This Week in the ACC 11/21-11/27

[pfrduke]

It wasn't the bloodbath that this week last season was, but it wasn't pretty either. Maryland, Georgia Tech, and Boston College all amply displayed why they are likely to be down toward the bottom of the conference this season, and Clemson showed some cracks by dropping a home loss to Charleston (random scheduling aside - Clemson does not play any team from outside of the Carolinas until Iowa in the ACC/B1G challenge). Luckily, every week in the fall brings new opportunities for the conference to assert itself, starting right at the top of the week.

Monday puts four squads in action, with the team playing further west (Duke) getting under way first. Two other teams finish up their tournament play in the Virgin Islands and the far less scenic Meadowlands (here's a prediction - NCSU/Texas will be high scoring). And Boston College hosts another in-state rival, looking for a better result than last week's road loss to Holy Cross.

[6]Duke v. [89]Tennessee in Maui
[56]Virginia v. [129]Drake in the USVI
[63]NC State v. [31]Texas in New Jersey
[206]Boston College hosts [143]Massachusetts


Tuesday has a few relative cupcake matchups, and what should be a tough second-round game for Duke regardless of a win or loss on Monday.

[6]Duke v. [18]Memphis/[49]Michigan in Maui (note that the polls like Memphis and Michigan a lot more than Pomeroy)
[5]North Carolina hosts [202]Tennessee State
[33]Miami hosts [287]Florida Gulf Coast
[37]Clemson hosts [161]Coastal Carolina

Wednesday features the Devils against on one of basketball's most storied programs (a blanket statement that's easy to make when Kansas, UCLA, and Georgetown are on the other side of the bracket). Virginia Tech gets its first chance for a statement win against a future conference rival (and a team that's had no game closer than 24 thus far this season). Georgia Tech hosts Siena in a rematch that makes slightly less sense now that Coach Hewitt is departed.

[6]Duke v. [10]Kansas/[29]Georgetown/[100]UCLA/Chaminade in Maui
[40]Virginia Tech v. [4]Syracuse in Madison Square Garden
[91]Georgia Tech hosts [175]Siena in Duluth, Ga.

Thursday starts a whole new slate of pre-season tournaments for the ACC, as action kicks off in the Bahamas, Orlando, and Anaheim. FSU should have an easier go of it than either Wake or BC, who probably aren't going to be the ACC's standard bearers in the early going. Then again, if Norfolk State can make the finals of a pre-season tournament...

[17]Florida State v. [143]Massachusetts in Nassau
[206]Boston College v. [30]St. Louis in Anaheim
[158]Wake Forest v. [65]Dayton in Orlando

Friday is chock full of ACC play, with everyone except Duke and Georgia Tech lacing up the sneakers. Plenty of basketball to go along with your turkey leftovers.

[33]Miami at [79]Mississippi
[63]NC State hosts [212]Elon
[37]Clemson hosts [246]Furman
[5]North Carolina v. [113]South Carolina in Las Vegas
[56]Virgnia v. [174]Wisconsin-Green Bay
[82]Maryland hosts [287]Florida Gulf Coast
[40]Virginia Tech v. [38]Oklahoma State/[48]Stanford in Madison Square Garden
[17]Florida State v. [52]Harvard/[190]Utah in Nassau
[206]Boston College v. [45]Villanova/[226]UC-Riverside in Anaheim
[158]Wake Forest v. [94]Fairfield/[112]Arizona State in Orlando

Saturday brings tournament action nearly to a close for the ACC (Clemson will play in the Diamond Head Classic around Christmas time for the final tourney play). Best matchup could be in Nassau if the brackets hold, as FSU would take on the defending champions in a chance for a great statement win.

[5]North Carolina v. [14]UNLV/[140]USC in Las Vegas
[17]Florida State in Nassau
[206]Boston College in Anaheim
[158]Wake Forest in Orlando

Sunday is quiet as the league gets geared up for the first 12-on-12 ACC/B1G Ten challenge, with only the Hokies in action.

