Wednesday ACC Tournament Roundup
Posted by Matt Patton on March 12th, 2015ACC Tournament Wednesday is in the books. Brad has you covered on North Carolina’s Marcus Paige and NC State’s Cat Barber. In other games, Clemson and Florida State played a compelling final few minutes as Leonard Hamilton’s team held off a furious onslaught (see below) from a Tigers team that had been down 20. Despite the near-comeback, the story of that game was the Seminoles’ Xavier Rathan-Mayes (30 points on 11-of-19 shooting). I mistakenly left him off my players to watch this week even though he boasts the most impressive performance of the year. He’s fearless (sometimes to a point of fault), but he’s capable of putting up huge numbers when his shots are falling. The freshman has his work cut out to score against the pack-line defense of Virginia (12:00 PM, ESPN), but if he’s making his threes, Rathan-Mayes should be just fine. Still, to beat Virginia, the Seminoles as a whole need to play a great game. Their biggest problem will be limiting the Cavaliers’ possessions, so Florida State’s tendency toward turnovers (21.9%) must be addressed. The bottom line is that the Seminoles will need everything they can get from Rathan-Mayes and still need the relatively inefficient Virginia offense of late to show up in Greensboro. It’s still undecided whether Justin Anderson will play today, but don’t expect him to immediately return at the level he was at the time of his injury.
The other games today also feature plenty of intrigue. Lots of eyes will also be on North Carolina‘s rubber match with Louisville (2:00 PM, ESPN), as the Cardinals are still looking to prove they can consistently compete without Chris Jones, and North Carolina will again be without Kennedy Meeks. Personally, I’m still interested to see if Louisville’s win against Virginia was a fluke or if Rick Pitino has found the answer for his team’s late-season swoon.
The most compelling game of the day will be the rematch between NC State and Duke (7:00 PM, ESPN). Trust me, a lot of teams invited to the NCAA Tournament will be watching this tape if the Wolfpack win. On paper, NC State has the primary pieces that give Duke’s defense fits: dynamic guards and inside length. Both teams look to be playing better than when they first met and the crowd will be heavily for NC State. Can Barber, Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner carve up the porous Duke defense a second time this season? Or will the more talented Blue Devils run away with things?
Last but certainly not least, we also have Miami taking a shot at Notre Dame (9:00 PM, ESPN). Miami didn’t look great yesterday against Virginia Tech, but with Angel Rodriguez taking on the Fighting Irish’s porous defense, you can never count out an awesome game. Also keep an eye on Jerian Grant, who has looked tired over the last few games. He’s had a terrific year, but this is the time to cement his season as legend.
News and notes from around the league
- Jeff Schultz gives a more reasonable take on Brian Gregory‘s situation at Georgia Tech. It’s certainly not a rosy picture, but you don’t want to fire someone just to replace him with a coach with even less of a chance to succeed because you’re paying two men not to coach your team. I suspect Gregory is finished in Atlanta, but the coaching search will be one to watch unless a booster comes forward with some serious cash.
- Big time gaffe from someone at the ACC, as the ACC Tournament Program printed “UNC State” instead of “NC State.” Apparently it was a poorly thought-out use of the “find and replace” function.
- Nice article from Chris Hine on Steve Vasturia, who goes overlooked on Notre Dame but plays with a lot of grit and often draws an opponent’s toughest defensive assignment.
- Anthony Gill is a practical joker. He’s also had one of the most efficient performances in conference play despite getting very little love from anyone other than Ken Pomeroy.
- Just a quick check on Maryland, which, despite having its best year under Mark Turgeon, only sold 700 tickets to the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. I think it’s safe to say that a team this good would have sold more tickets to the ACC Tournament, but… Chicago in mid-March!
