The ACC regular season race

[Frobby]

Duke, UNC and Florida State are all tied atop the ACC at 10-2. Here's what's left for each team.

Duke:
@ Florida State
Virginia Tech
@ Wake Forest
UNC

UNC:
@ N.C. Sate
@ Virginia
Maryland
@ Duke

Florida State:
Duke
@ Miami
@ Virginia
Clemson

Duke plays each of the title contenders, one on the road and one at home, and the other two games are against pretty weak teams. UNC has three pretty rough road games, including the finale at Duke. Florida State has Duke at home and then two pretty tough road games. I think any of the three teams will be hard pressed to win out in its final four games.

The Duke - Florida State game this Thursday is pretty huge.

[Sports Guy]

My guess is Duke beats FSU on thursday and wins their other 2 and UNC wins out until the Duke game and the ACC regular season title is decided when Duke and UNC play.

My guess is FSU against Duke and then one of the other 2 road games they have left. Clemson did destroy them earlier but I think they beat them at home.

So, the winning team will be 14-2 in conference...Second place 13-3 and FSU ends up 12-4.

[Frobby]

UVa will have a lot to say about this, playing both FSU and UNC on their home floor. Bennet has done a nice job with that team, and Scott has become a beast.

[Sports Guy]

UVa will have a lot to say about this, playing both FSU and UNC on their home floor. Bennet has done a nice job with that team, and Scott has become a beast.

They won't beat UNC in all likelihood but I do think they stand a good chance of beating FSU....I have FSU losing 2 more games, including the Duke game.

[Sports Guy]

Well, as I thought, Duke wins a tough game tonight.

Dawkins went nuts early and FSu could just never get closer than 3 points.

I expect Duke and UNC to face each other for the reg season title.

[Frobby]

It certainly looks like the Duke-UNC finale on March 3 will decide the regular season crown. I'd be shocked if Duke lost against Virginia Tech or Wake, neither of which has played well this year. UNC may have a tough game in Charlottesville this weekend, but even if they lost that game they'd probably be playing for a share of the title next Saturday.

As to last night's game, even though the final margin was 9 points the game annoyed me immensely. Duke got uo by 12-13 points three separate times and each time let FSU crawl back in it, the last time letting their lead dwindle to 3 points before putting it way quite late. Lots of turnovers and rushed shots during a 12-2 FSU run late in the game. And the big men for Duke were just awful for most of this game. That's going to kill them in a couple of weeks.

[Frobby]

My guess is FSU [loses] against Duke and then one of the other 2 road games they have left. Clemson did destroy them earlier but I think they beat them at home.

So, the winning team will be 14-2 in conference...Second place 13-3 and FSU ends up 12-4.

Well, you were right about FSU losing one of their road games. Miami took them apart yesterday. So, if Duke and UNC take care of business in their next game (Duke at Wake, Maryland at UNC), they will finish 1-2 in the ACC. Who'd have thought that before the season started? (Uhhhh....everyone?)

Starting with this weekend, the next 4-5 weeks are among my favorites on the entire sports calendar. Duke-UNC, the ACC tournament (and all the others), then 3 weeks of March Madness, and then Opening Day. It doesn't get much better than that.

[Sports Guy]

Well, you were right about FSU losing one of their road games. Miami took them apart yesterday. So, if Duke and UNC take care of business in their next game (Duke at Wake, Maryland at UNC), they will finish 1-2 in the ACC. Who'd have thought that before the season started? (Uhhhh....everyone?)

Starting with this weekend, the next 4-5 weeks are among my favorites on the entire sports calendar. Duke-UNC, the ACC tournament (and all the others), then 3 weeks of March Madness, and then Opening Day. It doesn't get much better than that.

Not to mention the Masters as well.

[Frobby]

Duke upheld its end of the bargain against Wake Forest, despite allowing Wake to whittle a 23 point deficit down to 6 with a few minutes to play. This team really seems to lose concentration at times. Still, 13-2 in league play and 8-0 on the road is nothing to sneeze at. Bring on the Heels!

[Sports Guy]

Duke upheld its end of the bargain against Wake Forest, despite allowing Wake to whittle a 23 point deficit down to 6 with a few minutes to play. This team really seems to lose concentration at times. Still, 13-2 in league play and 8-0 on the road is nothing to sneeze at. Bring on the Heels!

They have blown a ton of big leads this year.

They stop attacking and get complacent.

It has a lot to do with the lack of a real leader on the floor.

The good news that they have done this vs weaker teams, not the better ones for the most part...and they will be playing better teams from here on out.

Now, I do worry a little bit in those first 2 rounds...I think Duke ends up a 2 seed in the NCAA tourney(lose to UNC) and the 15 seeds are better and better...if you aren't careful and allow one of these smaller schools in the game late, you could get in trouble. Same thing for round 2 but I wouldn't expect them to be blowing out the team in round 2.

The other side to this is it they are winning these games and showing something late and that is important.