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ACC Roundup - Crucial Saturday Ahead For Several Teams

Who will step up?

By JD King
NCAA Basketball: North Florida at Miami-Florida
Nov 29, 2020; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes guard Chris Lykes (0) dribbles the ball down the court against the North Florida Ospreys during the second half at Watsco Center. 
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

In Saturday’s ACC Action, Virginia Tech visits Miami, NC State gets BC on the road, Syracuse goes to Clemson, Pitt gets a rescheduled visit to Virginia and Notre Dame jets down to Hotlanta.

Jeff Capel and Pitt were originally scheduled to play Syracuse but that game is off due to Covid.

After the Virginia Tech win, Justin Champagnie said that “Coach made us go at each other in practice. Roll the ball out. Let’s go. Let’s fight. Let’s see who’s tougher. … We did that for two days, and it worked.”

Beating Virginia is never easy but Pitt is an athletic group and has a shot at wearing them out. But they better defend just as hard as Virginia does to pull that off.

Even by ACC standards, this has been an unusually unpredictable season but we feel pretty confident that State should win at BC. With a talent gap compounded by Covid - BC has been on pause since January 20th, five straight games - it’s hard to call a game for the Eagles at this point. As a matter of fact, if they can’t beat Wake Forest, they might finish with three wins, which, we’re pretty sure, would be the worst record in ACC history.

Syracuse at Clemson is a tough call. Neither team has dazzled but Clemson has really had a tough time since their own pause. In a normal environment, we’d take Clemson at home but this isn't a normal environment. So we’ll go with the Orange and hope that Jim Boeheim can find a good meal afterwards.

Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame? Another tough call. Georgia Tech is 1-3 in its last four games while the Irish are 4-1 n their last five.

Trick question! Notre Dame’s wins are over BC, Miami, Pitt and Wake Forest. The only loss was to the only ranked opponent, Virginia Tech.

And the Yellow Jackets?

They lost to Virginia by two, beat Florida State by 11 and Louisville by 16 - but on a two-day turnaround.

Notre Dame is gaining confidence but we need to see a good win before we buy in.

Finally, Virginia Tech and Miami and the ‘Canes might finally have a bit of good news as Chris Lykes may be back after sitting out for two months with an injury. We’d still take the Hokies but as we’ve been saying, Miami has shown a lot of heart.

Notice anything a bit different?

No postponements.

Saturday’s ACC Action

  • Virginia Tech at Pitt || 12:00 || ACCNX
  • NC State at Boston College || 12:00 || ACCN
  • Syracuse at Clemson || 2:00 || ACCN
  • Pitt at Virginia || 4:00 || ESPN
  • UNC at Duke || 6:00 || ESPN
  • Notre Dame at Georgia Tech || ACCN

ACC Standings

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