ACC Tournament Filled with Upsets

As many teams in other conferences have seen teams try to get on or off the bubble, the ACC tournament has seen many teams previously thought to be in the tournament lose to the cellar-dwellers. In the first 2 rounds, the 2 through 6 seeds in the tournament - Maryland, FSU, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Wake Forest - all lost their first game. It has further proven that the ACC this year is Duke and the 11 dwarves. This cetainly looks like Duke could cruise to another ACC title, but they could potentially play Georgia Tech in the final, who beat them in January.

The Maryland bandwagon had been hot lately as they came into the tournament on an 11 game winning streak. But they ran into a Georgia Tech team last night that was anxious for revenge for the last second loss the Terrapins handed than a couple of weeks ago. Tech shot lights out in the first half to take a commanding 41-25 lead at the half. But their sloppy ball control, something that has plagued Paul Hewitt's team all season, nearly cost them the game in the second half. They committed 16 second half turnovers, including 8 within the first 5 minutes of the second half. That is unheard of.

So, even though Maryland lost, it was against a solid team, a team that still has potential to go deep into the NCAA tournament. The Yellow Jackets just need to be more careful with the ball. They have the talent to beat anyone if they can hang on to the ball long enough to get up a decent shot. The other NCAA-bound teams that lost were really just bringing them back toward the middle of the ACC pack, where they should be. Miami and Virginia have played everyone closely this season and were unfortunate to finish league play so poorly, but they both managed to pull out victories in Greensboro. Miami has pulled out 2 victories so far and looks for a 3^rd against Duke today.

The semifinal matchups in the ACC tournament are seeds 1 and 12 Duke vs. Miami at 1:30 and #7 seed Georgia Tech vs. #11 seed North Carolina State at 4:00.