[40]Virginia Tech hosts [81]St. Bonaventure

ACC Non-Conference Record: 34-8
ACC Record v. BCS: 4-3
America East: 1-0
Atlantic-10: 0-1
A-Sun: 5-0
Big East: 1-0
Big South: 5-0
B1G Ten: 2-0
Colonial: 3-0
CUSA: 1-0
Ivy: 1-0
MAAC: 1-1
MEAC: 4-0
Mountain West: 0-1
Northeast: 1-0
OVC: 2-0
Pac-12: 1-0
Patriot: 0-1
SEC: 0-3
Southern: 3-1
SWAC: 1-0
Sun Belt: 2-0

[pfrduke]

Don't look now (knock on wood), but NC State has put on a heck of a comeback against Texas. The Longhorns were up 65-47, and it's now a 75-67 NC State lead. Yes, you're reading that correctly, a 28-2 run. Even if they end up losing, that's an amazing run.

[pfrduke]

State wins! Richard Howell almost gave the game away with an incredibly stupid decision to swat a three-point shot away from the basket right as time expired, but the officials correctly (I think - it was tough to tell) concluded that it had no shot at going in and so didn't call goal tending. But really, really stupid decision.

[loldevilz]

Wow great win for State. Its amazing the difference good coaching can make. The way State is playing it wouldn't surprise me if they make the tournament this year.

[CDu]

State wins! Richard Howell almost gave the game away with an incredibly stupid decision to swat a three-point shot away from the basket right as time expired, but the officials correctly (I think - it was tough to tell) concluded that it had no shot at going in and so didn't call goal tending. But really, really stupid decision.

Good win for State, although it's probably a better win in name than in actual quality. Texas only beat URI by 10 and lost to Oregon State in their last game. It's not (at least not yet) the Longhorns team we've seen in recent years.

Still - that's a nice win for the Pack, following a close loss to Vandy. They do look better this year.

[Wander]

Boston College is horrible this year. Barely win against New Hampshire, routed by Holy Cross and now UMass. I nominate these guys for worst ACC team of all time. The conference scores are going to be ugly.

[loran16]

BC lost by 36. To UMass. At Home. Yeesh.

[pfrduke]

Boston College is horrible this year. Barely win against New Hampshire, routed by Holy Cross and now UMass. I nominate these guys for worst ACC team of all time. The conference scores are going to be ugly.

Amazingly, they've already had a worse loss than anything Wake did last season - UMASS won by 36 at BC. Wake's worst loss was by 35, but that was on the road; at home, the worst loss was by 26 (interestingly, both of those games were to Georgia Tech - the Jackets owned Wake last year).

[CDu]

Boston College is horrible this year. Barely win against New Hampshire, routed by Holy Cross and now UMass. I nominate these guys for worst ACC team of all time. The conference scores are going to be ugly.

That really is awful. The bottom of the ACC is going to be really really bad. Hopefully that means a few more ACC teams make it into the tournament this year after beefing up on the conference filler. Probably won't work out that way somehow.

[loran16]

Boston College is now ranked 251 in Pomeroy. Doesn't necessarily mean a huge amount here - but that's the same ranking Wake ended with last year. Uhhh ugh.

[Wander]

Coastal Carolina now has wins over LSU and Clemson. NCAA tournament upset in their future?

[Olympic Fan]

Coastal Carolina now has wins over LSU and Clemson. NCAA tournament upset in their future?

And Clemson now has homecourt losses to College of Charleston and Coastal Carolina.

I watched the second half of tonight's game. The Tigers simply don't have much firepower. They had a four-point lead with 90 seconds left, but allowed CC to score the game's last five points. The winning bucket came on a third attempt after two misses and two offensive rebounds.

It's a small sample and I'm not going to read too much into it, but if NC State has made itself look like an upper-middle team in the ACC this year, Clemson looks like a bottom feeder. Maybe not down as far as BC or Wake Forest, but somewhere anout with Maryland and Georgia Tech ... at least the Terps have some hope -- when they get a healthy Howard and an eligible Len, they might be better (although Turgeon sounds pretty disgusted with his players so far, especially Stoglin).

