Busting Brackets
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ACC Basketball power rankings: Florida State rises, Louisville dives downward

By Tristan Freeman

CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA - JANUARY 22: Kameron McGusty #23 of the Miami Hurricanes drives to the basket against Matthew Cleveland #35 of the Florida State Seminoles during the first half at Watsco Center on January 22, 2022 in Coral Gables, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA - JANUARY 22: Kameron McGusty #23 of the Miami Hurricanes drives to the basket against Matthew Cleveland #35 of the Florida State Seminoles during the first half at Watsco Center on January 22, 2022 in Coral Gables, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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ACC Basketball Caleb Love North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)
ACC Basketball Caleb Love North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images) /

441. . 13-6 (5-3). . Tar Heels . 6. team

The biggest storyline of the Tar Heels season has been its defense… or lack thereof at times. After giving up 78 points in a five-point defeat to Notre Dame, there was some hope that the team was going to take that end of the court more seriously. They gave up just 58 and 65 points respectively at home to both Virginia and Georgia Tech in wins to get back on track. Of course, those aren’t high-scoring teams so that could’ve been fluky.

And maybe that turned out to be correct, as North Carolina reverted back to its old ways on the road last week at Miami and Wake Forest. Both of them were blowout losses, allowing 85 and 98 points respectively. And not only did they lose in embarrassing fashion, but the Tar Heels also missed out on a pair of resume-building opportunities against the top teams in the ACC.

UNC did get a little bit of momentum back on Monday, beating Virginia Tech, 78-68 without Dawson Garcia. Caleb Love led the team with 22 points, with RJ Davis and Brady Manek each scoring 15 points. All five starters were in double figures and although they shot just 37% from the field as a team, the Tar Heels had 11 more rebounds and made 10 three-pointers to get the win.

UNC has a huge road game against Duke coming in early February but needs to sweep the next three opponents (Louisville, NC State, Boston College) to not hurt its resume even more than it already it. We’ll see if the defense improves enough to win consistently but that’s hard to envision at this point.