Best teams in the ACC

[Quazzum69]

are all old Big East teams! Who would have thought? Syracuse is the favorite to win the league but I think Pitt will be the biggest challenge to us (I guess Pomeroy thinks so too). Not only is Pitt familiar with JB/Cuse, they are having a very good year, at least numbers-wise. If they keep winning ACC games, they will climb the rankings and may even surpass the ACC's best in Duke and UNC. Notre Dame was a huge win for the new members, I hope they can somehow manage to finish in front of Duke. The old guard better recognize and thank us (and I mean the Big East members) for holding this crap conference together on the basketball side.

 

[itsbotime]

I certainly hope Syracuse continues to do well, and I expect this will be the case. That said, I think it is a bit early to crown the best in the ACC. There are a couple of tourneys that I would like to see play out before making that determination. There are a number of teams in the ACC that I believe can make noise in March, and I'll be pulling for all of them (with the exception of Duke).

ETA: Right now, obviously, Cuse is the pride of the ACC. If it can't be us, I'd rather it be you than anyone else, so please, keep it up. Feel free to ignore this advice next weekend, however.

 

[DNABB5]

I certainly hope Syracuse continues to do well, and I expect this will be the case. That said, I think it is a bit early to crown the best in the ACC. There are a couple of tourneys that I would like to see play out before making that determination. There are a number of teams in the ACC that I believe can make noise in March, and I'll be pulling for all of them (with the exception of Duke and MooU).

ETA: Right now, obviously, Cuse is the pride of the ACC. If it can't be us, I'd rather it be you than anyone else, so please, keep it up. Feel free to ignore this advice next weekend, however.

Fixed that for you bo.

 

[itsbotime]

Fixed that for you bo.

I knew I liked this guy.

 

[obliterata]

are all old Big East teams! Who would have thought? Syracuse is the favorite to win the league but I think Pitt will be the biggest challenge to us (I guess Pomeroy thinks so too). Not only is Pitt familiar with JB/Cuse, they are having a very good year, at least numbers-wise. If they keep winning ACC games, they will climb the rankings and may even surpass the ACC's best in Duke and UNC. Notre Dame was a huge win for the new members, I hope they can somehow manage to finish in front of Duke. The old guard better recognize and thank us (and I mean the Big East members) for holding this crap conference together on the basketball side.

Saturday was indeed a great day, 3 old Big East schools won their first ACC game. At the start of the season I thought SU and Pitt could finish 1,2 and I'm still thinkin' that.

In 1999 and 2000 the ACC received only 3 bids to the NCAA tournament. Without the old Big East schools they'd probably get 3 this season too with an outside shot at 2, that would've been funny to see.

 

[SaltLakeOrange]

From tomorrow forward, all games are statement games. We need to take care of business against the Hokies and then get ready for the Tar Heels. Saturday at the dome should be madness!

 

[pfister1]

Before you anoint Pitt anything, lets see them play someone. With the schedule they have they really should be undefeated if they are as good as you are suggesting. The win over NCState is a nice win as it was on the road, but it does not impress me.

 

[Townie72]

ND beats Duke. Wake beats UNC. And the "takeaway" for the Orange faithful seems to be we are in the cat bird's seat.

That is, instead of, "Wow, this is going to be tougher than I thought.".

If ND can beat Duke and WF can beat UNC, they can beat us too.

 

[Alsacs]

Pitt is not the 2nd best ACC team they are probably 4th or 5th depending on Florida State.

Pitt has 1 good win against Stanford and has played Chamrin soft non-conference schedule. Notre Dame is tough to beat home. Duke is still the 2nd best team, North Carolina is still 3rd, and Florida State/Pitt are fighting for 4th/5th and UVA is 6th. We aren't unbeatable people. We are good I think we are legit and complete this year, but we aren't unbeatable If we don't dictate tempo teams will slow it down and hope to beat us in low scoring games.

 

[RoysRunts]

Pitt is not the 2nd best ACC team they are probably 4th or 5th depending on Florida State.

Pitt has 1 good win against Stanford and has played Chamrin soft non-conference schedule. Notre Dame is tough to beat home. Duke is still the 2nd best team, North Carolina is still 3rd, and Florida State/Pitt are fighting for 4th/5th and UVA is 6th. We aren't unbeatable people. We are good I think we are legit and complete this year, but we aren't unbeatable If we don't dictate tempo teams will slow it down and hope to beat us in low scoring games.

