Power Rankings

The ACC is in a bit of a jumble right now.  How to make sense of it?  Clearly with a new batch of power rankings.

1. Duke-  A game back from Maryland in the loss column, but still the clear favorite for the conference crown, with no clear #2 in sight right now.

2. Wake Forest- Somehow lost to Miami, but has been very solid since then, following a hardfought loss in Cameron Indoor(ignore the score, it was anyone's game with 12 minutes to go), with wins over UNC and UVA.  Its off to play bipolar Georgia Tech next, in probably the most interesting game of the week.

3. Maryland- All of its ACC wins are over ACC bottom dwellers with the exception of FSU.  We'll know more after the next 2 games, which are both on the road.  If they can beat Clemson in Littlejohn and finish the sweep of FSU, Gary Williams' squad will officially be the #1 threat to Duke for the conference title and its game in Cameron on February 13th will be must see viewing for the first time since about 2003.

4. Florida State- FSU is 15-4, 3-2 in the ACC with 2 wins over Gtech.  Georgia Tech is 14-5, 3-3 in ACC play, with 2 losses to FSU.  One of these teams is ranked in both polls this week, the other team is not ranked in either.  Guess which is which?  Admittedly GT has a win over Duke to help its case, but when 2 teams profiles are similar and one has SWEPT the other... well lets just say that Gary Parrish is in no danger of being out of work any time soon.

5.  Virginia- Its getting easier to get a read on UVA.  They clearly are not going to beat themselves this year, and are going to play tough defense.   They just don't have the talent of some of the teams currently below them in the standings.  Still, for right now they're on top of the ACC, so I'm not going to move them below #5 here until they lose some games the #5 team wouldn't lose.

6.  Georgia Tech- Techs record vs teams currently ranked: 2-0. Its record against teams not currently ranked: 12-5.  Clearly this is a team that can get up for the marquee names.  Will Wake, with Al-Farouq Aminu currently making a case for ACC POY qualify?  It may not matter.  After that loss to FSU, Tech is going to be ready to go.

7. Clemson- How much difference does a point guard make?  Perhaps looking to prove that he belonged higher than #6 on our list of best ACC point guards, Demontez Stitt has shown how valuable he is to Clemson through his absence lately.  In the 3 games since he injured his foot (he fought his way through games against GT and Clemson before sitting against BC) the Tigers are 0-3 while scoring only 60ppg, 15 points below their average.  This is still a good team, but they need Stitt back soon.

8. Virginia Tech-  If it feels like you haven't heard much from Vtech lately its because they've only played one ACC game in the past 10 days.  So other than a close win over BC that looks better after BCs upset of Clemson, not much to discuss here.  However they're the next team that gets to test UVA, in a battle for the state of Virginia tomorrow night.  They certainly should be the more rested team.

9. Boston College- BC was up 42-25 at halftime last night before almost blowing the huge lead and hanging on for a 6 point win.  This is a team that is definitely improving.  It also may be in the odd situation of having its best player come off the bench.  Reggie Jackson, who scored 18 points and dished 7 assists last night is second on this team in scoring, 3rd in rebounding and 2nd in assists.  He's playing starting minutes and scoring star numbers, but starting each game sitting on the bench.  Maybe Al Skinner is trying to pay tribute to past Boston basketball star six men like Kevin McHale, but in any case it seems to be working.  BC is heating up after a rough start to 2010.

10. UNC- Last night's win held off the doomsday prophets for another game, and if they can win the next 2 very winnable games, the talk of missing the tournament would be over, at least for a while.

11. NC State- After taking Duke the whole way, the Wolfpack could only stay with UNC for 30 minutes before falling apart at the end.  This team still is showing promising signs.  It just appears that next year is going to be the year that it comes to fruition.  Of course the last time State fans thought that was in 2007, and the 2008 team was a huge disappointment


12. Miami- 4 losses in a row, only one of them at all close?  Not much to be positive about for the Hurricanes these days.  But Durand Scott did have his best game of the ACC season last night against Maryland.  Thats something to build on.  Playing Virginia Tech on 3 days rest is probably about as winnable a game as Miami will have the rest of the season so they need to take advantage this weekend.



We're a bit late this week but here are the best games for the rest of the week:

3 Best Games of (the rest of) the week

3. Maryland @ Clemson - A chance for Maryland to announce that it will be in the ACC race the rest of the season, and an opportunity for Clemson to rebound from its recent slide.
2. Duke @ Georgetown- After some questions following from the NC State upset about Duke's viability as a contender (see Forde, Pat) this will be a chance for the Blue Devils to show that at least one team in the ACC deserves to be in the national discussion.
1. Wake Forest@ Georgia Tech- One of these teams is going to be in the conference race till the end, this game will help give us a hint which one.  4 losses may be too many for Georgia Tech to make up with a trip to Duke still coming, and for Wake a win against a ranked team would probably assure itself a ranking as well as contender status.

Worst Game of the Week
Kentucky State @ Georgia Tech - Why is this game happening?  We have no idea.  But we do know we won't be watching it.