Best Bets for Thursday, March 10, 2022 - ACC Games

The conference tournaments opened with a few upsets, some close games, and some blowouts. I am excited to see what today’s games bring us as we have some pretty marquee matchups. This piece will cover three games in the ACC Tournament that are going today.

Syracuse vs. Duke

Syracuse had a convincing, dominating victory over Florida State (who I early said thought had a chance to win the entire ACC Tournament). Shows how much I know when it comes to the unpredictability of March Madness. Duke recently played Syracuse on the road and went into the Orange’s building and beat them by over 20 points. Will they do that again today? I think it is pretty likely. Playing on back-to-back days is always a little bit of a struggle, but when your team isn’t very deep, it shows more. Could we get a backdoor cover on this after the game is put away? Of course, but I’ll side with Duke on this one at -14.5.

Virginia Tech vs. Notre Dame

I picked Notre Dame as one of my value tickets for winning the ACC tournament. Unfortunately, I don’t think now is the time to hedge that at all. They can, and should, beat the Hokies. To be completely upfront, and as a reader asked me to do, I hate Notre Dame. Always have. I think it is the most overrated college in America. The particular reader called out that I picked Notre Dame and assumed I am a cheerleader for the Fighting Irish and have multiple shirts. Nope. Never have, never will. What I do have is the ability to put aside bias in an effort to pick winners. Today, I believe Notre Dame will be that winner. They will probably be in a battle with Virginia Tech most of the game, but I think the difference will come in rebounding. I might trust the Hokies defense a little more, and if they have a small lead with about 3 minutes left, I’m not sure Notre Dame will be able to close it out. In my opinion, Notre Dame should win this by four or five. I’ll take a (likely) sweaty Fighting Irish team at -1.

Boston College vs. Miami

The Hurricanes come into this game having won three of their last five, including a victory over Boston College. That game saw Miami win by 11. Now they are favored by 7.5 and I think the line is probably about right. What I am going to play instead is the total of 138.5. Teams can sometimes struggle in these larger arenas or just being away from the normal college atmosphere. The struggle in this one should come on defense. I expect Miami to score at least 70 points and give up at least 60. With that, we are already at 130 points scored. We should expect this to be a decent pace and since Boston College struggles to stop teams, I’m going to play the over 138.5.