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In Saturday's ACC action, the Techs played and the Yellow Jackets won, 62-51, Wake fell to Miami, 69-56 and Clemson blew a winnable game against Pitt, losing in overtime 83-78.
All Clemson had to do was to get the ball inbounds and get fouled with three seconds on the clock.
Didn't happen.
DaMarcus Harrison turned the ball over and Josh Newkirk hit his only basket to push the game into overtime.
At some point, basketball is cruel to everyone. On Saturday, it was Harrison's turn.
His turnover put a huge dent into Clemson's NCAA hopes. The Tigers have had a remarkable season to date; it's sad to see the regular season end like that.
Clemson will have to play great in Greensboro to make the field now.
Wake was magnificent in upsetting Duke. So why couldn't the Deacs build on that? Instead, Wake lost to Miami, and it wasn't like it was a close game. Miami owned the Deacs.
Any good news for Jeff Bzdelik from Duke was canceled by Miami.
As far as the Tech battle goes, the only relevance is to ACC Tournament seeding, which will be finalized Sunday. But Robert Carter's recovery from knee surgery continues to impress: the big man shot 7-9 and finished with 16 points and four boards. The doctors who worked on him deserve a bonus.
Sunday, the final pieces will be in place. Florida State can make a final statement with a win over Syracuse, which may have Jerami Grant back at close to full health. We'll also be interested to see how Florida State attacks Tyler Ennis.
BC visits NC State. Like Clemson, State will need a hugely impressive tournament to win the tournament.
And then there's the Virginia-Maryland finale. Aside from the potential for an upset (or riot), it's Maryland's final ACC home game. No doubt the Terps will want it. But Virginia has a chance to go 17-1 and that's a real accomplishment. The Cavs are also fighting for a high seed, and a loss here won't help.
Incidentally, as things stand now, the ACC has four teams in the Top 15, five teams with at least 23 wins, three with 18 or 19, five with 15-16 wins and two with less than 10.
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Here are the determined seeds for Greensboro:
- Virginia (1)
- Syracuse (2)
- Duke (3)
- North Carolina (4)
- Pittsburgh (5)
- Miami (10)
- Georgia Tech (11)
- Wake Forest (12)
- Notre Dame (13)
- Boston College (14)
- Virginia Tech (15)
That means Clemson, Florida State, NC State and Maryland still have to sort things out Sunday. The Syracuse paper has a good rundown of scenarios.