ACC Basketball

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim did not mince words when discussing Jalen Johnson's decision to opt out of the remainder of the season for the Duke Blue Devils. 

"That guy was hurting them so they actually are much better now without him," Boeheim said, per Mike Curtis of Syracuse.com. "He was just doing some things and keeping other people from playing that are good. They've had two monster wins since he's opted out."  

Despite Boeheim's comment, Duke has played just once since Johnson opted out. The Blue Devils defeated Wake Forest on Wednesday without the freshman, which doesn't exactly qualify as a "monster" win.

Johnson arrived at Duke as a 5-star prospect and the No. 13 overall player in the 2020 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

However, he dealt with a foot injury earlier in the season. This college basketball season is also taking place in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Johnson is a highly regarded draft prospect who isn't exactly playing for a legitimate championship contender in Duke.

Jeff Goodman of Stadium reported there were "off-court issues between Jalen Johnson/his camp and Duke dating back to early on in the season."

He also didn't play much before opting out, appearing in a combined 23 minutes in his two final games against Notre Dame and North Carolina State. In all, Johnson averaged 11.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range.

That type of shooting and versatility should play well in the NBA, even if his time at Duke didn't work out as hoped.

Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman projected Johnson to go No. 6 overall in a recent mock draft.

As for the Blue Devils, they are likely on the outside looking in at the current NCAA tournament picture and would need a strong finish to have a chance. They play Virginia on Saturday before a showdown with Boeheim's squad on Monday.

In stunning news Monday night, Jacob Polacheck of ZagsBlog was the first to report that Duke's possibly NBA lottery-bound freshman Jalen Johnson opted out of the remainder of the 2020-21 men's college basketball season.

This was just the latest chapter in what has been a tumultuous, confusing couple of years for Johnson.

There's no denying his talent. He was sensational in high school. In his collegiate debut against Coppin State, he racked up 19 points and 19 rebounds. He later had 24 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and two steals in a game against Pittsburgh.

When he was locked in, it wasn't hard to see why most NBA scouts have been willing to overlook the red flag that he wasn't even nominated for the 2020 McDonald's All-American Game after leaving prep school powerhouse IMG Academy without playing a game.

Then, four games into this season—less than a week after Duke's decision to cancel the remainder of its nonconference games—Johnson was indefinitely sidelined by what Duke announced was a foot injury. (Stadium's Jeff Goodman said Dec. 17 on The Field of 68 podcast that he wasn't 100 percent buying that injury.)

Johnson missed three games and was a Jekyll and Hyde player after his return. He was stellar in the aforementioned game against Pitt. A few days later, he committed six turnovers in a disastrous performance against Louisville.

After he had another dud in a bad loss to Miami, Mike Krzyzewski had Johnson on the bench to start a marquee game against North Carolina. One week after that, Johnson played just eight minutes in a win over NC State. And now he's leaving the 8-8 Blue Devils to focus on the NBA draft.

Might Duke finally be able to turn a corner now that he's gone?

It defies logic to suggest that a team might improve after losing its most talented player, but even the best square pegs still don't fit into round holes. And outside of a few fleeting moments when it all seemed to click and Johnson took over games, it often felt like the Blue Devils were trying to force something that wasn't meant to be.

It had ripple effects throughout the roster.

Matthew Hurt has had metronome-like consistency as Duke's leader. Per KenPom, the sophomore stretch 4 has had an offensive rating of at least 110 in all but one game this season, and even in the lone exception, he had 20 points and 11 rebounds on the road against Virginia Tech. As rough as this season has been for the Blue Devils, Hurt still might be in the mix for first-team All-ACC.

But everyone else has been all over the place.

Sophomore forward Wendell Moore Jr. has had five impressive games with at least 15 points but also eight games with five points or fewer. Freshman guard Jeremy Roach has had a similar all-or-nothing season in which the seven most recent entries in his points log read: 2, 16, 16, 2, 12, 0, 0.

Freshman guard DJ Steward has been a good deal more consistent in the points column, but there's no telling if he'll score his 13 points on eight shots with minimal turnovers or on 15 shots with sloppy ball-handling. Freshman big men Mark Williams and Jaemyn Brakefield have provided good value when they've played, but their playing time waxed and waned based on Johnson's availability and effectiveness.

