It was a tough week for the ACC. Duke struggled against two weak teams, one a non-conference game, and the bubble teams all played like they didn’t want the hassle of booking travel to the NCAAs. Virginia actually deserves credit for stepping up onto the bubble early in the week with a huge win over BC, but they slipped right back on the weekend in Clemson. Maryland continued their post-McCray slide (think maybe it’s worth the money to pay someone to walk these chumps to class?) and FSU hurt themselves by dropping one in Blacksburg. The only team that clearly helped their position was Miami, but they only played once and are still a long shot.
But before you get too depressed and concede that the ACC will get only four teams in (and maybe only two good teams), consider this excellent Al Featherston article. If read through the whole thing (and you should), you’ll come across this very interesting nugget – since the expansion to 64 teams, no BCS team with 20 wins by Selection Sunday has ever been left out of the tournament. Wow! I had never heard that before. Florida State is sitting at 17-8 with two regular season games remaining. Given how they played in Durham, it’s conceivable that they could beat Duke at home, but failing that, they have a good chance to win in Miami. Given their seeding, they’ll likely get a pretty weak team in their first ACC Tournament game and if they win, another chance for a win on that Friday. That’s a lot of good opportunities to get three more wins. Yeah, it’s Florida State and they aren’t really known for stepping up and winning when they need to, but their chances are actually better than I thought.
Featherston also points out that, like last year, the bubble is pretty weak this year so some teams with what seems like lacking resumes are going to get in. Why not an ACC team (or two)?
But you didn’t click on this to read my ramblings. You want pretty pictures and color and stuff. Here ya go!
Team | prev/cur | Avg. | Postseason Prediction | Trend | ||||
Duke (27-1, 14-0) | prev | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Absolute lock for a 1 seed | ![]() |
cur | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
UNC (19-6, 10-4) | prev | 18 | 12 | 20 | 19 | 17.25 | Could sneak into a 3 seed or even higher with a big finish | ![]() |
cur | 12 | 9 | 14 | 13 | 12 | |||
NC State (21-7, 10-5) | prev | 12 | 11 | 10 | 18 | 12.75 | Could be anywhere from a 4 to a 6 seed, depending on their ACC Tourney | ![]() |
cur | 17 | 16 | 17 | 34 | 21 | |||
BC (22-6, 9-5) | prev | 21 | 18 | 17 | 34 | 22.5 | Same as NC State | ![]() |
cur | 25 | 19 | 18 | 35 | 24.25 | |||
FSU (17-8, 7-7) | prev | 30 | 36 | 34 | 60 | 40 | Sneaks in with a 12 seed (and angers talking heads) | ![]() |
cur | 35 | 39 | 39 | 65 | 44.5 | |||
Miami (15-12, 7-7) | prev | 58 | 73 | 56 | 72 | 64.75 | NIT | ![]() |
cur | 57 | 73 | 55 | 71 | 64 | |||
Virginia (14-11, 7-7) | prev | 70 | 62 | 62 | 71 | 66.25 | NIT | ![]() |
cur | 74 | 60 | 59 | 67 | 65 | |||
Maryland (16-11, 6-8) | prev | 44 | 37 | 42 | 45 | 42 | NIT (saving College Park from riots again) | ![]() |
cur | 54 | 43 | 47 | 51 | 48.75 | |||
Clemson (16-11, 5-9) | prev | 72 | 62 | 66 | 66 | 66.5 | NIT | ![]() |
cur | 65 | 56 | 64 | 72 | 64.25 | |||
VA Tech (14-13, 4-10) | prev | 68 | 81 | 82 | 120 | 87.75 | Team forgotten while fans wonder why Frank Beamer hired Mike O’Cain | ![]() |
cur | 67 | 80 | 77 | 116 | 85 | |||
GA Tech (11-15, 4-11) | prev | 101 | 99 | 108 | 141 | 112.25 | Getting ready for Thad Young’s one year of college ball | ![]() |
cur | 94 | 90 | 106 | 137 | 106.75 | |||
Wake Forest (14-14, 2-12) | prev | 92 | 92 | 99 | 105 | 97 | Prosser can dust off his old copy of The Merchant of Venice | ![]() |
cur | 106 | 97 | 100 | 113 | 104 |
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