BTW, the ACC is now 40-10 after tonight's 3-1 record ... that's 7-3 against BCS opponents (although Duke is 3-0 and UNC 1-0 in such games).

[Bob Green]

And Clemson now has homecourt losses to College of Charleston and Coastal Carolina.

Bobby Cremins and Cliff Ellis, right? I'm going to throw this out there without confirming via Google, but I'm pretty confident former ACC head coaches Cremins and Ellis are still coaching at those two schools.

[-jk]

The ACC went 1-2 today: FSU beat Mass, but Dayton took Wake and St Louis handled BC.

It's going to be a long year for the bottom of the conference.

-jk

[Newton_14]

The ACC went 1-2 today: FSU beat Mass, but Dayton took Wake and St Louis handled BC.

It's going to be a long year for the bottom of the conference.

-jk

BC is gawd-awful. Likely the worst ACC team since Ga Tech the very first year they were in the ACC and had Brooke Steppe and a bunch of stiffs. I am trying to remember other ACC teams that were worse than this BC team but nothing is jumping out at me.

Any other candidates?

[-jk]

BC is gawd-awful. Likely the worst ACC team since Ga Tech the very first year they were in the ACC and had Brooke Steppe and a bunch of stiffs. I am trying to remember other ACC teams that were worse than this BC team but nothing is jumping out at me.

Any other candidates?

Wake last year?

-jk

[Duvall]

Wake last year?

-jk

Worse. Last year's Wake team lost close games to low-major teams early in the season; this BC team is getting blown out with regularity.

[Bob Green]

I am trying to remember other ACC teams that were worse than this BC team but nothing is jumping out at me.

Any other candidates?

The 8-20 North Carolina Tar Heels in 2002 were pretty much gawd awful. This is a team which had out-of-conference losses to Hampton, Davidson, College of Charleston and Ohio. No matter how you slice it, they sucked!

[Olympic Fan]

Wake last year is the standard -- by every measure, they were the worst ACC team since RPIs were calculated -- by almost 100 places. They were the first ACC team to lose 15 games. Their 24 overall losses were the most overall in ACC history. They weren't losing close games to nothing teams -- they lost (at home) by 10 to Stetson. By 9 at home to Elon. By 12 to UNC Wilmington. ... okay, by two at home to Presbyterian. Only one of their 15 ACC losses was by less than double figures.

That's said, I suspect this Boston College team is worse. I was able to watch BC lose to St. Louis a couple of hours before watching Wake lose a heatbreaker to Dayton. There's no doubt in my mind that Wake is 10-15 points better than the Eagles at the moment. They have at last a couple of decent ACC players in Harris and McKie. Their point guard/center (Chennalt/Derosiers) are not that much better than the BC equivilent (Clifford/Daniels) -- but they are a year older and that makes a huge difference.

Interesting that FSU just beat UMass by 20 ... the same UMss team that earlier in the week beat BC by 36 in Chestnut Hill.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think Wake is very good ... a little better than last year.

But BC appears to be as weak as any ACC team I've ever seen -- and that includes Wake last year and Georgia Tech in 1981 (the year they went 0-14 and 4-23). At least those Jackets had Steppe, who was a better player than anybody the Eagles have this year.

Georgia Tech, Maryland and Clemson have their problems too. The bottom of the ACC was as weak last year as at any time since the 1950s, but it's going to be even weaker this year.

PS Two ex-Dukies are really off to good starts. Tommy Amaker just routed Utah 75-47 to go 4-0 at Harvard ... Johnny Dawkins ripped Oklahoma State Wednesday in the preseason NIT semifinals to go 5-0 at Stanford. Johnny D gets a shot at Syracuse in the Garden Friday night at 5 p.m. Love to see his Cardinal pull it off.

[nocilla]

I know it seems even more weak after looking at this year's Maui field, but the Las Vegas Invitational seems really weak.

UNC, UNLV, USC, South Carolina, Morgan State, Cal Poly, Mississippi Valley and Tennessee State.

UNC may get another Helms trophy for beating all these cupckes.