It’s mid-January, which means ACC basketball conference games are just starting. While a lot of people may think of this as when things start to get interesting, most big-time teams have now played about half their games. So how’s the ACC doing so far?
Not so well. In fact, if the season ended today, maybe only four ACC teams make the NCAA tourney. Sure UNC and Dook are top teams with Miami and Clemson also nationally ranked. Beyond that though, most of the conference has played exactly well enough to be candidates for the NIT. Consider the numbers through Sunday from collegerpi.com (rpi rank/strength of schedule of 341 teams).
North Carolina 1/12
Duke 13/69
Clemson 36/51
Miami 39/207 (!)
Florida St. 43/43
N.C. State 57/112
Virginia 64/92
Wake Forest 66/163
Boston College 80/81
Virginia Tech 89/104
Georgia Tech 102/27
Maryland 128/66
Not just a stat thing either. None of the other eight ACC teams is picking up even a single 25th place tally in the AP or ESPN/USA Today polls.
Not sure if Miami is for real — they sneaked into the rankings by going 14-1 against very weak competition. Last night’s loss at BC is not a good sign. N.C. State has looked like a mess at UNC and at Clemson.
Things obviously can change in the next eight weeks of basketball. And for a lot of teams in the ACC it better, because their performances so far hasn’t been good enough to make the Big Dance.
Bonus observation: Probably the realistic upside is five ACC teams making the NCAA tourney. If UNC, Duke, and Clemson run over the rest of the conference and everyone else pretty much splits against each other, it could easily be just the three of them.
