Monday Power Rankings

Each Monday before the polls come out (hopefully), we'll be giving a quick sketch of how the ACC currently stands, as well as the top 5 games of the week (and the worst game of the week)

ACC Power Rankings

1. Duke - Duke fans have to be rejoicing.  After 2 convincing wins 20 point wins over ACC opponents, they have the luxury of enjoying UNC struggles.  Kyle Singler appears to have broken out of his slump, and the Plumlee brothers are providing the best low precense Coach K has had since Shelden Williams left town.

2. Clemson- Don't mess with Clemson in Littlejohn.  Last year Clemson embarrassed Duke on their home floor, winning 74-47 and prompting Coach K to call a timeout with 3 seconds left in order to let his players soak in the humiliation.  This year they built an early 20 point lead on UNC before coasting to an easy 83-64 lead.  Duke's coming back this weekend however, so we'll get to see just how far this homecourt advantage goes.

3. UVA - The Caveliers can't really belong this high can they?  The standings say yes, the eye test says no.  For now they go here with an asterisk since we can't put the only unbeaten team in the conference lower than 3, especially since they beat the team below them by 7 last week.  Tony Bennett has been great for the Cavs, and Sylven Landesberg has been sensational recently.

4. Georgia Tech - Paul Hewitt has to be wondering how he can get his guys to focus for longer than 20 seconds at a time.  Beat a top notch Duke team, lose to a UVA team without nearly the amount of talent the Jackets have stockpiled.  Build a huge lead in the Dean Dome, almost blow it in the second half.  This team appears to be bi-polar.  Which way they turn probably depends on how Derrick Favors develops.  If he plays like a lottery pick the rest of the way, GT will challenge for the conference with Duke and Clemson (and maybe UNC).  If he continues to be average, Tech will probably continue dropping games it should win.

5. Maryland - As per usual in recent years, it took being written off by writers around the ACC to get Maryland playing well again.  After an uninspiring start to the season, Maryland appears to be heating up, with recent wins over FSU and BC, and a heartbreaking loss at Wake Forest where the Terps had 2 shots for the win in the final 10 seconds but couldn't convert.

6. Florida State- According to kenpom.com, FSU is the 5th most efficient defensive team in the country, allowing their opponents only 84.9 points per possession.  They are however only the 105th most efficient offensive team in the country.  That pretty much sums up this team.  If they can manage to get points on the board at all they're tough to beat, because they're allowing less than 60 points per game and only NC State has managed to score 80 on them.  But when the shots aren't falling they're eminently beatable.

7. Wake Forest- After 3 overtime wins in their past 4 games (and one 1 point loss)  Wake gave Duke a pounding last night.  Twice sending Duke big men flying to the floor hard on drives (and causing Kyle Singler to be so shaken up he airballed a foul shot that looked like it was aimed for a camera man rather than the hoop.  This is a big physical tough team that will be a factor in the ACC race this year.

8. Virginia Tech - Vtech has a lot of wins and not a lot of losses.  The question is... does that really matter?  They've played 3 good teams.  They went 0-3.  They've played 4 decent teams (Georgia, Penn State, Seton Hall, Miami) and went 4-0.  They've played 9 bad teams and went 9-0.  They appear to be a solid team that wins the games they should win, loses games they shouldn't win, and will be right on the tournament bubble come March.  They probably need a win against a top tier team to get in, but their relatively light schedule (which only has them playing Duke, UNC, Clemson and Gtech once each) may get them enough wins even if they don't beat a good team all season.

9. UNC-  So what happened here?  North Carolina appears to be lacking a star player, somebody who can take over when the game is on the line and will his team to victory on nights when things aren't working.  If Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, or Tyler Hansbrough was on this team, a loss to College of Charleston would not happen.  Its not a matter of talent persay,but of a star mentality, having a guy who decides that he is going to go win a game.  The Heels have a group of supremely talented role players at the moment, and while that still makes them probably one of the top 25 teams in the country and maybe one of the top 15 by the end of the year, right now they have plenty of issues to work out.

10. NC State- The Wolfpack have been surprisingly frisky of late.  If it weren't for the ridiculous talent gap, it would have been tempting to place them above UNC.  They followed up a heartbreaker to Florida (All you need to see here)  with a letdown game against UVA before shocking FSU and almost coming back from a huge deficit against Clemson.   They get Duke wednesday night, a team they've played tough the past few years at home.

11. Miami- Joins Virginia tech in the "Lotsa wins, lotsa fluff" category, but is ranked lower due to a head to head loss and a 1-3 record in the ACC that somehow includes a loss to Boston College.  Their last 2 losses haven't even been close, as they hit the road to Virginia twice last week and got handed double digit defeats each time.  BC is next and if they're swept there, we'll have no choice but to move them to 12th next week.

12. Boston College- They somehow found a way to beat Miami last month.  Thats about all the good there is to say about BC right now.  They managed 9 non-conference wins, but only 2 of those (against a disappointing Michigan team, and a bipolar South Carolina team) are even worth mention here.  This team is in no danger of joining the worst ACC teams list from this weekend, but it clearly is the worst team in the ACC right now.

Top 5 games this week

5. Duke@ NC State- NC State has played Duke tough at home lately, despite its recent struggles.  Will that continue here?
4.NC State@ Maryland 1/23 6:00- 2 teams that have been playing well lately.
3. Clemson@Georgia Tech 1/19 7:00- 2 of the most athletic teams in the country, this game doubles as an audition to determine Duke's main competition in the conference race
2.Wake Forest@ North Carolina 1/20 7:00- One of these teams is probably going to have a chance to make a push to be part of the conference race.  Its unlikely that they both will.  This game is something of an elimination game in that sense.
1. Duke@Clemson 1/26 9:00 - Last year Duke went down to Clemson and got taken apart, prompting Jon Scheyer's move to point guard.  This year Scheyer's been one of the best point men in the country, but how will that survive in Little John Coliseum?

And the worst game of the week:

1. Virginia Tech- NCCU: Why is VT playing a completely meaningless game in the middle of January?  Presumably to further pad their already cupcake laden schedule.  Why would anyone watch?  I have no idea.