We’ll be turning the corner from ACC Football to ACC Basketball over the next few days. Expect a weekly NCAA Bubble Analysis of ACC starting this week. Before we get into that, we are go select 3 ACC teams that have been up in the early non-conference schedule and 3 that are down.
Up
Duke
This team borders on scary good. Marvin Bagley III has been even better than advertised, and Grayson Allen has been steadying force. Here’s what so impressive about Duke. Michigan State is the 2nd best team I’ve seen all year, and Duke down 2 with 4 Minutes left against the Spartans, went into another gear that no other team in the country can match. They won going away. If Coach K can get this team to consistently play full 40 minute games, just watch out.
Florida State
The Noles had been flying under the radar, but when they went on the road and just dismantled a Florida team that was the top 5 it opened a lot of eyes. FSU is long and athletic and they can score. They have only played 1 single digit game.
Miami
There aren’t many teams in the country with better guard play than the Hurricanes. They went to Minnesota and beat a very good Gopher team. Miami has 7 players that average more than 7 points a game. This is balanced scoring team that’s going to hang around the top 15 all year.
Down
Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets entered the season a fringe NCAA hopeful, but injuries, bad luck, and just plain awful basketball probably have ended any realistic NCAA chances before the 2nd week of December. There’s a humiliating home loss to Grambling, and an ugly loss at Wofford. Josh Okogie’s return will help, but it won’t be enough to save a lost season.
Pittsburgh
We warned Pittsburgh fans that Kevin Stallings was a bad hire as basketball. His second year at Pitt opened with a thud. The Panthers lost 4 of their first 5 games with a loss to Montana and a 30 point defeat to Penn State. Pitt has shown a few signs of life recently by winning their last 4 games, but once they get into conference play it’s going to be very rough for Pittsburgh.
Wake Forest
The Deacs opened the season as poorly as any ACC team team, with home losses to Georgia Southern, Liberty, and Drake. Danny Manning got Wake to NCAA’s last year, but they struggled defensively, and especially early teams routinely were breaking the 75 point barrier. To their credit, Wake Forest has won 5 games in a row, so they are starting to play better.
