ACC Basketball

The Florida State Seminoles narrowly avoided an upset Wednesday to stay atop the ACC standings.

Trent Forrest's game-winning layup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish moved Florida State to 15-4 in conference play with one game remaining. 

Since they beat the Louisville Cardinals twice, the Seminoles have to beat the Boston College Eagles at home Saturday to secure the regular-season crown and No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament. 

Louisville, the Duke Blue Devils and Virginia Cavaliers will be the Nos. 2-4 seeds in Greensboro, North Carolina, but the order of the squads will not be determined until Saturday. 

Louisville visits Virginia, while Duke hosts the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The seeding situations become more complicated beneath the top four, as three teams are 9-10, two sit at 7-12 and three are 6-13. 

The 2020 ACC tournament will feature 14 of the conference's 15 teams after the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets accepted a postseason ban Monday, per Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

                 

ACC Tournament Schedule

All Times ET

Games to be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ACC Network

Tuesday, March 10

No. 12 seed vs. No. 13 seed (2 p.m.) 

No. 11 seed vs. No. 14 seed (7 p.m.) 

      

Wednesday, March 11

No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed (noon)

No. 5 seed vs. No. 12/No. 13 winner (2:30 p.m.)

No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed (7 p.m.) 

No. 6 seed vs. No. 11/No. 14 winner (9:30 p.m.)

       

Thursday, March 12

No. 1 seed vs. No. 8/No. 9 winner (12:30 p.m.)

No. 4 seed vs. No. 5/No. 12/No. 13 winner (3 p.m.)

No. 2 seed vs. No. 7/No. 10  winner (7 p.m.)

No. 3 seed vs. No. 6/No. 11/No. 14 winner (9:30 p.m.)

       

Friday, March 13

Semifinal No. 1 (7 p.m.)

Semifinal No. 2 (9:30 p.m.)

      

Saturday, March 14

Championship (8:30 p.m.)

        

Bracket Predictions

1. Florida State

2. Louisville

3. Duke

4. Virginia

5. Syracuse 

6. Notre Dame

7. NC State

8. Clemson

9. Boston College

10. Virginia Tech

11. Miami

12. Wake Forest

13. Pittsburgh 

14. North Carolina

     

The simplest ACC tournament seeding scenario involves Florida State taking care of Boston College at home Saturday. 

A victory would complete a perfect home campaign for Leonard Hamilton's side and place it on top of the bracket thanks to its season sweep over Louisville. 

The Seminoles also went 1-1 versus Virginia and dropped a road result to Duke by five points February 10.

In conference action, Florida State has had five players lead the team in scoring, with Trent Forrest, Devin Vassell and M.J. Walker rotating in that role over the last three contests. 

https://twitter.com/FSUHoops/status/1235432120341889024

If they make it to the championship game, the Seminoles could be in position to lock up a No. 2 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. 

ESPN's Joe Lunardi and CBS Sports' Jerry Palm both have Florida State on the second seed line in their latest projections. 

Duke and Louisville are predicted to be No. 3 seeds at the moment by Lunardi, but knocking off Florida State could be the catalyst to jump a seed line. 

Before the Cardinals and Blue Devils are set for a collision course at the ACC tournament semifinals, they have to win Saturday. 

Louisville faces a treacherous road game against Virginia, who brings a seven-game winning streak into the regular-season finale. 

If Tony Bennett's team wins, it would create a three-way tie for second place that would force a shuffle in seeding. 

However, Louisville proved in the first meeting that it can shoot well enough to negate Virginia's defensive pressure, as it shot 51 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from three-point range. 

If Jordan Nwora and Co. are able to score over 65-70 points again, Virginia may have a hard time keeping pace. 

Duke hosts North Carolina in a rematch of a rivalry contest that went to overtime back in February at the Smith Center. 

In the two-point overtime win, the Blue Devils had four players reach double digits, with Tre Jones leading the team with 28 points. 

If Mike Krzyzewski's team overwhelms North Carolina's defense with a better offensive start, it may not face concerns about closing out the game. 

The No. 5-No. 8 seeds carry the most potential to spring an upset at the Greensboro Coliseum. 

