ACC Basketball Rankings Dec 13-Dec 20

With ACC Football on break for little while until bowl season, it's time to start looking at how ACC basketball is doing for 2009-2010.

The ACC lost the ACC\Big Ten challenge for the first time ever, but I never found the series to really help the ACC get teams into the NCAA's anyways.

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Preseason

1) Duke Blue Devils (7-1, 0-0)
The Blue Devils are off to a solid start. Their only loss was to Wisconsin and they have non-conference wins over Connecticut and Arizona State. Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler are playing a lot of minutes right now.

2) North Carolina Tar Heels (8-2, 0-0)
They've already beaten Ohio State and Michigan State, and outside of the loss to Syracuse, Roy Williams has this team moving along in very much the right direction.

3) Clemson Tigers (8-2, 0-0)
The Tigers are tough to figure out. They have a nice non-conference win over Butler, but blowing that huge second half lead against Illinois raises some question marks. I think they are still figuring out how to score points at times without Terrence Oglesby to stretch perimeter defenses out.

4) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (6-1, 0-0)
Just how good are the Yellow Jackets? That's really hard to say. Their best wins are over Siena and a bad USC squad. They are just too talented down low with Derrick Favors and and Gani Lawal, though not to be a contender. Mfon Udofia looks like a solid young PG.

5) Florida State Seminoles (7-2, 0-0)
They are adjusting to the loss of Tony Dougless quite nicely, by playing some great defense. The Noles lead the ACC in blocked shots and defensive FG percentage.

6) Virgina Tech Hokies (8-1, 0-0)
Virginia Tech is a lot like Georgia Tech. Just how good are they? They should start the year 11-1 before playing Seton Hall. Malcom Delaney is playing at an All-ACC Level right now.

7) Miami Hurricanes (9-1, 0-1)
If Miami had won at Boston College, I'd probably have them in my top three. As we know, winning on the road in the ACC is never easy, and a 9-1 start is a 9-1 start. They Hurricanes play nobody until a Jan. 9 game against Wake Forest. That's a likely 14-1 start to the season.

8) North Carolina State Wolfpack (7-1, 0-0)
A 7-1 start is exactly how the Wolfpack needed to start the year. There's even solid road win at Marquette. What is concerning at the moment is that NC State is dead last in the ACC in scoring.

9) Maryland Terrapins (6-3, 0-0)
The Terps are in my opinion the most disappointing team of the early going. They've played a tough schedule, but have no wins of note, unless you count a win against a very mediocre Indiana squad. The Terps have to improve their rebounding. They are the only ACC team being out rebounded on average by their opponent.

10) Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-2, 0-0)                                                              

Al-Farouq Aminu is averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds. As long he can play at that level the Deacs will be dangerous. There is an ugly home loss to William and Mary though. William & Mary actually isn't that bad but they shouldn't beat the Deacs in Winston Salem.

11) Boston College Eagles (6-4, 1-0)
Boston College beat Miami at home then promptly lost its next game to Harvard. There's also road wins at Providence and Michigan. The Eagles have the most losses in the ACC, but also a have good set of non-conference wins. What happened against Rhode Island though? The Rams ran the Eagles out of their own building.

12) Virginia Cavaliers (4-4, 0-0)
Virginia has three losses by a combined nine points. The Cavaliers are improved, but they have a long way to go.