It wouldn't be the ACC without a week like last week (including Scheyer Face!) now would it? So let's try to make sense of the chaos.
1.) Duke Blue DevilsDuke holds onto the top spot despite falling at Georgia Tech. They're still the most efficient offense in the country and play great defense. Sure, they have flaws and Coach K is playing his starters way too many minutes, but he did get into his bench a little more on Saturday. This won't be Duke's last loss in conference by far, but they still have the edge right now.
2.) North Carolina Tar Heels
I guess they go here by default. They beat a pretty good Virginia Tech team yesterday and are 1-0 in conference. The Heels have a lot to work on still and the fact that teams around them dropped all over does not mask this. But I'll slot them in at #2.
3.) Clemson Tigers
Clemson will just keep trucking along, beating the teams they need to beat and losing a couple here and there. But they're a tournament team and will finish in the top half of the ACC. If teams keep divebombing around them, they'll stay up here.
4.) Miami Hurricanes
Do they belong at #4? Maybe not. It may have been at home, but a gritty win over a solid Wake team is huge for this team. They absolutely must get that type of game out of Dwayne Collins all the time, but Miami has good metrics and a pretty favorable schedule. And they still only have one loss on the year.
Not just a homer pick, but Wake was in a good position to win and just didn't. But it was on the road, and after watching almost every ACC team play this weekend, I'm convinced that the Deacs are one of the top teams if they get even a little bit out of their big men. But that if is a very important one. They absolutely have to get better production out of Al-Farouq Aminu too.
6.) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
So they're back up here, but will they sting me again? You can't ignore a win against Duke though. Iman Shumpert back helps them a ton and takes pressure of Udofia who looks like he needed it. And Gani Lawal was just being Gani Lawal. But boy did Favors have happy feet. Tech is talented, we all know that, but they could easily slip down a few spots with a bad week.
They still haven't excused their non-con losses, but this win over Florida State was a good one. The 'Noles were on a tear and were playing amazing defense and Gary's boys shot the ball really well. I could certainly do without Pikachu's "shimmy shake," but when Greivis Vasquez goes, the Terps go and we sure saw that yesterday.
8.) Florida State Seminoles
Florida State lost on the road. It happens. Solomon Alabi looked like a beast out there and Chris Singleton had a tremendous game. But Florida State needs better guard play and I don't understand how they got rebounded by the Terps. Maryland got hot at the right time and absorbed every FSU run (again, home court means everything in the ACC). But FSU can still beat anyone in the ACC.
Seth's club is a good team. That's what's so tough about these rankings right now. Spots 2-9 could be shifted around and I wouldn't really be surprised at all. The Hokies clearly showed they could hang with the Heels. Malcolm Delaney can keep them in most ball games, but he needs more help from his compatriots than he got on Sunday.
10.) Virginia Cavaliers
They look better than N.C. State and BC. Tony Bennett is going to really turn this team around. But you're going to have to watch some snoozers as they're one of the 25 slowest tempoed teams in the country. It favors them though, but now they need to start bringing in better talent.
The Eagles go here because they beat Miami and they honestly could be swapped with UVA. That one point victory is ANOTHER instance of home court in the ACC--see a trend here?
12.) N.C. State Wolfpack
Poor Wuffies.