ACC Season Already?!?!

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Georgia Tech and Virginia kick off the ACC season tonight in Atlanta, a national broadcast on Fox Sports Sunday Night Hoops. We've owned the 'hoos in Atlanta (23-8 and 9 of the last 10) and hopefully can keep that going tonight.

This has the potential of being an interesting matchup, with UVa having one of ACC's best PG's in Sean Singletary going up against our somewhat questionable backcourt. Singletary's last two games have been terrific, 24 in a loss at Arizona, and then 23 more in their win over Northwestern - scoring 19 of those in the second half of that game. Fredrick, West and Clinch will have their hands full, Singletary is a terrific young player and possibly the best PG we'll face all season. Unfortunately for UVa, he and J.R Reynolds are their only real scoring threats, and Singletary has struggled with turnovers at times. Our pressure defense might be able to get a few easy baskets, but only if we execute well.

On the flipside, GT has one of the best frontcourts in the conference with Ra'Sean Dickey and Jeremis Smith matched up against a basically nonexistent inside game for Virginia. Dickey and Smith combined for 38 points and 17 rebounds in the Michigan State game - they should easily be able to match that output again tonight.

Keys to the game for GT:

• Keep Singletary in check. He'll get his, but we can't let him continually set up easy opportunities for their other players. West and Fredrick have to work hard to keep him out of the lane.
• Pound the ball inside, Dickey and Smith should have a huge advantage.
• Shoot the ball well from outside - if Morrow, Fredrick and Clinch are clicking, it makes it much harder to pack in around our post game.
• Control the turnovers, we can't let UVa get easy points in transition - they struggle in the half court, we need to make them earn everything they get.

I expect GT to win, but with this team I'm not taking anything for granted. If we come out and execute well, this is a game we should win. If it's sloppy, guys don't hustle on defense and we turn it over in the backcourt, this could easily be a UVa win.