Doug Doughty

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TAMPA, Fla. -- By now, I should have learned my lesson:

Never make a prediction that may be available after an event occurs.

Somewhere out there, I fear there’s a prediction attached to my name to the effect that Maryland and Georgia Tech will play for the ACC championship.

The only reason that one of them lasted until the ACC’s second day was that the Georgia Tech-Wake Forest game did not end until something like 12:53 a.m.

I don’t have an official time for the final horn, but I did look up at the clock at 12:49 a.m. and the teams were still playing.

Fans from Virginia and Virginia Tech will be happy to hear that I’ve been saying all week that the Cavaliers and Hokies would not win a game.

“Who’s happier?” Greensboro reporter Rob Daniels asked at one point Thursday. “Al Skinner or Dave Leitao?”

His reference was to today’s (Friday’s) quarterfinal pairings, which find fourth-seeded Boston College facing 12th-seeded Miami and not fifth-seeded Maryland, as well as second-seeded Virginia facing 10th-seeded N.C. State instead of seventh-seeded Duke.

Guess again, Rob.

If you’d seen Virginia assistants Steve Seymour and Bill Courtney waiting for final boxscores outside the media workroom Thursday night, you would not have thought that they were delighted to be playing the Wolfpack.

State does not have the kind of depth that should hold up for four days, but the Wolfpack’s starting lineup can play with anybody’s.

Moreover, Thursday night’s first game ended early enough for the Wolfpack to go home and get some sleep. If Virginia Tech’s second-round opponents from Wake got to sleep before 3 a.m., they were lucky.

The Deacons’ 114-112 victory over Georgia Tech was one from the ages, as was the entire first day, in which the four lower-seeded teams emerged victorious, all as underdogs.

It was the highest-scoring game in ACC Tournament history and boasted 12 double-figure scorers, seven for the Deacons. Two players went 7-for-7 from the field – Wake center Kyle Visser and Georgia Tech reserve Alade Aminu – and Deacs’ back-up post man David Weaver was 5-for-5.

The most amazing stats were put up by Wake sophomore Harvey Hale, who finished regulation with one point. Hale, who played seven minutes in the first half and one minute in the second half, scored 21 points in the overtime.

If Michael Drum had not fouled out with 38 seconds remaining in regulation, who’s to say Hale would have returned to the game? Two turnovers in his brief first-half stint had not endeared him to coach Skip Prosser.

Drum’s disqualification may have been a blessing in disguise for Wake tonight because he was sitting for probably the last hour of the game. The Deacons have a lot of players – and some underrated freshmen in Ish Smith, L.D. Williams and Jamie Skeen – but I don’t see them beating the Hokies.

After watching Georgia Tech stumble down the stretch Thursday night, I had come to the conclusion that Virginia Tech would have won a battle of the Techs tonight. But, it’s not as if the Yellow Jackets played poorly. They shot 55.6 percent from the field and went nine of 17 on 3-pointers.

It was a night for shooters as Wake Forest shot 64.2 percent, N.C. State shot 60.8 percent, Georgia Tech shot 55.6 percent and Duke checked in at 49.2. Amazingly, Wake shot 69.6 percent on 3-pointers, which is the equivalent of shooting 104.3 percent from two-point range, which is impossible.

When you look at the way Virginia has shot the ball lately, it’s hard to see how the Cavaliers hold up, but here’s a team that’s held teams to 40.5-percent shooting. It was easy to mock Virginia when it blew late leads in road losses to Miami and Wake Forest, but the Hurricanes and Deacons weren’t any slouches Thursdy.

I’ll stick with my prediction that Virginia goes home after tonight, but, one way or another I think we’ll be writing about J.R. Reynolds – either the latest in a long line of impressive ACC Tournament performances or his continuing quest to rediscover his shot.