Inside the ACC- Football Wrap Up, Conference Play Heating Up In Basketball

The podcast discusses two football matchups in the ACC. The first is Louisville's loss to USC in the Holiday Bowl, where their defense struggled against USC's backup quarterback. Despite a disappointing end to the season, Louisville had a successful overall season and has a bright future. The second matchup is Virginia Tech's win over Tulane in the military bowl. Virginia Tech had a strong season, finishing with more conference wins than Clemson and showing promise for the future. Welcome to Inside the ACC. I'm Noah Teague from Technician Sports joined today by Brendan Longo from the Daily Tar Heel and Troy Jhun from Citrus TV. Welcome back. It is a new year but we are still here transitioning from a lot of football content to more men's basketball content in the ACC. We're also going to wrap up our final thoughts on the 2023 football season. But first off, how are you guys doing tonight? Doing great. Good to be back. Good to be back. Ready to talk some more football and some basketball. Absolutely. Well, we will start with football where the ACC had several teams compete in both season with a lot of high profile matchups. And we'll start with one of those with Louisville in the Holiday Bowl taking on USC. Obviously, they were without Caleb Williams. He had opted out but a legend was born for the Trojans in quarterback Miller Moss really diced up the Cardinals. What are your overall thoughts on this first matchup? Yeah, it was really just kind of a rough end to the year for Louisville. You know, we sort of knew or maybe guessed that some of their success early on in the season was in large part due to their slightly easier schedule. You know, I mean, you look at the end of the season, three straight losses for Louisville, including a rivalry loss to Kentucky, a really sloppy loss to Florida State in the ACC championship. And then I mentioned against a backup quarterback, really just a defensive disaster class in the Holiday Bowl. You know, Miller Moss, 372 yards, six touchdowns against this Louisville defense, the touchdowns, Holiday Bowl record and the most by a quarterback in his first start for USC. Louisville's offense had a good day, but you know, obviously, which is better than the ACC championship. But when you look, you're playing against that USC defense, which has just been really bad. Last couple years, you would have liked to see a little bit more. Plummer just 141 yards passing. Isaac Arendo had a big game without Jordan in the lineup. I hesitate to say at the end of the season was, you know, a failure for the Cardinals. But when you look at it, you know, starting the season 10 and 1, and then you lose a rivalry game and then two games with a trophy on the line in both. It definitely leaves, I think, a bad taste in the mouth of Cardinals fans. But you still, you know, you look at it, top 20 finish. I think the future is bright for Louisville with Jeff Braum at the helm. Yeah, I think the expectations just rose continually as season went on. It exceeded anyone's expectations really for Jeff Braum in his first season. Again, like Brennan said, it was a little disappointing at the end with those three straight losses. Just take a look at how their offenses just didn't put up enough against a pretty bad USC defense, one of the worst defenses I have ever seen. Like 28 points just doesn't feel enough against the USC defense, surprisingly, where against any other defense, that could be enough. But against USC's defense, surprisingly, you got to put up at least like 42 again, then you have a chance to win. But, you know, Plummer only threw 141 passing yards. They mainly ran on the ground with Berenzo with 161 rushing yards and three touchdowns, but also their leading receiver. But to get diced up by a sophomore quarterback in his first ever start, like, this kind of leaves a lot to be desired, especially for Louisville, who had a legit chance to make, if they had won the ACC championship and hadn't lost to Kentucky at the end of the season, you know, maybe this is a college football playoff team. They're in the conversation, definitely. Maybe not, maybe not exactly a college football team like FSU would have been if they had Travis or if they wouldn't have had Travis, whatever, they would have definitely been in that conversation if they had won the ACC championship game. But like the motivation just seems to ran off in the last few weeks of the year. So a little disappointing, but overall, I would say a very good season for the Cardinals overall. Absolutely. I don't know if they would get in the playoff because ESPN really likes their buddy Alabama, and they always want to see him there. But they definitely had a great case, especially with wins over Notre Dame, you know, and if they could have closed the season strong, that would have been huge for that program. Could have finished top 10 if they had been a Kentucky team, which they look better than all season long and just turned into bad performance, bad night against Florida State. And then, you know, just really struggled to keep up with USC. I think one of the big things, at least my takeaways, was they really missed Jamari Thrash because having him in the lineup, he was a huge piece for them. They knew that when things were struggling, they could get him the ball and he would make a play. They didn't have that. And you could tell that even though they put up points on USC's defense, literally everyone did. I mean, Cal did it. Like, it is pretty much playing against air when you play USC. So for them to only come away with, well, like 28 points, that's not the best ending for Louisville. And then the defense giving up 42 against Miller Moss and this revamped USC offense that lost lots of opt-outs as well. It's a disappointing way to end the season. But if you take a step back and you look at it, if you were to ask Louisville fans in year one under Jeff Braum, would you take winning double-digit games, going to Charlotte for the ACC championship, beating Notre Dame, that would have been all yeses for all of those. So it's definitely still a successful season for the Cardinals. So they have a lot to be proud of and not too difficult of a schedule coming up next year as well. So definitely a chance to build on that momentum. On a more positive note for the ACC, though, Virginia Tech got maybe the ACC signature win in bowl season, beating a two-lane team that is very talented