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ACC Roundup - UNC At NC State Highlights A Busy Saturday

It’s hard to make a case for an upset though

By JD King
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL: FEB 15 NC State at Georgia Tech
ATLANTA, GA FEBRUARY 15: NC State guard Dereon Seabron (1) reacts during the ACC college basketball game between the North Carolina State Wolfpack and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on February 15th, 2022 at Hank McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, GA.
Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Saturday is a busy day around the ACC with 14 teams in action. NC State and UNC tangle in Raleigh, Virginia Tech jets down to Miami, Clemson goes up to Beantown to take on BC, Florida State visits the Cavaliers, Georgia Tech hosts Notre Dame and Louisville will be in Winston-Salem to take the measure of the Demon Deacons.

The best rivalry game of the day is going to be UNC at NC State. At this point, we can’t see a reason to favor State. They don’t defend the inside well and UNC has definitely improved. But it is a rivalry game so we’ll have to leave it as a tossup just based on history and the fact that this is a game that would somewhat salvage State’s mostly dismal season.

Virginia Tech and Miami is interesting. The ‘Canes have a very sturdy perimeter game but can they stop big man Keve Aluma? He’s tough and their options are limited. The Hokies lost to Miami in Blacksburg, 78-75 just before going on a six-game winning streak. It’s also a huge game for both teams - Miami can’t afford a bad loss and Virginia Tech needs a big win. So that one could get really good.

Clemson was amazing against Wake Forest without PJ Hall. Will he play this time? He’s still questionable apparently. Hunter Tyson is also reportedly close to being back and might play.

That’d be good news for Clemson because we don't think there’s a snowball’s chance that Chase Hunter is going 10-12 again.

At this point, it’s really hard to imagine a circumstance where Florida State beats Virginia on the road. First, Virginia will make them play at a pace they don’t like and second, the injuries have proven to be nearly insurmountable. And if that’s not enough, the Cavs still have a chance at making an NCAA case. They can’t afford to lose this one.

Georgia Tech took Notre Dame into overtime on January 8th before losing to the Irish at home so obviously they’ll think they can beat them.

We’re not so sure.

Mike Brey has done a brilliant job of navigating Nate Laszewski’s injury and when Laszewski was out, Paul Atkinson really came on. That’s allowed Laszewski to play more to his strengths off the bench. It’s worked out really well. So in case it wasn’t clear, we’ll go with the Irish.

Question: how mad will Wake Forest be after blowing it at Clemson? Not to take anything away from the Tigers - they were brilliant - but they were also severely undermanned and Notre Dame should not have allowed them to win that game.

So will they take it out on Louisville? They certainly should. We’d hope for a big game from Jake LaRavia, who didn’t really play up to his Wake standards at Littlejohn.

Saturday’s ACC Action

  • UNC @ NC State || 2:00 || ESPN
  • Virginia Tech @ Miami || 3:00 || ACCNX ||
  • Clemson @ Boston College || 3:00 || ACCN
  • Florida State @ Virginia || 4:00 || ESPN2
  • Georgia Tech @ Notre Dame || 5:00 || ACCN
  • Duke @ Syracuse || 6:00 || ESPN/ESPN3
  • Louisville @ Wake Forest || 7:00 || ACCN

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