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A fun day around the league as separation between contenders and pretenders crystalizes

Louisville Cardinals guard J'vonne Hadley (1) tries to make the basket against Southern Methodist University Mustangs center Samet Yigitoglu (24) Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. Jan. 31, 2026 | Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In Saturday’s ACC Action, Syracuse beat Notre Dame 86-72, Florida State handled Stanford 88-80, UNC knocked off Georgia Tech 91-75, Virginia survived BC 73-66, Louisville smacked SMU 88-74, Clemson topped Pitt 63-52, NC State thumped Wake Forest 96-78 and Cal snuck by Miami 86-85.

This isn’t meant to be disparaging of either Cal or Florida State, but both looked like ACC teams Saturday. Cal just didn’t give up against Miami and they could have because it looked like Miami had control of this game in the second half.

Didn’t happen. Cal battled back and for the last four minutes it was anybody’s game. Keep in mind that Cal didn’t have Lee Dort and Milos Illic and Mantas Kocanas both fouled out. Dhiaukuei Manyiel Dut was ready for his moment though and got a key block and a huge basket down the stretch.

It was a tough loss for Miami, but the ‘Canes are 17-5 and 6-3 in the ACC which isn’t bad considering how awful last season was.

Meanwhile, Florida State has come a very long way. There was a point this year when it looked like the wheels might be coming off, but that’s not happening. FSU looked positively dominant in the second half, bringing back memories of FGCU’s Dunk City era. Chauncey Wiggins racked up 23 and Robert McCray had 17 points and 9 assists. Ebuka Okorie had 26 for the Cardinal.

FSU has now won three of its last four games while Stanford has a four-game losing streak that will most likely grow to five next week when Clemson comes to town.

This was the best Florida State has looked in at least the last few years. He won’t get as much credit as he should, but Luke Loucks is doing a heck of a job.

UNC had a nice outing at Georgia Tech, but here is a telling stat: the Heels had 21 assists and just two turnovers. That’s really impressive. Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar combined for 42 points and 18 rebounds.

UNC also hit 11-12 from the line.

Baye Ndongo, who has been erratic this season, had 27 points and 7 rebounds for the Yellow Jackets.

What’s up with Virginia? The ‘Hoos blew it against UNC, needed double time to beat Notre Dame and struggled against Boston College. Surprisingly, BC’s bigs, Boden Kapke and Jayden Hastings, outperformed Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grunloh, outscoring them 26-21 and pretty much matching them on the boards.

It’s kind of hard to understand. This is a good team – Virginia is still 18-3 with the losses to UNC, Butler and in 3 OTs to Virginia Tech – so it’s not like terrible flaws were uncovered late. We didn’t watch this game so it’s hard to know what happened but clearly, things could be better. Still, they won.

The Louisville boo birds who were down on Pat Kelsey had a moment early in the game against SMU as the Mustangs went up 14-4. However, Louisville fought back and tied the game 49-49 early in the second half. And from there, the game was theirs. SMU did take the lead with about 10 minutes to go, but then the Cards turned on the afterburners and won by 14.

Surprisingly, Mikel Brown came off the bench here but led the team with 20. Good news as Khani Rooths is back and had 12 off the bench.

SMU looked brilliant at the beginning of the game but obviously couldn’t maintain it. Samet Yigitoglu shot 7-8 for 14 points and had 8 boards but he looked terribly ponderous again. Boopie Miller had 20 to pace the Ponies.

Clemson limited Pitt to 19% on threes and 38% overall and that makes it a lot more difficult to win. Clemson got a nice performance from the bench with 26 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.

Roman Siulepa continues to surge for Pitt. In this one he had 12 points on 5-7 shooting and also had 9 rebounds.

Finally, NC State had little trouble with Wake Forest, winning by 18. State hit so many threes they might have had to change the nets – the Pack knocked down 16-28 for 48 points or half their total.

Paul McNeil has shown he can really get hot – he had 28 here, hitting 8-12/6-8. Darrion Williams shot 7-12/5-8 for 20.

State hit 57% from behind the line and 54% overall.

Juke Harris hit for 31 for Wake Forest and Omaha Biliew got 12 but no one was in double figures. The Demon Deacons got to the line 24 times and hit 21 of those.

Now 11-11, it’s just an ugly season for Wake Forest. They’re not the only ones though. Georgia Tech and Notre Dame are both also 11-11, Florida State has improved but is still underwater at 10-12 while Boston College is 9-12 and Pitt is 9-13. Realistically, the following teams are either going to make the tournament or still can:

Duke
Clemson
Virginia
NC State
Miami
UNC
Louisville
Virginia Tech
SMU
Cal

No games until Monday.

ACC Standings

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Category: General Sports

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