that had a lot of success this season. What did you guys see in the military bowl from the Hokies? Yeah, this two-lane team didn't have exactly their best players. Michael Pratt had opted out of the game. They're starting quarterback. Their head coach Willie Fritz is off to Houston to coach for them in the Big 12 next year. Most of their coaching staff also left as well. So this wasn't exactly the most perfect two-lane team. This is still an 11-win team that hosted the American Championship game, a team that beat USC last year in the Cotton Bowl, and they came up short in the American Championship game at SMU. But still, this is a really solid team. I felt like this was a mismatch, despite two-lane missing all their talent and their coach. But in what was a really horrendous game weather-wise, Virginia Tech just played really well. They had two guys rush for over 130 yards. Kyron Jones, their quarterback, had 176 rushing yards. Tootin had 136 in two touchdowns. He just pounded the ball on the ground. Two-lane just seemed to have no answer. And if you're Virginia Tech, you're absolutely taking this. A seven-win season, five wins in the ACC, which was good for a tie for fourth in the conference. You finished with more conference wins than Clemson this year. And that's a big achievement for Virginia Tech, a team that's been on the rise trying to get back to relevance in this conference after being a respectable eight-win program just a couple years ago. And then once they drag the program down, then pride comes in and they're back on the rise again. And I think this is a team that, again, could finish inside the top five in the ACC if they get some transfers in and they stick with drones, because the switch to drones at quarterback was really successful this year for the Hokies. And it really changed their season. That's why they won this bowl game over an aggregate two-lane team. Yeah, what a season for Virginia Tech. They came into the season, picked the finish near the bottom of the ACC. Brent Prye a little bit on the hot seat coming into the year. But then, you know, Virginia Tech, they become bowl eligible on the last day of the season against their rival. And like you mentioned, you know, this two-lane team had a lot of opt-outs, but this is still a really solid team. And you mentioned Kyra Jones. I think that has just been, he has been the biggest revelation for this Virginia Tech team this season. You mentioned on the ground, 176 yards rushing and a touchdown. And then, you know, two touchdowns in the air and no picks. When you don't turn the ball over, you have a much better shot at winning these games. The redshirt sophomore, Jones, was a transfer from Baylor, came in, has really turned into, I think, one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the ACC. And with him on the center, I think the Hokies can make some noise next year. Future bright, I would say, in Blacksburg. And really just a great way to end the season against two lanes. Absolutely. I would definitely echo that sentiment. You know, kind of like what I talked about with Louisville, where if you looked at their season, would you take it in the big picture? I think the same thing is true with Virginia Tech. They were one of the teams that was viewed as a bottom-tier team at the beginning of the season. A lot of people figured, you know, they'd be right down there with the Cavaliers at the bottom of the conference. And they started out rough. It didn't look pretty. But as the year went on, it got better. We really started to see this team take on Brent Price's identity. You know, they're a hard-nosed, tough, physical team. They're great running the ball, both in the running game, but also with the QB run. And, you know, Kyron Jones, fingers crossed, should be back next season. And so there's a lot of optimism, I think, in Blacksburg, because you look at this team, they've established an identity. They have a head coach that they can believe in. They have some players now. And it's really exciting to see the Hokies finally come back. They're one of those teams where you always expect them to eventually come back. And I know that in 2024, if they are back, Lane Stadium will be rocking. It'll be incredible in Blacksburg for them. So definitely a big-time win to get a win over Tulane, someone who was, you know, a fringe top-25 team for much of the season. And if they had beaten future ACC member SMU, they possibly could have had a New Year's Six. So big-time victory for Virginia Tech, even if Tulane was missing some players. The other pretty big win for the ACC came by way of Clemson. You know, they've carried this conference for several years. And once again, they showed that they are a really quality program by beating Kentucky. It was a wild game where it looked like Kentucky had them. They were up 21-10. It, you know, it seemed like, OK, the Wildcats, they're up. They're just going to run the ball and win this thing. But no, Clemson came back. They got a last-minute victory. What did you guys see from the Tigers in one of the more dramatic bowls? Yeah, it was all about really that fourth quarter. Kentucky entered the fourth quarter up 21-10, and then both teams really just exploded, you know, creating probably one of the most exciting games of the entire bowl season. In the end, it was really just Kentucky handing Clemson the game in a way after the Tigers scored a touchdown in the first play of the fourth quarter. Kentucky then turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions in plus territory, which the Tigers turned into 11 points. Phil Moffa in particular really shined in that last quarter, scoring three of his four touchdowns in the fourth. I mean, to be frank, defense was really just optional that entire fourth quarter for both teams. Really exciting, probably not for the defensive coordinators. Forty-two points in total scored between the two teams. Clemson scored the late touchdown to win the game. I'm sure Tiger fans not really that excited about a Gator Bowl victory after entering the season. Really, I think top 10 playoff aspirations. Exciting end to the year, though. Dabble, you could tell the team was really into the game, and we'll see where Clemson can go from here going into 2024. Yeah, it simply was one of the best bowls, the most throwing bowls of this bowl season. Moffa had four rushing touchdowns today. He's the back of power back to Shipley. Shipley only had 29 rushing yards in the entire day. He didn't