22. Miami-Florida (23-6)
While a certain team rightfully dominates the headlines in the ACC, the conference as a whole has taken a step forward this season. Miami is a big part of that bounce back, as first-year head coach Jai Lucas had done sensational work in year one in Coral Gables. His Hurricanes had a 10-game win streak earlier in the year and remain near the top of the league standings, with wins over North Carolina and NC State earlier this month.
A great February continued earlier this week, with the Hurricanes topping in-state rival Florida State in an 83-73 road win. Malik Reneau continued an outstanding season with a 23-point, 12-rebound performance while Tre Donaldson added 21 points. Miami showed no signs of slowing down on Saturday, getting a 76-54 win over Boston College. Donaldson led the scoring with 15 points while Tre Washington added 14 points off the bench.
The scheduling is weird in the ACC, and these Hurricanes actually didn’t play Duke at all in this regular season, but we still have a pretty good feel on Lucas’s team. Miami has been far from perfect but they’ve won some notable games and also have a few performances they wish they could have back. Still, they just finished a pretty outstanding February and look to start March sharp with a trip to SMU before facing Louisville in the finale.