Associated Press

Virginia's Calvin Baker (4) shoots over Georgia Tech's Maurice Miller on March 3 in Atlanta. Virginia won, 76-74.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Virginia-Georgia Tech men's basketball series is starting to take on the appearance of the movie "Groundhog Day."

Every time the Cavaliers and Yellow Jackets wake up, they're playing each other.

Not only did Georgia Tech and Virginia play twice during the regular season, but there was another time when the Cavaliers ventured to Atlanta for a game that was postponed due to a leaky roof.

Today, they meet again at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the ACC Tournament at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

"It's funny because we've had three [Georgia Tech] walkthroughs," UVa coach Dave Leitao said.

"We've had three chalk talks. So, there's a high level of familiarity with their personnel and style."

It was a 92-82 overtime loss to Georgia Tech in Charlottesville that hastened a downward spiral in which the Cavaliers lost seven games in a row and nine of 10.

More recently, Virginia prevailed 76-74 in Atlanta, one of the Cavaliers' four victories in the past six games,

"Both games went down to the wire, so I expect it to be a one-possession game again," Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt said.

Georgia Tech (14-16, 7-9) is one of two ACC teams with a losing overall record, but the Yellow Jackets ended the regular season with victories over Clemson and Boston College, the latter on the road.

A tie-breaking formula gave the Yellow Jackets the seventh seed over Wake Forest and Florida State.

Virginia (15-14, 5-11) was in last place for almost the entire season before edging past BC and North Carolina State in the final week and claiming the No. 10 seed.

Second-seeded Duke awaits the UVa-Georgia Tech winner in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday.

Both the Yellow Jackets and Cavaliers will have the services of key players who missed one of the previous games, junior post man Laurynas Mikalauskas for Virginia and fifth-year point guard Matt Causey for the Yellow Jackets.

Causey, who scored 18 points off the bench in the first Tech-UVa game, missed two late-season games after suffering a concussion at Duke.

Mikalauskas, who has scored in double figures in five of Virginia's last six games, previously had been sidelined for two months with a bum shoulder.

"If Mikalauskas is healthy the whole year, you're probably looking at a whole different year," Hewitt said.

Tonight's reunion will be the teams' third in less than a month, counting the Feb. 21 postponement, but Leitao said it's a different Tech team.

"They changed even after they played us the second time," Leitao said.

"They played both Boston College and especially Clemson and they came after them full court for almost the whole 40 minutes. Whether they do that against us remains to be seen. It's been kind of difficult to press Sean [Singletary]."

On top of the teams winning on each other's home floor, they have split eight previous ACC Tournament meetings.

Not surprisingly, oddsmakers had the game as a pick-'em as of Wednesday afternoon.

"As well as we know them, you almost feel like you're part of their team by now," UVa senior Adrian Joseph said.

"Of course, they could say the same thing about us."