really made an impact until he had a 60-yard kickoff return late in the fourth quarter. Moffa just took the rock, finished off a lot of drives for Clemson. Copley didn't even have to throw any touchdown passes, and that fourth quarter was, as you said, Brendan, really, really exciting. I thought that this game was kind of over because Kentucky just dominated, just quite literally had their grasp on this game with an 11-point lead coming into the fourth quarter, but then Clemson getting those three straight turnovers, just really big. It's good morale for Clemson. Still a failed season in terms of their standards for them, but if Dabble's team just decides that, hey, the transfer portal might be a useful tool, if you just get, I don't know, one or two transfers, and if they're game-changing, Clemson could still be contenders. They could still be contenders even if they don't get transfers, but it'd be a lot better. They'd be, for sure, top of the ACC if they can get huge transfers, but with SMU coming into the ACC, I think SMU has a chance to be a top-five team, especially if they keep their quarterback Preston Stone. So we'll see with Clemson, but I think it's a good win for them for now, especially for the morale and how low they were just the entire season. Absolutely. I'm right there with you. At one point, this team was 4-4, and there were questions about, okay, are they even going to make a bowl game? Because they had some pretty good teams coming up on the schedule with Notre Dame and North Carolina coming up, and so you were worried, like, okay, are they going to actually fall apart here down the stretch? Credit Clemson for really banding together, getting this thing right. They made sure to do all the things at the end that they needed to do. They got a five-game winning streak to end the season. They made sure to beat South Carolina to make sure that they didn't get a streak on them. They made sure to get a win in the bowl game to end with positive momentum, and one of the things that was cool about this to me was a lot of teams throw in the towel in bowl season, either jumping in the portal, opting out for the NFL, all of that, as we'll see with the next bowl we're going to talk about. Clemson didn't do that. You could tell that this team really genuinely cared, and I think that's credit to Dabo. He never lost this team. They kept fighting for each other. They kept fighting for him, and I think it sets them up really well for next year. They should be the favorites heading into next year with Fort State losing so much, with no clear contender to really challenge them and with all the positive momentum that they've built. Obviously, like you mentioned, it would be huge if they went in the portal, but Dabo's stuck in his ways, but he still has a very talented team. If Club Knit can take some more steps, if they can bring back some of these key pieces and keep developing them, then they could get back to that level of being a playoff contender, especially with the playoff expanding next season. Definitely a rough season for the Tigers, but one where I think there's the light at the end of the tunnel for them. Finally, the last bowl to talk about was, it did not look like real football here. It was like you took the NFL squad, the Chiefs, and you put them against a Pee Wee squad. That is what this game felt like, with Fort Estate dropping 63-3 against the Georgia Bulldogs. Yeah, so I think I had a friend at the game, and I think he tweeted once while in the game that this was just, what he was seeing was, what he imagined people sitting in their picnic baskets at a distance watching a Civil War battle, just where one side just totally overwhelms another. This is what the game felt like to me. I turned it up midway through the second quarter, because that's when it was like, Georgia scored 35 points in the second quarter, and I was just like, okay, let's drop this. This is pretty ridiculous. This has sparked even bigger debates about opt-outs. How do we control that? Because a ton of players opted out on both sides, really. Whether it was just injury-wise, or even the transfer portal for Georgia, and for Florida State, I think about over 25 players from Florida State dropped out of this game. Even if these 25 players, which included Jared Burris, even if these 25 players or so stayed for this game, and if Tate Rodenmaker was healthy enough for Florida State to play in this game, and they have to play Brock Glenn, would the result really be different? I'm not really sure. It just goes to show a lot more about Georgia and how consistent they were the entire season. They ran into an Alabama team that just wanted the SEC title more, it feels like, in my eyes. For Florida State, at least, again, we talked last podcast we had when the playoff rankings were released, I still would argue that Florida State should have been in the playoffs. Now, would that have guaranteed the great semifinal games that we got, eventually? No. But the way that the committee went through it still, it's still annoying to me. But congrats to the people who didn't want Florida State in the playoffs, because this was their wish the entire time, seeing them get crushed by 60. And sure, I'm not necessarily mad at that. I'm kind of mad, honestly, that Florida State didn't put up much fight. But when you get shipped like that, I feel like there's at least some sort of justification. But either way, there really isn't any other excuse to lose by 60 in a top 10 matchup between arguably the best SEC team and the best ACC team. You're supposed to shoot out and show why you're the best in the conference, at least. And that just didn't happen. And it happened in a really embarrassing way. And hopefully, Florida State, they just move past this, because they know that they weren't at full strength. But still, it's never good losing by 60 in football. Yeah, I mean, this is really just, there's not much to say about this game. Not only do they lose by 60, but you look at all the stats, 36 to 11 in first down, 673 to 209 total yards, 372 rushing yards versus 63, and four turnovers for Florida State to none from Georgia. I mean, it was just an absolute bloodbath. But I think the important thing that needs to be said, like you mentioned, Troy, Florida State still deserved to be in the college football playoff, regardless of the result. Florida State pretty much had their entire starting roster out, while Georgia was playing most of their guys. I think