Syracuse owns a win over Virginia, the NC State Wolfpack beat Duke, the Clemson Tigers knocked off Florida State, Duke and Louisville and Notre Dame almost beat the Seminoles Wednesday. 

All four of those sides will play one game before meeting one of the top four squads, so they could create a bit of momentum with a triumph over one of the lesser sides. 

However, the second-tier sides have a combined 6-14 mark against the top four programs, with Clemson accounting for three of those victories. 

Since the league is so top heavy, we expect the top four seeds to move on to the semifinals to create a pair of marquee matchups that lead up to next Saturday's final.

            

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90

Statistics obtained from ESPN.com

For most of the 2019-20 men's college basketball season, the Duke Blue Devils have ranked among the five favorites to win the national championship.

That is no longer the case following a recent stretch of three losses in four games.

Per Tuesday's Caesars Palace title odds, the five best marks belong to Kansas (+550), Gonzaga (+700), Kentucky (+1100), Baylor (+1100) and Dayton (+1300). The Blue Devils were tied for sixth place with Louisville at +1400, with San Diego State (+1500) and Michigan State (+1600) nipping at their heels.

Not only have Duke's Vegas odds dropped, but its projected tournament seed has too.

Just two weeks ago, the Blue Devils were the projected No. 5 overall seed. That almost certainly would have made them the No. 2 seed in the East Region, starting with two games in Greensboro, North Carolina, followed by two more in Madison Square Garden, potentially culminating in a major "home-court" advantage in the Elite Eight against projected No. 1 seed San Diego State.

But the Bracket Matrix has Duke projected for a No. 3 seed, which means starting in Greensboro is no longer guaranteed, and there's no telling into which region the Blue Devils would be placed.

If you think the seed doesn't matter, be sure to note that Duke has a 4-5 record in its last five NCAA tournament appearances as a No. 3 seed or worse, and it hasn't advanced beyond the Sweet 16 from that starting position since 1990.

If the Blue Devils can rally to win the ACC tournament, they may still get that No. 2 seed in the East and the coveted NC-to-NYC path to the Final Four that comes with it. However, that's a big "if" with the way they have been playing.

It might seem a little preposterous to voice concerns about the Blue Devils shortly after Monday night's 88-69 drubbing of NC State. But showing up on offense at Cameron Indoor hasn't been Duke's problem—it's getting that show to go on the road.

Even before the back-to-back-to-back road losses in the latter half of February, Duke was struggling during a down year for the ACC.

On Jan. 8 at Georgia Tech, the Blue Devils blew an early 12-point lead and survived by the skin of their teeth when the Yellow Jackets went ice cold down the stretch. Six days later, Duke lost at Clemson, in large part because it had no answer for the frontcourt duo of Aamir Simms and Tevin Mack.

Then came the six road games in February, in which Duke shot a collective 25-of-107 (23.4 percent) from three-point range. It still managed to score 97 at Syracuse, 98 at North Carolina and 101 at Wake Forest, but mostly because those were defense-optional foul-fests that produced an average of 75.3 combined free-throw attempts.

All told, Duke is 4-4 in its last eight road games with a scoring margin of negative-15, even though only one of those eight contests was against a projected NCAA tournament team (the loss to Virginia).

So what gives?

Why is Duke—which beat Kansas on a neutral court and won by 12 at Michigan State in the process of opening the season 7-0 away from home—suddenly playing like an apathetic bubble team when it leaves Durham?

It's not the dynamic duo's fault. In the eight games in question, Tre Jones averaged 19.3 points and 5.3 assists while Vernon Carey Jr. accounted for 18.6 points and 9.4 rebounds. Both the point guard and the center scored in double figures in each contest, combining for at least 30 in all eight games. Moreover, aside from Jones' assists (6.2 per game), each of those numbers is higher than the year-to-date marks for those guys.

And Jones' assists are a bit lower because the non-Carey portion of the supporting cast has been either inconsistent or downright bad.

Jordan Goldwire isn't regarded as a go-to scorer for the Blue Devils. He shoots less often while on the floor than anyone else on the roster. Still, he has averaged 8.9 points over his last eight home games, reaching double figures on four occasions. But in the last eight road games, he scored either zero or two points six times, averaging 2.6.

