Will's World: Virginia Proves It Is The Best Team - SCACCHoops.com

Will's World: Virginia Proves It Is The Best Team

by Will Ojanen

Posted: 3/6/2014 5:37:01 AM


Thanks to conference expansion, which allows the conference schedule to be unbalanced, there has been sort of an asterisk to Virginia's regular season conference championship. And yes, I know the ACC doesn't technically recognize the regular season conference title, but I'm not the ACC, so I will recognize it.

The reason the asterisk is there is because Virginia played the top six teams in the conference just once, while the other three teams that are near the top, Syracuse, Duke, and North Carolina, have played two games against at least one of the other top six.  It's sort of the price the other three teams have to pay for being top teams on a year in, year out basis, while Virginia occasionally contends, so they won't always get the tough schedule like these other teams.  Most top NCAA basketball lines going into the season didn't even consider Virginia a contender.

The thing to me that separates Virginia from the rest is that they don't have a bad conference loss. Their one loss is at Duke, where one wrong bounce could have had Virginia on the verge of an undefeated conference season. Syracuse lost at home to Boston College and Georgia Tech, Duke lost at Notre Dame and at Clemson, and UNC lost at Wake Forest and to Miami at home.

Let's also take a look at how these top four teams have fared against each other. Syracuse is 2-2 against Virginia, Duke, and UNC, and the average score of those games is 69-66 in favor of the other team. North Carolina is 1-2, and the average score is 66-60 in favor of the other team. Duke is 2-2, and both teams have averaged 73 points in those games. Virginia is 2-1, and the average score is 72-62 in favor of Virginia.

Do you want other reasons why Virginia proved to be the best team in the ACC? Of the 16 wins Virginia has in conference, 12 of them are by double digits, and five of them are by at least 20 points. There are four other games in which Virginia held 20 point leads, so with the exception of a few games, they dominated their opponent.

Why have the Cavs dominated so much? They are number one in the ACC in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, rebounding margin, defensive rebounding percentage, defensive efficiency and  second in scoring margin and offensive efficiency. So yes, it's tough to score on them. All of these factors prove that Virginia has been the best team in the ACC.

 

 



Recent Articles from Will Ojanen


Recommended Articles



SCACC Hoops has no affiliation to the NCAA or the ACC
Team logos are trademarks of their respective organizations (more/credits)

Privacy Policy