this was bound to be a blowout, maybe not a 60 point blowout, but it was always going to be a blowout. And the college playoff committee really did that to themselves with that Orange Bowl game. This was still an undefeated Power Five champ that deserved to be in the playoffs, regardless of the result against Georgia. Now, that does not mean that I agree completely with what Florida State did. I think this would have been a fantastic chance to prove to the committee that you really deserve to be in the playoffs. Maybe not by beating Georgia, but just by playing them close. Georgia kind of took that mentality when they came to the game, that they were going to prove that they deserve to be in the playoffs. Well, it really just seems like Florida State kind of just quit on the season once they weren't put into the Final Four. It kind of rubs me the wrong way, personally. I would have liked them to try to go out there and prove a point, but I still certainly do understand their frustration. They should have been in the playoffs, and this result did not change that. You know, I think you guys hit on the biggest thing in that this type of game, there's really not much you can take away from it. You know, I think it was 27 opt-outs for Florida State. They didn't have a player coming into this. Now, seeing them lose by 60, it was a little bit of a one where you look at it and you raise your eyebrows, like, what happened here? But, you know, there's not much to take about it, because this was Florida State's third stringers, you know, a lot of Georgia's backups. And so, there's really not much to take away from it. I think that, you know, regardless of this result, and I wasn't necessarily in favor of putting Florida State in the playoffs, but regardless of what happened in this game, it wasn't going to show whether they should have been in or not. Because, you know, at the end of the day, this information, this game was not available to the committee. And so, using this game to justify that is a bit unfair. And so, you know, I think you look at this game, you can't really take much from it. It's a tryout for a lot of these guys that are left on the roster. Not too many of them showed up for the tryouts. Some of the Georgia guys, probably did earn some minutes for next year. But there's really not much to take away from this, other than, you know, just kind of a broader look at college football. There were issues with the four-team playoff where, you know, teams get left out that, you know, had done everything that they should have, like a Georgia and a Florida State. You know, you look at all the opt-outs from here. So, there's a lot of things in this game that show the problems with college football in 2023. But in terms of what these teams are, there's just not much to take away from it. So, then moving on past the individual games, how do you guys summarize the entire ACC in bowl game for this season? Obviously, it wasn't necessarily the best results. They did get some good wins and a lot of not so good results as well. Yeah, after Florida State was snubbed for being a Power 5 undefeated champion, if the ACC was looking to make a statement to the committee, they just simply did not do that. I mean, there were some good games for the ACC. Georgia Tech beat a really solid UCF team. You know, we mentioned Virginia Tech. Boston College earning a very surprised win over probably what I think was the best group of five teams in SFU. Then you just have some very disappointing results mixed in there. Syracuse got absolutely smashed by a pretty bad USF team. Miami felt a Rutgers, a pretty middle-of-the-road Big 10 squad. NC State, you know, losing with a chance during a 10-win season. The Pop-Tarts Bowl, the Mayo Bowl, that's all I'm going to say about that game. Just a very mediocre performance for a conference that many now just see as mediocre. And I think many fear for the future of this conference. I don't think this full performance helps that whatsoever. It certainly left a lot to be desired in my eyes. Again, I was really happy for teams like Virginia Tech, Boston College getting wins that they probably shouldn't have gotten, but they got anyways. I've seen getting the massive statement win, but yeah, it's this other results are just a little disappointing. You know, I wish that Syracuse put up much more of a fight in their game against USF. Everyone was high off the Fran Brown train, but you know, 45-0. Then everyone was just like, okay, let's just forget about this game. I'm already ready for... And then the next day, we're already scouting potential transfers and recruits they could get, which they're already in a lot of battles for four stars already, which is insane to think about. But anyways, the performances from other ACC schools, again, that's a lot to be desired. I wish there was just a little more fight, and I get a lot of teams like North Carolina, they didn't have Drake Bay, so obviously, they weren't giving much of a fight against West Virginia, but still, you wish that there was something that they showed. You wish that Syracuse showed something. You wish that Florida State absolutely put up a fight against Georgia. They absolutely could with their best players, but right now, it was just an overall mediocre season for the ACC. And again, with the way this conference is trending right now, it was plateauing right now, but now it's slowly going down, and I'm not sure where it's going to stop. You know, I'm with that. It's a disappointing bowl season for sure. A lot of the top-level teams that really carry the ACC, they crapped the bed. Obviously, Florida State, they had no prayer, but at least keep it under 50, please. Under 50 next time. NC State, you had a chance to get to 10 wins, get a big win against a team that is missing a lot of players, starting a true freshman quarterback. Your offense reverts back to what it was the first half of the season and can't do anything outside of a fake punt. North Carolina, you know, missing Drake May, and so that was a big loss for them, but still in your home state, getting run out of the building. Louisville, letting a USC defense actually make some plays against you when they haven't done anything all season. So, you know, you look at all these teams that have carried the banner for the ACC, and none of them besides Clemson really did much. Obviously, some of the lower-tier teams did get some stuff done, like you mentioned, but, you know, overall, I think the