Matthew Hurt has had similarly problematic home/road splits. In the last eight home games, Hurt is averaging 12.1 points and shooting 43.8 percent from three-point range. On the road, those numbers plummet to 5.3 and 26.1, respectively.

Just between those two guys, that's a staggering difference of 13.1 points per game over nearly two months.

Cassius Stanley's averages haven't been that divergent, but three of his worst performances of the season were the February road games against Boston College, NC State and Virginia. He shot a combined 5-of-22 from the field and averaged a meager 5.0 points in those contests.

It's a small miracle that Duke competed with Virginia and beat Boston College while getting six points and nine points, respectively, from the law firm of Goldwire, Hurt and Stanley.

As troubling as those offensive numbers are, though, the real problem has been the defense.

Duke was more than adequate on that end of the floor in the aforementioned BC and UVA games, winning the former 63-55 and losing the latter 52-50. But in the other four road games in February, the Blue Devils allowed 88, 96, 88 and 113. That's 96.3 points per game, and that is decidedly not a winning formula.

With scores that high, you would think Duke was getting bombarded with threes. To the contrary, those four opponents shot a combined 23-of-62 (37.1 percent) from deep, which is only 17.3 points per game. That leaves 79.0 coming from twos and free throws, which highlights Duke's limited interior defense.

Jones, Goldwire and to a lesser extent Stanley have been great at denying three-point looks all season, but all it takes is one ball screen with a big man to open up the floor. Carey is a limited defender (and more likely to get into foul trouble) when you get him out of the lane, and Hurt has been a massive defensive liability all over the court.

This has resulted in either easy buckets at the rim or reaching fouls on a far-too-regular basis. And when Carey is the one who picks up early whistles, Duke doesn't have a Plan B for creating offense from the 5.

The obvious answer has been staring head coach Mike Krzyzewski in the face for a while, and he finally opted to dabble in the dark magic of zone defense.

Coach K went deep into his bag of tricks and pulled out the 2-3 zone late in the first half of Monday's win over NC State—forced into this emergency decision by watching the Wolfpack simply ball-screen his defense to death.

The impact was almost instantaneous. NC State, which is not a great three-point shooting team, couldn't figure out how to score with any regularity the rest of the way. Defense turned into offense as Stanley threw down thunderous alley-oop dunks en route to a blowout victory.

So, will that be Duke's new normal on defense?

With North Carolina coming to town—a team that shoots even worse from three-point range than NC State and which made 33 twos and 21 free throws against Duke less than a month ago—sticking with the zone for at least one more game seems like the obvious decision. But we'll need to wait and see if that's the long-term solution to a season-long issue that has come to a head in the past few weeks.

If the Blue Devils revert to man-to-man for the tournament and continue to get lackluster scoring outputs away from home from the guys not named Jones or Carey, a repeat of the 2014 Mercer fiasco could be forthcoming.

                      

Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball and college football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.

Even though ACC men's basketball is not as deep as it typically is, its conference tournament is projected to carry plenty of excitement. 

The Florida State Seminoles, Louisville Cardinals, Duke Blue Devils and Virginia Cavaliers have established themselves as the class of the league, and if the tournament goes to form, they would participate in two highly anticipated semifinals. 

Before the top four programs hit the hardwood in Greensboro, North Carolina, a handful of upset-minded squads will try to gain momentum ahead of quarterfinal meetings with the league's elite. 

The NC State Wolfpack and Clemson Tigers have sprung upsets during the regular season, but they need a few more to join those four in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. 

The 2020 edition of the ACC tournament will feature 14 of the league's 15 teams after the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets accepted a postseason ban Monday, per Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

            

ACC Tournament Schedule

All Times ET

Games to be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ACC Network

Tuesday, March 10

No. 12 seed vs. No. 13 seed (2 p.m.) 

No. 11 seed vs. No. 14 seed (7 p.m.) 

      

Wednesday, March 11

No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed (noon)

No. 5 seed vs. No. 12/No. 13 winner (2:30 p.m.)

No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed (7 p.m.) 

