18. Pittsburgh: Pitt lost to Boston College and tumbles to the bottom of the ACC. 17. Boston College: The Eagles followed up their win over Pitt with a loss to Notre Dame. 16. Florida State: The Seminoles scored a legitimate big win by beating Miami but then lost at Notre Dame. They’re 2-5 with home […]
18. Pittsburgh: Pitt lost to Boston College and tumbles to the bottom of the ACC.
17. Boston College: The Eagles followed up their win over Pitt with a loss to Notre Dame.
16. Florida State: The Seminoles scored a legitimate big win by beating Miami but then lost at Notre Dame. They’re 2-5 with home games against Cal and Stanford this week. They need to win at least one or their outlook for making the ACC tournament gets bleak.
15. Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets went to Raleigh and earned their biggest game win of the year over NC State but then came home and couldn’t keep pace with Clemson in the second half. They slowed Clemson in the post but allowed the guards to drive and score and left 3-point shooters wide open all day.
14. Syracuse: The return of Donnie Freeman hasn’t fixed things. They lost home games to VT and Miami this week. This isn’t a tournament team.
13. Wake Forest: Speaking of teams that aren’t going to make the tournament, Wake Forest lost to SMU by 12 and Duke by 21 this week. This will be the sixth straight year the Deacs have missed the tournament under Coach Forbes. They also had three straight years at the end of the Danny Manning era with no tournament appearances.
12. Notre Dame: The Irish went to Chapel Hill and got waxed and then survived a home scare vs. Boston College. They’re not very good without Markus Burton.
11. Stanford: The Cardinal had one game this week, and it was a gut-punch home loss to their rival, Cal. They were 7th last week and are the big dropper in this week’s Power Rankings.
10. California: The Bears scored a big rivalry win and continue to prove they’re dangerous. UCLA and UNC learned already that.
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9. Virginia Tech: I believe the Hokies are a good team. Before this week, their 3 ACC losses were last second heartbreakers. This week they went to Syracuse and won and then fell short against Louisville in Yum! Center.
8. Miami: Miami let Clemson beat them twice as they came home after last weekend’s loss and couldn’t beat lowly Florida State. They then righted the ship this past Saturday with a win over Syracuse.
7. NC State: The Wolfpack had an excellent week earning in OT road win at Clemson as the Tigers played horribly. NCSU then traveled to Pitt and took care of business. Two road wins! Ven-Allen Lubin had been fantastic in the post. If he keeps playing like this, with all the shooting around him, they have a lot of upside.
6. North Carolina: UNC had a horrible week last week when they lost to Cal and Stanford, but they helped make up for it this week with a blowout over Notre Dame and then a tremendous road win at Virginia. Seth Tremble came through with 16 points against Virginia. With him healthy, they can be quite good when he is playing well. They’re stronger in the front-court with Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar.
5. SMU: The Mustangs are offensively potent. They scored 91 and 83 this week in wins over Wake Forest and FSU, respectively.
4. Clemson: The Tigers loss to NC State was disheartening, but it shouldn’t undermine the resume too much. Clemson feels like a near NCAA tournament lock at this point, but the latest CBS projection had them down to an 8-seed. The win in Atlanta over GT helped stem the bleeding. GT pulled their defense in and focused on stopping Clemson’s bigs. It worked until the wide open 3s started falling. We’ll see if more talented teams are able to copy and better execute this blueprint.
Clemson now has a bye on Tuesday/Wednesday before hosting Pitt on Saturday. That’s a must-win just because those bad losses hurt so much. After that, they go to Stanford and Cal. If they can win both, you have to start talking about Clemson as a front-runner for a double-bye and a contender for the conference title. I originally had the Tigers losing at Stanford (10pm tip) and still do.
3. Louisville: The Cardinals have a stellar offense and got Mikel Brown back. They scored 100 on Pitt last Saturday and just put up 85 on Virginia Tech this Saturday.
2. Virginia: The Wahoo’s suffered their second loss of the ACC schedule when UNC came to town ready to battle. It was a back-and-forth affair, but UNC drilled some huge shots late. I’m still high on Virginia and credit UNC more than I ding UVA.
1. Duke: The Blue Devils got off to another slow start and then proceeded to crush Wake Forest. They are a perfect 7-0 in the ACC and have been winning with ease lately.
Category: General Sports
