ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Duke Blue Devils gelling at the right time

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 10: Teammates Jordan Goldwire #14, Wendell Moore Jr. #0 and Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils react after a play against the Florida State Seminoles during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 10, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 08: Vernon Carey Jr. #1 of the Duke Blue Devils goes after a loose ball against Armando Bacot #5 of the North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

The logjam in the middle continues for ACC Basketball this season. How do the teams currently rank among each other?

ACC Basketball has been a conference that has been a solid reflection of college basketball as a whole. Any give night in the ACC, it feels like anyone can win with no true upsets. As we gear up for the stretch run, Duke sits in a familiar place atop the ACC at 12-2 with two formidable foes in Louisville (0.5 games back) and Florida State (1 game back) close behind them in the standings.

Duke is on a seven-game winning streak, fresh off of a 34-point beatdown of Notre Dame as they head into a Wednesday night matchup with NC State. Florida State is keeping pace with quality wins of Syracuse and Pittsburgh but Lousiville is faltering at the worse possible time.

The Cardinals are on a two-game slide entering a Wednesday night home game against Syracuse. That game, with the Orange defense reeling, will be a solid opportunity for Lousiville to right the ship and get Jordan Nwora going on offense. Freshman David Johnson has been great for Lousiville but they will need more from their upperclassmen, primarily their frontcourt, to step up if they want to keep the ACC to remain a three-team race.

Florida State has a matchup against Louisville on February 24th that will go a long way towards determining who is the ACC regular-season champion. As of the morning of February 19th, the Seminoles are only 0.5 games back of the Cardinals for second place in the ACC. Duke has the softest schedule of the trio, so expect Florida State and Lousiville to play their matchup with NCAA tournament-like intensity as it will have even bigger seeding implications moving forward if Duke was to win out.

Barring a slip-up, which they are very capable of, from the Blue Devils, February 24th will tell us who is the second-best team in the ACC. It would not be a stretch to say the ACC may be the conference with the most to play for down the stretch.