Wahoos favored over FSU in regular-season home finale

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia and visiting Florida State will be slugging it out to break a tie for 10th place in the ACC standings tonight (9 p.m., ACC Network) in UVA’s final regular-season home game at John Paul Jones Arena.

Both teams are 7-11 in the conference with two games remaining before next week’s ACC Tournament, in a three-way tie with Pitt. FSU (16-13) overall, is a 4.5-point underdog to Virginia (14-15), which is hoping to avoid its first losing season since 2010.

Meanwhile, the Seminoles come to Charlottesville with a 2-8 road record, having lost their last three games. The latest two setbacks were particularly humiliating for FSU, which lost 100-65 to Duke and gave up 96 points to North Carolina.

Tonight’s game will be a battle of two teams that have struggled to rebound. FSU was outrebounded, 84-53, in the Duke, UNC defeats, and gave up 41 second-chance points. Meanwhile, Virginia is coming off a home loss to Clemson (71-58) after leading 32-27 at halftime. The Cavaliers were physically manhandled in that game and gave up 48 points in the paint to the Tigers.

In fact, Virginia has allowed 44.5 points in the paint over its last four games, 100 in the last two outings to Clemson and Wake.

Florida State, which has lost in its last three meetings with UVA, will be trying to send its longtime coach Leonard Hamilton into retirement on a good note. Hamilton needs only one more victory for his 200th regular-season win at FSU in 23 seasons.

Hamilton is the fifth-winningest coach in ACC history with 437 wins, ranking him behind some notable names: Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (1,129); North Carolina’s Dean Smith (879); Carolina’s Roy Williams (485) and Maryland’s Gary Williams (461).

FSU, the second-tallest team in the country (behind only Duke), only boasts one 7-footer on this year’s roster, well below the usual amount of Seminoles at least 7-feet. Hamilton also has two players at 6-11 and two more at 6-10.

One of those 6-11 players, junior Malique Ewin, leads the ACC in field-goal percentage at 59.4 in 28 games. Ewin has an even higher percentage in conference games only, at 63.1.  He has made 22 of his last 24 field-goal attempts (91.7).

Florida State is also led by senior guard Jamir Watkins, who has scored 20 points or more over his last three games (Louisville, UNC and Duke).

Virginia is led by junior Isaac McKneely, who has come on strong down the homestretch, averaging more than 19 points per game over his last six. McKneely, who has 92 triples, is making 42.3 percent of his 3-pointers.

The Cavaliers rank No. 26 in the nation in 3-point shooting (37.7 percent) and also rank No. 25 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.52.

Also finishing the season strong is sophomore Dai Dai Ames, who is shooting a blazing 58 percent from the field during his 8-game double-figures streak.

ACC Remaining Regular-Season Schedule

Today
Miami at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m. (ACC Network)
North Carolina at Virginia Tech, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
Florida State at Virginia, 9 p.m. (ACC Network)
Syracuse at SMU, 9 p.m. (ESPNU)

Wednesday
Clemson at Boston College, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
Pitt at NC State, 7 p.m.
California at Louisville, 9 p.m. (ACC Network)
Stanford at Notre Dame, 9 p.m. (ESPNU)

Saturday
NC State at Miami, Noon (The CW)
Stanford at Louisville, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)
Georgia Tech at Wake Forest, 2:15 p.m. (The CW)
SMU at Florida State, 4 p.m. (ESPNU)
California at Notre Dame, 4 p.m. (ESPNU)
Virginia Tech at Clemson, 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
Boston College at Pitt, 6 p.m. (ACC Network)
Duke at North Carolina, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Virginia at Syracuse, 8 p.m. (ACC Network)