Bottom-Feeders
18. Pittsburgh: The Panthers were utterly blown out by both Virginia and SMU. Those are two tournament teams, but they weren’t competitive and have lost nine of their last 11. At 9-15 (2-9),
this is the worst team in the ACC.
17. Boston College: They’ve now lost four straight including a blowout to Duke and a close loss to Miami this week. Nevertheless, they were highly competitive vs Miami just like they were against Virginia and Notre Dame and are not an easy out right now.
16. Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets got swept in their west coast trip. KenPom projects them as underdogs in all of their remaining games.
15. Notre Dame: Losers of nine of 10, Notre Dame is abysmal without Markus Burton. They can’t allow themselves to be that reliant on one player. It’s really not a fair excuse for being 11-13 (2-9).
14. Wake Forest: The Deacons lost their fifth straight game, a home loss to Louisville. They’re below .500 at 11-12.
13. Syracuse: Syracuse should be a premier program in the ACC, but double-digit losses to UNC and Virginia this week are a reminder of how far from that they are. KenPom is still kind to the Orange, ranking them 69th, far above what their record would indicate.
Outside Looking In
12. Florida State: Florida State beat Notre Dame and continues to play better basketball than earlier this season. They’ve won four of five with three of those contests coming on the road. This week it was a road win at Notre Dame. Chauncey Wiggins has 63 points in the Seminoles three-game win streak.
11. Stanford: The Cardinals couldn’t score on Clemson’s vaunted defense late and lost by two to the Tigers, but bounced back by beating Georgia Tech. Their postseason hopes are getting pessimistic. Their final game of the year is at NC State. If you chalk that one up as a loss, the 4-7 Cardinal likely need to win the other six remaining games before that to reach 10 ACC wins if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.
10. California: After a 90-point performance in a win against Georgia Tech, the Bears couldn’t reach 60 against the stifling Clemson Tigers defense. Cal goes to Syracuse, NY on Wednesday in what is essentially an NCAA tournament elimination game for the Bears. They then stay in the Northeast and play Boston College on Saturday. If they can sweep their Yankee road trip, they get a week off before hosting Stanford. They already beat Stanford in Palo Alto and will be favored to do so at home. If they can win those three in a row they’ll have a real shot to work themselves into an NCAA tournament bid.
9. Virginia Tech: After losing to Duke last Saturday, they lost to NC State this Saturday. Neither of those are bad marks, but at some point they have to beat somebody good. They play at Clemson on Wednesday in what is bordering on a must-win game.
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NCAA Tournament Teams
8. Miami: The Hurricanes were in a closer-than-preferred game against Boston College on Saturday and came out on top. According to KenPom, their best wins are at no. 67 Ole Miss and at no. 69 Syracuse. Their next four games come against teams ranked in the top 60. That includes UNC and NC State this week. If they can go 1-1 they’ll maintain a good position on a tournament bid.
7. SMU: SMU continues to look good while failing to secure a big win since beating UNC. They lost a thrilling battle with NC State and then clobbered Pitt this week.
6. Louisville: The Cardinals did nothing to deserve to drop from no. 3 in these power rankings down to no. 6, but the top six teams are all razor close and other teams just impressed more this week. At 17-6, Duke, UNC, Virginia, and Clemson have fewer losses and 18-6 NC State looks as good as anyone right now.
Louisville beat Notre Dame and Wake Forest this week, but both are ACC bottom-feeders.
5. Clemson: Clemson flew out to California on Monday for a week-long West Coast trip. First it was a 10pm game at Stanford that seemed prime for an upset at several different points, but their late game defense held serve and gave them a 1-0 start to the trip. Then, in Berkely, a 30-7 run in the first half gave Clemson a big lead they’d push to 24 in the second half. The Tigers defense smothered Cal and held them to only 55 points. The Tigers are now 10-1 and tied for first place in the ACC.
According to Evan Miya, Clemson is literally the most consistent team in the country:
They don’t have a player like Caleb Wilson or Cameron Boozer nor the overall elite shooting of an NC State, they likely limits how deep of an NCAA tournament they’re truly capable of (barring a favorable draw). Still, this is probably Coach Brownell’s best coaching job yet. He deserves ACC Coach of the Year (with all due respect to what Ryan Odom is doing at Virginia).
Clemson now has an extremely tough week that will decide if they can win their second-ever ACC Regular Season Title. They get a desperate Virginia Tech squad before a road trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium.
4. Virginia: Virginia took care of business against Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Neither was close nor should they be. A weekday road trip to hot FSU could be a bit tougher.
3. NC State: I’m truly blown away by Quadir Copeland. The 6-foot-6 wing has become a Magic Johnson style point guard. He has 16 assists and 0 turnovers in a thrilling win at SMU — their third Quad 1 win of the year (3-4). They came home and beat a Hokies squad that played extremely well, but NC State is just chock full of elite shot makers. They’re now shooting 40.2% from 3 as a team. Quadir Copeland had 21 points and 10 assists against VT. They go to Louisville on Monday in what should be an excellent game.
2. North Carolina: A 10-point home win over Syracuse didn’t move the needle much, but a Seth Tremble game-winner 3-pointer against Duke certainly did. Duke built an early lead and seemed poised to embarrass the Heels in the Dean Dome, but Caleb Wilson took over and single-handedly kept them within striking distance. He had 17 in the first half, most of which were hard earned, and UNC trailed by 12. In the second half, Veesaar stepped up. In the final minutes UNC needed three 3-pointers including one by Veesaar to tie the game and a kickout 3-pointer by Trimble put them ahead with 0.4 seconds remaining. Duke couldn’t get a shot off and the Heels stormed the court. The atmosphere was incredible in what in my opinion is a top four rivalry in all of American sports (The Big Game, The Iron Bowl, and Yankees/Red Sox also in the debate). Incredible win!
1. Duke: As much as I’m tempted to drop Duke, they still have the best overall record in the ACC, tied for the best conference record (10-1), and are the best-ranked ACC team in KenPom (no. 3). The loss was also on the road. They’ll get an easy bounce-back win at Pitt before hosting Clemson. If they lose to Clemson, they will drop, but Clemson hasn’t won in Cameron in 30 years.
