18. Pittsburgh: The Panthers beat Wake Forest but lost to Clemson this week. They’ve lost 7 of 9 overall though.
17. Boston College: The Eagles were competitive in close losses to Notre Dame and Virginia.
16. Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets lost to Virginia Tech and UNC. They’ve lost three in a row since the NC State win and squandered all momentum and hope.
15. Notre Dame: The Irish were 7-3 when Markus Burton got hurt (vs. TCU), but since then they’re 4-8.
14. Syracuse: The Orange shouldn’t accept being cannon fodder in the ACC. They lost by 20 to NC State and then earned a close win over a team in their own weight class — Notre Dame.
13. Florida State: The Seminoles had an excellent week taking both California schools to task for a 2-0 performance.
12. Wake Forest: The Deacons are dead in the water. They lost to Pitt in overtime and then got crushed by NC State. They only play one game this week and it is against Louisville.
11. Stanford: Stanford went 0-2 on their Florida trip. They host Clemson on Wednesday night in what feels like a season-making game. Will they continue their downward trend or make a real run at the NCAA tournament.
10. California: The Bears took a bad loss to FSU before a road win at Miami. They’re in the 50s in KenPom and now have a chance to work their way into the NCAA tournament conversation. They’re certainly on the outside looking in, but they’re not dead.
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9. Virginia Tech: The Hokies handled GT and lost to Duke. That’s par for the course and doesn’t change much.
8. Miami: “Los Hurricanes” suffered an upset home loss to Cal after beating Stanford earlier in the week. Miami had a late lead, but blew it. They couldn’t stop Justin Pippen and Dai Dai Ames. Miami still had a chance to win but called a timeout while in their transition offense. They then failed to get the ball to Tre Donaldson or Malik Reneau on the final play and ended up with a worse look that what they likely would have got without the timeout.
7. SMU: The Mustangs are 1-5 vs. teams currently in the KenPom top 50 since their Dec 7 OT win against Texas A&M. Their schedule has been brutal, but they’ve got to come through and pick up some big wins while they have a chance.
6. NC State: The Wolfpack are now rolling. They’ve won 4-straight games and six of seven. Since their OT win over Clemson, they’ve won handily against Pitt, Syracuse, and Wake Forest. A Tuesday night road game at SMU will be interesting.
5. North Carolina: UNC has now won 3-straight. This week it was only one game, a 16-point road win over Georgia Tech. They should take down Syracuse on Monday, but then they host Duke. A win over Duke will prove they’re a legit contender to make noise in March.
4. Clemson: The Tigers only played one game this week and it was a defensively dominant performance at home vs. Pitt. The Panthers had a mere 16 points in the first half. The Clemson bigs led the way with 12 apiece from Nick Davidson and Carter Welling and 10 from RJ Godrey. Once concern is the turnovers. After being excellent at taking care of the ball in non-conference play, the Tigers are just 13th in the ACC in turnover% since conference play starter. They had 11 against Pitt, which isn’t killer, but it’s not good.
3. Louisville: A 31-point loss to Duke in a high-profile Monday night game was a big negative, but they bounced back with a resounding win over SMU later in the week. That keeps them in the top 3.
2. Virginia: They have not been playing as well lately and easily could have lost to Boston College on Saturday. They needed 2OT to beat a mediocre Notre Dame team on Tuesday. Pitt and Syracuse should be too much trouble this week. If they are, UVA will dip in these power rankings quickly.
1. Duke: The Blue Devils utterly destroyed the Louisville Cardinals and then went to Blacksburg and won. This is a 20-1, excellent, Duke squad that should make a deep NCAA tournament run and is one of the 10 teams I believe can win it all.
