The ACC confuses me. Teams that look good one night look like shit the next. It is clear that Duke, Florida State and Louisville are good teams. They are a cut above the rest of the league. If we take out the other teams’ losses to those teams, what do the standings look like? It’s pretty interesting:

Adjusted ACC Standings

Duke 5 0
Miami 1 0
FSU 4 1
Louisville 4 1
Boston College 3 1
Virginia Tech 3 1
Georgia Tech 3 1
Pitt 2 1
Virginia 3 2
Clemson 2 2
Syracuse 2 3
NC State 2 3
Wake Forest 1 3
Notre Dame 1 3
UNC 1 4

Sorted by win percentage with losses to Duke, Florida State and Louisville removed

First thing I notice is that Miami has had a shit start. They have had to play ALL THREE of the top teams so far, and have lost them all. This does not qualify them as “best of the rest” by itself, though, as they have lost all three by double digits and an average of 21 points. They beat Clemson by 5 on the road. So, they might be best of the rest, but that remains to be seen.

Georgia Tech is the only other team to lose to two of them, and they gave Duke its best game. Their only non-elite loss was without Alvarado.

Pitt has this group’s only elite win, when they surprised Florida State in the first game.

I guess as Hoos we can feel a little better about where we stand vis-a-vis the rest of the league given that even in the adjusted standings, we have a winning record and own a win over another of the teams with a winning record.

I think maybe we can safely put the league into three tiers and expect them to stay that way:

Tier I:

Duke (I would argue they belong here alone and it really is four tiers)

Florida State

Louisville

Tier II:

Miami

Georgia Tech

Pittsburgh

Virginia Tech

Boston College

Virginia

Syracuse

NC State

Clemson

Tier III:

Notre Dame

Wake Forest

UNC

I think the top tier is in order of quality. The team on bottom likely belongs there. Other than that, take the two bottom tiers and put each in whatever order you want.

By Seattle Hoo

A fan of UVA basketball since Ralph Sampson was a sophomore and I was in high school, I was blessed to receive two degrees from UVA and attend many amazing games. Online since 1993, HOOS Place is my second UVA sports website, having founded HOOpS Online in 1995.