It’s nearing the end of December, which is to say the out-of-conference portion of the college basketball season is about over. So, we have enough information to draw some conclusions about Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball. Overall, the conference has done well — the ACC ranks second both in conference strength of schedule and conference RPI — but that may not translate into it getting more than three or maybe four teams into the NCAA tournament.

Basically, the league so far looks to fall into four clusters of teams:

• UNC Chapel Hill (11 wins – 2 losses, RPI rank: 11th), Dook (10-1, RPI: 2nd), and Virginia (10-1, RPI: 29th) have impressed so far. All are nationally ranked.

• Florida State (8-4, RPI: 50th), Virginia Tech (10-3, RPI: 56th), N.C. State (8-4, RPI: 61st), and Miami (7-4, RPI: 62nd) are in the next tier. These four schools have taken care of business against weaker opponents, besting all teams they’ve played with RPI rankings of 100+. Unfortunately, they lack signature wins. A closer look at how these teams have done against top 100 teams in the RPI:

Florida State: Wins: #86 (UMass), #87 (UCF), #96 (Charleston Southern)
Losses: #4 (UConn), #20 (Michigan St.) #27 (Harvard), #40 (Florida)

Virginia Tech: Wins: #41 (Norfolk St.), #97 (St. Bonaventure)
Losses: #1 (Syracuse); #17 (Minnesota), #24 (Kansas St.)

N.C. State: Wins: #73 (Texas), #97 (St. Bonaventure)
Losses: #1 (Syracuse); #38 (Vanderbilt), #48 (Indiana), #98 (Stanford)

Miami: Win: #86 (UMass)
Losses: #33 (Mississippi), #35 (West Virginia), #66 (Memphis), #69 (Purdue)

Unsurprisingly, none of these teams are getting any votes in the national polls. At best, maybe they’re bubble teams. All need to make an impression in conference play if they want to make the NCAA tournament. 8-8 in conference gets an NIT bid. The question is just how much of a gap there is between these four teams and the top three teams in the league. Beating UNC, Dook, or Virginia a time or two would go a long way towards getting Florida State, Virginia Tech, N.C. State, or Miami into the Big Dance.

• In the third tier of teams are Wake Forest (8-4, RPI: 100th), Maryland (7-3, RPI: 108th), and Georgia Tech (7-5, RPI: 127th). They’re kind of like the second-tier teams but just not quite as good. Their losses and top 100 wins:

Wake Forest: Wins: none
Losses: #7 (Seton Hall), #49 (Dayton), #90 (Richmond) and, ugh, #221 (Arizona State)

Maryland: Win: #94 (Colorado).
Losses: #18 (Iona), #19 (Alabama), #44 (Illinois).

Georgia Tech Wins: #75 (VCU), #81 (Georgia).
Losses: #22 (St. Joseph’s), #37 (Northwestern), #58 (LSU), #101 (Mercer) and #161 (Tulane)

• Boston College (5-7, RPI: 237th) and Clemson (7-6, RPI: 226th) just aren’t very good. Expect them to get pounded regularly in conference play.

Note all RPI ranking as of December 27 at about noon per realtimerpi.com.

Bonus observation: The ACC going 4-8 in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge really hurt the conference. Had the ACC gone 8-4, it probably would get them an extra team or two into the NCAA tournament.