Where the rankings are arbitrary and the points are made up
Now that the football regular season is over, we can turn our #jokesandgarbage attention to ACC Men’s Basketball where you might be surprised to find that there are teams below the Syracuse Orange. Let’s get to this week’s rankings:
1: Duke Blue Devils (8-2, 1-0)
By far the best overall team in the league, but they are really young and will everyone’s marquee opponent. Expect a couple of slips on the road and Jim Phillips hopes those losses come to conference teams on the bubble.
2. Clemson Tigers (9-2, 1-0)
Brad Brownell is just going to keep grabbing grad transfers from other ACC schools to play shooting guard which might become awkward when he targets Braeden Shrewsberry
3. Pitt Panthers (9-2, 1-0)
Jeff Capel’s turned things around. Good thing Pitt was patient with him after a rough start…..
4. SMU Mustangs (9-2, 1-0)
Andy Enfield might have quietly made the best coaching move of the year.
5. UNC Tar Heels (6-4, 1-0)
Expected UNC to be better but there’s too much talent to write them off. It is the first time in a decade they’ve had to play without Amando Bacot after all
6. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (8-3, 1-0)
Somehow shooting 3s worse than Syracuse so you figure that changes
7. NC State Wolfpack (7-4, 1-0)
We’re reaching the “are they any good or what portion?” of the rankings here so who knows.
8. Stanford Cardinal (8-2, 1-0)
Maxime Raynaud will be first team All-ACC…and no we’re not talking about men’s soccer
9. Louisville Cardinals (6-5, 0-1)
Close loss at Kentucky as Pat Kelsey navigates some injuries and his all-transfer squad. They might have the metrics in March, will they have the wins?
Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
10. Florida State Seminoles (8-3, 0-1)
Leonard Hamilton should be getting some of Mike Norvell’s “give back” money. A good basketball start takes a little heat of the disaster that was football.
11. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-5, 1-0)
Can they keep afloat until Markus Burton returns? This is going to be a squad you don’t want to see in Charlotte
12. Syracuse Orange (5-5, 0-1)
Can they avoid drowning until JJ Starling returns? Can Orange fans show a bit of patience with Adrian Autry?
13. Virginia Cavaliers (6-4, 0-1)
Note to Syracuse, when you play Virginia, make someone other than Isaac McNeely beat you
14. Miami Hurricanes (4-7, 0-1)
Lots of offense, but not much defense in Coral Gables….and the basketball team has trouble guarding the perimeter too.
15. California Golden Bears (7-4, 0-1)
Lost to Cornell so you can’t be ranked much higher than this right now.
16. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (4-6, 0-1)
Get credit for having played a challenging schedule so far.
17. Boston College Eagles (7-4, 0-1)
Penalized for playing a very weak schedule so far. Nice win over Boise but not much else here.
18. Virginia Tech Hokies (4-6, 0-1)
Hunter Cattoor’s not walking through that door.
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What did we get wrong this week?