When you look at the chart above (numbers pulled from data through Sunday games), you see a pretty clear trend for the Atlantic Coast Conference: things are much improved in the league this year.

On average, and this is with Pitt being 131 spots worse than they were last year, teams are over 30 spots higher than they were last year. Two of the big risers were teams that underwent coaching changes in offseason (Miami + Virginia), and that shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. However, even Syracuse and Virginia Tech, two schools that had coaches on the short list of having to find new jobs next year, have seen big jumps. Cal, NC State, and Wake Forest are all up 40+ spots. Good things happen when you don't lose 14 times to the SEC!

Rankings

18: Pitt (5-5) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (16)

Why: Hot seat chatter is always tough in early December, but it's hard to ignore with Jeff Capel. Even going into last week they had a blowout loss to WVU, fell apart against a middling UCF team, and lost by eight to Quinnipiac at home. This week could not have gone worst for them as they fell apart in a very winnable game against Texas A&M before losing at home to Hofstra, where Panthers' last lead in the contest was 4-2 with 16:21 remaining in the first half. The problem is this team is too talented to be down come conference play and they're going to absolutely ruin someone's season.

17: Boston College (5-5) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (18)

Why: This has to be the most confusingly bad team we've seen. In front of a little over (reportedly) 4,000 people, Boston College pushed LSU to the absolute brink in a game where they held the Tigers to 3-for-19 shooting from deep before falling in overtime. They followed up that performance by looking lifeless against New Haven, but finding a way to win by 4? They get a game this week against UMass before not playing against until the 22nd. Something during that break has to be fixed with Donald Hand. He's drawing a ton of fouls (5.6 per 40) but is only shooting 68.2% from the stripe and 19.1% from deep. He has to be viable for this team to even have a chance.

16: Georgia Tech (6-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (17)

Why: When you see a team that's 6-4, you probably don't think they're terrible, maybe a bit unlucky here and there. But things feel a bit ominous for this Yellow Jacket squad. The average KenPom ranking of their wins is 282. That leads me to believe that an offense that's been porous (245th in adjusted efficiency) still has room to bottom out while the defense that kept them afloat (63rd) might come crashing down once they get into conference play. Or they could be normal Georgia Tech and have the week where they figure things out. A reminder they have seven Quad-1 wins the last two years and every single one of those has been against an ACC opponent.

15: FSU (5-4) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (12)

Why: It's getting late really early for this FSU team. You could've excused the Texas A&M blowout as long as they bounced back. They followed it up by losing at home to UGA by 34 and by 15 on the road at Houston. They aren't getting enough out of Kobe MaGee, who was brought in to add some much needed spacing in this team and that's really hurting them offensively as they had to move him out of the starting lineup against Houston. Meanwhile Alex Steen is down with an injury and there's been an effort problem in Tallahassee. They've got to Wake up for a game against UMass this Saturday in the Orange Bowl Classic, if not it might get ugly.

14: Stanford (7-2) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (11)

Why: I specifically asked Stanford last week to not destroy the goodwill they've built up over the season, and they blew out Portland by 22 points. The bad part is on Sunday they lost to UNLV in a back and forth contest all afternoon. That's going down as a Q4 loss for the Cardinal which is devastating to any tournament hopes.

13: Virginia Tech (8-2) 1-2 last week; Previous ranking (13)

Why: This is where the rankings get a little hard to parse through as the middle of the conference feels pretty much like splitting hairs. Putting it a different way: the difference in Net Rating by KenPom between the 6th team (Miami) and the 13th team (Cal) is only 0.63 more than the difference been the two teams at the top in Duke and Louisville. When it came to Virginia Tech, they had a perfect week in terms of the wins column, but they're still lagging behind in everything but NET. Their average ranking across KP, EvanMiya, and Torvik is 69.3. The numbers aren't really all that in love with them, even after a double digit win against George Mason at home, and I kind of agree with them. Outside of not turning the ball over, which is a great still to have, I'm not sure what this team actually does well to hurt the upper echelon teams. We won't learn much about them against Western Carolina and UMES this week, it wont be until they host Virginia on December 31st that they really ramp things up.

