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ACC Basketball: Conference tournament preview

By Matt Ostrowski

Mar 5, 2016; Durham, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams questions a call by the officials in the second half of their game against the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 5, 2016; Durham, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams questions a call by the officials in the second half of their game against the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 2, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Miami Hurricanes guard Sheldon McClellan (10) guard Davon Reed (5) guard Angel Rodriguez (13) and center Tonye Jekiri (23) huddle in the second half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Purcell Pavilion. Miami won 65-50. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 2, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Miami Hurricanes guard Sheldon McClellan (10) guard Davon Reed (5) guard Angel Rodriguez (13) and center Tonye Jekiri (23) huddle in the second half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Purcell Pavilion. Miami won 65-50. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /

2. Miami

While North Carolina is completely dominated by big men, Miami is completely dominated by guards. And for that reason, they’re ahead of North Carolina on this list.

Related Story: Canes win with interior defense

But the sun hasn’t always been shining in Miami this year, and it would be silly of me not to mention that North Carolina absolutely stomped them just a couple weeks ago, shooting 54 percent in the process.

Miami’s four leading scorers are all guards: Sheldon McClellan, Angel Rodriguez, Davon Reed, and Ja’Quan Newton. Not unlike Duke, none of the above are particularly great defenders, though. Should Miami lose this weekend, that’s what’s going to be the death of them.

In their five ACC losses (to Virginia, Clemson, NC State, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech), the ‘Canes allowed opponents to shoot 51.6 percent from the floor. And surprisingly, for a team dominated by guards, they don’t shoot the three ball very well, finishing 10th in the ACC 32.6 percent.

Regardless, I think Miami has a great chance to make a deep run in the ACC Tournament and in the NCAA Tournament. Any of McClellan, Rodriguez, Reed, or Newton could get hot and win them a game, and they really only need two of them clicking for them to win.

McClellan is by far the most consistent, so realistically, if one of the other three is playing well, they’re a tough team to beat. If they’re all playing well, they’re near-impossible to beat.

They’ll kick off the ACC Tournament with a quarterfinal game on Thursday against one of Virginia Tech, Florida State, or Boston College.

Next: Number one