18. Boston College: The Eagles rank at the bottom of the ACC in KenPom at 160th, but after a weekday road loss at Clemson, they pulled off an overtime upset win over Syracuse. That’s a Quad 2 win for the Eagles. They were 0-5 in Quad 1 + Quad 2 games.
17. Florida State: With losses to Syracuse and Wake Forest this week, they are now 0-5 in the ACC. They are 113th in KenPom. Their second-leading scorer is Chauncey Wiggins who was the 6th best player on Clemson last year.
16. Georgia Tech: What an up-and-down
week for the Yellow Jackets. They lose by 23 at home to a bad Pitt team, then somehow go to Raleigh and upset NC State. It makes no sense, but here we are. Even the teams at the bottom of the ACC can sneak up and get you.
15. Pittsburgh: We crack the top 100 with Pitt clocking in at 96th in KenPom. Like Georgia Tech, the Panthers had a wild week with a blowout road win over Georgia Tech followed by a 41-point drubbing at home to Louisville.
14. Syracuse: I thought with Donnie Freeman healthy we’d see the Orange take off and start to stack wins. Instead, they took their second Quad 3 loss of the season adding a L to Boston College to their L to Hofstra. I’m not sure there’s coming back from this one. Coach Adrian Autry may be on thin ice soon.
13. Notre Dame: The Irish lost their 4th straight ACC game and have lost five of their last six games overall. After losing to Cal and Clemson last week, this week Miami and Virginia Tech topped them.
12. California: Going to California for the back-to-back road games against Cal and Stanford is proving to be a tough task. Teams tend to lose at least one and UNC lost both this week. Cal took a beating from Duke before beating UNC this week.
11. Virginia Tech: The Hokies are only 3-3 in ACC play, but all three of their losses have been last second heart breakers. They beat Notre Dame, but lost to SMU on a game-winning 3-pointer from beyond half court by Boopie Miller.
10. Wake Forest: The Deacons had only one game this week and it was a win over FSU. With SMU and Duke upcoming, they have a big opportunity to move up or down if they go 2-0 or 0-2.
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9. NC State: The Wolfpack seem like a team with so much potential that Coach Will Wade is just searching for ways to pull out of them. They only played one game this week and it was a stunning home loss to Georgia Tech. They go to Will Wade’s alma mater at Clemson for what feels like a huge game for both teams. They also travel to Pitt. If they can go 2-0 this week, they’ll skyrocket up these power rankings.
8. North Carolina: The Tar Heels surrendered 90 points and 84 points to Cal and Stanford, respectively. Both Cal and Stanford lit them up from 3 as the Heels didn’t defend the perimeter well. UNC even held a double-digit lead in the second half against Stanford, but offered little resistance defensively as the Cardinal shot their way back.
7. Stanford: What if Stanford is actually really good? They have now beaten Louisville, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina. The Virginia Tech win was in Blacksburg too. They’re 6-2 in Quad 1 + Quad 2 games. The problem is they’re only 3-3 in Quad 3 games.
6. Miami: One doesn’t simply go into Littlejohn Coliseum and beat the Tigers. From the jump, the Hurricanes looked blown away by Clemson’s stifling defense. They looked like they had no offensive plan and were playing hero ball the entire game. They’re 15-3 but are only 1-3 in Quad 1 games with the lone win coming at Wake Forest. They don’t play a team in the top 60 in KenPom until February 10 so they should go on a nice little run here.
5. SMU: The Mustangs beat Virginia Tech on a buzzer beater and then lost to Virginia on a last possession foul situation. They’ve played an extremely tough ACC schedule so far and now things will start to ease up (minus a pair of games against Louisville). I expect them to finish strong.
4. Louisville: Even at home, they looked a tick worse than Virginia as they trailed most of the second half and lost by nine. They bounced back with a 41-point win over Pitt.
3. Clemson: Clemson just keeps winning and at a certain point you have to put away the questions about “Who is their go to guy” and acknowledge this team is really good and Coach Brownell should be the early front-runner for ACC Coach of the Year. The Tigers handled business at home against Boston College in a fairly lopsided win and then truly outplayed Miami from start to finish. They never trailed and steadily grew their lead throughout the game pushing it to 14 points on a huge Dillon Hunter 3-pointer in the final 4 minutes.
Up next, Clemson hosts their old nemesis in Will Wade. Wade coached McNeese to a 5-12 seed upset over Clemson in last year’s tournament. He was the heart’s desire of many Clemson fans back when he was at VCU working wonders in the midst of a down year for Coach Brownell’s Tigers. He eventually went to LSU and then McNeese after scandal. Now, he is in the ACC with NC State. A home loss to him given all that context (again, he is a Clemson graduate, football fan, and former assistant under Purnell) would be a sour pill. The Tigers need to win to keep the good feelings going. Then they go to Atlanta where they’ll be favored over the home Yellow Jackets.
2. Virginia: Virginia is now 16-2, #14 in both KenPom and the NET, and has Quad 1 wins against Texas, NC State, and now Louisville, and SMU. This was a tremendous week for UVA to pick up wins over the Cardinals and SMU. They’re very good and could be a strong seed.
1. Duke: The Blue Devils conquered the West Coast week with blowout wins over Cal and Stanford. Cameron Boozer totaled 50 points across the two games. Utterly impressive. They’re now rolling. The only ACC game where they have a <70% win expectancy is on the road against NC State and that’s at 69%. If they lose more than three games in the regular season (they currently have one — a loss to Texas Tech), I’ll be surprised.
