We’ve seen each ACC basketball team now in the non-conference season. The ACC pre-season rankings at ACC.com had the order of finish in this way.
1. Duke
2. North Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. Miami
5. Louisville
6. Virginia
7. Virginia Tech
8. Florida State
9. Georgia Tech
10. Syracuse
11. Wake Forest
12. NC State
13. Clemson
14. Boston College
15. Pittsburgh
Does it still look that way? Here’s how’d I rank them after seeing the teams in real action through December.
1. Duke – Despite loss to BC they are still the most talented team in the conference.
2. Miami – They have played the most consistent basketball of any team in the ACC so far this year.
3. North Carolina – I still feel like this team is a little bit of a unknown, but I think their best basketball is yet to come.
4. Virginia – I’m higher on this team than most, but I’m a believer in Tony Bennett.
5. Florida State – They are long, athletic and talented, but their signature win over Florida is looking less and less impressive.
6. Notre Dame – This is a difficult team to predict. They’ve looked like both a Final 4 and a NIT team this year.
7. Virginia Tech – The Hokies nearly knocked off Kentucky in Lexington. Buzz Williams will get them back to the NCAAs.
8. Syracuse – This isn’t Jim Boeheim’s best team, but they are going to cause a lot of headaches.
9. Louisville – We won’t really know about the Cardinals until they play at Kentucky.
10. Clemson – Clemson already has wins at Ohio State and Florida. Quietly Brad Brownell has Clemson off to a very nice start.
11. Boston College – If you can beat Duke, you’re capable of beating anyone on your schedule. BC has one of the ACC’s better backcourts.
12. NC State – The Wolfpack have a win over Arizona, but probably are still year or two away from being an upper echelon ACC team.
13. Georgia Tech – The Jackets have some disastrous non-conferences losses. Josh Okogie will help when he returns, and that should keep Georgia Tech out of the bottom 2.
14. Wake Forest – Ask me again about Wake Forest if they can beat Tennessee at home in a couple of weeks.
15. Pittsburgh – The Panthers are starting to play better, but I’m not Kevin Stallings fan and now their best player Ryan Luther may be out 2-3 weeks.
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