Tag: ACC Conference

UCLA football lands Louisville safety in transfer portal

The Bruins add a veteran piece to their secondary.

The UCLA Bruins have seen some major changes to their roster since the end of their first season in the Big Ten. But this week, UCLA added a new face through the transfer portal.

University of Louisville safety Benjamin Perry announced his transfer to UCLA earlier this week, according to Allen Trieu of 247Sports.

Perry, a rising senior defensive back, played a hybrid role for the Cardinals throughout his career in Louisville. Able to play multiple positions in the secondary, the Bruins add a versatile piece to their defense with some serious experience under his belt.

In his previous four seasons with Louisville, Perry accounted for 132 tackles, eight passes defended, two sacks, and a forced fumble in the ACC.

Perry joins a UCLA program in dire need of help in the secondary after a lackluster performance in pass defense. But with the addition of Perry, coupled with the hiring of new secondary coach Demetrice Martin, the Bruins secondary should see improvement in 2025.

USC-Stanford game was the end of an era; the schools will travel far apart

USC and Stanford won’t meet in 2024. USC goes to the #B1G and Stanford goes to the #ACC. Who knows when they’ll meet next?

The Stanford-USC football series has a lot of history behind it. The first meeting was in 1905. The schools played regularly since 1919. From 1925 through 2019, the only three years the schools didn’t meet in football were the last three years of World War II, from 1943 through 1945. The schools met every year from 1946 through 2019 before the 2020 COVID-19 season interrupted the rivalry.

Now, after USC’s win over the Cardinal on Saturday night, the series’ future is uncertain. There won’t be a game between the schools in 2024, and no future meeting has been scheduled. These California-based schools aren’t that far apart, but Stanford will now fly to the far-away places of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

How far? Look at the numbers for the Trees, who will branch out to Boston and Miami and the other locales of their new conference next year:

ACC schools could play neutral-site events in Dallas due to Stanford, Cal move

Gathering East Coast and West Coast #ACC schools in Dallas shows how regional identity has vanished in college sports.

As the Stanford-California-SMU triumvirate joined the ACC last week, one of the ideas in place to ease the travel burden for ACC schools was floated. It still hasn’t been finalized, but it sure sounds as though it will move forward in some form and to some degree. Dallas will become a hub for competitions in several ACC sports.

Dallas could become a centerpiece ACC city. That just sounds wrong. It feels wrong.

Charlotte is an ACC city. Greensboro is an ACC city. Atlanta is an ACC city. Clemson is an ACC locale.

Dallas is a Southwest Conference city turned into a Big 12 and AAC city. There’s nothing “Atlantic” about it. Yet, schools from the two opposite coasts will likely travel there in a lot of different sports? What a mess, to be honest.

There ought to be a better way of arranging all of this. This travel setup doesn’t seem like something which should exist on a long-term basis.

Nearly everyone who is responding to this Dallas plan in the ACC feels the same way. See for yourself:

Every ACC team’s top recruit in the class of 2023

Examining the top recruits for each team in the ACC conference for 2023.

Miami scored a substantial recruiting victory last week when they got a commitment from Cormani McClain, the best-undecided recruit in the country. A freakishly athletic turnover machine at cornerback, McClain is ranked No. 2 overall in his class behind to-be Texas QB Arch Manning. He has the potential to reshape Miami’s plans for the future and their rivals.

The competition is far from over, though. Let’s take a look around the rest of the ACC conference at the top 2023 recruits for each team.

More recruiting

Top 2023 SEC commits

Top 2023 Pac-12 commits

Top 2023 Big Ten commits

Every ACC team’s top recruit in the class of 2023

Examining the top recruits for each team in the ACC conference for 2023.

Miami scored a substantial recruiting victory last week when they got a commitment from Cormani McClain, the best-undecided recruit in the country. A freakishly athletic turnover machine at cornerback, McClain is ranked No. 2 overall in his class behind to-be Texas QB Arch Manning. He has the potential to reshape Miami’s plans for the future and their rivals.

The competition is far from over, though. Let’s take a look around the rest of the ACC conference at the top 2023 recruits for each team.

More recruiting

Top 2023 SEC commits

Top 2023 Pac-12 commits

Top 2023 Big Ten commits

What role does Jordan Goldwire have for the 2021 Oklahoma Sooners?

A deeper look at what Jordan Goldwire brings to the Oklahoma Sooners basketball program

The Oklahoma Sooners head into the 2021 season under new leadership and with a slew of new players. Lon Kruger retired in March, and in steps Porter Moser. Moser accepted the gig and moved on from Loyola-Chicago. Moser’s most successful season at Loyola–Chicago came in 2017–18, with a 32–6 (15–3 Missouri Valley Conference) record, MVC regular season and tournament titles, and appearance in the Final Four as a no. 11 seed. In 2020-2021, Moser led the eighth-seeded Ramblers to the elite eight before losing to Oregon State.