No. 6 seed vs. No. 11/No. 14 winner (9:30 p.m.)

       

Thursday, March 12

No. 1 seed vs. No. 8/No. 9 winner (12:30 p.m.)

No. 4 seed vs. No. 5/No. 12/No. 13 winner (3 p.m.)

No. 2 seed vs. No. 7/No. 10  winner (7 p.m.)

No. 3 seed vs. No. 6/No. 11/No. 14 winner (9:30 p.m.)

       

Friday, March 13

Semifinal No. 1 (7 p.m.)

Semifinal No. 2 (9:30 p.m.)

      

Saturday, March 14

Championship (8:30 p.m.)

            

Bracket Predictions

1. Florida State

2. Louisville

3. Duke

4. Virginia

5. Syracuse

6. NC State

7. Notre Dame

8. Clemson 

9. Virginia Tech

10. Boston College

11. Miami

12. Wake Forest

13. Pittsburgh 

14. North Carolina

Following Duke's Monday win over NC State, the top three teams in the ACC are separated by one game.

Louisville holds a 15-4 mark in conference play, while Florida State is 14-4 and Duke is 14-5. Virginia is 1.5 games behind the Cardinals at 13-5. 

The Cardinals and Cavaliers close out the regular season at the latter's John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday afternoon. 

Louisville owns wins over Virginia and Duke, but it dropped both of its matchups with Florida State, which means if the two teams are tied, the Seminoles would take the No. 1 seed. 

Leonard Hamilton's side closes with a Wednesday road trip to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and a Saturday home clash with the Boston College Eagles. 

With the guard trio of Devin Vassell, Trent Forrest and M.J. Walker leading the way by each averaging over 10 points per game, the Seminoles should be able to pass their final two regular-season tests. 

Florida State possesses a 4-1 record versus ranked foes, with the only slip-up coming against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils have one game remaining against the North Carolina Tar Heels at home, and if Florida State and Louisville do not lose, they would be slotted into the No. 3 seed. 

No matter what happens with Virginia in the next week, it has no way of dropping out of the top four. 

If no upsets occur in the quarterfinals, Florida State could meet Virginia in one semifinal and Louisville might square off with Duke. 

Of the four, three of them have won the ACC tournament before. Duke has won 21 times, Virginia owns three titles and Florida State was victorious in 2012. 

NCAA tournament seeding could be on the line in those matchups. At the moment, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects Florida State as a No. 2 seed, Duke and Louisville as No. 3 seeds and Virginia is a No. 9.

Virginia has the most to gain in terms of seeding because it could reel off two marquee wins in addition to the victories it earned in the regular season over Florida State and Duke. 

Even if Florida State wins out, there is no guarantee it will move up the seed line since the Kansas Jayhawks, Baylor Bears, San Diego State Aztecs and Gonzaga Bulldogs have been considered No. 1 seeds for most of the season.

If Duke or Louisville win in Greensboro, a No. 2 seed might be in their future and Florida State could fall to a No. 3. 

Over the last five years, two No. 5 seeds and one No. 6 seed advanced to the ACC tournament semifinals, but in each case, it was either Duke or North Carolina that did so. 

Given the dominance of the marquee programs in the conference tournament, it is hard to predict an extended run for any of the dark horse candidates. 

               

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.

Statistics obtained from ESPN.com.

Mike Krzyzewski had a blunt response to his team's skeptics following Duke's 88-69 win over North Carolina State on Monday.

"I mean, you can question my coaching and what the hell—and then when you do question it ... just come into Cameron and look up in the ceiling, and then find out if you should question that," Krzyzewski told the Blue Devils' postgame radio show (via 247Sports).

Coach K's track record speaks for itself. He's the all-time winningest coach in Division I history, having guided the Blue Devils to 12 Final Fours and five national championships.

But the 73-year-old isn't immune to the questions that can arise from a poor stretch of results. Duke entered Monday having dropped three of its last four games, slipping from seventh to 12th in the Associated Press' Top 25 poll.

Following an 88-66 loss to the Wolfpack on Feb. 19, Krzyzewski told reporters his team was "not competitive."

