ACC Tournament 2012: Picks for Final 2 Quarterfinal Games

The ACC tournament will wrap up its quarterfinal round later on Friday night with a pair of games, one between Duke and Virginia Tech and another between Florida State and Miami.

The winners of these games will meet in the semifinals, which for all intents and purposes will be a game meant to determine who will get to face North Carolina in the ACC tournament final. The Tar Heels have already advanced to the semis, and they did so in style with a dominant win over Maryland.

All in good time. For now, here are my picks for tonight's games.

Note: spreads according to Bovada.

No. 2 Duke (-9) vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech 

Time: 7 p.m. EST

TV: ACC Network, ESPN2

This would seem to be a mismatch, as the Hokies won just four conference games all season and were beaten by Duke in both of their regular-season meetings.

However, let's not forget that Va Tech took Duke to overtime at Cameron Indoor in late February. The Hokies showed in that game that they can hang with Duke.

At least, so long as the Blue Devils are misfiring from distance, anyway. They're a team that takes and makes a lot of threes, yet they made just six of their 24 three-point attempts against Va Tech in the last meeting between these two teams.

Duke played much more like itself in the first meeting. Austin Rivers scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and the Blue Devils were efficient from beyond the arc as well, making eight of their 18 three-point attempts.

The Hokies are not bad when it comes to defending the three, but an efficient three-point shooting game by Duke will lead to a double-digit blowout. You can count on that much.

Even if the Blue Devils aren't efficient from beyond the arc, they simply have too much offensive firepower for the Hokies, who are not a good offensive team.

One way or the other, this game will go to Duke, and I think they'll end up covering.

Prediction: Duke by 10.

No. 3 Florida State (-3) vs. No. 6 Miami 

Time: 9 p.m. EST

TV: ACC Network, ESPN2

Miami pulled off an upset of Florida State in late February, and that was thanks primarily to an uncharacteristically bad defensive performance on the part of the Seminoles.

The Seminoles make it very hard for the opponents to put the ball in the bucket. Per TeamRankings.com, Florida State's opponents had a mere 37.9 shooting percentage, which ranked fourth in the country.

Miami is, however, the better offensive team in this game. If the Hurricanes' scorers are clicking, they're going to make this game very interesting. 

The key number will be 70. If the Hurricanes can get at or over the 70-point mark, they're going to put a lot of pressure on a Seminoles team that lacks scorers. 

Miami finished its season on a pretty good roll, and it's coming off a game in which it ran away from Georgia Tech with a hot second half. If the Hurricanes stay hot, they'll beat Florida State.

And indeed, they know they probably have to beat Florida State to make it into the NCAA Tournament. The extra incentive works in their favor.

Prediction: Miami by two.