the acc has how many losses?

[dukie8]

uva had a nice win against arizona on the heels of clemson's win against miss st. the acc is shaping up so far better than the pundits predicted.

[JasonEvans]

Make that 2-- Fla State lost to a 1-2 Cleveland State team. Blech!

The ACC's overall record so far is 24-2. Other conferences--
Mountain West-- 25-3
Big Ten-- 19-3
SEC-- 27-5
Big 12-- 30-6
Pac Ten-- 20-5
Big East-- 30-8

Of course, the vast majority of all these games were meaningless mismatches. The only wins for the ACC over teams with any post-season aspirations are Duke over NMST, UNC over Davidson, Clemson over Miss State, Ga Tech over Charlotte, Miami over VCU, and the impressive UVA over Arizona last night.

The next week there are a bunch of tournaments and other matchups where teams start to face real competition and we will start to see how the conferences actually stack up. Maryland vs. UCLA, Duke in Hawaii, Ga Tech in a tournament in the Virgin Islands, Va Tech in Alaska, Fla St vs. Florida-- these are the games that will tell us how strong the ACC is this year.

Still, the early returns are somewhat promising. The UVA win was nice.

-Jason "I love seeing ACC teams do well in the non-conf slate!!" Evans

[gw67]

jason - Thanks for the update. As I get ready to leave the house and play my last 18 this year, it's nice to read about some ACC successes. I agree that the next week may bring some teams down to earth. I like Duke's chances in Maui but the Terps may lose two in Kansas City. I still like the Pac-10 as the top conference but Virginia, Miami appear to be better than expected and UNC, Duke, NC State and Clemson are strong teams.

gw67

[dukie8]

Make that 2-- Fla State lost to a 1-2 Cleveland State team. Blech!

The ACC's overall record so far is 24-2. Other conferences--
Mountain West-- 25-3
Big Ten-- 19-3
SEC-- 27-5
Big 12-- 30-6
Pac Ten-- 20-5
Big East-- 30-8

Of course, the vast majority of all these games were meaningless mismatches. The only wins for the ACC over teams with any post-season aspirations are Duke over NMST, UNC over Davidson, Clemson over Miss State, Ga Tech over Charlotte, Miami over VCU, and the impressive UVA over Arizona last night.

The next week there are a bunch of tournaments and other matchups where teams start to face real competition and we will start to see how the conferences actually stack up. Maryland vs. UCLA, Duke in Hawaii, Ga Tech in a tournament in the Virgin Islands, Va Tech in Alaska, Fla St vs. Florida-- these are the games that will tell us how strong the ACC is this year.

Still, the early returns are somewhat promising. The UVA win was nice.

-Jason "I love seeing ACC teams do well in the non-conf slate!!" Evans

i missed the fsu loss. ouch. that is bad. after reading numerous outlets bury the acc as the 4th or 5th best conference this year, it is nice to see the acc winning ooc games that they were supposed to lose. correct me if i am wrong, but i believe that clemson, miami and uva all were underdogs.

[YmoBeThere]

Pac Ten = overrated?

Or is that just my East Coast bias showing?

[pfrduke]

Pac Ten = overrated?

Or is that just my East Coast bias showing?

So far the conference has losses to Mercer, Siena, and Non-DI Alaska Fairbanks (and Colorado St. and Virginia). Two of the teams to get bumped by sub-par opponents are USC and Stanford, both predicted to be in the conference's top-5. And Arizona lost to a middle of the pack at best UVA team at home. So the early returns on the Pac-10 are certainly not stellar.

[Jeffrey]

Hi,

IMO, the ACC has been the premier basketball conference for a long time. Obviously, some years are better than others relative to the other conferences. How good/strong do you think the ACC will be on a relative basis this year?