The legendary coach is a victim of his own prosperity since Duke's bar for success is basically a trip to the Final Four. 

Following the Blue Devils' most recent title in 2015, they've yet to advance past the Elite Eight. Last year's loss to Michigan State was particularly disappointing since the squad had three players (Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish) who were selected in the top 10 of the 2019 NBA draft.

Should Duke's Final Four drought extend to five years, all of the banners hanging in the Cameron Indoor Stadium rafters won't be of much comfort.

Georgia Tech will serve its one-year postseason ban stemming from NCAA sanctions for impermissible benefits, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Ken Sugiura. 

The Yellow Jackets withdrew their appeal of the postseason ban, which will rule them out of the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

"I support the decision of our administration to withdraw the appeal of the competition penalty and am happy to know that we'll have this penalty behind us as we go into 2020-21," head coach Josh Pastner said. "Like our administration, I'm sad for our two seniors who won't have the opportunity to participate in the postseason in their final year."

In March 2019 the NCAA informed Georgia Tech of violations committed by former assistant coach Darryl LaBarrie and Ron Bell, who had been friends with Pastner. In one instance, LaBarrie provided $300 to a prospective recruit while at an Atlanta strip club.

The NCAA then handed down its ruling last September, banning the Yellow Jackets from the 2019-20 postseason and removing one scholarship for each of the four years they're on probation.

Sugiura reported the school is still appealing the scholarship reductions.

Monday's decision was likely down to pragmatism to some extent.

With a 15-14 overall record, Georgia Tech needed to win the ACC tournament in order to seal a berth in the Big Dance. The Yellow Jackets might have received an invitation to a secondary tourney, but they're probably balancing that against whatever shot they'll have of partaking in March Madness in 2021.

The team's top three leading scorers (Michael Devoe, Jose Alvarado and Moses Wright) should be back next season, giving Pastner a much better shot at guiding Tech to its first NCAA tournament appearance under his watch.

No. 7 Duke suffered its third defeat in four games in a 52-50 loss at Virginia on Saturday. 

It's the sixth loss of the season for the Blue Devils—their fifth in conference play—and knocked them out of a three-way tie for the ACC lead. 

Duke had a chance to go ahead with 40 seconds left in the game and trailing by one. But head coach Mike Krzyzewski let his players slow the offense, leading to a jump ball with the possession arrow favoring Virginia and 15.8 seconds remaining.

After the Blue Devils immediately fouled on the inbounds play, the Cavaliers missed the front end of a one-and-one, which gave Duke one last chance for the tie. It nearly did so when Vernon Carey Jr. tried to pump-fake past Jay Huff, only to get stuffed at the rim. 

Jay Huff sealed @UVAMensHoops’ win with his TENTH block of the game! 😤

(via @Stadium) pic.twitter.com/nZIJW7gf6m

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 1, 2020

It was a perfect end to the day for Huff, who finished with 15 points, 10 blocks and nine rebounds. 

A last-second heave by Tre Jones fell off the side of the rim as UVA survived.

Mamadi Diakite tallied 14 points and five rebounds while Duke's Jones and Carey each poured in 17 points. The Blue Devils shot just 30.5 percent from the floor as the Cavs defense stifled one of the country's top teams. 

Saturday marked the third win over a ranked opponent this season for Virginia, which had already taken down No. 7 North Carolina and No. 5 Florida State this season. While UVA's tournament resume was already in solid form, the victory over Duke adds another signature win for the reigning champions. 

For that, the Cavs can thank Huff, who put together one of the best games of his career. Before Saturday, Huff hadn't scored 15 or more points since a mid-January meeting with Georgia Tech. That game also saw the junior post a career high with six blocks—a number he blew past against the Blue Devils.   

Jay Huff recorded 10 blocks in a win over No. 7 Duke.

He is the 1st player in the last 20 seasons with 10 blocks in a game against an AP Top-10 team.

Huff also joins Ralph Sampson as the only players with 10 blocks in a game in Virginia history. pic.twitter.com/ovBMdF3kPM

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 1, 2020

No block was bigger than the 10th and final one of Huff's night, which essentially sealed the victory, as Carey's shot had no chance.

