The Canes Beat The Panthers 78-76, Win The 2022-23 ACC Regular Season Championship

The Canes are ACC Champs! #1 seed in the ACC Tournament! Woo! Also, after tonight’s game, I feel completely vindicated for all my ACC referee complaining, both in the first game against Pitt and throughout the season. It’s nice to be right.

The Miami Hurricanes topped the Pittsburgh Panthers 78-76 tonight at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, FL to win the 2022-23 ACC Regular Season Championship. Wooga Poplar led the Canes with 18 points on 6-8 three-point shooting. Jordan Miller had 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. Norchad Omier had another double-double to close out the season, with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Blake Hinson led the Panthers with 24 points. Miami finishes the season at 24-6, 15-5 ACC. Pitt falls to 21-10, 14-6 ACC.

Below are some random thoughts from tonight’s game.

Miami wins their second ACC regular season title!

How awesome is it to read that sentence?! I guess it’s a shared title with Virginia. Whatever. Last time I checked, the Canes beat the Cavaliers at home in their one matchup this season. I’m sorry the game happened to be in South Florida, but such is life. In this sports fan’s mind, the Miami Hurricanes are the sole winner of the 2022-23 ACC regular season. Also, props to Coach L for following up an Elite Eight run last year with such a successful season despite losing seniors Charlie Moore, Kameron McGusty, and Sam Waardenburg.

I hope Wong and Pack both got their bad games out of their systems

Miami’s backcourt duo combined to shoot 5-21 from the field overall, 1-7 from three-point range. Woof. They also combined to commit 6 turnovers. Yikes. Wong didn’t make a field goal until the second half; it was his only bucket the entire night. (Gulp). Luckily for the little guys, Poplar stepped up by going nuts from long range. As the heading implies, Miami cannot make a run in the NCAAs if Wong and Pack struggle. That said, I think the duo will take a deep breath after winning an ACC championship tonight despite their poor performances. I have faith they will be on their games for the ACC Tournament and beyond.

The #1 seed in the ACC Tournament seems great, but we’ll see...

I’m watching the Clemson vs Notre Dame game and the announcers are saying that if Clemson wins, Pitt falls to the #5 seed. Is that right?! If so, no good. I was hoping Pitt would be locked into the #3 seed and have to duke it out with #2 seed Virginia in the semifinals if everything goes chalk. Pitt has been the Canes’ kryptonite this year. It would be nice to avoid them until the finals.

The Miami Hurricanes will play their first game of the 2023 ACC Tournament on Thursday at 12:00 PM EST. The game will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2. They will face the winner of #8 seed Syracuse vs #9 seed Wake Forest.

GO CANES!