The three ACC bubble teams that needed wins on the final day of the 2023-2024 regular season did what they needed to do.
Starting with Virginia (22-9, 13-7 ACC), which not only beat a streaking Georgia Tech team on Saturday night, but did so with flair, winning 72-57, so, style points coming from scoring 72 actual points.
That was needed as much as the win, for a team that hadn’t gotten out of the 40s in four of its last five games.
In terms of the hard data, the win bumped Virginia up from an average computer ranking of 48.0 going into Saturday to 46.0.
That’s still on the edge of being on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
That’s why the style points from Saturday’s offensive outburst are important.
Wake Forest (19-12, 11-9 ACC) was the most desperate of the three, coming into the weekend on an ill-timed three-game losing streak.
The Deacs took care of business, edging Clemson (21-10, 11-9 ACC), 81-76.
The win did wonders for Wake, which was at an average computer ranking of 50.5 coming into Saturday, and improved to 46.2 as the day came to a close.
See above for where that puts the Demon Deacons in terms of NCAA Tournament resume.
Last, and surprisingly, of these three, the least, Pitt (21-10, 12-8 ACC).
The Panthers completed their impressive run from a 1-5 ACC start with an 81-73 win over NC State Saturday night, their 11th win in their last 14 games.
The self-styled bracketologists have been throwing stones at Pitt’s NCAA Tournament resume despite that impressive run, which includes wins at Duke and at Virginia.
The computers, though, love the Panthers, who had an average ranking of 45.2 going into Saturday, and ended the day at 44.3.
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Chris Graham
