ACC men’s basketball power rankings as we head into February

NCAA Basketball: Florida State at Miami-Florida — Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

If the groundhog sees its shadow we get 6 more weeks of mediocre basketball

The calendar is about to turn to February and it’s time for teams to push for ACC Tournament position. Will the Syracuse Orange avoid an opening-day game in Brooklyn?Let’s get to this week’s power rankings….

1) Duke Blue Devils– (17-3, 7-2 Last week: 1st)

Discussion this week on ACC radio was whether or not Duke would be challenged enough to prepare for the NCAA Tournament. Didn’t realize the Blue Devils were undefeated in the ACC and beating everyone by double-digits.

2) Miami Hurricanes: (16-5, 8-2 Last week: 3rd)

Miami bounced back from the tough loss to have a clean week. Should they be 1st still because of the win at Duke? We wouldn’t argue but our committee feels Duke is still better.

3) Notre Dame Fighting Irish (14-6, 7-2 Last week: 5th)

Mike Brey’s team keeps winning games and in a league where teams are unable to do that it’s good enough. The win over Kentucky looks better by the day but can they win enough down the stretch?

4) North Carolina Tar Heels: (15-6, 7-3 Last week: 6th)

Maybe we spoke too soon about UNC because now they have positioned themselves to challenge for the regular season title.

5) Wake Forest Demon Deacons– (17-5, 7-4 Last week: 4th)

Wake couldn’t overcome an off night from Alondes Williams in the Dome and they need to be careful not to play themselves out of at-large discussion over the next few weeks.

6) Florida State Seminoles (13-7, 6-4 Last week: 2nd)

The Seminoles must be allergic to success at this point. Just when it looked like they were hitting their stride they pulled up lame with losses to the Techs.

NCAA Basketball: Virginia Tech at Florida State

7) Virginia Cavaliers (12-9, 6-5 Last week: 7th)

Like we said last week, these teams seem to enjoy going 1-1 in conference each week which isn’t helping anyone.

8) Syracuse Orange (9-10, 3-5 Last week: 9th)

Syracuse looked awful at Pitt then played their best half on Saturday putting up 55 points on Wake. Was it just a facade or will it be a spark?

9) Louisville Cardinals (11-10, 5-6 Last week: 8th)

The Cardinals fired Chris Mack and somehow got Bruce Pearl a giant raise so we’ll call it 1-1 off the court for them, but 0-2 on it.

NCAA Basketball: Boston College at Louisville

10) Clemson Tigers (11-9, 3-6 Last week: 10th)

Clemson played Duke close so we don’t penalize them this week but you can’t move up without a win.

11) Boston College Eagles: (9-11, 4-6 Last week: 11th)

BC went 1-1 on the week. Can they make a last month run at a .500 record? That would be a successful season for Earl Grant in his 1st year.

12) Virginia Tech Hokies (11-10, 3-7 Last week: 12th)

Nice win over Florida State but that’s not helping much in a disappointing year.

13) Pittsburgh Panthers (8-13, 3-7 Last week: 14th)

Pitt knocked off Syracuse at home and actually looked like a P6 basketball team for once then turned around and lost by double-digits to BC so things went back to normal.

NCAA Basketball: N.C. State at Notre Dame

14) NC State Wolfpack (10-12, 3-8 Last week: 13th)

Scored 80 against UNC which is good. Gave up 100 which is bad. The Syracuse shooters have to be excited about the lack of defense waiting for them in Raleigh but Dereon Seabron might be as excited to see the Syracuse defense.

15) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: (9-11, 2-7 Last week: 15th)

Spoiler season in Atlanta as Georgia Tech can ruin the league’s at-large hopes with more wins like they one they got over FSU.

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Where did we go wrong this week? Is this league in danger of falling to three NCAA teams?