Virginia soundly beat George Mason in a game where rebounding machine Mike Scott only managed two boards. Was Scott having an off night? Hardly. There just weren’t a lot of misses in the game with Virginia shooting a ridiculous 60.5% and the Patriots managing to make 47.5% in a relatively slow game. Sammy Zeglinski shined as a starter with 18 points on 11 shots and four steals. Meanwhile, North Carolina unceremoniously stomped Evansville, holding the Aces to 25.8% shooting as no starter played more than 25 minutes. In what I thought would be the game of the night, Memphis’s Will Barton put on a show as the Tigers torched an undersized Miami team. Barton scored a ridiculous 27 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and managed four steals. Miami continues to look out of sorts on offense, which is bad news for a team that has really struggled to defend.

Tonight we have a full slate of games, though it’s unclear if the majority of them will be even close to competitive. Still, there are lots of options and a few choice offerings.

An In-State Rivalry!

It's a Peach State Battle in Athens Tonight

• Georgia Tech at Georgia at 7:00 PM on ESPN3.com

Despite Georgia’s current three game slide, the Bulldogs have shown flashes of real talent in the early going with a notable win over Notre Dame. Georgia Tech has lost to Saint Joseph’s, Northwestern, and Tulane. Neither of these teams are great, but each has shown great aptitude on the defensive end. While the Yellow Jackets will probably have a tough time handling Georgia at home, this Georgia Tech team is, if nothing else, an outstanding rebounding team and that will keep them in the game as long as the Yellow Jacket scorers aren’t totally shut down.

The Sleeper

• Colorado State at Duke at 7:00 PM on ESPN2

Duke should win this one in its sleep, but they will need to play better perimeter defense than they have in the past or the Blue Devils could be in for a rude awakening. Colorado State currently leads the nation in three-point percentage, shooting 46.0% to start the season. The normally outstanding three-point defense of Duke has been missing this year. It’s a slim opening, but a hot night from behind the arc can make any team unbeatable over 40 minutes. Aside from Duke’s edge in nearly every possibly category, their biggest strength might be three-point shooting as well. In a rich, quasi-ironic twist, the sweet shooting players of Colorado State have no idea how to defend the three: opponents have shot 39.1% against them. This game shouldn’t be competitive, but if Colorado State gets hot, who knows how it goes?

For Fans Only

• Virginia Tech at Rhode Island at 7:00 PM
•  Wake Forest at High Point at 7:00 PM
•  Mount St. Mary’s at Maryland at 8:00 PM on ESPN3.com

Not a particularly glamorous set of games as the ACC’s lower-middle class takes on a few overmatched teams. Still, there is always a little bit of extra spice when teams go on the road, providing a little bit of extra intrigue to the Virginia Tech and Wake Forest games. Mount St. Mary’s taking on Maryland at College Park is of primary interest to people who enjoy the name Mary. More seriously, the game gives Maryland a good chance to win consecutive games, something it has yet to do this season.

KCarpenter (269 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 at 5:00 pm by KCarpenter and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: acc, colorado state, duke, evansville, george mason, georgia, georgia tech, high point, maryland, memphi, miami, mike scorr, mount st. mary's, north carolina, rhode island, sammy zeglinski, virginia, virginia tech, wake forest, will barton. 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.