Now, by no means are all those players' inconsistencies on Johnson. They may well just be inconsistent players, at least at these early stages of their playing careers.

However, there's no way they benefited from having no idea which version of the most NBA-ready talent on the roster they were going to play alongside on any given night.

So while there's now less talent on the team, at least the remaining Blue Devils might finally figure out their roles within the system.

You know, sort of like six years ago when Rasheed Sulaimon abruptly left Duke 20 games into what turned out to be a national championship campaign.

At that point in the 2014-15 season, Duke had lost three of its last six games and was starting to turn into a dumpster fire on defense. But right after Sulaimon left, Justise Winslow posted the first double-double of his college career and played a much bigger role the rest of the way, Matt Jones' role grew larger and more defined, and a freshman by the name of Grayson Allen started getting some legitimate runs for the first time in months.

The talent was always there. It just didn't mesh or balance until a key member of the rotation who was unhappy with his role was out of the picture.

Before you get up in arms, I'm not suggesting this Duke team sans Johnson will transform into a title contender.

But I am suggesting the Blue Devils could still make the 2021 NCAA tournament.

Because we've seen the "addition by midseason subtraction" thing work for this program once before. And it's not like Duke has been that bad. Its record is an eyesore, for sure, but seven of its eight losses came by seven points or fewer. The one game that got out of hand was a 15-point loss to a title contender in Illinois that shot 63.6 percent from three-point range.

Duke is 34th in the KenPom rankings, and we're deep enough into the campaign that preseason ratings have little, if anything, to do with that formula.

This isn't a team that needs a miracle or a drastic makeover to be competitive. Better-defined roles on the court and one fewer off-the-court distraction could do the trick.

Maybe Duke (6-6 in the ACC) will lose to Wake Forest (6-9, 3-9) in less than 48 hours and I will look like a buffoon for suggesting it still had an at-large pulse.

Or maybe Johnson's decision—in conjunction with Saturday's 16-point win at NC State in which he barely played—will be the catalyst that leads to wins over Virginia, Louisville and North Carolina over these final three weeks of the regular season.

Johnson's college career is finished, but don't put that final nail in Duke's 2020-21 coffin just yet.

Statistics courtesy of Sports Reference and KenPom.com.

Kerry Miller covers college football and men's college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski will admit it. 

After dropping under .500 for the first time since 1999 with a loss to Notre Dame on Tuesday, Krzyzewski said the squad was "not accustomed" to the situation it now finds itself in.

"Youth has to be developed, and our program, we're not accustomed to that," he said, per David Thompson of the Fayetteville Observer. "And we're not accustomed to losing. But sometimes you have to lose, take responsibility and build from it."

Per Thompson, Krzyzewski compared the need to wait for long-term results to similarly disappointing seasons in 1982-83, 1994-95 and 2006-07. In the two earlier years, Duke did not play in the NCAA tournament. 

The legendary coach brushed off a question about the Blue Devils possibly going to the NIT rather than March Madness this season, which would be their first appearance in the tournament since 1981, Krzyzewski's inaugural season (h/t Matt Giles of FanSided): 

"I think, to plan ahead during this season is not a good idea, and also, just to keep your eyes on the road and just try to be as good as you possibly can be. To be quite frank with you, we have not talked about that with our team. So we'll consider whatever. I just hope we have our ACC tournament. ... I'm all for the ACC tournament."

The Blue Devils entered the season ranked No. 9 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, but they've now lost six of their last eight games. However, Krzyzewski is still confident in the group. 

"This will pay off at some point if you stay with it," he said, per Thompson. 

Christie Lomax, the mother of North Carolina men's basketball player Armando Bacot, said her son has been receiving death threats after video of Tar Heels players partying without masks surfaced this week.

"It brings me great concern that there have been threats toward my son, Armando Bacot's life, by individuals; one, who don't know him nor our family personally and two, did not know the whole story and truth," Lomax wrote in a statement Tuesday.

