The last week was close to the feeling of having the rug pulled out from under you if you were cheering on the ACC. SMU couldn't find enough at LSU. NC State had Kansas on the ropes but couldn't close. Hofstra beat Syracuse. Clemson couldn't find a way against BYU. UMass beat TWO ACC teams. Pitt might be close to giving up. It was a week that could've really propelled the ACC to being "back" but instead they'll just have to settle for just being much better than they were last year at this point. Teams are on average almost 24 spots higher in the NET than last year with teams like Virginia, Miami, Wake, and Virginia Tech leading the charge there. We're seeing come clear division at the top and at the bottom, but the middle is still in a state of fluctuation, which right now is fine!

Rankings

18: Pitt (5-6) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (16)

Why: Pitt has given the same story as they have multiple times this year. They've hung strong with teams for the first roughly 15 minutes of a game and fought in the second half, but they're just getting crushed for too long of stretches for it to truly matter. The hard part is, it doesn't feel schematic to me or even the head coach. There are true effort problems with this Pitt team. It's one thing for that to pop up once, it's another thing for it to be a reoccurring issue. At least there's some what of a bright side in Kieran Mullen offering good minutes with Papa Kante being out for a while?

17: Boston College (5-6) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (17)

Why: You can't lose to UMass, especially this version of the minutemen that can't particularly score and isn't that great on defense. I don't know if it was worst that BC found themselves down 54-40 in the second half after not making a field goal for over six minutes, they went on a 21-2 run to go up seven points with five minutes to go, or while up 66-65 they picked up a taunting call? The frustrating part about this team? I think they're an actually excellent defensive team and that's going to give some ACC teams fits. They just cannot find ways to score consistently at all.

16: FSU (5-5) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (15)

Why: Last week's blurb mentioned they needed to wake up before going into their neutral site game against UMass. They did not heed that warning and got completely run off the floor, losing the second half 60-48 after being up four points at halftime. There might be a hard truth being learned about this roster. On paper it seemed like an extremely fun group that could easily mesh together without a ton of stars. But what we've seemingly found out is that outside of forcing turnovers, they don't exactly do anything well this year so far. Teams are scoring how they want, they haven't been able to shoot from three (which is a problem when you have the fourth highest ratio of three pointers of your field goal attempts), they aren't drawing fouls (partially because they shoot a ton of threes, and they give up a ton of offensive rebounds. At the pace they're playing at it can afford them some grace at certain points but it might be doing more damage than harm and allow them to get too out of control.

15: Georgia Tech (6-4) 0-0 last week; Previous ranking (16)

Why: By purely not playing, they move up the rankings. Georgia Tech doesn't have any true bad losses, but the point of them scheduling the way they did this offseason was to pad their metrics and they've done a poor job of doing this year. They have three more opportunities to make their way out of being a Quad 3 opportunity at best for the conference.

14: Syracuse (6-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (12)

Why: Syracuse is 365th in free throw percentage, making 56.8% of their attempts from the stripe. It absolutely cost them in their home game against a Hofstra team that really does not quit. This team, especially without Donnie Freeman, cannot afford Nathan George to continue to struggle. While he has an assist rate of 31.1, his turnover rate is 26.2 and skyrockets to 37.4 against Tier A+B opponents per KenPom. The turnovers keep popping up, he has five games in double digits but four games where he's scored less than five points. They just aren't getting anything out of someone they prioritized in the portal and you can't swing and miss that hard at a prized position.

13: Stanford (8-2) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (14)

Why: Stanford tried their best to throw this one away, allowing San Jose State to go on a 21-9 run to cut the lead to 2 with under 30 second left. I'm really curious about AJ Rohosy being a piece to help keep them afloat with Ebuka Okorie being day-to-day with a "lower extremity" injury. Getting him back before Saturday's contest against Colorado would be big. It's a clear spot for a much-needed non conference win that the conference could really use for the Cardinal to potentially move up to a Q1 road game for others, as well as continue having an actual case to make the tournament.

12: Virginia Tech (10-2) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (13)

Why: Neoklis Avdalas continues a very fun first year in college, nabbing the ACC Rookie of the Week after putting up a 16 point, seven assist, three steal, and two rebound game against UMES. For the team however, it's hard to ignore the fact that when they've played two teams that should be heavily involved for the NCAA Tournament, they lost by double digits. A tune up game this week against Elon represents another game they can use to pad the metrics, but they start ACC play with UVA at home and traveling to Wake, which should tell us a lot about this team.

11: NC State (7-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (10)

Why: Okay, yes it feels weird to have a team that's seventh in the conference in the NET and 5th in KenPom this far down, but hear me out. They're 0-3 against Power 5 competition and everyone keeps glaring at them because of their defense. However, my gripe with them is a lot less about that side of things and more about their shooting. I've brought up how much was being placed on Paul McNeil to be the breakout player for them and space the floor. Well he's 6-for-21 from deep in their losses. As a team they're just not making the ones they need to get over the hump in these big games. As a man who had to watch Wake limp through a season trying to manage not making threes in big games, I worry that if the shooting you see against Liberty and UNCG transfers over to the high major games, the defense (which actually played well against Kansas) just won't have enough to get them over the edge.

