It’s March and the Madness is on!

The conference games at this point in the season are anything short of dull.  And with Selection Sunday being two weeks away the ACC is cut-throat.  The biggest complaint I ever hear from ACC fans is that the conference teams beat each other up so bad in conference play that it hurts their record and they keep eachother away from top seeds in the NCAA tourney, if not their chances to get in at all.  All I’ve heard on ESPN is talk about the PAC-10 this season and I hate to be the one to point this out but their conference play is not nearly as strong, and neither are their non-conference schedules.  Analysists have been saying that the ACC will only have 3 teams dancing this year, but I am willing to bet that 6 ACC teams will make it to the big dance.  Even though the ACC has had a down year over all, they are still a strong conference and playing each other (specifically Dook and UNC) only makes them stronger…and this is who it will be:

1-UNC (duh)- They had this locked back in August…and we thought UNC was playing well when Q was running point, it’s only gonna get tougher for their opponents now that Lawson is back…

2-Duke- Came up big after a close game at State on Saturday, had State followed through and won Duke would not even be considered to be a 1 seed…they still have a chance at being a #1 in the NCAA’s, but need to win the ACC tourney to be sure to secure it.

3-Clemson- If they beat the Terrapins tonight in College Park, they will definintly secure their chances

4-Maryland- Their key win was in Chapel Hill (which was the first time MD has ever won in the Smith Center), they have Clemson at home and then play at UVa, I give them a chance to finish 9-7 in the ACC

5-Miami- They still have to play BC at home, and then at FSU, but barring any major catastrophies (which could include BC’s PG Rice) they will finish .500 at the least.  They have a good overall record (20-8) but have no really key wins over big teams outside of conference play and the W over Duke late in the season.  They need the two wins to seal the deal, and it would help to make a good run of it in the ACC tourney.

6-Virginia Tech- Clemson, MD, and VaTech are all neck-in-neck in the conference standings, each with 8 wins.  They have Wake at home, then play at Clemson.  I think this team needs to win the next two games to make a good run for it.  They had a tough sechedule to start the season against #22 Butler and #14 Gonzaga that gave them early losses, but they have been able to turn it around in conference play.

cartoon courtesy of:

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Basketball, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.