Boston College 80, Georgia Tech 76
Virginia Tech 78, #1 Wake Forest 71
Miami (Fl) 75, Florida State 69
#6 North Carolina 94, #9 Clemson 70
It was actually a fairly slow week in the ACC, except for a remarkable Wednesday evening. But that Wednesday evening had enough important results to be worth a discussion here. We probably should first discuss that not-as-surprising-as-you-might-think Virginia Tech upset over Wake Forest. I warned about this as a possible upset back on Sunday, because after that huge four-game run you knew that Wake was due for a reality check. And Virginia Tech has a habit over the past few years of pulling huge upsets in the ACC. Unfortunately, Vegas didn't agree that this was such a big possibility, and didn't even offer a moneyline on this game, so I took the points and collected my (unfortunately much smaller) profit. And the way that North Carolina looked like the UNC of old with a demolition of Clemson reminded ACC fans that UNC is still the team to beat in the conference, even if they're currently tied for fourth place with Miami of Florida.
The key thing to look for in the ACC, of course, is the bubble. Unlike the Big East, the ACC does not have a clear-cut fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth teams, and it's why they risk only getting five teams to the Tournament even though they are probably the best conference in the land. You can put North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest in the bracket with ink pen at this point, because they're locks. And Clemson looks pretty safe as well, even if they were overrated at ninth in the rankings. But after that, it's absolute chaos.
I think it's clear that Maryland, Miami, Boston College, Florida State and Virginia Tech have separated from the field. None of those five teams will win the ACC, but any remaining ACC at-large bids will almost definitely go to one or more of these teams. So the remaining regular season is just about these teams trying to rack up victories. Rather than attempting to predict the future of these five teams (which I certainly will not be able to do with much accuracy) I'll just recommend that you watch any game involving these teams that will be on your television, because it's going to be a lot of fun.
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2 comments:
At 2-3 in the ACC now, and with 5 games still to come against UNC, Clemson, Duke & Wake, Maryland has zero margin for error. I'm not sure their psyche will handle getting absolutely crushed by Duke today.
I agree, they're definitely in trouble. Today's game was so bad that I only watched for about five minutes before flipping over to Siena/Niagara. Who would have thought that a double-digit margin of victory in the MAAC would be more exciting than a game between Maryland and Duke?
I'll talk more about this later today, but Maryland's one chance is to use this loss as a motivating moment. In fact, the odds are pretty good that it will motivate them somewhat. If the spread is reasonable, taking them over BC on Tuesday night is probably a good bet.
The question will be maintaining that motivation for February, when the schedule really gets brutal. They're going to have to beat at least one of the Big Four in the ACC for sure.
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