#2 North Carolina (25-3, 11-3) at Virginia Tech (17-11, 7-7)We are headed into the home stretch of the regular season for the ACC. Teams are jostling for position with the impending ACC Tournament set to tip off 8 days from today. North Carolina is looking to put themselves in position to win the ACC regular season title, while the Virginia Tech Hokies are fighting for their lives as they try to avoid their NCAA Tournament bubble from being burst.
Carolina is one game ahead of Duke for first place and has a regular season finale at home against the Dookies on Sunday. However, they can't look past the Hokies. Virginia Tech has given Carolina trouble in the past and the Hokies will be desperate to win this game. A win against Carolina will greatly enhance the Hokies chances of making the NCAA Tournament.
The Hokies are basically a 3 man team led by G-F A.D. Vassallo, G Malcolm Delaney, and F Jeff Allen. They do the bulk of the Hokies scoring and rebounding. The Hokies have hit a rough patch at the worst possible time, as they are losers of six of their last nine games.
Carolina got a week off, then waxed sorry Georgia Tech on Saturday. The Tar Heels still don't play the level of defense that will be needed for them to beat a Connecticut or Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament. They remind me of the Washington Wizards, as in they constantly talk about needing to be better on defense but never actually turn that talk into action. I just don't think they have the personnel to play hard nosed defense. That is fine if they keep putting up 90-100 points a game but when they run into the more physical teams from the Big East I foresee it being an issue.
However, tonight is a different story and I don't expect their lack of defense to be much of an issue. The Hokies are weak defensively and Carolina will definitely be able to put up points. The key, as it always is for Carolina, is to force the Hokies to play the up tempo game that Carolina loves so much. That means G Ty Lawson running the fast break and driving to the basket, or dishing to his many shooters, such as G-F Danny Green, G Wayne Ellington, and G Bobby Frasor. F Tyler Hansbrough also needs to be more involved, he put up 28 against Georgia Tech but lately against tougher competition he doesn't seem to be getting the looks that he usually does.
It will be a tough atmosphere for Carolina tonight but dammit if Duke can win there so can the Tar Heels. It sickens me that Duke and Wake Forest won in Maryland and Carolina couldn't do it. I expect this to be close but Carolina to pull it out.
Prediction: North Carolina 87, Virginia Tech 80
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