ACC tournament beginning; Virginia draws N.C. State-Virginia Tech winner

The ACC tournament is starting today in Greensboro, N.C. This is the 60th ACC tournament according to Jerry Ratcliffe at The Daily Progress. The tournament will begin to look different next year as Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame join the ACC. Two years from now, it will be significantly different as Maryland leaves and Louisville replaces it.

Here is the schedule for today:
Noon - No. 9 seed Georgia Tech vs. No. 8 seed Boston College
2:30 p.m. - No. 12 seed Virginia Tech vs. No. 5 seed N.C. State
7 p.m. - No. 10 seed Wake Forest vs. No. 7 seed Maryland
9:30 p.m. - No. 11 seed Clemson vs. No. 6 seed Florida State

These games can be seen in this area on NBC29 (Central Virginia-ish).

Virginia plays the winner of the Hokies-Wolfpack matchup at 2 p.m. on Friday (likely to be more like 2:30 because Miami faces the winner of Ga. Tech-BC at noon).

So the Cavaliers are probably going to play N.C. State. I'll go with that for the backdrop of this post and will have to adjust if the Hokies win today.

C.J. Leslie

N.C. State's leaders
C.J. Leslie - 14.9 ppg, 7.5 rpg
Richard Howell - 12.7 ppg, 10.6 rpg
Lorenzo Brown - 12.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, seven apg
T.J. Warren - 12.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg
Scott Wood - 12.1 ppg, 42.4 percent 3-point shooter

Virginia defeated N.C. State in their only meeting this year in Charlottesville, 58-55. The 'Hoos did not look great early and fell behind by as many as 11 points but rallied to a halftime deficit of just 31-24. The second half belonged to the 'Hoos, who took down the Wolfpack with a dominating 20 minutes of play, outscoring them 34-24. Joe Harris led the way with 22 points, Akil Mitchell had 14 and 12 rebounds, and Mike Tobey had 13 points. For N.C. State, Leslie came off the bench to tally 20 points and 14 rebounds and Howell posted 12 points and 11 rebounds. Wood hit three 3s.

Lorenzo Brown

UVa did get a couple of lucky breaks. Leslie was feeling sick and so he came off the bench but normally he would have started. He had a monster game as it was, but it could have been better had he played more than 30 minutes. Warren, who was named ACC Freshman of the Year and led the league in field goal percentage, had only three points and was 1 of 7 shooting. The biggest break the Cavaliers caught was that point guard Brown went down about 10 minutes into the game with a turned ankle and N.C. State started to lose control of the game from there. UVa won't get that luxury this game as Brown is at full strength.

N.C. State did most of its damage at the beginning of the year, culminating in ACC victories over Duke and North Carolina. Virginia beat those teams, too, though, and both those teams won rematches on their home floors with the Wolfpack. State defeated the Tar Heels 91-83 on Jan. 26. In their next game, the Pack lost to UVa. N.C. State was 16-4 after beating UNC and is now 22-9, 11-7 in the conference so it has gone just 6-5 since that victory over the Tar Heels. Most of their damage was done at home, too. N.C. State won just two ACC road games, at Clemson (by a point) and at Georgia Tech (by 13). In recent contests, N.C. State has had to go to OT with Virginia Tech in Raleigh and went down at Florida State right after Virginia went down in Tallahassee as well. Despite the recent struggles and a fifth-place finish in the ACC (behind fourth-place UVa), N.C. State is solidly in the Big Dance thanks to an RPI of 28. The Pack is playing for seeding at this point. A loss to Virginia Tech could knock the Pack to about a No. 8 or 9 seed in the tournament but a ACC tourney championship could launch them to around a No. 3 seed.

UVa junior Joe Harris
shot 60 percent
against Duke but
has not played well
since and only shot
22.2 percent last game
vs. Maryland.

Still, their performance is not as pressing as Virginia's, which, in my opinion, needs to win to have a better- than-a-coin-flip shot at getting invited to the dance. The Cavaliers can do it, but I think they need to come up with a better showing than they have shown recently in losses to Boston College and FSU and a near-loss to Maryland at John Paul Jones Arena. Harris, after making 12 of 20 shots and scoring a career-high 36 points against Duke, has struggled, shooting just 36.4, 33.3, and 22.2 percent in his last three games. I feel like he could be due another good game. Mitchell has been playing solidly, and a another double-double is probably something the 'Hoos will need. The Cavaliers' freshmen have hit the wall lately. Against Maryland, though, both Mike Tobey and Justin Anderson had pretty good games. Hopefully UVa can have at least one freshman have a really good game. Jontel Evans, of course, is usually the focal point for fans. When he plays well, UVa usually wins. When he plays erratically, things usually get tough. A mostly-turnover-free game from him with some assists and points sprinkled in usually goes a long way in helping the Wahoos' chances so hopefully Evans has shaken off some recent struggles.

Virginia can take this game and make it to the ACC tournament semifinals for the first time since 1995 (yikes!), the longest semifinal drought in the league. But it will need a focused, tough effort. Hopefully it gets one against the Wolfpack. A win could mean the difference between spelling N-C-A-A or N-I-T for the Wahoos.