In Thursday night's ACC action, State bowed to Wake Forest, 85-78, and Miami outlasted Virginia, 62-55.
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State has made a habit lately of blowing big leads and surviving, but this time, it was Wake that had to hold on.
State was down by 15 in the first half but fought back and cut the lead to 74-71 with about 2:30 left.
James Johnson, however, was having none of it. The ACC's only Black Belt in anything kicked some butt with 28 points and 14 boards. He's made no bones about wanting to leave as soon as possible, and that's a pretty good argument.
Al-Farouq Aminu, who also has been rumored as a one-and-done, hasn't played very well lately and may have hurt his case. He only got three points against the Pack.
Jeff Teague has also slipped some, falling off of a torrid early pace. State again defended him well, holding him to 12 points on 3-12 shooting.
Worth noting: earlier this season State was all but giving the ball away. In this game? Eight turnovers. That's a huge improvement.
Miami pulled one out the fire in Charlottesville: Jack McClinton was held to only 11 points but hit a killer three with 19 seconds left to put the game out of reach.  Where State had gotten their turnovers under control, Virginia gave it up three times in a row in clutch time.
Does Maryland deserve a bid? Gary says not yet, but Michael Wilbon is pulling for them, arguing that in such a wide-open tournament, who knows?
There have been a lot of rumors about Oliver Purnell to Alabama, but we just can't see it. First, he's an ACC guy, and second, what's the point of going from a football school to a school where football's a religion? Rob Daniels weighs in.
It's nice to see that not all Maryland fans are drinking the Kool Aid and blaming the refs.
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