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pfrduke
11-07-2012, 09:59 AM
The long summer of our discontent is over and we're getting back to college basketball season. This series (a regular two seasons ago before being interrupted by personal commitments last year) is back to help provide a guide for the goings on in the conference from week to week. Almost every squad in the conference tips off over the weekend (see you on Monday, Clemson), with the bulk of the games set for this Friday night - for the first time in years, the season is not opening with a handful of pre-season tournament games, but with a full 250 teams in action on Friday. Let's see how they line up (all rankings from Pomeroy):

Friday
[40] Miami hosts [199] Stetson
[9] Duke hosts [164] Georgia State
[15] UNC hosts [240] Gardner-Webb
[24] NC State hosts [241] Miami (OH)
[51] Florida State hosts [191] South Alabama
[119] Georgia Tech hosts [110] Tulane
[201] Wake Forest hosts [296] Radford
[65] Virginia at [105] George Mason
[135] Maryland vs. [1] Kentucky in Brooklyn

Maryland has, by far, the toughest test on opening day, taking on a Kentucky team that has a lot of talent (even if much of it is unproven at the college level). Next in degree of difficulty is the Cavaliers, opening with a true road game against what could be a tough opponent in George Mason. Georgia Tech is ranked (at least pre-season) lower than Tulane but hopefully will get a boost from playing at home. Of the remaining contests, the most interesting thing to note is that Pomeroy is quite a bit more bearish on the ACC than the national pollsters, having NC State [AP 6/Coaches 6] all the way down at 24 and Florida State [25/24] completely off the radar. And then there's Wake Forest, coming off of back-to-back finishes below 200 in the Pomeroy rankings and starting this year at #201 on the big board - based on preseason rankings, the Deacons are the weakest opponent on Duke's schedule all year.

Saturday
[79] Virginia Tech hosts [190] East Tennessee State

The post-Greenberg era begins. The Hokies have 8 teams on their schedule whose pre-season ranking is 190 or lower, so ETSU is one of the relatively more difficult squads Tech will face before conference play.

Sunday
[15] North Carolina hosts [232] Florida Atlantic
[134] Boston College hosts [295] Florida International

A pair of Sun Belt neighbors round out the week for the ACC. UNC eases into its trip to Maui (with a stop-over in Long Beach along the way) with a couple cupcakes at home to start the season. Florida Atlantic is one of the "mainland" Maui participants that serve to provide those headed to the island with an extra win on their schedule. BC only gets the one warm-up game before facing a tough opening round of the Charleston Classic against Baylor on Thursday.

Little chance that the ACC goes undefeated for the weekend given the matchup in Brooklyn, but as long as that's the only loss, we can consider the start of the season a success. Any more than 2 losses conference wide, though, could rightly be seen as a disastrous start.

Dev11
11-07-2012, 10:30 AM
Any New York-area Duke fans going to the Maryland-Kentucky game? I know that if I could, I would definitely try to go. Test your mettle, wear a Duke sweatshirt.

Newton_14
11-07-2012, 10:06 PM
Great job PFR, thanks for doing these threads again this year. They make for great discussion and keep everyone abreast of ACC action.

I am looking forward to all the games, especially Maryland/UK. Would not be surprised at all for the Terps to pull the upset. I will need to shower afterwards due to pulling for Maryland.

It is a bit disheartening to see the high numbers beside the ACC teams. Especially those outside the Top 100. That is ridiculous. Those guys need to hit the recruiting trail hard and right the ship.

Olympic Fan
11-08-2012, 03:58 PM
I agree that Maryland-Kentucky is the one likely ACC loss this first weeked. Virginia at George Mason could be a problem, but Paul Hewitt (remember him?) at George Mason has ssuspended two starters for the first three games. That should help the Cavs. Also hear that heralded freshman Justin Anderson has struggled a bit early, but that unheralded freshman center Mike Tobey has been an astonishing surprise. I guess we'll see.

The rest should be easy, especially since they are all at home.

BTW: I usually trash ESPN, The Magazine without looking, but since this was the College Basketball Preview editon, I flipped through that part of it. One thing they had that was interesting was a poll of players from across the country on various topics. One of the questions is: What do you perceive as the strongest conference? The vote was overwhelming -- almost half the players polled picked the ACC -- more than twice as many as voted for the second-place Big East.

Olympic Fan
11-09-2012, 11:21 PM
Not a great opening night for the ACC -- Maryland put up a great fight before losing to Kentucky, but what happened to Florida State, losing their home opener to South Alabama? And Virginia couldn't beat a George Mason that was missing two starters.

Everybody else won -- Miami struggled past Stetson, thanks to Reggie Johnson, but that was better than losing to St. Leo. Wake fibnally held off Radford later. Georgia Tech dedicated their new arena with a nice win over Tulane. NC State rolled over Miami of Ohio and UNC wasn't gtreat, but was never in trouble against Gardner Webb.

Overall, a 6-3 start ... not as good as it should have been.

On game tomorrow -- Va Tech opens at home.

Two games Sunday ... UNC gets anoter patsty and BC opens at home.

I suppose Clemson will open the season one of these days.