If you had some money and you bet that money on Duke, Miami, GTech and NC State being the 4 teams in the semi-finals of this year’s tournament, you would now have a very,very big pile of cash. Once again, it was not a day filled with stellar basketball : 4 teams failed to reach 60 points and one of them failed to reach 50. 3 teams had 18 or more turnovers and 5 teams shot less than 28% from three point range. The other theme for the day was the failure of All-ACC first teamers to perform up to expectations At least some of the games were a little more exciting than yesterday. Let’s review.
Miami vs. VaTech : The story of this game can be told in 3 parts. 1) Malcolm Delaney 3-15 from the floor 2) Miami destroyed the Hokies on the boards 42-29 3) Durand Scott was huge in clutch time, scoring 11 of his 17 in the final 6 minutes. Va Tech on the bubble??
Md vs. GTech : The terps were listless as hell in the first half while Tech executed well, fed the ball to their bigs, hit open 3’s and didn’t make of bunch of brainless errors ( for a change) as they built a 21 point lead. Then in the second half, Tech strove mightily to set a new standard for ineptitude, committing 17 turnovers, 7 of which were on inbounds plays with 5 of those coming under Maryland’s basket. I’ve never in my life seen a team have that much trouble getting the ball in bounds. Needless to say, the Terps came back, but were unable to get over the hump due in large part to the horrible night of Greivis Vazquez ( 6-21 Fg, 2-11 from 3 with 6 TO’s ) and the rebounding dominance of Lawal and Favors. Duke fans serenaded the Maryland faithful with chants of “Please don’t ri - ot !” after the game.
NC State vs. Fla St. : State rode the hot 3 point shooting of Scott Wood to somehow overcome getting mutilated on the boards 39-23, the offensive boards 16-4, and making one less field goal than the Seminoles. Florida State has the best defense in the league and easily the worst offense.
