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Basketball Season Arrives And The ACC Opens With...Well, Not Much Really

You’re probably going to have to wait for some decent games

By JD King
/ new
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: MAR 11 ACC Championship - Virginia vs Duke
 GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 11: Jeremy Roach (3) of the Duke Blue Devils defends Kihei Clark (0) of the Virginia Cavaliers as he controls the ball during the ACC Championship on March 11, 2023 at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC.
Photo by David Jensen/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

College basketball season starts Monday and - all together now - woo hoo! About time.

The ACC starts very slowly. How slowly? Look at this list and then ask yourself this question: which team is most likely to be upset? We’ll tell you our choice in a minute.

  • NJIT vs. Miami
  • Radford vs. UNC
  • Winthrop vs. Clemson
  • The Citadel vs. NC State
  • UMBC vs. Louisville
  • Niagara vs. Notre Dame
  • NC A&T vs. Pitt
  • Tarleton State vs. Virginia
  • New Hampshire vs. Syracuse
  • Georgia Southern vs. Georgia Tech
  • Coppin State vs. Virginia Tech
  • Elon vs. Wake Forest
  • Fairfield vs. BC
  • Dartmouth vs. Duke

The three possible upsets we see are Georgia Southern at Georgia Tech, Niagara at Notre Dame and Tarleton State at Virginia. And while we’d love to see Greg Paulus’s Niagara team do it, the best chance might be Tarleton State. Here’s why: Virginia has a lot of new players to master a subtle and complex system and Billy Gillispie is building the Texans from the ground up. He’s a nasty piece of work in many ways, but it’s his last chance to remake his legacy and Tarleton has been improving as it transitions to D-I ball.

It’s not likely but it seems like the most likely upset. Of course, other than the nasty bit of work comment, much of this would apply to Notre Dame as Micah Shrewsberry gets his program off the ground.

Of course, Duke’s opener against Dartmouth is not much better but the Blue Devils see Arizona in Game 2 and Michigan State in Game 3.

As long as the NCAA is trying to figure out what to do with the NIT, why not move it to the start of the season and invite 16 really good teams? They could market is as a way to measure 16 teams that could make the Sweet Sixteen.

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