Give this article’s author and our esteemed friend and college football writer @MattZemek, Editor at @TrojansWire a follow
Virginia and Florida State both served up clunkers on Saturday. Before I say anything else: The teams that beat them played really well. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech displayed the desperation and hunger of teams trying to prove themselves and fight for every last piece of NCAA Tournament leverage. The Hokies and Yellow Jackets treated these games as the season-shaping showcases they were. Virginia and Florida State had been doing a lot of winning, but ran into potholes and were tripped up.
“BAD DAY FOR THE VIRGINIA-FLORIDA STATE CROWD,” roared some parts of Twitter, as though anyone WASN’T thinking that the Cavaliers and Seminoles were the class of the ACC.
They still are.
However, we have to appreciate what the Hoos and Noles bring — and don’t bring — to the table this season.
We saw Virginia get a No. 1 seed and win the national title in 2019. De’Andre Hunter, Kyle Guy, and Ty Jerome gave Tony Bennett elite talent and shotmaking this 2021 Virginia team doesn’t possess, at least not on the same scope and scale.
Last season’s Florida State team — with Trent Forrest playing ridiculously great defense — had the length and depth of this season’s team, but with more experience and a level of defensive heft this team doesn’t possess on the same scope and scale.
You get the picture: Virginia and Florida State do the things we commonly associate with Tony Bennett and Leonard Hamilton, but we have seen other UVA and FSU teams own those gifts and attributes at a higher level.
This season’s Virginia team is a No. 3 seed in quality, and Florida State is probably a No. 4 seed in terms of quality. They might both have an NCAA Tournament seed which is higher (UVA at 2, FSU at 3), but we know what “No. 1 seed talent” looks like, and these teams have not yet shown that higher gear, if only because there isn’t an elite Duke or North Carolina team for these squads to measure themselves against.
This brings me back to the start of the discussion: Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech played really well, but the Hokies and Yellow Jackets are themselves enigmatic. Will the two Techs become very dangerous Sweet 16-level threats in the coming weeks, or will they stagnate and become No. 8-seed-level teams which might win one NCAA Tournament game, or will they regress and become bubble teams which barely sneak into the Big Dance? Those questions have not been answered yet, but until the third- through sixth-place teams in the ACC prove they are clearly above-average — not first-tier teams on a national level, but in a broad second tier well above the bubble — it will remain harder to measure the ceiling for Virginia and Florida State.
If teams 3 through 6 in the ACC get better, any games they win over UVA and FSU will look more impressive… but right now, we are still learning how good and how deep the 2021 ACC truly is.
The bottom line for now: Virginia and Florida State are good teams, but not great teams. They have won a lot of games because the rest of the ACC is in flux and clearly not at the level of past years, when Duke and North Carolina were heavyweights and Syracuse and North Carolina State could make Sweet 16 runs as seeds in the 8 to 11 range. The 2021 ACC can still become a great conference, but that depends less on UVA and FSU, and a lot more on teams 3 through 6 (if not 7 through 9 as well).
Virginia and Florida State aren’t frauds; they simply aren’t the heavyweight No. 1 or No. 2 seeds ACC fans reasonably expect to see on an annual basis.
Make sure you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply