The Week Ahead

This weekend was stabilizing for a couple of teams who were coming off tough losses.  North Carolina rebounded from the Duke loss to take care of Virginia, pretty easily in the second half.  Florida State got a bounceback win at home against Miami, stopping the Hurricanes' hot streak.  I was in Blacksburg yesterday to see Virginia Tech pull a rabbit out of its hat against Boston College.

Here's the schedule for this week:

Tuesday:

Virginia at Clemson (7:00 p.m., ESPNU)
Clemson got a somewhat surprisingly easily win on the road against Wake this weekend.  I think that probably says more about Wake than Clemson.  Virginia needs to bounce back from a poor performance in Chapel Hill with a road win against a lesser team.  They are still not a lock for the NCAA Tournament.

Wednesday:

Georgia Tech at Wake Forest (7:30 p.m., FSN)
The battle of the two worst teams in the conference.  Both teams have really struggled, and each have only two conference wins.  This game is for basketball purists only.

North Carolina at Miami (8:00 p.m., ESPN)
Miami lost the chance to pick up a big win on the road at Florida State, but they have another chance if they can knock off North Carolina.  The Heels beat Miami pretty easily in Chapel Hill, but that was back when Miami was still trying to break Reggie Johnson back in the lineup.

Thursday:

Virginia Tech at Florida State (7:00 p.m., ESPN2)
Virginia Tech was lucky to win at home against Boston College on Sunday.  They are going to have a tough time in Tallahassee against a team that already beat them in Blacksburg.  If Dorian Finney-Smith can keep playing well offensively, he can make it difficult for the big guys of Florida State and keep it close.

Boston College at Maryland (9:00 p.m., ACC Network)
BC is playing significantly better than they were in the first couple months of the season.  If they can keep up their hot outside shooting, they have a chance against Maryland.  The Terps are a bit deflated after an uninspired loss to Duke in which Pe'Shon Howard was lost for the season and Terrell Stoglin mouthed off about sitting on the bench.

NC State at Duke (9:00 p.m, ACC Network)
Good matchup here.  NC State has had a week to prepare for this game.  Duke struggled a bit at home against Maryland, and has already lost twice at Cameron this year.  I don't expect NC State to win, but they have the talent to hang with the Blue Devils.