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If you took my advice in fading my picks, you're welcome. I have made you a very rich man. If I pick your team to cover, I am sorry it just won't happen; they're doomed.
After the debacle by the Blue Devils on Coach K night, you would think they come out firing against a Buddy Boeheim-less Syracuse team. They came out flatter than a 2 liter of Diet Dr. Pepper left out for 5 hours. Paolo Banchero was getting Chef Boyardee'd by the worse Boeheim brother Jimmy. Syracuse came out in a triangle-and-two zone, which caused Duke to forget how to play basketball. Duke had to rely on Jeremy Roach to bail them out at the end, which is not a comforting sign going into March. You could say the same thing about the Hurricanes. They needed a game-winning layup in OT over a 13-19 Boston College team.
Miami won the first meeting over the Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor, which does not mean much since Duke was far better on the road or neutral sites than in Durham. Duke is going to come out firing in this one. I know what you're thinking, "he said that about the Syracuse and UNC game" or "All his picks suck! This just means Duke will come out flat again". Duke plays to their competition and sometimes to a fault. If Duke was going to play Boston College, I genuinely believe they would have come out flat, but Duke wants revenge. This semifinal game needs to be a statement game from the Blue Devils if they want to be taken seriously in the big dance next week. I don't have an opinion on the total in this game. Everybody and their mothers are on Miami +9, but that seems too easy.
North Carolina showed zero signs of slowing down after stomping on the Wahoos and being the only team that realized they couldn't keep up if you speed up Virginia. Virginia Tech plays their best basketball of the season by defeating the Fighting Irish 87-80. The Hokies are playing desperate, and I love it. I know my picks have been terrible, but if you read the opening preview article, you would have taken VT 12/1 and UNC 9/1 to win the ACC Tournament, and you won't have to take a side in this one. I've repeatedly said it on the show; Virginia Tech's worst matchup in the ACC is UNC or Duke. I think we see that continue, but it will be a close one. Virginia Tech will not go down as quickly as they did the last two times they met with the Tar Heels. I would also lean towards the over in this one. You have to take the underdog in a close ball game, but I think UNC wins, and we see a Duke vs. UNC final in Coach K's last ACC Tournament game.
