ACC Thursday

This week our weekly ACC roundup moves to Thursday and the Gator roundup moves to Friday. These are permanent changes for the remainder of the season. The polls are released after the weekend games, but I felt incorporating midweek games into our power poll was the proper course so we have moved the weekly features.

College Basketball is not like College Football. In Football you must win every game and you must rack up “style points” to impress the pollsters. In Basketball anybody can beat anybody and games that take place before January 1 really don’t mean a whole lot. Winning in your league is all that really matters.

This was supposed to be the year that Florida State Basketball broke a drought of one NCAA appearance in the past 13 seasons. The Noles beat the defending national champion Florida Gators and entered the ACC slate on a month long winning streak. However, the last week has proven the Noles are still an also ran in the conference. After losing at home to Clemson, the Noles were humiliated on the road at North Carolina.

Miami appeared to be one of the worst teams in a major conference based on their non league performance. Embarrassing losses to SUNY Binghamton, Cleveland State, Northwestern and Buffalo had many wondering if Miami should even have a Basketball program. Miami has responded by beating two ranked teams in the ACC (Georgia Tech and Maryland) and barely losing to Wake Forest after dominating the game for 34 minutes. Miami has lost three impact players to long term injuries but seems to be finding itself just in time for the stretch run, while Florida State seems to be falling into its usual conference season malaise.

Other ACC Notes in our Power Poll

1- North Carolina

What's not to like about the deepest team in the nation?

2- Clemson

Oliver Purnell is a damn good coach but I still am not totally sold on the Tigers. Senior leadership from Cliff Hammonds and Vernon Hamilton have led this club on the floor, and K.C. Rivers represents instant offense coming off the bench. Sooner or later though the Tigers will start to lose games.

3- Virginia Tech

Are you kidding?No I'm not. Coleman Collins is as good as any big man in the league outside of Chapel Hill, and the quickness of Va Tech's backcourt combo of Zabien Dowdell and Jamon Gordon is too much for most ACC backcourts to defend. The Hokies had a lot of injuries and off the court distractions last season, but this year they are healthy and clicking on all cylinders.

4- Boston College

Al Skinner's team always get the most out of their talent, and what's not to love about Jared Dudley's play?

5- Georgia Tech

I really like this team and feel that despite the 1-2 league record, all the parts are in place for a deep NCAA run.


6- Virginia

Sean Singletary and JR Reynolds continue to be super scorers and Dave Leito has the team in position to make some noise come March.


7- Maryland

This is the 4th straight year the Terps have failed to get consistent performances from its top players. The Terps are once again headed to the NIT unless the team improves.

8- Duke

Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus are not even a poor man's Shelden Williams and JJ Reddick. If not for DeMarcus Nelson, this team could be looking at a repeat of the collapse of the 1994-95 season.

9- Wake Forest

Kyle Visser has been outstanding all year and he got some help from the guards in an epic comeback win @ Miami.

10- Miami

The Hurricanes have easily had the worst season of any ACC team, but wins @ Maryland, @ U Mass and at home vs Georgia Tech can't be easily dismissed. It seems this team plays to the level of its opposition and prefers playing on the road to playing at home. (Maybe it's because the majority of so-called Miami fans have no idea Miami has a Basketball program) Miami has four frontcourt players out with long term injuries so the mere fact they continue to be competitive says much about Frank Haith's coaching work.

11- NC State

This team scraps every night but they are just undermanned.


12-Florida State

Sure they beat the defending national champion Gators, but Noles have once again proven they cannot play at high level against decent opposition on the road. All three road games FSU have played versus major conference teams have resulted in games that were over by halftime. No team can be this bad on the road year after year and be taken seriously. Until the Noles prove otherwise they will stay in basement on this website. I cannot express in words how dissapointing this team is for me personally. I expected this to be a Top 15-20 team nationally.