Tuesday’s ACC action went as expected with one exception. Miami lost for the seventh straight time, this time to #1 Tennessee 75-62, NC State edged Coppin State 66-56, Syracuse beat Albany 102-85 and Cal lost at home to Cornell 88-80 .

The surprise?

Winless Coppin State gave the Wolfpack some problems, staying close in the first half and into the second half. Eventually, State pulled away, but the Pack could never really outscore Coppin State, going 0-10 (now 0-11).

It’s possible they were looking forward to this weekend’s trip to Kansas, but still… they made Coppin State wait longer than necessary.

Meanwhile, Miami suffered its seventh straight loss, falling to Tennessee 75-62 in the Jimmy V Classic. Jim Larranaga said he saw some improvement but was also visibly frustrated, saying after the game: “In the first half we had a terrible last seven minutes. We were terrible. It was like we had never practiced together before. It was like we had just met the last time. It didn’t look like our team. Everyone shot from the jump, no passes, no assists, poor shot selection. When you do that, it’s really demoralizing and it’s hard to play good defense when everyone is mad that we took such a bad shot.”

It looks like the Canes still have a lot of work to do.

Syracuse scored a lot of goals against Albany. Donnie Freeman led the way with 24 points in 22 minutes and the Orange shot 63 percent, but Adrian Autry wasn’t happy with his team’s defense as Syracuse gave up 51 points in the second half.

Autry mixed things up a bit, bringing super rookie Freeman off the bench. Despite the absence of JJ Starling, who is sidelined with a hand injury, Syracuse shot 40 percent on three-pointers (6-15).

You don’t see this too often: Cornell was playing an ACC team on the road and had a 52-29 lead. Well, Cal hasn’t really gotten used to ACC basketball yet – how could that be? – but it’s still embarrassing. Luckily for the Bears, they came back and tied the game at 74-74 with 3:51 left.

That was it for Cal – Cornell ultimately outscored the Bears 14-6 and picked up its first win against an ACC team since 1951.

It’s really not a blow to Cal. They haven’t been a great basketball school in a long time and will face some setbacks as they join the ACC. We’ll see how they deal with it.

Three games on Wednesday: Dartmouth visits Notre Dame, Pitt hosts Eastern Kentucky and UTEP travels to Louisville.

ACC action on Wednesday

Dartmouth @ Notre Dame || 7:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra

Eastern Kentucky @ Pitt || 7:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra

UTEP @ Louisville || 7:00 || ESPN+/ACC Extra