ACC Roundup

Virginia continues to roll, this time beating Notre Dame 68-53 behind a strong game from Malcolm Brodgon, who had 16 points on 7-10 from the floor, seven boards, six assists, five steals - it's starting to sound like the 12 Days of Christmas.

Five gol-den steals!

Mike Tobey matched him from the floor with 7-10. Virginia shot 53.8% from the floor overall.

Notre Dame? The Irish shot 42.6%. Zach Auguste and Demetrius Jackson led the way with 10 each.

Worst of all, the Irish had 20 turnovers.

Color Mike Brey impressed: "They thoroughly beat us down tonight. I don't know if you ever survive 13 first-half turnovers and deserve to win the game. We made some bad decisions, but I think they're really good defensively. They kind of imposed their will on us and broke our spirit a little bit."

The weather is causing serious trouble for at least one ACC team: last we heard, via Twitter, UNC is stranded at the Atlanta airport and can't get to a hotel. That's one of the games for Wednesday night. Presumably by game time things will be back to normal.

Otherwise, it's Virginia Tech at BC, Syracuse at Wake Forest, where the visitors will doubtless be amazed at the attitude about a bit of snow, Florida State in Raleigh to visit the Pack, and Miami jetting up to take on the Terps.

We're curious to see what happens in Atlanta. Certainly it's not an ideal situation for the Heels, who will be sleeping at least some in the airport.

Whatever sleep they can manage anyway.

Virginia Tech at BC is likely to be dreadful. If it was a horse someone would have an ethical obligation to euthanize it.

Can Wake pull off an upset against #2 Syracuse? Maybe unlikely, but we wouldn't rule it out for several reasons. First, Wake is truly tough at home. Last year the Deacs knocked off #2 Miami and nearly got #5 Duke. Second, Syracuse has rolled so far and everyone is pushing the idea that the ACC isn't that tough. Those of us who have followed the league for a while know that while you have down years, even in down years you run into buzz saws. Playing at Wake is no fun and if the Deacs get hot, Joel is as tough as Cameron, Littlejohn, Chapel Hill on a good day or anywhere else.

Passions can be stirred at Georgia Tech and FSU too. Given what Duke has seen over the years, we can only suppose that anywhere Syracuse plays, they'll get the full treatment. It's not like going to Seton Hall or Rutgers where the outcome is never in doubt and the arenas have no spirit to them.

There's also a chance that Syracuse could get caught looking ahead to Duke. Just as an aside, losing to Wake before hosting Duke would likely anger Syracuse, but also put them in a terrible position as Duke would (technically due to a tiebreaker) pass them in the standings. And Syracuse still has Pitt, Duke, Virginia and FSU on the road.

We admire the job Mark Gottfried has done with his team but FSU is pretty athletic and very physical. It won't be easy. It will be interesting, though, to see Jordan Vandenberg and Boris Bojanovsky going at it. We don't get to see two seven footers that often anymore.

Finally, Miami vs. Maryland. This is an interesting game in that Miami is somehow playing above its level while Maryland has consistently disappointed. Obviously Miami wants a game in the 40s or 50s. Will Maryland dumb down again?