12: Syracuse (5-3) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (14)

Why: The Orange handed Tennessee their second loss in what is now a three game skid for the Volunteers and if you haven't gone back to watch the game, I highly recommend finding some highlights. We've got Nate Kingz scoring a career-high 19 points, Kiyan Anthony channeling his father from three, and William Kyle III drawing a free throw when they needed him the most. The problem is that while it feels like a significant win, and it vaulted them up almost 20 spots in the NET, they still do not have a Q1 win as Tennessee is 33rd in the NET. Expand the bands, please. The difference between the 30th and 33rd team isn't wide enough to be a reason someone misses the tournament.

11: Notre Dame (7-3) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (15)

Why: The rocket ship of the week belongs to Notre Dame, and I'm buying into this Micah Shrewsberry team after fighting back to take down Missouri in the challenge before gong on the road and beating a pretty good TCU team. We saw what can make this team dangerous once the team settles in. Against the Tigers, Markus Burton only made 6 of his 15 shots, but he dished out 10 assists, making sure his teammates stayed involved. It was the Jalen Haralson show in Fort Worth, dropping an efficient 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, nine assists, and five rebounds while only having three fouls. The elephant in the room is that Burton had to be helped off the court against the Horned Frogs, which led to Haralson's usage skyrocketing. Haralson was brought in to be a star, but losing a guy like Burton absolutely crushes your ceiling.

10: NC State (6-3) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (8)

Why: It's never a great look when you have your head coach saying publicly you had a game where a freshman on the other team beat a senior on your team to a loose ball. Will Wade was very vocal on his pregame radio show before their game against UNC Asheville about how his team had terrible practices leading up to them losing a game that the score was closer than it felt, how they lacked effort, and how scouts were at the game to see the Asheville players not them. Well in the first half on Saturday, after a starting lineup adjustment that moved Paul McNeil to the bench and Scottie Ebube in as the starting center... well they struggled. They were down double digits and only led by two in the second half before pulling away late to make the score respectable. This team will go as far as Darrion Williams will take them and he's frankly been a non-factor since their win against Boise State in Maui. It's only been three games, but he has to be the engine that makes them go, not just complimentary piece to this team.

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

Why: I wrote last week that Wake wasn't going to move much until they beat quality opponents. Well after essentially quitting in the second half against Oklahoma and then pulling away against West Virginia in what was essentially a road game for the Deacs, basically a wash? Juke Harris is the most improved player in college basketball for my money, and while this team wins games that Tre'Von Spillers has performed well in, there's one cog they need to fix. Someone out of Myles Colvin or Mekhi Mason needs to be unlocked. These were the two leading scorers from the summer and fall practices and they've been out of sorts since getting back from Baha Mar, resulting in a lineup shakeup plus Isaac Carr finding his way into some minutes. Another scorer (and rebounder) takes this Wake team to another level.

8: Miami (8-2) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (10)

Why: Congrats to the Canes for the CFP berth! They have truly leaned into who they are on the basketball court. They didn't let Ole Miss get anything inside the arc even with Ilias Kamardine and Malik Dia trying their hardest. Miami started out extremely slow against Southern Miss but really turned it into high gear in order to win by 24. I don't have too many worries for this team right now against lesser teams. One thing they did well in the ACC-SEC Challenge, which I want to see if it continues, is fight back against the math game. They don't take a ton of 3s and allow people to shoot a fair amount. They fell against the Rebels, if they can't get Dante Allen back soon, can a Tru Washington (who hasn't been a good shooter his entire career from deep) continue to space the floor for this team with Tre Donaldson?

