No surprises, no drama
#1 UNC 82 #9 FSU 70
UNC slowly pulls away from FSU and expends very little energy doing it. Just the kind of first game you want to have when you are looking at possibly playing three in a row.
#4 Virginia Tech 63 #5 Miami 49
Neither team shot particularly well in this one but when it counted down the stretch the Hokies had the hot hand going on a 22-7 run to go from down one to winning by 14. The question is whether this was enough to get VT into the NCAA Tournament. Miami ends up 10-8 versus the ACC but has the win over Duke and a top 30 RPI. VT had yet to register a good win and this certainly counts. With their RPI at 59 it will be a tough call.
#2 Duke 82 #7 Georgia Tech 70
Duke was hot in the first half and then had issues in the 2nd half putting their offense together on a consistent basis. GT took advantage and cut a 44-29 halftime deficit to 52-50. What happened after that was Duke getting all the loose balls despite the fact GT was creating them and this resulted in open looks which the Devils converted. GT on the other hand ran out of gas and showed multiple instances of abject stupidity with the basketball once they closed the lead to two points. Beating Duke requires execution on the offensive end and GT failed to do that owed in part to Duke defense but more so to the fact Yellow Jacket players have no clue how to run any kind of half court offense and also do not know what flying hog wild into the lane is sure to get you a charge call versus Duke. In the end GT beat themselves as much as Duke did.
#3 Clemson 82 #11 Boston College 48
Clemson came out and did exactly what I thought they would. The Tigers are motivated carrying with them the best chance any Clemson team has had to win an ACC title or at least advance to the title game. They basically did everything right in dominating BC right from the start affording the Tigers the opportunity to rest some starters in preparation for Duke.
Tar Heel Fan 
Wow, didn’t anybody else see the SEC game between MSU and Alabama? They delayed it for a tornado and it ended up going into overtime and it was after 11 so they cancelled the second game. I guess the SEC should not have been playing in the Eastern Time Zone. Now, what are they going to do, since Georgia and Kentucky are now a day behind? If they play the final on Monday, then that screws up the NCAA Selection Sunday Show….
Very strange if they play twice in one day:
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/03/14/sec-suspends-tournament-play/
By the way, THF, I am looking at some of today’s scores:
BYU is 27-6 and in the finals of the MWC
Kent State is 27-6 and won the MAC tourney
Nevada is 21-10, 12-4 and playing in the finals of the WAC tourney
Some push-overs, huh?
SEC has an interesting decision to make; that footage made it seem like the Ga Dome is the last place you;d want to be this evening…i can’t recall a similar situation creeping into the plans for a major conf tourney like that
william,
Yes, I am interested to see how many of the supposed weak non-conference teams UNC played get into the NCAA Tournament.
The SEC has a mess on their hands. The first problem is they may not be able to play at the GA Dome if they determine the damage prevent it. The only possible option would be playing at GT but TV coverage could be spotty because of Raycom being setup at the Dome. Secondary to that(and a huge secondary) is the possibility of UK-GA being played at in the morning and the winner coming back and playing again which would screw them.
Also, did you see how Indiana lost in the Big Ten tourney? Shades of Laettner in 1992 with Minnesota throwing the ball down court and the guy shooting a quick turnaround to win.
Strangely enough, the SEC is largely absent from the tv airwaves anyway, except for the finals. ESPN does not carry their tournament and they are the only conference that blacks out their games on the Directv sports package. Lucky for me, they forgot to block out one of the networks tonight, so I got to see Ben Hansbrough’s team get the victory.
I thought that they were going to start the Kentucky game at 11:30, which would have been strange, but most of that conference is in the central time zone. Minnesota had an amazing win, after the refs tried to take the game away from them.
Unfortunately, because there is no way for us to lose respectably against VPI, it looks like Carolina is going to have a very tough game in the finals. I wish we had a decent GIT team to lose to, as in 1993 and 2005, lol.