We'll see how good SU is when they play in the "College Gym's" They have played in the Big Arena's for the most part in their Big East History but now the Gyms they play in will be like Rutgers, starting tuesday we'll see how good they are in Campus Gyms it's like reverting back to the late 60's and 70's the ECAC Days

 

[djdan]

Pitt is not the 2nd best ACC team they are probably 4th or 5th depending on Florida State.Florida State/Pitt are fighting for 4th/5th and UVA is 6th. We aren't unbeatable people. We are good I think we are legit and complete this year, but we aren't unbeatable If we don't dictate tempo teams will slow it down and hope to beat us in low scoring games.

I agree with most of your points here but Florida State? If Pitt has question marks, FSU certainly does as well. The already have 4 losses including a ten-point loss to Minnesota and a 12-point loss to UVA. To me, Syracuse and yes, Duke, are a notch or two or three above everyone else. UNC should be the third-best team but they have a funny way of showing it so perhaps Pitt is. Florida State, Clemson, and Wake are perhaps decent. But that's about it. If we play to 75% of our potential, we should not lose to anyone in the league below the top 4.

 

[Dave85]

ND beats Duke. Wake beats UNC. And the "takeaway" for the Orange faithful seems to be we are in the cat bird's seat.

That is, instead of, "Wow, this is going to be tougher than I thought.".

If ND can beat Duke and WF can beat UNC, they can beat us too.

My big concern is the game at WF just before the Duke game is going to be a trap game because the players are going to be thinking about Duke at home. Combine that with unfamiliar surroundings, first time travel issues, the home crowd advantage, the WF game is the one I am most concerned about.

 

[Cowtown]

are all old Big East teams! ...

That's a rather precipitous position given that they've played how many ACC games? And who has SU actually played, besides another former BE school whom the ACC wanted only for its football program; and keep in mind that together they didn't score 100 points. I'd hold that thought for another dozen games or so.

 

[Alsacs]

I agree with most of your points here but Florida State? If Pitt has question marks, FSU certainly does as well. The already have 4 losses including a ten-point loss to Minnesota and a 12-point loss to UVA. To me, Syracuse and yes, Duke, are a notch or two or three above everyone else. UNC should be the third-best team but they have a funny way of showing it so perhaps Pitt is. Florida State, Clemson, and Wake are perhaps decent. But that's about it. If we play to 75% of our potential, we should not lose to anyone in the league below the top 4.

Florida State has played teams and looks legit. They are team I wouldn't want to play the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament because of their defense, but they aren't a threat for the NC because they can't score. Florida State beat Michigan in Puerto Rico, only team to beat UMass, and lost close games to Florida and Minnesota. UVA-Florida State was the most interesting ACC opener because both teams are top 6 in the conference IMO and UVA winning that game wasn't a shocker it was how bad FSU looked on offense, but UVA is a good defensive team as well. I think 6 ACC teams are pretty much locks for the NCAA Tournament by year's end Syracuse, Duke, North Carolina, Florida State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Notre Dame/Clemson/Maryland/Wake Forest/NC State will try to separate and get maybe 1 or 2 more bids.

 

[Townie72]

My big concern is the game at WF just before the Duke game is going to be a trap game because the players are going to be thinking about Duke at home. Combine that with unfamiliar surroundings, first time travel issues, the home crowd advantage, the WF game is the one I am most concerned about.

You ought to be concerned about all these ACC games because any one of these teams is perfectly capable of beating SU especially any team that beats UNC or Duke. I think Boeheim knows this and if the players don't yet they are going to get a rude awakening pretty quickly.

I see us losing 4 to 6 ACC games. This SU teams has some flaws and these ACC coaches already see them. That's why Miami had us tied with a few minutes left.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I think you are overrating Duke and UNC. That said I wouldn't be surprised to see Pitt ahead of Duke or UNC. Honestly I don't know if UNC finishes in the top four of the league. If Paige doesn't play well for Carolina they are cooked.

 

[Townie72]

I think you are overrating Duke and UNC. That said I wouldn't be surprised to see Pitt ahead of Duke or UNC. Honestly I don't know if UNC finishes in the top four of the league. If Paige doesn't play well for Carolina they are cooked.

Actually I think a large percentage of the posters are overrating at least one team. That's SU.

We are all going to be a lot smarter about just who is good after the ACC tournament.

I have been rooting against Duke and UNC for decades. Neither may not look strong in the first week in January. Let's see how they look in March.

 

[djdan]

Florida State beat Michigan in Puerto Rico, only team to beat UMass, and lost close games to Florida and Minnesota.

They got beat by Michigan.