conference needs to do better for next season and for next bowl season if it wants to be taken seriously. So then moving on from the ACC bowl games, let's move into basketball, where I think the ACC is doing a little bit better. So we'll start with some of the past games from this week. Obviously, some big wins. Kenny Payne got his first Rogue win as head coach of the Cardinals. UNC got not one, but two very good wins on the road, as well as some other games. I'll start with you, Brendan. What did you have for best game of the week? Yeah, I'm going to go with UNC with one of those games. UNC over NC State yesterday. Both teams entered this game undefeated in conference play, so the winner was going to take that top spot in the standings. Some, you know, some might call this a rivalry game. Mainly, it's the people from Raleigh. It's a place in PNC Arena where State won last year. So really, from the NC State perspective, I think you could really call that a winning streak at home, one game, when you look at the history of this quote-unquote rivalry. But needless to say, you know, UNC won yesterday. Harrison Ingram, nine points, 19 rebounds. R.J. Davis and L.A. Kiddo, both also in double figures. Once UNC kind of figured out how to play against D.J. Burrs down low, the game started to pull away. NC State really couldn't hit a three if their lives depended on it. But, you know, in all seriousness, this UNC team is starting to look very scary. I don't think, I don't know if the inside the ACC football curse is going to transfer over to basketball. But I think UNC is a top five team in the country right now, and I see maybe one loss on the schedule before they play Duke in early February. Yeah, I want to dig into a little bit more about the Louisville over Miami. Again, it's Kenny Payne's first road win in a year and a half of coaching, which is kind of crazy to me. This is a Miami team that made the Final Four last year. They retained most of the core they had, like NoChad Omir, Luka Poplar, Nigel Pack, and Miami did not score the last three minutes and 17 seconds of this game. Louisville just calmly hit their free throws, played some timely defense. They outscored Miami 43-30 in the second half. Brandon Huckley-Hatfield had a big game. He had 22 points. Mike James had 26 points. This is a Louisville team that didn't really get much production outside of those two players. But, you know, like for Kenny Payne this year, yes, it's been pretty embarrassing, some of their losses this year. But honestly, they haven't played terribly this year in terms of just the talent they have. Their talent they've had this year is a little bit better than they've had last year. I think there's some minor signs of progression for Louisville this year. They're still not, they're still far away from being a good basketball team, obviously. And as we'll talk about later, I still think they'll finish bottom of the ACC. But, you know, it's been terrible, but I feel like it could be a lot worse than it's already been. I mean, like they almost lost to Bellmarine. They barely beat New Mexico State. Imagine if they had lost those two games. So I think Louisville would be more of a laughingstock than they are right now. Right now they're just, to me, like, they're just pretty bad right now. If they have another embarrassing loss, like, yeah, we'll go back to laughingstock. But like, they're not quite there to the levels that they were last year, for me, at least. They're slightly better than they were last year. But that's not saying much, right? It's Louisville. It's Kenny Payne. So we'll see. Hey, we'll see. Kenny Payne, he's on a winning streak now. We'll see if he can win more than one game in a row. But for me, my biggest game of the week, obviously, there were some great ones to pick from. We didn't talk about the UNC win at Clemson. That's a tough place to play. Huge win for Carolina getting that one. But I'm gonna go with Florida State beating Wake to get to 3-1 in ACC play. And this was a team where last season was really disappointing for them. They come into this year, they're stumbling around. And, you know, it was kind of a little bit like, OK, is this going to be the same deal as last year, where it's just another bad season? But lo and behold, we get four games into conference play. Florida State's now 3-1. And Wake has been a really good basketball team. They've gotten some nice wins. They started out very hot. They were on about a seven or eight game winning streak before they ran into the Noles. And so to get this win is huge for Leonard Hamilton and for Florida State. They get a win where, you know, I'm not saying they're going to be in the tournament or anything now, but it's a really quality win that they can build off of. They have a nice winning streak. And you can start to look towards later in the season and they'll have games that actually have meaning. They'll have a chance to compete for a postseason, whether that's the actual NCAA tournament, the NIT, we'll see. But Florida State, really nice win against the Demon Deacons. Then moving on to the most impressive player performance of the week. What'd y'all have for this one? Yeah, I'm going to take Sean Padula in a ranked win over Clemson. How about 32 points and seven assists for the junior guard, breaking a career high in points that he had tied just the game before against Florida State. This man went a whopping six for 10 from behind the three-point arc. He really led Virginia Tech to what I think was a statement win for the Hokies after two tough losses to good Wake and FSU teams. It kind of stopped them bleeding a little bit and put them right in the middle of the pack for the ACC. I think this is a really solid Virginia Tech team that could cause problems for some of the top teams in the conference. I think Padula is one of the main reasons for that. Yeah, I'm going to go with my guy, Malik Brown, who has been one of the best bench players in the country this year. In his last five games, he's been in double figures. This past game, yesterday, Junemans didn't start for whatever reason. Naheem McLeod was out with an injury, so Brown and Claudia Koepping had insurance to the lineup. Malik Brown just wrecked. I think he's all over the place. 