2007 ACC Tournament Thread

[Sports Guy]

It is a homer pick, no doubt. I wouldn't be shocked if they won, but would be surprised.

Their path really is the reason. If they have to go through MD AND UNC, i would not pick them to win it.

Only 3 teams in the ACC worry me...GT, MD and UNC.

Now, this is taking nothing away from VT, who has played Duke well since they came into the conference or UVA, who did barely beat Duke this year but i still like our chances in this type of environment(remember, alot of these Duke guys have a tourney win under their belts...They do have some experience in that regards).

I actually did almost pick Duke to lose to GT.

[Sports Guy]

The NC State game does worry me though, especially without Henderson.

[YardBirds13]

Of course you can beat Duke. The X-factor for you, as you said before, is whether Diane and (guy whose name I forget at the moment) hit jumpers. They have you beat down low, but you have better guards.

Yea, Adrian Joseph is the guy you're forgetting.

Yea, I guess I just saw everyone picking Duke over UVa and thought, geeze, I'm a UVa fan, and I'm really having a hard time convincing myself we can win, what does everyone else think?

Anyways, you are right, I have said numerous times that the difference in our team this year is the play of Diane/Joseph. They usually play well at home, and crappy on the road.

I thought it was interesting, though, I went back and looked at our 3 road wins this year (Clemson, NC State, and Maryland) and looked at waht Joseph and Diane did.

In the game at Clemson, we trailed by liek 15 with 5 minutes to go. Joseph hit 3 3's in our run to come back and win the game. He had 11 points in the game and Diane had 10.

In the MD game, Joseph had 13 points (3 3's again) and Diane had 8 (although he struggled).

And the game at NC State, we won easily, simply because SS and JR played like Superman and Batman. JR had 29 and SS had 27.

For a bad example, against Wake on Saturday they combined for 4 points. Against Miami, they combined for 8 points.

Basically, unless we get an unreal effort from JR AND SS, we need Joseph and Diane to combine for around 20 points to be able to win.

So, while all this week anytime anyone talks about UVa in the media, all you are gonna hear about is SS and JR, remember that Diane and Joseph are the keys.

[mweb]

Their path really is the reason. If they have to go through MD AND UNC, i would not pick them to win it.

Only 3 teams in the ACC worry me...GT, MD and UNC.

Now, this is taking nothing away from VT, who has played Duke well since they came into the conference or UVA, who did barely beat Duke this year but i still like our chances in this type of environment(remember, alot of these Duke guys have a tourney win under their belts...They do have some experience in that regards).

I actually did almost pick Duke to lose to GT.

Well you weren't worried about MD going into Cameron and winning either. And I'm not sure you can so easily dismiss UVA, VATECH, and FSU considering they are a combined 3-0 against Duke, 2 of those games being at Duke.

[beaner]

I think this Henderson thing will actually be a blessing in disguise for both Duke and North Carolina. People have been questioning Duke's heart all year, and we all know that K likes a challenge. It's been specualted that during those late time outs, K was just challenging them just to keep playing hard, and to allow nothing easy for the Heels. Not to suggest he told them to foul hard but there could have been a message sent.

As for the Heels, hopefully we play with intensity for 40 minutes every game from here on out. We'll see.

[Fairfax Bird]

Round 1:

MD over Miami

Duke over NC St

FSU over Clemson

GT over Wake

Round 2:

Duke over UVA

MD over BC

FSU over UNC

GT over VT

Round 3:

MD over FSU

Duke over GT

Round 4:

Duke over MD

There is NO way Duke can win 4 straight in this tournament SG.

[Sports Guy]

There is NO way Duke can win 4 straight in this tournament SG.

I admit that it is a long shot.

[Fairfax Bird]

I've gotta say, I like Duke's draw much better than Maryland. Obviously the UNC game is difficult for us. I expect Duke to lose to Virginia. I just think Singletary and Reynolds will run Scheyer and Paulus to death. That said, I like Duke's chances of advancing at least as much as Maryland's if not more.

