LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- These are the Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball teams that were ranked 1-through-4 in the league’s official preseason media poll:
- Virginia
- Duke
- Florida State
- North Carolina
Here are some items you should know about those teams:
- Virginia lost to San Francisco, which has been beaten four times, including by 8 to UMass-Lowell and by 13 to Rhode Island.
- With home losses to Michigan State and Illinois, Duke looks like the seventh best team in the Big Ten.
- Florida State has yet to leave Tallahassee and was not able to handle Johnny Dawkins’ Central Florida team last weekend.
- With another group of freshmen guards, North Carolina has stumbled three times and was fortunate to outlast Kentucky last weekend.
Got that? Now get this:
- With victories over Villanova and Clemson, Mike Young’s Virginia Tech has carved out a place in the Associated Press poll at No. 24.
- Flashing a pair of custom-made white Adidas sneakers with the Gucci logo, North Carolina State coach Kevin Keatts looked like he assembled a dangerous group of perimeter players while beating North Carolina without the Wolfpack’s best inside player — DJ Funderburk — Tuesday night.
- Clemson, led by the underrated Aamir Sims, an all-ACC player, ranks third in the ACC in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings. In fact, the Tigers are No. 2 nationally (behind Texas Tech) in defensive efficiency.
- Pomeroy forecasts winning ACC records for nine of the league’s 15 programs, including Louisville, which is slotted at 11-8, pending the rescheduling of the N.C. State game.
Unlike ACC football, this won’t be all-Dabo, all the time — thank goodness.
If you forced me to give you a clip-and-save ACC champion, I guess I’d say ... Florida State. No, that was pre-UCF.
No, make it Duke because Mike Krzyzewski’s team will improve with seasoning. No, Coach K’s freshmen are not unusually gifted.
Actually make it Virginia.
Final answer.
The Cavaliers have been limited to five games because of the novel coronavirus. They played for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks Tuesday night
Virginia and Clemson are the only two ACC teams ranked in the Top 15 nationally in Pomeroy’s defensive efficiency. The Cavaliers have also separated themselves in Bart Torvik’s computer formula. Virginia is No. 6, comfortably ahead of No. 20 Florida State, No. 27 Duke and No. 28 Clemson.
Tony Bennett has a plan. He has a veteran point guard, Kihei Clark, who started on a national championship team. He has a productive, versatile big man in Jay Huff. He has an elite, veteran shooter in Marquette transfer Sam Hauser, who started the season making 10 of 23 shots from distance.
Under the direction of Tony Bennett, Virginia has not allowed more than 34 points in its first two games this season. WDRB Photo/Eric Crawford
But … yes, Virginia did lose to San Francisco. And yes, the Cavaliers needed overtime to beat Kent State. So it’s a shaky final answer.
Think about this: Assume Virginia is the best team in the ACC. On Saturday, the Cavaliers will play Gonzaga, the best team in the country, in Fort Worth, Texas.
(Somebody else needs to explain why a team from Charlottesville, Virginia, and a team from Spokane, Washington, need to fly to Texas to play a college basketball game on the day after Christmas in the middle of a pandemic. That’s above my pay grade.)
The point is we’ll see if there is a gap between the best team in America and the best team in the ACC.
There will one other ACC basketball moment to mark this week: Louisville’s push to end its three-game losing streak against Kentucky Saturday at 1 p.m. (remember the time change!) at the KFC Yum! Center.
UK vs. U of L and Virginia vs. Gonzaga are the only ACC games scheduled after Wednesday. Next week, the plunge into wall-to-wall conference play begins.
Can’t wait.
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