The ACC continues to deliver in the year of 2026. Duke took down a ferocious Michigan team on a neutral site. Bubble teams in Virginia Tech and Cal kept their bubble lives alive. Pitt actually got a win and their fans might be more mad about that than if they lost. Notre Dame picked up a nasty, nasty loss against said Pitt team.

Oh and Syracuse stays the weirdest team in the league.

This week, I wanted to take a different approach to avoid the same stories, especially at the bottom of the league. Still having rankings at the bottom, but some teams deserved a little bit more highlighting than others.

Duke should sweep the awards

It should not surprise you that Duke has the best player in the country. Cameron Boozer should be far and away the National Player of the Year. There's no disrespect to anyone else in the running, but it's as simple as big time players make big time plays. Boozer showed up in the biggest moment against the then number 1 ranked team in the country. We get too caught up in highlights when trying to evaluate players. Are they bouncy? Can they make the greatest pass you've ever seen? Do they look like an alien out there? Boozer reminds us of something we need to remember more often during draft season: a prospect having tools that can project at an All-World level is nice and flashy. But when prospects show you who they are consistently, you have to believe them. And Boozer consistently shows us he doesn't need projection. He's already one of the best players in the world.

That also extends to Jon Scheyer. Look, I GET IT. I cover another high major school in North Carolina. It doesn't feel right saying the Death Star has the best coach in the conference and in the country, but they do. Coach of the Year should mean who is the best coach that year. Overachieving with turnarounds is one thing. Ryan Odom has taken a UVA team that was putrid last year and turned them into a 4-seed. That's an awesome turnaround, he deserves a ton of credit for it. But let's not act like they aren't part of the $10 Million club and are doing this with popsicle sticks and glue. They made a heavy investment in basketball, it's working out for them, and that's wonderful. That means we treat them like the rest of the big spenders and the best of the big spenders has been Scheyer. He's completely nailed roster-building, yes he has the best recruit in the country but that's part of the job. He's done a great job drawing up plays when they need to and after having to replace his "defensive coordinator" in Jai Lucas while also replacing players like Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach, he has an even better defense. How is that not the best coaching job in the country?

If it was easy, everyone would do it. I'm fine calling Saturday a game for COY.

Are the Seminoles for real?

I want to make sure this is phrased right.

This team has been a roller coaster this year in the best way. They started out being a team that was just wholly dependent on if they could make a ton of threes to one that's actually playing a tough brand of offense and defense. That's culminated in the 'Noles winning seven out of their last nine games and Rob McCray winning ACC Player of the Week. Luke Loucks has easily risen up the ranks of the NBA-Assistant turned CBB Head Coach rankings. Now it's not the most prestigious of lists, but beggars, choosers, etc.

They've become a bit of a league-ruiner. Finally becoming a Q1 road game for the league helps, but this team isn't close to the NCAA Tournament. That doesn't mean we shouldn't appreciate the fun team this has become. I don't know if there's a follow-up act for this team next year, and I don't really care right now. It's a crapshoot and roster building can be fickle. But this is a team we should enjoy the ride instead of looking towards sustainability.

Tuesday's home game against Miami is probably the biggest game in a half-decade for FSU. Losing wouldn't really change much about the program, but winning it with winnable games the rest of the way could absolutely have things humming into the offseason. Also, someone find me this jacket.

Race to March

One underrated thing about this ACC race that we don't talk about is the fact that the seeding is wide open. We're coming up on March 7th and no team is eliminated while you can realistically make the case that eight teams have a chance for a double-bye into the tournament.

You have teams like Cal, Stanford, and Virginia Tech fighting for their seeds as well as their NCAA Tournament lives. Clemson is trying their best to give people a reason to leave them out at this rate (Brian Rauf did a very good look as to what's going wrong with them as of late). UNC is trying to even-year Hubert their way into a good seed before Caleb Wilson comes back. Boston College might not be good but they're at least still trying. We even got Wake finding a way to a winning streak, feeling great, before throwing up on themselves on Saturday.

No matter what, this has been a successful season for the league. People respect it again, it's shown up in big games, and it's proving weekly that the investment in the team is worth it.

Check, check, and check.

Now they just have to do what they've been doing in March.

Rankings

18) Georgia Tech (11-17, 0-2 last week)

17) Notre Dame (12-15, 0-1 last week)

16) Pitt (10-17, 1-1 last week)

15) Boston College (9-18, 0-2 last week)

14) Stanford (16-11, 0-1 last week)

13) Syracuse (15-13, 0-2 last week)

12) Wake Forest (14-13, 1-1 last week)

11) Virginia Tech (18-10, 1-1 last week)

10) Cal (19-8, 1-0 last week)

9) FSU (14-13, 2-0 last week)

8) NC State (19-8, 1-0 last week)

7) SMU (19-8, 2-0 last week)

6) Clemson (20-8, 0-2 last week)

5) Miami (21-6, 1-1 last week)

4) Louisville (20-8, 1-2 last week*)

3) Virginia (24-3, 2-0 last week)

2) UNC (22-6, 2-1 last week*)

1) Duke (25-2, 2-0 last week)

*includes 2/23 Big Monday