If you looked at BracketMatrix right now (8:47 pm easter on Monday night), you'd find nine ACC teams in 50+ projected brackets, with another two (Cal and Stanford) popping up in brackets. Every single week, we get more and more evidence about how much better the league is due to the investment from its teams. That matters. If the ACC can get double digit teams in, the ACC online fanbase will be rightfully insufferable during March Madness.

Rankings

18: Pitt (8-12) 10-2 last week; Previous ranking (18)

Why: The good thing for Pitt right now is they've really found something with Roman Siulepa. He's been one of the best offensive rebounding players in the country, especially as a freshman. The scoring has been there since late December, but the rebounding has truly added a new dimension, grabbing 16 on the offensive glass in the last two games, and averaging almost five a game since conference play began. The bad thing? Well here's a four minute clip of Jeff Capel talking about fan support, or lack thereof. yikes

17: Boston College (9-11) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (16)

Why: Dropping BC a spot in the rankings felt like punishing a child you know struggles in school but is working their hardest for getting a D+ on a math test. I truly want to know what this team looks like with even a top 150 offense, not the 282nd we see night in and night out. No seriously, go watch this Boston College team. Watching them play defense is actually fun! It's just not fun because you also have to score points.

16: Notre Dame (11-9) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (15)

Why: I would say a lack of free throw shooting is eventually going to come back to bite them, but that may have already happened with their fiasco in Berkeley. Notre Dame is in a weird spot where you still don't know a ton about them on offense, especially post Burton injury. We know they're going to grab offensive rebounds (Carson Towt is awesome), but when the shot goes up, it's flipping a coin right now. They're averaging just under 40 points in the second half since the abomination against Stanford, and that's with them only mustering 27 points against Clemson. Is that people getting more comfortable, Micah Shrewsberry second half adjustments, or just pure luck?

15: Florida State (10-8) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (17)

Why: Big props to Rob McCray V for bouncing back after a horrifying game against Wake where he threw the ball away 11 times. He dropped 20 points and four assists, while cashing in two free throws with one second left on the clock to upset Miami in Coral Gables. Following that performance, McCray did everything he could with 21 points and nine assists in a two point road loss against SMU. I'll admit I was wrong on this Florida State team. They're still not a good team by any means, but they fight, and that's important this time of year (or this time in college sports) where you question the will of teams.

14: Georgia Tech (11-9) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (14)

Why: If you just caught the first half against Clemson, this felt exactly like you'd draw up the yearly, "Georgia Tech crushes the résumé of two ACC tournament teams in a week" schtick they've done the last few years. But in the second half, they did a bang-up job of letting their offense dictate their defense. Giving up 16-4 run in less than eight minutes to start the second half is certainly a decision. But that just might be who this team is under Damon Stoudamire.

13: Syracuse (12-8) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (13)

Why: If there weren't some bottom-dweller teams in this league, Cuse would be the recipient of most disappointing team so far in ACC play. Is it better or worse for instead of the coach voicing his displeasure with the fans, that the players do so to try and back their coach up? From an on the court standpoint, if you just try to shut down Donnie Freeman, who is scoring for this Syracuse team? Kiyan Anthony is averaging a little over 5 points per contest in ACC play, JJ Starling is scoring but it certainly isn't efficient. Are you just going to throw it into William Kyle 20 times a game and hope for the best? Can you just go zone against them and survive for a game?

12: Wake Forest (11-9) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (11)

Why: This is a really simple team. Juke Harris is the engine that keeps them going, but if you're a competent rebounding team, you're going to destroy them on the glass. Their only chance of winning, as the roster is playing right now, is to consistently force turnovers and get to the free throw line. The one glimmer that happened over the last week is Cooper Schwieger actually looked competent in two of the harder matchups he'll have all year. If he can be that, the roster actually makes just a little bit of sense. Not holding my breath right now though.

11: Stanford (14-6) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (9)

Why: This might take the prize from Notre Dame of the "what-if" team of the year. Chisom Okpara going down has allowed people to just key in on freshman phenom Ebuka Okorie. Teams feel extremely content just putting all their efforts on stopping him and taking bets on the rest of Stanford's team not being able to beat them. It also might just be them jumping up to this level. The Cardinal have scored under 1.0 points per possession, four of them have come in their seven ACC contests, and two of them since Okpara went down.

