In our attempt to bring you the most comprehensive Championship Week coverage anywhere, RTC is covering several of the conference tournaments from the sites. One of our RTC correspondents is at the ACC Tournament.  In addition to live-blogging select games throughout the tournament, he will post a nightly diary with his thoughts on each day’s action. Here is his submission for the quarterfinal games.

Duke 57, Virginia 46

• Virginia was again playing without second team all-ACC Sylven Landesberg, who was suspended by head coach Tony Bennett for the remainder of the season due to academic issues, and senior guard Calvin Baker, who left the team for personal reasons.
• Sammy Zeglinski did not score in today’s game after leading the team yesterday with 21 points. Duke did a good job of limiting his open looks and keeping him out of the lane. He shot 0-9 from the floor, 0-4 from three point range.
• Duke got its usual production from the big three of Singler, Scheyer, and Smith, accounting for 48 of the team’s 57 points. No other player had more than three points. This is going to bite Duke hard at some point, because one of those players is going to have an off night, and that will spell doom for their NCAA run. This looks like no better than an Elite Eight team, but I could easily see them losing in the Sweet 16.
• Give Virginia credit, they scared Duke for about 33 of the 40 minutes. They fought hard on both ends and did not back down. Tony Bennett’s team may not always be the prettiest thing to watch, but they do compete. This could be a very solid program in a few years after Bennett has a couple of recruiting classes under his belt.

Miami 70, Virginia Tech 65

• Miami starting PF Dwayne Collins was again not available for today’s game due to a “stress condition” of his left leg. Reggie Johnson, who scored a career high 22 points yesterday versus Wake, replaced him in the starting lineup. This game was not nearly as successful for him, scoring only five points.
• Virginia Tech’s Malcolm Delaney, the ACC’s leading scorer at 20.5 ppg, was held to seven points on 3-15 shooting today, one of his worst performances all season. He was short on just about every shot, including an airball from three on Tech’s last possession.
• Miami pulled off their second consecutive upset in as many days, having defeated the 4^th and 5^th seeds. No one was happier than coach Frank Haith, except for maybe the Duke fans who were cheering the loudest. They will now see a worn-down Hurricane team for a chance to advance to the championship game. As usual, the lucky ones get luckier.
• Who needs Dwayne Collins? Apparently not Miami. They’re playing better now than at any point since the conference season began. No Collins clogging up the middle allows the lightning quick guards to penetrate for either a lay up or a dish for three. The threes didn’t fall today (4-16) as much as yesterday, but continued penetration put Miami on the line, where they were 83% yesterday and 76% today.

Georgia Tech 69, Maryland 64

• Georgia Tech played spoiler tonight to Greivis Vasquez and the Maryland Terrapins’ ACC title hopes. Tech came out like gangbusters and opened a 16-point halftime lead, only see Maryland trim it to two in the second half. Tech held on, stripping Vasquez of the ball with a chance to tie the game late. With that win, the Jackets have assured themselves of an NCAA bid.
• No one can irritate a crowd like Vasquez. I’ve heard nicer comments about Iran’s nuclear program than I heard directed at him from the crowd tonight.
• Does anyone know why Gary Williams screams at his bench when it’s the guys on the court making mistakes? I think I’d rather be screwing up on the court than being berated by him for something I didn’t even do.
• I realize that most consider the Tech victory an upset, but I’m not so sure. I’ve been trying to figure out how Maryland went 13-3 in the ACC when I see the team they put on the floor. Vasquez is good, Milbourne is okay, and Jordan Williams is a decent freshman. Everyone else is below average. That doesn’t equal 13-3 to me, but I can’t see for the smoke and mirrors Gary Williams has put up.

NC State 58, Florida State 52

• Can NC State play any uglier? Apparently so. At the half, they had two more turnovers than rebounds (12-10). I don’t know if that speaks more to their inability to rebound or their inability to hold onto the ball.  Worse yet for FSU, they only led by three in spite of those numbers.
• Like I stated yesterday, NC State ALWAYS come to play in the ACC Tournament no better how badly they play during the regular season.  The more things change…
• FSU has to be disgusted. This was a golden opportunity for the Noles to make it to championship Sunday after seeing 2^nd seed Maryland get upset by Georgia Tech. Instead, they became the 6^th higher seeded team to get bounced from the tournament by a lower seed.
• Sidney Lowe still looks like a giant tomato in that red coat.

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 5:10 am by rtmsf and is filed under 2010 conference tournaments. Tagged: acc tournament, calvin baker, duke, Dwayne Collins, florida state, frank haith, gary williams, georgia tech, greivis vasquez, malcolm delaney, maryland, miami (fl), nc state, reggie johnson, sammy zeglinski, sidney lowe, sylven landesberg, tony bennett, virginia, virginia tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.