 

[jncuse]

Clemson could be a major pain the ass. We have struggled against mediocore teams that play it slow.
.
Out of 351 teams in the nation in terms of pace:
Miami = 351
St. Francis = 334
Clemson = 348

Clemson is a better team than those two as well. They are not a bad team - tracking as a bubble team or NIT team. They like to slow it down and play tough under their new coach from a few years ago.

 

[Alsacs]

They got beat by Michigan.

You are correct they beat VCU and not Michigan. They gave away the Michigan game at the end, but FSU is a legit NCAA tournament team and some high seed will get a scare from them.

 

[Dave85]

You ought to be concerned about all these ACC games because any one of these teams is perfectly capable of beating SU especially any team that beats UNC or Duke. I think Boeheim knows this and if the players don't yet they are going to get a rude awakening pretty quickly.

I see us losing 4 to 6 ACC games. This SU teams has some flaws and these ACC coaches already see them. That's why Miami had us tied with a few minutes left.

You may be right. I hope our team steps up for each challenge. I think Miami did a 1-2-2 matchup zone with a lot of 6'6" guys. Eventually the team figured out how to score on it. All these ACC teams will try different things. But Ennis sure is talented and creates a lot of scoring opportunities regardless of the defense. Maybe it's just the fan in me but I think the Orange are going to win every game no matter what. Basically, your logic in reverse.

 

[Flacusian]

You ought to be concerned about all these ACC games because any one of these teams is perfectly capable of beating SU especially any team that beats UNC or Duke. I think Boeheim knows this and if the players don't yet they are going to get a rude awakening pretty quickly.

I see us losing 4 to 6 ACC games. This SU teams has some flaws and these ACC coaches already see them. That's why Miami had us tied with a few minutes left.

Your point is well taken but 4 to 6 would be a worst case scenario IMHO. The team is now postured to give their undivided attention to Jimmy B. and he will make adjustments to ameliorate the effect of other's teams strategies to exploit our weaknesses.

It was a protracted perfect storm of things not going well for us this past Saturday and frankly I don't see it happening like that again or even if it does, certainly not multiple times. As much as our team has some defects, what we have are blemishes whereas a lot of other ACC teams have full blown Acne!

I think that worst case = 4 losses in conference play and I think it's just as likely we only have 1 or 2.

 

[two3zone]

We have a great team who has a chance to win every game we play, nobody on paper over matches us at all, worse case we're even with them talent-wise.

That said we had trouble with some pretty bad teams. Yes, bad teams, Miami isn't a good team, good teams aren't ever 13 point dogs.

We play some good teams, well coached teams, athletic teams, talented teams, anybody in the ACC could beat us minus a few stinkers and it wouldn't be shocking. If Pitt beat is would it be the upset of the year? Same question if UNC beats is, what about a split with Duke, ND? Florida state has good size and has some pretty good athletes, would that be the upset of the year?

I love the confidence on this board but some of your act like people are insane and are kind of ride about it when people share objective opinions. I don't think there is one active person on here who doesn't want this team to win every game and win the NC more than the next.

 

[two3zone]

Your point is well taken but 4 to 6 would be a worst case scenario IMHO. The team is now postured to give their undivided attention to Jimmy B. and he will make adjustments to ameliorate the effect of other's teams strategies to exploit our weaknesses. It was a protracted perfect storm of things not going well for us this past Saturday and frankly I don't see it happening like that again or even if it does, certainly not multiple times. As much as our team has some defects, what we have are blemishes whereas a lot of other ACC teams have full blown Acne! I think that worst case = 4 losses in conference play and I think it's just as likely we only have 1 or 2.

It was a perfect storm against St Francis and St Johns as well. 3 out of 14 games against talent that shouldn't be within 15-20 points of us. It's not a perfect storm if it's happening more than ever 5 games let alone against some teams that have no business being close to us.

 

[Townie72]

Your point is well taken but 4 to 6 would be a worst case scenario IMHO. The team is now postured to give their undivided attention to Jimmy B. and he will make adjustments to ameliorate the effect of other's teams strategies to exploit our weaknesses.

It was a protracted perfect storm of things not going well for us this past Saturday and frankly I don't see it happening like that again or even if it does, certainly not multiple times. As much as our team has some defects, what we have are blemishes whereas a lot of other ACC teams have full blown Acne!

I think that worst case = 4 losses in conference play and I think it's just as likely we only have 1 or 2.

Well, we will only have to wait a couple of weeks to find out if your optimistic scenario plays out.

If I were you, I wouldn't bet the ranch we get through the ACC with one or two losses.

I hate for SU to lose any games ever. But living in DC I have seen a lot of ACC basketball over a lot of seasons and the conference has always had great teams, great players and great coaches. I think some SU fans are going to go through a little learning experience in the next few months,