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For a change, the ACC got a great opening day at the ACC Tournament.
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The two games were decided by two points - BC came back to beat Georgia Tech, 66-65, while Virginia Tech took down Wake, 81-80.
In the latter game, Virginia Tech's Jalen Hudson had one of the all-time great freshman debuts in the tournament, scoring 32 points.
Even so, at the end, Wake had three chances to win the game. First, freshman Konstantinos Mitoglou, who had hit a critical three with :27 left to put the Deacs up 80-79, missed a two pointer from the left side the court. Devin Thomas missed a tip with :06 left, then Codi Miller-McIntyre missed his with :02 left.
After the third miss, Thomas just put his hands behind his head and stretched out on the floor. Wake's season is done.
Tell it to Georgia Tech's Brian Gregory, whose career is probably done. The one thing that might save him is Tech's budget: Tech has enough buyouts already.
Assuming he is fired, though, there is a ready-made candidate for Tech's job. He's at smaller school, so it won't cost as much to hire him as it would a coach from a big-time school. He comes from a family of coaches and his brother has done well as a head coach. He also knows the ACC well, having played in the league as a point guard.
Wait, you're thinking about Archie Miller? Well, okay, he'd be a good hire.
But we were thinking about Buffalo's Bobby Hurley.
Look, there's no question that Miller would be a great hire. Like Hurley, he's a lifer, son of a great high school coach and highly capable.
We just think Bobby would be a phenomenal hire. And if you can't get him, you can go after Danny, who is at Rhode Island.
Basically, and repeat after us, it's hard to go wrong with a Hurley.
It's hard to imagine Tech's "luck" being so consistently bad, which it was again against BC.
Not surprisingly, BC's Olivier Hanlan hit BC's last shot with 10.9 left.
Tech had a chance to hit a last shot, but like every other close conference game this year, Tech couldn't handle winning time. Tardy Jackson put Tech up before Hanlan's heroics, then, when Tech got the ball back, Corey Heyward drove and the ball, again, ended up somewhere else other than in the basket. It just summed up Tech's season perfectly.
This sounds so weird to say - it's going to be hard for Wednesday's games to match Tuesday's.
Florida State takes on Clemson at noon, which could be a snooze fest. BC gets UNC at 2:00 without Kennedy Meeks, who is supposed to sit out with an illness. Pitt and State go at 7:00, while Virginia Tech and Miami tangle at 9:00.
We're intrigued with BC's chances against UNC. The teams played once this season, at BC, and UNC mixed things up a bit, starting Isaiah Hicks for Meeks.
In that game, Hicks shot 7-10 for 21 points while Brice Johnson hit 9-14 for 20. Presumably BC will be ready for that attack this time around and the absence of Meeks changes the rotation.
State's game will be interesting for Duke partisans, since the Blue Devils get the winners. Pitt is capable of winning, but this State team has played well of late, the ugly loss to BC aside.
Miami faces a somewhat uncomfortable rematch with Virginia Tech, having closed the regular season with the Hokies just four days ago.
There is also the traditional sense that teams which have already played a game in a tournament have an advantage. We'll see if that works for Virginia Tech and Miami.