The upset bug has bitten the ACC Tournament.
First No. 9-seed Clemson—a team probably not even headed for the NIT, much less the NCAA Tournament—beat No. 8 Maryland, 84-72, in a game that was not really even as close as the score indicates, possibly bursting the Terrapins’ Tournament bubble in the process.
No. 7 N.C. State was able to stave off the upset bug with a 70-54 victory over No. 10 Florida State, but it returned with a vengeance when No. 11 Virginia shook off a five-game losing streak to upset Tournament-hopeful Miami, 66-65.
The Hurricanes led for the entire second half before Virginia took the lead on a Devin Smith three-pointer with 2:30 to play. Miami made only one field goal over the last ten minutes and an open three-point attempt by Anthony Harris that would have won the game for the Hurricanes fell short as time expired.
The No. 3 Blue Devils will hope to avoid an unexpected result against Virginia tonight in Washington, D.C., at 9:30 p.m. Duke will look to advance to the conference semi-finals for the eighth season in a row, while the Cavaliers would put themselves in position to earn an NIT bid with a victory over the Blue Devils.
Virginia and Duke played just once this season due to the ACC’s unbalanced schedule, a surprisingly hard-fought 80-66 Blue Devil win Jan. 16 in Durham.
Duke trailed by seven early and led by just six at the half before Blue Devil guard J.J. Redick scored 20 of his 28 points in the second half to lead his team to the win. The sophomore sharpshooter made all four of his three-point attempts in the final frame, including three in a three-minute stretch that helped Duke pull away.
“They spurted early in the second half, and they turned up the juice a little bit,” Virginia head coach Pete Gillen said. “We got some point blank shots. We got some good shots, we just couldn’t finish.”
Shelden Williams was able to dominate the interior, contributing 16 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high nine blocks, coming one block short of the first Blue Devil triple-double since 1978.
Virginia has underperformed during the ACC season; they were ranked No. 24 as late as December. Point guard Sean Singletary, a member of the ACC’s All-Freshman squad, runs the Cavalier offense and torched Duke for 21 points in the teams’ first meeting. With top Blue Devil defender Sean Dockery still recovering from a medical collateral ligament tear suffered March 3 against Georgia Tech, guard Daniel Ewing will likely be responsible for Singletary for most of the game.
Singletary ranks among the ACC’s top ten in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio and steals, but Duke’s defense was able to hound him into just two assists against four turnovers in the teams’ first meeting.
Williams will spend much of the evening banging with the Cavaliers’ Elton Brown. Brown, a wide-bodied center with a soft touch around the basket and a knack for grabbing rebounds, got into foul trouble in the teams’ first game and finished with just 11 points in 26 minutes.
He remains one of the best big men in the ACC, finishing the season tied for third in the conference with 8.3 boards per game and scoring 13.1 points per contest.
“You’re never going to completely stop him,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Brown Jan. 16. “But [Williams] did a good job on him.”
The Cavaliers’ top scorer is senior forward Devin Smith, who averages 17.0 points per game, fifth in the conference. He is a good long distance shooter, who leads Virginia in three pointers made and attempted. Sophomore guard J.R. Reynolds also has the potential to score points in bunches. He averages just 9.9 points per game but exploded for 32 against Miami last night.
Although Duke has beaten Virginia 20 of the teams’ last 22 meetings, the first day of the ACC Tournament proved that the conference’s lower seeded teams are talented enough to pull off some surprises. The Blue Devils had better watch out for the upset bug.
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