7: Cal (8-1) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (6)

Why: Cal did what Stanford couldn't as designated survivors last week, and while neither game was pretty, they got out with two wins against Utah and Pacific. Mark Madsen was another coach who scheduled an... interesting non-conference schedule. They'll get Dominican University of California (a real school) and Northwestern State this week. Maybe we institute a rule to punish teams who schedule these kinds of games.

6: SMU (9-1) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (5)

Why: SMU might be the gatekeepers this year of the ACC this year. If you can get past this team that has only fallen to a Vandy team that might just be elite, you should be able to make a lot of noise in your conference. If you lose, it doesn't mean you'll be bad (Butler should be a solid tournament team, Texas A&M I think will be decent in the SEC?) but you're certainly not ready to make an argument to be a problem for other teams. Jaron Pierre dropping 35 against the Aggies was the story, but don't leave out the fact that they didn't allow A&M to make a shot in overtime.

5: Virginia (8-1) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (7)

Why: Ryan Odom has this team humming, and they're my ACC team of the week after steamrolling Texas and then holding Dayton at bay with their size, plus Jacari White shooting 7-for-7 from deep. This offense is lethal, and as long as the shots fall (which doomed them against Butler) teams are going to struggle dealing with an efficient offense playing at such a deliberate pace. I do wonder how real that defense is given I'm not sold on either of Texas or Dayton's offenses.

4: Clemson (7-2) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (4)

Why: Clemson fought and fought and fought against Alabama but really couldn't find a way to fully pull the comeback off in Coleman Coliseum, losing by 6 to the Crimson Tide. Not that every game doesn't have meaning but I don't know how much we learned about Clemson that we didn't already know. However, on a neutral court against BYU Tuesday evening, that's another measuring stick game for the Tigers. They'll need to be a team that's greater than the sum of its parts against a BYU team with a ton of individual talent.

3: Louisville (8-1) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (2)

Why: I do unfortunately have to drop the Cardinals after not really threatening Arkansas on the road. They got a poor shooting game from Mikel Brown and Ryan Conwell (a combined 5-for-25 from three) and Trevon Brazile got what he wanted. They needed a lot more from J'Vonne Hadley than they got that game, and they received all of it against Indiana, never letting them even in the game. Hadley had 15 points and six rebounds in their 87-78 win at Indiana and it shows just how scary this team can be even when it feels like they don't play a perfect game.

2: North Carolina (8-1) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (3)

Why: This team is really hard to make sense of, but we reward wins here. Kentucky is flailing right now, looking lost on offense and frustrating their coaches. But in that game we saw Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson come alive, using their size to bludgeon the Cats, as the Tar Heels out rebounded Kentucky 41-30. On Sunday, they leaned in on their defense forcing Georgetown to miss 16 of their last 18 shots. My big worry for this team is can they shoot from the outside. Across these two games, they've made 31.2% of their shoots from deep. They're winning the math by cleaning up on the boards, but what happens if a team starts making their shots?

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

Why: Duke just finds ways to win. A big reason? Jon Scheyer is just an elite coach. He drew up a beautiful one to respond to a Florida flurry at the end of the game, which allowed Cam Boozer to swing the ball to Isaiah Evans for a 3 to win the game. Against Michigan State, in East Lansing, they went back to the same action ahead by two, and while Evans didn't cash the three he was fouled and made all three free throws. There's so much trust in Cam Boozer as the ball-handler in pick-and-rolls- and they're paying off wonderfully.

This team is absolutely wonderful at playing the villain. No one does it better in college sports.

Player of the Week: Juke Harris (Wake)

Juke was my vote in the poll this week and I'm sticking with it here. He's averaging almost 21 points and seven rebounds a game while shooting over 40% from deep on pretty heavy volume. He should've been an easy pick for breakout player in the ACC, but even then what he's done has been outstanding especially accounting for him basically having to be an effort player to get minutes last season. He's showing zero signs of slowing down, and maybe now he'll actually start getting the whistle that people are shocked he isn't getting.