"Really happy for Jay," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said afterward. "We needed everything he brought. The timing and the length, we needed it all."

Virginia and Duke and tied for second in the ACC with two games to play. Louisville and Florida State remain tied for first with the Seminoles falling to unranked Clemson on Saturday.

 

No. 6 Duke men's basketball entered its road game against unranked NC State on Wednesday with a 22-3 overall record and 12-2 mark in ACC play, but the Blue Devils emerged with a stunning 88-66 loss in which they trailed wire-to-wire.

After the game, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski honestly assessed his team's performance.

"Sometimes when you've eaten a lot, you're not as hungry," he said postgame, per ESPN's David M. Hale.

"Our team obviously tonight didn't feel like they needed the win. You have to stay hungry while you're winning at that level because we're not a team at that level, we've just won that many games and tonight we were not competitive."

The Blue Devils were winners of seven straight, including a 70-65 victory over No. 8 Florida State. But they left Raleigh, North Carolina, with their third loss against an unranked team this season.

Almost nothing went right for Duke outside the performance of freshman big man Vernon Carey Jr., who posted 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting, 12 rebounds and three blocks.

The rest of the Blue Devils shot just 32.7 percent from the field. The Blue Devils also went 4-of-17 from three-point range and 10-of-22 from the free-throw line.

Poor shooting nights can happen to the best of teams, but the Blue Devils' defense faltered in the face of a potent NC State offensive attack that featured three players with 21 or more points, led by Markell Johnson's 28.

All three of Duke's losses to unranked teams have a common theme: The opposition's offense plays far better than expected, and at least one player gives the Blue Devils significant problems.

Of note, Stephen F. Austin's Kevon Harris scored 26 points in an 85-83 overtime road win over Duke, and Aamir Simms and Tevin Mack combined for 47 points in Clemson's 79-70 victory.

Duke is still one of the game's best defensive teams, with KenPom.com ranking the school seventh in efficiency on that end. But the upset losses that dot Duke's schedule have to be at least a bit concerning.

"It happens," Krzyzewski said after the NC State loss. "This isn't an Xbox game. It's a human being game."

Duke is a young team: Four of its top six scorers are freshmen, and the other two are sophomores.

Growing pains in the midst of the season shouldn't be surprising, but the result from Wednesday still is considering Duke was an eight-point favorite heading into the night, per B/R Betting.

Still, Duke is as capable of winning this year's national championship as anyone in a wide-open race for the title.

The Blue Devils are a well-rounded bunch and just one of three schools that rank top 11 in offensive and defensive efficiency, per KenPom. Kansas and San Diego State are the others.

North Carolina State picked up a massive bubble victory Wednesday.

The Wolfpack defeated the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils 88-66 in an ACC showdown at PNC Arena. They improved to 17-9 overall and 8-7 in conference play, bouncing back from a lackluster stretch during which they went 2-4 in their last six games.

The Blue Devils fell to 22-4 overall and 12-3 in the ACC after their seven-game winning streak came to an end, hurting their chances at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men's tournament. They are battling with the likes of Baylor, Kansas, Gonzaga, San Diego State and more for those coveted top spots in the bracket.

NC State with the ultimate hustle play assist 🔥

They lead No. 6 Duke in the first half now on ESPN. pic.twitter.com/DN2vZXaS6R

— ESPN (@espn) February 20, 2020

It was largely a three-man effort for the victors on the offensive end.

Markell Johnson went 5-of-6 from deep and consistently darted through the defense on his way to 28 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. Devon Daniels also found success attacking the lane with 25 points and nine boards, while DJ Funderburk battled down low and finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and three steals.

The writing seemed to be on the wall for the Blue Devils when Johnson drilled a half-court shot at the buzzer of the first half to take a commanding 44-29 lead into intermission.

NOTHING NEW FOR NC STATE 😮

Markell Johnson hits the half-court shot to end the first half for @PackMensBball!pic.twitter.com/Q89dBdgBk5

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 20, 2020

North Carolina State extended the lead to 23 in the first four minutes of the second half and was well on the way to a blowout win.

