-point shellacking over Virginia, and that was also in Castle. So watch out, Dekes. It's going to be a tough game. I do think Wake Forest ultimately comes away with a narrow dub in that one, though. That will about wrap it up for us, though. Thank you to everyone for listening this week. We'll be back again next week.