Saturday is a very busy day in the ACC with everyone north of Tallahassee playing, but as usual, some games are more intriguing than others. We're very interested to see whether Virginia Tech can beat a somewhat down West Virginia and if Clemson can take Arizona. The short answer: possibly so.
| Saturday's ACC Action! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | Times | TV | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cleveland State @ NC State | 2:00 p.m. | RSN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| South Carolina State @ Maryland | 2:00 p.m. | ESPN3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| St. Francis (N.Y.) @ Boston College | 2:00 p.m. | ESPN3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mississippi Valley State @ Virginia | 4:00 p.m. | ESPN3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Virginia Tech @ West Virginia | 4:00 p.m. | ESPN2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seton Hall @ Wake Forest | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UNC Wilmington @ Georgia Tech | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| East Tennessee State @ North Carolina | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arizona @ Clemson | 8:00 p.m. | ESPN2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As promised, Virginia Tech is running - the Hokies boast the nation's third best offense (86.1 ppg). Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins sounds confident, bordering on cocky: "Honestly, you can ask them about handling a team that guards like us. I think we'll do a better job of guarding them than people have. I think that's what it's going to come down to.''
Arizona has tried to get Xavier transfer Mark Lyons to play the point, but he's not entirely comfortable there yet. It's a point of weakness for Clemson to attack.
On the other hand, Caleb Tarczewski has been very solid so far:Â the 7-0 freshman is averaging 6.3 ppg and 6.8 rpg. Clemson has no one like him. But if they can cut off the head, as Al McGuire famously said, the body dies.
Clemson may also have Milton Jennings back after his most recent suspension, but honestly, at this point who cares? He is what he is to his team. Whatever his personal issues are, as we say in the South, bless his heart. He hasn't helped his team very much.
The rest of the games should be fairly straightforward for the most part: State should beat Cleveland State, BC should take St. Francis, UVa should beat Miss. Valley State, Tech should have little problem with Wilmington, and UNC should hammer ETSU. We will be interested to see if State can build on their UConn win.
But wait, DBR! You missed two games!
Well, sort of. Who the hell knows with Wake Forest? If they lose, look for further frustration from Jeff Bzdelik, who has all too often blamed his players for being too stupid to listen to the coaches. "Ask them," he said to a reporter after Wake's most recent loss, suggesting he can't answer why his players aren't getting it done. Well, you know, it's kind of your job to get them to play to their potential, coach.
As far as Maryland and South Carolina goes State goes, big whoop.
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Fair warning: there's not much point in paying a lot of attention to Maryland anymore. We'll talk about them more during the ACC season, presumably, but for now, big whoop. The Big Ten's Mississippi-by-proxy is largely off our radar.
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Update - even though we're not paying much attention, we really shouldn't have confused South Carolina and South Carolina State. SC State is much preferable. Our apologies for unintentionally insulting them.