This Week in the ACC: 12/6-12/12
Since yesterday was an off-day for all ACC teams, I'm giving myself a pass on not getting this up until this morning. Despite the ACC-Big 10 challenge loss (thank you, Virginia Tech), it was a solid week for the ACC that featured some strong upsets (Minnesota, Kentucky), two big wins for the top team (Michigan St., Butler), some key wins over similarly situated major conference opponents (Mississippi, West Virginia, Iowa), and a couple strong showings in losses (Syracuse, Temple). This week offers much lighter fare, with just three top-100 OOC opponents, none of which are in the top 50, before the second and third conference games of the season end the week in a Sunday night doubleheader. Avoiding bad losses will be the theme of the week.
Monday was dark.
Tuesday features an in-state rivalry game that almost no one outside of Georgia (and probably many people in Georgia) is likely to notice.
[86]Georgia Tech hosts [93]Georgia
[81]Virginia hosts [333]Radford
Wednesday features the annual BC-Providence matchup, which has produced some decent games in recent years. Also, UNC travels to Evansville to take on an Aces team that nipped Butler in overtime, and Maryland hosts UNC-G in as the Spartans continue their quest to lose to as many teams in the ACC as possible.
[2]Duke hosts [138]Bradley
[28]North Carolina at [161]Evansville
[34]Boston College hosts [64]Providence
[27]Maryland hosts [315]UNC-Greensboro
Thursday and Friday are conference-wide off days.
Saturday gives four teams a chance for some pre- (or post-) finals week exercise in what should all be comfortable wins for the home squads.
[2]Duke hosts vs. [103]St. Louis
[70]NC State hosts [311]USC-Upstate
[86]Georgia Tech hosts [309]Savannah State
[28]North Carolina hosts [114]Long Beach State
Sunday has a couple key conference matchups that feature (according to Pomeroy) four of the top six teams in the conference with Maryland hosting BC and FSU hosting Clemson. These are both games that the home team should win. The Clemson-FSU game looks to be a turnover-filled, low-scoring affair - both teams force and commit turnovers on at least 22% of their possessions. And BC looks to continue some of their early season surprise with an upset win in the Comcast Center.
[27]Maryland hosts [34]Boston College
[31]Florida State hosts [44]Clemson
[50]Virginia Tech hosts [60]Penn State
[132]Wake Forest at [255]UNC-Wilmington
[54]Miami hosts [275]Stetson
ACC Non-Conference Record: 63-30
Record vs. BCS: 16-20
AEC: 3-0
A-10: 1-1
A-Sun: 7-2
Big 10: 5-9
Big 12: 4-1
Big East: 3-5
Big South: 3-1
Big West: 2-0
Colonial: 3-2
CUSA: 2-1
Horizon: 1-0
Ind: 2-0
Ivy: 1-1
MAAC: 2-0
MAC: 1-0
MEAC: 3-0
MVC: 0-1
MWC: 0-1
NEC: 2-0
OVC: 1-0
Pac-10: 2-2
Patriot: 3-0
SEC: 2-3
Southern: 8-0
Southland: 1-0
Sun Belt: 1-0
Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.
You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner
You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke