College Hoops: 10 Rivalries We Can't Wait to See with Syracuse, Pitt in ACC

For all the potential negatives of conference realignment, one silver lining will be the new matchups created in the revamped ACC. Conference newbies Pitt and Syracuse will immediately become perennial contenders in what was already a loaded league.

While the two new arrivals will lose some great conference rivalries like the one the Panthers enjoyed with West Virginia, they’ll also gain some entertaining new foes.

Last November’s Georgia Tech-Syracuse showdown provided an unexpected preview of one game that could soon become an annual event, and that's not even the best that's in store for the ACC.

Read on for a look at the 10 most intriguing matchups for the new-look conference. 

10. Pitt-Virginia Tech

One of the curiosities of the new ACC will be this matchup of teams that have spent the last several seasons repeating the same storylines.

Pitt, consistently outstanding in the regular season (as last year, when they won the regular-season title in the stacked Big East), has floundered in the tourney, with just one Elite Eight in its current players’ lifetimes.

Virginia Tech, meanwhile, has spent seemingly all of coach Seth Greenberg’s seven-year tenure on the bubble, but has just one NCAA bid since 1996.

Can the team that can’t get into the tournament top the team that can’t win in it? Only time will tell.

9. Syracuse-Georgia Tech

Even as good as Syracuse looked for most of last year’s 80-76 win over the Yellow Jackets in Atlantic City, the game provided a great reminder of why this will be a matchup to relish.

Brian Oliver, far from the best of Georgia Tech’s long line of perimeter scorers, picked apart the Orange zone for a career-high 32 points.

Nothing beats a zone more consistently than great three-point shooting, and the Yellow Jackets have long been one of the top perimeter offenses in the ACC.

Jim Boeheim’s teams will have their work cut out for them, especially on the road, in this matchup.

8. Pitt-Clemson

Pitt’s guards (often NYC products) aren’t ones to be intimidated by anything, but they’ll have to be on their games offensively against Clemson.

New Tigers coach Brad Brownell looks to be continuing his team’s recent emphasis on high-pressure, turnover-focused defense.

The contrasting styles of the conservative Panthers—who tend to rely on contested shots and rebounding more than steals to build their own elite defense.

The aggressive Tigers will make for some hard-fought matchups now that these two squads will be facing each other on a regular basis.

7. Syracuse-Florida State

The Seminoles may not dominate on defense every year like they did with Chris Singleton a season ago, but it’s a good bet that Leonard Hamilton’s squad will be among the toughest man-to-man defenses in the country on a regular basis.

What better foil, then, for the country’s best zone defensive team in Jim Boeheim’s Orange?

It’ll be a while before FSU rises to Syracuse’s level as a program, but the defensive showdowns between these two squads will be something to see from the moment the Orange arrive in the conference.

6. Pitt-Florida State

The Seminoles have established themselves as one of the great giant-killers in the country in recent years, particularly on their home floor (as Duke has learned repeatedly).

With Pitt routinely earning Top 10 rankings in the regular season, the Panthers will soon learn to beware their trips to the Tucker Center.

It doesn’t hurt that these matchups will frequently also feature two of the top defensive teams in the nation.

FSU is one of the few ACC squads that would’ve been at home joining Pitt in the Big East, rather than the other way round.

5. Syracuse-Boston College

One of the entertaining new rivalries for the Orange is actually an entertaining old rivalry, as they’re reunited with a fellow original Big East team in Boston College.

Even without former coach Al Skinner getting to resume hostilities with Jim Boeheim, the Eagles still have more than enough of their hard-nosed Big East roots to make Syracuse feel right at home in the ACC.

This matchup is also the closest thing either school has to a geographic rivalry in the southern-leaning conference.

4. Pitt-North Carolina

The Tar Heels may have produced four times as many NBA players as the Panthers (76 to 16 all-time).

Both teams have been among the nation’s elite winners in the regular season over the last decade.

Conference play for UNC is going to get a lot tougher with the Panthers around.

Pitt’s physical defense will be a new challenge for a UNC team more accustomed to high-scoring shootouts with archrival Duke.

The Panthers, meanwhile, will need to score an awful lot of points themselves to keep up with Roy Williams’ fast-paced club.

3. Syracuse-Duke

The offense that Coach K has been preaching for years—ball movement, three-point shooting—seems tailor-made for breaking down a 2-3 zone.

As Syracuse has proven time and again, though, even the best offenses can struggle against Jim Boeheim’s signature D.

With Maryland’s Gary Williams gone from the ACC, the conference will also benefit from adding another of the old lions of the coaching profession to match wits with Krzyzewski (not to mention with UNC’s Roy Williams).

2. Pitt-Duke

When Duke’s offense is running in peak form, the Blue Devils’ three-point shooting and precision passing can finesse opponents to death.

Against Pitt, though, Coach K’s boys will have to learn how to win ugly.

The physical Panthers’ D will challenge every trey and force Duke to earn its points.

With both teams being among the most consistent regular-season powers in the nation, this series will result in plenty of high-stakes, high-intensity matchups.

1. Syracuse-North Carolina

The cliché about one team imposing its will on the other will rarely be played out so directly as in this matchup of contrasting styles.

Jim Boeheim’s stifling 2-3 zone will wreak havoc with the flashy Tar Heels offense…unless Roy Williams’ peerless fast break can score before the defense has time to set up.

Whichever team can run its system at the expense of the other will have gone a long way to winning the ACC title in any given year.