10: Notre Dame (9-3) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (11)

Why: Carson Towt and Braeden Shrewsberry, what a week for these two to step up in the absence of Markus Burton. It's impressive to see them not completely fall apart both in his absence and Jalen Haralson still working through some growing pains at times of having to be the guy at such a young age. Will that matter once the competition jumps up from the likes of Idaho and Evansville.

9: Wake Forest (7-3) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (9)

Why: It's really hard to beat a team that's going to make 17 three pointers in a game, which is what Wake did against Queens on Sunday evening. Juke Harris is playing like an All-ACC first teamer, which is par for the course for Steve Forbes. Myles Colvin put on a show, and surprisingly (to some) Nate Calmese looks like an excellent addition at point guard to simply just keep the boat afloat. They have got to fix the defensive rebounding issue, especially with a home matchup against Vanderbilt looming on Sunday.

8: SMU (9-2) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (6)

Why: I can't shake the feeling that this SMU team feels a lot like last year, which might not bode well for Butler and Texas A&M. The defense worries me a bit. It's hard to parse whether they've just run into some buzzsaws on offense as they've played three top 40 offenses or that's just a feature right now. They'll do what they always do this week against Central Arkansas, but when they flip to the new year, things will ramp up quickly.

7: Miami (9-2) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (8)

Why: Miami is up 136 (!!!) spots in the NET from last year, what a turnaround for the Hurricanes. The hesitation from me stems from, you guessed it, the level of competition. An away win at Ole Miss is one you can't sneeze at, but we might be finding out that the Rebels may just continue to fall down the pecking order as the only game they've won against the top 180 of KenPom was a close home win over Memphis. But I won't complain about NET merchants right now, keep running up the score against bad teams. Someone has to. Is Malik Reneau a First-Team All-ACC player?

6: Cal (10-1) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (6)

Why: I will ignore the fact that they trailed at halftime against D2 Dominican because they were down Justin Pippen and Rytis Petraitis, but they're 10-1 with one of the better wins in the conference. Dai Dai Ames will continue to shoot 51% from 3, right? I want to keep an eye on their Sunday matchup against Columbia. Cal has quietly been porous on the glass and Kevin Hovde's team is an elite rebounding one. That's one that could get sideways on them if they aren't careful

5: Clemson (8-3) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (4)

Why: A rough week for the Tigers. They had an avalanche against BYU, but blew a 20 point lead at the Garden. A week after coming up just short against Alabama, those were two wins that absolutely could've helped solidify a high-end resume. They followed it up by having to come back late against Mercer at home to win by seven. This team is still trying to figure out what lineup they can trust to close, and until they can figure that out, it's hard to trust them.

4: Virginia (9-1) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (5)

Why: Chance Mallory is going to be an absolute menace for 3 or 4 years at John Paul Jones Arena as defensively he's been a pest and he's been great at sharing the basketball.Thijs De Ridder is still what makes this team go and he might be good enough to carry them as far as they want to.

3: North Carolina (9-1) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (2)

Why: The resume for UNC is something much needed after the last two years for the Tar Heels, but we can see that they have a pretty clear ceiling without Seth Trimble on the court, with him now back to practice and playing five-on-five. Caleb Wilson dn Henri Veesaar can only do so much. Hubert Davis absolutely lost his mind in the second half against USC Upstate as his team was getting out-efforted by the Spartans, who crushed the Tar Heels on the offensive glass. They were sneakily giving up some solid open looks that a team like Ohio State could take advantage of.

2: Louisville (9-1) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (3)

Why: That was a scary game on Saturday against Memphis as they treated the Tigers like a buy game, winning by 26. They're getting their shots how they want, when they want, and how they want. Heading to Knoxville on Tuesday is going to be cinema

1: Duke (10-0) 0-0 last week; Previous ranking (1)

Why: Cameron Boozer currently leads the KenPom player of the year standings by a decent margin over Joshua Jefferson, and is tracking towards where Cooper Flagg was last season. One again, when you dig into things about how impactful Caleb Foster has been for the Blue Devils, he continues to be one of their most important players. They are going to lose a game here and there. Teams are going to find ways to bury some threes against them and Duke hasn't been as good as years past so the math issue could get to them. But then you see their switchability and how long they are at every position and think, maybe teams just won't ever shoot well against them.

Player of the Week: Myles Colvin (Wake)

It's one thing to put up 33 points in a game. It's another thing to do so while making your first 11 shots, going 7-of-8 from three and scoring the most points in a half (26) for Wake Forest since Randolph Childress put up 27 against Duke in a half in the ACC tournament. It looks like he's finally starting to be more than just a walking highlight, but instead an integral part of a lineup.