Booker's free throw shooting and defense carried the Tigers to an ACC road win and it's senior night in Clemson tonight.
This year’s ACC Tournament could be as vital as it has been in recent history to NCAA Tourney bids…here’s how I project the seeds right now. For the next couple weeks, I’ll have the post-weekend edition on OTB and over at Raycom after the mid-week games.
I’ve been crunching numbers, breaking down schedules, looking at tiebreakers, and flipping coins. Here’s how I project the ACC season to finish…
| Team | ACC Record | ACC Seed | Proj. Tiebreak |
| Duke | 13-3 |
1 |
1-1; 1-0; 4-0 |
| Maryland | 13-3 |
2 |
1-1; 2-0; 1-2 |
| Florida State | 10-6 |
3 |
|
| Virginia Tech | 9-7 |
4 |
2-0 |
| Wake Forest | 9-7 |
5 |
1-1 |
| Clemson | 9-7 |
6 |
0-2 |
| Georgia Tech | 8-8 |
7 |
|
| Boston College | 6-10 |
8 |
|
| Virginia | 5-11 |
9 |
2-0 |
| North Carolina | 5-11 |
10 |
2-1 |
| NC State | 5-11 |
11 |
1-2 |
| Miami | 4-12 |
12 |
———————-
Projected Matchups
1) Duke vs. 8] Boston College/9) Virginia
2) Maryland vs. 7) Georgia Tech/10) North Carolina
3) Florida State vs. 6) Clemson/11) NC State
4) Virginia Tech vs. 5) Wake Forest/12) Miami
Game Schedule
Day One(March 11)
12:00(EST)–8] BC vs. 9) UVA
2:00–5) Wake vs. 12) Miami
7:00–7) GT vs. 10) UNC
9:00–6) Clemson vs. 11) NC State
Day Two(March 12)
12:00–1) Duke vs. 8] BC/9) UVA
2:00–4) VT vs. 5) Wake/12)Miami
7:00–2) MD vs. 7) GT/10) UNC
9:00–3) FSU vs. 6) Clemson/11)NC State
Day Three(March 13)
1:30–1) Duke vs. 8] BC/9) UVA (vs.) 4) VT vs. 5) Wake/12)Miami
4:00–2) MD vs. 7) GT/10) UNC (vs.) 3) FSU vs. 6) Clemson/11)NC State
Day Four(March 14)
1:00–ACC Championship
Projection Quirks/Commentary
>Top four seeds remain the same as the last projections on Raycom, but the records are jumbled with Maryland gaining another win after the good road win at Virginia Tech, FSU loses a win to go down to 10-6, and the Hokies drop a win due to the Terps loss. The Tigers bumped from 8-8 to 9-7 to get ahead of Georgia Tech. BC surpassed Virginia to move up one to the 8 seed–the ‘Hoos keep the losing streak all the way to the ACC Tournament–hard to see any other result for them. The three-way battle for the last slot mixed up over the weekend with Miami sliding the bottom, UNC and NC State moving up with wins.
> On the tiebreakers, I was going off from the ACC official site page on them.
> After Duke taking the top spot wire-to-wire in the projections, the Blue Devils enter the tie-break section as they lose on Wednesday, but win the tie-break. This one is a bit complicated–since Maryland/Duke split the season series, so their respective records against the next highest team is the determining factor–both were undefeated against 3 seed FSU. The next slot down–we have another tie-break. Maryland and Duke’s record against Clemson, Wake Forest, and Virginia Tech is combined and Duke comes out 4-0 with the Terps going 1-2 after losing to Wake Forest and Clemson.
> The next fun tie-breaker is the three-way with Clemson, Wake, and Virginia Tech. The Hokies prevail for the last bye in the ACC Tourney with a 2-0 record, Wake next to the 5th seed at 1-1, and Clemson on the short end with a 0-2 record to get them to 6th.
> The last tie-breaker is another three-way with Virginia, North Carolina, and NC State. Virginia swept the Tobacco Road teams, UNC went 2-1, and NC State 0-2.
Tourney Talk
First Round/Quarterfinals
> Duke has the same quarterfinal dancing partners and should cruise to the semis. Virginia Tech and Wake Forest–though not playing like it now–are deadly quarterfinal matchups, but gotta like Duke to make it to the finals. In the other bracket, Maryland/Georgia Tech and Clemson/FSU rematches are juicy–one being a lot more offensive in the scoring way and other in a different manner. But watch that Clemson/NC State first round matchup as the Wolfpack are charging into March and could present trouble with more of a home-court up in Greensboro.
Semifinals/Finals
Maryland should get past Georgia Tech and also beat Florida State/Clemson/NC State to face Duke. The Duke/Maryland rematch occurs in Greensboro–something you know, but I bring this up because Gary Williams doesn’t have the best of luck in the state of NC and Duke will have the home crowd–expect a Duke ACC Championship out of this edition.
Looking to tweak this after each series of games—your input is encouraged. What team will perform better than projected? Who will be worse? Who do you like in the matchups to win the ACC Tourney right now?
