In the headline match-up of the weekend, Duke ended its two-game losing streak with a surprisingly comfortable win at Louisville on Saturday. But the bigger surprise was how the Blue Devils did it, going almost exclusively with a 2-3 zone defense that was incredibly effective against the cold-shooting Cardinals. Notre Dame rallied from a 12-point second half deficit to beat Miami in South Bend on Saturday, keeping the Irish in second place in the league standings behind undefeated Virginia. The Cavaliers also had to mount a second half comeback to overtake Boston College Saturday afternoon in Conte Forum. In other games over the weekend, Syracuse dropped its first league game of the year at Clemson; N.C. State picked up a road win versus Florida State; and North Carolina and Pittsburgh each won home games against a pair of conference winless clubs, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. Here are some other highlights from over the weekend in the ACC.

Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant broke out in a big way in Saturday’s win over Miami. (USA Today Images)

• Most Outstanding Player: Jerian Grant had scored a total of only 26 points in his previous three games, but the senior guard broke out of his mini-slump with a huge effort against Miami on Saturday. The ACC Player of the Year candidate finished with an efficient 25 points that came on 8-of-10 field goal shooting. He also passed out eight assists and was part of a perimeter defense that held Hurricanes’ guard Angel Rodriguez in check. Rodriguez had torched Duke in his previous game with 24 points, but only managed four points on 1-of-10 shooting Saturday. Grant was also the difference down the stretch as his three broke a tie with 6:19 left and he also scored a layup and blocked a shot in the last minute to seal the win.
• Best Win: After looking nothing like a championship contender in its two prior outings, Duke got back on track with a mild upset at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center on Saturday. After an all-night coaches’ meeting following Duke’s home debacle versus Miami, Mike Krzyzewski abandoned the Blue Devils’ trademark pressure man-to-man defense to instead play a 2-3 zone against the Cardinals. While it was a big surprise to most of us, the zone was not totally unexpected by Louisville’s Rick Pitino, who said afterwards, “Duke is a team that never plays zone… and that’s what I would have done if I were in [Mike Krzyzewski’s] shoes.” Pitino is no doubt referring to his team’s lack of perimeter shooting, which finished a chilly 4-of-25 on three-pointers against the Devils. Ironically, Duke looked a lot more like a recent-vintage Syracuse team, with the Blue Devils playing deliberately on the offensive end to go along with the newly-installed zone defense.

• Worst Loss:  Speaking of Syracuse, the Orange took it on the chin on Saturday afternoon at Clemson, as the Tigers raced out to a 21-point halftime lead and were never threatened the rest of the way. Losing on the road in the ACC is never too surprising, but getting embarrassed by a team like Clemson could be cause for concern. Rakeem Christmas is playing great for the Orange, but the recent season-ending injury to Chris McCullough probably leaves this team too thin up front against physical frontcourts — Clemson dominated the boards in this one, outrebounding Syracuse by 10. With their ACC schedule back-loaded against the league’s top teams, Jim Boeheim’s bunch can’t afford many more January losses.
• Unsung Heroes: Clemson freshman Donte Graham scored a career high 16 points in the Tigers’ rout of Syracuse. On a team that often struggles from the perimeter, Graham’s 4-of-8 performance from behind the three-point line gives Brad Brownell some hope. Also, Duke’s Amile Jefferson deserves credit for his career-best 19-point performance in Duke’s win over Louisville. Despite being a 55 percent free throw shooter for his career, he even made 7-of-9 from the foul line in the key win.
• Most Efficient Offense/Least Efficient Defense: In a performance typical for Virginia, the Cavaliers had the best offensive game of any ACC squad over the weekend in scoring 1.22 points per possession against Boston College. Nothing spectacular stands out from the box score, but the Cavaliers excelled in more subtle areas: hitting 18-of-21 free throws, grabbing 13 offensive rebounds, and only turning the ball over eight times. As usual, Virginia was deadly down the stretch, scoring 25 points to seal the game on its final 13 trips. While everyone is aware of how great Tony Bennett’s guys are defensively, few are equally aware that their offense is just as good, with both units ranked third in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency ratings right now.
• Most Efficient Defense/Least Efficient Offense: Louisville managed only 0.87 points per possession against Duke’s new zone defense on Saturday. Even though some credit must go to the Blue Devils for limiting Louisville’s big men to 24 points in the paint, most of the credit for this performance goes to the inept Cardinals’ shooters. For much of the game, Louisville had open perimeter looks but simply couldn’t make those shots. The only thing that worked offensively for Louisville was grabbing 18 of their own misses, but even that didn’t help all that much since the Cards turned those offensive boards into only 10 second-chance points. In all fairness though, most of those rebounds were recovered on tip-outs well away from the basket, which often led to another jump shot — and another miss.

Brad Jenkins (383 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2015 at 3:25 pm by Brad Jenkins (@bradjenk) and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: Amile Jefferson, boston college, clemson, donte graham, duke, feature, florida state, georgia tech, jerian grant, jim boeheim, louisville, miami, mike krzyzewski, n.c. state, north carolina, notre dame, pittsburgh, rakeem christmas, rick pitino, syracuse, virginia, virginia tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.