ACC Stock Watch: January 3
Posted by Mick McDonald on January 3rd, 2017Each week of the ACC season, RTC will review the last seven days and discuss the teams, players and anything else that is trending up and down across the league.
STOCK UP
Clemson. For the Tigers, anything less than a trip back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 will be a major disappointment. Sporting a pair of respectable losses (Xavier and Oklahoma on a neutral court) and a handful of good-not-great wins (at South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Nebraska), the last week of 2016 looked like a critical point in the season for Brad Brownell’s club. Fast forward a week to wins over a very talented UNC-Wilmington team and a much-improved Wake Forest squad and Clemson now sits at 11-2 with a big home game to come against North Carolina tonight. The Tigers are undoubtedly feeling good about the direction of the program and it doesn’t hurt that the football team had a nice weekend too.
Josh Okogie helped lead Georgia Tech to a surprising win over North Carolina in their ACC opener (Adam Hagy/USA Today Sports)
Georgia Tech. We wrote last week that the Yellow Jackets should already be pleasantly surprised with the list of accomplishments Josh Pastner’s team has checked off this season. We would guess that adding a huge home win over North Carolina to open the conference season might instantly jump to the top of that list. Pastner’s feisty bunch frustrated the Tar Heels all New Year’s Eve afternoon in Atlanta, slowing the pace and retreating into a suffocating zone defense to keep them from easy transition baskets. Josh Okogie was terrific, scoring 26 points that included a sterline 11-of-13 performance from the free throw line. The Yellow Jackets are not likely to be an NCAA Tournament threat this season, but in one home game they proved that anyone thinking a trip to Atlanta would be an easy “W” this year has another thing coming. Right, Jon Rothstein?
Dwayne Bacon. Florida State is 2-0 after a home victory over Wake Forest and a thrilling win at Virginia, so we could have put the Seminoles here to reward a team effort. But did sophomore wing Dwayne Bacon ever have a week. Last Wednesday against the Demon Deacons, Bacon tied the game at 66-all to ignite a 22-6 finishing run as Florida State rolled to a opening conference victory. On Saturday at Virginia it looked like Bacon — who had three points at halftime — was headed for his worst game of the season. Bacon scored 26 huge second-half points, including three monster jumpers, the last of which Bacon buried with a hand in his face to win the game and simultaneously propel himself into the early ACC Player of the Year race.
STOCK DOWN
Wake Forest. We already mentioned both of the Demon Deacons’ losses (at Florida State and vs. Clemson) but the reason Danny Manning’s club is included here is more about how the games were lost rather than the losses themselves. Wake Forest had a working lead with eight minutes to go in Tallahassee and at a minimum looked like they were in the same class as a bona fide top 20 team. Then it completely imploded, ultimately losing by 16 points. The bigger disappointment came over the weekend when the Demon Deacons led Clemson by 13 points at home with seven minutes remaining, only to give up a 15-0 run and blow that game too. It’s probably not yet reasonable to demand a trip to the NCAA Tournament from Manning’s club this year, but it is certainly within reason to expect his team to win several games at Lawrence Joel Coliseum against quality teams. Letting both of these winnable games slip through their fingers in the first week of conference play could be a bad omen for the remainder of the season.
Danny Manning’s Demon Deacons not only missed out on a pair of resume-building wins this week, but had a pair of ugly second half collapses. (USA Today Sports)
Joel Berry II. Berry is a terrific player and by all accounts a wonderful young man, but he had an opening weekend to forget. The junior point guard had quite possibly his worst game as a Tar Heel against Georgia Tech, shooting just 3-of-13 from the field, including a chilly 2-of-9 performance from three-point range. He also turned the ball over six times and notched only one assist. But it was Berry’s comments following the contest that really landed him here. According to Andrew Carter of The News and Observer, Berry admitted that North Carolina overlooked the Yellow Jackets, because, as he put it, “It’s Georgia Tech.” When asked about the zone defense that was so effective against his team, he said, “It was just there to take up for the fact that they can’t guard man-to-man.” As a veteran leader on Roy Williams‘ team, he needs to be someone who ensures that the Tar Heels take accountability for their performances — both good and bad — and do not overlook any ACC team.
