Duke and Virginia Tech meet in the highly anticipated ACC Championship Game; will the Blue Devils take care of business or do the Hokies have one more upset in them?
TV schedule: Saturday, March 11, 8:30 pm ET. ESPN
Arena: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
Duke (28-5) may have slipped up a few times in conference play, but this team has taken care of business in their first two games of the ACC Tournament, and now the regular-season champion Blue Devils will play for the title. Duke held on for wins over Syracuse and Miami the last two nights and now looks to deliver Mike Krzyzewski one final conference crown.
The clear standout for Duke has been freshman forward Paolo Banchero (16.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg), who had 18 points and 11 rebounds in their Friday win over the Hurricanes. Fellow freshman forward A. J. Griffin (10.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg) has been playing much better ball lately, with 21 points in that win against Miami. When you throw in players like junior forward Wendell Moore Jr. (13.5 ppg, 4.8 apg), who had 17 points in that same win, it’s no wonder the Blue Devils have made it this far in the ACC.
Duke sits 9th in KenPom, and 10th in the most recent NET rankings. Their offense sits at 5th in the efficiency ratings and they’ve been solid across the board. Neither of these last two wins has been comfortable by any means, but they’ve looked markedly better than in that upset to North Carolina last weekend. The Blue Devils will certainly have the talent advantage in this game.
On the other side, few may have expected Virginia Tech (22-12) to be in this position after finishing 7th in the ACC this season. The Hokies have now managed to defeat Clemson, Notre Dame, and North Carolina in consecutive days, with the most impressive of the bunch being that double-digit win against the Tar Heels.
For the Hokies, the big star has been senior forward Keve Aluma (15.6 ppg, 6.5 rpg), who came to Virginia Tech from Wofford with coach Mike Young three years ago and has been a revelation, scoring 18 points in that upset over the Tar Heels. Unheralded sophomore guard Darius Maddox (6.0 ppg) had a huge 20-point effort in that win as well. Talented senior forward Justyn Mutts (10.3 ppg, 7.6 rpg) will also play a major role, especially as the Hokies try to run their interior offense.
Virginia Tech is up to 25th in KenPom and was 33rd in the NET rankings before that win over the Tar Heels. They play efficient offense at a slow pace and rank as one of the nation’s most efficient 3-point shooting teams. The interior defense hasn’t been impressive in the ACC Tournament and this team will need to improve against the bigs of Duke.
On paper, this looks like a game that Duke should win, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be any sort of a blowout. The Hokies have looked impressive at times across this three-day streak, though it’s fair to wonder if they’re running out of gas, having to play a Top 5 opponent as their fourth game in four days. Both of these teams are great offensive units and it’ll be interesting to see the pace that game takes.
I’m sure Mike Krzyzewski would like nothing more than to go into retirement with an ACC Tournament crown and his team certainly look poised to bring that home. The Blue Devils certainly had their fair share of struggles with both Syracuse and Miami and will need to contain that Hokies offense, especially if their outside shooting heats up. The unexpected has happened repeatedly this week across all the major conferences but expected Duke to pull out another exciting conference title.