Day two of the ACC Tournament is set to begin, and the one pre-ordained match-up of the second round pits the Maryland Terrapins and Florida State Seminoles in Thursday’s opener. The two teams occupy the #8 and #9 seeds in the field, but both are capable of making a run deep into the weekend, and this should be an entertaining game.
Florida State enters the day with an 18-12 record overall and a 9-9 mark in ACC play, but the advanced metrics have the Seminoles as a much better team than their record indicates. Our friends at KenPom have the ‘Noles as a top-40 team in America, and with that, FSU ranks in the top-60 from an efficiency standpoint on both the offensive and defensive ends. Still, the Seminoles were unceremoniously blitzed by Syracuse in their regular season finale (in Tallahassee, no less), and there are some questions about how they are playing right now.
On the flip side, Maryland doesn’t have quite the statistical prowess of FSU (although they are ranked by KenPom in the top 50), but they are playing quite well right now. The Terps finished with back-to-back wins including a shocking upset over ACC regular season champion Virginia, and with an elite-level defense (allowing only 95.5 points per 100 possessions on the year), Maryland could muck things up in an effective manner. Either way, this should be a rough-and-tumble ball game.
Here’s how you can watch all the action on Thursday:
Date: March 13
Start Time: 12:00 PM ET
Location: Greensboro, NC
Arena: Greensboro Coliseum
TV Info: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN app
Who do you think comes away with the win in this one? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.