Vernon Carey Jr. (27 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks) and Tre Jones (17 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals) did their best to spearhead a comeback effort, but the visitors' ugly 10-of-22 (45.5 percent) mark from the free-throw line and 23.5 percent clip from deep undercut those efforts.

By contrast, the Wolfpack shot 61.5 percent from three-point range and bolstered their postseason resume.

It came at an ideal time, as they were not included in the latest bracket projection from Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller. They were under the "next four out" category on Bracket Matrix entering the game.

They will look to build on this critical win Saturday with another key opportunity when they host the No. 8 Florida State Seminoles, while Duke faces the Virginia Tech Hokies at home on the same day.

The 10-16 North Carolina Tar Heels' six-game losing skid is the longest losing streak of the Roy Williams era, but the legendary head coach is not intimidated by uncharted territory.

"Well, you've got two choices: You can compete your butt off or you can get in the fetal position and curl up and start crying," Williams told reporters following the Heels' 77-76 loss to Notre Dame on Monday night. "I'm not gonna freakin' do that. ... We're gonna freaking compete."

UNC's six consecutive losses have come against Boston College, No. 8 Florida State, No. 6 Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia and Notre Dame. The Tar Heels last won on Jan. 27 over NC State, though four of their six losses have been by two points or fewer. That included an intense 98-96 overtime loss to rival Duke.

Williams' frustrations predate this losing streak. The 17-year Tar Heels head coach vented on his Roy Williams Live weekly radio show following a 96-83 loss to Georgia Tech on Jan. 4.

"It's probably the least gifted team I have ever coached in the time that I've been back here," Williams said, in part (h/t 247Sports' Gregory Hall). "So, if you're going to be like that, you need to bring your A-game even though your A-game might not even be an A-game."

Injuries have decimated the 2019-20 team. Freshman point guard Cole Anthony missed 11 games throughout December and January with a right knee injury that required arthroscopic knee surgery. That was compounded by freshman guard Anthony Harris suffering a season-ending torn ACL on Dec. 30.

The silver lining this season came when Williams surpassed UNC icon Dean Smith for fourth all-time on the list for career wins by a head coach in Division I history last month.

Moving forward, it's only going to get tougher for the Heels. UNC's next game will be Saturday afternoon at No. 11 Louisville. The regular season will end with a rematch against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 7.

Chaos has defined the 2019-20 men's college basketball season, and there was more of it Wednesday in the ACC.

The unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets stunned the conference-leading No. 5 Louisville Cardinals with a 64-58 upset victory at McCamish Pavilion. The loss snapped Louisville's 10-game winning streak and was its first since it fell to Florida State on Jan. 4.  

The Cardinals are still an impressive 21-4 overall and 12-2 in ACC play, while Georgia Tech improved to 12-13 overall and 6-8 in the conference.

Jordan Usher throws it down  pic.twitter.com/0biz89PD55

— ACC Network (@accnetwork) February 13, 2020

Mood in ATL pic.twitter.com/TqfsREoCI3

— ACC Network (@accnetwork) February 13, 2020

If there is a silver lining for Louisville, it is the fact it had a sliver of breathing room in the ACC race. It is tied with the 11-2 Duke Blue Devils in the loss column atop the conference standings but has the tiebreaker based on its head-to-head win in the only regular-season game between the two teams on Jan. 18.

As for the Yellow Jackets, they would have been in the tournament picture if they played like they did Wednesday in their first 24 games of the season.

They set the tone on the defensive side, holding Louisville star Jordan Nwora to two points on a mere 1-of-6 shooting from the field. No Louisville starter scored in double figures, and the visitors shot just 33.9 percent from the field and an ugly 3-of-24 (12.5 percent) from three-point range with 16 turnovers.

Malik Williams and David Johnson each had 16 points off the bench for the Cardinals, but there was not enough support from the usual leaders.

By contrast, all five Georgia Tech starters scored in double figures. Jose Alvarado spearheaded the effort with 18 points, while Michael Devoe clinched the win with four pressure-packed free throws in the final 10 seconds.

Louisville will look to get back on track Saturday with a road game against Clemson, while Georgia Tech is at Wake Forest next Wednesday.