10: Virginia Tech (15-6) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (12)

Why: Cardiac Hokies strike again, with a comeback win against Syracuse midweek. They just couldn't keep up with Louisville on the road, no shame in that. This team is hitting an inflection point even with them seemingly getting Tyler Johnson back on Saturday against Duke and Tobi Lawal working his way back from injury. After their midweek game against Georgia Tech, the schedule ramps up tremendously. You'd think they'd need to snipe one of Duke/@ NC State/@ Clemson unless they really want to try thread the needle of beating the bad teams and losing to the good teams.

9: Cal (15-5) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (8)

Why: Winning the battle of the west coast ACC schools on the bubble was crucial for Cal, who still have a good enough shot to make the NCAA Tournament, and that was a Q1 win! This truly is a team that is led by the power of friendship. Spin the wheel between John Camden, Justin Pippen, and Dai Dai Ames as to who is going to lead them in scoring. Defensively, it's been an adventure. They've tightened up their rotations when they hedge ball-screens, which has helped clean up the easy buckets. But, in their last four games, their opponents are shooting 23.9% on 113 attempts from 3. That can't be sustainable, right?

8: Miami (16-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (7)

Why: I have no idea what mental block Miami teams have against Florida State as they've now lost the last six games against them after Tuesday's collapse. Going up against a zone defense hurt them a ton in that game as it hurts what they want to do, go fast and get to the basket. Syracuse had some success against them with a 2-3 zone in the first half but Miami eventually found their groove. We're not going to see many chances for it, but high level defense might completely crush this team.

7: NC State (11-9) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (14)

Why: Will Wade's decision to send Quadir Copeland to a shot specialist this offseason really worked out, as whatever that trainer pitched, has turned a shooter that was atrocious for three years from deep into one that is shooting almost 50% from the field. A road win at Clemson is nothing to sneeze at, meanwhile they survived getting blasted on the glass (which may be a problem to keep an eye on) at Pitt to survive another bad loss. This is an enigma of a team.

6: SMU (15-5) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (5)

Why: It feels wrong to drop a team after a 2-0 week, but this has less to do with SMU and more to do with who jumped them. BJ Edwards was my vote for ACC player of the week after averaging 21.5 points on 58.3% shooting, 8.5 rebounds, and six assists. That's what makes this SMU team so dangerous. Even when Boopie Miller has started coming back down to earth, there's another guard ready to explode.

5: North Carolina (16-4) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (6)

Why: Going into JPJ and erasing a 16 point deficit against Virginia is exactly the type of win believers in Even Year Hubert needed to push our agenda. 17 points from Jarin Stevenson off the bench and Caleb Wilson continued the Saturday run of freshmen popping off. But the big thing was the play of Derek Dixon. UNC has had issues of who to play at point guard, with Kyan Evans being a net nothing on offense, and Luka Bogavac has been a cone defensively. Dixon started next to Trimble and while he wasn't otherworldly, he was effective on both sides of the ball. That's all the Tar Heels needed at that position.

4: Louisville (14-6) 2-1 last week; Previous ranking (4)

Why: Normally we leave out the Monday games here, but Louisville decided to go into Cameron Indoor and lose by THIRTY ONE POINTS last night, so I'm up early to edit this one. Louisville's path to winning games is by just hitting you with an unholy amount of 3s. Which is a great strategy, until you realize they actually might just be a bit soft. They went 5-for-15 at the rim last night, while getting crush there and on the glass by Duke. We basically just watch a rerun of the Tennessee game whenever they come up against a physical team, and this roster isn't constructed well enough to overcome that.

3: Clemson (17-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (2)

Why: Once again, if you want a team to fall flat on their face, just ask me to sing their praises. Clemson was perfecting their apple turnover recipe against NC State at Home, followed by only being up against Georgia Tech by 2 points. They woke up in the second half and now are rewarded with a week off until Pitt comes to town, barring another snowstorm. This feels captain obvious, but this team will go as far as Carter Welling can take him. If he can show up in these big games, and stay on the floor, they won't have much to worry about.

2: Virginia (16-3) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (2)

Why: Watching Thijs De Ridder matchup with Caleb Wilson was AWESOME. We need a couple more of these matchups. My one worry about this team is I don't exactly know who to go to in late game situations. Maybe it's De Ridder? Malik Thomas thinks it should be him probably. Do I trust a true freshman in Chance Mallory?

1: Duke (15-5) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (8)

Why: Getting to watch this team up close on Saturday, it really reaffirmed a lot of what I felt about them. I still don't know who is the real point guard for this team, even though this is a Caleb Foster propaganda writer. Cam Boozer is the real deal, and this team defensively is just absurd to try and break down if you can't cash a bunch of threes. They may not be inevitable, but they're still damn good. Beating Louisville by over 30 cements that and also makes you wonder if they really do have another gear to hit?