19 points, eight rebounds. He gets four assists, four blocks, and four steals to contribute to a Syracuse 10-point win. He had 17 steals as a team. Malik Brown is an amazing player for his size. He's only 6'8". When he averages around just under six rebounds a game, he's scored in double digits in five straight games. He had 26 points against Duke, which arguably is an even better performance than the one he had yesterday. In a game where Syracuse didn't play Mints off the bench, Chris Bell was really good, but they struggled offensively with turnovers and getting out-rebounded again. Malik Brown makes a couple of clutch dunks. He beats the Nation in true shooting percentage. He's a really good player. I've said it before, since last year, when he first started getting minutes, he can be a key contributor for this Orange team for a long time. Again, only a sophomore. With Naheem McLeod, I think they've said he's out for the season. He can finally get to certain minutes he's deserved for such a long time. I think he might be the difference maker for if the Orange can make a push to the tournament because right now they're way out of it, but with a solid record right now. With a chance against North Carolina on Saturday, that's a chance for a big upset win for the Orange. I know there's disappointment again, but Malik Brown, a chance for a big game on a national stage against a really good North Carolina team. I'm really excited to see how he plays because I think he might be one of the more underrated players in the conference right now. For sure. For me, it's got to be Kyle Filipowski going on the road at Pitt who is certainly not the same team that they were last year, but what a performance that he had for them. He put up 26 points, shooting 91.7% from the field. Absolutely just unreal numbers for Filipowski. His final shooting from the field, 11 of 12 when you only have one miss. That is really, really impressive, but he didn't just get the points. He also got 10 boards to secure the double-double. All around, it was a great performance from Filipowski. Pitt really had no answer for him and he's a big part of that big Duke win where, you know, Pitt packed the place out. It was rocking and Filipowski just shut that crowd right up. Got the Blue Devils, another win, so really impressive job by him. The only real knock you can have on him from this game was the turnovers, but it just kind of comes with the territory when you have the ball in your hand so much as he did, but huge day from the Duke big man. Next up, we're going to go to some more big picture things, and so we'll go with who finishes last in the ACC this year. We've seen all the teams play a little bit. Seeing, okay, who has some players, who doesn't, and so who are we thinking ends up at the bottom of the standings? It has to be Notre Dame, and I know they've picked up actually a couple of wins in ACC play, too, exactly in their first five games. They beat Virginia surprisingly at home by 22 points. They only lost by eight at home to Duke. They only lost by two to NC State, and they just beat Georgia Tech on their own in overtime, so exactly not a bad start for Notre Dame in ACC play, especially considering that they lost by 10 to Western Carolina and by 20 to the Citadel at home in both of those games in non-conference play, so it's at least not a bad start overall for them, but the reason why I'm thinking they're last in the ACC is because they just simply don't really have a lot of talent overall. Their best player is a freshman, Marcus Burton, who's been pretty solid, all things considered, averaging close to 16 points a game. He's been one of the better scoring guards as a freshman in the ACC right now, but other than that, you don't really have that much talent. You have Micah Shrewsbury, Kid Brayden. You have Tate Average. You have Julian Roper, Kerry Booth, Kevin Bichet, and then the bench is just not a lot of intriguing options. It's just not a very good roster overall, and I think Shrewsbury is punching above his weight a little bit in these first five games, sorry, and they'll come crashing back down to earth eventually for me, and I just don't think that compared to Louisville's roster, they're better than even Louisville and Kenny Payne, and I think Shrewsbury eventually will be a really good coach in this league. He was really good for Penn State last year especially, but right now, the way the roster's constructed, I can't see Notre Dame winning more than five games this year. If they get over five, I'll actually be pretty surprised, but I can't see them finishing higher than last right now. Yeah, I'm going to pick one of the teams that Notre Dame, as you mentioned, has beaten. Even Georgia Tech, two losses. The one loss is Notre Dame and also a loss against a bad BC team. That's BC's only winning conference play. It's also against Georgia Tech. Damon Sotomayor's first season as head coach in Atlanta. I can't really blame him for being as bad as they are, but you just can't be giving up 95 points to BC and expect to win very many ACC games. They're sitting at one and three right now in the conference. I don't really see them picking up much more than two or three wins the rest of the year. I think the battle for the bottom spot in the conference might be just as exciting as who's going to win the ACC, but I think in the end, the Yellow Jackets will win the ACC Toilet Bowl and finish the season at the bottom of the conference. For sure, Georgia Tech, they're not a good team at all this year, but I mean, we got to remember the fighting Kenny Payne's are still in the ACC. They are still absolutely horrific. It was a tremendous win for Louisville to beat Miami, but from what we've seen under Kenny Payne, this Louisville team, they are not good at just about anything. They have not been able to show much of anything during his time there. They have not been disciplined. They haven't been able to put up too many points. They haven't been able to stop people. I mean, it's just been bad everywhere you look for Louisville, and so to expect them to now, because one game, build off of that and to have this impressive season where they're able to start to compete, I just don't see it with them. Hats off to them. They got a tremendous win against Miami, but I just don't see it with them when you look at the totality of what Kenny Payne has been, and so I think this team ends up falling back to earth, probably going to crash. We'll see. Maybe they pick up a win this weekend over an NC State team that has gone icy, icy cold, but Louisville's not good. They're horrible, and they're going to finish at the bottom of the conference once again. So then moving on to, you