The race for the top seed in the 2015 ACC Tournament is a little less jumbled heading into the final three weeks of the regular season.
Louisville losing at home to N.C. State pushes the Cardinals from thinking top seed to fighting for the double-bye (the top four seeds get byes to Thursday’s quarterfinals) with North Carolina, which fell into a tie for fourth with Louisville with its 89-76 loss at Pitt on Saturday.
Duke and Notre Dame held serve last week two games back of first-place UVA, which was far from impressive in wins at State and at home over Wake Forest.
The Cavs did at least hold onto their margin with six games to go in regular-season conference play in their first two games without second-leading scorer Justin Anderson, who is out until the final week of the regular season at the earliest.
N.C. State and Pitt are the big movers this week with their upset wins over Louisville and UNC. Both still have work to do to enhance their NCAA Tournament resumes, but last week was a boost to the hopes for each.
ACC Power Rankings: Week 6
- Virginia (23-1, 11-1 ACC): Another tough test sans Anderson on Big Monday with Pitt.
- Duke (22-3, 9-3 ACC): Key game at home with UNC on Wednesday. Loss eliminates Devils from title chase.
- Notre Dame (22-4, 10-3 ACC): Quietly hanging around.
- Louisville (20-5, 8-4 ACC): Mid-February slump.
- North Carolina (18-7, 8-4 ACC): Must-win at Duke.
- Pitt (17-9, 6-6 ACC): Must-win at UVA tonight. Win, and Pitt is on the NCAA bubble. Loss, and NIT appears to be the ceiling.
- Syracuse (16-9, 7-5 ACC): Four more chances to play spoiler in the final three weeks.
- N.C. State (15-11, 6-7 ACC): Wins over Duke, Louisville. How is this group under .500?
- Clemson (15-10, 7-6 ACC): Fell short in upset bid at home against Notre Dame.
- Florida State (14-12, 6-7 ACC): Nice effort at home vs. Duke.
- Miami (15-9, 5-6 ACC): Reeling big time.
- Wake Forest (12-14, 4-9 ACC): Gets Virginia at home next week.
- Virginia Tech (10-15, 2-10 ACC): Nice win at home over Georgia Tech.
- Georgia Tech (11-14, 2-11 ACC): Can’t finish out wins.
- Boston College (9-14, 1-10 ACC): Garbage time.
– Column by Chris Graham
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