Best regards,
Jeffrey

[Olympic Fan]

So far the conference has losses to Mercer, Siena, and Non-DI Alaska Fairbanks (and Colorado St. and Virginia). Two of the teams to get bumped by sub-par opponents are USC and Stanford, both predicted to be in the conference's top-5. And Arizona lost to a middle of the pack at best UVA team at home. So the early returns on the Pac-10 are certainly not stellar.

It's REAL early and, although we had some fun with USC's home loss to Mercer, that was a game without Daniel Hackett.

What has to be disturbing to all those pundits who proclaimed the Pac 10 as the nation's best conference is that three of the team's preseason ranked teams have already suffered losses to unranked teams -- USC at home to Mercer; Stanford to Siena in Albany (not quite a road game ... it was played in the big city arena, not the little on-campus gym) and Arizona at home to Virginia.

In addition, it's looking like Oregon State, which was picked to finish last in the league, is going to be truly awful -- the Beavers have already lost at home to Colorado State and on the road and Division II Alaska-Fairbanks.

BTW: The RPI remains fun to check in the early going. UCLA is now No. 1 in the RPI, which makes sense, but 2-5 are Bucknell, UNLV, Vanderbilt and Ohio University (which beat NMS). Miami of Florida is the top ACC team at No. 7.

Duke is No. 119.

Also, did anybody notice that NCCU lost at North Dakota State 104-51 last night? The Eagles are 0-4 in Division 1, losing on the road to Duke, Rutgers, Florida and now NDSU.

[detule]

Ok, anyone else watching this game? Some stupid last minute plays on the part of State and great (albeit, very fortunate) execution by UNO and the game just ended 65 - 63 on a banked in three by New Orleans leaving 1.7s on the clock.

State could've used Dock on their team tonight...

[pamtar]

That was the most pathetic excuse for a ACC game I've ever seen. No fans, no rhythm, and the dumbest play of the year so far courtesy of Courtney Fells. He had to be paid off.

[sandinmyshoes]

It was like the spirit, or at least the brain, of Chris Washburn had taken over NCSU's team in that last minute. It is also going to cost the ACC a ranked team. :mad:

[pamtar]

It was like the spirit, or at least the brain, of Chris Washburn had taken over NCSU's team in that last minute. It is also going to cost the ACC a ranked team. :mad:

All someone has to do now is steal a stereo.

[WiJoe]

I'm a big ACC follower in the midwest. Have Directv sports pack, and have been dismayed to find NC State game tonight and Twerps game on Friday (?) blacked out. They were both shown by NESN and, I think, Sports South. I don't know if they were part of the ESPN full court package, which I won't buy because I'm most interested in DUKE.

Can anybody provide info on these blackouts? Thanks.

[Bluedog]

Miami just had a nice win over Providence, a team predicted to be in the top half of the Big East by most.

[notacolour]

Now we have Winthrop over GaTech, UNO over NCSU, and USF over FlaSt. Hrmmm...

[JasonEvans]

This entire thread was an ACC woof. We spoke too soon!!

-Jason

[gw67]

The ACC is now 27-5 thanks to the less-than-stellar performances of Florida State, Georgia Tech and NC State. The Pac-10 record of 22-5 is comparable and count me as one who believes that they are superior to the ACC this year. They have UCLA, Oregon and Washington State at the top with USC, Arizona, Washington, California and Stanford capable of being better than average. They’ve had some bad losses so far but so has the ACC.

gw67

[Olympic Fan]

The ACC is now 27-5 thanks to the less-than-stellar performances of Florida State, Georgia Tech and NC State. The Pac-10 record of 22-5 is comparable and count me as one who believes that they are superior to the ACC this year. They have UCLA, Oregon and Washington State at the top with USC, Arizona, Washington, California and Stanford capable of being better than average. They’ve had some bad losses so far but so has the ACC.

gw67

We ACC fans did indeed woof too soon, but I'm not ready to concede that the Pac 10 is a better league (check Virginia at Arizona and BC easily handled the Mercer team that won at USC). Yes, most of our losses have been bad ones, but most of the losses by the Pac 10 (Mercer, Alaska-Fairbanks, Colorado State, Siena) have been bad too.

