Another wild week of ACC basketball brought upsets, smack downs, and great finishes. How do the teams stack up for week 12?
As more time passes and more ACC games are played, the ACC is finally starting to stabilize. The top five teams are the same as last week, though the order got jumbled by the games that were played. After not having any teams stay in the same slot from the first week to the second, three teams stayed in their spot from last week. The biggest risers were Wake Forest and NC State, while Georgia Tech took a tumble after over-achieving early. With another week of what will surely be great ACC action on the horizon, let’s take a look at how the teams currently stack up before more chaos ensues.
Clemson is in a rut right now, and if they want to keep their slim NCAA Tournament hopes alive, coach Brad Brownell is going to have to find a way to turn it around. After getting throttled by Louisville last week, they entered the weekend with some hope. They headed home with a stretch of four ranked opponents in five games behind them to face Virginia Tech. They lost to the Hokies, though, and their losing streak has reached six. Four of those six losses have come by a combined 13 points (including by just one to Virginia Tech), so they just need to find a way to swing the close ones in their favor. They’re running out of time to do that, however. Jaron Blossomgame has scored 20 or more points in five of those six losses, but he needs some more help to turn their season around. They travel to Pittsburgh this weekend for what is a must-win game for both teams. It’s tough to win on the road in the ACC, but the Tigers need that one if they want any shot at the NCAA Tournament.
How much does Kevin Stallings miss the SEC right about now? After playing well enough in the nonconference, Pitt dropped a game last Tuesday night at NC State to fall to 1-5 in the conference. It doesn’t look to get much better as they hosted Louisville last night, also a game played after these rankings were written. Stallings’ first taste of an ACC schedule has not been pretty. He still is only able to rely on the senior duo of Michael Young and Jamel Artis, as they scored a combined 41 against the Wolfpack, 8 more than the rest of the team. Cameron Johnson pitched in 17 points while shooting 5-10 from downtown, a good sign for the Panthers in a game in which they got no bench points. This weekend they’ll try to end the slide as they host Clemson Saturday before going to North Carolina for back-to-back games against ranked squads in UNC and Duke next week.