Once he was hired, Moser immediately knew he had to mold the Sooners into the identity he wanted for his program. A tough, gritty, defensive-minded group that gets after teams with ball pressure for a full forty minutes.

With the NCAA granting players an extra year of eligibility due to the challenges of COVID, Moser garnered the nickname “Portal Moser” as he hit the transfer portal hard.

One of his biggest finds? A former Duke player. Duke is without a doubt one of the sport’s titans. Year in and year out, the Blue Devils land top-five recruiting classes heightened by the one-and-done experience. Guys who stick around for multiple years sometimes have no choice but to leave if they want to have more playing time, and that’s what point guard Jordan Goldwire did.

He left Duke and entered the portal in an attempt to get more playing time that may have been hard to come by with a few highly touted freshman guards coming in. Duke will miss him. Still, he offers a lot to this Oklahoma program and will serve as the perfect one-year player as Moser settles down in Norman.

Goldwire comes to Norman after playing 116 games for Duke.

The 6-foot-2 guard from Norcross, GA, averaged 5.8 points, 4.0 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game last year at Duke.

Goldwire had a solid year for the Blue Devils despite Duke’s failure to live up to their standards and expectations last season. He was a 2021 All-ACC Defensive team selection.

Due to the offensive talent that has cycled through Durham, NC over the years, Goldwire has always been leaned on to be a defensive specialist and energy guy for those Duke teams. He matured physically and became more confident in what he could do offensively.

That may be why he left Duke as well. Goldwire was never a focal point in the offense, and despite his growth, he was never really an offensive threat for Duke. With the vacancy left by Austin Reaves (Los Angeles Lakers), De’Vion Harmon (transfer to Oregon), and Brady Manek (transfer to UNC), the Sooners need offense. It’s a perfect fit for both team and player.

Goldwire will be a fit nicely next to Elijah Harkless, who was second in the Big 12 in steals last season, coming away with 1.9 per game. One thing that severely cost Goldwire minutes at Duke was his inability to knock down shots and his inconsistency finishing at the rim.

He shot 26% and 12% from three in his first two years at Duke, respectively. In the following two years, he posted 35% and 33% from three. He’s improved there, and hopefully, this spring and summer, he continued to do so as the likely report on him will be that he was not a great shooter. If he’s able to shoot about 33 to 37 percent with increased opportunities, that’ll be a big boost to an Oklahoma team that will be looking for some offense from their transfers.

He can also get Oklahoma into their offense, get in the lane, and make the right decisions by distributing the ball to others. On top of his All-ACC defensive selection, he was tops in the conference in assist to turnover ratio.

Defensively, he is what you want from a lead guard. Coach Mike Krzyzewski deployed Goldwire to pressure the ball full court almost every time he was on the floor, and Goldwire was more than up to the task. At 6 foot 3, Goldwire has the size and strength to guard positions 1-3. He switches well, communicates, and also has very quick and active hands.

Goldwire is far from a superstar, but he’s a good college player in a system that will afford him the chance to become something even more with the right situation and a significant increase in opportunities. He should be a significant part of this team whether he contributes offensively or not because he plays defense as if his life depended on it.

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Oklahoma skipping the Big 12’s meeting was writing on the wall

Oklahoma skipping the Big 12 meeting was just writing on the wall.

On Thursday afternoon the Big 12 Conference was set to meet with each school’s athletic director and president. The topic of the day surrounding the reports of the Sooners’ intention of leaving the conference. The Southeastern Conference was the preferred destination for both Oklahoma and their biggest rivals, the Texas Longhorns.

Shortly after the meeting was concluded, we found out that neither Oklahoma nor Texas attended the get-together. What better way to send smoke signals to the conference that you are as good as gone than skipping a meeting to discuss your university.

According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, the conference discussed ramifications for both schools and contingency plans moving forward. However, if the two biggest programs in the conference leave, the Big 12 might not exist much longer to try and punish them for an early exit.

What skipping this meeting says to me is that Oklahoma was long gone and not looking back. They ripped off the rearview mirror and are looking forward to their next destination, the SEC Conference. But what if it isn’t just the SEC?

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Thamel reported on Friday morning that the ACC Conference is also looking to get involved in the pursuit of the top two schools in the Big 12 Conference. He added that it is still expected that Oklahoma and Texas will be accepted into the SEC as early as next week.

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Williams grabs ACC conference honor

Notre Dame running back Kyren Williams is the first Irish football player ever to earn an ACC weekly award.

Notre Dame’s sophomore running back Kyren William’s introduced himself to the ACC on Saturday and his efforts were recognized as he was named the conference’s running back of the week.

