What: No. 24 Virginia Cavaliers (21-7, 8-6 ACC) vs. No. 22 Florida St. Seminoles (19-9, 10-4 ACC)
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Date: March 1, 2012
Place: John Paul Jones Arena
TV: ESPN2
Radio: Virginia Sports Radio Network
Spread: Virginia -4; Pomeroy: Virginia 57, FSU 53 (69%)
Last Meeting: Virginia 55, FSU 58
Last Time Out: FSU 62, Miami 78
Series: FSU leads 20-17
It's Senior Night for ACC Player of the Year Candidate Mike Scott, The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Clutch Sammy Zeglinski, and Gimpy McGimperton Assane Sene. And for all the fourth year students, this will hopefully be their last time catching Virginia play at John Paul Jones Arena this season. No word describes tonight better than "bittersweet" -- it is certainly appropriate and richly deserved for these three seniors, some of whom were first years back when I was a first year, it seems, but no one is ready for these guys to leave quite just yet.
And after that, it will be time to forget it all, because it will be time to get down to business. As we mentioned earlier this week, a win tonight goes a long way in getting Virginia the first-round bye in the ACC tournament, not to mention an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Forget about whether Scott or Tyler Zeller or any of the other 18 Carolina drones will be ACC Player of the Year. No one, I assume, is in this for the individual accolades -- we're in it for wins and titles. And above all, forget about Saturday's contest with Carolina. As Coach Tony Bennett says over and over, don't get your highs to high nor your lows too low. Virginia enters the game tonight with a chance to beat one of the top three teams in the conference and notch their first win over a ranked ACC squad this season.
Leave your pre-, in- and post-game thoughts here and Go HOOS!