The ACC college basketball season is in full swing. Last week, we looked at the Blue Blood (North Carolina and Duke), surprising teams (Florida State and Boston College) and disappoints (Miami).
Oh, how things have changed in just a short amount of time.
Here’s the standings for the ACC at the current moment:
Virginia is now the favorite to be the top overall seed come ACC tournament time. Duke’s losses to Boston College and North Carolina State on the road (how bad has Duke’s defense been? More on that to come) has opened the door for the Cavaliers. Virginia already cleared one obstacle defeating North Carolina over the weekend and now only has one game at Duke. Virginia gets Clemson at home but has a home-home with Notre Dame (Should be favorites due to ND’s injury issues).
Miami who was one of the bigger disappointments came back and defeated Florida State by 6 at home. Miami’s next two games? @ Clemson and home vs Duke. Big couple of days upcoming for the Hurricanes.
North Carolina State scored a huge home win over Duke. North Carolina State has also beaten Arizona this year but has head scratching losses to Northern Iowa and North Carolina – Greensboro. You just don’t know which team will show up.
Boston College’s strong ACC start kind of faded a bit in Chapel Hill. The Eagles trailed by 15 at half and cut the lead down to 8 in the second half. North Carolina proved to be too much and pulled a way with 3 different 10-0 runs throughout the game. North Carolina won 96-66. The guard play of Ky Bowman and Jerome Robinson tried shooting the Eagles back in the game but couldn’t keep up with the tempo North Carolina played at.
Duke has been the worst defensive team in the ACC and the defensive issues look like they are going to stay throughout the year. Duke has now given up 89, 93, and 96 points in ACC games. That’s uh, not great. Duke’s got a nice five game stretch of playing Pittsburgh twice, Wake Forest twice and Miami. That’s a nice opportunity to fix some issues for coach K.
Notre Dame continues to win games… Yes, they are winning ugly but who cares. Mike Brey deserves a ton of credit for keeping the team together with Farrell and Colson all banged up. The 3-0 start in ACC play is encouraging and the Irish are just going to have to out hustle teams to win games. They seem up for that challenge.
Clemson fans are starting to believe in the basketball program. A 14-1 (3-0 ACC) start and a 19 ranking in nation. The defense has been outstanding (63.5 points allowed per game) and currently tied for 21st in the Nation in points allowed. All five starters currently average between 11.6 and 15.9 points a night. Scoring can come from anywhere and the balance is there every night. Already the Tigers have wins over Florida, Ohio State, South Carolina, NC State and Louisville. To add to the success, top recruit Zion Williamson is expected to make a decision soon on his college choice and right now, rumors are circulating Clemson may be the favorite. If the Tigers land Williamson, they will have become a legit basketball program.
Stat Leaders:
Points per game:
Rebounds per game:
Assists:
Blocks:
Steals:
Share this:
- Mike Ryan
- NCAA Basketball
