Last night’s games, Georgia Tech at Clemson and Virginia Tech at Maryland were hardly sexy matchups. It’s almost as if the ACC scheduled some dogs this week to avoid deflecting any attention away from Duke-Carolina.
While those two games lacked star power, they had oodles of importance. Tech and Maryland are the only two non-Big Three teams with a good shot at getting NCAA bids, but they’ve been struggling lately. It is critical that they get some wins, particularly over lower-tier teams. The Jackets in particular had a critical opportunity last night, because while Clemson is improving, they are still one of the places where you can reasonably expect to get a road win. Miss out on that chance and you can have a hard time getting your record to 8-8.
Fortunately for the ACC, both teams won their critical games (nice running commentary on the Terp game). Georgia Tech sleepwalked through the first half, but with a jolt from the newly-healthy B.J. Elder, they pulled away in the second half. Elder seemed to make a huge difference for the Jackets as he is the only one on that team who seems to score easily. Will Bynum and Jarrett Jack can light it up, but they have to try damn hard to do it. Elder gets his points smoothly and within the offense. Keep on eye on this team as they adjust to having him back in the lineup. After a disappointing month for the conference, getting Georgia Tech back to national-level strength would help a lot.
I made mention of how those wins were good for the conference. I know fans of the lower teams (Virginia, Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech and yes, NC State) don’t want to hear this, but the ACC needs them to keep on losing. The top teams and especially the middle-tier teams need to fatten up on wins against the lambs. All this parity and uneven play helps no one in the long run. The ACC needs to get at least five NCAA bids this year and a couple of NIT teams would be nice as well. If that requires a few teams to go 2-14 or 3-13, so be it. That’s life in competitive sports.