Results
Clemson 74 Boston College 54
Florida State 86 Miami 67
Duke 79 NC State 56
North Carolina 77 Georgia Tech 61
Virginia 88 Wake Forest 76
Virginia Tech 67 Maryland 64(OT)
Analysis
- During the past three conference games UNC has had one game where they played poor defense, shot poorly, and turned the ball over frequently. That was against Virginia Tech and they lost fairly handily. In the two games since, they played killer defense, shot the ball well, but still turned the ball over way too many times and those games they won by 22 and 16 points. So, the real question is how bad will they beat someone if they do A and B correctly and figure C out?
- Could someone please figure Maryland out for me? They are 1-4 in the ACC which means they need to be 8-3 the rest of the way to be 9-7 in the conference. It may be doable with the road games at Duke and Clemson plus the home game with UNC being the three losses. Beyond that they get Georgia Tech, Virginia, FSU, and NC State at home, all games they have to win. On the road they visit Wake Forest, NC State, and Florida State. That FSU series will be the key one to watch as well as the home games against UVa and Georgia Tech. That Miami loss is looming very large right now.
- NC State was flat out horrid against Duke on Saturday which had less to do with the Duke defense and more to do with the Wolfpack basically losing all control of their bodies and the basketball.
- Clemson blew BC out rebounding nicely from their two game losing streak. I am not sure BC would have won this game anyway but I imagine it would have been closer had Sean Williams not been sent home for failing to follow the J.J. Redick example of being in the room without actually smoking the pot.
- Speaking of rebounding, Virginia Tech did so by knocking off the aforementioned Terps at home. VT is doing what it needs to do and defend their home floor having already stolen one on the road.
- So the standings at this point shed some light on the world: BC is still on top at 5-1 but we all now that is not going to last. UNC and VT are a half game back with Clemson, Duke, and Virginia jammed up in the middle with two losses followed by the enimatic FSU and GT at three losses. Miami is 2-4 and likely to drop fast. And at the bottom we have NC State and Wake Forest(no surprise) along with highly disappointing Maryland.
- This week: Boston College will try to keep above water hosting FSU who needs a win. VT will try to notch a second road win at Miami. UNC is set to thrash Wake Forest with the possibility of Michael Jordan in the house [that would actually be the game on Feb 10th not this one], Maryland tries to right the ship against Georgia Tech who needs some ship righting of their own. Virginia head to NC State for key road game and the big game of the week is Clemson at Duke where someone is going to get exposed.