know, who is kind of struggling a little bit that needs to pick up the pace in conference play, maybe not at the bottom of the conference, but a team that needs to get their act together so they can maybe make the tournament. Yeah, I want to do my best Brian Windhorse impression for what's going on in Miami, you know, an early win against Notre Dame, then another win against a good Clemson team starting off the conference play 2-0, but just the last two games, you know, a close loss to Wake, and then really, I think as we mentioned, just an inexcusable nine-point loss to Louisville yesterday, which gives them their first ACC win of the season. I mean, Noah just mentioned how bad this Louisville team is. You just cannot be losing to some of these bottom-of-the-barrel ACC teams if you're looking to make you run at a double-by in the tournament later in the year. This is a team that I'd pick to win the ACC, which we'll talk about a little bit more later. I mean, that could still happen, but they just have to pick up the pace. You have two tough games upcoming, a road contest against Virginia Tech on Saturday, and then a game against Florida State on Wednesday. If Miami doesn't turn this around soon, it could be a long season of ACC play for the Hurricanes. I'm going to go with Virginia, who I was a big fan of earlier this season. They had beaten the really good Texas A&M team, which was top 15 in the country at that point. They had beaten Syracuse, and it was right before their matchup against a good Memphis team. They lost on the road by 23, and then their first, their second game in ACC play, they lose to Virginia, sorry, they lose to Notre Dame on the road by 22 points. I mean, how do you let that happen? And then they lose to NCC on the road again by 16 points. It hasn't been a very impressive slate so far for Louisville in their last five games. And I'm looking at that game on Saturday against Wake Forest, a good Wake Forest team, by the way, and Virginia really needs to lock down and play their style of basketball and find any source of offense, really. They're a great defensive basketball team, but can they find any sort of production consistently besides Isaac McNeely outside three points? And can Ryan Dunn become a little bit more of a scorer? Can Reece Beekman really step up as their outlaw on offense? Gansu Rhodes, a really good transfer from St. Thomas, step up from his 5.8 points per game, because I know he's not capable of just that. He averaged like 17 points a game last year as a freshman in the Summit League. Need Virginia to really pick up the pace because after how their season ended last year, Tony Bennett just needs to make some sort of run this year, or I don't know about his job. His job is pretty safe, but we need to have some conversations about that sooner rather than later. But Virginia, a big win against Wake Forest can really change it, but that's kind of a big game for them and really for Wake Forest as well. Could be the turning point for both those teams' season. Absolutely. I think you guys both hit the nail on the head, obviously, with Miami. Don't lose to Kenny Payne. Just don't if you want to stick around. And then with Virginia, it's been a tough start for them, and I think we're seeing a little bit kind of like what Clemson is going through in football where, obviously, Tony Bennett isn't quite as behind the times as Dabo, but they've been very slow to adapt in the NIL portal era, and we're starting to see that really affect them where now Carolina, Duke, Miami, Clemson, all these teams are moving past Virginia, even if they're struggling at times. And so I think we're seeing a moment of a fork in the road for Virginia, but my team that really needs to pick it up is Clemson, who they started out as one of the hottest teams in the country, beating teams left and right, and you thought, okay, this Clemson team, they might be a real contender for the ACC. They beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Phenomenal win. They beat what had been a previously unbeaten South Carolina team, and then you get into conference play, and it just starts slipping up. They fell to Miami. They had a very respectable loss to Carolina, and then they get beat by 15 at Virginia Tech, and as these losses start to pile up, you start to get really worried about this team and that, you know, is Brad Brown now starting to pull a Brad Brown O, where things look good for a while, and then they just get flipped upside down, and that's what we're starting to see, a one-in-three start in conference play for Clemson. Obviously, things will get easier with BC, George Tech at home for both of those easy opponents. Should be wins, but definitely a very rocky start for the Tigers, and if they want to make the tournament, you know, they're going to have to start winning some of these signature games. Obviously, last year, it was the bad losses that kept them out, but they've avoided that, but now they're missing the signature wins, and they're going to have to start winning. I have January 27th circled for them. When they go to Cameron, that's their next chance to get a big win, and I really want to see Clemson show some signs of life against a really good ACC team, because otherwise, you know, it's going to be the same as last year, where they're right there on the bubble come March, and so we'll see what they do, but they definitely need to pick it up if they have higher aspirations than the NIT. Moving on, our conference championship picks that we made at the beginning of the year, how are we feeling on them? Are we wavering in, or are we keeping with them? Yeah, I kind of spoiled my pick here, but very much of my conference championship pick changed. I think the two best teams in the ACC right now are fittingly Duke and UNC. Duke obviously stumbled early and has now started to find stride, and UNC, man, the offensive weapons are obvious, I think, but the transfers that Coach Davis brought in, whether that be a Cormac Ryan or a Jalen Withers, you know, they really have improved this defense. In the last three games, all three of their conference opponents have scored in the 50s, and that's going to win you a lot of ACC games. If I had to pick right now, I think I'd lean towards UNC, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's either team's hoisting the ACC trophy at the end of the year. Yeah, I think it had Duke winning the ACC originally. I don't think I'm going to change my pick, but it