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View Full Version : ACC Play after a Few Games - Some Thoughts



gw67
01-21-2008, 08:45 AM
We are nearly ¼ through the conference schedule and the following are some initial thoughts:

• Sagarin and Pomeroy rank the ACC as the 3rd/4th best in the country while RPI ranks it 1st. The only teams ranked in the top 40 in all three are Duke, UNC and Clemson. Miami is ranked 39th and 43rd in two of the rankings, N.C.State is ranked 36th in RPI and Maryland is ranked 42nd in Pomeroy. None of the other teams are ranked in the top 50 in any of the three rankings. This does not bode well for NCAA invites.
• Duke and UNC are clearly the class of the league. I expect the Heels to re-focus after their loss and to be very difficult to beat from here on. Duke is much better than I expected and they are fun to watch. They may have more talented players than any team in the ACC and I doubt that any team in the country can bring in a set of reserves comparable to Scheyer, Smith and King. They do have some weaknesses but I doubt that there are very many teams who can take advantage of them.
• Clemson appears to be alone in 3rd although it will be interesting to see whether this year’s team can win on the road. IMO, that will be the big question for the ten teams other than Duke and UNC. For example, Miami has tough home games against UNC and Clemson and then road games against Duke and Wake in their next four games. I think that they will need to be lucky to win two of those games. After seeing most of the teams play and looking at the league schedule, it is not clear to me that any team other than Duke, UNC and Clemson will win more than half of their games. This assumes that the Tigers win 2-3 games on the road.
• Nelson has joined Hansbrough, Singletary and Rice as the top players in the league. The 5th player likely will come from Clemson (Rivers or Booker). A long shot for All ACC, IMO, is Vasquez.
• Johnson of Wake is beginning to make a claim for the top freshmen in the ACC. Hickson, Singler, Allen and Teague appear to right behind.

gw67