We’re through two weeks of college basketball now, and luckily this week was less eventful than the first one. While a couple of ACC teams suffered losses, business was mostly taken care of against lesser opponents. With the ACC/B1G Challenge set to take place this week, we’ll start to get a much better sense of the quality of each team. Even though this week was less of a rollercoaster, there’s still been plenty of movement within our ACC Power Rankings. Let’s take a look.
Tier 1
1) North Carolina ▲1
The Heels may have suffered their first loss of the season, but it came after an impressive week in Maui Asheville. They fell to a very good Texas team right before the buzzer, and a dominant win over UNLV and a solid one over Stanford are good signs for Roy Williams and the Tar Heels. While Carolina’s bigs looks as good as advertised, there is a worry when it comes to three-point shooting. The Heels are shooting a mere 27.1% from beyond the arc, which is something to be monitored despite their otherwise high quality play on both ends. Carolina looks like the best team in the conference.
2) Virginia ▼1
Virginia has had its moments this year, but the usually stout pack line defense has looked suspect at times. In theory, the Hoos go about nine deep, but while a veteran core of players has led the team, some of the underclassmen clearly need more time to get acclimated. This team has not yet fostered the chemistry that is going to make them into a top 10 team, and without it they’ve looked a little shaky. With that said, Sam Hauser and Jay Huff have been great for the Hoos so far. We’ll see what they can do when Michigan State rolls into town.
3) Duke –
Michigan State already visited Duke, and left Cameron Indoor with a six point win. To be frank, neither team looked so good in the game, turning it over quite a bit and shooting it at bad percentages. The Blue Devils got an easy win over Bellarmine to follow that up, and will face sixth-ranked Illinois in Cameron Indoor’s second top ten matchup on Tuesday. Matthew Hurt is going to have to continue his stellar play in that game, as will freshman Jalen Johnson. This is a typical Duke team, building through the opening half of the season before they really start to get it together later on.
Tier 2
4) Florida State –
Florida State got their first game of the season in this week, scoring 86 points and defeating North Florida by 28. While a commanding win for the Noles, defeating a North Florida team that ranks 314th on KenPom is no accomplishment. Their first half defense looked solid and M.J. Walker looks like he’ll be the man for FSU, but really there’s nothing to take away from an easy win over a truly bad team.
5) Louisville –
On the contrary to Florida State, Louisville’s four games to date have provided a lot of interesting information. Routs of Evansville and Prairie View A&M were to be expected, but the win over Seton Hall and the 21-point victory against Western Kentucky were both impressive. #13 Wisconsin looms right around the corner though, so we’ll get a chance to see what Chris Mack’s team is really made of. Carlik Jones leads five players averaging in double figures, and from a Louisville point of view it’s been a perfect start to the season.
Tier 3
6) Miami –
The Hurricanes cruised to two easy wins this week, looking comfortable and in command for both. The guard duo of Chris Lykes and Isaiah Wong has been magnificent thus far, but again nobody should read too much into performances against bad teams. Miami faces Purdue this week, which presents an opportunity to gain a better understanding of what Jim Larranaga is really going to make out of his most talented group in a while.
7) Clemson –
A blowout win over South Carolina State was the latest addition in an impressive start to the season for Clemson. The Tigers now have that to add to two comfortable wins over power-six opponents. Through three games—and remember, two of them were against legitimate opponents—the Tigers have 11 players averaging double figures in minutes. We’ll see how many guys play real minutes against Maryland on Wednesday, but it’s a good sign that Clemson has some firepower outside of Aamir Simms.
8) NC State ▲1
There was not much to glean from NC State’s sole game this week, a rout of UMass Lowell, as the real tester against UConn was canceled. However, the Wolfpack will face Michigan in the ACC/B1G Challenge in a chance to finally see them take on a good team. They’ve been explosive on offense, eclipsing 85 points in all three outing thus far. While still an exciting stat, that was mostly to be expected against these teams. More intriguing is whether or not the Wolfpack will be able to hold on the defensive side, a question we hope to get answered this week.
9) Virginia Tech ▼1
The notion that last year’s history was repeating itself for the Hokies was alive the second the Hokies trailed VMI on on Thursday. While this could very well be true, Virginia Tech did look very good in Bubbleville, and it would be hypocritical to drop them too much after I only dropped Virginia a spot for much the same thing. The difference between the two is that if you go by preseason expectations, Virginia Tech’s big win is the anomaly, whereas for Virginia it’s the near loss. I promise that if they beat Penn State they’ll move up, but for now I need to see more out of the Hokies before I trust them not to collapse on me.
10) Syracuse ▲1
After an initial scare against Bryant in which they allowed an astounding 84 points, the Orange came back strong with 30+ point wins over Niagara and Rider. More impressively, they’ve done it without Buddy Boeheim, who’s been in quarantine due to Covid-19. Without him, Syracuse really only goes six deep, and Boeheim will be out for Syracuse’s trip to #21 Rutgers for the ACC/B1G Challenge. The defense from the last two has to be present for that game, as will the continued solid play of the rest of the team.
11) Georgia Tech ▲1
It’s tough to know what to make of Georgia Tech thus far. They are the owners of two fairly embarrassing losses, but then came out and totally controlled their game against Kentucky for all 40 minutes. While Kentucky themselves are a confusing team, the total domination by Josh Pastner’s squad was still good to see. The Yellow Jackets look pretty incredible on the offensive side actually, with Moses Wright and his three guard companions of Jose Alvarado, Michael Devoe, and Bubba Parham tearing through opposing defenses. But Georgia Tech’s own defense has been suspect, and has to improve ahead of a tougher upcoming schedule.
12) Boston College ▼2
It’s tough to truly fault BC for either of their two losses this week. St. Johns and Florida are both decent teams, and a loss to either team is nothing to worry about. But losses to both, and more specifically allowing both to get into the 90s, does present a very real set of problems. The Eagles have their fair share of offensive firepower, but if they can’t hold opponents to a reasonable number of points than they’re not going to get very far in this league.
Tier 4
13) Notre Dame –
Ordinarily I would have bashed the Fighting Irish for only beating Detroit Mercy by 8 points, but seeing Michigan State do much the same thing days before dissuaded me from going down that road. Instead, let’s talk about what they’ve done well. I mentioned this last week, but Prentiss Hubb is the be-all, end-all player for Notre Dame this year. If he plays well—and he has so far—Notre Dame might be able to scrape together some conference wins. If he doesn’t, it could turn into a long season for Mike Brey and the Irish.
14) Wake Forest –
Wake didn’t play a game this week, so remains at 2-0 with a couple easy wins over bad teams. The Demon Deacons are the lone team left out of the ACC/B1G Challenge, meaning that while we gain valuable insight into how good the rest of the ACC teams are, we should witness an easy Wake win over Presbyterian. New head coach Steve Forbes has his work cut out for him, but catches a break with no Big Ten team this week and the postponement of their game against UVA.
15) Pittsburgh –
After a shaky first week, Pitt got back onto the right foot with a 30-point win over Northern Illinois. Au’diese Toney continues to impress for the Panthers, while Justin Champagnie and Xavier Johnson look good as well. It’s the battle of the bottom this week in the Challenge, with Pitt taking on Northwestern. Both teams may be pretty bad, but every game counts the same, which means that we’re hoping for a Pitt victory.
Image – UNC Athletics