NCAA Basketball takeaways: ACC title race, SEC bad night and Big East drama
By Joey Loose
3. Understanding the ACC race
Last season saw two ACC teams matchup in the Final Four, with North Carolina getting the better of Duke. The ACC regularly has postseason runs, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re still in December and there’s still the matter of conference play, and believe me when I say that this league is pretty tight right now.
Tuesday night saw a pair of intriguing matchups that give us an early picture on this league. Duke went to Wake Forest and left Winston-Salem with an 11-point loss, while the Cavaliers of Virginia were dropping by Miami, as the Hurricanes are the first 3-0 team in the ACC. The Hurricanes are playing fantastic basketball right now and certainly look like one of the early favorites in the league.
North Carolina struggled to start the season, but has been playing better basketball in recent weeks, and will look to make a run at the title with its experienced lineup. One team that already bested the Tar Heels is Virginia Tech, who have certainly snuck their way into contention with their 11-1 mark and early ranking. One last team to watch is Pittsburgh, who not only are 2-0 in the conference but have a pair of road wins over NC State and Syracuse.
The negative is that the bottom of the conference is as bad as it’s ever been. Louisville is dreadfully bad, Florida State is not playing great, and Boston College is really struggling this season. Additionally, teams like Clemson, Georgia Tech, or Syracuse aren’t really seen as contenders but will certainly give those top-level contenders more of a fight. There’s a long conference season ahead, though early on it looks like Miami will have something to say about the expected fight between Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia.