Turning Points

Virginia Tech 71, Miami 58
Maryland 92, Virginia 89 (2OT)
Georgia Tech 76, FSU 75

Maryland and Georgia Tech come away with much-needed road wins, Virginia Tech keeps its slim NCAA hopes alive, and Miami finds its tournament bubble closer to popping.

VPI shot 54.8% from the field (adjFG% of 63.1%) against Miami, which helped earn them an offensive efficiency rating of 116 for the game. Miami shot 40% but didn't get much production from behind the arc, leading to an efficiency of 95. The Hurricanes did have a big advantage in O-Reb Rate, but that wasn't even close to counterbalancing the Hokies' good shooting. It didn't help that the Hurricanes turned the ball over on 26% of their possessions (season avg = 19%).

Maryland and UVA played the most exciting game of the weekend. Virginia actually shot considerably better than Maryland--the Hoos had an adjFG% of 51.3%, Maryland had an adjFG% of 44%. But because Virginia was horrible from the free throw line (12-27), they ended up being less efficient than the Terps (25-34 from the line) at the offensive end.

Maryland finally scored 75+ on the road...all it took was an extra ten minutes of game time (they had 69 points at the end of regulation). The high score makes it seem like both teams had pretty good games offensively, but that's not really the case. The game featured 91 possessions for both teams.

Sean Singletary (23 pts, 9 dimes) had a huge game for the Cavs, as did Devin Smith. Singletary had some awesome dribble drives and hit several big threes...when he fouled out in the second OT, it spelled doom for Virginia. Maryland was led by the usual suspects--Nik Caner-Medoodily and John Gilchrist--as well as Travis Garrison.

In Tallahassee, Georgia Tech took advantage of a fortuitous foul call with less than one second on the clock to win the game. BJ Elder sank two free throws and gave the Jackets a hugely important win. A loss to FSU could have been crippling...instead, the Jackets have themselves in good shape to finish at least 8-8 in the ACC.

In the NCAAs at this point:

Wake
Duke
UNC
Maryland (16-8, 7-6)
Georgia Tech (15-8, 6-6)

Not in the NCAAs:

Miami (15-9, 6-7) -- now outside RPI top-50
VPI (14-10, 7-6) -- still outside the RPI top-100, they aren't even bubble-worthy
NCSU (15-10, 5-7) -- #83 in the RPI