ACC Tournament

The Syracuse Orange and the No. 25 Miami Hurricanes have already made it to the second round of the ACC Tournament. They earned a direct bye into Wednesday’s game (noon ET, ESPN), with Syracuse as the No. 8 seed and Miami at No. 9 on the ACC bracket; the winner will go on to face the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday.

Syracuse (18-13 SU, 13-13 ATS) may have the better seed and de facto home-court advantage at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but the Hurricanes (20-10 SU, 10-18 ATS) were the superior team during the regular season. However, in their lone meeting back in January, it was the Orange prevailing 70-55 as 3-point home dogs, up from +1 at the open. Miami had difficulty dealing with Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense, shooting just 39% on the day.

Wednesday’s game is doubly important for the Orange – they could fall off the March Madness bubble with a loss to Miami, while the Hurricanes are expected to receive a Tournament invite no matter what happens. Both teams improved their positions last month with upset wins over the Duke Blue Devils and Virginia Cavaliers.