"We are all dealing in a time that is extremely unfamiliar, making adjustments can be hard and not doing the things we love can make us sad. I understand. At no time is it OK to threaten someone, it's unnecessary and downright evil. Let's not forget to love ourselves so that we can pass on love to others. God loves us all, Prayers to All."

Bacot and Day'Ron Sharpe were among the Tar Heels players identified in video obtained by The Daily Tar Heel of a maskless party that took place after Saturday's win over Duke.

The ACC postponed North Carolina's game against Miami, originally scheduled for Monday, as a result of the incident. 

Tar Heels players and managers released a statement Tuesday apologizing for their actions:

"Saturday night, a number of players and managers—not just the ones shown on the video that was seen—got together to celebrate our win at Duke. Our intention was to celebrate privately within our group. Unfortunately, we allowed several friends who are not members of the team to join the gathering. We were inside and not wearing masks, which were mistakes. We apologize for not adhering to the University's and athletic department's guidelines and apologize to Coach Williams and his staff for not stepping forward when he first addressed it with us on Sunday. We have worked too hard for eight months doing the right things to make those kinds of mistakes at this point in the season. We are hopeful we will be able to play again soon and wish to remind everyone to stay safe so this pandemic will be over as soon as possible."

North Carolina coach Roy Williams said in a separate statement that the players were "paying a very significant price." It is unclear if the players involved will face a suspension or any other punishment from the school. 

The Tar Heels' next scheduled game is Saturday against Virginia. 

The Duke men's basketball team is having a historic season—just not in the way it would like.

Duke fell to Notre Dame 93-89 on Tuesday to drop to 7-8 on the season. This is the first time since 1999 that the program has had a record below .500, according to Kyle Boone of CBS Sports. 

Per Matt Giles of FanSided, it's been even longer since the Blue Devils were below .500 in February, something they haven't done since 1995. 

The program is in serious danger to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995, when legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski was on leave to recover from back surgery, per Mike Lopresti of NCAA.com. The Blue Devils went 13-18 that year and picked up just two ACC victories. 

Their regular-season struggles could see them demoted to the NIT, where they haven't appeared since 1981—Krzyzewski's first year with the squad. Duke's all-time wins leader deflected a question about the tournament in talking to reporters on Monday (h/t Giles): 

"I think, to plan ahead during this season is not a good idea, and also, just to keep your eyes on the road and just try to be as good as you possibly can be. To be quite frank with you, we have not talked about that with our team. So we'll consider whatever. I just hope we have our ACC tournament. ... I'm all for the ACC tournament."

A perennial contender, Duke has dropped six of its last eight games and is 5-6 in ACC play. The squad was ranked ninth in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, one spot ahead of Kentucky, another typically strong team that is struggling in 2021. The Wildcats, who had the top recruiting class in the country, are just 5-12. 

The latest edition of the poll was missing Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and North Carolina, something that hadn't happened since Dec. 18, 1961, according to Adam Zagoria of the New York Times. 

If Duke and the NCAA's other top programs don't shape up quickly, March will have a new feel.  

North Carolina men's basketball players apologized Tuesday after video emerged that showed them in attendance at a party without wearing protective face coverings.

The Tar Heels issued the apology in an official statement:

"I appreciate the players voicing their apology," head coach Roy Williams said in a statement. "They made a mistake. They've been fantastic for more than eight months in the way they have dealt with the whole situation with the virus. But they realize they did make a mistake, for which they are paying a very significant price."

The ACC announced that Monday's scheduled game between North Carolina and Miami in Chapel Hill was postponed after personnel from both schools "mutually concluded the game could not move forward."

Per Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Miami "wasn't comfortable" taking the court after Tar Heels players Day'Ron Sharpe and Armando Bacot were seen on video at an indoor party without masks following Saturday's 91-87 win over Duke.

No makeup date has been announced. Miami has six games remaining in the regular season. North Carolina has seven regular-season games left.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble, but they will not have an opportunity to bolster their resume Monday.

The ACC postponed the scheduled game between the Tar Heels and Miami Hurricanes after personnel from both teams met. The announcement explained both sides "mutually concluded the game could not move forward today." 

