ACC Basketball UPDATE

The North Carolina Tarheels escaped with a win over a very good Virginia Cavalier. Last nights game at Virginia was by all accounts Virginia's best showing of the year, even in a loss. Unfortunately for Virginia, they are now the only team in the ACC with a record below .500 (11-12 overall and 1-9 in the ACC).

The Tarheels play is again noticablely handicapped without Ty Lawson. The injuries continue to mount. Marcus Ginyard continues suffers from a painful toe injury and Deon Thompson, who continued to play, suffered an apparent knee injury early in the first half of last nights game. The Tarheels also continue to miss back up Point Guard Bobby Frasor.

The Maryland Terrapins will visit Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight. The Duke Bluedevils continue to play excellent basketball and remain undefeated in conference play. The Terrapins are also playing inspired basketball. Look for a good game from Osby and Gist.

Thursday night, there are three games on the slate, NC State at Boston College, Georgia Tech at Clemson and Wake Forest at Florida State. The Wolfpack has been playing better of late, with wins over Wake Forest and Virginia Tech prior to a tough loss at Maryland. Boston College will be looking to rebound, having come off of six conference losses in a row.

The Georgia Tech vs. Clemson game is critical to Clemson. Coming off an overtime loss at North Carolina, a place where they have never won in 53 tries, how will they respond? In my opinion, this is a chance for Clemson to prove that they belong in the top of the ACC.

The Wake Forest vs. Florida State game also promises to be worth watching. Wake Forest has played well for coach Dino Gaudio, in his first year following the death of Skip Prosser. Florida State always plays well at home, recently taking North Carolina into an overtime period, before falling 84-73.

This week's schedule continues to prove that there is no better basketball conference in the country.

Lucky and Good

The saying goes, "I'd rather be lucky than good." Last night, the North Carolina Tarheels were both lucky and good. The Tarheels traveled to Atlanta to face the Ramblin' Reck of Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech was looking to defend its home court, which is so important in ACC conference play. By doing so, they would be one of only three teams that has been able to hold serve with the Tarheels four times in a row. Duke and Virginia are the two teams that have been able to do this.

It was an up and down, run and gun, fast paced basketball game. North Carolina was certainly on pace to meet or exceed their scoring average of 92 on the road. The problem for the Tarheels was that Georgia Tech was playing and scoring at the same pace. From the games that I have seen, and this was echoed by the commentators last night, a game with North Carolina is a game of attrition. North Carolina will continue to fly up and down the court, they will "trap" after a made basket. Often times causing a steal, resulting in another made basket. This played out a couple of times last night. But Georgia Tech kept pace. In fact, Georgia Tech had two opportunities, inside of 12 feet in the closing seconds to win the game. The shots would not fall and Carolina came out on top with an 83-82 win.

There is no doubt that the North Carolina Tarheels are good, in fact they are very good. But without luck last night, Georgia Tech would have added their name to a list that only Duke and Virginia sit on today.

Here is the Associated Press' take courtesy of Foxsports.

In other ACC play from last night, Duke went into Tallahassee to play a Florida State Seminole team that always give Duke a tough time. Last night was no different. With 3:56 seconds left in the game, Florida State held a 55-54 lead. Duke managed to finish out the game by making 16 of the last 18 points. The final score was 70-57.

Here's more information on the game.

Virginia Tech outlasted the Virgina Cavaliers in a 70-69 overtime win. A.D. Vasallo led the Hokies with 22 points and 5 rebounds. The Cavaliers were led by Sean Singletary with 34 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists.

Game Recap.

The Seminoles finally get a win at Georgia Tech

Senior Jason Rich made his last shot at Alexander Memorial Coliseum count. This is the first time the Rich has experienced a win at Georgia Tech. His jumper with 4.3 seconds left, propelled the Seminoles to a 66-64 win. Florida State is now 1-0 in ACC conference play and 11-4 overall, Georgia Tech dropped to 0-1 and 6-6 overall.