Balling out was an understatement for Williams as he accounted for 205 total yards with 2 touchdowns in his first Irish start. He showed that he could grind out hard yards and then find a crease and explode like this:

The fourth-and-1 run was huge, as the Irish clung onto a 10-6 before Williams’ defining moment of the game. The Irish wouldn’t look back after that, as they would finish off Duke 27-13. Williams had 112 yards on 19 carries while he caught 2 passes for 93 yards. The 75-yard screen pass was a thing of beauty.

It was a breakout performance that was needed out of the Irish offense. Williams was exceptional all afternoon.

Congrats to Kyren Williams on earning Notre Dame’s first ACC honor.

NCAA President states no fall championships, FBS not affected

NCAA President Mark Emmert released a video in which he stated there will be no fall championships in 2020. CFP is not a part of that.

The NCAA released a video on social media stated that there will be no fall championships. This ruling impacts all of FCS fall sports and Division I soccer and volleyball. This does not have any bearing on the state of the College Football Playoffs. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) operates independently from the NCAA in terms of football championships.

“We cannot, at this point, have fall championships”-NCAA President Mark Emmert

In the video he discussed moving the fall season to spring while keeping the athletes engaged with their coaches, focusing on their academic studies and being prepared to play in the spring.

The College Football Playoff committee has yet to state whether or not there will be a playoff but they are finalizing their protocols for the upcoming season. They will release the final standings on Sunday December 20th.

As it sits right now the ACC, Big 12 and SEC are the only Power Five conferences still planning on playing in the fall. American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, and the Sun Belt still remain from the Group of Five conferences.

It is a very real possibility that the three remaining Power Five conferences could be the only ones left standing. If that were to be the case you could see a scenario where the winner of each conference could get a bid into the playoff with the highest ranked team remaining make it as the fourth team.

This all hinges on what the CFP committee decides and that will likely come in the next few weeks as football season approaches. We are still not in the clear but appears as if we will have fall football at this point.

Duke at NC State college basketball odds, picks and best bets

Analyzing Wednesday’s Duke Blue Devils at NC State Wolfpack sports betting odds and lines, with college basketball betting picks and tips.

The Duke Blue Devils (22-3) visit the Atlantic Coast Conference-rival NC State Wolfpack (16-9) for a 9 p.m. ET tip-off Wednesday at PNC Arena. We analyze the Duke-NC State odds and betting lines, with college basketball betting advice and tips around this matchup.

Duke at NC State: Three things you need to know

  1. NC State hosts Duke after wrapping up a three-game road trip where the Wolfpack were 2-1. They lost their previous two home games to the Louisville Cardinals Feb. 1 (77-57) and the North Carolina Tar Heels Jan. 27 (75-65).
  2. Duke has won seven straight games and is currently atop the ACC standings with a 12-2 conference record.
  3. The point guard matchup should take center stage in Duke-NC State. Duke sophomore Tre Jones has the most assists per game, and NC State senior Markell Johnson has the second-most, for an ACC player. 

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Duke at NC State: Odds, betting lines and picks

Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Prediction

Duke 74, NC State 71

Moneyline (ML)

As per usual, Duke is stacked with talent; the Blue Devils have eight of RSCI’s Top-100 recruits on their roster. NC State hopes its experience makes up for the talent discrepancy versus Duke. The Wolfpack only have two top-100 RSCI recruits on its roster—one of which is starter F Manny Bates—but there are four upperclassmen in their starting five.

I am going to PASS ON A MONEYLINE bet because Duke -278 is too chalky and NC State (+220) is a live dog but not getting good enough odds to bet. I’d back the Wolfpack if they were between +300-350 on the money line since NC State has a 3-2 record in its last five home games against Duke, two victories were by double-digits.

Against the Spread (ATS)

TAKE NC STATE +6.5 (-115) because of its recent success against the spread when facing Duke. The Wolfpack have won five straight ATS versus Duke and, for whatever reason, play really well on Wednesdays. NC State is 5-0 straight up and ATS in Wednesday games. Plus, the underdog is 5-0 ATS in the last five meetings. 

Over/Under (O/U)

On one hand, six straight Duke-NC State games have gone Over the projected total by an average of 15.8 points per contest. On the other hand, this season’s trends for both teams point to the Under. NC State has a 3-11 Over/Under record at home this season and Duke has a 5-3 O/U record in away games. Also, the Under is 4-0 in the Wolfpack’s last four games as a home underdog and 10-1 in the Wolfpack’s last 11 games following a straight-up loss. 

BET UNDER 152.5 (-115).

Want some action on this matchup? Place a bet at BetMGM now. For more sports betting picks and tips, visit SportsbookWire.com.

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