Jeff Goodman of Stadium reported the postponement happened because Miami was not comfortable playing after video surfaced of North Carolina players Day'Ron Sharpe and Armando Bacot partying without masks following the Tar Heels' win over Duke on Saturday.

Prior to the postponement, C.L. Brown of the News & Observer reported the status of Sharpe and Bacot for Monday's game was dependent on their most recent COVID-19 test.

The players were not the only ones partying following the win over the rival Blue Devils. UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz tweeted a warning that "COVID doesn't take a break for the Duke game" when a number of students celebrated the victory:

Bacot leads North Carolina in points per game (12.1), while Sharpe leads the team in rebounds per game (7.8) this season.

The Tar Heels are 12-6 and had begun to gather some momentum with a 7-2 mark in their last nine games. A home game against the 7-11 Hurricanes that they already beat once this season represented a chance to improve their resume as Selection Sunday approaches.

Greg Barnes of 247Sports noted this is the third time the Tar Heels had a conference game postponed because of COVID-19 concerns. The others both came in January (Syracuse and Clemson).

UNC won the rescheduled Syracuse game 81-75 on Jan. 12.

After a critical response to a question during his press conference Saturday, Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski personally called the student reporter to apologize.

The situation came after the Blue Devils' loss to Louisville when Krzyzewski angrily responded to Duke Chronicle's Jake Piazza:

Piazza elaborated on the situation from his perspective in a column Monday.

"Once I got back to my apartment building, the weekend had another surprise in store for me. My phone rang and Coach K was on the other end of the line," Piazza wrote. "Our call was short, but the sincerity in his apology was genuine. And in the end, I appreciated the call."

The initial exchange led to plenty of debate on social media, with many criticizing Krzyzewski for his response to the question.

The incident also takes place in the midst of a rare rough patch for the Blue Devils on the court, losing three straight games to fall to 5-5. The squad fell out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2016 and didn't get a single vote in the latest Associated Press poll.

Duke will be back in action Tuesday against Georgia Tech.

Virginia Tech men's basketball player Tyrece Radford has been suspended indefinitely after being charged with driving while intoxicated and carrying a concealed weapon. 

The school said Radford was suspended "for not upholding the high standards Virginia Tech has for its students and athletes" in a statement.

Radford was pulled over by Blacksburg (Virginia) police early Sunday morning, the Montgomery County Sheriff's office told Mark Berman and Mike Niziolek of The Roanoke Times.

Both charges are considered Class 1 misdemeanors and carry a maximum of a 12-month jail sentence and $2,500 fine. Radford is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 9 for his arraignment.

Virginia Tech is ranked No. 20 in the latest Associated Press poll, and Radford is their second-leading scorer at 11.9 points per game. He was named ACC co-player of the week last Monday after helping lead the Hokies to wins over Duke and Wake Forest.

"We've got enough players in this building to continue to win," Virginia Tech coach Mike Young told reporters Monday.

The Duke men's basketball team dropped its third straight contest after falling to Louisville 70-65 on Saturday.

Afterward, Duke Chronicle student reporter Jake Piazza asked Krzyzewski an innocuous question about the Blue Devils' next steps going forward as they "move into another week of basketball."

The coach provided the following response:

"Why don't we just evaluate this game, I'm not into what our next step forward is right now," Coach K said in part.

Krzyzewski then asked Piazza what his major was at Duke, and the student reporter replied that he was studying economics.

Coach K then noted the student reporter's question was analogous to someone coming up to Piazza after a tough economics test and asking what his next steps would be.

"You see what I mean? You have some empathy?" Krzyzewski asked.

"You know, just give us time to evaluate this game and then we'll figure out just like we always try to do."

Piazza tweeted after the back-and-forth:

The Blue Devils' season could be on the brink after falling to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in ACC play following the three-game skid.

Piazza's question was a legitimate one, especially with Duke slated to play three games over the next nine days against Georgia Tech, Clemson and Miami.

The Blue Devils may have fought hard and lost Saturday, but conference play isn't letting up, especially with a rivalry game against UNC awaiting following next week's slate of games.