ACC Blogger Bracket Watch – 2/20

Posted by Brandon Rink on February 20, 2012 under ACC Basketball | Comments are off for this article

UNC swept games against Miami and Clemson last week to stay as a 2-seed in NCAA projections. (Pic per OrangeandWhite.com)

Here’s a look at this week’s brackets…

ESPN, Feb. 20: Joe Lunardi isn’t on the Duke one-seed bandwagon with both the Tar Heels and Blue Devils as 2-seeds on opposite sides of the bracket. He’s high on FSU (4-seed), while Miami just slips into the First Four.

SB Nation, Feb. 20: Chris Dobbertean still has the whole gang from the ACC in – Miami in the field as a 12-seed and NC State in the First Four.

D1scourse, Feb. 20: Patrick Stevens pegs Duke as a one-seed, but NC State is the last team left out of the field (man, Thursday hurt…and Saturday for that matter for the Wolfpack). Stevens also has FSU as a 4-seed – and Miami as high as I’ve seen as a 10-seed.

Analysis: Have to think NC State has to take at least three of their last four to move to 21-10 (10-6) and do some work in the ACC Tourney to secure a NCAA bid. They host UNC and Miami – travel to Clemson and Virginia Tech. Three of four is doable, but they’ll have to recover from a couple big missed opportunities. Miami could use three of four to close the season as well, but taking two with a home win over FSU could do the trick as well (and no first round ACC Tourney exit). There’s a long road ahead for Duke’s No. 1 seed chances – hitting FSU on Thursday and hosting UNC to finish the season. They’ll have navigate the ACC Tournament as well, but right now, they’ve positioned themselves well. Of course, the Tar Heels have the road ahead that if they run the table into the NCAAs (ACC Tourney included) – they’ll be in the conversation there too (trips to NC State and Virginia should be interesting this week). Meanwhile, if FSU is going to capture an ACC regular season title – they must take down Duke Thurs., at least split the road trips to Virginia and Miami, and finish with a season finale win over Clemson at home. It’s going to be a very interesting race for that No. 1 seed in the ACC Tourney in these final two weeks.