The picture starts to come into focus.
That Maryland Loss Is Not Looking So Bad Now: The Terps moved to 6-3 in the ACC and established themselves in 3rd place one game behind UNC with a 84-70 win over NC State. Aside from committing crimes against fashion by wearing hideously yellow uniforms, the Terps have apparently arrived. In one respect if makes UNC's lost to them look less daunting and it would be nice if they would follow up by beating Duke at Cameron. As for NCSU, they simply need to put together two good halves of basketball during the same game against one of these teams on the road. They do well in the 1st half and wilt in the 2nd when the opposing coach makes adjustments or someone on the other side gets hot. There is still great potential for the Pack this season but they missed a huge opportunity to get into a four loss tie with Maryland and Clemson.
Duke Avoids the Letdown Game: BC figured out how to defend Duke and that is to trust the interior players to stop the Duke guards from finishing while defending the kick out. Unfortunately for BC, their players are not the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to make plays on the offensive end. Duke did not shoot well from outside in this game and I just keep thinking they have to hit a rough stretch of games at some point, right?
Taking Care Of/Not Taking Care Of Business: Wake Forest handled UVa at home and VT did not do the same with Miami. VT was 5-3 a week ago now they have lost two straight and dropped themselves down in the standings. The Hokies big, huge, season killing problem is they have the following schedule: at UNC, at Maryland followed by homes games versus GT, BC and Wake with a end of regular season trip to Clemson. In other words they are toast and if they lose five more games they will not even see the NIT. Wake on the other hands showed signs of life but also have the same problem as VT, their schedule is brutal. At FSU, home to Duke, at UNC, home to MD, at GT and VT, home to NCSU. At 4-5 they need to win four of those games to even smell the inside of the room on Selection Sunday. I just do not see that happening.
Schedule This Week: One gripe. The ACC decided to backload the schedule this week with three games on Thursday, and one each on Tuesday and Wednesday. That in itself is fine but why put UNC on the road two days after having them play a Sunday night game versus Clemson? All of the teams that played on Saturday get to play on Wednesday and Thursday but UNC who played on Sunday has to play on Tuesday. I know ESPN dictated some of this, such as putting MD-Duke on Wednesday night as a showcase game. That being said, at least it is UVa which has been horrible and the early in the week gives everyone an extended break before VT on Saturday who happens to get the week off. I would also point out the absolute stupidity of putting three games on Valentine's Day. You are killing the men out there, really.
Tuesday, February 12th
UNC at UVA, 8 PM
Wednesday, February 13th
MD at Duke, 7 PM
Thursday, February 14th
NCSU at BC, 7 PM
Wake at FSU, 9 PM
GT at Clemson, 9 PM