Weekend Preview: 1/19-1/20

There were two one-point games this week, with interesting finishes.  Despite being down almost the whole game, N.C. State had a great chance to pick up a road win at Maryland, but Alex Len's putback with 0.9 seconds left gave the Terps the win.  N.C. State went a little too much to Scott Wood down the stretch, missing the opportunity to seize control.  For Maryland, it's a much needed win.  The other exciting finish was in Chestnut Hill.  Boston College had three free throws to tie the game at the end, but fell one point short of a nice upset.  Miami remains unbeaten in the ACC.

Here's what's on tap for the weekend:

Saturday:

Maryland at North Carolina (12:00 p.m., ESPN)
Very interesting game to start off the weekend.  Maryland wants to build off the momentum of the N.C. State game and get to 3-2 in the conference.  They need to find some offense after a couple games in a row of subpar offensive outputs.  North Carolina hasn't played since their solid road win at Florida State.  The Heels need to show that it wasn't a fluke, and that they are building.  Another home loss at this point in the year would be very damaging.

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech (2:00 p.m., ACC Network)
Wake took a step back in their last game, only mustering 44 points in a blowout loss to Clemson.  It's hard to say at this point if they have made progress from last year.  Virginia Tech got a nice road win last week at Georgia Tech but had been playing really poorly before that.  If Wake can force someone other than Erick Green to beat them, they can win.

Florida State at Virginia (4:00 p.m., ACC Network)
Maybe a trip back home will be what Virginia needs to snap out of their two game funk.  Of course this game last year was a bad memory for the Cavaliers, blowing a late double digit lead.  Florida State has been a very mixed bag so far.  It's hard to tell what will happen in this game.  But expect a low scoring affair.

Sunday:

Clemson at N.C. State (6:00 p.m., ESPNU)
Clemson hasn't shown the ability to score with any regularity, and they will be taking on an N.C. State team that has to be mad with how their last game turned out.  If the Tigers don't come ready to play, they could be blown out of the gates.

Duke, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Miami are off this weekend.