Duke and North Carolina are in, but there aren’t any NCAA tournament certainties for other ACC teams.
Florida State (19-8), Virginia Tech (18-8), Clemson (18-9), Maryland (18-10) and possibly even Boston College (16-11) have shots at making the 68-team field without winning the ACC tournament, but there are plenty of problems with their resumes.
All except Boston College have a game remaining against either Duke or North Carolina, so nothing would boost their chances more than a win against a ranked opponent.
The Seminoles (No. 50 RPI entering this week, according to collegerpi.com) miss leading scorer and rebounder Chris Singleton (Cherokee/Dunwoody), who has a broken right foot, as evidenced by their 78-62 loss at Maryland on Wednesday, but play two of their final three regular-season games at home against Miami and North Carolina before finishing at N.C. State.
Virginia Tech (65 RPI) would gain selection-committee favor with an upset of visiting Duke on Saturday night and finish the season against Boston College and at Clemson. Working against the Hokies is the fact that they were swept by Virginia.
Clemson (66 RPI) also has Duke left (March 2 in Durham, N.C.), but has bad losses to Virginia and N.C. State. Maryland has the worst RPI (85) of the bunch and has six ACC losses, including two at the hands of Virginia Tech. The Terrapins host North Carolina on Sunday.
Boston College, on the other hand, has the best RPI (45), but is 6-7 in the ACC, went 0-3 against North Carolina and Duke and just lost at home to Miami. The Eagles have lost three of their past four and have only one ACC road win this season.
On a roll
-- Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney, who averaged 20.2 points as a junior last season, is making a push to better that mark. He has averaged 22.5 points in his past six games to lift his season mark to 19.1 points, second in the ACC to Nolan Smith's 21.7 points.
-- Rotnei Clarke has scored at least 21 points in three of his past four games, including 26 in Arkansas' 77-76 victory over Kentucky on Wednesday, giving coach John Pelphrey his first win in four games against his alma mater. The Razorbacks broke a 10-game losing streak to Kentucky.
-- N.C. State freshman forward C.J. Leslie has reached double figures in each of his past six games, averaging 16.7 points and 7.8 rebounds in that stretch. He had 19 rebounds against Youngstown State on Dec. 16, tied with Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen for the most in the ACC this season.
Hot shot
Maryland freshman guard Terrell Stoglin averaged 19.2 points and five assists in the past five games and has made 23 of his past 24 free-throw attempts. He scored 25 points in two consecutive games before going for 17 in the Terrapins' victory over Florida State on Wednesday.
Have not
Vanderbilt was just 3-of-16 from the 3-point line in its 60-51 loss to Tennessee, the Commodores' lowest percentage from beyond the arc (18.8 percent) this season. John Jenkins, who is tied with teammate Rod Odom for sixth in the SEC in 3-point shooting, was 1-for-6 as Vanderbilt made its fewest 3-pointers in a game since finishing with two against Kentucky on Feb. 20, 2010.
News and notes
Kentucky has had the SEC freshman of the week in nine of the 15 weeks it has been presented this season. Terrence Jones has won it five times, and teammate Brandon Knight has won it four times. … Wake Forest's Travis McKie is trying to become the 10th freshman to lead an ACC team in scoring and rebounding. McKie averages 12.9 points and 7.6 rebounds after having 22 points and nine rebounds in this week's loss to Virginia Tech. … Auburn walk-on Josh Wallace leads the SEC in steals with 1.9 per game. … Alabama's Tony Mitchell (Swainsboro) had scored at least 20 points in five of his past six games before finishing with eight in the Crimson Tide's last-second victory over Auburn. He's averaging 15.8 points per game. … Florida State leads the ACC in field-goal percentage defense at 35.7 percent, the conference's lowest mark since Maryland's 34.6 percent in 1957-58.
Cross-country hops
Ralph Sampson III (Northview) averages 10.6 points and 5.6 rebounds at Minnesota. … Duke, Princeton and McNeese State are the only Division I schools with men's and women's teams that are undefeated at home this season. … College of Charleston senior Jeremy Simmons (Tucker) likely won't play again this season after a blood clot was discovered in his right shoulder. "He's still there for us, even though he can't be there for us physically on the court," teammate Andrew Goudelock (Stone Mountain) told the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier. … The California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, a Division III program in Pasadena, Calif., ended a 310-game conference losing streak that dated to Jan. 23, 1985, with a victory over Occidental on Tuesday. It was the longest conference losing streak in the nation.
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