Remember last week when I said I reserved the right to rescind the statement that the ACC was back because Boston College, what on earth was that week?

Overall it was a good not great week, the margins were so close. My shot last week was the ACC covered in seven of their 10 big non-conference games and outright wining in five of them. They covered, which is important and not just for wallets. Wake, FSU, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, and Cal covered to make six... but the good news stopped there as Kentucky was the only one to pull out a win. Meanwhile Pitt and Miami got clocked, while Clemson couldn't stop a nosebleed in the second half, giving up almost 50 to Georgetown.

There's two sides to the coin here: having a bunch of your teams in the middle/low middle of the conference not get blown out helps no matter how you cut it. Wake/FSU /GT/ND/Cal lost by an average of 2.4 points. All of those teams beat the metrics and rose because of it. That's important, you can't make to January and February to find yourselves continuously play nothing but Q3 home games and Q2 road games because your metrics tanked in the non-conference. Last year in the SEC/ACC challenge alone (where the ACC went 2-14), the margin of loss in the 14 games was 15.8. You can't get skunked like that and for the most part the ACC has avoided that. Staying afloat matters.

The other side of the coin is, you still need to win. Close only counts in hand grenades, horseshoes, and curling. This isn't any of those. At a certain point you can't kick the can down the road anymore and need to pull out wins in these games. It's not enough that the Big East doesn't look to be deep and the Mountain West is finally getting a bit of comeuppance. You can't rely on others falling apart, if you want to be back, you need to win.

A reminder for the rankings: Monday games get factored in the next week.

Rankings

18: Boston College (2-2)

Why: Update - Earl Grant may not be trying anymore. This team is shooting 25.6% from three and only shooting 61% from the free throw line. The most damning thing might be that they're getting blocked at an alarming rate after playing the likes of Florida Atlantic, The Citadel, Central Connecticut (who they lost to) and Temple.

17: Georgia Tech (3-1)

Why: I wanted to move them up given they looked much better against UGA in a 92-87 loss on the road than they did against Southeastern Louisiana. One thing that needs to normalize is the defense. By KenPom's adjusted efficiency they're 23rd nationally. You can easily just box score it but seeing that they gave up an average of 52 points in their first three games, and then UGA absolutely crushed them, even while only shooting 6-for-29 from three. People have had issues with the officials this year in terms of calls on the road in every conference, but if you're giving up 44 free throw attempts, you're not playing smart.

16: Cal (3-1)

Why: This is one where we get a rule I will swear to do my best in not breaking, I will not move you up solely because you looked good in a loss. I do have a soft spot for this team because I think they play hard. Affectionately, I refer to them as the Cal Castaways. With guys like Dai Dai Ames, Chris Bell, John Camden, Lee Dort, it actually looked like the pieces started to fit with each other in the second half of the game against Kansas State. Ames was a menace behind the arc and nabbed five steals. Bell shot 7-for-9 from three, Pippen was a do it all guy. I want to circle that two game stretch against UCLA and Utah, I think they could be sneaky live against the Bruins and could run that Utah team out the gym if they play their cards right.

15: Stanford (3-0)

Why: Trees I am begging you to play literally anyone with a pulse right now. But good job taking care of business against 150+ teams. That's not a joke, you lost at home to Cal Poly last year, this is a big improvement.

14: Pitt (3-1)

Why: A 22 point loss will get you dropped quickly, especially in a game that West Virginia didn't even look that great in. Demarco Minor and Brandin Cummings shot 1-for-12 on 3s, that can't happen, especially if they just sit here and shoot off the dribble contested 3s? I was worried about what this front court looked like against good teams and so far that answer is horrific. Harlan Obioha got whatever he wanted, scoring 19 points on 8-for-9 shooting. They've got to figure out something down low.

13: Miami (3-1)

Why: I went back and forth about dropping them a bit, but had to due to a couple of things. One, they got clobbered by Florida in a game that never really felt all that close regardless of the score throughout the game and FSU played them much closer. Two, I think this offense needs improvement. There aren't a ton of pieces I trust to stretch the floor and then you see Malik Reneau had five 3PAs last game and you really start getting worried about this team having any sort of spacing at all. I do think they're fun and this defense is going to cause hell for teams in the ACC but can they reliably score to keep people honest?

12: Notre Dame (3-1)

Why: Sunday may have been the only time an entire conference was rooting for the Irish, but they just came up short. This team is going to be simple to figure out the rest of the way. They're going to rely on defense. They want to make games uglier. The ceiling for this team will come down to Markus Burton. Jalen Haralson has started to find his sea legs, but if you're Burton you can't have these 3-for-14 games. You don't want him to lose his edge, but there's now help for you offensively, it's okay to not compound a bad night.

11: FSU (2-1)

Why: So, I'm not moving them up because they lost, I'm moving them up because Pitt and Miami had to fall due to those performances. I still don't think this team is actually going to be good, but they're radiating on the fun meter right now. They've quietly become a much watch team.

10: Syracuse (3-0)

Why: Short and sweet here, they simply haven't embarrassed the ACC yet while winning by 30+ in each game. I'm not even going to begin to ponder if Red has his team yet. Houston awaits on November 24th.

