ACC Tournament Final Preview

The higher seeds finally held serve on Saturday, in what has been a pretty good tournament. Both games yesterday came down to the final minute. Let's start with Duke, which held off Miami to win. The Blue Devils got a great effort from Kyle Singler, and were able to pull out to pretty significant leads twice only to see Miami climb back. I can't say enough about how well the Hurricanes played in this tournament. They should be a force in the NIT.

In the second game, Georgia Tech was able to hold off a late charge from NC State. The Wolfpack looked very tired in the first half, only mustering 19 points. But just like their game against Maryland, Georgia Tech let NC State back in with a disturbing number of turnovers. It's amazing how bad the Yellow Jackets look when a team presses them: they act as if they haven't practiced before. The key play in yesterday's game was Javier Gonzalez dribbling the ball off his foot, then grabbing Derrick Favors by the jersey and slinging him down for an intentional foul.

So that sets up today's final. I'm sure 95% of the people out there expect Duke to win. And you can count me among those. Georgia Tech certainly has the talent to beat Duke, but they are so sloppy with the ball that I have to think Duke will make them pay for those turnovers. For Georgia Tech the key is a healthy dose of Favors and Gani Lawal. They were very successful going in to them early in the NC State game, and can't abandon that.

For Duke, I think the key is a strong game from the role players. Scheyer has been a bit off this week, and Singler can't do it all himself. Brian Zoubek, Lance Thomas, and the Plumlee brothers need to play well to pick up the slack. I expect Georgia Tech to give Duke a good fight, but playing four days in a row will wear them down and Duke should take home another ACC Tournament title.