Results
Florida State 96 Maryland 79
Wake Forest 85 Georgia Tech 75
Boston College 94 Hartford 60
North Carolina 105 Miami 64
NC State 70 Virginia Tech 59
Virginia 68 Duke 66 (OT)
Analysis
- Duke is now 0-2 versus the state of Virginia. The Devils missed out on a chance to put themselves in a group of three teams with two losses right behind the league leading Heels. This is also where Duke's schedule really begins turn with Maryland and UNC twice, road games at BC and Clemson, and Florida State this weekend who always plays Duke hard.
- Maryland and Georgia Tech have NCAA Tournament hopes that are somewhere between brain dead and life support. In fact I am not sure either one of them have a schedule favorable for overcoming their current predicament. Their only hope is to get to 8-8 and hope the favorable RPI for the conference snags the ACC at least eight bids.
- The Hokies undoubtedly have a bad taste in their mouth following the loss at home to NC State. Losing to NC State is not necessarily a horrendus thing since there is good talent on that team but if you want to play with the big boys in the ACC you have to win home games. In effect VT basically negated winning on the road at Duke. Obviously this is the VT team that lost to Marshall rearing it's head again. Seth Greenberg better knock it back down again.
- The officiating in the conference continues to be inconsistent or downright bad. Frank Haith got himself ejected in the UNC game over a series of bad calls. Seth Greenberg got himself a technical foul arguing with refs late against the Pack. The Duke-UVa game had it's share of questionable calls including an intentional foul that was not called on Greg Paulus. Not that it matters since the ACC seems unwilling to make necessary changes to ensure the games are called fairly. At the very least I would hope for some kind of definitive statement from the league offices on the consistency issues. I will not hold my breath though.
- The key games of the weekend are Virginia Tech at BC with the loser falling out of the second place position. UVa is the other team in the mix there and they should cruise vs Miami. Georgia Tech plays Clemson in a battle of two teams trying to break out of a tailspin. NC State and UNC tip off in what should be an entertaning game and Duke hosts Florida State which could have all the makings of major drama given the history there.