ACC Hoops Standings - Week of 2/9 - SCACCHoops.com

ACC Hoops Standings - Week of 2/9

by One Foot Down

Posted: 2/9/2016 9:00:27 AM


The biggest news of the week in the conference came off the court, with plenty of implications for the remainder of the ACC season.

The administration at the University of Louisville did their best to dump the big news on Friday afternoon, but it was absolutely the story of the college hoops weekend. The Louisville brass decided to self-impose a postseason ban following a mysterious update from the NCAA regarding their investigation into the program's alleged use of prostitutes for recruiting visits.

The attempted self-penalty likely suggests a damning investigation by the NCAA, with the team sacrificing a chance at a major postseason run sitting at 19-4 on the season in order to mitigate the hammer likely to come down on them.

The decision by Louisville also opens up an additional double-bye opportunity for the ACC Tournament which would likely have otherwise been taken by the Cardinals. That fourth slot was front-and-center for Monday night's showdown between Notre Dame and Clemson.

Here are the updated ACC standings through Monday's games, with a top four possibly starting to materialize:

ACC Standings (2/9/2016)
Rank Team Record Trend
1 North Carolina Tar Heels 8-2 Down
2 Louisville Cardinals 8-3 Down
  Virginia Cavaliers 8-3 Up
4 Miami-Florida Hurricanes 7-3 Up
5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 8-4 Up
6 Duke Blue Devils 7-4 Up
7 Pittsburgh Panthers 6-4 Down
8 Clemson Tigers 7-5 Down
9 Florida State Seminoles 6-5 Up
  Syracuse Orange 6-5 Even
11 Virginia Tech Hokies 5-6 Even
12 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 2-8 Even
13 North Carolina State Wolfpack 2-9 Even
14 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 1-10 Even
15 Boston College Eagles 0-10 Even

 

North Carolina (This week: 2/9 @ BC, 2/14 vs. Pitt) had a bit of a hiccup this week in their dramatic loss at Notre Dame, but they are still holding firm as a top ten team nationally. Still, they are surprisingly short on top wins and have a tough stretch following what should be a very manageable week for them. Are they still the favorite to win the ACC? Yes, probably. But it's far from a sure thing.

Louisville (This week: 2/13 @ ND) obviously had an off-the-court week that could only be seen as a trainwreck, and last night's loss at Duke just completed a miserable week for the Cardinals. A dominant win over BC provides little solace.

Don't look now, but all of a sudden Virginia (This week: 2/9 vs. VT, 2/13 @ Duke) is right in the thick of the ACC regular season title race after rattling off six wins in a row. They also seem like they have exorcised their road demons with demonstrative wins at Louisville and Pittsburgh in recent weeks. Tony Bennett has a sleeper national title contender on his hands right now.

Miami (This week: 2/9 vs. Pitt, 2/14 @ FSU) is firmly in position to snag one of the top four seeds following a dominant home win over Notre Dame and a hard-fought road victory over Georgia Tech. The Hurricanes stand alone in 4th place with a game-in-hand to potentially make up ground on some others as well.

Following a big loss to Miami and a big win over UNC, Notre Dame's (This week: 2/13 vs. Louisville) week hinged on last night's game against Clemson. On short rest, the Irish took care of business, grinding out a hard-fought road victory to put them in prime position for that 4th double-bye.

Duke (This week: 2/13 vs. Virginia) is back to their winning ways, picking up three consecutive wins this past week. The first two were fairly unimpressive, close wins over Georgia Tech and NC State, but they capped off a great week last night with a big home win over Louisville that might signal that the Blue Devils are back.

Pittsburgh (This week: 2/9 @ Miami, 2/14 @ UNC) is an interesting test case as a team with a lot of wins but not very many good ones (Notre Dame is their best RPI win). They were pounded at home by Virginia and have a brutal week on the road at Miami and UNC. Can the Panthers pick up any big wins down the stretch and avoid putting themselves on the bubble?

Clemson (This week: 2/13 vs. GT) won fairly easily at Wake Forest but picked up a bad loss at Virginia Tech. They really needed last night's win over Notre Dame at home but were never quite able to get over the hump in the back-and-forth battle with the Irish. Their remaining schedule isn't tough, but they have no room for error to stay in the tournament conversation.

Not much action for Syracuse (This week: 2/11 vs. FSU, 2/14 @ BC), as they escaped their only game with an overtime win over Virginia Tech. Another team on the bubble, most prognosticators seem to have the Orange in the field at this point.

A solid week for Florida State (This week: 2/11 @ Syracuse, 2/14 vs. Miami) that likely keeps them on the right side of the bubble for the time being with two wins, albeit against weak opponents. The Seminoles' last 7 games seem quite manageable for their tournament hopes.

Virginia Tech (This week: 2/9 @ Virginia) stays scrappy, suffering an overtime loss at Syracuse and bouncing back to beat Clemson at home to end their five game losing streak. A tough road game at Virginia awaits this week, but they have been surprisingly competitive in the in-state rivalry since Buzz took over. Some winnable games down the stretch give them an outside shot at 8 wins, which would be an incredible rebuilding job.

Georgia Tech (This week: 2/10 vs. Wake, 2/13 @ Clemson) is an odd story once again. They continue to hover in the 50s in KenPom's rankings, but can't get any wins, with many close losses to their ledger. It might be a lot of bad luck, but all of these losses are really starting to be an indictment of Brian Gregory, whose teams consistently cannot close out games.

NC State (This week: 2/13 vs. Wake, 2/15 @ Virginia) had two close road losses this past week, failing to build any momentum after the big win over Miami. They have a tough schedule the rest of the way in what's looking like a lost season for the Wolfpack.

Wake Forest (This week: 2/10 @ GT, 2/13 @ NC St) is broken after that Virginia heart-breaker two weeks ago. They weren't even close in home games against Clemson and FSU and are tumbling down KenPom's rankings.

Boston College (This week: 2/9 vs. UNC, 2/14 vs. Syracuse) lost all of its games this week (I'm just gonna leave this here the rest of the season).

 

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