College Basketball 3/12/10 ACC Quarterfinals
Miami Hurricanes (20-12) (ACC)-Virginia Tech Hokies (23-7) (ACC)

By Mark-Friday, March 12th 2:25 PM EST
Line-Virginia Tech-3.5

After Miami dismantled Wake Forest 83-62 I'm tempted to say the Deacons were flat but even that doesn't explain the ease in which the Canes won. Miami ran out to a 14 point bulge after 20 minutes and never were threatened as they added to their lead on 57% shooting. They even connected on 8 of 17 from beyond the arc as their offense seemed unstoppable. Defensively Miami had little trouble with the Demon Deacons, holding them to 35% from the floor and holding Al-Farouq Aminu to 11 points on 3-10 shooting. Given the score I would have said the Hurricanes got a big game from leading scorer Dwayne Collins but he's out with an injury making this win even more impressive. Reggie Johnson stepped up to fill the void with a game high 22 and this hardly seemed like a basement team when the final horn sounded.

Virginia Tech was mired in a three game losing streak entering the final week of the season and got themselves headed in the right direction winning their final two games. Similar to last season the Hokies rely on the play of guards Malcolm Delaney (21 ppg) and Dorenzo Hudson (14 ppg) to lead them in scoring and to play the passing lanes on defense. It's been a good combination because VT has a top 20 shooting D at less than 39% that holds opponents to a competitive 65 points. Key to the team's success has been the ability of Delaney to stay relatively healthy keeping him in the line up and productive. That wasn't the case last year as he was dinged up and Virginia Tech's record suffered. They are now healthy with a veteran core that is well rested poised to make the tournament.

VT offense: 73 ppg 12 apg 38 rpg 43%
VT defense: 65 ppg 13 apg 36 rpg 40%
Miami offense: 72 ppg 14 apg 36 rpg 46%
Miami defense: 64 ppg 13 apg 33 rpg 41%

After their win over Wake, Miami doesn't look like a last place team nor a team I would want to play. If they can carry over their performance from the win over the Deacons I'm almost ready to pencil them in to the semifinals. It will be up to the speed and quickness of the Hokies to change that and I think they can.