Rush The Court

It was not a productive weekend for ACC teams currently vying for NCAA Tournament consideration. After an impressive resume-enhancing road win last week over North Carolina, N.C. State laid an egg at Boston College in a non-competitive loss to the Eagles on Saturday afternoon. Miami was also hoping to improve its resume with a victory over North Carolina, but the Tar Heels prevailed in Coral Gables and left the Hurricanes wondering about its postseason future. Pittsburgh let a seven-point second half lead slip away at Wake Forest on Sunday night, allowing the Demon Deacons to notch a rare ACC win. This sets up a potential bubble-elimination game this week when Miami travels to Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening. In other weekend ACC action, Virginia clinched a share of its second consecutive ACC title by pulling away from Virginia Tech in the second half; Duke cruised to a comfortable home win over Syracuse; Louisville dominated Florida State in Tallahassee; and Clemson blew a huge first half lead at home before edging Georgia Tech in overtime. Here are some of the other highlights from a busy weekend of ACC action:

• Best Win: After suffering that disappointing loss to N.C. State in the Smith Center, North Carolina was in need of a bounceback performance when it traveled south to face a hungry Miami team. The Tar Heels came through with a solid win in Coral Gables, making several big plays down the stretch to break open a tight contest. With the score tied midway through the second half, North Carolina spurted ahead and iced the game at the foul line, as Marcus Paige and Justin Jackson combined to make 10-of-10 free throws in the final two minutes of play. After getting handled on the boards by the Wolfpack, the Tar Heels were instead dominant on the glass against Miami, grabbing 14 more total rebounds than the Hurricanes. The win keeps North Carolina in the hunt for a top-four league finish and the ACC Tournament two-day bye that comes with that distinction.

• Worst Loss: It’s not totally unexpected when you lose on the road in conference play, but it’s perplexing when a team with so much on the line is unable to so much as compete with the ACC’s last place team. But that’s what happened to N.C. State at Boston College on Saturday, as the Wolfpack trailed by 17 at the half and never made a serious run before falling by 16. It was the worst defensive game of the conference season for Mark Gottfried’s team (allowing 1.22 points per possession) as the Eagles shot 56.8 percent from the field partially fueled by NC State’s whopping 25 fouls in the contest. Olivier Hanlan led Boston College with 24 points but four other Eagles also scored in double figures.

• Most Outstanding Player: The choice this week is North Carolina junior forward Brice Johnson, who was instrumental in the Tar Heels’ strong second half surge at Miami. For the game, Johnson finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals and no turnovers, doing most of his damage in the second half. Much like his team, Johnson needed a bounceback game after scoring a tentative four points in last week’s loss to N.C. State. He responded by attacking the rim with confidence, flushing five dunks on the day for good measure.
• Unsung Heroes: This week we honor two seniors: Virginia’s Darion Atkins and Boston College’s Patrick Heckmann. Atkins has been an unsung hero all season long for the Cavaliers, contributing many of the little things that make Virginia’s strategy so effective — strong post defense; solid screens, blockouts, etc. He did all of those things on Saturday in addition to scoring a season-high 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor. Heckmann scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, made all three of his free throw attempts, and handed out a game-high seven assists in the Eagles’ win over NC State. He has become a primary facilitator for the team’s offense lately, dishing more than five assists in four of his last six outings.
• Most Efficient Offense/Least Efficient Defense: Usually we honor Virginia for its stellar defensive performances, but this time the Cavaliers’ offense gets the accolades. Virginia scored a robust 1.25 points per possession in its win over Virginia Tech by being solidly efficient in multiple areas — making 18-of-34 two-pointers, 6-of-13 three-pointers and only giving the ball away six times. This was one of the few times that Virginia’s offense has outshone its defense in conference play, as the Hokies became the first opponent to top 1.00 points per possession in the Cavaliers’ last eight outings.
• Most Efficient Defense/Least Efficient Offense: In another surprise, Duke’s defense was the weekend’s best, allowing only 0.81 points per possession to Syracuse in Durham on Saturday night. The Orange managed to shoot just 30.6 percent from the field and turned the ball over 15 times, including 10 miscues in the first half as the game got away from them. And once again, in a tendency that we pointed out in last week’s Inside the ACC Numbers, a Blue Devils’ opponent experienced an extreme performance from behind the arc. This time it was in the form of cold shooting, with Syracuse only making 3-of-20 attempts from deep. Duke gave up 18 offensive rebounds for the game, but the Orange only converted those opportunities into 16 second-chance points. That little fact leads us perfectly into the theme of the Bonus Section.
• Bonus – Impressive Stat of the Weekend: Coaches and basketball analysts are constantly trumpeting the importance of preventing opponents from corralling a high number of offensive rebounds. They certainly couldn’t prove that theory by reviewing ACC play this weekend. Only once did the winning squad grab more of its own misses than the loser — North Carolina’s victory over Miami. Some of the disparities in offensive rebounds this weekend were pretty dramatic; Georgia Tech grabbed 15 more boards than Clemson; N.C. State snatched 13 more than Boston College; and Pittsburgh snared 12 more than Wake Forest. There is of course a correlation between available offensive rebounds and that other fairly important facet of the game known as shooting — it’s an indisputable fact that you can only record an offensive board if you first miss a shot. And if you keep missing shots, it doesn’t really matter how many of those caroms you grab in the long run. Perhaps then it’s not surprising that only Pittsburgh (41.4%) among the six losing teams shot better than 40 percent from the field.