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Welcome to March where college basketball takes over and filling out brackets becomes as normal as refilling your coffee.
Tonight’s Notre Dame-Virginia Tech matchup in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals presents a possible elimination game for the Hokies, not just for the ACC Tournament but for the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia Tech started the year just 10-10 but rallied to go 9-2 their last 11 and are now very much on the tournament bubble. Just how close?
Thursday’s updated USA TODAY Sports projections have Virginia Tech out of the dance but listed as one of the “next four out”. What that translates to is that the Hokies really need to win tonight and could certainly use a few other bubble teams to lose throughout the country.
Either way, Virginia Tech is firmly on the bubble right now and appears to need the win much more than Notre Dame in terms of making the NCAA Tournament.
The USA TODAY Sports projection also had Wake Forest missing the NCAA Tournament but listed them in their “first four out” after the Demon Deacons were upset by Boston College on Wednesday. In total the projection had four ACC teams in the field, Duke, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Miami, but only the Blue Devils (2) had higher than a nine-seed.
Notre Dame and Virginia Tech tipoff from Brooklyn at 7 p.m. EST Thursday night.