[YardBirds13]

So tonight we got our tickets for this week, and I am super stoked. For the first time at the ACC Tournament, I'm sitting in the lower level!! To make it even sweeter, I'm in the Virginia section!!!! Can't remember the number off the top of my head, but I believe my family and I will be in section 110. Sort of in the corner. Hopefully close enough where I can get some solid Paulus-directed heckling in on Thursday night (and probably to him on Friday night as well).

Hopefully the Dukies don't ruin my fun and knock us out on Friday, because being in the UVa section in a Semi-Final game on Saturday would be freaking sweet!

31 hours till my flight to Tampa leaves!!!!

[Sports Guy]

Yardbirds...How do you get to go to all this stuff?

[YardBirds13]

Yardbirds...How do you get to go to all this stuff?

The first year (in Charlotte) I went because my Dad got tickets through a business connection (he works in the beer business and knows tons of people involved in all different types of sports, which means I end up getting to all sorts of cool things, like Cal's 2131 game, his last game, Wiz playoff tickets, went to the Mason-UCONN game last year, stuff like that)

Anyways, it was so cool that first year, since both my parents are Terp fans and my brother is a Heel fan, we decided to make the ACC Tournament like our annual family vacation. So, my Dad tries to get hook-ups with tickets, but when it doesn't work out, we pony up the money and buy them off of e-bay (and since it is our one big vacation of the year, the money isn't that big of a deal).

[Sports Guy]

The first year (in Charlotte) I went because my Dad got tickets through a business connection (he works in the beer business and knows tons of people involved in all different types of sports, which means I end up getting to all sorts of cool things, like Cal's 2131 game, his last game, Wiz playoff tickets, went to the Mason-UCONN game last year, stuff like that)

Anyways, it was so cool that first year, since both my parents are Terp fans and my brother is a Heel fan, we decided to make the ACC Tournament like our annual family vacation. So, my Dad tries to get hook-ups with tickets, but when it doesn't work out, we pony up the money and buy them off of e-bay (and since it is our one big vacation of the year, the money isn't that big of a deal).

Nice....Always good to have someone who has contacts...especially if they are beer contacts.

[YardBirds13]

Helllllllllllooooooooo everybody!!!!

YB comin at ya, live from the Embassy Suites in beautiful Tampa, Florida.

Got in around 10 this morning, and seeing as I had stayed up the entire night before so I could sleep on the plane, I had to nap it up when I got to the hotel. So, everybody ready for the tournament???? Tomorrow's games:

Florida State over Clemson in a close one

Maryland over Miami in a rout

Duke over NC State in the game of the day

Georgia Tech over Wake Forest in a game that's close most of the way through, but Tech pulls away with 5 or 6 to go

[ccbird]

I don't see any team winning 4 in 4 days. That eliminates Duke,MD and GT.

That leaves UNC, UVA, BC, and VT.

BC- Forget about it. They have a chance to beat MD but that is it. They just aren't the same team since they lost Williams.

UVA- No reason to believe they can win 3 away from home. Just a horrible road team. I mean the resident UVA fan here knows deep down they got no shot of winning three in a row.

VT-I think VT could be the sleeper here. I know they have struggled down the stretch a little but they have proven they can beat good teams on the road and Greenberg is a good coach. I think they will be ready to go.

UNC- The team to beat. I think they have something to prove and possibly are still playing for a 1 seed. I expect them to show up and play some ball this weekend.

Finals - UNC over VT

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[rolliefingers]

I don't see any team winning 4 in 4 days. That eliminates Duke,MD and GT.

That leaves UNC, UVA, BC, and VT.

BC- Forget about it. They have a chance to beat MD but that is it. They just aren't the same team since they lost Williams.

UVA- No reason to believe they can win 3 away from home. Just a horrible road team. I mean the resident UVA fan here knows deep down they got no shot of winning three in a row.

VT-I think VT could be the sleeper here. I know they have struggled down the stretch a little but they have proven they can beat good teams on the road and Greenberg is a good coach. I think they will be ready to go.

UNC- The team to beat. I think they have something to prove and possibly are still playing for a 1 seed. I expect them to show up and play some ball this weekend.

Finals - UNC over VT

.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and pick FSU to win it. Will they? Probably not. But I'd look pretty damn smart if they did!