ACC in NCAA Tourney Breakdown: Sweet 16

Posted by Brandon Rink on March 26, 2010 under ACC Basketball | Comments are off for this article

Matt Painter is a coach, not a painter, I'm disappointed too.

The Blue Devils breezed through the first two, but the Sweet 16 brings new pressure for this squad against a quality team…

(1) Duke Blue Devils vs. (4) Purdue Boilermakers, 9:57 (EST) on Friday

Coaches Tourney Records: Duke-Coach K–73-21(11-7 in Sweet 16); Purdue-Matt Painter–4-4(0-1 in Sweet 16).
Devil That Has to Step up: F Jon Scheyer–okay, maybe he doesn’t have to step up, but Duke would like to see him play a bigger role before going much further in the tournament–he’s had two solid, but not great games so far.
Devils Have to Stop: G E’Twaun Moore(6′4 184; 16.4 ppg, 3.8 rpg)–If you have watched Purdue at any point this season or any news on the Boilermakers, you know that Robbie Hummel was a major player and he’s out for the season. Moore is the go-to scorer left for Purdue and shutting him down will easily keep Purdue under 70 points.
What I’m Thinking…: After Duke’s dominance in round two, the upset talk hasn’t been there for their matchup with Purdue–which is bit surprising with how the tournament has unfolded. The ACC and the Big East entered a number of teams into this tournament and only two remain with Duke and West Virginia–I’m not saying Purdue pulls it off, but if Butler can take down Syracuse, Duke isn’t safe either. But I do think Scheyer gets off the schnide and starts hitting some from the perimeter coupled with another good game from Singler to pull away to a comfortable margin. If Duke is a little shaky in Houston to start, the crowd will be pro-Purdue so watch out for the Boilermakers to seize momentum as they are overachieving right now without Hummel.
Pick: Devils 75-64

Can the Blue Devils surpass last season’s Sweet 16 run? Call your shot below…