ACC Basketball power rankings: Wake Forest rises, Virginia slides down

It’s been a brutal stretch of six games for the Yellow Jackets, who lost four straight matchups against power-conference opponents and nearly lost to both Georgia Southern and Georgia State as well. The past few weeks exposed two main flaws for this team; lack of scoring support for Mike Devoe and lack of frontcourt depth and production.

The first one was excepted from the preseason. Rodney Howard is the only guy 6’7 or taller getting double-digit minutes in the rotation and had started off the season well against inferior foes. But against tougher competition, the 6’10 center struggled to score more than two points and has been unplayable at times. Even worse, he’s been dealing with an ankle injury but should be closer to 100% once the team gets out of covid pause.

As for e offense, Devoe has been doing all he can, leading the team with 21.0 ppg and 3.4 apg on 50% shooting and 46% from three-point range. He’s done effectively everything he can do to this point so the team being just over .500 overall is a concern. Jordan Usher is the only other double-digit scorer on the roster at 14.9 ppg and 7.2 rpg and has become the best frontcourt player on the roster, even though he’s undersized.

There are five other players averaging between 5-7 ppg but that won’t be good enough in league play unless Devoe goes for 30 points. Kyle Sturdivant and Khalid Moore are guys that will need to step up in a major way for the Yellow Jackets to get back on track, or else rely on two guys to score over 60% of the team’s production.