9: Wake Forest (3-1)

Why: The Michigan loss really hurts for a team that has been oh so close the last few years. It feels like this team is starting to find depth. Sebastian Akins looks playable, Omaha Biliew finally made some threes, even with Mekhi Mason struggling from deep the rest of the backcourt has chugged along. Cooper Schwieger may be the piece to control their fate as they could desperately use some rim protection to help out when the blitzing or just poor POA defense shows up. He more than held his own against Aday Mara - they'll need that moving forward. Enjoy Myles Colvin dunking on Cadeau below. Colvin now has a big highlight in three out of four games. Just needed the opportunity!

8: Clemson (3-1)

Why: While immortal, that was a pretty frustrating performance for Clemson aficionados. The first half was about what you'd expect in this matchup. They gave up 20 points in the paint alone and Nick Davidson looked really lost out there. They want to be a tough team and it got the best of them, sending Georgetown to the line for 32 free throws. That can't happen.

7: Virginia Tech (4-0)

Why: Against Charlotte, the Hokies found a way even with Neo being a non-factor for a good chunk of the game due to foul trouble and just not being able to find the basket. The one concern I have for this team moving forward, can they rebound? The Hokies were -3 against the 49ers on the glass, giving up 17 offensive rebounds. -1 against Providence wasn't a warning sign but they did leak some OREBs there as well. They need to be able to finish possessions.

6: SMU (4-0)

Why: A winner even though they didn't cover, we reward it the same. This game is about winning. An absolutely electric game, Boopie Miller going for 23 and 12 with seven turnovers and fouling out. This team keeps playing with fire though, and regardless if teams are scrappy, late November/Early December is going to come soon and they need to be ready for that. That defense needs work though.

5: Virginia (4-0)

Why: I'd really love UVA to put together a full 40 minutes of basketball - they'd be insanely dangerous. Where they are dangerous? The first 10 minutes of the second half. Ryan Odom has blitzed teams coming out of halftime, being +38 across four games in that section. I think they come into each game spinning a wheel of who is going to put up 18+ each game. Buy your Chance Mallory stock now while you can by the way. I don't know if it's this year, but it's coming.

4: NC State (3-0)

Why: So instead of Will Wade getting a tech every game, Tre Holloman just gets thrown out because the refs really needed to get in there and make the game about them in a game against UNCG. That pissed the Wolfpack off enough for them to drop 110 points on their opponents. I'm assuming the Spartans won't be sending anyone else involved in that game a Christmas card this year. I do get a little wary about this team with how much is placed on Paul McNeil. He was an easy candidate for a breakout year, no doubt about it, but right now the shooting from the outside is basically on Darrion Williams (who will always get his), Tre Holloman (who has been a poor shooter two out of three years), and McNeil. If he has an off night from deep, games might get a bit dicey given they may be a bit undersized and that might hurt them on the glass.

3: Louisville (2-0)

Why: Louisville has a +42 point differential against their KenPom spread this year, pretty good! What's even better than that? Beating your rival by scoring pretty much at will. Mikel Brown, Jr. (more on him later) has gotten a ton of praise and it's well deserved. Wes Miller might be in for a world of hurt on Friday. Will Louisville lose a game this year over 70 possessions? You're going to have to drag this team into the mud to beat them. Team of the week and it's not even close.

2: North Carolina (2-0)

Why: This was a week of "do I have to?" You played Radford and North Carolina Central. Give me all of the Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar high-low game. Never bet against even-year Hubert.

1: Duke (2-0)

Why: This Duke team is going to absolutely clobber you defensively. I'm not so much caring about the defensive metrics against Army or Little Sisters of the Poor, but they do track with holding Texas to 0.9 points per possession to open the season. They force turnovers on 21.9% of possessions, which I think gets better as the year goes on. I want to nitpick and say there's something I'm worried about for them, but they haven't really shown many cracks outside of teams either shooting at a blistering rate against them to open the game? I guess it's what do they do with competent bigs? Pat Ngongba has gotten better over the last couple of games compared to last year but a test against Kansas is really going to push how much better he is and what kind of depth they have there.

Player of the Week: Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville)

I went back and forth all morning between Cam Boozer and Brown, but I ended up with the slight nod to Brown solely because he played better competition this week. Noted here by a good film follow in Sheed on the Hawks, Brown has taken some major steps in his game, but the rim pressure concern looked non-existent against Kentucky who is built to prevent that.

His passing has been awesome, he's got full confidence, it's exactly what Louisville needed to help pull this team together.

But I do understand the gravity of what Cam Boozer is doing this year. He has been absolutely nuts (I voted for him for Rookie of the Week if that makes you feel better.)

CAWB of the Week: Carson Towt (ND)

Maybe I DO have to break the Domestic rule a bit more in the future, but I do want to show Towt some love this year. He's 8th in offensive rebounding percentage (23.6%) and ninth in defensive rebounding percentage (33.9%.) While him going 0-fer in the Ohio State game stings when you look back through it, they aren't in that game without him. Efficient from the field but gobbling up 12 rebounds, his fourth straight game in double digits on the glass needs to be rewarded somehow.