Duke survived two close games while Louisville and UNC suffered upsets. Clemson has two road wins and NC State has had some drama.
18. Boston College: Boston College lost to Georgia Tech. The sad thing about the new state of college sports is there’s really no reason to watch. In the past, you’d watch for development of young players, but now, who knows if they’re even going to return the next season.
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17. Pittsburgh: After a win over Penn State, Pitt opened ACC play with competitive losses to Miami and Clemson. They’ve lost 5 of their last 7.
16. Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets were very competitive late in Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke and then beat Boston College. Some signs of life?
15. Florida State: On the bright side, they gave Duke quite a scare in Tallahassee. On the downside, they have lost 7 of 9. Former Clemson Tiger Chauncey Wiggins had 22 points against Duke.
14. Notre Dame: The Irish beat Pitt on a horrendous foul call with 0.5 seconds remaining. Then they lost to Cal on a somewhat less questionable (albeit still somewhat suspect) foul that resulted in a four-point play. Their coach went ballistic on the referee and was reprimanded by the ACC. It is wild that they won on a bad call just days prior and then that happened. In the case of the Cal game, they were trying to foul before the Cal player could attempt the game-tying 3-pointer. Continuation has become so liberal in college basketball this year you really can’t foul just before they shoot when up by three points anymore.
13. Virginia Tech: The Hokies were poised to shoot up these rankings after a 3OT win over Virginia, but then they lost at Wake Forest.
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12. Syracuse: Donnie Freeman returned and made things scary for Clemson in the second half. It wasn’t enough they as Clemson took the win in the JMA Dome and got out while the snow slowed. Still, Freeman’s play in the second half gives hope to what Syracuse can do in conference play now that he is back.
11. Stanford: The win of the week goes to Stanford who beat Louisville. After scoring just 40 points in a loss to Notre Dame, they scored 80 in a win over Louisville. Make that make sense!
10. California: Conversely Cal beat Notre Dame but took a 20-point loss to Louisville.
9. Wake Forest: Wake Forest got trounced by rival NC State and then bounced back with a win over Virginia Tech. Steve Forbes is very well-respected, but he still hasn’t gotten them to the NCAA tournament, and this may not be the year either. I know it is hard to win at Wake Forest nowadays, but this is year six.
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8. NC State: Will Wade is rocking the boat. After a win over Texas Southern he publicly called out his team for not being tough and dedicated. They in turn rattled off wins over Ole Miss and Wake Forest but just lost to Virginia. He reacted rather wildly when asked about his star player’s lack of scoring. He went far beyond defensive by attacking the reporter. It is a weird scene in Raleigh right now.
7. Miami: The Hurricanes beat Pitt. They’ve played an extremely weak schedule only facing three top 70 teams: Ole Miss (W), BYU (L), and Florida (L). That makes them a bit of an unknown.
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6. North Carolina: After beating FSU by 13, UNC went to Dallas and got outclassed by the SMU Mustangs. They shot the ball well but couldn’t get a stop against a red-hot SMU squad.
5. SMU: The Mustangs have an excellent offense that ranks 15th nationally. Boopie Miller has become a star, averaging 20 points per game while their Turkish center Samet Yigitoglu is hauling in nearly 9 rebounds per game. If they stay healthy, I believe in them being a tournament team.
4. Clemson: Conference road win are never easy. Just as Louisville and Notre Dame who both lost in California this week. Clemson went up to two snowy locales and won in front of hostile crowds. First, they went to Syracuse and faced the Orange on the day of Syracuse star Donnie Freeman’s return. Freeman broke out in the second half, but Clemson largely shut down the rest of the team in holding ‘Cuse to 61 points to secure the win.
Next, Clemson traveled to Pittsburgh and found themselves in a dogfight. They needed a breakout game from someone and it was a scoring jolt from the hot hand of Jestin Porter that pushed them over the top. He was the first Tiger all season to reach the 20-point mark. The aggressive scoring guard from Middle Tennessee State may be Clemson’s most talented player, only held back by his 6-foot-1 height.
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3. Virginia: The Cavs lost at Virginia Tech in triple OT but turned around and beat a more talented NC State squad in Raleigh. Both were on the road so no major demerits for splitting those road games.
2. Louisville: 54.6% of the Cardinals shots this season have been 3-pointers. That’s the highest mark in college basketball. When they’re hot or even just on their usual pace, they’re near unbeatable. When they have an off shooting night, which is bound to happen, they could become prone to weird upsets. So far they’ve only lost to one team outside the top 37 and that was Stanford this week. But one commonality is they have shot 20-23% from 3 in each of their three losses this season.
1. Duke: The Blue Devils have length. They attack inside, get all the calls, and play tough defense. Even though they don’t shoot a ton of 3s, they’ll knock down the big back breaking 3-pointers when they need them. Georgia Tech and Florida State both gave them a run for their money, but the Blue Devils are 2-0 in the ACC and 13-1 overall. They’re 9th in KenPom and atop the ACC Power Rankings.