could very soon, but Duke having one random loss to Georgia Tech on their schedule and in their losses against a team like Arkansas and Arizona, come out a little bit fast. There's been just some games where they got off to slower starts before picking it up. I'm thinking about the Baylor and Syracuse games off the top of my head. They barely beat Notre Dame on the road by 8. Their win against Pitt recently, big statement when they needed that. I still think they have the most, I still think besides North Carolina, they have the most talent on the roster in the ACC. I just need to see guys like Tyrese Proctor, who's just coming back from injury, pick it up a little bit. Mark Mitchell, though, is finally coming into his own. Jared McCain is a really good freshman. Roach and Filipowski, of course, more veterans on this team. I think Duke, again, they have the depth. They have the starting five. I don't see it changing, but when they match up against North Carolina eventually in early February, that's going to be a big tilt to decide who will win the regular season title. Absolutely. I think the ACC title this year, it runs through two teams that it always has for the last 40 years or whatever. That's Carolina and Duke. I had picked Duke at the beginning of the year. I thought they were going to be a national title contender. I think it was a bit high on that. I've kind of cooled off on them a little bit, but let's give some credit to Carolina, which I know is a little ironic given being at State, but they have really impressed. Since their loss to Kentucky, they have been on a tear. They beat a really good Oklahoma team. They beat Clemson, and now they beat NC State. What they've done is they have shown that they can play complementary basketball. Obviously, we've seen that they can run it up. Guys like RJ Davis can shoot the lights out. Baycott can really make a lot of noise in the paint. We've also seen North Carolina take on this identity where they can just shut you down defensively, take your offense, crumple it up, and make you have really no plan to be able to keep pace with them. It's given a lot of teams trouble. You look at North Carolina coming down the stretch, they got an easy stretch coming up. They have Louisville. They have BC. They have Syracuse. There's a lot of very winnable games coming up for them. I want to see what they look like when they play Duke because that is going to be the two titans of the conference, but I've definitely moved off my pick, moved it over to Carolina for now because they are playing like the best team in the ACC. Really, they got a shot at a national title with the way that they have been playing. So finally, to wrap up our big picture look at the ACC for you all as players of the year so far. I'm going to go with P.J. Hall from Clemson. It's been a couple of rough games during their three-game losing streak. Only 17 against Miami, only 10 against North Carolina, and 11 against Virginia Tech. Before that game, he was playing like an All-American, putting up 18 points at six rebounds a game, shoots 50% from the floor, and as a center, he's not a bad three-point shooter either. This has been a big breakout for the senior center. He's been a really solid starter the past couple years for Clemson, but he's really stepped up his game this year. If he gets back on track after a pretty rough stretch, he could secure himself as a first-team All-American this season. That's where he was before ACC play really started. He's a player that I feel like is the X-Factor. He's the difference maker for Clemson. If he doesn't play well, Clemson can't really get going, but if he becomes the guy for Clemson, Clemson has a shot, they have a shot to pick it back up. He's played like the most impactful player on any team right now in the ACC besides an R.J. Davis, so I'm going to go with him right now. Yeah, I'm usually really down on UNC Athletics, but I'm going to keep the Tar Heel High train going and say, as you mentioned, Troy, R.J. Davis is the guy averaging over 20 points per game to lead the conference. He's leading UNC in scoring by six points per game. R.J. really has just come into his own in his last season. He's always been a leader for this Tar Heel team, but now he's really just being that guy that you can go to when you need a big bucket late in games. I think R.J. in the senior year has really solidified himself as one of the top guards in the country. I think he keeps playing at this rate. I think it'd be hard to find another player to give Player of the Year 2, especially if UNC as a squad keeps playing to the level that they're playing at right now. Absolutely. R.J. has been such an incredible player this season, especially along the perimeter for Carolina. And then P.J. Hall, he has always been a monster for Clemson. For me, it's got to be Kyle Filipowski over at Duke. Obviously, his biggest thing is he has to be more consistent. We've seen games where he really shows out, like that Pitt game, and then other games like Notre Dame, where he shoots two for 12, only puts up seven points. But the thing that has my attention with Filipowski is when he is on, he is the best player in the conference, without a doubt, because of his combination of skill and size and ability. I mean, he can do absolutely everything. He can absolutely get you buckets inside, but he can also shoot outside. We saw him against Pitt, knocked down four threes, has done that as well against Hofstra. And he can shoot a good three-point percentage when they went and played Arkansas, even though they lost. He was an absolute monster, very efficient shooting. The thing with Filipowski, if he can just get that consistency going, especially against some of the better teams in the league, we'll be able to see potentially a great season from one of the best players in college basketball. But he's just got to get that consistency down. But he is my pick, just with his incredibly high ceiling that he has flashed at times. So that'll wrap it up for us. Thank you to everyone for following along into the new year. It's a new year, but the same podcast. And we're really looking forward to the rest of this basketball season. Should be a good one. A lot of great things to come. I mean, Kenny Payne won a game. You know you're in for a chaotic season, if that happens, especially on the road. So thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you to Brendan and Troy for also hopping on. And we'll be back next week.