I really like UCLA and think they're better right now that UNC, but the two are comparable teams. I'm not as sure that Oregon and Washington State deserve the status you give them -- are they better than Duke? -- and USC, Arizona and Stanford that you mentioned as the next tier have losses that compare with NC State's loss to NOrleans. I really disagree with your assessment of Cal -- they lost their starting backcourt off last year's 16-17 team and were picked 9th in the Pac 10 preseason poll.

So far, four of the five ACC losses have come from two teams -- Georgia Tech and FSU are obviously having problems. But Miami has been much better than projected. while Clemson and Virginia have won impressive road games. I'm not ready to write off N.C. State or Maryland (which has been about as bad as it's possible to be without losing) yet ... although both have to find the chemistry that they've been missing.

Now, I expect Maryland to lose to UCLA tonight -- but that won't tell us any more than if Duke beats Arizona State Tuesday night in Maui.

Anyway, you might be right about the Pac 10 -- time will tell -- but I don't agree and just wanted to explain why.

[gw67]

Olympic – I respect your opinion and I hope you are right. My take on the Pac-10 teams based on what I remember from last year and what I’ve read is as follows:

UCLA – With their full complement of players, they are the equal of UNC.
Oregon – They are experienced, have a strong starting five and some fine freshmen. They are the equal of Duke.
Washington State – Like Oregon, they are experienced and have a great backcourt. Bennett is an up and coming coach and they won’t beat themselves. Better than any of the remaining ACC teams.
USC – Young, guard oriented team with a solid center. They have more talent than any of the remaining ACC teams and by late in the season, they will be competitive against the top three teams in the Pac-10.
Washington – Brockman is one of the top players in the country and team is comparable to Clemson, NC State.
Arizona – Budinger and Bayless are very talented but team will need to come together and share ball. They are better than average team and are equal to ACC teams in top half.
California – The Bears have a strong frontcourt. Backcourt is young but has played well to date. Braun is a good coach and, like Arizona, I see them as a better than average team.

Of the rest, Stanford has potential to be a middle of the pack team when Lopez returns. Arizona State and Oregon State may be bringing up the bottom.

gw67

[Olympic Fan]

I'm not so arrogant to think I can't be wrong (although I know it sounds that way sometimes). I just think that we have a tendency to be overly critical of our own teams (we see their flaws more clearly up close).

I agree that a couple of Pac 10 teams have had health issues, but so have the ACC teams that are struggling.

I was checking out the Georgia Tech box to see how they could lose to Winthrop and saw that not only are they still playing without starting center Zack Peacock (at least he was supposed to start until Ra'sean Dickey is eligible in mid-December), but also freshman Maurice Miller missed the Winthrop game.

D'Andre Bell started and played 24 minutes at the point (3 assists and four turnovers). Miller had been playing pretty well since the opener -- although Matt Causey (their other option at PG) has been disappointing.

Florida State's big problem has been the absence of 7-1 freshman Soloman Alabi. I know he was supposed to be a big part of Hamilton's plans, but he hasn't played yet ... I wonder if his presence would have helped against USF -- their 6-11 center scored 21 in a 68-67 victory.

NC State is also kind of hurting -- McCauley has been sick and Gonzalez, their freshman PG, missed most of preseason after thumb surgery. He's playing a bit now, but missing all that practice time has to hurt. They get Tennessee transfer Marques Johnson in mid-December -- although I honestly don't think he's a point guard, but he could give them another option to Fells and Grant at WG.

Still no excuse for blowing the game against New Orleans. Lowe has a great talent in Hickson, but early signs are that he's creating some chemistry problems for a team that finished last year with the best chemistry in the ACC.

We'll just have to wait and see how these teams develop. We should have learned from Clemson the last two years that a fast start doesn't always mean excellence and from Virginia Tech last year that a slow start doesn't always mean long-term problems.