No. 4 Duke is joined by Pittsburgh, Clemson and SMU in the group that passes the eye test as NCAA Tournament teams atop the food chain. Everyone else is in the B Flight. But even that dynamic could soon change.

After going on the road and snapping SMU’s seven-game winning streak with a decisive 89-67 victory on Saturday without coach Jon Scheyer, who stayed home in Durham with an illness, the Blue Devils can make an even louder statement on Tuesday by beating Pitt at Cameron. A win in the battle of 12-2 teams would put Duke in a class of its own atop its disappointingly thin conference, at least until a trip to Clemson on Feb. 8.

The young Blue Devils and their freshman core should be much closer to a finished product by then. And that’s a scary proposition considering where they already are on the growth chart – not just in their cohesiveness on the court, but the maturity with which they handled a difficult situation. Playing in a hostile environment without their head coach, they barely flinched under the direction of Associate Head Coach Chris Carrawell while producing an effort that held the high-scoring Mustangs to 25 below their season average of 87 points per game

As emotionally charged as the atmosphere at SMU was on Saturday, the heat promises to be turned up even higher for Tuesday’s showdown between teams coached by former Duke point guards. Jeff Capel’s Panthers didn’t just come into Cameron and beat the Blue Devils a year ago. After finishing off the 80-76 upset, star Blake Hinson jumped onto the scorer’s table and began taunting Duke’s infamous student section. Hinson has since moved on, but Jaland Lowe, who contributed 17 points and 6 assists in the win, is back to try and quiet the Crazies again.

Changing of the guard continues

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for what remains of the ACC’s coaching old guard.

First Jim Larrañaga decided to end his 14-year tenure as the winningest coach in Miami history, effective the day after Christmas, saying he was exhausted with trying to manage a roster under the “system … or lack of a system” that governs the transfer portal and NIL. Four days later, Larrañaga’s 70-something counterpart Leonard Hamilton of Florida Sate was the subject of a lawsuit filed by six players from his 2023-24 team who claim that they were never paid the $250,000 each they allege the coach had promised.

Emails included in court documents, first reported by Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, indicated that the players were “so tired of the lies” being told to them by Hamilton that they walked out of a practice and threatened to boycott their game against Duke last Feb. 17. They eventually relented and played the game, losing 76-67.

While the lawsuit doesn’t directly affect this year’s team, which beat Syracuse on Saturday to improve to 10-4 (1-2 ACC), it could prove to be a distraction as the season goes on. The coach declined to take questions about the situation after Saturday’s game, instead handing out a statement saying that on the advice of his attorney, he would have no comment on the pending litigation.

Florida State previously issued its own statement indicating that it is “working diligently to determine what transpired last season” and that the university’s administration “supports Coach Hamilton’s right to defend himself against these allegations.”

There is no set timetable for how long the internal investigation will take. But it will be worth watching to see how solid that support for Hamilton stays as facts come to light.

Around the rim

  • Duke freshman Cooper Flagg is the early frontrunner for ACC Player of the Year. He’s the best player on the league’s best team and he ranks among the top 10 in the conference in scoring (17.4), rebounds (8.4), assists (3.6) and steals (1.6). But a strong case can also be made for Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud. The 7-foot-1 senior, who has been described by coach Kyle Smith as a “French Dirk Nowitzki,” leads the ACC in scoring (21.4 points per game) and rebounds (11.8). His 11 double-doubles in 14 games, including a 14-point, 13-rebound performance in a loss to Clemson on Wednesday, leads the nation in that category. The biggest thing going against Raynaud is his team, which fell to 9-5 (1-2 ACC) after back-to-back losses on an East Coast swing last week.
  • RJ Davis passed former teammate Armando Bacot for second place, behind only Tyler Hansbrough, on North Carolina’s career scoring list on Saturday. The dramatic win against the Irish also marked a changing of the guard for this year’s team. The 2024 ACC Player of the Year is rapidly being surpassed by freshman Ian Jackson as the Tar Heels’ primary offensive option while Davis has become more of a facilitator than scorer. Jackson scored a career-high 27 points in the badly needed 74-73 victory – sealed by Elliot Cadeau’s four-point play with four seconds remaining – while Davis recorded a season-high seven assists. Jackson has scored 20 points or more in each of his last four games to become the first UNC rookie to post such a streak since Hansbrough in 2005-06. “He’s always been a gifted scorer,” coach Hubert Davis said of the No. 2-rated recruit in this year’s freshman class. “He’s getting better defensively, distributing the basketball, learning how to take care of it as well. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s had four games with 20 points or more.”
  • Steve Forbes may finally have found the answer to the problem that has bogged down Wake Forest’s offense. The Demon Deacons have looked like a different team since Louisville transfer Ty-Laur Johnson was inserted into the starting lineup two games ago at Syracuse. Johnson’s stats aren’t overwhelming; he’s averaging 10 points, 3 assists and 29 minutes in double-digit wins against the Orange and N.C. State. But his quickness and ball movement have helped create a better flow on the court. And by relieving some of the ball-handling responsibilities from star guard Hunter Sallis, Johnson has allowed his All-ACC teammate to concentrate more on his scoring. “I thought that was really big at Syracuse,” Forbes said. “The last seven minutes of the game, Hunter dominated because he wasn’t tired. I think him being able to be on and off the ball, it’s huge.”