2011 ACC Tournament First Round Recap

TOP STORY:

(6) Virginia Tech 59, (11) Georgia Tech 43

The team that knows how to live on the bubble has managed to prolong its uncertainty for 24 more hours. Virginia Tech lost two games last week to deny itself easy entry to the NCAA Tournament, but a few days later, the Hokies won a game to avoid an equally easy ticket to the NIT.

It’s just going to be this way for coach Seth Greenberg, who is bald for reasons other than genetics. It’s always a hair-raising and hair-pulling experience for the Hokies, who put their fans through the wringer every season, it seems. From 2008 through 2010, Virginia Tech fell just short in an ACC Tournament game, usually a quarterfinal, that likely would have punched the team’s ticket for the Big Dance. Now, the Hokies will once again encounter the “quarterfinal of destiny” and play third-seeded Florida State on Friday night.

Virginia Tech dispatched 11th-seeded Georgia Tech with an ease that doesn’t normally define the Hokies in the month of March. The sixth seed roared to a 19-5 lead in the game’s opening minutes and was never seriously threatened after that. One thing to realize about the cruise-control nature of this triumph for Virginia Tech is that its opponent simply quit on its coach. Georgia Tech appeared entirely disinterested on Thursday night, as the Yellow Jackets drifted through the motions. This fold-the-tent-and-rev-up-the-bus display will add a lot of pressure on school athletic director Dan Radakovich to engineer a buyout of coach Paul Hewitt’s contract. Hewitt made the 2004 national championship game but has steadily failed to maintain a winning standard ever since that season. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Hewitt hit the jackpot in one season but cannot cut the mustard on a regular basis in the ACC.

Enough of Hewitt, though: The big story from this game is that Virginia Tech’s bubble balancing act continues for at least one more ACC Tournament game.

Next Game: ACC Tournament Quarterfinal No. 4:

(6) Virginia Tech vs. (3) Florida State

30 minutes after Game 3 between Duke and Maryland, ESPN2

Other Games From Thursday:

(5) Boston College 81, (12) Wake Forest 67

At long last, the fans of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons can breathe a sigh of relief: Their team’s season, by any reasonable measure the worst in the history of the ACC since the conference was founded in 1953, is now over.

Yes, Boston College stayed alive in the pursuit of an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, but there was absolutely no drama surrounding the final outcome of Thursday’s game in Greensboro. The back end of the first round’s day session wasn’t remotely close. Boston College grabbed a 35-18 lead with 5:20 left in the first half and coasted to the finish line. Coach Steve Donahue’s BC boys beat Wake Forest this past Sunday, and the nature of the ACC bracket forced the Eagles to polish off coach Jeff Bzdelik’s Deacons one more time just four days later. Now Boston College can focus on a must-win quarterfinal against Clemson in a game that will likely create a “winner-in, loser-out” dynamic on Selection Sunday.

Wake Forest, which never had a puncher’s chance on Thursday, lost its 16th ACC game in 17 outings. The school that brought Tim Duncan to the attention of basketball fans in the mid-1990s has now become not just a basement-dwelling program, but an outright joke in college basketball’s most tradition-laden conference.

Next Game: ACC Tournament Quarterfinal No. 2

(5) Boston College vs. (4) Clemson –

30 minutes after Game 1 between Miami and North Carolina, ESPN2

(7) Maryland 75, (10) N.C. State 67

On a day when one ACC coach, Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt, likely coached his last game, another bench boss, North Carolina State’s Sidney Lowe, also participated in his last ACC go-round. Lowe’s time is up in the Research Triangle, and the Maryland Terrapins likely delivered the final blow to Lowe as NCSU’s head man. The Terrapins, an NIT team unless they win the ACC Tournament, bolted to a 68-53 lead with four minutes left. North Carolina State tossed in a bunch of long jumpers to slice the deficit to six points, at 71-65, with 55 seconds to go, but that’s as close as the Wolfpack came. Coach Gary Williams will lead his men of Maryland against Duke in a matchup of brand-name schools on Friday.

Next Game: ACC Tournament Quarterfinal No. 3

(7) Maryland vs. (2) Duke – 7:05 p.m. ET, ESPN2

(9) Miami 69, (8) Virginia 62 (OT)

This was the least significant ACC game of the four played on Thursday, but it featured the wildest ending in the opening round of the league tournament. It also involved one of the greatest comebacks (and collapses) ever seen anywhere and anytime.

The Miami Hurricanes were down 53-43 to the Virginia Cavaliers with 42 seconds left in regulation. It appeared that coach Tony Bennett’s UVA squad would advance to play North Carolina in the quarterfinals, but just when the crowd in Greensboro was heading for the bathroom or the concession stand for the 25-minute break between games, the Hurricanes reeled off 10 quick points to force overtime and then win in the extra period.

The equation was as simple as it was stunning: Virginia missed two front ends of one-and-ones and coughed up two turnovers. At the other end of the floor, Miami banged in two triples and then posted a dunk (to make the score 53-51) and a tying layup by Durand Scott with 13 seconds left. Once in overtime, the denouement was predictable: Miami breezed past the shocked and dazed Cavaliers in the extra period by a score of 16-9. Miami will at least get a chance to play the ACC regular-season champion on Friday afternoon.

Next Game: ACC Tournament Quarterfinal No. 1

(9) Miami vs. (1) North Carolina – 12:05 p.m. ET, ESPN2

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer