New Year’s Week losses mean long to-do lists for league play when it comes to Bracketology.
In the rare week that straddled two decades, there were plenty of teams that went backward in their attempts to build a tournament-caliber Bracketology resume. In some cases, these were teams that are locks to make the Big Dance but now will likely have lower seeding. In other cases, squads are quickly playing themselves out of the tournament altogether. It was another wild week in a season where top teams are finding it difficult to keep up their winning ways.
We start our rundown out east, where one blueblood is in exactly that type of danger.
ACC
Up near the top of the league, Florida State and Louisville clashed in a game that was guaranteed to produce a bracketology loser. But the Cardinals probably feel this loss more than the Seminoles would have, as the result pulled Chris Mack’s squad down to 2-3 in their last five games. Once considered the top team in the nation, Louisville needs to stop the bleeding.
Though all of the real damage that the ACC suffered over New Year’s Week was self-inflicted, North Carolina came haltingly close to adding another bad loss to their ledger when they narrowly survived Yale’s upset attempt. If that wasn’t enough to raise eyebrows, the Tar Heels fell to Georgia Tech at home. It’s a very real possibility that we don’t see Coach Roy in the Big Dance.
None of the ACC’s bubble teams did themselves any favors, either. Virginia Tech and Miami probably suffered the least, but neither squad looked competitive in respective losses to Virginia and Duke. Syracuse lost at home to Notre Dame, which is more damaging to the Orange than it is helpful to the Irish. NC State lost to Clemson. Pittsburgh lost to Wake Forest. These were supposed to be the easy ones, relatively speaking. Each of these losses means that these teams will need to pull off some big-name upsets later in ACC play.
But that list of big names is growing smaller each week.
More and more, it’s starting to look like the ACC is going to have to stretch to get five teams in. Duke, Florida State, and Louisville all feel like early locks. Virginia will probably be there. NC State is hanging on. But the resumes start getting very thin after the Wolfpack.
Next, we stay (mostly) in the Atlantic time zone, focusing on a league that may have more parity than any other in basketball.