Weekend Preview

Not a lot of note from the past week.  The best game was definitely a wild affair in Coral Gables, with Miami beating Maryland in double overtime, in a game that featured Mark Turgeon being ejected.  Duke and North Carolina both got comfortable road wins against lesser opponents.  And Florida State shook off a poor first half to beat Georgia Tech and keep their roll going.

This weekend's schedule doesn't set up all that well for fans.  There are five games on Saturday, but three games are going on at 1:00 and two games are at 4:00.  Fortunately there are a couple of solid matchups.

Saturday:

Boston College at Georgia Tech (1:00 p.m., ESPNU)
The matchup between probably the worst two teams in the conference, both in bad need of a win.  This one will not be pretty to watch.

Virginia at Florida State (1:00 p.m., ACC Network)
The game of the weekend, in my opinion.  Florida State has been riding high in the last few weeks.  Virginia struggled to put away Clemson, but is still one of the top four teams in the conference and has the ability to win on the road.  If Virginia can knock down some 3s, they can win.

Wake Forest at NC State (1:00 p.m., ACC Network)
It seems like these two teams just played, and it was not a pretty affair in Winston-Salem.  NC State destroyed Wake, and I don't think that's going to change in this one.  Wake needs to be careful or they might see another swoon like they had last year.

North Carolina at Maryland (4:00 p.m., ESPN)
Maryland has lived for home games against UNC and Duke in the last several years.  They failed at home against Duke, and have another chance at a signature win.  I was impressed with how the Terps held together in Miami.  But UNC is a different animal.  They played poorly on the road against Wake and still won very easily.

Clemson at Virginia Tech (4:00 p.m., FSN)
Clemson hasn't won a road game in the ACC.  Virginia Tech hasn't won a home game in the ACC.  Something has to give here.  Clemson actually played decently in Charlottesville.  Virginia Tech has to guard against a letdown after losing to Duke.

Sunday:

Miami at Duke (3:00 p.m., ESPNU)
This game is moved up from the normal 6:00 p.m. spot because of the Super Bowl.  Duke is getting better contributions from Mason Plumlee, which is helping them to be more balanced.  Miami to me has been a bit of a disappointment, struggling to put away games like their home game against Maryland.

Final Thoughts:

The ACC released information Friday about how the conference will look when Pitt and Syracuse join.  I have never been a fan of this move, but it's inevitable so I'll have to live with it.  It will be interesting to see the ACC go to 18 conference games.  I think that will be a net positive, although the conference needs to improve.  Teams should benefit from playing more conference games against stiffer competition.  But if the ACC continues to be down, that won't be as much of a benefit as playing strong teams from other conferences.  Of course, Pitt and Syracuse both bring great pedigrees in basketball, so some of the other schools will just be adding two L's to their schedule when they join the conference.