ACC men’s basketball power rankings: Virginia’s coming over and they don’t have candy

Tony Bennett’s squad is slowly creeping up

There was some separation in the ACC standings this week as we’re down to six teams fighting for the top four spots and the double-bye for the ACC Tournament. Let’s get to this week’s power rankings….

1) Duke Blue Devils– (21-4, 11-3 Last week: 1st)

Lost another home ACC game on that Reece Beekman shot shown above but Trevor Keels is back and playtime might be over.

2) Notre Dame Fighting Irish (18-7, 11-3 Last week: 2nd)

At this point the ACC Coach of the Year is going to come down to Mike Brey and the next two head coaches in our rankings. None of these teams were expected to be here and none of them appear to be going away.

3) Miami Hurricanes: (18-7, 10-4 Last week: 5th)

Miami rallied to beat Wake Forest on the road and that’s enough for our rankings to get them back to the third spot.

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

4) North Carolina Tar Heels: (18-7, 10-4 Last week: 4th)

Stole one at Clemson and came home to put the nail in Florida State’s NCAA hopes with a blowout win. UNC still has work to do to pad their NCAA resume and next weekend’s road game in Blacksburg is a big opportunity.

5) Wake Forest Demon Deacons– (20-6, 10-5 Last week: 3rd)

Couldn’t hold a big home lead over the weekend so they drop this week and it’s been a great year for Wake but they need to be careful down the stretch.

6) Virginia Cavaliers (16-9, 10-5 Last week: 6th)

A huge road win at Duke and suddenly Virginia is playing back onto the bubble. They get Virginia Tech and Miami this week so they could be in good shape or back in trouble by the end of the week.

7) Virginia Tech Hokies (15-10, 7-7 Last week: 9th)

Speaking of the Hokies they have the computer metrics behind them but with Virginia and Carolina this week can they take another step forward? It’s kind of weird to think that a .500 team in the league is in better shape than those ahead of them but this is the 2022 ACC.

8) Syracuse Orange (13-12, 7-7 Last week: 7th)

The Orange coughed up their 4th winnable road game and it might be time to bring Alec Baldwin next time he’s in town to remind Cuse to Always Be Closing.

9) Florida State Seminoles (13-11, 6-8 Last week: 8th)

If Miami needs to look at anyone to see what can happen, it’s the Seminoles who are collapsing at a really bad time. Another two-loss week drops them and we’d put them lower but no one else is at .500 in the league right now.

10) Clemson Tigers (12-13, 4-10 Last week: 10th)

Clemson had an opportunity to play back into the discussion but three losses in a row ended all that talk. They don’t drop because of what’s below them.

11) Pittsburgh Panthers (10-16, 5-10 Last week: 15th)

2-1 on the week pushes the Panthers out of the basement this week. Can they possibly move into the top ten next week?

12) Louisville Cardinals (11-13, 5-9 Last week: 12th)

The good news for Louisville is that they only lost one game last week. The bad news is that they only played one game.

13) Boston College Eagles: (9-14, 4-9 Last week: 11th)

Well at least BC sold a lot of tickets to Syracuse and Duke fans. Earl Grant needs to go and find someone that can make an outside shot before next year.

Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

14) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: (10-14, 3-10 Last week: 13th)

Huge week for the basement battle as Georgia Tech plays NC State and Pitt this week. At this rate the ACC might be paying people to show up for the Tuesday games in Brooklyn.

15) NC State Wolfpack (10-16, 3-12 Last week: 14th)

The only question left for NC State is if their horrible record will keep Dereon Seabron from 1st-team All-ACC honors. He’s 4th in points per game and 2nd in rebounds per game and since no one asked right now we’d have Seabron, Alondes Williams, Armando Bacot, Paolo Banchero and Keve Aluma on that 1st team

*************************************************************************************************

Where did we go wrong this week? Do you think the ACC can possibly squeeze out five NCAA bids?