ACC Roundup – Desperation Time For Several Schools

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 28: Caleb Foster #1 of the Duke Blue Devils drives the baseline against Johann Grünloh #17 of the Virginia Cavaliers during the second half of the game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 28, 2026 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

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What is the story about?

In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Wake Forest is at Virginia, Clemson travels up to Chapel Hill, Boston College jets down to Virginia Tech, and Syracuse is off to Louisville.

It’s an interesting night, because so many of the coaches have some level of hot seat pressure.

Steve Forbes has a bit for Wake Forest, Brad Brownell always seems to have a bit from fickle Tiger fans, Earl Grant is most likely a couple of games from losing his job, Pat Kelsey has stupid Louisville fans grumbling, and Adrian Autry may be gone

in a couple of weeks, too.

Given Wake’s inadequate inside game, and that Virginia just got their heads ripped off at Duke this week, it’s hard to see the Deacons winning here. However, if Juke Harris, Myles Colvin and Nate Calmese all heat up, it could happen.

Probably won’t, though, and scratch Calmese – he’s out for the rest of the season. So a Wake win would be huge.

Clemson visits UNC and will probably get a bit of a break since Caleb Wilson almost certainly won’t play. It won’t be easy, but the days when Clemson couldn’t win in Chapel Hill are over. The Tigers did it in 2020 and 2024. There’s more pressure on Clemson now too, since they lost four straight. A win over UNC would be a big plus on their résumé.

And if they somehow pull that off, it would be another reason for Tar Heel fans to give Hubert Davis hell.

By the way, RJ Davis will be honored in the Dean Dome Tuesday night.

We could see Boston College winning at Virginia Tech, but only if the Hokies can’t hit shots. BC just doesn’t have the talent to win a high-scoring game. They could win a grinder, but even that’s going to be tough. Virginia Tech has too many weapons for the Eagles: Tobi Lawal, Amani Hansberry, Ben Hammond, Neoklis Avdalas, Jailen Bedford – any of these guys would be major stars for BC.

Earl Grant is a good coach, but he just doesn’t have the players and probably can’t get them.

Syracuse is a strange deal. This is a talented team. Donnie Freeman would be welcome on just about any ACC team. William Kyle is a flawed big man, but certainly he is talented. JJ Starling, Nate Kingz, and Naithan George are all at a minimum competent college players.

Yet this team is 15-14.

So what happens if Syracuse loses at Louisville (which seems likely even without Mikel Brown), and whatever happens at Pitt, bombs out in Charlotte (as seems likely)?

It’s a tricky situation because both the AD and the President are leaving. How do you fire a coach in that world? Who takes the job?

Have no fear, DBR is here! Our guess would be…Gerry McNamara!

The former Syracuse star is now at Siena, and while he’s only in his second season, he’s gone from 14-18 to 20-11. A lot of coaches might hesitate under the circumstances, but McNamara? He knows Syracuse. He loves Syracuse. Jim Boeheim would probably give him his blessing. Would it be a gamble? Sure. You got a better idea?

Speaking of Charlotte, here’s where things stand now.

As of today, Georgia Tech is definitely out, BC is probably out, and Pitt and Notre Dame are fighting for the 15th seed.

So here’s the current setup:

1st round:

#12 Virginia Tech vs #13 Wake Forest
#11 Stanford vs. #14 Syracuse
#10 SMU vs. #15 Pitt

2nd round:

#8 Florida State vs. #9 Cal
#5 Clemson vs. 12/13 winner
#7 Louisville vs. 10/15 winner

Quarterfinals

#1 Duke vs. 8/9 winner
#4 UNC vs. Clemson vs. 12/13 winner
#3 Miami vs. NC State vs. 11/14 winner
#2 Virginia vs. Louisville vs. 10/15 winner

In this scenario, here’s what we’d expect. In round one, we’d take Virginia Tech over Wake. Stanford and Syracuse haven’t played, but Syracuse is awful on defense and, well, Ebuka Okorie could go nuts, so Stanford. And we’ll take SMU over whoever.

In round two, FSU and Cal is a pretty fascinating matchup. Tough game to call, which is what you want at the 8 vs. 9 hinge game. Our hunch is that FSU is playing better, but not by much.

Clemson and Virginia Tech could be fun. Since Virginia Tech kicked off Clemson’s late losing streak at Clemson, we like their chances.

If Stanford and NC State manage to meet in round two, that’d be great. Why?

Because they’d be playing twice in four days. How could you not love that? Wow. We’d like to think State would win both, but this team has been all over the place. However, the kryptonite has been size, and Stanford doesn’t have a lot. We’d like State in that scenario.

Louisville and SMU? Kind of depends on Mikel Brown’s status. If he’s good to go, we like Louisville. If his back still limits him, SMU.

That sets up quarterfinal games of Duke vs. FSU, UNC vs. Clemson, Miami vs. NC State and Virginia vs. Louisville.

Florida State has improved dramatically since playing Duke in early January…but so has Duke. It’s hard to see Duke losing there.

UNC and Clemson would be much like Stanford and State, with a quick rematch, but even better since there is genuine bad blood between those two schools. ACC! ACC! ACC!

Old-school ACC, that is. That would be a blast.

Miami and NC State would be fun too, but our suspicion is that Miami would win. However, they had to make an unlikely comeback in Raleigh to win by just one point, so there’s that. Still, Miami seems to be rounding into shape while State is still shaky. NC State stuff, y’all. So we’d take Miami.

In the semifinals, we’d take Duke over UNC and, just for fun, Miami over Virginia. And then we’d sit back and look at a really interesting game between Jon Scheyer and his former assistant, Jai Lucas. Given Duke’s advantage inside, the Blue Devils should win again, but the defensive battle would be beautiful to watch.