Hokies Seeded Third in ACC Tournament

There’s no time for the Hokie coaches, players, or fans to mourn their lost
chance at an ACC regular-season title. Pairings have been announced for the 2007
ACC men’s basketball tournament, and the games start in just four days. The
Hokies ended up as the #3 seed in the ACC and will play the winner of a
first-round game between #6 seed Georgia Tech and #11 seed Wake Forest.
Regardless of the opponent, Tech will play Friday night at 9:00 p.m.

Here are the final regular-season ACC standings, tiebreakers included:

North Carolina beat Duke Sunday evening, while Tech and BC lost to Clemson
and Georgia Tech, respectively. UNC locks up the #1 seed by virtue of their win
over Virginia earlier this season. The Hokies win the head-to-head tiebreaker
with Maryland and also the tiebreaker with BC for the #3 seed.

Here is the tournament bracket (graphic captured from theacc.com):

There is no “easy” draw for the ACC tournament, but Tech’s bracket
is one of the better ones the Hokies could hope for.

• First of all, Tech avoids two of the most difficult matchups in the
  league, UNC and Maryland, until a possible championship matchup. (It will be
  difficult for the Hokies to beat UNC a third time, and Maryland is the
  hottest team in the league right now.)
• A second-round matchup with Wake Forest would be favorable for the Hokies,
  should the Deacs win in round one. Tech beat Wake 63-60 in Blacksburg way
  back on December 17th.
• If GT wins instead, the Hokies will face one of the hotter teams in the
  league, winners of seven of their last nine. But most of GT’s recent success
  has come at home, where the Jackets won their last six games. GT has lost
  nine of their last ten games away from Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
• If the Hokies get past their Friday night game, they’ll be matched up with
  Virginia, Duke, or NC State. The Hokies match up well on a neutral floor
  with Duke or UVa, and though NC State is a poor matchup for Tech, the
  Wolfpack would have to make it through Duke and Virginia to get to Tech in
  the semifinals. Duke is only the seventh seed, but the Blue Devils know a
  little bit about winning the ACC Tournament, so they would be a big
  challenge.

Virginia Tech is historically not a good conference tournament team (more on
that later this week), but given that, their bracket is set up well for a
possible run to the semifinals or finals. One of VT’s biggest challenges will be
playing a late-night game on Friday against a team that already has a tournament
game under its belt.

For a great link with loads of information about the tournament, click the
“2007 ACC Tournament Info” link below.